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wishiknewwhoTitle: Eyes Wide Open
Author: wishiknewwho
Rating: G
Characters: TenII / Rose
Dislcaimer: I don't own Doctor Who and it's probably just as well that I don't because it'd be nothing but hugs and hair ruffling for the foreseeable future. Title taken from the song "Naked as We Came" by Iron and Wine.
Spoilers: Post JE.
Summary: Rose and the human Doctor find their way after Journey's End.
Author Notes: Okay, the serious plan is for this to be updated on Wednesdays. We'll see if that takes.
Thanks to![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
nipplemuggins for the beta and research help. Thanks to salimali for helping me research her own birthday fic.
Finding a job was proving to be more difficult than the Doctor thought it would be. He’d never had one before, other than his short stint at UNIT ages ago, and he wasn’t sure what he might like to do.
“How about a professor?” Rose asked him the next day as he was helping her to make her bed. He’d spent another night with her, figuring it would be more awkward if he slept on the sofa after sleeping in her bed. And he liked it, being close to her. He didn’t feel so lost if she was there with him.
He thought for a moment, imagined himself at a university, shaping young minds, lecturing, marking papers. He shook his head. “Nah,” he said. He smoothed a crease out of the duvet and set the pillow he’d been using against the headboard.
“Okay,” she said. “A scientist?”
He dismissed that one quickly. “I’d be tempted to advance things too far. The human race needs to do it on its own.” He flopped down on the bed, lying back for a moment before sitting up.
Rose sighed and circled around the bed, scooping up discarded clothes as she went and depositing them in the laundry basket. “You could be a doctor. A pilot? Astronaut? Fireman?”
He cocked an eyebrow at her cheeky grin. “You, Rose Tyler, are not helping.” He tugged at the end of her ponytail as she passed by him and she responded by messing up his hair.
“I am trying to help,” she said. “You’re just being difficult.”
He hummed thoughtfully. “I’m not trying to be difficult. It’s just, I never thought about this before. I know I said I’d thought about having a human life with you, but I didn’t really think about working. I thought more about what I’d be doing all those times I wasn’t working.”
“Maybe we should be more practical about this,” she said, taking a seat next to him on the bed.
“How so?” he said, slightly distracted as she pulled her bare feet up on the bed with them, close to his leg. His fingers twitched with wanting to touch her.
“Well, we could look in the classifieds, see what kind of jobs are open right now. Maybe you’ll see something that looks interesting.” She drummed her fingers against the duvet.
“Let’s do it then,” he said, jumping up from the bed, grabbing her hand, pulling her with him. He wasn’t sure why he was so excited; part of him was terrified of having a job, of doing something so mundane. But it was something new, something he’d never really done before, and he clung to that.
She laughed as they ran down the stairs, clutching his shoulders to keep from falling. “I don’t get the newspaper,” she said. “We’ll have to look on the internet.”
They set up her laptop on the kitchen table and he paced behind her as she found a website with job listings. He leaned over her shoulder.
“Well?” he asked.
“There are a lot,” she said. “Grab some paper and a pen from the drawer and we’ll make a list of anything that looks like a possibility.”
He did as she asked, searching until he found the proper drawer and the pen and paper. He returned to the table, leaning over the back of her chair to read. Her hair kept brushing his cheek, and he again caught the scent of her shampoo. He tried to ignore it, focusing on reading the website.
She scrolled down the site, casually dismissing options. “Definitely not an accountant. You already said no to teacher. How about an interior decorator?” she asked with a grin and they both laughed.
He scanned the page, beginning to feel a little hopeless. Nothing looked like something that would interest him. It wasn’t that he wanted some grand job, but he wanted something that he would at least hold his attention for eight hours a day. They were almost to the bottom of the site when something caught his eye.
“Wait, there,” he said, reaching around Rose to still her hand. “There.”
“What?” she asked, glancing back at him for a second and then back to the laptop screen. “Plumber?”
“No, silly,” he said, playfully tapping the top of her head. “There’s an opening at the British Library.”
She turned around in her chair to look at him, eyebrow raised. “The British Library. You want to be a librarian?” She didn’t sound insulting, just incredulous.
He scratched the back of his neck. “Well,” he said, “I like the idea of working with books. And it’s more than just a librarian.” He pointed to the screen. “See? It’s taking care of old books. It’s like tinkering, but with ancient texts.”
She grinned and rolled her eyes at him. “Okay, if that’s what you want, then it’s what you should do. I’ll call Pete and see about getting you some credentials.”
He braced his hands on the back of her chair. “I’ll have to go on a job interview,” he said.
“You will,” she said, putting one of her hands over his. “You’ll be great.”
“What’ll I say?” he asked. “They’re going to ask me all of these questions. I’ll need answers.” He felt like he might panic.
“Doctor,” she said, her voice soothing. “It’s going to be fine. You’re great at thinking on your feet. I’m sure you’ll have an answer to anything they ask you.”
“You think so?” he asked.
Rose nodded. “I know so.” She gestured back to the laptop. “Now, you will need to think about the salary.”
He looked at the screen. “Is that not enough?” he asked. He knew about a lot of things, but he didn’t know much about money. It just wasn’t something he’d thought about as a Time Lord. It was a means to an end, and he usually had other means of getting what he needed.
Rose gave an uncomfortable little shrug. “It’s okay,” she said slowly. “Depending on what type of flat you want. This pay will get you a very small one.”
“How small?” he asked, frowning. It wasn’t that he thought he needed a huge place, but he couldn’t imagine being trapped in a tiny little flat, boxed in to the point of claustrophobia.
“Small,” Rose said. “You know, there’s always another option.” She shifted on her feet, like she knew he wouldn’t like what she was going to say.
“What?” he asked.
“Well, you could work for Torchwood.” She held up a hand when he tried to protest. “I’m not saying you’d have to work there full time or even go in to the office. But you could do a bit of freelance work. Write a couple of reports, identify some alien objects. A couple of things a week, and you’d make more than enough to afford a nice flat.”
He thought about that. He’d known from the moment he decided to have a normal life in this world that he hadn’t wanted to work for Torchwood. It wasn’t that he had a problem with the organisation, it just sounded like it would take something he once loved and make it boring. But he could do what Rose was talking about in a couple of hours a week. And if it allowed him to stay in her neighbourhood, which he knew would not be cheap, then it would be worth it.
He nodded slowly. “I could do that,” he said.
“Okay.” She watched him for a moment, and he felt a little nervous under her scrutiny. “Are you sure about all this, Doctor?” she asked. “A job, a flat?”
She sounded so hesitant, and he wanted nothing more than to reassure her. He gave her a warm smile and grasped her hands in his. “I’m positive,” he said. “Besides, no matter how hard we try to do this normal thing, don’t think for a second that adventure won’t find us.”
“I wouldn’t have it any other way,” she said, tugging on his hand.
He’d wandered around the library for a while. It was large, open and warm, and he felt like he might be happy working there. They’d given him an office with a desk, a chair, a phone, and two bookcases. The office was small, but it had a window that would let in the morning sunlight and he was sure that he would get used to it.
He made his way outside and waited for Rose. She’d gone in to Torchwood to take care of some paperwork and talk to Pete about her resignation while he’d done his job interview.
They’d talked that morning about what she wanted to do, and she’d told him that she wanted to go to university, had even completed her A-Levels with a private tutor and applied before the stars had started going out. Upon returning back to Pete’s World, she’d found her acceptance letter to University College London waiting in her mail box. She’d bounced up and down a couple of times and he’d asked her what she hoped to study. She said she planned on going for an archaeology and anthrolpology degree, citing how much she had enjoyed learning about other cultures while travelling with him. His heart had filled with pride for her.
He didn’t have to wait for long before she came strolling up. He saw her before she saw him, and he took a moment to study her. She was older than the Rose he knew, more mature, a little sadder, but she was still the Rose he’d fallen in love with. She caught sight of him and a beaming smile spread across her face.
“How’d it go?” she asked once she was close enough for him to hear her.
He frowned. “Well, all right, I suppose.”
“Just all right?” she asked, her eyebrow crinkling in sympathy. “Did they tell you anything?” She put her hand on his arm.
“Just that I got the job,” he answered, a sly smile creeping over his lips.
“You...” she started, her voice trailed off as her fingers gripped his arm. “That wasn’t very nice.” She gave him a shove and he broke out in laughter.
“I got you,” he said, grabbing her hand before she could hit him again. “They said I can start whenever I like. I thought I’d go in the day after tomorrow.”
“What are you doing tomorrow then?” she asked, leading him away from the library, his hand still held in hers.
He swallowed. “I thought I could look at some flats.”
“Oh,” she said softly, her fingers loosening. She’d told him that she was okay with him living on his own, but he knew that she still wasn’t keen on the idea.
“If I keep staying with you, Rose, I’ll never leave,” he said, twining his fingers with hers, refusing to let her let go.
“Would that be so bad?” she asked with a bittersweet little laugh.
He stopped in the middle of the pavement. “Come here,” he said, pulling her into his arms. After a moment of hesitation, she hugged him back. “I know you’re not happy with me.”
“I’m trying to be,” she mumbled, burying her face in his shoulder. “It’s just, I’m already used to you being there. It’s going to be weird when you’re gone.”
He shifted them over until they were no longer earning glares from people who were having to go around them. “It’s so tempting, just to stay there in your flat and be with you every day, Rose. But I know that I need to do this, even if it’s going to be difficult. I think we’ll be better for it in the end.”
She sniffed and lifted her head from his shoulder. “That doesn’t mean I have to like it,” she said defiantly, her lips curving into a pout that he longed to kiss.
“Do you know why I’m doing the extra job at Torchwood?” he asked, tucking her hair behind her ear.
“So you can have a bigger flat?” she asked, wiping at her nose.
He smiled at her. “No, silly girl, it’s so I can be close to you. So I can live in your neighbourhood.”
She smiled then. “You want to be neighbours?” she asked, her voice holding a note of disbelief.
“I do,” he said honestly. He pressed a kiss to her forehead, then took her hand in his again. “Now what do you say we go celebrate our new beginning?”
“I think that sounds like a great idea,” she said. She swung their hands between them as they made their way through the crowded street.
Six
Author: wishiknewwho
Rating: G
Characters: TenII / Rose
Dislcaimer: I don't own Doctor Who and it's probably just as well that I don't because it'd be nothing but hugs and hair ruffling for the foreseeable future. Title taken from the song "Naked as We Came" by Iron and Wine.
Spoilers: Post JE.
Summary: Rose and the human Doctor find their way after Journey's End.
Author Notes: Okay, the serious plan is for this to be updated on Wednesdays. We'll see if that takes.
Thanks to
nipplemuggins for the beta and research help. Thanks to salimali for helping me research her own birthday fic.Finding a job was proving to be more difficult than the Doctor thought it would be. He’d never had one before, other than his short stint at UNIT ages ago, and he wasn’t sure what he might like to do.
“How about a professor?” Rose asked him the next day as he was helping her to make her bed. He’d spent another night with her, figuring it would be more awkward if he slept on the sofa after sleeping in her bed. And he liked it, being close to her. He didn’t feel so lost if she was there with him.
He thought for a moment, imagined himself at a university, shaping young minds, lecturing, marking papers. He shook his head. “Nah,” he said. He smoothed a crease out of the duvet and set the pillow he’d been using against the headboard.
“Okay,” she said. “A scientist?”
He dismissed that one quickly. “I’d be tempted to advance things too far. The human race needs to do it on its own.” He flopped down on the bed, lying back for a moment before sitting up.
Rose sighed and circled around the bed, scooping up discarded clothes as she went and depositing them in the laundry basket. “You could be a doctor. A pilot? Astronaut? Fireman?”
He cocked an eyebrow at her cheeky grin. “You, Rose Tyler, are not helping.” He tugged at the end of her ponytail as she passed by him and she responded by messing up his hair.
“I am trying to help,” she said. “You’re just being difficult.”
He hummed thoughtfully. “I’m not trying to be difficult. It’s just, I never thought about this before. I know I said I’d thought about having a human life with you, but I didn’t really think about working. I thought more about what I’d be doing all those times I wasn’t working.”
“Maybe we should be more practical about this,” she said, taking a seat next to him on the bed.
“How so?” he said, slightly distracted as she pulled her bare feet up on the bed with them, close to his leg. His fingers twitched with wanting to touch her.
“Well, we could look in the classifieds, see what kind of jobs are open right now. Maybe you’ll see something that looks interesting.” She drummed her fingers against the duvet.
“Let’s do it then,” he said, jumping up from the bed, grabbing her hand, pulling her with him. He wasn’t sure why he was so excited; part of him was terrified of having a job, of doing something so mundane. But it was something new, something he’d never really done before, and he clung to that.
She laughed as they ran down the stairs, clutching his shoulders to keep from falling. “I don’t get the newspaper,” she said. “We’ll have to look on the internet.”
They set up her laptop on the kitchen table and he paced behind her as she found a website with job listings. He leaned over her shoulder.
“Well?” he asked.
“There are a lot,” she said. “Grab some paper and a pen from the drawer and we’ll make a list of anything that looks like a possibility.”
He did as she asked, searching until he found the proper drawer and the pen and paper. He returned to the table, leaning over the back of her chair to read. Her hair kept brushing his cheek, and he again caught the scent of her shampoo. He tried to ignore it, focusing on reading the website.
She scrolled down the site, casually dismissing options. “Definitely not an accountant. You already said no to teacher. How about an interior decorator?” she asked with a grin and they both laughed.
He scanned the page, beginning to feel a little hopeless. Nothing looked like something that would interest him. It wasn’t that he wanted some grand job, but he wanted something that he would at least hold his attention for eight hours a day. They were almost to the bottom of the site when something caught his eye.
“Wait, there,” he said, reaching around Rose to still her hand. “There.”
“What?” she asked, glancing back at him for a second and then back to the laptop screen. “Plumber?”
“No, silly,” he said, playfully tapping the top of her head. “There’s an opening at the British Library.”
She turned around in her chair to look at him, eyebrow raised. “The British Library. You want to be a librarian?” She didn’t sound insulting, just incredulous.
He scratched the back of his neck. “Well,” he said, “I like the idea of working with books. And it’s more than just a librarian.” He pointed to the screen. “See? It’s taking care of old books. It’s like tinkering, but with ancient texts.”
She grinned and rolled her eyes at him. “Okay, if that’s what you want, then it’s what you should do. I’ll call Pete and see about getting you some credentials.”
He braced his hands on the back of her chair. “I’ll have to go on a job interview,” he said.
“You will,” she said, putting one of her hands over his. “You’ll be great.”
“What’ll I say?” he asked. “They’re going to ask me all of these questions. I’ll need answers.” He felt like he might panic.
“Doctor,” she said, her voice soothing. “It’s going to be fine. You’re great at thinking on your feet. I’m sure you’ll have an answer to anything they ask you.”
“You think so?” he asked.
Rose nodded. “I know so.” She gestured back to the laptop. “Now, you will need to think about the salary.”
He looked at the screen. “Is that not enough?” he asked. He knew about a lot of things, but he didn’t know much about money. It just wasn’t something he’d thought about as a Time Lord. It was a means to an end, and he usually had other means of getting what he needed.
Rose gave an uncomfortable little shrug. “It’s okay,” she said slowly. “Depending on what type of flat you want. This pay will get you a very small one.”
“How small?” he asked, frowning. It wasn’t that he thought he needed a huge place, but he couldn’t imagine being trapped in a tiny little flat, boxed in to the point of claustrophobia.
“Small,” Rose said. “You know, there’s always another option.” She shifted on her feet, like she knew he wouldn’t like what she was going to say.
“What?” he asked.
“Well, you could work for Torchwood.” She held up a hand when he tried to protest. “I’m not saying you’d have to work there full time or even go in to the office. But you could do a bit of freelance work. Write a couple of reports, identify some alien objects. A couple of things a week, and you’d make more than enough to afford a nice flat.”
He thought about that. He’d known from the moment he decided to have a normal life in this world that he hadn’t wanted to work for Torchwood. It wasn’t that he had a problem with the organisation, it just sounded like it would take something he once loved and make it boring. But he could do what Rose was talking about in a couple of hours a week. And if it allowed him to stay in her neighbourhood, which he knew would not be cheap, then it would be worth it.
He nodded slowly. “I could do that,” he said.
“Okay.” She watched him for a moment, and he felt a little nervous under her scrutiny. “Are you sure about all this, Doctor?” she asked. “A job, a flat?”
She sounded so hesitant, and he wanted nothing more than to reassure her. He gave her a warm smile and grasped her hands in his. “I’m positive,” he said. “Besides, no matter how hard we try to do this normal thing, don’t think for a second that adventure won’t find us.”
“I wouldn’t have it any other way,” she said, tugging on his hand.
~o~
The job interview had gone very well. The Doctor had easily impressed them with his knowledge of history and ancient texts, and the doctorates in chemistry and history that Pete had manufactured hadn’t hurt. They’d offered him a job on the spot, and he’d graciously accepted.
He’d wandered around the library for a while. It was large, open and warm, and he felt like he might be happy working there. They’d given him an office with a desk, a chair, a phone, and two bookcases. The office was small, but it had a window that would let in the morning sunlight and he was sure that he would get used to it.
He made his way outside and waited for Rose. She’d gone in to Torchwood to take care of some paperwork and talk to Pete about her resignation while he’d done his job interview.
They’d talked that morning about what she wanted to do, and she’d told him that she wanted to go to university, had even completed her A-Levels with a private tutor and applied before the stars had started going out. Upon returning back to Pete’s World, she’d found her acceptance letter to University College London waiting in her mail box. She’d bounced up and down a couple of times and he’d asked her what she hoped to study. She said she planned on going for an archaeology and anthrolpology degree, citing how much she had enjoyed learning about other cultures while travelling with him. His heart had filled with pride for her.
He didn’t have to wait for long before she came strolling up. He saw her before she saw him, and he took a moment to study her. She was older than the Rose he knew, more mature, a little sadder, but she was still the Rose he’d fallen in love with. She caught sight of him and a beaming smile spread across her face.
“How’d it go?” she asked once she was close enough for him to hear her.
He frowned. “Well, all right, I suppose.”
“Just all right?” she asked, her eyebrow crinkling in sympathy. “Did they tell you anything?” She put her hand on his arm.
“Just that I got the job,” he answered, a sly smile creeping over his lips.
“You...” she started, her voice trailed off as her fingers gripped his arm. “That wasn’t very nice.” She gave him a shove and he broke out in laughter.
“I got you,” he said, grabbing her hand before she could hit him again. “They said I can start whenever I like. I thought I’d go in the day after tomorrow.”
“What are you doing tomorrow then?” she asked, leading him away from the library, his hand still held in hers.
He swallowed. “I thought I could look at some flats.”
“Oh,” she said softly, her fingers loosening. She’d told him that she was okay with him living on his own, but he knew that she still wasn’t keen on the idea.
“If I keep staying with you, Rose, I’ll never leave,” he said, twining his fingers with hers, refusing to let her let go.
“Would that be so bad?” she asked with a bittersweet little laugh.
He stopped in the middle of the pavement. “Come here,” he said, pulling her into his arms. After a moment of hesitation, she hugged him back. “I know you’re not happy with me.”
“I’m trying to be,” she mumbled, burying her face in his shoulder. “It’s just, I’m already used to you being there. It’s going to be weird when you’re gone.”
He shifted them over until they were no longer earning glares from people who were having to go around them. “It’s so tempting, just to stay there in your flat and be with you every day, Rose. But I know that I need to do this, even if it’s going to be difficult. I think we’ll be better for it in the end.”
She sniffed and lifted her head from his shoulder. “That doesn’t mean I have to like it,” she said defiantly, her lips curving into a pout that he longed to kiss.
“Do you know why I’m doing the extra job at Torchwood?” he asked, tucking her hair behind her ear.
“So you can have a bigger flat?” she asked, wiping at her nose.
He smiled at her. “No, silly girl, it’s so I can be close to you. So I can live in your neighbourhood.”
She smiled then. “You want to be neighbours?” she asked, her voice holding a note of disbelief.
“I do,” he said honestly. He pressed a kiss to her forehead, then took her hand in his again. “Now what do you say we go celebrate our new beginning?”
“I think that sounds like a great idea,” she said. She swung their hands between them as they made their way through the crowded street.
Six
