May 2018: re-edited since its original posting.

Please, don't hate me. I added so much to Chapter 3 that I had to split it in two... so if you've read this in its original form, this "update" still ends in the same spot. But there's more yummy goodness included, now :)

Chapter 4: Hide and Seek

Rose woke to Mickey's knock on her door.

"Ya find 'im, yet?" Mickey asked, when she answered.

"No, but he's gotta be around," she told him. "We've been in flight all this time. 'S not like he jus' takes a walk out in the Vortex when he feels like it."

"Whaddya wanna do 'til he turns up?"

Rose chewed on her lip. She wasn't going to wallow in the Doctor's absence any more than she planned on letting him wallow in his thoughts - once she found him. "Get ready to go," Rose answered, at last. "Have your runnin' shoes on, 'cause we're gonna hunt 'im down and have 'im take us somewhere fun." And distracting. "But, breakfast, first," she told Mickey, and shut her door to get dressed.

Rose hadn't quite finished her coffee, when something finally changed.

"What?" Mickey asked, as she set down her mug and toast.

"Ya hear that?" She asked him, narrowing her eyes, cocking her head to try and catch... "It sounds... it feels... brighter, maybe?"

She left the kitchen, Mickey still trying to put words to the puzzled expression on his face.

Rose finally, finally found the Doctor by his Converses sticking out from under the console. She was so relieved, she almost forgot how worried she was or how upset she probably should be.

She was surprised not to hear any of the distinctive noises usually associated with his "tinkering", but when she bent down to take a peek, she saw that he wasn't working, he was just lying there, staring blankly at the underside of the console. Without a word, she crawled into the narrow space beside him.

"Rose!" said the Doctor, immediately snatching up the sonic screwdriver, pretending to be analyzing the cables and circuits above him. "I was just, er, um," he stammered.

"Yeah, I can see that," said Rose, feeling a genuine smile make its way to her face as she nudged him to scoot over. She propped herself up on her elbow to his right side. The space was extremely cramped, but considering the Doctor was, indeed, actually hiding, she figured it was probably good to have him cornered for this conversation. "So, spill," she said, waiting for him to meet her eyes.

"Spill what?" he asked, still pretending to tweak the TARDIS.

"Reinette," she said more gently. She didn't need to interrogate him on what could possibly have occupied him all night in the depths of the ship. It was plain, to her mind, what this was all about.

The Doctor dropped his arm with a sigh, and looked over at Rose. After a long moment, he said, "She died. Waiting for me."

Rose knew that this was likely, but the sadness and guilt with which he said "waiting for me" brought tears to her eyes. She reached out her right hand to rest on his chest. "I'm sorry," she said. The Doctor pocketed the screwdriver, maneuvering his right arm between them then behind his head. She was glad he wasn't trying to run anymore.

"You were right, Rose," he said, not meeting her eyes. "I just leave people behind. I leave them, and they waste the rest of their lives... waiting."

"She didn't waste her life," she told him forcefully. Rose had read the bio. "Reinette did some pretty extraordinary things in her last years. And, by the way, Sarah Jane wasn't just pinin' for you either." The Doctor looked at her, startled, but she knew what this was all about. "She was an investigative reporter. She probably could've dealt with the Krillitanes herself, whether we'd shown up or not."

The Doctor was silent for a moment, and Rose wondered whether she'd gotten through to him. But then he told her, "Rose, she said - Sarah Jane - she said she wasn't going to marry. Because of me. 'Tough act to follow,' she said. And Reinette. Said she'd known me her entire life; called me her 'love'." Rose watched as he brought his left hand up to cover the one she still had resting on his chest. "I'm not worth -" he said, looking into her eyes. "It's not safe for... people to love me."

Rose wanted to be angry with him for thinking he could control other people's feelings, or that he always knows what's best. But the hurt in his voice and the unshed tears in his eyes forestalled any outburst. It was obvious he was trying to tell her not to love him, by talking about his past companions - or would-be companion. She chewed her lip, thinking. She decided to play his game, and speak for the others but mean herself. "I'll betcha anythin' they never regretted meetin' you." She pressed on despite the fact that he looked like he wanted to contradict her. "You took Sarah Jane places she never could've imagined. You gave Reinette hope - you saved her life! How could they help but love you." Sarah Jane's words came back to her. "Besides," she told him, moving her hand from his chest to the side of his face, "some things? They're worth gettin' your hearts broken for."

Rose didn't know what had possessed her to change the phrasing to "hearts", when up until that point she really had been speaking for herself, but it seemed to have an effect on him at last. She held his gaze and was startled when he brought his hand up to her face. He brushed her cheek with the backs of his fingers, wiping away a tear with his thumb. Her breath hitched slightly as his fingers combed gently through her hair, then cupped the back of her head. "Rose," he whispered, trying but not finding anything else to say. She smiled sadly at him, enjoying their closeness but wondering if she'd really convinced him. To her pleasant surprise, he slowly pulled her closer to him as he raised his head from the deck. Unconsciously, Rose slid her hand around to the back of his neck, half supporting his head, and half bringing herself nearer. She could feel his breath on her lips as her eyelids fluttered shut.

"Hey Rose? Doctor?"

At Mickey's incredibly poorly-timed arrival, Rose's eyes shot open. The Doctor murmured a "Wha-" then, "Ow!" as his head unceremoniously fell back and collided with the deck grating. Rose bit her lip in a silent apology, but the Doctor waved her hand away when she tried to reach back and check the damage. Instead, Rose backed her way out from under the console (and practically on top of the Doctor) and stood up, spotting Mickey at the door to the console room.

Rose smoothed her jacket and tucked her hair behind her ear, feeling the blush rise in her cheeks at Mickey's smirk. She then felt herself turn beet red when Mickey laughed out loud as the Doctor stood up next to her, holding the back of his head. As Mickey regained his composure, Rose was pleased to see that the Doctor was also a bit flushed and stammering to make an excuse for their predicament. "We were, that is, I was, and Rose was helping, the TARDIS needed re-calibrating, and -"

Seeing the Doctor acting like a teenager caught by his girlfriend's parents made even Rose crack up. She heard him feebly demanding some respect, but catching Mickey's eye sent her into a full-on laughing fit. Oh, she was going to miss Mickey whenever he decided to leave, but considering the past few minutes' developments, she might not mind a lack of interruptions.

"I really do have some re-calibrating to do; switched out an entire subsection of..." he trailed off, gesturing further back into the TARDIS, "so you can either lend a hand, or take your amusement elsewhere," the Doctor said with as much authority as he could manage - which wasn't much while he was still massaging back of his scalp. He moved around to the display and flipped a few switches as Rose and Mickey calmed down.

"Sure, boss," said Mickey, trying to see what the Doctor was reading on the scanner, but still with an I-bet-I-know-what-you-were-doing smile on his face. "Whaddya need us to do?"

"Well, Rose, if you could throw that lever over there," he gestured with his chin to his left, "no, the blue one, that's it. And Mickey," Rose moved to where the Doctor had pointed, watching as he looked over the various controls until something caught his eye and he grinned. "Mickey, hold that button down," he said, signaling to his right.

"What, this one?" said Mickey, walking around the console and finding the indicated spot.

"That one," confirmed the Doctor. "Press and hold. And don't let go until I tell you!"

The end!

This, of course, leads into "Rise of the Cybermen", the beginning of which you really should watch if you're unaware of the significance of Mickey's button pushing :) You'll find my take on the episode in, "02 05 Rise of Mickey, the Idiot".

And, like I said, this "update" (Chapter 4) is an expansion of Chapter 3, ten years after it was originally posted. So, if you want all the goodies, you've got to go back and read that, too...