Author's note: Working on editing and replacing the existing chapters of this story too before I start posting new content.

Original author's note: So, this is the sequel to A Life Ironic, and probably won't make a whole lot of sense unless you have read that. Happy to finally have posted my first chapter of this, and I hope it is enjoyed. A warning ahead of time, I will try my best to update weekly, but between work and school, and well… life, it might be a wee bit slow. Also, it's looking to be a long one judging by what I have outlined.

I own very little. Sadly, no Doctor Who in there, aside from some dvds which don't help much despite being awesome.

Chapter One

The Doctor peeked over the pages of the book he had been pretending to read to glance at his companion. Rose Tyler was sitting in a chair across from him at the table in the TARDIS kitchen and doing a crossword. He had racked his brain quite thoroughly and couldn't really remember a time when Rose had been overly fond of crosswords. He had always been aware of the fact that she was brilliant, but it made sense he supposed that she had grown into that brilliance while away from him.

It was both fantastic and mildly depressing; they had yet to figure out how exactly to deal with the elephant in the room that was her years of experience with his other self. Their way of dealing with it so far had been to simply avoid speaking about those years, the problem with that being that it was the majority of her life. They had fallen rather comfortably into the relationship they had had before, but it was overshot with the potential for more. There was definite meaning to the lingering glances and touches that was difficult to ignore, and the Doctor knew that in order for them to move past this somewhat awkward stage in their relationship they would need to address the gulf of years that had separated them.

He wondered if that was what his other self had meant about making memories and getting past things, about making memories of the struggle to be together. He had some difficulty thinking that this awkwardness was a good thing.

She had what he thought was absolutely the most adorable habit of twirling her pen while running her fingernail under the clip on the side of it. Well… he supposed that it might not be the most absolutely adorable thing, the way her hair looked while she blearily went for her morning cup of tea might hold that spot, but it was most definitely the most adorable way he had ever seen someone work a crossword.

The Doctor noticed rather suddenly that her hand movements had stopped and he looked up to meet her bemused gaze. He grinned slightly sheepishly as she smiled back, "Are you all right there Doctor?"

"Quite, yes. And you?"

Rose tilted her head to the side slightly and tapped her pen to the paper in front of her, "Well, aside from trying to figure out a six letter word for fake hair, I am reasonably well. I don't suppose you feel like telling me what you were thinking about just then? You looked a bit… well, daft." Her smile widened into a grin as he sputtered slightly at her statement, drawing himself up with false self-importance.

"I will have you know, Rose Tyler, that I was thinking very important thoughts, solving the mysteries of the universe and what not." The Doctor stretched his hands out in front of him, cracking his knuckles, the book falling to the table completely disregarded. "I might also have been contemplating where we should go next." His hands came apart and he tapped the fingers of his right hand absently on the table, "Do you have any requests?"

Rose leaned back in her chair, setting the crossword on the table and tapping it with her pen, she stopped and grinned when she noticed that they were both of them nervously tapping something. She looked into the Doctor's face and guessed at what he might actually have been thinking earlier. It was hard telling she supposed, but she wondered if it might have something to do with the way things were going between the two of them. Aside from a single kiss outside of her room and the dancing after their rather disastrous picnic, they were definitely taking things slowly.

She thought back to John, and the ridiculous amount of time she had wasted tiptoeing around their relationship, it really had been quite stupid of her. Rose determined not to do that again. They needed to talk, she decided. And they seemed unlikely to do it here. "Actually, I do." She smiled at him and stood, grabbing his hand and tugging him after her as she left the room. She continued speaking as they made their way to the console room. "First though, I would like to stop off in Cardiff." She glanced over her shoulder at the Doctor and rolled her eyes at his wary expression. "I just need some things from my flat. Won't take a bit. And we did promise Jack we would visit."

The Doctor's voice took on a quality that could almost be called whining as he approached the console, obviously entering the coordinates she had requested, even as he complained about it. "But Rose, I'm not a 'visitor' I don't just, pop in for tea. It takes away from the whole, 'mysterious mad man with a box' thing."

"That really the image you're going for?" Taking in his expression, Rose rolled her eyes and played along. "Your name is Doctor. That's still -very- mysterious. I promise." Rose smiled up at him as she held on to the console near him. She did her best not to reach out for the stabilizers as they came in for another bumpy landing, enjoying too much the nearly child like glee that crossed the Doctor's face as he pushed the final lever and they jolted to a stop. The Doctor straightened his bow tie and stepped from the console holding out a hand, smiling as Rose took it and they started for the door.

"So, Rose, before you ask 'when' we are, I will tell you. First of all, toupee. Secondly, it is one year from when we dropped off our erstwhile companion Jack." He swung their linked hands as he opened the doors with a snap of his fingers. The icy air that blew into the TARDIS belied the statement and he stumbled to a stop. He shot a sheepish look over to Rose and smiled in answer to the bemused smile on her face. "We-ell, we don't like to do things exact like anyway do we?"

The Doctor pulled off his jacket and held it out as Rose shrugged into it, deciding that he had recovered the moment rather suavely all in all.

The jacket safely on, Rose reclaimed his hand and led the way out of the TARDIS.

Jack watched from about half a block away as the Doctor terrorized some poor book vendor. Jack had left his office when the TARDIS alert had sounded and then had walked slowly to where sensors indicated it had landed.

He was somewhat nervous about seeing the Doctor, he had kept thinking about the last time he had watched the TARDIS leave with Rose and the Doctor aboard. That had ended up going in a direction he hadn't anticipated, and that had genuinely angered him.

As he approached the Doctor he was preparing a response to finding that the Doctor had left Rose behind -again-. For her own good, of course. He jumped as someone punched his arm lightly and he turned with relief to see Rose grinning at him.

"Well, fancy meeting you here captain Jack." Rose linked her arm with his and joined him in watching as the Doctor argued with the bookseller.

Jack looked down at her, lifting his eyebrows at her choice of attire. "Not sure tweed is really you Rosie. The Doctor might be a bad influence on you."

Rose shook her head and then gestured ahead. "Think we should go rescue him?"

"The salesman or the Doctor?" Jack had already started walking, Rose keeping pace with him easily.

The Doctor dropped the book he had been gesturing over and beamed at them as they approached, his thumbs tucked in his trouser pockets, and looking terribly out of place in his shirtsleeves with about two feet of snow on the ground. "Rose, this is really exciting, they have what they claim is a first edition of…" The Doctor trailed off as the shopkeeper angrily interrupted him and the Doctor turned to argue his point again.

Rose smiled apologetically at the man as she leaned over and caught the Doctor's hand in her own. "Doctor, I am freezing. Let's just go have some tea."

Raising an eyebrow at Rose to let her know he knew he was being managed, the Doctor smiled at her and squeezed her hand. He took the bag she was carrying from her and let her lead him away, back towards the TARDIS. The three of them walked inside and Rose left them to put her bag away.

The Doctor and Jack looked at each other almost awkwardly and the Doctor shuffled to the console, hitting the lever to send them drifting in the vortex.

He had just opened his mouth to speak when there was a knocking noise coming from the doors. Frowning the Doctor looked at the doors in puzzlement for a moment before looking to Jack and seeing his expression mirrored on the American's face.

He stepped slowly towards the door, looking back as Jack asked, "Didn't you just send us drifting in the vortex?"

"I -did-. And now someone is at the door." He got to the door, hearing the knocking again and answering it with a knock of his own. He paused, hearing it again before opening the doors and smiling in bewilderment at the glowing box that drifted inside, bouncing around the console room briefly before coming to rest in his outstretched hand.

"This is fantastic, I have mail!"