Under the Mistletoe Moon

By Lumendea

Chapter One: Date Night

Disclaimer: Still don't own Doctor who and gain no income from this story.

…

Rose Marion Tyler was moving around her flat in Cambridge with a resigned slump to her shoulders and a bored sigh escaping her every few moments. The trash can was filled with used cleaning wipes from cleaning up the weeks of grime and dust that had built up during her summer absence. She glanced into her bedroom and chuckled at herself. The suitcase was still packed up and waiting on her bed. She hadn't even opened it yet.

Moving over to the desk, Rose set down her laptop and plugged everything back into place. She turned her attention to the new stack of school books on the corner of the desk and the print out of her schedule. Spending a few minutes at her bookshelf, Rose shifted the older books that she didn't need anymore, but kept as reference down a shelf and began sliding the computer science and physics books into position based on class time.

Going back to her bedroom, Rose resolutely opened the suitcase and began to pull out the items she'd taken with her for the summer. There wasn't really that much: her favorite jeans, some favorite shirts and of course her journal gently packed near the bottom. She pulled it out and looked at the rose on the front. Already the journal was beginning to show signs of wear and she had no doubt that in time it would look like an old tome. Flipping open the journal, Rose slumped onto the bed and began looking through it. She was already a third of the way through the journal. Some pages were nothing but drawings of the TARDIS or a landmark she had visited. A couple of pages had drawings of aliens from memory and notes scribbled about the species. There were several drawings of her various Doctors, even a few of those that she had met thanks to crisscrossing timelines.

A wave of nostalgia swept over Rose and she turned the journal to the first page. She'd started off by recording her first meeting with the Doctor. Well in her timeline anyway. She's only been eleven years old and at the time it had been years between that meeting and her getting the journal from the Doctor and yet…. It was all there. Those early adventures were locked in her memory, they were seared into her and a part of who she was. Of that Rose had no doubt, the Doctor, aliens and the knowledge that there was so much more had shaped her.

She flipped through the pages with a small smile, chuckling at the memory of her triumphs and sighing at the reminder of her failures. It was always hard when there were people that she couldn't save, always hard when she knew that at best she had managed a stalemate. There were so many filled pages. Things had been relatively quiet for the first few years of her life, but then everything had exploded. She'd met up with so many of his former companions and gained good friends in them. She'd actually started an out of sync relationship with the Doctor be it in his Tenth form. Adventures with UNIT and while traveling kept her on her toes almost monthly and she was aware that the Guardians had some sort of plan for her.

There was so much already tucked away in this journal, this tiny little record. It was a guide and at times as scorecard for the mess of her timeline. She'd met her future husband for the first time when she was eleven and he'd met her for the first time back in his first body in Rome and many time in between. They'd have children in the future, she'd already held her first infant child in her arms and knew what Astra would look like as an adult. The last few pages filled with notes on the Black Sun and Eclipse as well as a drawing of the Ninth Doctor as she'd last seen him.

"Last year of school," she whispered to herself. "You're almost there and then you'll be off with the Doctor."

The Ninth Doctor, though, her brain reminded her sternly. Mister tall, leather jacket and blue eyes. A reversal of situations: she was now in love with him and he… well, she wasn't sure actually. Sometimes she got the sense that he felt something stronger than mere affection for her. Sometimes she fancied that on some level he might already be in love with her, but then she'd scold herself. He didn't know her that well yet, not really, but they'd get there.

As if summoned by her thoughts about him, Rose heard the wonderful familiar sounds of the TARDIS echoing through her flat. A strong wind was wiping around the living room, but everything was currently weighed down or still packed away. Rose moved over to her desk with a wide grin and waited as the familiar blue police box materialized in its usual spot. The doors of the TARDIS opened revealing a beaming brown haired Doctor with bright brown eyes wearing his usual pinstripe suit. His long coat was slung over the TARDIS railing and Rose caught only a glimpse of it as he stepped out into her living room with a smile.

"Hello Rose," he greeted warmly, moving over to her and wrapping his arms around her.

"Hi Doctor," she managed to get out before he kissed her.

Time went a bit wobbly like usual when he kissed her and Rose relaxed against him with a soft sigh of contentment. Her fingers found their way into his messy brown hair.

"How about a trip?" the Doctor asked as he ended the kiss.

"Yeah," Rose breathed as her brain tried to switch back on.

"Great! Grab your stuff," the Doctor cheered, releasing her waist and jumping back.

Rose's mind re-engaged and she realized what she'd agreed to. Judging from the grin on her significant other's face he knew that she hadn't been fully aware when she'd agreed. Shaking her head, Rose tried to look stern but failed. With a soft laugh, she dashed back into her bedroom. She took off her translator and left it on top of her dresser and snatched up her superphone and the sonic pen. Rose took a few moments and brushed her hair back into a low tight ponytail. It was a style she was finding herself using more and more often now, an echo from her other life.

"Weather?" she called out to the Doctor.

"You can use the wardrobe," he reminded her, coming to the doorway of her room.

"But I'm in my room right now," she reminded her.

"Winter," he told her with a smile, looking too pleased with himself. "But not too cold."

"Alright," Rose agreed as she pulled one of her warmer coats out of the closet, pulling on the long crème coat. She also grabbed a pair of black gloves and a red knit hat, shoving them into the coat pocket before taking the Doctor's offered hand. "Let's go then."

"Has someone been bored?" the Doctor teased taking her out to the TARDIS.

"You haven't taken me on a date for a while," Rose pointed out with a smile.

"You just dealt with Black Sun," the Doctor replied as the TARDIS doors closed behind them and he raced up to the controls.

"That wasn't fun, though," Rose protested with a slight pout. "It was worrying and frustrating. Stalemate." Rose sighed and shook her head, looking over at him. "It was hard knowing how worried I could be about you then. I didn't want to make you uncomfortable."

An odd little smile crossed the Doctor's face and he nodded. Rose could tell from the way he focused on the controls that he wasn't going to tell her anything, but the soft expression on his face reassured her that it wasn't anything bad. Maybe her early curiosity about his feelings for her at that time wasn't too far off. But this wasn't the time.

"So Doctor," Rose asked, leaning against the console and gripping it tightly as the TARDIS began to shake. "Where are we going?"

"Someplace I'm quite certain you'll enjoy!" he answered with a wide grin.

The TARDIS shuddered and Rose's knees buckled for a moment before they came to a stop. Laughing, the Doctor jumped down the ramp to his coat. He shrugged it on quickly and held his hand out towards Rose. She had been considering pulling on her gloves, but instead smiled and took the Doctor's hand with her own. He pushed open the doors and they stepped out into a soft inch of snow. Rose exhaled and watched her breath dance in the air amongst softly falling snowflakes. Using her free hand she pulled on her knit hat and looked around eagerly.

They were in a back alley surrounded by sturdy looking brick buildings. It was dark but there was a warm glow to the right of them and the Doctor gently pulled her in that direction. Looking up Rose could see only a faint hint of unfamiliar stars and two moons: one spherical and the other a trapped asteroid that looks like a potato. The sound of music, voices and laughing echoed down around them. It was a happy and festive sound that made Rose smile and look eagerly at the Doctor. He was grinning and as they stepped out into the bright lights he beamed at her.

They were standing at the edge of a large out open square fully decorated for Christmas. A massive evergreen tree was set up in the center of the square on a round stage with strings of lights wrapped around if, hundreds of brightly colored ornaments of all different shapes and tinsel hanging on the branches. Around the edge of the square were street lamps with strings of colored lights strung between them in layers of light. Small metal firepits were set up throughout the square with people warming up beside them, a few people toasting marshmallows over them and helping light up the square. Rose could smell different sorts of foods and could see food carts scattered through the square.

"Welcome to Mistletoe," the Doctor informed her with a laugh. "A human colony ship, the Mistletoe made an emergency landing here five hundred years ago on Christmas Day. It was over thirty years before anyone picked up their signal, but by then the colonists had made this their home. As you can imagine Christmas is a rather major holiday here."

"With a name like Mistletoe I can imagine."

"Well it was named after the ship, but everything came together rather splendidly. They pull out all the stops on Christmas. The rest of the year they are a fairly regular agriculture and mining planet. They aren't on a major trading path, but they do alright. Nothing too special, but they throw great parties. It's pre-dawn now and they've already started celebrating. Today is their 500th anniversary as a planet."

Squeezing his hand, Rose and the Doctor started making rounds of the square. He rambled on about the history of the little planet that had managed to build itself up from the remains of its ships, colonial supplies, and 500 settlers.

"This is actual the capitol: Hope Landing where the ship landed," the Doctor explained. "Since it was winter and they couldn't contact help they lived in the ship while building some basic shelters."

"Did they have a lot of problems?" Rose asked, thinking back to some lessons on the colonial period from school.

"What? No, not really, they had supplies and while the planet was colder than the one they were intending to go to, but they had enough food to get them into summer. The planet had enough native vegetation and animals to get them to harvest season. They even had a school system established within three years."

"Wow… no disease or anything?"

"Well… the flu bug they brought with them underwent mutation gradually and became a real problem roughly 380 years ago, but they had a high enough population and medical knowledge that it wasn't too much of a problem."

"Ah so we're really just here for some culture," Rose said slowly, looking around at one of the light displays. To their right was a side street that was brightly lit from shop windows and headed into another square that was almost glowing as well. "Any suggestions then?"

"Mum?" a familiar voice asked from behind them. "Dad?"

Rose tensed up and tried to keep the Doctor from turning towards Astra, but she wasn't fast enough. Grimacing, Rose looked at Astra with wide warning eyes, trying to signal to the younger Time Lady that this wasn't a good idea.

Astra's brown eyes widened for a moment as she took them in. Her future daughter looked older than the last time Rose had seen her; her brown hair was just past her shoulders with a soft retro curl and she was wearing a green sweater beneath a brown bomber jacket with jeans a pair of heeled boots. Yet the worry vanished from Astra's face quickly and she smiled, a smile that Rose had come to recognize as being a lot like her own. She heard the Doctor sharply inhale and Astra chuckled softly.

"Let's try this again," Astra remarked with a laugh. "Happy Christmas future Mummy and Daddy."