Title: Domestic Space
Rating: T
Notes: Sequel to 'Domestic Battleground'. You must have read that in order to understand this.
Notes 2: The Doctor doesn't do domestic, not even now he's married to Rose. But he's about to find out just how domestic things can get – and Rose will find out just why he and the TARDIS don't do families…
Day Seven
Something was tickling her nose.
Rose batted at it without opening her eyes.
The thing returned after a few moments, trailing over her cheek. Rose flung her arm out and was rewarded with a pained grumble and a thud as someone fell off the bed and onto the floor.
"Give over," she ordered, yawning and opening her eyes to see Izzy sprawled on the floor. A quick glance to the other side of the bed revealed what she had already suspected; the Doctor was already up and working. "Morning," she added belatedly as Izzy stood up.
"Morning," her cousin greeted cheerfully. "The Doctor sent me to wake you up. Said to say that he's busy…doing something. Something about a vortex?"
"The time vortex," Rose mumbled. Something flickered at the edge of her senses; she'd been feeling strange ever since they'd arrived on Gallifrey, but she hadn't mentioned it to the Doctor. She knew his over-protective tendencies too well!
"The time vortex," she repeated, sitting up and blinking. "What about the time vortex?"
"No idea," Izzy said breezily. "You gonna get dressed? Romana's called a doctor or something to take a look at you, make sure the baby's alright."
Rose's hands went instinctively to her abdomen, over her womb. "The baby's fine," she murmured. "Um. Clothes."
"Just throw on anything," Izzy said, a hint of impatience creeping into her voice. "I want to get back, d'you mind?"
"I'll be there in a bit, tell him," Rose nodded. Izzy left; a moment later Rose dashed to the toilet. Morning sickness, she decided, was not fun.
She stood in the shower for long minutes, fingers exploring every inch of her stomach. Logically she knew that there was no way for her to feel anything to do with the baby yet, but she knew that inside her, a tiny cluster of cells was growing. Would grow to form a tiny baby, and then a child, and then a person.
"I create life," she murmured. Was this what she was? Bad Wolf, the mother? She'd always thought of it as Bad Wolf the destroyer. She'd wiped out the Dalek fleet with barely a thought, she and the TARDIS, and whilst she'd done nothing of the kind since then, the feeling had lingered.
She closed her eyes, remembering those fateful hours when everything had changed. The Doctor – her husband – had sent her away. She'd had to return to him, she hadn't had a choice, and the TARDIS had helped her in the only way the time ship could.
She shook herself free of the memories and scrubbed shampoo into her scalp. Suffice it to say, faint echoes of the power she'd controlled then still lingered, most notably in a semi-telepathic connection to the TARDIS and a certain affinity for understanding time and space.
She rinsed off, stepped out of the shower, and dried. The Doctor, she knew, would be waiting for her. She'd created the mess – regardless of the time jumper's involvement – and without her, sorting it out would be even harder than it already was.
Rose touched her stomach again gently. Perhaps, she thought, she'd done this for the baby.
She dressed quickly and made her way through the TARDIS to the control room. It was empty, but the door was ajar and she could hear voices outside.
The sight that greeted her, when she stepped out of the TARDIS, made her double up with laughter. Izzy was sitting on Tim's shoulders, waving her hands about wildly. The Doctor sat at a table, watching them with a sort of puzzled amusement. Romana was staring.
"What the hell are you two doing?" Rose demanded, gasping for breath.
"Trying to see if we've understood," Tim said, a little grumpy. "Or at least, fatso here is." Izzy squawked and kicked at him. "I'll drop you," he threatened.
"You won't," Izzy said with certainty. "Move over to the table, I want to get down." Tim obliged; Izzy clambered off him and jumped down off the table. "Rose! You took your time!"
"I wanted a shower," Rose said patiently. "I didn't think there was any rush." She looked at the Doctor inquiringly. He shook his head. "Right. Then I want breakfast. Or a cup of tea, at least."
"Milk, one sugar," the Doctor grinned at her. "Typical."
"And you'll have a coffee, no sugar," she retorted. "Don't think I don't know your routines, Doctor." She smiled to soften her words. "C'mon, children," she said teasingly then to her cousins. "Let's go make breakfast. Romana, d'you want anything to eat?"
"No, thank you," said the Lady President in bemusement.
"Nothing for me, if you're cooking," the Doctor slipped in. Rose stuck her tongue out at him. "I can think of a better use for that tongue, Rose Tyler." She blushed and disappeared into the TARDIS. Smirking, Izzy and Tim followed her.
Although the Doctor had known that Jack was somewhere on Gallifrey, he was still completely taken off guard when the confident human strolled into Romana's rooms and greeted the president.
"Hey, Romana," the time traveller said, not seeing the Doctor. "Any news?"
"Just a little," Romana said dryly. She looked from Jack to the Doctor, and back. "You never told me you'd travelled with the Doctor," she remarked.
Jack was slightly taken aback. "No," he said slowly. "I mean, you know there's things I can't – "
"Jack."
Jack turned so quickly he almost fell over, his expression so comically shocked that the Doctor had to grin.
"Doctor?" Jack breathed. A grin spread across his face. "Doctor!" A moment later he was across the room, hugging the Time Lord tight. The Doctor held him just as close. "You're alive! You're here!"
"Yep," the Doctor agreed. They separated and looked each other over. "You're looking good, Captain. I'm sorry I didn't come to find you sooner – things got a little out of hand."
"I never found out what happened," Jack said. "Just the Daleks were gone, and then you were gone, and I got down to Earth and – " He cut himself off, shaking his head. "Doesn't matter now. I can't believe you're here! On Gallifrey."
"Yeah." The Doctor's face didn't change, but Jack knew him well enough to know that he was keeping a tight rein on his emotions. "Gallifrey. What do you know about what's going on here?"
"Not as much as I'd like," Jack admitted. "I haven't been able to do too much from here, because of –" He paused and glanced at Romana.
"I know that Gallifrey was, or will be, destroyed," Romana said quietly. "Please, do not hesitate to speak of it."
"Right." Jack shifted slightly, a little uncomfortable. "Well, like I said, I've not been able to do too much in case I contaminated the time line. What've you got from your end, Doctor?"
"A time jumper – you've heard of those?" Jack nodded in the affirmative. The Doctor continued. "One of them stowed away on the TARDIS, then managed to open a rift in space and time."
"But hold on, that wouldn't explain it leading to Gallifrey," Jack said, catching on quickly.
"No, it wouldn't," the Doctor agreed. "There's something about Rose that made it happen."
"Rose is here?" Jack's face lit up, then he shook it off. "Never mind. What about Rose?"
"She looked into the time vortex and destroyed the Daleks – wiped them from time," the Doctor explained. "And it left her slightly more than human. I think she – or Bad Wolf – did this subconsciously."
Jack gave a low whistle. "That's…pretty far-fetched, Doctor."
"Are you saying that a human looked into the time vortex?" Romana demanded incredulously. She hadn't heard this part before. "And survived?"
"It was a bit more complicated than that," the Doctor said defensively. "Anyway, that's the gist of it." He smiled at Jack. "It really is good to see you," he said. "And Rose will be over the moon." He frowned slightly. "Unless she starts crying."
"Uh…" Jack shook his head in bewilderment.
"Rose is pregnant," Romana said succinctly.
"Uh…huh." Jack raised his eyebrows at the Doctor. "About time too. Although I can't quite picture you with kids." He gave a slow grin. "Does Rose's mom know yet?"
The Doctor visibly shuddered. "No," he said fervently. "And I won't be there when Rose tells her!"
Romana hid a smile. She'd heard a little about Jackie Tyler from Tim and Izzy, the day before.
"Gentlemen," she began, "although I know you have a lot to catch up on…" She trailed off suggestively. The Doctor nodded.
"Right," he agreed. "Back to work. I'll go get Rose and her cousins."
"No, let me," Jack interjected, still grinning. The Doctor grinned back at him, nodded, and shooed him into the TARDIS.
Izzy shook her head. "I didn't like that part," she said. "I mean, the costumes and the scenery and everything was great – but you could seriously tell that some of the dancers were just plastic dummies."
"Did I ever tell you about the time the shop dummies came alive and tried to kill me?" Rose asked idly. "That was when I met the Doctor."
Tim frowned. "What does that have to do with Phantom of the Opera?" he wanted to know.
"Nothing, I was just saying," Rose shrugged, and nibbled at her toast. "I think you're right, Izzy, but it would've been really hard to stage it with loads of people. That's where the film did it better."
"True," Tim said, reaching across Rose for the jam. She batted him away. "Sorry. What did you think about the bit where they go down to the Phantom's lair, or whatever?"
"That was good," Rose said positively. "S'really hard to have water on the stage, but they managed it really well."
"Yeah," Izzy agreed. "Tim, pass the marmite." Tim did so with a look of disgust. "Anyway, I had a good time," she concluded. "That restaurant was really nice."
"Wasn't it just," Rose grinned. "The Doctor took me there one time, before Jack came along, and then we went there with him, too – couple hundred years in the future. Jack flirted with everyone in sight, and the Doctor almost made him leave."
"Jack sounds interesting," Tim grinned.
"I'm not sure interesting is quite the right word," Rose mused. "Unique."
"I don't know, I think outrageous fits me better," came a voice from the kitchen doorway. Rose looked up, eyes wide, then with a clatter of china and silverware she launched herself from her seat and into Jack's welcoming arms.
"Jack, Jack, Jack," she mumbled, arms around his neck, clutching him tight. He wrapped his arms around her and held her tight, lifting her up and spinning her around. "Oh, Jack!"
"Rose," he said softly. "Oh, Rose, I missed you so much." When Rose didn't let go, he gently set her back onto the ground and flashed a smile at Tim and Izzy. "Hi, you must be Rose's cousins. The Doctor said you should head on out there; we'll join you guys in a bit."
"Sure," Izzy nodded, suddenly subdued at seeing her cousin react this way. "See you guys in a bit." She grabbed a last bit of toast and left the kitchen. Tim trailed her, glancing over his shoulder to see Rose and Jack still hugging in the kitchen doorway.
It took long minutes for Rose to release Jack; when she did, they had somehow migrated to the large, comfortable couch that had been placed in the kitchen when Jack had been with them.
"Hey," Jack said softly, wiping a tear from Rose's cheek with his thumb. "I hope those are good tears." She nodded, but didn't stop crying. "Oh, Rose, sweetheart. I missed you."
"I missed you too," Rose managed. "We were going to come look for you – but when we got to Satellite Five you weren't there, and the Doctor wasn't well, and then things just started happening, and – "
"Don't worry about it," Jack overruled. "I'm here now."
"Yeah," Rose nodded. She took a deep breath and wiped her eyes and cheeks on her sleeves. "I knew you were on Gallifrey – that's why we came in, instead of just closing up the rift," she told him. "I heard you."
Jack frowned and cupped her cheek with his hand. "How, Rose?"
"I heard you calling out for help," she enlarged. "It's part of this whole…Bad Wolf thing." She sniffed, still trying to stop crying.
"We called, but we didn't think anything would come of it," Jack admitted after a moment. "But that doesn't matter right now." He tugged at her hand and she leaned against him, resting her head on his shoulder. "So, I hear you're going to have a baby," he said gently.
"Yeah," Rose confirmed. "I don't know how far I'm along, but…" Her hand drifted to her abdomen. "I'm pregnant."
"Do I get to be Uncle Jack?" he teased her.
"Definitely," Rose said, grinning. She sat up and hugged him again. "I missed you," she admitted. "I never told you – "
"I always knew," Jack overrode her. "Of course I knew, Rose." He held her face in his hands and kissed her gently. "You are worth everything," he said, almost reverently.
"Oi, hands off my wife."
Rose turned red-rimmed eyes towards the Doctor. She was beaming; the Doctor's face was softened by a smile.
"It's Jack," she said – a simple statement, not in explanation or excuse.
"It is," the Doctor agreed. He held out his arms; Rose and Jack stood up and went to him. He drew them close to him, hugging them both. "It's about time he came back," he added, speaking to Rose but looking at Jack. "Bit extreme, to find us on Gallifrey, but – "
And then all of a sudden he had collapsed onto the floor, breath choking him as sobs wracked his frame. Rose dropped to her knees, clutching his hand; Jack did the same, murmuring nonsensical comfort words.
Eventually the storm passed, and Jack left to assure Romana and the others that nothing was wrong. The Doctor lay on the floor, head resting in Rose's lap.
"D'you want to talk about it?" Rose asked gently after a while, stroking his hair lightly.
"No," the Doctor said quickly. After a moment he added, "There's nothing to talk about."
"Please don't lie to me," Rose entreated. "Doctor – Theta. It's me."
"Oh, Rose." He shifted slightly, pressed his face against her stomach. He imagined that he could hear the baby's double heart-beat. "I'm sorry, I didn't mean…" He trailed off and took a shaky breath. "It's Gallifrey," he muttered. "It's my home."
"Yes," Rose nodded, continuing to stroke his hair. "It's real, you know. It's not going to disappear again. I won't let it."
The Doctor smiled against her stomach, but it was a bitter smile. "You can't do everything, love."
"I can try," Rose returned. She tugged at his earlobe and he sat up to look at her. "We're going to need a nursery for the baby," she told him, changing the subject completely.
"I'm sure there's one around here somewhere," the Doctor said, looking faintly shocked at the practical suggestion. "And there's a while yet, Rose."
"Still," Rose shrugged. "It needs to be close to our room. And I want to decorate it."
The Doctor winced slightly. "What, pink for a girl, blue for a boy?"
Rose scoffed. "You know me better than that," she reproved. "I was thinking yellow – like the houses on Sontarellia." He looked at her, love and awe on his face, and she flushed slightly. "What?"
"You, Rose Tyler, are amazing," he said softly. "Come here." He pulled her towards him and they clung together in a tangle of limbs. He kissed her and she held onto him tight. When he drew back, allowing her to breathe, she smiled at him.
"I'm never letting you go," the Doctor muttered. "Never, Rose."
"I'm never going," she reassured him. "Can't get rid of me."
The Doctor, Jack and Romana were bouncing ideas off each other. Tim and Izzy were in the TARDIS somewhere, keeping out of the way.
Rose sat on the floor, leaning against the TARDIS, and trying to follow what was going on.
It wasn't easy. Half of the things they were saying had more syllables than she had fingers, and besides that, she kept drifting into a doze, only to be woken by someone – usually Jack – saying something particularly enthusiastically.
There was something nagging at the edge of her senses, much like the feeling she'd had when she'd discovered that the Time Jumper was aboard the TARDIS. She couldn't tell what it was exactly, but she knew something was just a little wrong.
Rose sighed and shifted. She should really mention it to the Doctor, she knew. But he didn't need to be fussing over her right now; from the looks of things, he and Romana had hit upon something.
"And if the rift was temporally interdimensional," Romana was saying, "then the rift would be stable."
"But that's only theoretical," Jack objected. "Temporal interdimensional physics is – "
"You keep forgetting, Jack, we're Time Lords," the Doctor said with a wry grin. "We've been travelling time and space since before you humans had crawled out of the muck." He glanced over at Rose, as he had taken to doing every so often, and she stuck her tongue out at him. "Oh, stop it, you're not exactly human anymore."
"Not quite," she agreed mildly. "We getting anywhere, then?"
"No," said Jack and Romana in unison, even as the Doctor proclaimed to the contrary. The Time Lord scowled at them.
"We are," he claimed. "Aren't you listening to yourselves?"
"Nah, you're too loud," Rose teased him. She hoisted herself upright using the TARDIS as a balance, and joined them at the desk. "So you've worked out that, theoretically, the rift could exist because of the power of the time vortex," she said.
"Yeah," Jack nodded. "But that theory is seriously flawed – it was disproved years ago."
"But Rose had the time vortex running through her brain," Romana reminded him. "And it created something entirely different within her. An unknown. And the Doctor claims that she affected where the rift went."
"But I don't see how I could have done that," Rose objected. "I don't know anything about time rifts, not really – and nothing about the time vortex." She shot the Doctor a slightly aggrieved look. "Thanks to himself."
"It's dangerous," he said briefly. His fingers tapped idly on the desk. "You know that, Rose. We don't know enough about what you did."
Rose nodded acceptance. "Yeah," she agreed. "Right. But still – how could I have done it? This is more than wiping out the Daleks, or bringing Jack back to life." She glanced with a smile at her friend, who nodded at her. "I'm not powerful enough to pull a planet into existence from nothing." The Doctor didn't look at her. "I'm not," she repeated, a little less certain. "Doctor?"
"Rose…" He sighed and looked straight at her. "We don't know what you're capable of," he said truthfully. "I have no idea. Before, it didn't seem to be so important to find out – but now you're doing more, probably because of the baby."
Rose hugged herself. "I can't do this stuff," she said, almost pleading. "I'm not – not even Bad Wolf. I'm just me."
"You're not just anyone," Jack said soothingly, standing up and hugging her. "You're Rose. You're my sister. But you're not the same girl that left London, all that time ago. You know that."
Rose buried her face in his chest. "Yeah," she mumbled. "Things are changing so quickly."
"That's the way change is," Romana spoke up. "It comes more quickly than we would like, always, and leaves us wishing for the past. But you wouldn't want to be the way you were, Rose, would you?"
Rose pulled away from Jack to look at the Doctor. "No," she said softly. "I wouldn't." She took a deep breath. "But we need to find out what I can do," she said firmly. "If I opened a rift to Gallifrey – re-opened its possibilities – then who knows what else I might do without meaning? Next thing you know, I'll be bringing the Daleks back, or destroying planets, or anything."
The Doctor nodded. "You're right, of course." He frowned thoughtfully, glancing out of the window at the red Gallifreyan landscape. "We might have to do that before sorting out the rift, as well."
"I agree," Romana said. "To do otherwise would be dangerous, and possibly detrimental to Rose's health." The Doctor looked at her, alarmed. "She directed the rift," the Time Lady said gently, "and you yourself said that she has a link to Gallifrey that you can't explain."
Rose raised her eyebrows at the Doctor, who squirmed slightly.
"Those tests I did the other day," he muttered. "Some of them were to do with the telepathic connection you have with the TARDIS – and it's got bigger."
"Got bigger how?"
Jack shook his head. "Doctor – I'm confused. You obviously haven't caught me up on everything." Rose pulled his arms around her again, and he hugged her tightly. "Rose?"
"I don't know," she muttered. "It's complicated."
"Obviously," Romana remarked dryly. "However, I believe now would be a suitable time to pause for a meal. I don't know about you, but I'm hungry. I'm sure your cousins are getting bored now, as well," she added to Rose.
Rose arched an eyebrow. "You've been in the TARDIS; did you ever get bored?"
Romana smiled a rather wicked smile. "No, the Doctor was always the one with the short attention span."
"I did not have a short attention span!" the Doctor said in outrage, sitting straight up. "Romana, take that back!"
"How could she?" Izzy said from the TARDIS door. "She'd be lying if she did." Rose grinned; Tim stuck his head out of the door.
"Is it safe?" he asked cautiously. "Have you stopped with the technobabble?"
"Just about," Jack grinned, releasing Rose and looking Tim over. "We're about to go find something to eat. You coming?" Rose jabbed at him with her elbow. "Ow!" Jack complained.
"Stop flirting with my cousin," she said sternly.
"I wasn't flirting," he protested half-heartedly. He smiled at her; he'd missed the good-natured teasing.
"Food," Izzy said plaintively. "Please. Now."
Romana looked at the Doctor. "Would you like to eat here, or in the dining room?" she asked. "People will have to know about you at some point." The Doctor shrugged. "The dining room, then." She rose. "Tim, Izzy, please follow me." She headed towards the outer door, but before she got there it slid open and a slender woman stepped through. She was about Jack's age, with short, dark hair and wide eyes.
"Romana, have you seen –" she began, but was cut off by the Doctor.
"Susan?"
The End.
To be continued in 'Domestic Travels'. D'you want a tease? I'll give you a tease.
The Doctor stared in pure disbelief. It couldn't be. It wasn't possible. She hadn't been on Gallifrey when it had been destroyed, she'd been on Earth, but she should have been wiped from time with the planet.
"Susan?" he repeated in shock.
The woman – Susan – looked at him, a faint frown drawing her eyebrows together. For a long moment it seemed as though she wouldn't recognise him, then her mouth fell open.
"Grandfather?" she whispered. He gave a single nod, a jerk of his head. She took a step towards him, then faltered. "Grandfather?" she repeated.
"Susan," he whispered. "Oh, Susan."
And then suddenly she was hugging him tight, and he was clutching on to her as if he'd never held her before. And they were crying and laughing and half-formed words tumbled from their mouths.