New Year
Hey! Just a quick stand alone one shot that I dreamt up and thought I'd post. Hope it's OK and thanks for the reviews for Degrees and the Doctor! See you in February and Happy New Year!
Disclaimer: Nothing you might recognise belongs to me
The first thing that attracted the attention of Rose Tyler when she awoke one ordinary morning in the TARDIS was the date. It was December the thirty first: New Years Eve. She grinned, swung her legs out of bed and ran to the control room to find the Doctor.
"Morning!" she greeted, bouncing across the grates,
"Good morning," the Doctor replied, giving her a brief good morning hug, "You're very cheerful today,"
"Yep," Rose beamed, "I love today,"
"What's so special about today?" he questioned.
Rose's mouth dropped open. "You don't know?"
The Doctor shook his head. "Tell me."
Rose shook her head, a grin on her face as an idea popped into her head. "If you don't know, I'm not going to tell you!"
"Well, alright then," said the Doctor, an injured tone in his voice. He pouted before suddenly reaching for Rose and tickling her. "Please tell me, Rose!" he whined, in a little boy's voice,
"No!" Rose giggled, wrestling his hands away, "I'm going to get dressed. Can you get breakfast ready?"
"I'll take us back to your London then," he replied, "We can go to a café,"
"I'll never get you into that kitchen," Rose grinned,
"Never," agreed the Doctor, crossing over to the controls, "Go on then unless you want to eat breakfast in your jim-jams,"
"Bet you wouldn't object to that!" she grinned, sticking her tongue out and skipping merrily away.
A few hours later, they stumbled out of a breakfast café, hand in hand, and groaning from the enormous amount they'd just eaten.
"So, where do you want to go now?" asked the Doctor, swinging their interlinked hands, "Into the future or back to the past?"
"Actually," Rose mused, "I kind of want to stay here today."
The Doctor stopped and looked at her. "Do you want to see your mother?" he asked, "'Cause if you do, I'm staying in the TARDIS."
Rose hit him lightly on the arm, rolling her eyes. "No, I need to go somewhere. I won't be long, promise,"
"Take it you don't want me to come then," the Doctor said, with a pout,
"Don't you pout at me!" Rose scolded, "I just need to get something. I'll be back in a couple of hours,"
"Alright," the Time Lord standing by her said, with a long suffering sigh.
Rose grinned and suddenly leant up, kissing him on the cheek before darting away. The Doctor stood there, one hand placed wonderingly on his cheek.
Rose pushed her way through the sale shoppers as she made her way into the nearest shopping centre. Her plan was to buy supplies for a New Year's party for the two of them to remember. For that, she needed food and alcohol.
"Oh, excuse me!" she said, as she walked into someone by accident, "I didn't see you!"
"Its fine," said a voice. She looked up to see a young man, possibly a few years older than herself grinning at her, "Thanks."
Wondering why he had said thanks, Rose walked on and grabbed a wire basket from the stack next to the door. She glanced around, mentally thinking what she needed to buy before walking forward towards the party food section.
As she stood at the fridge, scanning the rows of sausage rolls and spring rolls amongst other things, she shivered from the cold, suddenly wishing that she'd bought a coat. Somebody came and stood next to her and as she reached for the last packet of cocktail sausages on the shelf, the person shot out their hand and grabbed it for themselves. Rose looked at them in annoyance, slightly shocked to see it was an old lady who was smiling maliciously.
"Sorry dear, I think I need these more than you do…"
She walked away, leaving Rose standing angrily behind her. She really liked cocktail sausages!
Picking up a couple of other things off the shelf, thankfully getting them herself this time, she wandered down towards the end of the aisle, looking at the food on offer as she went. There was an enormous Christmas tree perched on a little stand right at the end, which Rose admired as she passed. The Doctor and herself had missed Christmas as they had been too busy trying to overthrow yet another alien government on the actual day and Rose hadn't liked to bring it up. So that was why she wanted to make a big deal about New Year.
She swung her basket happily, thinking of the Doctor. Her thoughts were rudely interrupted however when the basket collided with something.
"Sorry…" she started to say before she realised she had hit the Christmas tree rather than another person. Her expression of relief quickly turned into one of shock and terror as the tree slowly began to tip over.
"No…" she whispered, rushing forward in an attempt to put it steady but she was too late.
With the tinkle of broken baubles, the tree collapsed onto the hard lino covered floor, creating debris of shards of metal from the baubles, right in front of Rose.
"Oh shit!" she hissed, looking around and seeing other shoppers staring at her. Her face grew warm with embarrassment as an assistant hurried towards her.
"I'm sorry!" she apologised, "I just accidentally bumped into it with my basket,"
"It's OK," the assistant said, kindly, "It was going to come down tomorrow anyway. I'll clean it up, don't worry."
Rose nodded her thanks and scurried off, carefully stepping over the tree before continuing with her shopping.
About half an hour later, Rose decided that she had enough food and decided to hit the alcohol section. She knew the Doctor loved a drink when the mood overtook him and she couldn't think of a more perfect time than New Year's Eve.
Turning into the right aisle, she quickly located their favourite brand and reached up to get a bottle or five. Suddenly, she slipped and quickly grabbed the shelf to steady herself. However, the shelf came away in her hand and one by one, eight bottles of very expensive whisky smashed to the floor in front of her, creating a huge brown puddle.
"Bugger!" she swore, hastily blinking back tears of embarrassment as she clocked everyone looking at her once again. She stepped back as another assistant ran up, a look of dismay on their face.
"Clean up on aisle nine!" he yelled, "I need a mop and bucket to clean up spilt drink!" He turned to Rose, who was biting her lip. "I'm sorry but if you break, you pay."
Rose stared at the broken bottles. It would cost her a fortune to buy them!
"OK," she whispered, picking up her basket and walking to the check out, along with another assistant who had arrived on the scene.
She put her things on the conveyor belt as the assistant told the cashier about the extra charges. As the last thing was put through, Rose glanced up at the amount she had to pay and winced. It was nearly two hundred pounds. She reached into her pocket to grab her purse, freezing as her hand closed over thin air. She frantically searched in all her pockets and her bag before gasping as she realised it must have been stolen when she bumped into that guy. That was why he said thanks!
"I've lost my purse!" she explained to the waiting cashier.
They clucked their tongue disapprovingly. "I'm afraid you're going to have to go with the security officers, ma'am. This has gone far enough."
Rose stared in horror at the approaching burly security guard. Her mouth opened before her brain kicked into action and she ran as fast as she could, ignoring the shouts to stop from behind her.
Unsure if anyone was following her, Rose pelted out of the shop and through the shopping centre, dodging grannies and people with buggies. She skirted past a family, accidentally sending a blackcurrant drink flying out of a young boy's hand. Glancing down, she blanched to see a dark purple stain spreading out on her favourite blue sweater. He heard the boy behind her begin to cry and felt like joining him.
Running as if there was a hoard of aliens behind her, Rose reached the TARDIS in a few minutes and, scrambling around with her key, opened the door and collapsed inside, slamming the door closed and falling to her knees, panting heavily.
Strong hands closed over her shoulders and she cringed before lifting her head and looking into the Doctor's worried eyes.
"Are you alright?" he questioned, gently.
She nodded weakly as tears began to collect in the corner of her eyes. The Doctor lifted her up so she was standing.
"Did something happen?" he asked, wiping away a tear that had escaped.
She nodded and sniffed. "I only wanted to buy some stuff so we could ring in the New Year in style tonight." Another tear ran down her cheek as she recalled her disastrous trip.
"Oh Rose. What happened?" the Doctor asked, cradling her shaking body lovingly to his chest.
She put her arms around his neck and hid her face in his shoulder, trying to compose herself before explaining what had happened to the Doctor.
He rubbed her back soothingly once she had finished and was staring at him tearfully.
"It'll be OK," he said, "I'll go back to the shop in a little while and pay for it all and we can cancel all your cards. Might even be able to locate your purse for you if we're lucky."
Rose nodded. "Thanks," she whispered,
"No problem," he replied, touching his lips to her forehead and taking her hand, "Now, come with me. I need your help setting something up." He pulled her to a storage cupboard just outside the control room. "Now, I know we missed Christmas last week so I thought we'd… have it today instead!" He pulled open the door and Rose gasped. Inside there were mounds of tinsel and decorations and a Christmas tree. She looked at him and he grinned. "Want to help me put it up?"
Rose grinned and leapt onto him, hugging him tightly as her answer.
About twelve hours later…
"Five…Four…Three…Two…One… HAPPY NEW YEAR!"
Rose and the Doctor heard the huge crowd outside cheer and scream in the New Year. But they were far too busy to celebrate…
Kissing.
Review please. Constructive criticism is gladly received