Three Months Later

"Hi, Rose," Donna smiled, as she appeared in the kitchen.

"Hiya," Rose grinned back, diving for the fridge. "God, I'm starving," she muttered, looking through it for something she fancied eating. "Oh," she murmured, speechless and rather touched when she realised that the Doctor had put a box in there with her name on it. She opened it up and discovered her favourite snacks inside, along with a sandwich.

She looked up as she bit into it, and saw Donna watching her in amusement. "Sorry," Rose mumbled. "It's just for some reason the travelling across the universes thing really makes me hungry."

"Oh don't worry about that," Donna shrugged, taking a sip of her tea and grabbing a biscuit. "I'm just wondering why you haven't asked where he is yet."

Rose frowned, and glanced around the kitchen. "Oh yeah. Where is he?" Then she quickly added, "And don't tell him I momentarily forgot to see if he was in the room. He'll only sulk."

Donna laughed and assured her she wouldn't tell. Then she explained, "He said he'd be running late, and that he's sorry. Well, actually he said, over the phone to me: 'Tell her I'm really, really, really sorry and that I'll be there as soon as I can and that I haven't abandoned her I just need to see the President - wait that sounds wrong, um, assure her that I'm not choosing him over her it's just really rather urgent and then tell her that I miss her and - and then tell her that I love her and can't wait to see her, okay thanks Donna bye.'" She smirked as Rose raised her eyebrows. "Yeah, he's a bit..."

"Daft," Rose laughed.

"Exactly."

They both rolled their eyes at the same time and then broke into a hysterical laughing fit when they realised. Gathering her food up, still laughing, Rose went over to the table and gestured for Donna to join her. "Feel free to help yourself to this little picnic he's made," Rose giggled. "Honestly, the amount of times he went on at me about how he doesn't do domestic..."

"Yeah, he's so in denial. I mean, I caught him looking at rings yesterday!" Donna blurted out, then slapped her hand over her mouth. "Shit, wasn't supposed to mention that."

Rose's eyes went wide and her sandwich fell from her hands. "What?"

Donna shifted awkwardly in her seat, looking mortified that she'd let that slip. Then, looking at Rose's expectant face, and knowing that she was as stubborn as herself when it came to waiting for someone to spill a secret, Donna sighed, resigning herself to telling her the story. "We were on Earth yesterday. London. Martha and me wanted to go shopping, and I emotionally blackmailed him into taking us by reminding him that I walked in on you and him...well...and I told him that he owed me because I can't bleach the sight of his bum out of my head."

Rose started laughing again, but blushed in embarrassment at the reminder of what Donna had walked in on in the library the other day.

"Anyways, he went off on his own when we got to Oxford Street, and then later, when Martha was in a queue in Topshop, I went to stand outside 'cos it was so busy and hot in there, and there he was, staring into the window of a jeweller's. I went up to him and made him jump, and he blushed crimson and tried to distract me. It didn't work."

Rose pondered over what Donna had told her. "Maybe he was just looking at necklaces or bracelets or something, for one of our birthdays? Could've been your Christmas present that he was trying to distract you from spotting."

"No, no, it was definitely the rings section of the display. And let's face it, if he was staring at the engagement rings, then there's only one woman that particular present could be for, and it most definitely isn't me!" Donna said wisely.

"Blimey," Rose replied, and opened a packet of jelly babies. Plopping one in her mouth, she noticed Donna eying her suspiciously. "What?"

"Well, is that all you're going to say?" Donna asked, baffled by Rose's reaction. "'Blimey?' Nothing else?"

Rose shrugged, chewing thoughtfully.

"So if he produces a ring come Christmas time, you're going to say what?" Donna pressed.

Rose shrugged again, then told her, "The Doctor doesn't do marriage, not really. He wouldn't want an actual, proper wedding. If he wants to give me a ring, it's probably only 'cos he thinks I want him to show some sort of human-like commitment to me or something. Which is daft, 'cos I don't need that. But if he gives it to me, I'll wear it."

"So you don't think he's actually going to do the whole shebang?"

"What, get down on bended knee?" Rose scoffed. "Course he won't. He's not all that great with romantic gestures. And I really don't mind," she assured Donna.

"But don't you want a wedding out of it?"

Rose laughed. "Believe it or not we've actually already had one. Well, several. Not that we acknowledged that they meant anything – we just used to get into weird situations sometimes where we either accidentally got married according to local customs without realising it, or had to, you know, marry or..." Rose drew her hand across her neck.

"Marry or die?" Donna exclaimed.

Rose blushed a bit. "Well, maybe once or twice we didn't realise that unmarried couples would be punished by death on certain planets if they did...certain things."

"All right, say no more," Donna insisted, shuddering. "So has he ever referred to you as his wife?"

"No, course not," Rose giggled at the thought. "Like I said, we used to pretend it didn't mean anything."

Donna nodded. "Right, right." She paused. "Would you want him to refer to you as his wife?"

"I wouldn't have back then, 'cos I was still so young. Now? Well, I don't really care either way to be honest. I'll just go with the flow." She offered Donna a jelly baby, apparently rather unruffled by their conversation.

"You're certainly an unconventional couple," Donna remarked, picking out an orange jelly baby. "Only seeing each other a couple of hours a day and all that."

"Mmhmm," Rose agreed. "Still, I reckon that lessens the chance of a divorce," she joked with a wink.

"It must be hard, though," Donna reasoned, watching Rose carefully. "Knowing that you don't get to have whole days out with him adventuring like me and Martha do?"

Rose swallowed and nodded. "Yeah, it is. But whenever I feel sorry for myself because of it, I then remember that I get to have my family, still, too. I would've never known my little brother if all this hadn't happened."

"Best of both worlds, then?"

"Sort of, yeah," Rose smiled.

Donna's phone started ringing, then, and once she saw it was the Doctor calling she handed it over to Rose without bothering to answer it herself. Rose giggled and answered it. "Hello stranger."

"Rose! Hello! Sorry I'm so late. I won't be much longer, I'm on my way back now. How are you, are you okay?"

"Yeah I'm fine, ta. Me and Donna have been chatting. You all right?"

"Marvellous! Just negotiated a peace settlement and thus practically saved two whole civilisations!"

Rose laughed happily, and murmured, "Glad to hear it. You do sound cheerful."

"Oh, I'm on top of the world! Especially now that I'm free to come back to you. I can't wait to see you."

"Good," she grinned. "What do you want to do, when you get back?"

Whatever he replied made Rose blush, so Donna quickly grabbed the phone off of her. "Oi, no talking about that while I'm present, thank you. I'm hanging up now."

"Sorry, Donna," she heard him mutter resignedly before she ended the call. She rolled her eyes again.

"Right, I'm gonna make myself scarce. I'll see you soon, Rose. Have a nice time."

"Thanks," Rose giggled. "Nice talking, Donna."

"Yeah," Donna smiled. "It was. Night."

"Goodnight."