Part 3

::

After lunch, Jackie introduced one of the new members of staff to the Doctor and Rose.

"Rose, this is our new maid," Jackie explained, gesturing to the pretty young woman who came to collect their plates.

Rose, while smiling externally, internally rolled her eyes, as she always did when Jackie spoke about the servants. Since when had her mum felt at ease with this way of life, that was what Rose wanted to know. Because she certainly didn't. It made her fidgety, watching people tidy up after her.

Plus, whenever she saw the serving staff at the Tyler mansion, she couldn't help but think back to that night when she had been 'just staff,' and the way the parallel Jackie had looked down at her. It wasn't the nicest of memories to think back on.

"Hi," she said brightly, keeping her thoughts to herself. "I'm Rose."

"Hello," the girl replied politely, nodding her head in her direction as though she was trying to refrain from a full-out-curtsy. Bloody hell, thought Rose.

"Hello, nice to meet you," said the Doctor, with a charming smile. "I'm the Doctor."

The maid blushed and replied, "Nice to meet you, too. I'm Jane. Boring name, I know."

"On the contrary, there have been some magnificent Janes!" he protested politely. "Jane Austen, Jane Seymour, Jane Haranfegora of the Dupolix System…"

Jane giggled.

"Anyway, I'd best be off – got lots of work to do," he flashed her a grin, stood, and squeezed Rose's shoulder as he passed. Their private code, unbeknownst to everyone else.

Meanwhile, Jane's heart fluttered. She'd heard the other maids say how good-looking he was, as well as eccentric, and she found him rather wonderful in their conversation, no matter the brevity of it. She continued picked up the plates and cutlery with a pleased grin on her face. Jackie, Pete and Tony were too engrossed in their conversation to notice. But Rose did.

Standing and excusing herself from the garden table, Rose walked inside to see what the Doctor wanted to tell her.

::

"You all right?" she asked, finding him waiting for her in the hallway.

He nodded and grabbed her hand. "Yeah. I just wanted to spend some time with you. On our own. The conversation over lunch was a bit…" he wrinkled his nose as he tried to find the appropriate word.

"Humany?" she suggested with a grin.

He shrugged. "Something like that. Put it this way, I don't need to know the ins and outs of carpet-washing, PTA work, or hedge-trimming, and those were the most interesting of the topics your delightful family offered up once we'd finished regaling them with our stories of epic adventures, so that's saying something."

Rose laughed and let him lead her through the house. "Poor Tony couldn't get a word in. He'd've come up with something way more interesting if he'd had a chance."

"Now that is true," the Doctor agreed. They'd walked upstairs, but rather than take them to their room, he led them to Tony's.

"What are you doing?" she asked, bemused, as he went in to retrieve something.

"I lent Tony my telescope. Just popping in to get it."

"Doctor, it's the middle of the day. You're not gonna see the stars now."

He tucked it under his arm and took her hand again, now going to their bedroom. "I've got a little stargazing trip planned for us later, so I thought I might as well get the equipment sorted beforehand."

"You do remember that I've got to go to work later, yeah?"

His face fell. "Oh."

"I've got that briefing thing at five, and then they'll want me to stay to sign some paperwork and stuff," she said apologetically, as they sat down side by side on their bed. "I might not get away for hours."

"Hmmm."

"You could come with me?" she offered, looping her arms around his neck. "We could look through the files together and see if there's anything distinctly alien to check out."

His lips twitched. "Weellll…"

"Come on, you know you want to," she teased gently, leaning in to give him a peck on the nose. "While I'm in the meeting you can drop off my completed paperwork with Freddie, then pop in and visit your mates in the physics department or annoy the HR lot like you usually do, and then, when my meeting is done with, we can sneak into my office and - "

"Make fast and furious love on your desk?" he interjected with a smirk, sliding his hands slowly down her back.

"I was gonna say find ourselves an adventure amongst the possible alien sightings, but sure, we could do that too," she laughed, and he captured her lips in a heated kiss. When he pulled back, she whispered, "In fact, I insist on it."

He bent his head to press his mouth to her neck, and in between playful nibbles and kisses he murmured, "Do you think we do this too much?"

"Hmm?" She flopped onto her back on the bed and tugged him with her.

"Sex," he whispered, shifting her top slightly to get access to her collar bone. "Do we have too much of it?"

"Don't be daft," she giggled, running her hands through his hair. "I mean, okay, so maybe we have sex a bit more than the average couple," she allowed. "But since when is that a bad thing?"

"It's just, by rights, our honeymoon period should've ended a loooong time ago," he said thoughtfully, "But I still can't get enough of you."

"Well," she said, with a shrug. "We're just too good."