Run. (The DoctorxRose One-Shots)

The Not-Quite-So-Perfect Surprise

Rose has a surprise for Tentoo

Rose came home from Torchwood early that day. Even though she and their baby TARDIS had been planning this for a week now, it was finally ready to be put into action. Rose started dinner as soon as she got home, not even bothering to change clothes first. Everything had to be perfect. After she had slid the pan in the oven and started the timer, she noticed something smelled a little weird. Not just weird, bad. Very bad. She wandered through her flat, trying to find the abnormal smell. It took her longer than she'd like to admit for her to realize that it was herself. She had been too stressed about making sure everything was perfect that she had forgotten that she had been out in the field today. Her clothes were covered in sweat and monster blood. She checked the time and rushed back to change clothes quickly. When she finally finished changing, which took her too long considering she had to change four times, unable to decide on the perfect outfit, the timer on the oven had almost made it to zero. Her husband should've been home by now.

She checked her phone for any messages, but there were none. He always told her when he was going to be home late even if he was always home before Rose anyway. She thought about calling him, but decided against it. He probably just forgot to tell her or maybe he was working too hard and hadn't even realized he was working late. Rose was never home before him anyway so her being home already might scare him enough to drop whatever he was doing, no matter how important it was, and come home. Rose just set her phone back down and sat down to wait. She jumped up again almost immediately as her mobile buzzed with an incoming message.

Sorry I'm late telling you I'm late. I got stuck grading papers. Would you like me to bring something home for dinner? I'll wait until you get home so we can eat together.

Rose smiled. Her husband, rather than joining Torchwood like her, had opted to do something more domestic. He had always been telling Rose how much he wanted to be a history teacher because he could actually teach accurately and take the students on cool field trips. Rose had said no. And that was how Dr. John Tyler ended up being a physics teacher at Churchill High School.

It's fine. And don't bring dinner I have something planned.

She sent him a reply and set her mobile back down. She checked the timer on the oven and decided she had enough time for last minute checks. She ventured into their baby TARDIS, which sat in the corner of their living room. Still being a baby, the bigger-on-the-inside was still a bit fuzzy to her, but today was a good day. Even though not very much traveling was done in her, the baby TARDIS was already branching out, adding rooms and trying to work on the bigger-on-the-inside part. The baby TARDIS hummed as Rose entered her. Rose patted the still-unfinished console and took off down one of the still-growing hallways. The baby TARDIS moved the room she was looking for closer. Rose patted the wall as she opened the door, making sure the room was still perfect. Rose closed the door, smiling. The door immediately disappeared as Rose heard the front door to her flat open. The TARDIS had been doing a good job keeping the room hidden from the Doctor but always easy to find for Rose.

"Is something cooking? Rose, are you home?" Rose heard the Doctor ask as she rushed back out of the TARDIS.

"Yeah, I'm home," she said, closing the TARDIS door behind her. She immediately smelled it.

"Rose, I think it's burning." Rose rushed right past her husband and into the kitchen to try and save their burning dinner. She pulled the pan out of the oven as fast as she could, but instead of containing lasagna like she had hoped, it held a black, mushy, and sort of crumbly mess.

"It might still be edible." As she had been staring at their ruined dinner, the Doctor had come up behind her with a fork.

"Doctor, don't-" but it was too late. He had already pulled out a bite with his fork and eaten it. Rose watched his disgusted face and he dropped the fork in the sink and struggled to swallow.