Reign of the World

Chapter 17

The Doctor heaved a heavy sigh and tilted his head to look down at Rose.  She was sprawled across his chest, her arm around his waist.  She cuddled into him when she felt him shift, and he stopped his movements.  "Rose?" He whispered. 

She blinked sleepily up at him, waking up from the dozing state she'd been in.  "Hm?" she murmured.  She didn't even give him time to talk to her, though, just leaned over top of him to kiss him.  He snaked a hand up her back, stroking a pattern only he could read over her skin as she dipped her tongue into his mouth. 

He'd quite forgotten what he wanted to speak to her about by then, and the intent became just to snog Rose Tyler until they were both done.  Eventually she pulled away, pressing a quick succession of kisses to his lips before finally leaning her chin onto his chest.  "What did you want to say?" She asked quietly. 

He stroked her hair for a moment and chased her lips again.  "You know, I can't seem to remember why we need to let time go back."

"So we can save the world.  So we can wipe out the nasty Daleks.  So we can do this," she raked her nails down his chest and he shivered, "In our own bed, on the TARDIS."

"Well, that's sold me!" The Doctor said quickly, crawling out of the bed and beginning to reassemble his layers as Rose giggled. 

She put her clothes on as well, the both of them getting distracted to kiss each other or to let a hand wander, but eventually they were both dressed and remotely presentable again. 

"Are you ready to put time back?"  He asked, pulling out his sonic screwdriver and raising an eyebrow at her.

"No, but we've got to," she replied reluctantly. "What's it gonna be? 20 minutes?"

"Yep.  Like I said," he nudged her nose with his, "Just enough time for them to know we've been up to something."

She giggled and kissed him quickly.  "Wait, shouldn't we plan first, before setting it back?  You know, we don't have much real time, and... I think we might actually need a plan for this."

He looked at her thoughtfully for a moment and nodded.  "You're right.  What do you think we should do?"

Rose sat down on the edge of the bed, folding her hands in her lap.  "We don't have the TARDIS, which severely limits us.  We don't have Jack, like we did last time... What do we have?"  She asked, tilting her head up to look at him.

"We have the sonic," he said, rocking back on his heels.  "We have a couple useless friends.  A loose term, mind you.  Also, I know how to fly a Dalek ship."

Rose cocked an eyebrow.  "Do you?  I didn't know that."

The Doctor nodded.  "I'd just have to get up to the cockpit of the ship.  I just don't know how to get there without, you know, alerting the Daleks."

"We could send one of our friends after them," Rose suggested, kicking her feet and not exactly making eye contact with him.

He chuckled in response.  "I think I know which friend you're thinking and that's okay, I'd be lying if I said that I wasn't thinking the same thing.  It might not be a bad idea, if we send them both all the way out.  The Daleks obviously don't want the people on the beach to know they exist yet.  The only problem would be the lasers they shoot."

Rose pursed her lips, considering.  "We could just leave them here, you know, so that the Daleks focus on them."

"Rose, we're the ones they're going to kill."

"Well, maybe our execution would be the time to run," Rose suggested. "All the attention is on us and Mr. Kelly and Tiffany get back to the beach.  We run to the cockpit and sonic-lock them out."

The Doctor paused for a moment, clearly thinking about this as a legitimate option.  "That's... Insane, to say the least.  And it might just work."

Rose blinked.  "Really?"

The Doctor nodded earnestly.  "Yeah, really.  Might as well try it, hm?"  He sonicked the door again, and Rose felt a shift in her chest as time returned to normal. 

"But they're not executing us until tomorrow," Rose replied, "What'll we do till then?"

"I could think of a few things..." The Doctor nearly purred, kneeling in front of her. 

Rose clamped her knees on his waist, holding him in place.  "Be serious," she said, but she was giggling.  "No escaping till when?"

"Even Daleks sleep," the Doctor said, "So maybe we don't have to wait until tomorrow, just until nightfall.   Then we can fly the whole ship of them into the ocean.  If there's more, they'll come after us and we can deal with them then."

"And how will we deal with the backup?" Rose asked.

The Doctor opened his mouth and then closed it.  He shrugged and slid his hands up her thighs to her waist.  "We'll figure that out how we usually do."

"As we go along?" Rose cocked her head and looked at him curiously.

The Doctor nodded and smiled.  "Exactly, as we go along." 

A knock sounded at the door and the Doctor cursed under his breath.  He stood up from Rose, but not before giving her an extremely passionate kiss.  He unlocked the door and flung it open to see Mr. Kelly standing there, looking shocked.

"Yes, hello, how's your panic attack?" The Doctor asked.

"Fine, I've calmed down," Mr. Kelly replied.  "Listen, you two've been locked in here for nearly twenty minutes.  Have you figured anything out?  A plan?"

"We're breaking out after nightfall," the Doctor replied.  "Rose and I will come to you when the time comes."

He proceeded to calmly explain the rest of the plan to Mr. Kelly, who nodded and steeled himself and made Rose feel as though he was very panicky and trying not to show it, which she admired him for. 

"Shall we all stay in the same room?" He asked.

It wasn't really a logical suggested, but Rose had a suspicion that Mr. Kelly just really didn't want to be alone with Tiffany at that moment, and she couldn't say she blamed him.

"If you'd like," the Doctor replied, obviously picking up on the same thing Rose had.  "Drag the bed and Tiffany in.  You'll want to get some rest before nightfall.  We could be up all night."

Mr. Kelly nodded and disappeared back into the room.

The Doctor shook his head and turned back to Rose.  He sighed heavily.  "I really don't want to," he whispered. 

"Me either," she replied, "But we can't leave poor Mr. Kelly alone with her, you know that."

He stepped forward and cupped her cheek briefly.  "We share the bed tonight," he said lowly, causing her to shiver. 

Tiffany stepped into the room with Mr. Kelly and the Doctor slowly pulled back his hand, tracing his fingers along Rose's neck.  Tiffany looked as though she had been crying, and while Rose felt a bit guilty about it, there was also a sense of pride that was behind the fact that the Doctor wanted her and not Tiffany.

She didn't make eye contact with either Rose or the Doctor, crawling into the bed immediately.  She was facing them, but her eyes were firmly screwed back  Mr. Kelly sighed in exasperation.  Tiffany had left him room on the other side of the bed, which he took, facing away from her.

Rose and the Doctor, however, were eager to express newfound intimacy in a more innocent way.  The Doctor shucked his coats, tie, and shoes, and crawled into the bed.  After toeing off her shoes, Rose followed him, pulling the cover over them and cuddling up next to him.  He kissed her forehead and laid back, wrapping his arm around her shoulders.  She rested her head on his chest and soon fell asleep. 

The Doctor planned on sleeping, for sure, he would need it tonight.  But at that moment he just wanted to watch over Rose Tyler and wait for nightfall.