Doctor Oneshots

Leather.

He found it while cleaning up. Just busying himself while Rose was asleep, really, tidying the wardrobe room. Which of course the TARDIS hated, he was taking things out of the nice order she'd put them in, but he loved it! He'd forget how much brilliant stuff was in there if he never cleaned up. So this was something he did while Rose was out for hours and hours.

And he'd find things like his jacket.

His leather jacket.

Oh, the memories he had of this thing. He held it up to his nose and smiled as the strangely still familiar scent hit him. Old leather, his old cologne, bananas...

This was the jacket he'd worn coming out of the War. If he tried hard enough, he was sure he'd find bloodstains on it. He wasn't going to try. This was the jacket he'd grieved in, he'd roamed in, homeless, for years and years. This was the jacket that said, "Keep away!" if the rough accent and tough, if daft, old face didn't scare you off first.

This was the jacket he'd met Rose in. This was the jacket she'd clung to and hugged tight and slapped when he was being stupid. This was the jacket she'd given a new meaning to, the old traveler's jacket instead of the warding he'd worn. This was the jacket that'd kept her warm on several occasions, that'd been used as a seat for picnics on bright hillsides all over the universe, that'd been their umbrella in blue rain and a shield from the wind and shimmering sand of some planet he'd long forgotten the name of.

This was the jacket that still felt like the Vortex, just a little bit, and still smelled a little bit like smoke, and Hypervodka, and Slitheen slime, and the perfume in Satellite Five's game rooms.

This jacket didn't fit him now. And he didn't mean physically, though of course it didn't fit him physically either. But it did fit someone.

He wandered up to Rose's door, and held up a hand to knock, still looking at the jacket. Deciding against it, he simply folded it and set it outside, then reached into his pocket, drew out a notepad and a pen, and scribbled something before ripping it off and setting it in the pocket. He put away the notepad, straightened his jacket and tie, and meandered off down the hall, whistling an old song he'd danced to once.

Rose found the jacket a few hours later, and read, through slightly teary eyes,

For those planets with a North. Let's see them all.

-Big Nose's Daft New Face