The Assassin of Madness

Chapter 1

AS ALWAYS WELCOME BACK!

The cover will be up soon, I apologize about it not being up now, but it was a bit difficult to find a picture and I wanted this to be up as quickly as possible!  ENJOY!

"The future," Rose Tyler said decidedly from her perch on the counter in the galley.  She kicked her feet a little and grinned at the Doctor, who was arching an eyebrow at her.  He continued to butter his toast and made an odd humming sound at her. 

"We've been to the future," he pointed out to her teasingly.

"You say that like we've been to every bit of the future," she retorted, "But we haven't.  We've seen cat nuns and the end of the world but what about... What about a party?"

She immediately knew she was pushing it.  The Doctor loved a good party, of course he did, but since his stunt in France, he'd been reluctant to go to one.  He'd never tell her why, of course, but Rose had a feeling it was because he felt guilty for abandoning her.  She acknowledged that, and thought that he very well should feel guilty, but also make it up to her somehow.  This was the perfect way to do it.

He stopped his buttering and rested his chin on his hand, his elbow pressed against the table, and looked across the room at her.  "All of time and space," he began slowly, "Every bit of it, at our fingertips.  I could take you to the most lush gardens in the universe, the most spectacular rotating underwater restaurants on Kali'l, and you want to go to a dinner party in the future?"

Rose tapped her heels against the cabinet doors behind her feet.  "Not what I said," she told him.  "A party can be a ball.  We could go to one of those."

The Doctor looked at her helplessly.  "Rose, a ball?" 

She rolled her eyes, "Like you said, you could take me anywhere.  How about somewhere I want to go?"

He was quiet for a moment, studying her, as though trying to read her intentions.  He was going to have a hard time of it, though, because Rose Tyler could be very good at hiding her emotions when she wanted to.  At the moment, she wanted to.  She wanted him to make a decision, to think of her, but also himself. 

She wanted him to do other things too, but that was besides the point.  For instance, if he put down the butter knife and came over to the counter and snogged the daylights out of her, she wouldn't have a problem with it.  In fact, it would be rather fine with her on all counts.

Blinking, she snapped herself from her thoughts and saw the Doctor's lip quirk up in a half-smile.  "A ball.  What makes you think they have balls, Rose Tyler?"

Oh, he was playing this game.  Making it a trivia, the longest game of 20 questions in all of time and space.  He was good at it, no doubt, it was his game to play after all, but there were some instances in which she was far better.  Their banter was easy and this would be a very easy situation to discuss.  There were no euphemisms or feelings to jump around now, as there usually were on the TARDIS.  It seemed there was always a feeling to be jumped or danced around, and Rose, for one, was glad they were having a break from that.

Of course, that didn't mean that said dancing, jumping feelings didn't go away.  No, they were always present and very much in the back of Rose's mind all time time.  Instead of focusing on that, she cocked her head and pretended to think before answering his first (Definitely of many) question.  

"Why wouldn't they?" She retorted, "Come on then, you've seen things make a comeback.  Disco in 2398, for one.  Who would've thought?  So, why then, in some distant part of the future, would there not be a sort of ball?"

The Doctor leaned back in his chair, crossing his arms and regarding her carefully.  He nodded at her answer, accepting it, and moved right along.  "Right then, and what, pray tell, would we do at a ball?"