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FIVE

It took them nearly four months from the day they arrived to finally be told that they could find employment at Torchwood.

It had certainly been a tough few months to say the least. Without the ability to find a new adventure with each new day that came and went, to Rose it as though she and the Doctor were drifting further apart. At times she barely saw the Time Lord; only the occasional glimpse of pinstripe (she had only seen him in the clothes he had bought here a handful of times) as the Doctor came and went from the mansion. Rose was used to having to deal with Doctor's moods, but never to this extent. Sure, back when they had the TARDIS, it wasn't unheard of for her not to see the Doctor one some days. But those days had become much less frequent, even before he had regenerated, and, even when one of those days would arrive, he was usually alright the following day. However, now his low mood had become a continuous thing and, while she would see glimpses of the man she had gotten to know, Rose was out of ideas.

So when Pete told her that he was to finally take over at Torchwood and would be able to get herself and the Doctor on the payroll, Rose thought she could just make out the light at the end of very long, very dark tunnel.

And it was.

Sort of.

While both of them loved the jobs they had been given, they had been put in completely different areas. It was no surprise that, while Rose was given a job with the Field Agents, the Doctor had been given the position of Senior Scientific Advisor; specifically anything that was of alien origin. She couldn't really complain much, however; her job meant that she could spend more time with Mickey which she was glad about. It was nice to spend time with him as a friend and she had finally been properly introduced to Mickey's girlfriend Marcia, who had moved from South Africa only a year ago. Rose was happy to say that she had Marcia had got on from the moment they met and had become fast friends, much to Mickey's relief.

The only downside, of course, was that she didn't get to see the Doctor nearly as much as she would've liked.

Occasionally, they would get the chance to meet up if they took their lunch breaks at the same time. But those times were few and far between mainly because their days consisted of different things: if she wasn't running half way round London, then he was in the laboratory busy doing whatever the hell it was he did. She had seen that little of him.

And on the rare occasions that they did get the chance to meet up properly, Rose always felt as though something was bothering the Doctor. Something other than their less-than-ideal situation. And, to Rose, it felt as though it affected him more when he was around her.

And no matter how hard she tried to brush the thoughts away, Rose couldn't help but wonder if the Doctor no longer wanted her around.

She didn't quite realise that it was the opposite.

....

Christmas was fast approaching and to say that the Doctor wasn't exactly in the Christmas spirit was somewhat an understatement. About a week ago, the entire mansion, from top to bottom, had been covered in every kind of Christmas decoration that you could imagine. They ranged from candles to lights to the twelve-foot Christmas tree sitting in the biggest sitting room in the entire building.

However, despite having been roped in to helping with the putting up of decorations, and watching as Rose grew more and more excited about the prospect of Christmas while he felt more and more like an outsider, he just couldn't seem to shake the non-Christmassy feeling from his mood. It annoyed him and made him feel worse as he dwelled on the fact that he couldn't feel the spirit of Christmas in the way that he wanted to. Having spent many years on Earth, it had been a tradition that he had become particularly fond of.