Back to Our Reality

SIX

He knew she was up to something. He had known her for long enough now to know the signs that meant she was keeping something from him. It was always the same: she would always try to avoid conversations that might lead to asking questions on what it was that was bothering her and the way she looked at him would change slightly. She always thought she was doing well at trying to hide what it was she was feeling or keeping from him, but he always knew when something was up and nine times out of ten he would already have an idea about what it was and so would tailor their conversations to purposely make her slip up. And it usually worked. However, since the conversations that passed between the two of them were so few and far between these days, it wasn't that sign that alerted him to the fact that something was being kept from him and something was bothering her. No, it was the fact that she kept looking at him with passing glances filled with guilt that told the Doctor Rose was hiding something from him. He had been trying to think of anything that had happened recently that would mean that Rose would have something to feel guilty for, but the Doctor couldn't think of a single thing and that's when he quickly concluded that she was up to something.

He had also concluded that he was definitely the only one who didn't know since he was the always the only one that was receiving end of these particular glances.

What could she possibly doing that meant she couldn't even tell him what it was?

Then it hit him.

Fuck. He had thought that by keeping his distance from Rose as much as he could would mean that he could try to get away from the feelings that constantly tried to make themselves known. He was only trying to keep their friendship intact the way it had always been but, instead, what he had done was push Rose away so far that now she didn't want to let him know what it was she was doing. Now it seemed that thought he didn't want anything to do with her anymore and was now trying to do the same thing to him as a way of trying to keep herself from feeling hurt by it. Shit, that wasn't what was meant to happen; he had never meant for anything like this to happen to them. He had to fix this and he had to fix this fast before Rose got any further ideas that were completely the opposite of what they both wanted.

God, for someone as clever as he was, he wasn't half stupid.

Packing up his stuff and grabbing his coat from the chair he had thrown it upon arriving in his lab, the Doctor all but ran out of the building in a bid to get back as quickly as he could. He realised now that he had to sort things out before they went too far and became unfixable.

...

"Wasn't expecting you home so early; thought you were gonna spend another night in that bloody lab of yours." Was the first thing the Doctor heard as he walked in through the mansion doors.

"Yes, well Jackie, I...look, where's Rose?" The Doctor not even bothering to explain to Jackie why he was home.

"Still at work," Jackie said. They were stood in the large hall, the Doctor still holding his bag containing everything he needed that he didn't like to keep at Torchwood.

"What's the time?" The Doctor asked, surely Rose was home by now?

"Two in the afternoon." Jackie told him slowly. She eyed the Doctor carefully, his eyes were wide and his hair even more wild than usual. He looked apprehensive and worked up and that worried her – a lot. Since they had been here, these past few months, Jackie hadn't seen that look to him; it was a look that she had only ever really associated with something to do with aliens attacking Earth and her daughter being in grave danger. Shit, the more she thought about it, the more she worried. "Why, what's wrong? Has something happened?"