Golden Girl. (On Going) [Doctor Who Fanfiction] {Book One}

Ex: Getting Back to Normal.

Chapter Five: Getting Back to Normal.
Series: Three.
Episode: Extras: Post - Smith and Jones.

Rose returned to the console room after showing Martha to the bedroom the TARDIS had prepared for her.

The Doctor had been eager to get to their next adventure but Rose had stepped in to remind him that the humans needed to sleep, especially after such a long day. Martha had shot Rose a grateful look and Rose felt the last traces of tension leave her, she may not have known Martha in the original timeline, but perhaps this time around they could be friends. They were going to be living together after all.

The Doctor was aimlessly fiddling with the controls upon her return. Rose stood in the doorway for a moment, simply observing.

It was their first adventure since saying goodbye to Donna - their first voluntary adventure since Rose had said goodbye to her mother - and it'd been interesting, to say the least. She'd largely been trying to ignore the significance of it all throughout the day. The first Christmas without her mother and she didn't even get to celebrate it. They'd spent the day chasing after Donna, trying to understand how it came to be that she'd ended up in the TARDIS in the first place and then she'd ended up unconscious for the rest of it. In a way, she was glad that she hadn't had the time to actually acknowledge the fact.

The Doctor spotted her in the doorway, his voice pulling her from her thoughts, as she registered his words.

"Martha find a room all right?"

"Yep, she's all tucked in ready for tomorrow's trip." The Doctor nodded in acknowledgement, but his focus remained on the controls in front of him. "I forgot to ask, what's with the new suit?"

Although he'd changed back into the brown suit before they'd picked Martha up, she still couldn't help but wonder. He hadn't worn any other suit but the brown since he'd first chosen it after regenerating. With the exception for the odd occasion when he pulled the black tuxedo out.

The Doctor's gaze flickered up to hers at the question, but it fell as he thought of how best to respond.

"Uh, blue was the colour of-" He reached across the console to flick a group of switches, effectively putting his back to Rose as he spoke. "it was the uh colour of mourning on Gallifrey. In respect to your mum, I guess." He shrugged aiming for nonchalant.

Rose smiled at his back. She knew mum and the Doctor hadn't gotten along when they'd first met but things had been different since the incident with the Slitheen in downing street and especially in this regeneration. He'd become one of the Tylers whether he liked it or not. She just knew his last self would have bristled at the sight of how domestic this Doctor could be sometimes.

But she also knew that her war-battered Doctor in leather had craved the kind of acceptance that only came with being family. He'd lost everything. And yet sometimes she found herself hoping she had helped ease some of the suffering his hearts. She was not naive enough to think she could save him, she was just a girl off of the Estates after all. But Rose hoped she'd proved by now that she was always going to be there for him, whether he believed he deserved it or not.

While she'd only picked up bits and pieces about the Doctor's home planet and it's cultures in the time she'd been travelling with him, she knew what it had come to mean to him. So it warmed her heart to know he'd chosen to share this part of his world with her. But Rose also knew this to be the Doctor's own way of coping with his loss. His planet's culture and rituals survived solely through him and she was not about to let him feel insecure about sharing that part of himself in his own home.