stop. reverse. advance.
rose has some time to think, and the doctor has sticky flaps.
nine/rose


Sometimes Rose wondered how much of their traveling was really running. Not just the kind where they ran from danger, but the kind where you ran from something you didn't want to think about. The kind where you ran from the things that you thought might kill you, and kill you slowly, if they ever got the chance. At least, that was what it looked like the Doctor was doing.

But only sometimes.

Before twenty-twelve and the encounter with the Dalek, he’d been almost playful. She could forget how alien he was and instead imagine that he was like a human with a big brain and a magic box. And then came the Dalek and it was suddenly clear how different he really was. His fear of the creature had been strange (at least until it killed a dozen men without even trying), and his anger had absolutely terrified her, but nothing had been scarier than the realization that had hit her like a ton of bricks.

He’d had an entire life before her. He’d had nine hundred years before he met her and that was almost as horrifying as the hole in Adam’s head.

She’d encountered evidence that she wasn’t the first; though she was loathe to admit it. Rooms on the TARDIS that seemed tailored to people who were no longer there; outfits from decades long, long past that still had hair clinging to the shoulders. She never asked about them, but knew they were there. She wondered if he knew that she knew, but between the Reapers and gas-masked children, she sort of forgot to ask.

Before the Dalek, she could pretend that she was the first, that she was special. Now, she was just the latest in a long line.

Feet on the ramp alerted Rose that she was not alone. She didn’t have to turn to know who it was, not when she’d listened to his footsteps pounding the ground on a dozen different planets. She heard them slow when he noticed her looking down at the monitor screen, and then come to a stop. He didn’t say a word to her, didn’t move—he was hesitating. She scowled. Was she one of those things he ran from now? A memory he was afraid to let catch up?

Finally, his Northern accent sliced through the air. “And what are you doing?” he asked, sidling up next to her. He was just a little too close, bumping her shoulder, and she bit her lip. He was in a good mood right now, joking with her. Did she really want to put him in a bad one? His moods were mercurial at best, but one thing that almost always set him off was what she was about to ask.

She took a deep breath. “Actually, I was looking at these notes you pasted up on the view screen. Is this some kind of language? Or is it a schematic?” She turned to meet his blue eyes, hoping the question sounded innocent enough. If he suspected her of anything, his eyes didn’t betray it. He grinned softly and she breathed an inward sigh of relief.

“It’s called Gallifreyan,” he said, reaching out and unsticking one of the notes. He handed it to her so she could see it in more detail and jabbed his finger at certain shapes within the circles. “It’s from my home planet. See, that’s a note reminding me to be careful with the flaps. This half-circle is the Gallifreyan symbol for sticky when in transit—” He was cut off when a laugh bubbled out of Rose’s throat. “What?”

“There is not a Gallifreyan symbol for sticky when in transit,” Rose said. “You’re making that up.”

“I am not!” he protested. A scowl was beginning on his face, but it was an amused one. If that was possible. “It really does mean sticky when in transit. The Gallifreyan language is very precise, Rose. And besides, it’s in conjunction with those two little circles there, and that wibbly line through the middle.” He paused when he saw that there was still a disbelieving look on her face and impatiently took the note back to stick it on the monitor. He moved away to do something else and Rose knew that she’d done it again.

“Wait,” she said, reaching out and grabbing for his hand. “I-I didn’t mean it like that. I was just…” She trailed off when she realized she didn’t know what she’d been doing. She finished with, “Please don’t.”

His eyes were hard at first, but they softened under her sincerity and he squeezed her hand a moment before he pulled his away. He raised his eyebrows at her expectantly.

“I was wondering…” Her eyes dropped to the floor and then back up to his. She took a deep breath and continued, “Could you tell me about Gallifrey?”