Don't Blink - 24/?
Title: Don't Blink - 24/?
Characters: Rose, Ten
Summary: AU. What if Rose had stayed through Doomsday and was the one to end up in 1969 with the Doctor? How would they get back to their proper time? Would they want to?
Rating: PG
Beta: nattieb
(ch 1) (ch 2) (ch 3) (ch 4) (ch 5) (ch 6) (ch 7) (ch 8) (ch 9) (ch 10) (ch 11) (ch 12) (ch 13) (ch 14) (ch 15) (ch 16) (ch 17) (ch 18)
(ch 19) (ch 20) (ch 21) (ch 22) (ch 23)
The Doctor’s plan, as far as Billy was concerned, sucked.
“I think it’s a pretty good plan,” Rose said hastily, seeing the look of astonishment on the Doctor’s face when he was told that his plan was terrible.
Billy looked at her in disbelief. “Which part is a ‘good plan’?” he asked. “The part where we wait for materials to be invented, or the part where we try to invent those materials using materials that haven’t been invented yet?”
“Well, when you put it that way,” Rose murmured. She glanced at the Doctor. She didn’t know exactly what they had to do or where they’d be doing what they were going to do, but that wasn’t her decision.
The Doctor had gotten over his astonishment at Billy’s lack of vision, evidently lumping it in with the usual reaction of humans when faced with a plan of astonishingly clever magnitude. Soon he would begin to count the ways in which he was better than the average human, and then Rose would have to keep Billy from either being insulted, walking out, hitting the Doctor - or a possible combination of all three.
“It’s actually well thought out,” the Doctor corrected. “And it will be easy to implement.”
“Where?” Billy looked around. “Not in the flat here, surely. You can’t swing a cat in here.”
“Well, no, actually.” The Doctor moved to the table where his plans and papers were spread out in a massive, untidy heap. “The flat would be a ridiculous place to attempt it. I actually have a place in mind.”
“You do? Where?” Rose asked in surprise.
“Where?” Billy demanded at the same time.
The Doctor shifted uncomfortably. “I don’t have a specific place in mind yet,” he admitted, running a hand through his hair. “But as it’s become more and more obvious that we are not going to be leaving here in as rapid a fashion as I would like, I need to find gainful employment.”
“You what?” Rose said blankly. The conversation had suddenly moved in a different direction and she wasn’t prepared for this topic.
“Gainful employment. An occupation. A job,” he clarified.
“I know what it means!” she said in exasperation. “But your job is to get us back home! Besides, what could you do?” She heard the doubt in her own voice. The image of the Doctor standing in a shop and folding shirts or something was a pretty staggering one.
The Doctor took her hands, holding them in his own. “Rose, I’m going to get us back, with Billy’s help. I promise. But it’s not fair for me to expect you to earn enough to keep a roof over our heads. And since you frown on my previous, well-proven methods to gain money, it seems like my only option.”
“Well, we’re not visiting some foreign planet or something,” Rose was compelled to point out. “We’re here for a while, yeah? Can’t have you ripping people off all the time. Plus, we seem to have acquired a policeman. They don’t like it when people break the law.” They both glanced over at Billy, who could have told them that he had bigger problems than making sure his new friends didn’t break the law.
Billy crossed his arms over his chest. “What can you do, anyway?” His expression suggested that he didn’t think the Doctor’s talents stretched very far. Rose thought it would be fun to see his expression when he realized how smart the Doctor truly was.
“Well, I think a laboratory would be an ideal place to build our equipment. I’ll just get a teaching position or something at a university.”
“Just like that?” Billy was skeptical, and Rose couldn’t help grinning. He just hadn’t known the Doctor long enough.
The Doctor smiled at Billy. “Oh, yes. Just like that.”
“But where?”
The Doctor shrugged. “I’ll find something.” He spoke casually, as though finding employment without references or proper identification was nothing to worry about.
By the time that method had been debated - Billy didn’t think the Doctor was taking any of this seriously - Billy and the Doctor both remembered that they hadn’t eaten since the morning. Pizza sounded like a good idea, but Rose shook her head.
“I’m feeling a bit tired,” she admitted. “Think I’ll just hang around here, see what’s on the telly.”
“You’re sure?” The Doctor looked at her with some concern.
She smiled. “I’m sure. You go on. Bring me back something for later,” she said impulsively. “And...maybe you could go by the shops.”
“The shops,” he repeated. “What for? I thought you did the shopping this morning.”
“I bought food this morning. Billy needs some new clothes, doesn’t he? And a toothbrush.”
“Definitely a toothbrush,” Billy said promptly.
“I’m out of cash just now,” the Doctor started.
Rose sighed. “Okay, just this once. But don’t overdo the psychic paper,” she warned as the men headed for the door.
“What’s psychic paper?” she heard Billy ask as the door closed behind them.
Rose giggled. Poor Billy. He really had no idea yet.
By Monday morning it was obvious that Billy was really, really regretting his new position in life. The Doctor was the sort of person who drove other people crazy, and Billy was no exception. Rose was glad to have to go to work.
“Have a good time, boys!” she said cheerfully. “See you tonight!”
The boys, already at work on something, didn’t respond. Rose repeated herself once, then twice. Finally the Doctor looked up, a sweet smile on his face.
“See you later,” he said, and Rose smiled and left, well pleased with the day so far.
No sign of any neighbors, she noted as she walked down the stairs. Usually she bumped into at least one person on weekday mornings. She passed the postman as he was walking in, and she held the door for him with a smile.
“Morning, Joe!”
“Good morning, miss.” He didn’t know her name but Rose wasn’t offended - it was far easier for her to remember him than it was for him to remember all the people on his route.
The door had just closed behind her when she heard her name being called. She turned around, back to the flat, and was surprised by the Doctor, hurrying outside to catch up with her.
“Is something wrong?” she asked.
He caught up to her and smiled a crooked smile. “No. No, everything’s fine. Just wanted to, er, give you something.”
His hands were empty. Rose looked from them to his face. He had a rueful expression.
“If my people could see me now they’d exile me all the way back to, er, well, to the here and now, I suppose,” he said, rubbing the back of his neck and glancing around.
“What?” she asked, puzzled.
He leaned down and kissed her, just a quick brush of his lips against her.
Rose blushed and glanced away. Sunday had been a day of talking and planning and helping Billy over his periodic panic attacks at being stuck back in time. There hadn’t been opportunity for much private conversation, not that that came naturally to the Doctor anyway. He still tended to veer away from anything personal or private, even if it directly concerned him.
“Have a good day.”
“You too,” she managed to say. “Hey.” She caught hold of his tie as he started to turn away. He looked at her questioningly.
Rose smiled, suddenly feeling very daring. “Take your suit to the cleaners,” she said. “Wear normal stuff.”
He sniffed. “We’ll see.”
She walked the rest of the way to the shop in a very cheerful mood. The past few days had been fun, but she was more than happy to return to work, away from the confines of the flat. When it was just the Doctor and her, it had been cozy. The addition of Billy had complicated things.
Her cozy thoughts of the Doctor vanished as she stopped in front of the shop. The facade had undergone some major changes since Friday afternoon. Rose had to double check the sign to make sure it was the right place. Instead of the red brick exterior, the shop now sported a dark brown siding. Rose touched it with a finger. The material was smooth and cool, and she couldn’t quite figure out what it was. Not exactly plastic, definitely not wood. It extended to the empty space next door.
Rose walked over to that space and peered in through the windows. It was a bit hard to tell without the lights on, but it looked like major changes had gone one over the weekend. What had been a cold, gray space was now looking much closer to the interior of Helio Fashions.
When Rose pushed open the door to the shop, she was glad to see that the changes hadn’t extended that far. The interior was still blue and yellow, but the floor space had expanded. New clothing racks were set up around the walls, and Iris was surrounded by a pile of boxes and what looked like shipping manifests.
“Oh, thank goodness you’re here,” Iris greeted her in relief. “It’s simply chaos around here!”
Despite her claims of chaos, Iris looked calm and restrained in a bright blue dress with a paler blue stripe. Rose had seen a dress just that color at Laura Ashley last week, but it was in the new maxi-style that swept all the way to the floor. Floor-length fashions were not something Iris would wear to work. Full-length gowns only after five, she had said once, and Rose had thought she was joking.
“What’s going on?” Rose put her things under the sales counter. She’d put them in the office before they opened for the day. “It looks like someone’s been busy all weekend.”
“Would you believe that Mr. Troy had men working on the space next door all weekend?” Iris demanded. “The second crew came in Friday night and only just left.”
“That’s a lot of overtime,” Rose said.
“And Heloise just called to say that it was almost impossible to make a sale on Saturday!” Heloise was the assistant manager who only worked on Saturdays. “It was all sawing and hammering and...and banging!” Iris glared at the boxes as though they were at fault for not having good sales figures.
“Is he in that much of a hurry to finish up?”
“I guess so. I can’t imagine why, though.”
Both women turned to look at the door as it opened. It was too early for normal store hours, and Rose was about to apologize for not locking it up when she remembered that it had been unlocked when she’d entered herself.
“Morning.” It was Jim from the construction crew. Over his work clothes he wore a black leather jacket, and he carried a mug in his hand, the 1960’s answer to Starbucks in the morning.
Rose smiled in greeting. Iris managed a quick smile before turning back to her boxes.
“We won’t be bothering you too much today,” Jim said, leaning against a rack of party dresses that Rose sincerely hoped would hold his weight. “Looks like a group of elves helped us out this weekend.”
That caught Iris’s attention. “Didn’t you know about the second crew?”
Jim shook his head and took a sip of his drink. The rack lurched dangerously as he shifted his weight, and he was forced to give up his casual stance before tipping the dresses and himself over.
“My men and I are the only ones, as far as we knew. Have we been sacked?”
“No,” Iris said with a tinge of regret. “I just spoke to Mr. Troy. He didn’t mention the other crew, but he expects you to keep on with the plans.”
“All right, then.” Jim smiled. “Didn’t want to get started if we weren’t wanted. Have a good one.”
“He seems nice,” Rose commented once Jim was out of the shop.
“If you like flashy blonds,” Iris allowed.
“Don’t you?”
“Of course I do. I mean, I haven’t anything against them.” Iris scowled. “I’ll be in the office for a bit. I have some bills to write out.”
“What can I do around here?”
Iris waved a hand at the mess on the floor. “Just unpack the clothes. We’ll sort them out once the boxes are out of here.”
Rose glanced at the clock. “We won’t be done before we open up.”
“I doubt customers will be a problem,” Iris said ruefully. “Would you want to shop around this mess?”
Rose had left the flat early today. There was still an hour before they would open for business, and she amused herself by turning on the radio and pretending she was opening Christmas presents. The first box was opened up to the sounds of Scarborough Fair. It was full of blouses, brightly colored and in a thin material that fell through Rose’s hands when she tried to gather it up.
“Parsley, sage, rosemary and thyme,” crooned Simon and Garfunkel as she stacked the blouses in a messy, slithery heap on the floor beside her. Iris would have a fit if she saw merchandise on the floor, but Rose had already moved on to the next box.
Scarborough Fair turned into Mrs. Robinson, and Rose wondered if the radio was doing a Simon and Garfunkel marathon. She was unwrapping a truly ugly dress of orange and yellow when she had a strange sensation in her stomach.
She ignored the feeling until all twelve of the orange and yellow dresses were unwrapped and placed on hangers, but then the feeling intensified into a mild cramping, and she suddenly had a moment of pure panic. Traveling in the TARDIS made you lose track of relative time, but there was one thing that had never changed for her, one thing that she had always counted on happening no matter where she was. Getting lost in the 1960’s had made her forget.
Rose abandoned the clothing and hurried to the sales counter to check the small calendar propped up there. She didn’t need it to know that they’d been trapped in time for over a month.
“Dammit.” Rose looked around the empty shop, seeking inspiration and fighting off the panic. The Doctor had always been able to take her someplace to pick up what she needed. The nearest chemist was always just a trip away. But here, the nearest chemist was still one from a time long before Rose’s time, and she had no idea what she might find.
She had no choice, though. No TARDIS meant no choice.
Accepting the inevitable, Rose picked up her bag, walked to the back and knocked on the open office door. Iris was at the desk, writing out checks.
“I have to go,” she told Iris. “Just down the street. I’ll be right back.”
“Okay. Be sure to lock the door behind you. Here.” Iris tossed Rose the keys.
“Thanks.” Rose locked the door as asked, hurrying to avoid the stream of workers heading in and out of the space next door.
She hurried to the nearest chemist, bypassing the magazine displays and walking right to the women’s section. As she started to search, Rose made an unsettling discovery.
Ladies’ hygiene in the 1960’s was terrifying. She read the boxes, looking at the front of each different style carefully, and she grew more confused. None of them came right out and said what they were for, so it was a bit of a task reading between the lines to figure out what each style was designed to do. Then she came to a new shelf, where boxes of belts were stacked.
This had her more stumped than before. Why would there be belts in that aisle?
Realization came as Rose finally figured out how the belts and the pads were supposed to work together. For a couple of minutes she just stood there, frozen in place. There was no way this would work. Maybe she could ask the Doctor -
Her thoughts veered from that immediately. There was no way on Earth or off of it that she could ever ask the Doctor to modify something so intimate for her. It would reduce him to speechless shock or something.
To her immense, immense relief, as she desperately scanned the rest of the aisle she saw packages of tampons.
“Oh, thank you,” she murmured fervently, grabbing a box. They might be made differently, they might not be what she was used to, they might not work very well, but they were all she had and she was happy to have them.
“I’d wait a bit, if I were you,” a soft voice said beside her.
Rose turned to see a woman standing there, young and perfectly put together. Rose was learning one thing about London in 1969. While it was the time of free love and pop music and rebellion, the people who indulged in that behavior tended to be on the young and irresponsible side. Society in general had yet to succumb. So while many young girls were wearing their hair in pixie cuts like the model Twiggy and trying to lose weight to look as skinny as the popular fashion models of the day, most women did not.
The one in front of Rose wore a dark pink dress cinched tightly at the waist with a pale blue belt. She was curvy and attractive and far from the skin and bones all the rage in the magazines. Her dark brown hair was carefully swept up in a chignon, and Rose was amused to see that she carried a pair of white gloves in her hand. Even Iris, as proper and straight-laced as she was, didn’t wear gloves during the day.
“Why should I wait a bit?” Rose asked in genuine curiosity. The girl appeared to be around her age, even if she was dressed to look a lot older.
The girl widened her eyes at Rose. “Didn’t you see? At the counter!” She gestured with a hand. “The clerk up front is a man. You can’t buy that from him.”
Rose looked from the box in her hand to the similar box in the girl’s hand.
“Are you serious? You wouldn’t just go up and pay?”
“Of course not!” The girl’s cheeks actually turned pink. “I couldn’t.”
For a moment Rose just stared at her. Surely this was one of the more bizarre conversations she’d ever had.
“Look, just give me that.” Rose reached out for the box. “You can meet me outside and pay me back.”
The girl stared at her. “You’re just going to go up there?”
Rose had purchased worse things from complete strangers, male and female, and she was not going to hang around a chemist shop waiting for a woman to magically appear to ring her up.
“I have to get to work. I’ll see you outside.”
She paused and picked up the current issue of Vogue on the way up front, and plunked the items down in front of the clerk. There was a touch of defiance in her actions, which was absurd because she didn’t share the same inhibitions as the woman she was helping out.
The clerk rung her up and accepted the money without even blinking.
“Have a nice day,” he said without looking at Rose, and she took the bag.
“Thanks.”
Outside, the girl was waiting anxiously. Rose looked at her in amusement. You’d think she was waiting to buy something illegal, like drugs or scalped concert tickets.
“Here you go.” Rose handed the girl her change and the box, which quickly disappeared into a white leather bag.
“Thank you.” The girl smiled at Rose. “I really appreciate it.”
“No problem.” Rose watched her walk away, shook her head, and hurried back to the shop.
As she walked she had a flashback to being twelve years old. Jackie had sat down on her bed one night and handed her a book. She’d explained the birds and the bees to Rose, blushing and clearing her throat while she did so. By the time she’d shown Rose a box of maxi-pads she’d been almost speechless. Rose hadn’t had the heart to tell her mum that she’d learned the facts of life years ago from her friend Shireen’s older sisters.
Rose smiled at the memory. What she wouldn’t give to talk to her mum, right then. They’d have a laugh over those silly belts and whether any man was able to handle what a woman’s body was equipped to do.
She missed her mother so much. For a minute the pain crushed her chest, and she had to fight the urge to go track down her grandparents just so she could see her family again.
Rose stood still for a minute, forcing her thoughts back in order. Jackie might be here, in this time, but she was a child, not her mother. There was no use in following her, because she simply wasn’t Jackie. Not yet.
“All set?” Iris called from the office as Rose walked past the open doorway to the bathroom.
“All set!” Rose said cheerfully.
When she returned to the floor, ready for work, she found Iris back amongst the boxes.
“Sorry about that. I forgot what, er, something.”
“Oh, no problem.” Iris brushed back a lock of dark hair that had fallen across her face. “Could you give me a hand?”
Rose looked at what Iris was doing. “You’re not trying to move those racks by yourself, are you? They’re huge.”
They were also heavy - the lightweight fixtures Rose remembered from Henriks were just a vision of the future at this point. The racks here were heavy and hard to move, although they did have the benefit of not tipping over were a child to try and play on them.
Iris looked annoyed. “They’re in the way here. If I can just move them over, I can set some clothes on them.”
“Yeah, but then wouldn’t we have to move them back to where they belong once everything’s put back?”
“But at least the boxes wouldn’t be on the sales floor!” Iris sounded distinctly angry, and that was enough to make Rose stare at her. Iris never got angry. She was too well-bred for that.
“Sure.” Rose helped Iris move the racks.
“It’s just that I hate disorder,” Iris explained, giving a pile of tissue paper a kick. “Mr. Troy has turned everything around here upside down, and it drives me mad.”
“Well, yeah, but at least we know it’ll be over when the new part of the shop is finished.” Rose thought she sounded encouraging, but Iris just made a face.
Rose must have made a face of her own, because Iris apologized immediately.
“You must think I’m a frightful complainer!” she exclaimed. “I’m not, really. It’s just that this is my first real job, and I want the shop to be a success.”
“It is,” Rose pointed out. “But why do you need it to be a success so badly? I mean, you could always find work someplace else if you had to.”
“My parents were against my having a job at all,” Iris admitted. She dropped the trousers she was holding and sat on the floor, heedless of her skirt.
Rose blinked. This was the first time she’d seen Iris do something not lady-like.
“My family is a bit...proper,” Iris continued. “A lot proper, actually. My mother is convinced that marriage is the only thing for her daughters to aim for, even in this day and age. Can you imagine?” Here Rose rolled her eyes in sympathy and nodded. “So when I finished school and went to work for Mr. Troy my parents were in shock. I’d like to prove them wrong about women being able to be a success in the man’s world.”
Rose had a few thoughts about the man’s world business - her mum hadn’t raised to take the world by storm, and she may have thought working in a fancy shop was bad for her, but she certainly hadn’t told Rose that just because she was a girl meant she’d never amount to anything.
And anyway, Rose had met the Doctor, and he had yet to be convinced that there was anything Rose couldn’t do. Sometimes he even made Rose believe it herself.
“Time to open up!” Iris stood up quickly, brushing herself off. “I’m sorry if I got too personal.”
“Oh, no,” Rose denied. “It’s always nice to know something about the people you’re with all day.”
Iris smiled mischievously as she went to unlock the door. “Next it’s your turn. You can tell me how you met John.”
Rose sighed. “Oh, there’s something you’d love to hear.” Would she begin with the exploding buildings, or the man who changed his face?
The day passed quickly. Despite the sometimes difficult task of placating women with too much money and too much time on their hands, Rose enjoyed her job. Iris was pleasant to work with, and you couldn’t ask for a better boss. Her “feminine protection” was holding up, too, for which she was eternally grateful. It would be asking too much to hope that dinner would be made when she got home, but maybe Billy was a gourmet cook in his spare time.
The workday had just an hour to go and the shop was empty. The clothes were nearly all put away, and they’d almost managed to ignore the sounds of construction coming from next door. Rose had dusted off the fixtures, tables and lamps and plumped the cushions on the blue and yellow chair. The fitting rooms were empty, and she felt almost as pleased as when she straightened up the flat. It was nice to see things put in order.
Iris was closest to the door when it opened up. It was Jim, wearing his work clothes. The dark fabric was covered in sawdust. He took off his cap as he came inside, revealing fair hair that glinted in the light despite its fine coating of dust.
He stopped when he saw Iris and smiled. Under his arm were several long, rolled up pieces of paper. Iris smiled back and waited for him to say something.
“Hello, there, er....” Jim looked slightly panicked. He glanced around and saw Rose standing there with a duster in her hand. Relief came over his face. “Hello, Rose! Just here to show you some diagrams Mr. Troy wants done.”
“You need Iris, don’t you? Not me?”
“Iris! Yes.” Jim turned to Iris. “Iris. Hello. Shall we?”
She looked him with narrowed eyes. “You remembered her name but not mine?”
Rose looked at her in surprise. There was a definite note of pique in Iris’ voice. Was she upset about that?
“Well, I’m terrible with names, most of the time,” he admitted. “But my little sister’s named Rose, so that stuck. Shall we?”
“You can come into the back,” Iris said grudgingly.
Rose shook her head as they disappeared into the back. She would never understand Iris.
A moment later Iris and Jim flew from her thoughts. Hovering outside was a tall, skinny man with brown hair. He waved at her through the window. Rose smiled and watched as he walked in. Instead of the brown suit he wore plain brown trousers that one day would be called khakis by the designers at the Gap. The blue shirt he wore resembled his own, as did the darker blue t-shirt he wore underneath it.
“Hello,” she said, setting the duster down.
The Doctor smiled down at her. “Well?”
“Well, what?”
“How do I look?”
She pretended to look him over. “Very nice.”
He all but preened, that absurd streak of vanity showing through again. “Thank you.”
“How was your day?” Rose was aware that she was sounding alarmingly wifely and domestic, but the Doctor clearly didn’t mind.
“Not bad, not bad.” He stuck his hands in his pockets, remembered that these pockets weren’t as roomy, and settled for crossing his arms against his chest. “I have a job and a lab and a plan to make the cameras and disks we’ll need.”
“You have a job? Where?”
The Doctor cleared his throat. “I have been offered a position at a well-known university here in London,” he began.
“Just today?” Rose interrupted.
“Just today. In my guise as a post-graduate student, I’ve been offered a laboratory in which to do research. In exchange I have to teach one class a week and do other, teaching-related things. It doesn’t pay much,” he added, looking at Rose, “but it’s enough for now.”
Rose was dumbfounded. “When did you have time to do that?”
He looked offended. “I don’t just hang around here all day, you know.”
“What field are you supposed to be in?” she asked.
He grinned at her. “Physics. And don’t worry,” he added quickly. “The cafeteria isn’t hiring right now.”
She slugged him on the shoulder.
“Ouch,” he said mildly, rubbing his arm.
Rose was still processing this. “So they gave you a job and lab to work in?”
The Doctor stuck his hands in his pockets again. “Yep.”
“And you have access to whatever we’ll need to build whatever we’ll need.”
“Yep.”
“And what uni is it?”
The Doctor told her. Rose’s eyes opened wide and she just stared in amazement.
“I know,” the Doctor said with a grin. “But if you work with the best, you’ll never regret it.”
Twenty-five
Characters: Rose, Ten
Summary: AU. What if Rose had stayed through Doomsday and was the one to end up in 1969 with the Doctor? How would they get back to their proper time? Would they want to?
Rating: PG
Beta: nattieb
(ch 1) (ch 2) (ch 3) (ch 4) (ch 5) (ch 6) (ch 7) (ch 8) (ch 9) (ch 10) (ch 11) (ch 12) (ch 13) (ch 14) (ch 15) (ch 16) (ch 17) (ch 18)
(ch 19) (ch 20) (ch 21) (ch 22) (ch 23)
The Doctor’s plan, as far as Billy was concerned, sucked.
“I think it’s a pretty good plan,” Rose said hastily, seeing the look of astonishment on the Doctor’s face when he was told that his plan was terrible.
Billy looked at her in disbelief. “Which part is a ‘good plan’?” he asked. “The part where we wait for materials to be invented, or the part where we try to invent those materials using materials that haven’t been invented yet?”
“Well, when you put it that way,” Rose murmured. She glanced at the Doctor. She didn’t know exactly what they had to do or where they’d be doing what they were going to do, but that wasn’t her decision.
The Doctor had gotten over his astonishment at Billy’s lack of vision, evidently lumping it in with the usual reaction of humans when faced with a plan of astonishingly clever magnitude. Soon he would begin to count the ways in which he was better than the average human, and then Rose would have to keep Billy from either being insulted, walking out, hitting the Doctor - or a possible combination of all three.
“It’s actually well thought out,” the Doctor corrected. “And it will be easy to implement.”
“Where?” Billy looked around. “Not in the flat here, surely. You can’t swing a cat in here.”
“Well, no, actually.” The Doctor moved to the table where his plans and papers were spread out in a massive, untidy heap. “The flat would be a ridiculous place to attempt it. I actually have a place in mind.”
“You do? Where?” Rose asked in surprise.
“Where?” Billy demanded at the same time.
The Doctor shifted uncomfortably. “I don’t have a specific place in mind yet,” he admitted, running a hand through his hair. “But as it’s become more and more obvious that we are not going to be leaving here in as rapid a fashion as I would like, I need to find gainful employment.”
“You what?” Rose said blankly. The conversation had suddenly moved in a different direction and she wasn’t prepared for this topic.
“Gainful employment. An occupation. A job,” he clarified.
“I know what it means!” she said in exasperation. “But your job is to get us back home! Besides, what could you do?” She heard the doubt in her own voice. The image of the Doctor standing in a shop and folding shirts or something was a pretty staggering one.
The Doctor took her hands, holding them in his own. “Rose, I’m going to get us back, with Billy’s help. I promise. But it’s not fair for me to expect you to earn enough to keep a roof over our heads. And since you frown on my previous, well-proven methods to gain money, it seems like my only option.”
“Well, we’re not visiting some foreign planet or something,” Rose was compelled to point out. “We’re here for a while, yeah? Can’t have you ripping people off all the time. Plus, we seem to have acquired a policeman. They don’t like it when people break the law.” They both glanced over at Billy, who could have told them that he had bigger problems than making sure his new friends didn’t break the law.
Billy crossed his arms over his chest. “What can you do, anyway?” His expression suggested that he didn’t think the Doctor’s talents stretched very far. Rose thought it would be fun to see his expression when he realized how smart the Doctor truly was.
“Well, I think a laboratory would be an ideal place to build our equipment. I’ll just get a teaching position or something at a university.”
“Just like that?” Billy was skeptical, and Rose couldn’t help grinning. He just hadn’t known the Doctor long enough.
The Doctor smiled at Billy. “Oh, yes. Just like that.”
“But where?”
The Doctor shrugged. “I’ll find something.” He spoke casually, as though finding employment without references or proper identification was nothing to worry about.
By the time that method had been debated - Billy didn’t think the Doctor was taking any of this seriously - Billy and the Doctor both remembered that they hadn’t eaten since the morning. Pizza sounded like a good idea, but Rose shook her head.
“I’m feeling a bit tired,” she admitted. “Think I’ll just hang around here, see what’s on the telly.”
“You’re sure?” The Doctor looked at her with some concern.
She smiled. “I’m sure. You go on. Bring me back something for later,” she said impulsively. “And...maybe you could go by the shops.”
“The shops,” he repeated. “What for? I thought you did the shopping this morning.”
“I bought food this morning. Billy needs some new clothes, doesn’t he? And a toothbrush.”
“Definitely a toothbrush,” Billy said promptly.
“I’m out of cash just now,” the Doctor started.
Rose sighed. “Okay, just this once. But don’t overdo the psychic paper,” she warned as the men headed for the door.
“What’s psychic paper?” she heard Billy ask as the door closed behind them.
Rose giggled. Poor Billy. He really had no idea yet.
By Monday morning it was obvious that Billy was really, really regretting his new position in life. The Doctor was the sort of person who drove other people crazy, and Billy was no exception. Rose was glad to have to go to work.
“Have a good time, boys!” she said cheerfully. “See you tonight!”
The boys, already at work on something, didn’t respond. Rose repeated herself once, then twice. Finally the Doctor looked up, a sweet smile on his face.
“See you later,” he said, and Rose smiled and left, well pleased with the day so far.
No sign of any neighbors, she noted as she walked down the stairs. Usually she bumped into at least one person on weekday mornings. She passed the postman as he was walking in, and she held the door for him with a smile.
“Morning, Joe!”
“Good morning, miss.” He didn’t know her name but Rose wasn’t offended - it was far easier for her to remember him than it was for him to remember all the people on his route.
The door had just closed behind her when she heard her name being called. She turned around, back to the flat, and was surprised by the Doctor, hurrying outside to catch up with her.
“Is something wrong?” she asked.
He caught up to her and smiled a crooked smile. “No. No, everything’s fine. Just wanted to, er, give you something.”
His hands were empty. Rose looked from them to his face. He had a rueful expression.
“If my people could see me now they’d exile me all the way back to, er, well, to the here and now, I suppose,” he said, rubbing the back of his neck and glancing around.
“What?” she asked, puzzled.
He leaned down and kissed her, just a quick brush of his lips against her.
Rose blushed and glanced away. Sunday had been a day of talking and planning and helping Billy over his periodic panic attacks at being stuck back in time. There hadn’t been opportunity for much private conversation, not that that came naturally to the Doctor anyway. He still tended to veer away from anything personal or private, even if it directly concerned him.
“Have a good day.”
“You too,” she managed to say. “Hey.” She caught hold of his tie as he started to turn away. He looked at her questioningly.
Rose smiled, suddenly feeling very daring. “Take your suit to the cleaners,” she said. “Wear normal stuff.”
He sniffed. “We’ll see.”
She walked the rest of the way to the shop in a very cheerful mood. The past few days had been fun, but she was more than happy to return to work, away from the confines of the flat. When it was just the Doctor and her, it had been cozy. The addition of Billy had complicated things.
Her cozy thoughts of the Doctor vanished as she stopped in front of the shop. The facade had undergone some major changes since Friday afternoon. Rose had to double check the sign to make sure it was the right place. Instead of the red brick exterior, the shop now sported a dark brown siding. Rose touched it with a finger. The material was smooth and cool, and she couldn’t quite figure out what it was. Not exactly plastic, definitely not wood. It extended to the empty space next door.
Rose walked over to that space and peered in through the windows. It was a bit hard to tell without the lights on, but it looked like major changes had gone one over the weekend. What had been a cold, gray space was now looking much closer to the interior of Helio Fashions.
When Rose pushed open the door to the shop, she was glad to see that the changes hadn’t extended that far. The interior was still blue and yellow, but the floor space had expanded. New clothing racks were set up around the walls, and Iris was surrounded by a pile of boxes and what looked like shipping manifests.
“Oh, thank goodness you’re here,” Iris greeted her in relief. “It’s simply chaos around here!”
Despite her claims of chaos, Iris looked calm and restrained in a bright blue dress with a paler blue stripe. Rose had seen a dress just that color at Laura Ashley last week, but it was in the new maxi-style that swept all the way to the floor. Floor-length fashions were not something Iris would wear to work. Full-length gowns only after five, she had said once, and Rose had thought she was joking.
“What’s going on?” Rose put her things under the sales counter. She’d put them in the office before they opened for the day. “It looks like someone’s been busy all weekend.”
“Would you believe that Mr. Troy had men working on the space next door all weekend?” Iris demanded. “The second crew came in Friday night and only just left.”
“That’s a lot of overtime,” Rose said.
“And Heloise just called to say that it was almost impossible to make a sale on Saturday!” Heloise was the assistant manager who only worked on Saturdays. “It was all sawing and hammering and...and banging!” Iris glared at the boxes as though they were at fault for not having good sales figures.
“Is he in that much of a hurry to finish up?”
“I guess so. I can’t imagine why, though.”
Both women turned to look at the door as it opened. It was too early for normal store hours, and Rose was about to apologize for not locking it up when she remembered that it had been unlocked when she’d entered herself.
“Morning.” It was Jim from the construction crew. Over his work clothes he wore a black leather jacket, and he carried a mug in his hand, the 1960’s answer to Starbucks in the morning.
Rose smiled in greeting. Iris managed a quick smile before turning back to her boxes.
“We won’t be bothering you too much today,” Jim said, leaning against a rack of party dresses that Rose sincerely hoped would hold his weight. “Looks like a group of elves helped us out this weekend.”
That caught Iris’s attention. “Didn’t you know about the second crew?”
Jim shook his head and took a sip of his drink. The rack lurched dangerously as he shifted his weight, and he was forced to give up his casual stance before tipping the dresses and himself over.
“My men and I are the only ones, as far as we knew. Have we been sacked?”
“No,” Iris said with a tinge of regret. “I just spoke to Mr. Troy. He didn’t mention the other crew, but he expects you to keep on with the plans.”
“All right, then.” Jim smiled. “Didn’t want to get started if we weren’t wanted. Have a good one.”
“He seems nice,” Rose commented once Jim was out of the shop.
“If you like flashy blonds,” Iris allowed.
“Don’t you?”
“Of course I do. I mean, I haven’t anything against them.” Iris scowled. “I’ll be in the office for a bit. I have some bills to write out.”
“What can I do around here?”
Iris waved a hand at the mess on the floor. “Just unpack the clothes. We’ll sort them out once the boxes are out of here.”
Rose glanced at the clock. “We won’t be done before we open up.”
“I doubt customers will be a problem,” Iris said ruefully. “Would you want to shop around this mess?”
Rose had left the flat early today. There was still an hour before they would open for business, and she amused herself by turning on the radio and pretending she was opening Christmas presents. The first box was opened up to the sounds of Scarborough Fair. It was full of blouses, brightly colored and in a thin material that fell through Rose’s hands when she tried to gather it up.
“Parsley, sage, rosemary and thyme,” crooned Simon and Garfunkel as she stacked the blouses in a messy, slithery heap on the floor beside her. Iris would have a fit if she saw merchandise on the floor, but Rose had already moved on to the next box.
Scarborough Fair turned into Mrs. Robinson, and Rose wondered if the radio was doing a Simon and Garfunkel marathon. She was unwrapping a truly ugly dress of orange and yellow when she had a strange sensation in her stomach.
She ignored the feeling until all twelve of the orange and yellow dresses were unwrapped and placed on hangers, but then the feeling intensified into a mild cramping, and she suddenly had a moment of pure panic. Traveling in the TARDIS made you lose track of relative time, but there was one thing that had never changed for her, one thing that she had always counted on happening no matter where she was. Getting lost in the 1960’s had made her forget.
Rose abandoned the clothing and hurried to the sales counter to check the small calendar propped up there. She didn’t need it to know that they’d been trapped in time for over a month.
“Dammit.” Rose looked around the empty shop, seeking inspiration and fighting off the panic. The Doctor had always been able to take her someplace to pick up what she needed. The nearest chemist was always just a trip away. But here, the nearest chemist was still one from a time long before Rose’s time, and she had no idea what she might find.
She had no choice, though. No TARDIS meant no choice.
Accepting the inevitable, Rose picked up her bag, walked to the back and knocked on the open office door. Iris was at the desk, writing out checks.
“I have to go,” she told Iris. “Just down the street. I’ll be right back.”
“Okay. Be sure to lock the door behind you. Here.” Iris tossed Rose the keys.
“Thanks.” Rose locked the door as asked, hurrying to avoid the stream of workers heading in and out of the space next door.
She hurried to the nearest chemist, bypassing the magazine displays and walking right to the women’s section. As she started to search, Rose made an unsettling discovery.
Ladies’ hygiene in the 1960’s was terrifying. She read the boxes, looking at the front of each different style carefully, and she grew more confused. None of them came right out and said what they were for, so it was a bit of a task reading between the lines to figure out what each style was designed to do. Then she came to a new shelf, where boxes of belts were stacked.
This had her more stumped than before. Why would there be belts in that aisle?
Realization came as Rose finally figured out how the belts and the pads were supposed to work together. For a couple of minutes she just stood there, frozen in place. There was no way this would work. Maybe she could ask the Doctor -
Her thoughts veered from that immediately. There was no way on Earth or off of it that she could ever ask the Doctor to modify something so intimate for her. It would reduce him to speechless shock or something.
To her immense, immense relief, as she desperately scanned the rest of the aisle she saw packages of tampons.
“Oh, thank you,” she murmured fervently, grabbing a box. They might be made differently, they might not be what she was used to, they might not work very well, but they were all she had and she was happy to have them.
“I’d wait a bit, if I were you,” a soft voice said beside her.
Rose turned to see a woman standing there, young and perfectly put together. Rose was learning one thing about London in 1969. While it was the time of free love and pop music and rebellion, the people who indulged in that behavior tended to be on the young and irresponsible side. Society in general had yet to succumb. So while many young girls were wearing their hair in pixie cuts like the model Twiggy and trying to lose weight to look as skinny as the popular fashion models of the day, most women did not.
The one in front of Rose wore a dark pink dress cinched tightly at the waist with a pale blue belt. She was curvy and attractive and far from the skin and bones all the rage in the magazines. Her dark brown hair was carefully swept up in a chignon, and Rose was amused to see that she carried a pair of white gloves in her hand. Even Iris, as proper and straight-laced as she was, didn’t wear gloves during the day.
“Why should I wait a bit?” Rose asked in genuine curiosity. The girl appeared to be around her age, even if she was dressed to look a lot older.
The girl widened her eyes at Rose. “Didn’t you see? At the counter!” She gestured with a hand. “The clerk up front is a man. You can’t buy that from him.”
Rose looked from the box in her hand to the similar box in the girl’s hand.
“Are you serious? You wouldn’t just go up and pay?”
“Of course not!” The girl’s cheeks actually turned pink. “I couldn’t.”
For a moment Rose just stared at her. Surely this was one of the more bizarre conversations she’d ever had.
“Look, just give me that.” Rose reached out for the box. “You can meet me outside and pay me back.”
The girl stared at her. “You’re just going to go up there?”
Rose had purchased worse things from complete strangers, male and female, and she was not going to hang around a chemist shop waiting for a woman to magically appear to ring her up.
“I have to get to work. I’ll see you outside.”
She paused and picked up the current issue of Vogue on the way up front, and plunked the items down in front of the clerk. There was a touch of defiance in her actions, which was absurd because she didn’t share the same inhibitions as the woman she was helping out.
The clerk rung her up and accepted the money without even blinking.
“Have a nice day,” he said without looking at Rose, and she took the bag.
“Thanks.”
Outside, the girl was waiting anxiously. Rose looked at her in amusement. You’d think she was waiting to buy something illegal, like drugs or scalped concert tickets.
“Here you go.” Rose handed the girl her change and the box, which quickly disappeared into a white leather bag.
“Thank you.” The girl smiled at Rose. “I really appreciate it.”
“No problem.” Rose watched her walk away, shook her head, and hurried back to the shop.
As she walked she had a flashback to being twelve years old. Jackie had sat down on her bed one night and handed her a book. She’d explained the birds and the bees to Rose, blushing and clearing her throat while she did so. By the time she’d shown Rose a box of maxi-pads she’d been almost speechless. Rose hadn’t had the heart to tell her mum that she’d learned the facts of life years ago from her friend Shireen’s older sisters.
Rose smiled at the memory. What she wouldn’t give to talk to her mum, right then. They’d have a laugh over those silly belts and whether any man was able to handle what a woman’s body was equipped to do.
She missed her mother so much. For a minute the pain crushed her chest, and she had to fight the urge to go track down her grandparents just so she could see her family again.
Rose stood still for a minute, forcing her thoughts back in order. Jackie might be here, in this time, but she was a child, not her mother. There was no use in following her, because she simply wasn’t Jackie. Not yet.
“All set?” Iris called from the office as Rose walked past the open doorway to the bathroom.
“All set!” Rose said cheerfully.
When she returned to the floor, ready for work, she found Iris back amongst the boxes.
“Sorry about that. I forgot what, er, something.”
“Oh, no problem.” Iris brushed back a lock of dark hair that had fallen across her face. “Could you give me a hand?”
Rose looked at what Iris was doing. “You’re not trying to move those racks by yourself, are you? They’re huge.”
They were also heavy - the lightweight fixtures Rose remembered from Henriks were just a vision of the future at this point. The racks here were heavy and hard to move, although they did have the benefit of not tipping over were a child to try and play on them.
Iris looked annoyed. “They’re in the way here. If I can just move them over, I can set some clothes on them.”
“Yeah, but then wouldn’t we have to move them back to where they belong once everything’s put back?”
“But at least the boxes wouldn’t be on the sales floor!” Iris sounded distinctly angry, and that was enough to make Rose stare at her. Iris never got angry. She was too well-bred for that.
“Sure.” Rose helped Iris move the racks.
“It’s just that I hate disorder,” Iris explained, giving a pile of tissue paper a kick. “Mr. Troy has turned everything around here upside down, and it drives me mad.”
“Well, yeah, but at least we know it’ll be over when the new part of the shop is finished.” Rose thought she sounded encouraging, but Iris just made a face.
Rose must have made a face of her own, because Iris apologized immediately.
“You must think I’m a frightful complainer!” she exclaimed. “I’m not, really. It’s just that this is my first real job, and I want the shop to be a success.”
“It is,” Rose pointed out. “But why do you need it to be a success so badly? I mean, you could always find work someplace else if you had to.”
“My parents were against my having a job at all,” Iris admitted. She dropped the trousers she was holding and sat on the floor, heedless of her skirt.
Rose blinked. This was the first time she’d seen Iris do something not lady-like.
“My family is a bit...proper,” Iris continued. “A lot proper, actually. My mother is convinced that marriage is the only thing for her daughters to aim for, even in this day and age. Can you imagine?” Here Rose rolled her eyes in sympathy and nodded. “So when I finished school and went to work for Mr. Troy my parents were in shock. I’d like to prove them wrong about women being able to be a success in the man’s world.”
Rose had a few thoughts about the man’s world business - her mum hadn’t raised to take the world by storm, and she may have thought working in a fancy shop was bad for her, but she certainly hadn’t told Rose that just because she was a girl meant she’d never amount to anything.
And anyway, Rose had met the Doctor, and he had yet to be convinced that there was anything Rose couldn’t do. Sometimes he even made Rose believe it herself.
“Time to open up!” Iris stood up quickly, brushing herself off. “I’m sorry if I got too personal.”
“Oh, no,” Rose denied. “It’s always nice to know something about the people you’re with all day.”
Iris smiled mischievously as she went to unlock the door. “Next it’s your turn. You can tell me how you met John.”
Rose sighed. “Oh, there’s something you’d love to hear.” Would she begin with the exploding buildings, or the man who changed his face?
The day passed quickly. Despite the sometimes difficult task of placating women with too much money and too much time on their hands, Rose enjoyed her job. Iris was pleasant to work with, and you couldn’t ask for a better boss. Her “feminine protection” was holding up, too, for which she was eternally grateful. It would be asking too much to hope that dinner would be made when she got home, but maybe Billy was a gourmet cook in his spare time.
The workday had just an hour to go and the shop was empty. The clothes were nearly all put away, and they’d almost managed to ignore the sounds of construction coming from next door. Rose had dusted off the fixtures, tables and lamps and plumped the cushions on the blue and yellow chair. The fitting rooms were empty, and she felt almost as pleased as when she straightened up the flat. It was nice to see things put in order.
Iris was closest to the door when it opened up. It was Jim, wearing his work clothes. The dark fabric was covered in sawdust. He took off his cap as he came inside, revealing fair hair that glinted in the light despite its fine coating of dust.
He stopped when he saw Iris and smiled. Under his arm were several long, rolled up pieces of paper. Iris smiled back and waited for him to say something.
“Hello, there, er....” Jim looked slightly panicked. He glanced around and saw Rose standing there with a duster in her hand. Relief came over his face. “Hello, Rose! Just here to show you some diagrams Mr. Troy wants done.”
“You need Iris, don’t you? Not me?”
“Iris! Yes.” Jim turned to Iris. “Iris. Hello. Shall we?”
She looked him with narrowed eyes. “You remembered her name but not mine?”
Rose looked at her in surprise. There was a definite note of pique in Iris’ voice. Was she upset about that?
“Well, I’m terrible with names, most of the time,” he admitted. “But my little sister’s named Rose, so that stuck. Shall we?”
“You can come into the back,” Iris said grudgingly.
Rose shook her head as they disappeared into the back. She would never understand Iris.
A moment later Iris and Jim flew from her thoughts. Hovering outside was a tall, skinny man with brown hair. He waved at her through the window. Rose smiled and watched as he walked in. Instead of the brown suit he wore plain brown trousers that one day would be called khakis by the designers at the Gap. The blue shirt he wore resembled his own, as did the darker blue t-shirt he wore underneath it.
“Hello,” she said, setting the duster down.
The Doctor smiled down at her. “Well?”
“Well, what?”
“How do I look?”
She pretended to look him over. “Very nice.”
He all but preened, that absurd streak of vanity showing through again. “Thank you.”
“How was your day?” Rose was aware that she was sounding alarmingly wifely and domestic, but the Doctor clearly didn’t mind.
“Not bad, not bad.” He stuck his hands in his pockets, remembered that these pockets weren’t as roomy, and settled for crossing his arms against his chest. “I have a job and a lab and a plan to make the cameras and disks we’ll need.”
“You have a job? Where?”
The Doctor cleared his throat. “I have been offered a position at a well-known university here in London,” he began.
“Just today?” Rose interrupted.
“Just today. In my guise as a post-graduate student, I’ve been offered a laboratory in which to do research. In exchange I have to teach one class a week and do other, teaching-related things. It doesn’t pay much,” he added, looking at Rose, “but it’s enough for now.”
Rose was dumbfounded. “When did you have time to do that?”
He looked offended. “I don’t just hang around here all day, you know.”
“What field are you supposed to be in?” she asked.
He grinned at her. “Physics. And don’t worry,” he added quickly. “The cafeteria isn’t hiring right now.”
She slugged him on the shoulder.
“Ouch,” he said mildly, rubbing his arm.
Rose was still processing this. “So they gave you a job and lab to work in?”
The Doctor stuck his hands in his pockets again. “Yep.”
“And you have access to whatever we’ll need to build whatever we’ll need.”
“Yep.”
“And what uni is it?”
The Doctor told her. Rose’s eyes opened wide and she just stared in amazement.
“I know,” the Doctor said with a grin. “But if you work with the best, you’ll never regret it.”
Twenty-five