taxonomites | twelve | location: streets of taxon |

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twelve | location: streets of taxon |

The Doctor has to start working eventually. And while nobody hates the idea of working quite like the Doctor hates working, he hates the idea of being back in prison even more than that.

So, behold the Doctor, carrying things from a replication unit to the square where he's working on his next project. At present, the things he's creating are three-foot pieces of metal. He's spitting out a few at a time, and then moving them to a large pile where he has more already stacked up.

There's also a series of papers he's had made up sitting not far off from the stacks of sheet metal. They read: MISSING: ONE SONIC SCREWDRIVER. HONESTLY, NOW, STEALING ISN'T RIGHT AT ALL, IS IT?

Oh, he's also got a plate of pink-frosted cupcakes. A Time Lord's gotta eat, y'all.

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Now she's laughing and humming with him.

"Guess you're right. One of those blokes that has his music everywhere."

"Like Jason Mraz, but significantly more important to history, yes," the Doctor agrees with a smile.

He turns around to look at her, and gives a little gesture to the side of her face. "You've got----"

"We should see him in concert after wards. Make a proper comparison." It's research! He can't turn down research.

Her brow furrows and she swipes at the side of her face, completely missing it of course. "Did I get it?"

"No, you've got---"

He steps over and carefully cleans the side of her face with his thumb, feeling only a little awkward by their closeness.

"Should pay attention to what you're doing," he says, offering her his frosting-covered thumb.

"Messy eater I guess," she giggles, leaning forward to lick the frosting off his thumb. Her eyes catch his and for just a second it's more than this. She pulls back, licking her lips then forces herself to make a joke. "Doctor flavored frosting. Ought to package that," she teases him.

Possibly a 'could be taken as dirty joke'.

"Right," the Doctor agrees, more than a little embarrassed by how breathy his voice comes out at that. Rose really needs to stop doing this, she's driving him rather mad.

"Taken a few flirting lessons in our time apart, have you?" he asks, trying for teasing.

Oh the breathy little voice makes her squeal silently. Outwardly her reaction is just a big grin.

"Maybe you just haven't been 'round me enough to be immune, Doctor," she teases back. Or maybe he's noticing her in a different way. She's not sure which but either way, she's okay with it.

"Well, we'll have to change that, then," the Doctor says with a grin. "Now that I'm a sort-of free man, we'll make sure that we don't waste any time at all."

"You're a new productive sort of Doctor. Working and not wasting time. I like it," she teases him. "Could take a bit you know. You were abnormally grumpy the first time 'round. Think it canceled out the flirting. By the time you got 'round to this incarnation you were already immune."

It's her theory anyway.

"Productive," the Doctor says the word like she's insulted him. "I beg your pardon, Rose Tyler, but I am impossibly lazy and self-satisfied, and don't you pretend otherwise."

"Oy alright then, I take it back," Rose laughs. "Lazy and self-satisfied. Describes you to a tee. Don't know what I was thinkin'. Guess I went a bit mad in our time apart."

And though she says it teasingly, it's entirely true as well.

"Mhmm," the Doctor agrees with her. "I think you have. Now! I've got some more sheet metal here to stack up. Think you can count off the smaller sheets there? Make sure I've got the right amount?"

"I think I can manage that," Rose says as she moves over to the stack of smaller sheets. She sits down on the ground, crossing her legs and shuffles some of it around. "How much you need here?"

"Hundred fifty," he says, tossing a larger piece onto the other pile. "And then seven thousand of the slightly smaller."

"At least you plan on having me 'round a while today," Rose smirks as she starts counting. It's a few minutes before she speaks again.

"You haven't asked 'bout that locket you wanted me to pinch from Morgana."

Granted things have been a bit charged since he was released so she hadn't thought much of it but now they're settling into normalcy.

"Locket?" the Doctor asks, looking over at her. "What locke---oh, that locket! Right, right. Didn't find it, did you?"

He really needs to keep his lies in order.

Rose fixes him with a look that says she's suspicious. "How'd you know?"

Or stop telling them to her.

"Well, I suspected she might've moved it elsewhere after our last---conversation," he tries, weakly.

He's going to end up in the very very side of trouble at this rate.

Rose stops with her counting, fixing her full glare on the Doctor. "But you didn't see the need to tell me?" There's a pause. Rose is trusting but she's also clever. It's the lack of conviction in his statement that gives him away. "You didn't want me in the court room when they sentenced you. Did you? Thought I couldn't handle it? I'd go mad, that's it?"

Might want to add a very.

The Doctor doesn't respond for a long moment. He tosses another piece of sheet metal onto the pile and stops to take a breath and consider his options. He could stick with the lie, but he doubts he could hold onto it much longer. He's not even entirely sure what he said about the locket, much less what he said it might've done.

"I didn't know what they were going to decide," he says, finally. "I didn't want you to do something stupid and get hurt."

For a minute she's breathless at his admittance of the lie. It doesn't take her long to recover, getting to her feet so she can talk to him properly instead of looking up at him from the ground.

"Doctor, we traveled together for two years. Seen all sorts of horrors and exciting things. In all that time did I ever give you the impression that I couldn't handle that sort of thing? Maybe I'm overestimating myself but I think I've done pretty well at dealin' with the sorts of things you throw my way. Rolled with 'em even. Never thought people ever said 'Oh Rose Tyler, she's a bit of a fragile thing'. That wasn't fair of you. It wasn't right and it's insulting to me that you don't think I could handle your sentencing."

She crosses her arms over her chest and taps her foot. He's entered very very territory now.

The Doctor turns to her, suddenly angry. "And if they were going to kill me, Rose? What would you do, then? Someone suggested torture on the punishment panel. What if that was in the cards for me? Would you just sit back and let it happen?"

She swallows hard, gone completely silent because he has a point. It's several seconds before she speaks again. When she does it's quiet, a little broken around the edges. "No. They would have had to kill me too."

A deep breath because she has a point to argue here. Even if he's right about this part of it. "But that should have been my choice, Doctor. Not yours. I should have been allowed to be there for you so you wouldn't--you don't have to face anything alone. Not ever. Not as long as I'm here."

"And if they killed me, Rose, then I'd regenerate," he says, sadly. The end is coming for this life, he knows it, but he'll cling to it as long as he can. "And you'd still be dead. So, in the end, I've made sure that you did what you wanted to. Kept me from being alone."

She hates that he's right and it shows in her face. She's not entirely sure he's telling the truth though. She's only seen the one regeneration.

"Even without the TARDIS. You'd regenerate?"

It's important knowledge to know and it keeps her from having to say he's right. For the moment.

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