Rating: PG
Spoilers: None
Summary: Rose accompanies the Doctor to a funeral

Rose was worried. The Doctor had been behaving oddly all day - even for him. He strode about the TARDIS, never stopping anywhere for long and always returning to the console room. He never did anything in there either, just stared into space, sometimes moving a hand to hover over a button or lever, but never pressing any of them. When she asked he refused to admit anything was wrong. She didn't want to leave him on his own, but also didn't want to get in his way, not when he was in a funny mood. So she had taken to skulking in the shadows instead.

When he stopped in the middle of a corridor, clicked his fingers and turned round, Rose scurried to avoid him seeing her and wondered if he had finally made his mind up about whatever it was he had spent the whole day thinking of. This time he went to the wardrobe room and when she peered around the door she saw him going through clothes and pulling out black ones. Although it was entirely possible he was going through some mid-life crisis - with the Doctor anything was possible - but she suspected the obvious explanation was more likely to be the correct one. So Rose chose some clothes for herself once the Doctor left. She had only just managed to change when she heard the TARDIS land and she rushed to the control room.

Having reached the door, Rose stood on the periphery of the room trying to catch her breath. The Doctor was putting on his usual brown coat and Rose wondered if her choice of a short sleeved blouse had been a bad one. It was too late to go back now, though, because the Doctor was already on his way out of the TARDIS. Luckily for her, he stopped in front of the doors. Rose took advantage and quickly strode over to stand at his side.

"I'll come with you," she said.

"It's no-one you know," he said, not looking round.

"But it is someone you do. So I'll go with you."

The Doctor gave her a small smile and allowed her to slip her hand in his.

Upon leaving the TARDIS Rose was hit by a wave of intense heat. Wherever they were it was obviously the middle of summer, so quite why the Doctor was wearing a coat, she didn't know. He did make a habit of doing that sort of thing, though. Sometimes Rose wondered if he did it to annoy her, but he was good at giving her his coat in the cold, at least.

The Doctor still did not seem inclined to talk, so for the short walk Rose had plenty of time to enjoy the scenery. It looked like they were on Earth - in England in the present day - although looks could be
deceiving. They had once gone to a planet where they had a city that resembled 1920s London. The Doctor had even taken her there afterwards to prove it.

Her initial assumption about where they were going was proved correct when they rounded a corner and entered a graveyard. Rose could not help but shiver when she saw the rows of gravestones and she tried not to think about all the bodies that were buried there.

Somewhere in a back corner, where there was no shade, there was a small gathering around a grave. They approached, but the Doctor hung back so they were close enough to hear the vicar's words but were not actually part of the group.

Rose thought that funerals should have more people at them, but then the only ones she had seen were on television. Before she met the Doctor she had never really known anyone who had died that well. Even after getting over that - and her father was a particularly hard place to start - she had never really expected to go to the funeral of someone who was not related to her. She hoped, though, that any she had expected to go to wouldn't be for a long time yet. She had to blink back tears from thinking about that. Not that she would look that out of place here but she didn't want the Doctor to have to worry about her.

They had either arrived late or the ceremony was short because they only stood there for a few minutes before people started to drift away, until only one was left. The Doctor dropped Rose's hand and she
surreptitiously wiped her sweaty palm on her trouser leg. The Doctor seemed unaffected and went closer to the grave. Rose followed, but stayed behind him and tried to look unobtrusive.

The other person there was a woman wrapped in a long black coat. She had a red face, whether that was from the heat or sunburn, Rose didn't know. The only other thing Rose knew about funerals was that they were supposed to take place on cold, rainy days. She would have thought this would be a perfect day for sunbathing if she wasn't worried about other things. The Doctor still looked perfectly cool but then he would.

He looked up as the woman approached him. "I'm sorry for your loss," he said.

"Thank you," she replied. "Forgive me, but have we met?"

"I'm the Doctor." He offered his hand, which she took but seemed hesitant about. "I was a friend of your daughter's."

"So, you're the Doctor. She spoke very highly of you, although I could never think why."

He didn't answer that, just put his hands in his pockets, looked down at his feet and there was an awkward silence.

It was the woman who spoke again. "Are you coming to the wake?"

"Um, yes. Yes. We can't stay long, though."

The woman looked over at Rose with the Doctor's mention of 'we'. Rose said nothing - she didn't even know who the deceased was.

The wake was not far away, which Rose was thankful for. After standing in the hot sun in the middle of the day she was going to burn if she was not careful. She was trying her best to give the Doctor space but she
was getting impatient. There was only so much of him like this that she could cope with and she was fairly certain he could quite happily go on not saying anything if she let him.

When they reached the house there were already a small number of people standing around eating, drinking and talking in hushed voices. Rose was longing to ask who the dead girl was, but she knew from experience that it was best to present the Doctor with some information before he filled in the blanks, and this was the perfect opportunity to get that information.

So she left him to do whatever he wanted, figuring he could not go far, while she mingled, smiling at people and listening to their conversations. She left each one before they could guess that she had no answers, only questions.

It was some time, therefore, before she realised the Doctor was missing. Telling herself not to panic, she searched the house. Downstairs there were people in each room but upstairs was deathly quiet. Rose was not quite sure about opening bedroom doors in a strange house, so she started with the one that was open. She struck lucky because the Doctor was there, standing looking out of the window while idly turning over an object in his hands. It was too small for her to see what it was.

Rose looked round the room while she waited for him to notice her presence. There was something about it that didn't look quite right. Perhaps it was the books with titles she had never heard of, or tapes of bands that she only vaguely remembered from her childhood. Or maybe it was the spaces between them or the large gap on the desk contrasting with the papers strewn around the rest of it.

Eventually, Rose reached out and touched the Doctor gently on the arm. He didn't react at first. Rose hoped she was a comfort at least and stayed where she was.

"It's not that different from where you live, is it?" he said suddenly.

"No," Rose automatically replied, even though he didn't seem to expect an answer. She couldn't see the resemblance herself, though. The big houses and wide roads were much more suburban than the Powell Estate. Perhaps if you had spent all your life on other planets, most of London would look the same, whichever part of it they were in and whatever time.

"Who was she?" Rose asked, curiosity finally wining out when the Doctor lapsed into silence once more. She hoped he might be ready to talk by now.

"An old friend. I haven't seen her for... a long time."

If the Doctor could not remember how many years it was, it probably was a long time, even by his standards.

"So, what happened?"

"We had an argument. It was stupid and I should have apologised. I forgave her long ago, but now I can never tell her."

"But you can. You have a ship that travels in time. Just go back before she dies and speak to her."

"And cross my own time stream? You know I can't do that, Rose."

"I think you make these rules up half the time." She was frustrated at him not telling her everything, as usual, but regretted lashing out the minute she did it.

"Make them up? You saw what happened last time!" he said, indignantly. He finally looked over at her though, so she didn't regret her words that much.

"All right, all right," she said, trying to placate him. "I'll leave you to wallow. I'll be in the TARDIS."

He didn't even watch her go.

~*~*~*~*~

Rose didn't entirely leave the Doctor to himself. She just waited for him to return to the TARDIS then resumed stalking him. The only reason Rose could find for him not noticing was that he was too wrapped up in this old friend's death. Usually he was infuriating in working out that she was doing that sort of thing.

This time, though, he was easier to follow, as he went straight to the wardrobe room again. Rose assumed he was going to change back into his normal clothes (if you could call what he tended to wear normal), but
instead he rifled through the rails, looking for something. Eventually he pulled out a scrunched-up black jacket from the middle of a bunch of other clothes with an "aha". There were bright colours on the back of it,
but from this angle Rose could not see what they represented.

The Doctor just stood there looking at it for a while. He found a spare hanger, placed the jacket on it and zipped it back up. As he did so he must have discovered something in one of the pockets because he frowned and dug his hand in. He pulled out a piece of paper, unfolded it and read the contents.

It must have been something good because he gave a small smile and said, "I'm sorry too, Ace."

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Fandom: Doctor Who | Type: Character: Rose Tyler, Character: Tenth Doctor, Length: Vignette, Type: Gen | Link

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