heroescuties | [Doctor Who, Doctor/Rose: Circuits, Legos and New New Quirks]

Title: Circuits, Legos and New New Quirks
Fandom: Doctor Who
Genre: Romance/Humor
Rating: PG
Word Count: 1,949
Pairings: Doctor/Rose
Summary: Tinkering with the TARDIS never goes as smoothly as planned.
Notes: S2. Set on the TARDIS trip to New Earth.

Regenerations always came with surprises, and the Doctor had gone through enough to know that each "new him" had not only a new appearance but often came with a few new little personality quirks as well. Some quirks had been fashion related- like going from a plain jumper and a beat-up leather jacket to a pin-stripped suit. Other quirks were just plain odd, like his strange habit of licking things. At least, he had a feeling that it was going to be a habit after licking the blood the Sycrorax were using; it just seemed like a habity thing and he felt like a habity person.

And that brought him to another new quirk, one he had a sinking feeling might also become a habit. He'd been in the middle of a ramble- a rather good ramble at that- trying to figure what his new self was all about, when out the words came. He'd asked Rose, point-blank, if he was sexy. And if that wasn't enough, he'd winked as well. He'd flirted.

"Suppose that's what I get for traveling with Jack Harkness," the Doctor muttered to himself.

"What's that?" Rose asked. He blinked, her voice bringing him out of his thoughts on quirks brought on by Jack's bad influence and back to the present moment.

"Ah. Nothing. Just thinking aloud, nothing important." He grinned, Rose smiled back.

They were currently in-route to Barcelona. He had promised after all. Plus, he was eager to take Rose father than they'd been before. Just to show off…a bit.

Rose had already stowed her things in her room onboard the TARDIS and had rejoined him in the console room.

"So Doctor, are you going to tell me where we're going?"

He opened his mouth, just about to make a very witty quip about dogs with no noses, when the TARDIS lurched in the time vortex. They both grabbed onto the chair as the Doctor looked at the console perplexed.

"Hmmm, now that's a bit fishy. Though I suppose if she's responding to it then it's good-fishy not bad-fishy. Fishy, fishy, fishy." He paused and glanced at Rose, "Fishy is a funny word."

She laughed, "You're mental sometimes, you know that?"

"Aww- but you love it."

Rose smiled. "You just keep telling yourself that."

The Doctor grinned and tapped her on the nose. "You know, I think I will. Just over and over in my mind. 'Rose Tyler thinks I'm mental. But that's okay, because she likes it that way.' Oooh, I made a rhyme. All right- let's see what's up with the TARDIS."

He pulled around the screen and started inputting this and that. From what he could gather, the TARDIS had picked up a telepathic request to reset the coordinates. Rummaging in his pockets, he pulled out his psychic paper to check.

"Oh yes, this is textbook fishy," he murmured thoughtfully on seeing the writing on the paper. "Rose, I'm going to need your help resetting the coordinates."

"What for?"

"Change of plans- but you'll love this place just as much, I promise. But since a delta telepathic override implanted itself into the TARDIS systems, I have to do a manual reset on the vortex coordinate data input."

Rose quirked up an eyebrow, trying to translate the technobabble into standard English. "So, jiggery-pokery?"

He grinned broadly. "Yep. Perhaps with a dash of hullabaloo even."

---------------------------------------------

They'd opened up a grate covering the lower parts of the TARDIS console and the Doctor had crawled down under it to tinker with a small silver box with several wires seemingly growing out of it. Rose knelt beside the open grate, handing down various tools and gizmos as the Doctor asked for them.

"So…what's this delta telepathic override?" Rose asked, handing him something that looked like an eggplant on a stick.

"Well, if you happen to have an exceptionally exceptional mind- such as myself." Rose chuckled. "And you're hooked up to a device that's capable of transmitting the right signals, it's basically like sending a very powerful thought all the way across time and space. Hand me that." He pointed to a small item next to Rose's knee.

"Oh. Hey, this looks like legos."

"It is," he remarked, taking it from her hand and snapping it into place down in the silver box. "Weeellll, not lego-legos, more like build-your-own-circuit-board legos."

Rose leaned over the grate hole. "So what're they called?"

"It's a-oof!"

The timeship took a hard veer to the side, tossing Rose down into the grate hole on top of him and effectively cutting his reply off.

"Rose, don't let the--" The grate slammed closed over them. "- the grate close," the Doctor finished dejectedly.

"Don't worry, I'll get it back open," Rose said, leaning up to push on the grate. But before she could touch it, the Doctor yanked her back down flush against him.

"Don't." He said sharply. "Closing that closed the circuit. If we open it- Bam! Zap! Kaboom!- not pretty."

"Oh. So we're stuck here, yah?"

"Just until we land." He glanced down at Rose to give her a reassuring smile when the full spectrum of the situation dawned on him.

Rose was laying half on top of him, her head somewhat rested against his chest and one of her legs was haphazardly laid atop his. At this he made a rather undignified noise (that he would later deny making vehemently) that was a cross between a squawk and a panicked whimper.

"Oh…"

"Rather tight quarters," Rose quipped, craning her neck so she could look up at him. A nervous smile tugged at the corners of her mouth.

The Doctor let out a nervous laugh. "Er…I hadn't noticed."

On the surface, she seemed visibly calm; but he could feel the way her heartbeat had started to race. Trying to think of something distracting, the Doctor blurted out the first thing that came to his mind.

"You know, this happened with Jack once."

Rose grinned. "And you somehow got out of that without him shagging you senseless? Do tell."

"Well…okay, it was a bit different. I was down here and, as you might have guessed, Jack jumped in with me. Said he was helping, if you'll buy that."

She laughed. "Oh that sounds like Jack all right. He has no concept of personal space." Rose paused, snuggling a bit closer. "Not that that's always a bad thing."

Before the Doctor could muster a reply, she changed the subject again.

"What's it like having two hearts anyways?"

Almost glad of not having to think more about exactly where Rose was, the Doctor answered.

"Bit strange, I suppose. At least from a human viewpoint. Rather normal business for me."

Rose shifted against his chest, moving her ear from over one heart to the other one.

"Yah know, it's like- well you can hear two lungs working together at the same time and all. Same breaths and all that- yeah? But hearts. Two hearts, beating as one."

The Doctor couldn't repress a prideful grin at her appreciative tone.

"Pretty impressive, huh?"

Rose smiled in turn. "Yeah. It is."

The two held each other's gaze until it once again registered that they were in very close quarters, and at that, they both glanced away. An awkward silence descended as the Doctor finished rehooking the wires to the console. At least they should land in the right time and place after all this fiasco. The Doctor considered shifting a little, Rose clearly couldn't be that comfortable in her current sprawled position, but she beat him to it.

"Oh screw it!" She cursed aloud, shifting herself until the space between them was nonexistent.

"Uh…Rose?"

"Oi, shut it. You were thinking it too. I saw those glances. Probably worried my big ole bum would knock a wire out of a place and throw us back into the Jurassic."

The Doctor blinked, perplexed. He wasn't aware he was giving any sort of glances, big bum concerns or otherwise; and if he was giving glances he didn't know about, it was probably not a good thing. Reasoning that he was just concerned and that was absolutely one hundred and ten percent the only reason he was gawking, he continued to mentally determine if he had, in fact, made any sort of "glance."

"You're staring," Rose piped up.

His eyes trailed up from their tangled legs to her face. "Sorry?"

She repressed a laugh, wondering why he was staring at her as if she were some strange koala that had decided to latch onto him.

"I said, you were staring."

"Ah. Just thinking, that's all."

She raised an eyebrow. "Thinking about what?"

Her voice was hopeful and her penetrating eyes seemed to challenge him to admit anything he might be trying to hide.

"Oh this and that."

She gave him a look and he sighed in resignation.

New appearance for me. Same ole Rose.

Wriggling his arm down from where it had been holding the wires, he tentatively settled it on Rose's waist.

"Just thinking that this isn't so bad. At least you have a comfortable pillow, right?"

Rose shook her head at him slithering around any direct answers. Prodding him in the chest, she grinned playfully.

"Dunno, kinda boney and scrawny."

"Hey now…"

"And your weird regrown hand is on my hip."

He tried to act nonchalant about it. "Is it now?"

"It's weird."

"My hand?"

"Having it on my hip."

"Oh," he deflated. He started to pull his hand away when Rose snatched it back.

"But I suppose I have until the TARDIS lands to get used to it in all its weird regrown weirdness."

The Doctor grinned and Rose flashed him a smile as she laid her head against his chest.

"Tell me a story."

"A story?"

"I could've asked 'Are we there yet?' but a story sounds like better idea."

"Hmm…point. Okay. Have I told you about the singing flowers of Bangleniada?"

"Nope."

"Well the Bangleniadians…"

----------------------------------------------

The landing wasn't too bad and the Doctor had to admit, even if it was only to himself, that Rose looked rather adorable nuzzled against his chest as he told her all about the wonderful singing Bazglee flowers. After finishing with that story, he'd told her all about the CIBS (circuitry imbedded block system) and how they were indeed inspired by a man who'd made an entire computer hard drive out of legos.

"Oh my legs are so stiff now," Rose lamented as she crawled out of the grate hole. "And I bet my hair's a right mess."

"Looks quite all right to me."

She turned and stared at him as he too clambered out of the hole.

"What?" He asked defensively. "It's been right under my nose for the past few hours and you think I wouldn't notice? Nice shampoo by the way."

Rose shook her head, a faint blush trying to surface on her cheeks. "You're gonna need shampoo now that you've got hair."

"Blimey," he said, running a hand up through his spiky hair, "you're right. Guess I'll just have to use yours since it'd be a nightmare trying to remember where I put my old stuff in this place."

Rose grinned. "Really now? My shampoo?"

"Is that a problem?" He was also grinning now.

"Nope," she replied, obviously rather pleased with the idea. "But no complaining if I have to make more trips home to pick more up then."

"Deal."

He quickly glanced at the console screen, verified that they'd landed in the right time and place, and snatched up his coat and walked towards the door.

"Ready?" He stuck out his hand and wiggled his fingers. She giggled and took his hand.

"Of course."

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

From:

fishface44.livejournal.com

This is adorable! *adds to memories* Thank you!

ladychi.livejournal.com

Oh, I adored this. I love the idea, of course... and I loved even more that the poor Doctor didn't quite know what to do with his new quirk!

The bit about shampoo made me chuckle. Wonderful job!