tampered | closed: motives and with-actions can within

After speaking with the other Doctor for a while, Rose decided to check on the missing Doctor. It didn't take any sort of brilliance to guess that he'd be struggling with a good deal of guilt and there's a part of her that's aware that he may not want to see her at all. She's not going to give him that luxury. She steps into the kitchen quietly, arms crossed over her chest as she approaches him. She knows that he knows she's there. He's probably known since the moment she came into the flat itself. She remains quiet until she's standing a foot or so away from him.

"I know you didn't mean to hurt me. You wouldn't ever. Not on purpose."

It seems the best place to start, acknowledging that hurting her hadn't been his intent.

He's not actually sure how long he wanted to be left alone to stew in whatever myriad of emotions he's got going on right now, but he's pretty sure it was about ten minutes longer than whatever time anyone chose to come back, no matter when that might have turned out to be. He knows when she comes back - not hard to work out - and isn't as surprised as he could have been when she nearly makes a beeline for his chosen hideout. The kitchen itself doesn't really offer that many places to hide, but it doesn't matter anyway, since he's standing at the counter facing the melting ice cubes when she walks in. She keeps coming until she's just outside of being too close right now and starts talking, and he turns profile toward her and mostly continues looking at the tops of his trainers.

'No, of course not.' That does make him look up, to survey the damage. He twists back to the counter and grabs the makeshift icepack to give to her. 'Little late, but it might still help a bit.'

"Are you all right?" She means injury wise. She's not sure how hard the other Doctor hit him. She takes the ice, more to pacify him than anything else. She presses the ice pack to her cheek. "I shouldn't've gotten between you two. I hate it when you two hurt each other."

She doesn't want to push him too hard just yet but she knows she's going to have to at some point. It's likely he will try to put some distance between the two of them.

She hurts right now but it's not her face. She knows how much he's hurting even without touching him. Guilt and pain are written all over him so for the moment, she stays where she is, but the hand that's not holding the ice, is fisted around the sleeve hem of her sweater to keep her from reaching out to touch him.

'Least no one can tell us we didn't celebrate Boxin' Day all in."

He'd actually all but forgotten until just now that he'd hit himself quite squarely once or twice before things got more out of hand. He reaches up to his face and not-quite-gingerly-enough prods at it, scrunching it up when unsurprisingly, it does hurt, and dropping his hand back down. 'Fine. Just a little swollen, I think.' There's a little pause before he gets to the rest of her statements, because they're not as easily answered as the question, being not so clinically based.

'I don't know why we were fighting. We had fairly civil conversation yesterday.'

The comment gets what it was likely trying to in the form of a hollow laugh and a nod, which he doesn't do for very long because being hit in the head apparently can give you a headache. 'Yeap. Getting back to the true spirit of the holidays: lots of food, little sleep, and a big fight with your family.'

She turns so that her back is pressed against the counter and reaches up with the hand that has the ice pack, pressing it gently against the swollen place, holding it there. She's a bit closer but still several inches away.

"Curse maybe. He didn't like the chicken."

Or everything they'd both been trying to deal with, come to a head. She suspects it's a combination of that with stress or lack of sleep or something else entirely, like a curse. She hasn't been on the network enough today to know if people are hitting each other. By the end of the day, they'll all likely realise it was a curse.

"Felt like home. Not quite enough yellin' for it to be holidays with Mum but awfully close."

She's still going for that bit of levity, enough to keep things from completely falling into depression, darkness and doom not to mention a couple other d words that would probably accurately describe the mood.

He wants to protest that, given that the ice pack was for her, but that seems like a very silly point to try and make right now in light of the others that still need it, so he just accepts it for now.

He'd really like for it to have been a curse. Entirely a curse would be nice, although that's highly unlikely. Possibly the inciting incident for things that already needed airing - oh, speaking of that... If it was a curse it could be on the Network. Wouldn't that be just grand.

'Ought to teach him there's better and easier ways to let your chef know the food was not up to par.'

The culmination of stress and likely both Doctors avoiding being there at the same time means a little probable sleep deprivation on everybody's part. The levity's appreciated, although that particular comment is taken with some salt. 'Sorry.'

She sighs at the slightly snarky comment. Sleep deprivation, breaking up a fight and getting hit in the process just makes her more exhausted. "That doesn't help. He feels badly too." It's a light scolding but not much of one. It's too difficult to scold him properly when he looks so guilty.

That would be quite horrible and also very likely to have happened. For her part, she'll be staying off the network for a couple of days at least.

"I know. It won't happen again."

She doesn't say it in that 'mom' voice that really says 'it'd better not happen again'. She says it in an assured tone of someone that knows it won't happen again. She has faith in that. It's also another bit of scolding, not letting him get off with a 'it's okay' or a 'you don't have to apologize'. It's not. He did but now he has and there's no use making him squirm over it.

Of course he does. They'd both feel badly. He can even guess how the other one is feeling at the moment; it really wasn't that long ago that he was him. Just a few years now. He reaches up to hold the ice himself and mumbles another apology about the comment as he does so.

He can't really tell if she means that they won't fight again or if their fights won't get physical again or just that they won't make somewhat snarky comments about each other again, but either which way it's meant he does know that there's clearly a turning point being rotated. He also sincerely doubts they'll get into another fist-fight, if only out of shared guilt about this particular incident and not wanting a repeat performance. What little effort had been made on either side to try and get along might even hopefully see a rise, considering. The comments... Well, take baby steps.

Regardless, he finally looks up at her for more than a couple of seconds to assess how well he'd hit her earlier. He actually manages to meet her eyes for a little while, off and on, while his normally very readily useable library of words somewhat more slowly amasses itself into something worth saying.

'No, it won't. We'll... work at it.' Vaguely worth saying, anyway. 'Are you okay?'

Because of that, maybe he'll give himself a bit of a break. In some ways, that version of him hasn't had the chance to really properly bury, disguise and deal with his issues like this one has. Not that this one doesn't have the same issues, because he absolutely does with a couple of wings added to the monstrosity of issues they both carry around but this one has had the benefit of time and people like Rose, Donna, and Martha to help out. She thinks it buys the other a bit of leniency.

Mostly she means that they'll try harder from now on to avoid letting things get this out of hand. She's not naive enough to think that they won't fight or that they won't snark. She's even aware that they may end up in a fist fight again but she's fairly confident they'll do so when she's asleep or at work--which, in her mind, simply provides more fodder for not sleeping and 'take your Doctor to work' day. Not that that makes it any better at all and if she ever found out she'd be forced to treat them like they were five, sit them down and stare disapprovingly. She's the strictest of strict with them. Honestly.

It would be worth it, in her opinion, not likely in theirs, if this does result in their getting along at least to some degree. She's very careful when he does look up at her to make sure she's watching him with an open sort of non-judgmental kind of expression.

She nods a bit at his question. "Goin' to take some aspirin. Bit of a headache but m'all right."

It's still too soon really to tell if she's going to end up with a black eye. The spot is tender to the touch and a little red but she might get off lucky. She's never been a peach, one of those people that bruise easily.

It's likely. He does have the benefit of having had more time to develop past that particular bit of trauma - into some others, sure, but they're not quite the same and as pointed out, there's been a cultivated network of people to help along the way, regardless of whether or not all of them are strictly available or not at the moment. There's a decent chance some sort of effort will be made to amend this particular incident and hopefully prevent another from happening anytime soon.

Being the strictest of strict is honestly a good thing. Bit sad that it needs to be done, but for whatever reason they're sort of acting like overly-competitive or too-close-in-age siblings, and those always seem to require a bit of a heavy hand. There definitely won't be anything approaching a physical altercation anywhere near somewhere Rose can suddenly appear.

God, if she has a black eye there will just be guilt strewn about everywhere until it goes away, at the least. 'Should probably let the pair of us know when you do. Take it, I mean. Do you want this back?' The last part said with a vague gesture towards her from the hand holding the ice.

She'll be even more proud of him (them) for trying after this. Clearly it's worse than she had thought. She knew they were bothered by each other; she just wasn't aware to what extent and in some ways, she probably still isn't but it's bad.

They do need that. He needs that when there's just one of him. When there's two, it's necessary and she came by the scold & hug method that works so well for him quite naturally. She doesn't like the idea of them having a physical altercation at all but given recent events, it's probably best that if they do occur, they occur away from her.

Yeah, it's for the best if she doesn't get one. They've got enough guilt going for them right now. "Let you know why?" It's asked with that curious tilt to her voice, like perhaps there's another reason behind letting them know outside of general information. "Yeah. Please, I can make you one if you think you need it." She tilts her face up, inviting him to hold the ice pack up to her cheekbone if he'd like. If he doesn't, she'll take the ice pack from him.

Mostly she's taking the ice pack back so that he can feel as if he's helping a bit. A Doctor who feels helpless isn't a good thing, particularly when the Doctor in question is partially responsible for the thing he feels so helpless over.

He doesn't even really know why. It might be instinctive; there really shouldn't ever be two of them in the same place, particularly for an extended period of time. To some degree he might actually literally be getting on his own nerves. Hopefully at some point it won't be to the same point over and over again - some sort of numbing surely must take place eventually.

'Allergy. Really can't get near it.' He does move forward a little, very carefully holding it up to where she'd had it herself earlier. 'I don't need one.' Which is probably a lie, but he doesn't want one right now anyway.

Yes, eventually they're bound to become immune to each other, or something. Right?

She arches an eyebrow at him and nods slightly. Guess who won't be taking aspirin. She'd rather put up with a bit of a headache then not be around them. She relaxes a little bit when he does go ahead and hold the ice against her cheekbone. "Time Lord thing? Or you thing?"

Because not all humans are allergic to strawberries, for example, just a large number of them. Also, she realises that he's probably lying about the ice pack but it's also not going to kill him and she understands he's punishing himself a bit by not using the ice pack. She'll let it slide. This time.

Eventually. Given their ratio to length of time versus longevity the chance of it happening before either of them leaves the City is somewhat debatable.

'Sort of a universally applicable lethal Time Lord thing. For the most part, anyway. I guess with me being the only ones you could technically just say "yes" and be correct still.'

And here there's a little pause for consideration, because he's not sure how much it'll help anything but he's curious anyway. They are the same man, but there's some somewhat key variation between them; just enough to create differences in thought processes. 'Did he say anything?' Not looking to be antagonistic or anything, but really just more curious and attempting to get more information about all sides of things. He knows his own and Rose has been pretty clear so far.

Oh. Well. At least their time in the City will be interesting...or something. Possibly very black and blue. If it happens again, Rose may find a ring, boxing gloves and leave the room because she can't stand to watch them hit each other. Of course, her leaving the room would consist of going right outside the door and sitting there until it was over. Better yet, she'll turn them both over to Donna. She's betting the ginger has a better right hook than both of them combined.

"Well yeah but just sorta curious. Mum's allergic to pollen. M'not. That sorta thing." Sometimes she is just curious about the whole Time Lord race in general, though most of the time her curiosity does tend to revolve around him so he wasn't entirely wrong to assume that it was about him.

She takes a deep breath, debating on whether she should tell him or not. She's been honest with him about nearly everything so far. She might as well keep that streak going. She's still worried though, eyes cutting to him. She's not sure how much of a conversation he and his other self have had in regards to the whole romantic bit going on. She gnaws on her bottom lip and closes her eyes so she doesn't have to watch him when she says it. "He said he bet Mum won the fight with the downstairs neighbor that one year." Which is the easy part of the bit of conversation they had afterwards. Of course her bits were in between his, but she figures he knows her well enough to guess at what those bits were. "And that you both were bad for me but I'd better go chase after you anyway."

Then she opens her eyes. "I don't know what he meant by that. Except that maybe...it's not good for you to be alone when you think you've done something wrong."

Noooooo. Bringing Donna into this is cheating. Not that she won't likely self-insert herself immediately upon seeing them all bruised and shit. He's already subconsciously preparing to just spend the next couple of days at work while his face heals to avoid the chance of that happening.

He nods a little bit. 'Not just me. There's a metabolism difference. Kind of a big one, I suppose.' To the point of stroke, but that seems like a thing to leave for later. He's oddly not in the mood to get into the science of it right now.

Basically their conversation about all the romantic stuff happening has been this one that just happened. They really haven't talked about it at all otherwise, which is likely half the reason this particular conversation came about anyway. He listens to her carefully - having her eyes shut oddly probably makes him a bit more passively reactant anyway - and is still mostly looking at her when she finishes. Mostly.

'We are.' Her use of the phrase 'think you've done something wrong' as opposed to straight up having done something wrong is noted but not something he knows how to protest without probably irritating her. Not that what he does say is very likely to do any better. 'Oh, just need supervision all the time, me. Always need someone nearby.'

Sometimes a girl has to cheat to get her Time Lords to behave. It's just the way things are and what's that saying: All's fair in love and war? This is probably a bit of both. As long as Rose knows where to find him when he's hiding out. Otherwise it becomes just more trouble than it's worth for him to hide out because she begins wondering if he's taking to heart the 'we're bad for you' comment and taking it upon himself to distance himself from her. It'll be a mess he doesn't want to deal with unless he really is doing that.

"Sorta figured with the energy level and the eatin' and the not sleepin' much." That's okay, she's not much in the mood to listen to it. She'd rather have him babble a bit more about what's happening right now. You know, the emotions thing that's so difficult for him. After all, the other him thinks this one is better with emotions.

"Don't care." She says it quickly, almost cutting his words off. "Made my choice, long time ago, Doctor. Signed up for the supervision and nearby position. Not goin' anywhere." Her body language, tone of voice and expression on her face are out right defiant, jaw set so that really it hurts considering her recent injury. She is entirely and completely in 'do not mess with me/Bad Wolf' mode and she got there lightening quick, the moment he agreed they were bad for her. In fact, it's almost frightening how quickly that mode switched on. She won't argue that particular 'bad for you' point because she knows it's an argument she can't win. The other one, she stands a chance.

There's only so many places he can hide here. She found him when she had all of time and space and half a broken TARDIS and it only took her two years; he doubts it's worth putting too much effort trying to sneak away in a confined pocket dimension when there's a full team of people here who know him and how he thinks. Especially now that one of those people is him, considering the whole constantly aware of the other thing.

They really have some funny misconceptions about themselves. He's fairly certain he hasn't exhibited anything so far indicating that he's any better with emotions than he's been in the past.

If he weren't actively holding an ice pack to her face there's a better chance he would have stepped back. Normally he holds fairly steady ground, but this is Rose and he already feels like he's messed up. As it is he just sort of shifts his balance a little but doesn't really move. 'Shouldn't have had to in the first place.'

Now she's just going to get angry at him. She reaches up, fingers wrapping around his wrist so she can remove the ice pack (and his hand). She doesn't let go of his wrist though and she steps closer. "Doctor, you know how happy I am here with you. You've felt it and it's not because we're trapped in this stupid City. It's because I've got you. If there was anybody back on my Earth that made me half that happy, I wouldn't have gotten in the TARDIS with you, no matter that could travel in time."

She slides her hand up underneath the cuff of his jacket and his shirt so that her hand curves around his bare wrist and then she concentrates, using everything she's picked up in the last few weeks and everything he's taught her to force every single bit of love, awe and happiness she feels when thinking about him into him. Good luck dealing with that, Doctor because she's not messing around or doing it half way or just letting things bubble over this time.

"That's worth everything."

Whoops. See now he knows he's gotten himself in trouble. He stays very still and quiet while she's talking, because really she is right that he's had the chance to actually feel her happiness and contentment with things and he's just being petulant about them now. Granted, he feels like he has a bit of a reason for all the negative feelings, but she's got a point too.

He's far too caught up in things to realise what she's doing until it's already in progress, at which point it is far too late to do anything about it. He's entirely unprepared for her purposeful channelling, particularly being used to it happening by accident. Almost immediately his breath catches and the hand holding the ice relaxes, dropping it even as he sort of grabs for nearby things in an attempt to not stumble completely over. As it is, the nearby things are her and the counter.

'Stop!' Not because it's a bad thing but really just more entirely overwhelming and he doesn't actually want to fall over. 'I believe you, just-- Hang on a moment.'

Oops, now she feels a little guilty. She pulls her hand away, moving it back to rest over his jacket. She catches him a bit on the other side as well. She let's go of the attitude and goes over into 'take care of the Doctor' mode. "Come on. Let's sit down."

She's going to try and guide him down to sit on the floor. "Sorry." She sounds the tiniest bit sheepish about it but not actually sorry she did it. "Didn't realise it would..." Well, nearly knock him over. She's very careful to both rein in her emotions and to not touch his hand, neck or face. She'd rather let him get on his feet again and stop looking like he's going to pass out before she tries that again.

"I couldn't let you keep thinkin' that. I couldn't let you tell me that I shouldn't have made the decision to travel with you, to fight so hard to get back to you."

Edited 2012-01-03 23:41 (UTC)

He's actually going to let her for the moment, settling down with his back against the cabinets. 'No, it's... I'll be fine. Little overwhelmed is all. How did you do that?' Because he'd had no idea she'd learned that well until just now.

There's a few seconds of just sitting there getting himself back to rights and sorting through everything she just gave him before he actually responds.

'I do keep making decisions for you despite the number of times I've been informed they were incorrect.' With a vague sense of amusement; likely at his own learning curve in that particular area. 'Find you, send you away, find me, send you away... I'm sorry.'

She sits down in front of him, scooting sort of between his legs and putting her feet on either side of his hips so that she's close but not in his lap. She gnaws on her bottom lip, shrugging at bit at his question. "Don't really know? Just sorta...I was ticked that you were tryin' to make decisions for me again and I wanted you to feel all the reasons you are exactly what I need so I...grab hold of you and...concentrated on every good and positive feeling you give me. I wanted you to feel how strong all of those feelings were."

Which apparently is even stronger than she'd estimated. "I didn't mean to hurt you."

Well now they're sort of even. He's not likely to end up with a black eye but he might have a headache--one worse than the one he's already got.

She nods at his apology. "Just stop doin' it, okay? Maybe I'm young--" And she suspects that's part of the reason he keeps making decisions for her: the whole 'you're too young to know what's good for you' school of thought. "But I've been through enough to know what I want." Hello, finding him in all of time and space with a half broken TARDIS or absorbing the time vortex and holding onto it long enough to really muck up the timelines with graffiti.

He was definitely sort of expecting her to sit next to him against the counter as well, not that what she's chosen instead is a bad thing. 'Fast learner.' Which is a slight deflection; there's a certain amount of disbelief that she could possibly have that many positive feelings about him or them or anything, and yet it's kind of hard to argue with the evidence. The concern is waved off though. 'You didn't hurt me. Took me by surprise, sure, but the only danger of injury is from whatever I hit on the way down.' Although the headache thing might pan out. Probably nothing he doesn't really deserve for being so dumb about everything.

It's kind of funny, the differences sheer age will bring about. There's a definite amount of self-assuredness at both ends of the spectrum though, which is likely part of what they're running into. 'One day I'll stop underestimating you in that particular respect.'

She sort of wanted to be able to see him without turning her head. His expressions and body language are important right now as he's not likely to be incredibly verbal. "Told you I was when it's important to me." She learned an incredibly amount about theoretical physics, dimensions, time and abnormalities in those things in an astoundingly short amount of time. Several months really, it wasn't as if UNIT was going to wait on her to catch up. She's far an expert but she's no longer just a girl without A-levels either.

She can't argue with that, especially if the resulting headache teaches him not to be so dumb.

"Yeah? I'll mark that one on the calendar." She's teasing him, nudging his knee lightly with hers. It's time to introduce a little bit of light into a tense conversation.

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