Some Go Mad

The Doctor watched Rose as she slept. A few hours previously she'd become overwhelmingly tired and asked him if there was some place she could sleep for awhile. He led her back through the hallway she'd been admiring earlier and showed her to a bedroom. As soon as her head touched the pillow, Rose had been out.

Doctor had learned quite a bit about the young girl in the short amount of time they'd had together before she'd gone to sleep. She hadn't even had to say anything. While she looked at the photos he had on his console, Doctor watched her, just as he was watching her now. Rose was good at hiding it, but she was a sensitive girl. She was smart, but not genius smart. She cared about the people around her, especially her family. But she felt trapped. She was with her family all day, every day. She rarely had time for herself, and normally that didn't bother her. Recently, though, eversince the Doctor had come into her life, she'd realized just how suffocated she felt. Doctor didn't know just what had changed her mind, but he had a feeling it had something to do with Rose's family.

While she was sleeping, all of the creases and uneasiness were swept from her face. She was just a seventeen-year-old girl. She seemed peaceful for the first time since Doctor had met her. Instead of hiding behind what was going on around her, she let herself out. When Rose was around the Doctor, she couldn't keep herself back.

A couple hours later, the Doctor was sitting on the bench in the main area of his TARDIS, waiting for Rose to wake up. He was thinking about how much she had changed since he'd met her in Mr. Hammond's office. Most people wouldn't have noticed it, even the people who knew Rose better than she knew herself. But the Doctor wasn't most people. He knew that Rose preferred to be left to herself, and he knew that when she was around him, she didn't want to be alone. She wanted to be right beside him, asking questions, giving her opinions. They had known each other not even a week, and already Rose felt closer to the Doctor than she felt even to Matty or Jenny.

"Doctor?"

The Doctor jumped up, at first startled, but then a grin spread over his face. "Hello, Rose!"

She smiled at him. "Hello," she said quietly.

"You slept well, I hope?"

Rose nodded. "Yes, thank you." She bit her lip, tucking her hair behind her ears.

"So," the Doctor said, leaning against the console, his elbow centimetres away from hitting a lever. "Where would you like to go, Rose? We can go anywhere you'd like. Just say it and we'll be there in less than a minute." He smiled again, the light Rose had grown so accustomed to even brighter in his eyes now.

"Anywhere that isn't Earth."

Doctor raised his eyebrows. "'Anywhere that isn't Earth' is a lot of places. That gives me a lot of leeway. Lots of choices."

Rose shrugged. "I'm not choosy. And I have all the time in the universe. Show me the stars, Doctor."

***

Rose sat cross-legged on the bench, watching the Doctor yank on levers, hit buttons, pull on pullies. He had taken almost fifteen minutes while contemplating where to take her. During that time, Rose had walked around the console. She was memorizing the buttons, levers, and pullies. She had a feeling that with the Doctor, someday she might need to have the knowledge of how to fly his ship.

Doctor spun around to face the girl. "Well, Rose, are you ready?"

Taking a deep breath, Rose nodded.

Doctor grabbed hold of her hand and pulled her from the bench. They walked together to the doors, and Doctor opened them.

Rose stepped out of the TARDIS ahead of him, staring around. They were in what seemed to be a marketplace, only instead of people milling about, there were aliens. Rose didn't know whether or not that was the politically correct term to use, but she was too embarrassed at not knowing to even ask the Doctor. She let go of his hand, knowing he would follow wherever she went.

The place seemed to be a melting pot of all sorts of different races of aliens. Some big, some were small. They had an entire Crayon box assortment of skin colors. The thing was, though, that were just like humans. Looking at different booths at jewelry, clothes, works of art. It was no different from back home on Earth. Rose sat down at a table that was in front of, what she could only assume was, a food cart. The Doctor sat down beside her.

"Where are we?" she asked, not looking away from the peoples walking back and forth in front of her.

"Epimetheus."

Rose shook her head. "I don't know what that is."

"One of Saturn's moons. Epimetheus is used as a giant market. Races from all over the universe come here to shop, you know. The entire rock is just one big strip mall."

"Shouldn't we know about this? I mean, us humans."

The Doctor laughed. "No, no. It's hidden from you guys. You won't find out about it for...oh...about 584 years. It really is funny sometimes how far behind you humans are."

Rose gave him a pointed look.

"Oh, shush," Doctor said, tugging on a piece of her hair. "You're one of my absolute favorite races. I can say what I want about you." He saw Rose staring at the cart in front of them. "Are you hungry, Rose?"

Rose's eyes widened. "Oh, I don't think-"

Doctor grinned, grabbing her hand in his again and dragging her towards the cart. "You'd be surprised, Rose Jackson."

Once at the counter, the man who was working the cart, his nametag said "Barlo", asked Rose what she would like (she didn't even wonder to herself how she could understand what the man was saying, as she could very clearly see that his lips were not making the words that she was hearing, but made a mental note to ask the Doctor about it once they were back in the TARDIS). Rose stared at the Doctor, her cheeks flushing. She didn't know what to say. From what she could see, there wasn't even a menu. "I don't..." She smiled sheepishly at the man.

"Rose, here." The Doctor pointed what looked to be a computer monitor. There were all sorts of different writings on the screen.

Rose felt overwhelmed.

Doctor put his finger on the screen and scrolled down until Rose saw the word "Earth." He touched the spot where Earth was written and list of the planet's continents popped up on the screen. He clicked on Europe, then England. A menu of different foods that were familiar to Rose came up and she sighed internally.

She scrolled through the options clicking only on two things: chips and tea. She smiled up at Barlo, who had patiently waited for her to choose what she wanted. He gave her a smile in return and then handed her the food, which had miraculously shown up on the countertop beside him. Rose turned to the Doctor in a panic. "I haven't any money," she whispered.

The Doctor was just about to respond when he was interrupted by Barlo. "First time on Epimetheus?" he asked.

Rose nodded, cheeks growing hotter and redder by the second.

"No problem," he said, smiling. "This one's on me."

"Oh," Rose breathed. "Oh, well, thank you."

The Doctor pulled her shirtsleeve and walked back over to the table they'd been sitting at, Rose trailing behind with a small smile on her face. Once she'd taken her seat Doctor flicked her on the nose. "That wasn't so bad, was it?"

Rose popped a chip into her mouth. "Whaddya mean?"

"Dealing with a strange alien man."

"I've had practice in that field, Doctor. Barlo isn't the first strange alien man I've met." Rose smiled at him.

The Doctor grabbed a chip from Rose's basket and smiled back at her