#twlevexrose

[chasingthecosmos]

Call Me But Love

Fandom: Doctor Who Rating: T Pairing: The Doctor/Rose Tyler, Twelfth Doctor/Rose Tyler (The Doctor/Clara Oswald, Twelfth Doctor/Clara Oswald) Chapters: 7/40 Read on AO3 here.

“‘Oh, dear. Looks like we might have picked up an extra passenger,’ the Doctor grumbled to himself. His gaze raised to Rose’s once more and she was struck by the sheer intensity of it and the way that he managed to look at once so familiar, and yet so different from what she was used to. ‘Best find something to hold on to,’ he warned her ominously.”

A Season 8 & 9 AU centering around Rose Tyler and her newly-regenerated Doctor as they both struggle to maintain their relationship in the face of some unknown force that seems to be drawing them together. Will they be able to solve the mystery of who is pulling the strings before it’s too late?

This is a direct sequel to “By Any Other Name” and might be a bit confusing if you haven’t read that first. Tags will be updated as I go.

Rose knew immediately that she had been traveling for too long with the Doctor when the sheer normalcy of Coal Hill School instantly began to grate against her nerves.

However, the headteacher who greeted her (Mr. Armitage, as he introduced himself) seemed very excited by her list of references and the extensive CV (which had somehow been sent to him without Rose's knowledge) filled with experience that Rose herself had never actually completed. The entire interview process felt extremely forced, and Rose found that she had to fight to remember how normal people spoke to one another and lived out their day-to-day lives as she attempted to pretend to be an average, twenty-first-century mid-twenties school teacher.

The whole situation made Rose extremely nervous, and she found that she was unconsciously bracing herself at every corner, waiting for whoever it was who was pulling the strings on this odd operation to suddenly reveal themselves and explain why they had designed for her to be a teacher, of all things.

Still, if she was really going to go through with this whole plan as the Doctor seemed to think that she should, she was at least pleased to find that Miss. Clara Oswald appeared to be an English teacher - the one subject that Rose felt that she had a relatively firm grasp on.

About half-way through her tour of the new school, Mr. Armitage was leading Rose through the mingling adults in the staff room when he suddenly pulled her up short next to a tall, young man and announced, "Ah! Here he is! Clara, I want to introduce you to Danny Pink. He's new, just like you - teaches maths. Danny? Clara Oswald."

The young man next to them suddenly turned and Rose smiled in warm welcome as she took in his soft brown eyes and kind smile. He was tall, just like the Doctor, but he seemed to be more solidly built and had dark skin and a closely-shaved beard. All in all, Rose had to admit that he was quite handsome, and she didn't doubt Mr. Armitage in the least as he teasingly accused the young man of being a "lady-killer".

"I am not a 'lady-killer'," Danny insisted with a somewhat-strained smile.

"Don't worry, I've met plenty of those before," Rose assured them both with a playful smirk. "I think I'll be able to handle myself."

"Why don't you show Miss. Oswald around a little and help her to get better acquainted with the school, Danny?" Mr. Armitage suggested brightly. "I figured that since you're so new yourself, you two might get all well."

"I don't know if I ..." Danny attempted to protest, but he was quickly cut off as the headteacher completely ignored him and turned back to Rose once more instead.

"Right, then - I'll be off," he stated as he took up Rose's hand in a firm handshake. "Please let us know if there's anything at all that we can do for you, Miss. Oswald. I so look forward to hearing from you. You know how to contact me - we'd be happy to have you whenever you're willing to start!"

The older man bustled off before Rose or Danny could get a word in edgewise, and when the two of them met eyes again, the young man flashed her a small, apologetic smile. "So ... what subject will you be teaching?" Danny asked slowly in an attempt to break the awkward silence that had fallen between them.

"English," Rose replied easily. "If I decide to take the offer, that is. And you teach maths, right?" She smirked as she lowered her voice, leaned in conspiratorially, and added, "Never been too good at the subject, myself. I have a friend who normally insists on doing all of the science and maths."

"'A friend'?" Danny repeated curiously as he led her out of the staff room, holding the door open for her politely as he gestured down the hallway in the direction of whatever sort of tour he planned to take her on.

"Yep - a friend," Rose agreed, her smile turning cryptic as she patiently allowed him to lead the way further down the hallway. She wasn't about to divulge any more information about the Doctor than was strictly necessary - not to any of this lot, anyway. She still didn't even rightfully know what was going on in this strange school or why she had been so purposefully summoned here. She decided that it would probably be best to keep information about her bondmate and their unusual life together a secret for now.

"So ... how long have you been working here, then?" Rose asked curiously, eager to learn a little bit more about the history of the place and the teachers who worked here.

"Just a few months, really," Danny replied with another small shrug. "I was in the army, before. It's been a while since I've gotten to teach. I'm looking forward to a bit of ..."

"Normalcy ...?" Rose supplied helpfully when the young man's words trailed off and his brows began to furrow over his dark eyes in a clouded expression that she knew only too well from spending time with the Doctor.

"Yeah," Danny agreed, flashing her a small, shy smile. "'Normalcy' ..."

"Well, doesn't get much more 'normal' than this ..." Rose continued conversationally as she glanced around the mundane, nondescript school hallways. "I can't remember the last time I was in a school like this. Brings back a lot of memories ..." Not all of them memories that she could necessarily talk about, either - as images of bat-like krillitanes suddenly flashed through her mind.

"So this is your first teaching position, then?" Danny asked, instantly bringing her back to the present and the many strange occurrences that had led her to Coal Hill School.

"I ... suppose you could say that," Rose replied awkwardly, unsure of how to answer such a question when "Clara's" history was still largely unknown to her.

"It's not as hard as it looks," Danny assured her breezily.

"No ...?" Rose asked, flashing him a doubtful look out of the corner of her eye. After all, she could still remember what she, herself, had been like when she was a teenager all those years ago. She couldn't imagine that times had changed that much in the British schooling system.

"Alright, there are some things that can be pretty difficult," Danny admitted with a small sigh. His eyes grew distant for a moment as he seemed to consider the specific "difficult" students who he was attempting not to name out loud, but when he turned back to Rose, he was smiling again as he added, "But it can be fun, too. The other teachers here are all pretty supportive. In fact, there's a party tonight that they're doing - it's like a 'going-away' thing for one of the other teachers that they're putting on. I wasn't going to go, it's just a small, casual get-together, but ... I don't know, maybe you would want to ...?"

His boyish nervousness brought a smile to Rose's lips despite herself as she watched him struggle for words. It all just seemed to add to the strange, pervasive normalcy that appeared to permeate this place and time, and she was struck by how it made her feel like such an outsider. These day-to-day human tasks and trials just weren't something that she did - not anymore, not in a very long time. It was strange to her that she no longer seemed to fit into her own planet and time when she had an alien husband and a time ship that were both waiting to whisk her away.

"Sorry, but I think I already have plans," Rose admitted with a small, sympathetic smile. She didn't miss Danny's disappointed exhale as she added, "You should still go, though. It sounds like it's going to be a good time. And since you're such a ... 'lady-killer', I'm sure you won't be shy of company."

"I'm not ..." Danny insisted exasperatedly.

"Yeah, okay, sure," Rose dismissed him teasingly. She recognized the front doors as they approached them and quickly put an end to their tour of the school as she broke off from Danny and prepared to leave. She figured that she had gotten about as much information from this place as she could - which wasn't much, if she were being honest - and she was ready to return to the Doctor and their own version of normal.

"Seriously, though. You should go," Rose insisted encouragingly as she turned to flash the kind young man one last parting smile. "Go and have a drink on me."

"What about some other time?" Danny asked, the question surprising them both as it seemed to fall from his lips without warning. "You and me, we could go get a drink together ... Nothing fancy, just a casual ..."

"Date ...?" Rose finished for him once more as he seemed to continue to struggle to find the right words. "Sorry, but I don't think so," she replied with another teasing smile. "I wouldn't want to make anyone jealous. Can't have rivalries springing up on my first day."

Danny rolled his eyes at her, but his smile remained hopeful as he watched Rose disappear through the school's front doors. Rose didn't even have the chance to begin to consider how she was going to deal with that lingering look before she practically ran headlong into the Doctor, who appeared to have been waiting for her directly outside of the front doors and stood there as unmoving as a statue as she jumped and stuttered to a stop before colliding bodily with him.

"Sorry ..." she gasped in shock before realizing who exactly it was who was standing before her and recovering herself. "Oh, it's you," she murmured cheerily. "Have you been waiting long?"

"Yes," the Doctor replied plainly, his expression very near a scowl as he stared down at her in silence for a moment before turning on his heel and adding, "You were taking too long, so I've been knocking about the future a bit. Found a dalek and a space hospital, thought I might need a second opinion for the job, so I popped back to pick you up."

Rose followed him dutifully back to the TARDIS as he ranted, her breath hitching on the easy way that he spoke of the daleks, his calm veneer not fooling her in the least as she felt out the jittery uneasiness of his thoughts.

"Why were you smiling, by the way?" he continued breezily as he pushed through the TARDIS doors and didn't bother to pause and hold them open for her as Danny had.

"Was I?" Rose asked in startled confusion. "No, I wasn't ..."

"You were smiling at nothing," the Doctor insisted over his shoulder as he continued on to the console controls and didn't bother sparing her a second look. "I'd almost say you were in love, but to be honest ..."

"'Honest'?" Rose interrupted, leveling a dubious look in his direction that he ignored as he circled the central space before her.

"You're not a young woman anymore," he finished pointedly, flashing her an irritated look that Rose didn't feel was entirely deserved.

"Are we seriously going to start comparing ages, now?" she demanded, her tone growing slightly acidic as she raised her chin in stubborn defiance of his glare.

"Just don't want you going out and bringing home strays," the Doctor grumbled under his breath as he returned his hard expression to the console controls before him.

"What, like you do?" Rose snapped in irritation. When he failed to come up with a retort to that, she crossed her arms over her chest as she squared her shoulders in his direction and demanded, "Do you really think I would do that? Do you have so little faith in me?" Realization dawned on her in waves and Rose's glare melted into shocked surprise as she tentatively prodded against the edges of his thoughts and added, "Wait ... are you jealous right now?"

"'Jealous'?" the Doctor scoffed in frustration as he finally turned to look at her properly once more. "Me? Don't be silly ..." But there was no denying the way that he was quickly hoarding his thoughts away from her once more, clearly eager to keep his inner insecurities to himself.

"I can't believe this ... You're actually jealous, aren't you?" Rose insisted, a disbelieving look crossing her features as she fought to determine whether she was more annoyed or pleased by this new information. She shared a lifelong telepathic bond with the man, for heaven's sake. He clearly didn't ever have to worry about her running off with another man. But the fact that he was so concerned about keeping her to himself still filled her with hope that maybe he would stop trying to abandon her at every turn.

"Rose, I am a two-thousand-year-old alien from space, I don't do 'jealous'," the Doctor snapped stubbornly.

"Could have fooled me with those big, sad eyes and the grumpy old frown," she teased, her tone coming out a bit sharper than she intended as she continued to war between amusement and annoyance.

The Doctor braced his hands against the console before him as he glared at her from under his thick, heavy brows and allowed a moment of silence to fall between them. As his keen eyes watched her, she could feel his presence in the back of her mind, still hesitantly feeling her out as though he weren't exactly sure how to communicate with her anymore.

"Rose, I need something from you," he muttered darkly as he carefully regarded her. "I need the truth."

"Okay ..." she agreed slowly, her hands falling to her sides as her thoughts immediately softened, ready to accept whatever it was that he would ask of her. She still wasn't about to let the Doctor get away with treating her with so little faith and trust, but the intensity in his expression and the desperation in his tone immediately called out to her and silenced all else for the time being. She tilted her head at him in wonder as she realized suddenly, "You're scared ..."

"I'm terrified," he agreed with a small, rueful sigh.

"Of what?" Rose asked cautiously.

"The answer to my next question, which must be honest, cold, and considered - without kindness or restraint," he replied, dropping his gaze from hers as he took a deep breath and continued, "Tell me: am I a good man?"