THE MERMAID BRIDE

Chapter Two

Rose sat under a tree and stretched out her legs. She was inside the TARDIS in a garden room that she had discovered when she first started traveling with the Doctor. The room was simulated to look like it was outdoors. There was grass as far as the eye could see with trees scattered everywhere. Vibrant flowers grew in patches and butterflies fluttered around them. The sky was always sunny with minimal clouds and occasionally there was even a rainbow to provide a bit of color in the heavens. It never clouded over completely and it never rained. It was the perfect meditation spot and Rose made it her own private spot.

She came here to take a break from the others. Since River came aboard, the two of them had spent time with Amy and Rory and had been pretty much inseparable, except when they slept. River told Rose she wanted to speak to the Doctor for a moment and the Ponds went off to their room so Rose came in here and sat down. She was still sat on the ground when the Doctor came in. She was dressed for the beach, leather sandals and a white sundress. Since coming back to the Doctor and becoming his lives mate, the TARDIS had begun to teach her about Gallifreyan history and culture and Rose had adopted some of the ways of the Doctor's people. She was growing her hair out and had it pulled back and twisted into a bun that looked like a small figure eight. The hairstyle had been popular among the Gallifreyan women because it resembled the Seal of Rassilon. At first, it had been time consuming to get the bun to look just right but now it took her all of ten minutes to twist it into the figure eight design after using a rubber band to divide her ponytail in half. The rubber band acted as the center of the figure eight. Then she used a clip to affix the bottom of the ponytail to the rubber band and then she turned it up so the loop formed the top part and clipped it again and finally used a couple of Kirby grips to hold the bun against her head and put it in place. She liked it and so did the Doctor so it was now her usual hairstyle.

She smiled at the Doctor while he approached her.

"You look lovely," he said, sitting down beside her. "You fancy that Seal of Rassilon hairdo, don't ya?"

"Yeah, I like it. It took several days to master it but I love the way it looks when I do it properly."

"As do I, I'm glad you're adopting the ways of my people. But I don't understand why you insist on coming in here. It's beautiful but I find the butterfly room more peaceful."

"Yes but I found this before the butterfly room and made it my own. I'd rather come here," Rose said. "Did you find River? She's looking for ya."

"She did find me and that's why I'm here. I need to ask you something."

"Yeah?"

The Doctor sighed and leaned up against the tree.

"River is insisting on a double wedding with us as the second couple," he said. "I told her the A'tieri ritual is similar to marriage since we shared essences and made a vow to be together and a marriage would be a bit redundant after that but she wants us to be there alongside her and John. What'd ya think?"

"I wouldn't mind. What we did was between us and it would be nice to do something openly that everyone could attend."

"Even your mum?"

"Are you gonna go get her?" Rose said.

"If you want, I'll have the TARDIS try to find another gap for us to go through and use the energy booster again. But…River wants a traditional Gallifreyan wedding or at least a mixture since I told her I didn't want to wear my Prydonnian robes. If we do this, we can't go to an Earth church. We'd have to find somewhere else and I can just see Jackie whinging about it. It's your call but you know, she's in another universe and we don't have to let her know.

"Yeah but I'd like for her to come if you can get over there safely," Rose said. "I don't know how mum would feel about it but if she ever gets word about us marrying without her there, I'll never hear the end of it."

"Fair enough," the Doctor said.

"What about Amy and Rory then?" Rose said.

"What about them?"

Rose gave him a cheeky grin.

"Triple wedding? They could renew their vows," Rose said innocently.

"Um…are we going to have an audience at all during this thing? What about Jackie and Pete renewing their vows? Maybe I could go get Mickey and Martha and we could have a long line of couples standing in a queue to say their vows like we're waiting for food at McDonalds."

Rose pinched his cheek.

"You just want to have the ceremony all to yourself," she teased.

"No, I don't want to be a part of the ceremony at all. It's supposed to be River and John's day. Good job I regenerated so you can tell me and John apart now. That would really get confusing."

"Nah, you two would have fun with it. Dress alike, act alike, switch spouses," Rose said. "You'd bring havoc on the wedding if you thought you'd get away with it."

"Mmmmm…" the Doctor said, looking away innocently, "perhaps. So are we including the Ponds in this shindig or not?"

"Ask em, I wouldn't mind and I'm sure River wouldn't. But I don't know how Rory would feel about it."

"He'd probably decline and Amy would have him by the bollocks and drag him down the aisle that way while saying, come on, stupidhead, we have to do this!" he said, doing a perfect mimicry of Amy's voice.

"That's creepy when you do that," Rose said.

"Do what, love?" he said, mimicking Rose's voice perfectly.

"Okay, stop that!" Rose teased.

"Allons-y!" he said, mimicking his tenth self's voice. "Molto bene! Shama-lama-ding-dong?"

Rose giggled and the Doctor put his arm around her and leaned in.

"You stupid apes," he said, mimicking his ninth self. "Always getting in trouble and I have to pull you out of it. Blah blah blah, whinge, whinge, whinge."

"Is that how you see yourself?" Rose said.

"Looking back on my ninth life? Yes," he said in his normal voice. "And my last life was very bouncy but very depressed towards the end. I think before you left me, it was bouncy and then alternating bouncy and sad afterwards. Then I became bouncy again in this life."

"Too right you are," Rose said, rolling her eyes and giggling when the Doctor tickled her ribcage. "But better bouncy than sullen."

"Yes! And on that note, are you ready for the seaside?"

"I am," Rose said.

He took her hand and helped her to stand up. He put his arm around while they headed for the door.

"Allons-y!" he said, mimicking his tenth self as they walked.

"Brilliant!" Rose said in a deep voice.

"Would you like a jelly baby?"

Rose frowned when he did an unfamiliar voice and asked who it was.

"That was my forth life. He was very fond of jelly babies. Want one?"

"Um…no, thanks," Rose said as the Doctor opened the door and let her go through first.

He walked out behind her, closed the door and put his arm back around her while they headed towards the console room.

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