#timelordinvictus

I won’t argue with that. I mean...

Rose Tyler got the feeling she wasn’t actually welcome here.

That was a new feeling. She had ghostwritten several extremely successful books, and usually the people she shadowed and wrote for were more than happy to have her around, to brag about their accomplishments to the only person left willing to listen.

Dr. Jo Noble… not so much.

Rose would admit, she didn’t know much about Dr. Noble. She usually wrote for politicians, or sports stars. But Dr. Noble was a scientist, and an extremely accomplished one at that. Rose had a feeling this was going to involve a lot of research. Or getting a copy editor who understood science better than her.

If she even got to write the book, that was.

“Joanna you’re being ridiculous,” Donna insisted as she followed Dr. Noble around the lab. It had been Donna Noble who had hired Rose to ghost write Dr. Noble’s biography (Rose was pretty sure they were related. If not because of their last name than by the way they were currently sniping at each other).

“I told you I didn’t want any part of this,” Dr. Noble snapped back, Donna rolled her eyes.

“Just think about the money this could make!”

“I don’t care about the money!”

Donna made a motion like she wanted to strangle Dr. Noble, then sighed loudly. “At least talk to this woman? She drove all the bloody way out here to meet your rude arse, the least you can do is say hello.”

Dr. Noble turned to look at Rose,squinting at her through her glasses, and Rpse instantly felt like she was being x-rayed. “Hello,” she said flatly before turning back to Donna. “There. Happy?”

“With you? Never.”

The women both huffed, just glaring at each other, and Rose sighed. “Should I go?” This would have been an amazing job but she clearly wasn’t welcome.

“No,” Donna said at once. “You can sit here and talk to ungrateful sister until she gets her head out of the damn clouds and remembers what it’s like to live on Earth.”

“Goodbye Donna.”

Donna stuck her tongue out at Dr. Noble before walking out. Dr. Noble sighed, tugging at a lock of hair and looking at Rose. And to Rose’s great surprised, she actually smiled a bit. “Sorry about that. I can never seem like I like Donna’s ideas too much.”

Rose blinked rapidly. “So you… don’t mind that I’m here to ghost write your biography?”

“I mean I don’t love the idea, to be honest. I think it’s entirely unnecessary. But I’ve seen your work. It’s amazing.”

Rose blushed a bit at that. “O-Oh. Thank you.”

Okay. Maybe this wouldn’t be too bad.

* * * * * * * * * * *

Rose spent the next three months getting to know every single aspect of Dr. Joanna Noble’s life.

It was kind of a fascinating story, if not a little typical. Lower middle class family, dead father, child genius, etc. etc. She got into Columbia on a full scholarship, studying astrophysics, and got her first job at twenty-one. She had been making amazing strides in her field for nearly ten years now, had job offers from all over the world, and chose to stay in London out of loyalty to the first people who had given her a chance when she had still been a nobody.

She was also absolutely beautiful, and intelligent, and got a glazed, somewhat far off look in her eyes whenever she started babbling too intently about things Rose had no hopes of ever understanding.

It was hard not to develop a small crush on her.

“So what about your love life?”

It was part of the interview. Really. Rose had to learn about every single aspect of Dr. Noble’s life. Even the personal parts. Dr. Noble laughed.

“No one was exactly falling over themselves for me when I was in school. Now of course there’s no way to know who likes me for me and who likes me for the weight my name carries, so it’ll probably just be me, my sister, and my four cats forever.”

Rose had a very hard time imagining that house. Not the four cats – she had two herself, she understood the appeal. But Dr. Noble and Donna (who acted as her sister’s assistant and sometimes publicist) couldn’t be in a room together for more than three minutes without arguing about something.

Either they were never together at home or that was a very loud house.

“Four cats?”

“Banana, Cookie, Bean, and Pizza.” Dr. Noble dug her phone out of her pocket to pull up pictures of the cats. “You might notice a theme in names.”

“Nah, didn’t notice at all,” Rose teased as she looked at the pictures. She thought it was kind of cute, how much Dr. Noble loved her cats. There were dozens of pictures of each cat.

“Jo, there’s a newspaper on the phone that wants an interview with you,” Donna announced, walking into the lab.

“Nope.”

“Joanna.”

“Nope.”

Donna huffed and stormed out again. “Why don’t you want any publicity?” Rose asked curiously. Jo shrugged.

“If I wanted attention for the job I do I’d be a celebrity. I just want to do my work and be left in peace.”

“You probably shouldn’t be so good at what you do then,” Rose pointed out with a small smile, and Jo laughed. Rose… really liked that laugh.

“Yeah, probably. I just want a quiet life, ya know?”

Rose smiled. “Yeah. Understandable.”

@carolinecaroline -- Your blog is so much fun!! There is so much to scroll through, between fandom and funny posts <3

@timelordinvictus -- LISA!!! You know I love you. You’re my favorite ho :* But seriously, you’re so kind and funny and brilliant, and I’m so glad to know you <3

@anonymityjane327 -- You have a really great blog! It’s a lovely mix of fandom and funny and political/social posts! Excellent! <3

@cartersreese -- MK! You are such a fantastic human, an you’re so talented and creative! You’re an amazing science buddy and I love you <3

Yes.

The click of the door latching into place behind Eliza echoed through the room like a gunshot.

He was gone. Laurens was gone.

He could feel the burning start behind his eyes as he tried to focus on the papers in front of him. There was so much work to do, so much to be done but the words were suddenly obscured by a watery veil.

He blinked them back, ignoring the droplets that fell onto the paper - it was just a draft anyways. There was work he had to work, had to achieve all the things that he’d told John he was going to do, had to make all those dreams of theirs reality even if only one of them was around to see it happen.

He ruined two quills before he managed to get a whole, coherent sentence written again. Words spilled onto the page after that at a breakneck speed. The cramps in his hand didn’t matter. The candles burning down didn’t matter.

It was just the work.

He had to work.

Part One || Part Two

Part Three of a semi on-going series.

For @timelordinvictus, who is currently very cross with me. luv u :*

“Why don't you come over for dinner so we can talk more?”

Rose's entire brain momentarily turned off when Dr. Noble invited her to dinner. Honestly, she was being a bit ridiculous – this crush was getting out of hand.

“That'd be brilliant, actually. And I can get an exclusive interview with your sister.” She added that last part teasingly, and Dr. Noble rolled her eyes, laughing.

“Sadly my sister has a date tonight. It'll just be you, me, and the cats.”

“That'll be brilliant too.”

Theo watched from the corner as Rose was spun around the dance floor by some bloke, the almost scandalously short hemline of her dress flaring out and drawing her eyes to the exposed bits of leg that Theo had traced with her tongue just that morning.

Her fingers itched with the urge to go touch, to show everyone in here that Rose was hers. They both knew it, but nights like these were essential in that they made sure no one was the wiser as to why the two of them were still living together and unmarried after five years.

She caught her lover’s eye and her heart skipped at Rose’s smile, the one that was always just for her. Theo took a sip of her sidecar and waited for the dance to end and her Rose to return.

!!!!!!!!! I’m with Kelsey.