preserved_ginger

Title: You Must Remember This / A Kiss Is Just A Kiss
Rating: 12
Characters: Martha Jones, Rose Tyler (off-camera), The Doctor
Pairing: Doctor/Rose
Spoilers: None past Smith and Jones
A/N: The title comes from the song As Time Goes By. These drabbles are my attempt at showing the difference the Doctor sees between a "genetic transfer" and a kiss.
Summary: There is a difference, a big difference, between the two kisses.

First, the kiss that the Doctor uses as his benchmark. Take your pick where in Season 2 it occurs (my money's on somewhere between New Earth and Tooth & Claw):

The Doctor's brain tells him this is a spectacularly bad idea, but he over-rules it and for once in his long lives acts entirely on impulse. He gently enfolds Rose in his embrace for a moment and then uses a hand to tilt her face up towards him; quickly enough so all she sees is how dark his eyes have become – coloured like roasted (no, burnt) chestnut shells – he swoops to kiss her. She reacts in seconds; what starts as a relatively chaste kiss lengthens and deepens until everything they feel about each other is alive in this moment.

Second, the "genetic transfer" from Smith & Jones, and why it could never be the same as a kiss for the Doctor:

He knows what kisses mean to humans now and he really doesn't want to do this, not with anyone who isn't her, but he can't think of an alternative. He kisses Martha on the lips to provide the “genetic transfer” he needs to buy himself time.

Clinically detached in a way he'd never quite managed with Rose, he notices how Martha's lips feel the same, but so very, very different.

He wonders how long it will be before he can see somebody and not see things in them that remind him of her. He almost hopes that time comes soon.