Rose hummed as she unpacked her boxes. The little flat wasn't much to look at, but it was out of the estates. Just one open room and a little loo tucked off the the corner. It came with furnishings so all she had to do was decorate. And paint. The walls did not deserve the frankly hideous shade of mustard brown they had been given.

She directed the movers as they brought in her prized possession, an old oak piano. It took up about a quarter of her available space, but her priorities were never particularly sensible. It would need tuning after the move, so she was wont to play it yet. Though with her current stress levels and the number of boxes piling up her fingers were itching to dance across the keys. She ran her fingers over the carved branches in the wood. It reminded her of a fairy tale, oak and ivory, carved and capable of singing. A soft snort escaped her nose, yeah closest thing she'd ever get to a fairy tale, stroking an old piano. Lost in thought, Rose neglected to help as most of her boxes where toted up the steps.

"Oi," her friend Donna called from down the hallway out the flat door, "Do ya really need this many pink pillows?" Her arms were full and she stumbled trying to navigate the narrow hall.

"Yeah," Rose grinned her smile wide and toothy, but Donna noted, as was so often as of late, the bright smile didn't quite reach her eyes.

"Well get over and help then!"

Rose hopped down the hall, snatching a few pillows off of Donna's stack and they re-entered the flat. "Let's get painting!" Declared Rose as she set the last of the boxes in the flat, ready to begin unpacking, a task she could manage alone, but the painting… that she wanted assistance on. After several hours spent correcting the horrid pukeish color of her new walls, Donna and Rose were covered in small drying drips of paint and pleased as punch with their work. The only wall left untouched was the "accent" wall, the far wall. Already a decent pleasing shade of cream without any marks, Rose left it alone. She even left up the odd painting of a bowl of bananas. Maybe she'd replace it once she could afford some proper art. Now she just felt glad to have a real picture up with a gilded frame, like the adult everyone said she couldn't be.

The pale soft pink paint was drying by the time she declared herself starving and dragged Donna off for some fish and chips. The line was short and the girls decided to tuck in on a park bench. The day was overcast but not cold, the faint scent of spring on the air.

"You sure you'll be alright on your own?"

"Better than I've been with 'im," Rose retorted nose wrinkling at the reference.

"You could always have moved in with me, or your mum…" Donna trailed off a small spark of amusement in her eyes.

"You already live with your mum and grandad, and I am not moving back in with mum, not again," Rose's face smoothed out as she popped another chip in her mouth, "Immaya fwond fawfat ship sop."

"Wot." Rose swallowed, "Can't leave now, I may have found a favorite chip shop."

"Oh, now you're stuck here!" Donna's bright smile teased.

"S'pose I should be gettin' back," Rose frowned at the setting sun, reluctance to leave her company for the foreseeable future.

"Call me if you need anything. Or nothing. Really, No bother. Or if you find a fit bloke," Donna stood, shering Rose in for a hug. Rose just giggled in reply. "Thank you, Donna."

The walk back was quiet, but Rose knew her new flat would be quieter, so she soaked in the sound of the cars, the soft street chatter, the opening of doors. With the windows left open the paint smell was leaving the room quickly, Rose figured she'd just leave them open, the night would be warm enough. As she prepared for bed, she noticed the oddest tapping noise... or maybe it was a mysterious ticking... from the far wall. Carefully creeping from her sink to the wall, toothbrush poking out from between her lips, she put her ear against the wall, only to have her head jolted as the wall moved a bit. That was odd. She leaned back with a hand rubbing her head, "Wotcha…?" she muttered heading the the sink to spit. The noise stopped and with a glare and a curse to the god of noisy neighbors, Rose sat on her bed and flicked off the light.

With the darkness came the noise. The low pitched haunting sound, potentially a wail or a keen. She sat straight up in bed. It's eerie pattern creeping into her skull and turning her eyes to the wall between flats, with the funny banana picture. And all was well if not a bit unsettling until the picture moved. The damn thing drifted up and down the wall, spun upside down and then returned to its initial position.

Rose didn't feel sleepy any longer and whipped out her mobile. "Donna, yeah, I'm just…" Chatter from the other line was heard in the room, like a whisper compared to whatever ghosts haunted her wall. "I'll be over in ten." Rose grabbed her purse off the bed post and scrambled for the door, locking whatever alien thing haunting the wall was inside.

John grinned. The magnetic coils that reversed the polarity in the independently charging phone, with it's set of coils could be perfectly insulated with packing foam. With the introduction of a secondary set of magnets the phone could be made to levitate, and cold create a small magnetic field of charging itself. A charging loop so to say. Not that this information was of great usefulness but it was fun. He balanced another magnet over the top of the phone.

"No...nononononono," he muttered as the phone promptly overheated and shut off. He really hoped the phone coils hadn't melted again. A buzz interrupted his thoughts and he went to the door to let Jack in.

"Jack," he stated staring into the giddy grin of the man outside the door.

"Soooo," Jack inquired, "how was the new neighbor?"

"Scared 'em out in under three hours, new record," John grinned back, head bobbing in amusement. Jack frowned.

"You know, could have been a beautiful dame, you could have borrowed some flour, borrowed some chapstick...right from the shortest source…"

"I don't do that." John's tone went from bubbly to icy in half a heartbeat.

"John…"

"And no you can't go flirting with her either. Want her to stay gone not come round every week looking for your apologies."

"So it is a her!"

"You're impossible."

Jack stalked over the the wall, "Nice magnetic holder," he gestured to the large oval on the wall, to which a magnet on the other side held up the banana painting he'd made in that one art class Jack forced him to go to years ago.

John rolled his eyes, "It works. I just want quiet. That's it. No squeals no giggles and no distractions."

Jack sighed, "I get it, you invent stuff, but can't you manage during the day when people are out? And would it kill you to do your dishes?" Jack pointed to the pile of blue and white china on the counter and in the sink.

"Domestics," John wave his arm, "bought paper ones, we're all set now."

"We?" Jack inquired, noting the unslept in twin bed, the laundry piled up next to it, the disaster of a kitchen, and the endless sprawl of parts. Little metal gears, screws, scraps. John was brilliant. Some of his inventions revolutionized the tech industry. But if he wasn't a disaster.

"Me and Tardis."

"T.A.R.D.I.S.? Your computer program?" Jack quirked an eyebrow.

"No, Tardis the cat auton," John said… "I don't think she likes company."

"You got a cat? And named it after your computer program?"

"Don't be ridiculous Jack. I made a cat," John scoffed at the notion. As if he'd buy a cat. And he knew he'd used the name before...

"You made a cat?" The shock value of this all was really tugging at Jack's skin.

"Welllll, in simple terms I made a robot and uploaded a cat's consciousness to the mainframe." It was significantly more complicated than this, but John for once didn't feel like explaining. And didn't want Jack asking him to download him onto a porn server or some such nonsense.

"Where did you get a cat's conscious...never mind. I don't want to know. I thought you hated cats."

"I don't hate them...they're just… catty."

"John, I have no idea how you've managed this far."

John declined response and took up looking for Tardis. Who seemed to mysteriously disappear. John didn't worry much, she had a tendency to disappear there and reappear here every so often. Just a bit of spatio-temporal anomaly.