The TARDIS shook with all its usual force, enough to unsteady you, but not enough to knock you over, so long as you hold tight to the control console. The Doctor was mucking about under the console, trying to fix something-or-other. Every now and then there would be heard yelling and the buzzing whine of his sonic screwdriver.
Rose Tyler was sitting in his chair, thinking about all the adventures they had had, and all the ones yet to come. She though about Captain Jack, the "omni-sexual" RAF captain/inter-temporal con man they had picked up in 1940's London, and left on a satellite in the far future. About Mickey Smith, her (ex?) boyfriend, who had decided to come along so as not to miss out on all the adventure, and then decided to stay in an alternate universe, fighting the terrifying cybermen. About Sarah Jane Smith, a journalist/investigator, who had gone so many place in so many times with so many of the Doctor's past selves.
She was interrupted in her thoughts by a loud band from the console. The Doctor re-appeared, grinning like he always did when he had a crazy idea, which was they only kind he had. He began babbling about what he had just done, which she tuned out. She never understood it anyway. They needed to stop at Earth soon, Rose wanted to see her mother, whom they consistently left on Earth during their adventures, which only stopped long enough for them to drop by Earth to say hi and perhaps pick up a few things, or solve a mystery or two.
They were landing soon, touching down in the back lot of the Powell estate, where her mother's flat was. She would have to tell her about Mickey, and in turn she would probably tell her about everything that had happened within a 10 mile radius of the flat, which Rose would again, tune out.
Rose headed off to the TARDIS wardrobe to get something nicer to wear, there was not telling how long she would be gone this time and it might help to have fresh clothes on.
On the way she stopped at the Doctor's boot cupboard, which was actually a huge room full of shoes, one wall of which was entirely white trainers, The Doctor's stash of replacements, walking past this, she saw other sections which probably belonged to previous Doctors and companions.
After finding a clean pair of trainers, she went to get an outfit. Feeling peckish on the way to the wardrobe, she stopped by the TARDIS's food machine to get something to eat. According to the Doctor, the machine used to only produce nutritional blocks that only tasted like food, but later a companion had tweaked it to produce real food when used. She got a big plate of chips to munch on while the TARDIS continued its erratic flight towards the Powell estate, Earth, 2006. She worked her way through the TARDIS, eating her chips, and always staying close to the control room so she wouldn't get lost.
She opened a few random doors, a few were locked, probably for good reason. One room she opened was full of candy corn! Crazy candy corn!
She stepped back, closed the door, and hurried off to find The Doctor. He was still fiddling with the control console, and didn't see her approach.
"Doctor!" she exclaimed.
"Hm? Yes?" was his only response
"Did you know you've got a room full of candy corn in here?"
The Doctor got a strange, faraway look in his eyes. He straightened up, reminiscing for a moment, then said "Right, I've got to get around to doing that, completely forgot, poor kids, been left waiting for what, 10 minutes?"
Rose decided it was better not to ask about the corn.
She turned to The Doctor and asked "Is there anything else I should know?"
"Well there's that penguin in the 15th bathroom, the heating there is out, been meaning to fix that for some time, he keeps complaining about it," The Doctor said, rambling on, " Of course, I told him to move to the 16th bathroom, but he won't, says the 15th is more roomy, and then the 14th has that leak -,"
At this point The Doctor stiffened, grabbed a bag of washers from a compartment, and ran off, yelling back "Just a mo-, I've forgotten something!" As he ran off into the depths of the TARDIS.
About 15 minutes later, he returned.
"There's a faucet in the 14th bathroom that's been leaking for the last 500 years, had it in a time loop, so it wouldn't flood the TARDIS, its the same leak over and over again.
The TARDIS moved on, until suddenly, there was a cacophony of light and sound, Rose was thrown against the scanner, which flicked on and began showing random images, like a Dalek, a Cyberman, a short man, the Earth, Britain, a sidewalk, a rather sluggish puppy, then The Impossible Planet, the Beast, the black hole, then it stopped, as suddenly as it started.
Rose looked around, she couldn't see The Doctor anywhere!
"Doctor!" she cried.
"Woops! There we go! Just a moment!" She heard him reply.
The Doctor climbed up from a hatchway under the console.
"Sorry," he said, "This thing fell into the works."
It was a Mr. Potato-Head toy. Rose wondered what the significance of it was.
"This, Rose, is the very first Mr. Potato-Head ever made. I just popped in and got it right off the assembly line." he explained.
She sat down in his chair again.
"The scanner went mad," She said, "Started showing random things, Daleks, Cybermen, Earth, and some planet I didn't recognize.
She described it to him.
The Doctor walked over and sat next to her.
"That's Gallifrey. The shining world of the seven systems. Bang in the middle of the constellation Kasterborous. On that planet, on the continent of wild endeavor, where the trees sparkle silver in the dawn light, between the mountains of solace and solitude, lies the citadel of the time lords. That, Rose, is my home planet."
Rose had heard him talk about Gallifrey before, but never describe it. It made her sad to think it was gone.
She though about the Doctor's people, the Time Lords. They looked human, but they had two hearts. Also, on the brink of death, they undergo complete bodily regeneration. Same person, new face. She had seen this happen to The Doctor, she had watched as the serious, if a little whimsical, leather-jacket-wearing man she knew as The Doctor become the aloof, suit-and-trench-coat wearing man messing with the TARDIS.
Because of this, the Time Lords live to be very old. The Doctor himself was a little over 900! Not that it had helped them. The Time Lords were a dead race, wiped out in what The Doctor called "The Last Great Time War".
He was alone, the last of the Time Lords.
While she pondered this, the TARDIS landed, making its characteristic whooping, grinding noise. Regrouping with the The Doctor, Rose stepped outside, to new adventures.