"I want to go through the flat."

Rose's pronouncement, delivered over breakfast the morning after Canary Wharf, prompted an instant of stunned silence from the Doctor. He had been expecting an entreaty for a relaxing spa planet or a quiet day in, not a determined set of the chin and a firm demand. He swallowed, buying time to respond.

"Rose, are you sure?" As Rose's gaze took on a steely glint, he quickly backpedaled. "I mean, we live in a time machine. You don't have to do this right away, you could take some time…"

Fortunately, Rose didn't seem offended by his suggestion. She sighed, and her demeanour softened slightly.

"I know, but I want to do it now," she said, picking at her granola. "It's just… all that belongs to my old life," she said, putting down her spoon as she gave up all attempts to feign appetite. "I don't want to have it hanging over my head for any longer than it needs to." She fixed him with a frank look. "I wanna move forward, with you, Doctor."

The Doctor found himself once again humbled by Rose's love and devotion. He'd all but destroyed her family the day before, inadvertently forcing her to choose between himself and her mother. After their initial rush of passion and relief had burnt itself out, once the Doctor had taken care of her various injuries, Rose had cried herself to sleep in his arms, the full consequences of the day crashing down on her all at once.

For all that she'd so strongly advocated that her mother go to the other world with Pete, it didn't make their separation any easier to bear, and the Doctor knew that. He'd assumed that she might withdraw a bit, take some time to adjust to her new circumstances before she could be her old self around him. He wondered if there would ever come a time when Rose Tyler would stop surprising him.

"It's your decision, Rose," he said at last, meaning every word. He'd learned his lesson after his aborted attempt to send Rose to Pete's World against her will. She smiled at him; a small smile, but the Doctor counted it a triumph nonetheless.

"Thank-you, Doctor," she said, rising and beginning to clear away the remnants of their meal. At the sink, she hesitated, biting her lip as she looked back at him. "Could you… I mean, would you mind…"

The Doctor's hearts twisted. "Of course I'll help you, Rose," he said quietly. "You don't have to ask." Reassured, she turned back to the dishes and he grabbed a towel, watching the movements of her hands within the suds as she methodically cleaned their plates.

Was it possible that she was unaware that there was absolutely nothing in the universe that he would deny her, if it was within his power to grant (including a number of things that weren't, if he were being completely honest) even before she essentially renounced her family in order to stay with him? Half of him was of the opinion that this was a situation that should be rectified immediately and the other half lived in terror of the day Rose figured it out. Still, he felt Rose deserved a tangible symbol of how much she meant to him, and he set the idea to percolate in his brain as they made their way to the console room.

~oOo~

The Doctor parked the TARDIS in a hidden, out of the way spot beneath the stairs leading to Rose's flat. He could have landed directly inside the flat, of course, but he wanted to give Rose the experience of actually entering her home, the way it used to be, one last time, and Rose agreed that landing so close to the building would be the best way to avoid any unwanted attention.

She hesitated only once, slightly, at the TARDIS door. She wanted to do this, to get it over with, and having the Doctor at her side made it all that much easier. Still, the prospect was a daunting one, and Rose was heartened by his support and understanding.

They climbed the steps to the flat, Rose trying not to think of the last time they'd done this and failing spectacularly. She fumbled with her key as they reached the landing, despite having it out already, but as she grabbed the handle to unlock the door, it swung open slightly under the pressure. Rose and the Doctor both stiffened, looking at each other in shock. It wasn't at all like Jackie to leave the door unlocked, even for a minute.

An aura of deadly calm settled over the Doctor and he gestured at Rose to stick close behind him as he stole into the hall. The power of the Oncoming Storm had stirred in his eyes and Rose felt, as she always did, that by his side was the safest place in the universe to be. Whatever was waiting for them in the flat, they would be able to face it together.

Then the Doctor stopped again, just inside the door. Rose's ears were straining for any sound, so the Doctor's sharp exhale of breath nearly made her jump.

"I know you're here, Jack," he said, and Rose felt her eyebrows nearly disappear into her hairline. "You might as well come out and say hello."

A beat, and then Jack Harkness came strolling out of the back of the flat, anger sparking in his eyes that quickly gave way to astonishment as he spotted her.

"Rose?"

She couldn't have said in that moment which of them was more surprised to see the other, and just as quickly decided it didn't matter.

"Jack!" With a cry of his name, she threw herself into his arms, only to be nearly lifted off her feet by the fierceness of his embrace. She squeezed her eyes shut, letting a few tears leak out - she'd been so certain she'd never see him again, finding him like this seemed like a dream.

"God, Rosie, am I glad to see you," Jack murmured into her hair. "After I heard what happened at Canary Wharf I wasn't sure…"

"We made it," Rose said firmly, still feeling the twin jolts of fear and relief buffet her at the words. "We sent the Daleks and Cybermen into the Void, and my mum… she went through to a parallel world to live with a parallel version of my dad. It's a long story."

Jack set her down and she looked up to meet his eyes, relearning his face as he did hers, and asked the most pressing question.

"What are you doing here, Jack?" The Doctor inhaled sharply behind her, and Jack winced. "I thought you were supposed to be in the future, rebuilding the Earth?"

"That's…" Jack sighed. "It's a long story." He shot her a commiserating expression as he parroted her words back to her. "Could we… is it all right if we sit down?" he asked. "This'll take a while."

"Course." Rose indicated the living room with a nod, looking back to the Doctor, who was still standing in the same spot, his fists clenched white. She wanted to ask him what was wrong, but the expression on his face stopped her. "I'll… um, I'll make us some tea, shall I?"

"Great idea, thanks Rosie," Jack said, putting on a show of making himself comfortable on the sofa in deliberate contrast to the Doctor's obvious discomfort, and Rose fought the urge to roll her eyes. They'd mostly gotten past the two men's testosterone-fueled posturing contests towards the end of the days of Team TARDIS and Rose had forgotten how frustrating they could be.

Washing her hands of the matter and leaving them to hash it out amongst themselves, she went to the kitchen and went through the motions of making tea, nevertheless grateful for the distraction the two of them provided keeping her from thinking about endless moments with her mother in this kitchen.

When she emerged later with three cups of tea, very little had changed, and Rose sighed, knowing that the Doctor would eventually be coaxed out of his reluctance but unwilling to wait for her answers. Passing Jack his mug and setting the Doctor's on the edge of the coffee table furthest from Jack, she settled back next to her former best mate with her own cup, taking a fortifying sip before she spoke.

"Jack," she began, and watched as something heavy settled in his eyes. "What the hell happened to you?"

The man let out a long sigh, twisting so that only one of his arms was stretched along the back of the sofa. "How much has he told you?" His tone made it clear what he was expecting, and Rose nodded in response.

"Not much," she confirmed. The Doctor showed signs of wanting to speak, and Jack held up a hand.

"Not just now, Doc, I want to hear what Rosie has to say." Reluctantly, the Doctor subsided, and Jack nodded encouragingly at her. "Go on, Rosie."

Rose frowned, trying to think back. Even now, it was difficult to remember the events surrounding the Game Station. She could picture Kyoto vividly, but after that everything started to take on a kind of dreamlike quality, not helped by the bizarre reality that had been the Anne Droid game show. She knew the Doctor had changed in the TARDIS, that they'd talked, but if she was being honest it wasn't even really until they'd been under attack by the Christmas tree that her memories started to become solid again. She supposed there was something to be said for how that focussed the mind.

"Um..." she hedged. More things were coming into focus the more she thought about it. It was like they'd been waiting for her to make a concerted effort to retrieve them, and had been keeping themselves quiet and inaccessible otherwise. "The Daleks were attacking, you went to hold them off…" Said goodbye, her brain supplied, but she ignored the ripple of pain the words brought. Jack nodded without speaking. "He sent me away," she continued in an accusing tone - she remembered that part fairly well. "'S all kind of a blur, after that. I just remember thinking I had to get back, somehow. Nothing in the universe mattered more than getting back."

The Doctor made an involuntary sound. She barely heard him, focussed inward. "Mickey… he told me later that we got a truck, tried to open the console, like Margaret, remember?" Jack nodded again, his eyes never leaving her face. "After that it's all been wiped from my head. I can't remember any of it." Even now, while she was speaking, the memories she wasn't looking at directly were slipping away, like trying to catch fish with her bare hands.

She shook her head slightly, giving up, and fixed her friend with a frank stare. "I asked after you, Jack. I promise, I did ask. But all he would say was that you were staying in the future, rebuilding the Earth. I thought maybe you'd had it out, because there was always something else we had to do, any time I brought it up. Everything was so fuzzy around that time, I couldn't even recall if we'd said goodbye." Jack's face twisted, but he remained silent.

"And I thought maybe we couldn't go back, like it had something to do with my memories staying locked - course, not that I was actually told any of this," she said pointedly. "And, eventually, I just stopped asking." Tears started in her eyes as she looked up at her friend. "I'm sorry, Jack. I'm so sorry. I should've pushed harder, I should've…"

"Hey now, Rosie, hush," he crooned, folding her back into his arms. "It's not your fault, none of it. But it sounds like someone's got some explaining to do." He looked at the Doctor, who had his arms crossed protectively over his chest. "She gives you way too much credit, you know," he said conversationally. "Coming up with those clever theories all on her own, when the real reason was…" He paused deliberately. "Wait. What was the reason, Doctor? Because I think both of us have a right to know."

"You're right." The Doctor spoke at last, cutting Jack off, coming around to crouch in front of Rose, taking her hands.

"It's time, Rose," he said simply. "I'm sorry I kept this from you, more sorry than I can possibly say. I was just so scared. When I took the Vortex out of you, it erased the most salient memories, but I went in a little after Christmas to make sure you'd be safe, that there were no threads loose. You consented, of course," he said hurriedly, even though Rose hadn't even begun to consider that aspect yet, "but I had to take away even your memory of giving consent in case it triggered something."

Even as he spoke, a memory surfaced, of the two of them speaking, though it sounded like they were underwater; the Doctor giving her a clinical rundown of what he hoped to achieve in her mind - please, let me make sure you're safe - and her, wanting to prove that she trusted this new, new Doctor, as well as take some paracetamol for her pounding headache and sleep for a week. "Wait a minute," she said. "And again after Cassandra, right?" The Doctor nodded, eyes wide.

"I did another quick check, just after New Earth. I wanted to make sure nothing had shifted, after the psychograft." He looked unaccountably nervous, and Rose was anxious to reassure him, on this point at least.

"Doctor, it's all right. I trust you, in my head, no one better. I know you wouldn't ask unless it was absolutely necessary - and I know you always ask." The Doctor relaxed slightly, but Rose's eyes narrowed. "Hang on. You took the Vortex out of me?"

It hit her like something she'd always known, and yet also like the first time she'd heard it. All the Doctor had told her was that he'd had to die to save her life, that he'd needed to absorb the Time Vortex. He'd been a bit vague on the details, and Rose hadn't pressed, feeling guilty enough as it was.

"Yes, Rose," the Doctor replied quietly. "It happened just like you said. You used a truck to open the console and look into the Heart of the TARDIS." He was still watching her intently, like he expected her to explode at any second. Rose shook her head. She felt perfectly fine, just confused.

"But when Margaret did that, she regressed into an egg," she said. "So why didn't I-?"

"Because the TARDIS wasn't trying to defend herself, this time," the Doctor explained. "You and the TARDIS merged, because you wanted to…"

"To keep you safe," Rose said, her voice sounding far away, even to her own ears. "My Doctor."

The Doctor's eyes snapped to hers, wide and a little awed, and he swallowed, Adam's apple bobbing. "Yes," he said simply.

There was a beat of silence as they stared at each other. When nothing happened, Jack cleared his throat, and the Doctor shook himself slightly before continuing on.

"But no lifeform - human, Time Lord, Slitheen or otherwise - can live with that much raw Time energy running through them. So I took the energy from you, gave it back to the TARDIS. Then I regenerated."

Rose frowned, pushing back the old guilt. "But what does all this have to do with Jack?" she asked. She looked at her friend. "You asked what I remember."

Jack took a deep breath. "I died, Rosie," he said, before the Doctor could speak. "I was facing three Daleks. Death by extermination. And then I came back to life."

Rose gasped, putting her hands over her mouth, before saying around them, "Wh-What does that have to do with me?"

"You brought him back, Rose," the Doctor said gently, as Rose turned back to face him. "You could manipulate all of time, and space, and matter, and you brought him back to life. Only, you couldn't control it. You brought him back forever." He paused. "The final act of the Time War was life."

"I bring life," Rose intoned, and the Doctor repressed a shiver. Shaking his head to clear it of cobwebs, he looked at Rose, who was staring at him, mouth slack, clearly trying to process everything she was hearing, and then to Jack.

"Do you… I mean, have you…?"

"Have I realised I can't die?" Jack finished for him, allowing bitterness to seep into his tone. "Yeah, I picked up on that one pretty much right away. After waking up ankle-deep in Dalek dust, there weren't too many other conclusions to draw, you know? But I was given plenty of other evidence, just to drive the point home. Ellis Island, 1892. Got in a fight, a man shot me through the heart. Then I woke up. Thought it was kind of strange, but then it never stopped." He reined himself in with obvious difficulty, glancing over at Rose who was staring at him, her eyes like saucers, then fixing the Doctor with a steely look. "And all that time, you knew."

"I didn't know," the Doctor protested, rising slowly to sit down across from the pair, needing a little distance from the conversation. He picked up his slightly cooled tea, taking a sip as he tried to recover his bearings. "Not really. It was all speculation until you just confirmed it for me."

"If you'd stuck around, we might have figured it out together," Jack returned, his voice becoming more strident. "Instead of leaving me stranded in the year two hundred one hundred."

"We-" Rose had to try again, her voice breathless with stunned surprise and outrage. "We left him behind? Doctor!" Despite everything, the Doctor didn't fail to note her automatic use of 'we' with equal parts warmth and chagrin, given that she bore no part of the blame for his actions.

"I ran away," the Doctor said, placing subtle emphasis on the I. "I was regenerating. I had to leave you behind, it was too much." He looked at Jack frankly. "Even now, it's not easy just looking at you, Jack, because you're wrong."

"Thanks," Jack scoffed.

"I mean it," the Doctor said, as he felt the tea sitting ever so slightly uneasy in his stomach. "I can't help it. I'm a Time Lord. It's instinct. You're a fixed point, a living fixed point, in time and space. You're a fact. That's never supposed to happen."

"Can I undo it?" Rose asked abruptly, looking to be on the point of tears. The Doctor didn't miss the hope in Jack's eyes and he regretfully shook his head.

"I took the power out of you, Rose. It's completely gone. I'm sorry, Jack."

Rose turned desperately to Jack. "Jack, I-"

"Don't apologise, Rosie," the former conman said, his voice rough with emotion. "It wasn't your fault. None of it," he repeated firmly. "You came back with all of time and space in your head to save your Doctor, and you still managed to spare a thought for me. You wanted the universe to always have me in it. How could I blame you for that?" They shared an emotional embrace.

The Doctor shifted guiltily. Clearly, Rose had missed Jack more than she'd let on, and it looked like the feeling was mutual. He'd known leaving Jack behind was wrong, but the decision had been made in a split second and afterwards it was easier not to look back. And his new body had been so enamoured with Rose, so intoxicated by her very presence, he often forgot there was a world outside the two of them. Not that it was any excuse. It was true, Rose had frequently asked after Jack, especially in the early days, and he had fallen into his old patterns of evasion so easily, it was despicable.

He was pulled from these thoughts when Rose spoke again.

"So, what are you doing here, Jack?" she asked in a much lighter tone.

"Well after finding out I was stuck in the year two hundred one hundred, I started thinking about how to track down the Doctor. I thought, England, 21st century, best chance to run into him, only it went a bit wrong. Ended up in 1869 with a burnt-out Vortex manipulator. I had to live through the entire 20th century. Kept my ears and eyes peeled the entire time, but I never found anything. When I heard what had happened at Canary Wharf, I figured you'd be involved, so here I am."

Rose listened to the whole story, sipping her tea pensively. "Yeah, I meant here in the flat, Jack," she said, when he was finished. "You broke in, didn't you?"

The former Time Agent looked slightly sheepish. "I did, but only because… well, I knew no one was in, and with what happened around Torchwood Tower there was no way of knowing who knew what and whether or not they'd come sniffing around. I was hoping I'd find you here, of course, but I wanted to get the lay of the land, just in case. And, yes, I was also hoping to run into the Doctor, or at least find some clues. I already had this." He reached into the bag at his feet and pulled out a large glass jar.

"Oh my God," Rose muttered, sounding equal parts fascinated and repulsed. "Is that…?"

"That's my hand!" the Doctor exclaimed, snatching it from Jack's grasp. "Give me that!"

"The one you lost at Christmas?" Rose asked, shrinking back slightly.

"That's the one!" the Doctor sounded almost giddy. "I love my hand. And I'll dispose of it properly now, this sort of thing shouldn't be left hanging around," he said more pointedly, but Jack rolled his eyes.

"Good thing I found it then, isn't it?" he retorted. "I've been using it as a Doctor detector."

"Hang on," Rose said as a thought occurred to her. "How comes you knew he was the Doctor? He's regenerated, and we left the TARDIS downstairs."

"Oh, so that is the term," Jack replied, looking surprised. "Well the Time Agency had all sorts of legends about the Time Lords. Sort of inevitable when you work in the same area, I suppose. Anyway, one was about how they were able to change their appearance to cheat death. I felt the hand going wild and I heard the TARDIS engines. Wasn't too hard to put together." He shrugged. "Plus, you called him Doctor, and that's all the proof I needed, Rosie."

She felt her cheeks warm slightly, which Jack noted with a nod and a wink.

"So how long's it been since this one finally came to his senses?" he asked.

"Oi!" the Doctor protested, actually not at all opposed to moving the conversation along, and Rose merely giggled.

"Hey, I had a vested interest in getting you two knuckleheads together, I deserve to know how it went down," Jack said.

"What makes you think anything's changed?" the Doctor asked, more curious than anything, given that they'd been remarkably circumspect since entering the flat. Jack levelled him with a look.

"Please. Give me a bit more credit than that. Like I said, this used to be my area of specialisation."

"Oh come off it…" the Doctor cajoled, but Rose grinned her tongue touched grin.

"Well, you see, it was after we beat the Devil…"

Jack arched his eyebrows so that they nearly disappeared into his hairline. "Wait. You mean, like, the proper Devil, not just a life form impersonating him?" Rose gave a noncommittal shrug and Jack settled more comfortably on the sofa. "Now this I gotta hear."