Disclaimer: I don't own Doctor Who. I do however own a very long, pink and purple, knitted scarf which is over 3 metres long, and that my piano teacher refers to as my 'Doctor Who scarf'! I'd much rather own Doctor Who itself though… oh well, I can dream!

A/N: Yes, the sequel to Never Say Never Ever is here! I promised it to you ages ago, and I haven't really got around to actually doing it until now. Please persevere with this first chapter… and hopefully enjoy it!

Forbidden Power

Chapter 1

It'd been a month exactly since the Doctor had arrived back in Rose's life and everything had changed, and most definitely for the better.

Rose and her family were back to living in the Powell Estate, or they were for now anyway. Jackie had been moaning since they'd got back about how she'd been living in luxury until the Doctor had come back again and ruined everything. She said that every time the Doctor arrived, he took something from her, whether it was Rose or her nice new home.

Rose however, wasn't sorry that her mum was back to living in the flat. She'd met the Jackie of the other world, and she hadn't really liked her, not one bit. She'd also noticed, even in the few months they'd lived in the mansion, how much more stuck up Jackie was getting by the day. And she'd said that Rose working at Henrik's had given her 'airs and graces'!

Pete hadn't minded moving to a new world too much. Sure he'd had to leave his fortune behind, but he still had his family. Anyway, he was looking forward to the challenge of building up a fortune from scratch in this world too!

Mickey was also quite happy to be back in his 'homeworld'. Not long after going to the other world, his old Nan had died there too. He'd stayed with the intention of getting her back, only to lose her again. He'd lost his Nan for a second time, and learned his lesson about trying to swap your life with someone else's. Ricky's life hadn't really worked out for him, so he wanted his life back as Mickey.

The Doctor had managed to get Mickey, Jackie and Rose taken off the list of the dead, and he'd even succeeded in getting Pete an I.D, a passport, a social security number and everything. Rose had tried to ask him how he'd done it, but he'd just tapped the side of his nose with his finger, and grinned inanely at her.

And as for Rose herself: she'd gone back to the TARDIS, back to travelling with the Doctor.

The Doctor wasn't quite the same as he was before. Rose could tell, however much he tried to hide it. Something had happened to him whilst they were separated, and whatever it was had scarred him, and not just in the physical sense. His physical injuries had mostly healed by now. The Doctor had taken out the stitches from his head and his chest himself, and he'd done it so expertly that Rose knew he must've had to do the same thing many times before.

The wounds themselves had now scabbed over and were healing nicely. Unfortunately, they were also itchy, which was something that the Doctor complained incessantly about. Rose was finding that every few minutes she had to tell him to stop scratching them. After the first few hundred times, it probably would've started to annoy Rose, but she found that every time she chided him, the Doctor would pout like a petulant child and whine that they were itchy. And whilst he was doing so, he looked so adorable that Rose found she was incapable of being exasperated with him, all she could do was smile.

But that wasn't all that was wrong with the Doctor. Rose wished that the healing wounds were all they had to worry about. But it wasn't. Several other things had changed about the Doctor, and not for the better.

He had tried to hide it from her, probably so as she wouldn't be troubled by it. But Rose knew when someone was hiding something from her. Especially something this important.

The Doctor was getting frequent nosebleeds and migraines. This terrified Rose. She'd finally found a book on Gallifreyan physiology in one of the TARDIS's many libraries, and she'd been doing some reading. Now she knew for a fact that Time Lords never got nosebleeds unless something was extremely wrong.

She'd also found out that Time Lords only need a full nights sleep about every month or so. Nowadays the Doctor seemed to be sleeping almost every night, but always had less energy. He was more or less constantly seeming to be more fatigued and lethargic than usual.

Rose figured that this was because of the nightmares. Before, the Doctor had occasionally had nightmares, mostly caused by bad memories about the Time War. But now, it was as if any time he tried to sleep, the nightmares would claim him, meaning he got plenty of sleep, but no proper rest. Unless he got a suitable amount of uninterrupted sleep soon, Rose was worried about what kind of long term effect it could have on his health.

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That night, Rose couldn't sleep. After tossing and turning in her bed for what felt like hours, but was really only minutes, she gave up. Getting up from her bed, she decided to go and check on the Doctor. If he was having a nightmare, she didn't like to think of him suffering on his own. At least if she was there then she could try and comfort him. She liked to think that even if he couldn't hear her, he would at least sense her presence there.

When she got to his door, she quietly pushed it open and went over to his bed. The Doctor was clearly in the grips of another nightmare. He was muttering and twitching, his face covered in a sheen of sweat.

Rose watched him for a minute, her heart breaking. She wished that he would get just one night of peace every once in a while. She knew that she would gladly have the nightmares for him if it meant he could sleep peacefully and go back to being the way he was before.

She sat down on the bed next to him, stroking his hair and whispering to him. Nothing she did ever seemed to ease his suffering, but by trying it sometimes comforted her, and made her feel better, like she was doing something to help.

After a while, as her eyes were starting to droop, she crawled under the covers next to the Doctor, and snuggled close. He was beginning to quiet down of his own accord now, his nightmare drawing to a close.

Falling asleep in the Doctor's bed was starting to become a habit of hers recently. Rose wondered vaguely if the Doctor minded, or if he enjoyed her presence as much as she enjoyed his. But soon she thought no more, as sleep overcame her.

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I really wasn't very happy with this chapter, so please don't judge the rest of the story from it, because it will get better! This is just kind of a setting the scene chapter sort of thing…

Anyway, please please review!