Chapter 6

The Tenth Hour and Fifty Ninth Minute

Knock, knock, knock, knock.

'They gone, then? Yeah, good-o. If you could let me out?' Wilf said from inside the glass cubicle.

'Yeah,' the Doctor said sadly.

'Only, this thing seems to be making a bit of a noise.'

'Oh my God!' Rose gasped in disbelief. 'It was him! It was him all along. He wasn't just leading you to the prophecy, he was the prophecy.'

The Doctor looked down at her. 'The Master left the Nuclear Bolt running. It's gone into overload.'

'And that's bad, is it?' Wilf asked.

'No, because all the excess radiation gets vented inside there. Vinvocci glass contains it. All five hundred thousand rads, about to flood that thing.'

'Oh. Well, you'd better let me out, then.'

'Except it's gone critical. Touch one control and it floods. Even this would set it off,' he said, holding up his sonic screwdriver.

'But we can't leave him in there. We've got to do somethin'.' Rose said.

Wilf realised what he'd done. This was his time to go. 'I'm sorry.'

'Sure,' the Doctor replied.

'Don't worry,' Rose said. 'We'll think of somethin', we'll get you out.'

'Look, just leave me.'

'Okay, right then, I will,' the Doctor said.

'What?' Rose asked incredulously. 'Over my dead body!'

'No, mine!' the Doctor shot back. 'Because you had to go in there, didn't you? You had to go and get stuck, oh yes. Because that's who you are, Wilfred. You were always this. Waiting for me all this time.'

'No really, just leave me. I'm an old man, Doctor. I've had my time.'

'Well, exactly. Look at you. Not remotely important. But me? I could do so much more. So much more! But this is what I get. My reward. And it's not fair!' He cried with frustration.

'Oh Love, don't,' Rose said, stroking his cheek before kissing his lips and hugging him.

'Oh. Oh. I've lived too long,' he declared. He stiffened up and reached for the empty cubicle door.

'DON'T YOU DARE!' Rose shouted.

'No. No, no, please, please don't. No, don't! Please don't! Please!' Wilf pleaded.

The Doctor looked at Wilf through the glass. 'Wilfred, it's my honour. Better be quick. Three, two, one . . .' He quickly entered the empty cubicle and unlocked Wilf's side.

'NO!' Rose cried, tears running down her cheeks.

Wilf ran out and red light flooded the Doctor's cubicle. It hurt. It hurt a lot as the Doctor curled up into a ball. Rose banged her hands on the cubicle, resting her head on the glass. She screwed up her eyes, and tears splashed onto the tiled floor.

The power shut down, and after a few moments, the Doctor got to his feet.

'What? Hello.' Wilf said.

Rose's eyes sprang open, and she was looking into the dark brown eyes of the man she loved.

'Hi,' the Doctor said.

Rose was suddenly filled with hope. 'Wha? You're still you. Does this mean you're okay?'

'Still with us?' Wilf said.

'The system's dead. I absorbed it all. Whole thing's kaput. Oh. Now it opens, yeah,' he said as he pushed open the cubicle door and stepped out.

Rose hugged him tight. 'You're all right.'

'Well, there we are, then. Safe and sound,' Wilf said with relief. 'Mind you, you're in hell of a state. You've got some battle scars there.'

Rose released him from the hug and looked at his cut face. 'You'll heal.'

'Yeah. I will.' The Doctor rubbed his face and the cuts vanished.

'But they've . . . Your face. How did you do that?'

'It's started,' the Doctor said quietly, in a resigned tone.

'NO!' Rose cried, and hugged him again, as if trying to stop the process from happening.

They stood there for a long time silently hugging each other. Rose gently weeping, and the Doctor rubbing her back. Wilf wiped away the tears in his eyes, muttering "I'm sorry" repeatedly.

Eventually, the Doctor released her from the hug. 'Well, c'mon then. Let's go and get our daughter.' He held his wife's hand and led her out of the room, through the mansion to the outside, and through the courtyard to the stables.

The Doctor pressed the key fob and they heard the familiar wheeze of the TARDIS as it materialised back into view. He was about to push the door open, when it flew open on its own.

'Oh thank God,' Donna said. 'You're back, and you're you.'

'Hello Sweetheart,' Wilf said, accepting a hug from her before going inside. Shaun was sitting on the jump seat, with Andrea beside him in her carrycot.

'Oh Gramps. We were so worried when you answered the phone an' I couldn't hear ya. We'd been watchin' the news, when everyone's face went all blurry and turned into a blonde nutter.'

She stopped talking when she saw the look on the Doctor's face, and that Rose had been crying. 'What's the matter? What's happened.'

They didn't speak, they couldn't. They couldn't bring themselves to say it. They looked at each other, and tears rolled down Rose's cheeks. The Doctor started the Time Rotor, and it was noticeable that he did it without his usual exuberance.

Wilf cleared his throat and spoke on their behalf. 'Erm . . . It's the Doctor, Sweetheart. He saved my life,' he told her, his voice breaking. 'But it meant he took a lethal dose of radiation on my behalf.'

Donna frowned, and Rose started to quietly sob again. Wilf could see the puzzled expression on his granddaughter's face, and explained. 'He's dyin'.'

Donna gasped. 'Oh God no! But you're a Time Lord,' she said to the Doctor. Don't you fix yourself or somethin'?'

'I still die though,' he told her. 'The man you see before you dies, and a new man takes his place.'

'Oh no. You poor things. Come here,' she said, grabbing them both in a hug.

'I think I'd like to hold my daughter now,' he said as Donna released the hug.

'How . . . How long have you got?' Donna asked hesitantly.

'A few hours, maybe a day.' He stopped the Time Rotor and shut down the console.

'Are we back home?' Donna asked him, and he nodded. 'Right. We'll be off then . . . I think you need sometime together before . . .'

'Thanks Donna. We appreciate that,' the Doctor told her with a sad smile.

Donna smiled awkwardly. 'So, we'll see you around I guess . . . Well, we'll see you Rose. And we'll see whoever you end up as . . . Well, I mean . . .'

Wilf gave an embarrassed cough. 'Enough said Donna. Time to go . . . and thank you again Doctor, for everything.' He took hold of Donna's elbow and guided her towards the door. Shaun followed after them, and said "sorry about the bad news and everything" quietly as he passed the Doctor and Rose.

Donna and Shaun stepped outside, and the Doctor called to Wilf as he lifted his daughter out of the carrycot. 'Don't go thinking this is goodbye, Wilf. We'll see you again, one more time.'

Wilf turned at the door and looked back at them. 'What do you mean? When's that?'

'Well, unless I'm very much mistaken, we were invited to a wedding.'

Wilf nodded. 'Where are you going?'

'To get my reward.'

Wilf turned and stepped outside, leaving the sad couple to try and come to terms with their predicament. When the door had closed, the Doctor started the Time Rotor and put the TARDIS into the Vortex, before holding Rose's hand and leading her to the living room.

They sat on the sofa, with Rose cuddled up to him with her arm around him and her head resting on his shoulder. The Doctor held his daughter in HIS arms. He looked at her lovingly with HIS tear filled eyes, and he spoke to her gently with HIS voice.

Soon, it would be someone else's arms holding her. Someone else would be looking at her lovingly, and someone else would be telling her that she was the most beautiful girl in the world and that they loved her very much.

Eventually, they went to the nursery and put Andrea in her crib, before going through the adjoining door to their bedroom. In silence, they undressed each other, kissing each others bodies as they explored them with their lips one last time. He then picked up his wife in HIS arms and gently laid her on the bed, where he made love to her one last time with HIS body.

The Doctor and Rose were on a high walkway outside an abandoned factory, quietly making their way towards an angry looking potato in a space suit. The Sontaran had a pulse rifle, and he was aiming it at two targets on the floor below. They could hear the two targets having a heated conversation below as they hid behind low walls.

'I told you to stay behind,' the male target said.

'Well, you looked like you needed help. Besides, you're the one who persuaded me to go freelance,' the female target told him.

'Yeah, but we're being fired at by a Sontaran. A dumpling with a gun. And this is no place for a married woman.'

'Well then, you shouldn't have married me.'

'If we go in here and down to the factory floor, and down past that corridor, then he won't know that we're here.'

The Doctor put his finger to his lips and indicated for Rose to stay where she was so that their daughter, who was in the sling in front of her, wasn't in any danger. He crept along the walkway, and took a rubber mallet out of the pocket of his long, brown coat. With a quick, fluid motion, he hit the probic vent at the back of the Sontaran's space suit, and it made a satisfying "thwonk".

Rose saw the female target, Martha Smith look up at her. 'Mickey . . . Mickey.'

Mickey looked at her and saw she was looking up at the walkway. He looked up and saw them. 'Hey!' He called out, moving towards them.

Rose held her left hand up in greeting, her right arm wrapped around her husband's. The Doctor nodded to them before turning and walking away with his wife. Mickey and Martha hugged as they heard the TARDIS dematerialising.

Young Luke Smith was on his phone as he walked along Bannerman Road. 'That was the maddest Christmas ever, Clive. Mum still doesn't know what happened. She got Mister Smith to put out this story saying that Wi-Fi went mad all across the world, giving everyone hallucinations. I mean, how else do you explain it? Everyone with a different face . . .'

Deep in conversation, he crossed the road between two cars without looking as a car approached. The Doctor hit him at a run, dragging him back to the pavement, where Rose caught him before he could fall over.

'But it's you! You're . . .'

The Doctor gave him a stern look as though he should know better than to step out without looking, before taking Rose's hand and walking back to the TARDIS.

'Mum! Mum!' Luke called to his mother as he ran towards her.

'What? What is it?' Sarah Jane asked him.

He pointed down the road to where the TARDIS was parked. 'It's them. It's the Doctor and Rose.'

Sarah Jane looked in the direction her son was pointing, and saw the Doctor and Rose waving goodbye before going back inside the TARDIS.

Jack Harkness was sitting at the bar in Spaceport Antelope Slash Nitelite, having a drink and watching a little Adipose alien walk in front of him, and fall behind the bar.

'Cho no fro jo ko fo to do,' a Judoon said to the side of him, and a variety of other aliens were milling about, talking and drinking.

The barman put a folded piece of paper in front of Jack. 'From the man over there,' he told him.

Jack looked up and saw the Doctor and Rose standing around the other side of the bar. He picked up the piece of paper and looked at it. "His name is Alonso". Jack looked up at them with a puzzled frown. The Doctor nodded to Jack's left, and Rose gave him an excited smile.

Midshipman Alonso Frame sat down wearily next to Jack, and Jack looked back at his friends. The Doctor touched his forehead in a salute, and Rose waved her fingers at him. Jack saluted the Doctor then turned to the young man to give him his best chat up routine.

In a large bookshop, a young woman was sitting at a table, signing copies of her new book, "A Journal of Impossible Things, by Verity Newman".

'No, it's not just a story, no,' Verity told a young man. 'Every word of it's true. I found my great grandmother's diary in the loft, and she was a nurse in 1913, and she met this couple, John Smith and his wife Rose. Except he was a visitor from another world who had married an Earth girl.'

She signed the book for the young man. 'Thank you,' the customer said.

Another book was presented for signing. 'And who's it for?' Verity asked.

'The Doctor and Rose.'

'To the Doctor and Rose . . . Funny, those are the names they used,' she said. Hesitantly, she looked up and realised who the couple standing in front of her were, from the sketch of Rose that John Smith had drawn in his diary.

'Was she happy in the end?' the Doctor asked her.

'Yes. Yes, she was . . . Were you?'

The Doctor smiled, and Rose answered for them. 'Yeah, we are.'

The bells rang out for the end of a wedding ceremony at Saint Mary's Church, Hayden Road, Chiswick, as the newly weds, Donna and Shaun stepped out into a flurry of confetti.

'You look lovely,' Wilf told his granddaughter. 'Come here.' He held her shoulders, and kissed her on the cheek. He then grabbed Shaun, and jokingly kissed his cheek as well. 'Everybody, three cheers. Hip, hip . . .'

'Hooray!' Everyone shouted.

'Hip, hip . . .' Wilf said again, as Sylvia kissed Donna on both cheeks.

'Hooray!'

'Hip, hip . . .'

'Hooray!'

The Doctor and Rose moved to the side of the group. He was wearing his usual brown, pinstripe suit, whilst Rose wore a short, pink dress with a white jacket. She carried Andrea in one arm, who was wearing a pretty dress with white, patterned tights.

The Doctor had his arm around Rose's shoulders, not only for a show of affection, but to also support his failing body. Rose had her free arm around his waist, also to hold up his failing body.

'Right, come on then, you lot. This photo is just with friends. Come on. And I want all of you in it. Come on.' She saw the Doctor and Rose at the edge of the group, and went towards them. 'You'll be in the picture?' she asked hopefully.

'Better not,' the Doctor said weakly. 'There are still a lot of people out there who are interested in me . . . and it's time to go.'

'Wha? Yer mean it's that time?' Donna asked with a gasp. 'Are we ever going to see you again?'

The Doctor gave a weak smile as he remembered her asking that when they had first met. 'If we're lucky.'

Donna also remembered and gave a single, sad laugh as she wiped a tear from her cheek.

'Hey now. It's your wedding,' he reminded her. 'No tears of sadness on your wedding day.'

'Not even for my dad?' she asked with a smile. She would have loved her dad to be here to see her get married . . . to give her away.

'Is everythin' all right Sweetheart?' Wilf asked as he came and stood beside her.

'Yeah. It's just that the Doctor and Rose are leaving now.'

The Doctor suddenly remembered something, and searched his pockets. 'Your dad, of course.' He took an envelope and handed it to her. 'I just wanted to give you this. Wedding present. Thing is, I never carry money, so I just popped back in time, borrowed a quid off a really lovely man. Geoffrey Noble, his name was. Have it, he said. Have that on me.'

Donna opened the envelope and took out a lottery ticket. 'A lottery ticket?'

'A lottery ticket?' Shaun said from beside her. 'That's a bit unusual as a wedding present. Still, you never know. It's a triple rollover this week. We might get lucky.'

Donna's mouth and eyes were wide in disbelief. She turned to Shaun. 'Time traveller, time machine . . . Oh-my-God!'

The Doctor took a deep breath and straightened his shoulders, summoning the last of his strength. 'Have a nice life,' he said as he wrapped his arms around Donna.

'And you,' she whispered back. She then hugged Rose. 'Good luck. I hope everythin' works out okay for ya. If ya need to talk . . .'

'Yeah, thanks,' Rose said. 'Now, you've got a weddin' to enjoy.'

'Yer right. The show must go on.' She went back to the crowd of guests. 'Right, come on then, you lot. Like I said, this photo is just with friends. Come on. And I want all of you in it. Come on. That's it. Well, friends, and Nerys . . . Oh, I'm only joking. Oh, look at her.'

'You made me wear peach,' Nerys complained.

'That's because you are a peach,' Donna joked. 'Furry skin, stone inside, going off.'

'Okay, smile,' the photographer called out.

'Cheese!' everyone said, as Rose helped her husband down the path to the lych gate and the TARDIS beyond.

'How about it, Wilfred?' Minnie the Menace asked.

'Eh?' Wilf said distractedly as he watched the time travellers walk away.

'Well, it's never too late.'

'Will you behave, Minnie' He turned to face her. 'Honestly.'

'I'm going to catch that bouquet.'

'Oh, dear,' he said, turning back to look at the TARDIS. Donna, Sylvia, and Shaun came and stood at his shoulder.

The Doctor and Rose stopped at the doors to the TARDIS, and turned to look at their friends one last time. Wilf stood erect and saluted. The Doctor lifted his chin slightly in acknowledgement, and Rose raised a hand, smiling sadly. The Doctor slumped against the TARDIS door as he convulsed in pain.

'Love?!' Rose said with concern as she put her arm back around his waist. She noticed that he was looking past her towards the lych gate. She turned to look, and saw Ood Sigma standing there with his translator in his hand.

'We will sing to you, Doctor. The universe will sing you to your sleep. This song is ending, but the story never ends.' They heard a requiem mass in their heads, being sung by the Ood all over the universe.

Rose helped her husband inside the TARDIS and closed the door. He shrugged his long coat off, and threw it over the coral as he usually did, and noticed his hand glowing. He held it up and watched the golden mist swirl around his hand.

Using the handrail, and leaning on his wife, he made it to the console, and started the Time Rotor, watching it pump up and down. Rose took Andrea and fastened her into her baby jump seat that was attached to a coral strut.

The Doctor leaned over her and kissed her forehead, before turning to Rose. 'Rose . . . My beautiful wife . . . No matter what happens next, I want you to know . . . I love you,' he told her with tears in his eyes, and then borrowed a phrase off her. 'Always have, always will.'

Rose cried a laugh. 'I know. And my gorgeous husband, I love you so much, no matter who you end up as, or what you look like.'

He hugged her, and kissed her one last time with those lips. She could feel his breath coming quickly in gulps, as people did when they were about to vomit. 'It's coming Sweetheart. You'd better stand back.'

'But I want to hold you, comfort you,' she cried.

'And I would love nothing more,' he told her as he moved away from her around the other side of the console. 'But this is something I have to do on my own.'

Golden energy started to stream from his hands and face as he started to pant. He held his arms out in anticipation of what would happen next.

'I don't want to go!' he whimpered.

'Doctor! I don't want you to go!' Rose cried, but it was too late. Golden energy flew from the Doctor's head and hands, and Rose screamed as the TARDIS literally exploded around her. Andrea started crying, and Rose hurried over to lift her out of the baby seat, crouching down and shielding her with her own body.

Rose watched as the man she loved changed into a gangly, hyperactive puppy, with a long fringe of hair dangling over one eye.

'Legs!' he exclaimed. 'I've still got legs.' He lifted up his left leg and kissed it. Legs were good. He could get around easily if he'd got legs. 'Good.'

Rose realised he was taking an inventory, just as he had done before. 'Arms . . . Hands . . . Ooh, fingers. Lots of fingers. Ears, yes. Eyes, two. Nose.' He examined his nose. 'I've had worse.'

He continued his exploration. 'Chin, blimey!' He'd overdone it with the chin, and Rose couldn't disagree. Somehow, this new face seemed familiar to her, but she couldn't possibly have seen him before . . . Could she?

'Hair. I'm a girl! No . . . No. I'm not a girl.' He pulled his fringe down so that he could see it. 'And still not ginger,' he said disappointedly. 'And something else. Something important. I'm, I'm, I'm . . .' he said, tapping his temples.

'Married?' Rose reminded him, and then a panel on the console exploded.

'No. Well, yes. Of course!' he said to her and then remembered. 'Ha! Crashing!'

'WHAT?' Rose said in a panic. She strapped Andrea back into her seat and went to the console.

'Ha, ha! Whoo hoo hoo! Ah! Geronimo!' the Doctor exclaimed.

Rose was fighting to get the TARDIS under control. 'Geronimo? Geronimo? What happened to Allons-y? I liked that one.'

The TARDIS continued to tumble out of control and go Bang! inside. The Doctor had gone to the door and opened it for some reason. It was now dark outside, and Rose saw them fly over the Millennium Dome. What she didn't see was the Doctor, who was dangling outside from the threshold.

'Oh my God! Where's he gone now?' she asked herself as she tried to get the TARDIS under control.

She breathed a sigh of relief as she saw his new head, and that chin, appear in the doorway as he tried to pull himself back inside. He had his sonic screwdriver between his teeth.

'What the hell were you thinkin', tryin' to go outside when we're in flight?' Rose asked him as she swerved the TARDIS to miss St Stephen's Tower and the Houses of Parliament.

He climbed back inside and shut the doors behind him, exhausted, as the TARDIS careered on its way. He took the sonic out of his mouth. 'I just thought it was getting a bit smokey in here, so I thought I'd open the doors to let the smoke out.'

'And you fell out!' Rose said incredulously. Her husband had turned into an idiot. 'And the sonic?'

He looked at the device in his hand. 'Oh, this? I was vibrating the smoke molecules to accelerate their movement out of the TARDIS.'

'Right,' she said, as though she didn't believe him. 'How about acceleratin' your arse over here to help me land this thing.'

'What? Oh, yes. We're crashing!' He rushed to the console and helped his wife to try and bring the damaged TARDIS under control. 'Here we go. I think I've got it.'

There was a bang, the TARDIS shuddered, and there was a sound of cracking wood outside the doors. 'If I'm not mistaken, that sounded very much like a garden shed being flattened,' he said, before fainting and dropping to the floor.

'Oh my God! Doctor? Are you all right?' she asked as she knelt by the side of him and grabbed his shoulders to shake him. She stroked his new face as she tried to wake him up. 'Not again,' she said, remembering when this had happened before. 'Don't tell me you're gonna sleep for hours.'

His eyes fluttered and slowly opened. 'Oh hello Rose. Is everything okay?'

She breathed a sigh of relief and rested her head on his chest. 'You tell me?' she asked him. 'You're the one who's just changed their whole body.'

'Oh yeah . . . So, what do you think?' he asked with a smile.

Rose sat back on her heels and looked at him. His shirt and trousers were torn and tattered, but that wasn't what he meant. How could she explain how she felt? How could she tell him about that chin? Fortunately at that moment, Andrea started crying, and Rose got to her feet. She pulled her short dress down her thighs, and reached their daughter out of her jump seat.

When she turned around, the Doctor was no longer on the floor. He didn't even seem to be in the console room. 'Oh God. Where's he gone now?' She saw the TARDIS door was open, and remembered only too well how he had been after his last regeneration.

'Could I have an apple?' she heard him asking someone outside. 'All I can think about. Apples. I love apples. Maybe I'm having a craving? That's new. Never had cravings before.'

'Are you a policeman?' Rose saw a small girl with red hair, wearing a white nightdress and red cardigan, talking to the Doctor. She spoke with a Scottish accent.

'Oh, hello,' Rose said.

'Is he a policeman?' she asked Rose.

'Why? Did you call a policeman?' the Doctor asked with a frown.

'Did you come about the crack in my wall?' the little redheaded girl asked.

'What crack?' He stepped forward and tripped on a bit of flattened shed, falling to the ground of the messy front garden. 'Argh!'

'Are you all right, mister?' the girl asked.

'Are you all right?' Rose asked.

'No, I'm fine. It's okay. This is all perfectly norm . . .' a breath of golden energy came out of his mouth, and his hands glowed. Rose remembered seeing that in the spare room of her flat on the Powell Estate.

'Who are you?' the girl asked.

'I don't know yet. I'm still cooking,' the Doctor answered.

Rose rolled her eyes. 'He's the Doctor, I'm Rose, and this is Andrea.'

'Does it scare you?' the Doctor asked the girl.

'No, it just looks a bit weird,' she replied, referring to the golden energy.

'No, no, no. The crack in your wall. Does it scare you?' he asked kindly.

'Yes.'

'Well then, no time to lose,' he said, standing up. 'I'm the Doctor . . . Oh, hang on. You already know that. Do everything I tell you, don't ask stupid questions, and don't wander off.' He turned and walked straight into a tree.

"Hah! He thinks he's talkin' to me," Rose thought to herself.

'Are you all right?' the girl asked, leaning over him to look at his face.

'Silly Daddy will be fine. Won't he Sweetheart?' Rose said to her daughter.

'Early days,' the Doctor said. 'Steering's a bit off.'

He got to his feet again, and Rose steered him towards an old Edwardian house with the girls help. She noticed they had landed in the large, overgrown front garden of what appeared to be a vicarage. Off to the right was a path that led to a low stone wall, and a gate to a quiet street.

They went into the kitchen of the house and sat at the table, where the girl gave him an apple. 'If you're a doctor, why does your box say Police?'

The Doctor bit into the apple, and then spat it out. 'That's disgusting . . . What is that?'

'Now pick that up,' Rose said, in the fashion of a mother who was disgusted by their child's behaviour. 'What do you think you are doin'? Spittin' food all over the floor.

'It's an apple,' the girl said.

'Apple's rubbish. I hate apples,' he informed her.

'You said you loved them,' she said accusingly. She looked to Rose for support. 'He said he loved them.'

'I know Sweetheart. He's a bit confused at the moment. He likes bananas. Don't you?'

'No, no, no. I like yoghurt. Yoghurt's my favourite. Give me yoghurt,' the Doctor said.

'Rude Doctor,' Rose admonished him. 'Remember the word please?'

The girl rolled her eyes, and fetched him a pot from the fridge. He poured it in his mouth and then spat it out. 'I hate yoghurt. It's just stuff with bits in.'

'You said it was your favourite,' the girl reminded him.

'Now that's enough!' Rose told him.

'New mouth. New rules. It's like eating after cleaning your teeth. Everything tastes wrong,' he explained to his wife, and then twitched violently. 'Argh!'

Rose immediately forgot she was annoyed with him. 'Oh Doctor. Are you all right?'

The little girl was visibly upset. 'What is it? What's wrong with him?'

'Wrong with me? It's not my fault. Why can't you give me any decent food? You're Scottish. Fry something,' he said.

'What have I told you about the word please,' Rose reminded him. This was going to be a long night. It was like trying to teach table manners to an errant child. She smiled at the girl. 'Do you mind if I cook some food? It might help to sort his head out a bit.'

The Doctor had a lucid moment. 'Smells! They are a powerful trigger of memories!'

'See?' Rose said with a smile. The girl nodded and reached a frying pan out of a cupboard. Rose hesitantly handed Andrea to her father. 'Now, if I give her to you to hold, you're not going to do anythin' daft are ya?'

Once again, he seemed to be having a lucid moment, and seemed hurt by her comment. 'Rose. I would never do anything to hurt our daughter . . . or you.'

'No, of course you wouldn't . . . Sorry.' She handed Andrea over, and started cooking food.

Eventually, they found something that he didn't spit out, and he contentedly dipped a fish finger into a bowl of custard and ate it, while Amelia had ice cream, and Rose finished off the apple that he had rejected earlier.

'Funny,' the girl said sarcastically as he dipped another fish finger in the custard.

'Am I? Good,' he said. 'Funny's good . . . What's your name?'

Rose realised that with all the confusion and concern for her regenerated husband, she'd forgotten to ask the girl what her name was. In fact, they knew nothing about this little angel of mercy who had shown them such kindness.

'Amelia Pond,' the girl said.

'Oh, that's a brilliant name. Amelia Pond. Like a name in a fairy tale,' the Doctor told her. 'Are we in Scotland, Amelia?'

'No. We had to move to England. It's rubbish' she complained.

'So what about your mum and dad, then?' Rose asked her. 'Are they upstairs? I'd have thought we'd have woken them by now.'

'I don't have a mum and dad' she said sadly. 'Just an aunt.'

'Oh, I'm sorry,' Rose said. She knew how that felt.'

'I don't even have an aunt,' the Doctor said distractedly.

'You're lucky,' Amelia told him in a way that indicated that she didn't really get on with her aunt.

The Doctor nodded in agreement. 'I know. So, your aunt, where is she?'

'She's out.'

Rose was horrified. 'And she left you all alone?'

Amelia gave her a defiant look. 'I'm not scared.'

'Course, you're not. You're not scared of anything,' the Doctor agreed. 'Box falls out of the sky, man falls out of a box, man eats fish custard, and look at you, just sitting there. So you know what I think?'

'What?' Amelia and Rose asked together.

'Must be a hell of a scary crack in your wall.'