A/N: Hello. It has been several months since I wrote my last fic. I started this one a while ago and even posted the first chapter but I was unhappy with the way it was going so I removed it. I'm reposting it under the same title but it is completely new. I hope you enjoy.

Well baby I surrender
To the strawberry ice cream
Never ever end of all this love
Well I didn't mean to do it
But there's no escaping your love
From 'Accidentally in Love' by Counting Crows

Rose was only a few hours from a complete night's rest when the Doctor's footsteps outside her room rudely jarred her awake. She rolled over, pretending that she couldn't hear. Apparently the hundreds of other hallways in the TARDIS were inaccessible at six in the morning. Of course the time was relative when one lived on a time machine. It's six a.m. somewhere, Rose reasoned, so therefore I should sleep until it is 10 a.m. somewhere.

Unfortunately Rose's brain seemed reluctant to drift into dreamland while a very inconsiderate alien found excuses to shuffle quite noisily by her bedroom door every ten minutes. Rose knew it was a lost cause. If she couldn't sleep through the Doctor's 'accidental' bumping around she would never survive the next stage. This phase happened to entail a quiet humming that grew steadily louder into a terrible rendition of some Mark Knofler tune. (An artist she was not terribly fond of at the best of times.) If, by some miracle, she was able to snooze through both the stomping and the singing she would eventually be jarred awake by a nine hundred going on two year old Time Lord jumping on her bed.

Reluctantly, Rose rolled out of bed and stumbled into her on suite bathroom. One hot shower and a set of clean clothes later made Rose feel almost human. When Rose finally emerged into the console room she found the Doctor happily fiddling with his precious ship. He noticed Rose instantly and started to scurry around the console with frantic energy.

"I hope I didn't wake you with my bangin' about this morning," he said, voice full of false concern.

Rose cocked an eyebrow. "Oh I was awake anyway. Who needs more than six hours of sleep anyway?" she answered sarcastically.

He grinned and continued his manic operations of the controls. This daily banter that took place between them every morning was a new faucet to their relationship. The Doctor's other regeneration, though just as excited to show Rose the many wonders of the universe, seemed to have the ability to rein in his enthusiasm, at least until Rose had had a full night's sleep. Sometimes it seemed the only thing that kept Rose going was adrenaline. She loved every minute of it.

"So where do you want to go today, Miss Tyler?" The Doctor stood poised over the controls, an expectant smile on his face.

"Oh I dunno," Rose answered. "Impress me."

The Doctor's smile widened even farther and his eyes seemed to gleam from the challenge. "Okay, you asked for it."

Suddenly the two companions were flung to the ground as the TARDIS swung full pelt through the Vortex. Rose clung to the grating in an attempt to not be thrown around too much. A reasonably rocky few minutes later and the ship careened to a halt. The Doctor jumped to his feet first, grabbing his trench coat he ran to the door. Upon looking back he saw Rose still struggling to get to her feet. Releasing an impatient sigh, he ran back and pulled Rose to her feet.

"Come on," he urged. "We don't have all day."

Rose found herself being jerked towards the wooden doors and out into the…the…

Wow!

Unable to form proper words, Rose stared at her surroundings. They had landed in a large circular room. It was about the length of a football pitch in diameter and the ceiling was over a thousand feet above their heads. There was perhaps ten meters of walking space all along the outside bordered by a railing and then the center of the room was open except for a single pillar. The pillar was covered in thousands of brilliant, moving displays. Rose's eyes followed the pillar up and noticed that over a hundred floors lay above them, all opening into this giant room.

And then there were the people. Well, people might be a very loose definition. Thousands upon thousands of beings crowded every available space of the many floors. There were defiantly quite a few humans scattered among the many life forms crowding the walkway. Other beings kind of resembled a human if Rose squinted but most defied any sort of categorization.

Among the vast crowds, Rose felt suddenly very small and in a sudden pang of worry she clenched firmly on the Doctor's hand. He returned the gesture and gripped onto her more tightly.

"So, where are we?" Rose asked after she remembered how to use her vocal chords.

"This is the mighty Clikori Station," he boasted. "The hub of the Trifelvorm galaxy."

Rose blinked, confused.

The Doctor hurried on with his explanation. "Oh the Trifelform galaxy hasn't been discovered in your time yet. We are approximately two million years in your future. If I'm right, and I usually am, we should be right at the height of this galaxy's colonization."

Rose let the information sink in. "So this place is like a great big airport?" she asked.

The Doctor beamed at her. "Exactly. Impressed?"

Rose pretended to consider this. "Maybe. I'll know after we've looked around a bit."

The pair ventured into the throng of faces, occasionally stopping to look at kiosks. When the first floor was thoroughly explored the Doctor led Rose to a grand crystal elevator. As the doors of the lift shut behind them the din of the crowds instantly vanished. It was only then that Rose realized that there were as many floors beneath them as above.

"So…" the Doctor prompted as he gestured to a wall of shiny multicolored buttons. "Where to next?"

"I can pick one?"

He nodded.

Rose hesitated before depressing a pale pink button just above her eye level. The bottom dropped out of her stomach as they began to free-fall. Dozens of floors zipped by before the lift slowly decelerated and stopped.

After catching her breath Rose glared at the Doctor. "Did you know that was going to happen?" she asked.

He shrugged his shoulders guiltily.

While muttering some incomprehensible babble about inconsiderate Time Lords, Rose stepped out of the lift and back into the crowded walkways. This level had even more bizarre wonders including a stall that carried an assortment of mice with tiny golden wings. Rose leaned over the small cages, watching the little creatures as they played.

"Would Mademoiselle like to hold one?"

Rose started and looked up to see a rather short man/alien/thing scrutinizing her. He was rather squat and a bit on the yellow side but apart from the fern that appeared to be growing out of the center of his bald head he look fairly human. Relaxing, Rose nodded. The man opened a nearby cage and coaxed a tiny pale-blue creature onto his finger. He then very gently transferred him or her to Rose's outstretched hand.

The creature was warmer then Rose had expected and she let out a small gasp of delight. The creature sniffed around a bit, tickling her with its whiskers before coiling its long tail around her thumb and swinging upside-down. There it swung happily as it hummed a sweet little tune to itself.

"The Chtu likes you," the sorta-human man commented. "You must be a good soul. Would you like to purchase one?"

Before Rose could answer the Doctor butted in and started rambling about useless pets and pulling her to the next booth. She wiggled out of his grip and he sighed, turning to look at some different merchandise.

"I can't," Rose answered as she placed the Chtu back in his cage. It gave a sad little 'squeek' as she detangled it from her thumb. She found it hard to pull her eyes away from the tiny little beings as she turned to join the Doctor.

"Wait!" the salesman called to her as he grabbed her arm. Before she even knew what he was doing she found a tiny shaking bundle placed in her hand. This Chtu was smaller than the others, no bigger than a golf ball, and his fur glittered silver. "Please," the salesman urged. "This little guy never grew his wings. It happens sometimes. You may have him, no charge. Its either you or he goes to feed the Boabongs."

Rose started to protest but the tiny Chtu had scurried up her arm and clung to the hair at the base of skull. All thought of refusing to take the sweet creature fled. Rose glanced quickly over in the Doctor's direction. He hadn't been watching the exchange between Rose and the Chtu seller. She guessed that she had about one minute before he began to wonder why she had not caught up to him.

Leaning in close to the salesman Rose asked, "What do I feed it?"

"He likes grains and fruit. He won't touch meat. As a treat you could give him a bit of cheese but not too much or else he'll get fat. Chtus are very loyal and extremely smart so be careful with him."

Rose nodded to assure that she understood and after making sure that the little Chtu was safely hidden in her hair she joined the Doctor. Together Rose and the Doctor ambled their way through the dense crowds.

The Doctor found that he couldn't stop looking at Rose. Watching her gaze in awe at the many sights around them was like experiencing them himself for the first time. The more they traveled the more he came to realize how truly lost he would be without this precious human. She looked up at him and instead of glancing away he gazed deep into her beautiful brown eyes. She blushed and returned his smile with a brilliant one of her own.

The Doctor had no way of knowing that it would be a long time before he looked into the eyes of Rose Tyler again. And when he did finally get the chance to drown in their depths again he would not see the pure joy and naiveté that radiated so beautifully at that moment. Instead the innocence would be replaced by pain and self-loathing. The next time he gripped her hand he would be holding a mere broken shadow of this radiant soul. If he had known what was to come, the Doctor would have clutched Rose's hand with all of his being as that sudden wave of noisy tourists came towards them.

As it was he didn't know and the sudden throng of people forced her hand from his grip. When he looked back to find her she was gone.

A/N: Well there's the first chapter. I hope you enjoyed it. Plz let me know what you think by pressing that nice little review button. Oh and I apologize to any Mark Knofler fans. My dad loves Dire Straits and I am just so sick of them so I try to poke fun at them any chance I get.