The Doctor sat at his desk in Torchwood, looking out the window. He had a top floor corner office in Canary Wharf. Rose had insisted on it. What Rose wanted she got.

That was the real reason he was here, to try and keep Rose under control. His brother couldn't do it. She was the first being he bonded with after the loneliness and heartbreak of the time war. He was unreasonably besotted with her and he knew it. She excelled at getting her way with him, in almost all areas but one. When she disrupted the time line by saving her father, he should have taken her straight home once the situation was resolved. Instead, he kept her with him, telling himself he would just have to keep a better eye on her, not give in to her demands.

His brother had tried, he had really tried, but always Rose could get what she wanted from him. On their trip to the parallel world he warned her not to see the parallel Pete Tyler, that he was not her father. He knew it would have bad consequences for Rose emotionally. But she pouted and sulked then wheedled and cajoled him, using her little girl face and body language that always seemed to make his resolve cave in. He could face down all manner of monsters and demons, but against the wiles of Rose Tyler he was defenseless. It was a dangerous situation, one that had to be rectified.

His brother had thought that when she was in the parallel universe she would be content. She had always wanted a family, and he had, in the midst of defeating the Daleks, Cybermen and closing off the void, assembled one for her. His first attempt at sending her with them had failed. She came right back, he relented against his better judgment and said she could stay (when it came to Rose his brother had a soft spot in his heart… and his head). She then by accident and the greatest of luck wound up back in the parallel universe. He'd burned up a star so he could say good bye to her, give her the closure he hadn't given Sarah Jane, hoping she would then move on with her life. He had told her the dire consequences if the breach was reopened, that both universes would collapse.

It had turned out she ignored the warning, didn't care about the collapse of one or even two universes. Rose had to have her way. She, with her strength of personality and determination, had gotten Torchwood to build a dimension cannon so she could get back to the Doctor. Cannon, such an appropriate name. Her experiments were ripping holes in the fabric of reality. It allowed Dalek Caan to go back and rescue Davros from the time locked timewar. It allowed possibilities that were never meant to exist, to be created. It nearly destroyed the entire time space continuum when she broke through to universe prime, his brother's universe. Yet she still didn't believe that had anything to do with her.

He heard a knock at his door. Rose came in. "Hi, how's it going?" She walked over to his desk and sat on the corner. She licked her lips as she looked at him.

He looked up at her. "Not well, it would help if I knew what this power source was going to be used for. I could most likely come up with a more efficient design."

She pursed her lips and pouted. "You DO know, it's a planetary shield."

"And I told you, this is way too much power for a planetary shield. You could shield the quadrant with this much power. Why can't I see what it is you're building?"

Rose looked at the ceiling. "I TOLD you," she drawled in her most exasperated voice while she played with her hair. "you're an alien. This is Torchwood. They don't trust you. It was everything I could do to get them to let you have an office here." The Doctor knew that was a lie; he'd had free access his first few months here. Then, one day he tried to get down to the lab and he was blocked by the guards. They said they had orders to stop him. When he asked whose orders, Rose Tyler's was the reply.

She leaned forward sinuously resting her elbows on his desk and her chin on back of her overlapping hands. "Is it really that important that you see the shield? My Doctor, the proper Doctor wouldn't need to."

He looked down, pretending this bothered him. It was one of her favorite phrases. She used it whenever he wasn't doing what she wanted, as a spur to get him to cooperate. "Yes, I could build it, but not safely, a power source of this size would have the capability to reduce the earth to its subatomic particles. It would make the Osterhagan key look like a firecracker."

"Don't worry about safety. Just design it, safety isn't important."

The Doctor forgot himself and who he was dealing with "Don't be stupid! What's the sense of shielding the planet from attack, if you blow it up yourself? I need to see what this will be powering; I know I can make it more efficient."

"You're the one that's stupid. If it hadn't been for you, we wouldn't be stuck here. Donna said she got the best part of you, your mind. I think she kept it. You're just useless." She stormed out of the room.

He should have known she was going to pull up that argument again. He had destroyed the Daleks before his brother had the chance to. His brother knew it needed to be done, just as he did. But his brother already had so much blood on his hands. It was only right that he take that burden from him and destroy the Daleks himself, while he had memories of his brother's actions, they were distant, like the memory of seeing a movie. The genocide would not affect him as greatly as it would have his brother.

It also gave his brother an excuse to leave him with her. One she would believe. That she needed to help him. That he needed her. They both felt since she wanted the Doctor, if she had him, she would be content and quit punching holes in the fabric of reality. But it had to be the Doctor that wouldn't indulge her as his brother had.

His brother would help Donna, something he wouldn't be able to do. Having come partly from her, he feared he would not be able to do what was needed to save her life. He felt how much she loved the knowledge she had gained and the adventures she'd had with her brother. His brother feared the death of those he cared about to the point he would do anything to save them, even if it meant destroying who they were.

So they made their pact, each doing the job they were best suited for. His brother would make sure Donna would live. He would protect Rose and keep the universe and all its parallels safe from her. He hoped his brother had better luck with his part of the bargain, than he did with Rose.

It had gone sour from the start. He and his brother had made a plan, it was poorly thought out. He would give Rose what his brother had refused her. He would tell her he loved her. Love, such an overloaded word. Used to describe sex, even when no emotion is involved, to describe the caring protectiveness a parent feels towards a child, the need to be with someone, who you never feel whole without and even the reaction to a well thought out plan, a great meal or handsome outfit. It was a word that could not be used with precision, too open to misinterpretation, for his brother to use it with Rose.

So, he was the one who would take the plunge. His brother made it seem as if he was to be exiled with Rose taking care of him. Someone who was the same as his brother when she first met him. Implying he could be changed by her into what she wanted, he the Galatea to her Pygmalion.

Donna had suggested the finishing touch on his brother's gift. Letting her know that he would grow old with her, so there would be no others after her, ensuring he would be hers exclusively. Something his brother couldn't give her, that he could.

It almost worked. Then she had her little test. He and his brother had misunderstood it and failed miserably. They had thought that maybe it was a test of if they loved her. So, his brother had fluffed it and refused to say what she wanted. While he told her the words she had literally risked everything to hear, showing that he was the one who loved her, more than his brother. A lie, but a necessary one… or so they thought.

The test was to see if they were indeed the same. As soon as he said "I love you." he had failed. She kissed him then, but it wasn't a kiss of love or even affection. It was a kiss designed to arouse the jealousy of the brother who had refused her. Show him what he was missing. Hurt him. Though he tried to play his part, it had no effect on him.

Rose/Cassandra, Astrid, and Reinette, especially Reinette had all caused him to go weak kneed when they kissed him. The kiss Rose gave him did nothing, but he did what he felt he needed to and kissed her back. When she heard the TARDIS door close, she had broken off the kiss. After all, why continue to do something for the sole purpose of punishing someone, if they weren't there to see it?

She had walked away from him, towards the TARDIS which was fading as it traveled back to where it belonged. He'd walked up to her and took her hand hoping he could connect with her. They'd looked at each other, not as lovers, as his brother had hoped, or even friends, but rather sizing each other up, almost, but not quite as if they were adversaries.

With his brother gone, the fun began. Jackie complained that the least his brother could have done was wait until they had contacted Pete. She had a point, but it was urgent that his brother leave when he did. It was not the breach in time and space that was disappearing but his brother's resolve that was about to fade away. The TARDIS had sensed it and had given a warning. Fortunately, Pete was easily contacted. He sent someone in the area to pick them up.

While they waited, the Doctor had explored the beach, trying to work out how to recover from his bad start with Rose. The wet sand, smelling of fish and seaweed pulling at his shoes as he walked, the chill wind cutting through his thin suit. The least his brother could have done was leave him the coat. That was about the only semi useful thought he had. How to deal with Rose? Well, it didn't look like he was much better at that than his brother.

The trip home had been quiet. Jackie made a few abortive attempts at conversation. Rose was in a mood and refused to answer. He, for his part, was too tired to hold up his end of the conversation for long. After a regeneration a Time Lord needed to rest and recover, he hadn't had a chance to do that yet.

Jackie had looked at him with concern and patted his hand. "Are you alright love? Your head hurting again? We could stop and get you some tea, it helped last time."

The Doctor had smiled at her efforts. "No need, I just need to get some rest. The sooner I get to a bed the better."

"He'd better not think he's getting into my bed." Rose muttered just loud enough for the Doctor to hear but low enough she could claim he'd misheard. "I can't believe the Doctor left me here to nursemaid this shadow of himself. Presenting him to me like a consolation prize at a church picnic. My Doctor, the proper Doctor, wouldn't be tired." Totally forgetting how his brother had slept through most of the Sycorax invasion.

A wave of nausea hit him, bringing his thoughts back to the office. The coral in his pocket cried out to him. He should have known. Every time she got angry with him she tried another trip with the dimension cannon. His brother's seal would bounce her back. She needed more power to break through it. The power he refused to provide her.

He took the coral out of his pocket, holding it carefully soothing it. He had broken off a piece of the TARDIS before he left, apologizing to her for the injury, while his brother pretended not to see. He had hoped he might be able grow a TARDIS here. That it could acclimate to the foreign energy of the universe as it grew. The first night as he slept in Mickey's abandoned room, he shared the last of his regeneration energy with it, activating and nurturing it.

The next day, while Rose was still in a snit, he had wandered the property looking for an appropriate place. He was in luck. There was a small energy breach, just enough to nurture a growing TARDIS. He carefully connected it to the flowing energy, hopeful his plan would work. The coral screamed in agony, a sound only he could hear, that brought him to his knees. He quickly disconnected the coral, taking its rough shape into his hands, gently blowing on it, transferring some of his own universe prime energy to it. Feeding and purifying it. The energy here was not just incompatible, it was poisonous.

He had knelt there in the wet soil. It's fertile smell, the promise of possible life, providing an ironic contrast to the coral's condition. He had lost several of his limited years saving the coral. It was an impulsive act, perhaps not a kindness in the long run. The coral was now aware and felt the need to travel as much as he did. It wanted to protect him and tour time and space with him. But it was too small, too weak to do anything but share his mind.

When Rose fired off the dimension cannon it pushed the poisonous energy into both the Doctor's and coral's energy field, injuring them both. Time Lords did not only need the biochemical energy provided by food and water. They also needed pure energy. It was the fundamental vibration of the universe itself that sustained them. Gave them their power, their ability to heal and regenerate. Here in this universe that vibration was off, tainting the energy, making it poisonous to both Time Lord and TARDIS. They both were dying, slowly starving to death in a world filled with energy they dare not use.

This was where the plan had gone totally wrong. Rose would out live him by several decades and when he was gone, her drive to get back to his brother would be relentless and ultimately destructive, destroying all life in all universes, the ultimate genocide.

He was on the same floor as the dimension cannon. Rose he felt, liked the sense of danger knowing he was so close and she could be found out. She was attacking where the void ship had first gone through in her universe, apparently deciding the patch and the reality around it would fail the easiest. If true to her pattern she would try again soon. He needed to get out of there.

The pattern of the energy wave was isotropic, radiating equally in all directions. The effect of the energy would reduce geometrically the further they were from it. Twice as far away would reduce its power to one fourth, three times as far to one ninth. The inverse square law at its finest.

The Doctor got up and walked over to the door, the plush carpet cushioning his footsteps. The polished brass of the door knob felt cool in his hand as he turned it. It was Brad on duty today. Rose said the guard outside his door was there for his protection, but he knew it was another lie. The guard was there to keep tabs on him. He smiled as he passed Brad. "I'm just going out for some air, I should be back soon."