A/N. Disclaimer: I own nothing, BBC owns everything.

The title(s) come(s) from 'Love is a Silent Thief', a song by Katie Melua. This will be a multi-chaptered story. :)

Black Light

All I know is we can't live without it

Rose wakes up on the TARDIS, with the Doctor looking at her worriedly.

"Rose," he breathes. "Rose."

"Is she awake?" Her mother enters the infirmary hurriedly, the woman's face contorted with disquiet. He smiles at Jackie sadly, giving the girl the same question for seemingly the billionth time.

"Rose, do you remember?" She grabs for his hand... this desperate gesture only tells him that she doesn't. Not fully, not yet… The panicked look in the companion's eyes only confirms his fears, and he knows just what is coming. Sometimes, the wording is slightly different, but… The Time Lord smiles at her encouragingly just the same.

"Doctor. Have I died?" The same question, the same answer. "I will tell you everything, my dear. For now, just sleep." A tender touch of her temples, and Rose is asleep.

"For how much longer, Doctor? Why wouldn't you just allow her to wake up properly?" The mother was growing more and more desperate each day. It was well she found it too hard to come visit them in the TARDIS every day…

All he wanted sometimes was get the old girl into the vortex and have some rest from the worried woman… but he could not do that. The TARDIS wouldn't budge. Women…

The Doctor sighed heavily, already used to repeating the same words over and over again. "Give her another week, Jackie."

"That's what you said three months ago!"

"I can't have known her body would take so much strength from her to adjust to all the necessary changes," he spoke calmly… or believed he did. Jackie Tyler knew better, able to see some of the unhidden sorrow in his eyes whenever the Time Lord believed she was not looking. If she had learnt one thing about the Doctor during these empty months – he was blaming himself for everything. Even though it was clear he had nothing to blame himself for… but for the wish to save Rose in the only way he could have thought of in the panic attack the Doctor must have had when Rose's fragile single human heart has stopped beating for the first time. Little did he know that would not have been the only instance…

"At least she remembers you," she told him encouragingly, catching his eyes for a moment. The alien appeared to be – and has been - so distressed Jackie kept wondering if he has ever remembered to sleep or to eat. He has even stopped hiding his tears from Jackie recently. "Shush now, Doctor. It's going to be all right," Jackie Tyler hoped assuring him would help her believe it.

The next time Rose's mother has found the strength in herself to visit her daughter was two days later. She could feel tension rolling off him in waves whenever she was nearby… Even Jackie understood it would be better for them not to meet every day, for which the Time Lord has been very thankful.

Everything's seemed to be just the same as on the times before. Jackie glanced at the Doctor, aware he has seen her.

"Rose." My dearest, my sweetest girl. "Do you remember?"

Strangely, the girl nodded at him excitedly. The expression on her face was too far for Jackie to make out, but the relieved sigh that's left the Time Lord's lips must have meant something was going well.

"I remember." Jackie could not control an excited gasp. Could this really be happening? At last?

The Doctor seemed to have quietly been encouraging her to speak. "We've been talking, then we kissed in the moonlight. Then we were dancing to some of the most beautiful music I have ever heard, then we were kissing again and then we were making love and then- and then I died," Rose gasped, still not used to spill so much information in one go, without having taken a single breath.

"You are here now, Rose. On the TARDIS, with me keeping you company," a small smile appeared on his lips.` He kissed her slowly and tenderly then, knowing it was not time for her yet to get up. With another kiss to her hair the Doctor rose and nodded at Jackie.

"Why have you made her fall asleep now?! Surely, Rose is ready to return to her everyday life already?"

The mother was honestly upset all of a sudden. "If she remembers, why keep her in a constant slumber?"

The Doctor could not hope to properly explain these things to Jackie Tyler so that she would understand.

He knew now – has learnt it the hard way – Rose herself, as soon as she realised what was happening to her without a word about it from the Doctor - has made sure her looks did not change when she regenerated for the first time. This has made it complicated for her body and mind to make sure the induced changes in her nature took place all at once. Instead of several days, the painful process has taken several months.

But Rose was alive. Considering the amount of times she's died when regenerating - her hearts, both the one on the left side and the new one- kept giving in during the complicated process- the amount of his own regenerative energy he has sacrificed for Rose's survival could have killed him had the TARDIS not given her own power to finish this. After all, a trip to the rift was all it took to fix her. Losing her pilot and her Wolf was out of the question.

"Rose…" His voice is just as tender as before.

"Doctor," she reacts immediately this time, her hand reaching not for his hand but for his face. He kisses the tips of her fingers, then smiles.

"Do you remember?" The Doctor gives her the question out of habit, then shakes his head at his own silliness, blushing a bit.

Rose giggles. "The kiss? The dance? The way your body felt against mine?" She offers him a blissful smirk. He eyes her questioningly. If Rose does not recall the regeneration...

"Do you hate me for what I have done, Doctor?" Rose watches him pleadingly, suddenly afraid of his response. "Maybe I should have just-"

No. No, Rose. I have enforced this drastic change on you, because-

The girl stares at him blankly. The Doctor smiles sadly at her reaction. Maybe the regeneration, no matter its length, was incomplete, knowing it was not a natural one… Possibly. He gulps.

Rose stuck her tongue at him, which has only puzzled him further. "What?" He muttered, unable to take her unexpected and unrecognisable reactions as something natural between them any more. After a little more than three months of little to no communication with his beloved companion (and way too much communication with Jackie Tyler), he was suddenly uncertain about some of the things he had always been sure about… and that felt very, very wrong. His Rose, as a Time Lady (for he was sure about the two hearts beating in her chest, at least), should have been able to hear his unuttered thoughts, some of them… but she apparently hasn't, and he did not know what to do, and-

Rose's eyes were almost full of tears then. Gods. Don't be silly, Doctor. Of course I can hear you and feel you, I have just been teasing you-

Never do that again, he asked of her simply.

Okay!

Both the Doctor and Rose knew the promise meant nothing and they were both going to tease each other every day… as long as you keep the teasing away from our- 'Bedroom' was the word. Now that everything was back to normal – as normal as it could get with one's nature changed completely… Even if it meant they would not go past kissing for many days to come…

Rose has put on an everyday ensemble and pinkish trainers quickly… and they were both ready to face Jackie Tyler.

Or so it seemed.

A/N. I could either take them back to their first night together (with some explanations as to where or how) or push things forward in time a little bit… For a similar thing, perhaps. The rating stays as it is for now. Perhaps the chapter's a little short, perhaps a little unusual… But this is just the beginning. I am off to hospital on Friday, that's why I have been in such a hurry to post. Make me happy and review?