STANDARD WARNING: IF YOU HAVE NOT READ THE ENTIRE STARLIGHT SERIES PUBLISHED UP TO THIS POINT, YOU WILL NOT GET IT. TURN BACK NOW.

Wow I've been meaning to post this since Christmas Eve. I fail. Enjoy!

Just a bit of maintenance, he said. Won't take more than an hour or so. Done in a jiffy. Then his fingers slipped and he ended up damaging something important (and Rose's felt his mistake as a sharp pain in her stomach) that was going to take a lot of work to fix. That was a week ago. They'd been forcibly ejected from the vortex into what the ship considered a "safe zone" and now couldn't dematerialize. They'd been floating in Earth's orbit ever since.

After a week of being stuck inside and the Doctor devoting most of his time to the repairs, Rose was bored. She could barely convince him to leave his work even for meals and sleep. The only way to have any sort of company was to spend all day in the console room or his workroom, depending on what part of the process he was in. She'd convinced the TARDIS to place a comfy chair in the console room for her to sit in during her many hours there. She brought books, a portable DVD player, and a stack of DVDs to entertain herself with.

"Good news, Rose!" he crowed on the seventh day. "I'm almost finished!"

Rose was lounging on the chair in nothing but her knickers and a t-shirt. The climate control had been on the fritz since yesterday and she'd nearly overheated, she wasn't taking any chances. Besides, it'd been a long while since anyone had been with them and there was no one she had to worry about scandalizing. "Thank God," she groaned. "Can we please go somewhere fun now?"

He poked his head out from the space beneath the grating where he was working and grinned at her. "As my lady wishes. Any request?"

She shrugged. "Nothing in particular."

He hummed thoughtfully then hefted himself out of the hole. He slid the grating panel back into place, wiped his hands on his trousers, then straightened up. She set her book down and watched him with a smile on her face. He'd forgone his suit about five days ago for a pair of jeans ("Only thing they're good for," he groused when she pointed out all the stains on them from his work) and a black t-shirt. His hair was tousled, like it had been smooshed several times and he'd run his fingers through it in agitation. It was sexy as hell.

He rotated his arms and did a few stretches—not even Time Lords could avoid stiff muscles after being crammed in tight spaces for hours. He bent over to stretch his back, giving her a nice view of his bum. She whistled.

The Doctor straightened up, feigning injury. "Rose Tyler, I am appalled!"

Her grin turned absolutely wicked. "Well, you're giving me such a view."

He shook his head and tisked. "For shame." But he couldn't keep the playful grin off his face and she caught a glimpse of it before he turned towards the console. "I've got the defenses back up so I'm gonna get those fired up before I finish off."

Rose folded the corner of the page she was in in her book then set it on the floor next to the chair and stood up. She reached her arms over her head in a long stretching, arcing her back as well. The Doctor's whistle echoed through the room.

"Oh, you!" she cried, dropping her arms.

Whatever he'd been planning on saying was lost in the deafening blare of a very large horn in close proximity. She whipped around towards the source of the noise just in time to see something large pierce the hull of the ship. Phantom pain spasmed through her side at the breach and she was knocked to the floor.

Over the years, Rose has learned to tell the difference between real pain and the phantom pains she received whenever extreme damage occurred to or an outside force affected the TARDIS. The phantom pains were intense in a very real way but they were different in the sense that wasn't ever a point worse than the others, no place that screamed right here, this spot is the one that's been damaged! The whole area hurt equally. It was a side effect of the bond she shared with the TARDIS. It could be both a blessing and a curse. The pains were a definite drawback but it could also serve as a warning of danger. In her mind, it was a small price to pay for what she got in return.

The horn continued blaring around them. Rose gasped in pain, clutching at her side where the phantom pain burned, propping herself up on her other arm. Dust and debris fell from the ceiling, littering her body and the floor, and she coughed when she felt some of it in her throat. "Doctor?" she called before coughing again.

"Are you okay?" he shouted.

The horn blared again and she jumped, flopping back onto her back. Looming above her through a very painful tear in the ship's hull was a…ship's…hull?

"What the hell?!" she shrieked and the Doctor echoed her a second after.

Rose scrambled backwards—another difference between her phantom pains and real pains: she could move the affected area just fine without any added discomfort—and her hand made contact with something cold and solid that was most definitely not part of the TARDIS. She turned around.

It was a life preserver. The frayed fastenings hanging from it indicated it had been hanging off the ship when it crashed into the room. The Doctor appeared kneeling on the other side of the ring and flipped it over. The name TITANIC was printed in thick black letters along the top and bottom.

They looked up at each other, eyes wide and mouths agape. "What?" he cried.

Rose just shook her head.