"I love you," had come from nowhere. Rose had always thought that perhaps it would happen in the middle of some life or death situation that the Doctor didn't think they would survive. And that when they did manage to make it through, he would proceed to avoid her as if she had the plague for a few days. Or perhaps it would happen during one of their bi-weekly "this can't ever happen again" shags.

When she had padded into the kitchen one morning, her hair in a mess, wearing a ratty old dressing gown over a pair of equally tattered pyjamas she had thrown on because she had woke up sticky and naked after a night of "this can't ever happen again" activities, she had not expected to sit down to breakfast and find the Doctor staring at her. And not just staring at her but watching her every move with so much attention that she finally tilted her head and frowned at him before finally asking, "Is something wrong?"

She had expected to get his normal rambling discourse about how the night before could not happen again, that this time was really the last time they were going to anything like it. It had actually become a bit of a ritual since the first time it had occurred, just short of three months earlier. The only difference is that it hurt a little less each time he said it.

So when he shook his head as if to clear it and then softly uttered the words, "I'm in love with you," Rose's mouth had dropped open and her fork had clanged against her plate. Then she had promptly run to the bathroom to throw up. She had quickly blamed the alien curry from the night before and had then sworn under her breath when the Doctor pointed out that according to the TARDIS, she had done the same thing every single morning for the past two weeks. He then dragged her off to the med-bay because, apparently, curry or not, people just didn't vomit on his TARDIS without good reason.

They had both been relieved to find that she had no infections or other ailments that could prove dangerous. In fact, she hadn't been sick at all. On the contrary, her nausea had been caused by the foetus that was growing contentedly in her womb. The foetus that was just a few days short of being three months on.

After the initial shock wore off, they both agreed that at least something good had come of clearing out Jackie's flat.

However, upon hearing the news Rose had burst into tears at the realisation, sobbing out her anguish that her mum would never get to know she was going to be a grandmother. After a few moments, the Doctor hesitantly said that there might possibly be a way…

She hadn't been able to hug her mum or touch her in any way at all, or two universes might collapse. But they'd had a good laugh over the fact Jackie was expecting too. And Rose had discovered that her mum was very happy with her new Pete, although she missed Rose very much and repeatedly said that the new baby would never replace Rose in her heart.

The entire experience had been extremely emotional, but it had made Rose feel more at peace with her choice to stay with the Doctor. And the rather loud and obnoxious bride-to-be that had popped into the TARDIS right after the final breach had closed had certainly helped to distract both Rose and the Doctor.

And ever since the first day the Doctor said he loved her, he had made a point to say it often. Sometimes he even woke her up in the middle of the night to tell her, and then show, her just how very much he did love her.

They had arguments, of course, just like any other couple. Because Rose had at first insisted that they not find out the gender in advance, they argued about whether the baby would be a boy or a girl. Much to Rose's surprise, the Doctor had refrained from "peeking" until she gave in and allowed him to check. In the end, despite his all-knowing Time Lord superiority, he had been wrong and she had been right… a fact she would probably tease him about until her dying day.

They had argued over baby names constantly. The Doctor had insisted upon a long and complicated Gallifreyan name for their future daughter while Rose demanded something simple that came from Earth. Eventually, the Doctor picked the longest pronounceable word in an official Earth dialect that he could find and liked and announced that it would be their daughter's name. Rose had cringed a bit when the Doctor rang up Jack to announce the birth of Kanmuriwomageru Tyler. Jack had laughed and said he would just call her "Muri," and much to the Doctor's disgust, the nickname stuck.

As Muri grew, she was the image of her Mum, although she had her Dad's eyes and his thick Northern brogue. By the age of five she could speak fifty languages and expound upon String Theory… and explain in detail to some of Earth's top scientists why it was totally wrong. By six she not only knew the Time Traveller's Code of Ethics backwards and forwards, but knew how to blatantly disregard them. She even had her own miniature sonic screwdriver, with two settings on it -- a high pitched frequency that automatically adjusted to any target to repel it and a Universal Door Opener, for those few times she got kidnapped and needed to escape an alien prison cell, which could easily blow up the door to her parents' room if she felt the need to interrupt whatever it was they were doing in their bedroom.

After replacing the door for the fifth time, the Doctor and Rose decided it would probably prove best just to leave the door unlocked.

888

Muri tiptoed down the TARDIS corridor, quieter than a mouse. She was clutching a plush tribble to her chest with one hand whilst in her other hand was the little sonic screwdriver her dad had given her for her last birthday. She had been woken up by a bad dream about some aliens who had recently kidnapped her and her mum. Her dad had rescued them very quickly, but in the dream, the aliens had killed him in a way that he couldn't regenerate and Muri and her mum had been left in the aliens' prison for ever and ever.

She told herself, and her faithful tribble friend Shatner, that she was only going to her mum and dad's room to make sure that they weren't having nightmares also. Because that's what good Time Lords and Ladies did, made sure their companions were taken care of before worrying about themselves. And a good Time Lady never ever let nightmares scare her enough to crawl into bed with mum and dad either. Especially when the universe was depending on her to make the harder choices… well, when she was a bit older, that is.

When she reached the large, heavy wooden door with the Lungburrow family crest on it, Muri caught her bottom lip between her teeth and fidgeted. She debated, for a moment, whether it would be better to go back to bed and just keep the bedroom lights on. The last time she had gone to check on mum and dad in the middle of the night, Dad had been rather upset. But then, she supposed that had more to do with the fact that half of their door exploded than anything else. Mum had sorted it all out in the end, insisting that a cold shower would help calm Dad down.

And anyway, the fact still remained that she had woken up from a nightmare and really, really needed to… make sure mum and dad were okay too. And that was the only reason that she reached up to wrap her small fingers around the doorknob and give it a good twist. Much to her delight, the door wasn't locked and opened right up without a problem.

She was immediately greeted by the sound of her mum giggling, followed by her dad growling and her mum giggling some more. For some reason, they were both buried underneath the bed coverings. "Mum? Dad?" Muri said hesitantly.

The bed coverings ceased their movement for a moment and then Dad bolted from under the duvet, tugging a pair of black shorts into place. Mum giggled and sat up, the duvet falling to her waist as she smoothed down her nightgown. Muri pursed her lips and glanced to the bathroom into which Dad had disappeared.

"What is it, Sweetheart?" Mum asked, tilting her head slightly.

Muri held her head up proudly and said somewhat defiantly, "I had a nightmare. I wanted to make certain you and Dad didn't have one as well."

Mum smiled softly, a glint of amusement in her eyes. "Daddy and I hadn't gone to sleep yet. But…" she pinched her tongue between her teeth, "you and Shatner are more than welcome to snuggle up between us to make sure we don't have any nightmares tonight."

Muri grinned happily. At least she had Mum fooled. "We wouldn't dream of returning to my bed if there's a chance you and Dad might yet have nightmares." Mum pulled back the duvet, patting the bed, and Muri skipped happily to the bed, setting her little sonic screwdriver next to Dad's larger one on the bedside table, before crawling into the bed next to Mum. Hugging her plush tribble to her chest, Muri snuggled up to Mum's warmth and sighed with contentment.

A few minutes later she felt the bed dip and she felt her father start gently stroking her hair. "She wanted to make sure we didn't have nightmares, Daddy," Mum said gently.

Muri bit her bottom lip and waited until she heard Dad's hum of approval before allowing herself to breathe again. "I certainly feel safer with her in here with us," Dad said. "Don't you Mum?"

"Oh yes, I certainly do," Mum replied.

Between the warmth and coolness of her Mum and Dad, and the feeling of Dad softly petting her hair, Muri quickly fell back to sleep and dreamt of much more pleasant things.

888

Rose hummed softly as the Doctor eased into the bed behind her. He grinned wickedly and placed a soft kiss on her shoulder. It had been nearly two hours since Muri and Rose had drifted off to sleep, but he was still very much awake. Perhaps if Muri hadn't chosen the exact moment when he was preparing to slide into his Rose, he wouldn't be so wide awake now.

It seemed that lately Muri had a knack for picking the most inopportune times to announce her presence or blow up their door. But Rose assured him that it was perfectly normal behaviour for a child her age and that her mate Shireen was going through the same thing with her little one. When he asked how many doors Shireen had replaced so far, Rose had pursed her lips and said that there were some things caused by the fact Muri was his daughter.

But he currently had more pressing matters to tend to. Rose was still sleeping and he needed to ask her a question. When he gave her shoulder a soft bite, Rose's hips pushed back against him and she moaned softly. She brought her hand to where their daughter lay and softly murmured, "Muri's still in the bed, Doctor."

"I've come up with two fantastic plans, Rose," he whispered into her ear.

"Oh?"

"Yeah," he replied. "One I'm very certain you will say 'No' to, but the other I think you'll find hard to resist."

"Which one would I be very certain to say 'No' to?" Rose asked, gently petting Muri's hair.

"It involves us being extremely quiet and using very carefully calculated movements," the Doctor explained. Rose shivered in anticipation but tried to reign in her body's response, as the last thing she really wanted was to have Muri wake up while the Doctor's touches were arousing her. His hand drifted down to her knee and he cupped it in his large palm. "Right here… right now…"

Rose yelped and tightened her leg muscles to keep him from moving her leg. "Doctor!" she hissed. "Muri is in the bed!"

"Which is why I said you would most certainly say 'No'," he pointed out, his hand moving back to the safety of her hip. "The other option… the one I think is absolutely fantastic by the way… is that we let Muri stay with her Uncle Jack for what would be a week to her, while we have ourselves a three week holiday at the Horsehead Nebula Retreat in the 60th century. Three weeks of stardust bathing, watching young stars being born, fine dining, and enough shagging to make up for only being able to do it fifteen times in the last seven years." When Rose opened her mouth to object, he added, "The five quick goes on the kitchen table while Muri was having a bath don't count. Neither of us were happy with those endings."

Rose shrugged and hummed, "Can't argue with that," she said, smiling to herself.

"What do you say? Three weeks of me doing unspeakably filthy things to you while Muri stays with Jack?"

Rose grinned broadly and turned over far enough to press her lips to his jaw. "I like the sound of that. You just have to ring up Jack and--"

"Done."

"And pack us some--"

"That's done too."

Rose turned her gaze to the sleeping form of their daughter. "Muri's going to be in a sulk when we tell her we're going somewhere without her."

888

"Are we there yet?" Muri chirped happily.

Their daughter hadn't sulked one bit when Rose had told her they were going on holiday without her and that she was going to be staying with Uncle Jack for a week. Quite the opposite happened, in fact. Muri had squealed happily upon hearing the news and had dashed away to take her bath and get dressed for the day.

Now Rose, with one arm around Muri, and with Shatner the tribble wedged between them, was clutching the railing behind the jump seat. The TARDIS rumbled and shook as it sped through the vortex, heading for Cardiff. Both Rose and Muri giggled happily as the TARDIS dipped and trembled.

"Almost there!" the Doctor shouted as he dashed around the console. "And… hold tight, ladies!"

The TARDIS settled down with a heavy lurched that sent Shatner tumbling across the grating. Muri yelped and hopped off the jump seat to chase after him as he bounced and rolled along.

"Da!" Muri said sternly. "you have to be more careful!" She picked up her plushie and hugged it tightly. "Shatner could have had an aneurysm!"

The Doctor looked at Rose sharply. "Have you been letting her watch medical crime dramas again?"

Rose rolled her eyes. "She says age appropriate programmes insult the intelligence of children everywhere! Not to mention that she says the medical and crime dramas 'stimulate' her 'much more advanced neural processing capabilities.' You can try arguing with that if you want, I'm just a human."

Shaking his head and sighing, the Doctor looked at his daughter, who was gently smoothing down her tribble's fluff. "I'll be more careful from now on," he said, keeping his face serious. "If you'd like, I can do a quick scan of Shatner to make sure he doesn't have an aneurysm."

Muri tilted her head to study him as if he was a slightly dim-witted child. "Da," she said slowly and clearly. "Shatner is a plushie. Plushies don't have aneurysms. But, had he been a real tribble and had one, you could have killed him with that landing. So be more careful."

She jutted her nose into the air and "humphed" before stalking to the door.

The two adults followed their daughter across the console room, Rose pouting slightly at Muri's apparent lack of concern about being away from her parents for an entire week. When they caught up with her, the Doctor knelt down to her level, giving Muri his most serious expression.

"Now listen. Your Uncle Jack is immortal. That doesn't mean you can try to experiment on him or test out salvaged alien tech on him," the Doctor said sternly. Muri rolled her eyes and bounced impatiently. "And no calling his friend 'Auntie Ianto'. Ianto is a good lad and he has said he doesn't like it."

It was Muri's turn to pout. "But Uncle Jack thinks it's funny," she whined.

"Your Uncle Jack also thinks it's funny to taunt a pterodactyl," the Doctor pointed out.

Muri's eyes widened as she pursed her lips. "Touché," she said, looking rather thoughtful. Suddenly she gasped with excitement and looked at her father imploringly. "May I please help feed Myfanwy this time, Da? Please?"

"No," he said firmly as he stood up, reached over her head, and opened the TARDIS doors to reveal the Millennium Centre. Almost instantly Muri let out a happy squeal and dashed out into Jack's waiting arms.

"Hey Munchkin!" Jack greeted, sweeping Muri off of her feet in a hug. "Hey! You still have Shatner!"

"Of course I do," Muri said, grinning ear to ear. "He was from you." Muri turned slightly. "Bye Mum, bye Da! See you later!"

The Doctor blinked in shock as Jack toted Muri away towards the storefront that was the entrance to Torchwood. He looked down at Rose, who had come to stand beside him, and saw that she looked as just as stunned as his felt. A small smile tugged at his lips and he slid his hands into hers and gave it a faint squeeze. "Don't worry Rose," he said, closing the TARDIS doors then moving back to the console. "I'm sure that somewhere, very deep down inside, Muri is sulking about having to be away from us for a week."

Rose just stood there watching the blue doors as the rotor roared back to life. The Doctor called her name and she turned towards him with a blank expression. "What if… there's an alien invasion while we're gone… and…"

"Muri knows that if any alien tries anything with her she needs only warn them of who her Da is," the Doctor said, trying to reassure his partner. He held out his hand. "Come on. Just you and me? Just like old times?"

A smile finally spread over Rose's lips and she ran over to take his hand. "Just like old times…" she said, resting her head against his shoulder.