As I've stated before, this takes place during Series 2. If I receive reviews and feedback then I'll continue on with an AU ending of Doomsday and then Series 3. I don't own Doctor Who. I wish I did, but I still don't. If you'd like faster updates then review, because I'd definitely post chapters more quickly. I rewrote this chapter about a billion times, so be warned: it might suck. Though I hope it doesn't. Anyway, enjoy!


It had turned into an ordinary day. Long ago they'd fallen into sync with one another. Lately they'd grown closer, and Rose wasn't quite sure what to make of it. Sometimes she would hear him sneak into her bedroom when she was ready to succumb to sleep. He would sit next to her, on the right side of the bed, allow her to curl up next to him before he'd begin to talk. Days that were dead and gone, he talked about them with precise memory; sometimes she would fall into dreams as he spoke and imagine herself there in his words. On occasion the Doctor would fall asleep, when his body actually required it of him. This was one of those times. Rose had opened her tired eyes, breathing in a long breath and found herself a pleasant noise ringing through the air. However it had not fallen from her lips, but the slumbering Time Lord beside her. For a while then Rose had contemplated her feelings towards the Doctor. She knew of herself to still be young, while he had seen lifetimes before she had lived and will continue on long after she is gone; though that did not change what she felt to be true within her heart. When they were both stranded on that impossible planet, home to a horrible beast, she had thought she'd lost him. It was in those moments that she knew for sure that she loved him, so incredibly much. So much that she'd been willing to stay behind just so he wouldn't die alone. Of course she's been carted away, and helped send the beast hurling into the black hole before the Doctor had saved her. Never in her life had she been so afraid and so sure of herself, so sure that she loved him with her entire being.

"Quit your staring, it's rude. Here I thought I was the rude one; nope, it's you, Rose Tyler."

Being pulled back to reality, Rose looked to him to find that he was awake and sitting up, looking at her with the ghost of a smile to his lips. She returned the smile as a blush crept upon her cheeks; however she hid it well by falling to her side and burying her face within her pillow. The Doctor followed her example, and when she opened her eyes his face was right in front of her. His breath was hot on her face, which she had pushed away and once again closed her eyes. "I've never seen you sleep before, 'cept when you were sick after your regeneration." Her lips curled up into a small smile, thoughts and images of his peaceful sleeping form adrift in her mind. Sure he could be properly frightening, but when he was sleeping he looked so much younger; eyes active with dreaming of images, and she was sure she even noticed him smile in his sleep.

"We're both rude and not ginger," he mumbled quietly. She breathed in slightly upon feeling him brush a few tendrils of hair from her face. "Time Lord, remember? I don't need as much sleep as you do."

"No need to brag," she said pointedly with a small laugh.

Lying here beside him reminded her of when they'd returned from one of their previous adventures, when she'd been lost in The Wire, when her face had been taken. The Doctor had lay next to her then, just looking at her face. Then after being stranded on Krop Tor it was rare that he ever really let her leave his sight. Rose had surely come a long way since he'd met her - from being just a normal human girl in a shop she'd turned into Rose Tyler, the Defender of the Earth and the human race. The Doctor had changed her, molded her into being the best she possibly could; and honestly she'd changed him as well. He wouldn't admit it, but the little human girl had made him go soft.

He laughed slightly at himself and the thought that he'd turned to mush compared to his most recent regeneration. "Why are you laughing?" groaned Rose as she shifted to her side, away from him, and laying her head on the crook between his arm and shoulder. "Better not be laughing at me," she added.

"Me, laughing at you? Of course not." He stressed the end of his sentence, leaning his head against hers. "Where should we go today?"

Rose didn't answer for a few moments, she was still as she merely listened to the beating of his hearts. Sometimes it was easy to forget that he was an alien, born of a different world. Countless times had she dreamed of seeing Gallifrey and sometimes he'd let her; when he sometimes fell asleep next to her, his own thoughts were projected upon her. The first time she had caught glimpses of that burned orange sky, the sparkling trees of the mountains in the distance, Rose had woke up to find her eyes wet with tears. That night she'd asked him about it, to tell her everything of the world that seemed to just glisten with wonder in her dreams; and so he told her. The Doctor, prone to fits of merely rambling on and on, had talked for what seemed like hours about his home planet. In the past it had been hard for him to talk about Gallifrey, but in that moment he found it rather easy. She breathed out as she thought of the multiple places he'd told her about going to one day.

"Barcelona?" he mused, "Remember me telling you about Barcelona? Dogs.. with no noses!" She laughed, remembered his last regeneration and his desire to take her there. Barcelona, the planet, not the city. As if gaining a sudden thought he sat up quickly, which led Rose to fall off of him and back onto her pillow. "I know where we should go! Apalapucia! In my opinion it's the best place to just go and relax, leisure planet, that's it."

It was then Rose sat up, "Apala-what?"

"Apalapucia, Rose. Pay attention! Now come on, out your jim-jams and let's go have some fun!" He stared at Rose expectantly, which under his gaze she did push her legs out of the bed to stand. Another look and she crossed her arms before pointing to the door. Naturally, he flushed slightly before he'd gone to stutter a response and scurry out for her to change. She rolled her eyes as the door closed behind him and spent no time before shedding her pajamas and changing into something she wouldn't mind getting dirty in, something that she could easily run in.

The Doctor had already ran off to change, losing the loosened tie, fixing up his hair and already had his brown trench coat draped around his arms. He wasn't quite up to speed on Earth customs, but he was fairly certain that sleeping in the same bed as a woman was intimate. Their relationship wasn't like that though, but then he found himself letting out a small scoff because could what they were even be called a relationship. Then there he was, standing in the console room contemplating just what he and Rose were. What was it though? For a Time Lord, someone who had seen lifetimes come and go, he was a bit rubbish at normal things. He fought those thoughts with the fact that he could cook, that was normal.. enough. When his companion had entered the console room, he brought the Tardis to life. There was time for thinking later, he silently confirmed.

They moved about the console fluidly, switching levers and pushing buttons to pilot the capsule. As time went on Rose had begun to learn to fly her, he wasn't about to let her open the Tardis again just willy-nilly as she pleased; there was no keeping her away, and so he taught her. She knew the basics already and on occasion the Doctor wouldn't do all the work, he'd watch as she stepped in for him. "Hey you gonna help, or just stand there?" He looked up to see her grinning, tongue between her teeth with that signature look of hers. Without words he jumped to the console, reaching across her with a small mallet to hit a spot on the console. Then, thrown from the Vortex, the Doctor took hold of Rose's hand as they came to land.

The Doctor straightened out a bit, cracking his neck and skipping to the doors. "Apalapucia, home to the Apalapucians, a humanoid race, lovely species. Oxygen rich atmosphere, bit of a concoction though. Argox, I think you'd call it; argon and oxygen, makes for a pinkish-purpley sky. It's known as a "paradise planet" and with good reason too..." He trailed off wondering why Rose hadn't told him to shut up yet, then he found the doors open and the blonde out of sight. "Right, still don't know when to stop talking." The Time Lord stepped to the doors and out to solid ground, the door closing behind him. They'd landed just outside of a building, lying in the valley of two large mountains.

"Welcome to Glasmir Valley Facility," Rose read from the sign before her glance shifted to the horizon. Beyond the valley, two mountains arose from the ground, reaching up towards the pink and purple sky, the tips covered with sparkling snow. The Earth was lucious, with colorful flowers sprouting up from the wild green. Night was near, the bright moon was rising from the flat horizon opposite the mountains as the sun was falling closer to disappearing beyond the very same horizon. Throughout the sky, clouds seemed to flutter in and out of view. Lightening clashed in the distance and the Doctor gave a visible frown.

"That's not right," he said pointing to the sky. "It's not suppose to storm here, I mean well it is but they have the streams." That's what he said when he pointed behind them towards the city of Glasmir. "That tower there should be emitting a pulse into the sky to calm the upper atmosphere."

"Guessing we're going to go check it out?" Rose grinned, the normal cat ate the canary grin that he was so very used to. She held out her hand, waiting until he responded with his own to walk towards the awaiting city.

Despite their thoughts of a wonderful trip, the streets were desolate. The Doctor mused about his own thoughts while Rose merely looked around her in awe. She never did tire of the new ground beneath her feet, each new foreign view left her in wonder as the universe. "I don't understand, where is everyone?" he asked, more to himself than anything else.

"They're calling for storms, everyone who can afford it has gone to the shore; they're calling for a chance of nice skies there." The pair looked over to where a young woman was standing, obvious that she was waiting for something.

The Doctor stepped closer, giving her a nod. "Hello, I'm the Doctor and this is Rose." A few steps to shake the woman's hand before he spoke again. "Now why isn't this up and running?" he asked, pointing to the stream tower.

"The towers haven't been used in years," she said as if the pair of them had sprouted two heads. "They haven't been functional since the viruses."

"What virus?" asked Rose, and with another look from the woman she quickly rebounded. "Sorry, we're not from here."

"My dad used to work at the towers, he said the technology used for them was adapted from Flane technology. A star ship sought refuge here and helped adapt everything, but then the virus came. They couldn't fight off the virus like us. When they died, no one knew how anything worked." The woman fumbled with her scarf, "I'm Melinda, by the way, and that's at least what my dad would tell me."

The Doctor looked back to the tower, "Care to have a look around with us then, Melinda?" Rose smiled and stepped backwards towards the tower, which was where they were surely headed next.

Melinda smiled widely, looking back to the building behind her before tugging on her jacket. "Might as well if it'll get me out of the storm," she said, walking towards the two of them before they were all off to the large tower.

With a signature smile, the Doctor brought out the sonic screwdriver and let them into the tower. "I'll be off to find the control room, you two have a look around." He shot a smirk in Rose's direction, "No getting into trouble please."

"Yeah, well no promises," she teased back before watching him saunter away.

Rose then looked around then. "Well looks like we're at an office entrance or something. Gotta be some information around here somewhere, right?" Melinda nodded with a small shrug, brushing away dark hair before she followed Rose's example and begun digging through papers.

Meanwhile the Doctor was skipping between floors, peaking into rooms and scoffing as he didn't find what he was particularly looking for. Then he let out a yelp of victory when he found what looked to be a control room. He bounded over to a computer and quickly brought it to life with the sonic screwdriver. "Must have been some kind of isomorphic controls, Apalapucians couldn't control them then.. Maybe, oh I don't know." Then he laughed at how daft he sounded just talking to himself, interrupted by of course some sort of alarm. Minutes later he was joined by a panting Melinda and Rose. Before he could question what they did, Rose spoke up.

"Went into this office, tried turning on this monitor thing and the alarms just went off." He looked at her oddly, which she then pointed a finger at him. "It was an accident!" she justified.

He pulled a face, "Isomorphic controls, okay not your fault." His voice trailed off before a loud crash alerted them to someone else in the building, and close at that. "Right, could be police or security if we're lucky." Rose let out a loud laugh, nodding excitedly along with the Time Lord.

"You two are just mad," Melinda offered, watching the two oddly.

The Doctor took Rose's hand in his, walking towards the door with a small bounce in his step. "Right, might as well get it over with." He looked down the hallway, giving a wave to a man in uniform that was quickly approaching them. "Hello there! I'm the Doctor, this is Rose and Melinda. We're here to fix the stream system." The man looked at him like they'd just escaped out an insane asylum, to which the Doctor jumped forward and pulled the physic paper from the pocket of his coat. "Doctor John Smith of Intergalactic Mechanic, as you can see right there. Rose Tyler, assistant and lovely Melinda was chosen to show us around." Knowingly, he grinned towards Rose. She elbowed him discretely with a grin of her own.

"Hope you're ready to fill out a failure report when you go back to wherever you came from. Anyway, I'll escort you below." The guard lowered his gun to its holster, turning on his heels to lead them towards the lift. In a matter of minutes, they were in the basement of the building. He lead them into a small office, that was cluttered with papers, blueprints, designs, models and anything else that could be thought of. "Mr. Winters, this is Dr. Smith and his associates. He is inquiring about the streams, says he can fix them."

An older man turned around, fiddling to put on his glasses and look at them properly. Rose thought he looked a bit like the depiction of Saint Nicholas, or Santa Claus. He had a large belly and snowy white hair, all he seemed to be missing was the white beard. The Doctor gave a short wave, wiggling his fingers before he turned on the spot towards the largest blue prints that adorned the adjacent wall. He pulled glasses out of his pocket and put them on, cocking his head to the side. "Looks like average atmospheric distortion, projected up into the shell to calm the upper atmosphere. There's streams like this in strategic places around the planet, keeping the skies clear. But, you can't get it to work. Am I correct?" He looked around a bit in though at Mr. Winters waddled over towards him.

"Yes Dr. Smith, that is correct. But we can't discover why."

He gained a certain look about him, which Rose pointedly shook her head. Though he didn't do it as much anymore, the Doctor still seemed to have a bit of a soft spot for taking a go at other species. He nodded, licking his lips as another sentence formed on his tongue. "Technology created with the help of Flaurans, correct? Yes, of course I'm correct. Moving on, seems to me like they did that for security. Didn't want you lot giving them the boot off the planet."

"Why were they here in the first place?" chimed Rose.

The Doctor nodded in approval of her question, "Yes! Excellent question, Rose Tyler. Brilliant, you are." He then looked to Mr. Winters, expectant of an answer.

"They were lost, looking for a new home. I was young when it all happened, but from what I understand their planet was gone and they had nowhere to go. Running out of fuel and hope, the high council responded to their distress signal and they were welcomed here." He nodded, removing his glasses to let them hang on a chain around his neck.

"A whole planet just gone, what happened there? Captain have a bit too much to drink and can't find home?" The Doctor scoffed a bit before composing himself, "Sorry, that was a bit rude. Anyway, the problem is isomorphic controls. Probably turned into the genetic make up of the Flaurans, they do have an odd internal structure going on. QHA, it's a bit weird if you ask me." He pointed at the one part of the blue print. "With my ship, I can fix this. She can act as a converter,then once the machine is online I can conform it to work for anyone."

"A third party interface?" The old man just lit up, "Why that's brilliant. How ever did you.."

"Sorry, have I mentioned I'm brilliant?" The Doctor beamed, dancing back and forth on his feet. They managed to get a lift back to the Tardis, bringing the capsule back to get her connected to the stream interface. The Doctor explained everything along the way but no one could quite understand anything he was saying, it didn't help he was rambling on near the speed of light. Melinda was offered a job in the end, working for the streams facility. She beamed away and had probably thanked them both close to a hundred times. When they had finally ventured outside again, Rose stood in complete awe as the night sky was overtaken by a grand aurora, wisps of lavender dancing across the sky with unbelievable grace.

When Rose had woken up the next morning she was lying in her bed, shoes and jacket removed and the covers tucked around her. Smiling to herself, the blonde pushed her legs out from under the covers and went throughout the Tardis to find the Doctor. He was perched at the console, working on fixing something and mumbling to himself in what seemed like a different language; which was just him talking technical to himself. "You didn't need to carry me," she said, leaning in the doorway. He looked up to her, beaming in a smile that seemed to be made only for her.

"You were the sleepy one and asked me to give you a piggy-back ride, you needed the rest anyway." He jumped away as the console sparked before looking back up to Rose. "It's uh- meant to do that. Yep, meant to do that. Anyway! We're home, well your home. And again, your mum frightens me. She was here already, asking for you but you were asleep still and she refused to come in the Tardis. Did say she needed to talk to you 'bout something, dunno what it was though so we should go do that." She nodded when he stopped for breath, saying she'd be right back before running back to her room to change.

Just a few minutes and they were racing up to meet Jackie at the door, who immediately embraced Rose in a tight hug. "Oh, I missed you so much." Rose laughed slightly as she had to pry herself from her mother, which made the Doctor grin as well.

"Missed you too, mum."

"Be nice to get a phone call once in a while," said Jackie, a little louder than necessary and a bit aimed at the Doctor. The Time Lord scoffed a little, mumbling to himself about being busy saving the universe over and over. Jackie wasn't listening though, she had already taken her daughter's jacket and hung it up on the back of the couch. Rose felt oddly enough like a stranger in her own home; it felt as if she'd been in the Tardis forever now, the time capsule was her home now. "I'll put some tea on, and I need to have a chat with you two. Some boy coming 'round and asking about you two, had your photo. Was lookin' for you, Doctor."

Rose saw the pain in her mother's eyes, stepping towards her and putting a hand on her shoulder. "Mum, you alright?" she asked. To say the least, the Doctor looked intrigued; he was standing near the door way, hands in his pockets and ankles crossed.

"I thought he liked me, turns out he just wanted you lot." She looked towards the Doctor, "He wanted to meet you, not sure why. I sent him away."

"What was his name?"

"Elton. Elton Pope, he said his name was. Not sure if it was his real name or not." Rose then bolted for the door, taking the Doctor's hand and dragging him behind her. "Rose, where are you going? Don't go leaving again, please."

Rose turned as she was halfway down a flight of stairs, "Mum I'll be right back, I promise. I want a word with him though, I promise I'll be back." Jackie had stopped at the top of the stairs; watching with a pained expression as her daughter and the Doctor disappeared into the Tardis, which soon dematerialized and was gone. Rose was unusually quiet on their way to the Tardis. The Doctor was busy scooping up jam from the jar he'd nicked off the counter and licking his fingers as they walked. But as they approached the ship, he finally gave in and asked, "Are you alright?"

"Yeah, just thinkin'," Rose answered vaguely.

The Doctor opened the doors and allowed Rose to enter ahead of him, shutting the door behind them.

As they stood at the console, the Doctor beginning his search to locate Elton, Rose then broke out of her silence. "She's suppose to be the safe one, back here on earth. I'm out traveling with you, and now she's got people bugging into her business because of me!"

The Doctor had opened his mouth to respond when the Tardis beeped and announced a positive match. "Got him," said the Doctor, and Rose came to his side to look at the display screen. "Seems he used his real name after all. Elton Pope, member of the 'London Investigative 'n Detective Agency', or 'LInDA', for short," he read. "LInDA, why does that name sound familiar? Oh." The Doctor rolled his eyes with a slight scoff, remembering.

"What?" Rose inquired.

"Oh, five regenerations ago. They had my Tardis surrounded, ended up begging for my autograph. Seemed pretty harmless, but that was years in the future. What are they up to now? Says here they're headquartered under an old library on MacAteer Street."

"Alright. So, what are we waiting for?" asked Rose, the hint of a smile ghosting over her lips.

"Hold your horses," said the Doctor, working at the console. "From what I remember, and going by this website, they'd seem like amateurs; but they did track us to your Mum. I'm just doing a quick scan to see if they might be getting some outside help

"Scan for alien tech?" asked Rose, a smile finding its way to her face despite her fuming about Elton.

"Scan for alien tech," confirmed the Doctor, "and a successful scan at that," he added, pointing at the screen.

"How Spock of you," she joked lightly, before taking a closer look at the blue screen on the console. "What's all that mean?" Rose asked as she reached out to point to a large spike in whatever he was scanning for.

"Not sure," said the Doctor. "Generator of some kind, looks like some sort of containment field. That's weird.. but it's on MacAteer, and it's definitely not from this planet."

"Perfect," said Rose. "Let's go. And when we find this Elton, I want a go at him first," she said, pointing at him.

"If you're anything like your mother I wouldn't dream of getting in the way," said the Doctor, truthfully as he held his hands in front of him as if surrendering.

The Doctor went to the door and was the first to walk out. He stepped out into the alley way and quickly took note to the large greenish-yellow blob looming over what must be the offending human. He cringed slightly at the thought of offending Jackie Tyler. He slipped his hands into his pockets again, leveling his gaze at the man in mild annoyance.

"Someone wants a word with you," he said pointedly, giving him about a second of reaction before Rose emerged from the Tardis. She was angry, that was quite obvious.

"You upset my Mum." Her voice was pitched higher than normal, shoulders back as she stared at Elton kneeling on the ground. Just a human but she could be rather frightening when she tried, thought the Doctor in his silence.

"... Great big absorbing creature from outer space, and you're having a go at me?" Elton stuttered in bewilderment.

"No one upsets my mum." She narrowed her eyes, still staring before at Elton and the large creature. The Doctor couldn't help but smirk. It had turned into a normal behavior for them, to merely go on with life while there were odd looking aliens around them.

"At last. The greatest feast of all. The Doctor." Victor crooned diverting his attention.

"What's this thing? A sort Absorbatrix? Absorba... clon? Absorbaloff?" The Doctor mused coming to stand beside his companion.

"Absorbaloff, yes." Victor gleamed pointing a long grotesque finger at him.

Rose leaned into the Doctor's shoulder, "Is it me or is he a bit... Slitheen?"

"Not from Raxacorricofallapatorius, are you?" The Doctor queried curiosity creasing his brow.

"No! I'm not the swine! I spit on them!" He did just that much to the Doctor's disgust, causing them all to grimace in disgust. "I was born on their twin planet."

The Doctor perked up at that answer, rocking back on his heels. "Really?" He raised his eyebrows in surprise, "What's the twin planet of Raxacorricofallapatorius?"

"Clom."

"Clom?" The Doctor repeated curiously.

"Clom." The thing nodded, leering at the blue box behind them "Yes. And I'll return there victorious, whilst I possess your traveling machine." He pointed towards the Tardis, which rose a small chuckle out of the Doctor's throat.

"Well, that's never gonna happen." The Doctor replied sceptically.

"Oh, it will. You'll surrender yourself to me, Doctor, or this one dies." He gestured to Elton still cowering at his feet, "You see, I've read about you, Doctor. I've studied you. So passionate, so sweet." He droned and the Doctor fought the urge to roll his eyes, "You wouldn't let an innocent man die. And I'll absorb him unless you give yourself to me."

He felt an amusement course through his mind as Rose glanced up at him, her lips curling ever so slightly.

"Sweet... maybe? Passionate..." Rose glanced up at him in the same amusement as he scratched the back of his neck, his cheeks beginning to tinge the slightest pink. "I suppose. But don't ever mistake that for nice."

"Do what you want." He slipped his hands back in his pockets and stared at Victor indifferently. "But I don't think they'll go for that," he gestured to the various faces that adorned the skin of the Clom native. They did seem to agree with him, trying to pull the creature apart from the inside. The containment field that the Tardis has picked up on was being emitted from the cane he carried, which when it fell Elton had broken it in two. The Doctor watched as Rose's demeanor had changed. She'd gone from angered to sympathetic, going to Elton's side and comforting him kindly. Just another thing the Doctor loved about the human race.