"A what?" The name wasn't familiar at all.

"Weeping angel. They're some of the most terrifying beings I've ever met."

Rose thought back through all the tales he had told her of his adventures before and after her. "You never told me about them."

"I didn't want to scare you."

The words sent a chill up her spine. "Why do they want to kill us?"

"Not kill." The Doctor shook his head, looking down at the ground. "The weeping angels don't kill. Not usually." He met her gaze. "It's worse than that. If they touch you, they send you back in time to wherever they please to live out your days years away from everyone you've ever known. They feed off of the temporal energy of the life you could have had."

Rose considered this, and realized just how serious the situation was. "Couldn't you just use the TARDIS to find me?"

"The TARDIS could lock onto your location," he said slowly, in a lower voice. "But there's no telling when it would lock onto you. It could find you when you're thirty, or..." His voice dropped so low that she almost didn't hear him. "...when you're dead in your grave."

The thought of it made Rose shudder. "Why didn't the angel touch me?"

"They can't move if someone's looking at them. But if you blink, just blink, you can be gone. They're faster than you would believe."

"Then why couldn't I look at it?"

His eyes became unfocused for a minute, and then he shook himself back to normal. "If you stare at it for too long, it will get inside your head, and turn you into one of them."

"What about you?" she asked, her voice rising in volume. "Is that going to happen to you?"

He shook his head. "It doesn't want me. My half-time lord brain would consume it."

Rose thought about how she had been so close to being whisked away to another time without the Doctor, without her family or anyone else. "How close was it?"

The Doctor stood up straight and reached toward her shoulder, his hand hovering no more than a few centimeters away. He swallowed hard and eyed her with an intense gaze. "I saw it just in time."

And then she understood why he had been so relieved when they had entered the room. Her entire life with the Doctor had been in danger, and she had had no idea...

Rose wrapped her arms around him, frightened and relieved at the same time. The Doctor stood stock still for a moment, as if he was surprised, but then returned the embrace and held her close. Rose never wanted to leave his comforting hold, wishing that they could just stay like this forever and never have to face the monsters again.

The angels. They had come in through the TARDIS door, so what was stopping them from coming through her door?
Rose pulled away from the Doctor. "Won't they be able to get in here?"

"No. I soniced the door closed."

"How did they get in the first time, then?"

The Doctor ran a hand through his hair. "I don't know exactly. Maybe it has something to do with the rift, or the contempulated model security circuits, I've been meaning to-"

"The rift? You mean they're not from this universe?"

The Doctor sniffed. "Ah, no. The angels got through a rift from the other universe after a paradox ripped a hole in time. At least, that's what it seems like."

"But how could the rift open again?"

"The rift has been healing ever since it last closed. Nothing could get through it, but the angels must have done something in Manhattan of 1934 in the other universe to create a paradox that opened a small hole in the rift. The angels came through...and here they are."

Rose couldn't help but let her thoughts wander just a little to the source of the paradox. Had the other Doctor been involved?

"I hope he's all right," she muttered, mostly to herself. The Doctor looked pointedly at her, but said nothing.

"So what do we do now?" Rose asked after a minute.

"Hm?" The Doctor looked at her, his eyebrows raised. "Sorry. Well, we have to get to the TARDIS' engine while avoiding the weeping angels."

"How many are there?"

"I have no idea."

"And how are we going to get there?"

The Doctor sprinted to the other side of her room, pressing his palms against the wall. "Every room in the TARDIS is connected through secret doors." He rubbed the wall gently, as if caressing it. "She's still in here, somewhere, and there might still be enough of her left to open the door."

Rose followed him, a bit confused as to what he was saying. "Do you mean the TARDIS is still...awake?" she asked, for lack of a better word. "She can hear us?"

"Maybe. Hopefully. Because otherwise, we're stuck here." There was a long silence, the Doctor looking at the wall thoughtfully with his brow crinkled.

"You gonna try that secret door?" asked Rose after a minute.

He turned around, sniffed, and squared his shoulders. "I'm thinking it through. The other doors aren't soniced closed, which means that the angels can get through them. Any room we go into could be filled with them."

Rose examined his expression, debating and concerned. She could tell it wasn't the only think bothering him. "Yeah, and?"

"The password to the door." He looked at her with an intense gaze. "It's the only thing no one else in any universe knows." His Adam's apple bobbed as he swallowed. "My name."

His eyes told her everything. He was pleading with her, begging to retain this one secret. He wasn't ready for her to know yet.

But she didn't feel offended. A secret like that could only be told at a certain time, a certain place, and after much consideration. She knew that he had a good reason for keeping it from her now.

Rose nodded. "It's okay, I get it," she said gently.

He beamed at her and reached out for her hand, running his thumb over her knuckles. "One day, Rose. I will tell you one day."

"I'll hold you to it," said Rose with a smile. Goosebumps ran up her arm as the air grew colder. She supposed that since the TARDIS was offline, the cold Manhattan night was seeping through. "Be right back." She let go of his hand and walked over to her closet, where she found a soft black overcoat. She pulled it on and shivered from the cozy feeling inside.

Rose glanced over at the Doctor. He was still leaned against the wall, murmuring something too low for her to hear from this far away. She looked down to button up her coat, and by the time she looked back up, there was a dark doorway in front of the Doctor.

"You brilliant girl!" exclaimed the Doctor, caressing the TARDIS wall again.

Rose rushed over to him and peeked inside the dark room. "What room is this?"

"Mine."