Crash! The sounds of clinking metal and loud booms woke Rose from her deep sleep. The Doctor and his "unconventional" ways of piloting the TARDIS, she mused to herself, her eyelids fluttering open so she could roll her eyes at him. She turned over in her bed. The blood-red digits of her digital alarm clock now stared at her. 7:45 am. Rose let out a groan. Really Doctor? You couldn't have waited an hour or two?

Bringing her hands to her face, Rose rubbed the sleep out of her eyes as she attempted to remember the events of the night before. Her thoughts were stifled between yawns. She threw her arms down and let her eyes wander around her room. She gasped, filled with sudden epiphany as she recalled last night's encounter with the Doctor. He had slept in bed with her.

Of course slept was all they had done last night, but it was a boundary that they had not yet crossed in their two years of traveling together. Rose hadn't expected the Doctor to wake up next to her, and he hadn't bothered to. It was something that he would find altogether uncomfortable and awkward, a confrontation that would prove embarrassing for the both of them. More memories from that night flooded to her mind. Her nightmare! She had told the Doctor that they could talk out her dream today. Rose felt a combination of apprehension and mortification wash over her at the thought of telling him. Could she allow herself to be that vulnerable with him?

Rose stumbled out of bed, immediately filled with regret. Whether the regret was from the night's events or from the mere action of leaving the comforts of her sleep fortress seemed unclear to her, but she knew the hollow feeling of remorse had burrowed itself in her stomach. She sighed, then sluggishly made her way to her en suite to freshen up for another day spent travelling with the Doctor and for a conversation that may very well change the basis of their entire friendship.

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The Doctor ran his sonic screwdriver over the central console one more time, then stood back in admiration as he watched the TARDIS's lights blink just a little bit brighter and her engine hum just a little bit softer. He lightly traced his hand along some of her controls as he looked around at the whole of his ship. A smirk played on his lips, growing into a smile so big that he was practically beaming.

"A little maintenance was all you needed, yeah? Much better now, you are. Brilliant. Absolutely brilliant…" he spoke to the TARDIS, trailing off as he continued to inspect her with his mouth in an "o" shape.

"Talking to the ship again, Doctor?" Rose teased, now joining him in the center console.

"Aye, be nice to her! You don't want to hurt her feelings. This ship's got a mind of her own," he replied easily. He pried his eyes from the controls and turned to look at Rose.

"You've been through a lot together," Rose murmured, her words coming out as more of a question than a statement.

"Nine-hundred years of travelling and non-stop adventure," he agreed, patting his hand on the ship.

"Nine-hundred years of putting up with you! Oi! Thank god I'll be lucky to get a hundred!" She shot him his favorite tongue-in-tooth smile, silently urging him to continue.

His eyes darkened and he winced a little at her words, but he continued with the bantering tone, "You'll be lucky if I don't throw you out here and now! Ugh, humans!"The doctor spat out the last word jokingly, then smirked at her, raising his eyebrows.

Rose burst out laughing, and naturally, he joined her. Both of them lived for moments like that; the good-natured bantering and the carefree lifestyle aboard the TARDIS. Rose laughed but couldn't help but feel a little empty inside. Would this end between them if she told him how she felt?

"Why are you up so early? I didn't expect you for another hour or so," the Doctor blinked a few times, looking deep in thought. "Actually... according to your sleep patterns, it should have been about 53 minutes and 40 seconds from now. Then again, your sleep was disturbed last night by a few nightmares, so naturally you would have slept even longer. Well unless your subconscious was still recovering in such a way that..."

"Doctor!" she interrupted him, rubbing her temples. Him and his rants. "Couldn't sleep in. Someone's tinkering woke me." She crossed her arms.

"Oh…" The Doctor looked down, then flickered his eyes to meet hers. He smiled sheepishly. "Sorry about that. I was going to make breakfast…"

"Well, go on then! I'm starved!"

The Doctor grinned and shook his head. He reached down to take her hand in his. "Let's get some food for the pink and yellow girl."

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The Doctor poured Rose a cup of tea and sat down across from her. Rose bit into her banana muffin, smiling to herself. The Doctor was trying hard to make up for waking her early. He caught onto her, his eyebrows raised.

"How did you sleep last night?" he asked, biting into his own muffin.

"Oh, well shouldn't you know?" she asked, hinting to their encounter last night.

He looked down and rubbed the back of his neck awkwardly. This was what he wanted to avoid. "Eer... your nightmare last night. Tell me about it, Rose."

Rose shifted in her seat uncomfortably. This was it. She stared at her muffin, studying it as she spoke. "I've just been having bad dreams lately, I guess. Always the same thing, they are. Always about… you," she spoke softly, unable to meet his eyes.

The Doctor took a deep breath and reached over the table to put his hand over hers. "What about me, Rose?" he asked. An almost ancient concentration coated his voice.

She gulped down her tea, trying to delay a reply as long as possible. He could tell.

"Rose…" he continued.

There was a different tone in the Doctor's voice now. It sounded almost as though he was… pleading with her. She looked up at him, staring into his big brown eyes. Indeed, his eyes had an earnest quality about them. They were locked with hers in an intense gaze.

Not yet breaking the gaze, she spoke even more softly than before. Her voice was almost a whisper. "I dreamed that I lost you. That you left me, like unwanted rubbish on the side of the road. You turned so cold and I was so alone…" Her vision blurred with tears.

His hand still covering hers across the table, the Doctor rubbed the back of Rose's hand with his thumb to comfort her. He swallowed hard, filled with many conflicting emotions. He cared about the beautiful human that sat across from him now, but that was the very problem. She was a human, limited to a life span that seemed like just a second in light of the eternity that stood before him. The Doctor wanted nothing more than to spend a forever with his brilliant Rose, but he knew that like a flower, she too would wither and die eventually. He had spent years suppressing as many intense feelings between them as he could, and now he sensed emotions were about to spill over. He couldn't let that happen. He cleared his throat.

"I would never leave you, Rose Tyler. Cross my hearts," he assured her.

The color returned to Rose's face. He took a deep breath. This was the hard part.

"But Rose, you and I, this is all we can ever be. We can't have a future," the Doctor stated, showing no trace of emotions in his voice.

She blinked several times, hiding the hurt that seemed to overwhelm all of her senses. She felt like a dam, holding back millions of gallons of water, or in her case, emotions. His words were a crack in her walls, and she felt herself burst as everything she had ever held back suddenly burst through that crack. She winced internally as she found herself reduced to pebbles, yet showed nothing on her face.

"O—Of course Doctor. Thank you for breakfast, but I'm not very hungry anymore," she announced.

Gathering up what remained of her dignity, she stood up, picked up her dishes, and walked over to the sink. She set her plates down, making more of a slamming sound than she had intended. Rose turned sharply on her heel and left the room, leaving behind the Doctor who stared after her with wide eyes. What had he done?

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A/N: Happy New Years, everyone! Sorry to end on this note, but sometimes things need to fall apart before they can fall together. Thank you so much for reading, and please leave me a review! :)