"Doctor!" she screamed at the top of her lungs, but heard no response.

"Rose!" he shouted thousands of stories above her, in vain trying to open the damn lift until it suddenly budged, as if whatever force controlled it wanted to bring him down with her.

Thinking no more of it, he jumped down the shaft, with nothing but a rope keeping him from falling to his death, determined to rescue Rose no matter the cost.


It took him about twelve floors to figure out that making his way down like this was just inefficient, impossible, fine, improbable without alien technology, which obviously was at work in this situation. Rose needed help, she needed it now, and if he had to make his way thousands of floors down, so very close to the core of the Earth, he'd need his ship.

Reaching the basement at Vitex, the Doctor wasn't surprised to find that the elevator shaft did not come to an end there. It went on for thousands of feet deep into the ground, but the people who worked at the company could not see it due to a defense mechanism similar to that of his TARDIS, the chameleon circuit. Of course, this was a much inferior system, so his eyes easily spotted the trickery.

He unhooked the rope and as soon as his feet landed on the tiled floor, he began to run without a moment's hesitation. Rose Tyler was in danger, and for whatever reason, that bothered the Doctor so much more than any other danger he had ever gotten himself into, and there'd been a lot of that in his past, recently more so than usual. He'd grown reckless, careless with his life, feeling as though he had nothing left to lose. There was nothing to hold on to, no one to mourn him if he died.

His TARDIS, his rather magnificent spaceship, was parked just around the corner in the basement. All he'd have to do would be to lock on to any life forms below the ground level and materialize his ship there.

That is, if Rose was still...

Of course she was. No question there, Doctor! She had to be.

He barely knew her. He knew a few things. Just a few. For one, she was often angry at him. Two, she looked at him as if he was some sort of a mad man, which in all fairness probably wasn't too far off, was it? Nope! Three, she was so... So... So lovely that his two superior Time Lord hearts couldn't quite keep up when she was in his presence. Just, weeell, beating a tad too fast.

A bit.

It was new. It was odd. It was life when... When all he knew was death.

He pushed his musings aside as he locked onto the coordinates and sent his ship straight down the elevator shaft, all the way to where Rose Tyler was. He only came to London, to this company, to investigate this very thing, the evil force that had now kidnapped the innocent young woman. The Doctor didn't know the reason behind Rose being taken, but the thing that truly mattered was ensuring her safety. Finding out the reasons could have been done later.

His TARDIS landed with a thud, and the screen showed him that he was in a cavern of sorts, a very warm one at that. Without a second thought, he rushed outside only to be hit by a wave of overwhelming heat. Not surprising, if one were to consider where he'd been; nearly at the core of the planet, that's where. And Rose, Rose was out there, too.

His mind raced. The TARDIS sent him down here, but he couldn't see Rose anywhere. Checking the area with his sonic and finding nothing, he realized that he'd really have to hurry. He was a Time Lord, his body temperature was cooler than a human's, and if the heat was nearly unbearable to him, it would soon be deadly to Rose.

Rose!

"ROSE!" he shouted as he removed his coat, threw it inside the TARDIS and started to run in a random direction. She had to be out there somewhere, and he'd just have to find her.

Everything around him was bright red and steaming. There should be no air to breathe with, and yet there he was, able to both breathe and run. His eyes quickly caught on to the fact that this cavern was not natural; no, whoever came to this planet had prepared themselves this little nest for their own use. What were they after? Where would they have taken Rose?

The thought of the danger she undoubtedly was in sent him plummeting into a state of extreme anxiety and fear, two things he rarely ever felt. It was all his fault, everything, all of it. He came to Vitex to try and protect them from danger, but then he returned much too late. He should have triple checked the coordinates when he made his way back to London.

He meant to stop this while it was still growing; instead, he'd have to trample it when it was ready and, by the looks of it, capable of expanding across the whole planet. The cavern was massive! Impressive really, if you think of it, what trouble some races go through to take control of this little piece of rock floating in the solar system. This little Level 5 planet, still very insignificant at this point in its timeline, but oh, the Earth will be important! The cradle of humanity, and they will spread out across the stars, they will.

But only if he stopped whatever was happening right now.

"Rose!" he tried again, but all that answered him was his own echo.

He took out his sonic and scanned the area for signals of life. He found none, which could mean two things: she wasn't quite there, or she was...

No. She couldn't be.

"Go on, go on, go on! She's got to be here. Go on!" he pleaded as he scanned one of the walls of the cavern until the readings changed. There was something behind that wall...

A change of setting on the sonic screwdriver and the door slid open, revealing a secret room, in the middle of which stood a very big cauldron, and next to it, tied to a chair that looked as if it belonged in a spaceship, was an unconscious Rose Tyler.

He disregarded it all, the danger, the possible enemy, and he rushed towards her. Before long his hand cupped her cheek and soon enough he raised her face to check if she was breathing while his other hand checked her wrist for a pulse.

She was alive. The Doctor breathed a sigh of relief and set her free using the sonic as he pondered his options. He needed to get her into the TARDIS - immediately. But to leave her alone in this place in order to bring the ship around wasn't even an option. No, he'd have to carry her.

He took her unconscious form in his arms as he struggled in vain to quiet his racing hearts. It was all stupid, foolish, undignified, it was very wrong for a Time Lord to feel that way. He didn't know her. He didn't know her at all.

But for that short moment, as the smooth skin of her bare arms felt burning hot against his hands, he forgot that he barely knew her. He forgot where they were. He forgot everything but the sensation of carrying this perfect stranger in his arms, the memory of her small smile, the kindness in her eyes when she looked at him after his admission of there being no one else like him.

And then, just like that, the moment passed.

And they were still in danger. The fact that he was allowed to find her so easily must have meant that...

That whoever stood behind this plan wanted him to find her. And that couldn't have meant anything good.

A sudden noise made him turn his head in a different direction, and there, in a glass capsule, he saw Marge. Yes, Marge, the secretary from Vitex, and right next to her was Robert, a man he worked with in the lab, and then three more people from the company.

What was this all about? Just how late to the party was he?

Rose breathed uneasily in his arms, the temperature of her body unusually high. He had to get her to the TARDIS, but there were the others to worry about too, not to mention whoever was behind the plan. The Doctor was still yet to put together all the pieces of this confusing puzzle, even though he felt as if he should have made sense of it all by now.

It was then that he spotted a red, bubbly liquid that was getting pumped directly into the glass tubes in which the Vitex employees were trapped. He rushed to the so called cages with Rose still in his arms, then set her down gently to try and sonic the tube open. He did not manage to do so, it must have been deadlocked.

"What is this? Show yourself!" he shouted angrily.

"We need a new planet. This will be our new home," a voice came from behind him. He immediately turned around and crouched by Rose to defend her, then scanned the area until his eyes landed on a person in a white lab coat.

They resembled a human well enough, but it was still easy to tell that it was just a deception, much like the hidden underground path in the basement. The person's skin had a decidedly red hue, the texture of it was too uneven for a human, and as they extended their hand, a ball of fire appeared in their palm.

The Doctor immediately recognized the stranger to be an Iturian, descendant of an ancient race whose planet had been destroyed during the Time War, and as he made that discovery, everything slowly began to fall into place.

"This planet is inhabited," the Doctor said calmly, "By a brilliant race! Humans. At the very beginning of their journey to the stars! You wouldn't have heard of them yet, not at this point in your timeline, but you will. Soon enough. What are you doing to them? What have you done to Rose?" he demanded as he wrapped an arm around Rose in a protective gesture.

"I am alone. I investigate. They are test subjects," the Iturian replied, "I researched. Start from here... Humans drink the improved mixture... And they will become like us. Together, we will rebuild our empire... Lost in the War... Destroyed by your people... Time Lord." he spat out the last two words.

The Doctor's hearts clenched. He knew all too well how many grand races fell during the Time War. If only he could turn back time...

But he couldn't. There was no way back. The only thing for him to do now would be to save the Earth in any way he possibly could.

He came to Vitex because something was wrong, but he couldn't quite put his finger on it, not when he first arrived. It was a slow process and he missed the development of it, coming in for the grand finale, but he was able to piece it all back together after hearing what he had just heard. Iturians, having barely survived the Time War in very small numbers, found themselves a new planet and lived on, but this one must have gotten stranded.

Vitex drinks were very popular all over Britain - why, the Doctor couldn't fathom, they were positively disgusting - and after some adjustments, Iturian DNA would be passed on to the humans who drank Vitex soda, turning them into a similar, if slightly inferior, race. That way, the more people would have been changed, the more the Iturian army would grow, finally expanding all over the planet.

The red liquid slowly seeped into the glass tubes in which Marge and the others were imprisoned, and the Iturian appeared to be moved by that. His eyes shifted from the Doctor to the others and back and forth, an expression of unease painted all over his face. Fiddling with a strange remote in his hand, he seemed to be holding himself back from stopping the whole process.

The Doctor knew enough of the alien's race to know that they were... They were peaceful. And only when pushed to desperation would they act the way the alien was just then, but he didn't need to. He would help him, he would save the Earth, and nobody would die that night.

"What's your name?" he asked simply.

"Jin'lar."

"Alright, Jin'lar, listen to me. Just listen. You don't have to do this. No, really, you don't! Your race never fought a single war, not even one, and you plan an invasion? These humans, these brilliant beings, they will lose their lives, their homes, their entire future because of you. That's not something you want to live the rest of your life with. Trust me."

His words sank in. The alien eyed him with a look of regret as his human disguise slowly dissipated, showing his true form.

"We need to live on," Jin'lar said as he looked at the Doctor in desperation. The Iturian despised Time Lords, every last one of them, but somehow, this man was different.

"And you will. Oh, you will! Your race lives on, Jin'lar, and I can take you to them. Your people, some of them survived, and they found a new planet. You are stranded away from home, but I can help you. This is not the way. Definitely not."

As he said that, Rose suddenly opened her eyes and blinked in confusion. His eyes immediately fell towards her and soon he locked his gaze with hers. He finally released the breath he didn't even know he had been holding and then smiled widely at her, but before he managed to say a word, the alien spoke up.

"Why should I trust the likes of you, Time Lord!" the Iturian exclaimed, half-desperate, half-angry.

"Doctor? What's goin' on?" Rose uttered as she propped herself up on her elbows, carefully supported by the Doctor's arm around her shoulder. He should've let go, he really should have, but he couldn't bring himself to. They were still in of danger. And, weeell, letting go of her may have somehow seemed unpleasant, but that was a different story entirely.

She looked up at him and he silently begged her not to look away, but she did, and seconds later she noticed her surroundings, finally resting her eyes on the Iturian. Her eyes widened and her mouth fell open, and the Doctor half expected her to scream in shock or fear, but much to his surprise, she didn't.

"What-what is that? Blimey, have I hit my head or what?" she gasped and he had to stifle a chuckle as he forced his eyes away from Rose and onto Jin'lar.

"Why should you trust me? Weeell, that's a good question, very good! But I will tell you why: because I lost everything. I ended the Time War. I tried to save your planet-I tried to save so many- but I... I couldn't. Not all of them. Not yours." he paused, looking the alien straight in the eyes. "And I'm so, so sorry. Allow me to help you. I know where your people are, we could... We could get there. I have a ship, my, err, my spaceship, a rather brilliant one at that! Just let go of the prisoners and leave this planet, because it is defended. And I will not let any human being suffer, Jin'lar. I won't."

As the Doctor's eyes remained fixed on the Iturian, Rose struggled to stand up. He jumped up to his feet and helped her, keeping his arm firmly planted across her shoulder to keep her steady. Out of the corner of his eye, he saw her look around in fear, and although he squeezed her arm in a reassuring gesture, it was not the right time to do more than that. He kept his attention solely on Jin'lar.

"As if you have a say in that, Time Lord! You save the humans, but you didn't save my people! We live on, you say, we live on! What about the millions that perished in the Time War?" Jin'lar exclaimed in anger, pacing back and forth in front of the cauldron.

"Doctor," he heard Rose whisper in a tone of urgency, but his gaze remained on Jin'lar.

"Don't you think I would have saved my own people if I could? Don't you think I would have saved them all? I had no choice!" his voice grew desperate as he shouted. Memories flooded his mind like so many times before, nearly overpowering him with the pain they caused him. Living with the blood of millions on his hands was so difficult, so very hard, and it was a burden he had to carry all on his own ever since the Time War.

He wished he could have saved them. He would gladly give up his own life a thousand times over to save even one of the souls that were lost in the War. But he couldn't. He couldn't turn back time, not on this, not ever.

"Doctor, look at the-"

Rose tried to warn him, but it was too late. The cauldron from which the red liquid was being pumped started shaking violently as pieces of shrapnel began falling from the ceiling of the cavern. An earthquake, an eruption, something shook the whole area, and the consequences could be disastrous for all of them.

His arm around Rose immediately tightened its grip as his eyes traveled towards the five trapped Vitex workers. Thousands of possibilities ran through his head, calculations, all sorts of different options, but he failed to anticipate what was about to happen.

Jin'lar, upon seeing the disaster, grew even more desperate. In his anger, he shouted, "You are right, Time Lord. I will spare the humans, for they do not deserve the fate my people were given!"

He pressed a button on his remote as he said that, and the five humans were seemingly teleported out of their glass cages, leaving only the Doctor and Rose. Both of them breathed a sigh of relief, but the alien used their distraction against them.

"But you-" he cried, "You will go down with me, if it's the last thing I do! To avenge my planet!"

Before the Doctor was given a moment to register it, Jin'lar spawned a ball of fire in his palm and launched it towards the Time Lord, which left the Doctor with next to no time to react.

"No!" Rose screamed as she pushed him down to the ground with all of her remaining strength, bringing the two of them to down, with her fall being less painful as she landed, wellll, on top of him.

Oh.

His eyes widened and his eyebrows shot up as he looked right at her, but their gaze was quickly broken by yet another turn of events. The ball of fire which was aimed at him hit a wall, starting a chain reaction which combined with the shaking increased the amount of shrapnel falling from the ceiling of the cavern by tenfold. Both of them turned their eyes to Jin'lar upon hearing him scream out in agony, and the Doctor's hearts clenched when he saw that the Iturian had been crushed to death by a large boulder.

Yet another needless loss of life. The fact that Jin'lar tried to kill him did not mean that the Doctor would have wanted this, no, he hoped to save the Iturian and take him home to his people, but it was not meant to be. The alien was undoubtedly dead - not many species could sustain such weight, definitely not one of that race. Regardless of this, Rose was still in danger, so the Doctor forced himself back into action. He had to save her.

He wriggled himself out from under her weight (perhaps a little reluctantly. Just a bit, not very, just a tad. Yup.), he jumped to his feet and helped Rose up, then grabbed her hand tightly. And again, he felt that odd sensation, almost like fire scorching not his skin, but warming him up from the inside. What was it? What did it mean?

No, no time for that. They had to go.

"Run!" he shouted, pulling at her hand.

She nodded at him very briefly and followed him as the pieces of rock falling from the ceiling missed their exposed bodies by mere inches. They had to get to the TARDIS and they had to hurry, even though he could tell that she was struggling to keep up, undoubtedly exhausted by the heat and the whole experience, but they had to keep moving. His ship wasn't all too far.

After slaloming for what felt like far too long, he finally spotted the TARDIS in the distance.

"What is that?!" Rose shouted behind him, panting in her extortion.

"My ship! My TARDIS! Go on! Keep running, Rose!"

"We're just gonna die in there, Doctor! Where on earth is the way out of this place?!" she demanded as they reached his ship.

"Oh, I dare say we're going to be just fine," he said as he unlocked the door to the TARDIS, "Yup! Brilliant, even! You see, I work best when I don't have a plan. Although, this one may have been more thanks to you, but-"

He casually strode inside his ship with her following suit, and only as he heard a small gasp did he realize that she had never been inside the TARDIS before. For some reason, he felt as if he'd known her for a much, much longer amount of time, and he felt as if she... As if she belonged there, with him, up in the stars.

At that moment, he already knew. He knew that he would ask her. Did he ever really have a choice?

And she as good as saved his life, mere moments ago. She, a human girl who didn't believe a single word he said until the truth behind them was forced upon her in this manner. She who could have died if they didn't make it back to his ship safely, or rather if she didn't save him first.

Rose.

He turned around and observed her in silence. He knew enough about humans to know that she would need a moment, that it would take her a minute to compose her thoughts, to ask him a question or two. In the meantime, she stood at the entrance to the TARDIS, the door now safely closed behind her, and he could almost feel the heat radiating from her body as she looked left and right in complete shock.

"Are you alright?" he broke the silence as he eyed her with concern.

"It's bigger on the inside," she muttered in disbelief, ignoring his question.

"Weeell, yes. You might say that," he grinned, but his grin mostly served to conceal his worry for her. He wanted to run to her - to hold her, to make sure she would be fine - but it did not feel right, and he didn't think she would have wanted it. No matter his own impressions, for human standards they were still a pair of strangers bound together by, err, unusual circumstances.

"You said you lived in a box," Rose said blankly as she finally forced her gaze to focus on him.

"Yup. This is where I live."

"Here? I mean, underground? How did we even get here? I can't remember anything..." she said as she brought her hands to her head, rubbing her temples in confusion.

Slowly, carefully, he finally decided to approach her. He had to ease her into it, but most of all, he had to make sure that she did not suffer any serious damage. He stopped two steps away from her and observed her intently, but she did not look back at him. Her eyes drifted down to the ground, and moments later, she closed them.

"No. Not here. Err, my ship, it can... Travel. Through time-"

"And space?"

"And space."

Silence fell for a moment as his words sank in. She swayed slightly, but steadied herself without his help.

"You're not human," she stated, repeating what he had already told her before.

"No."

"Oh."

Silence.

"Is that alright?" he finally asked anxiously.

Why did his hearts skip a beat as he awaited her answer with baited breath? Why did it matter? Why did he care?

He didn't know why. He only knew that he did, in fact, care. A whole lot more than he deemed appropriate.

"Yeah," she answered after a whole minute, finally looking up to meet his gaze. "Yeah, it's... It's..."

The Doctor bore his eyes into hers as awaited the end of that sentence, but it never came. Rose's eyes fell shut and she lost her balance, nearly falling down onto the grated floor of his ship. Nearly, because he caught her just in time. His fingers briefly brushed her forehead. It was burning hot.

And that was when he realized that he truly had no time to lose. She saved him just minutes ago, and although he couldn't save Jin'lar, he would save Rose. He certainly would save Rose.

~oOo~

He regarded her sleeping face in silence, knowing that it probably wasn't the right thing to do. The right thing to do would be to leave the TARDIS to monitor her and to leave the infirmary; that way, he would be certain that she wouldn't feel scared or even angry at seeing him there when she woke up. But he couldn't bring himself to go, so he remained, watching over her as she slept.

She was stable; Jin'lar didn't have enough time to cause her any real damage. He also checked on the five Vitex employees and found that they were all fine and had no memory of what had transpired. He talked them into taking the day off by babbling on and on about the flu, the viruses and how it is very, very unsafe to be walking about when possibly being contagious, because no one wants to catch the flu, now do they? Not to mention that the common flu once destroyed a whole empire, it did! Not on Earth, mind you, but-

Yup. He stopped there, because the looks they gave him were borderline terrified. So, he managed that all fine. Nobody knew anything.

Would Rose remember anything?

Would she remember the look they shared as the sky started falling down? Did she feel it too, that strange sensation when he held her hand as they ran?

He shook his head. That didn't matter. She just had to wake up.

Two hours passed before she finally stirred. He held his breath as her eyes fluttered open, not for the first time finding himself quite dazed in her presence.

To be fair, Rose was rather, err, lovely. Not that it concerned him in any way, just-

"Doctor?"

Rose broke his inner musings, bringing him back to reality. Her eyes wide open, she looked at him as intently as she could given her groggy state.

"Good morning! Or weeell, evening. Or afternoon. Up to you. It's a tad relative, you see."

"Where are we?" She first propped herself up on her elbows and then finally sat up properly on the cot in the infirmary. Her eyes drifted from one object to another, taking it all in, before refocusing her gaze on him.

"We're on the TARDIS. My, err, my box," he clarified needlessly.

"Looks like some sort of a, I dunno, hospital?" She scrunched her nose as she surveyed the area. "Are you alright?"

He chuckled, but deep down inside, he felt strangely soothed by the knowledge that she even cared to ask.

"Yup. Brilliant! But you, Rose Tyler, you sort of passed out. For a while. Nothing major, a little overheating. Weak human constitution, you lot can't handle heat, not as well as a Time Lord! But now, two hours under the temperature adjusters and you are all better."

"And Marge and them...?"

"All fine. Told them to take the day off. They don't remember anything, so it's probably best if-"

"Oh, I won't be telling anyone, that's for sure. They'd all think I'm completely bonkers, just like you. I'd get tossed into the loony bin, I would," she grumbled which made him grin very widely. She remembered everything, then.

Wait, was that a good thing or a bad thing? It could be pretty bad. Or-

"So you weren't just saying things, then?"

The Doctor frowned as he looked at her in confusion. What was she talking about?

"I mean, you weren't just making it up, were you? All the... Time Lords and things, that stuff."

"Oh. No, no I wasn't."

"What were you doin' working for my dad, then? Bit odd, that."

He thought for a moment and then said in a forlorn voice, "I knew that something was about to happen, but I didn't come back in time to stop it. I'm sorry. It's my fault that you were in danger."

Her expression softened considerably as a small smile appeared on her face.

"'s not. I mean, you're completely mad alright, but you're not bad. Don't beat yourself up, Doctor. 'sides, I'm okay, yeah?"

"Of course. More than okay, in fact you're rather lovel-err, no, I mean, yes, definitely! Very okay, yup." He started tugging on his ear awkwardly as he averted her stare, then he remembered about a herbal medicine from a planet he recently visited. He thought it'd be best if Rose drank some of it to lower her temperature completely back to normal, so he took a bottle of it from the shelf and poured some of the sticky liquid onto a tablespoon.

"What's that?" she asked with a small frown.

"Something to lower your temperature. Bit too high, that, so I thought..." he trailed off, stuck between handing her the spoon and just feeding it to her. Wait. That would be a bit, weeell, weird, wouldn't it? Yes. Definitely. He gave it to her as if it was on fire and cleared his throat as she eyed the liquid suspiciously.

"Is it safe?"

"Of course it is! Rose, who do you take me for?" he exclaimed in indignation.

"Someone who's completely bonkers, that's who. Wouldn't be surprised if you mixed up the bottles and gave me, I dunno, bleach?" she mumbled, "I can trust you though, yeah?"

Her eyes bore into his and although he may have been wrong, he thought that there may have been more to the question than she initially let on. That maybe it wasn't only about the herbal medicine from the twin planet of Raxacoricofallapatorious, Clom. That maybe he wasn't a complete stranger to her, not anymore.

"What d'you think?" he answered with a question. He enjoyed the warmth in her eyes, a glimmer of trust or so he liked to think, and as he looked at her then, he wanted to get to know her better. Only one way to do that, he thought.

"I think I can," she said with a smile and gulped down the medicine. "Blimey! It's disgusting, that stuff!"

He laughed out loud at her expression, already dreading the moment he'd have to let her go.

Unless...


He hated it, but he knew he'd have to take her home. He delayed the moment of asking her in his fear of rejection. It was odd, really. Ever since the war, he... He was on his own, and slowly, he began to think that maybe that's how it's meant to be. A punishment for his crimes, if you will. But then he met Rose Tyler, and his opinion rapidly changed.

Upon her request, he took her to a nice, green, lush area near her home. She said she could use a little walk. It was a cloudless, starry night, and as they stepped out of the TARDIS, she looked around in disbelief.

"It worked," she mumbled as a brilliant, genuine smile lit up her whole countenance.

He could almost feel life seep into his tired mind as he observed her, so young and so very lovely, so human, so brave, so curious, so kind.

They were atop a small hill. She stood, looking all around until she threw her head back and turned her eyes towards the stars. He walked over to her, pretending to look in the same general direction, but his eyes never left her face; she seemed to be so full of wonder, and to see that wonder through her was something he so badly wanted to do again.

If he could see the universe through her eyes - if he could just be around her - would it be so wrong? He didn't deserve it, surely not. This lonely life was his punishment, a price he had to pay, a debt that was meant to last until the end of his days.

But was he completely unworthy of her? Or rather, if he could keep her safe, if he could spend every waking moment trying to conjure that look of pure delight that seemed to make her shine like a thousand suns, if he spent every single day trying to make her happy, would he become the least bit deserving of her company?

Maybe.

He hoped so.

"Rose..." he began, his hearts all the way up in his throat. He felt anxious like a teenage human, and it was very, very undignified and he should be ashamed.

He wasn't. Not really.

"So you've been to them, then?" she interrupted him with a small smile as she tilted her chin towards the midnight blue sky, indicating the stars.

He released his hitched breath and responded, "Yup. A whole lot of them."

"Is this what you do? Just, y'know, travel around and the like?"

"Weeell, yes. For the most part. Apart from when I get stuck somewhere, like I did recently. Odd story, that! I went to this, err, planet that was under attack, and-"

"You're not coming back to Vitex, are you?" she cut him off again. He noted the change in her countenance; her face fell and he could only wonder about the cause.

"Not very likely. You see, I-" he trailed off, pondering what to say, how much to tell her. "I never really stay. I don't... I don't like it. Not much."

She sighed. She turned her eyes towards him and said, "I envy you, really. I've got my whole future planned out for me, yeah? I didn't get anywhere in life, and I'm jus' gonna be stuck at Vitex. My dad loves this company, he does, but I just sort of... Wanted something of my own? Y'know?" He nodded. "Well. Not happening."

"You see, that's the brilliant thing about you lot," he said as he slipped his hands into his pockets and forced his gaze away from her, onto the sky. "You've got all those possibilities. Options. Dreams! Oh, you humans have so many dreams, don't you? And they may come true. That's the best part."

"I haven't got any, not really. I don't know what to do with myself," she admitted sadly.

His hearts sank. He barely knew her, yet he felt as if he knew her so well, and if there was one thing in the universe that he wanted, just one, it was to get to know her better.

"You could come with me," he finally blurted out. He felt his cheeks heat up slightly and he cleared his throat, rubbing the back of his neck in an awkward gesture as he looked at her, awaiting her reaction.

Rose's eyes widened and for a moment there, he thought that she'd say no. A feeling of dread ran down his spine as he silently begged her not to decline his offer.

Why it mattered so much, he couldn't say, but it did.

"You're kidding?" she managed to ask, chuckling softly in disbelief.

"Err, no. No. No! Of course not. I-I want you to. If you like."

Blimey, the whole ordeal went and got the best of him, but so be it. He wanted Rose Tyler onboard. To be his light in the dark. To show her the wonders of the universe, one after one, every single day, because he knew for a fact that she deserved it.

"Is it always this dangerous?"

"Yup."

"But you'd... You'd bring me to all those places, yeah? Different planets and... You really would."

"If you'd let me," he said softly.

His eyes bore into hers with a strange intensity. The air was filled with that spark he'd felt before, a strange force pulling the two of them together, something intangible and yet very, very real. He had to hold himself back from bringing his hands to her temples in order to attempt to see what she was truly thinking. Of course, he'd never do it against her will, but the suspense was killing him, and to be forced to regenerate due to suspense would be, weeell, rather silly. Yup.

Her eyes held a thousand questions and equally many answers, and if only he could, he'd dive straight into them to explore them all. She was unlike any other. He barely knew her, but that much he knew for certain.

Rose Tyler.

The Doctor spotted a shift in the way she looked at him. Her expression, previously uncertain, changed into a look of determination and... And...

Happiness? Was that the word?

It was amusing how that day was a day for lost things being found. He found Rose, he found the missing employees of Vitex, but strangely enough, he also found a brand new will to live, unlike anything he had ever felt since before the war.

It was rather brilliant.

And then, with just eight words, she spun his entire world around without as much as making an effort, marking a beginning to something entirely new. A new chapter where the pages would be filled with her presence; a breath of life in a world that he grew to believe was forever doomed to be void of it.

"Alright then, Doctor. Take me to the stars."


A/N: I'm sooo sorry for taking forever to update, and that the chapter was so long. And for the adventure-y bits. I'll be focusing more on fluff from now on, since I love fluff. :p And there'll be no more gigantic delays between chapters. This one was difficult to write somehow, writing adventure and action is definitely not my forte. I hope it wasn't too bad. Did you enjoy the Doctor's PoV? Would you like me to alternate them or just stick to Rose?

Also, big thank you to Bria for all her help! ^_^ Thank you all for reading this, and please do let me know what you thought of it :) Happy New Year to you all! Stay brilliant!