Chapter Four

"Jack? I could have sworn the Daleks killed you!" Jack had almost forgotten that he hadn't seen Rose since satellite five.

"Well I got lucky, the Bad Wolf saved me, except now I can't die; it's complicated really."

"Oh, well glad to have you back."

"Glad to have you back! You're the one that's been away so long!" Rose chose to ignore the last comment; it wasn't as if she had chosen to leave.

"Thanks." To be honest she had stopped listening properly a while a go, and although was glad to see he was alive, would much rather have had some alone time with the Doctor. "So how did you manage to find me again? I thought you said you could never get through again?"

"Well I can answer that." She had forgotten how Jack liked to talk, he obviously didn't realise she wanted to talk to the Doctor. "Well we had a little mishap with the rift manipulator at Torchwood Cardiff."

"You work for Torchwood? Me too!"

"Right well anyway, back to the point."

"Yeah sorry."

"And we accidently splintered time and space, well when I say we I mean my team… it's a long story. And I guess we never actually completely repaired it."

"Well for once, I'm glad you mucked up Jack." The Doctor told him appreciatively, his arms still wrapped around Rose.

"Yeah me too. But I see you've been replacing me Doctor!" She joked, the two men had been too distracted by her to introduce Donna and Rose to each other. Though Donna wasn't stupid and realised who she was after the Doctor's warm greeting.

"Rose, this is Donna, Donna, Rose."

"Nice to meet you Donna."

"So this is the famous Rose? I've heard so much about you."

"All good I hope?"

"You could say 'Good'."

"Well I need to get home, this little boy needs his mum."

"Oh… well I guess we'd better go then, people to see, worlds to save; the usual sort of thing really." The Doctor tried to cover the great disappointment at the thought she wouldn't be joining them, but as usual his babbling gave it away.

"No don't be silly! You're not leaving me here, I'll be back soon."

"That's fantastic! We'll wait here then." The Doctor grinned at her, that was the best news he had heard since… well since he had lost her.

"Definitely not! You're coming with me, can't take the risk of being left behind." She joked. "You two can wait here." Rose took the Doctor's hand, leading him towards the mansion she now had the privilege of living in.

"Thanks for that." The Doctor said, he was glad to get away from the others.

"No problem, I'd forgotten how much Jack likes to talk."

"Hmm… and I wasn't replacing you by the way."

"I realised, just wondered how long it would take for you to introduce her."

"Why would I waste time introducing her when I could spend it catching up with you?" He leaned it to kiss her again, but she moved away.

"Not in front of the baby! I don't think he wants to see his big sis kissing a strange man!" She joked. "Tell you what, you want to hold him? Means you'll keep you're hands off me!"

"Very funny." She handed him baby John, it felt quite funny really, like holding the baby version of himself, especially since he had been named after him, well his alter ego really. Rose smiled at the Doctor; who'd have thought he would have been so enthralled by a baby. "Rose?" How good it felt to say her name again.

"Yeah?"

"I love you too… I wanted to tell you, when we were on the beach, I just didn't have time."

"I know, I just wanted to hear you say it." She smiled at him again.


As the couple walked off, Donna couldn't help but express her opinion of Rose, okay she knew how the Doctor felt about her, but she wasn't impressed.

"Trust him to choose the pretty blonde!"

"She's not just a pretty blonde!" Jack exclaimed, he couldn't believe Donna would get so jealous, he hadn't really thought she liked the Doctor. "She is clever, witty, quick-thinking, feisty, courageous and so much more… and if the Doctor loves her, how can she be just a pretty blonde?"

"I suppose you're right, but still I could have guessed."

"You need to stop talking for once! You talk too much!" Jack didn't like Donna bad mouthing Rose, and he was starting to be opposed to Donna, but he decided to give her a chance, the Doctor had after all.

"You never stop talking!" She retaliated. In the little time that Donna had known Jack, the one thing she had learnt was that he liked to talk, seemingly to anyone and everyone.

"Touché! So have you ever been to Cardiff Donna?"

"Well no, especially not this Cardiff!"

"Well I work here, here in our universe anyway, how about I take you sight seeing?"

"Weren't we supposed to wait here."

"Nah! It'll be fine, they could be hours, days even, you should meet Roses mum, now she never stops talking, worse than me!"

"In that case, why not?!" The two walked away from the TARDIS, and even further away from the Doctor and Rose, off towards Cardiff town centre.