A/N: This didn't go anywhere at all where I wanted it to go. Part of the reason for that is a lovely PM I got from LovelyAmberLight yesterday theorizing what she think might be coming in future chapters. I love the way her mind works and very quickly pinched one of her ideas (with her permission, of course ... I am not a complete thief), and kind've ran with it.

So the twist at the end is all her fault.

This is a longer chapter that got away from me ... but I hope you don't find it too incredibly boring.

Thanks.

GK

~~oooOOOOoo~~

"Rose! Hold on, I'm coming!"

The Doctor spun toward the TARDIS, but twisted to point toward Jack. "Harkness, you're coming with me." He looked at Gwen. "Tell her to kick at its shins. They're just as vulnerable there as humans are. It won't kill it, but it should back the brute off long enough for us to get there."

He stalked with furious purpose toward the rattling blue box against the wall. "Send the temporal and location coordinates to my TARDIS, and for God's sake, don't send anyone else in there." He crossed into his ship and continued to mutter to himself as he walked through the motions of dematerialisation. "IF they think someone's trying to take away their food, the damn thing will kill them all to get to her."

"Coords uploaded, Doc," Jack advised from across the console. I've set the time coordinates to land us just as the best begins its attack on Rose."

The Doctor nodded and gave the console edge a pair of firm slaps. "Okay, old girl. Do you have what I need, then? Old or new, Whatever you have on hand, I'll take it."

A small door flipped open on the top of the console beside a bicycle pump opened up, and a small cradle holding a blue-tipped sonic screwdriver rose from within. The Doctor smiled widely and snatched it from the cradle. "Oh. Yes! Absolutely perfect, my old friend." He kissed the tip of the screwdriver with an exaggerated mwuhhh and popped it into a pocket in the liner of his blazer. "Right. Now. Let's go get Rose."

"She's going to be okay, Doc," Jack offered him confidently. "Trouble magnet that she is, that crazy woman can always pull through."

"Yeah." The Doctor nodded and leaned forward to twist a dial. He kept his eyes on the autonomous movements of his hands across the console rather than look up at him. "I'm not entirely pleased that you've put her out in the field, Jack."

"Well then it's a good thing that I'm not out to please you, then, isn't it," he chirped in reply.

"Rose's safety is paramount," the Doctor warned darkly without lifting his eyes. "She's too important, and not anywhere experienced enough to be out there with …. Things … as beastly as that without me."

"Someone's importance is subjective, really. Not everyone has the same opinion of her as you do." He backed up a step and held up his hands when the Doctor lifted darkened eyes toward him. "Not that I'm disagreeing with you, Doc. Rose is as important to me as she is to you, I'm just saying that in the grand scheme of this entire universe…"

"Without Rose in this Universe, I could singlehandedly destroy it…" He let that threat hang a moment and looked back toward the console to press at a flashing button. "And if that animal kills her, you can bet that the entire constellation of Taucull will be obliterated at my hand. There's not a power in the universe that could stop me."

"Your Time Lord self, maybe." Jack defended. "He doesn't quite buy into the whole Genocide is a good thing retaliation."

He snorted. "Don't doubt for a second that he wouldn't offer me a hand doing just that."

Jack could see the shudder of rage within the Doctor's taut frame, and in his voice as he impatiently told his TARDIS to hurry. Jack also knew that there'd be no way to dissipate any of that fury until Rose was safe.

He had to try, though.

"Rosie's going to be fine," he assured him with a forced smile. "She's come up against bigger and uglier beasts than that one and made it out in one piece."

The Doctor's voice was calm, methodical. "TARDIS is breaking through the Vortex walls now. Hold steady for materialisation."

Jack's expression darkened. "Don't ignore me, Doctor. Rose has more experience than you're giving her credit for."

The Doctor's movement's stilled as his hand hovered over the materialisation lever. "And just how much experience does she have, Jack?"

"Enough that you don't need to worry about her as much as you are," he shot back. "I get it. I'm scared for her, too. Rosie's one of the most important women I've ever had in my life. But I trust her, Doc. IT might be a good idea for to do the same." He leaned forward and pushed the materialisation lever for himself. "Especially if you want her to trust you enough to keep you around. Know one thing about Rose: She won't be a coddled, ordered around, or kept woman anymore, Doc. She's had enough of it. Especially from…" He cut himself short. "Never mind."

"Especially from whom?" the Doctor pressed angrily.

"No one," Jack growled. "It's really not your concern."

"I beg to differ," he challenged as he strode a single step toward Jack.

The TARDIS shuddered out the last of her materialisation and automatically threw open her doors. Immediately the shrieks of a terrified Mickey Smith and the pained cry of Rose filled the cavernous console room.

The Doctor and Jack both launched into a run. Side by side they exited the TARDIS and burst onto the grassy field. Neither man paused to exhibit shock at what was taking place in front of them. They immediately moved into battle mode and separated. The Doctor was the first to issue order.

"I'll distract it, Jack. You get Rose clear and take her straight to the infirmary."

"How do you propose to do that," he yelled as he squeezed of a pair of shots from his gun into the shoulder of the beast. It did nothing to stop the assault on Rose. "This thing is focused!"

The Doctor shook his hands in front of him. "I should have a little residual Lindos left from the regeneration," he seethed through gritted teeth. "And stop shooting it. Their hide is far too thick. All you'll do is risk shooting Ro - Oh yes!" He watched his hands begin to shimmer and ripple with pure Lindos energy. He lifted his hands to his face with a wide and manic grin. "You absolutely beautiful, stunning thing." He blew against his hands in the direction of the Homm Heibygh creature. "Oi! You great dumb brute. Hungry?"

Ahead, the noise stopped, and Rose's large and hairy attacked stopped short his assault. It lifted its nose to the air and sniffed hungrily.

"Yes, that's right," the Doctor called out with a ruble in his throat. "A great big old Time Lord feast, just waiting for you."

Rose staggered to a stand and clutched at her arms as she looked toward the taunting Doctor only a few metres away. "Doctor! What're you doing?"

"Offering up a smorgasbord," he called back with a grin. "And aren't I the most delicious dish on the table?" He sneered toward the beast, who had turned and was now looking toward the Doctor with hunger in its eyes. "That's right, you big ugly brute. Over here. I'm ringing the dinner bell, come and take a bite!"

"Doctor! Don't be so stupid!" Rose shrieked. "You can't regenerate, if you die, then you die. No second chances this time!"

"Oh have some faith," he called back with a smile. The smile fell and he looked toward Jack. "Harkness, get her into the TARDIS. Into the infirmary. I'll deal with this gigantic lump of filthy degeneracy."

Jack curled around the beast that had set its sights on the Doctor and snagged Rose's arm. "Come on, Rosie. Let's listen to the Time Lord and take shelter."

She snatched her arm away. "No! He's going to get himself killed!"

"He knows what he's doing," Jack argued back. "Now come on before you trigger, and that that beast changes its mind."

"But Jack…"

He tugged, and practically dragged her into the TARDIS, just as the beast took off toward the glimmering half-Time Lord. She heard the buzz of the sonic and then a terrified and defeated cry in her mind from the beast as the TARDIS doors slammed behind them.

"My God, Jack," she panted as she was dragged into the infirmary. "What the hell was that thing?"

He pushed her to sit on the edge of the gurney and dropped his gun on the floor. He wasted no time in snaring the dermal regenerator from the counter and returning to her side. "Doc called it a Homm Heibygh," he answered as he pulled up her arms and winced at the damage he could see through torn fabric. "Get your shirt off. We have to get this cleaned up before he gets back in here."

Rose nodded and tore at the front of her shirt. Buttons sprayed in between them. "Yeah, we better, I 'spose." She agreed as she scrambled to pull her arms free of the shirt.

He gasped when he saw the extent of the damage on her arms and at the shimmering amber light that was swirling within the wounds.. "Oh, Rosie. This is bad, really bad."

"You can fix it, right?"

He nodded. "You're body's already working its magic, but let's help it along. Doc'll freak if he sees this."

"Do you know anythin' about them, Jack?" she asked as she scrambled to pull her arms free of the shirt. "And why did it only come after me?"

"It feeds on temporal energy, I think he said. They particularly love the flavour of a Time Lord." He set the regenerator on to one arm and then swirled his finger through the glittering energy over her other arm. "This is what they're after, apparently. Lindos. It's what triggers regeneration in a Time Lord."

A panicked expression crossed Rose's face. "Then if there's one, there has to be more." Her breath shifted to a panicked pant. "Jack. We have to search and make sure there's no more of them. I couldn't fight it off. No matter what I did, that thing just kept coming back." She dipped her head to force him to look at her. "If they go after 'im, Jack… He … he's my responsibility… He's got no one else."

"I know," he breathed out on a breath full assurance as he moved along to her other arm. "Gwen heard everything. I'm sure she's already on it."

"Promise me," she breathed. "He has to be kept safe."

"I promise you that he will be, Rose."

The door to the infirmary burst open loudly, which make both Jack and Rose jump with alarm.

"Well that wasn't exactly a pretty thing to do," the Doctor announced with a look of disgust on his face. He brushed off his sleeves," but it was done. Jack, you need a cleanup crew in aisle two."

"Cleanup team is always on standby," jack assured with a shrug. "Don't imagine the mess you made is worse than anything else they've seen to this point."

"Yeah,' he drawled with an upturned nose. "You'd think so, but these Homm Heibygh. When they succumb to a Gallifreyan defense, they have a full …uhm … bladder, bowel, and stomach content release."

"Shit, piss, and vomit," Jack said with a shrug. "Nothing the lads haven't seen before."

The Doctor pursed his lips and nodded slowly. "Right. Well. It's a pretty big creature, Jack. Remember that when the reports come in from the field." He pursed his lips. "I imagine you might get one or two requests for time off or resignations when they're done."

Rose leapt off the gurney and approached the Doctor. Worry creased her face. "Are you okay, Doctor? Did he hurt you?"

"Oh," he sand out. "Fine and dandy. Nothing I couldn't handle, really. Dealt with those brutes more than once." He let his eyes pass over her chest and arms. "And it was a she by the way. You can tell by the presence of the lower tusks and absence of any on the top. The males have both sets." He took her hand and led her back toward the gurney. "Now. I know that you didn't escape injury, was Jack able to get you all fixed up?"

Although his voice was jovial, Rose knew that inside her Doctor was panicked. The rapid movement of his eyes as he scanned every inch of her and the slight tremor in his hands was an obvious giveaway.

"I'm okay," she assured him softly as she presented her forearms to him for inspection. "Superficial damage for the most part. Subconscious, too, I guess. Gonna have a nightmare or two after that encounter, let me tell you!"

The Doctor nodded slowly as he let his eyes trail over her forearms. His brows creased with bafflement in how clean the area was given how much damage she seemed to have sustained during the encounter. "Clean," he mused to himself. "I thought…"

"Oh," Rose sang as she tugged her arms back and folded them across her belly. "Damage wasn't nearly as bad as it looked."

His brows were still tightly knitted together. "Absolutely clean. No redness or scarring at all."

Jack snorted behind him. "That's just because I'm damn good at what I do, Doc." He thumbed to the doorway knowing that neither Rose nor the Doctor were actually looking at him. "I'm going to go put to old girl into the vortex." He looked to Rose. "Did you want to head home; or back to Cardiff for debrief?"

As Rose answered Cardiff, the Doctor replied with home. They immediately locked eyes to begin what Jack knew for sure was going to be a battle of their wills.

He rolled his eyes. "Up in the vortex, then. I'm sure Betsy here…" he petted the wall "would love a little bit of orientation time in the tunnel of time." With no answer from either of them, Jack sighed. He looked at the ceiling and smiled at the TARDIS. "Looks like it's just you and me for the next little while, sexy. Got any boardgames?"

Both Rose and the Doctor were polite enough to wait until Jack had left the room to voice their arguments toward each other. They were polite enough that they waited for each other to begin the conversation.

It was the Doctor who finally broke the silence. He kept his voice calm, but it was clear that he was barely hanging on the the restraint. "How long have you been working for Jack?"

"Long enough," she replied cryptically. "He has a good team, Doctor, and I'm safe with them."

"Which was absolutely obvious just now," he growled facetiously. "You had it all in hand out there today, didn't you? Didn't need your Time Lord at all to save you from being killed by one of the most filthy and degenerate species in the universe."

Rose reigned in her own hot retort. Instead she took a breath and awarded hi with one of her most appreciative looks – the one she honed and learned from many Christmas mornings receiving socks and hair brushes from her grandmother. "Thank you for your help," she said genuinely. "I suppose I was in a little over my head this time."

"I need to know how long," he asked a second time without acknowledging her thanks. "How long have you been with Torchwood. I'm thinking you've been part of that team and therefore on this Earth for much longer than the month you assured me it was last night."

She looked away from him to focus on the wall, the door, the floor. Anywhere except those sad and accusing eyes of his. "I've been leaping between parallels for years now, Doctor. I may have landed at different points of time throughout the years and helped Jack out here and there."

"May have," he clarified, "or Did." His eyes hardened. "The distinction is rather important."

Rose snorted. "The distinction between the two is neither important, nor any of your business. What I did during the moments that you believed I was on the other side of a dimensional wall is really none of your concern or business."

"Oh," he growled out. "I very much beg to differ on that, Rose. What you did while crossing through time streams and across dimensional walls is very very much my business." He started to pace. "If you've done anything at all that can change the pathways of time, or damaged the walls, then it could be disastrous! I need to make sure so that I can repair any damage that you caused."

"Oh you pretentious prat," she bit back. "Don't you think for a second that I'm a bloody amateur at this. I know enough – more than enough – to not do anything that will damage the fabric of bloody time."

He huffed. "I hardly think the couple of years you spent travelling with me in the TARDIS in any way qualifies you to jump around time and dimensions like it is some playground funfair!"

"A couple," she growled under her breath. "Right. Not nearly enough time for me to know what I was doing…."

Suspicion raised its head again. "What are you hiding from me, Rose?"

"What makes you think that I'm hiding anything?"

"Are you?"

She let out a growl and rolled her eyes to the ceiling. "Right. I'm asking Jack to take me to Cardiff, and will finish up the debrief there. IF you want to head back to London or wherever, then go right ahead. Don't let me stop you."

The Doctor stepped in closer to her. "Then I'm coming with you," he warned. "If you're going to continue with this madness of working field for Torchwood, then I'm coming right along with you."

"There's no need, Doctor," she said with exasperation. "There are far more important things in this universe for you to worry about that making sure that I'm not getting into mischief. I promise you that my time travelling and dimension hopping days are over. No need to worry about my safety – "

"Your safety is my highest concern," he barked out incredulously. "It always has been." He walked in toward her and cupped at her elbows. "Don't you get it, Rose? Since the day I took your hand in the basement of Henriks, all I've wanted is to make sure that you're safe."

She inhaled a shaking breath. "I know, Doctor."

"You saved me, Rose," he vowed fiercely. "And I'm not talking about rescuing me from a vat of sentient liquid plastic, but saving me from myself. When I had nothing else in this entire universe, you gave me something, someone to live for."

She seemed to shrink back from him a little. "Doctor…"

He lightly tightened his hold on her elbows, the effort to restrain himself from holding her more tightly forcing him to speak through his teeth. "You don't understand," he all that hissed. "How can you not understand how much you mean to me, Rose? What I become – what I am capable of when I lose you? I don't cope well when something happens to you."

She snatched herself free of his hold and took a long stride away from him. "Do you think I don't know that, Doctor?" She growled back loudly. "Do you think I'm so damn blind that I can't see how much you lose control, and how angry you get, when you think I'm in trouble?"

"How could you?" he barked, throwing his hands in the air for dramatics. "You've never been there to see it?"

Frustration overtook her at that moment, and Rose quickly turned on him. "Haven't I, Doctor?" She stalked toward him and rose up onto her toes to bring herself as high as she could to put them at equal height. "I have spent years jumping across your timeline, years jumping from parallel to parallel. I've witnessed almost all of the branches of that stream, seeing every single decision you've made that directly affected you an' me. I've seen firsthand exactly what you are capable of when I'm taken from you." She sniffed and rocked back down to flatten her feet on the floor. Anger fell to despair when she saw the horror inside his gaze, and her voice softened. "I've seen the lengths you'll go to … to …" She sniffed and shook her head. "No. Never mind." She petted her hands on his lapel and backed away from him. "Sorry. I didn't mean –"

He reached forward to grab at her arms to hold her in place. "What did I do, Rose?"

She slouched with indecision and regret and tried turning away from him. "It doesn't matter."

He more firmly grasped her arms, desperate for her to give him the answers he was looking for – to assuage the fear he had that something horrible had happened during her jumps. "It does matter," he demanded. "It matters to me. What did I do to you?"

"You didn't do anything, Doctor," she affirmed fiercely as she tried again to jerk herself away from him. "It wasn't you."

"An alternate me is still me, Rose." He shifted closer to her. His whole body trembled. "It's only my decisions that branch that me off into another parallel. It's not a completely different me."

She looked up into his panicked face and gave him a weak smile. "But don't our decisions make who we are, Doctor? Once you've made that choice, you become a very different person." She sniffed. "Here, you decide to give the bad guy another chance for redemption, and you're a hero. There, you chose to destroy them all, and you become a murderer."

"What did I do?" he pleaded.

She lifted a hand to clutch at one of his and gently pried it off her arm. "I told you, Doctor, you didn't do anything." She smiled up at him. "You. You're my amazing Doctor who just happened to sprout out of the severed hand of another equally amazing man. You're making all of the right decisions…." She paused and swallowed thickly. "Except letting me go – which you need to do."

His voice softened to a croaked and emotion-filled whisper. "Because I can't."

"Well you should." She inhaled heavily, a rattled breath through a seizing throat. "For both our sakes."

He snapped his arms out and pulled her tightly into his chest. The tears that had dammed up against his lashes finally spilled free onto his cheeks. "I'm making a promise to you, Rose. I'm never leaving you. I've made my decision, and whether you want me around or not, I'm never going to leave you behind."

She allowed him to embrace her and nestled her nose into his chest. Her voice was pained and whimpered into his lapel. "You can't live up to that promise, because one day you will leave me behind, Doctor. And I can't bear that."

"I'm a new man now," he assured her.

Her reply was spoken so quietly that he only heard the breath used to make it rather than the words themselves. "And that's the problem."

Commotion at the doorway had both Rose and the Doctor pull from their reverent moment as one figure. They didn't immediately separate as a young man burst through the door and gasp toward them with panic in his manic blue eyes.

He caught sight of his quarry in the middle of the room and exhaled hard with relief. "Rose!"

She immediately pulled away from the Doctor and threw herself into the waiting arms of the tall young man. "Mark! Oh, my God. Mark. They found you." She pulled back only enough to assess his physical condition. "Are you okay?"

He shook his head, and his thick, deep auburn hair that was obviously months overdue for a cut rustled with the motion. "I should ask the same about you." HE motioned toward the door with a flick of his head. "They pulled me out of a lecture, told me you got into a scrape with a Homm Heibygh. Blimey, Rose, you have to be more careful. Why didn't you call me?"

She hooked her flyaway hair over her ear in a practiced movement of awkwardness and embarrassment. "Because it's exams, Mark. I didn't want to bother you."

"Well you should." He snapped her in for a hug against his chest and dropped his chin into her hair. His eyes met with those of the Doctor, and he blinked with what seemed to be unsure recognition. The look passed and he redirected his attention to the woman in his arms. "You're all I've got left, Rose. I've lost everything else."

She chuckled against his chest and pulled back. Both her hands lifted to cup his cheeks. She lifted up onto her toes to press a very facetious and condescending kiss to his forehead. "Oh you daft man. You've got plenty."

He smiled warmly at her. "Nothing as special as you, though." He smoothed down her hair. "Is everything all solved then?"

Rose nodded. "It is."

"Okay," he said with a beaming smile of white, and slightly crooked teeth. "So chips?"

Rose purred a happy sound in the back of her throat. "Oh, yes. Chips. I think I want chips."

He let out a booming laugh and threw his head back as he moved his arm across her shoulder. "Since when don't you want chips?"

The Doctor watched the two of them leave the infirmary with raised brows and a pain in his chest. Confusion and betrayal rocked through him from chest to toes, and the emotion held him in place. He barely sensed the presence of Jack Harkness moving in beside him.

"Don't believe everything you see, Doc," he warned. "That's the absolute opposite of what you think it is."

The Doctor's voice was strangled. "And what might that be?"

"That she's moved on," he answered. "Look, Mark's a good kid…"

"He's a Time Lord," the Doctor growled out.

Jack breathed out a sound of disbelief. "Oh. So you can tell that Mark is a Time Lord…"

The Doctor's lip curled, but he said nothing. "Who is he?"

Jack huffed. "Do me a favour. Rein in the jealousy. Mark is not someone looking to mow your lawn. He…" He huffed out a long breath. "Mark 's dad was dying when Rose found them. She vowed to his dad that she'd protect him, and she has. She took him to safety and has watched over him since. He's protective as all heck of her, Doc, but he's not a threat to you and Rose finally getting your shit worked out."

"Who is he?" the Doctor asked again. "Who was his father; is he one of the dangerous ones?"

"Not my place to say, Doc," he answered with a shrug. "But I will say this: Trust Rose. If you even think about asking her to choose between the two of you. Right now – she'd choose him."