Three Months Later

"And he's going on and on about how he's the prince and I'm just some lowly human and how dare I talk to him, such filth should never be allowed to talk to him directly so I just start pretending like there's a problem with my translator. Oh, hell, it's acting up, stupid bloody human technology. And he's getting angrier and angrier as I just pretend I can't understand a thing he's saying, and Mickey and Jake and Abbot are making a good go of trying to keep their faces straight but they are seconds away from laughing. But then ambassadors come and they smooth everything out and thank us and take the prince away and everyone starts laughing. We're covered in a layer of slime, bruised and scraped and haven't showered in four days and we can't stop laughing." Rose explains one of her first Torchwood missions, after she was left on that beach the first time.

Rose is walking down the corridors of the TARDIS and even though the Doctor doesn't respond back, she knows he's listening. Knows he's amused and he's got loads to say but he can't because he's pretending to be caught and imprisoned currently. All part of his clever plan.

See, these new aliens, these aliens that have been on Earth for a long time now can get into everyone's heads and make sure you don't remember them when you look away. All except one Rose Tyler. There was a big argument about that of course.

"Well why her? Why can she remember them and none of us? Not even you Doctor?" River asked, refusing to address Rose by her name.

"Loads of reasons! Could be any one of them or a vast combination of all of them. Something she picked up in our travels, maybe something from her dimensional hopping, or something over in that other world. Who knows?" The Doctor grumbled, explaining not for the first or the last time.

So Amy, Rory, and River were off across America, counting up the aliens while the Doctor was being imprisioned and Rose was stuck in the TARDIS for her own well being.

Not that she didn't love the TARDIS, but she was getting sick of hearing her own voice. During the day she spent her time reading in the library, swimming in one of the five pools she had found, learning new recipes in the kitchen, surfing the internet, watching tv, and basically running around the TARDIS, finding new rooms each time. The TARDIS was probably doing a lot of shifting around, trying to keep the blonde busy but Rose was going a bit stir crazy.

"We didn't really remain a team for long. Mickey, Jake, and Abbot were all able to be team leads and that's the position Torchwood wanted them at. All with their own team. I got paired up with Abbot a lot after that. The missions were all pretty tame, I reckon they didn't want to explain to the head of Torchwood why his daughter was missing or dead." Rose said, hearing a small noise from the Doctor through her ear piece at the mention of her death.

"Doctor, we haven't really had a chance to talk about this yet, considerin' everything that's happened but- I don't want to go back to that other world. Not again, I've been thinkin' about it for a while now. Everyone's got someone else over there, plus time moves quicker over there anyways so I've probably been gone quite a while." Rose took a deep breath and continued on. "'s okay if you don't want me to stay around, I've only seen to muck things up, but please don't look for a way to send me back."

"Rose Tyler." The name was whispered, making Rose stop in the middle of the hall and close her eyes. The gentle hum of the TARDIS was all she heard for a moment before she could make out what the people surrounding the Doctor were saying.

"There he goes, saying that name again." One grumbled.

"Well he's obviously insane." Another said softly, but not soft enough. If Rose could hear them then the Doctor definitely could.

"Did I tell you that I met that worlds Captain Jack Harkness?" Rose rushed to ask, swinging into her room. She had travelled with her first Doctor and second one for over two years, and in that time she had always been rushing into her bedroom and out again. The longest she ever spent in there was to sleep. It had made it quite the mess so after a month of boredom Rose spent two whole days cleaning the room. Then she had hopped out of her room and had the TARDIS change it around. She had done that 8 times, letting the TARDIS decide each redecoration.

"He was a lot different, the Time Agency never took those years of his memory away so he was still workin' for them. Came to track me down because I was punching holes in the fabric of space and time. Actually came to arrest me and bring me up on charges, intergalactic charges." Rose stopped her story when she heard Canton talking to the Doctor. She listened carefully as the American agent described the deaths of the Doctor's companions.

"That time then, yeah?" Rose asked, quickly pulling off her jim jams and pulling on some actual clothes. Jeans, trainers, and a green jumper with her hair pulled back. Rose dashed down the corridors, picking up speed then sliding to a stop in the console room with a grin. She peered at the diagrams above the TARDIS, though she really need to since she had looked at them so many times she had them memorized. She started pushing buttons and pulling levers, dancing around the TARDIS console and laughing to herself at the sheer amount of ridiculous happiness she felt.

Rose listened to Canton talk to the Doctor, and the Doctors sardonic replies but she could hear the hint of amusement, amusement directed at her.

It had been a tough three months for everyone. Rose didn't know how it was for the others but she was quite ready and willing to move onto the next part of their plan. Rose had talked a lot during those three months, mostly telling stories to amuse the Doctor during his time alone, having to pass the time in the right order, all the while tied to a chair with people around him who feared and even hated him. But there were times, breaks in Rose's armor, where she would wake up from a dream involving her lost Doctor and she would suddenly be crying and telling his new one all the things that had happened.

"The door to the pool room is open, I left a towel and a change of clothes for River." Rose said, pressing three buttons at once then dashing over to the other side of the TARDIS to press another, nearly identical three buttons. "Tea! I should make some tea, and nibbles, everyone will probably be famished and in need of a good cuppa. Do you want to ask Canton how he takes his tea? Probably cold, rubbish Americans." Rose joked, while nearly skipping down the hall to the kitchen to set about making tea for everyone.

Rose Tyler had a lot of time to think, which meant she spent a lot of time avoiding all the things she should actually be working out. Like where she would go if the Doctor decided to dump her again. That had been a relatively easy one, Captain Jack Harkness. Mickey was in this universe too but she didn't want to go bothering him, she actually felt bad about how she had treated him. Of course she had been young and kind of an idiot, but she had treated Mickey like- well like a Tin Dog. Jack wouldn't mind taking her in though, and she had experience working with Torchwood. The prospect didn't actually seem all that bad, if she ignored the part where the Doctor left her in Cardiff.

She also thought about the Doctor himself a lot. Rose could already feel herself falling for this goofy Doctor, with his mad professor clothes and his gangly way of strutting around. There was something so very sad about him too, but he was over 900 years old, he had a lot to be sad about. Rose decided she would make sure he had more to be excited over than upset about though, and that's where her feelings would end. No more falling in love with the Doctor, she had her chance, several of them actually and it always turned pear shaped and left her crying in bed.

Plus there was River Song to consider. River quite clearly did not like Rose Tyler, but besides her ill feelings towards the younger girl, Rose did not harbor any of the same feelings. Rose saw how River felt about the Doctor, it was written all over her face. The 'he's hot when he's clever' look, and Rose was not going to come in between them.

Rose felt a bit bad for River on this front, and felt a bit of weight lift off her shoulders when she committed to being only the Doctors friend and travel companion and nothing else. It was hard being in love with an 900 year old alien with a checkered past who hit on French royalty in front of you even though you had made your feelings quite clear. It was hard knowing that the Time Lord would never openly admit to his feelings, always having to read between the lines in his "Oh she knows" and "Rose Tyler, you brilliant girl!"

So Rose was fully committed to stepping back and letting River Song take over the part of love interest in the Doctors life. Rose was also fully committed to learning exactly who Doctor River Song was, because the past 3 months gave Rose a lot of time to ponder this. She had told the Doctor a few of her theories, some believable, some aimed just to make the Doctor laugh.

"Miss Rose Tyler, come on down!" The Doctor shouted out, his voice vibrating in her ear and down the corridors of the TARDIS. Rose grinned and dashed back to the console room, waving happily to Amy and Rory. She handed them wipes, to get the writing off their skin and they gave her grateful looks. "All the doors to the swimming pools open?" The Doctor asked, spinning around the console with gusto and limbs that seemed a bit too long for him.

"Check," Rose confirmed, bouncing around as the Doctor grinned over at her, beaming at her preparation to the console. "How'd I do captain?"

"Absolutely stunning!" A lever was thrown and they were all holding on for their lives as the TARDIS dematerialized.

"So, we know they're everywhere!" The Doctor called out, not even batting an eye as River came falling through the TARDIS and down the corridor. A distant splash heard. Rose never laughed as Canton followed the Doctor calmly around the console. "Not just a landing party, an occupying force, and they've been here a very, very long time." River walked up the corridor, changed into dry clothes and using a towel on her hair. "But nobody knows that because no one can remember them."

"Except Miss Tyler." Canton says, nodding over to Rose who beams at him.

"Yes, of course, except Rose Tyler, brilliant, extradinary Rose Tyler." The Doctor stops his lever pulling and button pushing long enough to bound over to Rose and give her a big hug, dragging her into his arms and spinning her around. Rose laughs as her feet are lifted off the ground and his beard tickles her face.

"What's this then?" Rose asks, after the Doctor puts her back on her feet, she touches his beard.

"I've been locked up Rose Tyler, no time to shave when you're being slowly imprisoned for three months." The Doctor taps her nose, making her grin widen and then he notices something around her neck. "Is that my bow tie?"

"No, you lost that one, the agents took it, no idea why, what could possibly be done with a bow tie-" Rose looks over at Canton for an explanation but the American agent just smiles mysteriously and shrugs. "So I found you another." Rose pulls the undone bow tie off of her neck and hands it to the Doctor, barely able to stop herself from putting it on him. Just a companion, she reminds herself firmly.

"Wonderful!" The Doctor says, a little too cheerfully and he winces but he's back to running around the console again, leaving the bowtie loose and undone around his neck. Rose shakes off the feeling that the alien is feeling disappointed that she didn't tie it up for him, she often times had done it for his previous form and his ties.

"So what are they up to?" Canton asks, glancing at Rose as if she might know the answer.

"No idea," Rose and the Doctor say in union, grinning at each other. "But the good news is, we've got a secret weapon."

"What, her?" River asks, glancing over to Rose.

"Oi, not a weapon, and I'd be a rubbish one stuck in the TARDIS." Rose grumbles, pushing herself onto the jump seat and swinging her legs.

"No not Rose," The Doctor grabs Rose's hand, yanking her off the jump seat and running with her out of the TARDIS. Rose stumbles but manages to catch herself, years of gymnastics and Torchwood training and just plain running with the Doctor had given her pretty good reflexes and balance. "See any Rose?"

"Not your secret weapon, just your eyes, your girl Friday." Rose says cheerfully, glancing around for any signs of the tall aliens.

"Exactly!" The Doctor twirls Rose around, making Rose laugh breathlessly.

"Apollo 11 is your secret weapon?" River asks, standing on the other side the Doctor.

"No, no, it's not Apollo 11. That would be silly." The Doctor says, a mad glint in his eyes. "It's Neil Armstrong's foot."

They are back in the TARDIS, Rose sitting on one of the jumper seats as she watches the scene unfold in front of her. This Doctor likes putting on a show, all mysterious and flourishing movements, like a magician and he really is the complete opposite of her first Doctor. Her first Doctor who hated the round about way of getting places, he just wanted to barrel straight through to answers.

The Doctor took a gun-looking object and pressed it against Canton's hand, making the other man scowl at the Doctor.

"Ha! So three months, what have we found out?" The Doctor asked, glancing between Rory and Amy who were standing several meters apart and ignoring the still scowling Canton.

"Well, they are everywhere." Rory says, a slight hint of panic under his dead panned tone and Rose found herself liking Rory with every growing moment. "Every state in America- ahh!" Rory grabbed his hand, rubbing it after the Doctor had stabbed him with the gun-looking contraption.

"Not just America, the entire world!" The Doctor said, doing a good job of ignoring both Canton and Rory. Rose slowly tucked her hands under her thighs.

"There's a great concentration here, though." River said calmly, looking at the TARDIS's monitor.

"Ow!" Amy pulled her hand away from the Doctor, frowning at him.

"You okay?" The Doctor asked, looking concerned. Rose pretended to look elsewhere, knowing this was a private moment and his question had nothing to do with shooting Amy in the hand.

"All better." Amy said, the anger at the pain in her hand gone now. It really was such a small room, Rose couldn't help but overhear, though if she was being completely truthful she wasn't trying her hardest to give them privacy. She just couldn't help herself, she was so curious about the Scottish girl and her snarky husband and the mysterious Doctor Song.

"Better?" The Doctor asked. Rose watched as Rory took notice of the quiet exchange between the Doctor and his red headed companion. Rose took a deep breath, holding it in, as she recognized the look on Rory's face. Oh, poor Rory. Rose should have guessed that there had been some feelings that Amy had for the Doctor, she had met him when she was just a child after all, and he did have a habit of making an impact on a girls life.

"Turns out I was wrong. I'm- I'm not pregnant." Rose's eye brows raised at that.

"What's up?" Rory asked, coming between the Doctor and Amy.

"Nothing." Amy answered back quickly, instantly. "Really, nothing, seriously." The Doctor suddenly look very concerned at Amy's rapid fire of assurances. Rory worried his wedding ring, spinning it around on his finger as he stared at Amy.

It was all quite, well- domestic. This Doctor really was the complete opposite of her first one.

"So you've seen them, but you don't remember them?" Canton asked, purposefully changing the focus away from the young couple.

"You've see them too." River said, fiddling with the console as she continued to stare at the monitor. "That night at the warehouse, remember? While you were pretending to hunt us down, we saw hundreds of those things. We still don't know what they look like." The Doctor pointed to Rose, who scrunched up her face at him, making him grin in response. Rose knew what they looked like, but apparently she was a horrid drawer and couldn't explain them any better. Tall, gray, small beady eyes, dent where their mouth should have been, and dressed impeccably in suits. All in all, quite terrifying the more Rose thought about it.

"It's like they edit themselves out of your memory as soon as you look away. The exact second you're not looking at them, you can't remember anything." Rory said helpfully, hand on his hip, and looking remarkably better without marker all over his skin.

"Sometimes, you feel a bit sick, though, but not always." Amy explained after.

"I reckon that may come from direct contact with them, if they speak to you. It would be reasonable that whatever they do to your mind has to be done more so if you interact with them." Rose piped up. The Doctor pointed at her and then held out his hand, making the blonde laugh as she leaned over to give him a high five. She fiddled with the inhaler like object in her pocket. Three months spent on the TARDIS meant she spent a lot of time in the Med Bay, hooked up to that machine that helped with the Time Sickness. The Doctor had made her a temporary fix in the inhaler, so she wouldn't be left vulnerable, it allowed her to work through the black out.

"So that's why you marked your skin." Canton worked out, looking at the marker around Amy's neck.

"The only way we'd know if we'd had an encounter." Amy confirmed.

"How long have they been here?" Canton asked, sounding more intrigued than worried.

"That's what we've spent the last three months trying to find out."

"Yeah, not easy, if you can't remember anything you discover." Rory chimed in.

"Why not use the one person who can remember?" Canton asked, looking over at Rose but the Doctor stepped into his line of sight.

"Because they are spread out all over this world, and I don't know the extent of their abilities yet, or what they would be willing to do to the one person who can do the exact thing they are making sure no one else can." The Doctor said, sounding quite dangerous but Canton still didn't look alarmed.

"How long do you think?" Canton asked, wisely switching to look at Amy, who was giving the Doctor a questioning look.

"As long as there's been something in the corner of your eye or creaking in your house or breathing under you bed or voices through a wall. They've been running your lives for a very long time now, so keep this straight in your head – we are not fighting an alien invasion. We're leading a revolution. And today the battle begins." The Doctor said, quite dramatically in Rose's opinion, standing in front of Canton.

"How?" Canton asked, sounding mildly curious. Rose found herself liking Canton more and more each day.

"Like this-" The Doctor reached back and shot River's hand, making her yell and him laugh. "Nanorecorder. Fuses with the cartilage in your hand." He then shot himself, which was only fair. He looked over at Rose and she gave him a challenging look. "And it tunes itself directly to the speech centers in your brain. It'll pick up your voice, no matter what – telepathic connect. So the moment you see one of the creatures, you activate it and describe aloud exactly what you're seeing." The Doctor pushed his palm, his voice repeating.

Because the moment you break contact, you're going to forget it happened. The light will flash if you've left yourself a message. You keep checking your hand – if you've hand an encounter, that's the first you'll know about it." The Doctor finished, holding out the gun to Rose, who took it and considered her options. Didn't seem necessary to her, as it was highly unlikely that the Doctor would let her out wandering to have an encounter with these aliens.

"Why didn't you tell me this before we started?" Canton asked.

"I did. But even information about these creatures erases itself over time. I couldn't refresh it because I couldn't talk to you." Rose watched the scene play out. The Doctor putting up the hologram, Canton turning around and then recording a message before turning back around and fixing the Doctor's bowtie. The reveal to Canton. "It's a hologram, extrapolated from the photo on Amy's phone. Take a good, long look." The Doctor turned off the hologram.

You just saw an image of one of the creatures we're fighting-" The Doctor snapped his fingers. "Describe it to me." He stared at Canton, snapping his fingers again.

"I can't." Canton said, now a little worry seeping into his voice, his face going a bit paler. He wasn't the only one looking a little ill.

"No." The Doctor confirmed, looking over at his other companions. "Neither can I. You straightened my bowtie because I planted the idea in your head while you were looking at the creature." The Doctor walked around the console, away from his companions and grabbed hold of the monitor.

"So they could do that to people. You could be doing stuff and not really knowing why you're doing it." Amy offered up, following the Doctor to the other side of the console.

"Like posthypnotic suggestion." Rory stood behind Amy, his arms crossed, watching the Doctor work.

"Ruling the world with posthypnotic suggestion?" Amy asked.

"Now, then, a little girl in a spacesuit, they got the suit from NASA, but where did they get the girl?" The Doctor asked.

"Could be anywhere." Canton answered.

"Except they'd probably stay close to that warehouse because why bother doing anything else? And they'd take her from somewhere that would cause the least amount of attention. But you'll have to find her. I'm off to NASA, we're off to NASA." The Doctor was grinning again, pointing over to Rose.

"Find her? Where do we look?"

"Children's homes."

"I told you, I'm on a top secret mission for the president." Rose snorted as she walked around the TARDIS console, alone again in the TARDIS while everyone else was off doing their bit to help. The Doctor was really quite lucky that she was 26 and not 19, because no matter the risk, a 19 year old Rose Tyler would have never stayed in the TARDIS.

Rose knew this is was the best option. If there wasn't a scared little girl being used by mind altering creatures from another world than Rose would have pushed a little harder to be involved. But despite what the Doctor had said, Rose was a secret weapon. Actually she was the last card in the deck, the fail safe plan incase everything went horribly wrong. And it wouldn't do anyone any good if she went storming around and got herself caught or killed.

Despite knowing this was the only way to go about this it didn't stop her from being incrediably bored. Rose laid down on the glass floor, spread wide, and listened to the President talk to the men in charge of Apollo 11.

"No idea how you thought you'd be able to sneak in and out of Apollo 11 without getting caught," Rose said as the Doctor, Rory, and River walked into the TARDIS.

"I am very sneaky Rose." The Doctor said, stepping over her outstretched arm and then laying down beside her.

"You have gotten less sneaky with each regeneration, which is saying something because you were never sneaky to begin with." Rose commented, laughter lacing her voice.

"Uh- what are they doing?" Rory asked.

"Wasting time." River snapped, walking over to the console. Rose closed her eyes as a sharp pain sliced through her head.

"Rose?" The Doctor asked, causing Rose to sit up and scoot herself back, digging her palms against her eyes to alleviate the pain.

"Amy." Rose gasped out, causing the Doctor to jump up and move River out of the way before taking control of the TARDIS. These feelings, these horrible feelings were far apart, which Rose was very grateful for. But they came before the worst of situations. The first, and only, time she ignored it half her team ended up incinerated and she ended up in the hospital for two weeks in a medical induced coma.

Rory is out the door first as soon as the TARDIS touches down, followed quickly by River. The Doctor hesitates but Rose waves him away, the headache is receding and Amy needs him more than Rose does.

"Please, can anyone hear me?" Rose's head shoots up. Is that- Amy?

"Amy?" Rose forces herself to stand. She can hear Amy sobbing, the noise echoing around her and Rose stumbles over to the console, staring at a blinking red light. Rose can hear, through the communicator in her ear, the Doctor talking but she blocks them out.

"Doctor, are you there? Can you hear me?" Amy asks, sounding impossibly young and scared. "Doctor. Oh, god. Please, please, Doctor, just get me out of this." Rose pulls out the inhaler with shaky hands, sticking it in her mouth and inhaling deeply to keep the blackness at bay. The blonde then stands up straight and turns, her Torchwood professional and cold demeanor in place as she strides out of the TARDIS, into a room full of the alien creatures.

"So is this what you do then?" Rose asks, her voice clipped and short. Rose ignores the fact that her skin is glowing softly, a golden light, and she files that away to deal with later. "You go around taking scared little girls?" Rose knows the TARDIS has her shields up, knows she can't take more than a couple steps out of the TARDIS but she stands tall.

"How do you remember, Rose Tyler?" The noise is a rattle inside her skull.

"You've made a big mistake." Rose says, her eyes darting from one of the creatures to another as the rattling in her head increases. She knows what they are doing, trying to crack her mind open and erase all trace of themselves. Perhaps end her too. "See, the Doctor would probably forgive you for invadin' the Earth, he's forgiven more but you've gone too far. You should never, ever have taken anything he cares about." Rose can feel her insides burning but she chokes down her own fear, her own tears as the glowing from her skin brightens.

"It will not matter." The creature answers back.

"You should run now, you should run very fast and very far because you've just made a terrible enemy." Rose's voice sounded split, but she ignored that. Ignored the fact that she wasn't even sure if the enemy they made was indeed the Doctor, or her. Rose turned and walked back into the TARDIS. "I know your faces." Rose said before the TARDIS doors slammed shut.

Rose watches as River and the Doctor examine the suit. Rory is clutching the nanorecorder, looking pale and angry and upset but not saying anything.

The Silence, that's what the creatures are called. Makes sense, Rose thinks, though not really to her. They give her a real headache whenever she has to interact with them, not quite silent enough for her. But Rose knows now isn't the time for jokes, so she sits back and lets them work.

"I love you. I-I know you think it out to be him, but it's not, it's you-" Rory is on the ground now, staring at the little blinking tech and looking completely at a loss. The Doctor is leant over the spacesuit, staring at Rory in mute horror and even River has stopped her movements. "And when I see you again, I'm going to tell you properly, just to see your stupid face. My life was so boring before you just dropped out of the sky." The Doctor has stepped closer, wringing his hands and looking like he was considering taking the device away from Rory. "So just get your stupid face where I can see it, okay? Okay?"

"She'll be safe for now," The Doctor says, sitting next to Rory and patting his knee. "No point in a dead hostage."

"Doctor, really." Rose used her foot to nudge the Doctors shoulder, not in the least trying to be gentle. The Doctor looked over at her, looking confused.

"Can't you save her?" Rory asked, and Rose really has to hand it to the guy. He was handling himself extremely well considering the situation.

"I can track that signal back, take us right to her." The Doctor says, reaching back to take hold of Rose's ankle. Whether for comfort or to keep her from kicking him again she's not quite sure.

"Then why haven't you?"

"Because then what? I find her, and then what do I do? This isn't an alien invasion, they live here. This is their empire. This is kicking the Romans out of Rome." The grip on her ankle tightens.

"Rome fell."

"I know. I was there."

"So was I." Rose's eye brows leapt up her forehead. The Doctor took Rory to Rome to watch it fall? Rory the Roman, that was what the Doctor had called him. Rory was Roman? Sounded British to her but then maybe that was the TARDIS, translating. The Doctor took a Roman out of his time, and he ended up marrying a Scottish girl who was in love with the Doctor? Rose's mum would have loved this, better than her soaps this was. The blonde felt a pang of sorrow at the thought of her mum but she pushed that back.

"Personal question." The Doctor stated, looking quite proud and fond.

"Seriously, you?"

"Do you ever remember it? 2,000 years, waiting for Amy, the last centurion." The Doctor glanced up at Rose, who's eye brows were up in her hair line and she gave him a look that clearly stated 'oh we are talking later'.

"No."

"You're lying."

"Of course I'm lying."

"Of course you are. Not the sort of thing anyone forgets."

"But I don't remember it all the time. It's like this door in my head. I can keep it shut." Rory says softly and the Doctor nods. Upon first meeting Rory and remeeting the Doctor, Rose could not imagine two people to be more different, but now she was seeing they were very similar.

"Please, please just come and get me." Amy was sobbing and the Doctors hold on Rose's ankle tightened more, nearly becoming painful but Rose didn't say anything, didn't try to shake him off. "Come and get me." The Doctor stood suddenly, letting go of Rose's ankle and not making eye contact with anyone else in the room. Rose slid next to Rory and offered her hand, which after a moment of hesitation Rory took. His palm was slick against her own, and he held her hand so tightly the bones ground together but Rose just squeezed his hand back.

"Everyone into the TARDIS! And Rose, grab that telly!" The Doctor suddenly yelled after conferring with River over the space suit. Everyone piled into the TARDIS, watching as the Doctor hurriedly dashed around the console before running down back to the doors again.

"Oh, interesting. Very Aickman Road." The Doctor said as he poked his head out of the TARDIS, River and Rory following behind. Rose stood in the doors of the TARDIS, holding a telly and giving a little finger wave to the Silence occupying the room. "I've seen one of these before. Abandoned. I wonder how that happened." Amy was strapped to a chair, but grinning and looking relatively unharmed. "Oh well, I suppose I'm about to find out! Rory, River, keep one Silent in eyeshot at all times. Rose, stand there and be brilliant, perfect."

"Oh, hello! Sorry. You were in the middle of something. I just had to say though, have you seen what's on the telly?" The Doctor took the television from Rose, giving her a toothy grin but there was a certain look in his eyes. Dark and unfathomable, death was coming. "Oh, hello, Amy. Are you alright? Want to watch some television? Ah! Now, stay where you are." The Doctor plopped down the television, his cheerful facade slipping. "Because look at me, I'm confident. You want to watch that- me, when I'm confident. Oh, and this is my friend River. Nice hair, clever, has her own gun, and unlike me, she really doesn't mind shooting people. I shouldn't like that. Kind of do, a bit."

"Thank you sweetie." River said, smiling and sounding cheerful also, her gun pointed outward.

"I know you're team players and everything but she'll definitely kill at least the first three of you." They were back to back now, flirting dangerously.

"Well, the first seven, easily."

"Seven, really?"

"Oh, eight for you, honey."

"Stop it."

"Make me."

"Yeah? Well, maybe I will."

"Is this really important, flirting?" Amy asks and Rose can't help but laugh to herself. "Because I feel like I should be higher on the list right now."

"Someone really should get her off of that chair." Rose pipes up, looking over to the silence nearest to her left. "You maybe? The one behind me will do just fine too." Rory went over to help Amy and Rose stepped out of the TARDIS fully, rising an eye brow when the silence nearest her took a step back.

"Yes, right, sorry. As I was saying, my naughty friend here is going to kill the first three of you to attack, plus him behind so maybe you want to draw lots or have a quiz." The humans, and Time Lord, in the room were busy paying attention to the Silence near Amy and most of the Silence was paying attention to the Doctor but there were a couple near the TARDIS, and their attention was fixed on Rose. "Or maybe you could just listen a minute. Because all I really want is to accept your total surrender." The Doctor was pacing now, walking in front of Rose and in front of the Silence near her, giving her a quick glance and she knew he had taken note of their reaction to her. "And then I'll let you go in peace, yes. You've been interfering in human history for thousands of years, yes, people have suffered and died, but what's the point in two hearts if you can't be a bit forgiving now and then? Oh The Silence, you guys take that seriously, don't you? Okay, you got me, I'm lying. I'm not really going to let you go that easily. Nice thought, but it's not Christmas. First, you tell me about the girl." The Doctor flicked on the television.

Rose took an experimental step forward, towards the Silence and watched as they moved back. None of them had moved an inch since they landed, except for the ones near her. Rose tilted her head, just slightly, something quite wolfish about the action as she stared at the Silence. She tried not to pay much attention to the Doctors rambling, because whatever was about to happen was not going to be good. This new, new, new Doctor was about to reveal who he really was.

"No second chances, that's the kind of man I am." Her second Doctor had said, bursting with energy and decked out in borrowed jim jams.

"Who is she? Why is she important? What's she for? Guys, sorry, but you're way out of time. Now, come on, a bit of history for you. Aren't you proud? Because you helped." The Doctor pulled out the antenna's on the television. "Now, do you know how many people are watching this live on the telly? Half a billion. And that's nothing, because the human race will spread out among the stars. You just watch them fly, billions and billions of them, or billions and billions of years, and every single one of them, at some point in their lives, will look back at this man, taking this very first step, and they will never, ever forget it. Oh. But don't forget this bit."

The Doctor pulled out a mobile looking device, saying 'ready' into it as he stared into the face of one of the creatures. Rose couldn't see what was on the television, but she could hear the sudden static and then a rattling voice.

"You should kill us all on sight."

"You've given the order for your own execution, and the whole planet just heard you."

"One giant leap for mankind."

"And one whacking great kick up the backside for the Silence! You just raised an army against yourself and now, for a thousand generations, you're going to be ordering them to destroy you every day. How fast can you run? Because today's the day the human race throw you off their planet. They won't even know they're doing it. I think, quite possibly, the word you're looking for right now is oops. Run. Guys, I mean us. Run!" The Doctor ducked and River started firing.

"I can't get her out!" Rory yelled and Rose pushed into action. She slid by the Doctor, reading into his breast pocket to snatch the sonic and then over to the Ponds, looking down at the settings and trying to find the right one.

"Go! Go!" Amy yelled

"We are not leaving with you." Rory said, still pulling on the bindings.

"Look, will you just get your stupid face out of here!" Amy yelled back, causing Rory to look up suddenly. Rose grinned but she didn't look away from the sonic. That bloody idiot had put more settings in here!

"Run! Into the TARDIS! Quickly!" River shouted. The Doctor popped up behind Rose, finding the setting quickly and pointing it at Amy's bindings, all the while with a shocked Rose still holding the sonic. The Doctor landed a soft kiss on the back of Rose's head before slipping the sonic between her surprised fingers and dashing off.

Rory and Rose helped Amy stumble back into the TARDIS. The Doctor brandishing his sonic screw driver around, mostly just getting in their way and not doing much of anything for the aliens who were shooting bloody lightning at them! Since when could they do that?!

"Don't let them build to full power!" The Doctor shouted, making his way over to River once the Ponds and Rose were back in the TARDIS's range of shield.

"I know!" River yelled back, sounding annoyed. "There's a reason why I'm shooting, honey! What are you doing?"

"Helping!" The Doctor said. Rory took Amy's full weight as Rose opened the TARDIS doors.

"You've got a screwdriver! Go build a cabinet!"

"That's really rude!"

"Learn how to drive!" The Doctor slammed into the TARDIS door, and River spun around. There was the sounding of a laser gun firing continuously, lightning, and rattling groaning. Then silence, only interrupted by River's gun power charing. "My old fella didn't see that, did he? He gets ever so cross."

"So…" Rory said slowly, stepping back out of the TARDIS. Rose was standing next to it, staring down at the dead bodies around her. "What kind of Doctor are you?"

"Archaeology." River answered, pulling out her gun swiftly and shooting at the Silent behind her without taking her eyes off of Rory. "Love a tomb." River walked into the TARDIS, leaving a shocked Rory and Rose outside.

"You coming inside?" Rory asked after a full minute of silence. Complete and utter silence.

"Yeah, in a mo'." Rose closed her eyes, and heard Rory go back into the TARDIS. Rose felt something in her mind stir and she took a deep, steadying breath before opening her eyes back up to look at the carnage around her. She slowly made her way into the TARDIS, closing the door behind her and leaning against it.

"You called me 'stupid'." Rory was saying.

"I always call you stupid." Amy said, in a tone that clearly said 'stupid'.

"No, but- my face." Amy looked down then took hold of Rory's hand, opening up his clenched fist. Rose felt like she was intruding on yet another private moment but she had no where else to go since the couple was blocking the way out. "I wasn't sure who you were talking about, you know, me or.."

"Him?" Amy sounded incredulous.

"Well you did say 'dropped out of the sky'."

"It's a figure of speech, moron." Amy was suddenly grabbing Rory by the neck, pulling him close and Rose looked up, looking anywhere but at them. She could have sworn she heard the time and space machine laughing in her head.

"Thanks."

"You're welcome."

"If you'll just, excuse me-" Rose said, quite awkwardly, moving past them.

"So, we're dropping her off, at a highly secured prison in the future?" Rose asked, trying to keep her eyes off of the monitor which showed River and the Doctor kissing. It clicked off a moment later and Rose felt a sense of relief, thanking the TARDIS mentally.

"Yeah, you'll get use to it." Rory said. "The not knowing, that is."

"Rory, I'm going to need thermocouplings," The Doctor ordered as he dematerlized the TARDIS. "The green ones and the blue ones."

"Okay, hold on." Rory walked off as Amy stepped down the stairs, walking towards the Doctor.

"So…" The Doctor said slowly, glancing over at Rose, who immediately pretended to be doing something of great importance. "You're okay?"

"Fine. Head's a bit weird. There's loads of stuff I can't quite remember."

"Aftereffect of the Silence. Natural enough. That's not what I was asking. You told me you were pregnant." Rose wondered just how many private conversations she would overhear. Wondered if she was a bit of the Tin Dog now.

"Yes."

"Why?"

"Because I was. I mean, I-I thought I was. It turns out… I wasn't." Amy said, sounding slightly confused herself.

"No. Why did you tell me?"

"Because you're my friend. You're my best friend." Amy smiled and the Doctor, arms crossed, gave her a quick smile back before turning away from the red head.

"Did you tell Rory?"

"No."

"Amy, why tell me and not Rory?"

"Why do you think?"

"Don't know."

"I-I traveled with you in this TARDIS for so long, all that time. If I was pregnant for some of it, wouldn't it have had an effect? I didn't want to tell Rory his baby might have three heads or, like, a-a timehead or something."

"What's a timehead?" The Doctor asked, sounding extremely amused.

"I don't know, but what if it had one?" They were both laughing now.

"A timehead?"

"Shut up!" They laughed harder. "Oi, stupid face!"

"Yeah?" Rory asked, sounding slightly ashamed as he came out of the corridor. "Hello." The Doctor gave a little wave to Rory, trying to keep his grin off his face.

"I'm taking that away from you, if you're going to listen in all the time." Amy said, sounding annoyed.

"Okay, that's- that's a fair point, but you should've told me that you thought you were pregnant. I'm a nurse, I'm good with pregnancy." Rory's arms were held wide as he made his way up the stairs. The Doctor was grinning fully now, and Amy was chuckling.

"Not, as it turns out, that good. So, will you stop being stupid?" Amy asked, hugging the man tightly.

"Uh, no, never." Rory lifted up Amy, making her squeal in surprise. "I'm never, ever, going to stop being stupid."

"So, this little girl, it's all about her." The Doctor yelled, interrupting the couple. "Who was she? Or we could just go off and have some adventures. Anyone in the mood for adventures? Because I am. You only live once."

"That's all well and good Doctor but I need a shower and bed." Amy pushed away from the TARDIS, looking uncomfortable with the Doctor's last words.

"I second that." Rory agreed.

"Oh alright, shower and bed, off with you too. No idea how humans accomplish anything, spend most of their time on such tasks. Wasteful the lot of you, sleeping." The Doctor waved them off. Amy and Rory said goodnight to Rose before walking off to their bedroom. The Doctor, for the most part, had been doing a wonderful job of avoiding Rose. Rose had let it go, mostly because she had needed time to collect her thoughts and think about what to say.

The TARDIS made its familiar wheezing, shuttering noise and shuddered once as it landed. Rose raised an eye brow, wondering what the Doctor was up to because he usually kept his ship floating around when his companions slept.

"Well, I'm off to bed, g'nite Doctor." Rose pushed herself up, turning around and making a great show of walking towards her room.

"Aren't you going to step outside?" The Doctor rushed out. Rose turned around, watching as the Doctor wrung his hands in front of him. Rose turned on her heel and made her way to the door, opening it up and stepping outside.

It was a planet, an alien planet. They were parked up on a great big cliff where you could see for miles. To one side the ground was covered in these great, big brightly colored mushroom looking things, and she could barely make out little huts on top of the mushrooms. There was a wide, curving river that was more green than blue and on the other side was an expanse of what looked like rolling, blue hills.

"This is the nearest, inhabited planet to Earth. You lot go exploring in the opposite direction, out in one direction. There's nothing there, and the human race gets sad. Stop going out, stop exploring. Then this girl, brilliant 15 year old girl, builds all these pods and she sends them out and they go off in every direction for this school project. She gets a failing mark, has to take the class over again and she ends up dropping out of school, gets labeled as this lazy, unintelligent, troublemaker. Gets sent off to a reform school, that's what they do with all troubled kids in the future, reform schools." The Doctor pulls a face, making Rose smile. "They keep asking her to make a new science project but she just keeps making these pods and sending them out. Eventually she gets herself out, they can only hold them until they are legal adults. Gets a boring job and sends out a new pod, every year."

The Doctor points and Rose watches as a small, black object enters the atmosphere of the planet.

"Years after she's turned to dust, some people are putting together an exhibit. Showing off how people in the early 31st century lived, and they find this old computer. Takes them a bit of time but they get it up and running, and there are pictures from Pod, Designation Alpha Code 1, of a fully alive planet."

"So what do they do then?" Rose asked after a beat of silence, watching the object fall slowly to the ground.

"Go exploring. Takes them a fair amount of time to get here, those strange little creatures will be fully evolved, in the prime of their existence by the time humans make it here." The Doctor answers, digging around in his pockets before pulling out a binocular looking gadget, handing it over to Rose. Rose puts them up to her eyes, hearing them click and zoom in on the little huts on top of the giant mushrooms. The aliens are skinny and long limbed, with four arms and soft blue, nearly white skin.

"Kregrons!" Rose exclaims happily, recognizing the aliens even though the couple she had met looked a far bit different.

"You remember that?"

"Of course I remember, you told me, the leather jacket wearing you anyways." Rose pulls the binoculars away, her face scrunching together in thought as she tries and remembers the journey. It had been in a port town on another planet that she had met the crew of Zero Five Zero, a crew made up of humans and Kregrons. "You said they were the first aliens to really give the human race a chance, that they shared ideas and technology and helped each other grow into this huge, bountiful empire."

"It's a friendship that lasts until the last star goes out. Oh they have their rough patches, sometimes they go decades into open threats but they never stop being there for each other." The Doctor says proudly.

"What happened to the girl? The one who made the pods?" Rose asks and the Doctor beams down at her, like she asked exactly the right question.

"Oh, she ended up disappearing actually, no one really knows where she went. Though one of the people working on the exhibit did have a striking resemblance to her, even managed to work out how to get the computer up and running again. Became quite famous, happy too. Everyone thought she was a real genius." Rose laughed, causing the Doctor to grin.

"Doctor." Rose said softly. "What happened… you just- you sentenced them to death! All of them, and I know you don't remember fully, and Rory, Amy, and River are already on their way to completely forgetting but I remember. I remember the sounds they made as they were hit, the way their bodies fell to the ground, and River-" Rose stopped herself and took a deep breath, holding it in until her lungs felt like they were going to burst. "It's just goin' to take some time for me to get use to this new you."

"Rose, I never meant-" The Doctor stopped and started to wring his hands, a new nervous gesture for the new Doctor. "I'm just-" He tried to restart but stopped again. Rose sighed and pushed his hands apart before stepping closer and wrapping her arms around him. The Doctor's arms wrapped around her instantly, pulling her close.

"It's alright Doctor, well it really isn't." There was a couple minutes of quiet, just the Doctor holding onto Rose and Rose leaning against the Doctor. "So, explain to me, 2,000 years of waiting?" Rose asked and the Doctor immediately perked up.

"Rory the Roman! The last centurion, the boy who waited, now there's a great story Rose Tyler. We're going to need tea for this one, come on." The Doctor pulled Rose into the TARDIS, the door closing softly behind them.

Hello all, thank you so much for the lovely reviews. Hope you're enjoying the story so far.