"Ah, Rose. I think it's time we had a chat."

Retreat! Her mind screamed. The Doctor was wearing his pensive expression. He edged closer with his hands palm-up in front of him as if she were a frightened animal.

"What exactly do you want to talk about?" Her voice was aimed at nonchalant but came out higher than she intended it to. Rose clenched her hands into fists in an attempt to abate the shaking. This is bad, he knows something. She reached out to the TARDIS, her comforting whirring sound seemed to respond to her distress, bathing her in soothing waves of calm.

The Time Lord's brow furrowed in thought. "I think you know." He watched unease flicker over his companion's face. "Or maybe you don't, not entirely."

"And the award for being cryptic goes to..."

He ignored her attempt at levity, tilting his head towards the door of her room, "Come on."

She followed him cautiously, perching on the end of her new bed whilst he straddled the wicker chair in the corner backwards. He can't even sit normally.

His eyes narrowed as he took in her unease, "There are things we need to talk about, things I've been avoiding." He paused, "They're little things really, but they all add up to one big picture."

"And what's that?" Rose managed to force out.

"You don't make sense." He pulled his sonic screwdriver from his pocket, "Not a lick of sense. If you look here," He pressed a button and the screwdriver buzzed incessantly in her face, he then read something off of the side, frowning. "Human. Ordinary boring human."

"Thanks." She scoffed, ignoring the itch at the back of her mind.

He rolled his eyes, "Oh I know you're not. For one thing, no human knows the planet Raxacoricofallapitorius off of the top of their head. Not one from your century mind." He rubbed a hand over his forehead in frustration, "I toyed with the idea of you being a time agent, you seemed comfortable with the existence of aliens on Platform One, too comfortable, time travel doesn't phase you."

What the hell is a time agent?

He continued. "But that doesn't seem right either. For one thing, you have a mother. Barmy mind you, but still there are consistent records of you living in this time, you're not from the future otherwise you'd have no family here."

"I'm not from the future or anywhere else. I was born here on Earth I don't..." She trailed off, "I don't know how I knew the Slitheen planet, it's like the information just appeared in my head." She insisted. There was an uncomfortable amount of tension in her chest, a throbbing ache. Her eyes burned with suppressed tears. "Sometimes I know things...things I shouldn't...things that there's no way I could know."

"Like the name of my screwdriver." He prompted thoughtfully.

"Yes." She agreed, "Sometimes it's unconscious, knowing things in a situation I shouldn't. Other times it's like...If I think hard enough about it I can almost find the information." She gave a short laugh, "Hurts my head though."

The Doctor leaned forward to scan her again with his screwdriver. He made thoughtful humming sounds and gently tilted her chin up with one hand. "Hmm, there's no obvious readings but..."

"But?" She answered impatiently. Did he know what was wrong with her? Why was she so different from everyone else?

He regarded her curiously, "You named the planet at the same time that I did. You also named my device when I showed it to you originally. You're able to feel the TARDIS in a way most humans can't and the psychic paper didn't fool you."

Rose was beginning to feel very self-conscious, just how many things has he taken note of about me?

"I think you might be a bit telepathic."

Rose blinked, "telepathic, that's it?" It seemed too simple, too simple to encompass the complexity of her problems.

He scratched his head, "It could be that you're picking this information up from me if you don't know the source of it, humans are too limited to feel the TARDIS their senses aren't equipped. Certain telepathic races can."

She bit her lip, "You don't seem very certain about your conclusion."

He sighed, pushing himself out of the chair to pace around, "Like I said, you don't make sense, there are no obvious readings of elevated telepathic energy around you. You register as an ordinary human. You being telepathic would explain some of your uncanny behaviours."

Rose hesitated, if they were having this conversation now then she might as well bring up some of the other holes in his conclusion. "So you think I only know this stuff because I'm what, picking it out of your head?" She waved an arm around, "All of this, I've dreamt about it, so many damn times before I even met you."

The Doctor made a sound of alarm as Rose began to rummage through her rucksack before plucking out her diary. The Doctor accepted it gingerly, giving her a questioning look. When Rose nodded in acceptance he started to flick through. Utter shock plastered his face before a myriad of emotions flickered across his startled visage. He kept flicking back and forth as if he expected if he looked away the images would disappear. He began to mutter names under his breath, familiar ones.

"This...this..." He swallowed, "Isn't possible. You drew this?" When she nodded he reached out to scan her again. Rose swatted his arm away with an annoyed look. "You even drew my TARDIS." He stared into her eyes intently, "This is why certain things haven't surprised you, they were expected." He turned the page again, showing one of her better drawings. A landscape of burnt orange and red sat in a valley beneath large crystal domes. The Doctor's face grew white, the hand gripping the book trembled noticeably. There was something haunted in his eyes as he tore them from the page, closing the diary with a loud snap. "You dreamt of this?"

Rose nodded mutely. He looks terrified. I have to be careful. If I say the wrong thing he looks like he'll ditch me and flee as fast as he can. Why does that picture disturb him so much? I would have thought one of the more nightmarish creatures would have got him, not a pretty landscape.

"Do you know where this is?" He asked softly. Rose made a sound in negation. "This was my home."

Ohh, well that explains that. I guess seeing a picture of his dead planet justifies the shock.

"You said you wanted answers." Rose started, "I don't have any, only questions of my own. I've dreamt of this stuff for years, hell I needed a therapist for some of the crazier stuff, the nightmares were no walk in the park. I don't know how or why it happens, I thought I had the most bizarre imagination until I met you and saw the Police Box. That was quite the wake-up call, to find that all of this." She gestured to her diary, "Is real, was always real. How do I even begin to make peace with that?" Tears glistened wetly in her eyes, this was overwhelming. She had been trying very hard not to think about her inexplicable knowledge. It was easy enough to forget about it, to push her questions away and forget, but something would always inevitably remind her.

The Doctor watched her stiffly for a long moment, he made his way to her bed carefully and pulled her into an awkward one armed hug. "It's okay Rose, we'll figure it out."

"We?" She questioned softly.

"Yeah, we." He gently stroked the back of her head. "You could have told me about the dreams you know. I'm not upset you kept it to yourself. I want to help you."

She made a muffled sound, her face buried in his jacket. Pulling away reluctantly she made fleeting eye contact, "I didn't know how to explain something like this. You were a stranger, a really strange stranger, how was I supposed to tell you I knew about your ship or anything really. And I thought..." She didn't want to continue, not really.

"What did you think?" His hand moved down to pat her shoulder, his hand lingered comfortingly.

"I thought it would freak you out. You seemed pretty private. What if you got upset and asked me to leave?" Her heart pounded in her chest, her other hand, not desperately clutching the Doctor reached into her pocket to run her fingers soothingly over her watch.

"Rose." He said her name deliberately. Half-heartedly she looked up at him, freezing as she became trapped in his gaze. "You're my friend Rose. I'm not leaving you anywhere. I'll keep saying it until you believe me, and believe me, I can be persistent." A reluctant smile crossed Rose's face, "Whatever's going on, we'll figure it out. You're not wrong or broken, there's nothing bad about you despite what you seem to think."

"You don't know that."

He shook his head, "You're brave and stubborn, self-sacrificing and kind and you drive me round the bend. You're smarter than you seem to think, spontaneous knowledge or not. It's not necessarily a bad thing. I've seen a lot in 900 years but I haven't seen everything."

"You're turning terribly sappy." Rose managed, she felt comforted that whatever this was, she wasn't alone. Her dick of a therapist may have abandoned her but she had the Doctor. Even if he didn't have answers it didn't matter, she's lived without answers all of her life. Her dreams had seemed to be connected to the Doctor, if there was any chance of understanding them it would be with him by her side.

He poked her, "I'm trying to be nice. And this is the thanks I get. Honestly." The mock offense was replaced by a smile. "What are you dreams like, when you see those things?"

Rose paused, "Everything is more vivid, surreal. I experience everything in first person as if those creatures are in front of me."

"And the...the planet?"

The Doctor deliberately avoided naming it, Rose could guess easily enough which image he referred to. She dreamt of that one quite often, laying in the burnt grass, listening to the mountains sing. Images flickered to life in her mind, a young boy lying next to her laughing together carefree. As Rose focused on it, her thumb traced the spirals of the watch. She opened her mouth to tell the Doctor. The image abruptly vanished from her mind. A dull thudding pounded in her ears. Da da day dum, It was too difficult to concentrate, to think about the planet, little details slipped from her mind. Rose screwed up her face in concentration, unable to remember what she was just thinking about.

"I don't really remember." She gave him an apologetic look seeing the disappointment on the Doctor's face.

He pasted a smile on his face, "That's alright, who wants to think about something boring like that. Better things to see and do."

0o0o0o0o0o

After a particularly bumpy landing, Rose staggered out of the TARDIS. Her eyes were immediately drawn to the array of display cabinets. The room was reminiscent of a museum, in spite of the chilling fact it appeared completely empty. Lights glared down harshly illuminating the obscure artefacts.

"Why exactly are we here again?"

The Doctor bounded out eagerly, "Told you Rose, kind of signal, a distress call I reckon."

Rose gave him an unimpressed look. "What could be so distressing in a museum? Maybe it's the cleaning."

He shot her a quizzical look, "The what?"

"Cleaning." She repeated firmly, "This must be hell to maintain, going by the size of this room alone." She glanced around the room, they were too far down in the building for there to be windows, instead, there was an array of lights blaring too brightly over a number of glass display cases. "Where and when are we anyway?

"Still on Earth," he responded, "Utah, North America. About half a mile underground. It's two thousand and twelve."

"Huh, I bet there are so many future seasons of TV shows out right now."

The Doctor shook his head and mumbled something she assumed to be derogatory about mankind.

"This place really is massive, whoever built this place must have been loaded."

The Doctor stalked over to one of the nearest cases, squinting at it with a thoughtful expression. "Chunks of meteorite, moon dust. That's the milometer from the Roswell spaceship." He gestured looking slightly impressed.

Rose moved closer noticing a familiarly grotesque limb, "Oh lovely, someone's collecting alien body parts. That's just what I needed to see after averting world war three." Her friend followed her gaze to the Slitheen arm. In all honesty seeing it made her uncomfortable, more so due to its association with 'The Conversation' than because of the family's transgressions against Earth.

"Oh, look at you." He said suddenly.

"Hmm?" A disembodied metal head sat in the case. There were grooves near its eyes reminiscent of tears, a large handle spanned the top of its head. There was something quite sinister about it Rose thought. Then again, keeping a collection of dead things seems a sinister hobby in itself...extreme extraterrestrial taxidermy.

"An old friend of mine. Well, an enemy." He clarified. "The stuff of nightmares reduced to an exhibit." He sighed. "I'm getting old."

"It is dead right?" Rose inquired, "Lasers aren't going to start firing from its sockets?"

The Doctor chuckled, "Nope, this one's dead. Never, known one to do that either...wouldn't put it past them to learn to. In any case, the signal isn't from here." He placed a hand on the glass seeming melancholy. All of a sudden an alarm started to screech angrily, thundering footsteps surrounded them as personnel in military uniform arrived at an alarmingly fast rate. "Well, of the two of us, you're more likely to end up on display than me."

"Thank you for your words of comfort." He mocked.

0o0o0o0o0o0o0

Rose slumped her chin on the table. That nutter Van Statten has been rambling about his collection for ages. She glanced at him, receding hairline and an ugly moustache. A sight to strike terror into the hearts of anyone. He'd postured a bit and made threats, concerned with their easy access to his secret museum.

Then there was his eager helper the teen genius, showing off bits and pieces of space junk, whilst boasting of his intellect. Truly a terrible pair.

"You know, this is a museum. You'd think you'd be a bit more excited to receive guests in this dingy hell hole." The Doctor interjected, ignoring Van Stattens' blustering.

"The question is, how did you get in? Fifty-three floors down, with your little cat burglar accomplice. You're quite a collector yourself, she's rather pretty." He suddenly leered at here. Rose was not amused.

"She isn't part of anyone's collection. Thank you for asking."

"She's English too!" Ugly corporate villain chimed, "Hey, little Lord Fauntleroy. Got you a girlfriend."

I think the fuck not.

"Did you know, Mister Van Statten owns the internet." Piped up the assistant. Alan? Aston?

"Good for him. The proud owner of memes and cat videos." Rose rolled her eyes. The Doctor gave her a chiding look as if to say 'behave'.

"Moving on." The Doctor cleared his throat. "So you're just about an expert in everything except the things in your museum. Anything you don't understand, you lock up. Keep it on display.

"And you claim greater knowledge" Challenged Van Statten.

"I don't need to make claims, I know how good I am." He boasted in reply, to Rose's amusement.

"And yet, I captured you." Van Statten sneered, "Right next to the Cage. What were you doing down there?"

"You know, thought we'd have a picnic. Make a day of it."

"The cage contains my one living specimen." Seemingly ignoring the Time lord's retort.

"And what's that?" His interest was piqued."

"Like you don't know."

"Show me."

"You want to see it?"

"Stop flirting, and just get on with it why don't you." Rose interrupted, tired of their posturing. Archie-Andrew-whatever laughed too loudly and winked at her to her disgust.

"Goddard, inform the Cage we're heading down." He turned to smirk at her. "You, English. You stay and play with Adam. Go and canoodle or spoon or whatever it is you British do. And you, Doctor with no name, come and see my pet.

Right, Adam.

0o0o0o0o0o0

Rose fiddled with her pocket watch chain absent-mindedly, letting the chain links weave between her fingers.

"Sorry about the mess. Mister Van Statten sort of lets me do my own thing, so long as I deliver the goods." Adam held up a lump of metal. "What do you think that is?"

"Oh, that's a sex toy from the planet Mfaltov." Rose declared, with as much confidence as she could muster.

Disgust flashed across Adam's face as he immediately dropped it on the floor. "Really? Gross."

Idiot.

Adam ran his fingers through his hair nervously, his eyes linger on her mouth as he took the seat closest to her. "You know this job really is amazing. Everything the United Nations tries to keep quiet, spacecraft, aliens, visitors to Earth. They really exist. And I get to be a part of it." He declared proudly. "Navigation systems, weapons, bodies. We see it all."

"And the sex toys." She added.

"Yeah, that too." He wrinkled his nose. "You're messing with me right"

Rose smiled innocently. "Am I?"

Adam gazed off into the distance. "I'd give anything to see it first hand, travel amongst the stars...that would be my dream."

"Soo, how did you end up working here, Ashton?"

"It's Adam." He corrected, straightening his shirt and brushing away imaginary dust. "Van Statten has agents all over the world looking for geniuses to recruit."

"And that would be you?"

"Yep, Sorry. I can't help it. I was born clever. When I was eight, I logged onto the US Defence System. Nearly caused World War Three." He shrugged pretending to be bashful

"Uh huh. I guess they should choose a better password than an animal for their nuke codes."

His brown eyes went wide with shock. "You know about the defence codes too?"

"I know many things." She stated mysteriously. Take that, you pretentious douche. "Anyhow, I take it you know plenty of interesting things too, like what Van Statten keeps in that cage of his."

"I guess." He responded hesitantly.

Rose smiled sweetly, toying with her watch chain. "Since we're both so smart, don't you think we'd have a lot more fun downstairs. It's not like we're naive idiots that can't handle the truth."

He puffed out his chest, "I mean...it wouldn't be hard to get in there if that's what you want. I'm more than capable." He moved over to fiddle with the comm system.

Rose peered at the screen. Her blood ran cold. A familiar pepper pot shaped creature sat in the dark. Its metal plates were tarnished, its eyepiece a dull blue pointing downwards. Rose could feel her shoulders shaking. She remembered drawing that, she remembered the nightmares, dreams of being executed by a creature so full of hate.

You've never seen it before in your life. It's chained up. It can't hurt you. You have to face your fears A man in a decontamination suit and large rubber gloves, shoved a large drill into the metalwork. A shrill scream pierced her ears.

"It's kind of useless," Adam commented, completely ignorant of the mental turmoil Rose was experiencing.

"I want to see it."

0o0o0o0o0

"Don't get too close." Adam cautioned.

Rose approached the creature hesitantly. From what little she could remember from her dreams this being was indeed dangerous. As she stepped closer the pounding in her head increased, her vision blurred as she took in a shaky breath. Da da day dum...

Intense anger welled up inside her, just looking at it filled her with both fear and disgust. "Dalek." The word came to mind almost effortlessly.

The creature's eye stalk rose slowly, regarding her silently for a moment. "You-know-me?" Its voice was strangely stilted. Rose's hands curled up into fists at the sound.

The room was dingy, it brought a sense of claustrophobia. She was relatively certain that she could reach the door fairly quickly if necessary but wasn't too keen on being close to the Dalek.

"I don't know. Maybe." She answered. Adam gave her a bewildered look.

"Holy crap, you got it to talk." He stepped closer, hovering in front of Rose and the Dalek.

"What are you doing here?"

"I-fell-so-far. They-trapped-me-tortured-me. They-fear-me." She wasn't certain if she caught a note of sadness in its voice or if she was projecting how she would feel in such a situation. Daleks do not feel, except for hatred. She reminded herself, somewhat thankful for the inexplicable knowledge.

"Maybe you deserve it." She whispered it harshly, startled by the ferocity of her own statement.

Unexpected knowledge she could deal with. But feelings, feelings were difficult, especially when they didn't feel like they were her own.

"Perhaps-I-Do." Lights flashed dully with each pained sound. Blue light from its eyepiece stared at her unblinkingly. "I-am-dying. My-race-is-dead, why-must-I-remain-here?" It paused, regarding her tense stance. "They-all fear-me-here, do-you-fear-me-too?"

She considered her words carefully. "I feel like I should fear you, my instincts scream at me to run from you. Yet, I do not know you, nor do I know your kind." Letting out a sigh, "I'm not sure how I feel most days. I know you are dangerous, I know you are in pain. Part of me even believes I understand you."

The Dalek considered her words, "I-am-glad. I-am-glad-to-have-met-a-honest-human. There-is-no reason-for-lies-amongst-my-kind. Humans-hide-their-fear-behind-cruelty. We-are-cruel-too, but-then-we-are-always-cruel."

Rose turned away, pity warring with hatred made her feel uneasy. Looking at the Dalek caused all kinds of dissonance. Adam caught her arm as she headed for the door.

"Wait, Rose. You actually got it to speak. Van Statten has been trying for ages. You gotta keep talking to it." He enthused, tugged her back towards it.

Rose tried to pull her arm back. He responded by tugging her harder. Rose stumbled, reaching out for a surface to steady herself. Her hand rested atop the Dalek. Hissing at the intense heat that spread across her palm, she ripped her hand away and shook of Adam; who was now staring at the Dalek in horror.

"Crap, Rose...I'm sorry. We should leave, now." He insisted.

A golden imprint of her hand faded from the Dalek. "Genetic-material-extrapolated. Initiate-cellular-reconstruction!" Its tarnished body gained a rich bronze hue, lights blared to life on its head as it became suddenly much more animated. The many chains holding it down, snapped abruptly.

A man in an orange protective suit entered. "What the hell have you done?" He snarled.

"It was an accident. I swear!" Squeaked Adam, manfully.

The stranger, who she had previously seen torture the Dalek, approached it once again with a drill. In response, the creature raised its plunger threateningly.

The man laughed dismissively, "What are you going to do? Sucker me to death?" The Dalek proceeded to do just that, the man's face was sucked in, the loud noise of bones splintering under the pressure resounded throughout the room.

Rose wanted to throw up. Her heart pounded furiously in time to the angry echo in her head. She felt angry with herself for even considering being merciful to such a creature. Especially since she knew exactly what it could do. Except she didn't, but the dread that raced up her spine informed her that if there was any doubt it was dangerous before there was certainly no doubt now.

She caught Adam's panicked gaze and they both ran for the door.

0o0o0o0o0

Military personnel were piling in from ahead, guns at the ready. The door was sealed behind her but it brought no feeling of safety. One of the guards was warning Van Statten, sat in front of a small scren. Ros peered over his shoulder at the screen, the Doctor appeared behind Van Statten, he glowered at the other man in the room.

"You've got to keep it in that cell." He warned.

"Doctor!" Rose exclaimed urgently. "That thing in there, the Dalek. I recognised it. It spoke to me." She shuddered. "And now it has my DNA."

His attention snapped to her immediately. "It's going to be okay, Rose. I'll get you out of there."

She nodded numbly, feeling that his assurances were fairly hollow considering the number of unknown variables at play.

The guard sat in front of the screen glanced at the door nonchalantly, "I've sealed the compartment. It can't get out, that lock's got a billion combinations."

The doctor shook his head, "A Dalek's a genius. It can calculate a thousand billion combinations in one second flat."

It's coming for you. We're going to die again. Rose's head felt hazy, clearly going on stressful adventures one after another was bad for your mental health. Despite how perilous the situations she had found herself in previously, she was fairly certain she would remember dying.

A green light flashed on the door behind her, indicating the Dalek had gained access to the system. The soldiers assembled around the door as she and Adam were herded out of the room and towards an emergency exit.

As Rose raced across the corridor the lights above began to flicker. The room behind them had completely lost power as if something were draining it. Adam watched her with frightened eyes. "There's only one of it, there's plenty of us. Surely it doesn't stand a chance."

"I don't like our chances," Rose muttered bleakly. "Come on." Soldiers began retreating heading towards them.

" Cover the north wall. Red division, maintain suppressing fire along the perimeter." One of the soldiers beneath them started to issue commands."Blue divisi-argh!" He was cut off as a streak of light raced towards him, his body was illuminated, his very skeleton visible for a second before he crumpled to the ground.

The other guards started to fire at the Dalek, the bullets rippled around its armour, seemingly inflicting no damage at all. Its eyepiece fixed on a new soldier, the middle part of its armour moved to attack. Like a deadly coordinated dance, it alternated the orientation of its armour, attacking the soldiers closest to it.

Backing towards the end of the corridor, Rose and Adam came upon of flight of stairs. She felt guilty for leaving the soldiers behind, but surely they should be able to tell by now that fighting the Dalek with their guns was futile. Running was the best course of action.

"Let's see it follow us now." Crowed Adam triumphantly. He skipped several steps in his eagerness to put distance between himself and the Dalek

"It's coming! Get up!" Barked one of the guards. Only too willing to obey, Rose followed after. Atop the first flight of stairs, Rose peered down at the Dalek. Its eyestalk swivelled and fixed on her for a moment, watching her intently. Rose swallowed and averted her gaze.

"Great big alien death machine defeated by a flight of stairs." Mocked Adam.

It all seemed far too easy.

The guard that had so valiantly ushered them to safety began to negotiate with the Dalek. "Now listen to me. I demand that you return to your cage. If you want to negotiate then I can guarantee that Mister van Statten will be willing to talk. I accept that we imprisoned you and maybe that was wrong, but people have died, and that stops right now." They lowed their gun slightly. "The killing stops. Have you got that? I demand that you surrender. Is that clear?" Their enemy uttered a single word. A single word that let them all know they were majorly screwed.

"Elevate."

And it began to do just that, Adam grabbed her arm, apparently, it was becoming a habit. "We have to keep going." She nodded in agreement, and continued to ascend the stairs, hoping they would be faster than the Dalek.

0o0o0o0o0o

Now that the Dalek was out of sight Rose and Adam took a moment to catch their breath.

"This is the craziest thing that's ever happened to me." Adam panted.

"I really don't like the way that the Dalek was staring at me."

Adam scoffed, "It was staring at all of us. In case you didn't notice it wants to kill us."

Rose frowned, "No, it felt like it knew me, it was...unnerving."

Suddenly, her phone began to ring. "Now's not really the time for a social chat."

"Where are you?" The Doctor asked, his voice terse.

Rose glanced around, her eyes rested on a sign nearby. "I'm on level forty-nine. Wow, that's a lot of stairs we ran up. Fear's a great motivator."

"You've got to keep moving. The vault's being sealed off up at level forty-six."

"You're doing what?" She asked incredulously, "Can't you stop them closing?"

"I can't do that, I can't let it escape. You need to run Rose!" the worry in his voice was evident.

Following Adam's directions, once again they ran, racing down long corridors, clinical white rooms that all looked the same. Rose gripped her mobile phone tightly, she was beginning to lag behind Adam. A loud siren pierced the air, warning them of the impending closure of the bulkhead. The opening was already incredibly narrow, and she was too far away.

If only a kept up with my gym membership. She cursed. Her limbs were shaking with exertion, her chest burned. Adam disappeared under the bulkhead just before it slammed shut. Letting out a loud gasp, Rose pressed her face against the wall of the bulkhead feeling tears well up. Oh God, this is it.

Shakily she brought her phone up to her ear. "Rose, where are you? Rose, did you make it?" He pressed.

"I'm sorry." She whispered. "I guess I wasn't fast enough."

"No, no! Rose...you can't be..." He cried out in anguish.

"Hey it's okay," She comforted. "I always knew museums were boring enough to kill people." She choked out. The Doctor laughed shakily. "You'll be okay." That was all the comfort she could offer, because when it came down to it the Doctor would always be okay, left to stand alone as the dust settles.

"Rose...please..." She ended the call, unwilling for him to hear her final moments.

The Dalek had finally made its way down the corridor. Gliding silently, unlike any Earthly predator, killing simply for the sake of killing.

She stuck her hand in her pocket, holding onto the warm metal of her Fob watch. Running her fingers over the spirals she closed her eyes. All she could hear were the pounding drums, until...

"Exterminate!"

0o0o0o0o0o

The Doctor had lost the visual feed for the bulkheads but the audio remained. Van Statten cut it off after hearing the Dalek's death sentence.

His head span, thoughts crashing angrily around his skull. How could you do this? How could you let her die? She trusted you. Rose Tyler was his little oddity, intelligent in spite of her self-loathing, brave and a caring in face of danger when she would like nothing more than to flee. And he had left her behind, just like he promised he never would.

There was so much he wanted to show her, so much to teach her and to learn about her. At first, he had wanted to unravel the mystery that was Rose Tyler, now utterly destroyed, the pieces of her life would be shattered beyond repair. She was more than a mystery, she was a friend.

It had been undeservingly cruel of him to test her as he had, having her watch her own planet burn as he had before her, watching her make the choice time and time again to aid him and choose him over her family. It was certainly wrong of him, but he couldn't stop. Rose was all he had left; compassion, her ever ingrained sarcasm reminding him of someone he had lost lifetimes ago.

You would think that you would become numb after losing so many people you care about. But each new loss was a cut deeper into his fragile mind and soul.

0o0o0o0o0o

Rose opened her eyes. The area of the bulkhead to the left of her head was scorched black. "Feeling tired?" She asked sardonically, "By all means, take a break. I'm in no hurry."

The Dalek stared at her, then grew agitated, its centrepiece swivelled around frantically, firing off in all directions. Missing her completely.

"Okay! You've made your point."

After a stony silence, where Rose was sure it was glaring at her, it spoke. "What-have-you-done-to-me?"

"What have I done?" She replied in disbelief, "You're the one that's gone on a killing spree."

Its eye-stalk adjusted, focusing on her. "You-have-contaminated-me-with-your-illness."

Rose's eyes widened, she wasn't sure if she was supposed to be offended. "Buddy, it looks like the worst I've given you is my terrible hand-eye coordination given some of your misses."

It fired off again at her, this time, just above her right shoulder.

Stop antagonising the homicidal robot. She mentally chided herself.

"There-is-this-sound-inside-of-me, pulsing-throughout-every-part-of-my-body-and-mind." Its voice became higher, in its distress. "It-sounds-like-drums. Why-are-there-drums-inside-your-head?"

Rose couldn't breathe. Her head started to pound, the Dalek's words triggering her own issue. Da da day dum... "It's just a migraine." Rose insisted. Her heart pounded fearfully. There's nothing wrong with me, it's wrong.

"It-calls-to-me-across-time-and-space." It let out a pained sound, firing off again at the walls, Rose had to dodge out of the way. "Since-you-touched-me-it-won't-stop. What-insanity-have-you-bestowed-upon-me?"

Rose gripped her watch chain. Her mind went blank as unfamiliar words ran off of her tongue. "It will never, ever stop. I stared into the Untempered Schism and it stared back. The drums are a part of my mind just as they are a part of yours."

"Make-it-stop!"

Hatred flared in her chest. "Last of the Daleks. How fitting that you would be the one to share my fate."

"He-is-call-ing." Its voice died away for a moment. "This-connection-is-wrong. I-will-not-be-contaminated-by-your-race." It insisted.

The fuzziness faded from Rose's mind. She couldn't quite recall what they had spoken of. She shuddered, releasing her watch. "Who's calling?"

Its stalk swivelled from side to side for a moment, assessing the damage it had caused. Smoking holes and scorch marks peppered the walls. "I-would-exterminate-you-Rose-Tyler-but-that-would-be-an-act-of-mercy. Daleks-are-not-merciful. You-will-suffer-your-cruel-fate-abomination."

It slid backwards, the spheres embedded on the metal shell peeled away, surrounding it in a spherical shape.

"What the hell are you doing?" Rose shouted.

"I-am-no-longer-a-Dalek. I-am-corrupted-by-the DNA-of-my-enemy. I-must-be-exterminated." An electrical current passed between the spheres, exploding outwards, vaporising the Dalek in the centre.

Rose remained still, staring at a pile of ash in disbelief. What could have been so wrong about me and my DNA to drive it mad like that? Why would it hesitate to kill me? How can it possibly know what is in store for me? The Dalek's ominous words reminded her too strongly of what Gwyneth had said.

It suddenly occurred to her that she was, in fact, alive and a friend of hers would probably like to be made aware of this fact.

Pulling her phone out of her pocket, she shakily dialled up the Doctor.

"Rose?!" His voice sent soothing waves of calm through her. He sounded cautiously hopeful.

"Doctor." She let out a sigh. "Everything's alright. I'm alright." She reassured him.

"How?" His voice cracked, "Hand on a moment, I'm going to try to restore the visual feed from the security cameras." After a long pause, she heard him swear under his breath."Is that-"

"Yeah, it's dead."

The bulkhead started to open up and a familiar figure came racing up to her. Wide blue eye's stared at her in disbelief, unwilling to look away. The Doctor's arms wound around her middle, pulling her close. "Rose...Rose," he mumbled into her hair, gripping her too tightly. Cautiously, she tightened her own grip, allowing herself to soak in the comfort he was providing. An awkward Adam had trailed into the room after him, watching their interaction with a confused look on his face.

Pulling away she gave him a shaky smile. He returned it tenfold. His eyes strayed to the pile of ash a few metres away. "How did you kill it?"

Rose raised her eyebrows at him. "Yes, the small fleshy human ran at the metal monstrosity and throttled it to death." He huffed in annoyance. "It said that my DNA contaminated it...it killed itself" She trailed off uncertainly, her memory of the conversation was somewhat hazy. Hey, I guess trauma will do that to you.

"Contaminated?" The Doctor's brow furrowed. "I suppose that makes sense, Daleks have always reviled anything human. What stopped it from killing you?"

My winning personality and charm. "It said that I would suffer more alive, with what the future has in store for me." Rose clenched her hands into fists, her nails digging into the palms of her hands.

The Doctor's hand rested on her shoulder, "Don't pay any attention to it. I met the thing in The Cage and it was insane. Alone and in pain." A faraway look entered his eye, "The last of its kind"

She placed her hand on top of his, where it rested on her shoulder. "Hey, if it survived the war, maybe you're not alone either."

He laughed cynically. "I would know." He tapped his head, "My race are telepathic, it's too empty in here."

"Oh," She paused, "You said I might be telepathic. Can you like...feel me up there?"

He gave her an amused smile, "I said a bit telepathic, I scanned you and I can't get any readings at all unless you're really good at masking it."

She shrugged, "I've never been good at sharing my thoughts and feelings with others."

"I'm sure that's it." He replied sarcastically, "Your antisocial tendencies confound my superb abilities."

Someone cleared their throat loudly. Rose's attention snapped to Adam, awkwardly shuffling from foot to foot. "I-uh-I'm glad you're alive...sorry about before...when I." Rose smiled at him. "Anyway, we'd better get out. Van Statten's disappeared. They're closing down the base. Goddard says they're going to fill it full of cement, like it never existed." He looked forlorn, "I'll have to go back home."

A flash of annoyance crossed the Doctor's face. He probably doesn't like being interrupted. "Better hurry up then. Next flight to Heathrow leaves at fifteen hundred hours."

Adam hesitated, turning away to leave when something occurred to Rose. If she left with the Doctor now, they'd be back in the TARDIS...alone. Where he was almost certain to start questioning her in more depth. She was somewhat relieved he had lost the audio and visual footage of her conversation with the Dalek. With 'The Conversation' looming over her from earlier, she felt very self-conscious about any more abnormalities she might display in front of the Doctor.

Adam had not treated her as an abnormality. In fact due to her lying about personally hacking the government. Not lying so much as implying. He had stared at her with a kind of awe. Sure, the Doctor was often surprised by the things she did, but they seemed to make him look suspicious or even concerned. It would be nice to have a buffer of sorts against his scrutiny.

"So, Adam was saying he fancied seeing the stars." She started.

The Doctor rolled his eyes, "Tell him to go and stand outside, then."

"He seems nice enough, and he tried to help in his own way." She prompted.

"He left you down there." He retorted incredulously.

"Actually-" Adam interjected. Freezing when he saw the Time Lord's glare.

"So did you." She reminded, sounding slightly more hurt than she had intended.

Worry creased his face. "Rose, I know I messed up and I left you in danger. You think I can't take care of you-"

She patted his arm, "I don't need a babysitter."

"I didn't think you even liked him." This time he definitely sounded sulky.

Rose paused. She had, in fact, forgot that Adam was a pretentious shit, that had annoyed the living daylights out of her. On the plus side, he was exceedingly easy to manipulate and would likely hang around enough to fend off the better part of the Doctor's deep and meaningful chats, trying to get to the bottom of what was wrong with her.

It was strange. She had felt willing enough before to accept his help, especially after the fiasco with her therapist. After the confrontation with the Dalek, her issue seemed less like a puzzle she wanted help solving and more of a dirty secret she wanted to hide at all costs. It was instinctive, a need to keep secret whatever was wrong with her. Gwyneth had seemed terrified of her...the Dalek been disgusted. Abomination.

With a begrudging resolve she decided, Adam the buffer it is.

"He grew on me." She said with as straight a face as she could muster. She managed a weak smile when Adam beamed at her.

The Doctor gave a long-suffering sigh, "Fine, on your own head." He scanned Adam critically, before turning to her with an inscrutable expression. She had the impression that he possibly felt hurt by her addition of Adam to the party.

"Come on then." She waved Adam over, indicating he should follow them.

"Where are you going, She said cement. She wasn't joking. We're going to get sealed in." He cast a worried glance around, scurrying after them like a terrier. The Doctor looked pained by his incessant questions. "Why are you going inside a blue box?