Disclaimer: Still don't own Doctor Who. Sorry to disappoint. My own word this time.

Stars

"Which one is that?" little Delia asked her mother. The two lay on the apple grass, peering through the trees at the bright stars above.

"That's Orion's Belt. Your father brought me there not too long before you were born," she told her. Delia gazed in awe as a shooting star made its way across the dark sky.

"Mummy, look!" she yelped, scrambling to her tiny feet. Her brunette curls bounced and her amber eyes shined when the comet passed.

"Go on, Dee! Make a wish!" her mother told Delia. She obediently squeezed her eyes shut and clasped her little hands together, wishing for something she has wanted for a quite a while.

The familiar whirring sound filled Rose Tyler's ears. She followed her own advice and wished on the shooting star. When she had placed her request, she imagined what her daughter may have wished for. It didn't matter. All Rose wanted was for Delia's father to come home again. Being the wife of a Time Lord wasn't an easy job. The whirring came again but Rose chose to ignore it. She was almost positive it was all in her head.

He had left them there on New Earth with a fortune and a place to live three years ago. He barely knew his baby daughter. It killed him to leave his family. He was almost positive they would be safer if they stayed behind. What he wasn't sure about was if they were really safe. He had no idea that Rose's heart sped up at the sight of a telephone box. He was clueless about the countless wished and prayers that involved him. He was oblivious of the stories Rose told about him to their daughter. He didn't know she was a Time Lord. Rose couldn't- wouldn't- tell the Doctor about her strange change to his race.

Delia snapped Rose out of her subconscious as she curled up in Rose's lap.

"Did you make a wish?" Rose whispered as the young girl yawned and nodded her head.

"It won't come true," she whispered back, ghosts of tears filling the eyes that resembled her father's so. "I wished for Daddy." Tears pricked the corners of Rose's eyes. Delia looked up into her mother's eyes. Rose noticed her eyes were ancient, like her father's. They reflected things she'd never seen, but somehow remembers. There was pain. They talked. About the Doctor, about the TARDIS, about the adventures they could go on as a family when Delia was old enough.

They fell asleep under that old tree among the apple grass. Rose didn't notice that Delia had moved off her lap and back onto the grass. She didn't hear the back gate open. She didn't hear the grass crunch under someone's feet. No, the twenty –five year old stayed asleep. Until a strong pair of arms wrapped around her body, that is. Rose opened her mouth to scream and shout an empty threat but a broad hand covered her mouth.

"Shh. You'll wake Delia," the man whispered. He sounded like her husband, the Doctor! She looked up. The hand was attached to an arm which was attached to a lanky body. Atop the body was a head with a face, a gorgeous face. There was a wide grin, causing the eyes to crinkle at the corners. The eyes; they were ancient. Like Delia's, like the Doctor's.

"She's grown so much," the Doctor whispered, caressing the little girl's flushed and freckled face.

"She looks like you," Rose whispered back. The Doctor had Delia in his lap and Rose on one arm. Rose didn't want him to let go. Who knows how long he'd be gone next time?

"Mmm but she has your nose. And your mouth," he told her, kissing her soundly. Rose smiled. Delia woke up, squealing in delight at the sight of her father. Luckily, he hadn't regenerated. The Doctor explained that he wanted to take Delia and Rose with him next time. Rose was glad to hear the next words that came from the Doctor's mouth:

"I'm not leaving my family again. You're the best, and only, thing I have."