That morning he heard her getting ready to leave. But there was a pause in the noise.

"Hey, you," she called, "what should I call you anyway?"

John almost said his name, but it's so boring, and he didn't want to be boring.

"I'm the Doctor."

"Doctor who?"

John chuckled, "Just the Doctor. The genuine article you might say."

"Nobody's just called the Doctor, it's not a name."

"Well, no, but it's a sort of nickname. What's yours by the way?"

Rose paused, this Doctor wasn't going to give out his real name than she wouldn't either.

"Bad Wolf."

"Bad Wolf?"

"It was my stage name in school for concerts," Rose flushed, it wasn't the greatest name. Maybe she should have just gone with her actual name…

"My name's-"

"Nah, you are now Bad Wolf."

-xx-

When Jack entered John's flat he was a little floored. It was clean still which was odd. The front window was open, letting in the afternoon breeze and ruffling the dark blue curtains. But more odd than that was the man himself, who was whistling as he pieced together tiny metal components with forceps under a magnifying glass. John set the instrument down.

"Hello," he said spinning around in his chair.

Staring Jack took a cautious step forward, "John, what happened? Did you finally go out? Meet someone?"

John stood and danced around Jack, rummaging in a box behind him, "Well yes actually but that's not the interesting…" John paused and located a gadget. "Ooo yes."

"I'd love to hear these words under different circumstances but we've got to talk about this John."

John stopped and turned to Jack, "Not going to happen. And don't think I've forgotten about that CD."

Jack smirked and winked, "Anytime."

"Oh, don't start…" John moved the gadget to his mouth to look for something else hidden amid his shelves.

"Hard not to when you keep putting things in your mouth like that Doctor Smith."

"Mm noth uoing fifhs foth foo," John tried to speak around the round metal object.

"Yeah that didn't help."

John rolled his eyes and spat out the metal.

"I said, I'm not doing this for you."

"Ah."

"Well. Moving on," John said, "Went for a walk the other night. Very nice. Bit of stargazing. Bit of rock collecting. Found some granite it came in handy. Stopped a mugging. All in all molto bene."

"I'd say I was surprised, but I've known you too long. And you said the going out wasn't the interesting part."

"Did I?" John scrunched up his face, brows furrowed. "Nahh."

"Liar."

"Fine. I made a friend."

"You made a friend? On your walk?"

"No, with my neighbor," John smiled recalling their conversation from yesterday.

"You met her?" Jack sounded way too enthused for John's liking.

"In a manner of speaking."

"You talked to her? Does this mean you're on speaking terms now?"

"Yes. We talked. It was nice."

And Jack decided not to tease, his friend was finally moving forward, even a slight bit. He didn't want to push the man.

"So what's her name?"

"Err… we decided not to use real names. Bit of distance." John felt his neck flush a bit.

"Oh," Jack's eyebrows rose, "So what's her code name? And what's yours?"

"Ah. Well, I'm the Doctor, obviously," John gestured toward the wall, on which hung his three doctorates, gathering dust near the window. "She's...Bad Wolf. Something to do with a stage name."

"So, can I call you Doc? And what is she a stripper?"

"No. And also, No!" John threw a crumpled bit of paper at Jack. "She's a pianist."

Jack took out his mobile, "So we could look her up."

"No, or well. You can, but I'd like to keep it the way it is."

"What, so you don't have to open up?"

"I'm open," John crossed his arms, glowering at Jack.

"As a deadbolt."

"Oi," John grumbled, turning and putting down his findings on his desk.

"Alright, John, whatever you say," Jack held his hands up in surrender.

"Well, you've seen I'm fine," John remarked, carding his hand through his hair.

"No, you're actually good. You're not wallowing. It's unnerving," Jack replied, taking a seat on the jumpseat.

"I. Am. Fine." John stated him down.

"See Doc, I think you are. You haven't been for the past five years, but here we are."

John swallowed thickly, and looked away blinking rapidly. "I won't push," Jack placated, "But whatever is making you happy, let it. Don't push it away."

John didn't reply, only tightened his jaw and turned away.

Silence fell over the flat.

"So, running the vigilante routine?" Jack spoke breaking the tension.

"No," John replied finally turning back to face Jack and resume conversation. "Just doing what's right."

"Right, so, you're not acting like you've taken the old job with UNIT back" Jack raised his eyebrows and picked up John's tea mug, decked out in the organic synthesis of caffeine on the side. "Fine...fine."

John finally allowed himself to really look at his friend. Jack, for once, was not wearing his great overcoat, he wasn't full up of cocky swagger, and was rather subdued.

"So… how are you?"

Jack stopped fiddling with the cup and his lips parted as he met John's eyes.

"Since when did you ask me how I'm doing?"

"I do!" John protested, throwing his hands up and out from inside his pinstripe pockets. John reflected briefly. He asked...no wait.

"You don't John. You haven't in years."

"Jack...I…"

"It's fine Doc. It's not who you are," he looked down at his palms no longer moving much. John crossed from behind his desk and into Jack's space.

"I'm sorry." He laid a hand on Jack's shoulder and squeezed. Letting his hand fall, John moved past Jack and into the kitchen. He opened up the fridge and brought out a couple beers. He handed one to Jack and sat down next to him on the jumpseat. They drank in compatible silence as the sun set on London.

Later that evening, Jack finally left, and John went back to working on his sonic development. Fully clad in a lead chest plate and boots, he lumbered through the flat like a stoned bear. Reasoning it was necessary to avoid radiation from his attempt at adding radiographic abilities to the sonic ones, he cursed the idea every time he knocked something over. Bad Wolf would be back soon. He grinned a bit. As much as she was making noise and disrupting him, it was nice, to have a bit of company. He began working on his chalkboard and frowned at himself as he found he was doodling a lovely flower over his mathematical equations. He erased it quickly.

Tardis appeared from under the jumpseat, reflexively licking her front paw and scraping it over her ear.

"Company other than you of course…" John crooned, scratching Tardis' obsidian coat. Her glowing blue eyes shut and she rumbled.

The door opened on the other side and John started and fell over the heavy lead cheat plate clanging on the ground. Tardis let out a vroop and scuttled back under the jumpseat.

"Doctor?" Bad Wolf called, her voice laced with concern.

"'m fine," he wheezed.

"Wot was tha'?" She replied voice louder as she approached the wall and set something down on the counter.

"I was," the Doctor winced as he stood, "messing with radiography, had to wear the vest."

"You were taking X-Rays? And what was that noise after you fell?"

"Oh that was my cat."

"Didn't sound like a cat."

"Doesn't feel like a cat either."

"What?"

"She's an auton. A robot. Sort of. She was alive once. Still alive technically. Sort of. Well. I say alive. Wellll. I mean."

"Doctor?"

"Hmmm?"

"Oh yes, I'm good. How are you?"

She smiled at the wall, "Better now. So your cat robot makes a sound like a car with bad brakes?"

"Uhm. Yes?" John squeaked.

"Might want ta work on tha'," Bad Wolf's voice was full of mirth. John pulled off the heavy vest and set it on the jumpseat. He walked over to the wall.

"She's one of a kind. I'll never replicate her," he missed, running his hand over the unadorned section of wall in front of his face.

"Why's that?"

"She's...got a sort of consciousness. From a cat. Well. What was a cat. I found a cat in the alley on the way home. She'd been hit by a car, looked so young. And I had this...idea about connecting neural networks into a data frame. I mean it's the same, just electric impulses built in a specific pattern and if I could replicate an empty neural structure all I would need to do would find a way to transfer the pattern across. So I worked on that. Didn't sleep for five days. And shockingly it worked. It took about six months to fully complete her body and wiring."

"You're mad!" The wolf girl called, sounding lost and mystified.

"Anyway, after I realized what I'd done. What it could mean. So I burned everything. But I couldn't get rid of her. She's…" he trailed off unable to explain.

"Stole your heart like any pet, yeah?"

It's the quiet simplicity if her explanation that got him. As much as he would have loved to claim it's complexity, his obligation as her creator, the life she harbored in that steel frame,and the prospect of someone finding her and doing creating something horrible with his technology, he could not deny that Bad Wolf was right. Tardis leapt into his life with her sparkling blue eyes and stolen his will to get rid of something so dangerous. He got the sudden feeling that, if he let her, the girl next door might do the same.

-xx-

It was late that evening, maybe a week or so after they'd started talking when Rose realized this is the first time she's felt safe with a guy since the fiasco before her moving. When she realized she was for once happy. After all, she wasn't returning to an empty house anymore. Maybe this is why people always got so excited to have someone to go home to. The Doctor wasn't a physical presence, but Rose felt she was getting to know him, an better than she'd known some of the friends she'd had for years. And finally she didn't feel like pulling a guy at the club with Shireen or shredding up numbers on receipts and coffee cups out of fear. Not having to worry about what she looked like or what he did when she wasn't there was liberating. Which is why Grace's question that day startled her so much.

"So Miss Rose… are you married?"

Rose laughed slightly, "No. move your thumb over to G...there you go." Grace complied, her fingers stumbling through the first few bars of Fur Elise.

"My mom was married, but she left him," Grace mumbled, "I always thought she'd be nicer if she were married. Any you're so nice I thought…"

Rose blushed slightly, "'M only 23."

"Oh. Are you dating anyone?"

For some bizarre reason she felt compelled to say yes. Remaining unable to lie though, she simply sighs. "From the top Grace."

"Sorry," Grace stammers her hands coming to rest in her lap. "I didn't mean to upset you."

"It's okay," Rose focused on the ground to the right of the piano. Grace's perfect blonde ringlets brush her arm as she half hugs Rose. Rose returned the gesture knowing that a smile would go unnoticed. "That's all for today, keep practicing." Rose stood, brushing Grace's hair back.

"Good-bye," Grace called softly closing the piano. Her mother would be back soon and she hated the smallest hair out of place. Rose grabbed her bag and made her way to the tube. A man with a little sign, barefoot and hunched over half a sandwich wished her positive vibrations on the street. She hoped that worked out for her.

For some reason, Rose refused to admit the truth to herself, she found herself watching the men she passed on the street, eyes peeled for a ginger with a bow tie. She smiled at a man with auburn hair and turned away awkwardly when she realized his green shirt was open at the neck. She sat down on the tube and was eye level with a bright yellow bowtie, but upon looking up realized the man in question was about 80, and while adorable, really not who she was looking for. Skittering to a stop outside the chippy on her block she nearly ran into a tall man, and he flirted with her, complimenting her smile and shirt. But his hair was blonde and he was wearing a band t-shirt, and Rose couldn't drive away the frustrating and charming neighbor from her thoughts.

She even blathered it all out to Jackie on the phone. Jackie just told her not to get 'airs' from working with the rich and crushing on some doctor type.

-xx-

In the windy late afternoon John ambled down the past the shops. His light blue tie flapping in his face as he lifted the knock on Jack's boat home.

The man in question flung open the door, "Doc! C'mon in!" John flailed his arms as he was pulled unwittingly over the threshold.

"Big news Doc!" Jack's broad straight-toothed grin shown in John's face. Uncomfortable with the proximity, John took a step back.

"What?"

"Remember that guy I was telling you about a few weeks back?"

"Which one?" John raised his brow and crossed his arms.

"Hey!" Jack's reply was indignant. "The one with the amazin' arse."

"That excludes almost none of them."

"Fair point," Jack said, conceding the argument. "His name is Ianto and he is fantastic. He does this thing with -"

"I don't want to know," John replied, holding up his palms.

"He had me three times John! Three! Th-"

"Look I'm happy for you, I am, but please spare me the details," John rolled his eyes at Jack's exuberance. They walked further into the flat and sat at the green wooden table. Realizing his friend's reluctance on all things sexual, Jack decided to torment him just a bit more.

"You just need a good shag."

"Oh really? You an expert or something?" John instantly regretted his words. Jack smirked in reply. "Don't answer that."

"So how are things with the neighbor? Finally get over your hate-love phase and move on the the shagging yet?"

"Jack!" He exclaimed. "It's not like that. We're… friendlier I guess."

"How friendly?"

"Jack." His voice dipped into a bit of a growl. He'd almost forgotten it could do that.

"Feel free to say my name like that anytime you want," Jack winked and blew John an air kiss.

"I'd threaten you but you'd probably like that too."

"Most definitely," the twinkle in his eye said he rather hoped John would give in an attempt it anyway. John resolved not to give him the satisfaction.

"We have an understanding. We talk. She's actually quite good at piano."

"So you haven't met her? It this a new thing? Like silent dating? I just met this girl followed her out to her car and she went down-"

"No, I haven't met her. I don't plan to either."

"Doc, are you even alive? Can I take your pulse?"

"Please stop calling me that."

"No. Can you not…" Jack paused briefly, "Dance?" he settled on.

John bristled, "I can dance!" His face heated and he swallowed. An awkward silence descended as the men eyed each other over the table.

"So was this the only thing you called for?" John redirected the conversation. Disappointed but not discouraged Jack turned with a hand wave. John followed.

"You won't like this but I need your expertise on this," Jack handed over a few documents that were scattered on the desk.

With a quick wrist flick John slid the black glasses over his eyes and paced as he read. When he finished he set the papers down.

"You want me to assess your UNIT scavenging plan." Johns glasses slid down his nose as his brows narrowed over them.

"I told you you wouldn't like it."

"Understatement."

"Listen. I know you don't want anything to do with UNIT or the military anymore, I do, but this is a rescue operation. No one injured no one killed sort of mission."

John sighed deeply, pinching the bridge of his nose.

"What do you need from me?"

"I just need you to figure out how to draw attention away from point B," Jack gestured at the map page, "So we can get the guys out and into the plane."

"You shouldn't get them out there," John said, "too many outposts too open, see all this," he pointed, "Indicates hills. Not the greatest cover but if you can, it's better than the plain."

"Plane can't land there."

"You'd be better off driving from there to a helicopter. Put defenses here, and there," John marked the page with a pen.

"...Not bad. I'll see what I can do."

"Don't ask me to do this again Jack."

"You know I don't make promises I can't keep." Jack turned back to the computer in the office and typed away rapidly. John left his flat and turned his coat collar up against the wind.

-xx-

Rose hummed as she made he way up the narrow steps on her side of the flat. Twisting her keys in the lock she bounded in,

"Doctor?" She called.

The sound of something heavy being dropped echoed in her flat and she giggled.

"Bad Wolf?" An inquiry for the ground sounded.

"Sorry, didn't mean to startle you."

"No I was just focused on making a few adjustments to Tardis' paw, think she got it caught in a doorway."

"I just wanted to let you know that my student is doing really good. And that Angie, from Henricks? She finally stopped stealing my lunch."

"Yeah?" The Doctor replied, eyebrow quirked and smirk in place, "glad you finally added that wasabi to your sandwich?"

"Remind me to stay on your good side, Doctor," Rose grinned tongue touching her teeth. "Wotcha makin'," Rose inhaled, "smells amazin'."

"Oh just some pasta…" The man replied, "I'd almost forgotten about it."

"'ll probably just try not to murder some toast again."

"I…" John almost offered to bring some food over. But he didn't want anything to change when their current arrangement was working so well. Talking to her would be enough. Anything else was too complicated.

So instead he tried a new idea, "I could explain how to make it sometime."

"Yeah?" Rose's smile broadened, it was like he knew what she needed, just a helping hand. In a manner of speaking.

"Course. We could have dinner together," John decided not to look into the potential connotations of that. But she didn't let him get away with it easily.

"Aww...our first date…"

The Doctor made a strangled noise.

"'ll buy chips…" He breathed a sigh of relief and maybe the slightest bit of disappointment.

"Glad you're contributing something other than charm."

"What? You think you're so impressive."

"I am so impressive," John grinned like a loon.

Rose heard the metallic vroop of his cat, "Dunno if your cat agrees with you…"

"Wellll," John tugged on his ear, "can we really trust the cat's opinion?"

"Absolutely."

"Oi!"

"So Mr. Impressive Doctor, what did you do today?"

"Bit of this and that…" John began his typical evasion but paused, "repaired Tardis as you know. Bit of tuning on my sonic device. Went for a walk. Helped get a child out of tree."

"You helped a kid out of a tree?"

"The building was on fire and he happened to escape out the window to a tree. I just coaxed him down."

"Blimey. Who are you Batman?"

"Don't be ridiculous…" The Doctor sniffed dramatically, "I'm much more of Clark Kent."

"Oh, really? How do you figure?"

"Because Miss Wolf, I'm an alien disguised as a normal bloke. And, I dare say, out of this world," he accompanied this with an impressive eyebrow wriggle that she unfortunately was not privy to. Rose peeled over in laughter, "You-" she tried to speak through bursts of giggles, "That-" She wiped a few tears from her eye, "was so bad."

"Nah, best line I've ever come up with I think."

Her infectious laughter drew him in, and they both sat, backs against the same wall, separated by a few inches of sheetrock and all the things they couldn't see.