I think I owe all of you guys a bit of an explanation, having not been on fanfiction for aaaaaaaages. Originally, I could have said that I was in Belgium, but seeing as I came back to England almost a moth ago, I don't really think that is much of an excuse. All I can say is that I just never got round to it, and just hope that everyone hasn't given up on me ever finishing this. Because I will. And – incidentally, I am now officially 14 as of the 18th of July :D

"Zoë," Rose said, the second the Doctor had finished treating her. "Can we go now?"

"God, you humans are stubborn!" he exclaimed, running a hand through his hair, giving him that ultra sexy just got out of bed look, which Rose loved. "You're like a little dog with a stick, you just won't let go. But yes, of course we're gonna get Zoë. We would've been even if you didn't keep going on."

"Good!"

Rose grinned, and hugged him. The Doctor looked down at her lovingly. She had her head nestled in the crook of his neck, a slight smile playing around her lips, which were slightly – ever so slightly – apart. He bent down, kissing her gently, then slowly deepening it as she wound her arms around his neck, flicking his tongue over hers. She pulled back slightly, her eyes locked on his, their noses still almost touching. Rose could've counted his eyelashes.

"Love you," she whispered, smiling and stroking his cheek.

"Quite right," he beamed back, leaning in for another kiss.

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About half an hour (!!) later, the Doctor and Rose emerged, having remembered what they were supposed to be doing, then actually managing to tear away form each other long enough to walk down three corridors to the control room. They still had arms around each other, and their eyes kept sneaking little glances at the other. When they reached the control room, they sat down on the sofa, and contemplated the plan of action.

"OK," the Doctor said, absent mindedly stroking Rose's hair, as she laid her head on his shoulder. "The TARDIS should easily be able to access a map of old DWOORTH – ey place –" he tapped a couple of buttons on the pad "- ah here we are. And then…" he scrolled downwards "Bottom floor…here we are."

He pointed to some of the rooms depicted on the map.

"We were in here, see?" he indicated a small square labelled: Aliens: Adult cell "Which means Zo must be…here," he pointed to a larger box on the screen named Aliens: Children

"Brilliant!" Rose said, squeezing his hand and grinning.

"And then we're done," the Doctor said, a conclusiveness in his voice that few would argue with.

"Nope."

"What?

"What about finding out about these 'higher powers'? I would have thought you of all people would want to know what that means."

"Oh, Rose Tyler, what would I do without you?" he exclaimed, jumping up. He kissed her on top of the head, then leapt round to another part of the controls, jabbing buttons. He stopped to twirl a dial right up, then hit a button on the scanner keyboard.

"Set the coordinates to that cell, Rose," he said, still dancing around pulling levers. Rose obliged happily, moving over to the pad, and pressing the search key. It whirred, then zoomed right in on the little box, and numbers flashed up on the screen. Rose quickly typed them in, hit return, and smiled.

"Done."

The Doctor looked over at her, and grinned.

"Off we go."

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Zoë was cold. It was dark and wet and dirty, and she was hungry. The other children never said much. One boy, with bright blonde hair and dark suspicious eyes had wandered over to her when she had arrived. He didn't speak, just squeezed her hand reassuringly, and shuffled away. She had attempted conversation, but was very unsuccessful – he mumbled something under his breath and reclined further into the shadows. Not having discovered his real name, she had called him Corica – part of the name of a very hard to pronounce planet that Mummy and Daddy had been to, which she always enjoyed listening to stories about. Blinking against the gloom, Zoë peered at another girl, a similar age to her, who was skulking behind her, and whom she had not talked to.

"Hello…aaah!" Zoë jumped backwards, spotting her horns peeking from underneath her hair. The girl blushed, and walked away, leaving Zoë feeling guilty. She'd only been surprised.

A rasping, grating sound broke the silence. All the children reacted differently. Some seemed to come out of a reveree, others looked scared, or hid their faces. One small boy, who looked barely two, burst into noisy sobs. Zoë hurried over and scooped him up, arms immediately starting to ache due to his weight. As soon as he realised what was happening, he wailed louder. Zoë ignored him, and made for the fast materialising TARDIS, beaming. As soon as it had begun, the noise stopped. In the centre of the room stood a tall blue box. A door creaked open, and Rose stepped out. Every child watched, transfixed.

"Ugh, it's horrible here," Rose said, poking her head back in the TARDIS, to see where the Doctor had gone; he appeared moments later. "Poor kids where's…Zoë!!!" She beamed as Zoë made her way towards her, struggling under the boy's weight.

"Zo, who's…?" she asked pointing at him.

"Dalek," her daughter informed her, very matter of fact. "He started crying when the TARDIS materialised, so I tried to comfort him. He's better now."

"Dalek?" the Doctor said "Trust you, Zo. First word you ever said was Dalek, and now you've started calling innocent kids that, too. God so help any children you have…they'll all be named after aliens!"

"Doctor!" Rose chided him, hugging Zoë

"What?"

"We've gotta take him with us," Zoë pleaded.

"We can't," the Doctor said. "He's got his own family. Think how we'd feel if someone decided they liked you, Zo, and just took you with them. It's not right."

"Well we can't leave him here, either," Rose told him "You can't leave a little two year old on his own."

"He was on his own before."

Rose glared at him.

"Well, come on. Look Rose, second we've found out who's behind all this and stopped him, I promise we'll come back and find little Dalek his parents – if they haven't already got him – okay?"

"I suppose…" Rose said, frowning "OK Zo, time to go."

Zoë glowered at her father for a second, before running over to Corica, and presenting him with the startled Dalek. She whispered to him to take care of him, then rushed back over to her parents, leaping into Rose's arms. The Doctor grinned at his two girls, and ushered them into the TARDIS.

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Half an hour later, they were all getting frustrated. Having all agreed that they had to stop whoever was behind all and stop them ASAP before any more alien kids got caught, they had no where to start. How were they going to find a completely unknown thing without help? Nothing to find a signal from, no DNA samples the TARDIS could tell them what it was from…no anything bar a mention from a deranged old lady who had been happy to torture people for information. Nothing. Nothing except circular conversations, which were getting on all of their nerves.

"We're gonna have to go back inside DWOORTH & CO," the Doctor said, for the millionth time.

"We can't," Zoë insisted. "Mummy might get hurt again." (having heard – roughly – what had happened whilst she and the Doctor had been locked up, Zoë had since flatly refused to go anywhere near the place).

"It's not me I'm worried about," Rose told her. "But even so, it'd be worth the risk if we could stop them."

"You're right," the Doctor said, rushing to her defence at once, glad she saw it this way, and was still as daring and brave as when he'd first met her. "Everything we do's a risk, Zo anyway."

"No way." Zoë told him, and the group lapsed into thoughtful silence. And so on.

The room was quiet for a moment. Then the Doctor voiced something he'd been sub consciously wondering for a while. He turned to Rose.

"Pete," he said simply

"Sorry?"

"Pete!" he repeated, looking delighted with himself.

"Um…what about him?"

"He's head of Torchwood!" the Doctor exclaimed happily, jumping up to face Rose and Zoë, beaming. "He must know something about old DWOORTH, it's a branch of his company!"

"No way," Rose said stubbornly "Dad would never…"

"But what if he doesn't know what it's doing. Just because he's aware it exists, doesn't mean he knows what it does or controls it. He's only in charge of the main bit of Torchwood, the bit that operates at Canary Wharf. I'm right, aren't I? So I bet there's the facility to have a bit of a shifty at other sections of the company. And if we still can't find who's behind this all, he can also probably get us into…"

"…DWOORTH &CO." Rose breathed. Zoë opened her mouth to speak, but Rose cut across her quickly "In a safe way so that none of us get hurt. And Mum would probably appreciate a visit, we said we'd come see her as soon as we found Zo."

"Let's go then," the Doctor beamed. "First stop, Tyler residence."

There you go! Again, sorry it's been so long, but review anyway, and I promise I'll try and update sooner :D Naomi.