Here's your next chapter. Not a lot of content, but I really wanted to put this in and as they were in a TARDIS that was capable to go to Gallifrey it would fit as an interlude. I have the ending sorted now so there is one more chapter and then an epilogue, which you can have posted together if you want. So if you do, Review...

Rose looked at The Doctor as he went back to his mother. She didn't understand the look in their eyes.

"You can't stay here long Theta. You'll be home soon." Mia told him as he approached her.

"Where am I?"He asked.

"You're at school. You seem to have miscalculated your arrival time."

"Where's Father?" He knew he was asking many questions but he was trying to work out in what time he had arrived. He knew it was before his mother's death, but when before he didn't know.

"He's on Arcadia. He has been for three weeks." She paused when she realised what he was thinking. "You are 24 years old. Your birthday was last week."

"Thanks, I am a bit out of my timeline." He said with a small smile. It was a long time since he was that young.

"How old are you Theta?" She whispers as she draws him close.

"Too old..." He says as he holds her close.

Rose, Jack and Gwen left The Doctor and Mia and went around the side of the house. There was a bench which sat beside a pond in the back garden. They looked at the mountain that shadowed the midday sun.

"This is gonna hit him hard when we leave here." Rose said, sitting next to Jack on the bench. Gwen sat down on his other side.

"Why? Can't he just come back when we get to his TARDIS?" Gwen asked leaning forward to see Rose around Jack's quiet form.

"This is all gone in our timeline. There was a Timewar, he is the only survivor. I think the TARDIS is trying to help him by bringing him home. Reminding him of the good times." Jack told her.

"But why bring him here?" Rose said, tears starting to form in her eyes. "She dies. Not in the Timewar, but a long time before... He was 27 when he lost his mum. She is at lot older than she looks. And she is human." Jack was surprised with this revelation.

"Then why did he give her permission to read him. As far as i'm aware, humans aren't telepathic." Jack replied.

"But you two can." Gwen piped in.

"We can but only with The Doctor and each other. All three of us were joined by the vortex and have a connection to each other. It's the reason why we can't die." Rose looked at Jack when she said the last bit. She knew he couldn't die from a conversation with The Doctor but Jack didn't know she was inflicted with the same curse.

"You can't die either?" Jack looked at Gwen when she voiced a question that Jack was struggling to ask.

"When I was Bad Wolf, I saved The Doctor, destroyed the Daleks, and brought Jack back to life. But it was killing me, The Doctor took the vortex from me, but Bad Wolf was still there. I was unconscious when he brought me into the TARDIS. He regenerated while Bad Wolf healed my tortured body." She stood up and started to pace. "The Doctor only found out when my dad told him about it. I died on an investigation. I knew these aliens from dealing with them in my universe with his previous self. So I dealt with them but died in the process."

She stopped pacing when she noticed two figures walking towards them.

"I'm sorry Jack. We'll talk more later"

"Don't be sweetheart." He stood up and held Rose tightly before stepping back and letting The Doctor hold her just as tightly. He went to Gwen and pulled her up, "We'll wait in the TARDIS." He said to Rose and The Doctor. Rose caught his eye and mouthed 'Thanks'. "Nice to meet you Mia" He said while offering her his hand.

She looked at his hand and then pulled him into a hug "Look after him" She whispered before pulling away and looking silently into his eyes. Jack gave the briefest of nods in a silent promise to the mother of his best friend. He turned away reaching for Gwen's hand as they left for the TARDIS.

Mia turned and watched as her son clung to his girlfriend. She knew from the look in his eyes that it had been a very long time since he had seen her. She knew that meant that something would happen to her, she knew her lifespan was longer than most humans but nowhere near the lifespan of that of her husband and son.

Mia approached them as they pulled apart. "Look after my Theta, Rose."

"I will, I love him so much."

"That is all a mother wants for their child." She said and they embraced each other. Even with Mia's weak telepathic senses, she could feel the love this young woman had for her son as she embraced her. It was overwhelming. She pulled her son to her, so they were all holding each other, and flooded his senses with what Rose was projecting. It banished all the grief and sadness that he was projecting.

Mia knew that her son would be ok. She pulled away from him, and reached for their hands. With Mia in the middle, they walked to the TARDIS. The Doctor knew she was 'taking him home' so took in a last look at his dead world. The silver leaves falling from the trees, the orange sky, his mother holding his hand...

Outside the TARDIS, she dropped their hands. She hugged Rose tightly and then her son. "You must go now, Theta." Rose left them to their goodbyes. "You chose good with her. Don't lose her."

"I won't Mia." He said "I love you" He said as he pulled her into yet another, but their final, hug.

"I love you too, Theta." With that she pushed open the door to the TARDIS and ushered him inside, closing the door behind her and walking away.

The TARDIS dematerialised as a boy of about 12 human years ran up the path to where his mother stood watching the spot where a TARDIS once stood.

"Who was that Mia, has Father come home?"

"No Theta, your Father isn't home yet, that was... The future."

Theta looked up at his mother. He was disappointed that his Father hadn't returned home and confused about her last statement. But he knew that he would find out in the future.

The Doctor sent the TARDIS into the vortex as he remembered that day a long time ago. He had got home to see a TARDIS disappearing and his mother being sad. She was sad for a few days after that but she cheered up when his Father returned home a few days later. He thought that she was missing his father when in reality she was missing him.

"Next stop San Francisco." He said to himself as he set the coordinates, and sat down with his thoughts. The console room had been empty when Mia had pushed him in and closed the door. He was glad of that, he would go and find them soon. Now he needed to be left alone.