Disclaimer: If I did own Doctor Who, it wouldn't be nearly as good.

A/N: Sorry for the delay in updating. I really have no excuse.

Rose shifts slightly. The bed is warm and comfortable and she can feel the Doctor's double heartbeat against her back. Smiling, she turns over and opens her eyes to the sleeping face of her son. She tries to crush her disappointment. Every day, it's the same. She puts him to bed and wakes up to find him in her bed. It started just a couple of weeks ago, but she is already tiring of it. When he wakes up, she is going to have to talk to him. Although she knows that he just has to look at her with those bright blue eyes and her strictness will melt. She swings her legs out of bed. She'll put the breakfast on, then they can go to the waterfall.

xxx

"Rose!" Lydia waves from the centre of the lake. The waterfall is a central part of the community; it provides electricity, drinking water and bathing water. In return, they make sure that any products, such as shampoo or soap, will not have a detrimental effect on the ecosystem before releasing them into the environment.

A group of small children shriek from the other side of the pool.

"Alright but I want you washing, not just messing around." He nods eagerly and jumps in to join his friends.

Rose enters more sedately and makes her way across to Lydia.

"Is that a new costume?" She indicates the dark red bikini.

"My old skirt, reincarnated."

They both laugh. It's only a short-term solution, but the technology in everyone's old clothes makes the material resistant to nearly everything, allowing it to be reused over and over and over… The laugh turns into bubbles, then splutters as someone swimming underneath knocks their legs from under them.

"Yuck. They might be totally natural, organic and eco-friendly but that stuff tastes disgusting." Rose scrapes her teeth along her tongue and firmly suppresses similar memories.

Lydia looks at her questioningly and pushes her thick mass of sodden hair away from her ears.

"Sorry. Didn't hear that."

"Just saying that they taste disgusting."

"Try closing your mouth next time."

"I didn't exactly have much warning!" Rose tries to act indignant.

Lydia looks at her and raises an eyebrow. "It was your son."

Rose is indignant. "What!"

"Who else could stay under water for five minutes?"

"Right, when I find him, I am going to teach him a lesson!" Rose manages to fume for half a minute before catching Lydia's eye.

xxx

Swish, splat, swish, splat, swish, splat.

"Stop!"

Matthew looks up at his mother enquiringly.

"It's driving me crazy, tip out your shoes."

He obediently removes his shoes and tips the water out.

Splat, splat, splat, splat.

Rose sighs and decides to ignore it.

"For the record, knocking Lydia and me over is not funny. And you're not going to do it again."

"How do you know it was me?"

"So it was you?"

"I didn't say that."

They bicker playfully all the way home and Rose forgets to bring up the subject of swapping beds.

xxx

"Rose. Rose!"

"Down by Unreadables."

Lydia appears at the end of the aisle, holding a large book.

"I found this. It's absolutely ancient, I have no idea how it survived. It was published in the early 21st century."

"What year?"

Lydia checks. "2008."

Rose smiles and sings. "It was a very good year."

"I've heard that song! It was a rare privilege to use the CD player."

"It was a very good year to love and be loved, I was happy."

"It didn't go like that though."

"No. No, it didn't," Rose turns away.

She allows her a minute of grief. "Rose, I think this is important."

Rose takes the book. A small, cheaply produced book, plain brown cover with small black writing. She squints at it and manages to make out the title. Woven throughout History. I've heard that before. Opening the cover, she finds an inscription that slams into her stomach. For Clive, devoted husband and father. And for Mickey Smith, who continued the work until we were ready. She skips the introduction, reads the first page, detailing the disappearance of two schoolteachers, flicks quickly through the book and slows as she reaches the end. The newspaper article about her disappearance. Charles Dickens, with the Doctor and Rose in the background. Jackie and Pete's wedding photo, with pink and black lurking at the back. They had been trying to leave inconspicuously, before anyone noticed they weren't supposed to be there, when they were hustled into this group photo. The article about her father's death, asking for the young blond girl who had sat with Pete to come forward to be thanked. A newspaper article about the disappearance of the Lord Mayor, last seen leaving the Town Hall with four strangers, and it gave their descriptions. She flicks over a few pages till she came to the end of the section. The dividing page was plain brown, with black writing that said Section Ten. How did they get the order right? She quickly turns the page before she can stop herself. An extract of Queen Victoria's journal or diary or something. I will not speak of the events at Torchwood Estate, just to say that a Doctor James McCrimmon and a feral child, Rose Tyler, were involved and after honouring them, I banished them from the Empire. I know not who they were or where they came from, but it was clear they consort with the darkest of things. A newspaper article on the explosion at Deffry Vale High School. All staff and some children were missing. A translated extract of a French courtier's letter. …these inhuman monsters seemed to want the head of Madame de Pompadour for some reason. She claimed to have seen their world, perhaps it was vengeance they wanted. The girl was very brave or stupid, these creatures had all number of implements extended towards her neck, and she told them that she did not fear them and that their nightmare would return to plague them. Then the sound of hoof beats were heard, and you may think me mad dear sister, but a man burst through a mirror on a horse, through solid wall… Rose can well remember that. The numbness, the absolute denial. She turns the page again. It is all there. Some record of every time they visited Earth's past. A picture of the Tardis standing in the estate, and the observation that it returned often. And a picture of them, strolling through the park hand in hand, with an observation that the successors seem to honour agreements made between the predecessors and companions.

"Are you alright? You look…strange."

"I think I'm going to be sick," Rose mutters faintly and collapses.

xxx

"No. You are not going to get out of that bed today."

"But really I'm fine. I just came over dizzy."

Lydia folds her arms.

"Fine, fine." Resigned, Rose flops back against the pillows.

"Now, why don't you tell what's wrong?"

"I said, I'm fine."

"Perfectly fine people don't faint at a book."

"It hurt alright!"

There is a pause.

"Sorry."

"Don't worry about it."

"It's just I try so hard not to think about it, because if I actually let myself realise…"

"It would hurt too much, the idea of never seeing him again. Did I ever tell you about…" she cuts herself off abruptly.

Rose is intrigued. "Who?"

Lydia just shakes her head then looks up, suddenly grinning.

"Tell you what. I'll tell you…"

"…if you can find out about mine."

"That's not fair! I have to tell you if I manage to discover who your someone is?"

"But you love a research mission."

"Oh, alright then," Lydia sighs.

"But you're not allowed to use that book!" she yells at her departing back.

Lydia turns back briefly. "Wouldn't worry about that. You're still holding it."

Rose is bemused to discover that she is. She opens it at random to find a frizzy-haired man with a stupid scarf wrapped round his neck staring at her from a crowd. She remembers that scarf; she was always tripping over it in the wardrobe. Even wound round the shoulders of an old coat, it still trailed on the floor. Her voracious complaining had sent him along to the wardrobe room once. But once was enough.

She'd been looking all over the Tardis for him for ages. Her mobile told her it was two and a half hours. Amazingly, she found him where he said he would be, in the wardrobe room. She'd have looked there before, only she couldn't find it. The scene that met her eyes when she walked in was quite ridiculous. She was torn between amusement and exasperation. The coat was spread across the floor and he sat cross legged in the centre, chewing with a very solemn expression on his face, the scarf draped around him. The amusement won and she burst into giggles.

"Rose!" He looked up delightedly and patted the coat next to him. She crossed and sat by him.

"So what progress have you made?"

"I still like jelly babies."

"Ooh, is that what you're eating?"

"Do you want one?" He offered her the paper bag.

She had just begun to chew when he said thoughtfully "It's amazing how these have lasted."

She stopped. "What do you mean? Doctor, how old are these?"

He mused. "Well, I think I bought them in 1973in a charming village."

Her mouth dropped open slightly.

"But I think that that was about five hundred years ago in my timeline."

The slightly mangled jelly baby fell out of Rose's mouth.

"You mean…" she eventually choked, "You mean that these jelly babies are half as old as you."

"Oi! I'm not a thousand yet. But about that."

Rose bolted from the room. He would suffer later. Now, she had an urgent appointment with toothpaste and mouthwash.

Rose smiles as she becomes aware of her surroundings. She has a good purpose for this book.

"Matthew!"

xxx

"Hey, hey." Matthew looks at his mother blearily. "If you're going to fall asleep, shift. You've got your own bed. And tonight, you are going to your own bed and you are going to stay in your own bed."

He looks up at her dolefully.

"You never had a problem before, why now?"

"Dreams."

"What dreams?"

"Strange dreams."

"Tell me."

"They're all disconnected. Just flashes of images."

"Like what?"

"There's this scarf…a frozen planet…someone in brown…tall grey buildings…I can't really remember much."

"Do they scare you?"

"Sometimes." He's watching him walk out, and he doesn't know what he's going to do. He's so angry, it's not directed at him, but he's scared. For him. It's his fault, all his fault and he's fighting desperately to get to him; he's got to do something…

"Matthew?" Rose is looking anxious.

"Sometimes they're happy." The sun sparkles off the purple sand. He runs across it, slips on the slope and rolls down, shrieking with laughter, till he lands in the sea. The water is so salty, it sets his mouth on fire but he's still laughing…

"Matthew!"

"What does salty seawater taste like?"

If Rose is bemused at the question, she doesn't show it. "Saltwater is tangy, sharp."

"I didn't know that."

"Why would you? You've never tasted it."

"But it was so vivid… I can't have dreamed the taste. You don't, do you?"

"In dreams, you can create situations, places, people. Sometimes you can taste things…but to dream accurately of something you've never experienced…"

"I'm scared."

"Don't be." She rocks him till she realises. He feels her stiffen.

"What is it?"

"Someone in brown…" she breathes, "Can you describe anyone you see?"

"He's…he's angry. Unbelievably angry. And…scared. I'm so scared because he's the most important…."

He tries to focus, but the details trickle away.

"Flashes of images?"

"No. That wasn't. That was a scene, a clip…it was a memory."

"Not yours."

"No."

The silence stretches out.

"I'm scared."

"Me too."

xxx

Adam cannons into Matthew and they both go flying.

"Foul!" yell ten small boys.

"Never!" ten small boys yell back.

Matthew appeals from the ground. "Come on refs, that was a yellow card!"

Rose and Lydia are deep in conference. Rose was shocked to discover that football had ceased to be played, the rules lost in time. So she reinstated it. Although without the offside rule.

"Um…" Rose quickly calculates.

"Throw-in!" Yes, so any 21st century human male would have a fit, but it's fun!

Adam pulls Matthew up. "Sorry about that, midget."

Any other time, he would have grinned and punched him playfully. But now, his eyes stare past Adam. Everyone turns to look.

"Hello?" He takes a step forward.

The girl stares at him. About his age, she is dressed in a baggy t-shirt, slipping down one shoulder, ragged threads hanging from the unevenly shortened bottom. Brown hair sticks out wildly around her head.

"Why are you dressed for bed? It's the middle of the day."

She just stares at him silently. It's slightly unnerving.

"Matthew? What are you doing? Who are you talking to?"

In front of his eyes, the girl vanishes. She just blinks out of existence.

"Reckon that fall must have done more damage than you thought, mate."

There's an arm round his shoulders, propelling him indoors.

"Match abandoned, boys. Matthew has a little sun-stroke. Don't worry, he'll be…"

Rose shuts the door on Lydia and the boys.

"Now tell me what happened."

A/N: Okay, this story only has a couple more chapters to go (although that is not a exact number.) I have the story worked out, I just need to write it down. However, unless I want to fail ALL my GCSE's, that won't be for a while. Hopefully, I'll be able to update by the end of next week.

But anyway, reviews are always appreciated. (Squee is a good word)

And can anyone tell me what a mary sue is?