After her day restocking shelves, Rose was beyond happy to see Donna.

"Donna!" She called heralding her friend into a hug out on the sidewalk.

"Oi, Blondie, less pressure…"

"Sorry…." Rose said releasing her friend.

"It's all fine. What's new?"

"Not much, still talking to the Doctor, he's barmy...but I kind of...love it?"

"Good for you! Lance is tryin' drive me straight off a cliff. I know I'm just a temp, but he keeps telling me I need to 'advance my career'..."

"Donna, you know what I'm gonna say about a man who wants to take charge of your whole life."

Donna winced, "Sorry, I know…"

They made their way to the coffee shop and grabbed a cuppa. Donna filled Rose in on the latest gossip, apparently, Jim from IT was recently arrested for a series of muggings, wasn't that something?

With her break in the day over, they parted ways and Rose was back to work, later upon returning home,she stretched and yawned Rose knew she was growing tired. But she unlocked her door and felt elated that for once someone would be there. Waiting for her to return.

"Hey, Ba- can I just call you Wolf?"

"Yeah," she said, "Glad you didn't just shorten it to Bad."

"Nahh," John joked, "that'd just be silly."

Rose set her keys down in the ceramic dish and hung her coat and hat. Her mail she dumped on her bed to be gone through later. It was quiet beyond the Doctor's shuffling something around.

"Wotcha doin'?"

"Glad…" he panted, "you asked," a thump followed. "I'm relocating the jump seat for maximum space required for this little project."

"What project?"

"Tonight, Miss Wolf, we are stargazing."

"In London? Not likely."

"...did you happen to get a box in the post?"

Rose narrowed her eyes and turned to her bed, where there was indeed a nondescript brown box, and at closer inspection the box simply read 'Bad Wolf- to travel the stars you need not leave home- The Doctor'. She opened the box carefully and pulled out a small black device about the size of her palm. It held a single blue button that she immediately pressed. WIth a small yelp she let go, and it fell onto her bed.

"Wolf? You okay?"

"I'm-'m fine," Rose picked it up again and knowing what to expect let the light fill the room and turned off the overhead lamp. It was a light box. I little picture of the stars that fit in her hand and filled the room.

"It's accurate," the Doctor said, "It's hooked up to the international space station's outward lense. A real time picture of the sky."

"Did you…" her voice was breathless with wonder, "Did you make this?"

"Maybe. A bit," John tugged the hair at the nape of his neck, a dumb nervous habit.

"Thank you Doctor. Might be the nicest thing anybody's ever done for me."

"Oh, I'm sure it's not…"

"It is though. Thank you."

"Of course. Closest I could get you to the stars. And I can't do much about time but… I can tell you that-"

"Shh…"

"Wha-"

"I'm listening…" Rose said, her voice soft, quiet. John nodded and waited. Then from silence came Silence. Rose's deft fingers playing Beethoven's slightly ironically named piece. How beautiful, he thought, that silence speaks, that if you listen closely you can hear the pulse of this vibrant universe.

-xx-

Rose practiced the Mozart, her confidence in the notes now muscle memory, but it was the emotional weight that carried the piece everytime.

When she finished John applauded.

"Yeah, yeah, come off it," Rose said waving her hand at him. The wall. Him.

"Oi. You're fantastic. Take the credit," John said, with endeared amusement. "Where… where did you learn to play?"

She knew he'd ask eventually. It wasn't a story she really wanted to tell. "Oh, I just picked it up...here and there…"

"Really…"

She sighed heavily and turned on the stool, facing the wall. "It's not a happy story."

"Most of us have unhappy stories. I'm here to listen. I won't judge," he said.

"Fine." Rose straightened her back and shut her eyes, "I was six when I started. My Nan had a piano in her front room. She taught me the basics, little jingles and stuff. 'Nd I kept learnin'. Started to go from books. Taught myself some 'o the classics," Her rougher cockney poked through as she recanted the past.

"And that was all well and good. When I turned 16 I met this bloke. He was just out of school. I was going to try for my A levels, but he convinced me to drop out an' help his band. He played guitar." She pointed a finger at the wall, "Don't say anything. Anyway, I started helpin' him out. Cleaning up his flat, cooking and the what. He was no angel by any means but it wasn't so bad."

Rose took a deep breath, "And then the keyboardist quit. And I made the mistake of telling him I knew how to play piano. So he asked me to play. And I did, but it wasn't 'rock n' roll' enough." Rose air quoted and rolled her eyes. "But he said he recognized my talent. And it was true I guess. For all his faults he knew music. He started training me for these classical competitions, so we'd earn money while he was startin' out."

John picked the lint off his shirt, in an effort not to interrupt until she was done.

"Right. So, when I started doing poorly, cuz I was burnt out...That's went it went south. He never hurt me, but he was always putting me down. He would compliment and insult me in the same breath. Always looking for something to pick apart. I started dreading playing for him. For competitions."

John's jaw clenched and he leaned back in his desk chair.

"Anyway...then end came when I was off work early, I still worked retail at Henrick's, and saw him in bed with Larissa, one of his bandmates. I packed up and found this place. And just after I did, their band started doing okay. But I stopped paying attention. Wasn't worth the trouble."

A short silence ensued. "That's it." Rose added, "It's not terrible but-"

"Stop. People always do that. Your joy or pain doesn't depend on anyone else's. Someone having it worse doesn't mean you don't have it bad. Someone being happier than you doesn't mean you can't be happy. And I'm so sorry this happened Wolf."

Rose wiped away an errant tear, "Thanks for listening."

"Anytime. Well...relatively any time."

"If you ever need or want...you can talk to me too…" Rose added, curling up on her duvet.

It was silent for several minutes and she was certain he had fallen asleep or gotten lost in some physics thing. But then he spoke barely more than a whisper, "Thank you."