Rose stretched and groaned; she felt very stiff, like she hadn't moved the entire night. Her hands searched for the familiar fabric of the Doctor's suit, knowing he probably hadn't stayed the night. Her fingers brushed something that felt oddly enough like hair.

"Good morning my little human," the Doctor said, propping himself onto his forearm.

Rose raised an eyebrow questioningly.

"You stayed here? Throughout the night?"

"Well, not exactly. I came back though, and I was back by the time you were awake." He affectionately poked her nose as he spoke, an air of delight about him, but Rose knew better. He was acting like this because he felt guilty about what happened the night before. She puffed out a quick breath. She knew, even as it happened, he was only being territorial; because, Jack was there. Usually the Doctor was busy keeping him from ruining any of his precious TARDIS, but now the only real "possession" the Doctor had here, was Rose.

"Where's Jack? Did we scare him off last night?" She said with a cheeky grin. "That was a good idea, making him think we're... together; saves me, well you too i guess, the trouble of being at the receiving side of his innuendos."

The Doctor puzzled this statement while fiddling with Rose's hair. Well, of course he had previously made it very clear that he couldn't be anything more than her friend, but those barriers were quickly falling.

His hearts ached slightly as Rose rolled away. He supposed the only thing he could do, for now at least, was to go along with her delusions and try to protect her from any and all impending danger. He wouldn't try to change the future per se, but there weren't any rules against trying to keep Rose out of harms way, and she did tend to attract an awful load of trouble.

"Doctor?" Rose's voice broke him of his reverie. "Is everything alright?"

She sat up and put a comforting hand on his knee.

He swallowed before answering, unable to meet her eye.

"Everything's fine Rose. Actually, things are perfect! We have a fantastic day ahead of us! Get up quickly, we're going to do some real cooking; it's about time I stop using the sonic for everything. Don't want it to fizz out on me, without the TARDIS to repair it." He frowned, picturing the horrific scene.

Rose laughed and jumped from the bed, pulling the Doctor up with her. She snake her arms around his shoulders and whispered into his neck, "thank you... for everything."

She really couldn't thank him enough. She hadn't even woken ten minutes ago and he was already making her day bright. There wasn't a single thing that could make her happier in that instant.

o.O.o

A few hours, and many burnt pancake-like creations later, Rose noticed something peculiar. She had gotten a tiny cut, a few minutes earlier, trying to catch utensils that the Doctor had carelessly knocked over. Now, however, the little red mark had some golden specks. Upon closer examination, she saw that the gold seemed to be expanding, sort of swallowing up the cut.

She glanced at the Doctor, a look of concern and wonder on her face.

"Doctor? I'll be right back, I have to go get something."

Without another word, Rose all but sprinted to her. She held the pad of her fingertip up to her face, carefully regarding the area, however, there didn't seem to be any cut. There weren't any gold spots either.

Rose looked into the mirror, and searched her complexion. She had noticed little changes in her body lately, her figure was becoming more slender, hair shinier, she could run faster and farther without tiring out. She had just assumed these were thanks to the rigorous chases she had been through with the Doctor.

But there were other differences too. Her died blonde hair, instead of growing in brown, was a golden blonde color. Her skin had a sort of glowing hue too, and around the edges of her pupils there was a tiny ring of gold.

Rose quickly pulled off her sweater, quickly looking for the scar on her rib she had received as a child when she fell off her red bicycle. But is wasn't there.

She trailed her finger over the area... it was perfectly smooth, no rough edges, or raised lines...

As quickly twisted around, searching for anything else that had changed, but just as she looked away, the door slammed open.

"Rose, I declare, we've got to cook from scratch more often. These pancakes- gah!" The Doctor froze, eyes tracing Rose's figure, as she scrambled to cover herself with the duvet from the bed. "Sorry, sorry I should have knocked, but you were taking such a long time and I was getting bored..." He trailed off but continued to stare; it seemed as if he was shocked into freezing, and couldn't have moved even if he wanted to.

Rose finally managed to wrap a blanket around her torso, and turned to the Doctor, her face flushing.

"Er... you want to leave now?"

The Doctor snapped out of it. He met Rose's eye, and quickly turned as red a she was. Her rubbed the back of his neck, like he always did while embarrassed, and quickly left the room, carefully closing the door behind him.

Rose groaned and fell onto the bed. Why did these things always happen to her? well, it was good to know she could stun the Doctor into silence, but now she would have to go and face him. She had wanted to ask him about these strange little changes in her body, but she supposed now wasn't the best time to show more of her skin.

The Doctor leaned against Rose's bedroom door, and closed his eyes. This girl, this little human child really would be his downfall. He always thought of himself as having such incredibly strong barriers against women, sure he enjoyed them, but there were always bigger, more important issues to deal with than his own personal desires. Here though, there weren't any issues he had to go running to. Only Rose.

Still, in a month, hopefully not much longer, they would be back amongst the stars, running for their lives, never turning back. Rose was the best companion the Doctor ever had, and losing her would be... it would kill him. This regeneration was made for her and her alone. He would never be complete with out his Rose.

The Doctor almost fell back as Rose opened the door, a grumpy expression on her face.

"Oh, sorry! I didn't realize you were here!" She rocked back on her heels, not sure if she should avoid eye contact or not.

Just then, the Doctor noticed something, not much, but something. A glimmer, a soft glimmer within Rose's beautiful brown eyes. A golden glow he recognized all too well.

Bad Wolf