Another rather short interlude. For the Doctor, old habits die hard...and nothing says the Doctor quite like beating himself up for things beyond his control or evading confrontations about his moodiness. Thanks as usual to all the followers and reviewers...you all consistently make me smile :)

oOoOo

"I'm old enough to know that a longer life isn't always a better one. In the end, you just get tired. Tired of the struggle. Tired of losing everyone that matters to you. Tired of watching everything turn to dust. If you live long enough, Lazarus, the only certainty left is that you end up alone."

"That's a price worth paying."

"Is it?"

The Doctor sat alone in the kitchen and stewed over a cup of tea. Both girls were still sleeping, so it was the perfect time to brood about the things that he couldn't explain to them. Martha wouldn't understand, and Rose would be hurt. He didn't want to deal with either of those eventualities, so he waited until they succumbed to their need for sleep to pick at these fresh wounds.

The words he'd said to Lazarus spilled back through his mind again. He's spoken the absolute truth to the man who'd mangled himself in the effort to live a longer life. What he hadn't counted on was the realization that, while he had come to terms—more or less—with the curse of his own longevity…he wasn't sure he was completely alright with the fact that Rose was now doomed to the same fate. While he was now able to spend the rest of his life with her, provided she stayed…she now had to watch everything fall to dust around her, with only him left. Nearly everyone she would meet from now on, no matter how much she loved them, she would have to lose them. Because of him. To be totally happy about that seemed…incredibly selfish.

Not only that, but the cause of her prolonged existence, her strange neo-human DNA, had caused her problems more than once. Just since he'd found out about all of it, she'd twice been in dangerous spots that would have been avoided had she still been human. The Empress would not have been able to cause her pain, and she would have had nothing to fear from the Judoon. He could have kissed her and avoided the whole mess with Martha. But…then again…were she still in a place where she could be human…she probably wouldn't have been there at all. Because he'd changed her. He hadn't forced the Vortex into her, but if he had never met her, she would still be Rose Tyler, shop girl from the Powell Estates…maybe not extraordinary, but completely human, and probably far happier for it. She'd still have her mum, she'd still have Mickey and all the other friends and family that thought she was dead now.

He had no idea what, if anything, to do about any of this knowledge however. Feeling guilty wasn't new…he'd been living with that long enough that a little more piled on wasn't going to change a whole lot. But he hated the idea that someday, all of this would occur to Rose as well, and she'd end up resenting him for turning her life into battlefield littered with fallen friends and fearsome foes that she should never have had to deal with.

Just one more reason to wonder if simply living long enough was going to be enough to keep her by his side.

"Well, someone's looking chipper this morning," came a voice from the doorway, breaking into his disparaging thoughts.

He took a deep breath as he looked up, attempting to school his features into something more presentable.

"Martha Jones," he said with a smile. "How're we feeling today?"

"That depends…is there still tea?" she asked skeptically.

"There is."

"Then wonderful," she said with a bright smile, making her way over to the kettle and fixing herself a cup before joining him at the table. "Girlfriend still asleep?"

"Yes," he growled. "And I really wish you wouldn't call her that."

"What am I supposed to call her?" Martha asked. "And why do you have such issue with labels anyway? Still having trouble owning up to it?"

"Not at all," he said easily, taking another sip. "But nine hundred year old Time Lords do not have 'girlfriends'. So I'd suggest…calling her Rose. That seems to work, most of the time."

"Hold on, you're nine hundred years old?" Martha asked, having nearly spit out her tea.

"Nine hundred and two," he clarified.

"And Rose is how old?"

"Twenty-one…ish."

"So you're…hold on…over forty times older than her?" she asked, and he nodded with a smirk. "God, I am just never going to understand you two."

"Word of advice, Martha," he said. "Stop trying. I don't even understand us half of the time, and I understand nearly everything."

"I'll keep that in mind," she said as the sound of a wolf howling reverberated through the corridors. "What the hell was that?" she asked, looking around.

"Oh…you've never been awake before her, have you?" the Doctor asked with a smile as he got up to fix another cup of tea. "Little joke. Also, a warning…it doesn't matter if Rose needs two hours of sleep a night or ten, she will never, ever be a morning person."

He held out the cup as he said this, and, on cue, Rose came staggering into the kitchen, took the cup from him, and sat down with a plop on one of the chairs around the table.

"I hate you," she said in a rough voice before sipping at her tea.

"Good morning to you, too," he said happily, kissing the top of her head before sitting down again. "Anyway, it's the TARDIS, not me."

"Yeah, you keep saying that," she grumbled.

"Wow, you weren't kidding," Martha said with a laugh. "Really not a morning person."

"Give her a chance to finish her cup of tea," the Doctor said. "She'll be fine."

Martha nodded. "So what had you in such a foul mood when I walked in?"

"What? Oh, nothing," he said quickly when Rose looked at him suspiciously. "I was just…concentrating on some modifications I plan to do later on the TARDIS. In that vein…I was thinking we could go to Stravogaraza today. Supposedly, it's the biggest shopping center in the universe…if you can't find something there, it doesn't exist. I have some parts to pick up, and I dare say you two could find some way to amuse yourselves," he added with a smirk at their growing smiles.

oOoOo

They spent the day wandering around the planet sized shopping center (minus the parking continent), Martha and Rose tugging the Doctor around to explain various alien items they found, much to his apparent amusement. The tables were turned when they entered the hardware section and the Doctor's demeanor quickly changed to that of a six year old who'd had too much cake. He bounced around the different sections, oohing and ahing over various gizmos, gadgets, and spare parts. Rose made an attempt to rein him in by asking if he actually needed all the items he'd thrown into the cart for the TARDIS, but he gave her a petulant look and told her that every single thing he'd picked up was necessary for something…or, at least, that it would be. She rolled her eyes and gave up after that.

The Doctor treated them to dinner out after hours of shopping. Martha wasn't sure she wanted to ask where he'd gotten the money for all the things he'd paid for that day, but was having entirely too much fun to comment. Any residual awkwardness following her first few days with the couple had officially been buried after this outing, and dinner turned into a loud affair as wine was had and the Doctor had the girls in stitches with various stories of odd encounters, including the most peaceful revolution ever: apparently, the "despot king" didn't really want to be king, but a pig farmer, so he gladly relinquished the throne to the pacifist revolutionaries who didn't so much storm the castle as hesitantly shuffle while apologizing for the inconvenience.

When they finally made it back to the TARDIS, the girls immediately went to their rooms to sort through their many purchases from the day. Martha quickly realized that she'd forgotten a bag and made her way back to the console room to find the Doctor leaning against the console wearing the same pensive look she'd seen when she first encountered him this morning.

"Did you get the parts you were looking for?" she asked as she retrieved her forgotten parcel.

"Hmm? What?" he asked, confused momentarily, then his face cleared. "Oh, yes. Everything I needed. Did you have a good time?"

"Oh, the best," she said sincerely, then studied him for a moment. "It wasn't parts you were thinking about, was it?" she asked quietly.

"Um…no, not entirely," he said, turning and looking down at the console.

"Is it…do you not want me here?" she asked uncertainly. It didn't seem likely, after the last week or so, but people change their minds all the time.

"Oh, no…no no no," he assure her quickly. "Nothing like that. I…I mean, Rose and I, we love having you here."

She thought quickly. "Something…with Rose, then?" she asked warily, not wanting him to think that it was still latent jealousy that made her ask.

"Um, no," he said, looking down again. "No…it's…something with me. Don't worry about it."

"Is it—"

"Honestly, Martha, I'm fine," he insisted, looking back up at her.

"Alright…well…if you ever want to…you know, talk," she said, relenting, "you know where to find me."

"Yeah," he said quickly, studying a monitor.

"Okay," she said. "Oh, and Doctor? Thanks for today. It really was brilliant."

"It was my pleasure, Martha Jones," he said with a smile, turning to her again.

She watched him for another moment. "You sure you're alright?"

He looked at her steadily for a moment. "I'm always alright."