Okay, a moment of exposition to clear something up. Boe was right, the Doctor has safeguards in place. Nine put up a sort of mental perception filter back when he suppressed his memories in an effort to put off another fight later. As long as the Doctor doesn't try to fight it, the stranger things that Rose does (i.e. future knowledge or nonhuman attributes) will be noticed, but not called to attention or be cause for alarm. Whether he can keep from poking around too much as those moments add up remains to be seen, but for now, he's in his happy place.

oOoOo

"Hold on, hold on!" the Doctor yelled when the engines came to a stop. "Lemme just…"

"Check and make sure we're actually where we're supposed to be?" Rose asked sweetly.

"No, of course not!" he said indignantly. "Just making sure…we're parked correctly." He avoided her gaze as he darted out of the TARDIS. He grinned when he realized that they were, in fact, exactly where he wanted them to be. "Alright, everything's fine," he said happily as he stepped back into the TARDIS for his coat and companion.

"Alright, so, enlighten me," Rose said as they stepped outside together.

"It's 1966, New York City, and that," he said, pointing to the stadium in front of them, "is Shea Stadium, where the Fab Four are due to perform what will be one of their final concerts."

"The Beatles? Seriously?" Rose asked with a grin, sounding genuinely surprised and delighted.

"Seriously," he said with an eyebrow waggle. "C'mon," he added, grabbing her hand and pulling her into the crowd.

The concert was, of course, amazing, even despite the fact that they could barely hear the music over the screaming fans. When they played Help!, the Doctor felt a strange chord struck within him, and glanced down at Rose. He realized that, despite all his claims of being fine on his own, the companions just being an odd little bonus, Rose was someone he had come to need in a very profound way. She was…so completely unique, and totally unexpected. It didn't seem to matter where they were or what they were doing, Rose Tyler never failed to surprise him. True, some moments with her managed to confuse him more than others…but he found himself oddly at peace about that, focusing instead on the moments she shone bright as the sun in his dark life.

It was a mistake, falling in love with a fragile and…time deficient human, but there it was. Not that he could tell her that. If she knew how he felt, she might leave him. After all, he was an alien and a few centuries her senior. That brought a whole new meaning to dirty old man. Plus, he had…a lot of baggage. Maybe she could deal with some emotional shrapnel now and then as a friend, but as…something else…probably not.

Although, she had kissed him. Quite thoroughly.

But that presented problems in itself. If she did…care about him, then it was all far more tragic. Their mismatched lifespans would cause them both immeasurable pain. He would have to watch her wither away in front of him, while she would have to age alone. Then he would have to go on without her. He'd have to do that eventually anyway, an idea which already hurt more than he cared to admit, but it would be so much harder if he had more to miss.

So she could never know.

He shook himself from these counter intuitive thoughts as the final song started, and then made his way out of the stadium with Rose clutching his arm and bouncing up and down excitedly. He launched into a lecture about the history of the Beatles as they wandered the streets to find some food. He explained to her that the band originally had five members, and that Ringo Starr, whose name was actually Richard Starkey, hadn't been among them.

"Pete Best was the original drummer—"

"But not actually the best?" Rose asked with a tongue in teeth grin.

"Apparently not," he said with a laugh as he followed her into a chippy. "Stuart Sutcliffe was the bassist, but he left the band after their last tour in Hamburg because he fell in love with a young photographer. He died about a year later of a brain aneurism."

"Cheery," Rose commented, pulling a face.

The lecture was paused as they put in their order for fish and chips, and resumed soon after they'd found a place to sit.

"One thing you might find interesting," the Doctor said, spearing a chip and munching down on it. "They favored suits during their major touring years, but when they first started at the Cavern, they sported leather jackets."

"So your personal style is patterned after the evolution of the Beatles?" Rose asked. "I'd hate to think what you're going to wear next."

"Mmm, yeah, I think I'll avoid the hippie craze," he said thoughtfully. "Living through it was bad enough. Although, at the time, I was wearing some strange stuff myself."

"You mean other than the 18 foot long scarf?"

"Umhm," he confirmed, chewing down on another chip. "Back when I first got Bessie, the car, I was sporting an opera cape and very frilly cuffs." Rose stared at him for a second, and then burst out laughing. "What? I looked very dignified." This only seemed to make her laugh harder. He finally gave in and laughed with her.

"So, why the Beatles?" Rose asked when they both finally calmed down.

"What do you mean?"

"Well, not exactly your average adventure stop," Rose said reasonably.

"I like concerts," he said with a frown. She raised her eyebrows at him. "Well, alright, if you would rather it be all running for our lives, that can be fun too."

"I'm not complaining," she put in quickly. "I was just curious." She paused, examining a chip. "Concert and chips. That's almost a normal date for you."

"What do you mean 'almost'?" he squeaked, even while his mind started alarms blaring at the word "date."

"Well, I mean, it is a concert that happened two full decades before I was born," Rose said. "That kind of takes away from the normalcy of it."

"Right," the Doctor said. "Well, you could always go home to Mickey if you want something more normal," he suggested lightly, even as he mentally kicked himself.

"Let's see," she said, looking away. "First date, you take me to the end of the world, and then make me pay for chips. When I take you to meet my mother, you get slapped for making her think I was murdered and dead for a year and then we averted world war three with the future Prime Minister. And then we go home for Christmas and you end up in a coma, waking up just in time to stop alien invaders and have Christmas turkey." She gave him another teasing smile as she looked back at him. "I think I gave up normal a long time ago."

"Glad to hear it," he said with a grin.

What the hell is wrong with you? He thought furiously. You're talking about dates and meeting her mother and going home with her for the holidays like you could have any kind of normal, functional human relationship with her! Stop it!

While he cast his mind around for any other subject to talk about, he looked at Rose. She was looking out the window, her fork dangling from the fingers of one hand while her chin rested on the other. He glanced out the window to follow her gaze, and realized she was looking up at the stars.

"Penny for your thoughts?" he asked quietly, clasping his elbows and leaning his forearms on the table.

"When I was little, I used to think the stars were just twinkle lights that were stuck to the sky," she said in a dreamy voice, still looking outside. "I thought if I could just reach out high enough, I could take one down, and it would shine for me forever. I used to go up onto the roof and reach as high as I could. But it was never high enough…could never quite get there." Her gaze shifted to him. "Thanks for helping me reach the stars, Doctor," she said softly.

He continued to watch her for a moment, seeing for a second the lonely little girl in the Powell Estate, reaching out for her dreams, feeling it resonate with his own vastly different but similarly lonely childhood.

"Rose Tyler, it is my pleasure," he said sincerely. He wished he could tell her that none of them shone as bright as her—his own personal shining star.