Rose gulped down more coffee at the kitchen table, staring at the readings from the scans that were done from the air and soil around the missing bedroom. It was almost five in the morning and she had been at this all night. Her mum wanted everyone to go back to London, but Rose and Pete refused incase the Doctor tried to make contact with them at Carter Cabins. The printouts weren't showing anything, so she picked up her mobile and was just about to call in to check on the rift, when Tony came around the corner.
The three year old was still in his pajamas, but wore his shoes on the wrong feet and a backwards ball cap on his head. He was carrying his toy sonic screwdriver that Rose had made him ages ago out of a ball point pen and a LED keychain torch and had his backpack slung over one shoulder.
"And where do ya think you're going?" Rose asked him, smiling at her little brother.
"To save the Doctor. Mummy said he's missing and you're sad, so we're gonna find him," Tony explained, opening a kitchen cupboard and shoving various food stuffs inside his backpack.
Rose watched as he tried to fit an entire box of biscuits in the bag. "Is all that food for us? You think we'll get that hungry trying to find him?"
"The Doctor might be real hungry. What if he doesn't have any food?" Tony asked, opening the only other low cupboard that he could reach. After not finding anything in there other than pots and pans, Tony reached up and grabbed the jam from on top of the counter. "He likes strawberry."
When he made an attempt to grab a couple of pears out of the fruit bowl on the table, Rose laughed. "No, not those, Tony Baloney. The Doctor will never forgive me if we rescue him only to hand him a pear." She looked thoughtful for a minute. "Though, might serve 'im right." She got up from her chair and gently took the backpack from Tony, setting it on the table. "Sun's not even up yet. Why don't you go back to bed for a while, yeah?"
"I wanna help you find the Doctor," Tony protested, sticking out his lower lip in a pout.
"I know. But I promise that you can help when you wake up later. If we're gonna find the Doctor, then you're gonna need your rest. Savin' people makes you very tired, trust me," she said, picking the little boy up and carting him back to his bedroom.
"Rose?" Tony asked as she tucked him in.
"Hmm?"
"I wanna hear 'bout the time the Doctor fought the scribble monster and saved the little alien."
"Oh, that one," Rose said, pushing his blonde hair out of his eyes. She crawled into the tiny bed with him and stared up at the ceiling. The Doctor had made Tony a lantern that projected the constellations and now the little boy refused to sleep unless it was turned on. "The little alien was called the Isolus. She got lost from her brothers and sisters as they were travelin' through the stars. She was very sad and very lonely, so she found a little girl named Chloe. Chloe was also very lonely…"
Rose went on to tell him how the Isolus tried to make friends by putting the children into drawings. "But that's not how you make friends, is it?"
"No," Tony agreed, letting out a yawn.
"The Isolus didn't understand that you just needed to be nice and kind to people. We needed to show the Isolus that and find a way to send her home to her family…"
As Rose continued the story, she saw Tony shutting his eyes, finally giving in. She was exhausted herself, but pressed on with the tale until she was sure that he wouldn't wake back up and beg her to continue. It wasn't long until Rose knew she was nodding off because, for a brief second, she thought she heard the TARDIS materializing. She shook her head, knowing that it was just her imagination working overtime as she fought sleep.
"So I tried to find something that was warm and full of love," she whispered to her sleeping brother as she felt herself slowly nodding off. She thought she heard footsteps in the hallway, but reckoned that it was either her mum or dad waking up to help her continue her search, or send her to bed – depending on which parent it was.
"And then your brilliant sister chucked the Isolus pod straight into the Olympic Torch, saving my hide yet again."
Rose sat straight up and stared wide eyed at a dark outline of someone leaning against the doorframe, causal as you please. His shadowed silhouette was only broken by the light from the hall shining on his red trainers.
The Doctor stepped into the room, stars from the lantern dancing across his blue suit. "Because if there is one thing in this whole universe that I can count on, it's that Rose Tyler will never give up."