A/N: You will note that the beginning of this chapter is familiar. That's because it is.

Yesterday's chapter bugged me. It bugged me a lot. And while it wasn't necessarily bad, it put me in a position where it would be Eight who was the champion of this arc. I decided that no, that wasn't fitting here. This is Ten's moment to shine.

I could have had some fun, of course, but ultimately ... this is Ten's gig.

So that said: I scrapped about 70% of the end of yesterday's chapter and rewrote to the tune of around 4000 words...

Now, I am happy with it, and can proceed in the way I wanted to go.

I really apologise to those who enjoyed an almost fully awakened Ten ... I hope you like the changes.

~~oooOOOooo~~

Back when she was travelling full-time with the Doctor, Rose had learned pretty quickly that one wouldn't always be afforded full privacy for a quick and urgent pee. Not everywhere they landed had full washroom facilities, or even a decent sized shrub or tree to hide behind. Many times she'd just tell the Time Lord that he needed to turn around and whistle or something because she was about to burst. He never seemed to mind at all. In fact he remarked one day when she squatted and he happened to turn around before she was complete, and she squeaked for him to turn back around, that he didn't know why she should be so embarrassed about it. It was a perfectly natural body function. Why Humans were so hung up on it, he didn't quite understand.

He remarked that everyone did it – for Rassilon's sake - and even went so far as to stand beside where she was still squatted, but no longer peeing, and undid the fly of his black trousers, released himself, and then proceeded to do the same. He shrugged when he looked down at her and said that whatever went in had to come out, so don't be embarrassed about it. He wasn't.

Well. No man ever is, really. They piss, fart, and shit without fear nor shame – hell they're most often proud of it.

So that said, it didn't take her an awfully long time to lose her inhibitions and be able to freely pee in front of him before she got tot the point where she might rupture her bladder and, I dunno, maybe die?

Tonight, however, with the grouping as large as it was, she felt that privacy might be for the best. Earlier during the day, the ladies had noted a rather private area just up over the rocks that gave good shielding for a good pee. She quickly found the spot and whistled to herself as she dropped into a crouch and did what she needed to do. When she rose from her crouch and pulled her panties back up, she lifted her head and took a good look at the night sky above.

The raging fire they had down at the water's edge had been too bright to see the full splendor of a Pilbara night sky. But now, standing atop a high cliff with the fire burning down below, she could finally see the sky in all it's magnificent glory. It was breathtaking to behold, so much so, that she found herself stumbling backward to lightly collide with a boulder. She immediately sat down and held her hand to her chest to look up with reverent awe.

She'd heard about the Aurora Borealis in North America. The Doctor had taken her to see them when she and the him were still travellers and he still wore leather. Together they stood on a pebbled lakeside edge, hand in hand and both gasping at the green lights dancing overhead. He'd lectured her gently about the lights and just what caused them, and together they'd just stood and watched for what felt like hours. Back then, she thought the night sky was beautiful, and that never again in her life would she see anything as amazing on Earth ever again.

God, was she wrong about that.

The sky at night was just as clear as the daytime had been. The sun had been gone for at least three hours now, and they were fast approaching the darkest part of night. Yet, she didn't see darkness at all. London skies were black with a smattering of white stars and maybe the light of a moon to guide a traveller. Here in the outback the sky couldn't have been more different. The sky was more a navy blue than a deep black. The stars shining down were so abundant as to almost be a complete sky of white. There was a magnificently brilliant illuminated cloud of orange and white that spread across the centre of the sky. She could immediately tell that it wasn't a vapor-filled cloud within the Earth's atmosphere. This was a spread of magnificent light deep within the universe above them, possibly thousands of light years away, and just as many light years across.

"Oh Doctor," she breathed to herself, wishing he was with her to see this. "You need to see this."

"It's beautiful, isn't it?"

Rose gasped with fright at the soft yet masculine voice to her left. The hand that was held with reverence between her breasts now pressed hard against her chest, trying to hold in her heart that was threatening to burst free. "Jesus, John!" she gasped out. "You scared me."

"Sorry," he murmured as he took a seat on the boulder beside her and looked upward. "What you're looking at up there is what's known as the Milky Way. It's the name of the galaxy where Earth is located. It's formed of several billions of starts, including out own sun."

Rose turned her head to watch him speak, mesmerised by his voice.

"The Galaxy is believed to be about one hundred thousand light years across, and about ten thousand light years thick. It's not always visible, what with light pollution blocking it out. But out here, where there's no light at all, we can see it." He let out a breath. "And it's absolutely beautiful."

Rose shifted her gaze from him and looked upward.

"This is the only way to see it," he continued. "The best way to see it, really." His eyes widened and he blew a puff of air through pursed lips. "Unless we can fly into space and take a picture, at any rate. Wouldn't that be wonderful?"

She nodded, knowing first hand that sitting at the open doors of the TARDIS in flight afforded the most amazing scenery of the universe. "It would be lovely, wouldn't it?"

He leaned backward, pressing his hands into the boulder, still warm from the day. His right arm was so close to Rose that his thumb touched at her bum. He didn't seem to notice, and she certainly didn't flinch away from him.

"I've always been fascinated with the stars," he admitted. "Dabbled in astronomy at university. Well, I say dabbled, but I really got quite involved in the study."

She laughed only as loud as her breath. "I bet." She cast her eyes upward, wondering just where Gallifrey resided in amongst all those stars.

John leaned to his right, moving close to her as he lifted his left arm to point toward a large star above that, unlike the others, didn't twinkle. "I think you're looking for that one," he said. He shifted his face to look at her, but didn't lower his hand. "Right there."

Rose's breath shuddered. There was no possible way that he knew about Gallifrey, was there? She kept her eyes high, even leaned just slightly to look up along the length of his arm to the very tip of his finger. "What star is that?"

"Venus," he answered softly, his breath kissing at her cheek. He swallowed thickly, but didn't take his eyes away from her side profile. "The second planet in our solar system, our brightest star, and the one named for love and beauty."

She didn't look down at him. Her head remained looking up into the sky. "And why do you think that's the one I was looking for?"

He couldn't take his eyes from her. "Maybe it's the one I was looking for," he breathed out softly.

Rose turned her head to face him and gasped at his proximity. Close enough that their noses almost touched. So close that it would only take a shrug in his shoulders for their lips to meet. She didn't pull away from him, but she wasn't about to close the distance between them either. "John," she said with gentle warning. "What're you doing?"

He didn't pull back to a more respectful distance. He held his position firm and lowered his hand in such a manner as to touch gently at her hair. "I'm showing you the stars," he answered quietly, his fingers tracing her ear and her jaw. His eyes lifted in a searching manner from her lips to her eyes. "Is that alright?"

"No it's not," she answered with a crease in her face as she abruptly turned from him. She stood up fast from the rock and held herself as she took a step away. "You've got a girlfriend," she charged him. "And I'm married. What part of this …" She flicked her finger at him. "What you were just doing .. do you think is alright"

"Quite a bit, actually,' he answered back with a narrowing in his eyes. He didn't get up from the boulder, he didn't even adopt a defensive position. Instead he leaned back on his arms and gazed at her with fierce intensity. "In fact it all feels quite alright to me, more than. It feel so right."

Her look at him with filled with incredulity. "This is your problem," she growled out. She spun to put her back to him. Her voice dropped to a low and inaudible whisper. "And why I left in the first place."

"My problem?" he questioned without hostility in his tone. "Rose, my only problem is that you're married."

She stilled as she considered that one. She couldn't work out just exactly what he was driving at with that remark. Before she could formulate any kind of response, through, he continued.

"Which means you're going to go home to him."

She spun to face him, still lounging on the boulder. "Yes. That's how it works, John. I'm married to the man I love and honour and will therefore return to my husband as quickly as is possible." She held up her finger when she saw he was about to comment. "Without being touched by another man."

"What if it's the same man?"

She winced with annoyance. "You're not even making sense now," she growled. "Go home, Doctor, you're obviously drunk." She turned her back on him again, and although her arms were folded tightly across her chest, she was able to flick her wrist in a pretentious gesture of dismissal. "Go wrap your tie around your head and invent Banana Daquiris in the French Court or something. You're good at that."

"Now who's the one not making sense," he purred in her ear, making her jump yet again.

"Christ," she yelped out. "Will you stop doing that! Wear a bell or something."

His hands slipped into the pockets of his shorts, and although wearing a pair of thongs on his feet, he rolled back onto his heels, leaning his chest forward to counter his weight and maintain his balance. "Why did you call me Doctor?"

Her eyes flicked toward him but were shifted to the space in front of her just as quickly. "My bad," she admitted with a shrug. "Sorry about that. You just reminded me of someone, and I guess.."

"So you're angry with him," he ventured. "And you're taking it out on me." He pressed his lips together and nodded. "I get it."

"No," she corrected. "I'm angry with you. Specifically you. You, because you have a girlfriend who's right now sitting by the fire telling everyone how good your tongue is and how she plans to have sex with you tonight, and then you're up here hitting onto a married woman who really doesn't want to do either …" She cleared her throat with obvious discomfort. "Not with you, at any rate."

"Well," he drawled with a laugh. "When you put it that way." His arms shifted out of his pockets and he folded them against his chest. "And for the record, Joan isn't my girlfriend." He silently kissed the air in front of him. "She's just company."

"Company who knows how well you use your tongue," she remarked coldly. "And who you give love bites to, what, when you get bored?"

He frowned at her. "I'm thirty-five years old."

"Well good for you," she shot back. "Way to bring up a very irrelevant point of note about yourself."

He shook his head. "No, Rose. You aren't really hearing me." He stood at her side and put his hands on her shoulders. "I'm a thirty-five year old man, not a seventeen year old. Hickeys are what teenagers do, not men my age."

"hen how's she getting them?" she asked sharply.

"You tell me," he retorted with a flick of his wrist. "But she's not getting them from me."

Her eyes blinked. "Oh. So all she said about, well…"

"Oh we fool around," he admitted in an almost chipper tone of voice. "Mutual masturbation and the such. I won't deny that…"

"Oh come on," she moaned. "John, really? Is there any need to be so blunt and raw about it?"

He tipped his head to her to offer her a look of incredulous indignance. "Oh come on, Rose. When have you ever known me to be anything less than blunt and brutally honest with you?"

"I've known you for five minutes," she growled in reply. "And this is the most that you and I have ever spoken."

He regarded her for a long moment, analysing her posture and her increased breathing. "If that's the case," he queried. "Then why does it upset you so much to think about me with another woman?"

She slumped with disbelief. "It's not that I'm upset you're with another woman," she corrected sharply. "I'm upset that I have to hear about it." She clenched her hands into fists at her side. "You know what? This conversation is over. Go back down there, drink some more beer, and engage in whatever mutual whatever you want to engage in!" She turned abruptly and too a step forward. Her ankle brushed against the sharp points of a spinifex bush, and in her hurry to get away from it, stumbled backward. Her slip took her to the edge of the cliff and she yelped when she realised that she was about to fall over the edge.

Strong arms caught her instead, and she was quickly pulled in against a sweated and heaving chest. "I've got you, Rose," he vowed with all the fierceness of her Doctor. "I've got you.."

She shuddered inside his hold, panting as he slowly walked them backward from the edge, his arms tightly around her and his nose in her hair. "You-You caught me," she whimpered out breathlessly.

"Always," he vowed.

She looked up at him, into familiar brown eyes full of hope and wonder, and felt a sudden urge to simply roll up onto her toes and press her lips against his. But she smelt the scent of beer on his breath, and the thumping of only a single heart against her breasts, and quickly pulled away. She shuddered as she dropped her head and tucked her hair behind her ear. She looked to the ground, looked left, and then right, anywhere except for those patient brown eyes. "Thank you."

"Risht,' he managed out hoarsely himself as he lifted a hand to rub at the back of his neck. "Sure. No problem." His hand fell. "Look. Rose. I'm sorry if I upset you…"

"It's fine," she said with a shake in her head and a wave of her hand. "I get it. I'm a friend of Jack's, and being that he talks like that, you assumed you could do the same."

"Doesn't make it right," he whispered.

"No," she agreed. "It doesn't."

Silence then fell upon them, neither knowing just where to go from here. She was about to excuse herself, but halted at a soft and rhythmic and heavy pad pad pad sound from the other side of the cliff to the pool. Her back straightened and she moved past john to look over the ricks to the ground below. Illuminated only by the stars and moon above was a small mob of Kangaroos, bounding across the plain.

She ducked behind a rock, and gasped at the sight. "Wow." She felt John crouch down beside her, and looked toward him with wonder. "Kangaroos," she whispered excitedly. "Wild Kangaroos."

His grin was as wide as hers. "That's the red kangaroo," he whispered against her shoulder. "The largest terrestrial mammal of Australia, and the largest Marsupial." He swallowed before continuing, lending a slightly strangled tone to his voice. "They're the biggest of the species, getting as tall as an average human female. Can be very aggressive if you get too close to them, particularly if one of the females is nursing a joey." He threaded an arm over her shoulder and leaned into her, pointing toward a smaller grey animal with his other hand. He kept his voice low. "There's a female there. Much smaller than the male. And look at her abdomen, see that bulge?"

"A baby," Rose said with a small whimper of excitement.

"These guys are the reason we're staying at the pool tonight," he advised her. "They're a menace on the roads, and no person with common-sense will drive after dusk on a Pilbara road – sealed or not."

"My God," she breathed out with reverence. "This is beautiful."

He turned his head to look at her and was struck by the expression of awe on her face. The moon above cast a light blue glow onto her face in such a way that he could see the line of appreciative tears that filled to her lashes. "Yeah," he croaked out. "Very beautiful."

"I've missed this," she whispered to herself.. "The travellin' and the wonder of it all."

"You enjoy travelling," he remarked softly.

"Oj yes," she said with a beaming smile, right now unable to take her eyes off the kangaroos grazing below them. "New ground beneath my feet, new sights, new sounds. I love it."

"And your husband, does he also like to travel?"

She found herself laughing at the question. She turned her head to him, her eyes glistening in the moonlight. "He's the one who got me hooked on it," she answered with a smile. "I'd never left the estates till I met him." She looked up into the sky. "But then one day, he took my hand…"

"Run," he whispered inaudibly.

"… And he showed me the entire universe." She blinked quickly. "Well, not the universe, that would be crazy, but you know what I mean." She sighed with longing as her eyes slowly shifted from the sky to the bushland below. "I wish he was here with me now to see this. He'd love it."

"What's his name?" John asked gently, unsure of why that was suddenly such an urgent question to be asked. "Your husband, I mean."

A smile stretched across her face. He went by many names. Which one did she want to run with here?

"Thete," she answered finally, lowering her head with a smile and tucking her hair behind her ear. "His name's Thete, and he's a doctor." Her eyes flicked to him. "In case you were wondering."

"Ahh," he breathed out. "So. Your husband, Thete. He's not here with you and your child. You keep referring to the name Doctor with obvious annoyance." His lip twisted up into a smile. "Did the two of you have a spat, and so you left him?" His grin stretched. "And does he, perhaps, look a little bit like me?"

Rose's face lengthened with surprise as to just how bloody accurate John's assumption was. Of course there was no spat with the man who waited for her on Gallifrey. Quite the opposite, in fact. He wasn't far off, however, on what had happened between her and the Doctor in Pinstripes.

When she didn't immediately answer him, he put his hand on her arm. "It's okay, you really don't need to answer that."

"I wasn't plannin' on it," she admitted quietly. "But know this: I love my husband and my son more than I love anythin' else in this entre universe. The are my sun and my moon…

The words why do they hurt flashed through his mind. With a pinch in his eyes, he ignored anything else she had to say to make a single remark: "I dream of you, you know."

Her words caught and she flicked her head to him. "Excuse me?"

"I dream about you," he repeated in a very matter-of-fact manner as though it wasn't in any way an awkward thing to say to a woman. His face did crease. "Quite a lot, actually."

Rose let out a long and frustrated humph. "Just stop," she growled. "I'm not interested in being the latest in your long line of female company." She used her fingers to make quotation marks in the air.

"You're better as a companion," he added instead, his voice curious. "Long term."

"It's called marriage," she corrected with a huff. "As in dedicated and loyal."

"In my dreams you're like that," he said with a shrug as his hands found their way into the pockets of his shorts. "Fiercely loyal and so very much loved…"

"Give it a rest, John," she warned. "I'm tellin' you right now, if you keep this up, I'll let Jack tear you a new one."

"Believe it or not, Rose, I'm actually not trying anything," he said with a shrug as he walked to the boulder and leaned his rump up against it. He folded his arms across his chest and crossed his legs at the ankle. "I'm just telling you that you've been in my dreams, and I'm curious as to why that is."

She lifted her eyes in a high roll of annoyance, and then strode forward to make her way toward the path back to the tent. "Go and have another beer," she growled. "I don't think the 12 you've already had was enough." She looked him up and down with disdain as she passed by him. "Head on down to your pretty little bit of company, John. She's waiting for you and your gifted tongue to do things to her that she can brag about later."

His hand snapped up to seize hold of her upper arm. "I'm in love with you," he declared almost darkly.

"Oh don't be stupid."

"In my dreams," he clarified, his voice still dark. "And for the record, I am just as able to nurse a beer for two hours as you are – don't think I haven't watched you do that all day. Just like you, I am in no way inebriated."

She looked down to where his hand was holding tightly at her arm. "Let go of me," she warned. "One call to Jack, or a howl to alert my Dahrama, and you'll be wishing you were never born." Her angry expression shifted to a deadly smirk as she stepped in a little closer to him. "And that's after I've taken away your ability to procreate with a swift knee to your nads."

"God you're beautiful when you're angry," he mused affectionately. His grip on her arm loosened, but he didn't release her. Instead he tugged her yet closer to him. His breath hitched when she stumbled up against his chest. "I need you to hear me out, Rose. Five minutes, that's all, and then you can knee me in the balls, run and tell Horn that I'm an arsehole, and let him tear my face off."

"I'd be more worried about your manhood than your face," she warned him. The darkness had fled her voice, but it was by no means friendly nor teasing. "Jack plays dirty."

"Don't I know it," he huffed with a smile. "But please. I need to make sense of this before it drives me mad."

She stopped fighting against him and calmed herself. "Sense of what?"

"Why a woman I've never met before features so prominently in my dreams," he answered. "And why my heart hurts so damn much when she keeps rejecting me."

"Pride," she ventured with a sigh. "Hard for a man who always wins the ladies to get rejected."

He let out a laugh and finally let go of her arm. "My luck with the fairer sex, Rose Tyler, is not as good as you seem to think it is." He shrugged. He then tugged at his ear. "Well, at least it never used to be."

"Congratulations then," she murmured. "I wish you all the luck in the world in not catching any form of STD as you finally find your opportunity to sow your wild oats."

His voice fell to a whisper. "Rose, please."

She was finally able to step back a much more respectful distance. With her arms across her chest, she nodded. "Okay. Go ahead."

He inhaled a deep and shaking breath as he pulled his arms in tightly against his chest. His eyes drew skyward as he considered a starting point. When none that would make any real sense came to him, he lowered his head to look at the ground at their feet.

"I'm a traveller," he began. "In my dreams." He rubbed at the back of his neck and winced almost sheepishly. "An alien. With two hearts and a blue phone box as a ship."

Rose blinked, trying desperately not to project any emotion that would suggest she knew what he was talking about. "I see," she managed.

"And really," he continued without acknowledging that she'd spoken. "Initially, I did laugh it off. Wild nonsensical imagery produced by an overactive mind." He looked to her. "But then I dreamt of it again, and then again, until it became a story that spanned centuries – every single night." He began to pace. "So many faces. Those that are supposed to be mine, those belonging to the companions that I travelled with." He stopped pacing and looked to her with a curious stare. "In my dream, I'm called the Doctor."

Her eyes flashed.

This, he caught. "Yes. Exactly," he said with a snap of his fingers. "Which is why I find it very curious that you called me the one name from my dreams that stands out so vividly." He paused to look at her with a curiously angled head. "Why did you call me that, Rose?"

"That's what I call my husband," she answered without a lie. "It's habit for me to use it."

"It would be," he agreed. "If I was your husband."

"Which you aren't."

He didn't respond to that. He stared at her for a long moment in silence. A "tut tut tut" sound from the field below – the Kangaroos talking to each other – woke him from his stare. He shook his head and took his eyes from her. "Yes, well. Moving on." He huffed and looked up into the sky. "This man, the Doctor, had a lot of companions walk in and out of his life. All of them special to him in one way or another, but none never special enough to have him … None that he loved so much that he would risk safety of the entire universe for her …" He swallowed thickly and raised his eyes to hers. "Until Rose."

She blinked, turning away to hide a tear that dribbled from her lashes. John quickly turned her face back to his with a gentle touch of his fingers to her jaw. He wiped at her tear with to tip of his thumb. "God, he loved her."

"Love fades," she offered weakly. "A bit like dreams do."

"No," he breathed out with a shake in his head. "Not for him. Not even after an explosive regeneration did his love for her fade. It only strengthened what he felt."

"That's where you're wrong," she whispered to herself.

He didn't hear her as he growled excitedly and began to pace again. "Oh, and how much he loves her," he continued. He turned to point at her. "And it is loves, please note, not loved. What he feels for her is so intense, so powerful, so all encompassing…" He dropped his hand and shrugged. His voice lost its excitement and shifted to defeat. "That he turned into a fool. He turned into an absolute fool. He took her love for granted, made assumptions, hurt her …. And then lost her."

Her face tightened into a wince. She kept her voice level. "Sounds like a cheesy romance novel," she managed. "Twilight sounds like a better love story…"

"What's Twilight?" he asked curiously.

"Nothing worth reading," she said with a shake in her head. She huffed out long. "Why are you tellin' me all this, John?"

"Because for some reason, I think you need to hear it," he replied softly.

She let out a laugh, forced though it was. "What, about your fanciful dreams of space travelling romance." She shook her head. "You're better off just writing a book – it'll be a best seller for all those lonely women looking for an escape. Add some salacious erotic scenes, and they'll make a movie out of it."

His face hardened. "You don't believe me, do you?"

"What, that you're having dreams?" She shrugged. "We all have them. Some are just more vivid an interesting than others."

He stepped forward and touched his hands to her face, slowly shifting them to cup her jaw. He brought himself close to her. "In these dreams, Rose. I love you. I love you so much."

"She's not me," she pleaded on a whisper. "She's just a figment of your imagination."

"Shea's real,' he corrected her. "She's you." He moved closer to her, his lips only millimetres from hers. "And I miss you so damn much that I can't go on."

"John," she pleaded on a whisper. "Don't do this."

"Then stop me," he challenged her as he finally closed the distance and captured her lips with his. Gentle, and with only a soft sliding touch of his fingertips to her jaw. It turned a little more intense when Rose's unsureness didn't' allow her to immediately pull away from him. His head angled deep to one side, and his lips, closed at the initial contact, parted widely to attempt to claim her mouth in full. His arms then snapped tightly around her, knocking her half out of her stand and up against the rock beside them. Pain quickly flooded into Rose's belly and a lightning crack of pain flashed through her head. She moaned as she pressed both hands into his chest and shoved herself from him with a hard push.

"John," she demanded hotly as she fought against his hold and was finally able to get freedom. She fell onto her backside against the rock and wiped at her mouth with the back of her hand. "What do you think you're doing?"

"Doing what he should have done," he answered firmly, not making any move to wipe at his mouth like she had done hers. "The Doctor!"

Rose pressed her hand into a rock, trying hard to hold herself up against the continuing pain in her belly and incessant searing pain in her head. "That's a Dream," she growled as she pressed the butt of her hand to her head. "A faery tale. Not real."

"It feels real to me,' he argued. "So real."

She crouched over the arm holding her belly and looked around the hand she had pressed into her brow. "Then you're a fool. Because all that … that stuff you're saying, is not real. It's a fantasy."

He noticed rose's pain and discomfort and made his way over to her. He was hesitant to reach out and touch her, but wanted to offer his concern. "Rose? Are you okay?"

"No," she moaned out. "God this hurts.."

He was about to ask her what was wrong, but was forced into silence at a long and threatening growl from the edge of the pathway. The growl turned to a threatening, thunderous roar for him to back off. He spun at the sound of Jack's voice, and was stunned at the sheer fury he saw in his expression.

"What the hell did you do to her," he demanded, rushing the stunned and shocked man and shoving him hard enough that he stumbled against a boulder.

He shook his head, his eyes wide and innocent. "I didn't do anything," he defended.

Rose whimpered and held out a hand to ask for him to stop. "Jack, don't. He didn't do anything, I'm just not feeling well."

Jack rushed toward her, stopping in a crouch. He held her knee and looked up with concern. "Rosie, what's wrong?"

"Pain in my stomach," she answered him. She pointed to her head. "And up here." She pressed the butt of her hand into her head. "Never felt pain like this before."

His voice was full of concern. "Do I need to take you back to town?"

She smiled and shook her head. "You've been drinking, so no." She panted out a couple of times. "An' it's okay, it's starting to ease off now."

He lifted his hand to cup her face underneath the curtain of hair that had fallen forward. He lifted her face and took a deep look at her sunken eyes in the moonlight. He knew what the discolouration of her cheeks and the deep set of her eyes meant. He let out a breath. "He kissed you, didn't he?" He didn't wait for her to answer before he levered himself up to his full height and spun to glare the other man down. "You kissed her, didn't you?"

John held up his hands. "It was just a kiss, that's all," he defended. "Nothing more than that."

"Oh," he huffed out as a laugh. "That wasn't just a kiss at all, John." He pointed back at her. "That doesn't happen with just a kiss."

His eyes pinched. "I'm sorry, what?" He looked to Rose, who was watching the both of them with very wide and panicked eyes. "You're blaming that on me?"

"She's soul-bonded, you idiot!" he snarled. "To a man you really don't want to start fucking with."

Rose gasped. "Jack?"

He turned quickly and moved to her. Cupping her face tenderly, he leaned back in his shoulders to look not her face. "Breathe through it, Rose. Breathe through it and hope to whatever deity you pray to that the old man isn't feeling that back on Gallifrey." He switched his focus between her eyes, left and then right, and then left again. "Because we'd be looking at a Cat-10 storm if he did. Nothing in the universe will stop him."

"I don't understand, Jack," she said to him. "All he did was kiss me, like he said. Nothing more than that." She finally straightened up, the pain ebbing off only to the humming discomfort she'd felt since leaving Gallifrey. "When you kissed me, it hurt, but wasn't this bad."

"When I kissed you," he countered. "I didn't try to completely swallow you whole like this idiot did." He moved closer to her. "And I also feel a much different and more pure love for you than he thinks he does." He pulled her in against his chest. "That makes a big difference."

John was affronted by that admittance. "Are you telling me that you were watching us?"

"And that's the part he choses to make note of," He said with a moan. He then nodded with a shrug in his shoulders. "Of course I was. Do you honestly think that'd I'd let you stalk up here and be alone with her? I saw how fast you shot up to go after her when she walked up here…"

John's face darkened to a petulant snarl. "I needed to talk to her," he ground out. "Alone."

"And I need to protect her," he defended.

"That her you're both referring to is right here," Rose interrupted. "So how about you both talk to me instead of around me, yeah?"

John spoke, while Jack simply adopted a guilty expression. "Rose. I'm sorry. I didn't mean to hurt you – although I still don't understand just how I did that." He looked confused but seemed to shake it off. "It's just I was so sure, you know. And you're there," he pointed to her. "And in here." He tapped at his temple. "I was overcome, that's all. You're probably right, I've had too much to drink. It was a hot day…" He sighed and his voice fell to a whisper. "So damn real."

Rose moved off the boulder and walked toward him. She took his hands in hers and gave them a squeeze. "It's okay, John. Just…" She exhaled. "They're just dreams, nothing more than that. You're not a TARDIS travelling Time Lord flitting about all time and space, picking up stray human companions and falling in love. There's no such thing."

He looked at her without expression. Three words he never mentioned to her were: Tardis, Time, and Lord.

Yeah," he drawled finally. "You're right. Of course." The thumbed back toward the camp. "I guess we should get back down there," he suggested.

Jack's focus was still on Rose. He didn't look back at John. "You head off. We'll meet you there."

"Right." He thrust his hands into his pockets and kicked at the ground before he finally started a slow walk back down the path.

Jack waited until he was out of earshot and took a seat on the boulder beside Rose. "He's remembering," he made out worriedly.

Rose nodded. "Is that supposed to happen, with him changing himself like he did?"

He shrugged. "I really don't know, Rosie. I'll have to check with Martha, and maybe see what I can find in the TARDIS, but I'm figuring he used a Chameleon Arch." He blew out a breath. She didn't have to ask the question in order to answer it – he already knew what she'd ask. "It's Time Lord technology. Crude torture device, if what the rumours say are right. Can change him into any species he wants to become." He folded his arms across his chest. "Far as I know, though, his actual memories of being a Time Lord should be locked away in whatever bio-module the TARDIS had on board. He shouldn't have leakage like this."

She made a sound of understanding despite not understanding him at all.

He petted her knee. "Maybe having you here has triggered something?"

She shook her head. "No. He said he's been having these dreams for a long time – way before I came along."

"But he was able to put it together after seeing you."

She winced at that. "Could it be dangerous," she asked. "I mean to him?"

His voice was a whisper of worry. "I really don't know." He put an arm across her shoulder and pulled her toward him. He pressed a kiss to her head and held his lips there as he thought about it. "I need to find your Doctor," he said finally. "Only he can answer that question."

"But you've already tried," she whimpered pitifully. "And you weren't able to get the TARDIS working."

"Then I'll just have to try harder," he said with a shrug. "Quite likely, your Doctor is pinging the shit out of her trying to find you. At some point that's going to irritate her so much that she'll want to send back a ping telling him to sod off and leave her alone."

That made her laugh.

"Come on, my precious girl," he cooed with a squeeze of her shoulder to coax her up to a stand. "Let's get some shut-eye. We'll pack it up early tomorrow and take off ahead of the group. The earlier we get back to the old girl, the faster I can try and track down your Doctor for you."

She nodded as she stood up and stretched her arm across his back. She laid her head on his shoulder. "Thanks, Jack."

Behind them, and out of sight to them both, a green vein of light streaked across the sky. It swerved to one side, and then to the other, and with a poof it landed only a handful of miles away from where the party were camped.

~~oooOOOooo~~

Steve and Mary ran hand in hand over the cliff face and into the desert field of Spinifex bushes and ghost gum trees. Behind them the fire that lit the campsite was shielded by the large rocks, boulders and the gorge behind them, offering them the perfect amount of privacy.

Steve released her hand to undo the button and fly of his shorts as they ran, eager to partake in the promise of a hard one up against a tree. "I think we're far enough away, Mar," he panted. "Come on, stop. Let's get to it."

She giggled as she slowed to a jog, and then a walk. She touched coyly at her shirt collar as she turned and walked backward toward one of the smooth-trunked trees. "I'm a bit of a screamer, Steve. They might hear…"

He pushed his shorts and underpants down to his knees and gave her a grin. "Who cares if they do, maybe it'll spur Smith into action with Joanie. Fuck that girl's got it for him. Must be the accent."

She gasped as her back hit up roughly against the tree. She snarled as he pressed himself against her, tugging at her skirt to get to her panties. "Jesus, Steve. Don't talk about another chick right now." She groaned at his fumbling. "Just pull 'em to one side, Steve. I don't want 'em thrown into a Spinifex bush."

He snarled against her throat, doing precisely as she asked. He rutted against her a few times. "Feels a bit like a screamer move," he said with a laugh. "Two campers getting' drunk, heading into the bush for a quick fuck…"

"Oh shut up and do it, Steve, Jesus. Don't need commentary," she growled impatiently.

"It might be best you listened to him," a snarled, aged, and dangerous voice cautioned her. "There are so many dangerous things out here."

Mary's eyes opened wide and she let out a scream.