Next chapter - Rose and Jenny get to do a bit of bonding here. I don't think Rose would automatically slip into the role of mother or anything, it's more complicated than that. Anyway, have a bit more fluff before I actually start to write some plot, heaven forbid.

Rose was aware that there was a heavy weight on the bed next to her, and for the life of her she could not work out what it could be. Then the weight shifted and breathed, and she realised there was only one alive thing on this ship that could possibly be with her in her bed right now. The alive thing that was, right at this second, breathing softly and smelling very nice and making her feel like she wanted to stay here forever with it pressed against her side. It, of course, being the Doctor.

She opened her eyes and realised that she could not see a thing. She opened and closed them a few more times before the blurry vision began to clear and she could see what was going on. The Doctor was sitting on the bed next to her, long pinstriped legs stretched out in front of him. He was fiddling with something electrical, twisting wires and pushing buttons with his skinny fingers. On looking up a bit higher, Rose became aware that he was wearing his glasses, and she all of a sudden felt a rush of fondness for him. He had not worn them since she had been back in this universe, and she had missed the way it made her feel as he slowly turned his head to look at her, peering at her over the top of the glasses as though he were examining a specimen.

"Hello," Rose said a little sheepishly – to be fair, she had been gawking at him.

"Hello," he replied with an enormous grin, "sleep well?"

Rose considered, cocking her head on one side and feeling her neck click. "Had a couple of bad dreams, but you were there next to me when I woke up so I just sort of went back to sleep."

"I have that effect," the Doctor said glumly. "Soporific, that's what everyone says. You've fallen asleep while I've been talking to you a dozen times or more."

"Well it's your voice, you know, it's got that kind of droning quality to it."

"Really?"

"Oh yeah," Rose continued, "sort of like that hum that the air conditioning makes. Sends you off quick as a wink." She was trying to keep down a smile, which became increasingly difficult when the Doctor peered down at her again with a frown and one eyebrow raised.

"Rose Tyler, I do believe you are teasing me." That was all it took for Rose to dissolve into hysterical laughter.

She was still giggling at the hurt expression on his face when he suddenly looked up at the ceiling and frowned. "That's the TARDIS. Jenny's woken up." He swung his legs over the side of the bed and stood up, stretching up his arms and giving Rose a view of his bum that she was quite happy about, though of course she hadn't been looking or anything.

"I was thinking of going out later – there's this planet on the edge of a solar system a couple of galaxies away where the light from the sun reacts with the elements in the air so all the plants and trees grow blue. It's amazing, an entire planet where everything's just blue, blue grass, blue flowers, blue sky! Fancy a look?"

He had twisted round and was looking at her, his eyes betraying the fact that he seemed to feel a bit uncertain about asking her this. It would be their first trip together since she got back, and he was very well aware that his life on the TARDIS now was not quite what Rose had expected. Nevertheless, she nodded enthusiastically at him and he smiled once more. "See you in a bit, then." He collected his shoes and jacket and bounced out of the door.

Rose waited until he had gone before flopping onto her back, burying herself in the duvet until she was practically in a cocoon. Things were progressing, she was sure of it. She was certain that they might have progressed more, had the Doctor not had other things pressing on his mind i.e. Donna and Jenny.

She managed to get out of bed and into the shower, where the hot water succeeded in waking her up enough to get dressed and try and do something with her hair. Her first stop on leaving her bedroom was the kitchen, where she quickly made herself a cup of tea. The Doctor's usual mug was missing, so Rose presumed he already had one and didn't bother to make him a cup. She decided to go to the console room, as it was the starting point for any search throughout the TARDIS. Rose walked through the corridors still without shoes on, sipping on her tea and thinking about how normal this all felt; when in reality it had been years since she had called this ship 'home'. She did now, of course. It was the only home she had.

Rose could hear Jenny's wonderful little laugh from down the corridor, muddled together with the Doctor's giggles. Rose had never heard a man properly giggle before she had met the Doctor – his particular giggle was now the standard to which all other laughter was judged, in Rose's opinion. She reached the doorway and stopped, deciding to take in the scene before venturing forth into the console room.

Jenny was sitting on the jump seat, wearing a little pair of dungarees and a stripy t-shirt. Her feet were bare, and she was playing with a small blanket, putting it over her head and waiting for a second before pulling it off and shouting "Boo!" She had not quite mastered the act of pulling the blanket smoothly yet, but every time she did it the Doctor pretended to be scared of her and she laughed.

Rose stood in the doorway with her cup of tea, watching them play together. Her Doctor and Jenny's father felt like two separate people in her mind, and Rose knew she was going to have to merge them together in her head before she felt at peace with her new life on the TARDIS. The only way to do that was to spend some time with both of them, and Jenny.

"Having fun?" she asked, walking into the room and interrupting their game slightly.

"Of course not," the Doctor said with a frown, "this child is extremely frightening." He pointed a finger at Jenny, who giggled and pushed three fingers into her mouth, sucking on them with glee. The Doctor gently removed her hand before she gnawed it off at the wrist, picking her up and holding her in his arms.

"Anyway, I actually need to do a bit of maintenance before we go off on our trip today – do you think you could look after Jenny for an hour or so?" The little girl was at that very moment pulling on the Doctor's hair and laughing at the strange expressions his face was contorting into with every tug. "If you could just take her and play with her for a bit, everything takes longer to do when you've got a toddler trying to help you."

Rose's eyes flickered between Jenny and the Doctor's pleading expression. She nodded, smiling. "Yeah, that's fine. We'll have fun."

The Doctor gave her a great big smile and bounced Jenny in his arms. "'Course you will. She'll love you, everyone does."

Rose rolled her eyes at this. "I can think of quite a few aliens and bad guys who would beg to differ on that point, but whatever."

She watched the Doctor pop Jenny onto the floor and kiss her head before heading off down the corridor to "find some bits and bobs" that he apparently needed for whatever he was planning to do.

Rose was actually a bit nervous, though she had managed to hide it quite well in her interactions with the Doctor just before he had left. Babysitting was one thing, but this child was different. She was Gallifreyan, the result of a genetic procedure gone wrong, and also the Doctor's.

Rose suddenly felt all of her knowledge about toddlers and caring for them fly out of her head.

"Shall we go and find you some toys to play with?" Rose asked Jenny. Jenny looked up from where she had been hitting one of her previously discarded shoes against grating that made up the console room floor. The word "toy" seemed to have caught her attention. She reached up to Rose, little arms straining in the universal language of toddlers that means "lift me up immediately, I wish to be carried now".

Rose bent down and picked Jenny up, settling her on her hip just as she had done with her little brother Tony.

They walked down the corridor in the direction of Jenny's bedroom (Rose hoped, anyway) and Jenny was playing with Rose's hair, pulling at the blonde locks with great curiosity. "Yeah, it's blonde like yours," Rose said to her, "not really, of course. It's dyed, but you won't really know what that means yet. Your daddy seems to trust me to look after you while he's fixing the TARDIS, so we'd better make sure that we get to know each other."

Jenny was still not quite certain of Rose, but she seemed content to listen to the sound of Rose's voice as she tangled her fingers in the blonde hair in front of her. They reached jenny's bedroom and Rose wandered inside, popping Jenny down on the floor before rummaging in the toybox against one wall. Jenny toddled over to join her and began pulling things out of the box.

"Steady on," said Rose with a smile, "there is no way you're going to be able to play with all of those at once, whether you take after the Doctor or not."

They ended up selecting a few toys, and Rose took them, Jenny walking right in front of her clutching a small plastic fire engine, to the library. It seemed as good a place as any, plus it was one of the rooms that Rose spent most of her time in, so she felt quite comfortable there.

Jenny drove the fire engine around on the carpet, along with the other various cars, spaceships and farm animals that Rose had brought with her. Rose noticed that, once she had settled Jenny down on the floor, the carpet had shifted slightly, the colours evolving and eventually taking the shape of a racing track. This made Jenny very happy – the TARDIS apparently knew what games she liked to play - and soon it was animal versus vehicle with many collisions and constant burbling talk, none of which Rose could really make out. Jenny seemed quite content to play on her own for a while, but soon she was tugging on Rose's jeans and pointing at the floor. "Cow!" Rose sat cross legged on the floor and picked up the plastic cow. It was green and had more udders than Rose was used to. Clearly this was not your typical Earth cow. Rose drove the cow around the racing track, laughing as Jenny rolled the fire engine across her legs and up and down her arms. She let the little girl sit on the settee behind her and roll the fire engine's wheels across her head. Her long hair got a bit tangled at one point but it was an altogether quite hilarious experience.

Eventually Jenny tired of playing with the toys, and decided on a new game that Rose assumed she had played with the Doctor. It consisted of Jenny running away and shouting until Rose chased her, then squealing as she was chased round and round the room. When Rose caught her she picked her up and swung her around in the air before plonking her on the sofa and slumping down beside her, laughing at Jenny's obvious enjoyment. "'Gain, 'gain!" she shouted continuously, until Rose began chasing her all over again.

She also now had a better grasp of Rose's name, and "'gain," was replaced with "Wose, Wose, Wose!" Rose was quite tired out after playing this game for a while, but Jenny did not seem to feel any inclination to stop.

When the Doctor appeared in the doorway Jenny was tugging on the leg of Rose's jeans, indignantly saying "Wose, more!" and frowning so deeply that he eyebrows almost completely covered her eyes. It was quite an impressive facial expression, Rose had to admit. She was just about to get up and play "just one more" round of the game – she had said that six times already, Jenny was quite persuasive for a toddler – when the Doctor stepped inside the room.

"Well now Jenny, have you been terrorising my Rose to within an inch of her life?"