This took a bit longer than normal but my wifi was being bloody awful last night. Hope you enjoy.

Rose rather enjoyed the way he had said "my Rose" when he spoke about her, but she tried not to let it distract her at that moment. She was much more in danger of being distracted by that little smile that was making itself known upon his face, pulling at his lips and making them look more delightful than ever. Rose shook her head slightly. Ever since she had got back to the TARDIS the urge to just kiss him had become a lot stronger than it had been before, though a few days ago Rose would have said that that could not have been possible.

At the sound of the Doctor's voice Jenny span around towards him, grinning massively. It was plain to anyone's eyes that they loved each other dearly.

She scrambled across the settee, dropping the floor with a loud thump before tottering over to her dad. "Daddy," she said gleefully. She reached up determinedly and he bent down a bit, allowing her to grasp his hand and pull him over to the sofa. She let him go and pushed at his legs until he sat down. She then clambered up after him, turning around and sitting herself down between the Doctor and Rose. She seemed to be remarkably pleased with herself.

"Blimey, she knows what she wants, doesn't she?"

"Yep." Rose could sense the pride in his voice. "She likes to make sure that I'm there and safe and ready to play with her at any point. Sometimes I feel like she thinks she has to look after me."

Rose giggled. "Maybe she does." Jenny was in the process of pulling off the Doctor's glasses, which he had probably put on while he was tinkering with the TARDIS. She folded them up with a bit of difficulty and gave them back to him. She made frustrated noises and pushed his hands impatiently with her tiny fingers until her put the glasses in his inside jacket pocket. "Wow, yep, she is definitely the one in charge."

She was still laughing when Jenny turned around towards her, smiling so sweetly and innocently that it set Rose off again. The Doctor was grinning by now, ruffling his hair before picking up Jenny and holding her in front of him, their faces only about six inches apart. He was, if his face was anything to go by, attempting to pretend that he was talking to her extremely seriously, though his mouth kept twitching.

"Now Jenny, stop showing me up in front of Rose. You can get rid of that expression as well, we both know that you are a little ball of pure evil, no need to act so innocent in front of her. She's got you pegged." Jenny smiled and leaned forward to bite the Doctor's nose with the few teeth that she had. The Doctor shouted in mock-terror, before pulling her away and standing her on his knees, holding her hands so she could keep balance. "If you bite it off then I am sending you the bill for a new one." He placed Jenny gently on the floor, where she quickly crawled over to the small pile of toys Rose had brought in and began to sift through them.

Rose was torn. Part of her found their relationship so completely endearing that she felt herself going all squidgy inside like a marshmallow when she saw how they interacted together. It was so wonderful to see it, especially since the Doctor had been so alone for so long. He deserved this. Unfortunately, there was another part of her that was feeling almost... left out by it. Not that the Doctor was excluding her, but with a relationship as solid as father and daughter right there in front of her, Rose was no longer sure how she fitted in. Before, with the Doctor, their relationship may not have progressed in the way she was used to, but they were both in the same boat and equal in the situation. Rose was now faced with the most domestic situation she could imagine – the Doctor having to raise his child. How did their relationship fit in with the Doctor's family? The word family seemed strange, but Rose knew that it was correct. The Doctor had a family. Rose just had to hope that she could be a part of it.

The Doctor turned to her and Rose wiped those thoughts from her mind. Another time. She was becoming aware that she was pushing a lot of thoughts and worries aside and that at some point she would have to deal with them all. But that could wait till later. Right now was her time with the Doctor.

"You alright? Settling back in OK?"

"To be honest, Doctor," Rose replied, "it feels like I never left."

He grinned at that. "Well I'm glad. I was worried that you might feel a bit weird being back here. You know, being back somewhere you used to be makes you realise how much you've changed."

The truth of that statement was inescapable, but that wasn't actually something that had been bothering Rose in the slightest. "True. But actually, I've been aiming to get back here the entire time I was in that other universe. It feels just the same as ever and I'm grateful. I was worried you might have redecorated."

He looked shocked. "What, me? Never. If I went through TARDIS styles at that rate I'd have run out by now. Besides, Jenny likes sitting on the columns in the console room when I'm in there."

"Isn't that a bit dangerous?"

The Doctor paused. "I suppose a little bit, but I always hold onto her. I'm not going to drop her, she's not a basketball, she's a baby."

Rose chuckled. "OK, OK, you are the most responsible person I've ever met."

"Well now you just make me sound boring!"

Now Rose was really laughing, more than she had in ages. She had noticed that the closer she had been to finding the Doctor again, the more prone she had been to laughter, despite normally being totally focussed on the plan or journey at hand. Any little thing would make her chuckle, as though her body could sense her proximity to the person who was really going to make her happy. Now that she had found him again her laughing circuits seemed to have gone into overdrive.

Rose managed to stop giggling after what felt like an eternity – even throughout her laughing fit it had been hard to miss the fact that the Doctor's was looking at her with that expression on his face again. That expression that seemed to convey need and want and love and insecurity and hesitancy and sadness all at once. She struggled to ignore it, concentrating on slowing her breathing back to its normal level. Now sitting comfortably together in silence – she was glad they could still do that after all this time – Rose decided to voice something that she had been thinking about while she had been looking after Jenny."She looks so human. She acts so human. When will she start showing that she's, well... not?"

The Doctor tilted his head to one side, like a cat, considering. He had clearly thought about it a bit beforehand though, given the detail in the answer he gave her.

"She'll age pretty much like a human child, apart from the biological differences and the telepathy. She'll learn faster than a human child would and understand more, but it won't be a vast difference until she's about 12, that's when her brain will really start to develop a lot faster. She'll also probably physically age a bit slower, since we age differently to humans anyway. Time Lords spent years and years studying at the Academy in order to become Time Lords – I mean, we really are talking centuries. We were still thought of as kids until we were at least 150, there was a lot to learn." He sighed. "I don't want to bring up Jenny like that. I mean, I will teach her and help her learn what she needs to know to become a Time Lord, but it was all so structured and stifling and, well... I left. I suppose that says something about it."

"I always thought baby Time Lords would be, I don't know... more serious?" They both looked at Jenny, who was sitting on the carpet chatting nonsense with a stuffed toy gorilla, occasionally attempting to chew off one of its ears. The Doctor raised an eyebrow at Rose.

"In what way?"

"Well the way you described them, they always sounded so grand and severe and a bit scary to be honest. I just never imagined them being cute little babies who liked to play with toys."

"Every creature in the universe has the capacity for a childhood, Rose. I mean, in some the time spent as a child is a lot longer, others are forced to grow up quicker than they probably should, but in every species there is that need for those years of fun and of imagination. You know, where anything is possible and love is unconditional, that time of innocence when the child has a chance to develop. My people were a bit scary – it was a bit like what I imagine growing up as royalty would feel like. There were expectations of you the moment you were born. I would hope that Jenny will study to become a true Time Lord – of course it's her choice – but I'm not taking fun and happiness away from her in order for her to do it." He sounded quite sad. Rose had never asked him what his childhood was like – from the sound of it he had not agreed with the ways of his people any more as a little boy than he had throughout the rest of his life. She caught onto one part of the information she had received and clutched at it, anxious to lead the Doctor away from dwelling on his past.

"So she'll be able to regenerate?"

The Doctor ran a hand through his hair. "Possibly. She should be able to, but I can't say for sure. She was created in a machine that wasn't built for Time Lords. Our physiology is very different than anything that machine will have seen before. As far as I can tell Jenny is Gallifreyan – she's got 2 hearts just like me, that's how Donna convinced me that she was really my daughter – but we'll have to wait and see, won't we?"

"Of course we will." Rose smiled and placed her hand on his. The Doctor's head snapped up towards her, the contact apparently taking him by surprise. He was jerked from the thoughts of his race, now deceased, back into the present, with Rose in the console room. A slow smile lit his face as though it were glowing from the inside out.

"Well, if we're going on an adventure today, then we'd better get going!" He jumped up from the settee still clutching Rose's hand. She was pulled up with him in a sudden motion that caused her still half asleep legs to protest.

He let go of Rose and scooped up Jenny in his arms. She started to protest a little at being pulled away from the gorilla toy she so obviously wanted to chew, but the Doctor tickled her tummy through her dungarees and she giggled with delight. He set off to the console room at high speed, Rose right there beside him. She had been looking forward to this for a long time – travelling with the Doctor again, seeing history and the future and being able to go anywhere. Better with two. Or three now, she supposed.

Within minutes Rose had shoved her shoes on, and the Doctor had gotten Jenny ready to go out -"They do little baby converse, Rose! She had to have some; she wears them all the time. We match!" – before grabbing his own coat and pulling it on. Rose was feeling that familiar buzz. It was when she felt most alive, the anticipation of a new adventure.

The Doctor also seemed to be overflowing with energy as he sprinted to the TARDIS doors, Jenny in his arms.

"Come on, Rose!"

She ran to stand at the door with him, feeling lighter than she had in a long time. The Doctor opened the door and stepped out, Rose close behind.

It really was beautiful. The TARDIS had landed them in a meadow filled with blue flowers. There must have been thousands of different shades of blue, and the wind rippling through them made Rose think of the open ocean. In the distance there was a forest of blue trees reaching up towards a blue sky. She could feel the heat of the sun, but being in the midst of this blue world made her feel cool and calm despite the weather.

The Doctor lifted Jenny into the air and placed her so she was sitting on his shoulders. He held onto her feet in their tiny converse boots and she placed her hands on his head, holding onto fistfuls of his hair to keep herself steady. Considering how vain he could be about his hair, he really didn't seem to mind her messing with it.

"Right then – adventure." He looked at Rose, who was positively glowing with happiness. He removed one hand from where it held Jenny and used it to take Rose's hand. Their fingers laced, and Rose was certain that she must be nearing absolute, perfect contentment. "We won't be doing anything too dangerous though – checked before we left the TARDIS. This planet has no life forms apart from the vegetation for 100 miles. Had to make sure it was safe for you know who." He bounced Jenny on his shoulders and she giggled, waving her arms in the air for a moment before grabbing hold of the Doctor's head once more. "This way, I think."

He set off, obviously expecting Rose to follow, but she was still standing just outside the TARDIS doors. Something about what he had said was niggling at her again. They had always loved the danger, the sense that anything could happen. Of course she knew that the Doctor wanted to keep his daughter safe – she did not expect him to put Jenny in any sort of situation where she might be hurt. There was just a tiny sense of loss inside her, as though that little element of danger was something that she craved, and after being tempted by it for so long it had suddenly disappeared without a trace. No matter how easy or quiet or calm a journey she had requested, Rose and the Doctor had always managed to find some danger or threat. Was it that she now knew the Doctor had had the capacity to find a danger free planet for them to visit, but he had chosen not to? Or was it the idea that, if it turned out there was some danger here and he had put them in the middle of it, the Doctor might have to decide not to adventure as much until Jenny was old enough?

Rose sighed and rubbed her eyes with her hands. She was getting sick and tired of pushing and prodding her own feelings around and getting nowhere. It would be so much easier to pinpoint her unease if the object of her irritation was something she could hate. The fact was that it wasn't. She loved the Doctor, and she could tell that she was on her way towards loving Jenny as well. The thing that was bothering her was not malicious, nor was it causing her any pain or problems, at least not directly. It was just a feeling, and not a pleasant one.

She started to walk through the meadow in an effort to catch up with the Doctor, getting the distinct feeling that she was walking half a step out of time with his long, confident strides.