This chapter is partly dedicated to my sister. Her name is Martha, and we have a three year old cousin who, until recently, could only say her name as "Thatha". I thought it was so cute that I put it in here.

Martha was just making herself a cup of tea (she had her day off and had allowed herself a lie in) when she heard the familiar wheezing noise that could only mean one thing.

Smiling, she quickly filled up the kettle and flicked the switch, before getting out two more mugs. "Mickey!" she called up the stairs. "You might want to hang around just a few more minutes!"

She could hear his thundering footsteps as he dashed around getting ready for work. UNIT wanted him in to look at an artefact that had been found. It was suspected to be Krillitane, and Mickey was one of the only humans who had had contact with that race of creatures. "But Mar, I'm gonna be late as it is!"

"Seriously, just wait a minute. You won't regret it." He came hurtling down the stairs, two at a time, before sprinting into the kitchen. "Look out there," Martha told him, pointing to the window that overlooked their small, green garden. There, on the small patch of grass bordered by flowerbed, had materialised a small, blue box. Mickey grinned.

"It's them!"

He and Martha raced each other out of the door, Martha batting Mickey's hands away as he fumbled with the latch. They were standing on the grass just in time for the door to open. Rose Tyler stuck her head out. "I take it this is the Jones and Smith residence?" she said, grinning.

"You bet it is." Mickey started forward and embraced Rose as soon as she stepped away from the doors, Martha quickly following suit. "Why didn't you tell us you were showing up?"

"We only just decided," Rose admitted, tucking her hair behind her ears, "I wasn't sure where you'd be, but the Doctor looked you up and found you were both registered at the same residence." She raised an eyebrow and the couple in front of her smiled, a bit shyly.

Martha took Mickey's hand. "I knew the Doctor'd find out. He seems to have ways of knowing these things."

"To be honest, I think it was the TARDIS that knew – the Doctor basically just does what she tells him"

"Oi, that is a preposterous lie!" The man himself stepped through the blue doors, stopping and turning to look back inside. "It's OK, come on out." He held the door open, and a tiny blonde head poked out, holding onto the blue wood as though it were a safety blanket. "Look, that's Martha, you remember her?" Jenny still seemed uncertain, so the Doctor picked her up and brought her over to say hello.

"Doctor," said Martha, smiling. She hugged him tightly and he responded with his free arm, grinning manically.

"Martha Jones – so glad to see you again. And Mickey!" He seemed delighted, and shook Mickey's hand very enthusiastically. "Good old Mickey Smith – or should it be Mickey Jones, now?"

Mickey laughed. "No, it's still Smith. And I take it this is Jenny?"

Jenny was looking from the Doctor's grinning face to the unknown one in front of her. The Doctor saw her looking and stroked her hair soothingly. "Jenny, this is Mickey. He's a good friend of mine and Rose's. And that's Martha, you know her. Remember?"

"I wouldn't have thought she would, Doctor, it's been a while. Actually, how long has it been for you two?"

"Only a few weeks for us since the last time we saw you," Rose explained. "I didn't want to cause a scene, knew you'd be busy after everything that went on, so I asked to the Doctor to leave it for a while. "How long's it been for you?"

"Nearly a year," Mickey replied. Rose winced.

"I promise we won't leave it so long next time, will we Doctor?" She elbowed the Time Lord, who looked up sharply from his daughter.

"Of course not," he confirmed, rubbing the sore spot on his arm. "And I'm sure she will remember you, Martha. Better memories than humans, us Time Lords."

Jenny was looking hard at Martha, hands still holding the Doctor's lapels. "Thatha?"

Martha laughed out loud. "Yes, Martha, that's right! Wow, Doctor, it must've been 3 or 4 months for you since I last saw her, and she still knows my name!"

Jenny held out her arms to Martha, and the Doctor handed her over. "Thatha," repeated Jenny, patting Martha's cheek before turning to Rose and pointing hard at Martha. "Thatha."

"Told ya," said the Doctor, grinning smugly, "Time Lords don't forget."

"Ah, I guess that means you never learned how to fly the TARDIS properly in the first place, since I know you couldn't have forgotten how to manage the controls," Rose teased.

The Doctor frowned. "Sometimes you are very mean to me, Rose."

Rose shrugged. "Sometimes it's quite amusing, Doctor." Martha and Mickey laughed, and Martha invited them in for a cup of tea. The Doctor gestured for her to lead the way, but Jenny made a noise of protest and wriggled in Martha's arms, stretching her arms towards the garden.

"It seems Jenny wants to stay out here," the Doctor said, looking on with amusement as Martha placed Jenny on the ground. The little girl took off immediately on her short legs, the small amount of grass seeming like an endless playing field to her. "I'd better stay out here and keep an eye on her. You go in, have tea. I'll see you in a bit." Mickey elected to stay outside as well, knowing that sitting down and drinking tea would not help with the fact that he was already late. SO it was only Rose that ended up following Martha inside the house for a cuppa and a chat.

Within minutes Rose was sitting at the kitchen table drinking tea with Martha and this all seemed very surreal. Being in the TARDIS with the Doctor, it was hard to adjust to just going to someone's house for a cup of tea.

"So how have things been for you, then? Still at UNIT?"

Martha nodded. "Yeah, I was with Torchwood for a while, but it wasn't really for me. I wanted to actually put my doctor's skills to use, you know. Me and Mickey have sort of gone freelance, I guess."

Rose hesitated, unsure of how to phrase her next question. "So, are you and Mickey...?"

Martha nodded, and Rose sensed a little bit of trepidation. "Yeah, yeah we are. Is that-"

Rose quickly cut in. "Just to be clear, the only thing I care about is that you're both happy. I mean, I'm happy that you've managed to move on and find someone, especially if it's Mickey. I gather that you had it pretty rough from the Doctor for a while."

"Yeah. I mean, he was grieving at the time. I didn't really get it at first, it was only after a long time that I heard him and Jack talking and really realised what had happened to you. He took it very badly."

Rose sighed. "I know. He just thinks everything is his fault, you know?"

"Yeah, he took some of it out on me, but I didn't let him sit around and pity himself."

"Good for you." Rose grinned. She really did like Martha a lot, which could have been awkward, given what she had surmised about Martha's previous feelings towards the Doctor. She also felt a bit bad, seeing as it had been losing her that had caused the Doctor to act like a bit of a prick towards Martha in those few months after Torchwood. Still, it all seemed to have worked out OK now.

Martha was actually looking pretty jumpy, compared to the happy yet calm and collected aura she had exuded when Rose had last seen her. "Can you keep a secret? Had to tell someone, we're just too excited."

"What?" Rose asked, though she thought she already had a pretty good idea of what Martha was about to say. Her suspicions were confirmed a few seconds later.

"I'm pregnant."

Rose let a few seconds of stunned silence pass before jumping up and giving Martha an enormous hug. "Congratulations," she grinned, hearing Martha laugh. She pulled back and surveyed Martha. "You can't be that far gone, I would never have been able to tell."

Martha grinned, hand on her stomach. "Yeah, it's not showing yet. Mickey's over the moon about it. I am too, I guess. Bit scary, but what isn't?" She laughed and Rose joined her.

"So how is it for you, the Doctor having Jenny and all? It must've changed his lifestyle a lot."

Gearing up to try and explain how odd it had been since she had been back, Rose nodded. "Yeah, definitely. I mean, he never used to be this careful before. I've been on the TARDIS a couple of weeks now, and we haven't run into any unexpected danger. Not once." Martha's eyes widened. "Don't get me wrong, of course I want us to be safe, but still... it's weird."

"How are you two? I mean... you know." Martha was looking at Rose in such a way that Rose was absolutely certain of her meaning.

"We're OK. I know," she continued, seeing Martha's face, "OK isn't what I expected either. I suppose this parent thing threw me a bit, and everything's changed a bit because of that, but it's not just that. I didn't want to dance around it this time around – we got a second chance, you know – but somehow I just can't cross that line."

"Well, he draws a lot of lines, that Doctor," said Martha shrewdly, with a half-smile etched on her face.

"Exactly, and I just don't really know what to do right now. I never really thought I'd want the whole "family" thing, especially after I met the Doctor. I just thought we'd carry on as we were for as long as we could. You've seen that sort of life, you know what I mean." Martha nodded, and Rose felt a twinge of happiness that there was a woman sitting in front of her who actually did know what it was like. "And the thing is, the Doctor never seemed to want that life either. Obviously he has no choice in the matter, but it just makes me think... is this where I want to be? I mean, I'm not quite a part of their family and I really don't know what to do. I'm worried we'll get forced apart – the Doctor likes to push people away when he's worried about the future, Jenny's the perfect excuse for him to do that."

Martha placed a hand on Rose's. "Rose, I know you're having doubts about what you want to do and whether you want this, but the Doctor did too." Rose had been looking at her knees for a moment or so, but her head snapped up when she heard what Martha was saying.

"What?"

"Oh yeah. When Jenny first came out of that machine, he wouldn't even accept she was his. Said that part of him was dead or something. Well, Donna gave him an earful, like she does, and in the end her sort of accepted that she came from him. And then he had to take her on the TARDIS with him. I didn't see much of that – he dropped me back home soon after – but I kept in touch with Donna and apparently it was a while before he really knew what he was doing. Actually considered settling down at one point." Martha giggled.

"The Doctor? In a house? With carpets?" Rose laughed out loud.

"I'm not saying you have to suddenly decide what you're doing." Martha was now serious again, looking at Rose with eyes that seemed to know what Rose was worrying about. "I'm just saying that even things that seem huge can become manageable over time. Give it a while, see how you feel. I'm sure you're not going to want to leave the Doctor." Rose shook her head fiercely. "Thought as much. Well just see if you can't get used to this sort of life. It might be a bit different, but there's a chance you could love it just as much."

Rose sighed. "I suppose that means that I really shouldn't do anything about "us" until I've figured out everything else, right? Shame, he kissed me this morning and it was... brilliant."

Martha smirked. "Wow, kissing. Tell that Time Lord to calm down, he might over-exert himself." Rose raised an eyebrow. "But yeah, maybe give it a minute. Or at least, wait for him to show you where he stands. If he's worried that you're feeling like this – and he's probably noticed, the amount of time he spends staring at you – he might want to take it slow."

"Over four years is slow enough for me," Rose said glumly, before shaking her head a bit and standing up. "I'll go get him so you can chat with him before we go. If he's playing with Jenny he'll have forgotten any of us existed."

"Not jealous at all, are we Rose?" Martha asked, voice sugary sweet.

"Oh no," Rose replied in a tone that suggested butter would not melt in her mouth, "of course not. I couldn't care less about getting the Doctor's attention." She smiled widely before turning around and making her way to the back door. She opened it and stepped out, eyes quickly taking in the sight of the Doctor and Mickey laughing at Jenny, who appeared to have run around in circles so much that she had gotten dizzy and fallen spectacularly on the grass. She was lying there on her back, holding her feet in her hands and giggling.

"Oi." It was an easy way to grab his attention. The Doctor turned towards her. "Martha wants you."

The Doctor scooped up Jenny from the ground, before giving Mickey a fist bump and lifting Jenny's hand so she could do the same. Mickey laughed, and the Doctor and his daughter disappeared inside the house. Mickey grinned at Rose, though his smile quickly vanished when he looked at his watch.

"Shit, I was supposed to be gone five minutes ago. God, you show up at the most inappropriate times, you know that don't you?"

Rose shrugged and nodded. "Oh yeah, we do. We do it deliberately, just to inconvenience you."

"Thought as much." He quickly ran over and gave Rose a massive hug. "Come back and visit soon, yeah? We missed you – both of you. Well, all three of you now, I guess."

"I hear we're not the only ones who are expanding from 2 to 3 in the family."

Mickey looked delighted. "So Martha told you then? Yep, we're gonna be a family, really! I'm a bit scared, but it'll be alright. The Doctor manages it, and we all know how bad he is at dealing with people."

"Oi." Rose nudged him in the ribs, but she knew he was only joking. "I'm so happy for you."

"Me too." He smiled again, before closing his eyes in despair. "Oh god, now I am really ridiculously late. See you soon, Rose, say goodbye to the Doctor for me."

He ran off into the house, leaving Rose alone in the garden to ponder all that she had learned in the last hour. She supposed that she could have felt a bit weird about Mickey and Martha getting together, but all she actually felt was a deep happiness that they had found each other. They seemed so in love with each other, even in the few minutes that Rose had seen them together. She had to wonder if that was what people saw when she and the Doctor were together. What Mickey had had to put up with all that time.

Still, what Martha had said made a lot of sense. She needed to think this through and come to terms with it. After a while she thought that she might be able to come to terms with this slightly different life. Time would sort it out, as it always did. And as for her and the Doctor, they were as close as they ever were before. They would get there eventually, it couldn't be that hard.

There in Martha and Mickey's garden, leaning against the TARDIS doors in the sunshine, Rose Tyler had completely no idea just how wrong she was.