Sorry to leave you all in suspense for so long. A couple of people were worried that it would be some type of Doomsday situation, with parallel universes and such. I know I can be cruel with cliffhangers sometimes, but I could never put the Doctor and Rose through all that again. Enjoy.

Rose felt her eyelids flutter, but actually opening them seemed to be too much effort that this moment. She groaned instead, the sound breaking off into a squeak when she moved her head and felt a throbbing pain on one side of it.

"Rise and shine, sleeping beauty," said a familiar voice to one side of her, "you've been out for long enough, now you've got to keep me company. It is so boring down here."

When she finally wrenched her eyes open, it was dark. As she adjusted to the lack of light, Rose pushed herself up onto her elbows, feeling points of pain all over her body.

"Are you alright?" Jack asked her, concern in his voice as he helped her to sit up.

"Depends what you mean by alright," Rose answered. "I'm bumped and bruised all over, my head hurts like hell, I have no idea where I am and by the looks of it, wherever it is, we're stuck here. Apart from all that I'm just dandy, thanks."

Jack's teeth were bright in the darkness as he grinned. "Well at least you're well enough to be grumpy with me."

Rose smiled a little and got to her feet, Jack helping to prop her up as she felt a sharp pain go through her ankle – "I don't think it's broken," Jack told her, "we'll get the Doctor to fix you up once we get out of here."

"Where are we?"

"Basement," Jack said grimly, "that last tremor was a bit more of a mild earthquake, hence why we're now down here. And if you'll look behind you, you can see the reason why we're still in the basement as opposed to up there with the Doctor."

Rose turned around to a sight she thought she would never see outside of films where people got trapped in caves. Rubble, chunks of concrete and pieces of Torchwood equipment were piled up behind her from floor to ceiling, explaining both the lack of light and the lack of escape in one move. "And I suppose there's not enough room for the TARDIS to materialise in here?" Rose looked around them at the extremely enclosed space they were stuck in. The ceiling was quite low, and there were enough old crates and big metal instruments lining the walls to stop the TARDIS being able to find a clear place to land.

"Correct." Jack rubbed his eyes. "We can't even climb out of the hole – it's on the other side of that wall of stuff behind us."

"It's a good thing we weren't under that when it fell," Rose mused, her heart beating a bit faster as the image of what might have befallen her had she been trapped under there flashed into her mind.

Jack smiled. "You weren't, you mean. I sort of was. Only a little bit, managed to drag you out of the way."

Rose was stunned. "You mean you... died?"

"Yep." He was so matter-of-fact about it. "Still, like I always say – if someone's gotta die, it might as well be me."

"Thanks, Jack." She hugged him and he returned the favour. She was grateful for how warm he was – it was extremely cold in this little basement room.

"So I'm guessing we're relying on the Doctor to get us out of here then?" Rose shifted, her ankle throbbing. She didn't want to just be sitting here doing nothing, but on the other hand there was really nothing to be done right now.

"Yep, we'll just have to wait here till he gets us out." Jack flopped down on the floor, indicating that Rose should join him. "Won't take him more than an hour to get the equipment together I imagine. At least it gives us a chance to catch up."

"Yeah, I guess it does." Rose slumped down beside Jack. Now that she was here with just Jack, Rose could feel the stress and the worry and the exhaustion that being on edge with the Doctor had brought on, and she was suddenly very close to tears. When she didn't say anything for a while Jack looked at her.

"Rose, are you OK?"

She nodded, trying for a smile but, as always, someone being nice to her when she was sad had tipped her over the edge, and a big fat tear went rolling down her cheek.

"Rose, what's wrong?" The tears were soon followed by sobs, and Jack quickly wrapped his arms around her and squeezed her tightly. "Hey, it's OK, it's alright, we'll sort it out." Rose's breathing slowed, the sobs becoming less frequent. It was as though she had just needed to cry for a few minutes. Rose's head felt clearer, and she didn't feel anywhere near as wrung out or upset as she had done a little while ago.

"Since you were acting all happy and perfectly fine in front of the Doctor, I'm guessing this is something to do with him?"

Rose nodded, pulling away from Jack and wiping her eyes on her sleeve. "Yeah, definitely. Wow, I think I needed that. Apart from the Doctor's, there's no shoulders to cry on in the TARDIS. I just... I thought it would be easier than this. Not easy, but easier. You know, you decide to take it slow and then you end up at each other's throats and you don't know how you got there."

"Ah, trouble in paradise." Rose shot him a withering glance and he put up his hands. "OK, OK, not ready for joking yet. Come on then, spill. I could use some gossip, and yours and his is the best."

Rose took a deep breath, smoothing her hair back behind her ears and trying to figure out where to start. "Well, basically, it started off well, then in the past couple of days everything's gone to hell."

Jack nodded. "Good start, intriguing, I like it. Continue."

Rose struggled to find the right words to explain it. "It's just different to how I thought it would be." Jack nodded again, eyes focussed on her completely. "Now... well it's not exactly my family, but the Doctor and Jenny are one and I sort of want to be in it, you know."

"Of course." Jack placed a hand on hers and Rose gripped it tight. Jack always understood her.

"I keep saying it to everyone, but I don't know how to deal with it." She was looking at her knees now, willing herself not to start crying again. "It's not his fault – he's been wonderful. We've always been nearly together but not quite there, me and the Doctor – you know us, you know how it is – so there's that as well." Jack nodded again. "I was just getting used to it all, nearly ready to start thinking about moving forward with him, but then he just began acting all weird. He's started leaving me behind again." Jack's eyebrows shifted a significant amount towards his hairline. "Yeah, I know. He sent me back to the TARDIS with Jenny while he ran off to do something stupid or brave or whatever. The first time I just ignored it, but the second time I told him what I thought of him. It was the biggest fight we've ever had. I just don't know what to do with him anymore. Since then we've barely spoken and he's trying to act normal but... it's awful."

Jack appeared to be contemplating her words very deeply. Rose was so glad she could say all of this to him. If there was one person she trusted more than anyone to give her advice about her and the Doctor, it was Jack. He cared so much about both of them, Rose knew he would help them in any way he could.

"OK Rose, here's my question: do you love him?"

"Yes." No hesitation whatsoever.

"Do you want to be with him? Officially, properly, a couple, whatever you want to call it."

"Yes, I do."

"Are you ever going to want to leave him – be with anyone else and live life on Earth?"

Rose gave this question some thought. The truth of the answer she gave Jack was so undeniable that she was almost shocked by her own conviction. "Never. Forever was what I told him and I meant it."

"And Jenny?"

"She's wonderful. I mean, I really do love her – she's just like the Doctor, she just gets into all sorts of trouble but then she looks at you with those massive eyes and you just have to forgive her. And she throws mashed banana at him and it gets in his hair. She knows how to push all his buttons; she's got him wrapped around her little finger. They're so cute, the other day he wrapped her up in his coat because she wanted to try it on and she—"

Jack looked so amused Rose was almost cross that he was laughing at her. "I'll take that as a yes then," he smirked, "you sound almost as in love with her as the Doctor is." When all Rose gave him in reply was a shrug, Jack continued. "Rose, if you love him as much as I know you do, then you've got to sort this out now. I know – and the Doctor knows too – how hard it can be to never grow older and know that everyone you love will age and eventually die. It causes a lot of problems, and relationships are just about the biggest ones."

Rose bit her lip. "Sorry about that."

Jack smiled. "Wasn't your fault, don't worry about it. The point is, that now he actually seems to want that relationship, as opposed to before when it seemed like you were gonna keep dancing around the edge forever." Rose began to protest but Jack held up a hand. "Seriously Rose, I was there. The tension between you two was almost unbearable, and I am very experienced in this area, as you well know."

Rose nodded in agreement and smiled. "OK, OK."

"The Doctor will do anything he can to keep you in his life, I know it, and you know it too, but it's going to be extremely hard for him to get over the barriers he's got up. You have to talk to him and work through this together. I'm not trying to be melodramatic, Rose, but if you don't do this now, it will tear you two apart. And I don't want to have to see that happen to the pair of you. You want it to happen, so go for it. I'm sure Jenny would say the same thing if she were older or able to talk or had any concept of what's going on right now." Rose giggled. "And as for the leaving you behind thing, you've just got to tell him where to go. If he's so worried about the pair of you, then he'll have to take you places where there isn't any danger, especially for Jenny, at least for a while. He needs to be more careful."

Even in the state she was in, Rose was quick to defend him. "He was being very careful, for ages he was, but then he sort of started slacking. I think something changed after we went to see Martha. He might've been worried I was going to get bored and leave or something."

Jack laughed, throwing his head back, and Rose joined in though her laugh was somewhat more pathetic than his. "Sometimes that man is so dense, he can't seem to imagine what someone else might be feeling. Just tell him straight, drag the explanation out of him, and refuse to back down until he understands what you're saying."

"Already tried that," Rose said, glumly, "didn't really work out very well."

"What happened."

"I stormed out the TARDIS."

Jack whistled. "I bet he didn't like that."

"I'm not sure he did." Rose continued to think. "I know we need to talk about this, but we were trying to take it slow. I thought there'd be time for us to wait a while."

"Rose, you wait too long and you'll be set in your ways again. And besides, I would've thought you two would have settled it in the bedroom straight after you got back."

Rose's mouth popped open and she gave Jack a swift thwack on the arm. "Oi, you can't say that."

"Oh but I can," Jack grinned, "as well as being one of the only people who knows both of you well enough to judge your relationship, I also saw the looks you two were giving each other when we were on that Dalek spaceship. A bit of sex would probably have got rid of a lot of the tension, as well as removing some of those barriers we talked about."

Rose pretended to consider it. "Yeah... or it might've just made it 50 times more awkward and even more difficult to talk through than before."

"Possibly, but you can't deny you've been thinking about it." Rose opened her mouth to reply, then shut it again, rolling her eyes at Jack's triumphant look. "Ha, told you so. You know what, if you weren't overthinking this so much, and just acted on impulse a bit more, you two would've been over this hurdle weeks back. Sometimes you're as bad as he is."

Rose grabbed the front of Jack's shirt and pulled him close, trying to be threatening even while she was laughing. "You take that back."

Jack shook his head smugly. "Never. It's true."

"So that's your advice is it," Rose said somewhat glumly, "shag all our troubles away?"

"I think your paraphrasing a bit, but it couldn't hurt. Or if you want, maybe I could help with tha-"

"Oh shut up," Rose grinned, elbowing him again. Being with Jack made her feel younger – after all, it was years since they had spent any time together properly, back when the Doctor was much grumpier than he was now.

They spent a few more minutes just relaxing and chatting, and Rose felt lighter and much more free than she had done in a while. What Jack had said made so much sense, and while she and the Doctor had not exactly sorted out their problems, she now felt much more equipped to handle that moment when it eventually occurred.

In the middle of a conversation about Mickey and Martha, Rose became aware of a buzzing noise coming through the wall behind her. She turned around to see the wall of debris between them and their freedom beginning to shake slightly.

"This'll be him, then," Jack said, helping Rose to her feet and pulling them as far away from wall as possible. It wasn't a great distance.

The buzzing intensified, and all of a sudden a largeish hole appeared in the wall. The concrete that had been inside the hole just seemed to vanish, turning to dust as they watched. The hole looked big enough to slide through quite easily.

"You first," Jack told her, gesturing towards the hole with one hand, "there's someone on the other side who I'm guessing really really wants to make sure you're alright." She shot him a grateful look before going to the hole and heaving herself through, ignoring the protests of her battered body.

Rose popped out on the other side of the hole, almost falling flat on her face and brushing dust off of her clothes. On this side of the room – the much larger side, into which the TARDIS could have materialised quite easily, Rose noticed grumpily – there was light spilling down from the hole in the ceiling, illuminating the piles of rubble and the stairs in the corner that could lead them up and out. Rose was not thinking about climbing out yet, however, because standing in front of her, holding some sort of machine that was making a fizzing noise and completely covered in dust, was the Doctor.

The contraption he was holding fell to the floor with a clang, and Rose dashed forward to fling her arms around him, her hurt ankle slowing what would have been a run to a painful limp. He grabbed her, hugging her tightly and lifting her off her feet. He was grinning, but there was a certain tension hanging about him still that told her how worried he'd really been.

"Miss me?" Rose asked.

"Thought you might be dead," he replied, speaking into her hair. "So yeah, just a little bit."

She clutched him tighter. "Well I wasn't dead. Not going to be dead for a long time, either. Jack was though, apparently."

"Well if either of you were going to die, I'm definitely glad it was Jack. Sorry Jack."

"No big deal," said Jack as he extracted his leg from the hole in the rubble and stood up straight. "I'm sure if I weren't immortal you wouldn't say the same thing."

"Well," the Doctor began, but Rose pressed a finger to his lips before he could say anything more.

"Can we get out of here now please," she said, trying to make it sound like a casual request, though inside her all her instincts were telling her to get out of this dark little hole in the ground, back to the safety of the TARDIS where they belonged.

"Well you won't get upstairs easily on that ankle," the Doctor told her. "You want a lift?" Rose nodded, only realising now how much it hurt to put her weight on it.

The Doctor picked her up gently and began to ascend the staircase, taking care not to bump her ankle on the way up.

"Why don't I get any of that?" Jack grumbled as he followed them up to the brightly lit room where they had sat and chatted barely an hour before.

Rose looked back at him. "Buy me a drink first."

The Doctor laughed and laughed, and Rose knew the laughter wasn't just because of her joke. It was relief.