I am really sorry. You all knew it was coming, but I am still so sorry.

Rose was jerked abruptly from sleep by the Doctor sitting bolt upright, flinging her away from him in one smooth move. She looked around blearily, trying to focus on what was wrong but just too tired still to really understand.

"What? It can't be." The Doctor was staring into space, eyes wide. Rose put a hand on his arm.

"Doctor, what-?"

But before she could finish her sentence he was up and out of the room, leaving only a rush of cold air and a warm spot on the mattress. Rose peered at the clock and realised that she would probably have woken up in an hour or so anyway. Not feeling quite so cheated of the sleep she deserved, she remained propped on her elbows, not certain how serious the situation was.

After a few minutes the Doctor walked back into the room carrying Jenny, who was wearing her pyjamas but appeared to be wide awake. The Doctor was wearing an expression of shock and wonder on his face.

"What is it?" Rose asked, concerned at the Doctor's silence. "Doesn't the TARDIS always wake you up when she's up?"

"It wasn't the TARDIS," the Doctor said hoarsely, "it was Jenny."

Rose's eyes widened in shock. "Jenny?"

The Doctor nodded. He sat down on the end of Rose's bed, not noticing when Jenny crawled away from him across the duvet. Rose suspected that his legs would not have supported him for much longer. "I can feel her." The Doctor reached one hand to his temple, closing his eyes for a moment before opening them and fixing Rose with a look so intense she felt as though he were looking past her eyes and into her mind. "Just here. We've got defences, obviously, but because we're related the telepathic link is stronger and I can... I can feel her." He sounded quietly overjoyed, as if he could not quite believe it. "I haven't felt another Time Lord in my head since..." He trailed off, but Rose knew he meant since the Master had died and, before that, since his people had still existed. She couldn't quite empathise, but she definitely understood how much this meant to him.

"What did it feel like?" Rose was genuinely curious.

"It was just a feeling at first." The Doctor shifted up the bed until he was lounging beside Rose, on top of the duvet next to her. It appeared that the initial shock had worn off. "A sort of flickering feeling against my mind. And then I knew it was her. There was something about me and you and being hungry. It was quite demanding, actually, like she wanted me there now." He laughed, and Rose did too, looking over at Jenny who was staring at them like she could tell they were talking about her.

"How clever are you?" the Doctor said to Jenny, reaching out and tickling her tummy. She squealed and giggled. It was such an adorable noise – Rose thought that between Jenny's and the Doctor's giggles, there was a real possibility she might be overwhelmed with the sweetness of it all.

"What are we doing today then?" Rose asked as the Doctor tossed Jenny into the air and then caught her. She knew what she was really asking – namely, whether he was going to pretend he'd never asked her on a date. A date that was supposed to be happening tonight.

"So, I've got some tinkering with the TARDIS to do, and then maybe we can visit somewhere before our, erm, our date tonight?" Rose nodded, and the Doctor smiled with relief. Maybe he had thought that after a night's sleep she might have changed her mind.

They spent a bit more time getting ready for the day than normal, as Jenny got excited to the point at which she began to punch at the Doctor and Rose with her little fists. Of course, it did not really hurt that much (though more than Rose thought it would) but after being told several times to stop and just carrying on, the Doctor had to grab her hands and hold them tightly while she squawked in indignation.

"No hitting," he told her sternly, crouching down and fixing her with one of his "Oncoming Storm" scary Time Lord looks. To her credit, Jenny did not flinch or run away, as a lot of creatures did when the Doctor was making that face. Instead she got very quiet, her bottom lip stuck out and she sulked in the corner of Rose's room for a good 15 minutes. Rose and the Doctor were having a hard time not bursting out laughing at the little toddler's stomping footsteps and her overly cross expression. Muffling her giggles with her forearm, Rose got out of bed and began to find clothes to put on.

The Doctor felt almost sick. What had possessed him to want a date with Rose? Well, of course he knew the answer to that. He was in love with her, and he wanted to do this thing properly, finally.

After their discussion last night – the one where he had admitted to being a complete moron – it had been clear that they were moving forward now.

He took Jenny away to the library while Rose was pottering around doing something or other, just so he could have some time to think things through. His thinking was more like panicking, and after a while he gave up and built a small city out of bricks with Jenny, in order to take his mind off things.

In the middle of the elaborate construction of a building which was almost definitely based on the Coloseum in Rome, the Doctor suddenly thought of something. Jenny would need to be looked after while he and Rose were... out. After trying and failing to stop Jenny crashing through his elaborate cityscape like Godzilla – she seemed to be going through a destructive faze that the Doctor hoped would not turn out to be a permanent character trait - he held his daughter on his knee amid piles of bricks and pulled out a mobile phone from his pocket. It was Martha's old one that she had given him that day, not really so very long ago, and he had taken to carrying it around with him rather than leaving it on the console, just in case.

He selected a contact and the phone rang for a few seconds before Martha picked up.

"Doctor?"

"The one and only," he said down the phone, grinning. "How are you?"

"Good. A bit pregnanter than when you last saw me, but we're coping."

The Doctor got straight to the point. "I'm sorry, but I need to ask you a favour."

"If it involves running anywhere then yeah, I won't be doing that." He could hear the smile in her voice.

"I need you to look after Jenny for a while. Me and Rose are... that is I'm taking Rose out for... we're going on a..."

"A what?"

The Doctor looked down at Jenny's blonde head as she settled in his lap and frowned, like a small child being forced to say sorry after they have done something wrong. "Date," he finally muttered, spitting the word out from between his teeth as though it was the only way he was going to be able to admit it. "We are going on a date this evening. Can you babysit?"

"Sure," said Martha, and the Doctor was certain she was smothering a laugh, "and good for you, Doctor. Finally! I mean, I hope you have a wonderful time." She wasn't even smothering her laughter any more.

"Thanks," remarked the Doctor sourly, "you fill me with confidence, you really do."

The sound of laughter coming down the phone faded. "Sorry." It sounded like she meant it. "Just be relaxed and try to be nice. And don't gawp."

The Doctor frowned. "Gawp?"

"Yeah. You definitely gawp when you're around Rose – and I would imagine she'll be wearing something pretty. Try not to stare."

"I'll keep that in mind," the Doctor replied sarcastically. "You'd better tell me the date, just so I can make sure I arrive on the right day."

After a friendly jibe about his driving skills and a promise to see him later, Martha hung up the phone. The Doctor stayed on the floor, watching Jenny hit two bricks together thoughtfully. He pressed a kiss to his daughter's head and sighed. Now he had told Martha there really was no going back. Not that he had intended to call the whole thing off, of course, but now there was a sense of finality to it. He had better make a decision on where to take her.

Rose felt almost sick.

She could not imagine how tonight was going to go – all that was going through her head were worse and worse scenarios in which the date went more and more disastrously wrong until she felt so worried about it that she had to sit down and breathe deeply for a minute or two. She felt as though tonight was a turning point – and she knew that in a way it was - and that gave it a significance that scared her.

Rose waited until the Doctor was in the library playing with Jenny, before she closed her bedroom door and scrolled through the contacts on her phone. On the second ring Jack picked up.

"Rose!"

"Hi Jack. How long has it been since we last saw you?"

"A day or two. How are things going?"

Rose sat down on her bed and got ready for a long chat. "Well, me and the Doctor had a big talk – he started it."

"No way!"

Rose nodded, even though she knew Jack couldn't see her. "Yeah, I know. But then we talked it all through and got everything out in the open and we kissed and now – well, we're going on a date."

There was silence for a few seconds. Then Jack's voice came through, and Rose could hear him smiling. "A first date even though you've been in love for years – you guys are so cute."

"Well it's not technically our first date..." Rose began, thinking of that day so long ago where they had come from watching the destruction of the Earth and eaten chips. She shook her head quickly and got back to the point. "Anyway, I just wanted to get your advice – I mean, I don't want it to be awkward but we don't do stuff like this. Ever." Now that she had said it out loud Rose was suddenly acutely aware of how scary this was.

"I know. Believe me I know – everyone who knows you two has been waiting for this for a long, long time."

Rose sighed. "Yes thank you, I'm aware of the gossip this is going to generate – what I want to know is what to do? I mean... I just don't know what I mean."

Jack sounded amused. "Well from the sounds of it, I'd say you need to calm down. He probably does too, but I'm not on the phone with him right now – you can pass on the message later if you like."

Rose considered. "On the outside he seems to be fine. On the inside – well I'd imagine he's probably freaking out worse than I am."

"Rose." Jack sounded sympathetic now. "Rose, he's your best friend. More than that. You know him better than anyone else. It's just a date. All it is is a way for you two to get into a relationship – though personally, I would have thought sleeping together would have done that a lot easier, and probably a lot quicker too. Though I don't know, I'm not making any presumptions about how long the Doctor could last-"

"And you can stop right there," Rose interrupted, "no jokes about my sex life."

"Or lack of it," Jack muttered, "though I imagine that won't be the case for long."

"I swear I will hang up this phone..."

"Alright, alright!" Jack was laughing, and Rose could imagine the look on his face as he held up his hands in surrender. "I promise. Though I think you wouldn't be so touchy if I weren't hitting so close to home. But whatever, you do what you like. Just remember: you know that this was meant to happen. Just because it's sort of being made "official", doesn't change any of the basic facts. You know, you're still you and he's still him and you both want this. Just go for it. Also wear something revealing, and tell me if he blushes."

She could sense his excited glee down the phone. "It's not like he's a teenager, Jack."

"True, but it's also true that he is universally acknowledged to be awful at this. And by "this" I mean dating, not the flirting and the sex. I'm sure he's just fantastic at those bits."

"Oh shut up."

"You'll have to fill me in on all the details," Jack continued, "I've often wondered about the face he pulls when he-"

"I'm hanging up now." Rose laughed down the phone. "I am going, I am definitely going now, thanks for the unhelpful advice, bye!" Jack was still talking about some things that she had often wondered herself but was not really willing to discuss with him when he pressed the 'End Call' button and tapped the phone against her cheek.

It couldn't be that hard. It was just the Doctor, it wasn't like she hadn't eaten food with him before. Jack was right about that.

And there was another piece of Jack's advice that Rose considered putting into practice. She grinned to herself before setting off for the wardrobe room, wondering what the TARDIS had in the way of revealing dresses.

At a time that must've been around after lunch – though it was always hard to tell – Rose went to the console room to see that the Doctor and Jenny were already there. Jenny had her coat on, and the Doctor was prodding at some controls on the console. Rose chucked her jacket onto the jump seat before going up to stand next to the Doctor. Her hip brushed his and she was certain she heard his breath hitch in his throat.

"So where are we going."

"That would be telling," the Doctor replied immediately. "Well, as it happens I sort of want to tell, so you're in luck. Got a bit of a disturbance - a weather disturbance," he added hastily, seeing the look on Rose's face that clearly told him that disturbances meant trouble, "that I thought we should take a look at."

Rose frowned at him, then at the viewing screen before focussing on him again. "What sort of disturbance."

The Doctor turned towards her with excitement in his face that made him just about fizz with energy. "Snow, Rose. Snow, on a desert planet. They've never seen snow, Rose. The temperature's never been cold enough. And now there's been some sort of atmospheric movement that's made it snow. And we can be there! You know how good the first flakes of snow taste? Well these are the first ever on this planet. The first snowfall since the planet's formation, millions of years ago, and we get to be there. Sound good?"

She didn't want to admit it, but Rose thought it sounded brilliant. "Oh alright then," she finally said.

The Doctor beamed at her and flicked a lever, causing the TARDIS to land with its usually sonorous boom. "Oh, I've got Martha to babysit for us later, and I've found a place for us to go, but I'm really not telling about that one so there's no point asking. Even torture could not drag it out of me."

"Is that so?" Rose grinned, leaning forward until their noses were almost touching, staring into his eyes. He gulped, and she pulled away, still smiling. "Well I think I can live with not knowing for a few more hours."

"You're going to love it," the Doctor replied, suddenly earnest. "I'll just go down and check if it's started yet – bring Jenny out when you're ready?"

Rose grinned at him, and the Doctor returned it before bounding down towards the TARDIS doors. He opened one and turned to waggle his eyebrows at Rose before stepping out onto the surface of the planet. Rose rolled her eyes and pulled on her jacket. Just as she was about to pick up Jenny, she heard a shout from outside the TARDIS.

"Rose! Rose don't c-" The Doctor's voice cut off, muffled as though someone had clapped a hand over his mouth, just as Rose often threatened to do on those occasions when he wouldn't stop talking.

She ran to the doors. "Doctor!" As she reached them, Rose forced herself to slow down before stepping out, unbelievably tense and unsure of what she might find when she got out there.

"I really wouldn't advise you to move any further, Miss Tyler," said a smooth, cold voice. Rose froze.

The TARDIS had landed in what looked like it might have been a laboratory, though Rose could not see any equipment or chemicals. The floor was white tiles, the walls and ceiling painted white. There was a pair of double doors opposite the TARDIS, with small panes of glass set in the top of each one, though Rose could not see what lay beyond the doors through the windows. To be fair, she was not actually looking very hard at the doors. Something else was pulling her focus.

The space between the TARDIS and the doors seemed to be full of soldiers, women and men pointing guns right at her. A man stood off to the left, conspicuous only in his lack of weapon. Held between four of the solders, arms held tightly and guns pointed at his chest and head, was the Doctor. Another soldier had a large gloved hand clamped firmly over his mouth, and the Doctor was unable to move his head. His eyes radiated defiance but also confusion and, deep down in their brown depths, Rose could detect a spark of fear. He was looking straight at her, still struggling against the iron grip of his captors. He might be able to talk his way out of most difficult situations, but Rose could see that he had not stood a chance against these people when he had stepped out of the TARDIS doors. This was an ambush.

The man who stood apart gave a slight nod. One of the soldiers raised their gun high above the Doctor's head. Rose could see his eyes following it as he struggled to get free. The man in charge nodded again, and the soldier brought their gun down on the Doctor's head with a loud, sickening crack. The Doctor's eyes rolled and his eyelids closed. All the guards holding him released their grip, and the Doctor tumbled down towards the tiled floor, unconscious and completely helpless.