The ventilator rose and fell steadily.

It reminded the Doctor of the Time Rotor in the TARDIS – a little too much, since all either piece of technology could do was keep her alive until she recovered on her own. The TARDIS medical bay wasn't equipped for injuries this serious – since any Gallifreyan this badly hurt would regenerate – and no alien medicine he could think of would help. Rose's body wasn't that damaged – it was her mind. Otherwise Jack's nanogenes would do the trick. The "Captain" was sleeping in the TARDIS right now, finally succumbing to sleep after a lengthy vigil at her bedside. Time Lords could go without sleep for days, however, and it would take a Dalek army to keep the Doctor from Rose's side.

Facing Jackie Tyler, he would have preferred the Daleks.

"I asked you to keep her safe. And now look at her…", Jackie's words cut him. He'd put Emergency Program One into the TARDIS the very night they'd left 2006 after the Slitheen Incident, but he'd always thought he'd have to activate it when facing critical danger to himself, not Rose. Because he'd always thought she'd be okay. As long as he had a say in the matter…

But it doesn't work like that. Nine hundred years (give or take a hundred for modesty) and you'd think he'd have learnt that. Think he'd have worried about a psychic attack leaving her fighting for life within her own subconscious.

But he hadn't. Because she made him feel so alive after all he'd suffered that he couldn't even contemplate the thought of losing her.

And now here he is, watching her hooked up to primitive life-support on the world that gave her life, because he can't think of anywhere better to take her. Listening to her mother – a woman he'd ordinarily dismiss in a second – pile hatred upon him. Because he deserves it…

"…swanned off with you in that box of yours to God knows what! She should have had more sense…"

But Rose doesn't.

His eyes snap up, fixing Rose's mother with a stare that has put the fear of Creation into beings older than Time itself.

"Don't you dare!", he barks.

Jackie freezes, suddenly afraid of a man she thought nothing of slapping a few months ago. Because now he's not a man anymore, but every inch the powerful, frightening force of nature Mickey always made him out to be.

"Let me tell you something, 'Jackie Tyler'… your daughter chose to come with me. She made that choice knowing how dangerous my life is. Twice. She's faced down dictators bent on galactic conquest, alien monstrosities slavering for human flesh and she's seen death in all its many guises and y'know what…?"

To Jackie's credit, she managed to shake her head.

"She stood firm. Your daughter stood with me through sheer hell… because she knew she could help. Help make a difference. Help make the universe a better place, even if that meant risking her own life to save one person. I gave her that choice. You can blame me all you like for that…"

His face twists.

"…but don't you dare blame her for making it! You don't have the right…"

He goes to her. To the silly little ape who has reminded him of why he does what he does.

As his hand brushes her forehead, he feels Jackie's hand on his shoulder.

Domestic, he thinks briefly. But, as even telepathy as ill-trained as his detects Rose's mind stir into wakefulness at last, he could care less.