DISCLAIMER: Nope still not mine. A girl can hope though can't she?


Sam walked in just a few minutes after her two guests had woken up to see them in each other's arms. She wasn't surprised. She'd had the suspicion that they felt that way about each other since the park at least.

"Are you two okay? Do you need anything before I go to bed?"

The two of them pulled apart and looked over at Sam. The Doctor just smiled. "I'm surprised you haven't asked me about Grace yet."

Sam hung her head. She'd been meaning to ask him about that but was almost afraid to. She hadn't told anyone about the little girl she had seen on board the Prometheus when she'd hit her head. The little girl had said her name was Grace and she'd been smart but with the attention span of a certain general she knew.

"You never told anyone about her did you?" The Doctor swung his legs over the edge of the bed and stood up. He walked over to stand in front of the woman and put his hands on her shoulders. "They would have understood you seeing 'hallucinations' of your friends. But they never would have understood you seeing a little girl that was a perfect blending of yourself and …."

"Don't. Please. She could never be real. I can't be with him. The regulations…"

"Don't matter. You are supposed to marry him. Have his child. Children in fact. Children that are very important to the survival of several different races. Grace is just the first. Well, her and her twin brother. Samantha, the universe needs you two to be together. General Hammond never told you about the special dispensation he had gotten for the personnel at the SGC did he?"

When Sam looked up at the Doctor in shock, Rose picked up the tale, seemingly pulling it from nowhere. The Doctor guessed that she was getting it straight from the TARDIS. 'How in the world is she doing that? Even I have a hard time getting information directly from the old girl.' The distant look on her face was almost a confirmation that Rose had somehow directly accessed the databanks on the TARDIS.

"General Hammond noticed the sparks between you and Colonel O'Neill at your first meeting and the sparks grew. He knew that you were both, in his words, 'too damn noble to sacrifice the good you might do for the planet just to satisfy certain wants and desires.'
He apparently knew the two of you too well. He had told the President about the life and death situations at the base and asked that certain regulations be suspended under certain terms. He didn't name names but the President knew anyway who, in particular, the general meant. Apparently, the disc that you had recorded for O'Neill with no intentions of sending it, got to him when he was quarantined on that planet with the nanobots. Someone else knew how you felt about him and knew that the feeling was returned by him."

"Daniel, Teal'c, Janet. Probably others too." Sam admitted, saddened by the thought of the petite doctor who had seen straight through the mask she had tried to wear when it came to O'Neill.

Janet was gone now and she didn't have Cassie nearby to play confidant for her. She hadn't been able to tell Daniel and Teal'c. She just didn't feel comfortable with telling them flat out that she had considered quitting the SGC numerous times just so that she could have the man she really wanted.

"I too have loved where maybe I shouldn't have," Rose admitted, losing the distant look on her face. She looked right at the Doctor. "In fact, according to all the rules I shouldn't even be with him now."

Tears filled the Doctor's eyes as he realized that the TARDIS had told Rose about the rules governing the Time Lords and the fact that the others would have long since taken her from him. 'Old friend, why did you tell her about that? She never should have known.'

'She had to know. She is as important to you as Jack O'Neill is to Samantha Carter.'

Rose found herself stepping to the Doctor's side and placing a hand on his arm where it still rested on Sam's shoulder. "Don't be upset with her, Doctor. She was only answering my questions. It was something I needed to know."

"No Rose. I'm the last. The race dies with me."

"Not according to some legends. There are ones that state that the Time Lords will be again. That they will arise from the love of two people who saved each other from reckless abandon."

"The Time Lords are no more. I can't have children with anyone else." He hated telling her that but she needed to know.

"Have you ever tried? Have you thought about why I would be able to access the TARDIS so directly since the incident on the game station?"

He realized the implications of what she was saying. "You can't."

"The access to the vortex has changed me, Doctor. Maybe not totally yet but the TARDIS told me that the only way to save me from the damage done to my body by accessing the vortex and accepting it into my mind was to begin a transformation." Rose chuckled nervously. "She tells me that the worst is yet to come. That my body has to undergo some very painful adjustments in the next few days. I'll need you close by."

"I might be able to help with that. We can take you to the mountain and let you stay there while you go through the changes. Doing it there would also mean that there would be medical staff nearby in case of an emergency."

"You would do that for two strangers?" Rose was amazed. The Doctor took her hand.

"Thank you, Samantha. Of course, now that you know about the dispensation, what's stopping you from going after the man you've wanted for so long?"

"I've waited this long. I can wait a little longer to help you help Rose through this. It sounds like you'll need all the help you can get."

The Doctor put an arm around Rose's shoulders. "Maybe we should get there soon." He had noticed the pallor that had settled over the young woman. She was feeling twinges. He wasn't sure of what was going to happen. He had never known anyone to be transformed into a Time Lord before.

Suddenly, Rose doubled over holding her abdomen. "Doctor!" He caught her as she fell. He sat there brushing the hair out of her eyes, her head in his lap. Tears welled up in his eyes. He couldn't do anything to help her.

As the pain subsided, Rose looked up at her Doctor. "It's worth it. And you help just by being beside me, holding me."

Sam and the Doctor carried Rose out to Sam's car and Sam drove to the mountain quickly. She guessed that the rest of the transformation would probably be just as painful if not worse.

She had no idea.