The door to my room opened and light shone in, hitting me right between the eyes. I was a light sleeper anyway, and could only sleep with all the lights off. This was just wrecking my beauty sleep. Even with the eye mask that I had "borrowed" off Rose, the light was painful.

I pulled the mask up and there she was, standing in the doorway, surrounded by light. She was biting her lip anxiously and hanging back.

"Rose?" I said blearily.

She shifted her weight awkwardly. "I… I couldn't sleep. Sorry, I didn't mean to wake you." The door started to close. Thank God, darkness! Then my conscience kicked in. Sometimes I hated my conscience.

"Rose, wait!" She paused in the doorway. I sighed inwardly. "Come in, what's wrong?"

She let the door wing shut behind her and the TARDIS so kindly brought the lights in my room up a little so she could pick her way across the floor. She sat down on my bed gingerly and shrugged.

"I don't know, I… I keep having these nightmares and stuff…"

Nightmares. Everyone has nightmares. Even I did from time to time. But that wasn't the issue. "What sort of nightmares?"

"Just sort of… scary ones."

I had to smile at that. Rose at her very articulate best. "But about what? What's happening in them?"

"I'm just sort of… running." Rose shrugged. "And something's chasing me. Only I don't know what. And sometimes it catches up with me…" She hesitated. "Then I wake up."

"Hope you're not wearing your new shoes when you try and run!" I tried to joke, but even in the half light I could see the look on her face. Clearly she was. And she wouldn't find that funny anyway… she loved those ridiculous shoes.

"It doesn't matter," she said now, standing up.

"Oh, no, Rose, don't go." This had obviously worried her. Time to be the Serious Doctor she remembered from before. How I hated that version of me. He was so… so… morbid and intense. Dwelt on the past too much. But it was what Rose needed tonight.

"What is it that you're running from?" I asked now, deciding that maybe the Freudian approach would be the best. Maybe I should even take her to see the man himself… though that was perhaps a bit too serious and drastic for a random nightmare.

She shrugged. "Just something. I don't ever get to see it."

"A dangerous something?"

She gave me a withering look. "Well, I expect so. Why else would I be running from it?"

She had a point; next time I was in early twentieth century Austria I'd drop in on Sigmund and get some tips off him… he was far better at this than I was.

"Right. Okay. So if you're not sure what you're running from… what are you running to?"

She shrugged again. "I don't know that either. I just… it's frightening."

"Rose, it's only a dream," I reminded her. "Nothing can hurt you, it's not real."

"I know." She seemed to be accepting what I was telling her. But she was still sitting on the end of my bed at some ungodly hour in the morning. I waited a long time to see if she was going to say anything else. Something like "Okay, thanks Doctor, I'll be going back to bed now." But no…

"Do you want to sleep in here tonight?"

She nodded and looked so young that I hadn't the heart to hold it against her anymore. She slid in under the duvet.

"What would my mother say?" she said laughing slightly. "Getting into bed with strange men."

"I'm not a strange man."

Her face fell a little. "No," she agreed half heartedly. "Well, good night Doctor." She turned over and fell silent.

Poor Rose. Clearly it was going to take her a lot longer than I'd ever imagined to get used to this new me.