I hadn't expected to find him still up. It was late; well, early to be precise. The TARDIS was doing something, probably taking us away from Magaluf. My head felt heavy and my eyelids were threatening to drop again but I was too frightened to go back to sleep. I'd tripped in the dream again and woken up with a start. I'd swung my legs out of bed, wincing as I put weight on the forgotten injured foot, and headed off in search of painkillers for my thudding head and some form of caffeine. I didn't want to slip back into that again tonight.

The kettle was still warm when I reached the kitchen and only took a moment to re-boil. I put two large spoonfuls of coffee into a mug, added four spoons of sugar and bypassed the milk. I hated black coffee, but needs must. I took a long swig and forced myself to swallow, before heading in search of painkillers.

There he was, sitting in a chair and swinging to and fro. I was behind him, but from the set of his shoulders and the way he was staring into space, I could tell he was thinking. Thinking about what, I wasn't sure. I'd found him sitting up some nights pondering the strangest things; like how they managed to get the word polo onto the mints, or if he really could believe it wasn't butter. Maybe he was now deliberating over what exactly a wonderwall was, and how exactly she was like the wind. There was only one way to find out. I coughed lightly.

"Rose!" He turned round to face me. "You're up late, what are you doing?"

I gestured to my mug of coffee and pulled a face. "Had that dream again. Only of course me with my injured foot couldn't run that fast." I shook my head, smiling ironically. "I don't really want to go back to sleep again after that."

"No, I don't suppose you do," he agreed. "Here, sit down. Join the party as they say in… well, somewhere." He pulled a chair out for me.

"And what's keeping you up?" I asked, sitting down and taking another sip of disgusting coffee.

"Oh you know." He shrugged nonchalantly. "Just couldn't sleep, the usual things…"

"Right." I nodded.

"How's your foot?" he asked, gesturing towards it.

I shrugged. "Painful. I was actually looking for some painkillers for my head though. Have we got anything?"

He pulled an apologetic face. "It's probably the stuff I gave you that caused that. What does it feel like?"

"Like I drank a bar dry last night."

He nodded. "Yeah, sounds about right. Alien painkillers: not really meant for consumption by humans. Sorry."

I sighed. "It doesn't matter. I suppose I'll just have to put up with it."

"You'll manage. You've put up with worse."

There was a long silence. There had been more of this lately. More awkward pauses, long periods of time where neither of us spoke. It was horrible. There was something wrong, something very wrong. I couldn't explain it though. All of this whisking me away to different places… this wasn't normal. I couldn't help feeling that my dream had something to do with it all…

"I'm going to drop you off at your mum's for a couple of days," he said now, downing the last of his coffee and standing up. He stretched loudly.

I frowned. "What? Why?" Every time he talked about taking me home, I wondered these days. Was this the last time I'd see him? Would he one day announce that he was taking me home for good, that it had been fun, a laugh, fantastic… but that it was over now? That was my worst fear. Fear about monsters, fear about demons and darleks and cybermen and werewolves and creatures that went bump in the night… that was just good old fashioned reflexes that sent my heart pounding and the blood racing about my body. It set up survival techniques: fight or flight. But losing him… waking up one morning to find him gone, out of my life, never to return. Living each day without him there, holding my hand, explaining things, experiencing everything together…. That was the fear that made my heart skip a bit and the blood retreat from all my extremities.

He shrugged now. "I just think you need to rest in your own bed for a bit. Anyway, you can hardly run with a piece of glass sticking out of your foot, can you? And you might need to see a doctor."

"You're a doctor, the Doctor," I reminded him.

"Oh you know what I mean!" He rolled his eyes. "And the TARDIS needs a rest too. Poor old girl is feeling a bit under the weather, aren't you?" I tried to close my ears the sentiments he poured upon the TARDIS in the following few minutes.

"So… so where will we go next?" I ventured gingerly. If he was planning on dumping me, I'd know from his next answer.

"I don't know really." He ruffled his hair thoughtfully. "I fancy somewhere different. How about you?" He grinned suddenly. "Tell you what. You decide!"

"Pass the buck, why not?" I laughed. Then we had another one of those awkward pauses. God, I hated them. As we avoided each others eyes and tried to pretend that we were perfectly at ease with the silence, I readied myself to ask the question that was really on my mind.

"Doctor? This dream of mine… I'm a bit worried."

"Oh yes?" He looked up. Something in his face had shifted… this was not where he'd wanted the conversation to go. Which only made me want to know more.

"Well… dreams don't reoccur for no reason, do they?" I said hesitantly. "And it's so real."

"Well, the kinds of things we see… You've got to expect a few nightmares," he said airily.

"Do you ever get nightmares?"

He looked taken aback at the question. He blinked several times before replying. "Well, you know, I wouldn't call them nightmares. Just… dreams, you know. Now, you really should get some rest, Rose."

There he went again, treating me like a little girl. But he looked so haunted suddenly, so exposed. I didn't want to see him like that; it only made everything worse. So I nodded, and padded back to bed.

That night the monster caught me.