A/N: If you're reading my other fic "Come Together" which can be linked to this one,not all thelinkswill be obvious in this chapter yet, because I haven't finished that fic... trust me, it'll make sense when I write the ending to the other one! But because of all the lovely reviews you've all given this one, I wanted to put the next chapter up asap. Hope this is up to standard!

"Because of you, I find it hard to trust not only me, but everyone around me. Because of you, I am afraid."

Rose looked down the menu, determined not to make eye-contact with him. "When you said you'd take me out to dinner," she said, trying to keep her voice light, "I didn't exactly expect this." She looked round at the brightly lit café, with chipped formica tables and yellow flooring. One light bulb was flickering. There was a smell of grease coming from every corner.

The Doctor looked up from his own menu. "No? What's wrong with it?" He readjusted his glasses. "I think I'll have the triple-mega-burger and chips.What about you?"

Rose put the menu down. "Just a salad." She hadn't been able to stomach burgers ever since she'd become pregnant. Just the thought made her feel ill all over again.

The Doctor frowned. "You used to love burgers! And chips!" He sounded surprised and more than a little hurt. Once upon a time, Rose would have tried to placate him, insisted that she did love burgers, that she just fancied a salad now. Anything to put that smile back on his face.

Now she just shrugged as she took a sip of water. "Things change." She hesitated. "I see you've managed not to this time."

"No!" he agreed, looking down at himself delightedly. "I'm pleased with it, actually. There have been a few hair-raising things since I left you, but I guess I must be getting tougher in my old age."

"And getting more refined tastes," Rose agreed. "Holly seems nice." She was making this all up as she went along. Something else she'd picked up from him. Only he was better; she was just sticking to little conversational patterns.

"Oh, she is!" He nodded enthusiastically. "Holly's a lovely girl. I really think you'll like her when you get to know her."

Rose couldn't imagine anything worse, but she held her tongue. "Where did you meet her?" And when… had he found her immediately after abandoning Rose?

"I was just strolling through Oxford one day, and bumped into her," he explained. "There was some sort of monstery thing, you know, the usual. And she happened to be there and one thing led to another and here we are. Must be about three months ago now." He was smiling. "She's a bright girl, too. Really on the ball. She's helped me out of more than a few scrapes by now."

Rose nodded. "Landed on your feet this time, haven't you?" She tried to keep the edge out of her voice but failed. She took a long swig of water. "So, where have you been lately?" she asked, forcing a smile as she shook her hair back off her shoulders. "Anywhere exciting?"

"Here and there." He shrugged, sitting back in his seat. "We were aiming for nineteen-eighty-one when we ended up here. Holly wanted to see the royal wedding for some reason. I tried to tell her, the coronation is where it's at, but would she listen? She's just like you, you know, always so stubborn." He grinned. "Hey, do you remember the coronation?"

A passing waiter frowned at the two of them as he went past. Rose blushed and inspected her fingernails self-consciously before replying. "Yeah, I remember. It was fun." Well, if you could call having your face sucked off by some creature in a television fun. But the outfit had been one of her favourites. And the after party had been a ball. And the look on his face when he found you again…

"Yeah." The Doctor leaned forward, resting his chin in his hand and propping his elbow on the table. "It's a shame we didn't make it to see Elvis though. I thought I might take Holly at some point. She has got the worst taste in music, worse than yours!"

Rose wasn't sure whether to hate him or Holly more in that moment. But she swallowed it down. She was impressed with herself tonight; she was being very mature.

"Anyway, enough about me," the Doctor said now, running a hand through his hair. Rose resisted the urge to reach out and smooth it down. She wondered if Holly ever did that, if he let her do it. "What about you? What have you been doing?"

"You know, the usual." Rose shrugged.

"No. What's the usual?"

"This and that. Still living with Mum."

"Right." The Doctor nodded. "Yeah, sorry about this morning. You know what I'm like with the old girl… some things never change, eh?" The waiter reappeared with their food. "Oh great!" He began digging into his huge burger almost instantaneously. Rose picked at her salad, wondering what else she could say that would be normal and not what she really wanted to ask.

Several minutes passed. The Doctor finally stopped eating long enough to say, "Hey, do you remember those burgers we had out on that satellite?"

Rose frowned. "No."

"You must do! You said how nice they were, until I told you what they were made from." He pulled a face. "Oh come on, it was just after we'd come back from the Battle of Hastings and you said that…"

"I've never been to the Battle of Hastings," Rose replied, just as the waiter walked past again. Great. Another stranger thinking she was odd.

"Yes you have, we went…" The Doctor tailed off. His face fell. "Oh. No, sorry, that must have been Holly." He went back to his food silently.

"So where is Holly this evening?" Rose ventured to ask.

"Back in the TARDIS," the Doctor said. "I've left her with some DVDs and she seems perfectly content."

Rose nodded. That devil on her shoulder rose up again. "So you've managed not to abandon her then?"

The Doctor half choked on his food. "What?" His head shot up and he looked at her, those brown eyes full of amazement. "What are you talking about?"

"Nothing. Just, you know… it's obviously not time for you to leave Holly behind yet." Rose pushed her half-eaten salad away. "You know what, I'm not really that hungry, I think I might head off. I've got a bit of a headache. Here, I'll pay for my half, it was nice to see you." She dropped a ten pound note onto the table, and picked her coat up from the back of the chair. "Bye Doctor."

"Rose?" The Doctor dropped his burger. "No, wait, Rose! Just hold on!" As she headed out of the door, he was already halfway out of his chair, which clattered to the floor. He grabbed his coat before shoving past the waiter towards the door.

"Sir! You haven't paid!" The waiter tried to block his path, but he had no chance against a Time Lord in mid-run. He found himself forced to one side as the Doctor reached for the door and headed out into the damp May night after Rose.

Rose was walking along the pavement, avoiding the puddles in the shoes she'd borrowed off her mum. They were a size too small and she'd forced her toes into them against their will. They were pretty though; red peep-toe court shoes. She used to have a pair like them, which had cost her a lot more than these had cost Jackie. She'd sold them to buy a pushchair for Tala. She was trying to keep out of the rain as well as she could too, to avoid spoiling the silk dress she had on. He hadn't even noticed, she thought bitterly now. The dress he'd bought her and he hadn't even noticed. What a stupid idea this really was.

"Rose!"

She turned to see him jogging towards her, hands in pockets. He was pulling a puzzled face. So much for having infinite intelligence if he couldn't even work out what had upset her.

"What happened?" he asked, as he got closer. "Why did you run off?"

Rose was about to speak when she noticed the man heading quickly after the Doctor. The waiter. Oh God, he'd walked out without the paying the bill again! How many times had she told him? You'd think Miss. Boat Race would have cured him of that little habit. She felt in her small handbag, the one she'd had for years and that went with everything. Just as she'd thought: only five pounds left. Barely enough for a taxi home.

The Doctor had reached her by now, and was still looking confused. He was about to speak when he got interrupted by the waiter.

"Sir? The bill?" Rose almost felt sorry for him. After all, he was probably just some student trying to make ends meet and he'd managed to end up serving the one person on the planet who really didn't understand the concept of money.

The Doctor turned to look at the waiter, a look of extreme irritation on his face. "I'm sorry?"

"The bill." The waiter avoided his disdainful gaze and looked at Rose instead. "There was ten pounds left on the table… I'm afraid that doesn't quite cover the bill…"

"We're food critics!" Rose suddenly blurted out. The Doctor's head swivelled round so fast she was sure it would give him whiplash. She hesitated as she met his eye before continuing. "Yeah, we…. Critique food. Don't we… John?" Please let him still have the psychic paper, please let him catch on.

"Um, yes." He nodded and reached into his inside pocket. A startled look came over his face as he checked another pocket. And another. He pulled a face. "Damn. It must be in my other jacket."

The waiter looked between the two of them. There was something very strange about this pair. "I'm sorry, sir, but I'm afraid you're going to have to come back with me and speak to the manager."

The Doctor nodded. "Right. Okay." The waiter turned his back. He leaned down to Rose. "Um, what do we do now?"

Rose did some quick thinking before making a decision. "Now… we run!" She grabbed his hand and set off at a fast pace in the opposite direction from the waiter. She heard him give a yell as he realised what they were doing, but she kept her head down and continued running. The Doctor was slightly ahead, but kept looking back at her, a bit confused.

"Turn right!" Rose yelled directions to him, remembering the old alleyways from when she used to do this kind of the thing a lot. She could remember the exhilaration now, as she and Mickey used to run off from where they'd been hanging around, up to no good as usual. They'd never done anything too bad; just usual bored kid things.

Eventually Rose slowed down. She clutched at a stitch in her side. She let her hand fall from the Doctor's.

"I think," she panted, "we've lost him."

The Doctor hardly even seemed out of breath. Rose was ready for a long lie down. Not only was she incredibly unused to running like that these days, but her feet were killing her. She sat down on a bench and wriggled her toes out of them, wincing as she saw the blisters.

"That was fun!" He wasn't even being sarcastic. "We should do that more often!"

"What, steal?" Rose replied, rubbing her feet.

He looked over at her. "You okay?"

"Fine."

"You don't look fine."

Rose sat back on the bench and let out a long sigh. "Just not used to that kind of exercise anymore, that's all. And these stupid shoes of Mum's didn't help."

The Doctor looked at the offending articles. "They're not exactly made for running, are they?" He frowned. "Your mum's? What happened to the pair you had like that?"

Rose was taken aback and blinked twice. "Oh. Well, they… I… I lost them," she said finally, not willing to admit her poor financial state.

"You lost them?" He laughed. "After the fuss you made over them and everything! I thought they cost a lot?"

"They did." Far too much, she should never have bought them. But how she'd loved them.

"And you lost them? What were you doing, dancing round your handbag at three in the morning?" He was finding this all very amusing.

"Something like that."

"And you lost them!" There he went again, in fits of laughter.

Rose inspected her nails while she waited for him to control himself. Finally, he stopped guffawing long enough for her to get a word in edgeways. "I didn't think you'd have remembered, anyway."

Instantly the smile left his face. "What? Have remembered what?"

"The shoes. That I had a pair just like these."

He sat down next to her on the bench. "Rose, of course I remember. I mean, I might be getting old, but I'm not crazy just yet!" He hesitated. "I remember the shoes. And that I bought you that dress to go with them." He fingered the material of the skirt gently. "It still suits you." There was a long pause and Rose found herself staring directly into his deep brown eyes. Tala had his eyes, that was for certain.

"Why did you run out of the restaurant?"

She shrugged, momentarily struck dumb. How did he always manage that? She'd been so set to lay into him, to tell him everything she thought of him since he'd left her. Instead, she was sitting on a park bench discussing her favourite pair of shoes that she didn't even own anymore.

"Oh. So nothing's wrong then?" He sounded hopeful, like he believed it could really be true. Like he thought that she'd snap out of it any second and they could go back to reminiscing over old times. Laughing and joking about her shoes and the places they'd been and the people they'd seen. Suddenly Rose felt her anger turn back on again. Welcome back. Where have you been for the last hour!

"You really have no idea do you?"

The Doctor put his head on one side questioningly. "About what?"

"This. Me. Everything." Rose felt her words tumbling out of her mouth with little help or guidance from her. "You just don't get it, do you?"

"Get what? You're not really making any sense, Rose."

"That's rich, coming from you!" She had to force herself not to scream the words. "You talk about me not making sense, when you… you don't even know what sense is! You're a million miles away from sense! You're not even in the same universe as sense! You're about fifteen billion years to the left of sense! If I'm sense, you're in fifty-first century Jupiter!" She paused to catch her breath.

The Doctor thought her words over and nodded. "I can see your point. I think."

"No you don't!" Rose launched in again, standing up. "You don't even get why I walked out of the restaurant, how can you possibly understand what I'm trying to tell you now?" All the months of anger and resentment and frustration that she'd shoved deep down inside of her were making their way up. She was finding it hard to believe she'd agreed to have dinner with him, seeing as she could barely stand the sight of him at this moment in time. Think about Tala.

"I'm trying!" He was standing up now, facing her. "I'm really trying here! But I don't understand why you're so upset!"

Rose felt her bottom lip tremble, but she was determined not to cry. "You used to understand!" she said bitterly. "You used to…You used to care about me!"

"I still do!"

"How can you say that after what you did?" In spite of herself she felt two hot angry tears coursing their way down her face. "How can you say you care about me when you just left me here on my own without even saying goodbye?"

His eyes widened. "What? I didn't, I…
"Yes you did! You just let me get out that day, thinking you were coming too, but you just went away, just like you did to Sarah-Jane and Jack and Adam and everyone! You abandoned us all, Doctor, you just…" She swallowed back some sobs.

"Rose, listen to me…"

"No, you listen!" Rose growled. "I'm sick of listening to your excuses for why you do those things. How can you justify what you did?"

"I can explain…"

"Explain what? Why you suddenly felt the need to get rid of me? And you didn't even say anything, you just…" She tried to collect her scattered thoughts. She should have thought this through, come up with a more structured argument. She'd always been good at debating at school; what was her main point? "I spent so long waiting for you, you know. I thought you'd made a mistake, that you were coming back any minute. But you didn't, you just… left. I trusted you and you just… dumped me. Do you know how hard it was for me to trust you, the new you? I didn't understand what had happened to you, but I still tried, didn't I?"

The Doctor could see the pain all over her face, and felt his own inside. "You tried, Rose. You did so well."

"Then why, Doctor? You could have talked to me, told me why you felt you needed some space. I'd have given it you, I'd have…" She sniffed. "I'd have done anything for you. I thought we were friends."

"We are!"

"No, we aren't! We never were! You just left me behind, friends don't do that!" She wiped her eyes on the back of her hand. "What was I, just some toy for you to play with until you got bored and fancied a change? A blonde this year, a brunette the next, is that it?"
"Rose!"
"Don't!" She fell silent, trying to control her heaving sobs. A year's worth of anger had risen up, tearing her in two.

Into the silence, the Doctor spoke. "I was wrong to do that, Rose."

"Yes. You were." Rose sniffed.

"But I'm back now…"

"And I wish you hadn't come back!" Rose snapped. "You should have stayed away, you should have… I don't know, taken your new friend somewhere, anywhere but here! I don't want you hanging around me again, Doctor." Her voice faltered on the last syllable. The Doctor looked like he was about to speak when her phone rang.

"I suppose that's your mother," he said, unable to resist it.

Rose glared at him, before pulling her phone out of her bag. It was her mum. She answered it.

"Rose? Now I don't want you to worry, sweetheart, it's all fine…"

"Mum, you don't say that unless something's wrong," Rose said, instantly alert. "What's happened?"

"Tala's just running a bit of a temperature," Jackie was saying, sounding remarkably light-hearted and calm about it. "Nothing to worry about, love, but we're just taking her to the hospital to have her checked over."

Rose realised what it meant for your blood to run cold. "What do you mean? What's wrong with her?"

"Don't worry!" Jackie insisted. "Look, we're nearly at the hospital now, I'll have to turn this off. Just come as soon as you can, but be careful! Don't do anything silly."

"What hospital?" Rose demanded. The Doctor looked up suddenly at her.

"St. Brigit's," Jackie informed her. "But there's no panic, Rose, she's fi-" Rose hung up and shoved her phone back into her bag.

"I've got to go," she said.

"What's wrong? Who's in hospital?"

"It doesn't matter," Rose insisted. "I've just got to go."

"Rose, you've gone as pale as a ghost… and believe me, I know. You can't go on your own."

"I'll be fine. But I need to go now."

"Well, who's hurt?"

"No one!"

"Ill?"

"I need to go!"

He caught her wrist. "Rose. What's wrong? Tell me."

"Please, Doctor!"

"Rose." He fixed her with his firm stare. "I just want to help. Let me in. Please."

She'd promised herself this wouldn't happen again. He'd hurt her too much, betrayed her beyond belief. He'd ruined any sense of trust she'd built up since Jimmy Stone had broken her heart when she was sixteen. He'd shown her too much, shown her that things did go bump in the night and that life was more dangerous than she could ever have imagined. Why couldn't he see that she was afraid? She'd seen all there was to see, and she knew what could go wrong. Daily life terrified her now.

But he was here now, his hand gently on her wrist. She could feel his double-pulse through his skin. She could smell those mothballs. She was tired of being strong, of having to be reliable all the time. He was her Doctor; she wanted him to make it better.

"It's Tala." She hesitated. "Our daughter."

Lyrics from "Because of You" by Kelly Clarkson