New York

The Doctor stood on the corner of Bloomingdales as impatient Americans and tourists barged past him. He sighed irritably and found himself incredibly tempted to summon the completely harmless but terrifying looking animal from the planet Euphrosyne which Rose had adopted. Frodo-Boe - named after Rose's favourite Lord of the Rings character and an alien friend on Platform One - may be as sinister as a field of marshmallows but his extended tail which glowed and looked like a scorpion's stinger and the ability to levitate certainly made him look no innocent. The Doctor laughed to himself, seeing a clueless Frodo-Boe stagger through the streets, a 22nd century King Kong.

The doors next to him opened and the Doctor saw Rose emerge from the famous department store. She looked understated and stunning, wearing a pair of jeans that hugged all the right places. Instead of the pink and yellow slashed tee shirt she wore when she entered, a sleeveless bright blue and white Shakespearean style shirt. Her blonde hair looked like spun gold in the pale December sunshine. She went over to him and the two watched as Jack helplessly struggled out of the doors, looking like a pack horse. The Doctor went over and relieved the Time Agent of some of his - or should that Rose's - possessions.

The woman from the twenty-first century giggled at the pair of them, looping her arm through one of the Doctor's arms and her other through Jack's.

Times Square gleamed ahead, the advertisements flashing promises and the actors smiling too-polished grins.

"Come on, we've got the rest of New York to discover!" Rose said her childlike wonder and enthusiasm rubbing up on the two men.

"Fine, but can we drop this off before. I'm getting a dead arm from carrying your fourteen pairs of jeans."

"Fifteen actually and they were on offer. Don't be such a wuss! I mean, you're a Time Agent from the 51st century and yet you complain about carrying some jeans!" Rose teased him absent-mindedly, finding the familiar blue police box where they left it.

"Rosie, don't make me bring out the passport photo!" Jack lightly threatened, knowing Rose's appearance on her passport photograph would have both him and the Doctor drowning in giggles for days.

They left Frodo-Boe with some Bloomingdales chocolates, knowing that he soon would sleep happily before softly closing the door on the time machine and turning around onto the year of 2106. Glittering virtual holograms displayed soft drinks, films and even a packet of edible condoms which Jack considered.

Captain Harkness' eye caught a leather jacket in the corner of a window and as he rushed over, Rose took the Doctor's hand.

"Thanks for this." Rose said softly. The nine hundred old looked down at her.

"It's nothing." The two held each other's hand a moment longer.

"Come on, we best get Jack before he falls in love with that jacket." Rose made her way over to their companion and she turned her head to look at the Doctor as she ran over. She grinned and then leapt onto Jack's shoulders, her legs squeezing the sides of his face, making him stagger against the glass and curse her while she ruffled his perfectly styled hair.

The Doctor, with his Northern accent and leather jacket couldn't look more out of place in the city that never stopped. He was gruff and cold and distant and didn't do domestic.

But when Rose smiled at him like that, he was home.

Fin.