Chapter Three: An Odd Couple.
Series: Three.
Episode: One - Smith and Jones.
Part: One.

After saying his farewells to Donna, the Doctor had scooped Rose up off of the captain's chair and taken her into the infirmary. Whereas before her skin had been too hot it was now icy. The Doctor had run multiple scans but they had all concluded the same thing. Diagnosis: Fever. Aside from that, it would seem she was in perfect health.

Rose had asked almost immediately upon waking what had happened to Donna the Doctor had awkwardly informed her that she hadn't wanted to come. And though Rose was sure there was more to it than that, her mind had been so foggy from her fever that she hadn't pushed for more. Though she had been disappointed, she thought the ginger woman would have made an excellent friend and companion.

The Doctor insisted they didn't go on any adventures just yet. And though Rose could tell it was driving him insane - and the TARDIS certainly didn't approve of the extra repairs - she was grateful. It gave her time to properly grieve and to get over her fever. They went on a couple of trips but they were all very safe and touristy. The Doctor had made the TARDIS promise to hold off on all life and death situations until Rose was better. And the TARDIS was not about to take that risk with Her Wolf.

And that was how it stayed for the three weeks after they had met Donna. But now even Rose was getting unbearably restless. Besides she had to empty out her mother's flat. When Rose told the Doctor as much he whined and complained that her fever wasn't completely gone. But the TARDIS medbay scans quickly disproved that. So with a grumble, the Doctor set the coordinates.

x

Rose and the Doctor arrived some weeks after the Battle of Canary Wharf - long enough that Jackie's disappearance would have been noted - but before they'd met Donna. With the TARDIS parked in the flat, the Doctor went off to the landlord to inform him they were sent by the housing association to clean out the flat. Once returned, they quickly emptied Jackie's flat of anything and everything, sentimentals being the first to be loaded in the TARDIS - photo albums, their favourite mugs, the odd magnet Jackie had collected as well as a few more meaningful items of clothing - leaving heavier pieces of furniture behind. As far as officials knew Rose and Jackie Tyler had died in the Battle of Canary Wharf or at the very least Jackie had as most people still thought Rose was off travelling.

It would have been easier if people had believed Rose was dead too. It would have made the dreaded clean-up easier. But unfortunately for the two time-travellers, Shareen Costello - Rose's old mate off the estates - had been keeping an eye on Jackie's flat, waiting for her to return, so when she'd heard a commotion inside she'd come running. Shareen had been hopeful that Jackie was safe and sound until she'd things being boxed away, Rose had been quick to explain the situation and offer comfort to the friend who had seen Jackie as a second mum.

Determined not to lose Rose too, the young woman managed to wheedle out a promise to come to dinner out of Rose as well as demanding that the Doctor attend also before she allowed them to finish clearing out the flat.

After carting all of her and her mum's belongings into the TARDIS, Rose had had a craving for chips. Which was how they had ended up walking through Chancery Street, a few days after meeting Donna linear time - not wanting to run the risk of running into themselves or cause a temporal disturbance -, a portion of chips each in hand. It was as they were passing the Royal Hope hospital that the Doctor brought them to a halt by their conjoined hands.

Rose turned and looked back at him curiously as he stared intensely at the Hospital.

"What? What is it?"

"Plasma coils." The Doctor answered distractedly as he waved his hand around in the air in front of the hospital.

"And that's bad?" Rose asked, unsure.

"Dunno. Could be. Let's go check it out." The Doctor said going to rush into the hospital before Rose pulled him back by their adjoined hands.

"And how are we gonna do that? I don't have to be a dinner lady again, do I?" Rose questioned sternly, daring the Doctor to make her be a dinner lady again.

The Doctor chuckled.

"Nah, we'll just sign in as patients." He said going to rush off again and once again Rose tugged him back.

"Sufferin' from what? It's probably only gonna be a quick visit so it can't be anythin' to serious but we still need to get in."

"Stomach pains." The Doctor offered as if it were obvious.

This time Rose let him drag her into the hospital but she made a point of arguing under her breath about the fact that she would have to do it because he was a bloody alien and did he even have any official records? And no, Rose didn't think he could get away with using the psychic paper to fake all of those documents.

Rose quickly filled in the necessary documents and handed it back to the receptionist with a smile. The Doctor had told her to sign her name as 'Rose Smith' and then proceeded to slip a plain gold band. To which Rose had raised eyebrows at and asked how many of those he had, as she remembered the one he gave to Donna. She only got an awkward shuffle at that. Rose had rolled her eyes with a fond smile and refrained from further teasing as she slipped it on.

A couple of hours past before she was finally admitted, given a bed and a change of clothes. Rose grumbled as she held the generic striped pyjamas she was supposed to wear. She ordered the Doctor to turn around before changing and slipping into the bed.

"Stay here, I'll be right back." The Doctor whispered.

Rose grabbed his arm as he turned to leave.

"Oh no, you don't! Where are you going?" Rose hissed quietly, not wanting to give themselves away quite so soon.

"To have a look around. See what the plasma coils are for, or what's causing them."

"So I'm supposed to stay here while you snoop around." Rose questioned, with an eyebrow raised.

"Yes. You're a patient can't have you wandering around otherwise they'll think you're fine and then we'll learn nothing."

"Fine. Just this once, don't think you'll get away with it next time." Rose warned as she slipped back in bed, pointing an accusatory finger at him.

The Doctor grinned and gave her hand a quick squeeze.

"I promise. See you in a bit." He said slipping out of the curtains.

Rose sighed, leaning back into the cushions. She pulled her jacket out of the little bedside cabinet. She rummaged quickly through her pockets - the Doctor had fixed them so they were bigger on the inside after multiple instances of her things getting lost inside his pockets when she'd asked him to look after them - until she produced a book. 'Animal Farm by George Orwell'. Resigned to the fact that there would be no running for her today, Rose opened her book and settled in for another quiet day of reading.

x

By the time the Doctor came back, Rose had fallen into a light slumber that was quickly disturbed by the Doctor trying to get through the stiff papery curtains.

"Find anything?" Rose asked sitting up.

"No. Nothing. Whatever is causing the plasma coils isn't hidden in the hospital but they're getting stronger."

"So it should only take a couple of days then?" Rose asked hopefully.

She had been stuck in the TARDIS for three weeks; she didn't want to be bedridden for half as long as that.

"Oh yeah. We should have figured it out in the next couple of days." The Doctor said adamantly.

"Good."

x

Two days in fact. It was two days later that the purpose of the plasma coils became clear. Two days of waiting around in bed while the Doctor snooped. Two days of horrible hospital food and invasive questions.

The day had started as it had for the past two days. But instead of nurses bustling in and out, asking questions, it was instead a group of medical students. The Doctor hadn't left for his daily snooping yet as it was still fairly early and having heard approaching footsteps they had halted any conversation and Rose had instead pulled out another book.

The curtain was drawn back by a beaming old man in a suit, who Rose knew to be, Mr Stoker. The medical students followed after him like sheep as they clustered around the bed. Rose resisted a smile at the imagery. She had been lucky enough to not have been visited by medical students so far, it seemed her luck had run out.

"Now then, Mrs Smith, a very good morning to you. How are you today?"

"Aw, not so bad, been better." Rose chuckled.

"Rose Smith admitted two days ago with severe abdominal pains. Jones, why don't you see what you can find? Amaze me." A young woman with dark skin and straight black hair stepped forward.

"That wasn't very clever, running around outside, was it?" The medical student said looking pointedly at both of them.

"Sorry?" Rose asked when the Doctor looked just confused.

"On Chancery Street this morning. You came up to me, asked me if I wanted your chips." The women said, bewildered.

"Really? What did we do that for?" The Doctor said.

"I don't know, you just did."

"Not us. We were here, I was in bed. Ask the nurses." Rose spoke.

"Well, that's weird, cause it looked like you two."

"Weird."

"As time passes and I grow ever more infirm and weary, Miss Jones."

"Sorry. Right."

The medical student put the stethoscope to Rose's chest, she tried not to flinch at the cold metal.

"Diagnosis, Miss Jones?"

"Um. I don't know. She could be pregnant?"

"No. Sorry. Infertile." Rose quickly input, already seeing the Doctor begin to shift uneasily in the plastic hospital chairs. Clearly, he hadn't thought this plan all the way through.

The woman's face flushed and she looked at Rose apologetically. Rose just smiled gently at her.

"Exactly, and you would have known that had you not rather failed basic techniques by not consulting first with the patient's chart."

He picked up the clipboard but quickly dropped it again on to the bed when he received an electric shock.

"That happened to me this morning." Said the young doctor, Miss Jones, Rose thought her name was.

"I had the same thing on the door handle." A blond haired male pipes up.

"And me, on the lift." An Asian woman added.

The Doctor and Rose exchanged glances, the meaning clear. Did this have something to do with the plasma coils?

"That's only to be expected. There's a thunderstorm moving in and lightning is a form of static electricity, as was first proven by, anyone?"

"Benjamin Franklin." The Doctor answered cheerfully.

"Correct!"

"My mate Ben, that was a day and a ha-" Rose poked him swiftly in the side effectively cutting him off.

"Moving on." Announced Mr Stoker after giving them a suspicious glance, to which Rose grinned at.

As the group moved away the Doctor spoke up once more, still nursing his ribs.

"What did you do that for?"

"Do you want to get stuck in the psychiatric ward?"

The Doctor muttered something unintelligible under his breath, turning away from Rose's gaze. Rose chuckled, picking her book back up.

"Go on then. Go snoop."

The Doctor grinned before darting through the curtains. Rose shook her head at his behaviour but was unable to wipe the smile from her lips as she hunkered down to read.

x

Nothing happened for a good ten/fifteen minutes and Rose was certain that she was going to be spending another day stuck in bed.

Until it started raining.

Nothing seemed wrong with it at first. Though it did strike Rose as odd that not even moments before it had been bright sunshine and now there was torrential rain. But that was also very in line with British weather so she didn't find it particularly suspicious.

But then the rain started going up.

Rose heard the shuffling of feet against the laminated floor before she noticed it. She looked up from her book to notice everyone crowding around the window, doctors and patients alike. Tossing her book aside she got up to see what all the commotion was about.

She'd barely had time to ponder the interesting rain patterns when a wave of pain crashed into her. Her mind burned as a tsunami of images flooded over her.

Martha being stopped by the Doctor on Chancellor street as he demonstrates removing his tie before sauntering off.

Martha tending to a bed-bound Doctor.

Martha struggling to suggest a diagnosis with the sound of his duel heartbeat ringing in her ears.

Letisha stood on Chancellor street staring gobsmacked at the crater where Royal Hope hospital once stood.

Martha gazing out of the window to see the Earth in the distance and the hospital embedded on the surface of the moon.

Martha discussing the lack of airtight windows.

The Doctor overhearing her and commending her.

The Doctor and Martha stood on the veranda.

The Doctor launching a pebble off of the veranda only for it to collide with some sort of force field.

Cylindrical spaceships belonging to the Judoon docked on the moon's surface.

Florence draining the blood from Mr Stoker as her two slabs keep him restrained, she talks about her need to absorb salt and terrible deeds to come.

The Judoon scan the inhabitants of the hospital and mark all humans with a clear cross on the back of their hand.

The words 'Shapeshifter' drifted through her mind. Scorching a path through the tidal wave of images.

The Doctor and Martha in the radiology room hiding from the slabs as Martha searches frantically through manuals for the correct button.

Again more words drifted through the torrent of images 'Assimulating' and 'Plasmavore' were among them.

Florence is scanned by the Judoon and categorised as 'human'.

The Judoon chase after the Doctor and Martha when he scans as non-human.

The Doctor transfers traces of TNA with Martha via a kiss before dashing off, using Martha as the distraction.

Florence is fiddling with the machines in the MRI room causing a loud buzzing sound to emit, she intends to fry the brain-stems of every living thing on one half of the Earth with a magnetic pulse.

Florence assimulates the Doctor's blood, draining him dry.

Martha starts to apply pulmonary resuscitation techniques before she remembers he has two hearts.

Martha collapses as the Doctor is revived, he unplugs the red wire.

Back on Earth, the Doctor invites Martha along for one trip as a thank you. It inevitably becomes more.

'Alternate Timelines'.

Rose gasped as the stream of information ceased. During the short pause she'd somehow ended up on the floor and felt bruised in several places. Standing, she caught her reflection in the window. Her cheeks were flushed, her french braids loose from where she'd gripped the strands but most striking were her eyes.

Her chestnut irises were no more. Instead the golden light, she had come to recognise as Huon particles after their adventure with Donna, shone in their place. Golden veins trailed beneath her eyes. She stared encapsulated at her own reflection. It was weird to think that it was the same face she'd had all her life because right now it looked so foreign.

She shook her head turning her gaze away from the window, she knew what she'd find anyway. The images clung to her like a bad dream. She turned back to her bed, pulling the curtains back to get dressed. Once she'd donned the blue jeans, a grey t-shirt with a wolf on it (the TARDIS' idea of a joke) and dark green jacket she stepped out again in time to see the Doctor returning.

"It's real. It's really real. Hold on."

The training doctor reached for the window only to be stopped by her colleague.

"Don't! We'll lose all the air."

"But they're not exactly air tight. If the air was going to get sucked out it would have happened straight away, but it didn't. So how come?" She pointed out.

The Doctor, who had been listening in, finally spoke up. Rose froze in place beside him, those words, words that had echoed in her head just moments ago, now hung in the air. Was it real? Was that how things were going to play out, only one way to find out she supposed.

"Very good point. Brilliant, in fact. What was your name?"

"Martha."

"And it was Jones, wasn't it? Well then, Martha Jones, the question is, how are we still breathing?" He darted over to the window to get a look for himself.

"We can't be."

"Obviously we are, so don't waste my time." Rose jabbed a finger into his side cutting him off with an offended expression.

"Being rude again." She muttered pointedly.

"Good I meant that one." He turned back to the other woman. "Martha, what have we got? Is there a balcony on this floor, or a veranda, or..." He trailed off finally drawing his glare away from a smirking Rose to address the woman in question.

"By the patients' lounge, yeah." She answered watching the two with amusement.

Rose shifted awkwardly under her gaze, the memory of an alternative timeline pulling her off kilter. Instead she shot the other training doctor an apologetic smile for the Doctor's behaviour. A smile she'd had plenty of practice at unfortunately.

"Fancy going out?"

"Okay."

"We might die." He cautioned her.

Rose watched the woman curiously, she already knew how this would end - if she was to believe that what she had seen was an alternative timeline, that is - yet she still couldn't tear herself away. It was like watching a film that you'd seen a million times before, yet still getting sucked into the suspense of it all.

Except. She hadn't actually ever seen this, had she?

"We might not." She replied bravely, pulling Rose from her confusing thoughts.

"Good." That seemed to clear up any doubts he had, Rose had always wondered how he decided who was worth travelling with, and now she was about to find out. "Come on. Not her, she'd hold us up."

They pushed through streams of panicking patients and medical professionals. The lounge itself was relatively clear, not many in the right state currently for relaxing. The Doctor and Miss Jones pushed the doors open and stepped out onto the veranda. The moon laid out spectacularly before them.

Rose lingered behind them, unsure of her place. She remembered her first adventure with the Doctor and she wouldn't have wanted it any other way. But simply knowing what was going to happen felt like she was ruining this moment for Martha. The Doctor looked over his shoulder at her with a look of curiosity, clearly still worried after everything that'd happened recently, he outstretched his hand to her. She gave him a reassuring smile before taking his hand in hers.

She leaned up to whisper into his ear, not wanting to chase the young doctor away so soon.

"How come we've never been to the moon?"

"You never asked. Why? Did you want to?" He suddenly looked panicked, as if it was obvious he should have thought of it sooner.

She chuckled and patted his shoulder. The sound of Martha's wonder pulling her back to reality. It was almost scary how easily she lost track of herself around the Doctor.

"We've got air. How does that work?"

"Just be glad it does." The Doctor answered, finally shaking himself free of the momentary panic.

"I've got a party tonight. It's my brother's twenty-first. My mother's going to be really, really..." She trailed off as awe gave way to other emotions.

Rose pulled back from the Doctor slightly at the mention of family.

"You okay? It's a lot to take in." She asked kindly.

"Yeah."

"Sure?" The Doctor checked.

"Yeah."

"Want to go back in?"

"No way. I mean, we could die any minute, but all the same, it's beautiful."

"Do you think?"

They all turned to gaze at the glittering jewel in the distance. Rose felt a sudden pang in her chest. It was ridiculous really, she'd be back soon, she'd promised Shareen. Another part of her knew that it hadn't felt like home for a long time, and now with no Mickey or Jackie waiting for her, she wasn't sure it ever would again.

"How many people want to go to the moon? And here we are."

"Standing in the Earthlight."

Rose smiled at the imagery, her mind once more wandering back to her first trip in the TARDIS.

"What do you think happened?"

"What do you think?" The Doctor asked innocently but Rose saw this for the test it was.

"Extraterrestrial. It's got to be. I don't know, a few years ago that would have sounded mad, but these days? That spaceship flying into Big Ben, Christmas, those Cybermen things. I had a twin sister. Adeola. She worked at Canary Wharf. She never came home."

"I'm sorry." She knew it was an empty platitude as soon as it fell from her lips but she didn't know what else she could say.

Rose's heart broke for the woman, as many people as they saved, there were still those who didn't make it. She'd never had a sibling, let alone a twin, she couldn't quite understand the pain she was going through. A thousand faces flashed before her eyes, she swayed on her feet, bombarded by the too real ghosts. She felt someone squeeze her hand, she looked up to see the Doctor staring at her, worry brewing in his brown eyes. She squeezed back before looking away. Guilt clawed at her throat for everything she wasn't saying.

"Yeah."

"I was there, in the battle."

"I promise you, Mr Smith and Mrs Smith, we will find a way out. If we can travel to the moon, then we can travel back. There's got to be a way."

Rose tilted her head in curiosity. It was so weird to hear the promise fall from another's lips.

"It's not Smith. That's not our real names." The Doctor dropped her hand to stalk around the veranda.

Rose crossed her arms across her chest as she leant back against the rough concrete as she watched him.

"Who are you, then?"

"Rose Tyler." She smiled with a wave, at Martha's confusion she elaborated. "We're not married." She muttered.

The woman shot the Doctor a look and then looked back at her as if to say she didn't believe that for a second. Rose smiled wearily.

"I'm the Doctor."

"Me too, if I can pass my exams. What is it then, Doctor Smith?"

"Just the Doctor."

"How do you mean, just the Doctor?"

Rose rubbed at her temples with a tired smile, it was always the same question.

"Just the Doctor."

"What, people call you the Doctor?" She looked to Rose for confirmation.

"Yep." Rose said, popping the 'p' with a smile.

"Well, I'm not. As far as I'm concerned, you've got to earn that title." She decided adamantly.

"Well, I'd better make a start, then." Rose passed him the pebble she already knew he would be needing, he smiled but his eyes were full of questions. "Let's have a look. There must be some sort of..."

The pebble once launched off of the veranda collided with seemingly nothing, yet still somehow causing the air to ripple from point of contact.

"Forcefield keeping the air in."

"But if that's like a bubble sealing us in, that means this is the only air we've got. What happens when it runs out? "

"How many people in this hospital?" Rose asked, the image of thousands suffocating still haunting her.

"I don't know. A thousand?"

"One thousand people. Suffocating." Rose barely concealed a flinch at the Doctor's words.

"Why would anyone do that?" Martha demanded.

After all this time travelling, Rose still didn't know the answer to that one, she didn't think she ever would.

"Head's up! Ask them yourself."

Three familiar cylindrical spaceships passed overhead. Rose recoiled at the sight, it was starting. And wasn't that an odd thought. They land nearby on the surface of the moon, outside the barrier of the forcefield. Leather clad aliens came marching out in true military style.

"Aliens. That's aliens. Real, proper aliens."

"Judoon." The name struck another cord within the blonde, well everything had played out as she'd seen thus far.

The Doctor spun on his heel and thundered down the corridor following signs to what Rose assumed was the reception. She sighed.

"Come on we better follow him before he gets himself into trouble."

"Does that happen often?"

Rose threw her head back with laughter at the otherwise innocent question.

"If he had a middle name that would be it."

x

The two women caught up with the Doctor who was crouched behind some leafy green plants on the mezzanine.

"Oh, look down there, Rose they've got a little shop. I like a little shop." The Doctor babbled happily, Rose smiled as she remembered the conversation from New Earth.

"Not much use now, Doctor. Unless they're allergic to flowers."

"Never mind that. What are Judoon?" Martha interrupted.

Rose was beginning to admire the young woman, it'd only been a handful of minutes but she was already asking all the right questions after being thrown into an unusual situation.

"They're like police. Well, police for hire. They're more like interplanetary thugs."

"And they brought us to the moon?"

"Neutral territory. According to galactic law, they've got no jurisdiction over the Earth, and they isolated it. That rain, lightning? That was them, using a H2O scoop."

Rose wanted to question him further on the neutral territory thing but now didn't seem like the time.

"What are you on about, galactic law? Where'd you get that from?" The Doctor scrambled to another part of the walkway to get a better look, the two women followed after him. "If they're police, are we under arrest? Are we trespassing on the moon or something?"

The young doctor's spew of questions were getting difficult to keep up with, the thought of two Doctors babbling at a thousand miles per hour with more technical terms than Rose could count made her head hurt but that did nothing to stop the smile that slipped onto her lips.

"No, but I like that. Good thinking. No, I wish it were that simple. They're making a catalogue. That means they're after something non-human, which is very bad news for me." He answered absentmindedly as he quickly assessed the situation.

"Why?" The Doctor raised one eyebrow in answer, Rose fought the urge to laugh at Martha's shocked expression. "Oh, you're kidding me. Don't be ridiculous. Stop looking at me like that."

"Come on then." The Doctor darts away leaving a bewildered doctor in his wake.

"He's joking, right?"

"Not in the slightest."

x

They caught up with the Doctor in a small darkened office. Rose settled in while the Doctor got to work on the computer, she was never any good with that tech stuff anyway. Martha disappeared back into the corridor for a couple of minutes before returning with news.

"They've reached the third floor. What's that thing?" Martha asked pointedly.

"Sonic screwdriver."

"Well, if you're not going to answer me properly." Rose smirked to herself, she knew that feeling all too well.

"No, really, it is. It's a screwdriver, and it's sonic. Look."

"What else have you got, a laser spanner?"

"I did, but it was stolen by Emily Pankhurst, cheeky woman."

Martha looked briefly to Rose with a questioning glance, she nodded in affirmation to the Doctor's statement. God, she remembered that day, he'd pouted about it for weeks. She was interrupted from her thoughts by the Doctor smacking the top of the computer in frustration.

"Oh, this computer! The Judoon must have locked it down. Judoon platoon upon the moon. Because we were just getting chips. I swear we were just wandering. We weren't looking for trouble, honestly, we weren't, but I noticed these plasma coils around the hospital, and that lightning, that's a plasma coil. Been building up for two days now, so we checked in. I thought something was going on inside. It turns out the plasma coils were the Judoon up above."

Martha looked slightly bewildered as she tried to keep up with the Doctor's rambling.

"But what were they looking for?"

"Something that looks human, but isn't."

"Like you, apparently."

"Like me. But not me."

"Haven't they got a photo?"

"Well, might be a shape-changer."

That triggered a memory, that word, what was it? Plasmavore, her mind whispered to her.

"Whatever it is, can't you just leave the Judoon to find it?"

"If they declare the hospital guilty of harbouring a fugitive, they'll sentence it to execution."

That should have been news to Rose but she already knew it and it wouldn't be the Judoon that were their biggest problem.

"All of us?"

"Oh yes. If I can find this thing first. Oh! You see, they're thick! Judoon are thick! They are completely thick! They wiped the records. Oh, that's clever." The Doctor exclaimed sarcastically.

"What are we looking for?"

"I don't know. Say, any patient admitted in the past week with unusual symptoms. Maybe there's a back-up."

"Just keep working. I'll go ask Mister Stoker. He might know."

Part of Rose panicked at the thought of the young doctor going out of sight when there were Judoon and shapeshifting criminals on the loose. But another part of her - the new part of her that seemed to be a fountain of knowledge regarding the events of today - knew she would be safe and was more worried about interfering.

So against her better judgement, she watched the doctor leave, gnawing at a hangnail all the while. A dreadful habit she knew, but one she'd never been able to kick especially since travelling with the Doctor.

"You alright, Rose? You've been awfully quiet." The Doctor asked, still trying to wrangle the computer into showing him what he wanted.

"Yeah just..." She stumbled for a moment trying to sort through the chaos in her mind in order to give an answer that wouldn't give away too much, the TARDIS' warning still echoing in her mind. "Just how do you know who to take?"

It was something she'd wondered many a time and seeing as she had been staring into the face of a possible companion for at least an hour now, now seemed as good a time as any to finally prose the question.

"Well I- you know I only take the best." The Doctor seemed to falter as well, perhaps unsure of how to explain or maybe he couldn't, maybe it's just something he knows.

But it felt like the easy answer. Unwilling to commit. But she'd known the Doctor for a long time now, she should be used to non-answers.

And maybe a part of her was jealous because in another timeline she and the Doctor are separated and he replaces her with this quite frankly brilliant woman. Educated, ambitious, clever, brave and quick enough to keep up with the Doctor. A reminder of all her silly little human insecurities that have plagued her, her whole life due to her class comes bubbling to the surface in a way that's so very reminiscent of their trip with Madame de Pompadour. And really she knows that none of that matters out there in the big wide universe, nonsense human conventions that have no place amongst the stars. But insecurities die hard; they are, after all, the nastiest kind of habit and the hardest to shake.

So maybe just this once she wanted an actual answer, she wanted to understand what goes on in that big Timelord brain of his, even if it's just to settle her own mind. And yes maybe that was selfish, but Jimmy Stone had taught her to be selfish in some backhanded way but he'd also bred most of the insecurities that lurked in the darkest corners of her mind as well.

"I chose you lot because my people believed you to be beneath us but so often you prove them wrong. The best of humanity, so brave and curious about the universe, but also so very reckless. How could I resist? And not everyone comes, their fear and responsibilities stronger than their curiosity. In a way I see myself in you lot." The Doctor finally divulged if a little reluctantly as he always is when sharing anything the slightest bit personal, as if aware of Rose's inner turmoil, perhaps he was.

Well, that settled it then.

Resolved strengthened, she was pulled back to the present by the Doctor's triumphant shout.

"Good news?"

He leapt from his seat in lieu of answering her as he darted past into the corridor.

"Got it."

He crashed into a wide-eyed Martha, with Rose following behind.

"I've restored the back-up."

"I found her."

"You did what?" The Doctor deflated, an opportunity to show off lost, Rose thought to herself in amusement.

Two men dressed in identical black leather biker outfits come crashing into the corridor.

"Run!"

The three of them take off down the slippery hospital corridors, darting out of the way of crumpled patients as they go. They start down the stairs but almost collide with the Judoon on their way up, sandwiched between two very different problems they take a diversion down another corridor.

Well this is just great, Rose thought to herself, what the hell are they going to deal with first?

A/N: TO BE CONTINUED. So what did you think of the first look at Rose's new power? I have been putting this chapter off forever after how long the last one ended up being. Let me know if there are any spelling mistakes my laptop was playing up when I was writing this.

Let me know your thoughts in the comments below :)