'What the hell is this?' asked the Doctor.

In the two short hours he had been in the med-bay, Martha and Mickey had somehow managed to turn his TARDIS console room into a popular tourist spot. Okay, there weren't that many people but it was still far more than the Doctor was comfortable with.

'Well, the Valeyard knows where we are, doesn't he?' said Mickey. 'So, now we have to get everyone out and this way is the quickest.'

'So you just thought you would invite everyone onboard my TARDIS without asking me?'

'That pretty much sums it up,' said Martha. 'You were busy. How is she by the way?'

'She'll be fine,' said the Doctor, not wanting to go into detail. 'So where are you proposing I take these people?'

This time it was Anna who spoke up. 'My father owns a place in Dorset,' she said. 'He always told me to head there if I couldn't get back to our house in Chiswick.'

The Doctor sighed, defeated. 'Do you have the coordinates?' he asked.

'I have the address.'

'Good enough.'

The Doctor spun the screen around in front of him and pressed a couple of buttons. He gestured for Anna to stand in front of the screen. 'Just type in the address and the TARDIS will lock onto the coordinates,' he said.

Anna did as she was instructed and a satellite view of her family home in Dorset appeared on the screen.

The Doctor moved towards the lever that would dematerialize the TARDIS. 'Are we waiting on anybody?'

'No, this is it,' said Martha solemnly.

The Doctor counted the people in the room, there were 15 excluding himself. He was relieved to see that Kate was there and he was more than a little surprised that Jedda had made it back. He also recognised the young man who was in the hotel's meeting room last night. He didn't recognise any of the others but he presumed the little old lady was the owner of the hotel.

'Not much of a resistance is it? 15 people?'

'It used to be more,' said Martha.

'We lost a lot of people getting you out,' explained Jedda. 'So you had better be worth it. Can you stop the Valeyard?'

The Doctor was silent for a moment. He didn't like making promises when he wasn't sure if he could keep them. 'I'll do what I can,' he said and then pulled down the lever. A few of the passengers jumped at the wheezing sound as the TARDIS left the hotel.

oOoOo

The TARDIS landed in the living room of Anna's Dorset home. Most of the passengers were quite eager to leave the time machine; some even went so far as to run out of the door. Fair enough it wasn't his smoothest trip but it hadn't been that bad, had it?

Mickey walked out the TARDIS door and reappeared a few seconds later.

'Anna, you never told us your Dad was rich? This place is huge!'

Anna shrugged. 'Dad inherited this place from his grandfather. Do you want a tour?'

Mickey smiled and nodded. 'That'd be great. Martha?'

'Yeah, sure,' replied Martha and they went to leave the TARDIS.

Anna stopped just before the doors when she noticed that the Doctor wasn't following. 'Are you coming?' she asked.

'I better not,' he said. 'I want to be here when Rose wakes up.'

Anna nodded and left.

With the console room now empty, the Doctor headed back to the med-bay to wait for Rose to wake up. There was going to be a lot of explaining to do.

oOoOo

Rose awoke to the sound of a gentle humming. Her mind was not fully awake yet but it felt like home. It wasn't until she opened her eyes that she realised she was in the TARDIS.

'Hello, old girl,' she said to the ceiling. 'Did you miss me?'

'I'm pretty sure she did,' said a voice from somewhere to her left. Rose jumped a little but relaxed when she saw the Doctor striding across the room. 'How are you feeling?' he asked as he helped her sit up.

'My head hurts a bit,' she said. 'How long was I out?'

'A couple of hours. I think you just needed to sleep it off.'

'So no lasting damage, then?'

The Doctor didn't answer her. He looked like he was searching for the right words but none were coming to him. Her mind immediately jumped to the worst-case scenario.

'Oh God. I'm dying aren't I?'

'No,' said the Doctor. 'Quite the opposite, actually.'

'What do you mean? Doctor what happened?'

'You don't remember?'

'I remember the Valeyard dragging me down a hallway but then it's all just a sort of bright light. Did I die and come back? Oh my God, am I like Jack?'

'No you're not like Jack.' He was still avoiding giving her an answer and she was starting to get frustrated.

'Doctor, just tell me what's going on!' she half-shouted. That's when she noticed it, the unfamiliar rhythm in her chest. 'My chest feels weird,' she said in a softer tone.

'That would be the extra heart. Don't worry, you'll get used to it.'

'Right… Hold on, no, sorry. Extra heart?'

'The Valeyard used the Chameleon Arch on you,' explained the Doctor.

'But that would mean…'

'You're not exactly human anymore,' the Doctor finished for her.

The words seemed to jolt Rose's memory and she had a flashback of being manhandled into a chair and then an intense pain.

'I… I remember. It hurt so much. I thought I was dying. He…' She scrunched up her face, trying to focus on the memory. 'He said that it wouldn't work. They hadn't changed the settings or something. Why did it work on me and not the others?'

'Bad Wolf,' answered the Doctor. 'You must still have had some remnants of huon particles left over from when you absorbed the time vortex.'

'What are huon particles?'

'They're found in the Heart of the TARDIS.'

'So he can't make himself a Time Lord without them, yeah?' The Doctor nodded. 'So he still needs the TARDIS?'

'He can make them from water but it would take him a long time and I don't think he is that patient. He'll probably try and get a hold of the TARDIS,' said the Doctor.

'We can't let him,' said Rose. 'We have to get out of the city.'

'We already are. We're in Dorset.'

'Dorset?'

'Yep. Now, come on,' he held his hand out for her. She took it and he helped her stand. 'Let's go assure everyone that you're not dying. I, uh… I haven't told them about you being….'

'Not exactly human anymore,' Rose echoed his own words back to him.

'Yes. That. I must say, you're taking it very well.'

'One thing at a time, yeah? We deal with the Valeyard first.'

The Doctor nodded and led her into the console room.

'Oh. She's changed too,' said Rose as she took in the redecorations.

'What do you think?' asked the Doctor.

'It's very… Spock. I love it,' she said and the Doctor smiled.

They headed out the door and stepped out into the foyer of what looked like a mansion.

The Doctor let out an impressed whistled. 'Mickey wasn't kidding,' he said. 'This place is huge.'

Rose turned to look at him, puzzled. 'You mean you haven't been outside the TARDIS since we got here?'

'Well I wanted to be there when you woke up,' he said offhandedly. 'Didn't want you to panic.'

Rose smiled. He still cared about her. But her smile faltered as she remembered all the times he had left her. Would he do that to her now? Now that she was like him? She wouldn't wither and die now and she could keep her promise of forever but would that be too much for him?

Mickey, Martha, Kate, and Anna walked in through one of the doorways.

'You're awake,' said Mickey, extracting Rose from her thoughts. She was happy for the distraction; she wasn't quite ready to think about her newfound immortality.

'How are you feeling?' asked Martha.

'A bit woozy,' Rose admitted, 'but I'll be fine. Just need a cuppa, that's all.'

'The kitchen is this way,' said Anna, indicating the door that the group had just entered from.

'So are you gonna tell us what happened?' asked Mickey once they were all seated at the dining table, hot drinks in hand. 'You were in that chameleon-chair thing when I came in.'

Rose cast a nervous glance at the Doctor, hoping for reassurance. She didn't get any. He seemed to be waiting to hear her answer just as eagerly as the others. Rose sighed. There was no use lying. Martha would figure it out eventually anyway, all she had to do was feel Rose's pulse and she would know.

'It seems that the Valeyard has found out how to make his machine work,' she said. 'I gave him the missing ingredient.'

'Missing ingredient?' asked Kate.

'Huon particles,' answered the Doctor. 'A while ago, Rose looked into the Heart of the TARDIS and absorbed the time vortex. I took the energy out of her but some of it must have stayed behind.'

'So if you already had these particle things in you when he put you in that machine…' said Mickey.

'It worked,' said Rose, looking down. 'It's funny; Mum once said that travelling in the TARDIS would change me. She said that I would stop being human.'

'Just because you're a Time Lord, doesn't mean you stop being human,' said the Doctor.

Rose looked up at him and saw the intense look in his eyes. Like he was willing her to understand. 'Good,' she said with a small smile.

The rest of the group didn't seem to know what to say next so Rose decided to change the subject.

'But we can deal with this later,' she said. 'What are we going to do about the Valeyard?'

'I've already contacted UNIT's New York headquarters,' said Martha. 'They said they would need 24 hours to contact other headquarters around the world and form a reliable attack force.'

'Attack force?' asked the Doctor.

'They're going to take back the country, by force if necessary. The Valeyard has an army after all.'

'Typical military mind,' said the Doctor. 'Always go straight to violence, never look for a different solution first.'

'Have you got any better suggestions?' asked Kate defensively.

'If we get rid of the Valeyard, the army won't be under his power anymore and will most likely pass over to the next person in charge. '

'Which would be you?'

'No it would be you and the rest of UNIT. Then you can open up the borders again and form another government. Surely UNIT has protocols for this sort of thing.'

'Yes but how do we stop the Valeyard?' asked Kate.

The Doctor smiled. 'Revolution.'

'We tried that,' said Rose. 'Everyone is too afraid.'

'But now they have back up. We just have to let them know it.'

'How?' asked Anna. 'We have no Internet, no mobile phones. We've gone back to the old landline system with phone operators and they are all under the Valeyard's control. It could take forever for the message to reach enough people.'

'We can use the TARDIS,' explained the Doctor. 'Send a message to every television station, every radio station. You still have those, yes?' The group nodded. 'Then we call New York again, get them to record us a message.'

'But wouldn't that alert the Valeyard?' asked Anna.

'Yes but it would be too late,' said the Doctor. 'When people are desperate for hope, they cling on to whatever is given to them. People will fight against him and I don't think it's a fight he is willing to have.'

'What do you mean?' asked Mickey.

'This was never about ruling England. This was about setting a trap for me. He won't risk his one life to keep a hold of one little island. He'll run and try and start again somewhere else. So we set a trap for him.'

'So how do you think he will try and escape?' asked Anna. 'Private airport? Ferry to France?'

'Think a bit further,' said the Doctor.

'The Black Archive,' said Kate. 'The vortex manipulator is in there.'

The Doctor nodded. 'I presume he hasn't gotten his hands on it yet. He would have been able to use it to track me here and follow me.'

'One of the last things Osgood did was lock down the Archive,' said Kate. 'No one can get in, not even the TARDIS.'

'So how do we get in?' asked Rose.

'Can't we just nab him at the door?' asked Mickey. 'If the TARDIS can't even get in, what hope does he have? We just have to sneak up on him while he is trying.'

'There would be a way to get in,' said the Doctor. 'A password or something. Isn't that right Kate?'

Kate nodded. 'A series of them,' she said. 'Starting with the usual body print scan which he could get past easily.'

'What else?'

'A couple of UNIT passwords; a couple of questions devised by myself and other UNIT personnel. They are all set on random except for the last one, Osgood chose that one. I don't even know what it is. She said that only the right Doctor would know the answer.'

'The "right Doctor"? Dose that mean me?' asked the Doctor.

'I presume so,' said Kate.

'So what do we do once he's in there?' asked Mickey. 'Kill him?'

'Tempting,' said the Doctor with a glance to Rose. She shot him one back. She wasn't going to let him become a murderer. He wasn't the Valeyard. He seemed to understand her. 'but no. There are cells in the Archive that will hold him until I can contact the Judoon. They can take him to Stormcage.'

'Stormcage?' asked Mickey and Rose in unison.

'A prison,' the Doctor explained. 'We just make sure he is kept well away from River and then we let him rot there for the rest of his human life.'

'River?' asked Rose.

'A story for another time,' said the Doctor.

'Why the Judoon?' asked Martha. 'I though the Earth wasn't part of their jurisdiction.'

'Its not but they can intervene when invited by the local forces. That's you lot, by the way. I don't want to risk him getting anywhere near the TARDIS.'

'Right, so what are we waiting for?' said Rose.

'We should still wait for UNIT to assemble a squad,' said Martha. 'Just as a back up,' she added quickly at the Doctor's glare. 'We are telling everybody that back up is on its way. Wouldn't it be better if we weren't lying about that?'

The Doctor sighed and Rose knew that Martha had won her case. 'Fine,' he said. 'We give it a few hours and then we send the message out.'

oOoOo

That evening, Rose went for a walk outside. Anna's house was right near the beach and with no police to worry about, she felt comfortable taking off her shoes and strolling along the water's edge. The waves felt cool against her toes but she didn't feel the usual sharp bite of the colder temperature.

As the sun started to disappear over the horizon, she thought that she should head back and get some sleep but she didn't feel tired. She supposed that must be that superior Time Lord biology that the Doctor was always going on about.

She stopped walking and gazed out over the ocean, the wind whipping her hair back. She tried hard not to think about the last time she was on a beach but that became much more difficult when a figure came to stand beside her.

'It's beautiful, isn't it?' said the Doctor, watching the sunset. 'I've travelled to so many places and seen so many things… but nothing quite beats an Earth sunset.'

'I dunno,' said Rose. 'Woman Wept was quite breathtaking.'

The Doctor smiled. 'That comes in at a close second,' he said.

They stood in silence for a few more minutes before the Doctor voiced what they were both thinking.

'The last time we stood on a beach together…'

'Don't,' warned Rose. 'You've already apologized.'

'But you haven't forgiven me. I know what you said, but I also know you. You just didn't want me to feel guilty for what the Valeyard has done. You were trying to protect me even after everything.'

Rose didn't deny it. 'You'd have done the same for me,' she said.

'Yes I would,' agreed the Doctor. 'Which is why I want you to stay here tomorrow.'

Rose's head whipped around to face him. 'You want me to stay behind? You're joking right?'

The Doctor turned to face her, his expression serious. 'Rose, I don't want the Valeyard anywhere near you. Please, just stay here tomorrow. It's for your own good.'

Rose's anger flared and it took all of her willpower not to slap him again. 'It's always for my own bloody good,' she shouted. 'Satellite Five; Torchwood – twice! Don't think I've forgotten about that second time.'

'That was to stop a paradox which would have destroyed the universe,' interrupted the Doctor, trying to defend himself. Rose ignored him.

'And then that bloody beach!' she continued. 'But I always come back and you always need me. Haven't you figured it out yet?'

'I don't want you to get hurt!'

'You leaving me behind hurt me more than the Valeyard ever could.' The Doctor fell silent at her confession. 'I understand why you did it, Doctor. You always thought you knew what was best to keep me safe but there was one thing you never gave me... a choice.'

The Doctor let her words sink in before finally replying. 'Then choose now,' he said.

'I'm going with you tomorrow.'

'Rose…'

'I made my choice, Doctor.'

It took a moment but he eventually nodded his acceptance and turned back to face the ocean.

'So, now what?' asked Rose after a moment.

'Now, we watch the sunset.'

A/N: The second time the Doctor left Rose at Torchwood happened in my first story, What Must Always Be. I probably won't make anymore references to it.

And yes I stole the sunset bit from Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D... sue me.