Rose watched the holographic version of the man she loved process the information he had just received. All the information. Our child! Rose's thoughts began to whirl as she felt a strange surge of protectiveness swell in her heart. No Dalek was going to threaten her or her family, not again. They had been the cause of her separation from the Doctor in the first place, and though through fighting them they had been reunited, she would never forgive them for those years of torture and loneliness. She remember a time that seemed from a different life; she had been a captive then as well, by the same creatures that were now threatening her existence and her world. But this time she did not have the Heart of the TARDIS flowing through her mind, and the Doctor had no lives to spare to save her. It would have to be up to them, and only them, mere insignificant humans. They would have to fight alone. But oh, fight they would. Rose had finally found her life and it was here, with the Doctor, and she promised herself that nothing, not even the Daleks, was ever going to take that away from her.

As she was thinking this, Rose could see the holographic Doctor trying to think of what to do next, how to respond. Come for me! Rose wanted to shout. Come save me… and our baby… But she didn't dare speak. She knew that she was only alive now because the Daleks had allowed it, and she wasn't going to give them any reason to change their minds. Still, it was all she could do not to call out to the man standing in front of her, to tell him that she believed in him, and she knew that he would come and save her.

All of this went through Rose's mind in a split second, just enough time for the Doctor to respond.

"What?! No, you haven't got… Jackie is gonna kill me. And you!" he said directly to the Dalek who had glided over to stand next to Rose. "I thought I was rid of you, that you were all gone, but no. You lot've always got a way of coming back, a way of taking everything I love from me. But you know what? Not today. Oh, that's right, because today is the day I end you. Today I blow every one of you out of the sky, wipe you out of the universe, and there's nothing you can do about it. Because you've done the one thing I can never forgive you for."

"AND WHAT IS THAT?"

"You've taken my family. Rose?" he said, shifting his focus to look right at her. "I'm coming to get you."

The image shimmered, then vanished, as though it had never been there. But even though it was gone, even though she had no way of knowing what was happening to the Doctor, Rose was beaming. He had said he was coming to get her, and she knew that he was on his way, and he would succeed. Because if there was a single person in the universe who could get her out of this mess, it was the Doctor. Her Doctor. And he would never let her down.

As he watched the holograph of Rose shimmer and fade, the Doctor felt a rush of excitement go through him, a feeling he hadn't known in months and wasn't sure he would ever have again. This was what he was meant for, saving lives and helping people, something he hadn't got to do a whole lot of for the past year. This feeling was coupled with dread. "We have Rose Tyler and her child," that was what they had said. But Rose hasn't got any children, thought the Doctor. So that can only mean they've got Tony as well. If Jackie finds out that both of her children are in danger because of me, I'm done for. He thought back to the first time he had met Rose's mother, how he had promised that he would keep her daughter safe, he would always bring her home. Now she was in trouble, and here he was on Earth, without a TARDIS, and no way to get to her. The Daleks used a long range teleport. If only I had something I could use to repeat the trip…

"Of course!" the Doctor shouted. "Torchwood!"

At that moment, what he needed most of all was a piece of technology that he knew was impossible to get anywhere on Earth, anywhere except a place that was dedicated to studying all things alien. The Doctor leapt into action, jumping into the car and starting the engine. He drove to the Torchwood Institute like a maniac, tearing around corners and narrowly missing other drivers, who honked and swore at him. He didn't care. The only thing he was thinking of was Rose, and how he needed to get to her, even if he had to break every traffic law in existence to do it. When he finally arrived at the familiar building, ran out of the car and straight through the doors into the main lobby.

"Hello, how may I help you?" asked the receptionist at the desk, but the Doctor ignored her. He simply sped right past her, through the large room and to the stairs, looking for something that would tell him where the alien technologies could be found. There, on a building map, he found it: Recovered transportation devices, level three. Taking the stairs three at a time, the Doctor was breathing heavily by the time he reached the third floor. When he burst open the door into an open, cluttered looking room, every person turned to look at him.

He turned to the nearest person, who was looking at him, completely dumbstruck. "I need a teleport device, or one that can trace and repeat past teleports." The worker didn't move, still looking as though a polar bear wearing a bow tie had just walked into the room and started to dance. "Well?! Can anyone tell me where I can find one?!" Another long silence ensued. Finally, the man he was talking to replied.

"I'm sorry, sir, but… Who are you?"

"I'm the Doctor, and I need a teleport!"

"I'm sorry, but how are you authorised to make that request?"

The Doctor wanted to punch someone. In his old universe, he would have just whipped out his psychic paper and claimed to be the king of Sweden or something, but here he was without the luxury of instant identification. Instead, remembering that this was where Rose worked, he tried a different approach.

"How many of you know Rose Tyler?" he asked. Quite a few people raised their hands, most of them nodding. "Well, I'm her husband, and she's in trouble." This caught the attention of nearly everybody, and it seemed that Rose was someone who they all liked and didn't want to see in danger.

"What kind of trouble?" asked the man standing in front of the Doctor. He wanted to scream.

"The kind of trouble where she'll be dead if I don't get a teleport within the next thirty seconds!" he shouted. The way he said it seemed to make people feel like he was telling the truth, and the worker he had spoken to turned around and walked to a table, where he picked up a large, silver bracelet.

"Here," he said, handing it to the Doctor. "Put this on and you can retrace any teleport, given that it was recent enough. You just hold this button for three seconds so it can set the course, then hit this big red one when it beeps. And Doctor," the man said to him just as he was leaving.

"Yes?"

"Good luck."

The Doctor smiled at him, then, running back down the stairs, felt a kind of relief build inside him. Yes, Rose was still in danger, and yes, for all he knew she could be dead, but for now, he had a plan. And with a plan, against the Daleks, he would be unstoppable.

Rose was sitting in her cell, her back to the wall and facing the electric bars that were holding her in. They were similar to the force field that she had been held in on Davros's ship, but that time her cage had been only a small circle surrounded by light, just large enough for her to stand in. Now she was in a small room walled in on three sides, with the force field creating a barrier on the fourth, out of which she could see something that might have been the control room.

Rose could hear her guards talking outside her cell. Turning her head to look at them, she started to listen to the conversation.

"THEY HAVE DISCOVERED OUR LOCATION," said one of the Daleks. "THE ENEMY IS COMING."

"IMPOSSIBLE! NO ONE CAN HAVE FOLLOWED US AFTER THE BATTLE," replied the leader. "WE WILL CRUSH THEM WHEN THEY ARRIVE. NO ONE CAN DEFEAT THE DALEKS!"

Rose peered through the force field imprisoning her and tried to glimpse the Dalek's monitors. All she saw was a picture, distorted by the energy barrier, of a ship with strange, circular markings, then the screen went blank.