"Doctor, did you hear me? You still in there?" Rose's voice was unsure and she gazed up at her husband with worried eyes. For all her time spent with him, she could no better read his face at the moment than she could the Gallifreyan writing scribbled on the papers he used to leave scattered around the TARDIS. She thought he would have been happy - after all, he was the one who wanted to buy a house and settle down. But now that he was a Time Lord again, who was she to ask him to be a family man, not when the entirety of space and time was at his fingertips. Not to mention his own people, returned to him when he had lived so many years in mourning for them. She couldn't read his face and for the thousandth time, she felt doubt start to creep into her heart. She looked away from the Doctor to hide the tears welling in her eyes. She choked words through her constricted throat, her already thick accent thickening with emotion and becoming almost illegible,

"S'okay though, y'know... I understand if... with them and... Earth isn't... and I... but..."

She heard the Doctor inhale, and she braced herself for his speech.

"Rose, that's... that's FANTASTIC!"

Her heart soared. She felt the Doctor's arms wrap around her and pull her into a crushing hug, which ended abruptly as he held her at arms length and apologised for squishing the baby. She broke into a laugh at the sight of his enthusiastic smile and wide eyes, and pulled him back for another hug. He picked her up and spun her around, her giggling and shrieking with joy. As her feet hit the floor again, an alarm started blaring in a nearby room. Rose looked around, confused at how she could have set of such an annoying alarm just by landing on the floor. I may be pregnant, but I don't weigh that much!

The Time Lord leader furrowed his brow and whispered to one of the men standing next to him. The messenger left the room, and the Time Lord leader turned back to the Doctor and Rose.

"The gift we have granted has not been done so lightly. You cannot simply waltz around the universe unchecked and unruled, tarnishing the name of Time Lords and breaking our laws. Whatever universe you come from, actions have consequences and the actions that have occured recently are of no exception. You will be expected to join your people again and stop the menace that threatens every race under our protection."

His stern look would once have sent Rose quivering in fear. But now she had more than just herself, more even than the Doctor. She had her whole family, and there was no way a grumpy old Time Lord was going to make her do anything. She drew in a deep breath to tell him just that when the messenger returned to the room. He hurried over to the Time Lord leader and spoke urgently in a low voice. Though he was trying to be discreet, Rose and the Doctor's proximity to the pair meant they overheard the conversation.

"It's the prisoner. We thought he was incapacitated, but somehow he... he..."

"He what?" The Time Lord leader's voice was brusque and unfeeling.

"He seems to have escaped from his containment unit. He is still on sublevel four, but he seems to have a weapon that our technical staff haven't seen before. I'm afraid a deck breach is imminent."

The Doctor's body tensed as he listened, and before Rose could stop him, he was striding over to the whispering pair. Rose looked around at the Time Lords that filled the room, each one peering curiously at the messenger but respectfully keeping silent while their leader had his discussion. She wondered how they could contain themselves. She had so much going on in her head, her life was on a precipice of immense change and they sat there calmly, with the murmurs of their leader and the faint alarm still sounding from down the hall. Then the Doctor's voice interrupted her thoughts.

"Oooohhhh, I see what's going on here. Prisoner? You kept one, didn't you? You said you destroyed all the Daleks but you kept one, just one, to bring back with you. What're you gonna do with him, eh? Dissect him? Study him? Hold him hostage? Which one is it? Must be important, if you decided not to exterminate him along with the rest of his kind... oh..." The Doctor's eyes widened and he let his breath escape slowly through his pursed lips. Rose noticed a low murmur begin to rise among the other Time Lords at the news that an enemy remained, and on their very ship. The Doctor's eyes hardened, and he glared at the Time Lord leader, who returned his gaze with a huffy look.

"It wasn't on purpose, was it. Somehow it survived your purge and was transported back with the rest of us. And now you don't know how to keep it contained, and it's fighting its way through this ship right now and you can't figure out how to stop it! And you let these people sit here in ignorance instead of telling them the truth! You put my wife and child in danger and try to convince us to come back to your pointless war while this creature is threatening us! Well thank you very much but no thank you! Come on Rose, we're leaving." The Doctor grabbed Rose's hand and marched them toward the door. The other Time Lords were now openly talking amongst themselves, and Rose glanced back at the Time Lord leader. He was in furious conversation with the messenger, simultaneously barking out orders and fending off the multitude of questions being thrown at him by members of the Council. He glanced up and met her eyes briefly and she saw a strange mix of anger, pride, and secret knowledge in his eyes before she rounded the corner with the Doctor and he vanished from view.

The Doctor was feeling so many emotions at the moment that his hearts were racing, but the foremost one was anger. Anger that the Time Lords, his people, would put his family in danger. In his wildest dreams, he never imagined a reunion like this. But his first priority was getting Rose and their child off the ship and to safety.

"Doctor, I know you're in a hurry and all, but do you think you could maybe explain what's going on here? What kinda danger are we talking about?"

The Doctor slowed so Rose could walk astride him, and he looked into her eyes, so grateful that he had found her safe and that he had the chance to be with her like this again. The last Time Lord and his pink and yellow human... well, he would be the last, once they left the ship and the Time Lords returned to the Time War.

"If this Dalek survived whatever the Time Lords did to it, it means it's something they haven't seen before, something they don't know how to deal with. And now it's wandering around this ship, and could be escaping for all we know, and the Time Lords have no way to fight it. So I'm going to get you as far away from here as possible."

As he spoke, they made their way through the halls of the ship. They passed no one in the halls, presuming they were preoccupied with the escaped prisoner and the alarms still blaring in the distance. The Doctor stopped occasionally to peer at a sign or map posted on the wall, Rose blinking at them confusedly. When they passed the third one, the Doctor knew they were close.

"Doctor, that sign, I-"

"Don't worry Rose, we're almost there." As he spoke, he pushed open a door, revealing a supply room containing a familiar blue box. Rose gasped, and the Doctor looked excitedly and proudly from Rose to his TARDIS, delighted to see her smile at the sight of their old home. She have him a look and he nodded an affirmative. She squealed and ran towards the police box, but at the same time, the Doctor's heart plummeted as he saw a shape move in the shadows.

"Rose-" Before she could turn, a deep robotic voice echoed around the room.

"LIFE FORM DETECTED."

The Doctor saw Rose whip around to face Dalek Bas as he wheeled toward her.

"ENEMY LOCATED. YOU ARE RESPONSIBLE FOR THE DOWNFALL OF THE DALEKS. YOU WILL BE EXTERMINATED. EXTERMINATE! EXTERMINATE!"

And the Doctor watched helplessly as the laser hit his wife square in the chest and she collapsed backward against the doors of the TARDIS.