"Do you want a cup of tea?" Jackie called from the kitchen-section of the main room of the flat. Donna, needing a reason to stay longer than five minutes, said that yes, she would very much like one.

Sitting down on the settee opposite Jackie, warm mug in hand, she realised she actually had to ask some questions now.

"So! How are you settling in here?"

"Well, considering what it is, alright, I'd have said."

"Excellent." She paused. "And … Rose?"

Before an answer could be given, the little blonde girl burst through the front door, gasping.

"Speak of the devil …" Jackie sighed. "Rose! Do you mind? We've got visitors!"

"Hello!" She cried then darted off, under the kitchen counter.

"Is that how we treat guests?"

"Mu-um! I'm playing hide and seek! Jim's on it and Mickey told me he hits you if he finds you!"

"Rose?"

Rose marched over to where they were sitting and held out her hand, a gesture too grown up for her years. "How do you do!" she exclaimed. Donna laughed and Jackie looked exasperated.

"I'm just fine. How are you?"

Sitting in their flat, Donna warmed to the Tylers. Rose decided that she didn't care if Jim found her and beat her up, because she was talking to the nice lady with red hair, so she sat next to her mother and joined in the conversation.

Throughout this 'interview', Donna learnt a number of things about Rose.

She wanted to be a gymnast when she grew up. Her favourite subject was English. Her best friend was called Mickey, but she thought he could be a pain. Last week, she fell off a wall and grazed her knee. She loved her mum, who ran a hairdressing business from home, which had been temporarily put on standby as they wouldn't be getting there home back for another three weeks. Her dad died when she was a baby and her mum hadn't dated since. She didn't like wearing skirts. She had never been abroad.

Donna knew this was the Doctor's Rose. She just knew it. How could she not be? She seemed brave, kind and bright; the kind of person he would want with him. Plus, how many Roses could there be in a place like this? It may have just been the atmospheric weather and wet greyness, but the area was so bleak. There couldn't have been more than one ray of sunshine in a place like this, more than one winter rose.

When the time came to leave, Donna couldn't help but feel melancholy. It was like glimpsing the past – not just the technical, time-that-happened-before past – it was like seeing what someone was like before travelling with the Doctor, seeing how a person can be both enlightened and corrupted from all those amazing experiences. And she knew that Rose still had this to go.

Standing up, Jackie said, "Well, Donna, I guess we'll see you around."

"Yes," she smiled. "You will."

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