Notes: And the plot starts! Yay! And this is where you start to get an inkling of the real reason I wrote this fic. It wasn't 'cause of Reinette, oh no no...

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There she stood in the doorway

"You look tired," said Molly.

"Yeah," said Rose. "I haven't been sleeping too well."

"Have you tried, like, listening to music before you go to bed or something? That's supposed to help."

Rose laughed, bitterly. "I don't think that'd help me much. But thanks."

"Maybe if you-- oh. Hang on. Customer." Molly hurried away.

Molly, Rose reflected as she put her head in her hands, had just a trifle too strong a work ethic for Rose's taste. Particularly today. Two cups of coffee, and she still hadn't raised herself out of the half-dream state, still hadn't been able to get the music even partway out of her head. It was as loud, today, as conversation, as loud as her own thoughts, and it was getting harder and harder to focus on anything else.

"...don't know what color it's supposed to be, all she told me was the size, and do I look like I know a lot about women's clothing?"

"No," Molly giggled. "I don't know. I'm not-- not that fashion-conscious, in the least. Even if I was, I don't know what the hell's in style this side of the pond. You know what, I might know who would, though."

Rose blinked sleepily, raising her head slightly. Something important had just happened, that she hadn't quite gotten a grasp on yet. Something very important, and very very obvious, that she'd understand instantly if she were awake.

"She's right over here, at the counter. Rose?"

"Rose??"

A northern accent. A very familiar northern accent. And if she were awake she'd have known the second she heard it that it was--

Rose jerked upright as her brain finally caught up with itself. "Doctor?" she gasped, in pure disbelief. "But I thought-- I thought you-- didn't you say-- hang on, I guess this isn't-- how--?"

The Doctor glanced over at Molly with one of his most charming smiles. "What's your store's policy on employee lunch breaks?"

"I-- you get an hour, why--?"

"Good. Rose and I need to have a little talk." He beamed at Molly and strode over to Rose, linking their arms. "If you don't mind?"

"I-- how did you--" was all she could manage. Very, very familiar, and so incredibly sweet, and probably so very, very wrong. "The timeline--"

"That would be one of the things we need to talk about," he said, escorting her out of the store. "Rose, how did you get here? This is the wrong time, you're supposed to still be missing--"

"Yeah, somebody got a bit careless," Rose said, with automatic bitterness, cursing the French tart in her mind. "I didn't know you were-- hang on, we did come here, didn't we? With Jack. I took him on a shopping tour of London. You swanned off to do... whatever it is you do when you swan off. Hang on. You swanned off to come here. God, does time travel give you a headache."

"Not me. I'm built for it." He beamed and maneouvered Rose onto a park bench, sitting beside her and fixing her with a steady gaze. "Rose. What happened?"

She shook her head. "I-- I shouldn't tell you, should I? I mean, there's the timestream and everyfin'--"

"I know. I just know I wouldn't have been daft enough to leave you in London in 2005, no matter what happened. It's incredibly risky. If you ever caught sight of your mum, for instance, you could damage the timeline beyond repair."

It was so strange and familiar, seeing him again, that she found she couldn't really refuse him anything. "You left Adam back with his mum an' a great hole in 'is head..."

"Well, yeah, but that was Adam. An' I'm gonna fix that, later. But this is you."

Rose wasn't sure his logic was totally sound, but when he talked, the music nearly went away. Telling me something. "Yeah, well... it's a long story. But I think-- I think something's wrong. I mean, I keep hearing this song in my head, an'-- I think it's the TARDIS, I think she's tryin' to tell me somefin'."

"Song?" The Doctor blinked. "What song?"

"Molly said it was called 'Hotel California'. I mean, I hear it all the time. ALL the time. I can't get rid of it."

"Hotel California?" The Doctor's eyes widened. "What the bloody hell did I do?"

Rose blinked. "You ran off with Mickey and Madame du Pompadour," she answered, surprised at the simplicity of it.

"I.. ran off... with WHO?!" He stared at her, and swallowed. "Madame du bloody... He's pretty, isn't he?"

"What?"

"The new regeneration. Whoever I seem to turn into. He's one of the bloody hyper ones, isn't he?"

Rose stared at him. "I- I shouldn't--"

"Right. Stupid question. Isn't the point anyway. The point is, I did what?"

"...Reinette," she said. "You-- there was this thing with time windows or something-- a fireplace-- you kept seein' her-- tryin' t'save her life-- an' then you brought 'er back on the TARDIS, an' then you were all-- different. You-- it was like you couldn't see anythin' else..."

The Doctor stared at her, then stared at the building across the street for a moment. "...Right. Clearly I need to have a talk with New Boy."

"But..." Rose fumbled around for words, distracted by the sudden drop of the music in her head to a quiet murmur. "Isn't that... somethin' you're not supposed to do?"

"'Course it is." He beamed at her. "One of the few perks of bein' a Time Lord. Get a little leeway with paradoxes."

"...You're sure?" she said, even though she already knew it was inevitable by the way the TARDIS seemed to so approve.

"Oh, yeah. I've had four or five of me in the same place before; universe didn't end then. Might've even had more an' I just can't remember it. Either way, it'll be fine."

"But what about me an' Jack?" she protested. "The me an' Jack who're here?"

"Hopefully I'll only have to make one jump. If I only make one jump, I'll have no problem goin' back to five minutes after I left."

"...It just seems so..." The music increased subtly in volume in her head. "Right. It seems like it should destroy the fabric of time or whatever it is you're always on about, but if it's what your bloody ship wants, it's what she'll get. And I still say she had better have a damned good excuse for this."

"No need to worry about that." He got up, face gone grim. "She will. Let's get going."

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