By all means, correct me. Thank you to the anonymous reviewer who decided to. I don't get corrected enough. It's not that I'm never wrong, just that no one really bothers to (or maybe nobody notices my mistakes). Made me feel happy. Wish I could say thanks to more than 'anonymous reviewer,' though. So, you know… on with my story. Coz I like getting reviews, and in my mind, more chapters more reviews. And oh yeah! I finally have an average of 1000 words a chapter. I didn't realise I wrote so much in the last one – mostly because I went into the editor after I uploaded it and fixed it. Yes, I double check my work, so if there's something that's horribly, horribly wrong I take complete responsibility for my awful neglect of the English language.

Anyway, I said I was going to get on with it, sorry. I did warn you if any of you read my profile.

Rose suddenly had someone to talk to who didn't mind in the slightest about what she said in her crazy moments. She liked the feeling it gave her. Sim accepted her like… like The Doctor would have, although he would have probably tried to fix her, too. Sim had tried to fix her – in his own special way. Of course, a human never had the chance of fixing anything technical, least of all her brain. Rose had the feeling that not even The Doctor could help her now.

She was still blurting out strange sentences that may or may not have been in English, but Rose no longer saw The Doctor. It was as if just because she had a new friend in Sim, he didn't need to be there any more. Whenever Rose was alone at night, she would think of The Doctor, and even though she felt less depressed when he wasn't around, she wished that he was back with her. After all, a fake Doctor was better than no Doctor at all. He still lived in her heart, and she would never let him go. Not ever. Not for anyone. Not for the sake of her own life – she had risked it for him quite a few times before, anyway.

OIOIOIO

"That's you talking?" Sim asked her while listening to one of her crazy tapes in her room. Rose nodded. Sim frowned. "Who are you talking to?" He asked. "It sounds like a rational conversation with no one."

"Oh, you see, that was a conversation… once." He stared and she remembered that she needed to explain. "They're kind of… conversations from my memories. This one…" She laughed mirthfully. "This one was with The Doctor and my Mum. I never understood why he was so scared of her." As she spoke and remembered her mother with the Doctor, the joy slowly faded from her eyes. Sim noticed and knew just the right question to ask to make it worse.

"Where is your Mum?" He asked. "I've been over here a lot and… does she come to see you during the week instead of on the weekends?" Rose's eyes darkened.

"My Mum doesn't come to see me at all." She said tonelessly. "It makes her too… stressed to see me." Rose struggled with the end of her sentence, no longer able to hide the pain in her voice or features. She felt them contort to a look of hopelessness and cringed as Sim watched her sympathetically.

"Your mother doesn't know what wonderful times she's missing out on with you, and she won't for a long time." He said sadly, rather than trying to unnecessarily comfort her. He put his arm around her. "She'll see that you're not crazy some day, and she'll bring your little sister and Pete, and you can all be a family again." Rose nodded sadly at his over the top optimism. There was a knock at the door and Rose looked up at it quickly and just stared. She stared so long that there was another knock.

"Should I go and answer it for you?" Sim asked jokingly, inclining his head towards the door. Rose stood up slowly and approached it. She held her breath before answering, but as soon as the door was open, Mickey barged in, heading straight for the kitchen.

"Mickey." Rose realised that she was still holding her breath and she let it out, wondering why she had felt the need to hold it in the first place. "What are you doing here? You didn't call." She asked him breathlessly.

"Thought I'd left you alone too long." Mickey explained, focusing all his attention on filling her kettle with water and watching it boil.

"I'm not really alone." Rose told him quietly, as if it was a secret.

"Oh?" Mickey asked. "Have you met someone, then?" He raised his eyebrows at her.

"No, it's not like that. He's a friend."

"Ooh. And he's a HE, too." Mickey taunted.

"Stop it." Rose laughed. She hadn't talked like this to Mickey in a long time. Her eyes crossed the room to her bedroom doorway, where Sim was now standing, his arms folded across his chest. "He's here too, you know." Rose told him.

"Well then, by all means get him to come out so you can introduce us."

"Come over, Sim." Rose called. Mickey didn't look in the direction of the bedroom, he just stared at Rose, even when Sim stood right next to her.

"Sim, this is Mickey, I've told you about him before. Mickey, this is Sim. I work with him." Mickey just stared at her worriedly.

"Mickey! Is it that shocking that I have someone new in my life?" She demanded.

"No, it's not. He's just…" Mickey trailed off, looking Sim up and down. "I don't know if he's the right guy to be your friend." Rose looked at Sim, who was frowning at Mickey.

"Just what do you mean by that?" Sim challenged him. Mickey looked back at Rose's angry face and stuttered.

"I didn't mean… I just… It's all… maybe I'm a little jealous." He admitted weakly and looked down at the floor. Rose didn't believe him, because she and Mickey were over a long time ago, and Mickey would NEVER admit to being jealous of another man. This was something else entirely. There was something that he didn't like about Sim, and Rose wanted to find out, but not in front of Sim.

The kettle made a noise as it finished boiling and Mickey jumped. "Well, I'd better be going. I'll leave you two to whatever you were doing and I'll see you some other time, Rose." As Mickey walked past them, he inclined his head somewhat awkwardly to Sim. "Very… nice to meet you, Sim." He said before opening the door and disappearing out into the hallway.

Rose just stared after him at the closed door. She never wanted Mickey to reject any of her friends, but she needed Sim. Mickey hardly ever came to visit her, so she was alone. Not even her imaginary Doctor was around to keep her company any more, and she was in desperate need of some company and cheering up.

"Maybe I should leave." Sim suggested quietly.

"No…" Rose breathed softly. She waited a few seconds, then moved her attention away from the door and on to Sim. "No." She said more firmly. "If Mickey doesn't like you, then I don't care."

"But you when you talk about Mickey, you've said that you respect his opinion more than anyone else's."

"Mickey's been wrong before." She told him. "Mickey never wanted me to travel with The Doctor, so maybe Mickey isn't the authority on my friends." She brightened as she looked towards the kettle that had recently boiled. "I'll get us both a cuppa and we can listen to my gibberish crazy tapes, okay?" She smiled at Sim and he smiled back. "Why? Are they better than your conversations with no one?"

"You bet." Rose told him. "They even sound like one of my conversations with no one, only in gibberish."

The anonymous reviewer and Scout Girl and maybe some others have many interesting theories on what is going to happen, although I am not at liberty to comment on where this story is going. Well, I am, but I like secrecy. I also like to blab a whole lot and tell everyone everything about my life: I have none, except for the job interviews that I have lined up this week.

You know, I was also just thinking about Sim. In a review someone said who is Sim or something along those lines. I just made up the name on the spot and thought 'well, that fits.' That's a bit weird for me, I usually agonise over the naming of characters. Forgive my ranting.

Yeah, I know this chapter was shorter than the last one, it's just that I know where I'm going with the next chapter, and it would have spoiled the effect of this one for me to continue. Plus, two chapters in one day? I'm spoiling you guys. I've never updated so much in my life. I used to wait a week for my other stories.

Anyway... reviewing is fun. If you give a ranting review, then you'll get me back for my blabbing about nothing, and i'll really have to read it if you diguise a compliment in there somewhere. I'm actually serious about reviewing being fun. I even reply to reviews (but i just like to talk, don't i?). Hope you enjoyed this.

Mikkifavo