"Why do you have to leave so soon?" Jackie whined.

"Mum, I told you, something really important came up," Rose stated calmly.

"But you just got here! Can't it wait a few more days?"

"Nope. Sorry," the Doctor interjected.

Jackie shot him a glare from her chosen squishy chair. "What could be so important? That's what I want to know."

The Doctor's eyes glanced around. "It's…complicated." He looked back at her. "Very complicated."

"We're coming back though!" Rose jumped in. "After we deal with this…thing. After, we're coming back, and we'll stay a good long time. A proper visit, yeah?"

The Doctor snorted.

Jackie looked angrily at him. "Don't be like that! You two go off all the time and leave me."

"Exactly!" the Doctor spread out his arms for emphasis. "This really isn't any different from any other time we've left you."

"Yes it is! Something feels funny. Different it does. I don't know what it is, but something doesn't sit nicely with me and I have a right to be concerned."

The Doctor and Rose quickly exchanged worried glances. The nervous sweat was almost visible on both their foreheads.

"W-well, that's because…um…" Rose's mind drew a broad blank.

"Nothing weird happened!" the Doctor finished quickly and loudly. He looked at Rose with a wide grin. "Right Rose?"

"Uh, right. Right! Usually, when we come, there's funny business going on. You said so yourself. You know that as well as we do, but nothing happened this time."

"Probably feels a little odd for us to be leaving without any aliens or monsters popping up and being spotted."

"I'm looking at the strangest one of all right now," Jackie pointedly rebuked.

"Besides me that is," the Doctor tried his best winning smile.

Jackie only rewarded his effort with a skeptical scowl. "I still say something fishy's up."

"And we promise Mum, there's nothing up," Rose shook her head, smiling. Rose laid her hand over her mom's, giving it a little squeeze. "We'll see you again soon. Promise."

Jackie sighed and pulled Rose into a hug, whispering into her ear, "Don't go doing something stupid sweetheart. Please?"

"I promise, I'll be okay."

Jackie pulled away from her daughter and looked into Rose's eyes. "Is there something wrong? I mean, really, is there something wrong?"

"Wrong? What do you mean? What could be wrong?"

"Is there something wrong with the Doctor?"

"No, and even if there was, he won't let me fall mum. You know that. He won't let me down. Aside from that, I can take care of myself. So, you really need to stop worrying so much."

"You know I can't do that sweetheart. I'm your mum, I have to worry."

Rose laughed. "I know, but still, don't, yeah?"
Jackie sighed again. "Just call, 'kay? Promise me that you will do that much. And don't say you can't because I know you can."

"Of course I will mum. I promise I'll call."

Jackie smiled a little. "Well, off you go then, hm?" she looked to the Doctor. "Just like always?"
"Yeah," the Doctor stood, nodded. "I suppose so. Just like always," he looked to Rose, smiling. "Right Rose?"

"Yep, I'm ready," Rose nodded, standing up beside him.

"I still say you pair are crazy, you are. But…I can't stop you, either of you, can I?"

The Doctor grinned wider, his eyes sparkling. "Notta chance."

Jackie hugged the Doctor close, putting her mouth close to his ear. "Take care of her, please? She's all I have and I don't want to lose her. She's precious to me."

The Doctor squeezed her reassuringly. "I know, and of course I'll take care of her. She's precious to me too. You have my word that I will let nothing happen to her. I will return her to you just as I always have. That much will never change."

Jackie let go and held him at arm's length, her hands on his forearms, and looked up at his face. "And you best take care of yourself as well. I don't want you going anywhere."

The Doctor smiled warmly. "I'll do what I can."

"Just as always?" a small smile played at the corners of her mouth.

The Doctor chuckled. "Just as always."

Jackie nodded and bushed his arm as though dusting it off. "Well, get going you two. You'd better scoot out of here before I change my mind."

Rose smiled. "See you later mum!"

With a final huge from Jackie, Rose followed the Doctor out the door, the Doctor giving one last wave back to the lonely mom. Jackie sat back on a chair and sighed, watching the door and hoping they would turn around, though she knew they wouldn't. And they didn't. They just continued right down the stairs.

"She didn't really want you, us, actually, to leave, did she?" the Doctor noted as they continued down the stairs.

"It's hard on her," Rose stated. "When you consider that I'm all she has left, it's easy to understand."

"Never said it wasn't."

"It's just, it's been just her and me ever since I was a baby…ever since my dad died."

"I know, but still she should expect you to leave the house."

"It's not that. She probably does, but knowing that I'm with you out in space and danger is what's hard on her. She doesn't want to lose me forever, you know?"

"Yeah," he grinned. "I can understand that. Well, I can relate too."

"Shut up," Rose laughed and gave him a light push. "Thing is, I think that it's just harder for her this time."

"Why do you say that?" the Doctor squinted and looked at the blue sky above as they walked out the door.

"She thinks something's wrong. It's almost like she can sense it."

"Hate to say it but women's intuition is usually a force to be reckoned with," he looked down at her. "You didn't tell her did you?"

"No. She still doesn't know for sure. I agree that she doesn't need to know."

"Good," the Doctor nodded. "It's better that way."

Rose sighed. He was probably right, and she knew that he was. He usually was, and she had accepted that a long time ago, but the face of her crestfallen mother still hung in her mind, even more so this time than usual. She found herself looking back at her apartment building every so often as they continued back to the TARDIS. She felt a little twinge of guilt and sorrow at the thought of leaving Jackie alone. However, all those memories and feelings dispelled as soon she stepped back into the TARDIS. She smiled as she looked around the familiar ship with its glittery gold walls and columns and its glowing green center shaft. All her worries dispelled quickly. The TARDIS was good about that.

The Doctor had gone ahead of her and had flung his trench coat into its usually pillar crook. He currently stood in front of the console, his hand gingerly resting on its controls. He closed his eyes a sighed a little before speaking very softly to the ship. He spoke in old, elegant words, ancient, powerful words. The TARDIS didn't translate, but she had a feeling that it was his will that she didn't hear. His words were for the TARDIS alone.

Rose wasn't really sure just how long the Doctor had been traveling around in his ship, or how close they had been originally, but it was very obvious now that the pair were really close now. They were almost one in the same it seemed sometimes. Even though the ship seemed to frequently disobey the Doctor and took them somewhere completely different, Rose had a feeling that, deep down, the TARDIS wasn't really disobeying at all. The TARDIS was just reading the Doctor, knowing that he would rather be in the middle of a mess and helping than sitting on the sidelines and watching. Their souls, such as it maybe, were very much intertwined.

The Doctor perked as the metal planking below squeaked. He smiled when he saw Rose coming towards him.

"You're talking to a machine," Rose noted. "In another language no less," she added, though she was smiling.

"Yeah, just, uh, telling the TARDIS something," a light blush came over him. "She's a ship, I know. But even she needs a pep talk every now and again. And I had to tell her what I wanted besides. So, are we ready to go?" he started to press buttons.

"Of course. I'm ready."

The Doctor nodded, trying to smile, but it was weak and forced. Rose's smile vanished as she watched him.

"Are you nervous?" Rose asked softly.

The Doctor looked over at her, his brown eyes showing his uncertainty. It took Rose by surprise, even scared her just a tad and caused her heart to jump up into her throat for a moment. She had seen him unsure before, and she knew she would see him uncertain in the future, but she was still uneasy with the notion every time. In her mind, right or wrong, she had made the Doctor out to be a man who was always strong and confident, on top and in charge of every thing, and if he wasn't, he took control quickly and fairly easily. For her to even accept that he was sick and dying was hard enough, and seeing him scared himself really frightened her a bit.

"Yeah, a little," he nodded, looking back to the screen in front of him. "I'm nervous about what the trip might do to me, where we'll end up…about what is going to happen to you. I'm worried what will become of me, but not half as much as I am about you."

"Why? Why aren't you worried about yourself? You should be," Rose replied.

"I've already accepted what will happen to me. But if anything happens to you that I could've prevented…well, that would be awful, the worst thing that could happen. Worst case scenario," he paused. "You once saved my life because you wanted me safe, right? You risked your life to protect mine. But…you don't seem to realize that you're my Rose, and I want you safe too."

"I know Doctor. I know you want to protect me and I know that you want me to be safe too. I understand, but I made up my mind and I won't abandon you," Rose assured him, a little smile coming on her face. "I told you that I wanted to stay with you, and I mean it."

The Doctor smiled a little, and his eyes said everything without actually him speaking. "Thank you," they said. And then he turned his full attention back to the console, flipping switches and running around it as he prepped for flight.

Rose took a step forward as she watched him, her head unconsciously titled to one side. Was the color of his eyes lighter? They had been darker, hadn't they? She admitted it could've been the lighting, but the problem was the lights were dim. They really weren't all that bright inside the TARDIS. Light enough to see, but not light enough to make his eyes seem that light of a brown. If anything, they should've looked darker.

"Doctor?" she called.

"Hold on!" he shouted back, pulling a lever and jolting the wheezing center column to life.

Rose was forced to the ground as the TARDIS took off, flying through the vortex of time and space to who knew where. She could tell that it would be a rough flight. Actually, it already was, but she wasn't really concerned with that. They had been on rougher rides before. She wanted to ask the Doctor her question, but she couldn't get the words out. She could just barely lift her head enough to see the Doctor's hands reach up and press a button here and flip a switch there. Thankfully, the flight didn't last long, and pretty soon, the center shaft began to slow and the pressure holding Rose down was lifted ever so gently until finally, it stopped all together, allowing her to move again.

She jumped to her feet and ran around the console to see how the Doctor had faired the flight. She stopped, however, a few feet away from him.

He was breathing a little heavier than before and his eyes were tired, but he still met her eyes in spite of that. However, none of that was what really stunned her. She was so focused she barely even heard him say "We're here." She was only paying attention to one thing: the Doctor's face.

A blotchy, ever so slight, pin rash had crept over his face, one whole side from his neck to his hairline at least nearly blotted completely out by it. The rash did creep across the bridge of his nose, but it barely touched the other cheek. The other side of his face had a touch of it by his jaw and ear, and a small stripe went across under his eye but was otherwise unaffected.

"What happened?" Rose asked when she found her voice again.

He gave her a small, downcast smile. "I told you Rose, time and space travel is hard on living things, especially when they're ill."