The Doctor carried Rose toward the back of the house, following the trail of lights. He found the sitting room, and placed Rose half sitting, half lying on the sofa. Rose's eyes fluttered open. "Perhaps you should have phoned first."
The Doctor smiled weakly. "How are you?"
"I'm all right. But shame on you, scaring a poor old woman half to death."
"I'm sorry, Rose," he said sincerely. He gave her a sly, sideways look. "You know, you don't look so very old to me."
"Hmph!" muttered a disbelieving Rose.
"Your eyes are so young." They held each other's gaze for a long moment.
"And yours are so old. What have you been up to since we last met?"
"Oh, this and that."
"I'll bet," said Rose derisively. "How on earth did you get here? I thought it was impossible?"
"I happened upon some old Time Lord technology. Well, some pirated Time Lord technology. It allowed me to make a gate between the two universes. Actually, Jack was the one who found it, washed up in the rift in Cardiff."
Rose surreptitiously patted her hair in place and tried to sit up a little straighter. "Oh, is Jack here?"
"Aw, Rose! Still? It's been at least sixty years!"
"Captain Jack is not an easy man to forget. Besides, what about you? Ya jealous much?"
"Never."
Rose smirked
"And, no, Jack is not here," the Doctor said flatly.
Rose lay back against the cushion, then sat up suddenly "Did you say something about aliens chasing you back there? Are we safe?"
"Absolutely safe. Well, very probably, anyhow. The Sepiidans squeezed through the gate right behind the T.A.R.D.I.S. They seem to be after this. " The Doctor pulled a palm-sized bronze-colored disk out of his pocket. A faint blue light blinked rhythmically in its center. "This is the gate maker."
"And why are they after it?"
"Well, it might possibly belong to them," he said sheepishly. "It's emitting a tracking signal that I've been able to dim, but not extinguish. The T.A.R.D.I.S. is sending out a decoy signal to confuse them. They should be in Australia by now."
"So, you've stolen it."
"No, only found! And now borrowed, for an extended amount of time. I wanted to see you."
Rose grinned. "Do you want some tea?"
The Doctor grinned back. "Sure."
Rose leaned toward the low table and poured two cups. The Doctor walked slowly around the room. He stopped by the fireplace and studied the framed photographs displayed on the mantle. He picked up a picture of the "human" Doctor and Rose arm in arm on their wedding day, and brought it back to the sofa. "Ah, beautiful!" he said sitting down next to Rose. "Molto bene!"
Rose blushed, and opened her mouth to say 'thank you,' but the Doctor continued. "I should get a gray suit with tails. Look how good he looks in that. And if he does . . . well, it goes without saying."
Rose gave the Doctor a resigned look. "He wouldn't wear a black tuxedo. Never would. Drove Pete mad, never wearing a black tie to any black tie functions." Rose's eyes filled with tears. "He's gone, you know," she whispered.
"I know," replied the Doctor softly. "I had a faint psychic connection to him. Then one day, I couldn't feel it anymore." They sat in silence, sipping their tea.
"So you lived here, then? With Pete and . . . Jackie," he said, sounding unwell.
"Hey, no speaking ill of the dead," Rose scolded.
"I didn't!"
"I stand corrected. No grimacing at the dead." She looked out the window. The wind was dying down. "It wasn't so bad. At first, we had a wing of the house all to ourselves. And then later, we had other special . . . accommodations. Would you like to see them?"
"Sure."
Rose reached down, searching for her walking stick. She muttered, "Oh, right." Then turning to the Doctor, "Doctor, could you go get my cane? It should be in the foyer."
The Doctor sprang up and headed for the door. "Be right back." He slowed suddenly as another photograph, this one on a high bookshelf near the door, caught his eye. He stared at the image of a slightly older Doctor swooping a grinning blond boy toward the camera. "Is this . . ." he swallowed and tried again, "Is this your son?"
"Yes," said Rose, "That's Lonnie."
"Lonnie?"
"Alonso."
"Oh ho! Allons-y Alonso!" laughed the Doctor. "You are a very understanding woman!"
"Well, Lonnie loved it, too . . .for about the first eleven and a half years of his life. And then his father about drove him bonkers."
"Where is Lonnie now?"
"Far away," Rose said tersely.
"What, like America or something?"
"Just get the cane, please."
"Yes, M'um."
Rose leaned back and closed her eyes. She considered the possibility that she might wake up soon, and find everything back to normal. She hoped not.
"I love this!" said the Doctor on returning. He held Rose's walking stick horizontally in two hands. "Did the Doctor make these carvings?"
"Yes," said Rose, reaching out to take the cane.
"And which one are you---Little Red Riding Hood, or the Wolf?"
Rose stood up slowly. "The Wolf, of course," she said grinning.
Rose led the way out the door. The Doctor followed half a step behind.
"Do you remember anything about that day--- the day you actually were the Bad Wolf?"
"I'm not sure that I have my own memories, just pictures in my head from what you and my Doctor told me."
The Doctor winced at the use of the possessive pronoun.
"I know I helped defeat the Dalek Emperor," Rose continued.
"You were fantastic!"
"And what happened to Jack," she said quietly.
"He's fine, really. Took him some time to adjust, but he's having a great time, saving the world, breaking hearts---the usual.
Rose and the Doctor walked steadily to the other side of the house, passing rooms with covered furniture and several closed doors along the way.
"Here we are," said Rose opening an unremarkable white painted door. She flipped on a light switch to reveal a long set of stairs going down. Rose shifted her cane to her left hand in order to grab the railing on the right.
"Allow me," said the Doctor. He took the cane from Rose, and took her left hand in his. He grinned down at her.
"Don't say it!" warned Rose as they started down the stairs.
"I wasn't going to say anything!" protested the Doctor.
"Stop thinking so loud then."
"Have you developed psychic powers?"
"No, but I've lived with 'almost you' for over sixty years. I think that makes me fairly well qualified to read your mind."
"Quite."
As they neared the bottom of the stairs, Rose explained smiling, " 'Run' is a little out of my league. In those last few years, both of us were using canes. The Doctor used to take my hand and shout 'Hobble!'"
The Doctor smiled and looked at Rose searchingly. "You had a good life together, then?"
"It was a gift," said Rose, eyes shining. "Thank you."
Rose turned on the light at the bottom of the stairs and stepped into a small room cluttered with old gardening tools and sacks of fertilizer. Stairs on the far side of the room led up to a bulkhead with doors opening to the back lawn. The Doctor took it all in with a glance. "So, you and the Doctor took up gardening. Great exercise, creative outlet . . . erm, good for you," he added lamely.
"No, you dolt. Give us a little credit. Door's on the left." She reached out for her cane. The Doctor gave it back, but still held on to her hand. Rose led him toward what looked like an ancient fuse box, hanging slightly askew on the wall. She leaned her cane against the wall, opened the rusted metal door with hinges squeaking. Inside, the Doctor was surprised to see a high tech console for some kind of security system. Rose typed in a quick series of numbers and a small panel opened. A clear orb rotated up from inside the compartment and proceeded to scan Rose's eye with a glow of green light. With a click and a hiss, a panel in the wall to the left of the consul opened.
"Impressive. Think that scan would work for me?"
"Probably."
Lights above came on automatically as they entered a large L-shaped room. The Doctor gaped, opened mouthed, at what managed to simultaneously look like an ultramodern lab, workshop, and scrap heap. "This is brilliant! I had a lab just like this in the T.A.R.D.I.S. Probably still do, just haven't wandered by there in awhile."
"Imagine that," said Rose, eyes twinkling.
"Ooh, you're scary. You know everything now. Not much of a man of mystery to you anymore, am I?"
Rose shrugged. "We still have sixty years of catching up to do. Come on, I have one more thing to show you."