Chapter 17

At the going down of the sun and in the morning. She will remember him

Rose Tyler was woken by the sound of her one year old daughter babbling to herself in the nursery. She smiled as she listened to the one sided conversation. Andrea was such a happy and content baby, that Rose felt she was blessed to have such a lovable little angel.

'Mamamamama,' she heard her call out. It was uncanny that her daughter always seemed to know when she woke up. And sometimes, Rose was sure she could tell when her daughter needed something or when she was getting upset because she wanted something.

She threw the duvet off her and climbed out of bed. She had a busy day ahead of her, and she was looking forward to it. She was meeting some old friends and needed to make an early start. She padded through to Andrea's room, and found her standing in her cot, holding onto the railings, and beaming a smile at her.

'Mornin' Sweetheart. You ready for yer breakfast are ya?'

Andrea held her arms up for her mother to pick her up. Rose lifted her out of the cot and kissed her cheek. She took her through to the kitchen and sat her in her high chair. She put a rusk in a bowl, and then took some formula milk out of the fridge and put it in the microwave.

Whilst the microwave hummed away, she looked out over the Powell Estate. It didn't occur to her to wonder why she was living in the flat on her own. Her mother had left a while ago, and she knew she was happy in her new life abroad. (Well, she presumed it was abroad.)

Also, she never questioned where Andrea's father was. Having lived on the estate all her life, she was used to the idea of single mothers, and being one herself didn't seem out of the ordinary. As she daydreamed, the hum of the microwave turned into a more complex hum, a hum that hinted of alien spaceships.

She was brought back to reality by the ding that told her that the milk was warm enough to pour on the rusk so that it could be mushed into a porridge. She put the bowl on the tray in front of Andrea, and handed her the plastic spoon. She knew it would be messy, but her independent daughter loved to feed herself, and Rose enjoyed watching her have fun.

After cleaning up the kitchen, and washing and dressing her daughter, she had a quick shower herself and put on her jeans, T-shirt and blue hoodie. She went to the living room, where Andrea was sitting in her playpen, playing with her toys. Rose then remembered the envelope on the mantlepiece, and heard a voice in the back of her mind say, "Nothing is ever forgotten. Not really. But you have to try." Although her brain had heard the voice, Rose was completely unaware of it.

She took the wedding invitation out of the envelope and read it again. It was from her friends Amy and Rory who lived in Leadworth in Gloucestershire. They were getting married tomorrow, and she and Andrea had been invited.

She couldn't really remember how she had met Amy, and her subconscious brain had concocted a scenario to fill in the missing information. All Rose knew, was that her Mini had gotten a puncture, and she thought that Amy was a Woman Police Constable. They both laughed when Amy told her she was a kissogram, and then Amy had called her boyfriend Rory to help her change the tyre.

She looked at the back of the invitation and found the R.S.V.P information, which was Amy's mobile phone number.

"I need you to help Amy Pond remember her family," her brain heard the voice say.

Rose dialled the number.

['Hello?'] a female voice with a Scottish accent asked.

'Amy . . . It's Rose.'

['Rose! How are you? You are still coming tomorrow aren't you?']

'Oh yeah. I wouldn't miss it, and your timing is perfect. I've got a week off from Henrick's at the moment so gettin' there won't be a problem . . . So, are you all ready for the big day?'

['What do you think?'] Amy said in a "you must be joking" tone of voice.

Rose laughed. 'Not a chance, but I bet your mum and dad are really excited and proud.'

There was a pause before Amy spoke again. ['Mum and dad?'] she said thoughtfully, as though the idea of a mum and dad were new to her.

['MUM? DAD? ARE YOU THERE?'] she heard Amy shout down from her bedroom. [['Yes Sweetheart. I'm in the kitchen. What's the matter?']] Amy's mother, Tabitha called back up the stairs.

['Nothing,'] Amy called, and then seemed to realise the enormity of what that meant. ['Nothing at all . . . In fact, everything is brilliant.'] She came back to Rose on the phone. ['Everything is absolutely brilliant. I don't know about mum and dad being excited, I'm fit to burst.']

Rose laughed. 'Ahh, that's great. I only phoned to make sure everythin' was all right for tomorrow. I'll see you then.'

['Yeah. See you tomorrow, and Rose . . . thanks for phoning. You've made my day.']

Later that morning, Rose was sitting in a Costa coffee shop on Oxford street, while her friend and adoptive mum, Sarah Jane cooed over Andrea.

'I can't believe how big she is,' Sarah Jane said as she played with her honorary niece.

'She certainly enjoys her food,' Rose laughed. 'When she manages to get it in her mouth anyway.'

'And you Rose, how are you coping?'

'Oh I'm all right,' Rose told her, and had a feeling of deja vu as she said, 'I'm always all right . . . I mean, you're a single mum yerself.'

Sarah Jane laughed. 'Yes. But Luke's a teenager.'

'An' isn't that when they're supposed to get worse?'

'Yes, they do say that don't they.'

There was silence for a moment while Rose hesitated about what she was going to say next. 'Sarah, have you ever thought that you're missing somethin'? Y'know, that there's somethin' important you should know or should be doin'?'

Sarah Jane laughed. 'Frequently in my line of work.'

Rose laughed with her. 'No, I mean have you ever felt your life feels . . . not wrong, but different to how it should be.'

'What, like when children feel that they are adopted or something like that?' Sarah Jane asked.

A barista used the milk frother behind the counter, which created a wheezing noise that gave Rose and Sarah Jane another moment of deja vu, as they remembered the noise of the TARDIS without knowing what it was.

'Yeah, that's it,' Rose said distractedly as she looked at the barista. He had his back to her, but she could see he had sideburns and great, sticky up hair.

Sarah Jane could see she was staring at something, and followed the direction of her gaze. 'Fancy your chances,' she asked with a knowing smile.

'What? Oh, no. I was just thinkin' he looked familiar somehow.'

It was Sarah Jane's turn to have a deja vu moment of her own, when in her mind's eye she saw a man in a tight, brown pinstriped suit standing in front of a red phone box in a school basement. Her subconsciousness knew it was a phone box of some kind and helpfully filled in the gap with a modern red one.

'Oh yes, I see what you mean. I feel as though I should know him.' Sarah Jane waggled her eyebrows and gave her a cheeky smile. 'You could always go over and say hello. You never know, you might know him from school or something. You could go for a drink and catch up.'

'Sarah Jane! Will you ever stop tryin' to fix me up with a date?'

'Only when I've succeeded.'

'That is SO sweet,' Rose said, and then looked at her watch. 'Ooh is that the time already. Sorry, I'm on a tight schedule today.'

Rose put Andrea in the pushchair, then hugged and kissed Sarah Jane. 'See you next week?' she asked.

'Of course Rose. Give me a call.'

As Rose left the coffee shop, Sarah Jane looked over to the counter, and the unfamiliar, yet somehow very familiar barista and his wheezing milk frother.

'Rosie!' Jack Harkness called to her as she walked past the fountain in Trafalgar Square.

'Jack!' she called back with delight, as she saw her old friend and hurried over to him. He lifted her off her feet in a big hug.

'Looking good kid,' he told her as he put her back on her feet. 'And little Missy there is getting bigger every time I see her.'

'Which isn't very often these days. Thanks for callin' an' lettin' me know you were gonna be in Town.'

'What? And miss a chance to see my favourite girl? No problem. You got time for a bag of fries?'

'They're chips,' she told him with a roll of her eyes. 'And yeah, I'd love a bag.'

Jack bought two bags of chips, and they sat by the fountain as they ate them and caught up on their news. Rose would blow on a chip to cool it and give it to Andrea to eat.

'So, you ever gonna tell me what you get up to in Cardiff?'

'There's nothing to tell really,' he lied. 'All boring government stuff.'

'Yeah, right!' Rose said, not believing a word of it.

They were quiet as they ate a chip each, and Rose thought about the question she had asked Sarah Jane. When she had asked the question, it was as if it had focussed her thoughts and brought her closer to an explanation for the feelings she was having lately.

'I know you do sciency stuff in Cardiff, and I don't know how to put it . . . but have you ever come across people who don't quite fit the life they're living?'

Jack frowned. 'What do you mean? Like a doppleganger or a changeling?'

'I might do, if I knew what they were.'

'It's where someone is taken, kidnapped or assassinated, and substituted with someone else who then lives their life. Like "The Prince and the Pauper".'

Rose shrugged. 'I suppose, although it's more like the same person living a different life . . . Does that make sense.'

'Not really. Is that how you feel at the moment? Is it all getting too much for you?' He asked with concern. He knew how depression could affect people's perception of reality.

She saw the worried look on his face and smiled as she stroked his face. 'Nah. I'm fine, honestly. It's just lately, I've had plenty of time to think and reminisce. It's probably that, although . . . when I think back, I can't even remember when or how we met.'

Jack laughed. 'Don't you remember? I caught you when you fell . . .' He stopped and frowned. 'You were hanging on a rope . . . There was Big Ben . . . Why am I thinking about people in gas masks?'

'Oh thank God! I thought it was just me seein' weird stuff when I tried to remember how I met my friends,' Rose told him.

'That is weird,' he agreed. 'Tell you what, I'll look into it when I get back to Cardiff.'

'Would you? That would be great. Thanks.'

Jack finished his chips and screwed up the paper. 'Well, duty calls. Allons-y.'

Rose gasped. 'What did you say?'

'Alan Seer. He works for UNIT. I've got a meeting with him,' Jack said. He kissed Andrea on her head, and kissed Rose on each cheek. 'It hasn't been long enough, has it. I'll have to come and stay over next time. You can lead me astray.'

Rose giggled and squeezed his hand. 'Give me a call before you come and I'll fix up the spare room for ya.'

As they moved across Trafalgar Square, they saw a man walking ahead of them with short, dark hair and sticky out ears. He was wearing a black leather jacket and black trousers, and privately, they both felt as though they should know a man like that.

'Oh Rose. She's adorable,' Martha said as she tickled Andrea and got a deep chuckle in return.

'Yeah, but she can have her moments,' Rose told her.

'No, not this little cherub,' Martha said.

'Dinner in five minutes,' Mickey said as he stuck his head around the door. They had invited Rose over for dinner.

'Thanks Love,' Martha said, and led Rose over to the dining table.

'I can't believe the change in Mickey. How did you manage it? All I could get him to do was pick up the phone for a take away.'

'It was my mum,' Martha told her.

'Your mum?'

'Yeah. It was before we were married. We invited mum and dad over for dinner, and Mickey was terrified of her.'

'Was not!' Mickey said, as he brought through the casserole.

'I could understand it if you were,' Rose said with a laugh.

Martha continued. 'Anyway, he started watching the cookery programs, and got an app on his phone. Next thing I know, I'm getting really nice meals.'

They sat down and ate a really nice meal, before retiring to the comfy sofa to finish their drinks. Mickey had pureed some of the food for Andrea, and Rose was about to feed it to her.

'Can I do that?' Martha asked her.

'Er, yeah. Sure. Knock yerself out,' Rose said.

Martha took Andrea and sat her on her knee. She then scooped up the food with the plastic spoon and fed her like a little sparrow.

'Gettin' broody are ya?' Rose asked with a cheeky grin. 'Are ya thinkin' of startin' a family?'

'God no!' Martha said. 'Not yet anyway. I've only just gone freelance.'

'Freelance?'

'Yeah. It was Mickey's idea, and to be honest, it's brilliant.'

Rose eased back on the sofa and relaxed as she had a sip of her Henry. Next to the fireplace, was a tall, cylindrical lamp filled with bubbling liquid, and giving off a green light. For a moment, just an instant, she thought she could see a plunger in the lamp moving up and down, and hear the sound of the milk frother from Costa's.

'Rose? you all right Babe?' Mickey asked.

Rose jerked out of her reverie. 'Eh? What?'

'It was like you were havin' some kind of vacant episode, and your eyes . . . They were kinda weird.'

'What was wrong with my eyes?'

Mickey was already starting to rationalise what he had seen. 'It must have been a reflection of light or somethin', but for a second there, I could have sworn I saw a flash of gold light in your eyes.'

Rose felt tears in her eyes, and wiped them away with her fingers. 'Mickey, we've known each other for ages now, ain't we?'

'Yeah, ages. Rose, what's up?'

'I think I might be goin' crazy. I have these dreams, vivid dreams. I have flashes of images and sounds that seem SO familiar, and yet they're not. And I can't remember things . . . simple stuff. Like Martha, I can't remember when or where we first met.'

Martha's training kicked in. She handed Andrea to Mickey and sat in front of Rose to examine her. 'When did you last have a medical check up?'

'When Andrea was born, and I got a clean bill of health,' Rose told her, as Martha took her pulse and checked the glands in her neck.

'But that's not the point, 'cos it's not just me.' She looked at Mickey. 'Mickey, how did you and Martha meet?'

'What's that got to do with anythin'?' Mickey asked.

'Everythin'! Go on, both of ya, when and where did you first meet?'

Mickey looked at Martha. 'Well, it was a video conference. She was on a video screen and I thought she looked hot.'

Martha laughed. 'Hot? Really?' she said before answering Rose's question. 'Yeah, I was at UNIT . . . I was . . .' and then she faltered as she tried to remember the details.

'You see?' Rose said. 'That's what I've been gettin'. You don't even know that you don't know.' She looked at their puzzled faces. 'I'm sorry. I've ruined a very pleasant evening. I'd better be goin'.'

'No, it's all right Rose. Please don't rush off,' Martha said kindly. 'Stay for a coffee . . . Please?'

Rose smiled. 'Okay, thanks. But I'd better start gettin' Andrea ready; it's gettin' close to her bed time.'

Both Mickey and Martha completely forgot about the question of how they met, and started chatting with Rose about their day to day lives. It was if their brains were deliberately avoiding the subject (which they were). They had met under circumstances that had never happened, and so their present reality was based on a paradox.

It was after ten when Rose returned home to her flat, and she went through what she believed was her usual night time routine. She changed Andrea's nappy and put her into her sleep suit, before snuggling up on the sofa in front of the television, where she nursed her with a final feed to soothe her to sleep.

When Andrea finished suckling and Rose had got her wind up, she took her through to the nursery and lay her in her cot for the night. Rose went through to her bedroom and changed into her pyjamas, before going back to the lounge for an hour to herself in front of the television with a cup of hot chocolate before bed.

That night, Rose had a strange, apparently disjointed, vivid dream which seemed so detailed and imaginative. If she could remember it, it would make a brilliant TV science fiction show.

Shop mannequins came to life and tried to kill her. As in all dreams, she could feel the emotions, and she was terrified. Who was that man who took her hand and told her to run? She felt the thrill of running over Westminster Bridge to the London Eye.

There were all sorts of weird and wonderful beings on the London Eye, except they weren't in a pod on the Eye, they were on a larger observation platform. They were watching the sun explode and waiting for the Earth to be incinerated. How morbid was that?

But the sun didn't explode in her dream; instead it was an undertaker's that exploded to save the world from a bunch of space zombies. What the hell was Charles Dickens doing there? This dream was just too weird.

Oh, there was her mum, Jackie. A tear rolled down Rose's cheek onto the pillow as she felt the emotion of loss and longing to see her mum again. But in the dream, her mum was upset with her for going off travelling without telling her. Rose knew it was a far fetched dream, because she would never do that to her mum. She loved her too much.

But that man was still there, in the background. She caught glimpses of him, but could never make out his features, just a cool leather jacket in front of a red telephone box. Did he work for BT, because he always seemed to be by a telephone box?

She then dreamed something that would have made her laugh if she hadn't felt so scared. Big green aliens zipped up in small human skins. Bigger on the inside? Why was that important? Wouldn't telephone boxes be cool if they had more room inside them?

And then she was saying goodbye to her mum and Mickey as she left to go backpacking around the world . . . No, around the universe! Wow, that would be really cool if she could do that, rather than working in Henricks for the rest of her life.

Where was she now? This large, domed room seemed so alien, and yet so welcoming and familiar. It felt like home, and she longed to be there again. What didn't occur to her because she was asleep was, if she longed to be there again, that implied that she had been there before.

The backpacking holiday involved a lot of running, meeting dangerous robots, interesting people, and nightmare creatures. And then, more tears rolled onto her pillow as she dreamt about meeting her father. She had never known him of course, he died when she was just a baby, but her mum always talked about him.

"I've had all these extra hours. No one else in the world has ever had that," her dad told her. "And on top of that, I got to see you. And you're beautiful. How lucky am I, eh? So, come on, do as your dad says. You remember him Sweetheart, because he's the most important man in your life now."

'Who is Dad?' she mumbled in her sleep. 'Who?'

"Hi Jack," Rose said in her dream as they stopped running from gas mask wearing zombies. "Whatcha doin' here in the tar pit?" That was the closest word her subconscious could get to the original.

Jack looked around the domed room. "Tar pit? Don't look like a tar pit," he told her. "Looks like a dance hall, and I'd ask you to dance, but I think this guy has first refusal."

In that disjointed way of dreams, Rose was suddenly dancing with the faceless man in the leather jacket, and it felt wonderful. He was a great mover, and it felt so sexy. Before she knew it, the backpacking holiday was over, and she was back home with her mum. She was crying in her mum's arms, because the faceless man had left her.

Rose awoke, and touched her wet cheeks. 'Blimey! What brought that on?' she asked herself. She went through to the kitchen and had a glass of water, before popping her head around the nursery door to check on her daughter. She went across the hallway to her room, and never noticed a brown paper parcel on the mat which had been posted through the letterbox.

She quickly fell asleep again, and this time there was another man taking her travelling, but it felt like the same man, only different. How weird are dreams? The leather jacket was gone, replaced by a tight suit and long coat. She still couldn't remember the face, but the hair was gorgeous and he was so foxy.

Now the weirdness was coming thick and fast. Cat nurses on a new Earth; werewolves; giant bats in a school where she met Sarah Jane. Hang on . . . did she really meet Sarah Jane in a school?

"What do I do? Do I stay with him?" Rose asked her in her dream.

"Yes!" Sarah Jane answered quickly. "Some things are worth getting your heart broken for. Find him Rose. You need him. We all need him."

"But how do I find him?"

"You found your way back to him once before, you can do it again."

Metal men were attacking her mum and dad in a mansion; faceless people sitting in front of the television. She got a flash of a cheeky smile when she thought of the faceless man that was a constant companion in her dream.

Her dream took on a darker turn, and she felt the foreboding of a nightmare. There was a demon, imprisoned at the dawn of time which tried to escape its prison. The metal men returned to do battle with the pepperpot robots, and that's when she parted company with her parents. No, wait. Her dad had died when she was a baby. How could he have been reunited with her mum? Dreams were just barmy.

There was Donna in a spider's web, and Martha on the moon with rhinoceros space men. Rose snorted a laugh in her sleep. Dreams were just silly. She saw Shakespeare and the witches from Macbeth, which was odd, because she'd never really paid any attention to Shakespeare at school, so why dream about it?

Everything started to blur together, new Earth again and pepper pot robots in New York, a man turning into a scorpion and a space ship falling into a star. And then, another flash of that cheeky smile, and she was hiding in a school. She was pretending to be the wife of a school master so that they could avoid being eaten.

She could feel this dream was leading her to something important. She groaned in her sleep as she licked and kissed a man's hands and face. This was more like it. These were the kind of dreams she wanted. Her lips remembered the shape and feel of the man's features. She had another flash of that cheeky smile, and realised that it was the smile of the man she was kissing.

He was kneeling in front of her now, holding out a fabulous diamond ring. "Rose . . . will you marry me . . . now, today, in that church over there?"

"I SO want this! Doctor, yes, I'll marry you!" Doctor? He was a doctor she realised in her dream, but Doctor who?

"Those whom God hath joined together let no man put asunder," the female vicar said as she stood at the altar with this vaguely familiar man in front of her. "The groom will now exchange that which no other may know."

The groom leaned towards her, and she heard a melodic sound in her ear. She woke up and realised that it was the warbling of the alarm on her phone, telling her it was time to wake up. Damn! What was he about to say to her? She knew it was only a dream, but somehow it left her with the feeling that it was something vitally important.

She climbed out of bed and went to the bathroom to empty her bladder. What a night! She didn't feel at all refreshed from her night's sleep and unusual dreams. She would have to get Andrea up soon and get ready to take her to the child minder before going to work.

She sometimes wondered if it was worth working with the cost of childcare taking a big wedge out of her wages. But her mum had brought her up to believe that you had to make your own way in the world and not rely on any one else to bail you out. After getting dressed, she went to the nursery and started what she believed was her daily morning routine with Andrea.

With her daughter in the pushchair, and the baby bag over her shoulder, she headed for the door, which is when she spotted the parcel on the mat.

'Hello?' she said to Andrea. 'What's this?'

She picked it up and looked at package. It seemed to be a book, wrapped in brown paper and "ROSE" written on the front. It had been delivered by hand, and she presumed it was one of her neighbours sending a book for Andrea, as they often passed on toys and books for her.

Rose tore off the paper and saw that it was a blue book with embossed panels on it. She had a flashback to her dream and the red phone box, except that it wasn't red, it was blue, and it wasn't a phone box, it was a police call box from the 1960's.

'Oh my God!' she exclaimed. 'I know this.' She had a flashback to a huge library, and a woman in a space suit. "Hello sweetie," the woman had said.

All thoughts of going to work left her head as she quickly leafed through the worn pages of the book, but it was empty.

"Where are we up to? Have we done the Bone Meadows?" the woman asked the man as she leafed through this very book. She remembered feeling annoyed that this woman seemed to be flirting with her husband.

'My husband!' Rose gasped. The man in her dreams, the man in front of the phone box whose face she couldn't remember, was her husband!

"What's the book?" Amy Pond had asked her.

"Stay away from it," the Doctor had warned her. "It's her diary."

"Our diary,' River had answered.

Tears rolled down Rose's cheeks as she remembered River Song and more importantly, her husband, the Doctor. His life had been recorded in this book, and would be again. Maybe in the wrong order from her perspective, but it would be recorded.

She let out a sob of utter joy as she felt and then heard the sound of time and space being stroked and teased out of shape to allow her love to return to her. She looked down at Andrea who was clapping her hands excitedly and saying, "dadadada".

Rose cried, and wiped her cheeks with her hands. She took one last look down the hallway to the living room, and realised that once she stepped outside, it would revert back to the abandoned flat of her past.

'C'mon Sweetheart, let's go and find Daddy.'

She left the flat and ran along the walkway to the lifts, where she waited impatiently for the doors to open. The descent seemed to take forever, and she had a better idea than most humans of how long that was.

The metal doors creaked open at the ground floor and she pushed her way through them, heading for the security door at the rear entrance to Bucknall House. She ran with the pushchair, across the courtyard towards the Post Office and the graffitied wall opposite, which was the usual parking spot for . . . the TARDIS.

Andrea was giggling at travelling so fast in her pushchair, it was like being on a rollercoaster ride and she loved it.

It was real! All of it. Her husband, the travelling through time and space, her home. It was all real. As she approached the familiar blue box, the door opened, and the most beautiful sight in all the universe stepped out in his white Converse, sexy, tight pinstripe suit, and his long brown coat.

He gave her the cheeky grin that she had seen in her dreams and she burst into tears again. She jumped into his arms, wrapping her arms around his neck. He hugged her around the waist and swung her around.

'I was going to ask you if you missed me,' he laughed. 'But I think I just got the answer.'

She grabbed his face, planted her lips firmly on his, and snogged him to within an inch of his many lives.

'Nice greeting,' a woman said behind them. 'Well, you always prefer greetings to goodbyes, don't you?'

They turned around to see River Song walking towards them.

'You tell me,' the Doctor said.

'Spoilers,' River replied.

Rose took River's diary out of the back of the pushchair. 'I did look inside, but the pages were blank.'

'Thank you,' River said, accepting the book with a smile.

Rose pulled her into a hug, all animosity forgotten towards the woman who helped her get her husband back. 'No. Thank you for helpin' me get him back.'

'You're welcome,' River replied, rubbing Rose's back.

'The writing should all back now,' the Doctor told her, returning her vortex manipulator.

'Thank you.'

'Are you married, River?' the Doctor asked her out of the blue, hoping that she would explain how she knew his name when they met her in The Library.

But she was used to spoilers, and knew how dangerous knowledge of the future could be. He'd told her often enough. She deflected his question with one of her own. 'Are you asking?'

'Yes,' he said

'What?' Rose asked in confusion.

'Yes,' River replied.

'What?' Rose asked again.

The Doctor was equally confused. 'No, hang on. Did you think I was asking you to marry me, or, or, or asking if you were married?'

'Yes,' River said again with a cheeky smile. Rose started to giggle.

'No, but was that yes . . . or yes?' the Doctor asked.

'Yes,' River said again helpfully. Rose was now doubled up with laughter.

'River, who are you?' he asked finally.

River put the vortex manipulator on her wrist. 'You're going to find out very soon now. And I'm sorry, but that's when everything changes,' she said, and vanished.

'What the hell was all that about?' Rose asked him.

'Absolutely no idea.' He crouched down and lifted Andrea out of her pushchair, who wrapped her arms around his neck. 'Hello Sweetheart. I missed you too.'

He pushed open the door for Rose to go in, and took a last look around the Powell Estate before going inside.