I want to thank my Beta as always the super cool TheBigCat for making my work the best it can be. I want to thank all those people who have reviewed and are following the story it means the world to me. I want to thank Guest who ever it is. she/he keeps dropping great reviews create a profile guest would love to thank you. with a true name. Now please everybody drop a review it only takes a second but makes my whole day brighter. chapter 9 is already written and will be going through editing soon enough. but until then hear is chapter 8 Allons-y

Rose was not aware of the thoughts going through the Doctor's head. She was too busy processing all that he had told her. The TARDIS bringing her back because she liked her? Yeah, that was plausible. But why now? It had been almost three years. It seemed kind of nuts that the ship would bring her back now.

Rose lifted her hand to move a stray piece of hair that had fallen in front of her eyes, and cringed in pain. She had forgotten it was hurt at the moment, but the pain was rushing back now. It would heal in a couple of days and she would be back to normal. Well, as normal as she could be considering that she healed just a bit faster now. She had discovered that little fact right before the last dimension cannon run oh-so-long ago.

She had gone out with Mickey to get a tattoo. It had hurt like hell but the next morning when she went to examine the word, it was fully healed. It looked like she had always had it. There was no way to explain it, but ever since, she had been… well, 'special' was the only word to describe it. If she got a bruise it was healed the next day. Broke her leg? A week, tops, and she was back at work. Torchwood thought it might have been prolonged use of the cannon but they did not know for sure. But Rose just went with it. After all she had seen and done it wasn't hard for her to believe that she had somehow changed.

It didn't stop it from hurting like hellfire though. As she examined her hand now, she could already see the lighter bruises fading as if they had never been there. A day, she thought absently, and it'll be healed. Maybe a day and a half with her knuckle. She was pretty sure it had shattered on impact with that stubborn jaw.

A jaw that was currently standing right in front of her. He must have moved off the bed when she had been so engrossed in her own thoughts. She hadn't even heard him move.

"What're you doing, eh?" she barked abruptly. "Get away from me."

He just stood there gazing down into her eyes. "Fixing your hand," he told her, softly yet dangerously.

"No," she replied firmly. "Leave it be. It's my hand and it does not want you touching it, Time Lord. You'll only make it worse."

"Rose," he warned. "I am fixing that hand whether you want me to or not. It's only hurt because you broke it hitting me and since I broke it I'm going to fix it. We can do this the easy way where you give me your hand and I get it all fixed up in two seconds, or you can sit there in pain until you fall asleep and then I fix it. But either way, I'm fixing it." He stared at her. "So what's your choice, Rose Tyler? Easy or hard?"

"Oh, look at Mr Time Lord, giving me a choice for once!" she exclaimed in absolute fury. "Didn't think you knew how to do that. Send Rose home to Mummy so she'll be safe, send Rose off to another universe to protect her, leave Rose on a beach in the middle of Norway with a clone and run away. I didn't get choices in those things! Why do I suddenly get a choice in this matter, then? Think you know what's bloody best for me, do you?"

"You're right," he said. "Why am I giving you a choice?"

And then, even though it was dumb of him, he reached up and grabbed her hand. The sonic blazed to life before she could make a move to stop him.

Well, since the sonic was already doing its job she might as well let him finish. Even she had to admit her hand was hurting heaps. It was starting to feel a lot better, though, so she'd let him finish then give him a slap again for touching her without her permission. She set there stonily while the sonic did its job.

The Doctor sat there with the sonic buzzing over Rose's hand, surprised that she was not kicking him or squirming to get away. He had won this battle. He was fixing her up even though she did want fixing. Granted, he had only won by taking the decision out of her hands, but it was a win nonetheless.

Her hand was not as bad as it should be, he thought, the bruises already lighter than they had been when he had grabbed her hand before. But he made no comment on it. The sonic was at setting 22456, which was taking care of the bruising and swelling. He stopped just for a moment and changed the last number to a 7 to fix the knuckle that had shattered. He went over her hand once more, turning it over and making sure he had healed all that needed healing. Once he was sure, he dropped her hand and quickly stepped two paces back far enough so that the newly healed hand could not slap him again. And sure enough, it was already raised to do just that.

Rose dropped her hand back down to her lap. Damn him. He had known what she had planned to do and had gotten away before she could do it.

"Now what?"

She didn't realize she had spoken out loud till the words were already hanging in the air between them.

"Well," replied the Doctor. "I guess now we should talk. But not in here. How about a nice cuppa while we figure this out?"

He walked to the door and stepped out, waiting for Rose to follow. She sat there another moment, before exhaling and following him out. She still wanted to yell at him but at the moment she did not seem capable of it and a cup of tea would be nice. She really had missed the special blend they had picked up on Gidu. They had excellent tea there, probably because it was so stormy all the time. The one time they had gone, she had insisted that he buy five pounds of tea for the TARDIS and even though he had complained about it (saying the ship had enough tea on it already) he had bought it for her.

They arrived at the kitchen and he motioned for her to take a seat. He searched the cabinets until the TARDIS took pity on him and the tea appeared by the stove. He went about making the tea taking half the amount of time needed thanks to the sonic. He set down a steaming mug- her mug- in front of her.

The DOctor took a deep breath and spoke.

"I know you're upset with me."

She scoffed, but he held up a hand to her and continued. "I know that you're mad at me, and I deserve every bit of your anger, Rose. But do you think we can talk about it just a little? Or you can ask me some questions and I'll try to answer them the best I can. He pulled at his ear anxiously and took a sip of his tea.

Slowly, Rose looked at him. It looked like she wasn't going to speak for a moment.

"What happened to Donna?" she asked, and the Doctor felt his hearts freeze.