Disclaimer: I think we can all take credit for the ship. (You know, the non-canon one that we all dreamed of through series two.)

So, just when you thought it was coming to an end, I threw this at you. :P

NTMR:
-hopefully :D

Chapter 21: Not Quite Sorted

The Doctor led Rose up to the rooftop quickly, holding her hand in his to reassure himself that this was all real. Neither of them could speak, both as nervous as the other for what would happen next.

They reached the rooftop and the Doctor rushed over to Jamie's body, scanning the sonic screwdriver over the frozen with unbearable hope written clearly on his face.

After a moment, Rose could take the tension no longer and burst out at the Doctor. "Well?" she spluttered, as the Doctor continued to scan over the boy's body.

The Doctor didn't reply, an expression of disbelief and denial crossing his face as he flashed the screwdriver on and off over Jamie's forehead, eyes and hands. "No..." he muttered, his forehead creasing. He worked quicker, running the instrument all over Jamie's body with agonising results. "No, no, no, no, no..."

"What?" Rose asked worriedly. "What is it?"

"He's too far along." the Doctor said quickly, not believing the words, changing the setting on the screwdriver and scanning Jamie over and over again. "The alien's been using him for too long, he can't resurface." His eyes prickled but still he worked, and Rose turned away, raising her hands to her face with defeat.

He pressed the sonic device on and off, on and off, more times than he could count, trying any setting, just begging for a miracle, but Jamie's helpless body remained unmoving. The Doctor gritted his teeth in frustration but didn't give up.

At last, when all hope was almost lost, a surge of energy flowed through the screwdriver. The Doctor's hand snapped open and the device fell to the floor with a clatter. He raised his hand, cradled it with the other, then shook off the shock and looked up in hope at Jamie. The boy still didn't move.

He looked back down to where the screwdriver had fallen. It was glowing in a mesmerizing bright blue, the entire item lit up by the blinding light. The Doctor bent down, hypnotised by the light, and touched the item gently. It was stone cold, though the Doctor had expected the opposite. In the absence of the rapid clicking of the sonic screwdriver, Rose turned sharply and saw the Doctor kneeling down, holding the object carefully. Suddenly, a grin spread ecstatically across his face, and he jumped up with glee.

Rose didn't ask, for she knew the Doctor wouldn't answer, but watched in awe, excitement and fear as he ordered two Torchwood agents to carry the body after him. Without further explanation, he bounded forward and grabbed Rose's hand enthusiastically, kissing her once with joy on her forehead before sprinting towards the door on the roof.

Rose looked back to see Jamie's body being hauled onto a stretcher and carried after them energetically, and she smiled, though she had no idea why. She was pulled after the Doctor down he stairs, as neither one of them would have had the patience to wait in the lift, and didn't bother waiting for the agents behind them as they dashed out of the building, ignoring every sign of the battle that had taken place just a day previously.

- - - - - - -

Within minutes, though by the Doctor's watch it could easily have been hours, he and Rose collapsed against the centre console of the TARDIS, leaving the doors wide open for the following three people to burst in moments later. The Doctor gazed up at the central column and stroked the panelling happily, overjoyed to be back in his ship, then wasted no more time. With not a word of explanation to anyone, he drove the sonic screwdriver into a slot on the console and bounded over to the screen and whirled it around to face him.

The TARDIS' interior glow merged into a deep happy blue, a calming sensation that appeared to work on everyone except the Doctor. Rose immediately stopped breathing so heavily and focused everything on the Doctor, while the two men's notions to ask questions were immediately banished.

Rose ran over to the Doctor's side, looking anxiously back as her son's body. It was being wheeled into the TARDIS by some unfamiliar agents, who were more intrigued by the interior of the space ship than what the alien inside it was up to. They gazed around theroom in amazement, and the Doctor showed no sign of recognising them, but worked tirelessly on the console with his tongue slipping out between his lips in solid concentration.

After a moment of rapid, loud clicks, a loud pop was heard, and the end of the sonic screwdriver began to fizz loudly.

"No, no, no, no, no..." the Doctor muttered to himself, running around to the other side of the console and whacking it with his hammer.

"What's wrong?" Rose panicked, but the Doctor didn't answer. He ran back around to the sonic screwdriver and pushed some buttons carelessly, focusing on the Gallifreyan readings on the screen.

"There..." he said briefly, pushing down a lever and pressing a large clear button. "Almost - that's it! Done!" he cried, and his hand stopped mid-air. He glanced to Rose, licked his lower lip, then brought his hand down on a flashing blue button, sending the ship into the air.

The two other men in the ship glanced at each other in shock and bewilderment, then to Rose and the Doctor, who were still staring at each other, Rose shrieking with shock and joy, as they were thrown to the floor. One man reached for Jamie's stretcher as the boy began to roll away, and the other simply fell to the ground as the ship stopped suddenly, leaving a silence hanging in the air.

"What the bloody hell was that?" one of the men asked, and the Doctor looked over to them, as if realising for the first time that they were there.

"Oh." he said blankly. "Hello. Um, you might want to move." he advised calmly, then rushed at full speed towards the doors. Rose bolted after him, glancing sadly at Jamie, and the two men scrambled away, pulling the boy with them to safety.

The Doctor took a deep breath, then threw open the doors and looked out into the dark abyss of stars. He grinned.

"What?" Rose asked giddily, wrapping her arm round the Doctor's now that she was certain everything would be okay.

"Co-ordinates 456,742. The Helios Constellation, to the far west of the Gallentio Galaxy." he said happily. Rose gazed out at the dots of white in amazement. The Doctor looked down at her proudly. "This, Rose Tyler, is the most telepathically connected point in the Universe."

She looked up at him questioningly. "And we're here because...?" she started cheekily, though her heart was beating too fast to come up with a sarcastic reply.

"Well, Jamie's body is being used as a host. It should be irreversible, but then again, Jamie should be human." He grinned again and bounded out of Rose's grasp and back over to the controls, ignoring the Torchwood agents once again, and leaving the door wide open. Rose followed him over, giving an apologetic smile to the men and a quick glance at Jamie's peaceful, still body.

"You see..." he grabbed his sonic screwdriver enthusiastically from the console and ran over to Jamie with Rose not far behind, and scanned the boy's body quickly. "This Family uses telepathy. They hook onto their hosts through their minds, link up the thoughts, synchronise, and WHAM! Human host while they track down me." He rushed back over to the screen and started pressing random buttons. The central column began to move up and down rhythmically, though the ship didn't move.

"But - they got it wrong. They thought Jamie was human - they didn't detect his half-alien background because: One, it's very hard to track down a half-alien life form; and two, since he belongs in the other Universe anyway, his readings are always slightly off, like... ooh, like part of an image that's been moved very, very slightly to the left. That's what it's like. They can't track him properly. That's why it never registered in my mind that he was my son. So... anyway, when they tried to connect with his mind, Jamie managed to stay alive. He's well hidden, and just slightly out of position, but completely there, and completely alive!"

As a loud ping sounded in the room, the Doctor thrust the sonic screwdriver into the slot again, waited impatiently for a few seconds, then pulled it out again. He hopped over to Jamie, knelt down by his side, and beckoned Rose over.

"So, all we need to do, is give the alien part of his mind a bit of a shock, use the telepathic connection here - which I've driven into my brilliant sonic screwdriver - to jolt him out, unfreeze Jamie's body, and he'll be absolutely brilliant!"

He held the sonic device up to Jamie's left ear, his tongue poking out of his mouth in focused concentration, and held the button down so that the bright blue light lit up the boy's face. Rose watched with anticipation and hope as he worked, crossing her fingers discreetly beside her.

After a few seconds, Rose felt her skin grew hot with what she assumed was disappointment, but the Doctor seemed undeterred. She looked up to the ceiling and closed her eyes, praying for the best.

Then the faint buzzing of the screwdriver stopped. Rose didn't look down, too afraid of seeing her son lying still, and the Doctor throwing down the sonic screwdriver and giving up.

"Rose?"

She looked down immediately. The Doctor hadn't spoken. Lying there on the cold metal grating, his skin clammy and his hair greasy with sweat, her son gazed up at her with wonder and fear.

"Jamie." she whispered, her voice barely more than a whisper. "Is that you?"

The boy's lip began to tremble and he sat bolt upright and flung his cold, clammy arms around Rose's neck. "I'm scared, Rosie." he whimpered into her neck, and Rose hugged his cool body tightly, closing her eyes as she felt the tears fall freely. "I'm scared of the monsters."

"Sh..." she said softly, her voice cracking as she ran her fingers through his hair delicately. "Rose's here, I'm here, don't worry."

"I heard him Rosie." he cried. "I don't remember anything. Just that he was angry. He was goin' to kill people."

"No, Jamie, no." she soothed him. "No, everything's fine. You're back now, you're back with me. It's all gonna be okay."

Jamie clutched Rose's neck, refusing to let go, and after several moments of peace, Rose opened her eyes to look at the Doctor. He smiled slightly, and she smiled back, a short laugh escaping as she did so. She pulled away from Jamie and turned him round to sit him on her lap. Wiping the tears away on her cheeks, she wrapped one arm around his waist and took his hand in he other.

"Jamie." she whispered softly, swallowing the lump in her throat. "There's someone you need to meet."

She lifted her's and Jamie's hands to point at the Doctor, resting her head against Jamie's minute shoulder. "This..." she told him proudly. "This man is the Doctor."

"Doctor." Jamie repeated, hiccuping as he used his free hand to wipe his eyes. "He's your friend."

The Doctor's eyes widened and Rose's suppresed a giggle. "Sorry?"

"Mickey told me." Jamie said breathlessly. "You took my sister to space." he informed the Doctor, who smiled happily.

"Yes." he said, looking straight into Rose's red, puffy eyes. "Yes I did."

Suddenly, Jamie broke free of Rose's grasp and ran over to the doors. Rose jumped up and ran after him, as did the Doctor. The boy stopped dead at the entrance and stared out at the stars.

"Wow." he said blankly.

The Doctor chuckled, his eyes not leaving the top of Jamie's head. "Yep. Wow."

"I'm in your spaceship." he stated. "Mickey said it's bigger on the inside."

"God, could that man not keep any secret?" Rose muttered with amusement.

"Still," the Doctor whispered in her ear, still looking intently at Jamie. "At least we know his conscious wasn't damaged."

"This is space." Jamie said simply, staring in awe at the view. "Those things are stars."

"Yep." the Doctor agreed proudly.

"This is space." Rose said confidently.

The Doctor turned to look at her with a smile and slipped his hand into hers.

"This is home."

Wheeeeee...
So, I think there'll be two more chapters, and then NOTHING! :(

Review please? You like?