"Yeah, Mum, I'll do my best. It depends on when the Doctor and the TARDIS are ready… Yeah, I love you, too, Mum. 'Bye."

Rose tucked her jiggery-poked superphone into her hoodie pocket as she entered the control room and smiled. Of course, he was right where she knew he would be, under the grating and up to his elbows in wires. Men were the same all over, she thought fondly. They couldn't resist tinkering, whether it be with cars or alien timeships.

"Here you go," she said as she reached the hatch in the floor and held out a steaming mug to him.

"Coffee? Perfect!" exclaimed Jack, looking at her with a pleased smile and reaching up to take the mug from her. "I love a good cuppa, as you say, but coffee's just what I needed right now."

"Know you like it." She sat down on the grating near the open hatch and watched as he took an appreciative gulp then set the mug down next to him to continue his work. "Besides, I can't bear the smell of tea right now." Her nose wrinkled. "Feel like it's in my pores."

"Sleeping Beauty share any more info after I left?" Jack asked, twisting two wires together and checking the connection.

"Not much – he's really tired." She paused for a moment, then said, "You've really heard of regeneration?"

"Like I said, just rumors. Didn't really think much about it at the time." The wires sparked and he swore softly under his breath, shaking his singed fingers. "Did you notice anything different about him?"

"Hard to say – I guess we'll find out soon enough," she replied thoughtfully. "I just wish he had told me about it before all this. I definitely don't like that kind of surprise," she added with a frown.

"He's not exactly the most forthcoming man I've ever met," Jack remarked absently, repairing the connection without further incident.

"That's an understatement," Rose said with a rueful smile. "How's the TARDIS?"

"We're getting there." Jack patted the glowing column. "We've finally come to an… understanding. I'll fix her up, and she'll stop shocking me." He frowned slightly as he untangled another cluster of wires. "I don't understand. She always let me work on her before."

"Maybe 'cause the Doctor's not here with you? Maybe that's made her nervous." She gently touched the edge of the controls and felt a soft hum in her mind.

"Maybe." His tone was dubious. "Did I tell you I had a hard time getting in here while we were on the Gamestation? My key kept jamming in the lock, then the door wouldn't open wide enough to let me in. I finally squeezed my way in. She wasn't happy about that."

"There's a female in the universe that's resistant to your charms?" Rose chuckled, and the TARDIS hummed her amusement, much to Rose's delight.

"Shocking, isn't it?" Jack grinned, then continued, "It's strange, though. I feel like she's just… tolerating me. I think you've damaged her judgment, Rose Tyler, ripping her open like that. Hand me those wire strippers, would you?"

She passed the tool through the hatch into his outstretched hand. A few quiet minutes passed as Jack worked, whistling softly under his breath, and Rose watched him sleepily through heavy-lidded eyes, arms hugging the knees drawn up to her chest, listening to the music she had only just noticed playing softly. "Who is this?" she asked idly.

"Duke Ellington. I picked up an appreciation for big band during the Blitz. Good memories," he said, looking up at her with a smile.

"Yeah." Rose's own smile was soft as she continued, "When I was little, my grandpa would play music like this on his record player. He told me how his parents, my great-grandparents, met during the War. They used to go dancing all the time – he said they fell in love while dancing. He taught me the steps, and we would dance around their sitting room, and my gran would watch and smile."

"No wonder you knew all those moves. I thought they were a little before your time."

Rose rested her head on her updrawn knees, and her thoughts drifted away from the present, back to the night when everybody had lived. When music had filled the control room and they had danced. Rose and the Doctor, Rose and Jack, even the Doctor and Jack. They had performed a completely over-the-top parody of a tango, stalking dramatically across the grating while Rose lay slumped in the jumpseat, clutching her sides and wheezing with helpless laughter. Happy tears had trickled down her cheeks as she watched the Doctor open up and clown around like a child, the somber aura that normally surrounded him falling away. And then, after Jack had said his goodnights and headed off to his new room, the lights of the TARDIS had dimmed and "Dream a Little Dream of Me" had begun to play. The Doctor had held out his hand to her with his wide, beautiful smile. She had taken it wordlessly and they began to dance. Barely a dance at all, more a gentle swaying, her head on his shoulder, his cheek on her hair. She had listened to the lyrics floating around her.

Stars shining bright above you
Night breezes seem to whisper, I love you
Birds singin' in the sycamore tree
Dream a little dream of me

Say nighty-night and kiss me
Just hold me tight and tell me you'll miss me
While I'm alone and blue as can be
Dream a little dream of me

And for one brief, shining minute she did dream, a sweet, radiant vision. It had made her breath catch in her throat and her heart skip a beat. Then the moment was broken as he spun her away from him with surprising grace and said briskly that it was time for bed. And she had walked away, away from the control room, away from the Doctor, away from dreams and this wonderful time when all was right and everybody lived.

"You still up there?"

Rose returned to the present with a start and a blush. "Um, yeah, yeah," she answered hastily and added quickly to cover her momentary lapse, "So, did you notice how the Doctor kept looking at you? What was up with that – besides the obvious 'you're alive' thing?"

Jack eyed her shrewdly at her obvious deflection but let it pass. "I don't know. I'm sure he'll tell us – or we'll pry it out of him," he answered with a chuckle. "So, is he sleeping now?"

"Said he was gonna take a shower first."

"You didn't stay to wash his back?" Jack waggled his eyebrows suggestively.

"Jack!" she exclaimed.

"Don't tell me you didn't want to – I see the way you look at him."

How exactly did she look at him? she wondered with a slight feeling of panic. "Jack, we're… we're not like that. We're… we're better than that," she protested, stammering slightly.

"You can be better than that and still have that, you know," he rejoined. "In fact, having that would make the 'better than that' even better… than that."

Rose looked down at his smug smile for a moment then shook her head helplessly. "I must be tired, 'cause I think I understood that."

"You just can't resist my superior logic."

"Logic, hm?" Her expression was skeptical. "Well, that's one word for it."

"Hey!"

She grinned at his mock indignation, but the grin was broken by a sudden, nearly jaw-cracking yawn. "Oh, 'm so tired! I feel like I haven't slept for a week," she moaned.

"Go to bed," he advised her. "Sleep while he is. I know you won't want to when he's awake."

"Will you come get me if anything comes up?"

"Of course. You want me to come and tuck you in?" He ogled her with such a wicked expression that she snorted with laughter. Jack was so extravagantly flirtatious and suggestive with her it bordered on the ridiculous. Rose suspected that, if she were to take him up on any of his come-ons, he would probably run away in panic.

Probably, she thought. Maybe. She realized uneasily that she wasn't quite sure enough to test the theory.

She suddenly felt a rush of fondness for this funny, handsome man who had insinuated himself into her heart. He was brave, a true friend, the goofy, protective older brother she had never had. She remembered what he had said to her on Floor 500 – "You're worth fighting for" – and once again felt humbled.

"I love you, Jack," she announced impulsively.

He looked up at her quickly and flashed her a dazzling smile. "Well, of course you do. How could you resist?" As she laughed again, he added seriously, "Love you, too, gorgeous."

They smiled at each other for a moment, then Jack said, "Now off to bed or I'll carry you there, and then you won't be getting any rest at all."

Rose slowly got to her feet, stretching and yawning widely. "OK. 'Night, Jack."

"Good night, Rose. Thanks again for the coffee."

She heard him start to whistle again as she stumbled out of the control room, clumsy with exhaustion. She was pleased to see that the TARDIS had moved her bedroom next to the Doctor's and sent the ship a silent thank you. She paused outside his plain dark wood door and listened closely but heard nothing. She stood there for a minute, swaying on her feet with weariness, wanting to knock, wanting to see that he was still awake, still alive, still the same man she knew and… well, knew. Instead she slowly turned away and entered her own room, which she had not seen since before their trip to Kyoto. Since the Gamestation she had been napping in the chair next to the Doctor's bed. She staggered to her unmade bed and, too exhausted to change into her pajamas, flopped down and was sound asleep almost before her head hit the pillow.

She moved only once while she slept. She suddenly sat up, eyes wide open and unseeing, and muttered, "I want you safe. I want you safe." Then she fell back and did not stir. When she woke up for real much later, she remembered nothing of her dream, only felt a vague sense that she had forgotten something important.