Disclaimer: Doctor Who © BBC. I own nothing but this story!

Author's Notes: A bit of a filler chapter since I decided to stray away from my original plans just slightly so we could get in some time for Jackie Tyler as well! Since we're having a bit of fun, why not add in some more, eh? Anyway, am I the only one who notices Rose's accent more when she get's frustrated or angry? I tried to write it like that, but I understand if it gets weird after using regular spelling etc with her. It's not too "accent oriented" so not too much of a change. I'm trying not to play favourites here, and I'm having a really hard time not to! XD

Thanks for everyone who's reviewed so far!

The atmosphere around everyone switched from somewhat tense, to off the charts uneasiness. Amy and Rory took it as a sign to back away, so they stepped off to the side and sat down on a nearby bench. John had recognized River from the moment she stepped out, and knew he didn't want to deal with the situation either, so joined the married couple.

"Right, so how do you all know each other exactly?" He attempted to start the conversation.

"It's kind of a long story." Rory gave him a wary look.

"Right, best saved for some other time then?" John caught on to Rory's hidden meaning and nodded.

A couple seconds later.

"So how exactly does Rose know the Doctor—or I guess you..? This is so confusing." Amy also asked, John opened his mouth to speak but was promptly cut off, "Also save for another time?"

He nodded and looked back at Rose, then the Doctor, then Rose, and then River. The day was just getting stranger and stranger as it went on. He could feel a headache start up.

"Yes, Doctor Song. Is something the matter with that?" River started to tense up, being raised to be a killer gave her instincts to tell what emotions people had. It was quite clear that this woman she'd just met—who still hadn't introduced herself properly—was very upset with something. Something, she assumed, that had to do with the Doctor. Typical.

"Oh no, nothing's wrong." Rose said defensively. "You two married or somethin'?"

"Spoilers." Though it was the usual thing for River to say, the words were spoken, not by her, but by the flustered Doctor instead. "Right, River?" He gulped. He could feel his body temperature rise and his brow began to sweat slightly. Definitely not a good day for drama. In fact no day was good for drama. He quite disliked it.

"Spoilers? What's spoilers? It's a simple question, are you married or not?" Rose's voice began to rise slightly.

"Well, you see—" the Time Lord began, but was cut off early.

"Doctor is my title, not a name I took on for some marriage. I'm an archaeologist." River explained, getting quite agitated with the immaturity of the situation.

"What?" Rose and the Doctor said in unison. They glanced at each other briefly.

"So you're not married then?" Rose asked cautiously.

River merely arched an eyebrow and sighed. "Are we going to figure out a way to get us home, and close the rift, or not?"

"Oh, right...Sorry. John?" Rose looked over to her version of the Doctor and motioned for him to join them, hoping his presence would help ease the stress.

The Doctor looked at River, hoping to get an explanation. She knew his name for pete's sake, he figured they would have at least gotten married at some point. Or possibly even joked about it at the very least. Generally she'd say 'spoilers' if there was something she couldn't talk about. But this time she merely shrugged it off and continued like nothing had happened.

"Right, uh. Hello again, River." John slowly made his way up to them.

"I'm sorry, have we met before?" River looked at him confused.

John mentally kicked himself. He'd forgotten that the first time he'd met her, was her last time meeting him. Obviously since the Doctor knew her, it was later in his time line. After he'd become human.

"I meant from earlier. I saw you earlier. Before you got back in the TARDIS. And obviously heard you say your name and all." He waved his hand about.

"Oh right, sorry, I'd completely forgot about that." She smiled. He sighed inwardly. Another disaster saved. For the time being.

A moment of silence passed briefly before the Doctor addressed Amy and Rory, "Ponds, time to get a move on. First things first, we need to find out what caused the crack to open." He turned to John and Rose, "Right then, experts of this world. Where shall we start? I'm sure you would have been monitoring everything going on."

"We can go to our place." John answered and scratched the back of his head.

"What about Torchwood?" Rose questioned.

"You know how I feel about that place." He raised an eyebrow.

"It's not as bad as the other one. I've told you that hundreds of times. Besides, gotta get bread on the table somehow." She hissed.

"Instead of bread, could we possibly move further away from your mother?" He joked, and nudged her slightly.

"Oy, watch it! That's my mum you're talking about!" She warned.

"Right, right. Anyway, our place then?" John beamed. It'd been quite some time since he'd last been on an adventure, and although this one included possibly tearing worlds apart, he was still excited to get to work.

"Alright, then. Lead the way Rose Tyler. Defender of Earth." John offered his arm. "This way." He instructed everyone behind him. With the introductions taken care of, everyone hastily made their way to John and Rose's place.

The Doctor stopped briefly to scan the surroundings. It felt as though someone was watching them, but he couldn't figure out where. There was also something else that was eating at the back of his mind. He felt as though he was missing something. Something important, and something staring him in the face.

"Doctor!" He heard River call his name from a few blocks ahead. He waited a couple of seconds before turning back around and jogging to catch up.

It wasn't until they rounded another corner, no longer in range of the TARDIS, when a shadowed figure appeared. They walked out from behind a building a ways down from the direction everyone had headed off. The figure walked swiftly to the time machine and pushed lightly on the door.

They smiled as it creaked open slowly. Allowing them full reign of what lay inside, unbeknown to the Time Lord.

John and Rose didn't live far from the busy parts of the city, they'd decided to find a place about 20 minutes driving distance away. However, not wanting to lose everyone on public transportation, they'd agreed to walking.

"Rory?"Amy groaned as she threw her head back.

"Yeah?" He grunted in response.

"Ask the Doctor if we're there yet." She huffed.

"Why don't you do it?" He too groaned slightly.

"Because you love me, and I'm too tired to." She crossed her arms.

"Aren't you just wasting more energy asking me to, when you could just ask him yourself?" He sighed.

"Just do it!" She hissed.

"Fine." He put his hands up in defeat. "Doctor?" He looked sideways to the man walking beside him.

"Yeah, yeah I heard. Best ask those two since I haven't a clue where we're going." He nodded to Rose and John who were a few meters ahead.

"Can't you do it?" He rolled his eyes.

"I believe your wife is the one that wants to know. Not me." He insisted.

"Ok that's it! I'm no one's call boy. Amy, just ask them if you really want to know. And Doctor." Rory glared at him, "This is the last time you drag us into the middle of your drama filled love life. Adventuring other worlds and times and such is fine. But no more ex-girlfriend issues." He threatened.

"What? She's not my ex-girlfriend!" The Doctor huffed and crossed his arms.

"I don't care." Rory warned.

"Sweetie, you'd best not anger him. Remember, he does know how to use a sword." River teased.

"Oh...hush." He sad defeated.

Ahead of them Rose was listening in on their conversation. She was holding hands with John and he squeezed hers gently. He knew that she was having trouble processing all of what was going on. "You ok?" He whispered.

"I'm fine." She lied.

"Rose." He said sternly and squeezed her hand again.

She looked up at him sadly, "I don't know. It's just. You're both the same man. Not to say that I'd choose him over you. I chose you, and that's the best decision in my life. Believe me." She smiled. "But. I don't know. I just figured he—or I guess you—would still at least show some sign of feelings for me. I thought we had something special. You know? It's like you just moved on in a split second and forgot all about me." Her smile faltered and she could feel tears welling in her eyes.

John pulled her hand up to his lips and kissed it softly to try and comfort her. "Rose Tyler, I could never leave you, or move on." He tried to convince her.

"Yeah, tell him that." She scoffed slightly.

Behind them the Doctor had caught bits of their conversation and tried not to show his guilt. He definitely still loved her. Not that he was in love with her. But as a friend. There was a point when his past self was in love with her, yes, but he'd learned to move on. Though the guilt of leaving her a world apart never left him. He'd began to drain out the rest of the conversations around him, when a voice broke his train of thought.

"Doctor?" He looked up and saw Rose looking back at him, the same way when he'd first met her. He felt another pang of guilt wash over him, but didn't show it.

"Yes, what is it?" he answered.

"We're here." She smiled at him, and he felt his hearts break again.

The house they lived in wasn't too small, but at the same time wasn't too big. Just enough room to hold the 6 of them as they filtered in through the front door and into the living area. It didn't take long for Amy and Rory to find a comfortable spot on the couch and nod off while the rest of the group went in to the kitchen to talk things over.

"So how did you find out about the rift anyway?" John asked as he prepared a pot of tea for everyone. Rose was leaning up against one of the counters, while the Doctor and River sat at the table.

The Doctor fiddled his thumbs as he started to explain, "Oh let's see. I was fixing parts of the TARDIS when Amy came barging in telling me how she didn't like the bunk beds for her and Rory. There was lots of arguing and...stuff. And then River hopped aboard the TARDIS. Well, more of she materialized instead of hopped. Hopping would imply that she came in from the front doors. Or perhaps it'd imply that she was literally hopping about. Which she wasn't. And—"

"Doctor." River faked a cough.

"Yes, right. Sorry. Off topic! Anyway, just to clarify again, she showed up. Randomly. There that sounds more like it. I sent Amy and Rory off to find their new bedroom. And so I think it was about that time that River showed me some readings she'd obtained." The Doctor nodded sounding pretty pleased with himself.

"Right then." John said as he tended to the tea. His new self was very space brained. More so than he was. "So how did you get ahold of those readings then, River?"

"Oh boy. Where to begin? Well little bit of background to get you lot caught up. In my time I've just seen the Doctor. We were dealing with these cracks in time." The older woman started.

"Cracks in time?" Rose asked as she grabbed some mugs for everyone.

"Yes. Lots of them, actually." River told her.

"What are those?"

"Were. What were those." The Doctor corrected her. "Basically they were two points in time that never should have touched."

"Meaning..?" Rose pulled a face as she looked at him.

"Meaning the end of the Universe." He answered.

"If it was the end of the Universe, then how are we all still here?" She looked at him confused.

River jumped in to the conversation, "Being the daft old man that he is," she rolled her eyes at him, "He, of course, launched himself into it and erased himself from all of existence."

"He what!" Rose's eyes widened in disbelief.

"Oh don't worry! Amy brought me back!" The Doctor beamed. "Good old Pond." He smiled.

"Right." Rose shook her head as she tried to process what they'd just said. "So, hold on. You said in your time. Wouldn't you two have been together when that happened?"

"Uh. About that." The Doctor held up a finger to explain, but looked over to River instead.

She had already pulled out her infamous blue diary and was already flipping through her entries. "Right, let's see...Oh gosh, very early days." She flipped through a few more pages. "You said you did Berlin recently?" She looked back at the Doctor and he nodded. John stood more to the back of the kitchen and eyed the book. He remembered when she'd pulled it out in the Library. He still wondered what was inside of it.

"Yes, and by the way. That was a very rash decision and you shouldn't have done it." He lectured her.

River shook her head, "Oh please. You would have died if I hadn't of done that."

"Would have? I did!" He began to argue with her.

"Well you're not dead now, are you?" She cocked an eyebrow and smirked.

"Shut up, not the point." He folded his arms in annoyance.

"Hold on, what are you two talking about anyway?" Rose interjected as she set the tea down on the table for them.

"You see, we don't exactly travel together." The Doctor began.

"We also don't meet up at the same time." River added on.

"Yeah, I'm starting to get that." Rose said as she sipped her tea.

"No. What I mean is, our timelines aren't the same." River's tone started to get sad as she spoke.

John stood up a bit more straight and leaned in a bit to listen more closely.

"We don't always meet up at the same point in time for our timelines. So I keep a diary to keep up with when and where our last adventure was. So for me, the cracks in time happened just recently. And based on the last time the Doctor saw me, so during Berlin, it's been about over a year or so for him." River finished and closed the blue book.

"Hold on, so you crossed your own timeline?" John eyed her.

"I wasn't sure which Doctor I'd get next, and this obviously couldn't have waited. I had to take the chance of finding a later version." River looked past Rose at him.

"Right, makes sense." John nodded in agreement.

All conversation came to a pause. The only sound came from the Doctor slurping his tea.

"Oh I almost forgot, I brought the data I gathered if you'd like to go over it." River sat up and began rummaging through her pockets. She pulled out her PDA communicator and pressed a few buttons before finding the information.

"Where'd you get that?" The Doctor asked. He remembered her bringing paperwork with her, not her PDA.

"Remember when I said I was getting something from the TARDIS?" She flashed him a grin. "You didn't expect me to lug around everything did you?"

"No, I guess not. But what took you so long? You know the TARDIS inside and out." He leaned in to whisper, "Did you do that on purpose so you could make an entrance?"

River laughed, "Doctor, do you think I'd really do that on purpose?" She batted her eyelashes playfully.

He stared at her blankly. "Yes."

Rose rolled her eyes and interrupted them, "You two need a room or somethin'? Or can we start going over everything?"

"Er, yes. Sorry." The Doctor glared at River and stood up, though a smile played on his lips as he exited the room.

John walked back over to the table to collect the mugs. "The tea alright?" He asked.

"Oh it was lovely." River smiled. "I haven't seen this face of yours yet." She reached up and lightly ran a hand across his cheek.

"Oh, uh. Yeah, I guess not." He quickly pulled back, afraid that Rose would have seen them.

"So this body of your's is human isn't it?" She stood up and patted herself down.

"Yeah, it is...how did you know?" He put the dishes in the sink.

"I guess you could say that I just have a way with those kinds of things." River winked.

"S'cuse me, but you mind not flirtin' with my boyfriend while I'm here." Rose crossed her arms and stared the older woman down.

"Oh he's all your's sweetheart. Much to young for my liking." She winked as she too left the room.

Rose turned to give John a mini lecture when there was a loud pounding at the door.

BAM. BAM. BAM.

"Rose? Rose are you there? It's your mum. Don't play games with me, Rose. I see the lights on!"

Rose groaned, she didn't have time to entertain her mom. She figured if everyone was quiet enough then she'd eventually just leave. There was some clatter at the front of the house when the sound of the door opening was heard.

"Oh god, don't tell me.." Rose mumbled to herself.

"What the? Who are you!" Jackie yelled at the man who had just opened the door to her daughter's house. "You definitely don't seem like the type Rose would go for—bow tie and all—so I'm assuming you're not fooling around with her. She has a boyfriend you know. Rose!" She yelled behind him.

"Ahh! Jackie Tyler! Good to see you! Well, sort of. I wasn't expecting that. A bit of a surprise actually."

"How do you know my name? Who are you?" She pointed a finger at him.

"Oh, Jackie, Jackie. Can't you tell?" He asked as he straightened said bow tie. "I'm the Doctor."