~oOo~

He bloody hated this place. Hospitals in general gave him the creeps, and John had been stuck in this one for four days. Granted, he'd only been conscious for three of them but still. Rose had been here all day the first three days. Today, however she had to go back to work for some big meeting. He missed her, missed the way she had sat here and talked to him until the nurses had kicked her out. Of course Liam had been here the entire time too, hovering over her, getting her tea and bringing Rose something to eat when she was hungry. All of those were things that John would have done himself if he wasn't ordered to rest.

What did that man have that he didn't?

Rose, apparently.

That thought made him sick with jealousy. So what if Liam had been engaged to her before? It's not like Rose wore an engagement ring. Nor had she formally acknowledged that type of relationship with that man.

Disgusted with that train of thought, he pulled out the notebook and a pencil that he had begged off one of the nurses. The dreams that he'd had since he was knocked unconscious had been vivid and agonizing. Only when he woke up the details had fallen away. The names and faces of people that he could recall when he was unconscious were blank now, everyone except Rose that is.

Nimbly, his fingers flew over the page sketching a blue box that was less of a wooden object and more of a magic carpet. It was a spaceship that was able to take the Doctor anywhere in time and space that he wanted except back into his own past. It could never take the mysterious alien back to right his many wrongs.

…

Liam stood in the doorway of the hospital room watching the Doctor or John or whoever he was. He wasn't sure how comfortable he was with this man hanging around Rose. Naturally, it was Rose's choice who she associated with, and Liam was friendly with all of the other former companions he'd met. It was just the Doctor that he was unsure of. He knew that Rose had been in love with him, and from what Jack had said the feelings may have been mutual. Well, they had both made their own choices, and Rose had agreed to marry him and not the Doctor.

As much as Liam may not like that this man was here, John was important to Rose. So he had to make nice while John was here. However he didn't have to stand by and let John think Rose was available or that John could just flirt with someone else's fiancée.

It's not like the Doctor himself hadn't been overprotective of her as well. His thoughts drifted back to the very first time he met the Doctor.

"Make sure you have Rose ring me tomorrow," Sarah Jane Smith reminded him as she helped him on with his coat. "I still don't know why you didn't bring her with you tonight. It's been too long since I've seen her."

Liam Donnelly had to lean over to kiss the older woman on the cheek. "I told you, Aunt Sarah Jane, Rose had a meeting at work tonight. One that she couldn't miss. Then she had to pick up Sophie from the nanny. I'll make sure she calls you this weekend. Maybe you two can go to lunch and Rose can show off that truly magnificent ring she's now sporting on her lovely finger."

"It's about time you made an honest woman out of her," Sarah Jane said with a wink as she opened the front door and hugged her godson one more time. "I expect the three of you for tea soon too."

"Of course." Liam waved from the front step. "See you soon." Only after the door had shut behind him did Liam notice anything out of the ordinary. The air was heavy and still, without the slightest hint of a breeze. A lock of his jet black hair fell across his forehead, and he felt tingling electricity all around him.

At first, his eyes slid past the blue box sitting on the corner only a few meters away from his car. Only when there was a movement in the shadows did Liam's green eyes fixate on the Police Box and its owner. Liam felt a tightening in his gut as he took in the imposing sight of the thin man wearing a brown pinstriped suit, long brown coat and trainers who was standing in front of him. This had to be the infamous Doctor. The very version that Rose had seen him regenerate into. The man who had abandoned her to die. The man who had made no attempts to contact her in the last eight years aside from sending her flowers.

An incredibly passive aggressive move if you asked him.

Coming to stand a few feet in front of the Doctor, Liam appraised the man. At first glance he would have appeared to be any normal human bloke, even if he was a tad too skinny. Conversely, there was an aura around him that was tangible and dangerous. This was not a man that you ever wanted to cross. The Doctor was also a man that Rose had loved and would always, in some small way, love. Not the way she loved Liam, of that he was certain. Nevertheless, even if she had left the Doctor there was still one infinitesimally small part of Liam thought she might want to run away with him again.

To see the stars, of course, not to rekindle something from so many years ago.

"Why are you here? Why now?" Liam asked.

The Doctor's eyes narrowed. "You know exactly why I'm here." He paused and storm clouds seemed to gather in the Time Lord's eyes. "Rose Tyler." There was something about the way the Doctor said her name. The words were filled with emotion: intense love, regret, remorse, sadness and even a veiled threat.

A shiver swept through Liam's body, and the cold suddenly chilled his bones. He wasn't going to let himself be intimidated by this man. Not now, now that he and Rose and the family that they were building together were happy. "Do you think that you can just swoop in and take her back after all this time? You haven't said one word to her since she left you. Haven't made one single attempt to see her and now you want to show up here and attempt to take away the happiness that she deserves. Try to push back into the life that she's built without you. I won't let that happen."

"I'm not here to take her back," the Doctor growled angrily. "I'm here to warn you." He clenched his jaw before he spoke again. "Rose deserves to be happy and for some reason she chose you to spend her life with. You seem like a decent enough ape, but that doesn't mean that I like you or your relationship with Rose."

The Doctor's jaw clenched, and he ground his teeth. "I've come to realize that she has the right to make her own choices in life. I have to respect her decisions. That being said, if you hurt her, in any way, I won't even give you the chance to live to regret it." Storm clouds swirled above them. "Are we clear?"

Liam wanted to assure this alien man that he would never hurt Rose the way that the Doctor had. Would never leave her behind to fall into the arms of another woman. Would never lie to her about his past the way that the Doctor had. Would never just leave unless Rose asked him to and even then he wouldn't give up without a fight. This, however, did not seem like a good time poke at the obviously powerful man.

"Clear as crystal," he finally replied tersely. The two men glared at each other for a moment until the ringing of Liam's mobile broke the moment.

It was some atrocious song that Rose had picked to be her specific ringtone, and Liam always smiled when he heard it. Even that one time it rang in the middle of a court proceeding, and he was sufficiently chastised for it. Without another thought to the man with the TARDIS, Liam answered the call. "Hello, sweetheart," he greeted her, walking to his car. "No, I'm just leaving now. Be home soon and then we'll go for dinner." He slid behind the wheel and turned over the engine. "Absolutely. That Thai place that you like is great….. Love you, too."

Liam took one last look at the spot where the time ship had been only to find it had gone. That was probably for the best. From what he had heard it wouldn't be hard for the Doctor to make it so that he would never have been born. As he drove home to his fiancée and daughter, he could only hope to never ever encounter the Time Lord again.

He really should have known better than to ever say 'never ever'.

Pushing off the door frame, Liam stepped fully into the room. "You look like you're doing better."

On the bed, John jumped in surprise. "I didn't know that you'd be coming by." He hastily shoved some papers aside. "Is Rose with you?"

"No, Rose is still at work." John's face fell, and Liam couldn't help but smirk. Laying a Ziploc bag full of grapes on the bedside table, Liam sat down in a chair near the bed.

"Grapes?" John asked, picking up the bag.

Liam shrugged. "It's the British thing to do, isn't it?"

The corners of John's mouth twitched. "Did you know that Romans…"

"That Romans started the tradition because they didn't know that it was fermentation process that made alcohol. They just believed that the grape was full of it naturally, and since alcohol gives people the warm fuzzies they believed that grapes had healing powers." Liam shrugged again. "I'm a bit of a trivia buff."

"So it seems," John agreed. An uncomfortable silence fell between them. It made John antsy. He hated sitting still under any circumstances. "Why, exactly, are you doing here?" John asked after a few moments.

With a smirk, Liam replied. "It's about Rose."

"You said she wasn't here." John looked towards the door, hoping to see her there.

"She's not," Liam replied curtly. "I needed to talk with you alone about Rose. About your relationship with her."

John stiffened. "I hardly think that is any of your business."

"Isn't it? Rose and I are engaged to be married." Liam leaned forward in his chair.

"Does that mean that you own her? That you get to decide who she chooses to be friends with?" John demanded, anger seeping into his voice.

For his part, Liam sounded calm. "No one owns or controls Rose. I certainly wouldn't even want to try that, not with her, not with anyone."

"Don't like her having male friends then?"

"Not at all, Rose has several close male friends, one of whom is an ex-boyfriend. I have no issue with any of them." Liam smiled. "Rose is magnetic. She draws people in, and she's amazing. She's sweet, funny, kind and always willing to help others, and if all you wanted from my fiancée was her friendship, I'd have no problem with that. The problem is that you want more from her."

"I don't see her wearing an engagement ring," John spat. "Seems to me that she doesn't consider herself to be engaged anymore."

"And you've heard her say that? Because Rose hasn't said anything of the sort to me," Liam countered.

John clinched his fists. "If she didn't consider herself available, she would have told me."

"From what I've heard, she told you that she just wanted to be your friend, but you wouldn't take no for an answer." Liam fought hard to keep his voice calm. He knew that Rose hadn't been unfaithful; that wasn't who she was. That didn't mean that the Doctor, or John really, hadn't tried to seduce her.

"She told me to give her time," John said through gritted teeth.

Liam chuckled. "Have you ever seen the movie The Princess and the Frog? It's one of my daughter's favourites. She and Rose watch it all the time."

"I've seen it," John said curtly. "Watched it with Rose one night. What's your point?"

"There's a line in there that Charlotte says that I think is appropriate here." Liam stood up. "She tells that boy at her party, 'When a woman says later, she really means not ever.' Have a good day, John. I wish you a speedy recovery, although I'm sure that I'll see you around before I leave for London. Maybe even once Sophie and I move back here, to live with Rose, to be a family with her, like we have been for many years now."

Without waiting for a reply, Liam left the room. Behind him he heard the sound of glass shattering against a wall.

~oOo~

"John," Rose called as she used the key he'd given her to unlock the door to his small flat. "I brought you some lunch." On a side table, she set down a vase containing a bouquet of flowers. Last night, when she and Liam had picked John up at the hospital, John told her that the one that she'd bought him for his room had fallen off the table and broken. Fresh flowers always made her feel better, so she wanted John to have them too.

From the other side his bedroom door she heard him call, "Be out in a mo."

Humming, Rose moved to his kitchen and began opening up the take away containers from their diner. After several days on hospital food, she knew that he would want something hearty and that tasted good.

"No Liam with you this time?" John asked, stepping into the room. He was wearing socks, sweat pants and an oversized jumper, and somehow he still managed to look incredibly sexy. Rose blinked; she'd always found the Doctor to be attractive but he had always worn so many layers. Seeing him like this was, well, stimulating.

"No, no Liam." Shaking her head, she handed John a container. "He's checking out some of the local schools for Sophie."

"Well, isn't that just brilliant." John frowned and opened the lid. Immediately he brightened, switching gears as easily as the Doctor did. "Oh, biscuits and gravy, one of my favourites." It was funny to see him embracing life in America, and the food here was one of his favourite things. Sure, he groused about the things that he couldn't find here that were readily available in Britain, but in those time he usually raided her stash of stuff that her mum sent her and fired up her region free DVD player.

"I'm surprised that Tarzan let you out of his sights," John muttered bitterly as he settled onto the couch.

Confused, Rose grabbed her food and sat in the chair opposite him. "What's that supposed to mean?" Ok, so he was going to be moody today. It's not like she didn't have lots of experience with that aspect of his personality.

"Just that he seems overtly possessive of you." John wouldn't meet her eyes.

"Did something happen between the two of you?" Rose pressed.

Sighing, John looked up at her. "You have to know how I feel about you. I've done a piss poor job of hiding it. Why didn't you tell me about him? Honestly. "

After setting down her food, Rose pinched the bridge of her nose. "I told you from the beginning that it was complicated, and I meant it. There was an issue with Liam's custody with Sophie. His ex-wife is a piece of work. I won't go into detail about it because it's a sore subject for him. The point is they couldn't come out here with me right away.

"We mutually agreed that I'd move here, and if he could sort out the custody thing then they'd move here and we'd be together again. In the meantime, we both sorta agreed that if something happened and either one of us met someone else that the other one would understand. I didn't want him to miss out on something great just because he was waiting for me."

Rose bit her lip. "Time passed, and neither one of us did. I still have feelings for him. It was only a couple of months ago that I fell out of the habit of wearing my engagement ring. It just sort of happened." Absentmindedly, Rose rubbed her thumb against the ring finger of her left hand. "I normally don't wear it when I'm working, and I forgot it one day. It spiralled from there."

"But why didn't you tell me?"

"I was a coward." Rose shrugged. "I like you, John. When you were in the hospital I was so scared that I was going to lose you. You're my friend. I love hanging out with you and laughing with you. It was just easier not to say anything at first and then it just seemed awkward to tell you about Liam. I'm sorry if I hurt you." Standing, Rose wiped her hands on a napkin. "I should really go."

"You don't have to. Rose, please stay," John protested.

Smiling slightly, Rose shook her head. "I'm a little behind this week. Plenty to do at the office." She started walking towards the door.

"Wait, Rose," John called, making her turn around. "Does he make you laugh? The way I do?"

Thinking back to all the reasons that she left the Doctor, Rose fought back a sob. "He doesn't make me cry."