Chapter 10

When Rose opened her eyes to the morning sun, she couldn't have been happier. In front of her eyes was the man she loved the most- her Doctor. He was still asleep, curled up on her mattress where he had fallen the night before. Rose enjoyed the sight of her calm and relaxed Doctor before getting up to check on Josh. She hoped he'd be awake before everyone else so that she could prepare them, but as she got up, she realised that Amy and Rory were both awake, Amy explaining the boy on the couch to her spouse.

Rose tiptoed softly to the boy on the couch and admired the youthful innocence on his sleeping face. While conscious and in the cover of darkness, his face hadn't appeared nearly as stress-free as it did now. Now he truly looked like the teenage boy he was.

He slowly and groggily opened his eyes, and when he saw Rose in front of him, a smile spread across my face. "I'm still human." He whispered to her, relieved that his idea actually worked; Rose was just relieved he hadn't overdosed.

"Yes you are." She said lovingly to the young boy. In the little time they'd been together, he'd become much like her little brother. She cared for him deeply, even though she hardly knew anything about his life. With a smile, she helped him off the couch. "We need to explain you to the Doctor. Let's wait for him to wake up though; he needs his sleep."

Josh nodded and Rose smiled back to him.

Josh and Rose sat down on the ground next to Amy and Rory, whispering amongst themselves while they waited for the Doctor to awaken. It took until Rory saw Josh's eyes up close that he finally believed it was the same mind in a different form. When he finally did see it though, he let out a holler of epiphany. "Oh! I see it now!"

The Doctor grumbled and began to awaken, being disturbed from his peaceful slumber by the roar of his companion. "Rory…" He began but it just came out as a grumble. He rolled to face where the voice came from but hung his head. When he saw that he was on the mattress instead of the lumpy couch where he was originally, he looked up at his Rose. "Why am I…" He cut off, spotting the boy.

He stared open-mouthed for a moment. "I… Why is there a boy here?" He was utterly confused and taken by surprise, something that didn't happen to him very often anymore. He knew that this boy certainly wasn't here before. However, the Doctor failed to notice that 'Sam' the dog was missing.

Rose stood up and walked over to her man. The boy followed and when he got close, he sat down. Rose spoke softly, explaining the whole situation. "Well, this is Josh. He's Vatra's son actually, but he got turned into a dog when one of Vatra's experiments went wrong." She paused to let her Doctor absorb this new information.

The Doctor stared at the two of them for a moment. "Okay then. Well, I see this dog thing is sorted then?" He asked curiously.

Rose nodded. "When we were escaping yesterday, he brought this little bag to me." She held up the black bag that held the syringe and vial. "Then when he turned into a human for a few minutes last night, he told me what to do with it."

"Wait. He turned into a human last night?" The Doctor asked. Rose continued her explanation. "Yes, he, for some reason, turned into a human for a few minutes every night since we've been on this planet."

The Doctor thought for a moment, but accepted this strange explanation. He'd certainly seen and heard stranger things in his travels. Rose added one other fact. "Oh, and his name is Josh." The Doctor nodded in acknowledgement.

Josh looked down at his hands and twiddled his thumbs, as if he needed to tell the ground something. Finally, he spoke. "Hey guys… I know you don't like my mom very much, but I really miss her. She is my mom after all, and she's really not as bad as you think. Do you think…." He paused anxiously. "Do you think you could bring me back to her? Or at least get me back to her lab? She doesn't know what happened to me, and I bet she's worried sick."

Rose agreed with the boy, understanding why he wanted to return. Despite the things she had done, she will always be his mother. From what she knew of the two, it seemed as if Vatra probably did care for her son, even if she wasn't so nice to others, and her son definitely cared back.

Without the approval of the others, Rose said "Of course we can bring you back." The Doctor looked to Rose in bafflement, while Amy and Rory sat dumbfounded.

"Rose, what are you thinking? We just got out of there, why should we go back?" Rory exclaimed. Rose could understand his thinking, but there was no way she was going to just leave Josh alone. Chances were that if he tried to get inside himself, the guards would stop him before they knew who he was. It was motivation enough for her to follow him and keep him safe.

The Doctor spoke in agreement. "Rose, if we go back in there, we might not ever get back out. It's too much of a risk. The boy is human again; Vatra will recognise him."

Amy spoke up after thinking about both of the men's points. "Even though Vatra may recognize him, who says the guards will? With us having just escaped, we don't know what kind of force the guards will use. If they don't know who Josh is when they see him, how do we know they won't just shoot? I'm with Rose on this one- we need to be there for him. He helped us, so we owe it to him to keep him safe."

Rory pondered his wife's point for a moment. It was true- they did owe the boy something for saving them. Yet Rory wanted nothing more than to just go home and have a nice night on Earth. He was growing more uncertain with Amy's fixation on the Doctor, and he wanted her to get back to human life soon. She needed some more normal.

Of course, since both women were bent on staying to help the boy, Rory and the Doctor hardly had a choice but to stay too. The Doctor sighed in defeat and finally nodded. "Fine, we can help Josh. But how are we going to get ourselves away from Vatra?" Rory resigned himself to staying silent.

Rose and Amy exchanged glances with Josh. Rose turned to the Doctor with a plan. "I'll offer her the knowledge of where she might be able to universe-jump. I bet she'll find that more interesting than a time-lord."

The Doctor couldn't believe what Rose just told him. After all, they had spent so much time keeping things like this from people. "What do you mean?"

Rose explained quickly. "Well, when I got transported here, I walked into a cave. I figured there must be a copy of the cave here too. I might as well assume so, since these are parallel worlds."

The Doctor pondered this for a moment. "Well, I guess that does seem like a safe assumption. But why would you want to let her know?" The Doctor still didn't quite get why she was willing to divulge this secret to someone.

Rose smiled, like it was obvious. "Well, first off, it's all the way back on Earth! Hopefully she won't go that far! Secondly, I bet that the stupid portal is closed by now anyways."

The Doctor thought back, remembering all the times he'd jumped universes. If the portal Rose had gone through was still there, it would easily be the longest open portal the time lord had ever heard of, so it was likely closed. If it was in fact closed then there's no harm done. Rose's plan was beginning to make quite a bit of sense now.

After several seconds of deliberation, he found himself nodding. "Fine, I'll allow this. Your plan had better work, Rose."