Author's Note: The BBC owns all the Doctor Who characters, themes, and ideas. They won't even lend them out for the weekend. Stingy bastards. Anyway, this was meant to be the last chapter; 10th chapter, nice, round number. Then it ran longer than I intended. Twice as long, in fact. That seems to be a pattern for me… Soooo, this is the first half of the last chapter of this "episode."

GitaMerah: There was no cheating, and you will discover more about what went on, there later on, I promise, but Tom's attitude concerns the level of potential danger Rose is dragging into their lives. He and Martha left Torchwood specifically because he wanted safety and normalcy. Especially with the baby now on the way, and there's some residual guilt, there, after he married Rose's best friend, so he naturally suspects her of trying to get back at him because subconsciously he thinks he did something worth her vengeance. People be complicated. That's why I have a dog. TK & LadaHathaway: I always really liked Martha, I just never saw her "with" The Doctor. Especially not nine. Still, I wanted her to have her own 'thing' going on, her own story and happy ending. Let's just say, a younger version of herself, might be popping up eventually… Carri007: Um, this is really going to annoy you, then. I'm sorry. I'm so sorry. Please don't telekinetically burn my house down. Yippee: I unfortunately have zero graphic art skills. I could draw some little stick figures on a motorcycle. My stick figures have much more personality than the average, I swear. royslady51: Given your high standards as specified on your profile, that's a huge compliment. Thank you! abdhfbaciau: Thank you so much. Also, did your cat walk across the keyboard whilst you were signing up? :D

Rose and The Doctor had abandoned the bike along a dirt road that ran near the eastern boundary of the Tylers' property. It was a two mile hike from there to the house, but Rose wanted above all to diminish the chances Tom and Martha could be tied to herself and The Doctor. Now, they were a little under a mile from their destination, passing through an open field and approaching the wooded land that surrounded the house. They hadn't said much since leaving the Milligans' home, and The Doctor now wished he'd taken a chance on trusting that idiot Ricky, or whatever his name was, rather than putting her through – whatever it was she'd gone through back there.

"Only a bit to go," Rose said, breathing heavy. The Doctor watched her, trudging determinedly through the long grass. She had to be exhausted.

"We could take a break," he offered, "The woods should cover us."

"I'm all right," Rose insisted.

"How do you know I don't need a bit of a rest?" he tried.

"Well," Rose started, shooting him a sardonic look, "You've got two hearts, and if you're anything like The Doctor I knew, ya spend half your life stirrin' up trouble and then runnin' for your life." The Doctor let it drop. He was finding there wasn't much use arguing with her.

"Right. It's a little disconcerting, ya know. You knowin' so much about me and me knowin' nothin' about you."

"Yeah, well, I think it's good for you. Bein' caught off guard once in awhile." Rose smiled at him tongue between her teeth.

"Just cruel, you are."

"You could ask, you know."

"All right. How'd you end up here, then?"

"Which time?"

"I'm sorry."

"I came here twice. Second time I got stuck here."

"All right, the first time," The Doctor decided, intrigued.

"That was a mistake, actually. I was travelin' with The Doctor and we just sort of ended up here. Just in the nick of time, too. The Cybermen came online shortly after we arrived," Rose glanced at The Doctor out of the corner of your eye, "That's why we thought you didn't exist, here. There was no one but us to stop the Cybermen."

"I was, uh, busy," The Doctor replied. He wasn't sure how much she knew of the Time War, "Still, that explains a lot. The TARDIS would normally divert me to a major temporal event like that, but she also wouldn't allow me to cross paths with an alternate version of myself."

"Mickey met his alternate self and the universe didn't collapse," Rose pointed out.

"Well, with all due respect, your idiot friend is not a Time Lord."

"Leave 'im be." Rose chided, a shiver of Déjà Vu passing through her.

"He had me arrested," The Doctor reminded indignantly, "I could say a lot worse of 'im."

"I know, I'm sorry, he was just… bein' careful I guess."

"You guess," The Doctor muttered. Then, a thought occurred to him, "Speakin' of Ricky…"

"Mickey," Rose corrected, laughing.

"Oh whatever 'is name is. How'd he know I was there? Middle of nowhere this place is. Private property."

"Apparently, he'd been tryin' to figure out whether or not you existed for years." Rose explained just as they reached the tree line. Despite her previous assertions, she paused, leaning against a tree and closing her eyes, "They caught the TARDIS on CCTV landin' near Tower Bridge earlier in the day. It was gone by the time the Tac Team showed up, but Mickey had a hunch you might show up here, so he assigned a team to stake out the house."

"He was spyin' on you?"

"He made a mistake," Rose admitted.

"What, you paste him one, and now you're defendin' 'im?" The Doctor laughed, "Humans. Hard as I try I'll never understand you." Rose's eyes snapped open.

"He's my friend," she said sternly, "You've no idea what we've been through, what he's done for me." The Doctor looked into her eyes, brilliant hazel in thedaylight, and he understood. Of course. The comment about Mickey meeting himself, he'd glossed over it.

"He's from your universe," he acknowledged. A part of him was glad that she didn't get stranded here alone, and he hated Mickey a little less.

"Yeah, and my mum, too." Rose sighed, "Worked out, though. More or less."

"Right," The Doctor nodded. Then, after a moment, "I'm sorry, Rose."

"What for?" she shrugged and offered a gentle smile before standing upright, away from the tree, "Not your fault, is it? Shall we?" she motioned ahead. The Doctor, however, made no move to continue.

"You lost your home," The Doctor pointed out, every word rich with knowing.

"I appreciate it," she knew how much it took for him to even mention it, "but at least I had them. Not everyone can say that." She reached out and placed her hand on his elbow, giving it a gentle squeeze. The Doctor didn't have an immediate answer, and Rose just smiled, dropped her hand and began walking, "Come on, then. Got to return you to your carriage before it turns back into a pumpkin."

They could see the house from where they hid at the edge of the woods. After an hour of waiting, they hadn't seen any overt signs of Torchwood's presence. Still, Rose was certain they'd be there. The real question was whether they'd assigned a surveillance-only team or an armed unit. They would be seen as soon as they stepped out of the dense foliage and made their way to the mansion, but the difference between the Tac Team being on-site or only nearby was the difference between facing down dozens of assault rifles in five seconds or five minutes.

"Well, nothing for it, then," The Doctor interrupted Rose's train of thought. Without warning, he stood up and stepped forward. Rose tried to grab his pant leg to stop him, but reached out instinctively with her right hand and wound up just batting at the denim futilely with her cast.

"What are you doing?" she hissed. As soon as he reached the clearing he turned around and spread his arms wide with a huge grin.

"They won't shoot me, Rose," he reminded, "They want me alive." As Rose watched, stunned, he turned back toward the house and continued walking. After maybe twenty paces, he paused and started turning around in circles, "Oi! Anyone out there?! Here I am. Alone and relatively vulnerable." He stopped, glancing around the clearing before looking to where Rose still hid in the bushes. "I think it's clear," he surmised with a smug grin. Grumbling, Rose got to her feet and stormed out of the woods.

"You know," she informed as she stalked past him, "After all I did to bust you out, you could show a little more instinct for self-preservation." The Doctor hurriedly caught up with her, still maintaining his smug grin.

"What was your plan, then? Stay in the woods for three days? Wait for them to get bored and leave?"

"I was working on it."

"Yes, well, while you were working on it, I made and executive decision."

"Oh, just hurry up," Rose chided, taking long, quick strides. She felt highly uncomfortable out in the open, and they were still twenty yards from the door.

"No need to be cross," he could keep pace with her quite effortlessly, "Man of action, I am. Couldn't help it." Just as he finished speaking, a deep thrumming noise began to swell in the air around them. Rose stopped and turned. The startled, knowing look in her eyes made The Doctor look back as well. There, just coming into view above the trees, was a hover copter.

"You were saying, 'action man?'" The Doctor might have had a clever comeback, but he found he couldn't manage the air of relaxed disdain he normally assumed in the face of imminent peril. He was, rather suddenly, suffused with anger. Watching the black, armored aircraft fly toward them, four rotating jet engines making the tops of the birch trees below bend and snap, all he could think of was the crack of that rifle in the bunker in Cardiff and the way the woman beside him had slumped to the floor of the elevator. He turned to Rose, determination etched on his face.

"Toward the house," he took her elbow and turned her around and started walking, "Stay in front of me, don't get too far ahead."

"Shouldn't we run?" the jet engines were growing louder, and she could hear the pitch change as the engines swiveled in preparation for landing on the sprawling front lawn.

"No, not this time," he breathed. They'd reached the white gravel drive; the front door was so achingly close. Rose turned her head instinctively to look past The Doctor and judge how long before the Tac Team came swarming out of the aircraft, but his hand flew to her shoulder, "Don't" he snapped, "I don't want them gettin' a clean shot." Rose, for once, didn't argue.

They reached the front porch and hastened up the handful of stairs. Rose tried the door, but it was locked. Frantically, she started pounding on it with her one good hand, shouting to be let in. The Doctor had turned, hands clinched at his sides, to face the dozen or so armed men pouring from the hover copter and witness a second craft approaching from the west. Within seconds, just as Rose was starting to fear that she'd failed, that The Doctor would be taken and secreted away to be held captive for the rest of his stunningly long life, the door opened.

"Come on, then!" Pete hurried them inside, "What took ya so long?" Rose looked at him, incredulous.

"And why you wearin' a different coat, love?" Jackie came trotting across the foyer and threw her arms around her daughter.

"Oh. Good. Domestics." The Doctor smiled ruefully.

"Right, then. It's himself." Jackie acknowledged, releasing Rose and assessing this new Doctor, "Shame it wasn't the handsome one."

"Mum!"

"Oi!"

"What? I'm allowed my opinion."

"Mum, there's a hover copter full of armed Torchwood foot soldiers on the front lawn. Perhaps we should clear the foyer."

"They won't breach," Pete said, "I had a word with the director. Threatened to pull my funding. They can just sit out there and think about what they've done." Rose couldn't help smiling at her father. Stepfather. Whatever.

"Fantastic." The Doctor beamed, "Now, I hate to be rude, but – where's my ship?"

"Don't waste time, does he?" Jackie observed, disapproval clear in her voice.

"Jackie, don't start," Pete admonished gently, "It's just upstairs." He lead the way, motioning them to follow, all the while they could hear superiors barking orders to the men outside. They'd not yet attempted to contact anyone in the house, but as long as they didn't breach, it didn't matter. Rose was finally feeling hopeful, victorious even. As soon as they reached her room she threw open the closet door and flipped on the light.

"There she is," Rose beamed, then looked up at The Doctor's relieved expression, "Safe and sound." For a moment, he just stopped and looked at his ship. There'd been a serious moment, there, despite Rose's assertions that he could very well escape on his own, when he'd wondered if he'd ever see the TARDIS again.

"Thank you," he said, eyes still fixed on his ship. Then, he jarred himself back to the moment and turned his attention to the mad, bold little blond who'd pulled it all off, "For everything. Thank you."

"Sweetheart," Pete was standing in the door, Jackie behind him watching everything closely but staying bizarrely quiet, "I hate to interrupt, but we need to get you out of here. Torchwood's out for your head, love. We washed and packed your gear, but the hover copter will be here in five to pick you up, and it can't wait." Rose's heart dropped. The reality of the situation, of what she'd done, hadn't truly sunk in until that moment.

"Right," she said, "Of course." The Doctor was watching all of this, momentarily speechless. For hours, now, he'd been at war with himself over whether to ask her the question he'd not dared ask anyone in years. All the way up to this moment he thought he'd have more time to make his decision. He was a Time Lord, dammit, and some small, spoiled part of him felt it was his birthright. Instead, as she looked up at him, so truly happy that she'd succeeded in returning him to this place, happy in spite of everything she'd clearly sacrificed, he realized his time was up.

Footnote: Put… The pitchforks… Down. You. With the torch. Drop it. Now, back away slow…