a/n: Yes, this is a few days early. Two reasons: One, I finished the rough draft of two chapters in the last couple of days, several days earlier than I expected to, and two, the prologue didn't have the Doctor and Rose in it, and I thought that just wasn't fair. Despite this chapter being posted early, I do plan on posting once a week from here on out.

I don't do this very often, and perhaps I should, but I want to thank everyone who has already reviewed, followed or favorited this, despite the prologue not having the Doctor or Rose in it. I hope this story lives up to your expectations. And two other special thanks. First, to Miss Flobberworm. I am so flattered by your comments. No, I do not write professionally, but I would love to someday. Until then, I am just thrilled to have so many people read my writing here. And two, a special thanks to bittie 752 who has taken on beta-ing for me even though she doesn't normally do it. That and the virtual hand-holding she does have been simply fantastic.

This is a bit of a longer chapter than I expect to normally post, and if I didn't mention before, this story starts only hours after the epilogue of Part Human.

Chapter 1

Late Thursday night, Rose Tyler watched as the part human/part Time Lord Doctor typed rapidly into the computer in her stepdad's office at the Tyler mansion. It had only been a matter of hours since he had told her who he was, hours since she had realized that, despite a completely separate body that had been created out of a Time Lord hand, regeneration energy and a touch of human DNA, somehow, in some completely incredibly alien way, he was the same man that she had met at Henrik's so long ago. The same man who had blown up her job. The same man she had traveled with in the TARDIS. The same man she had fallen in love with. And miraculously, beyond any of her comprehension, this incredible part human still mostly alien man had said he loved her, too. Her Doctor. Her third Doctor. Her new, new, new Doctor.

It had been just over a week since they had been dropped off, she was no longer saying dumped off, not even in her mind, at Dårlig Ulv-Stranden by her second Doctor. The full Time Lord Doctor had left them in the parallel universe to live out their lives together on the slow path, sharing their matching lifespans and having the one adventure he said he could never have, a normal life. She now realized he had truly been trying to give her a gift, not just pawning off a copy of himself on her that she could take care of, although that was how it had sounded at the time. Instead, he had been trying to give her a portion of himself that could stay with her for her forever.

She hadn't realized that at first. She hadn't understood that this man with her truly was the Doctor. For more than a week she had struggled to understand exactly who he was, and for more than a week he had struggled to make her understand. Finally he had explained that he was sort of a sideways regeneration formed from the metacrisis, which had prevented the full Time Lord from having a full regeneration, but had also resulted in the creation of a part Time Lord/part human body with a portion of his soul inside. Unfortunately, it had also resulted in Donna Noble receiving a copy of the Doctor's mind, which the full Time Lord Doctor had needed to remove. He had also needed to remove from Donna's mind all memory of him and their travels together, because if Donna remembered, her mind might burn up and she could die.

With Donna back home and all of her adventures forgotten, something Rose found heartbreaking, she wondered if the Time Lord Doctor had found someone new to travel with. She hoped he did because she, better than anyone else in both universes, knew how much he needed someone, someone to be with, someone to hold his hand, someone to stop him before he went too far. And she was afraid that he didn't have anyone. She was afraid he was traveling alone. And her heart broke for him because, despite how things had ended between them, despite how angry and hurt she had been and still was sometimes, she still loved him and knew she always would. Just as she had never completely stopped loving and missing her first Doctor, him with the big ears and nose and piercing blue eyes and leather jacket that she had first fallen in love with.

Looking over at the man at the computer, she wondered a little about herself. How could she miss someone who was still with her, who was sitting just across the room from her? She finally decided it was built into her humanness. She wasn't a Time Lord. It wasn't encoded into her DNA to only see him as one person. She tried, and intellectually she knew it to be true, and in her heart she knew it was true as well. But there was a tiny, rebellious part of her brain that saw them as different people sometimes.

And it didn't help, the fact that in the metacrisis the Doctor had up and accidentally split himself into two people.

But regardless of the fact that she had not truly understood who this Doctor was, she had fallen in love with him. Again.

Thinking back on the beach, she was almost embarrassed by her reaction to him. For more than a week she had refused to even think about the events in Norway, but now she allowed herself to return to them in her mind. When this Doctor had told her he loved her, when the Time Lord Doctor would not, she had looked in his eyes for a moment, and in that moment she had thought she had seen… something. Something more than just his love for her. For an instant, behind the brown of his brand new eyes, she had thought she had seen something ancient and alien and familiar. She had thought she had seen him. And she had instinctively responded.

Until she had heard the TARDIS leave.

And she had realized that not only had the full Time Lord Doctor left her behind, he had left without saying goodbye. And in that instant she had doubted what she had seen and what she had felt when this Doctor had looked at her.

But now she realized her first instincts were correct. The man who had stayed with her was the Doctor. The same Doctor whom she had promised forever to. The same Doctor who had taken her hand in the basement of Henrik's and told her to run.

The same Doctor she had fallen in love with. Now, three times.

Rose smiled as she watched him from across the room. He was typing so rapidly his fingers seemed to be almost a blur over the keyboard. She had noticed before that his typing speed was unbelievably fast and was continually amazed by it. She didn't remember the other Doctor ever being able to type that quickly. Not that she remembered him doing all that much typing. If ever.

"We really need to get you your own computer," she said to him. "Before you break every other computer we own." He had already broken her EPad, she had decided that morning when she had tried to use it. When she had turned it on, the images flew past so rapidly her eyes couldn't see anything but a blur most of the time. And he somehow hadn't managed to return the screen to a normal speed.

That's when he had decided to use Pete's computer.

He was currently trying to wipe from existence any computer records of himself as known as Dr. John Noble Smith, beyond the basic birth certificate, driver's license, and National Health Insurance card her stepdad had acquired for him that were the basic forms of identification he needed to exist on this planet. He was even planning on wiping out his Torchwood IDs as soon as he could be certain he wouldn't need them anymore.

And he was especially wiping out any medical data on him that was online. Torchwood Four's doctor, Frank Collins, had given him a very basic physical when he had first arrived, and Owen Harper, Torchwood Three's doctor, had helped him do a thorough analysis of his body. The first record had had no information in it that would indicate he was anything other than human, but the second had had detailed information in it on his physiology, particularly information on his brain and triple-helix genetics that clearly identified him as alien. The records had been deleted by Owen, but a former coworker of Rose's, Lisa Hallett, had been able to retrieve them and had tried to blackmail Rose with them. Rose knew he was wiping both sets of records out so that couldn't happen again.

And then she knew he was searching for records on 'the Doctor'.

He knew there were some reports on his previous visit to this planet, when they, along with Pete, Mickey, Jake Simmonds, and Angela Price, had defeated John Lumic and his Cybermen. Rose knew he hated to do that, destroy those records, because they were the only records in existence that credited Angela Price for her role in wiping out the first wave of Cybermen. And she had lost her life doing so. But he had to do it. No one could know that an alien called the Doctor even existed beyond her family and a very few close friends. And it was essential no one could associate the new Dr. John Noble Smith with the alien that had helped save the planet.

Not if he and her family were to be safe from xenophobic people on the planet. Particularly xenophobic people in the government. And after the long war with the Cybermen, there were a lot of xenophobic people on the planet.

But the Doctor was brilliant, although she rarely told him that, his ego was big enough as it was, and Rose knew he'd be able to wipe out all computer records of himself easily.

"Done," he said, both finally and emphatically as he spun the desk chair around and grinned at her. "Well, all except for the Torchwood ID. And that I'll do as soon as we head to Cardiff. How soon are we going?"

Rose was being transferred to take over Torchwood Three. The head position there was frequently vacant, and the current temporary head, Gwen Cooper Williams, was seven months gone in her first pregnancy and needed to go on maternity leave soon. Rose had been given the job for a number of reasons, but two of them stood out. One, she had worked in that office before and was highly qualified, and two, she was the only qualified person who was willing and able to put up with Torchwood Three's difficult doctor, Owen Harper.

The Doctor, her Doctor she thought with a grin, was possibly more anxious for the move than she was. She suspected it was because in Cardiff, near the Rift, the little chunk of TARDIS coral his other self had given him would be able to more easily get the energy it needed to grow. And she knew the Doctor desperately wanted to get started on growing a new TARDIS.

And, she suspected, or more hoped really, it was also because if they were living in Cardiff, they'd no longer be living with her parents. Her mum in particular. Her mum had managed to acquire impeccable timing in the past few hours in as far as every time they even got close enough to kiss, she'd enter the room and break them apart. Ironic, because when the Doctor first arrived in the parallel world, her mum had told her to give this new Doctor a chance.

"Well, we can't go to Cardiff yet," Rose said in amusement. "We've got things to do here."

"Like what?" he protested.

"Like pack. And like figure out where we're going to stay when we get there," she told him. "We can't just show up and live in the Hub."

"Jack does. Did," the Doctor said. "Did and may still."

Rose knew that their friend Jack Harkness was the head of Torchwood Three in their home universe.

"Seriously?" Rose asked in surprise and the Doctor nodded. She pulled a face. "Yeah, well, maybe he did but that doesn't mean I want to," Rose told him. "Not even for a night. Not only is it a mess and crowded with junk, there's people walking in and out of it at all hours of the day and night. You think we have no privacy here…."

"I take your point," he said. There were a lot of reasons he wanted to make the move to Cardiff, but one of the biggest reasons was to have additional privacy with Rose. "Well, we could stay in a hotel for a few days or so while we look for a place."

"We'll have to. But it may take longer than that to find a flat, even in Cardiff," she warned him.

"Well, actually," he said slowly, "I thought we could buy a place. A house. Not a flat."

"A house?" she said incredulously. She stared at him in shock. He wanted to buy a house? And together? That was beyond such a huge step that for a moment her brain felt like it had shorted out. Searching for some sort of coherent response, she said the first thing that came to mind. "I, uh, I thought you were afraid of getting a mortgage."

"Well, not so much afraid as repelled," he answered with a laugh. "But that was before. We don't exactly have the TARDIS to live in right now and we need to live somewhere." His voice became more serious as he continued. "Anyway, I wasn't talking about getting a mortgage. I was talking about buying something outright. Someplace outside Cardiff proper, near the Rift but not on top of it, with enough room for a growing TARDIS. Can't exactly work on the TARDIS in a flat. Not only will there be not enough room, but I don't want to have to explain what I'm doing to nosy neighbors."

"How would we afford that?" she asked, staring at him. She was still spun by the idea of buying a house with him. With walls and carpets and doors and everything. "Cardiff is cheaper than London, but a place like you're talking about is going to take a lot of money. Money we don't have. I know Dad would be thrilled to buy a place for us, but I don't think either one of us want to take anything that big from him."

"You're right there," he agreed. Pete Tyler had been extremely generous with him, with the both of them, really, and he already felt indebted to the man and didn't want to impose on him any more than he had to. "Rose, you don't think I dropped myself off here completely empty-handed, do you?" he asked her, referring to his other self, the Time Lord Doctor, in the first person.

"Well, yeah," she said. "You came with the clothes on your back and a load of junk in your pockets. You didn't even have a sonic screwdriver with you. And don't forget, when we met, I'm the one who had to pay for our chips when we went out on our first date. You didn't have any money."

"You're never gonna let me live that down, are you?" he asked, eyebrow raised.

"Nope," she said with a grin, popping the "p". "You still owe me ten quid from Queen Vicky. You never did pay me for that."

He chuckled at the memory of their trip to Scotland when they had met Queen Victoria.

"Besides, how much do you think you're gonna get for a clockwork mouse and a yo-yo?" she continued. When they had first arrived back in the parallel world, his suit had needed cleaning so she had pulled everything out of his pockets. Rose was referring to two of the more valuable things she had noticed.

"Don't forget the fake vampire teeth." The Doctor grinned.

"Oh yeah, how could I forget those?" she asked. "Why did you have them in your pocket anyway?"

"Donna and I were going to go to a party. It was fancy dress and that was my costume," he told her.

"That was it? Fake vampire teeth? Your blue suit and fake vampire teeth?" She burst out laughing and was reminded of the time she had visited Cardiff in 1869 with his ninth self. "Is that anything like 'I've changed my jumper'? Couldn't you even manage a cape or something?"

"I had my coat, too," he protested. He sighed, remembering his long, brown trench coat which was still with his other self in their original universe. "I miss that coat. Janis Joplin gave me that coat, you know."

"Yeah, I heard," she said dryly. She rolled her eyes.

He shot her a look. "Besides, did the whole cape thing back in my third life." He shuddered. "Not doin' that again."

She stared at him incredulously. A cape thing? She knew about the fifteen foot scarf, but a cape? There was still so much about him she didn't know, for all that he had been so open recently.

"A cape? You wore a cape?"

"Yep. And that wasn't the worst of it," he continued, grimacing slightly. "Back then I wore velvet and ruffles. Not all the time, mind you…. Well, the velvet was all the time."

"Ruffles? You mean…." She gestured with her hands to the neck of her top, wiggling her fingers. "Ruffles ruffles?"

He nodded. "Velvet smoking jackets and ruffled shirts. And a cape."

She stared at him. Oddly, she could see him in velvet, and of course it wasn't this him, but still…. All of a sudden an image appeared in her mind of her first Doctor, the one with the piercing blue eyes, strong features, Northern accent and leather jacket, in velvet, ruffled shirts and a cape, and her brain felt like it had shorted out again. There was no way. Not in any universe. That him wouldn't have even worn the pinstriped suits.

"Let me get this straight," she said incredulously. "You wore velvet jackets, ruffled shirts and a cape. And you actually went out that way? On the street and everything?"

"Oi, it wasn't that bad," he protested. "It wasn't my best look, I admit, but it wasn't as bad as that Technicolor monstrosity I wore in my sixth life." He shuddered and pulled a face. "I like to think I was color blind back then." Of course that didn't explain the cat badges he wore with it, he thought.

"Oh, God, I remember that jacket," Rose said. She had seen it in the TARDIS wardrobe once. "Stuff of nightmares that was."

"Yeah, that was probably the worst," the Doctor agreed. "Although the fifteen foot scarf and the celery weren't that much better."

"Celery?" she asked, staring at him. She quickly covered her mouth, trying not to laugh.

The Doctor cleared his throat. "Yeah, well…." He yanked on the lobe of his ear and looked uncomfortable. "Put it down to the questionable tastes of youth."

"Well, aren't I lucky then that I ended up getting this version of you," she said.

He was wearing one of his new suits, a dark blue pinstriped one with a coordinating tee and trainers. His blue suit from the TARDIS was still being cleaned. He had worn that one while they had been blowing up a beacon (and accidentally blowing up all the surrounding buildings) and it had gotten covered in so much dirt, ash and cement dust it had looked grey.

"I like the pinstriped suits. Very classy. Although…." She crossed over to him and sat on his lap, wrapping her arms around his neck. He raised his eyebrows and slowly smiled. Their relationship had certainly changed if she was comfortable enough to just come and sit on his lap. He automatically wrapped his arms around her waist and she smirked at him. "You know that leather jacket you used to wear?" she said. "Now that was sexy."

"Yeah?" he asked in a low voice that sent shivers up her spine. "Maybe I should get another one. You think?"

"I dunno," she replied flirtatiously. She grinned openmouthed, her tongue just touching her upper teeth. "Maybe you should."

The Doctor grinned back at her, his own smile an unconscious reflection of hers, his tongue curled to touch his top teeth. He pulled her in for a kiss which quickly deepened and became passionate. As he pulled her close, she moved her hands to run her fingers through his hair and lightly caress the back of his neck, causing him to shiver in response. They only broke apart at the sound of someone clearing his throat.

Pete Tyler, Rose's stepdad and the parallel version of her dad in her home universe, stood in the doorway.

"I don't mind you two doing a little snogging," he said with a sigh, "but I draw the line at you doing it at my desk."

"Sorry, Dad," Rose said, not the least repentant, while the Doctor took a deep breath, trying to slow his heart rate.

"Rose, I've got a new Torchwood ID for you, to replace the one that Lisa Hallett destroyed," Pete told her, setting it on the desk in front of her. "So when are you two headed over to Torchwood?"

"Oh yeah," Rose answered. "I almost forgot."

The Doctor looked from Rose to Pete and back again, puzzled.

"Dimension cannon," she reminded him. "We've got to dismantle it. I don't really trust anyone else to do it."

The Doctor nodded. That was almost as high a priority as removing all references of him in the internet. And now that that was almost done….

"We'll head over first thing tomorrow, yeah?" Rose said to her stepdad, who nodded.

"That's fine. The sooner the better," Pete answered. "It's getting late, so I'm headed off to bed."

"Yeah, I think we are, too," Rose told him, and Pete left the study.

Rose got up and, grabbing the Doctor's hand, dragged him to his feet. "C'mon," she said, pulling him out of the room.

The main hall held a massive staircase which led to the upper floors of the Tyler home. At the landing, the staircase split into two smaller ones that led to different wings of the mansion. As Rose started up the stairs, the Doctor stopped suddenly and abruptly let go of her hand. "What is it?" she asked, turning to face him.

"Rose, I'm, uh, gonna go work on my sonic for a bit," he said, stammering a little.

"Oh," she said in surprise.

"It's just that, well, it really needs to get done, and I haven't had much of a chance to work on it lately, and we may need it for dismantling the dimension cannon," he said in a rush. "Plus, my body seems to be settling into its new physiology, and I don't appear to need as much sleep as I did. Still need to sleep every day, probably, can't get around that I suppose, but I probably won't need to sleep as much as a typical human, maybe only a few hours a night, and as long as I'm awake I reckon I might as well make productive use of the time."

"Oh. Okay," she said.

"So I guess I best…" he said, with a jerk of his head toward the kitchen and the door leading to the cellar and Pete's workshop.

"Okay. Yeah. Right," she said. "Well, g'night then."

He nodded. "G'night, Rose." He gave her a quick, chaste kiss on the forehead, turned, and walked quickly the other direction, disappearing into the kitchen.

She stared after him. "Well, that was weird," she said to herself. "Wonder what all that was about."

~oOo~

When the Doctor arrived at the workshop, he leaned against the wall and took several slow, deep breaths. Ever since he and Rose had started kissing, snogging really, he was finding it harder and harder to rein himself in, to keep himself under control.

Very late the previous night, was it only last night, he had entered Rose's room while she was sleeping, ostensibly just to convince himself that she was alright after her ordeal, after rescuing herself after her own kidnapping. She had awoken and eventually invited him to share her bed. They had shared a bed before that, the two nights they had been in Cardiff, and occasionally even while they had been traveling in the TARDIS. There had been several memorable occasions when they had had to share a room in a hotel, once even with Jack. That time he had stayed awake all night, acting as a self-appointed chaperone and guardian for Rose, making certain that Jack had slept on the sofa and didn't sneak into the bed with her or something. And of course there were all the times the two of them had been imprisoned overnight, awaiting some sort of trial or another. He usually tried to stay awake, but there had been a few times when he had been so knackered that he just had to sleep a few hours and had ended up sharing with Rose whatever sleeping arrangements had been provided. That had been difficult, being so close to Rose, close enough to touch, to hold, to take in the heady scent of her shampoo and perfume and herself. But back then he had always been able to control himself.

But not last night. Last night was different, he thought, running his hands through his hair in frustration. Last night they had kissed. Last night they had held each other. Last night they had almost made love, and it wasn't due to any self-control on his part that they hadn't. Instead, it was because she had been injured and he had been too exhausted and if those things hadn't been the case….

He took another deep breath and blew it out slowly. Time and a place, he told himself. And this was neither the time nor the place. Not without talking to her more. And not at the mansion. Not with Jackie just down the hall.

He really didn't want Jackie Tyler overhearing them. And he really, really didn't want Rose's mum bursting in on them, in flagrante delicto as it were, despite locked doors. He knew a locked door would never stop Jaqueline Tyler from entering a room. Probably wouldn't even slow her down.

No, he'd really have to manage to control himself while they were still at the mansion, he thought as he crossed to the workbench to work on his sonic. And if that meant cutting back on the snogging, even cutting back on the hugging, well, then, so be it.

It might be torture, he thought, gritting his teeth, but he'd do it.

~oOo~

The house was quiet and dark when he finally climbed the stairs to the second floor. This business of needing to sleep every day was so irritating, he thought. As a full Time Lord, he only needed a few hours of sleep a week, but he could get by with as little as a few hours in a month if necessary. Now, he needed at least 4 to 5 hours a night, every single night. And if he didn't get it, he didn't only feel tired, it also affected his ability to concentrate. How rubbish was that?

Trying not to wake anyone up, he quietly walked down the hall and entered his room. The heavy gold curtains had been drawn back and the windows opened slightly, allowing the cool night air to come in. The waning moon was still almost full, and its reflected light shone in through the windows, making the room almost bright in comparison to the hall.

He flipped the wall switch, and the room flooded with light. It looked the same as it always did. It had been professionally decorated, there was no way Jackie did this, in shades of blue and yellow. A blue and gold duvet covered the large bed on the right side of the room, while the opposite wall held a dresser, a wardrobe and a door which led to the en suite that was shared with Rose's room.

Despite the room being filled with beautiful furnishings, it felt empty. Perhaps because it was, he thought. Out of the last four nights, he had ended up sharing a bed with Rose three of them, under a variety of circumstances, and the fourth night had been the night she had been kidnapped and of course he hadn't slept at all. For most of the past nine hundred years he had slept alone, but now after just a few short days the idea of sleeping by himself, without Rose, was almost unthinkably lonely. Well, he had every intention of changing that, just as soon as they could move out of the mansion. And at times like these he was counting the hours.

He quickly changed into some lightweight, cotton pyjamas, striped of course, and headed into the bathroom. As he finished up with such normal activities as brushing his teeth and using the toilet, he surveyed himself in the mirror. He needed a shave again. And his hair was getting noticeably longer, much more quickly than expected. Must be the last of the residual regeneration energy affecting hair growth, he thought. He hoped. If it were from the regeneration energy, that would completely wear off soon and hair growth would return to normal. But if it were as a result of being part human, he may just be stuck with needing haircuts more frequently and shaving more often.

After finishing up in the bathroom but before heading off to bed, he thought he heard sounds coming from Rose's room. He slowly opened the door a crack.

"Rose?" he called quietly, not wanting to wake her if she were still asleep. "Rose, are you alright?"

"No, please, no," she murmured, tossing and turning, obviously in the midst of a nightmare. "Please don't let it be true. Please, no…"

First opening the door of the en suite that led to her room, the Doctor quickly crossed to her and sat on the edge of her bed.

"Shh, shh," he said softly, his head close to hers. He laid a hand on her shoulder and she began to quiet. "Shh, shh," he repeated.

"Stay with me," she whispered, eyes still closed.

"Always," he said. He got into bed with her, pulled her into his arms and held her for a long while before he fell asleep.