The rest of the evening was somewhat subdued after sharing the somber news of Donna Noble's fate in the other universe. The fiery ginger in front of them tried to brush it off initially, but both the Doctor and Rose could tell that this unexpected news had taken a toll on her. The Doctor found it a difficult subject to dwell on, but made an effort to lighten the mood by telling stories of their travels together. They laughed until they cried, and then they laughed some more. Rose topped off everyone's glasses with the last of the bottle and raised her own.

"To Donna Noble, the most important woman in the whole of creation."

The Doctor and Donna raised their own glasses and echoed, "To Donna Noble!"

As the crystal glasses clinked, Donna looked over at the Doctor and saw a mixture of pride, sorrow, and fierce loyalty that suddenly made her feel very protective of this very peculiar ma, practically a stranger to her. She knew she could not take the place of his Donna, nor did she want to. She was her own person and refused to live in anyone's shadow. However, she had a feeling that she would quickly grow to like and respect him, nutter and all.

As their gazes met from across the table, the Doctor was thinking the very same thing. Not a replacement, no. No one could ever replace his Donna, but her friendship would ease his pain somewhat, and that would be enough. Compared to his other self's fate regarding the two women in front of him, he knew he had no cause to complain or begrudge the universe. Recalling what he had told his Sycorax opponent after losing his hand, he had to admit he was a lucky man indeed.

After Donna left and the kitchen had been tidied, Rose and the Doctor settled in for another night on the couch. No pretense of reading was made, they just needed to keep each other near that night. Their increasing comfort level with one another made it so that they didn't feel compelled to make excuses for this. It had been an exhausting evening for them both and though progress had been made with regards to fears and lingering doubts, their hearts were heavy and they were both in need of comfort. They had been prudent, however, in their wine consumption and were both still mindful of the agreement they had come to earlier that morning. Not even bothering to change into their night clothes, they simply kicked off their shoes and collapsed onto the couch with soft grins.

Arranging themselves the way they had the other night, the Doctor reclined his feet up and helped Rose get comfortable with her head on a cushion in his lap. She covered them with the afghan and he turned off the lamp, leaving them to quietly enjoy the moonlight that streamed in through the glass wall. Neither of them felt the need to bring up what had been discussed over dinner; they were content to just draw strength from each other's presence instead. Nothing more needed to be said, really, at least for now. The Doctor leaned over to place a kiss on Rose's forehead and she reached up for his hand. Fingers intertwined, they closed their eyes and listened to each other's breathing. Rose fell asleep within minutes, and surprisingly enough, the Doctor followed shortly thereafter.

As was becoming the norm for them again, even off the TARDIS, the Doctor was awake when Rose cracked open an eye and stretched lazily. He was playing with her hair with one hand, a book in the other, and a brilliant smile on his face as he watched Rose's efforts to shake off the last remnants of sleep.

"Morning!"

Rose grimaced and pulled the afghan over her face. "Mfgghm…" was all the Doctor could make out of her reply.

"Pardon? You're going to fry me up some breakfast? That'd be lovely, thanks Rose! Don't forget the bananas of course!"

Rose uncovered her face just enough to show that she was not amused, turned over and buried her head in the afghan again. The Doctor grinned. He loved teasing his Rose in the mornings, it never got old.

Chuckling he slipped his hand underneath the afghan to rub her back. "Ohh, I'm sorry. You meant I should fry us up some breakfast? Sure thing Rose!" He carefully extricated himself from underneath her head, got up and stretched. Reclining in the same position for that many hours wasn't the most comfortable way to sleep and spend his nights, but he loved having her close and would miss it if they slept in their own rooms, separately. The circular couch upstairs had been far more comfy. He would have to suggest a movie tonight… and every night until they felt comfortable sharing a proper bed. He wondered how long that would be.

Once in the kitchen, he began rummaging through cupboards and the fridge while trying to figure out what to make. While on board the TARDIS, his companions usually cooked if they wished to. However, the kitchen was equipped with a food dispenser that prepared traditional Gallifreyan food as well as being capable of replicating four bazillion recipes from around the universe. A Time Lord had no need for culinary skills aboard his TARDIS, a point he always found himself defending when his companions teased him about his inability to fend for himself.

Reaching for a banana, the Doctor sighed and wondered if they would taste alright fried. Perhaps on toast with some tea? No, that wouldn't do… Rose liked her full English fry-up and as he would be without his TARDIS for a while he figured now was as good a time as any to start getting a hang of this cooking thing.

"Right… eggs, bacon, sausage, baked beans, mushrooms, and fried bread. I can do this!" he muttered to himself in the form of a pep talk. He gathered the ingredients and pulled out his sonic screwdriver. Surely he could make things go a bit quicker. Rose always took ages when she made them breakfast on their visits to the Powell Estates. Perhaps if he just nudged things along with setting number four hundred and thirty eight, yeah, that should do it. Rose would never poke fun at him again! Sonic in between his teeth, he set to opening jars and cans and chopping things up.

Twenty minutes later Rose was jolted awake by her smoke alarm. Sitting up, she looked towards the kitchen and was greeted by a thick haze of smoke and could hear the Doctor yelling to himself and banging something quite loudly. She jumped up and ran to the kitchen, hoping he hadn't caught anything on fire. Coughing a bit, she made her way into the smoky room and found him batting at the stove with a dish towel. He looked up as she approached and she had to fight back the laughter that was threatening to bubble up out of her. There he was splattered in what looked like baked beans and mushrooms, his hair was wild and his mouth set in a scowl that would have been intimidating had it not been for the bits of food all over his face. In another pan lay what looked like the incinerated remains of some sausages and bacon.

"Doctor… what… are you ok? Did you burn yourself?" She reached up to touch his face but he pulled back and shook his head looking quite grumpy.

"I think there's something wrong with your stove Rose… "

"With my stove, really. And did this little mishap occur before or after you sonic'd it, Doctor?" she said with a teasing grin.

Rolling his eyes, he crossed his arms ignoring the beans all over his chest and leaned against the counter opposite of her. "Well after, of course, but only because the heating coils were obviously faulty. I was simply increasing their efficiency by-"

Rose cut him off with a raised hand and a look that meant no arguments. She put her hands on her hips and turned in a circle surveying the damage, warring with the urge to laugh and strangle him at the same time. When she looked back at him he had shoved his hands in his pockets and was looking down at his feet, gloom and doom written all over his face.

"Oh come here, you big goof. It's fine, we'll clean up and go out, yeah?" She picked a bit of mushroom off his cheek and reached up to give him a kiss. "Thanks for breakfast, I'm sure it would have been lovely if it weren't for… my faulty stove."

Grinning he looked up and went to put his arms around her waist but she jumped back.

"No way. You're covered in beans!"

His grin grew even wider and she caught a slightly manic glint in his eyes. He scooped some of the goop off his suit, looked at it in his hands and then slowly began to approach her.

"Doctor! Don't. You. Dare."

Rose began to slowly back away, keeping her hands up in front of her to ward off the impending attack.

"Doctor, I'm serious! No more bananas, I swear!"

This caused him to pause for a fraction of a second but then he blinked and pounced before she could even turn to run away.

An hour and a half later Rose emerged from her room after having spent an inordinate amount of time scrubbing baked beans out of her hair and ears. She headed for the kitchen and upon finding it back in order, smiled. After howling at him to let her go, she had stood there hands on her hips and with the wrath only a Tyler woman could muster threatened him within an inch of his life it he didn't clean up his mess by the time she got out of the shower. Smiling gleefully he had saluted her and answered with a "Yes ma'am!"

Figuring that he must be in the shower now, she returned to the front room and opened the patio doors in order to air out the flat. The smoky haze still lingered and she didn't want it to smell like burnt beans in there forever. Stepping out onto the balcony, she sat down on one of the chairs and dialed her mum to check on her and Tony.

A while later the Doctor joined her. His hair was still wet, though perfectly styled, and he was now wearing his charcoal suit with the light blue stripes. Rose was still on her mobile so he sat across from her and winked, a playful smile blooming on his face. Rose rolled her eyes but smiled back and wrapped up her conversation, promising Jackie that they would be by soon to visit and play with Tony.

"So, you hungry? Or did you lick the kitchen clean Doctor?"

"Well, I did actually, but I could eat again! You?"

Rose kicked at him playfully before getting up. "Come on you, let's go get something to eat."

Over breakfast in a little diner not far from their flat, the Doctor and Rose discussed possible plans for the day. He brought up going back to Torchwood and though Rose was surprised, she agreed. She needed to run the Doctor and Donna's new shared family tree by Pete and the PR department and work on her debriefing with the board. The Doctor wanted to get settled in the labs and poke around for the equipment and materials he would need to grow the TARDIS coral.

"So where will you grow it? I'm sure we could get you a room down in R&D, I doubt Pete will have any problems with that."

Looking a bit uncomfortable, the Doctor grimaced. "I'd rather not, Rose. You know how I feel about Torchwood… I would prefer to keep her at the flat if that's ok. Maybe in the study? She won't take up much room for quite a while, really. Or even my room, I could use the closet to begin with while she's still small."

"Oh… ok, that's fine Doctor. Just so you know though, we don't operate under the whole 'If it's alien it's ours' motto like Yvonne Hartman's team. No one would try to hurt her."

When the Doctor remained silent, Rose sighed but smiled. "It's fine, really it is. Plus it will be nice to have her at home with us. Tell you what, I'll get clearance from Pete to remove the materials and equipment from R&D and it'll be fine. We'll just have to be careful, that's really not allowed strictly speaking, and Stella might hassle you about it. But no worries, we'll make it work, yeah?"

Looking relieved, the Doctor smiled and winked at her.

"Now you're talking! Up for a little bit of mischief Rose Tyler?"

Returning his smile with one of her own, she reached for his hand.

"Always, Doctor."

On their way to Torchwood, Rose rang Pete to let him know of their plans and plead the Doctor's case with regards to "borrowing" equipment and supplies. Though he could not hear Pete's side of the conversation, the Doctor could tell he wasn't too keen on the idea but Rose was able to wear him down quite easily. Tucking her mobile away, she looked over at him and smiled.

"Pete wants you to take a look around the labs and R&D's vault storage and then give him a list of what you need. He will draft up the paperwork to "transfer" it all to our liaison base with UNIT and that should be enough to keep Stella off our backs. The last thing we need is her running off to the board of trustees again with her allegations of nepotism. I don't want Pete going through that again."

"Oh! Right, of course… we'll be careful, absolutely."

Though he was trying to sound serious and concerned, Rose could tell that he was barely keeping his enthusiasm from breaking the surface. Fidgeting in his seat, hands rubbing up and down his thighs, and feet tapping on the floorboard of her car, he looked like a child during those last few minutes of the school year, eagerly waiting for the bell to ring and the fun to begin.

After dropping by to say hello to Donna, Rose walked down to the labs with him before heading off to her debriefing. Before she left, she introduced him to the core staff of the Research and Development team and told them that he would be conducting a general overview of everything they had acquired and were working on, for cataloguing purposes. The Doctor gave her one of his exaggerated winks to which she just rolled her eyes before departing.

For the next few hours, Tim (whom he had met two days prior while working with the Metebelis crystals) and another researcher named Laura showed him around the various labs as well as the storage vault. They marveled at his extensive knowledge and peppered him with questions when he wasn't asking some of his own. Trying not to be very obvious, the Doctor nonchalantly steered them directly to the items he would need. They were so caught up in their new source of information that they hardly noticed the very specific queries the Doctor himself had for them every so often, and gladly showed them to him.

By the time they made it back to the main labs, the Doctor was grinning from ear to ear and feeling quite confident that Torchwood had almost everything he would need, save a few items, none of which were crucial. He would have to make a few modifications with his sonic to compensate and while that might slow him down at first, all in all this had been a successful endeavor.

After thanking Tim and Laura for their help, the Doctor decided to head up to Rose's office to see if she was done so they could have lunch like they had planned. He had finished just in time. As he was waiting for the lift, he heard hurried footsteps behind him. Turning to look over his shoulder, he was greeted with a wave from an approaching Stella Evans.

"Doctor, I heard you were back! I have to say it's a pleasant surprise. I didn't think we would be seeing you until next week. Mr. Tyler said you would be on holiday until then?"

"Oh, well… not quite. Rose and I, we were just taking a few days to get settled in after our return."

At the mention of Rose, Stella's eyes narrowed but she quickly recovered and smiled.

"Right, of course… And are you liking this side of the universe, Doctor?"

"Weeeell, I've not been here long enough to form a proper opinion yet, but the bananas are the same, so that's a relief, eh? Couldn't manage if those were different somehow and tasted… oh, I don't know, like pears or something!"

Stella was at a loss for how to reply to that for a moment but she smiled and gave a little laugh.

"Pears, but they're vile! What a horror that would be!"

"You think so too? I'm glad someone in this place seems to appreciate the gravity of that would be situation! Just the other day I was telling Rose-"

Stella clenched her fists. Could this man not make it more than two sentences without mentioning that awful woman? Placing her hand on his arm she smiled once more and interrupted him.

"I've got a meeting to run to Doctor, but I'd love to show you your new office before I go! Do you have a few minutes?"

"Office? I get my own office? But I thought I'd be popping into the labs here and there, you know. I'm a bit of a wanderer, really, can't sit still for too long."

"Oh of course, you're free to come and go as you please! Like I said the other day, it's an honor to even have you here, we're quite fortunate! Only, I figured you might like a place to go to for some peace and quiet, away from the labs when you have an especially complex item of research to work on? You're quite the celebrity here at Torchwood, Doctor, and I wouldn't want you to feel harassed all the time by curious staff, that's all. I can show it to you now, if you like."

"Oh, well thank you , that's very kind. I can't say I would mind the privacy really, though I promised Rose-"

"Please, call me Stella. No need for formalities here, Doctor! Now, it's right down here, will only take a few minutes. Shall I show you to your office?"

Glancing up at the clock on the wall, the Doctor wondered if this should wait for another day, but figured that since Stella had a meeting to go to anyway, they wouldn't be long. Smiling he gestured for her to lead the way.

Upstairs, Rose was stuck in a never-ending meeting. She was exhausted and quite hungry and hoped that the Doctor would be waiting for her in her office like they had planned. When she was finally done, she exited the conference room and made her way to her office. As she exited the lift, she looked down at her watch and saw that she was running very late and felt bad for keeping him waiting. She would have to make it up to him somehow, buy him some jelly babies or something.

"So, how was the debriefing? That fun, eh?"

Donna greeted her with a smile and patted the chair next to her.

"About as bad as I expected it to be. I thought they'd never shut up, that lot! Good thing I didn't bring the Doctor with me or we'd have been there all day! Speaking of, I can't stay and chat, he's waiting for me. We're going out for lunch."

Tilting her head, Donna nodded towards Rose's office. "What you mean, in there? He's not though, I haven't seen him since you both left this morning. Was he supposed to meet you here?"

Rose sighed and rolled her eyes. "Yeah, he was. Probably lost track of time and is in one of the labs playing with all his new toys!"

Donna laughed. "That or the staff won't quit asking him questions. Bit of a show off, that one. Bet he likes it!"

"Yeah, reckon he does!"

With one last wave, Rose set off to find him. Getting off the lift, she began walking towards the main lab where he more than likely was. Just as she was approaching its doors, she heard what sounded distinctly like his laughter, coming from a room to her left. It was an empty office space so it struck her as odd, but perhaps he had decided to hole up in there for a while with some of the materials he wanted to take home. He always lost track of time when he tinkered.

She smiled at the thought of him sitting cross-legged on the floor, suit coat off and shirt sleeves rolled up, staring intently at some gadget or other in one hand as he sonic'd it with the other. She had always loved catching glimpses of him like that in the consul room or the library, usually late at night when she should be asleep but wasn't for whatever reason. Grinning, she opened the door.

"Hiding now are w-"

But instead of the Doctor tinkering in an empty room, she found a fully furnished office space complete with a small lab setup in one corner. She was right the he was in there, but he was most definitely not alone. Stella Evans was leaning against the desk, almost sitting on it, one long leg crossed over the other. The Doctor was sitting in a chair opposite her, holding a rather large book in his hands and pointing at something on the page while laughing. They both looked up, startled.

Rose's grin disappeared. Stella's grew even wider.