Rose woke up feeling like a herd of elephants had been trampling all over her head while she slept. With a low moan, she rolled face down into her pillow only to find that it wasn't hers at all. Wrong material, wrong smell. Before she could even open her eyes, she felt the bed shift a bit beneath her, as the mattress gave way to additional weight. A cool hand brushed the hair from over her left eye as she turned her head.

"Rose? Are you ok? How do you feel?"

The Doctor sounded both relieved and concerned.

When she tried to reply, nothing came out except garbled nonsense and another groan. She tried to shake her head but the movement only made the pounding worse. Shutting her eyes tightly, she just sighed and reached for the covers, trying to block out all light and sound.

"Here, have a sip. I've got you some Paracetamol too, that should help. I expect your head is hurting?"

Cracking one eye open again, she turned over onto her side in order to prop herself up on her elbow and winced as the movement made her stomach churn. She hadn't felt this terrible in a very long time. As the events of the previous night slowly came back, fear gripped her, and she wondered if this is what Donna had felt like just before he had had to… no, surely not. He had assured her she was fine. Had he lied?

"What… what's wrong with me?" she finally managed to croak out.

The Doctor leaned forward and helped her up into a sitting position, propping some pillows behind her so that she could rest her head back comfortably. When she was settled, she took the pills he was holding out to her and washed them down with a few sips. She hoped she would be able to keep them down, but going by the waves of nausea she was feeling, she wasn't too sure.

"Rose, I'm so sorry… it's my fault, we got a little too ambitious last night, I- I should have stopped it. I should have been more careful. I'm so sorry."

Confused, she let her gaze wander from the Doctor's tortured expression to her surroundings. She was in his room… in his bed. In his bed? Combing back through her memories she desperately tried to remember what part of last night involved his bed but kept coming up blank. All she could recall was something about the TARDIS coral reaching out to her and then discovering that she had some sort of psychic link to both it and the Doctor. He had asked to look into her mind and then she had done so with him at his prompting. She managed it fairly quickly but then everything sort of became all jumbled up in a confusing blur of sensations. He had overwhelmed her both with his mind as well as his touch.

Her eyes widened. Had they… no, they couldn't have. She would remember that… wouldn't she? How could she not? Frantically she tried once more but all she could recall in those last moments before all memory went blank were his lips on hers and how he had gently lowered her to the floor at the foot of his bed, hands roaming like he had never allowed them to before.

Feeling her face begin to burn, she forced herself to look at him. His expression did nothing to calm her fears.

"What… what happened?"

Sighing, he ran a hand through his hair, the other one remained clenched in his lap. "I must confess Rose, that when you managed to reach into my mind I… well, I sort of lost my head a bit… no pun intended." This was the sort of comment he normally winked after, but one look at him told Rose that he was in no joking mood.

"I don't understand Doctor, please, just tell me what happened." Her voice shook and she had to close her eyes momentarily, trying to remain calm. She attempted to convince herself that if the reason she had woken up in his bed was what she thought it was, then it was no big deal, they were headed down that road sooner or later. But it was a big deal because she couldn't remember it and that along with the look of remorse all over the Doctor's face implied that something had gone wrong. Another wave of nausea crashed over her.

"I pushed you too far, Rose, that's what happened. It was too soon, I should have realized that, but I was selfish… completely irresponsible!" At this, he suddenly stood up and began pacing the floor, his expression dark.

Rose didn't know what to say. This couldn't be happening. It wasn't supposed to be this way.

Stopping by his dresser, he paused and spun around to face her, though he just stared at the floor. "When I woke up and you were still asleep I didn't think anything of it, but then the hours passed and you didn't wake. Again I told myself you were probably just exhausted, I would have expected that after the events of last night… but it had been twenty four hours and even by your standards, who sleeps that much?"

Rose's eyes all but popped out of her sockets. Twenty four hours? What had they done? And what exactly was sex like for Time Lords anyway? She had always assumed it was identical to humans, but now she wasn't so sure... how thick could she be? During her years at Torchwood she had encountered all sorts of crazy alien customs, many of them sex related, so why had she just assumed? More importantly, how in the world was she supposed to keep up with a sex-drive like that if it took her a full day to recover and she woke up feeling like death warmed over? And he wasn't even full Gallifreyan… No wonder her original Doctor didn't allow that sort of stuff, he probably knew it would have landed her in a coma! Oh the Universe sure was having a laugh at her expense now, wasn't it?

Still unable to say anything, Rose just continued to follow him with her eyes as he began to pace once more. The Doctor couldn't handle her silence and much like always, found that rambling was the best solution. He'd been bottling it all up for hours anyhow, the guilt eating him alive, so oddly enough it felt quite good to let it all out. Must be that bit of Donna in him, he thought to himself. Such a female human thing to feel.

"So I decided to run a scan on your brain with my sonic, should have done it sooner really, but there it is. Sure enough you'd gone into protective neural shut-down, nothing but basic life support still functioning."

"So you did land me in a coma! But you're only half Time Lord… wow. You have got to be kidding me," Rose blurted out before she could stop herself. Immediately, she clapped a hand over her mouth the second she was done, eyes wide.

"Well, yes, essentially… but- wait, what?"

Rose shook her head, staring down at the covers. She thought back to that morning just days after they had settled into the flat. The topic of sex came up and they had tiptoed around it, so shy and nervous. It had been painfully awkward but this… wow, this topped the cake. Even her old mate Shareen would have been blushing down to her toes right now at this confession of post-shag remorse. She didn't know whether to laugh or cry.

The Doctor stilled and suddenly was by her side once more, sitting on the edge of the bed. He hesitantly reached out for her hand and brought it to his lips where he gave it a soft kiss before bringing it back down to lay in her lap, though he didn't let go.

"What does my only being half Time Lord have to do with anything, Rose? My psychic abilities are still intact, remember? Well, actually that's a good point… you may not. How much do you remember? I would expect some residual amnesic effects, and those should pass in a few hours, but can you tell me what the last thing is that you recall?"

Rose hesitated, but then answered.

"I… I was able to reach into your mind, and you heard me. And then you were in my mind, only more… it was so overwhelming. You were kissing me and we were on the floor and…" She let her voice fade away as the unfinished sentence hung in the air, the implications as palpable as the feeling of the other's fingers against their hand.

"So you don't remember all my lessons? The exercises I ran you through?"

Rose blinked hard. Now she was less embarrassed and more insulted.

"The what? You tried to give me lessons? I'm sorry, were my stupid little human lovemaking skills not good enough for your superior Time Lord needs?" She ripped her hand out of his grasp and tried to throw her legs out of bed, but he was blocking the way and the attempted movement made her already pounding head feel like it was about to split open. So she pulled her knees up to her chest instead and bowed her head, leaning her forehead against them, angry tears welling up in her eyes.

The moment of silence that followed seemed to stretch out for an eternity.

"What?... What?...WHAT!"

Rose remained silent, trying so very hard not to begin crying in earnest. She needed to keep some shard of dignity in all this.

"Rose… what exactly do you think happened last night?"

Still she spoke not a word.

The Doctor ran both his hands through his hair as he mentally reviewed every part of their conversation, wondering where in the world she could have come up with- oh. Ohhhhh. OH. Immediately he reached out for her hand but she yanked it away again. Slowly, he let his hand fall back to the bed.

"Rose…" he said softly.

Nothing.

He didn't let her silence deter him and pressed on. "Rose, I'm sorry if I gave you the impression that anything untoward occurred last night, but I can assure you that it did not… at least not in the sense that I think you meant. I got so excited about your ability that I tried to teach you to develop it too quickly. Much too quickly. Things that took us months at the academy, Rose. It was foolish and dangerous and there is no excuse for my behavior! I just… it's been so longsince I've shared that connection with someone that I just craved it so much all of a sudden and I lost all judgment. Your mind couldn't handle it and what I thought was sleep was in fact you losing consciousness. I was rather exhausted myself so I let you rest in here rather than carrying you back to your room, that's why you woke up in my bed. What I did was irreprehensible and for that I am so very, very sorry."

A few minutes passed before Rose even moved. Slowly, she raised her head a bit and peering out just with her eyes, she mumbled, "So… so we didn't shag each other last night?"

Eyes wider than she had ever seen them, the Doctor slowly shook his head.

Forehead falling back down onto her knees, he watched as her shoulders began to shake, though he wasn't sure if from tears or laughter at first because she remained completely silent.

"… Rose?" he asked tentatively, not really knowing what to say.

And then he heard what sounded like an odd combination of a simultaneous sob and giggle. Her shoulders were convulsing now but before he could reach out to her, she lifted her face up and he saw that she was indeed crying, her eyes red and tears streaming down her cheeks. But she wore the biggest grin across her face that the two emotions could not have been more incongruous.

"I… am… such… a… git!" she half sobbed, half cackled.

Still incredibly confused, the Doctor cautiously inched closer to her and reached out a tentative hand, which she met half way and clung to, as she continued to cry and laugh.

"Rose… um, why would having sex leave you in a coma? And the thing about me only being half Time Lord… what did you- WAIT. What exactly do you think we do?"

The look of horror on his face was too much, Rose thought her sides and head would tear apart any second now from how hard she was laughing.

"I… don't kn-know… Doctor!... You… tell… m-me!"

His horror turned into indignation. "For shame, Rose Tyler! I don't know what sort of torrid fantasies you've been cooking up in that little head of yours, but I'll have you know we Time Lords are far above the shenanigans you're implying. In fact sex was so frowned upon back home that-"

But he was cut off by a pillow to the head.

Annoyance took over and he was about to retaliate when he noticed she was clutching her head with one arm while wielding the pillow in the other. Rose was still laughing, but her brow was furrowed in a way that betrayed the pain she must still be in… especially after all that laughter and tears.

Crossing his arms and fixing her with a stern look, he gave an exasperated sigh and shook his head.

"Your head must be killing you, we should stop this. Come on budge up." He gently shooed her over further into the middle of the bed so that he would have room beside her. Quieting down, she dropped the pillow and he quickly scooped it up and set to work making her comfortable as she lay back. Taking out his sonic, he fidgeted with it for a few seconds, adjusting the settings and then held it up to her forehead.

"Close your eyes Rose, and don't be afraid, this will just help with the headache a bit. Restore some of the blood flow and quiet down the pain pathways, that's all."

She lay still as he ran the sonic from temple to temple several times, nothing but its high pitched hum filling the silence. When he was done, her furrowed brow relaxed and she gave a contented sigh.

"Better?"

She nodded.

"Good, just sleep, alright?" He put his sonic away and fluffed the pillow beside her, settling down and pulling her head gently onto his chest.

"Doctor?"

"Yes Rose?"

"You plan on showing me some of your stuffy ol' Time Lord moves now?"

"I most certainly am not, Rose Tyler! You need your rest."

He could feel the grin stretching across her face.

"Hmmm… how about later then, after I get some rest?"

Signing dramatically, he shook his head. "Oh Rose, you are incorrigible… Seriously though, a coma?! That's a lot for a bloke to live up to, you know."

Rose giggled and snuggled in closer.

"Well… you have always been quite impressive, I just figured it was across the board, not just with your mind."

Rolling his eyes, he couldn't help but be pleased. She sure knew how to stroke his ego. Dropping a kiss on her forehead, he wrapped his arms around her and whispered in her ear.

"Hush Rose, and try to get some rest. I'm a man on a mission now, Ms. Tyler… careful what you wish for."

Rose looked up at him, an eyebrow raised in disbelief.

They both grinned at each other like idiots.