SO SORRY for the long wait! My laptop died and I had no way of writing and then when it finally regenerated (haha) I busted my hand and was in a cast for a while and was having a hard time typing. Thanks so much for your patience!

The next few days were blissfully calm and altogether enjoyable for the Doctor and Rose. He stayed away from the labs for a while, opting instead to accompany Rose out on diplomatic field assignments. She knew he looked upon his return to R&D with some trepidation but said nothing, not wanting to add to his discomfort. She trusted him and now that he had heard a full account of her dealings with Stella over the past few years, was confident that he would not be so easily beguiled by her charms and insincerity. Rose was ready to put all that behind her, as was he.

One afternoon after work they stopped by to see Jackie and Tony. The little boy had not seen them since the day before the Doctor's discharge from Torchwood's infirmary and had been relentlessly badgering his mother about having them over to play. Jackie had wanted to give them a few days to themselves after the ordeal but finally succumbed to her son's whinging and invited them over for tea a week later.

It was beginning to warm up and since the day had been unseasonably mild, she decided to serve them out in the garden so her little boy could run around while the adults chatted. The Doctor had hardly managed to cram a third jammy dodger in his mouth when Tony grabbed him by the hand and began to tug him away. Giving them an apologetic smile, he stuffed a handful more biscuits in his suit pocket, winked at Rose and allowed Master Tyler, a nickname he had recently bestowed upon a delighted Tony, to lead him away. For a moment both women just smiled and quietly watched the two begin a rousing game of "tag," chuckling as the Doctor pretended to trip and fall in order to give Tony a chance to catch him. Then Jackie began making small talk, biding her time and waiting for an opening. Pete had told her that something had seemed to be a bit off between the two a few days ago but beyond that he knew nothing. Not one to go digging into his daughter's private affairs, Pete had not even thought about questioning Donna, which had annoyed his wife greatly.

Rose of course had an inkling her mother had known something was up but certainly wasn't going to open up that can of worms voluntarily, so she purposely avoided the subject altogether. Finally Jackie gave up and reverted to her usual tactics.

"So Rose… Pete mentioned he thought things might have been a bit… strained between you and the Doctor the other day. Is everything alright, love?"
Rose smirked at her tea. Ah, there it is.

"Course it is, we just had a row that's all."

"I see… about him being an idiot with the gun and all, yeah? I knew you wouldn't take that well! I told Pete, I says, if that man thinks-"

"Yes mum, about the gun." Rose answered curtly and hoped she would leave it at that.

"Is that all, sweetheart?"

She nodded and trained her eyes on her brother as he ran circles around the Doctor. Smiling, she pretended to be absolutely absorbed in their horseplay.
Jackie didn't buy it, not one bit. Rose was deluding herself if she thought her own mum couldn't see past her act of nonchalance. Not having anything to go on though, she decided to leave it alone for the time being. They appeared happy enough when they arrived so whatever had been wrong must have been resolved.

"So you're alright then, you and he? Made up and all that?"

"Yep!" replied Rose before taking a long sip, still avoiding her mother's eyes. She couldn't, however, control the faint blush that crept across her cheeks… one only the trained eyes of a mother could detect.

Jackie snorted into her mug and put it down, a triumphant smile upon her face.
"So you finally took my advice, did you? I was wondering how much longer it would be… blimey Rose, you weren't this much of a prude with Mickey!"

Rose just looked down at her hands, shaking her head and biting her lip, trying hard not to grin like an idiot. Her mother would never stop questioning her if she did.

"Go on then sweetheart! Tell me, how alien is he exactly?"

"Mum!"

"What? Oh Rose, don't you lie to me and say you didn't used to wonder the same thing! It's only natural, love!"

"Well yeah, course I did, but-"

"But nothing! Soooo? Cuz I know you two somehow managed to keep your paws off each other for years, bless him, but as much as you love him sweetheart some things are crucial in an adult relationship so I wouldn't fault ya for-"

"MUM!... We are not discussing this here!" Rose whispered exasperatedly with a pointed look over at Tony and the Doctor not twenty feet away.

The latter looked up at the sound of Rose's raised voice. Not wanting to alert him of the train wreck of a conversation she was trapped in, she plastered a smile on her face and waved. Confused, he raised an eyebrow and waved hesitantly back, opening himself to a football to the groin as Tony took advantage of a moment's distraction. Rose flinched and jumped up, ready to run over to see if he was alright. The Doctor waved her off, doubled over and grimacing while Tony giggled.

Jackie snickered at the irony of it all and then cleared her throat. Crossing her arms she fixed Rose with knowing look and sighed. "Alright sweetheart, alright. If you say you're happy then I believe you."

When Rose remained silent Jackie cleared her throat again.

Rolling her eyes, she sighed dramatically. "Yes mum, we're happy… quite happy, thank you."

Jackie raised her eyebrows as she glanced over at the Doctor, looking him up and down, unable to contain her mirth. "Quite?! Right, well then! Good for you love, good for you!"

Rose couldn't help the laughter that suddenly bubbled up out of her when her eyes finally met her mother's. She had promised the Doctor no more secrets but somehow this particular mother/daughter conversation felt like something of an exception… one he would no doubt thank her for keeping if only he knew.

A few weeks later Rose was awoken at one in the morning by a very excited and somewhat incoherent Doctor. In the minute or so it took her to wake up properly as she sat up in bed, he had raced out of their room and back in a total of five times, bouncing on his feet and urging her to get up. Pulling on her dressing gown and fuzzy slippers, she shuffled out after him, rubbing her eyes.

"This better be important… "she grumbled under her breath. His only response was a brilliant smile as he pulled her into his old bedroom.

After Rose's room became theirs, the Doctor had rearranged his old one a bit. The bed had been relocated to the study to make room for more Torchwood materials and equipment needed to grow their TARDIS. While still small, she would eventually grow big enough to fill a substantial portion of the room, so it only made sense to accommodate her growth now rather than transferring her to the study later as was their original plan.

As she was led into the room she could only assume his excitement had something to do with her. When Rose reached the doorway she knew right away she had been correct. If it hadn't been for the joy and exuberance that was rolling off of him in waves, the sight that greeted her would have been disconcerting. The neat glass encasing that had held the coral for the past few months lay shattered, fragments scattered all across the room. If the Doctor minded the mess, he sure wasn't showing it as he gazed on the coral with a mixture of pride and amazement. Rose found his expression absolutely adorable. She was only able to dwell on that for a second though before the obvious difference registered. The TARDIS coral, which had been roughly the size of his hand for a while now, was clearly bigger. Substantially bigger. She was now closer to the size of a watermelon and her shape a bit more domed. The shattered glass tank made sense now.

"What happened? She's alright… isn't she?"

The Doctor bounded into the room, hopscotching around the shattered glass until he was standing by the coral. He bent over and picked it up then turned to Rose and gave her another brilliant smile, nodding.

"Oh yes! She's better than alright! She just had her first growth spurt, as you humans would call it!"

Rose grinned, he still hadn't broken his habit of not including himself whenever he made that kind of reference. She enjoyed teasing and reminding him that he was now part ape himself, but let it go this time. Her excitement over the TARDIS was taking precedence over her need to correct him. Carefully navigating the sea of glass shards, Rose gingerly made her way over to him and gently touched the coral.

"So as far as her progress goes… what does it mean? This is good, yeah?"

"It means, Rose Tyler, that everything is going according to schedule! Weeell, perhaps a bit ahead of schedule even! I'll have to adjust the flux capacitator to compensate for size and transdimensionality but we'll keep the foldback harmonic at a steady thirty six point three as far as the dimensional stabilizer is concerned. That should allow the growth acceleration to continue undisturbed, don't you worry!"

Rose smiled as she watched him place the coral gently on his desk and begin to scribble furiously on some paper. He started muttering equations under his breath and soon had that look on his face that meant he would not be returning to bed for a while. Looking around the room again, she gave an amused sigh and softly padded to the kitchen to go get a broom in order to clean up the mess. She knew he would be too caught up in his calculations to tidy up and would more than likely step on a shard and hurt himself in his excitement. Ten minutes later she brought him out of his manic scribbling just long enough to kiss him goodnight again and then went back to bed, an excited grin on her face to match his.

A few hours later she woke up briefly to the feel of the bed shifting beneath her and one of his arms snaking around her waist. She cuddled into him with a contented sigh and was asleep again with seconds. The Doctor smiled and placed a soft kiss on her shoulder before relaxing into her and letting sleep drag him under as well.

It was unexpectedly dark inside the warehouse; the sunlight that should have been streaming through the windows high above was being dimmed by grime and something else… a spectrum force field of some kind? He couldn't be sure at first glance but the tang in the air told his somewhat dampened TimeLord senses that this probably was the case. Now that he wasn't carrying that ridiculous weapon his hands were free to fiddle with his sonic and so he began scanning his immediate surroundings and detected a massive object about twenty feet away, concealed by a perception filter. Catching Lars' attention, he silently pointed in its general direction and began his approach.

***

Blood. Too much blood. A pair of unseeing eyes stared up at him as Lars checked his fallen comrade and tried radioing for help… again. Silence. Lars checked and rechecked his comm device before kicking the wall of the alien craft in rage. This was the third Torchwood agent they had found, but it had been too late for her as well.

***

Oh he was thick! Mister thick thick thickity-thickface from Thicktown, Thickania! What if the reason he couldn't sense any life forms had nothing to do with their unique biosignatures but rather-

"Doctor! Behind you!"

He quickly turned. Pain. Searing and like nothing he had ever felt before in all his regenerations. His head slammed into the wall as he crumpled to the floor, vaguely aware of Lars' screams and the sound of his gun discharging. More pain. An unfamiliar face hovered above him, bulbous orbits black and shiny, as once again more searing pain erupted across his abdomen, his screams of agony increasing the pounding in his head. A flash of blue and then-

***

"Doctor! Wake up, please! Wake UP!"

His eyes snapped open. Although the bulbous onyx orbits that had just stood over him were now replaced by Rose's warm brown eyes it took him a few seconds to stop thrashing around, his body's reaction time lagging behind his racing mind. Gentle hands cupped his face and finally stilled him, though his single heart felt as if it were throwing itself against his ribs, his chest heaving as he attempted to drag in air that had all of a sudden turned thick and impossibly solid. It was a few moments before he was able to speak.

"Rose… I think I know what happened in the warehouse!"