"Alright, Doctor," Rose smiled, laying her hand on his arm. "Five words or less. Tell me what's wrong."

"Five words?!" he squeaked out.

"Yep. I reckon you're havin' trouble because there's too much you want to say and it's too 'emotional'." Rose made an exaggerated quotation motion with her hands. "So, keep it simple and we'll go from there."

"Have I told you today how much I adore you?" The Doctor cupped her face in his hands.

"That's ten words and you're stalling," Rose grinned. The Doctor dropped his hands and leaned back with a heavy sigh.

"I have to raise her."

"Raise her?" Rose repeated. "Seein' as how she's not dead, I'm guessing you mean -"

"She has the entire Time Vortex of the other universe running through her mind, Rose. We can't send her back there. She literally could destroy all of creation by accident. Just one nightmare could send her little mind over the edge. She needs mental training to control what she has in her mind. Even here, she has an incredible amount of power and it needs to be controlled."

"And you're the only one who can do it," Rose smiled. Oh, her Doctor, always saving the world, even one child at a time. Something in her had known, as soon as he had started stalling, that this is what he was going to say.

"Yes. I'm sorry, Rose, but there's just no other way for me to keep a close eye on her other than to, er, keep a close eye on her." He cupped Rose's face in his hands again and kissed her forehead. "I'm so sorry. I know you didn't want children."

"What? I never said that," Rose replied, raising her eyebrows.

"I know, but, well, you never mentioned it at all - seem to always be avoiding the subject, to be honest – and I just figured it was because you didn't want children." The Doctor released her face to tug on his ear.

"I was avoiding the subject because – oh, never mind, we'll get into this later," Rose sighed in exasperation. She pushed off of him and stood up. "Tell me this, Doctor – is she dangerous?"

"Yes. Well, not in the way you mean. I mean, I'm rather dangerous myself." He grinned up at her and she laughed. "She's very powerful, but she's also just a little girl. She doesn't mean any harm – if she did, we'd all be dead already."

"Oh, well, that's a relief!" Rose took the Doctor's hand and pulled him up to stand beside her. "What's up with the name, though? 'Jane Doe'? Do you honestly believe that's her real name?"

"'Course not," he scoffed, wrapping his arms around her and kissing her hair. "But… there are reasons for needing to hide your name. As young as she is, her name could be twisted up with the power of the Vortex. Like your Bad Wolf. There's great power to be found in a name, Rose."

Rose smiled and opened her mouth to speak – a sharp little retort about his utter lack of a name.

"There were civilizations oh so many years ago where a name could kill," the Doctor continued, shocking Rose into silence. "Old magic. Well, science for those cultures. Using words and rhythms instead of numbers and chemicals. In the hands of certain people, a single name could take possession of your very soul…"

"And you let me go around introducing myself to everyone!" Rose exclaimed, pulling back to stare at him incredulously. The Doctor rubbed the back of his neck nervously.

"Ah, yes, well, to be honest, those species are basically extinct. I only know of a couple members of one specific race still in existence. Well, sort of in existence. More like in captivity. Well, when I say captivity, I mean that I trapped them in their own crystal ball and have it banging about the TARDIS somewhere. Not our little TARDIS, my old one."

"Doctor..." Rose groaned.

"Sorry, er… yes, sorry, so! Jane!" The Doctor smiled hopefully in his sorry-I'm-a-Time-Lord-and-get-distracted-easily-I- love-you-sorry way. Rose laughed.

"Yes. Jane. So, we're adopting her, I suppose?"

"What? Oh! Right, records and all that. Ugh, and the press." The Doctor scrunched up his face in disgust. "The paparazzi is going to be crawling all over us again."

"Don't worry about them. This'll be easy to spin. Just gotta do a press release, maybe a talk show -"

"Talk show?" the Doctor instantly perked up.

"And that'll be that" Rose continued, ignoring him. "Ask again for our privacy during this transition time, you know the drill. Pretty soon, some celebrity will do something daft and we'll be old news again." The Doctor nodded. "So, there's just one thing left to discuss really."

"What's that?"

"Should we try to convince my mum that she willed a grandchild into existence?" Rose asked with a serious expression. The Doctor's eyes lit up and his face broke into a huge grin. He grabbed her hand and ran out of the room, with her by his side, just like the old days.