Chapter Thirty-three: Winning the Lottery

Life. Vibrant colours. Dozens of voices talking all around her. Unfamiliar scents of unfamiliar foods, and a slight salty tang in the air if she breathed deeply enough.

Rose took the Doctor's arm and beamed up at him. "Do you know what?" she murmured as she kissed his jaw. "Travelling with you—I love it."

He turned his head slightly to catch her lips in a kiss. Yeah? Me too.

Warm happiness flooded Rose at his agreement as she melted into his kiss. It had been over a month since Midnight, and so far, they'd only taken trips back to places they were familiar with. Ones the Doctor trusted to be safe. She never complained, and didn't even mind, really… but it hurt to watch him struggle to heal and know she couldn't do anything to help.

Shan Shen wasn't a huge step outside of his comfort zone, since he'd visited the planet before, but they'd never been there together. And more importantly, coming here had been his suggestion, completely unprompted.

The Doctor nipped at her lip. You're thinking too much, love.

Just thinking about how I can't imagine my life without you, she countered, smiling against his lips when he hummed happily in reply.

"Oi! Lovebirds! Stop snogging and start shopping."

Rose giggled as she pulled away from the Doctor, then turned towards Donna. Jenny stood beside her, bouncing on her toes the same way the Doctor did when he was eager to explore a new world.

"Yeah, all right. Let's go." She reached for the Doctor's hand and laced their fingers together. "Which way, Doctor?"

He swung their hands between them as he scanned the alleys splitting off in all directions. "This way," he said, pointing towards a narrow street with his free hand, then diving into the melee of vendors and tourists filling the space.

Rose couldn't stop looking around as they weaved their way through the stalls. Paper lanterns, parasols, and banners with Chinese characters hung overhead, and the natives appeared to be dressed in traditional Chinese garb. Giddy excitement bubbled up inside her as she soaked it all in.

When she felt a hint of guilt from the Doctor, it was easy to suss out its source and dismiss it. You needed a break, she reminded him. I'm never gonna push you to do more than you're comfortable with. A partnership only works if both partners are comfortable.

He brushed his thumb over her knuckles, and his guilt was replaced by gratitude. Then he pulled her over to a stall selling his favourite drink. "Come on, ladies," he said, buying four mugs of the foaming concoction and handing them out. "Bottoms up!"

Rose clinked her cup against Jenny's and winked at her before they both tipped their mugs up and took big gulps. "Ohhh, that is amazing," Rose moaned as the rich coffee flavour of the alien cappuccino hit her tongue.

"I'd rather have a water," Donna protested.

"No," the Doctor insisted, taking his own drink. "You are going to love it." Donna sighed, but lifted the cup to her lips. "One, two, three!" They both tipped their drinks back.

"Lovely!" Donna agreed a moment later as she licked the foam moustache from her top lip.

"See, I told you!"

They hovered near the coffee stand while they finished their drinks, so they could hand the ceramic mugs back when they were done. Jenny sidled over to Rose as they browsed the nearby stalls, and Rose spotted the Doctor ducking into a tiny shop as soon as their daughter had her occupied.

"Did you need something, Jenny, or did the Doctor just ask you to distract me while he stepped in there to buy me a present?"

Jenny pressed her tongue to the back of her teeth, and Rose laughed. "I won't peek at what kind of shop it is," she promised.

"Actually, I was wondering if maybe you and Dad would like to wander alone for a bit," Jenny said. "I mean…" She gestured at Donna. "Donna promised to show me how haggling works."

Rose nodded. "Of course. Ask the Doctor before you take off if haggling is acceptable on this planet, but you're always welcome to explore on your own."

The Doctor exited the shop just as she finished her sentence, and Rose quickly looked away before he spotted her watching for him. "What are you up to?" he said as he joined her and Jenny.

Donna returned from dropping off the mugs. "I was planning to take Jenny and introduce her to the ancient practice of haggling."

"Is haggling allowed on Shan Shen?" Rose asked.

The Doctor nodded quickly. "Oh, absolutely. And Shan Shen is perfectly harmless—I can't think of anything you need to watch out for."

Donna snorted. "I'm gonna be looking for a salt shaker so I can toss some salt over my left shoulder, thanks to that statement," she muttered. "Come on, Jenny!"

The Doctor shook his head as they watched the two women blend into the crowd. "What is it?" Rose asked.

"Jenny and Donna," he mused. "It's not a friendship you'd think of automatically, but somehow, it works."

Rose shrugged. "Well, they both love to travel. They love the adventure of new places and doing things they've never done before." She tugged on the lapel of the Doctor's overcoat. "Those are all the reasons they make excellent travelling companions, after all," she pointed out.

The Doctor wrapped an arm around her waist and hugged her quickly. "Quite right," he agreed. Then he started down a different alley, and Rose easily kept up with him.

An idea built in the back of Rose's mind as they weaved their way through the stalls. As the Doctor slid the fancy new teapot they'd just purchased into his pocket, Rose bit her lip and looked up at him.

"Oh, no," he groaned.

"What?"

"You're biting your lip, which means you're about to suggest something I'm not going to like, but you'll convince me to go along with it because I'm rubbish at saying no to you."

Rose clasped her hands in front of her and leaned towards the Doctor, looking up at him through her eyelashes. "We could just skip to the part where you say yes?"

The Doctor rubbed at his forehead, but Rose could see the smile he was trying to hide. "What am I saying yes to, love?"

"Would you mind if I had a wander, just for a bit?"

Fear flickered over the bond, but it felt more like a habit than a genuine emotion, so Rose pressed on. "Shan Shen is safe, right? Perfectly harmless, you said."

The Doctor nodded slowly. "Right, yes. But… I thought we were going to explore it together."

"And we will. I promise." She put her hand on his chest. "I want to get you something, Doctor. Just… I really want to surprise you with something, and I can't do that if you're with me the whole time." She looked up at him pleadingly. "You should be able to understand that—don't think I didn't see you dart into that stall earlier while I was talking to Jenny."

His hand reached automatically for his coat pocket, then he flushed when he realised he'd given himself away. "All right, in that case, why don't we meet right back here in an hour?"

Rose beamed at him, then pushed herself up on her toes and kissed his cheek. "Thank you!" she called out as she pivoted and darted into the crowds.

They were in the middle of a food section of the market, and she worked her way past fruit and vegetable vendors hawking things like shukina and peshmoni. Much as the Doctor loved alien foods, she doubted there was much here that he hadn't tried before, so she kept going, intent on finding him something truly special.

She couldn't explain why she was so determined to find him something from Shan Shen—maybe it was because this was the first trip they'd taken since Midnight where he'd seemed truly relaxed. For whatever reason, she knew she wanted him to have something that would remind him of their visit here.

A flash of gold caught her eye, and she turned around, thinking she'd found a clothing stall. Instead, it was a young woman dressed in black and gold, with her thick black hair pulled back in a braid.

"Oh, hi," Rose said.

The young woman smiled mysteriously. "Tell your fortune, lady. The future predicted. Your life foretold."

Rose nearly laughed. Of all the things a stranger could offer a time traveller, predictions of the future had to be the absolute last thing that would be of interest. "Nah, I'm much more interested in the present, thanks."

Time's in flux anyway, so anything you showed me would only be one possible future.

The woman tilted her head, the tiniest crease of a frown in the middle of her forehead. "Don't you want to know if you're going to be happy?"

Rose snorted. "You're a rubbish fortune teller, mate, or you'd know I'm already very happy."

The woman's eyes narrowed. "The man you were with. He will laugh when you tell him my ridiculous ideas of your future."

That got a genuine laugh from Rose. "All right, you've convinced me," she said, and allowed herself to be led into the dimly lit stall.

The fortune teller stoked the fire in the brazier and gestured for Rose to take one of the two chairs beside it. Rose rolled her eyes again, but sat down and didn't pull back when the woman took her hands.

"Oh, yes, very different," she said, then looked up at Rose. "The man you are with. He is the most remarkable man. How did you meet him?"

Rose arched an eyebrow. "Aren't you supposed to be giving me the answers, not the other way around?" The smell of incense in the stall was cloying, and she really wanted to just pull her hands away and walk off.

As if sensing this, the woman tightened her grip just slightly. "I see the future," she said curtly. "Tell me the past. When did your lives cross?"

Rose sighed, but answered the question. "He blew up my job."

"That is what happened, but what led you to that meeting?" the woman pressed.

Rose heard a rustling behind her and shifted in her chair, making sure her bag was tightly between her feet so no one could steal it. She wouldn't normally suspect a scam, but the way the woman had been so insistent that she allow her fortune to be read was suspicious.

She considered the question, a faint smile on her face. "Yeah… we met because I took the lottery money down that night."

Rose regretted the words as soon as they passed her lips. Time seemed to move sideways for just an instant, and her head swam as the details of the last six years of her life went out of focus, before sharpening again.

"What's happening?"

"It's the incense," the fortune teller told her. "Just breathe deep."

Rose tried, but she still wanted to throw up. "I should… I should go."

"Tell me more," the fortune teller said desperately. "You said you took the lottery money down the night you met him. What would have happened if you hadn't?"

"Well, I wouldn't have met him." But that wasn't all. Rose remembered what the Doctor had told her about his plans for that night—he would have died.

"Why did you take the money down? Was it your turn?"

"No." Rose blinked, trying to remember the details that seemed so fuzzy all of a sudden. "No, it was supposed to be Keisha."

The fortune teller narrowed her eyes. "Your life could have gone one way or the other," she intoned. "When was the moment. When did you choose?"

"Hey, Rose. D'you have plans tonight?"

Rose rolled her eyes as she carefully stacked the neatly folded jumper. "Nah. I think there's a match on, so me and Mickey might go to the pub. Why?"

Keisha twisted her necklace, and Rose grinned at her friend. "Hot date?"

"Maybe."

"All right then. I'll take care of your closing list so you can skip out early."

Keisha squealed and wrapped Rose in a hug. "Thanks, babe!"

"I… my friend, she had a date and she asked me to do it."

The rustling sound was louder, and Rose almost thought she felt something on her back. Different timelines swirled around her, so fast they made her head spin. Then, for just an instant, she saw a future where she'd never met the Doctor, one where he died in the explosion and their entire life together was erased.

With the last bit of strength she had, Rose yanked her hands from the fortune teller's and stood up. "What are you doing to me?" she gasped.

The fortune teller's eyes were wide, and Rose knew, somehow, that she wasn't supposed to be aware of whatever the other woman was doing to manipulate the timelines. But as quickly as she realised that, her vision greyed out again, and she knew she was going to fall.

"What are you doing to my wife?" the Doctor snarled as he pushed his way into the stall, just in time to catch Rose. She felt him pluck something off her back and toss it onto the fire.

The fortune teller cowered before them. "You were so strong. What are you?"

"Time Lords," the Doctor snapped. "Which means your little Time Beetle won't work on us. Go back to the Trickster and tell him to try again."

The woman turned and ran, and the Doctor scooped Rose up into his arms. "Come on," he murmured. "Let's go home."

"Donna and Jenny," Rose protested, her voice weak.

"We can text Donna when we get back to the TARDIS, and she'll tell Jenny. You'll feel better once you're on the ship. She exists in a state of temporal grace, so it'll help the nausea pass." He clenched his jaw. "She'll feel better once you're home, too. She's a bit panicked right now. We both are."

Rose tried to lift her hand to stroke his jaw, but she was too tired. Instead, she rested her head on his shoulder and let him carry her home.

The TARDIS whistled loudly when they stepped inside, making even the Doctor wince. "I know," he told her. "But it didn't happen." He carried Rose through the console room into the corridor, and a door flew open on his right.

The Doctor set Rose down on the infirmary bed and put a hand on her shoulder when she tried to get up. "Why're we here?" she asked, her voice slurred.

"Because someone just tried to change time around you, and I need to make sure you're all right," he said as he ran the sonic over her.

"M'fine, Doctor." Rose tried to reach for his hand, but like before, she was too weak.

"Maybe, but I want to be sure." Finished with the scans, he sat down on the edge of the bed and brushed the hair out of her eyes. She leaned into his touch and that tiny caress nearly broke his control.

He clenched his jaw and took a few deep breaths, until he thought he could speak without his voice cracking. "What kinds of questions did the fortune teller ask you?"

Rose wrinkled her nose as she thought. "She wanted… She wanted to know how we met. And then she kept pushing me to tell her what would have happened if my day had gone differently, if I hadn't taken the lottery money down."

The Doctor shuddered. They'd talked about that before, and it wasn't a happy prospect. "She wanted to rewrite your life so you never met me," he realised.

"I think so." Rose sighed and rested her head on the pillow for a few moments, then she looked at him again. "Doctor? How did you know?"

"Our timelines are linked," he reminded her. "So when the Time Beetle started changing your past, I could feel the way time went wibbly around you." It was only half the answer, but it was the part she didn't already know—he didn't need to tell her that he'd felt her discomfort like a shiver down his own spine.

"Wibbly?" Rose smiled weakly. "Is that a technical term?"

"Something like that."

"Is that what made me dizzy and nauseated?"

He nodded. "Yeah. Fiddling with another person's timelines is usually undetected, but Time Lords are uniquely equipped to sense shifting timelines. And when the Time Lord has a bond, the ramifications of the shift are expounded, making it uncomfortable or even painful."

Rose tried to ignore the unspoken truth that if she were still human, she wouldn't have noticed what was happening. She scooted closer to him and rested her hand on his knee. "What did she do? You called it a… Time Beetle?"

The Doctor scowled. "Part of the Trickster's Brigade," he explained, unable to keep the anger out of his voice. "They were just hoping to cause a slight shift in timelines, but you… well, that's not how it worked."

Rose didn't respond, and the Doctor watched for a few moments as she fought valiantly against sleep. He shook his head, then brushed a kiss over her forehead. "Go to sleep, love," he whispered.

Stay with me?

The Doctor swallowed hard, then swung his legs up so he was sitting beside Rose on the bed. She immediately shifted towards him, ending up with her head in his lap and an arm slung over his legs, as if to anchor him in place. He sighed and combed his fingers through her hair. After the way their timelines had been disrupted, he needed to be touching her—and it seemed she felt the same way.

Rose had been asleep for half an hour when the terminal beeped with the scan results. He carefully slid off the bed to read over the results. Relief coursed through him a moment later. Despite the best effort of the Trickster's Brigade, Rose was just fine.

Alone on the bed, Rose whimpered in her sleep and rolled in search of him. The Doctor picked her up once more, this time to carry her to their room. Shhh, he said when she snuffled softly. We're just going to bed.

In their room, Rose woke up just long enough to not be a total deadweight when he changed her into her pyjamas. Come to bed, love, she requested as she slid between the covers. Wanna cuddle with you.

The Doctor smiled and changed into his own pyjamas. To his surprise, Rose was still awake when he slid under the covers. "Is something the matter?" he asked, sensing that she was almost fully awake now.

She propped herself up on her elbow and looked down at him. "Tell me what's bothering you."

He reached out and brushed hair out of her face, than ran his fingers over her features. Rose reached up and held his hand to her face, and that tenderness finally broke his control.

Two tears slipped down his face. "I thought… I didn't know what was happening to you," he told her, his voice raspy. "I was just shopping for an anniversary present, and suddenly, our bond went haywire as your timeline stretched and bent."

He shuddered at the memory. "I dropped whatever I was holding and ran out of the stall. The bond snapped back into focus and I was able to follow it to you. Then just before I reached you, I could feel your fear."

Rose nodded. "I knew something was wrong. My memories kept swimming in and out of focus. And she wouldn't let me go."

The Doctor felt the muscle in his jaw twitch. "Oh, she would have," he said grimly. "If you hadn't already been halfway to rescuing yourself when I got to you, I would have made sure she let you go."

Rose grinned up at him, her tongue peeking out. "It was a two-person operation, for sure," she agreed. "I'm glad you were there to catch me." She put her hand on his chest. "You always catch me before I fall."

He shook his head. "Not always." A dark thought crossed his mind, and he couldn't stop it before it slipped past his lips. "Do you ever wish you hadn't bonded with me?"

Rose had been on the verge of drifting off again, but that woke her up completely. She pushed herself upright and stared down at the Doctor. He was avoiding her gaze, leaving her to stare at the top of his head.

"How can you ask me that?"

He looked at her then, and the guilt in his eyes surprised her. "This is the second time in less than two months that you've been hurt because of our bond."

Rose shook her head. "Today wasn't about the bond," she argued. "That woman just knew that I travelled with you, not that we have a bond. And in the end, it was the bond that gave me the strength to hold out against her."

"That still leaves the entity," he reminded her.

A hard knot settled in the pit of Rose's stomach. "Doctor," she asked carefully, "do you regret our bond?"

"No," he answered immediately. Then his lips twisted into a self-deprecating smile. "And how selfish does that make me?" He pinched the bridge of his nose and sighed. "But I can't bring myself to regret something that's given me so much joy, even though I know it's put you in danger."

Rose rolled her eyes and lightly tapped him on the back of his head with the flat of her hand. His forehead wrinkled, and he pouted. "What was that for?"

"For being a space dunce, as Donna would say," Rose answered acerbically. "If I don't regret our bond, do you really think it's selfish of you not to? Doctor, I don't want you to regret it. It makes me so happy to hear you talk about how happy it's made you, because that's exactly how I feel. And when you ask if I wish we'd never bonded…" She swallowed. "That hurt, Doctor."

She felt the moment understanding replaced the guilt that had shortsighted him. "Oh," he breathed. "Oh, Rose."

He lay back down and opened his arms to her, and Rose sniffed as she curled up against his side. "Don't do that again, please," she whispered.

"I won't. I won't, love—I promise."

"So we're agreed? Our bond is a good thing, even if sometimes it gets used against us?"

The Doctor brushed her hair back over her ear and pressed a kiss to her forehead. "Absolutely."

Rose took a deep breath and let the honey and clove scent of his skin relax her. Then a yawn caught her by surprise, and suddenly, her eyelids were heavy.

The Doctor chuckled and rested his hand in the small of her back. "Go to sleep, Rose. You're safe now."

oOoOoOoOo

The sound of an alarm blaring woke Rose up, but even as her hand went up to slap it, something felt off. She hadn't woken up to an alarm in years.

What's going on? she wondered as her eyes fluttered open.

As soon as she caught sight of the pink walls, she was wide awake and sitting up in bed. She hadn't slept in this room in… well, nearly as long as it had been since she'd woken up to an alarm.

There was something else off, and it took her a moment to place it. The insistent throbbing in her head finally helped her pinpoint it.

The bond was gone.

"What the hell is happening?" she yelled as she jumped out of bed.

Even the missing bond didn't feel the way it should. Instead of being constant, migraine level pain, it was just a sense of wrongness in her head—sort of like the dull throbbing of a hangover.

The phone on the nightstand beeped, and Rose absently realised as she grabbed it that this was her old phone, the one she'd had when she met the Doctor.

There were dozens of missed calls and voicemails, plus a few text messages that seemed to be condolences. Rose frowned; what was going on?

Looking down at herself, a niggling possibility presented itself. She was in her old pyjamas, in her old room, with her old phone.

"Oh, my God, what is happening?" she muttered as she shuffled out of her room.

"Yeah, it's a bit strange, I'll give you that."

Rose screamed and threw her phone at the unexpected person sitting on her sofa. "Mickey! What the hell are you doing here? Shouldn't you be in Pete's World?"

Mickey Smith chuckled. "I told them. I told them you'd be able to remember the prime timeline, but no one believed me."

"What do you mean, the prime timeline? And why do I feel like I'm back to my life before I met the Doctor?"

Mickey's grin disappeared. "Because you are, babe. Well, more like your life if you'd never met the Doctor."

Rose's stomach turned. "That's what that woman tried to get me to do," she whispered. "She tried to get me to change my past so I wouldn't meet the Doctor… and then he'd die when he blew up Henrik's."

Mickey nodded. "And then the two of you wouldn't be able to stop the Nestene Consciousness the next day," he continued.

"The condolences on my phone…" Tears welled up in her eyes, and it was hard to breathe. "Mum was in town shopping that night."

Mickey stood up and put his hands on her shoulders. "Look at me, Rose." He waited until she'd taken a deep breath and was looking into his eyes before he continued. "None of this is real. Remember that. This is just an alternate timeline."

Rose brushed a tear away from her eyes. "Right. I know that." She tilted her head and looked at Mickey. "You never told me… why are you here?"

"Come on, sit with me."

They sat down on the couch, and Mickey handed Rose a cup of tea. "It may have been five years since I saw you last, but I reckon I still know how to make tea the way you like it."

"Five years?" Rose felt a pang of sorrow.

"Well, I'm not counting the few hours at Canary Wharf." Mickey nudged her. "You should have heard your mum going on when you disappeared right out of Pete's arms, by the way."

Rose laughed. "Yeah, I bet. Now, tell me what's going on. How are you even here? We closed the walls between the worlds."

"Yeah, about that. When you get back to the Doctor, you need to tell him. Tell him the stars are going out, Rose."

She blinked. "What do you mean, the stars are going out?"

But even as she asked the question, she could feel another tug, and she knew she only had a few seconds left to talk to Mickey.

"Just tell him that, Rose," he ordered. "Reality is breaking down, and the stars are going out."

oOoOoOoOo

Rose woke up again, and this time, everything felt just as right as it had felt wrong before. She could hear the Doctor's hearts beating beneath her ear, and his arm was a comforting, familiar weight around her waist. When she opened her eyes, the walls were the sandy/coral colour she'd chosen when she'd decided to paint a few months before, and she and the Doctor were both wrapped up in their blue duvet.

But most importantly, she could feel him in her mind, the bond connecting them just as it always did.

That same bond woke the Doctor up when he sensed her anxiety, and she traced a finger over his eyebrow as his eyes opened. "You weren't out for long," he observed, his voice still gravelly from sleep.

"Bad dream," she told him.

"Want to tell me about it?"

"I think I need to."

Fully awake now, the Doctor narrowed his eyes and studied Rose for a moment. What he'd taken for lingering fear from a nightmare he now realised ran deeper than that. "Why don't we go sit in the study?" he suggested.

Rose nodded, and they both rolled out of bed and pulled on their dressing gowns. When they entered the study, there was a fire going in the fireplace and tea waiting for them on the coffee table.

The Doctor waited until Rose had lifted her mug and breathed deeply of the tea before asking, "What did you dream about?"

She took a sip and considered the question. "I think it was… I think it was what would have happened, if the Trickster had succeeded today. I was back in my old room at the flat, and I had dozens of messages on my phone because Mum had died in the Auton attack."

She blinked back tears, and the Doctor took her hand. "It's just an aborted timeline, Rose," he soothed. "That never happened."

Rose shook her head. "No, I know that. But the important part is what comes next. Because when I got up, Mickey was waiting for me in the lounge. Only… not the Mickey from back then, this was an older Mickey." Her fingers tightened on the handle of her mug. "Remember, I told you I thought he was the one returning."

The Doctor's time senses started buzzing when Rose mentioned Mickey. "Go on," he said, his voice tense.

"Mickey said he was there because… the stars are going out." She closed her eyes, trying to remember more details. "I asked how he got there, since the walls between the worlds are closed, and that's what he said. The stars are going out."

The Doctor wanted to protest that all this had happened in a timeline that didn't even exist, but he could feel in his bones that it wasn't true. "Well," he said, trying to be cheerful. "We did wonder how your family could possibly have moved back to this universe, like Melody said."

"So you think it's real then?" Rose asked.

The Doctor nodded. "It fits too well with other things that have happened to not be real."

"Then what do we do?"

He stood up and pulled Rose to her feet, and they walked back to their room. "Well, first we need to text Donna—we never did that earlier—and ask her and Jenny to come back to the TARDIS." He continued detailing his plan as they got dressed. "Once we're all on board, we'll take a quick hop back to Earth, maybe check in with UNIT and see if they've noticed anything about stars going out."

"Weird thing about that dream," Rose said as she texted Donna. "It was supposed to be an alternate timeline, right? So I was nineteen-year-old Rose, who'd never met you—didn't even know you existed."

"Yep." The Doctor loosened his tie so it didn't feel so tight against the lump in his throat.

She slid her phone into her jeans pocket and pulled her hair into a ponytail. "Well, then how come I remembered you? And I knew we were supposed to have a bond?"

"Well, you weren't really stuck in that timeline," he pointed out reasonably. "You must have caught just enough of a glimpse of that timeline this morning to remember the important detail—Mickey saying the stars were going out. And then your brain turned it into a dream so you would remember to tell me."

"Right… so because it was a dream, I was able to be both younger Rose and the real Rose, at once. Got it."

Rose held out her hand and offered the Doctor a smile. Her dream had reminded them of the life they would have been stuck in if the fortune teller had succeeded, and they were both trying to forget that sober almost-reality.

She let out a little sigh of relief when he smiled back and took her hand. "Come on." She nodded towards the door. "Jenny and Donna will be back any minute."

Despite the uncertainty and the obvious danger of the situation Mickey had described—the stars were going out?—Rose felt just a little bit of excitement trickle in as they walked to the console room. The Doctor was right. This might be what allowed her family to come to this universe… and that meant she might see her mum again soon.

But all thoughts of seeing her mum and meeting her baby brother or sister vanished when the Doctor pulled the door open. They both sucked in a breath when they saw two words repeated over and over on every surface.

Bad Wolf.

AN: We are almost to the final arc of the story! Next week, we'll get a quick glimpse of Pete, Mickey, and Jackie, and then in January, we'll start with Stolen Earth!