"Spaceman," Donna warned. "If you make me repeat myself again you're gonna get a smack."

"But I still don't get it." The Doctor's face scrunched under his swoop of thick hair. "How can this be your bloke from the Library? Remember, you'd decided the reason we couldn't find him was because he didn't exist. You said he was so perfect for you the planet's index computer must have generated him straight from your fantasies."

"Shut up," hissed Donna. Her cheeks were on fire. She would not look at Lee. She would not.

"You searched for me, Donna?"

Her breath hitched. Donna had no choice but to meet Lee's gaze now. Glancing over shyly, she found him studying her with very dark eyes. Her heart leapt, raced, and in that moment Donna knew the effect he had on her had never been computer-simulated. "A bit," she replied, proud when she managed a casual shrug.

"I looked for you, too. Even after I got back here, I looked."

An impatient noise came from the Doctor. "Sweet as all this is, we need to move. Didn't I say that already?"

Oh, she was gonna kill him. "Oi. We could've done ten minutes ago, but you were all over Rose, mister octopus arms."

Of course, the dumb alien didn't hear her, he and Rose having already darted forward to disappear into the darkness. Jack sped after them, and, with a huff, so did Donna, Lee right behind her.

For a few minutes they wound through snake-like corridors, staying near walls, in the shadows, only slowing when some creature howled a bit too close by. When they hit a T junction the Doctor paused, as if uncertain which way to turn next. Fishing his sonic out, he began waving it at the right corridor, then the left, not seeming to care that its glow and noise was probably luring every monster within earshot.

Sure enough, within a matter of seconds, shrieks echoed from both directions. The Doctor made a face.

"Take five and let things quiet down?" suggested Rose, and he nodded.

Goosebumps prickled Donna's skin when Lee leaned against the wall beside her, so close that the sleeve of his white lab outfit brushed her arm. "I thought maybe you had ended up on the Library after running away from the Time War like I had," he said to her in an undertone. "But…" His brows drew. "You're human."

Donna stiffened, remembering the terrible prejudice of his peers. "And what's wrong with that?" It came out a bit too loudly, and the Doctor shot her a dirty look.

"Nothing," replied Lee quickly. "Just an observation. Even before the planet was trapped out here, we didn't get humans on Gallifrey often. Almost never. So imagine my confusion when I find myself in the same room as one, and she's not just any human, she's…well. You."

"Exactly," inserted Jack, who was resting against the wall only a few feet away and unabashedly eavesdropping. "Donna is one special woman."

"Hush, you," Donna shot back, blushing again. "You don't know that. We only just met today. And I'd say you're the special one, mister fixed-point-in-time."

"Sorry if that creeps you out," said Jack to Lee with a grin.

This made Lee blink, but he tried to return the smile. "It's all right. You're fine. Well. I mean, I can see you're not lying, but…" He shook his head. "I can't help but wonder if my lab has been contaminated by psychic pollen or something. We Time Lords like logic and reason, and reason says I am hallucinating all of this."

Donna chuckled. "That's fair."

"I don't want you to laugh," said Lee, watching her. "I want you to convince me you're real. Gallifrey is hidden at the end of time and space, it's inaccessible, so how did you get here? And why? What's your problem with the President? And why did we run away to the Matrix, of all places?"

"Don't ask me, it was his doing," Donna said, thumbing toward the Doctor without looking at him. She'd learnt long ago not to ever show the Doctor's cards when questioned. Even though her heart said Lee could be trusted.

Lee's gaze travelled past her, and a frown appeared on his face.

Donna turned to look too, then rolled her eyes. That absolute prawn was cuddled up with Rose again, sonic screwdriver clutched in his hand at the small of her back, and he seemed to be smelling her hair. Had he forgotten, again, that he was the person in charge of keeping all of them alive?

Before Donna could tell the Doctor off, Lee spoke up. "You're a Time Lord, yes?" Lee called out to the Doctor, managing to semi-interrupt the cuddle-session. "Are you the person who's been sabotaging the President's work? The star-harvesting project?"

The Doctor mostly let go of Rose, but kept one arm around her. He looked puzzled, as if trying to decipher what Lee meant. "What do you mean? What sabotage?"

Lee's frown deepened. "The solar rigs are constantly breaking down. The damage is deliberate, and most often it's on the rigs that the prison inmate crews are assigned to."

"Inmates, you say?" The Doctor rubbed his chin. "Well, that makes sense, I suppose. They're being made to do hard labour for free. Maybe it's retaliatory."

"Nobody's doing physical damage to the rigs, though. It's that the operating systems are constantly being hacked. The High Council believes it's the work of one person, someone physically located in the prison system on Pazithi Gallifreya. And that, I figure, is where you've all come from," he stated decisively.

That took the Doctor aback. "Pazithi Gallifreya is one of Gallifrey's moons," he said in response to Rose's questioning look. "So you believe we're a bunch of escapees?" he asked Lee. "Fugitives?"

"There are rumours…no one really believed them, of course, but it's been said that there might be a few humans imprisoned up on the copper moon. You're a Time Lord with human friends and a grudge against the President. It's the only thing that makes sense."

"Oh, yes, I get it now. Brilliant theory," replied the Doctor admiringly. "Bravo."

Donna heard a frustrated breath leave Lee's chest, and she felt for him. "But is it true?" he pressed.

"No."

"No? But…how else could you know these humans?"

"Oh," said the Doctor breezily, giving Rose a one-armed squeeze. "I don't know them at all, I just enjoy a good cuddle."

"They're married," Donna informed Lee with a sigh, since he must have at least guessed that much, and she was fed up with all of their PDA. "What is it with you two, anyway?" she demanded of the pair. "Does all this danger spice things up or something? It makes you get all handsy with each other?"

"No, Donna." Rose seemed irritated by the question, and she stayed tucked under the Doctor's arm. "It's painful for us, having our telepathic connection blocked by these cuffs. Physical contact is the only thing that helps at all right now."

"Oh," said Donna, with a twinge of guilt. "I didn't know."

But when she glanced at Lee and saw his horrified expression, it hit her that she really didn't know.

"You two are psychically bonded?" he asked in disbelief. "And someone put isolator cuffs on her? They must not have known–"

"They knew," stated the Doctor, his expression dark as a sudden storm. And then, after glancing around, he turned away from everyone's sympathetic looks. "Let's go."

Fog swirled around his feet as he marched off into the dark left corridor, his hand linked with his wife's.

"Is Lee your real name, then?" Jack asked quietly as he, Lee, and then Donna followed after the Doctor and Rose like a line of chicks. "It isn't very Time Lord-y. I bet it's short for something. The Leader?"

Lee smiled. "No, no, I'm just a lowly scientist. Only those who've time-travelled extensively are compelled to hide their true name, you know."

"I didn't know, actually," Jack replied, giving the Doctor's back a pointed, curious look.

"My full name is Leemacavoy."

Donna was delighted. "Really?"

"It's a mouthful, I suppose. Doesn't exactly roll off the tongue."

"That's just it, though, it does!" An important realisation struck her, and Donna gasped. "What happened to your stutter?"

Lee frowned. "My what?"

"Your stutter. You know, the speech impediment you had."

One big hand covered his mouth in momentary embarrassment. "Most likely it was a glitch in the coding. I suppose the computer had never encountered a Time Lord, so it wouldn't know how to translate me."

"Too bad," Donna told him, biting her lip. "I liked it."

Lee gazed at her intently with those chocolate eyes of his, like he was trying to decide if she meant it. Donna's face flushed with heat yet again.

Another unholy sound rang out, louder than ever, coming from the murky gloom just ahead. The Doctor held up a hand to halt their progress, his gold wristwatch glinting in the dim light.

"What are those things?" Jack asked him.

"The Cloister Wraiths," said the Doctor, giving the dark corridor a quick scan with the sonic. "Sliders, we used to call them. They guard the Matrix. They only attack if you make any attempt to leave."

"How long are we planning to stay?" asked Donna.

"Or, actually, if you try to stay."

"Should've guessed that," muttered Donna.

"And we're close now. We're about to start seeing lots of them." The Doctor and Rose began to move forward with caution.

"Close to what? You can't know your way around inside the Matrix," Lee informed him flatly. "I don't understand how we even got down here in the first place, it's not like there's a teleport code."

"We teleported, of course there's a teleport code." After peering carefully around a bend in the corridor, the Doctor moved forward again, holding tight to Rose's hand. "Come on, you must've heard the stories. A student survived down here for four days, once. The Sliders eventually showed him the secret way out. Turns out, it's also the secret way in."

Exasperated, Lee flung his hands out. "Who are you?"

"I'm the Doctor."

Donna nearly crashed into Lee as he skidded to a stop. "As in, the Doctor? The War hero?"

"Or the War criminal," Jack chimed in.

"Depends on who you ask," added Rose airily.

Donna saw Jack hiding laughter beneath his hand. "God, you must have been distracted in that lab," he said to Lee. "The President and the General called him 'the Doctor' like a hundred times."

"Everybody was distracted, Jack," retorted Donna in Lee's defence. "You were shooting people."

"It all makes sense now," said Lee to Donna, still shaking his head. "You're one of his human companions. He's famous for that, too."

"Yeah, we travelled together, that's how I ended up visiting the Library," she explained, then chuckled a little. "That trip was also full of shadows and monsters."

The Doctor led them through an open doorway, arched on top, that led into a smaller room. The low fog was thinner in here, and tall pillars sprouted up randomly like trees. Light shone from odd places, as if from invisible spotlights. And everywhere Donna looked, those thick, glowing vines hung from ceilings and walls.

"Yes, yes," said the Doctor as he swished a foot to clear some mist, revealing several large interlocked Gallifreyan swirls carved into the floor. "I knew I remembered how to get here."

"EXTERMINATE!"

Gasping, Donna crowded back against a pillar as a Dalek rolled out of the shadows, its eyestalk glowing menacingly.

"It's okay," the Doctor reassured, flailing the hand that wasn't clinging to Rose's. "It's okay, look at it."

"Exterminate…me."

Jack inched forward. The Dalek could barely move, all tangled in vines. "It sounds sort of sickly," he said.

"Is it trapped?" asked Rose.

The Doctor nodded, a lock of hair falling over his eyes. "Don't worry, it's been neutralised. Those aren't vines. In your terms, they're fibre-optic cables, they're alive and growing. We're inside the biggest database in history."

"And?" asked Donna, annoyed with the half explanation. Her heart was still pounding. "Why is it here?"

"It's a database. They get filed."

"Exterminate me," pleaded the Dalek.

But the Doctor barely looked at it, giving it a wide berth as he led them past. "Probably a leftover from the Cloister Wars. There's nothing we can do. Come on."

Small and white, a stone baby angel sat entangled in cables. Donna eyed it as she passed, gasping when it vanished and reappeared in front of her. Unsure what to do, she paused, watching it, hands raising in a defensive stance.

Something strong grabbed her arm, hard enough to leave bruises, and a shriek escaped Donna as she saw it was the dismembered arm of a Cyberman. The Doctor made to rush toward her, but Lee was yanking the thing free. He flung it away.

"All of you, keep away from them," instructed the Doctor, eyes intense. "The Matrix can use them as defence."

Donna tried to catch her breath. "What exactly are we looking for in here?"

"When Time Lords die their minds get uploaded to the Matrix. This structure, it's like a living computer. It can predict the future, generate prophecies out of algorithms; ring the Cloister bells in the event of impending catastrophe. It's the centre of everything. Every Time Lord is connected to it, in a way. Every Time Lord needs to be connected to it."

"Okay…?"

"We need the Matrix to learn to recognise you, Donna," he said, rubbing his temple and looking suddenly exhausted. "If it doesn't, it's no use going to all the trouble of turning you into a Time Lord."

Lee sucked a breath. "You're turning her into a what?"

"He lied to us." Rassilon glowered at the handheld vid-screen. "He's not here to fix that…that thing, that living temporal anomaly. He means to make one of his human companions into a Time Lord."

"That's not possible," the General tried to reassure him, dragging a hand down her new face.

"This is the man who single-handedly pulled Gallifrey out of the Time War and hid it at the end of the universe! He can do anything if it's foolhardy enough!"

"We must have misheard him. Or he was speaking in riddles–"

"He's down in the Matrix for a reason! We know the Hybrid already has some sort of regenerative powers, and that abomination can't die." Rassilon jabbed the air with a finger. "The Doctor is granting all his friends immortality!"

"Oh," replied the General, her voice faint.

"Do you finally understand what I've been trying to tell you? We need to kill him!"

On the floating holoscreen, she watched the President thrust his fist in the air like he'd just sent forth an army. What an idiot, acting like that whilst sitting in a bed. Wearing pyjamas, no less. Short ones that showed off one bandaged-up leg and one bare one, all pale and skinny with a knob knee.

The Doctor certainly knew how to rile up Rassilon, bless him. Why he would want to make a human into a Time Lord, she didn't know. Though it was very like him to do something so bonkers.

"We can justify killing him now," she heard Rassilon saying to the General. "This recording of him will prove that his purpose here is entirely a selfish one."

"Sir?"

"I'll have the vid broadcast planetwide. Then no one will complain about the Doctor's execution." Something like a smile crawled onto Rassilon's face. "We'll have no further need for star harvesting, which will also please the natives. Once the Doctor is dead, I'll link with his TARDIS myself, and lead Gallifrey out of this godforsaken, end-of-time hellhole." His chest swelled. "I, the Lord President, will lead Gallifrey back home."

The General stared at him, wide-eyed. She wasn't stupid. That woman knew, as did anyone on this planet with half a brain, that once Rassilon restored Gallifrey to its proper time and place, he would press toward the final sanction. The elevation of the Time Lords. The destruction of everyone else.

"Not on my watch," she muttered, already typing commands into a code board.

The portable vid-screen on Rassilon's lap went black.

Reclining back in her chair, she smiled, watching as the President shook the device and hit it on the bed, all to no avail. Several technicians rushed in, attempting to restore the vid-link to the Matrix while Rassilon scolded and fussed from his bed. They'd do it, but by her reckoning, not before the Doctor and his friends had abandoned the place. She'd given those signals a wonderful scrambling.

Well, she was involved now. What was that earth saying, again? In for a penny, in for a pound? Shrugging, she swivelled to face the holo-screen which displayed the Citadel maps. Now, where was it again? On a sub-level, she remembered that much.

The Doctor had shown her all around the place once. Her hearts swelled, recalling how trusted she'd felt at the time. Nobody else ever went there, another reason it was his favourite haunt. She clicked to the next map. As soon as she spotted it, she'd know it. Of that she was certain.

Oh, she'd missed this. No interference laws, indeed. Interfering was the best.

"You can't change a human into a Time Lord," stated Lee flatly. "Why would you even want to?"

"For a lark," snapped the Doctor. "A bit of fun."

The hostile edge to his voice made Rose glance sharply up at him. "Doctor," she said quietly, palming his cheek. It was clammy to the touch and she nearly swore aloud. Though he'd been hiding it well (from their friends at least), Rose knew their continued telepathic separation had the Doctor nearing his limits both physically and emotionally.

Rose herself was barely coping. It felt like she was trapped inside a cage of glass, every moment a fight against panic. But it would be far worse for her husband, a born telepath. Though the image he liked to present was one of near invincibility, in truth the Doctor was a sensitive person, even more so than she. Especially when it came to intimate, emotional matters like their bond.

Briefly glancing around, Rose saw Lee had shut his mouth, and Jack and Donna looked uncomfortable. "Doctor," she said again.

The Doctor's eyes, dark and slightly wild, lifted to hers, staring like he wasn't quite sure she was real. Legitimately frightened by this, Rose slid her fingertips to his temple in an attempt to reach him psychically. Though she managed only a flicker of connection it did help, and she let out a breath when the Doctor's death grip on her hand relaxed.

"You okay?" she asked before she could stop herself. He hated that question.

Thankfully, the Doctor didn't tense up again. "Not very." His reply was honest, full-voiced, addressed to everyone. "Bit short on patience today, I'm afraid. Sorry."

"I'm sorry, too," said Lee. "I wasn't trying to be difficult. But what you plan to do to Donna is…"

"Extreme?" Rose filled in. "Yeah. But extreme problems require extreme solutions, sometimes. If the Doctor doesn't change Donna's physiology, she'll die."

As if she'd struck him, Lee's whole body jerked. "You're dying?" he rasped, his eyes wide as they snapped to Donna.

"She won't," Rose said firmly, before Donna could answer him. "Not if you help us. To keep a long, complicated story short, Donna has taken on a Time Lord's consciousness and her human body can't sustain it. We intend to upgrade her biology by using a modified chameleon arch."

"But I still don't get why…" Lee dragged a hand down his face. "Look, it would be far easier to block the non-human knowledge that's overwhelming her brain. That human-grade neural block I gave you–"

"Could save her life, yes," the Doctor cut in. "So long as you use it to block any thought or memory that's not of Earth origin. We've been down that road. It means we can't allow her to remember me, or you, or any of us, or any of her travels and accomplishments. We can't allow her to remember her own true identity. Block her memories, and she won't be Donna anymore."

Rose gave his hand a squeeze, happy to hear him sound calmer, more normal. "This is risky, yes," she told Lee. "But it's also well thought out. The Doctor has spent years trying to work out an alternate resolution to Donna's problem. He's considered every possible option. Altering Donna's biology is the last resort."

The five of them stood in a little circle, silently regarding each other.

"So," said Donna at last, giving the dark, gloomy room a deliberate look-over. The interlocked swirls beneath their feet were glowing. "We've been wandering aimlessly down here, why? So the Matrix can get to know me? We're having some quality time together?"

The Doctor didn't answer, carefully inspecting the nearest pillar draped with vine-like cables. They seemed thicker here, their bluish glow brighter. As he slowly slid his screwdriver from the inside pocket of his coat, his gaze shifted to Rose. His eyes were anxious, full of fear.

Rose instantly deduced his problem. Whatever he was about to do next, he needed both hands free.

Dread filled her, but she gave him a reassuring smile and, without delaying, tugged her hand out of his. As their skin contact broke, her temples throbbed and her stomach clenched; it was all she could do not to cry. Rose breathed through it, hating how unstable she felt. Especially since it meant her bondmate was traversing far rockier ground.

Worried and wary, Rose watched the Doctor begin to sonic a cable loose, praying it would go smoothly. His breathing was too fast and to her, it seemed like an eternity passed before an end came free with a shower of sparks.

"Now, Donna," said the Doctor, holding up the cable, "I've got to free one more of these, and then use them to link you to the Matrix manually."

"What do you mean, manually?" Donna eyed the glowy, spooky thing and backed up a step.

His gaze was on the pillar of vines again. "Imagine your brain is a bit of old tech that you've had for a decade, an old iPod or something, and you want to link your wireless earbuds to it. You've got to update both the hardware and the software in order to make it bluetooth compatible. But since the thing is so old, you can only download new software by actually plugging it into a computer. Eh?"

"Doctor," Donna said warningly. "Are you saying you're going to literally plug that cable into my head?"

"Got to make you bluetooth compatible," he replied with a faint grin. "A brief physical connection will enable the Matrix to recognise you psychically. Or it will, once your hardware's been upgraded. Hopefully. If."

Donna's eyes narrowed. "If what?"

The Doctor didn't answer for a few beats. "If you don't go mad after looking into the untempered schism."

A moan came from Lee. "Oh, this just keeps getting better."

Rose cringed at the complaint, but the Doctor only got out his screwdriver again to buzz a second selected cable loose. "Donna has a Time Lord's mind," he replied to Lee, his tone edgy. "Basic Gallifreyan physiology won't contain it, she's got to be made fully Time Lord, and we both know that means a look in the schism."

The cable he'd freed was too short, tangled with other blue-lit cords. The Doctor gave it a yank to free it, had moderate success, but growled when he found it still too short. He yanked again, this time hard enough that several other cables threatened to come loose with it. Rose, nervous that he might inflict some serious damage, hurried over, having spotted exactly where the trouble was.

"Don't!" The Doctor shoved her outstretched hand away almost roughly.

"Oi!" Furious, Rose glared at him, longing to smack him…either that or snog him, she wasn't sure which. Just that it would be hard. "You need to let me help!"

The Doctor glared back, unrepentant. "No. Those could hurt you."

"Yeah, well," she retorted, "if you keep pullin' like that you're gonna wreck something! Your own brain is connected to this place–"

Someone's hand pushed the small of her back, sending her stumbling against the hard lines of the Doctor's body. He caught her, arms tightening around her automatically. Though she wanted to stiffen, stay upset, the physical contact felt bloody amazing. Rose's anger melted as she sank into his embrace.

"That's right, you two hug it out," she heard Jack's amused voice say. "I'll untangle that thing."

Rose lifted apologetic eyes to the Doctor. He was watching her, an odd look on his face that she couldn't decipher. New frustration surged. Here she was, in her husband's arms, yet there was this barrier between them, compelling her to guess at what he was feeling. It was just so wrong.

In sudden desperation, she palmed his cheeks and brought his forehead to hers for a spark of real connection. It didn't come easily– forcing through the dense psychic barricade was hard work and they were both exhausted– and at first Rose found only the equivalent of a weak radio signal, all static. With effort, she kept at it, finally catching a single clear chord of his emotions. It was in a throat-aching D-minor.

The Doctor jerked his head up, astonishment in his eyes. "Rose?"

Her brows drew. Grief, that was what she'd felt from him. A dark, grey, nearly-void-of-hope sort of grief that didn't fit their situation at all. Like her absence in his mind had begun to convince him that she was absent, entirely.

"Did you suspect you were hallucinating me? Or all of this?" she whispered, and the way his eyes shifted guiltily away confirmed it.

"Hey, look at me, I'm right here," she told him fiercely, determined to bolster the truth of it in his brain, and held a cuffed wrist up in front of his hopeful, doubtful eyes. "It only feels like 'm not because of these, remember? I am not gone."

Eyes clearing a bit, he nodded.

"Doctor?" They both looked over to see Jack holding up both cables. "Donna? You ready?"

"Right," said the Doctor. Donna nodded resolutely.

Rose fisted the Doctor's coat, even though she knew if she didn't let him go and work they'd never get out of this dungeon.

"I'll do it," offered Lee, putting a hand up to stay the Doctor and taking the cables from Jack. "It's just a matter of touching the ends of the leads to her temples, right? That ought to be enough to file an imprint of her psyche with the Matrix database."

"Three seconds ought to do it," said the Doctor, undisguised gratitude in his voice as he kept firm hold of Rose. "Oh, and make sure she sits down first. It's going to knock her out."

Donna gave the damp, chilly, thickly fogged floor a disgusted look. "Brilliant," she muttered, lowering herself to sit against the pillar.

"Want me to hold you?" Jack asked her with a cheeky grin, and then it was Lee's turn to look disgusted.

After all the trouble they'd had, Rose was surprised when the actual procedure was both quick and successful. As the cables touched her temples Donna's eyes fluttered shut; she slumped to the side. At the ready, Jack scooped her into his arms, then looked abashed when he saw Lee scowling at him.

Rose and the Doctor watched Jack apologise and hand Donna off to the other man. "Is it nice to not be the only Time Lord, for once? To have somebody to help do your dirty work?" she asked into his ear.

"He's like my sous chef," quipped the Doctor tiredly, and though he didn't exactly smile a dimple appeared in his cheek. Rose kissed it.

"Time to go?" asked Jack. Lee came over too, carrying the unconscious Donna.

"Yes." The Doctor held out his wrist so his friends could pile their hands on the teleport band. "I know of somewhere nice and private and safe, where we can–"

"Shh." Lee gave the Doctor a warning look. "Don't say out loud where we're going. The Council might be listening."

"They can't be," Rose replied, aghast. "They'd have come after us by now, if they knew where we were."

Lee shook his head. "They wouldn't come down to the Matrix."

"And here I've been running my mouth," groaned the Doctor. "Stupid! I should have thought of that."

"It's these cuffs, distracting you," said Rose sympathetically. "We'll get them off, next thing."

"Might as well give up on everything else if we don't," sighed the Doctor.

The double doors flew open, and Rassilon barged into the Council Chambers. A stint in a Zero Room had him rejuvenated, his knee injury fully healed. "What did I miss?"

"Nothing, sir," said the General, running a hand over her close-cropped head. "As no final decisions can be made without you."

"I'm not talking about decisions, I want to know if you've captured the Doctor yet!"

"The vid-link to the Matrix has been restored," the General told him. "However, as predicted, the Doctor and his friends were gone. His teleport band went off grid, so we're assuming he's destroyed it. That said, we do have a few clues that indicate where we ought to look for him."

"Yes?" Rassilon gripped the back of his chair at the head of the table, but did not sit down.

"As you know, we overheard him saying he needs a chameleon arch, which are readily available on every TARDIS. His own TARDIS is so heavily guarded he won't go there, of course, but he'll have many other options in the Capitol's warehouses."

"Soldiers have been dispatched," said Gastron. "They'll be checking the newest models first, since they'll have the best equipment."

Rassilon nodded. "Don't forget the luxury models in the showrooms. He's bold like that. Always shows up where you'd least expect."

A snort came from down the table. Ohila wasn't even trying to hide her amusement. "You do not know the Doctor at all," she said, "if you think he cares about luxury."

After giving Ohila a daggered look, Rassilon turned to the General. "Now, our next item of business. I issue an order of execution for the Time Lord known as the Doctor, to be carried out immediately upon his capture."

"I'm sorry," the General replied. "But that can't happen. We haven't yet broadcast the vid of his claims that he's here to make his human friend into a Time Lord. Technical issues keep cropping up."

Rassilon looked outraged, then concerned. "Sabotage? Again?"

"Possibly."

"It's her." Rassilon drew a long breath. "I'm sure of it."

"Sir, she died in prison over a year ago," said Gastron. "We've all seen the official report."

Ohila smiled. "If she's dead, then what you've been calling sabotage is merely incompetence."

"If we're ever going to find out for certain, now's the time." The General tapped her chin thoughtfully. "She knows the Doctor better than any of us. She'll be the first to find him."

"You aren't allowed to let that happen!" bellowed Rassilon.

"If you say so, sir," sighed the General.

Gentle light, like sunrise filtered through thick drapes, drew Donna back to semi-awareness. Mmm, she couldn't remember the last time she'd felt so good, so warm, so safe, her body as limp and lazy as a cat's. It was almost like she was floating. Snuggling in, she tried to cling to sleep.

A low chuckle rumbled beneath her ear, startling her to full consciousness. Donna's eyes popped open to find a man smiling down at her, his nose mere inches from her own. A gasp escaped her, for which she was instantly embarrassed.

"Welcome back," said Lee, his smile widening, and oh. Oh god. He was carrying her. Cradling her in his arms like a bride– no, like a stupid sleeping kid, she modified fiercely.

"What happened?" she asked.

"It worked, you've been linked to the Matrix. You're very brave, Donna."

They were in a dim corridor, and her easy view of the ceiling showed most of the lights were off, maybe one in five glowing yellowly. She was glad it was dark, not just because of her headache, but also so he couldn't see how red her cheeks were. Or maybe he could. He was a Time Lord, after all, as superhuman as Spaceman. She needed to remember that. "Where are we?"

"Safe," he said quickly. "Out of the Matrix. No more monsters. We're in a subterranean level of the Citadel, actually. Though I'm not quite sure where the Doctor is taking us yet."

Donna glanced around. The corridors they'd traversed earlier in the day were all fresh white perfection, whereas the walls here were shadowed and dingy, dotted with an endless line of scratched metal doors.

Before she could ask any follow-up questions, she heard the Doctor's voice from somewhere up ahead. "It's this one." The sonic screwdriver trilled.

"Can I try to walk?" Donna asked Lee.

Nodding, he set her on her feet, keeping careful hold of her elbow when she wobbled a bit, head spinning. Donna squeezed her eyes shut. When she opened them, she saw the Doctor and Rose a few metres ahead, and he had the sonic's green light trained on a door. Jack silently watched the pair, his posture wary. So the Doctor was still in a fragile emotional state, then. He and Rose stood so close to each other that, in the shadowy darkness, they looked like a single, two-headed entity.

Jack spotted her and walked over. "You're awake!" he announced in a hushed voice.

At this, the Doctor glanced over and gave Donna a wan smile. He looked absolutely shattered. Like he was ill.

Light spilt into the corridor as the door cracked open. The Doctor and Rose disappeared through it, Jack and Donna and Lee quick to follow.

With all the doors in the hallway crowded so closely, Donna had expected another smallish room, maybe something like a medical office. But this place was massive, a proper warehouse. As in the corridor, only a few overhead lights were on, but they soared high above, illuminating neat rows of cylinders and sheds and capsules in every colour and size. There were even a few alien-looking trees scattered here and there.

"I used to spend a lot of time in here," said the Doctor wistfully. "It hasn't changed much."

"What is this place?" Donna asked, rubbing the back of her neck. This headache was rubbish but at least the dizziness had passed.

"It's a storage yard," said Lee.

"Yes," agreed the Doctor as he and Rose examined a battered white shed. "These are decommissioned TARDIS's."

"Really? All of them?"

"Yes."

"These can only be used to travel within the confines of Gallifrey," said Lee. "Which would be unwise, as we'd be noticed immediately."

"We just need to hide," replied Rose. "And we need a chameleon arch. And since it's standard safety equipment, any TARDIS will do." She rested her cheek against the Doctor's shoulder. "Right, love?"

"Right."

"So long as it's a cool one," Rose added, and Donna saw the Doctor actually crack a smile.

"Doctor?" Jack frowned, worried. "Any chance my being in here is going to cause a mass dematerialisation?"

"You're fine, they're all powered down." The Doctor patted what looked like an old wardrobe. "Comatose. We'll choose one, and when we wake her up you'll be in the control room, she'll know she can't shake you off or anything. Although, don't be surprised if she tries to provoke you into leaving at first."

"I'll watch my back," chuckled Jack, his great coat flaring as he strolled away. "This one's gorgeous," he called out, placing his hand on a TARDIS that resembled a tall, sleek black capsule. "It's taken on the appearance of the sort of transport pod that's common on Trappist in the forty-second century."

The Doctor made a non-committal sound. Then, "Oh, look, is that a phone box, Rose?"

"Yeah," said Rose, grinning. "Looks like the American sort though, from the eighties."

"I've always had good luck with phone boxes," he went on, his tired voice regaining a bit of energy. "Oh, and it's a Type 40!"

Jack poked his head out the door of the sleek black TARDIS. "Doc, hold on, this one's really nice, you should see the size of the control room–"

It was too late, the Doctor was already dragging Rose through the phone box's smudgy glass doors. Donna, Lee, and Jack looked at each other and shrugged.

The inside of the TARDIS was as dingy as the outside, its metal floors gritty with grime. Donna sighed but didn't comment on it, watching as the Doctor beelined for a threadbare jumpseat, collapsing onto it with Rose and closing his eyes.

Lee flicked a few switches on the console and pulled a lever. The Time Rotor, short and squat, surged to life and all the lights came on. Donna squinted in pain.

"Let's get those cuffs off Rose," Jack was saying to the Doctor. "What do you need from me?"

The Doctor gave Jack a long look, all gratitude. "I'm hoping to short them out with a jolt of electricity. Need to run an analysis of the cuffs first though."

"I'll find the diagnostic panel. There should be a set of wires to link to, right?"

The Doctor nodded and Jack moved, circling the console. As his fingers made contact with a little drawer pull, there was a sharp crack of energy. "Ow!" he yelped, jerking his hand back and examining it.

"I think she just slapped your hand away, Jack," giggled Rose. "You should be used to that."

"As if." Jack flashed Rose a grin as he hovered a hand over the drawer, speaking to the TARDIS in a way that was more flirtatious than wheedling.

Plopping down beside Rose, Donna rested her head against the jumpseat's back. Whatever they'd done to her in the Matrix seemed to be promising a migraine.

"I am worried about how big a jolt we might need," she overheard the Doctor saying to Rose. "The cuffs should absorb the shock but they might get really hot."

"If I get burnt, I'll heal," Rose replied. "It's alright."

Stupid thing to say, thought Donna as she massaged her aching temples, and was not surprised when the Doctor's response came with the speed and heat of a missile.

"I will find the soldier who put those on you and torture the code out of him before I let you be hurt!"

Donna forced herself to sit straight and look at them. "You can save the torture, Spaceman, I'll go and check the galley," she offered. "You know," she explained to the Doctor's blank look, "to find something you could layer under those bracelets to protect Rose's skin, stuff with heat repellent properties, like a silicone baking pan. Or maybe even a roll of aluminium-inium-inium-inium–"

The Doctor was on his feet in a flash, grasping her chin. "How long's it been?"

Donna stared up at him, unable to understand his question. Everything was muffled, like she was underwater. Letting go of her face, the Doctor rummaged in his pockets. She felt a pinch in her bicep, and gasped.

Within moments, her hearing cleared and her headache began to dissipate. "What?" she started to ask, right as a flash of understanding came. "Oh."

"I'm sorry, Donna." The Doctor's deep-set eyes were full of contrition. "I forgot you were overdue for another dose of neuroinhibitor."

She snuck a glance at Lee. He stood on the opposite side of the console, watching her with a grave expression.

Stop it, Donna wanted to shout. Soon, she wouldn't need a stasis pod or injected neuroinhibitors anymore. Soon, she'd be an alien. Just like him, more or less, and absolutely fine.

Probably, the Doctor would say.

Fear spiked in her stomach. What if Lee's worry wasn't about her health, what if he was putting the pieces together, recalling warning bells as he saw her with new eyes, a human well on her way to becoming a Hybrid? Was he thinking of the prophecy right now?

Needing to escape his scrutiny, Donna took off for the nearest corridor. Galley, she thought loudly, hoping the sentient ship would help her find it.

Footsteps thumped behind her, quickly catching up. "You okay?" Lee asked, a bit breathless.

"Yeah, I'm just–" She thumbed awkwardly. "Looking for a kitchen. To find stuff to protect Rose's skin."

Lee gazed at her levelly. "Donna."

"What?"

"It's okay to be scared." His big hand found her elbow. "It's a big deal, changing species. You don't have to do it."

"Yeah, well, it'll be for the best. Besides, I make a really useless human."

Indignation flashed in his eyes. "I highly doubt that."

Donna pretended nonchalance. "The Doctor's really talked it up, you know, being a Time Lord. I'll be stronger, have more stamina. Lots of new senses. I'll even stop ageing, mostly." She went quiet, not as keen on that bit. She did not want to outlive her daughter.

"How do you feel about regeneration?"

"I don't plan on dying, so."

Lee smiled, then laughed as Donna's stomach growled audibly. God, she was starving.

"Think there's food in the kitchen?" she asked, thrilled to change the subject.

"If there is, it's been there for decades," he replied with a grimace. "But there are food storage areas on another sublevel. Not too far away."

Returning to the control room, they found Rose standing at the console, coiled yellow wires linked to her cuffs. One of her hands was laid over the nape of the Doctor's neck while he stared into the monitor and scrupulously adjusted dials. "No," he said shortly, once Lee had mentioned the intent to find food. "Not safe."

"Come on, Doc." Jack's head poked from a hole in the floor. "We don't need their help right now."

"I didn't say I needed their help. I said it's not safe."

"I'm hungry too, Doctor," said Rose, giving his neck a placating rub. Donna nearly laughed at how the set of his mouth went from stubborn to soft in an instant. "If they go out, can't they use those perception filters you made?"

"Right. Forgot about those. Thought we'd be doing a lot more sneaking around." He dug in his pocket, pulling out two keys on strings, and handed them to Lee and Donna. "Be careful," he said, his eyes on Lee's. "These won't work at all on high level Time Lords. You cannot let yourselves be caught."

"We won't."

In the dim corridor, Donna watched Lee pause for a moment, his eyes taking on the far-away look she'd often seen the Doctor wear when orienting himself. Then Lee strode off, leading her into and up a stairwell.

"I sure hope he's got those blinking cuffs off her by the time we get back," said Donna as they reached the desired level. "I thought those two were overly dependent on each other when they were in each other's heads all the time, but this is way worse."

"Overly dependent?" Lee led her down the corridor, peering back at intervals like a cat on high alert. "You see a psychic bond as a bad thing, then?"

"Oh, I don't know. They seem to enjoy it. To be honest, sometimes I envy them. They're so close."

"Marital links are intense. Or so I hear." Lee cleared his throat. "I can't speak from firsthand experience. Around here, psychic bonding is viewed as impractical."

"Really?"

"Yes." He glanced at her. "I don't agree, though. My parents were a bonded pair, and they were like a single, powerful entity. Seemed like there wasn't an obstacle they couldn't overcome when they tackled it together."

"Are they scientists, like you?"

"My father was. My mother was a soldier."

"Was?"

"They died. In the War. My mother was killed in battle, but since they were soul-bonded, my father went not long after her."

"I'm so sorry." Donna fell silent for a minute. "Can I ask, what's a soul-bond?"

"It's marriage with complete psychic enmeshment. Even at a distance a couple can feel each other's feelings, communicate telepathically. Their timelines become entwined to the point that they end at the same time. They can't live without one another, and wouldn't want to."

"I'll bet that's what the Doctor and Rose have," mused Donna, dragging a finger along a wall. "We humans feel lucky when our mate is patient enough just to listen when we talk about our thoughts and feelings."

"And if you're not lucky?"

She snorted. "You learn to keep it all to yourself."

"Most Time Lords aren't any better, really." Lee side-eyed her as they walked. "Do you know, by chance…how did the Doctor end up marrying a human? And just so we're clear, I don't ask because I'm judging him for it. It's a bold move. I'm impressed."

"And curious?" She grinned.

"Very."

"Well, I overheard him telling your idiot President that Rose is no ordinary human, and that's why he married her."

"Is that true?"

"Well, yes and no. He was trying to scare them. I mean, she does have this special healing ability or something, and she doesn't age. However…" Donna paused, and was careful not to look at Lee. "I'm pretty sure she was just an ordinary human when he fell for her."

"It's easy to see they are very much in love."

"Yeah."

When Lee stopped abruptly, Donna's heart skipped. Was he about to say something important to her? But all he did was touch a door. "Let's check in here."

It was another huge space, this time with rows of shelves like a supermarket, full of boxes and jars and cans. "How'd you find this place so easily?" she wondered aloud. "Don't tell me Time Lords have x-ray vision or something."

Lee chuckled. "Of course not. I could smell bread."

"Oh." Donna laughed too as they wandered down one of the aisles. The packages were plain by earth standards, lacking the fun fonts and colourful pictures Donna was used to. It was hard to know what she was looking at, especially since everything was labelled in Gallifreyan.

A small box rattled as Lee grabbed it, like it was full of dried pasta. "You okay with tafelshrew stew?"

"Sure," said Donna, not bothering to ask what a tafelshrew was. She'd decided long ago that when it came to eating meals on alien planets, ignorance was bliss. "Is there any fresher food around here? Or is it all the 'just add water' sort of dehydrated stuff?"

"Fresh food to cut up and combine and cook, you mean?" He looked wistful. "I remember doing that with you."

"Time Lords don't cook?"

"Well, not recreationally. A lot of our food is like this," he replied, handing her a couple more boxes of stew. "Efficient to prepare, and it meets our nutritional needs. Oh, you'll like this, though," he added as something down the aisle caught his eye. He went over, grabbing a clear bag containing what looked like a loaf of soft, pull-apart bread. "Sweetbread."

"Mmm," said Donna, inhaling its rich, honeyed scent. "But still, the Time Lords are missing out."

"Yes. I believe they've rejected the best things in life, and they don't even know it."

They turned around, heading back. "Sounds like you're talking about more than food," said Donna casually.

She gasped as Lee grabbed her wrist, stopping her in her tracks. "Donna," he said, and the blaze in his eyes took her breath away. "When I ran away from the Time War, I knew I was escaping something horrible. But I had no clue I was heading toward something so good. You. We had a life."

Donna gazed up at him, her heart pounding.

"Are you going to stay here," Lee asked, "once you've been changed into one of us?"

"God, no."

"Didn't think so. Okay. So, I'm sorry to be so forward," he rushed out, "but this may be my only chance to say this. Our time together on the Library, that was the happiest time of my life. And now…here you are, all fire and passion and kindness, every bit the Donna I remember. I can't let you go again. Is there any way we can make this work?"

Her eyes stung, and she blinked rapidly. "Lee, I love hearing you want that, but…" Donna shook her head. "I lost my memories of all my travels, after the accident. I've only had them back a few months. So this thing, with you…it's different for me."

"You didn't think of me." His voice was flat.

"Not didn't. Couldn't. Ever since I've had my memories back my life has been so crazy…I mean, it's not like I haven't thought of you, of our time together. But it felt like a dream."

Lee rattled the food boxes in his hands, obviously embarrassed. "Right. Of course."

"I'm not saying no." Donna touched his arm. "It's just, I'm trying to wrap my mind around all of this. I'm about to go through this huge change in my biology and people are trying to kill us and you're here…but I remember how I felt, after we were released from the computer, when I couldn't find you. I was devastated." A knot rose in her throat. "I just need a little time."

"Do we have a little time?"

Donna bit her lip, though she understood the frustration in his tone.

"You know we don't. You aren't going to stay. And I can't visit you. I'm trapped here, at the end of everything."

God, she felt helpless. Standing here so stupid and silent, breaking his heart(s).

Her own heart broke at his whispered plea. "Maybe you can come back?"

"Maybe," she echoed, knowing it was a lie. The Doctor would never let her return. Not if she might become the Hybrid.

Fierce determination suddenly tightened Lee's expression, an unexpected light in the dark. "We squeezed several happy years into a few hours, once."

Warmth flooded Donna's being. "I think I fell for you within minutes."

"Me too," he said, boxes of stew thudding onto the floor as he took her in his arms and kissed her.

The first time the Doctor lost Rose, after the ghosts that weren't ghosts had been swallowed by the void, he used to see her everywhere. Not just reminders of her, flashes of vivid memory, but her: sipping tea with him in the mornings, or standing hip-to-hip with him at the console, her laugh ringing out, her body warm. As real as anything.

Except, of course, she wasn't real. And his stupid, ever-rational mind always knew it, no matter how much he longed to succumb to happy madness.

He couldn't remember the events that had led to losing her this time. But that mattered little, because the truth throbbed deep in his skull, the white-hot wound of their severed psychic bond. So what if he could see her, hear her, touch her? He knew that once he successfully shattered the cuffs she was wearing, the vision of her would shatter too.

So why was he working so hard at it, again?

"Focus, Doctor." Rose's gentle voice floated in from behind him. "You can do this."

Right. Because she kept telling him to.

A despondent sigh escaped the Doctor as he stared at the analysis he'd run of the cuffs, still displayed on the flickering old monitor. The bloody things were near indestructible, though he'd earnestly willed them not to be. How frustrating. As the creator of this fiction, ought he not get some say in how the story went?

The vision of her poked him hard between the shoulder blades.

"You're not hallucinating," Rose told him, like she'd read his mind, which she wasn't supposed to be able to do– ha, plothole. The Doctor couldn't help a tiny scoff.

"Is he getting worse?" he heard Jack's voice asking. Blimey. Even in his own made-up reality everyone gangs up on him.

"Yeah. Can't hardly get him to look at me."

In his peripheral vision, he saw Jack's head pop out of the hole in the floor. "Have you tried snogging him?"

The Doctor perked up. Plot twist.

"Jack, I want to convince him this isn't a fantasy."

A laugh from Jack, and then…nothing. The Doctor began to hope the man had vanished. That any second now, Rose would get in his personal space, and she'd grab him by the collar, and–

A metallic rattle came from the floor and disappointment hit. Jack was climbing out of the hole. "Let me try something."

The next instant, two whip-strong, male arms wrapped the Doctor up from behind and squeezed.

"What the–" he gasped, hurling Jack off as a pang of nausea turned his stomach. "Oi!"

The other man caught himself against the jumpseat, and as he straightened he grinned at the Doctor. "Made your Time Lord senses go all wonky, didn't I?"

The Doctor glared at him.

Jack folded his arms, smug. "Could a hallucination do that?"

The question took him aback, made him frown, made him think. Hope ignited like a lit flare, and the Doctor almost tripped over himself in his haste to turn to Rose. "It couldn't," he told her breathlessly. "It couldn't."

"Yeah, just told ya that," she replied with a teasing eye roll, but she looked so pale and tired that he felt horribly guilty.

"I'm sorry, Rose, I don't know why I believed–"

"Because us touching, physically, it's not helping anymore." The glassy bands on her wrists gleamed as Rose rubbed her temples, obviously in as much pain as he was. "But it's alright."

'Alright?' mocked the Doctor without meaning to, and her eyes flashed.

"It is. Cos any minute now, you're gonna figure out a way to wreck these bloody cuffs. And then, be ready, cos I'm gonna come barging back in here," Rose reached up, denting his temple hard with her finger, fixing him in a gaze that was suddenly, startlingly wicked. "An' there'll be some massive pyrotechnics, sort of like when we first met at Henriks." Her lips found his ear. "But this time it'll be your mind that's blown."

"Hey, no whispering!" yelled Jack.

Heat and motivation surging through him, the Doctor gazed into Rose's glittering eyes and swallowed hard. Words failed him but he managed a nod.

She smiled like his reaction pleased her and then clapped her hands once. "Time to be brilliant, yeah?"

The Doctor nodded again but before he could produce a single thought, Lee and Donna came through the smudgy glass doors of the TARDIS. Immediately assessing the scene, Lee handed the small white boxes he was carrying to Donna and hurried over. "You can't generate enough electrical power to short out the cuffs."

"No," said the Doctor, grateful his fellow Time Lord had deduced the truth without asking stupid questions. "Jack and I ran an analysis of the things. It'll take a jolt of at least 3.81 gigawatts in order to breach their power core."

"Enough to send me back to the future," said Rose to Donna with a half grin.

The Doctor shook his head at his wife, though in actuality he was amazed by her. She was handling this so much better than he was. "Rose Tyler, how many times are you going to make that joke?"

"I don't get it," said Lee, and Donna patted him.

"Point is," said Jack, "hitting Rose's cuffs with that much electricity would be like hitting her with a lightning strike."

"Which I am adamantly opposed to," said the Doctor, wagging a finger at Rose. "So, moving on. Need a better idea. I could create a micro nuclear fission event, but I'm fresh out of uranium and I already destroyed the teleport band. So now what?" He hit himself on the forehead with the heel of a hand. "Stupid."

"Take a break," suggested Donna. "Maybe your blood sugar is low. If you've noticed, Lee and I made it back, we've not been taken captive or killed, glad to see you were so worried. And, side note, we've brought dinner."

"Time Lords do not succumb to blood sugar issues," the Doctor reminded her curtly. "And I'm not doing anything until Rose's cuffs are off."

Donna heaved a heavy sigh. "You're such a dumbo. A dumbo from the planet of the dumbos." She turned to Lee. "I'm sorry, but how stupid are your people, creating unbreakable psychic handcuffs with no flipping bypass? What if somebody forgets the code?"

A reluctant look crept over Lee's face. "Actually," he said, "there is an override. I didn't mention it because it's quite extreme. It's dangerous, even for Time Lords, and the Doctor's wife is human. I mean, if her body can't even handle a lightning strike then there's no way–"

"What's the override?" demanded the Doctor, ready to grab the other man by his white lab suit and shake him. "What is it?!"

Lee looked at him, startled. "A short blast of regeneration energy, applied directly to the isolator cuffs. That's what I've heard, anyway. A short, strong blast. More than one Time Lord can produce."

It was joy now, thumping away in his hearts. "Will you help me do it? Please?"

"It wasn't a suggestion," said Lee, wide-eyed. "It will kill her."

"Nah," said Rose, already tearful as the Doctor wrapped her up in an exultant hug. "I reckon I'll be fine."

"I've shared my regeneration energy with Rose before," the Doctor told Lee, praying blunt honesty might convince him faster. "Loads of times. How or why doesn't matter, but I'd be a fool to lie to you about it. Rose's body isn't quite human, and she will be fine. Please. Help me."

Lee's mouth opened, but 'yes' did not come fast enough for the Doctor.

"Please. I know it means giving up years of life, but think of how you might feel if it was your bondmate, psychically cut off from you? It's so wrong–"

"If you're convinced it won't hurt her, then of course I'll help you," Lee interrupted, waving a hand. "Anything for the man who can help Donna."

Jack barked out a laugh. "Sounds like the food shopping went well."

"Yep," said Donna cheekily.

"Break my heart, why don't ya?"

The cuff on Rose's right wrist felt granite-hard as the Doctor wrapped both hands around it. "Please," he begged Lee. "Hurry."

Putting his own hands around Rose's left wrist, Lee began counting down. "Three, two, one…"

Regeneration energy awoke in the Doctor's body, searing through his veins toward his fingers. Like firelight, the warm glow of his hands and Lee's illuminated Rose's skin and hair, and soon surfaced in her eyes. On seeing her gold-ringed irises, Lee gasped.

"That's enough," said the Doctor, and they let go.

Lifting one of Rose's wrists up to his eyes, the Doctor held his breath. Nothing, nothing. Wait. Something. Yes, in the core of the cuff, something. A thin black curl of smoke.

The smoke began to dirty the glass, simultaneously darkening the edges of his vision. Everything vanished as he turned inside out, his internal reality supplanting the external one. His hands went up, palms pressing against a thick cold barrier, pressed until it exploded, shattering into shards of glittering rain. It swirled and fell, until nothing was left but the wounds it inflicted.

The Doctor's mind rippled, the only real warning he got before Rose plunged into it like a stone in a pool. There were no fireworks, no explosions at all, despite her heady promises. Rather, her grand entrance was quite sleek and wet, not that he was complaining, not when he felt her mind merging with his as easily as water, a gush from a broken dam. Drowning him in love till he could hardly catch his breath.

Eventually, reality returned, a hand slid against his jaw, and that was wet too. Rose's hand, his tears. His arms had wrapped themselves around her, bone-crackingly tight, and he was clutching great handfuls of her tee-shirt. Trying to merge their physical forms too, apparently.

The realisation made the Doctor laugh. Rose also laughed, but at him. Later, she teased, rather scorchingly.

Pyrotechnics? he shot back, and grinned at her. Her dark eyes gleamed, her face as wet as his own.

Rose's focus shifted, and he could feel her revelling in her restored connections with their girls. "They're still asleep," she declared, her relief immense.

"They never even missed you." The Doctor slowly swiped a thumb down the apple of her cheek, across her bottom lip. "Unlike, well. Me."

Their eyes locked, their link sparked and flared, a lit fuse racing to a string of firecrackers. The Doctor briefly wondered which of them started it, whose fault it was, (was Jack still hovering around?), but it hardly mattered. His mouth was already on Rose's, and neither of them was stopping it.