We were on the planet Crex. The market on its surface was one that seemed to stretch from one horizon to the next.

The skyline was full of brightly coloured awnings over market stalls.

Here and there you could find market stalls full of Crex's exotic fruits that helped guest's stay cool in the recent heat of the planet.

I was looking through an interesting trinket store that had a miscellaneous inventory of items from across the galaxies. My sister whispered the names corresponding to each item, telling me the stories behind their songs.

I went to check out having found a pretty crystal bracelet I thought my mum would like and an electronic spanner device that I thought Mickey would like to fiddle with before using it on his own electronics.

I offered my trade of Earth trinkets of equal value. Equal value was told by the amount of interest a seller had for the prospect trade items and the guarantee that the items were the same category as the things wanted.

Example of this was when I had a bottle cap opener in the shape of a skeleton key from a theme park I'd been to, since it was a tool it qualified for the trade. My other item was a tribal necklace I'd received in my Earth travels, which was the perfect trade for the bracelet, both being jewellery.

The shopkeeper seemed thrilled by my trade.

I tried not to falter as the alien woman took a lungful of air as if breathing me in.

"You smell delicious."

I quickly took my items and hurried across the shopping centre to where the Doctor stood.

"I have a bad feeling. We need to leave."

"Ah we just got here."

"Listen to me Doctor…" I metered off as I saw an eerie grin on the same shopkeeper's face standing several paces back from us. She was joined by another alien who whispered to her before sniffing the air.

A Mind Palace door vibrated in my mind and I looked behind it.

"Oh sh…"

'Language,' my sister spoke in my mind.

I pulled the Doctor from the market stall and started to walk a brisk pace toward Martha who was closer to the TARDIS.

"Don't turn, just run to the TARDIS." I whisper shouted at her back.

I glanced behind to see the aliens pulling out blasters, took the Doctor's hand and began to run.

We ran toward the TARDIS ducking when we heard the sound of the blaster.

"Sexy!"

Her doors flew open as we ran through them, ducking as another blast discharged above our heads.

"What are they, Rose?"

"They call themselves the Family, they take hosts living off their life energy before going to the next. They are telepathic, their main form is green and gaseous. They can sniff out their prey. Similar to the Aubertides in culture you've faced before."

The Doctor's eyes widened before turning toward Martha, "Did they see you?"

"I don't know."

"If anything they saw her back they seemed more focused on us two."

The Doctor ran to the console, "Off we go."

We entered the vortex and an alert sounded, the Doctor shouted. "They are following us!"

"How?" Martha looked at the Doctor who was in a flurry of activity.

"They must have a vortex manipulator which means…"

The Doctor continued the thought, "They can follow us wherever we go."

I looked away and closed my eyes accessing my Time gift checking for what could be changed without major repercussions.

It was dangerous. If the Family gained access to me it could be worse off then the Doctor. They would absorb all my memories, everything that I was and could very well have access to Time itself if I wasn't careful. In every timeline that he didn't go to 1913 the Family found him and it was the end to everything. He would always regret going to Earth in the timelines he did but it was a fixed moment, a fixed moment that should not change.

I would have to bide my time in the TARDIS, my bond with her would keep me hidden from their sensors, while the two of them were out in the open.

I would have to be careful when I played my cards.

"I'll have to do it." The Doctor looked at the console, his hands running through his hair before he turned to Martha, "Do you trust me Martha?"

"Yes."

"Good 'cause it all depends on you. Rose will have to stay in the TARDIS, it will be up to you."

I walked around the console as the Doctor explained the importance of the fob watch to Martha.

"This watch, Martha, this watch is me."

Two nearly three months passed in the TARDIS, and it wasn't as boring as Mickey told me. Of course during his stay, during the time the Doctor and I were in Versailles, he couldn't hear my sister's voice or be able to read all the languages in the library thanks to her. There was the swimming pool, in-house spa, beach, gymnasium, artefact museum, art gallery and so many other places to explore.

Once a week Martha would visit too.

One such time she looked at me where I sat below the console next to Sexy's heart.

"I know you couldn't go with me because they saw you." Martha sat down beside me, "But why did I feel like it was more than that?"

"The Family can sniff out non-humans."

Martha looked at me wide eyed, "You told me you were born in London."

"I was but I'm also not a normal human. I'm a Starling."

"How long have you been…?" She gestured.

"A Starling is not born but rather made." I pulled my knees up and prepared myself to tell something to Martha I'd never told the Doctor, "You'll learn that time is not linear, but is very much timey wimey wibbly wobbly but what the Doctor won't tell you is that there are different timelines in each universe. Each fixed point's decisions split into alternate timelines, so in this universe there's been thousands of Rose Tylers that have lived and died. When the Rose Tyler was born in this timeline it was decided that she also became a Starling."

"By who?"

I smiled, "I'm afraid that's something I can only tell the Doctor one day." I looked over at Martha, "I am a Starling and Rose Tyler, both are part of my identity. However, I'll be different from all the others because I'll be able to live a lifetime comparable to that of the Doctor's."

I stood and climbed the ladder to the console room hearing Martha follow after me, "Just like it would be dangerous for the Family to get a Time Lord it would be worse if they gained a Starling." I went up to Sexy's console, "On the upside though that means Sexy is not alone and neither are you."

The three months were nearly up when Martha came to visit a furrow in her brow.

"Hello Sexy." A giggle not escaping her this time, like the first couple of times she'd greeted the TARDIS like so.

I came into the console room to see her looking up at the chameleon arch with a sad look in her eyes.

By the time I reached her side she was rewatching the instructions the Doctor had left us.

"Did something happen?"

She nodded, "Green meteor fell."

"So they are coming at last. Still we have to wait for them to show their hand before we can act." I watched her fast-forwarding through the instructions, "How is he?"

"He's…falling in love."

"Oh." It wasn't as if I hadn't seen it coming and yet it still ached inside. "I suppose its expected, its him after all. He can't help himself."

Martha looked at me with a searching gaze, "I've always wondered are you and him…"

I let out a long sigh before leaning back on the console looking up at the ceiling, my eyes wandering to the headset-like chameleon arch.

"Sometimes I feel like there's something there. Something more than a bond but…" There were always those stolen moments where our lips would meet, his arms would wrap so tightly around me that I thought 'maybe'.

"He's so frustrating." I ran my fingers through my short hair, "The thing you have to know about the Doctor is he loves easily. Double the hearts, double the love he can feel but…he doesn't allow himself to fall-in-love. He pushes the idea away because he's terrified. He's so scared of losing those that he cares for over and over again."

I looked at Martha to see her eyes had grown just as misty as mine.

She placed a hand on my shoulder, "But he's not going to lose you like the others."

A small laugh escaped me, "No but he won't believe that until he sees it and I'm afraid that will take ages."

The next time I saw Martha she looked angry, staring at the Doctor's face on the console's screen as if she could bore a hole through him.

"You are right, he couldn't help it." Tears fell down Martha's face, "She's a blonde too. Do Time Lords have a type?"

Now that I thought about it the Master seemed to have a thing for blondes too.

I let out a humourless chuckle, "Maybe they do."

We both let out a long sigh before eyeing each other almost warily.

I spoke into the silence, "The plan remains the same, we wait out the Family."

Not even a couple hours passed before I heard Martha from where I was sitting in the library reading up on similar aliens to the ones we faced. The information wasn't reassuring.

"They know who we are."

I called from the hallway, "His sonic is below the console."

I spoke to my sister, 'Give her a special one will you?'

Martha made an 'aha' when she received the sonic.

"I'm afraid I can't come until the very last moment."

I was dressed and ready for action; white blouse, trousers and high boots.

My sister sang in my head and I felt as the TARDIS was moved to a new location.

It was almost time.

It didn't take long for the Family to move the TARDIS with the help of their scarecrow soldiers.

When the 'soldiers' surrounded the box and the Family went to their ship,

I opened the door and switched my sonic to its heat setting.

Stepping out I set the scarecrows ablaze clearing my path to find the Doctor's human form John Smith.

I followed his song, it was a softer almost piano melody but still his.

Blasts from the Family's weaponry littered the countryside but they were easy to dodge if you watched their trajectory.

I followed the soft melody to a farmhouse with no lights in its windows. Everything quiet except for the blasts coming from the Family.

"It's you." I looked to see Martha and a young boy sitting outside. The boy spoke up again, "The Bad Wolf."

"Hello Tim, is it?"

He nodded and I smiled.

"You can stop them can't you?"

I nodded before heading into the country house to see a blonde woman and John Smith holding the fob watch between them, tears pooling their eyes.

I licked my lips, about to speak up when the woman looked up and gasped seeing me in the doorway. A journal was open in her lap, she looked down at it flipping to a page before looking back up.

"She's you. You are real."

I neared and I could see the page filled with my face over and over with question marks and flurried handwriting.

The pain flushing across her face was an echo of mine when I'd seen the two of them together.

"I'll go." I looked at John Smith.

His gaze looked horrified when he saw me in the low light of the full moon, as if I were some monster that haunted him from his dreams.

I swallowed and almost felt it hard to breath seeing such a look, I felt as if it would tear me to pieces.

He'd just seen the possibility of a human life lived by the side of his love. Marriage, children and death; everything he secretly craved for.

I loved him. I couldn't believe it took me this long to realise how much I desperately loved him and not just as a friend or travel companion.

"I want you to be happy, so I'll go."

I stared at John Smith memorising his features, "Run boy run. Take your love with you. This is a battle you don't have to fight. I'll take care it all. Just promise me, John Smith, to be happy."

He only stared as I left him behind.

My tears didn't fall until I'd left the room, quiet steps signalling that the blonde woman had followed.

"You love him."

"Yes." I turned, "I love every part of that man. The coward, the hero, the Doctor and the human." I felt my lips tremble, "I won't allow his heart to break again, not if I can help it."

"Even if it breaks yours?" She clutched the journal to her chest.

"He's worth all of it."

A choked sob escaped me before I turned away.

I appeared inside the glowing green ship and faced the Family, "Shall we have a chat?"

"The woman who smells of starlight. We thought you'd run away." The Mother of Mine spoke from the centre of the Family.

I gave a self-deprecating smile, "I was only hiding."

Time would have to be re-written for I wouldn't let it hurt my Doctor again.