"Doctor?"

"Rose, what are you doing up?" The Doctor pulled himself from under the consol and looked at his bedraggled companion. It had been two long weeks since the battle at Canary Wharf and Rose was just beginning to sleep most of the night on her own. Between the nightmares that plagued both of them and the Doctor's lingering fear of losing her, neither of them were able to fall asleep without the other. But if he needed to leave during the night, she usually remained asleep and nightmare free for the most part, though he didn't tell her that he had her on a monitor in whatever room in the TARDIS he happened to be in. He glanced up at his ship curiously. She always let him know when Rose was having a nightmare.

His thoughts drifted back to the battle that had very nearly cost him Rose.

"Once the breach collapses, that's IT. You will never be able to see her again. Your own mother!"

"I made my choice a long time ago, and I'm never gonna leave you. So what can I do to help?"

He stared at her, his Rose, his brilliant, infuriating, frustratingly wonderful Rose, for all of 30 seconds before nodding at a set of computers.

"Those co-ordinates over there, set them all at six. And hurry up."

Once the computers were up and the magna clamps in place, the winds were unbearable. Cybermen and Daleks streamed into the void and the Doctor very nearly cheered. But the universe was never kind; he should have known that after nearly 1000 years. And never to him. He watched in horror as a Dalek slammed into the lever nearest to Rose. It sparked and began to creak downward as the computer announced,

"Computer offline."

Rose struggled to reach the lever and pull it upright and when she slipped completely, the Doctor's hearts dropped to his feet.

"Online and locked."

Hanging on to just the lever now, she struggled against the void.

"Rose, hang on. DON'T LET GO! HANG ON!"

He watched her fight, watched her lose, watched her fingers slip from the only thing holding her to this world. Her terrified eyes meeting his as she was pulled back through the air to the void. He briefly considered letting go of his own clamp and letting the universe go to hell when the computer's voice chirped again.

"System closed."

She hit the wall with a sickening thud, the sound echoing in the silence that always seemed to follow a brush with the end of the world. He was frozen for a handful of heart beats before dropping to the ground and running to her. She was limp in his arms.

"Rose! Rose, Wake up!"

It was useless, he knew even as he said it, his senses registered that she wasn't breathing, that her heart had stopped. The Beast's predication had come true. The Valiant Child had died in battle and it was his fault. It was always his fault.

He shook his head. No, Rose was no child and he certainly wasn't about to lose her when she gave up her family for him, however undeserving he was.

Reaching for his sonic, he aimed a pulse at her chest. A moment passed, and Rose gasped. His breath left in a whoosh and he rushed them to the TARDIS.

Bringing himself back to the present, he waited for Rose to answer. Rather than perch on the jump seat, as was her habit, she plopped on the grating next to him.

"What'er you working on?"

He held up a tangle of mismatched wires that were once attached to a battered box. "Temporal stabilizer. You know how sometimes our landings aren't exactly right?" Her eyebrow shot up and he ignored it. "Well, this is one of the reasons things go a little off."

"One of the reasons? The other being you can't drive?"

"Oi! I'd like to see you pilot a sentient time ship designed for six pilots by yourself. Anyway, sometimes she likes to change direction." He shrugged. "She's cheeky, like the other woman on board." The Doctor studied Rose's face. She was pale and just slightly glassy eyed – not enough for her to be coming down with an illness, but enough to have him wondering just how long she stayed asleep after he got up to tinker with the TARDIS.

"And you never answered my question. Nightmares?"

Rose still didn't respond, but he didn't push, he knew if he gave her enough time she would tell him. Instead, she studied the box in his hands for a moment before figuring out what needed to be done to the tangle of wires and reached for them, depositing them in her own lap and carefully prying apart where two different colored wires were fused together. Without a word, he adjusted the sonic and handed it over.

Three wires later, she shuddered and looked up, tears glistening but not falling.

"It's the same dream, over and over, but it's not what you'd think. It's not that I left Mum; it's that I stayed there with her. I didn't try and come back and you tried to seal the breach alone but it didn't work. It didn't stay closed. And then we found out why. They took you. The Cybermen took you and converted you. You were one of them and you opened the breach and came through." Rose choked back a sob. "You failed and it was because I left you and didn't try to come back. I always wake up when you reach for me and your hand is one of those saws." The last few words left her in a rush.

The Doctor ignored the box and wires, tugging Rose onto his lap, rocking her and stroking her hair. She'd been so careful not to cry around him when she was awake. Now, he soothed her and let her weep.

"Oh, Rose, I'm here and I'm not going anywhere. And neither are you, my stubbornly wonderful human. I still don't understand why you gave up your family for me but I –"

"Doctor, stop. Mum had a chance to make it work with Pete and I don't know if she would have taken it if I was there. He made it pretty clear that I was her daughter, not his and you know how she gets. She didn't deserve to just be at the flat, waiting for me to come home. And I told you I was never gonna leave you, that I was gonna stay forever. Now, I'm not so young as to think it's really gonna be forever, but as long as you need me, I'm stayin'. You do so much, for so many, you need someone to tell you how amazing you are when no one else will."

"Not so amazing if I couldn't figure out a way for you to have your Mum."

She hiccupped a bit as she looked up at him. "Choices, Doctor. Isn't that why you love to follow us humans around? To see the choices we'll make? Well, I chose you."

He couldn't think of anything to say, just held Rose tighter and murmured nonsense in her hair while he waited for her tears to subside. The moment he felt sniffles, he tilted her head up and smiled.

"Better?"

Swiping at her cheeks, Rose grinned. "Yeah, think I needed that."

"You can cry, Rose, I won't think less of you. I don't know how you're holding up at all after these last two weeks with everything that's happened. You've been amazing. Fantastic, really." He didn't mention the number of times he'd broken down while she'd been unconscious in the infirmary, how often the TARDIS had to push him just to eat or drink until she opened her eyes.

"It's 'cause I had you. " She yawned.

"Back to bed for you. I was thinking we venture out again tomorrow, well, later today, really. Whadda you say?"

"Perfect."

Rising to her feet, Rose offered her hands to the Doctor and pulled him up as well. He paused to gather his project before following Rose down the corridor. The door was open and the Doctor couldn't help but take in all the changes to the room over the past year and half of travel. Oh, there was still an over abundance of pink, but it wasn't the garish bright pink from her bedroom at the Estate. The walls were now a pale grey, edged in pink and the duvet remained pink, though a more subtle shade than the old fuchsia. It was also still a mess, but added to the scatter of clothes and shoes were bits of the TARDIS, gadgets, a spare sonic screwdriver and a few things even the Doctor couldn't identify without picking them up and examining them. It was a testament to how much time he now spent in her room. It was getting crowded.

"I think I need a bigger room, Doctor, your stuff is starting to take over," Rose giggled, tossing a book on Quantum Theory as it pertained to the Fourth Dimension in Relation to Black Holes Gravitational Force onto the pile of her own reading next to the bed and unconsciously echoing his thoughts.

"Should just move into my room," the Doctor muttered, tossing his stuff onto 'his' night table and sitting to remove his shoes.

Freezing with her hand on the duvet, Rose stared at the back of his head. "What?" She couldn't have heard that right.

"My room," he repeated, flopping back on the bed. "It's bigger. Bigger bed, bigger ensuite, less work for the TARDIS than making your room bigger. Just have to add another sink to the loo and maybe a second desk so you can study there. Keep your room for your clothes and shoes and" his eyes darted around, taking in the various knickknacks and pictures scattered amongst the clutter, "stuff."

Catching sight of her expression, he rolled toward her, head propped on his hand.

"What? Rose, we live together already. Have for the past, ohhhh twenty one months, fifteen days, three hours and thirty seven minutes. We've been sleeping in the same bed for weeks. Makes sense to use the bigger room." It should have felt frighteningly domestic but it didn't. The offer just popped out. And it felt…okay. Right, even. They'd shared a bed off and on even before Canary Wharf, this regeneration seemed more at ease with Rose knowing about his nightmares and letting her ease him after one. Leather and ears would go as long as possible without sleep, waiting for exhaustion to drop him into a dreamless slumber for a few hours before the nightmare crept in. Then he'd off and run again.

"I dunno, doesn't that seem like me invading your space or somethin'?"

Chuckling, he drew her closer so she could rest her head on his chest. "Since when do you care about invading my space, Rose Tyler? If anything, I've invaded the one place on the TARDIS that should be completely yours. Think about it. We can talk again after our adventure."

Struggling to hide a yawn, Rose snuggled closer. "So what do you have in mind? Overthrowing a corrupt government? Sentient jungle plants? I know! Giant mutant banana groves!"

"Nothing like that," he tapped her nose. "I was thinking a beach."

"Sure, our holidays are always peaceful. Are you gonna sleep?"

"For a bit. I want to finish this part and install it before we leave the vortex. I'll be here if you dream."

The Doctor waited until Rose's breathing deepened before allowing himself to follow her into sleep. As much as he wanted to stay in the vortex were it was safe, he knew Rose was itching to run as much as he was. It was time.