Nothing could shake the Doctor.

He knew the be all and end all of the universe. He could press a flashing button on the control panel of the Tardis and know exactly when and where he was going. He would sweep young companions off their feet, taking them to the farthest reaches of the galaxies, and return them home with not a minute past.

He knew everything.

"Doctor! What's happening?"

Looking up from the monitor that was showing a vortex no-where near where they were supposed to be, the Doctor gave his newest and somewhat risqué companion, Rose Tyler, an ever so slight frown.

"I don't know," he shouted out, holding on for dear life as the ship gave another lurch. "There seems to be a signal overriding the system. Whatever it is, it's drawing us to it."

Picking herself up from the pile of boxes she had landed in, Rose glared at the man in front of her. "Well, can't you stop it?"

"If I could, don't you think I would have by now?"

Glaring up at the Doctor, red lips opened wide in an attempt to voice exactly what she thought about him not doing anything, when the Tardis came to a rather abrupt halt. Glancing around wearily, the blonde Brit pulled herself out of the mess the commotion had caused. Glad to see that she was not the only one that had fallen over, Rose slowly walked around the main room, hoping that nothing was going to jump out and suddenly attack her.

"Are you ok, Doctor?"

Frowning up at the box of junk that had decided to land on top of him, the Doctor huffed. "Oh, I am absolutely spiffing. I am."

Rolling her eyes in a sort of 'if only murder was legal' kind of way, Rose made her way over to the awkwardly sitting man, and began to remove all of the rubbish that buried him. "You know," she panted, as a rather heavy pipe finally decided to move. "You really should clean up this place. I'm sure Mum wouldn't mind giving ya a hand."

"What? And come back to find the Tardis as just a shell? No thank you."

"She wouldn't be that bad."

"Oh yes she would!"

Holding out a hand to help the poor Time Lord up, Rose almost let go, when a small sneeze erupted from behind her. Wiping around, Rose felt the Doctor draw his sonic screwdriver out of his pocket and aim it at the corner hidden from their view.

"Who's there?" the dark eyed man shouted, not at all impressed by someone he did not know, being on board. "Show yourself!"

After travelling with the Time Lord to far off galaxies, seeing races and worlds that no-one back on Earth could ever dream of, Rose had thought that she was prepared for almost anything to come out from behind the wall.

But she was wrong.

"What the hell? They're just-"

"Rose, stay back."

Putting himself in between a threat and his companion was almost second nature to the dark eyed man. But this was a threat he was not sure how to engage with.

"We're so sorry," scared, emerald green eyed cried out. "We didn't mean to land on your ship, but Mary slipped into the vortex and we tried to hold on, but we got sucked in too."

Little fingers clutched on tightly to a teddy bear that looked like it had seen better days. Slightly older hands wrapped their way around the smallest one's shoulders, whilst the eldest stood behind them, ready to throw the other two aside if the strangers proved to be hostile. The Doctor watched as the eldest tried to comfort the other two, and could not help but feel as though there was something familiar about them.

"Doctor?"

Turning to face his companion, and what he was also coming to see as a very close friend, the Doctor rose an eyebrow in questioning.

"They're children. Human children."