A/N: This is it. the end. The final chapter in this mammoth piece!

I want to thank each and every one of you for all of your comments and encouragement and basically for joining me on this ride and being as excited as I was as we plodded through it all.

I'm glad that you stuck it out and followed me here... It is heartwarming to know that you were willing to waste so much time on reading my little tale. You guys are awesome!

i truly hope that the ending is not disappointing. I had much difficulty writing this because I wasn't ready to finish it up ... so ... wibble...

~~oooOOOooo~~

Time Lords don't cry.

Time Lords don't cry

Ti-ime Lords do-on't cry-y-y-y (They don't cry).

Ti-ime Lords do-on't cry-y (Who said they don't cry?)

Oh it would be easy to launch into song in an attempt to try and stave off the tears that burned in the back of his eyes. He was a Four Seasons fan and did thoroughly enjoy their music. However, his deep baritone voice was in no way capable of rising to the upper registry required for a decent falsetto voice, so perhaps singing such a song might not be as good an idea as he thought it might be…

…But it would very likely assist in being able to lighten his current mood, which was definitely somewhere between brooding and completely miserable.

Completely and utterly defeated, damaged, demoralized, disheartened, dispirited, downheartened, deflated, dejected….

…And today's brooding was brought to you by the letter "D".

There was a shudder against his chest, and the Doctor looked down at the messy blonde hair that was half crushed into his chest, but yet still shifted with the winds blowing off the pasture.

"Are you cold?" he queried gently with a shift in his stance to give him room to remove his coat.

Rose's fingers clutched tighter against his shirt and she shook her head as she pressed her forehead deeper into his chest. "No, Doctor," she pleaded desperaely. "Don't go. I'm not ready to say goodbye to you yet."

"Oh," he cooed with a smile. He held the smile as he levered her chin up with a light and tender touch of his crooked finger. "It's not goodbye, my precious girl."

She swiped a clumsy wipe at her eyes with the flowing sleeve of her Gallifreyan-made peasant-style dress. "How isn't it goodbye when I'm about to watch you leave in the TARDIS?" She sniffed a series of west and stuffy sniffs and then inhaled through her mouth. "You-You're leaving me here, how is that not goodbye?"

He whispered her name with enough extension to the end to take him through an entire exhale. He used the quiet of his inhale to concentrate on the feel of her hair underneath his hands as he smoothed it tenderly against her head. "I think we can both agree, my precious girl, that I'm leaving you in very good hands." He lifted his eyes to look past her toward where her pinstriped Doctor stood anxiously off in the near distance. "Hands that look like they want to hold on to yours tightly."

"Hands that couldn't hold tightly enough to prevent you being separated not once, but twice," Romana groused impatiently.

Rose inhaled a gasp, but the Doctor bellowed Romana's name in a sharp snap of incredulity.

Romana seemed nonplussed by the Doctor's sudden and very furious glare. She merely swallowed and lifted her chin to pass a look along her nose toward the man in pinstripes. "If you're looking for an excuse to prolong the time you have with your wife and child, Doctor, then might I remind you of the many errors made by this incarnation of yours…" She gestured toward the Tenth Doctor "…that has led to the breaking of Rose's heart."

"Romana," the Doctor growled. "That's just about enough, don't you think?"

"I suggest that perhaps you may want to wait until his next incarnation to return his wife and child to him." She tipped her head to one side and regarded Ten as he slipped his fidgeting hands into his pockets and rocked on his Converse. "And pray for an incarnation that is less clumsy, perhaps."

"If I let him know of that suggestion," the Doctor barked back sharply. "Then I can guarantee that he will regenerate on the spot. As would I if given the same ultimatum." He exhaled sharply and drew in a breath as hard. "Really, Romana. How insensitive can you be?"

"I'm an academy-trained Lady of Time, Doctor. Insensitivity was part of the first year…"

"Indeed," he replied with a snort.

"Truthfully," Romana continued as she ran her hand down Rose's arm and offered the upset woman a supportive smile. "This whole episode pains me as much as it does you. I am as hesitant to part ways with Rose and young Gallifrey as you are." She moaned dramatically as the young boy in question let out a squeak and hugged her tightly around the hips. "Don't misconstrue my meaning, Gallifrey. I would just like to see you registered at the Academy and trained the way that all Time Tots should be trained instead of schooled on this ill equipped planet."

"Stop faking it," he purred with a look up into her face. "Your hearts are beating for me, aren't they?"

"Hardly."

He held his finger to his lips and shushed her. He let his eyes flutter closed ad he pressed his ear to just underneath her bosom. "Buh-boom buh-boom," he chanted quietly. "Galli-frey Galli-frey." His voice remained just barely above a whisper. "There's no denying it, Romana. Don't worry. I won't break them, I promise."

Romana shook her head with a smile as she let her hand lightly fall atop his head. Her eyes shifted to Rose and the Doctor. "Don't let him grow up to aimlessly roam the universe like his father," she warned. "There'll be hearts broken across all space and time."

"Like there are for his father," Rose whispered with a smile. She held her hand out to Romana. "Thank you, Romana. For everything. Getting to know you has been wonderful."

"Likewise, Rose Tyler," Romana replied with a gentle smile as she took Rose's hand and gave it a squeeze. "You and Martha, you've opened my eyes to the grave injustice that is the opinion of my people towards a species such as yours."

Rose had to chuckle lightly at that. "Oh. I dunno. Meet the rest of my species and you'll probably find that your Time Lords have it pretty accurate." She let out a long sigh and gave Romana a somewhat sheepish look. "We're pretty low-class, really. You know, as a species."

"Mine are no better," Romana cooed. She swept her hand over Rose's hair in a touching and intimate gesture. "Keep those two Time Lords of yours safe – Rassilon knows the two of them are rubbish without a strong woman standing behind them to steer them right."

Rose launched forward to hug the Time Lady inside a fierce embrace. She sniffed and then exhaled a shaking breath which led to a shaking voice. "Take care of him for me, Romana. Don't let him go and do anything stupid."

Romana chuckled against her hair. "Oh, Rose Tyler. Don't ask me to do the impossible." She closed her arms around Rose to complete their embrace. "But I vow to you that I'll try."

"Good," Rose stated before a loud sniff. She stepped back and wiped at her nose with the edge of her sleeve. Her eyes shifted toward the Doctor and she managed a weak smile. "Now you listen to her, yeah? Don't do stupid things. You take care of yourself so that you can blow up my job and we can begin this journey of ours all over, yeah?"

"Ahh but my dear," he replied on a soft voice that hovered in his lowest register. "In order for us to meet and begin that journey I have to live and then die five times."

Her voice cracked as she tried to chuckle through her tears. "Then you'd better get started on that, yeah?"

"But not if I'm playing it safe, Rose."

She sighed, still inside a broken breath. "Safe's really no fun at all, is it?"

He shook his head.

"I-I'm gonna miss you," she vowed as she took hold of his scarf and let it slide through her fingers. "Long silly scarf and all."

"Do you want it?" he offered gently as he used the very end of it to wipe her tears from her cheek. "I have plenty more."

"But not like this," she answered him quietly. "Not one handcrafted by Madame Nostradamus, anyway."

"Well that is very true."

"And anyway," she said with a smile. "I'm sure it's tucked away in his TARDIS, yeah? I'll find it and have a snuggle with it once in a while."

He looped the length of it over her arms and shoulders to tug her in toward him. "Then I'll make sure that I put it somewhere special – with something special – just for you to find it."

"Ooh," Gallifrey piped up excitedly. "And leave clues. A treasure map!" He looked excitedly toward his mother. "Imagine how fun that'd be, yeah? You and me going on a treasure hunt in the TARDIS. Oh, and the sneaky old girl, she could put obstacles and tricks and twists and turns in our way." He bounced on his toes. "But you and me, mum. Oh we're clever, so very clever. We use our absolute brilliance to solve all her – I mean Aunty TARDIS' – little tricks and booby traps." His bounce turned into a series of jumps as he pleaded with his father. "Oh pleasepleaseplease Dad. Set me up a game? The TARDIS is so big and there are so many really cool ways you could have me on a treasure hunt for days, weeks, even months!" He stopped bouncing and stood still a moment as his wide eyes dropped to glare an almost manic look to the Doctor's waist as he considered it. "Hold on. If I'm asking for Dad – this dad – to do it for me, and he does…" His head shot up and a grin widened on his face to match the flare of thrill in his eyes. "Which means it's already set up. There's a treasure hunt all ready to go in the TARDIS!"

Rose peeped as Gallifrey began to tug on her sleeve. "Gal!"

"Mum," he whined. "Come on. Come with. Let's go on the hunt. It's gonna be so good. I mean, if my dad came up with it, then it's going to be the hunt of the millennium."

Rose looked up to the Doctor with apology in her eyes. "You do realize that this means…"

"I have very little choice in the matter," he finished with a smile. "Not to forget that I also have very high expectations to meet – a most difficult feat when trying to impress such a brilliant youngster."

"Oh, you could just leave a note with a message sending him directly to the prize and he'd be impressed," Rose ventured with a smile as she reached out to scruff at Gallifrey's head.

The youngster smiled a goofy grin at her affection and let her scratch his head for a couple of seconds. Then, without warning, he pushed his head free of her touch and folded his arms across his chest. The look he gave the Doctor was one of challenge. "Don't do what she said.." he poked his thumb toward his mother. He peeped when Romana flicked her fingers on the shell of his ear. He narrowed his eyes at her and kept his little frown of annoyance as he slid his eyes back to his father. "What I meant to say was…" Another snap of a glare toward Romana in warning, and then he looked back to his dad with a smile. "Is that as a Time Lord training a Time Tot, your challenge should be intriguing and, well, challenging. I mean it's called a challenge for a reason, yeah? A challenging challenge."

"That describes you to a tee, Gallifrey," Romana drolled.

"You can drop the false pretenses, my precious Romanadvoratrelundar," Gallifrey cooed. "I know those two thumpers inside your chest beat solely for my benefit."

"And not because I actually need a working vascular system in order to survive or anything like that," she answered back sarcastically.

"Our love will sustain us both."

Romana rolled her eyes, but she smiled. "Oh, Gallifrey. Really."

"I can request an official betrothal, you know," he threatened with a cheeky smile and a waggle in his brow. "Lock you in and make sure that you're all mine." He then lightly slouched off to one side and tapped at his lip in a rather thoughtful manner. "Of course we have to wait a few decades or so until I'm officially of age to make it happen. That's a long time to keep you faithful until then. But if you're travelling with Dad, then he can keep an eye on you and make sure you don't get taken in by another Time Lord with nefarious ideas toward you."

Romana squeaked uncomfortably. The Doctor sucked in a breath. Rose merely chuckled.

It was Martha, however, who dove in for the save. She clucked her tongue on the roof of her mouth and let out a disappointed sigh. "So. You were just toying with my heart, then, were you, Gal?"

Gallifrey gave a series of rapid blinks and spluttered just slightly. "Hold on. What?"

Martha covered her mouth in her hands and gave a rather convincing performance of a heartbroken woman. "It's just…" She inhaled a gulp and let her eyes water as she swayed helplessly in place against her despair. "I thought that you. That you and I. That we."

Gallifrey was immediately horrified at her heartbreak. "No no. Martha. No no nonono. Don't cry. Oh, God don't cry…" His body went in to rigid shock as he jumped tightly on his feet in a side to side flick between Time Lady and Human. His eyes were wide with horror and his fingers splayed from hands held defensively up in front of him. "Really Martha. It's not what you…"

"I'm not a Time Lord of Gallifrey," Martha shot back with a convincing sob. "I don't have two hearts like you do. I have one, only one, and when you break it like this." She stopped and let out a dramatic wail as she clutched her fist into her chest and contracted into it. "Time Lords!"

Gallifrey's face lengthened in shock as Martha shot a look up to his mother, blinked, and then turned and ran toward the TARDIS. His breath escaped him in a peep to watch her barrel past his pinstriped father with enough force to have him spin away from her.

Rose let out a sigh and shook her head. "Oh, Gal. How could you do that to her? Martha is such a nice lady."

"Agreed," the Doctor said with a nod and a lick at his lip to try and stop a smile from forming. It didn't help that Romana was unsuccessfully trying to fight off a chuckle beside him. "It goes against the very grain of our society to have a Lord upset a Lady in that manner."

Romana made a sound of disagreement beside him, but quickly hid it behind a sniff.

Breathing in rapid pants, Gallifrey looked up desperately to his parents. "What do I do?" he queried urgently. "How? How do I fix this?"

The Doctor's eyes were wide and his mouth slightly gaped as he shook his head slowly. "Well…"

Rose leaned down to look her child in the eye. "I really don't think your dad's the best person to ask about affairs of the hearts, Gal."

"Oh come now," the Doctor challenged with a light whine. "I like to think that I am very well versed in love and all of her challenges, thank you."

Gallifrey grabbed at the lapels of the Doctor's jacket. "Tell me what to do, Dad. Tell me how to fix this!"

"Talk to her," the Doctor answered gently. "Assure her of your affections."

He kept hold of his father's jacket and bounced on his toes. "But I'm just a little boy, Dad. I'm not ready to have girl problems. Not yet anyway."

"Then you'll just have to explain that to her, won't you, young Lord?"

Gallifrey kept his hands fisted around the fabric of his father's jacket, but slouched back with a defeated moan. "I'm too young for this. Why me-e-e-e?"

"Then perhaps you should stop flirting with every pretty lady you see, Gal." A rustle of heavy fabric at his side, and Gallifrey looked to his side to see that his pinstriped father had joined the small group. The Doctor's hands were fisted deep inside his pockets and he walked with a much more cautious gait than was normal for him.

"Stop flirting?" Gallifrey queried flatly.

Rose let up a sharp laugh. "Oh that's rich coming from you, Mr. flirty smile and smooth moves." She looked him up and down. "The Time Lord version of Captain Jack Harkness, you are."

Ten scoffed and then coughed. "Oh I hardly think I can be put in the same category as Jack Harkness." He snorted with an expression of disgust on his face. "Nothing like him. Well. I may on occasion call upon techniques developed over my many centuries of travel across space and time…."

"By that, you mean that you flirt your way through the universe," Rose muttered. "No matter the species."

"I'm selective, thank you."

"Well then," Four huffed with a furrow in his brow. "This is what I regenerate into then, a man who calls upon his flirtatious wiles in order to get the job done?"

"Saving the universe one wink at a time," Rose answered with a wink of her own and a click of her tongue. "Am I right, Doctor?"

Ten rubbed at the back of his neck and kept the angle of his head low to at least look a little sheepish. "You use what works, yeah."

Four poked his finger sharply into Ten's forehead. "You use your brains, you insolent fool," he shot in hotly. "Catering to the sexual nature of any species in order to get the job done is abhorrent behaviour and definitely goes against any principals I've held onto in seven centuries of existence."

"Rose really is making more of it than it actually is," Ten ventured with a shrug. "I do tend to use my absolute brilliance more often than not – as I always have."

Rose sneezed in such a way that it did seem as though she uttered a pair of syllables that expressed her disagreement to the comment. She wiped at her nose in a rather unconvincing manner at a sharp look from Ten.

"Be that as it may," Four muttered as he slid his arms around Rose's waist to draw her close. His voice softened when he looked down at her. "Are you sure that you don't want to just throw it all into the vortex and return to Gallifrey with me? I'll settle down for you. Or we can travel the universe, all of space and time…"

"You can't offer her any more than I am," Ten countered firmly.

Four flicked his eyes toward his older self. "I can offer her my absolute and unwavering devotion."

"I don't have to offer it. She's already got it."

Four kept his eyes locked on his older self, but continued to speak to Rose. "I'll destroy and recreate my own personal timeline for you, my precious girl."

"Well that's just not fair of you, now, is it?" Ten groused.

Rose rolled up onto her toes to press her mouth lightly against Four's. She was slow to pull away from him to speak and remained high on her toes in front of him. "We both know this is where we end, Doctor."

He flexed his hands to pull yet closer to him. He nuzzled his nose against hers. "We don't end, here, my dear. Why this good bye represents the journey to our hello, wouldn't you say?"

"How are you holding it together so well?" she asked with a wet inhale through her nose. "I can't be as strong. I'm falling apart here in your arms…"

"Believe me, Rose," He answered into her hair as he dropped his mouth atop her head. "I am indeed falling apart as much as you are."

"You're hiding it very well then."

The wet blink in his eyes that spilled free his tears as he looked across her head toward his tenth self proved otherwise. His breath shuddered out of his chest as he addressed the older Doctor from across Rose Tyler's head. "Take care of them, Doctor."

Ten pressed his lips into a tin line as he nodded his head sharply. "I will."

"Vow to me that you will forever protect the two of them." He exhaled and then drew in a deep breath. "I'm not leaving until you swear an oath…"

"I will forfeit every remaining regeneration and incarnation if I ever do anything that hurts either of them," he vowed fiercely.

Rose wriggled free of Four's hold and wiped at her eyes with her sleeves. "Deliberately," she added.

Ten and Four both gave her a curious look, but it was Ten who asked the question they both had in mind. "Pardon me?"

"If you deliberately do anything that hurts us," she amended. She then shrugged and offered him a weak smile. "Sometimes, you know. Sometimes it just happens."

"Not any more," Ten declared darkly. "Never again."

The TARDIS whined a whirr of warning that had Romana gently remind the Doctor that it was time to go. He initially ignored her reminder, but found himself nodding slowly when she put her hand on his arm and spoke a gentle call of his name.

"Thank you, Romana. Just one last moment. Please." He held his hand out toward young Gallifrey and hooked his other arm around Rose's waist. "Oh I do wish that we could continue the path my heart wishes to take."

"We can't, Doctor." Rose sighed softly as she nestled at his side and called to Gallifrey with an outstretched arm and wriggling fingers. "But we're here and waiting for you – so don't forget us."

He took a moment to memorise the feeling of his wife and child in his arms, and then let out a solemn breath. "My precious girl. The two of you will be most difficult to forget."

"You're supposed to say that you don't want to forget us, Doctor?"

He chuckled into her hair. "Then it's a very good thing that I didn't bring up my eidetic memory, isn't it?"

He lifted Rose's chin with the crook of his finger and pressed his lips to hers in a lingering, but gentle touch. He held her in place a moment longer. "My hearts are forever yours," he whispered softly. "And don't you ever forget that."

"I love you too, Doctor," she replied with a kiss. "Forever. No matter what incarnation you are."

He ran his thumb along her jaw and then looked down at young Gallifrey snuggled against his hip. "And you, my boy. Take care of your mother. Be good. Be clever. Make me proud."

"You already are," he shot back with a cheeky grin.

"That I am, Gal." He petted his head gently. "My son who is in my hearts."

"Love you too, Dad."

Ten cleared his throat against his fist as he waited impatiently for Rose to find herself in his arms rather than the younger Doctor. He lifted his eyes to the man in question. "Eight hundred and fourty three," he said with a smile.

Four smiled at that. "And it is your oath that I will always be given your consent?"

"With TARDIS as my witness…" He looked to the machine with a smile. "Well. She wouldn't let me say no even if I wanted to, would she?" He opened his arms to receive his wife and child. "Please?"

Four nodded quickly, and after kissing both Rose and Gallifrey on the tops of their heads reluctantly stepped back. With his arms now empty, he felt the weight of the loss of his family and the deep set pain that came with that loss. He forced a smile as he thrust his hands into his trouser pockets and stepped a backward gait toward his TARDIS.

"Rose Tyler, Gallifrey. I'll see you both very soon." He winked. "Remember this is not a goodbye… No." He lowered his head in thought and looked back up as he pressed his hand into the TARDIS door to push it open. "It's not a good bye. It's … oh. It's really…"

"See you later," Rose called with a smile. "We'll see you later, Doctor."

"Indeed," he replied with a wide grin. "See you later."

Rose watched tearfully as the Doctor disappeared behind the doors of the TARDIS. Her heart felt like it fell into her belly as the first thunder of TARDIS dematerialisation cracked across the grass.

"Not if I see you first," she whispered to the disappearing machine.

She was aware of the doctor sliding his hand into hers and traced her thumb over his hand to let him know she appreciated his gesture. But she kept her eyes on the vacant space where the TARDIS had been

"If it helps you to know," the Doctor said gently. "It's only a couple of months until he sees you again. In his timeline anyway."

"He'll be alright, yeah, Doctor?"

The Doctor stepped closer toward her. His voice was low and quiet when he answered her. "He's always alright."

Those words made her spin sharply and immediately launch herself against him. Her collision against his chest so violent that he had to stagger back to maintain his balance. "Don't say that, Doctor. You're not always alright."

"When you're here," he breezed with a smile. "I am." His smile shifted to a grin. "With you. I'm always always alright."

"Oh shut up," she huffed with a laugh as she dropped her head onto his shoulder and walked her body up against his. "You have the worst and most corny pickup lines ever. You know that?"

"Well," he offered with a chuckle. "It's better than you need a Doctor…"

She rolled her eyes to the sky and let out a slight sigh. "Well no. Not really." She kept her eyes to the sky and slouched a little against him. "You see. When you delivered that line, oh, in your absolutely gorgeous ninth incarnation, it was followed by a kiss." She lowered her eyes to his and pursed her lips a little. "This latest line of yours didn't come with that, so it runs a slow second."

He hummed as he slid both arms around her waist and tightened their hold to snap her close to him. "Well. If you'd let me finish before admonishing my attempt to be all smooth and sexy for you…"

"That wasn't sexy. That was at least a solar system away from sexy."

He huffed a hair pf laughs against her lips. "Oh. Shut up."

The gasp that preceded her response was immediately inhaled by the Doctor as he quickly claimed her mouth with his. She gave only a slight playful protest before melting into both the kiss and his firm embrace, and it was at the deep sound of pleasure seated in the back of his throat that she opened herself to him with a full flaring of their bond to let him fill her completely.

The pleasurable rumble in the back of his throat tilted and shifted into a possessive growl that tore the Doctor's mouth from hers. He huffed against her lips with a heavy pant as he stooped lightly to drop an arm below her knee to sweep her up into his arms.

Rose peeped at his sudden movements, but settled against him and offered him her own hooded stare. "Eager to be somewhere, Doctor?"

"TARDIS. Now," he commanded as he crushed her against his chest. "If the old girl hasn't put our bedroom immediately beyond the console room door…"

There was a little cheer from the grasses beside them that was as effective a bucket of cold water as a literal bucket of Ice water would be.

"Whoo whoo," Gallifrey called out. He punched his little fist in the air. "So. Does this mean I'm finally going to be getting a sister?"

~~oooOOOooo~~

Three months later….

The TARDIS door swung open with enough force to snap hard against the edge of the doorway. From just beyond her doors there was the sound of a sitar being plucked in a slow and deliberate manner. This music was accompanied by off-key singing and the sweet scent of burning incense.

Gallifrey crossed into the TARDIS before the other members of the boarding party. He strode in with a sway in his gait and a last smile on his face, and paused just shy of the bottom of the ramp and ran his hands down the lapels of the fluffy faux fur vest that he wore over the top of his crimson tunic . "Well don't you look outta sight you stellar looking little bit of dynamite?"

"What have I told you about smooth talking the ladies," the Doctor admonished the young lad as he entered the TARDIS behind him. "I think you owe your Auntie just a little more respect than that, don't you?"

He looked first at his dad and then back at the console through the purple roundel lenses of his sunglasses to hold up his hands in the universal symbol of peace. "Peace out, man. Like, chill, dude." He bobbed his head and smirked as though part of a commune of hippies buried inside a cloak of white smoke. "We're all just friends here, chillin and being groovy."

The Doctor let out the smallest of chuckles and shook his head as he took a quick analysis of the TARDIS console. "I think we're getting out of the 60's just in time."

Gallifrey straightened up and slouched his shoulders as he let out a moan. "Oh come on, Dad. You have to admit that of all the decades to get stuck in, the 1960's was a pretty good one." He preened his fur vest. "And the clothing! Just brilliant."

Martha snorted as she strode past him with a shake in her head. Her lip curled as she fought to tug down the impossible short micro mini dress and walk with her clunky knee-high boots. "For you, maybe."

Rose followed Martha and closed the doors behind her. She winked to her husband to let him know he was good to get them out of the 60's and up into the vortex for a while. She ran her hand over her hair, which had been lacquered stiff with hairspray and let out a long sigh to contemplate getting a comb through it without crying.

"Please, Doctor. Get me out of this decade and to a place and time where hairspray is no longer a prerequisite and skirt hems actually sit lower than the rise of your butt."

"Oh," he purred with a laugh as he raked his eyes up and down her outfit. "But you look amazing."

Gallifrey peeped just slightly. "Yeah. But from this angle, mum. You know. Kiddie-sized shortness, me." He covered his eyes with his forearm. "I can see your knickers."

Rose dipped down as she moved to walk past him. "Then stop looking."

"Really trying not to."

"Well then look at Martha's."

Martha gasped. "Oh. Don't you involve me in that!" She darted around the console to move to the doorway that led to the bedrooms. "I'm going to put on some jeans and get rid of head bands and cat-eye liner."

The Doctor looked up after her. "Take your time, Martha," he called. "I'm just going to set us down in Cardiff for a bit of refuelling."

Martha's head popped around the doorway. "So not in the vortex, then?"

He shook his head. "No. We're setting on the ground for a few hours. Just a recharge."

"A pit stop, then?"

He nodded. "Yep. That's it. Just a pit stop."

A sharp laugh carried across the console room as Martha headed toward her room. "Man the battle stations. A pit stop is the universal invitation for the end of the universe."

The Doctor's brows were high and he let out the smallest of huffs. "Do you ever get the feeling that Martha Jones doesn't quite trust my flying?"

Rose let out a chuckle and stroked at his arm. "My Doctor, none of us trust your flying."

His expression fell to one of hurt. "Oh. Really?"

"But that's what makes it all fun." She looked to Gallifrey. "Isn't that right, Gal?"

Gallifrey shrugged. "Well. My first flight with Dad – this Dad – ended us up in a place that had freaky stone angels that transported us back in time and stranded us in 1969 for almost three months without Aunty TARDIS, which then resulted in three months of running around playing detective and time agent while listening to really bad music and no technology advanced enough to keep me and dad occupied…"

"There's only so much you can do with 1960's Earth household appliances," the Doctor admitted with a shrug.

"Anyway," Gallifrey sang. He shrugged. "Turned out alright, didn't it?"

The Doctor gave him an earnest look. "But you're having fun, yeah?"

The youngster beamed. "Course I am. Can't wait to see what level of trouble you'll get us into next!"

"Trouble isn't actually my intention," the Doctor said with a sigh. He quickly shook out that melancholy and grinned. "And to prove it. Once we refuel in Cardiff, I'll take you and your mum and Martha to the best place in the universe with sun and sand and playgrounds for little time tots as well as these amazing milkshakes that they make with these tiny little berries that grow out of rocks. Rocks, Gal!"

"Are these berries crunchy like rocks, too?"

"Oh my little flubble. If the varmonians didn't prepare them in the manner that they do, then you'd most definitely break a tooth or two if you tried to eat them." He frowned and looked up at the ceiling. "I did that once, oh, back in my fifth. Grabbed a handful of berries when a vendor wasn't looking. Shoved the lot of them in my mouth." He sucked in air through his teeth. "Yeah. I wasn't quite expecting a mouth full of tiny round stone balls in between my teeth."

Rose stretched her arms above her head and sighed a jaw-cracking yawn. "Break any teeth?" she queried on the exhale of her yawn.

The Doctor lightly touched at her hip. "How're you feeling?"

Rose leaned against the console. "I asked you first."

"No," he answered back quickly. "Time Lord teeth. They're tough. Unbreakable, really." HE grinned a toothy smile as though to show her. "Hardy things Tim eLord Teeth. No dentist visits. No need to brush them, really…" He yipped as Rose's hand shot up to cover his mouth.

"Shhh!"

"What're you doing?" he queried with a voice muffled by her hand.

"Don't' say stuff like that. I'm havin' a hard enough time getting our boy to do things like brush his teeth and take a shower every day." She shot a look to Gallifrey who was thankfully distracted by something that had him looped over the crotch of a coral beam. "If you go tellin' him stuff like he doesn't need to brush his teeth then I'll never get that boy to keep himself clean."

He pulled her hand from his mouth and kissed at her knuckles. "Sorry, Rose. Won't bring it up again" He reached down to stroke at her hip. "Now. You answer my question. How're you feeling?"

Rose nodded and shielded another yawn with the back of her hand. "I'm good."

"But tired," he added.

She hummed in agreement. "Yeah. I'm completely beat."

"Yep. I expect you are." He looked down to her abdomen and gave the slightest of smiles as he brushed his knuckles across it and felt the slightest tingle of a presence under his touch. "Maybe you should go take a long bath?" He frowned. "No. You're completely drained. Bad Idea." He pursed his lips. "Go take a nap. I'll set the TARDIS down and come join you when I can."

"I'm not going to argue with that suggestion." She kissed his cheek and looked toward her child. "Gal. I'm going for a bit of a kip. Do you need to nap as well?"

"No taa. Sleep is for tortoises," Gallifrey shot back in a voice that sounded quite disgusted by the thought.

"For what?"

Gallifrey straightened up out of his lean over the strut and looked to his mother with wide and guilty eyes. "What I actually meant to say, mum. And might I just say that you are looking absolutely radiant…"

"Get on with it," Rose challenged him with a tight fold of her arms across her chest and a tap of her foot on the grating at her feet. "Finish your backpedal."

Gallifrey smiled and shook his head as he walked briskly toward his mother. "I love you mum."

Rose sighed and let her son loop his arms around her waist. The little terror knew how to melt her heart to get himself out of trouble. She let her arms fall gently on her shoulders. "Love you too, Kiddo."

"You should go," the Doctor urged gently. "Get some rest while you can." His eyes fell to her belly. "I remember how you were with Gallifrey, and if she's the same way, then you're in for a sleepless few weeks."

Rose nodded and yawned against the back of her hand. "Good point. Come join me when you can, yeah?"

"Promise."

He watched her leave the console room and then turned his attention to the levers and dials and buttons flashing in request for attention. He noted the grin on Gallifrey's face out of the corner of his eye and tried hard to suppress his smile.

"Dad?"

"Mmhmmm?"

"Am I finally getting a sister?"

The Doctor appeared distracted to the question as he focused on the monitor as the TARDIS navigated her way through the vortex toward Cardiff. "Hmmm? What was that, Gal?"

"Don't pretend you didn't hear me, Dad."

The Doctor cupped his ear. "What was that, Gal?" he half yelled as he pointed to the whining and wheezing time rotor in front of him. "Kinda loud in here when the old girl's in flight. And it's been a while for her, got a few things that need oiling no doubt."

"Dad," Gallifrey growled as the TARDIS quietened and then settled in her landing. "Stop playing about. Is mum pregnant? Am I having a sister?"

Martha's voice piped into the conversation as she reentered the console room in her favourite pair of jeans and comfy jacket. "Did I hear that right? Are you and Rose expecting another little time tot?"

The Doctor had ceased listening to either of them as he watched the monitor and the image of a man with a familiar silhouette running toward the TARDIS. His eyes were wide and his jaw set as he suddenly lunged across the console and flicked at the materialisation lever. "Looks like the old girl has enough energy in her after all. No need to a break in Cardiff. Off to Vamonio we go. Hold on you two. Could be a bumpy ride."

Bumpy didn't quite accurately describe the pitching and lurching motions of the TARDIS as she threw herself into the vortex and fought against the explosive energies that surrounded her as she fought against any command that the Doctor input into her system. With a sudden crash and spray of sparks, all three of them were thrown to the grating.

They tried to move, but the forces of the ship's sudden and violent acceleration prevented any of them from rising up off the floor.

"What's going on, Doctor?" Martha questioned through gritted teeth. "What's happening?"

The Doctor was able to pull himself up enough to look at the monitor. He frowned at what he saw. "We're accelerating into the furture. Faster than she's ever gone before."

Gallifrey clutched hard at the Doctor's trouser leg and tugged himself up enough to see the readout on the monitor. "The year one billion," he grit out. "Five Billion. Five Trillion. Fifty trillion."

The Doctor shook his head. "What? The year one hundred trillion? That's impossible!"

"Why," Martha huffed out. "What's so impossible about that?"

"It's the end of the universe," the Doctor answered her. "We're going to the end of the universe!"

"That's bad?"

"I don't know," the Doctor admitted. "Just hold on. I don't know how rough this landing's going to be." He reached out to hang on to Gallifrey. "I got you, Gal. Hang on, okay?"

With a deafening roar and whoosh of releasing energies, the TARDIS found her landing place and thudded heavily to the ground. Silence then filled the room, with the exception of the heaving breaths of the three console room occupants.

Martha spoke up first. "We've landed, yeah?"

The Doctor rapidly nodded his head. "Yeah." He looked down at Gallifrey pressed against his chest inside the protective circle of his arms. "You okay, Flubble?"

Gallifrey nodded slowly and locked his widened eyes on the doors of the TARDIS. "What do you think is out there?"

The Doctor looked toward the door himself. "I don't know."

Martha had to chuckle. "The rarest words ever spoken by the Time Lord Doctor, and you've said it twice in thirty seconds."

"Not even the Time Lords came this far, Martha," he answered carefully. "So we should probably leave. We should really, really … go."

Gallifrey carefully peeled himself from his father's arms and cautiously headed to the door. "You think we should really just reset the cords and get out of here, right, Dad?"

"Oh, abslolutely, Gal. Quite possibly too dangerous for any of us to head out there. I mean…" he slipped his hands into his trouser pockets and strode to the doorway. "I mean, there could be anything beyond those doors, couldn't there?"

"Best to just leave, yeah?"

Martha let out a groan and pulled on the TARDIS doors. "Well the two of you can stand there all day like a couple of scared little mice. I'm heading out." She stepped through the doorway, and then paused with a look of challenge to the two Time Lords. "Well? Coming?"

The Doctor and Gallifrey gave each other a wary look, but it was wariness that was quickly replace with grins of thrill. It was the Doctor's smile that broke the widest as he winked at his son.

"Race you!"