Hi there, this is the last chapter in 'The After' story.

This chapter is called 'Just the beginning', weird huh? There will be a sequel of course, just like I promised, the enemy will be the well known 'Shadow', also know as 'It'.

The sequel will also explore how Rose comes to terms with being a TimeLady.

Thank you to my Beta reader!

Just the Beginning

Waking up she felt the comforting warmth of the Doctor wrapped around her form, protecting her even in his sleep.

Her body felt warm and at peace, she felt protected, not just by the Doctor but from another unknown source. When she closed her eyes she saw golden light skirting her vision, like a forgotten dream would your memory.

She shifted slowly trying not to wake the sleeping Doctor beside her. She didn't succeed, he opened his eyes and looked straight back into hers, laughter all apparent deep within.

"Hi" she said groggily, the echo of sleep still in her voice.

"Hi there sleepy head" he said cheekily, a grin on his face.

"What you so pleased about?" humor and curiosity in her voice.

"I have so much to tell you Rose Tyler, so much you need to know. But first things first" he looked down at her seriously "how you feeling?"

"Fine I guess, just a little dizzy and woozy, much like on satellite 5 with the whole transmat thing" she said trying to decipher what it was exactly that she was feeling.

"Ah yes that would be because of certain changes that have just occurred" he said quietly, not quite being able to look in her eyes.

She reached out her hand and brought it to his chin turning his head to look at her.

"Doctor, what is the matter?" she said quietly, searching his eyes with her own.

"Do you trust me?' he said also searching her eyes, it was more like he was trying to see into her soul.

She didn't hesitate "yes" she said strongly.

"You died on the planet back there, had me quite scared you did" he said trying to make light of the situation "can't tell you how I felt after it happened, TARDIS was beyond grief, she upturned the rooms and made a right mess" he said eyes laughing "any way, yeah you died, dead for quite some time too, all the equipment said that your were dead" he said, tears starting to cloud his vision. The last few hours being replayed in his mind's eye "fell apart I did, thought my world was ending, then the TARDIS informed me of some changes that would be occurring within you."

All throughout his little speech she was looking at him blankly, trying to process the multitude of information that he was telling her.

"What sort of changes Doctor?" she was scared, he could hear the amount of will she was using trying to show him that even when she was presented with something that could alter her life, she was still prepared to trust him to the end of the universe.

"This may take a little bit of time to explain to you, it is a little hard to explain"

"Well why don't you start at the beginning" she said. She wrapped her arms around his waist, and put her head on his chest listening to the double heartbeat.

He in turn, wrapped his arms around her and put his chin on the top of her.

"Like I said, you're changing within" his voice was soft and reassuring. "you remember when you absorbed the Time Vortex' she nodded her head "well I didn't get all of it out" he said regrettably.

She looked up at him, and levered herself up and rested her chin on her upturned palm. She looked at him questionably, asking him silently to continue.

"Rose, you're not quite human anymore. Scratch that, your not human anymore" he didn't dare meet her eyes, afraid that they would be accusing him "you're a Gallifreyan, the second to last of my species, essentially, you are a TimeLady. You have two hearts, um, you essentially know all that I know about the universe, you, ah, you have 3 regenerations" he then looked up to see her reaction.

She was shocked, he knew that she would be, but there was also a smile on her face.

"What are you smiling at?" he was confused he expected her to be angry or crying and cursing his excitants.

"I'm one of you then?" she asked the smile turning into a broad grin at the notion of being one of the Doctor's species.

"Yes" he said slowly, not quite caught up on the joke.

A small squeal escaped from her lips and she leapt into his arms holding onto him in her joy. After squeezing the breath out him, she let go and looked at him happily a certain glow on her cheeks in her happiness.

"You won't be alone any more, you're stuck with me" she said cheekily.

He threw his head back and laughed the worry that Rose might be upset about the whole changing thing washed away. The notion of spending the rest of his life traveling with Rose, and not being the last of the great race of TimeLords was absolutely fantastic. They both lay there laughing at the incredible prospect of all that had happened. After they had calmed down slightly they got up, Rose went to the wardrobe room to get some clothes.

xxx

In the wardrobe Rose was having a hard time figuring out what to wear, she figured now that she was a TimeLady, she should have a uniform like the Doctor did, but a girl can't have just one outfit and Rose was having a hard time trying to figure out what she was going to wear until she regenerated.

After hundreds of tops and hundreds of bottoms she found the perfect outfit.

The top was a blood red halter with black transfer in the shape of rose on it. Her trousers were also black; they had white transfer of a vine with leaves and stars, rising from the ankle to the hip. For shoes she had some very surprisingly comfortable knee high black boots, her jeans covered the boots to the toes. To finish off the outfit she had a long black leather coat on, that reached down to her ankles, she thought if the Doctor got a cape then she should to.

Satisfied with her new look she walked out of the wardrobe room and went to the console room.

xxx

He was pacing in the console room, a nervous look on his face.

They needed to go and see Jackie to tell her that her only child was not human anymore, he had a right to be nervous.

He heard the sound of Rose coming down the corridor towards the console room. He steadied him self to show an outward calm as to not alarm Rose.

He turned to look at Rose ready to tell her that they should tell her that they needed to see her mum, but the words were lost when he saw her in the door way. His jaw dropped when he saw just how beautiful she looked, he was gob smacked.

"See something you like Doctor" she flirted as she asked as she walked passed him.

He cleared his throat gaining his composure "you look absolutely beautiful"

She blushed "last time you said that there was a tag line, for a human, so am I to presume that now that I am not human, that I am beautiful?" she asked innocently.

"No, I assure you, you're an image of beauty, and before when I said it I was in denial about my feelings about you" he said cheekily

"So what are your feelings now" she said as she walked closer to him

"Well now that would be telling, wouldn't it?" he said cheekily

"Now you know how I feel about surprises" she questioned him, laughter in her eyes.

"And how would that be" he asked

"I love them" she leapt into his arms, hugging him tightly.

"We have to go and see your mum and tell her" he said suddenly, breaking the lovely atmosphere.

She stepped out of his arms and hit him on the arm.

"Now why the hell you'd go and do that for?" she said angrily

"We need to go and see your mum, she needs to know" he said

"Yeah but, we were having a good moment, and then you ruined it" she was sulking

"Come on prepare you self, we are off to London 2006, 3 weeks after we left her" he said as he walked over to the console and pressed buttons and pulled levers.

While he was doing this, Rose was watching him and moved over to the console and started to help him fly them through the Vortex.

After they landed he looked over to her with a huge grin on his face looking at her with proud eyes.

"Something came over you did it?" he asked knowing what the answer would be.

"It was like I was a visitor in my body and something took over, and I was compelled to start flying the TARDIS" she said while looking down trying to figure out what had happened to her, she looked at the Doctor asking him to explain it to her.

"Yeah, happens to me every time I fly my wonderful, fantastic time machine. You will notice a lot of changes in the next few days, that was just one of the many that you will notice" he said grinning at the wonderful things happening to Rose.

"Well thanks for the heads up" she said sarcastically

"Your welcome!" he said cheekily

"You're impossible you know that" she huffed rolling her eyes.

"Yes but that's why you love me" he said suddenly not thinking.

"I suppose it is" she said distantly, she looked at him over the console and shook her head at the dumbfounded look on his face.

"Don't pretend that you didn't know Doctor, me coming with you after you leaving me for 3 years should have been enough proof" she said pointedly.

He looked down, figuring that this was it he had to tell her before they went and saw Jackie, knowing her she would try and keep Rose at home now.

"Well I think that you should know that I love you too" he said hurriedly.

"I already know, always have, can't keep any thing from me you can't" she said,

he looked up and saw that her eyes were shining with laughter and love.

He went over to her and slowly bent down to meet her lips. Suddenly there was a bang on the TARDIS doors and shouting was becoming louder.

"Are you two going to come out yet, or has he landed so badly that your both unconscious?" came the sarcastic voice of Jackie Tyler, angry that she was being kept waiting.

"Coming mum!" Rose shouted to her mum while looking at the Doctor, who was smiling at her and pulling her closer to him, making it very apparent what he wanted to do right now and it didn't include going outside to appease her mum.

"She is going to break down the door if we are not careful" she said half firmly and with half of a whimper. He threw her a sexy grin, knowing that he was succeeding in distracting her.

"You know full well that no one can get through the TARDIS doors, alien or human. Yet I have to say your mum could give the TARDIS quite a dent if she tried real hard" he moved his hips suddenly.

She gave a whimper, "now stop that, we have to go out there before she has a hernia"

The Doctor just sighed and figured that there was time for what he had in mind later, now he had to face the beast.

He let go of Rose, who in turn gave a frustrated moan, having second thoughts about her decision. She grabbed on to his tie and brought him forward to meet her in a heated kiss, she ran her tongue over his bottom lip, asking for entrance, which he granted her. Delving her tongue into his mouth, their tongues wrestled for what seemed to short for the Doctor when Jackie made her presence made again.

'Oi you two get out here now!" she said banging the door.

Rose moaned in his mouth frustrated that they were being interrupted at what she saw as the most important moment in her life. They started to slow down the kiss both of them willing to start another heated kiss, but they couldn't ignore Jackie for too long.

They both straightened out their clothes, tying to look like they weren't as flustered as they felt. Rose smoothed her hair back, and put her jacket back on, which had, ahem, some how fallen off in their mini wrestle. He ran a hand through his hair, which didn't really do much; he went to fix his tie to find it had disappeared. Well, he thought, I wonder where that went. He gave Rose a questioning look indicating the loss of his tie. She just shrugged her shoulders and walked past him towards the TARDIS doors.

Grinning at her back he followed her out.

He was met by a furious Jackie, who had her hands on her hips and her foot taping on the pavement.

"What took you two so long" she asked angrily

"Something broke when we landed, we had to fix it" Rose cut in before the Doctor could come up with an excuse.

"Trust him to break something" she said sarcastically.

"Tell me something new mum" she said on the side to her mum, yet loud enough for the Doctor to hear.

"Cheeky" he stated

"Been around you for too long" she gave him a wink.

"Come on you two get inside, it's getting colder" Jackie was getting sick of the banter between the two of them.

The Doctor threw his arm around Rose's shoulder and together they walked up to the flat, Jackie just rolled her eyes and followed them.

In the flat Jackie went to make the two of them and her self a cup of tea, while the Doctor and Rose went over to the couch and sat there together.

"Not that I'm complaining, but why are you two here then, it's only been about three weeks, new record for the two of you" she called from the kitchen.

"We need to tell you something Jackie" called the Doctor

"What's he done now?" Jackie said accusingly, ignoring the Doctor.

"Hey! Why is it always something that I have done?" he whined

Rose pinched him arm and grinned at him "that's because it always is"

Jackie walked in and sat down opposite the couple and looked at them expectantly.

"So what is it you wanted to tell me?" she asked.

"Jackie, Jackie, Jackie" the Doctor started to say.

"I knew it, what is it that you have done, and is it going to result in you being slapped" she said angrily.

"Maybe" he said slowly.

"No, it is not going to result in him being slapped mum, and you stop being so sacred of my mum and just tell her" she said to her mum and then the Doctor.

"Right where to begin, alright Jackie remember when Rose took the Vortex within her to come and save me from the Daleks?" Jackie nodded and the Doctor continued "well I didn't get all of it out; I thought I did, but I didn't. On the last trip that we made the TARDIS had a mild malfunction and we arrived on a planet that we shouldn't have been on" Jackie noticed that the Doctor held on to Rose a little tighter "any way I woke up on the planet in a cell, Rose wasn't with me so I set around to find her. To cut a long story short, when I did find Rose she was dead" Jackie made a strangled sobbing sound "well as you can see she isn't dead anymore"

"Thing is mum I was dead for quite sometime, but the reason that I am sitting here now is because the Vortex that was still inside me changed me and brought me back to life" Rose said the last bit quickly.

"Changed, how?" Jackie said shakily while looking Rose over trying to see any changes.

"Well Jackie this is the bit that is going to result in a slap, she is no longer human, she's an alien, one of my race." he quickly stood up and brought Rose with him stationing her in front of him.

"She's an alien? What the hell have you done to my baby girl" she shouted at the Doctor, going to slap him. Rose straightened up and moved completely in front of the Doctor shielding him from her furious mother.

"MUM STOP IT" she calmed down considerably "ok now mum, calm down go and sit down and be quiet" she indicated the chair.

"And you" she turned to the Doctor "stop being a crying baby and be a man, she was only going to slap you, not maim you" she moved the Doctor down onto the chair and sat down on the floor in between his legs, some what protective.

"Now we are going to talk about this civilly" she started to explain everything to Jackie about becoming a Gallifreyan and all the changes that occurred.

Jackie sat there listening to every thing that both of them had to say, and afterward she asked Rose to come into the kitchen with her.

Together the two of them cried, Rose cried because it just hit her that she had changed and that she would long out live her mum and all her friends. Jackie cried because she felt like she had truly lost Rose to the Doctor.

xxx

Saying goodbye to her mum wasn't as hard as she thought it was going to be, it was just like she was moving away from home.

She promised that she would visit soon, but both of them knew that she wouldn't be around as often as she was now, that she would be more preoccupied with the Doctor and traveling.

They both gave Jackie a hug, saying goodbye before walking into the TARDIS.

Jackie stood there watching the TARDIS disappear, as it left she turned away and ventured back to her flat, knowing that she had wouldn't be able to get over the loss of her daughter.

xxx

"So where to next?" he turned to Rose with a grin on his face.

She wrapped her arms around him and whispered in his ear, he grinned and together they went to his room.

xxx

A/N Well that is the end of The After, keep an eye out for the sequel The last of the TimeLords.