It had taken him a while to figure it out, what the TARDIS had been up to. It was so simple really. Donna had just complicated things a bit. The huon energy in Donna's body had caused the TARDIS to yank her into the Console Room. But, the TARDIS had done it intentionally, not accidentally as he'd originally thought. Only problem was, the good old girl had bad aim. She was trying for Rose. Huon energy being what made the TARDIS and the Vortex, well the TARDIS and the Vortex, Rose was teaming with it after Satellite 5.

The Doctor had of course figured this out; it had only taken him a while. He'd also had to make absolute sure that the TARDIS had been correct in her self-done calculations and that it could be accomplished without universes imploding. A long while he'd mussed and calculated and plotted, but being a Time Lord did have a few advantages. Finding another gap in the void had been a bit more challenging. That had taken quite a bit more than a while to accomplish. In the end, they'd stumbled on it, him and the TARDIS. He didn't even have to press a leaver; the ship had done all the work for him.

Of course as luck would have it, Rose had tumbled onto the deck without warning, dripping wet from a shower and clutching a pink bath scrunchy for dear life without even a stitch. Then the lights had gone out in the TARDIS and the Doctor and Rose had to feel their way back to her room to find some kind of clothing. The TARDIS had drifted lifeless in space for nearly a week before she'd managed to scrounge up enough energy that the Doctor could limp her along to the nearest star for a recharge. He and Rose had spent a very long week, at least they assumed it was a week, bit hard to tell in a Time Machine, in the dark, hungry, without even a working bathroom. The TARDIS had been quite upset with the chaos they'd made tripping over things, foraging around for food, and other little inevitable messes in the four rooms they could actually get to.

At first he thought Rose might be angry. After all, he'd not asked if she wanted to come back. Rose had laughed when he'd hesitantly asked her if she was going to slap him. She'd tried to smack his arm playfully, but missed and got his head in the dark and they'd laughed all the harder. When the TARDIS was finally operational, and everything was put back right again, the Doctor had tried once again to take her to Barcelona. They'd ended up on a world even he didn't have a name for fighting some sort of six tongued creature that liked to eat TARDIS's. Since they were in such short supply, the thing was very hungry and rather persistent.

After that, the good Doctor had decided they'd best go back to Earth and clean up the little werewolf problem in the British royal line and let Rose clean out the flat she'd shared with her mum. It was a pretty depressing trip and Rose had a hard time packing her old - old life up in one of the storage rooms in the TARDIS. She did miss her mum, Mickey, her little brother, and her father. But she wouldn't say that to the Doctor, however, and they reached a sort of silent accord. He wouldn't question her about why she wanted to stay with him and she wouldn't ask why he brought her back. They just boxed up everything, shoved it in a room, and promptly went back to saving various and sundry planets on a nearly daily basis.

They'd run into a few problems along the way, nothing too serious, at least not in the Doctor's opinion. That was until he went to find Rose a few TARDIS like weeks after they'd dispatched a telepathic ugly bent on stealing Time Lord tech from an abandoned outpost near Saturn. Things had been unusually slow since and the Doctor was thinking it might be a good time for him and Rose to try and take a little trip to that ever so elusive Barcelona again. He hadn't seen a lot of Rose since they'd dispatched the creature, whose name they never did bother to find out.

He finally tracked her down after searching for quite some time, the TARDIS stubbornly refusing to help. Rose was in her room hanging some clothes away in her closet, when he came up behind her. He was only reaching out to tap her on the shoulder but she screamed and jerked away from him, and ended up huddled in the corner of the closet behind an absurd dress she'd worn to a party on Ceti 4 ages ago.

The Doctor stood there dumb founded for a moment. Rose pulled her self back together and started to climb out of the closet, making a joke about it all. Only the laughter didn't reach her eyes and the Doctor knew something else was wrong, something big.

"Rose?" His voice was soft and he followed her as she walked around the bed towards the door, "Rose, what's wrong?"

She was crying now and the Doctor's hearts sank. He knew this was it. She was going to yell at him for ripping her away without even a goodbye. He jumped a little in surprise when she turned and launched herself at him, grabbing him tight around his middle and sobbing into his chest. "Gah?" He asked wordlessly as she clutched him tighter.

"You don't remember any of it do you?" Rose asked, her voice small and muffled through the fabric of his coat. "None of it? You're not just pretending it didn't happen to make me feel better or to go on like we always do." The last part wasn't a question.

The Doctor wasn't sure what she was talking about, so to buy some time he hugged her back and rested his chin on the top of her head. "Ah...not pretending no." He answered slowly, trying to remember what it was he could have forgotten. Rose started crying harder and the Doctor cringed. Had he done something...then it came to him. That telepathic thief. There'd been a few hours where he'd been under the control of that thing. He thought he'd spent the time repairing some of the tech the creature was after, but what if that was just a planted memory?

"Did I do something to hurt you, Rose?" She stiffened in his arms and started to pull away but he held onto her, giving her a tiny shake to try and make her look at him. "Talk to me, Rose. What happened?" His voice sounded a little desperate to his own ears. "I can't just forget things, Time Lords don't have that option. If I've forgotten events, then I could have effected times lines." Time Lords have excellent memories for a reason. He'd only ever forgotten, truly forgotten, something when he'd been forced to in order to preserve Time – like if he met a future him.

"No." Her voice was hard and she still wouldn't look up at him, tears dripping down her cheeks. "You were accounted for the entire time, Doctor. It's probably best you don't remember." She again tried to move away, wiping at her face to dry the tears.

The Doctor shook his head no and guided her to sit down on the bed and she winced. "Rose, whatever it is I need to know." She tried again to break his hold on her arm and he squeezed tighter. Something dark flitted over her face, something like fear, and he let her go. She quickly stood up and walked to the far corner of the room before sliding down to sit on the floor there. He tried again. "You don't like it when I hide things from you."

She snorted angrily. "Never stops you does it?" He gave a cheeky grin but stopped short when he saw her visibly flinch.

"I..." She stopped. "I don't want you to know." She took a deep breath and finally made eye contact and the Doctor could see her fear and confusion in her eyes. He thought for a moment about simply reading her mind, but he got the impression she wouldn't forgive him that, not after whatever it is that had happened. He was starting to realize her absence from the console room lately must have been deliberate. She'd been avoiding him. He slid off the bed and sat cross legged in front of her, their knees touching and reached out to hold both her hands.

"It can't be that bad. Come on, Rose girl. Tell the old Doctor, he can take it."

Rose shook her head again, her hair falling in front of her eyes. "Not this you can't. I've tried to follow your rules, Doctor. I have tried."

"Rose?" He squeezed her hands. "Whatever it is, I'm not going to be mad at you." He shrugged.

She snorted again. "Oh, don't count on that. This isn't exactly like the time I eat the last of the banana cereal." The Doctor made a face of mock indignation and a small tiny smile managed to flitter across Rose's face.

The Doctor just kept smiling at her, waiting for her to go on. After what seemed like an eternity she lowered her head and started to talk.

"I always try and watch the line, yeah know? The one we've got. Done a pretty good job I think, except at the beach, at Bad Wolf Bay. But that was excusable." The Doctor swallowed hard, starting to get an idea of where this might be headed. Never the less he held tight to her hands, not saying a word. "I don't let myself think about it really, being here's enough." She looked up briefly to catch his eye and he nodded at her to go on. "That...thing that was trying to take the stuff off the base? Yeah, well, he didn't need me to think about it to know it." She sniffled a small bit and took one hand away to wipe at her nose. "He got into my head, saw everything, stuff I don't even let myself think about when I'm awake. Everything." The Doctor ignored the snot and took her hand again.

"Oh, Rose."

She shrugged. "That wouldn't be so bad, after all you killed him. Not like he can go spreading my secrets around." She gave a short harsh laugh and the Doctor suppressed a shiver. "No, he didn't just take it, Doctor, he used it." She looked up again, eyes hard and dark. "He didn't just want the tech your people left behind. He wanted to become a Time Lord and he figured if 'e could break you, make you suffer enough, you'd let him in on the secret to the Time Vortex to make it stop."

The Doctor froze. "How could your memories..."

She shook her head. "Not my memories, but my dreams, my fears, all of it. He figured that the easiest way to hurt you was to hurt me. He couldn't get into your head like he could mine, but he could control your body like Cassandra did. So he got into my head, figured out what he could do to make you hurt the worst." Her voice broke and she looked back down. "So I haven't said anything. I don't want him to win. If I tell you, he'll win." She shuddered and pulled her hands away, wrapping them around her legs and drawing them up to hide her face. "He figured out how to make you hurt the most, by making you hurt me. 'cause that's what he saw in my head. That you are terrified of hurting me."

The Doctor's blood turned to ice. "Rose," His voice was harsh and he knew it, but he also knew Rose would understand it wasn't directed at her. "Rose." She finally looked up at him, eyes tearing up again. "What did he make me do?"

She sobbed again and backed further into the corner when he reached out for her. She shook her head and held one hand up, asking for a moment to compose herself again. By the look of it, it was taking all she had. "I'm over that, Doctor. You startled me, that's all. I'll get over it..." She drew a shaky breath. "It's the other part I'm not doing so well with."

He cocked his head to the side and his mouth started to open, about to tell her again that it couldn't be that bad, when her tiny voice, muffled by her knees squeaked out four little words. "What?"

"I said," Her voice was a little louder, but far from steady. "I think I'm pregnant."