The Doctor whistled to himself as he scrubbed at a pan caked with the remains of his dinner. He didn't like how quiet the house was without Rose. She was away on a business trip for Torchwood. He would have come with her, but Torchwood had only provided enough money for one plane ticket, and plus he needed to stay with the growing TARDIS.

He whistled in the direction of said TARDIS and smiled as his whistle was followed by a humming noise. The new TARDIS didn't look anything like a TARDIS, not yet anyway. The chameleon circuit was adjusting and currently, the TARDIS looked like a very strange lamp. It had been a book just the other day, and a shoe the day before that. At least it was registering that it was in a domestic setting, and not trying to become some alien dwelling, or a giant mushroom.

The Doctor laughed at the thought of his ship as a giant mushroom. If that were the case he and Rose might as well paint themselves blue and watch out for cats.

Chuckling to himself he resumed his battle with the pan. He didn't mind chores like the dishes or tidying up the house. It was so domestic, well, everything he did now was domestic, but he found that he didn't mind as much as he thought he would. He knew it was because of Rose. She had settled into a little routine while she had been in the parallel world without him, and he had had to become a part of that routine. Which meant long days at Torchwood with everyone asking him questions about what this was, or how this worked.

He didn't like to be the center of attention, but everyone knew that he was the most knowledgeable person when it came to aliens. He liked being able to help them, but sometimes it was just plain tedious. But he had Rose, she was there to make everything better, to slip her hand into his when they asked if he could stay after hours to investigate this or that. They often worked together, the husband and wife team if you wanted to call it that. Rose would carry out whatever tasks he assigned her to, while he tweaked with machinery, or browsed over charts. He'd been given other assistants, but none of them were as good as Rose. Plus, he would never dream of snogging anyone else for five minutes during what was meant to be a coffee break.

The members of Torchwood had been wary of the Doctor when he'd first stepped through their doors. It took them a while to realize to fully trust him. Jake and Pete had vouched for him, and after he helped avert a meteorite from crashing into Cardiff, he was welcomed with open arms, and given a job alongside Rose.

The Doctor didn't know why Torchwood had only wanted Rose for the trip. He was hesitant to let her go at first, claiming that anything could happen to her and that he should be there to make sure she was safe. She had given him that smile that always made him go weak in the knees, and then she told him he worried too much. In the end, he had let her go, after she had explained to him that Ianto Jones would be going along as well, the parallel Ianto that is. He was one of their good friends, who also worked at Torchwood and was in a not so secret relationship with Jake.

The Doctor was always surprised at how utterly parallel this world was. He had yet to find a parallel Martha and Donna, but he had a feeling that they were out there.

When the TARDIS was fully grown and ready for use, he was going to take Rose and explore every part of their parallel world. They had both agreed that as soon as the TARDIS was ready, they were going to make every single minute with it count. They had promised rides to Pete and Tony. Tony was especially keen on exploring what was out there, having grown up on Rose's stories of her adventures in time and space.

The Doctor finally succeeded in getting the pan clean, and was just about to start on the rest of the dishes when the phone rang.

Wiping his hands on a dishtowel, he answered the phone with a cheery, "Hullo?"

"Hey, you," Rose's voice came through to him.

He smiled and said happily, "Rose! How is it going? How's the hotel? Nice? No aliens?"

Rose laughed and replied, "Everything is great. And there aren't any aliens."

"Good," the Doctor said, leaning against their countertop, "You'll be pleased to know," he said proudly, "that I haven't burned the flat down yet."

"Yet?"

"Well, there was an incident with my toast this morning, but everything's fine."

Rose giggled from the other end of the phone and the Doctor smiled. He loved that giggle.

"I miss you, Rose."

"I miss you too," Rose replied.

"How long is this trip? A week? Blimey that's a long time."

"It's jus' seven days," Rose said. Her voice had a far away tone as she said, "We've been apart for a lot longer than that before."

"Boy do I remember," the Doctor said sadly. He sniffed. "But we're together now! Well, not right now, but once those seven days are up, Miss Rose," he lowered his voice to a low growl, "I'm gonna give you a welcome home party you won't forget."

"Mmmm, is that so?"

"Oh yes."

The TARDIS clunked suddenly and the Doctor said into the phone, "The TARDIS misses you as well."

"Is it still a book?" Rose asked.

"Nope. It's a lamp now, and no, I haven't tried to turn it on."

"How was I supposed to know that it was going to pose as a book?" Rose replied.

The Doctor chuckled. "But I do think she liked you ruffling through her pages."

"Whatever," Rose said.

"She's going to be wonderful one day," the Doctor said, running a thumb down the lampshade of his tiny ship.

It hummed in response and he smiled.

"Do you want me to hang up so that you can have some alone time with your space lamp?" Rose asked.

There was a sound from the Doctor's end of the phone and then the Doctor cried, "Oh! Oh that's brilliant!"

"What? What is?" Rose asked.

The Doctor spoke excitedly into the phone, "She's a clock now! A beautiful little glass clock."

He was silent a moment as he examined the clock. It was about the size of a breadbox. Crystal clear glass surrounded a stunning clock face complete with two ticking black hands. He brushed his fingers of the face of the clock, and it swung inward to reveal a little compartment. Inside was a tiny column that glowed blue.

"Oh Rose," the Doctor said breathlessly into the phone, "Rose, you need to see this."

"What? What is it?" Rose said excitedly.

"It's the TARDIS," the Doctor replied softly, "She's grown a console room." He laughed happily, "She's even got a tiny time rotor and everything. Oh, Rose she's so beautiful."

"Get the computer," Rose ordered, "I want to see."

"Oh right!" the Doctor cried, "Just a sec!"

He ran into their bedroom and grabbed his laptop off the bed. Opening it up as he ran back to the TARDIS he pressed the button on top of the computer screen.

"Okay," he said into the phone.

The screen flickered and then Rose appeared, staring intently at an area to the Doctor's right.

"Hold on," she said.

She fidgeted with something on her laptop and then she looked out at the Doctor and smiled.

"You need a shave," she said with a laugh.

He rubbed at his stubble covered cheek indignantly, "I thought you liked my rough look."

"I like any look on you." She gave him that tongue in teeth smile and he grinned broadly.

She was dressed in pink pajamas. Her hair was damp, she must have just finished an evening shower, and it fell down her shoulders. He thought she looked gorgeous, and he told her so.

"Ta," she replied with a grin, then she looked serious as she said, "Show me the TARIDS!"

The Doctor moved the laptop so that the camera was facing the tiny clock.

"Here she is!" he said proudly. He pointed to the inside of the clock face, "Can you see the blue glow?"

"Yeah," Rose said.

"Isn't she amazing?" the Doctor said, letting Rose get a good look at the interior of the clock.

He could hear Rose laughing and he turned the computer screen to face him again as he asked, "What?"

"Nothing," Rose replied, covering her mouth with her hand. She smiled, "I swear people are gonna think the TARDIS is your child or something, the way you go on about her."

"Well, she's as good as," the Doctor said, smiling. The TARDIS whirred and the Doctor gave it a little pat.

Rose bit her lip and the Doctor asked, "Something wrong?"

She shook her head and gave him a weak smile, "Just tired, that's all."

"You should go to sleep," the Doctor said, "It's almost, what? No," he put a finger up, "don't tell me. It's two minutes, and fourteen seconds till eleven pm. Yes?" He looked hopefully at Rose.

Rose checked a clock on a table next to the hotel bed and then said, "Exactly right."

"I am a Lord of time," the Doctor said grinning, "Gotta remind you of it occasionally."

Rose rolled her eyes. She stretched and the Doctor was treated to a view of Rose's delicate stomach as her PJ top rode up a bit. She pulled it down quickly and he gave her a smirk.

"I'm gonna hit the sack," Rose announced.

"K," the Doctor replied, "Sleep well. I love you." He smiled.

"Love you too," Rose replied. She blew him a kiss, which he pretended to catch and then she turned her laptop off.

The Doctor shut his laptop and sighed. He looked over at the tiny TARDIS. It was humming softly, as though it too were going to fall asleep. The Doctor shut the face of the clock and the TARDIS gave a soft buzzing noise as he let his fingers linger on its glass surface.

He could feel the tiny ship vibrating, growing, maturing, preparing itself for the day when it would be ready to follow in its predecessor's path and travel the stars.