A/N: I'm sorry! I know I should have updated this ages ago, but my other stories have been hogging my muse! (Such as Out of Sync, which is part of my Bending the Universe 'verse but bloating in my brain and and growing and growing each day.) I'll try to update sooner next time, but I really should concentrate on studying. Procrastination FTW!

R&R!

'*'*'*'*'*'*'*'*'*'

From the side alley Rose observed the people wandering past and wondered how many of them were actually Time Agents and conmen.

"The London Blitz is great for self cleaners – Pompeii's nice if you want to make a vacation of it though, but you've got to remember to set your alarm for volcano day," Captain Jack Harkness explained with a small, smug grin.

Beside her was Aquilina, the young girl who'd tried to pick her pockets, and she wondered what kind of role she should play to find out more.

"So, what's your story," asked Rose, giving her an apple from her purse, trying to convey honesty and trustworthiness. "How'd you end up on the streets?"

Aquilina looked at her suspiciously but bit into the apple. "My father was a healer, and died of a sickness he'd tried to cure," she answered sourly. "My mother was heavy with child then and couldn't keep the house. All our family was dead and there was no one to take care of us. Mother died in child birth a month later, taking my brother with her. My sister and I were left with nothing. On our tenth day on the streets Marius found us. He led us to the house other children like us use. Children that are free but don't have anything. Some of the older ones left to work at the Lupanar. We sleep there, at the house, but we have to find our own food."

"Are there many of you at the house?" Rose asked. How much food did she have in her purse again?

"I don't know," shrugged Aquilina. "There are five that are less than seven summers, seven that are less than twelve summers but more than seven summers, and us older ones there are something twelve. And Marius. But he's even older."

"Twenty five then," counted Rose quickly. "How big is the house you sleep in?"

"We all have room to lay down on the hey and there's still some room for new children if we find them. And there's still room for the table where we eat every evening," Aquilina answered, obviously wondering what this lady was after. No one that well dressed had ever cared about her or the other children at the house, even when their parents had been alive.

"Can you show me the house?" asked Rose gently. You always got more flies with honey rather than vinegar.

Aquilina hesitated. "We've never had a grown up lady with us before... Your dress is weird. It's colored like a triumphant general, white and gold, but the way it's cut and the material... I've never seen them before."

"It's not from around here, I travel much," answered Rose, omitting the fact that she traveled all of Time and Space rather than the Roman Empire. "Also, it's white because I'm not yet married."

"You're not?" frowned Aquilina. "Then how can you travel? Is it with your father?"

"No," answered Rose with a small, painful smile. "My father died when I was small. I travel with my friends."

"Oh..." Aquilina bit her lower lip. "I suppose you could come, as long as it's just you," she said and ate the rest of her apple as she led Rose by hand through the streets.

The house, it turned out, was an old barn at the very edge of the town, well away from the hustle and bustle of of the market. It was a good half and hour walk and Rose was very thankful indeed for the comfortable sandals the TARDIS had provided for her. When she looked back at the town, her eyes were drawn to the imposing mountain to the right of it. The sun reflected brightly from the sea in the opposite direction of where they were going.

"Rome indeed," she muttered under her breath and fervently hoped it wasn't 79 AD, but knowing the Doctor's luck, the bloody volcano would erupt within the next twenty-four hours. "Almost Naples though, almost Naples. Got to give him that."

Politely she listened to Aquilina chatter on and on about the children residing in the house as they walked to the little fenced piece of land in front of the barn. There was a goat tied to a pole there, eating the grass, and two four-year-olds playing tag. Or, what superficially looked like tag.

"Marius!" called Aquilina as she walked confidently to the house. "There's a lady wanting to see you!"

Rose smoothed her dress unnecessarily as she followed her young friend to the open door. The inside of the house was dark like she'd expected, and one half was filled with hay that looked soft enough for sleep, even if it didn't look very inviting. On the other side of the room was indeed dominated by a large table and a young man in mid twenties sat the head of it with a bit of chalk and a dark piece of stone as a board. He was doing some calculations and frowning at the results but at Aquilina's call he looked up with a bright smile.

"Aquilina! You're home early!" he said and got up from his seat just in time for her to hug him tightly in the middle. "Did you have a good day?"

Aquilina looked uncertain as she let go of him. "No," she admitted. "I got caught."

"But you've still got both hands," Marius observed teasingly.

"That's 'cause the lady whom I was stealing from is nice," answered Aquilina and gestured to Rose who still stood in the doorway. "She gave me an apple and asked me some questions. Then she said she wanted to meet you."

Marius looked up and Rose saw that he had the darkest eyes she'd ever seen. They were rather... enticing.

"Hello, fair lady," said Marius with a small bow, prompting Aquilina to do the same. "I am Marius, the son and heir of augur Lucius Petrus Dextrus."

"Nice to meet you Marius, son and heir of augur Lucius Petrus Dextrus, I am called Rose by those who know me," she told him with an answering smile but didn't return their bow. "May I come in?"

"You may, my lady," he said quickly and swept his hand in front of him in a gesture of welcoming her further. "Please, have a seat. We don't have any wine but Aquilina could fetch you some water if you wish."

Rose sat to the other end of the table. "No thank you, I am quite well. But tell me, how does the son and heir of an augur end up taking homeless children under his care?" she asked.

"Ten years ago," Marius started and sat back down, "my father was a kind man that cared for his fellow free men and women despite their position in society. But then he suddenly changed and took up the cult of Vulcan. I was but sixteen summers, my lady, and he almost sold me to slavery before I managed to escape. I did it before they'd marked me in any way and thus retained my freedom. This place was left to me by my uncle without my father knowing, so at least I had a place to sleep. In my childhood I'd learned writing and counting and public speaking and politics so I easily found a job... Then I noticed I wasn't the only free youth living without my parents. I invited them to share my house, as my father would have wanted me to before he changed. After that, I just kept bringing anyone I found without a roof over their head here. I teach them to read and to count but without anything else to recommend them, some of them still end up in the Lupanar, becoming slaves in all but name. All who have left and have work, they send some money for me to feed the children but lately the prize of food has gone up and... well, you caught Aquilina."

"Indeed," Rose said thoughtfully. "You've done well." She opened her her purse and took out sandwiches wrapped in a cloth. "But for now, let it be my treat," she told him and unwrapped the sandwiches. "Will the children from outside be joining us?"

Marius' eyes widened as he saw the big bundle of sandwiches pulled from her small purse, glancing between it and Rose with disbelief, and Rose could see the cogs turn in his head. He paled when he came to a conclusion.

"If-if it please my Lady," he finally stammered in the answer to her question. "Aquilina, get Domitilla and Quintus."

Aquilina nodded and hurried to do as she was told, also shooting glances at Rose's purse.

"My Lady..." Marius hesitated. "What are you doing here? Shouldn't you be, I don't know... on Olympus with your Lord Father?"

Rose looked at him sharply. Surely he wasn't suggesting...

"You're Fortuna, aren't you? And that's the cornucopia," he continued, gesturing to her purse.

He was suggesting it.

"I've been called Fortuna before," she admitted, reluctant to accept the false godhood, but... it might be easier for them to believe she was the goddess Fortuna than a time traveler.

"Is something going to happen?" asked Marius with concern. "Because... you gods don't walk among us mortals unless something is happening."

Rose bit her lip. She had to ask... "Tell me, what is the mortal year? Us immortals do not pay much attention to the passage of time."

"79 AD," answered Marius. "23rd of August."

Rose inhaled sharply. She'd been right. It was fucking volcano day. She'd asked the Doctor about Pompeii and the eruption of Mount Vesuvius after they'd taken Jack on board and he'd explained it was a fixed point in time that couldn't be altered. 16 000 would die because of the eruption. And there was nothing the Doctor could do to stop it.

And Rose wasn't with him.

She knew ho to survive this, she'd always been a survivor, but... Would the Doctor survive the ramifications of this? Of being unable to help? Of letting so many die?

Marius was observing her intently. "So something is going to happen," he concluded.

"Yes," she sighed, letting her head fall to her hands. "Bad luck is on Pompeii and Herculaneum."

"That's why you're here..." he said quietly. "You bring dispense both good and bad luck regardless of what the receiver deserves."

She lifted her head and shook it. "It was an accident. I'n traveling with the Doctor, and he's a bad driver. We were supposed to go to Rome but... maybe we were meant to come here."

Before Marius could say anything Aquilina came in, holding hands with the two young children Rose had seen outside. The girl let go of Aquilina and ran up to Rose.

"'Lina say you bring food," she declared and promptly wrapped her muddy arms around Rose's middle.

With an amused laugh Rose used her dress to clean the child, Domitilla if she recalled correctly, and placed her to sit on her lap. "In deed," she told the girl and handed her a sandwich.

Domitilla's eyes widened at this and slowly she reached for it. Everyone's eyes were on her when she bit into it. She chewed on it before declaring she liked it.

Marius, Aquilina and the boy, Quintus, took it as a sign to start eating the food themselves.

'*'*'*'*'*'*'*'*'

After the impromptu lunch, Rose headed back to the market place to get back to the TARDIS, her dress wiped clean in front of Marius disbelieving eyes at a fabric that didn't sustain any stains from mud. Aquilina walked along with her, intending to introduce the Rose lady to her sister Augusta, and on the way to Augusta's normal hunting ground, they walked past the place there the TARDIS was supposed to be. But the space was empty.

Rose's feeling of panic was quelled by the reassuring mental presence of the beloved ship who reassured Rose that she hadn't accidentally been left behind but that her outer shell had been manually moved, and that she would pick Rose up before they finally left Pompeii. That in turn meant that Rose returned to the house with Aquilina and Augusta, and put more food to the table, amazing everyone again, though Marius was the only one who had made the false connection to Fortuna and the cornucopia. Rose jokingly called it the Last Supper in her mind.

That night Rose slept between Aquilina and Augusta. Well, as much as the earthquakes allowed, spending the rest of the night comforting the children.

In morning though, she pulled Marius to the side.

"Lets spend the day on the hills today," she told him, glancing nervously at Vesuvius from the corner of her eye. "I'll feed all of you and it'd be good for the children to spend the day playing. Maybe we could even have playful competitions of who can read the best and accurately do sums the fastest."

Marius nodded suspiciously. "What ever it is, it happens today."

"Yes," nodded Rose decisively. She knew she shouldn't, but it wasn't like anyone would pay attention to a bunch of homeless children and their tales of an erupting volcano and only the Plinys would still be the only recorded witness.

With that decided, they had just reached a distance far enough for Rose's comfort when the volcano erupted. Stoically Rose watched Pompeii crack from earthquakes and get buried in soot and flying rocks, the people running to the docks instead of the safety of the hills. Many of the young children were weeping and pressed closer to her and Marius, while the older ones were comforting each other.

Among all the destruction Rose felt the TARDIS dematerialize, then metrialize, dematerialize again and finally materialize a hundred feet to the right from them.

Out stepped a Pompeian family, parents and two teenage children, followed by Donna and the Doctor. They too watched the destruction of the town.

Rose started herding the children over to them, Marius staring at the TARDIS in amazement, probably cementing his belief in gods for good.

"Doctor!" she called, slipping back to her normal accent instead of the posh one she'd pretended to have, when they were close enough to be heard over the terrible rumbling of the volcano.

He turned around, a smile forming on his face when he caught her in a hug. But when he pulled away, he was frowning. "And where have you been? I thought you were staying in the TARDIS!"

Rose snorted. "As if I would stay in the TARDIS while you're gallivantin' around "Rome". Nope, not me. As soon as the TARDIS gave me the all-clear I was out of the doors. Didn't take me too long to realize you'd parked wrong and that we were in Pompeii an' not in Rome, but you know me, I was already makin' friends." She gestured to the homeless children behind her. "I know you said it was a fixed point in time, but they're all orphans with no other family. No one's going to come lookin' for them, an' no one's going to pay them attention if they went somewhere else."

"See, Spaceman, Rose didn't let a 'fixed point in time' to stop her from saving people!" Donna butted in with a smirk.

"Good to see you too, Donna," smiled Rose. "Enjoyin' the ancient world?"

"Not as much as I could, had we not landed in Pompeii," Donna declared. "But... as far as first trips go, this has really told me what to expect."

"That bad, huh," nodded Rose sympathetically. "On my first trip, this idiot let me believe that the whole human race had died out when we watched Earth get destroyed in the year five billion. Mind you, by then the humans had danced with other species for close to five billion years an' were more of a mixed heritage."

"Rose?" Marius asked for her attention.

"Yes Marius?" she asked, turning back to him.

"What should we do now?" he asked, uncertainty clear in his voice.

Rose checked her purse and handed it to him. "There's enough food to last thirty people for a week," she said and gestured to the family the Doctor and Donna had rescued. "Make your way to civilization, an' burn that," she pointed at the purse, "when it's empty. It'll come back to me on Olympus."

"Yes my Lady," he said with a quick bow, looking at the purse reverently.

Then, as the locals continue watching their town's destruction, the Doctor, Rose and Donna slipped back to the TARDIS.

"Who did he think you were?" asked Donna.

"Oh, you know," grinned Rose. "Goddess Fortuna."

Laughter escaped the Doctor as he started the dematerialization process.