Author's Note: Well, here we are at the last little chapter. This could go on forever since it's just them traveling, but now we've seen what sorts of adventures they'll have. There will be further additions to the series for any major adventures or life changes that might arise, but for now, this story is over. I hope you've enjoyed the ride!

Chapter Eight

After a long and emotional night out with virtually no sleep, the Doctor and Rose were exhausted. They managed to navigate safely back to their house, and Rose found herself very grateful that Lily still napped a lot during the day. When Jack finally made his way out of the TARDIS sometime around noon, Rose was asleep on the couch, Lily sleeping on her chest, and the Doctor was resting on the recliner next to them, a hand reached out to hold Rose's.

Rose heard the low rumble of Jack's voice and guessed the Doctor was awake. She chose to keep her eyes closed and listen, deciding that joining the conversation was too much effort.

"Long night, huh, Doc?" asked Jack, keeping his voice quiet in an attempt to avoid waking the two who appeared to be sleeping on the couch.

"You could say that, yes," replied the Doctor.

"Must have been for you to still be this tired, superior biology and all," said Jack, and Rose could almost hear the wink as he said it.

"I'm awake, mostly," said the Doctor in mild protest. "I'm trying not to wake Lily and Rose."

"How was your date?" asked Jack, still speaking quietly.

"It was...eventful," said the Doctor with a pause. "Overthrew the corrupt, scandalized an entire society. You know, the usual."

"Didn't take long to get back into the swing of things, huh?" Jack continued, and Rose thought she heard him sit in the loveseat, which was the only free seating in the living room at that moment.

"No, it didn't," said the Doctor. "We do seem to have a knack for wandering into trouble. Don't know what I'd do if something ever happened to either of them."

Rose squeezed his hand comfortingly, and the Doctor seemed to realize she was awake, stroking her hand lightly with his thumb.

"We'll keep them safe, Doctor," said Jack. "You know I wouldn't let anything happen to either of them."

"I know," replied the Doctor. "Can't tell you how much I appreciate it, and that's really saying something."

"You seem troubled, Doc," said Jack, and Rose heard the Doctor sigh.

"With everything I've done and seen, Jack, sometimes it's hard to relax, knowing everything that could go wrong," he said.

"You know, Doc," returned Jack, "that's exactly why I do enjoy the good times, and I think you already get that. Any moment, everything could turn to shit, so why waste the time we have, even if it is longer than most people have. Maybe especially because it's longer than most people have."

The Doctor made a sound of agreement and squeezed Rose's hand. She opened her eyes to see him watching her. She smiled at him.

"Hello," she said.

"Hello," he said, smiling back at her.

Lily chose that moment to wake, opening her eyes and looking around, smiling when she saw both parents and "Uncle" Jack. She made a happy noise as the Doctor lifted her from where she had been resting on Rose, pulling her onto his lap.

"And how are you, Miss Lily?" said the Doctor as he bounced his babbling daughter.

Jack chuckled.

"She talks as much as her father, huh, Rosie?" he commented.

Rose nodded and sat up, yawning a bit.

"But she got her mummy's pretty eyes. Yes, she did," said the Doctor as Lily gummed enthusiastically on her fist.

Rose looked over at Jack a moment to be sure he was paying attention before she turned back to face Lily and the Doctor.

"What about her hair, Doctor? Whose hair did she get?" Rose asked, watching the Doctor's face.

"Well, dunno about that yet," he said, leaning closer to look. "Her hair's still…" he trailed off, then got up quickly and moved to stand near the window that was letting in the most light. "Ginger! Her hair is ginger! That's brilliant, that is," he said with his widest grin, turning to share his delight with Rose, who smiled back at him while Jack laughed quietly.

The Doctor hugged Lily, then sat on the floor so he could let her down. She sat next to him, babbling away happily.

"Your Daddy is going to be so jealous of your hair," said Rose with a grin as she watched the two of them.

"You might need help fending off the suitors when she's older, Doc," said Jack.

The Doctor nodded and Rose laughed.

"The poor girl," she said. "Because a disapproving Time Lord isn't enough, any of her boyfriends are going to have to go through an ex-time agent, ex-con, too? She's going to hate you both so much."

"Nah, she's going to love us," said the Doctor, looking at Lily, "because she is her mother's daughter and can forgive us anything, right?"

Rose rolled her eyes, then got up as the phone started ringing.

"Oh, good, you're home, then," said her mother after Rose answered.

"Hello, Mum," said Rose, walking back to the living room door, watching the Doctor and Jack entertain Lily.

"I decided to call before coming over this time so as to avoid the lecture," said Jackie.

"I appreciate it, Mum," Rose replied. "I do like seeing you and having you over."

"You just like warning, right?" Jackie clarified. "You know, like the warning you used to give me when you and himself would drop by in that machine, right?"

Rose sighed and smiled. The Doctor looked up at her when he heard the sigh and grinned at the face that clearly told him she was talking to her mother, then resumed his attentions to Lily.

"You are welcome over whenever you want," said Rose. "I'm not sure what we're having for dinner tonight yet, but why don't you and Dad and Tony come over for a while, yeah?"

"Oh, right, because you assume I don't have any plans. Sure, we'll come over, but only because I love you," came Jackie's response.

"That's great, Mum," said Rose, ignoring the first part of her mother's statement. "I'll see you in a little bit then."

She ended the call and returned the phone to its base, then let the others know they'd be having company before she moved to the kitchen to figure out what they would eat.

O~O~O~O~O~O

The rest of the afternoon and evening was pleasantly hectic. At one point, Rose found herself watching her family at the dinner table. The Doctor was talking to Pete, her mother was focused entirely on Lily, and Jack was sneaking Tony bits of food to sneak in turn to Puff, who was purring contentedly at the boy's feet.

She thought about this as she relaxed in bed with the Doctor.

"Our family is perfectly weird," she told him.

He made a sound of agreement before asking, "Why do you say that?"

"Well," said Rose, "My DNA is part time vortex, however that works; you are part Time Lord; our daughter is both of those plus human, of course. My mother is from a different world than the one we're living on. My father isn't really my father even though he definitely is. My brother is technically my full-blooded brother but actually more like a half-brother. Jack isn't technically related to either of us but is completely part of the family, and we'd never have met him if I hadn't accidentally made his parallel version and this one both a bit on the immortal side. And we've got a cat who came from Italy and whose first owner was an alien that could be mistaken for a yeti."

The Doctor chuckled.

"Mmm, I suppose we wouldn't quite pass as a typical family if anyone looked close enough. It does depend on your definition of 'typical,' though," he added. "For example, on some planets, the typical family includes at least ten children per adult, with three adults per nuclear family. Of course, we wouldn't be considered typical there, either, would we?"

Rose snuggled close to the Doctor, careful not to kick Puff from where the cat was curled up near her feet. She had her head on his chest and an arm around his waist as they talked.

"That's true," she said. "Our lifestyle is a bit on the unusual side, too, I suppose. Probably aren't many families on Earth who travel in a time machine regularly."

"You're probably right," said the Doctor. "Speaking of, where would you like to go next?"

"Let's do somewhere on this planet next. Maybe see how different the past is here?" Rose suggested.

"That sounds fantastic," replied the Doctor, stroking her hair. "And then maybe we can check out the future. Not just on Earth, but humanity's future, show Lily where it's headed. There's a particularly fascinating era that I was considering. People speak a mix of English and Chinese, and…"

The two continued exchanging ideas for places to visit until they drifted off to sleep. Rose's dreams that night were of the ordinary-for-her variety, filled with visions of traveling to new places, of seeing new things and meeting new people, and of her husband saying, "Hello, I'm the Doctor. I'm over 900 years old, or I'm six, depending on how you look at it. This is my Rose and our Lily, and we come in peace, unless you've plans to destroy the planet."

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jacks marie: Yes, the Oncoming Storm certainly came out to play in the last chapter. Thanks so much for all of your comments!