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Jackie smiled sleepily. ‘Mm. Said I’ll be fine. Just take it easy.’ She yawned.

‘Go back to sleep,’ Rose said.

‘Will you still be here in the morning?’

Rose leaned over and kissed her mum gently on the forehead. ‘Dunno,’ she said. ‘But I’ll see you soon, whatever.’

Then, as Jackie’s eyes closed again, Rose crept out of the room.

* * *

The Doctor was making a cup of tea in the kitchen.

‘Mum’s asleep,’ Rose said, yawning herself. ‘Not a bad idea, I reckon. I’ve got my room and you can have the sofa.’

The Doctor helped himself to a biscuit. ‘Yeah, then maybe tomorrow we could go and feed the ducks in the park, or p’raps there’ll be a good film on telly.’

She gave him a hard stare. ‘So, you’re telling me you don’t want to hang around.’

‘’S boring,’ he said. ‘Who wants to do ordinary things like sleep, when there’s a universe to explore? What would you rather do, catch forty winks, or nip off to have a look at the moons of Jupiter?’

‘I don’t know,’ she said, teasing. ‘Isn’t it quite cold up there?’

‘Somewhere warm, then!’ he said. ‘We could watch the building of the Great Pyramid, or investigate this rumour I heard about this mad scientist who tried to build asbestos robots to colonise the sun.’

And all of Rose’s tiredness fell away as he spoke. She looked out of the window as the sun rose upon another grey London day, and thought about the alternatives the Doctor was offering. And she realised that while she might truly be the mistress of her own destiny, sometimes there really wasn’t much of a choice.

‘Yeah, all right,’ she said.

So, arm in arm, they left the flat, and walked towards the future.

* * *

Acknowledgements

Huge amounts of thanks go to the lovely Russell T Davies and Helen Raynor for being so helpful, generous, insightful, and just plain fantastic. Oh, and for bringing back Doctor Who so gloriously!

Justin Richards and Steve Cole, fellow authors and much‐loved friends, have been brilliant, as always.

Nothing would have been possible without the support of my family, especially Nick, Mum, Dad and Helen.

Thanks also to David Bailey for invaluable technical assistance and boundless enthusiasm.

* * *

About the author

Jacqueline Rayner is an author and editor who spent nearly seven years working on the BBC’s range of Eighth Doctor novels, but – although sad to see him go – was fickle enough to come to utterly adore his successor almost immediately.

She lives in Essex with two cats, and a husband who is currently nearing the final level of Ratchet and Clank 3. If either Ratchet or Clank is real and is reading this, please get in touch.

* * *

Published by BBC Books, BBC Worldwide Ltd,

Woodlands, 80 Wood Lane, London W12 0TT

First published 2005

Copyright © Jacqueline Rayner 2005

The moral right of the author has been asserted.

Doctor Who logo © BBC 2004

Original series broadcast on BBC television

Format © BBC 1963

‘Doctor Who’, ‘TARDIS’ and the Doctor Who logo are trademarks of the British Broadcasting Corporation and are used under licence.

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any means without prior written permission from the publisher, except by a reviewer, who may quote brief passages in a review.

ISBN 0 563 48627 9

Commissioning Editors: Shirley Patton/Stuart Cooper

Creative Director and Editor: Justin Richards

Doctor Who is a BBC Wales production for BBC ONE

Executive Producers: Russell T Davies, Julie Gardner and Mal Young

Producer: Phil Collinson

This book is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places and incidents are either a product of the author’s imagination or used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual people living or dead, events or locales is entirely coincidental.

Cover design by Henry Steadman © BBC 2005

Typeset in Albertina by Rocket Editorial. Aylesbury, Bucks

Printed and bound in Germany by GGP Media GmbH. Pößneck

For more information about this and other BBC books,

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