Writer's Notes: I set myself a challenge to write a story for Nine and Rose. And also to try not to use the word fantastic or else I'd end up having the Doctor say it every other sentence! Never really tried to write either or them before and I came up with this story literally an hour ago, so sorry if it's rough around the edges. It takes place immediately after Father's Day. And most importantly, this story is dedicated to JessicaRae95. She's a brilliant writer, she's written some great Nine/Rose amongst other things, and she is absolutely fantastic. This one's for you Jessica!

Rose Tyler had just watched her dad die. It had happened years ago, but for Rose it was now so fresh in her mind: her own father sacrificing himself to save her and everyone else in that church. She could still hear the sickening crunch as the car hit him.

She did her best to wipe the tears away but they kept coming. She cursed herself for being so wound up. Her dad had been dead for most of her life. She shouldn't feel like this. So what if because of the magic of the Tardis it had happened only yesterday for her. She had to be better than this.

She couldn't go home. She couldn't let her poor old mum see her like this. Drag back up all those old memories of her dad for her too. So she'd locked herself in one of the Tardis bedrooms to sort herself out instead. She sat on the bed like she had when she was a child, hugging her knees to her chest. Her whole body was shaking and jumping as she gasped and hiccupped, trying desperately to catch her breath as tears strolled down her cheeks.

The pain and loss of losing her dad seemed so much more real now. She'd only really known him through her mum's eyes until yesterday. Now she'd met him, she'd spoken to him, she'd loved him, and she'd lost him. Her heart was breaking. She felt like she might never mend it again.

Rose hoped her eyes weren't still red as she re-entered the console room and saw the Doctor running around, pulling switches and levers. He beamed when he saw her but said nothing. She appreciated that he'd given her space. "Where to?" He called across to her. She shrugged, struggling to find her voice. "I know just the place," he grinned.

Suddenly the TARDIS rocked and then seemed to do a barrel roll as sparks flew from the console and an explosion sounded down one of the corridors. Anyone else would have panicked. Rose couldn't help smiling at the Doctor's reaction: a frown and a simple "I'm not sure that was supposed to happen."

Suddenly a strip of blue light tore open like a scar in mid-air just left of the console. Rose shielded her eyes, stepping back from the light that seemed to burn. It faded and with a noise like paper being scrunched up it snapped shut. In its place was a male figure in all black metallic armour with pipes and tubing holding each piece together and attaching some sort of breathing apparatus to his face. He raised his arm and Rose saw to her horror that there was some sort of futuristic gun strapped to his wrist. She braced herself for a bullet.

"Excuse me," the Doctor's voice cut through the room and the newcomer spun round to face him. The Doctor, hands clasped behind his back and a polite smile plastered across his face stepped up to him and raised his eyebrows: "what exactly do you think you're doing?" There was silence for a moment. Then the man in black growled in a raspy, muffled voice: "Doc-Tor."

"That's my name," the Doctor patted him on the shoulder, "nice to meet you but we're busy so bye now." He turned to walk away. The man raised his gun arm once again. "Doctor look out!" Rose shouted at him. "Thanks," he replied, "never would have thought of that myself." Rose gritted her teeth, resisting the urge to run over and slap him.

"You will come with me," the man snarled threateningly. "I don't think I will" the Doctor stuffed his hands in his pockets, the smile gone, "but if you give me a second then I'll just check with myself to be sure. Yeah, it's a no." The black armoured invader stood there, entirely uncertain how to respond. Then he swivelled to point the gun at Rose again.

"You will sur-ren-der or this one dies." He barked. Rose swallowed, glancing at the Doctor. His eyes had narrowed, he seemed to be seriously weighing his options now. He took his hands out of his pocket. Rose expected to see his familiar sonic screwdriver in his hand, but they came out empty. He raised his hands into the air and a smile crept back onto his lips. "Okay, I surrender."

A strange noise came from their uninvited guest and it took Rose a moment to realise he was laughing. "The Doc-tor of war," he taunted, "the but-cher of skull moon. The bring-er of dark-ness. De-feat-ed by his attach-ment to a yel-low hair-ed mon-key."

"Oi! I'm not a monkey!" Rose was outraged.

"Yeah, she just hasn't showered for a while. It's an easy mistake to make," thr Doctor added helpfully.

At that point Rose threatened to take off her shoe and throw at him and the Doctor shrugged apologetically. Rose didn't know what the Doctor had up his sleeve but she knew one thing: she was nobody's hostage. She wasn't going to be used by whoever this freak was supposed to be, least of all to hurt her friend. So at that point she risked doing something that could end badly: she reached out and yanked down a lever on the Tardis console.

The Tardis reacted immediately, jerking to the side. The villain stumbled backwards, almost falling over, his arm no longer pointing anywhere near Rose. Rose grinned and charged forwards, tackling him to the ground and ripping the gun from his arm. The man howled in pain like the gun had been part of him. "Get back Rose," the Doctor's voice sounded from behind her, serious now, his northern accent thickening. Rose rolled off of him and backed away. The Doctor had his trusty sonic screwdriver in his hand now and was pointing it at the intruder like it was a gun of his own.

"Oth-ers will come for you," their enemy hissed, "your sins will nev-er be for-got-ten Time Lord. So ma-ny bount-ies on your head, the whole uni-verse will be com-ing for you." The Doctor flashed a fake smile at his opponent, softly answering: "let them come. I've got all the universe I need right here." And he reached out with his free hand to take Rose's, squeezing it softly. "Bye now," the Doctor said with a dead serious tone as his screwdriver lit up, emitting a low whirring noise. The other man screamed and was engulfed in blue light again. Then, just as quickly as he'd arrived, he was gone.

"Who was that?" Rose didn't waste time demanding explanations. The Doctor returned to the console unit silently and started pressing buttons, refusing to meet her eye. "Empath assassin," he said at last, "they ride emotional wavelengths. He locked onto an emotion so strong he was able to use it to breach the Tardis." Rose's heart sunk. "I'm sorry," she mumbled quietly.

He looked up at her: "what for?" Rose hesitated. "I let my dad's... it got to me. I'm sorry I let that assassin in." The Doctor looked at her for a moment then looked back down at the controls: "you didn't let it in. Human emotions aren't nearly strong enough for an empath assassin to use, yet alone to get through the Tardis' defences." Rose looked at him puzzled: "then who did?"

"I did," the Doctor said quietly, pulling a lever which made the Tardis wheeze and groan before landing with a slight shudder. "Surprised it took this long to be honest," he muttered. "Why... I mean... what were you emotional about?" There was genuine concern dripping from Rose's voice. The Doctor so rarely admitted to any real emotion. The Doctor looked at her with big sad eyes like a puppy dog and smiled: "the TARDIS has surprisingly thin walls," he said.

"Come on!" He shouted suddenly, "you don't want to miss this." He darted for the doors. Rose was stunned. Had he just said what she thought he'd just said? That the thing that caused such an emotional response in him that the assassin could get in was... hearing her crying? Dazed, she followed him out of the TARDIS.

She didn't know where they were, she didn't ask. She stared in wonder at the dark purple sky illuminated by such impossible sparkling lights. They formed such beautiful patterns in the sky. "Nobody's really sure what causes it," the Doctor whispered to her, "but the natives believe that each one of those lights is the soul of a hero, held in the sky as a memorial forever." Rose blinked away tears as her eyes set of the one of the lights, twinkling like her dad's eye used to whenever he had a crazy idea.

"Doctor," she said quietly, reaching for his hand. They were sat down now, cross-legged on a grassy hill, staring up at the sky. "Yeah?" He asked, tearing his eyes away from the lights to look at her. "You're a legend, famous throughout the galaxy, with more titles than I count," she started. His face darkened but he kept listening. "I was just wondering..." she almost didn't dare ask.

"Why does someone like you care about someone as normal as me?"

The Doctor looked away. "Maybe normal's what I need right now," he mumbled. Then he looked back at her, his eyes locking onto hers, holding her gaze with his own. "Rose Tyler, there is nothing special about me. I'm just a very lucky idiot who tries to act tough. But you..." he cupped her cheek with his hand, gently stroking with his thumb: "you are so much more than you realise."

Rose looked away to stop herself from crying again. They both looked back up at the lights in the sky.

"What was your plan?"

"When?"

"When you surrendered. You had your 'I've got a plan' smile on."

"Wasn't it obvious?"

"No. Or I wouldn't be asking would I?"

"If there's one thing I've learnt about time and space it's don't mess with Rose Tyler. My plan was to wait and see what you did then follow your lead."

"... maybe it's me they should start calling the oncoming storm and the bringer of darkness."

He laughed. He really did adore her. "Maybe they should."