Author's Note: Final Chapter! For this episode. It's… mostly fluff. But good fluff! With a little hint that The Doctor knows Neil deGrasse Tyson. I'm sure they sit around on Friday nights drinking Hypervodkas and downgrading planets. Come back Thursday for Episode III:

Doctor Who: Parallax – Shake It Out A stopover in London to restock the pantry goes thoroughly to pot when Rose is forced to intervene in the life of a very familiar medical resident. Soon, Rose and The Doctor are separated, and she's fighting for her life alongside a close friend who hasn't met her, yet.

Believer29: Thank you so much for dropping a line! I'm glad you're enjoying it, and just thrilled you feel I'm staying on track with the characters. Nine and Rose are perfect, they just are, and while I so desperately just wanted to have them adventuring again (and therefore had no choice but to swerve drastically from the Canon), I didn't want to change them (beyond the normal, natural evolution that characters go through). I totally relate to your situation, too, being several years out from last writing on here. I used to have a couple fics posted for Harry Potter and The Mummy. And they were pretty amateur. So they're not there, anymore. :D So, here's to long hiatuses, and returns, and Nine getting a chance to keep his Rose! TK: And busy kicking off the next episode. :D Thanks so much for hanging in. Nine and Rose really are a force of nature when they work together. Fun to write and hopefully equally fun to read! Cori: But not Lynda sweet, let's make that clear. I didn't like Lynda much… Not sure why… Mauve Guest: I loved that about him, too. He struck a perfect balance between making sure she stood on her own two feet and learned to be quick and resourceful and making sure nothing exploded in the process. Unless he wanted it exploded. In which case, he embraced the tradition of BYOB (Bring Your Own Bomb).

Several days after his attempted assassination, and his daughter's death, Galileo Galilei sat at a modest wood table on the back patio of the estate house, partaking in a glass of red as the sun slowly set over the rolling hills. Sister Maria Celeste had been laid to rest earlier that day, and he'd been graciously permitted by Pope Urban VIII to attend the service in Florence. Now, returned to his hospitable confinement, he sat in contemplation as he watched the light slowly fade from the sky. He hardly noticed the chill, nor the influx of gnats and mosquitoes. Instead he reminisced over his dear Virginia and wondered what on Earth he was meant to do with her gone.

For all that his mind wandered, Signor Galilei did not miss, for a second, the strange and familiar whirring sound that slowly grew in intensity. Immediately sitting upright and tabling his wine glass, Galileo, pushed himself laboriously to his feet, knees aching in protest, and turned to see the faint outline of a large blue box gradually solidifying on the far side of stone patio. Eyes open wide and lips parted slightly in wonder, he walked closer, stopping some ten feet away as the TARDIS fully materialized and her engines wound down. Galileo held his breath the scant few moments it took for the door to open.

The man who called himself The Doctor stepped out, first. With failing eyes in the evening light, Signor Galilei could still make out the unconventional but genuine smile of the 'Time Lord.' As he cleared the entryway, his lady Rose followed. They were dressed just as they'd been when they'd left three nights prior; he, dark from head to toe in that worn leather jacket and bizarrely straight-legged pants, she in her funny pink shoes, scandalously form-fitting trousers with the dozen pockets, and ¾ sleeve button-up blouse. No stranger, nor more suited, a pair he'd ever seen.

"Good evening," Galileo greeted, unsure what else to say, "Is there – a problem?" He would normally be far more congenial to visitors, but in his admittedly limited experience, these two tended to herald trouble.

"No," The Doctor assured, grinning wide, "We came to check in, is all. See how you are."

"Oh," Galileo said, eyebrows raised slightly.

"He's stalling," The woman, hair still wound up in a messy bun, turned about to survey her surroundings, "Not good at small talk, him. Blimey!" Noticing the pike still stuck in the side of the TARDIS, Rose quickly stepped up and wrenched the offending weapon from the wooden box with a cringe. "Sorry old girl," she murmured, tossing the pike aside and laying her hand over the split in the wood. Beneath her fingers, the ship's exterior grew warm, and as it started to glow gold she took her hand away.

"Heals herself," The Doctor pointed out, unnecessarily, just over her shoulder. As he spoke, the golden glow coalesced into a solid patch of blue-painted wood, and Rose could no longer tell that an iron blade had been buried some seven or eight inches into the side of the ship.

"Tha's brilliant," Rose smiled before returning her attention to the task at hand. "Sorry," she smiled at the weary old genius, "maintenance. Where were we?"

"Stalling?" Galileo offered.

"Right," Rose beamed, "I suppose you've already guessed we're not really from around here."

"That seems a safe assumption, yes," Galileo allowed.

"Yes, well, this blue box, here, she travels in space. That's how we appeared in your bedroom the other night... And disappeared... And reappeared here."

"How remarkable," for once, the scientist focused his attention on the blue box, instead of the flattering figure of the young woman in the form-fitting clothes.

"Yes," The Doctor agreed, heartily, "And we'd like to offer you something in the way of a gift, if you'll have it."

"What, good Signor Doctor, would that be?" Galileo asked, and the Time Lord smiled wide in answer.

"Here, put these on," The Doctor handed what appeared to be a set of heavily tinted, old-fashioned aviator goggles to Rose and Signor Galilei. The Doctor had already strapped his on, the heavy lenses resting atop his head, ready to be pulled down over his eyes when needed. Rose took them, curious, before donning them in much the same manor. She still didn't know quite what The Doctor was up to, but she had an idea, and thought it best to feign knowledge for their honored passenger's benefit.

The man in question was sitting in the jump seat, having needed to rest a moment after seeing the vastness of the TARDIS's interior. Rose hadn't had the heart to point out that the control room was only a fraction of the ship's total size. After spending a good deal of time piloting the ship to exactly the right position, The Doctor finally seemed satisfied with their location. Rose mused to herself how he never took that much care on her trips, but realized it probably wouldn't do to go scaring the pants off the 17th Century inventor by accidentally landing them in the middle of Rio de Janeiro during Carnival

With giddy energy and a gleam in his eyes, The Doctor led them both to the doors of the TARIDS. Rose walked with Galileo, her arm tucked around his, biting her lower lip in anticipation. She thought she knew what he was up to. She'd gone on field trip to the Royal Observatory when she was in school, and while it had bored her to tears at the time, she found herself shivering in anticipation of seeing it, now. Everything was more interesting with The Doctor, after all, and she did so enjoy being right, even if only to herself. She was convinced the R.O. was perfect, brilliant, even. While it certainly didn't house the most powerful refracting telescope available, it would certainly suit their needs and provide a setting rustic enough to hopefully set Signor Galilei at ease.

When they reached the doors, they lowered the goggles over their eyes as instructed, and Rose stifled a snicker at The Doctor's appearance. As he laid his hands upon both door handles, he turned his head at the last minute to look at her over his shoulder. Rose winked at him, unsure if he could see it through the heavy tint, a confident smile on her lips. She steadied herself, ready to reassure Signor Galilei or help take his weight should he faint. When both doors swung open, she took a second to process what she was seeing. Then, her mouth dropped open and she froze in place.

From their vantage point somewhere above the plane of the Solar System, Rose could see the sun, impossibly massive and brighter than anything she'd ever witnessed. The necessity of the goggles became suddenly very apparent, and as her eyes adjusted, she could just start to discern motion in the dark space beyond their yellow star. Carefully, she stepped forward, Signor Galilei walking cautiously beside her, to take The Doctor's hand and set foot on the narrow ledge just outside the TARDIS doors. Her heart was in her throat, looking down at the darkness just beyond the toes of her shoes, and she gripped The Doctor's hand more tightly.

"S'all right, I won't let you go," he reassured softly in her ear before speaking to their guest, "Signor Galilai, we are parked far above the sun and the eight planets that surround her."

"Nine," Rose corrected, distractedly.

"I've a friend I'd like you to meet," he muttered before continuing, "Give your eyes a moment to adjust, then you'll notice several small moving objects. Tiny, really, you'll have to look close, and the third one out, the one passing just underneath our position, that's your world. That's the Earth."

"It moves," Galileo breathed, a strained but awe-filled laugh escaping him.

"Yes, you were right all along. The Earth, as well as her sister planets, all orbit the sun.

"And different speeds," the old scientist was gaining some confidence, pointing to where Mercury and Venus swung around the far side of the sun, clearly racing past the Earth's relative position.

"Indeed," The Doctor beamed, "Each planet moves a little slower the further it is from the sun."

"Remarkable!" Galileo was grinning broadly, patting Rose's hand where it rested on his arm.

"I'll say," was all she could manage. Her attention was fixed completely on the rhythmic, circular ballet of the worlds. She'd seen much in her travels, both with the Doctor and without, but at this moment, she was well and truly floored. A trembling smile grew on her lips until it could grow no further, and in a moment of complete happiness and complete disbelief, she began laughing.

The Doctor had been watching her from the first moment he'd opened the doors, and while he felt even more self-satisfied than he'd dared hope, he hadn't anticipated just how deeply fulfilling her unabashed awe and wonder would be. He wasn't sure what she'd been expecting, but it certainly hadn't been this. As her lips curled into that genuine, mind-melting smile and her laughter slowly built to crescendo, The Doctor allowed himself to look upon the timely waltz of celestial bodies and witness the grace and power of the universe as if he'd lived underground his whole life. For the first time in an achingly long time; all that is, all that was, and all thought could be, lay bare before him, and he didn't shy away.

"How did you do that?" Rose finally asked, looking up at The Doctor. They'd taken Galileo Galilei safely home, and watched as he'd gone marching inside his house on a mission to find all his notes that very night and get started on his book. Since then, Rose had been sitting on the jump seat for a solid fifteen minutes, her right knee pulled up to her chest and her elbow resting upon it, biting her thumbnail while she stared at some indeterminate point on the TARDIS's console.

"Impressed?" he gave her his best self-important grin, but behind it, the look in his eyes was hopeful and just the tiniest bit vulnerable. The ego-deflating retort that had sprung first to her mind withered away. Instead, she lowered her forehead to her knee a moment, smiling secretly to herself, before looking back up at him all cheer and irreverence.

"Mad, that was. Never seen anything like it. And, mind you, I've been to Woman Wept." Then, Rose considered a moment, "Assuming that exists, here."

"Ah, maybe," The Doctor allowed, eyes darting around surreptitiously and suddenly fiddling with the controls once more. Rose stood up from the seat and walked over to stand next to him and look past his shoulder to the indecipherable circles and angles streaming by on the monitor.

"I don't mind going back," she grinned at him, "Just not right now, show off. I'm knackered." Her last statement was punctuated by a massive yawn.

"Right, sleep," The Doctor acknowledged, settling his ship back into the Time Vortex and, with one last glance at the monitor, leaning a hip against the cracked porcelain frame of the console and crossing his arms. "Thank you," he said, suddenly and wholly without thought.

"For what?" Rose asked, her brow creased over her drowsy hazel eyes. The Doctor's mind went into a bit of a panic mode.

"Thinking of that," he finally said, "Of giving him one last hurrah. Showing him he was right." There had been at least half a dozen other things he'd wanted to say; for making me laugh, for standing by me, for going along with my whims so readily, for saying 'yes', for everything.

"Can't take all the credit," she laughed, "I'd no idea the TARDIS could do that. Thought you were taking us to an observatory or something." She paused a moment, her expression turning soft and just a bit sad, "I'd've done it for my dad," she said softly, then, with forced self-effacement "Did something much stupider instead."

"Oh, I find that hard to believe," The Doctor tried his best to inject some levity, and was rewarded with dark hazel eyes and a sideways grin.

"Yeah, well, ya shouldn't. God, I was only nineteen and I was just – just so foolish." The Doctor thought to interrupt, change the direction of the conversation, but for all his dislike of the complicated emotions and petty dramas of humanity, the 'domestics,' he was keen enough to know there was something she needed to say, and he stilled his tongue.

"My own da, he died when I was a baby, yeah?" she tried to be as matter-of-fact as possible, and at The Doctor's subtle nod, she continued, "hit by a car. My mum had told me the story, told me how clever and selfless he was. I adored 'im, without ever having met 'im."

Anyway, one day The Doctor agreed to take me to see him. He'd died alone, you know? In the middle of the street outside their flat. I wanted to be there for 'im. Only – only I couldn't. I ran, and I hid, and I begged The Doctor for a second chance. He explained to me how dangerous it was, he did, but when the car came around that corner, I panicked. I thought 'I can fix it. I can stop it.' I ran out, in front of the first pair of us who'd been standin' there, and I pushed my da' out of the way. Saved 'im. Saved 'im and ruined everything."

Thus far, she'd kept it together, but The Doctor could see the tears welling in her eyes. He wanted so badly to reach out, to sooth her, to make it stop, but he also saw her small hands clenched at her sides, the square set of her shoulders, and the determination etched on her face. She wasn't ready to give in, yet. Not ready to crack. One touch would breech the dam, and he wouldn't do that to her. He kept his arms firmly crossed, and let her make her stand.

"I'm sure you know what can happen in a situation like that," she said, swallowing hard and pressing on, "And it did. These creatures showed up. Reapers, he later called them. There to 'cleanse the wound.' He tried to stop it, almost found a way, too. But, in the end, it failed. My da – mum was right, 'bout him bein' clever – he figured out what needed doin', an' he did it." The Doctor, thankfully, knew exactly what she meant.

"Did you," he began, faltering, "Were you able…" He stopped as Rose nodded her head.

"Yeah," she half-smiled, "Yeah, I was there for 'im. But, the worst part – the worst part is I never apologized to The Doctor. I mean, for mucking it up so badly, I did, but not for the rest. Not for the fight we 'ad, for the things I said. God, I acted so selfish, so manipulative, and after it was over I was so ashamed I couldn't bear to bring it up. I always thought, someday I'd do. Someday I'd get the courage, and then – it was too late." The last was spoken as barely a whisper, and The Doctor saw the levy give. As she choked back a sob, he reached out and pulled her to him, wrapping his arms about her head and shoulders as she hid her face and fell apart, clinging to the lapels of his jacket.

"He knew, Rose," The Doctor said, his voice steady and certain, "If he's done even a fraction the stupid things I've done in my life, and given the similarities I'm not half certain he has, he knew." For several minutes, she didn't answer, just came apart in his arms, head tucked under his chin. Finally, the tempest abated, and the wracking sobs became mere sniffles. Slowly, he could feel her regaining her composure, her strength, and he loosened his arms more reluctantly than he'd ever admit.

"You?" she began, smiling weakly and standing upright as she hastily wiped at the mascara tracks on her cheeks, the only makeup to speak of that she wore, "Doing stupid things?"

"Well, it's a fine line between stupid and clever," he admitted, "But for starters, stealing a TARDIS from government salvage likely kicked the whole mess off." Rose pulled back a bit to look up at him, questioning.

"You stole the TARDIS?" she asked, her smile slowly becoming less forced.

"Ah, well, I prefer borrowed… Indefinitely." He hedged. Rose's eyes darted over his face, searching for any sign that he was putting her on. When she realized he was being perfectly plain, she leaned back against the console and started chuckling. Quickly, it grew into a proper laugh, and The Doctor found himself helping her over to the jump seat when she became unable to stand she was laughing so hard. Despite his very strong suspicions that she was laughing at him, and that he'd soon find out why, he felt only a massive relief at her restored mood.

"Now, what's so funny about grand theft Time Machine?" The Doctor asked once she began to compose herself. She almost broke into another peel of laughter, but managed to choke it off.

"You – you." she began, pointing, and when she realized she'd be unable to explain herself completely, she cut to the heart of her discomposure, quoting a bumper sticker she'd once seen on a rusted-out VW Rabbit "Drive it like you stole it." With that, she fell over onto the seat hooting with laughter.

"You know, those doors will open in the Vortex and the air pocket only extends so far."

Footnote:

"I feel something so right

By doing the wrong thing

And I feel something so wrong

By doing the right thing

I couldn't lie, couldn't lie, couldn't lie

Everything that kills me makes me feel alive"

-One Republic: Counting Stars