Rose woke to soft kisses along her collarbone. As she breathed in a long yawn, the kisses moved to her neck, trying to gently coax her awake, but only succeeding in tickling her with hints of stubble. Opening her eyes, she laughed and pushed the Doctor's face away with her hand.

Her partner was anything but disturbed, playfully licking the palm that pushed him away and nipping at the fingers that poked him. Rose shifted onto her side and tried to even the score, but the Doctor got a grip of her shoulders and turned her onto her back again, and pressed a soft kiss to her lips. She sighed contentedly as he languidly coaxed her into submission. Just when Rose was starting to melt, he pulled away. She let out a groan of complaint but he shushed her lightly.

"No getting up. Today's your day off, remember?"

Rose rolled her eyes. "Yes, don't think I could forget. But when I said that I wanted a day to myself, I didn't mean that I wanted to spend all day in bed!"

The Doctor frowned, and she poked his pouting lip back into his mouth. Cheekily, he sucked the offending finger into his mouth. Rose tried to maintain a stern look.

"None of that, mister. I plan to make this a day full of shopping, chips, and catching up with my mum and Jack."

The Doctor's eyebrows furrowed further, clearly picturing the two under the same roof.

"Not at the same time, you nob! God knows Jack is a handful on his own. So help me, he's never going to step within a hundred feet of my mum's flat if I can help it." She thought about the hypothetical interaction and covered her face with her hands. "Oh my god that would be a sight!"

The Doctor smirked. "I wonder who would make the first move…"

"Shut up!" she exclaimed, laughing and smacking his arm.

The Doctor rubbed his arm in mock injury and placed a quick kiss on her nose. "Just let me get you breakfast, alright? Then you can go prancing off to eat chips with the Captain to your heart's delight."

"Glad to see the hands-off-the-blonde attitude is starting to wear off."

He nuzzled her neck fondly, and Rose once again squirmed against his rough cheek. "Well, I'm the one who has a gorgeous daughter with the one and only Rose Tyler, so I figure I'm a rank or two above him in your affections."

Rose chuckled and pretended to think about it. "Hmm… maybe just the one. I mean, he is pretty impressive, you know."

The Doctor pulled away and gaped at her in pseudo-shock. "Rose Tyler, you take that back this instant!"

Rose pulled him down for a proper kiss, making sure to scratch at his scalp lightly in the way that always made him purr in pleasure. Right on queue, the Doctor hummed his content. Having a thought, she pulled away a few seconds later.

"Speaking of Gwyn, shouldn't she be up by now?"

The Doctor shook his head. "No, she was up a little longer this morning than usual. She should sleep for another hour or so."

"Why did I ever decide to have a baby with a man who doesn't sleep?"

The Doctor chuckled. "Because you love him and because he promised to take care of her when you're asleep."

"Riiiight," she said. "You know, you say you're okay with it now, but what about when she gets older and she's only sleeping once every few days?"

The Doctor grabbed her hand and intertwined his fingers with his own, and looked her in the eyes seriously.

"Oh, Rose. You say it like it's a burden! I said I would take care of Gwyn at night because I love you two with all of my hearts. And there is absolutely nothing that could change how much I love you or Gwyn. Not if she never sleeps again or spills glitter in the console room or lets out a continuous wail that lasts for the next twenty years."

Rose laughed and squirmed under the intensity of his gaze, but returned her eyes to his.

"I love both of you more than you can imagine, and watching Gwyn while you sleep is one of the best parts of my day. So don't worry about me."

Rose sniffed, her eyes getting glossy with emotion and love for him. Damn, she felt like she'd been an endless teary waterfall for the past two years. The Doctor said her hormone levels were positively normal, but as much as she wanted to suspect her body, her heart told her that it was because she'd been experiencing greater happiness, sadness, frustration, and joy than ever before.

The Doctor swiped his thumb under her eyes and brushed away her tears. He leaned down to resume their earlier kissing, but Rose put a hand on his shoulder and poked his chest with the other.

"Now go make me some eggs, Mr. Day Off. And some hashbrowns. Ooh! And apple juice! And some of that weird sheep yoghurt if it's still in the fridge!"

The Doctor shook his head and sighed dramatically. "For the last time, the Rapluvians are not sheep, and they did not appreciate you voicing that comparison. I mean, it would be like someone waltzing around earth comparing you all to ap-" He paused and looked at Rose, who had a very accusing eyebrow raised. "I'm going to just," he pointed his thumb at the door. "Go now… "

Rose rolled her eyes and smiled, shooing him out of the room. When she heard the door click, she snuggled back down into the warm covers and let her eyes slip closed.

•••

Returning carrying a platter full of every imaginable breakfast food, the Doctor nudged the door open with his shoulder and slipped back into their room. He stopped short in the doorway though at the gorgeous sight before him.

Rose was cocooned in the blankets, with her head resting on his pillow and her hair splayed out in a golden halo around her. Her face was relaxed in sleep, but still held a slight smile. Pleasant dreams, then. Good.

As quietly as he could, the Doctor walked over to the bed and sank down to sit beside her. she didn't wake up, but shuffled a little closer to him, throwing her arm over his thigh, effectively trapping him. Not that he minded in the slightest.

Carefully setting the tray over his lap, he munched on a few pieces of fruit, giving Rose another couple minutes of rest.

She woke a few minutes later to the sound of juice being poured. Taking a deep breath, she savoured the aroma of breakfast; from three types of bacon to two types of oatmeal to fruit slices from five different planets. She looked up at the Doctor who hadn't yet noticed she was awake. How in the world had she ever managed to tie herself to this man? How could she possibly be lucky enough to go from living with her mum on the estate to raising a child on a time ship with the most amazing man in the universe?

The Doctor finally looked down and saw her open eyes.

"Ah! Knew you couldn't sleep forever! Although I suppose you could, if you somehow fell into a Pourtox coma, but we'd have to be on Klom for that, so I don't think that-"

Rose coughed. The Doctor stopped.

"Right! Moving on! You want some yoghurt?" He held out a bowl and reached for a spoon.

Rose laughed. "That would be lovely, thanks."

They were only just getting settled with breakfast when the whiny stirrings of a young child came through the speakers in their room; an installation that had pleased Rose to no end. More importantly, it soothed the countless worries the Doctor had hidden (not so subtly as he'd have liked) when Rose suggested moving Gwyn out of their room.

The Doctor stuffed a piece of bacon in his mouth and hopped out of the bed before Rose could even think of moving. "I'll get her!" he said, through his full mouth.

As the Doctor opened the door to Gwyn's room, the TARDIS brought the lights up. The child, roughly a year and a half old, stood clutching the edge of her crib with her small fingers and watching her father with wide brown eyes. Both stood still and stared at each other for a few seconds, and it was the that the Doctor noticed Gwyn's leg poised to climb over the crib wall.

"Good morning, Gwyn," he said, eyebrow raised. "Want to get up?"

Gwyn nodded and slowly lowered her leg, then lifted her arms.

"Up!"

The Doctor scooped her up in his arms and gave her a quick squeeze of a hug. After giving her a quick nappy change and putting on some comfy clothes, he placed her on his shoulders and went back to his and Rose's room. Gwyn always enjoyed a ride on her dad's shoulders, enjoying the feeling of being tall as well a the opportunity to use his hair as a set of reins.

The moment the Doctor entered the room, Gwyn started bouncing on his shoulder in excitement.

"Mummy! Breakfast!" The Doctor was in awe every day of Gwyn's growing articulation. Even if 'breakfast' came out more like 'bekfas', she was getting to the point where she could ask if she needed something, complain if something was upsetting her, or argue when things weren't going her way (something that seemed to happen more often than not). Though he didn't dare broach the subject with Rose, he was already itching to start teaching her the names of various parts of the TARDIS.

As they approached the bed, Gwyn immediately let go of the Doctor's hair and attempted to shimmy down his shoulders. Luckily, the Doctor was getting quite used to Gwyn's antics and grabbed her before she could fall. He placed his squirming child on the bed where she half-crawled, half-galoped over to Rose.

"Morning!" Gwyn chimed. "Morning mummy! I hungry! Breakfast!"

Rose laughed and bounced Gwyn on her lap. "Good morning to you too, Gwyn. Would you like some fruit?"

Gwyn nodded. "Please!"

Rose handed her daughter a piece of cantaloupe and a couple others that Rose didn't know the names of. Gwyn practically inhaled them until she tried a cube of light-coloured fruit and spat it out in disgust. Rose, curious, nibbled a bit of it and promptly rolled her eyes.

"Figured she'd get your pear fobia. I should have known when she was gobbling down the mushed bananas that she'd have your sense of taste."

The Doctor looked horrified. "How did that…" he looked up at the ceiling and scowled. "What possible reason could you have to torture my poor child like that? Pears! Of all things!"

Rose shook her head.

"Oh let it go, Doctor. Besides, maybe she'll start to like pears. Then what'll you do?"

The look of horror on the Doctor's face only intensified, and he plucked the fruit out of Rose's hand and threw it in a garbage can beside their bed.

"We'll just have to make sure she's not unnecessarily exposed to them." He caught his daughter's attention. "Gwyn. Can you say 'pears are evil'? Come on. Pears. Are. Evil."

The Doctor looked triumphant as Gwyn said something sounding more like 'Per ar ebil'. She'd get it soon enough. Rose sighed in defeat.

•••

Rose checked everything she'd packed as she ran through her checklist with the Doctor for the fifth time.

"You'll make sure she brushes her teeth?"

"Yes."

"And you'll both eat something that isn't bananas?"

"Yes."

"And you'll call me if anything goes wrong?"

The Doctor grabbed Rose's arm gently.

"Rose. Stop worrying. I look after Gwyn every night, if you remember, and she hasn't exploded or turned green quite yet."

Rose let out a breath and let her tense shoulders relax.

"I know. But It's just… I guess I'm just nervous to leave, is all. You're sure you'll be fine?"

The Doctor smiled. "I'm positive. Now come on."

Within five minutes, Gwyn and the Doctor were at the TARDIS's doors, waving to Rose as she headed toward the Powell Estate. Once she was out of sight, the Doctor readjusted Gwyn in his arms to face him.

"Well then! What should we do first?"

•••

Six hours later, the Doctor woke up to his eyelid being pulled open.

The tiny fingers grabbing his eyelashes let go and he heard a giggle as the lid slid back closed. For a short, bleary moment, the Doctor thought he might be able to fall back asleep.

Then he felt a small finger in his nose.

He jolted upright and shook himself awake, rubbing away the urge to sneeze.

"Da!"

Jostling his wits back in place with a shake of his head, the Doctor finally noticed where he'd fallen asleep. In front of him was the galley's dining table. On it, a small child with a wide grin and sticky fingers. Sticky fingers coated in jam that had been touching… The Doctor one hand up to his hair, another to his face. Both found the sticky remains of strawberry jam put in place by the child in front of him.

"How in the name of Schrödinger's cat did you manage to open the jam jar?!"

Gwyn giggled again, clearly pleased with her work.

"Gwyn, for someone who's had a full eighteen months to learn the ins and outs of this world, you are extremely unhelpful. I hope you know that."

Gwyn gurgled amusedly at her father's funny expression and sucked jam off her fingers.

It was then that the Doctor spotted the sonic screwdriver under one of her legs. He snatched it quickly before she could press anything. It too was lamentably sticky.

"Wait. One second… You didn't… You couldn't have…"

He looked Gwyn in her big brown eyes and saw the mischievous gleam hiding there. No. It couldn't be possible that she was already learning… He wrote it off as a freak coincidence.

He stuck the tool deep in his trouser pocket and rummaged around for the pack of wet wipes Rose had insisted he carry around with him. At the time, he'd protested. He insisted that there couldn't possibly be enough messy situations with Gwyn to warrant turning his pockets into a glorified nappy bag. Oh, how wrong he'd been.

Grabbing Gwyn's hand, the Doctor attacked the jam with a wet wipe. He took care of her hands and face and feet and legs and arms and hair and how many places could one child get jam?!

Once he thought he'd done a decent job of cleaning Gwyn, the Doctor set to work on himself with another wipe. Hands, face, hair, screwdriver, neck, suit… He vowed to never again let the sonic out of his sight. Or maybe it would be better to vow to never nap again. Then again, it may be a better option to vow that once he didn't have an energetic one-and-a-half-year-old making him feel like he'd been dragged across the universe and back again.

After he finished, the Doctor picked up Gwyn and noted that she still felt a little sticky. He sighed. It was hopeless. Better to accept the fate of a sticky time machine now before she was able to run at full speed.

Gwyn entertained herself by pulling her father's tie from his jacket. She grabbed the end and stuck it in her mouth. The Doctor didn't even try to stop her. He'd given up trying to save his ties after the tenth one he'd lost to his baby's teething.

"You know, Gwyn, one day when you're older, I'm going to take you to the room where I keep all the ties you seem to love so much. I'm going to hang them all up in a long row and say 'Gwyn, this was the price of your infancy.' And you know what you'll say?"

"Daddy silly!" Gwyn laughed and yanked on the Doctor's tie. He choked and his head jerked forward, an action that seemed incredibly amusing to the young girl.

After prying her small fingers from the tie, the Doctor bounced his daughter in his arms. "Okay, you special girl, you. Time for us to hop in the bath."

Gwyn squirmed in distress. "No! All clean! All clean!" She waved her hands frantically in an effort to avoid the dreaded bath time. The Doctor stopped and looked her in the eye.

"Yes, Gwyn. I see that your hands are all clean. But we're still-" he poked her tummy lightly. "A little… Sticky!" Gwyn giggled ticklishly and a smile reappeared on her face. After a pause, she asked;

"Ducky?"

The Doctor grinned. "Yes. Absolutely. Bath time just wouldn't be the same without Professor Ducky, now would it?"

Opening the door to the bathroom, the Doctor found that the TARDIS had already filled the tub with warm water and pink bubbles. Gwyn so far seemed to have her mother's obsession with the colour, though the Doctor secretly hoped that it would pass before adolescence.

Setting Gwyn down on the counter, he undressed them both before hoping into the large tub, sitting Gwyn in his lap to control her depth in the water. Quickly, she found professor duck and reached out her hands eagerly for the toy, whining unhappily to find it out of reach.

The Doctor squeezed her gently to get her attention, and she looked up at him, meeting his eyes. "Words, Gwyn?"

"Please?" she asked with just a hint of a trembling lower lip. Oh, she was going to be dangerous when she knew what that did to his soft heart. Reaching forward, the Doctor grabbed the rubber duck from the other end of the bath and handed it to Gwyn. Of course, she quickly turned around and squeezed the toy, sending a squirt of water into the Doctor's face.

He sputtered and blinked in surprise and she squealed in amused delight. Being that she'd gotten a favourable reaction, she decided to do it again.

"Hey!" the Doctor protested, shooting his own small stream of water out of his mouth. This only made his daughter laugh more.

Grabbing a bottle of child-friendly shampoo, the Doctor squeezed a bit of the substance into his hand.

"Time to get all the sticky stuff out of your hair. Sound like a good idea?"

Gwyn paused, considering, and then nodded. "Okay."

Gently, the Doctor washed her soft hair, making sure to clean out any last traces of jam. Gwyn tried unsuccessfully to look up at what his hands were doing, and then contented herself with splashing the water in her lap. The Doctor washed off his hands and grabbed Professor Ducky again.

"Time to rinse. Hold the Professor and I'll get you rinsed."

Carefully, the Doctor leaned her back and scooped water into his palm, then poured it onto her head, letting the water wash away the suds while being careful to avoid getting water in her eyes. Once he was finished, he lifted Gwyn back up into a seated position.

"All done!" he proclaimed.

"All done!" she repeated.

He quickly cleaned them both with the bar of soap and then got out of the tub to get the towels. Grabbing a fluffy yellow one, he wrapped Gwyn up and scooped her out of the tub. He ran the towel over her hair and body and left her wrapped up for a minute while he dried himself. Finished, he turned around and grabbed the pyjamas that the TARDIS had provided from the Doctor's room for both of them and helped Gwyn into them.

"Pyjama time, and then a story, and then bed. How's that sound, Gwyn?"

She crossed her arms immediately. "No bed."

Normally, the Doctor would enforce the bedtime rule immediately, but Gwyn was starting to get more restless, and he was learning to wait until she fell asleep herself more often to judge her bedtimes. He hypothesized that she'd only be sleeping every other night by the time she was three.

But not quite yet.

"Yes bedtime. But later, okay?"

Gwyn considered. "Okay."

"Storytime now though. To the library!"

•••

"Once upon a time there was a little girl who saw-"

"A cow!"

"Who saw a cow. But after she saw the cow she went to the house of the-"

"Cow!"

"Who said-"

"Moo!"

"Do you want me to tell the story or would you rather tell it yourself?"

The Doctor looked Gwyn sternly in the eye, and she stared right back at him with a look of determination that could only have come from her mother.

"I tell it."

The Doctor closed the book and threw up his hands. "Okay, okay, go ahead. You've probably got a better story anyhow."

Gwyn grabbed the book and opened it with both hands. She flipped to the first page, where a big house lay in the midst of a dark forest.

"Once up a time, there's a cow. Moo!"

Gwyn looked at the Doctor expectantly.

"Moo!" he repeated with a grin. "Excellent beginning. What happened next?"

Gwyn flipped the page and pointed to the picture of an old hag with curly white hair falling around her shoulders.

"Bad sheep. Baa!"

Once again, Gwyn looked at the Doctor.

"Baa! Good choice of antagonist. So did the cow meet the sheep?"

Gwyn nodded. "Uh huh. Cow sad."

"Why was the cow sad?"

Gwyn pondered this for a moment. "Cow sad because sheep mean."

The Doctor nodded, humming in understanding. "Ah. I see. So the sheep was being mean to the cow. How awful. So what did the cow do?"

Gwyn flipped the pages until she found a picture near the end of the hag crying.

"Sheep need to say sorry," she explained. "Sorry cow!"

"The sheep needs to apologize for being mean?"

"Yeah."

The Doctor thought for a moment. "So are we going to forgive the sheep for being mean?"

Gwyn nodded enthusiastically. "Uh-huh. Cow give sheep a hug"

Climbing up onto the Doctor's lap, she gave him a hug in example. The Doctor returned her hug and kissed her head. "Brilliant."

Gwyn pulled away. "All done!" she said, throwing her hands up.

"That's the end of the story?"

Gwyn nodded. "All done," she repeated.

"All done. Can I read the next story?"

•••

Rose returned home to a quiet TARDIS. She'd half expected the cloister bells to be ringing and the Doctor to be in a panic, but it seemed as though things had worked out alright.

She dropped off her bags in their room, and the TARDIS then guided her towards the library. She opened the door slowly, and couldn't help but smile at the sight before her.

The Doctor was sprawled on the couch with his glasses askew on his face and a book fallen to the floor. Gwyn was curled up on his chest, and she could hear soft snores from them both. She walked over to the couch and lifted Gwyn off the Doctor, careful not to wake her. Placing a kiss on her head, she carried her back to her crib.

The Doctor woke to Rose shaking his shoulder lightly.

"Oh! You're home! How was your day off?"

Rose motioned for the Doctor to scoot over and lied down next to him as best she could on the narrow couch. "Oh, my mum is on this new diet she read about, so lunch was nothing but soup and a banana. Had a good chat though. By the time I got out to Cardiff, Jack and his team were having pizza, so I made up for earlier. Was nice to see Gwen again. Her and Rhys are going on a trip to Edinburgh next month apparently. And of course Jack was the menace he usually is. How about you?"

The Doctor wrapped his arm around her waist and placed a kiss to the back of her neck. "Gwyn was an angel. Perfectly behaved all day. Absolutely top notch, not a problem to be mentioned. You should do this more often, these days off."

Rose laughed. "Sure, sure. But really, I don't think I could do this too often. I missed you both too much. I mean, it was fun, yeah? But all I could think about was how much I wanted to be with you and Gwyn."

The Doctor held her tighter. "I love you. You are the most wonderful woman in all of time and space. Have I told you that?"

She smiled. "A few times, yeah. And I couldn't ask for anyone better to spend my life with than you."

Closing her eyes, Rose yawned and snuggled into the Doctor's embrace. Then something made her pause.

"Doctor, why do I smell jam?"