[You've been busy. The comment about Jackie makes Rose smirk a bit. Really she can't argue with him. She adores her Mum but she's better in small doses and really she's particularly hard on the Doctor.]

My opinion on 'em's definitely changin'. [She tilts her head up and presses a kiss to his jawline.]

[There are times when Jackie is okay - this regeneration certainly gets on better with her than the former one did - but she is always going to have the undercurrent of being slightly frightening, and it's honestly just more fun to make comments about her than anything else.] Gotta say I'm feeling a bit more positive about them myself. Always been a bit tricky to deal with. Usually the sheer variation and minute differences in history are enough to get you in trouble. Guess knowing everything is completely different from the get-go helps more with that.

[Well for all intents and purposes (though he won't admit to it) she's his mother-in-law. He's not supposed to always get along with her and she is supposed to be frightening.] And that you're not ruinin' anything by bein' here. Nobody's missin' you at home. The world isn't endin'. YOu can just be while you're here.

[Nope. He won't admit to that for aaaaaaaaaages.

He listens to her words and wonders how many of those statements actually apply to him anyway, about having somewhere else to be or people to miss you, home, but does know what she's talking about. He's just reading another layer to her words that even he doubts she knows is there.] Yeah, s'a bit nice. Being. Takes some getting used to.

[There's a time he will admit to it?

She would miss him. She did miss him when he was gone and if you ask her, he had a somewhere else to be: with her. He forgets as much as she thinks she belongs in his world, she also thinks he belongs in hers.]

New things always do. Know often I got lost in the TARDIS 'fore I figured out how to get 'round?

[So in the realm of highly unlikely. Got it. Jackie will love the commonlaw part. That's a lecture in the making. 'What my daughter's not good enough...' yup. Hear it already.

Maybe one of these days he'll at least remember that part.]

Figures she'd have to give me a hard time at first.

[God, it's like the maybe-baby thing with Donna. Just can't win with some people.]

Welllll... She's a bit... over-protective, sometimes. Seems to think my companion-screening process can be a bit reckless. She liked you pretty early on though.

[Yup! You expected anything less, Doctor?]

Accordin' to her, she picked me [Yup, that's a grin and yup, they've discussed this.]

I'm fairly certain she was the reason for that second time I asked. Wouldn't go anywhere else. Wouldn't even try. Nearly zapped my hand off when I went to see if it was a mechanical issue.

Knew I liked her from the very beginnin'. She knew sometimes a girl just needs to be asked twice.

[She adores that ship whether it's a box or a woman.]

Do you? Second time changes your opinion that much? Impress upon you the determination and dogged interest of the inquirer?

[There's a fun thought.]

[She shifts a little, forearm going to his chest so that she can sit up the slightest bit and look at him. He doesn't get it and he probably never will, how amazing he is and how hard it is to believe that out of all the girls in the world, he wants one particular girl. She can't tell him any of that though. It's too straight forward and violates the three percent rule they seem to have going.]

Bit thick, I am. Took me a bit to realise you needed me and Mickey'd get by just fine.

[To a certain degree, he was actually joking, but as with most jokes there was the initial undercurrent of truth in it. He was still not quite expecting her to respond seriously.]

In the long run I think you can probably be forgiven needing about six extra seconds to come to that realisation.

[Good thing she went with the three percent sort of wording rather than all the feelings version.]

Very kind of you, Doctor. Good thing I learned to catch up and not need those six seconds.

[He's almost annoyingly easily overwhelmed when it comes to her very nearly on a constant level. If he bothered to think about it, he'd blame it entirely on her being naturally such a vibrant and explosive force when at a normal level. Escalating beyond that is just too bright to look at directly.]

Always were a quick study.

[She's not sure whether that's a good thing or not. She can't really do anything to be less overwhelming though. It'd be like being less 'Rose']

Ought to put that on my resume. 'Quick Study' Fluent in 'Time Lord'. Not sure there's loads of jobs that need that sorta qualifications though.

[It's a good thing. It's a very good thing. It just means that he's sort of messing with the sun whenever they start to move their relationship forward, which makes it a little difficult for him to handle properly. He wouldn't have her act any other way though. It's something he needs to get used to, not that she needs to chance.]

I'm thinking really just this one, given the approximate levels of Time Lord population in various places throughout the universe.

[He'll have plenty of time to get used to it then.]

Yeah, think you're right. [Which gets him a grin and she settles again to put her head on his chest.] Guess I ought to keep it then. Benefits are nice. 'Least there's that.

[He's pleased she's settled back on his chest again, and lets his arm give her a squeeze as a sort of hug when she's finished readjusting her position.] Benefits? Well most of those are a bit tied up at the moment, what with the general inability to travel like normal.

[She snorts a bit because he seriously has no idea.] Mmmmm s'not really the benefits I was thinkin' of. [She gnaws a bit on her bottom lip and pretends to consider this a good deal more.] The benefits I was thinkin' 'bout have more to do with my pillow.

[She's going to throw in a bit of poking at his side to emphaise her point.]

[He watches her do all this exaggerated pondering, and starts wondering what's so special about her pillow but doesn't remember a whole lot about it because he hasn't been in her room very much and then she starts poking him in the side and] Oh! Me! You meant me! Right. Well, yes, of course, that's one of the other big... benefits.

[She rolls her eyes at him and lifts her head, stretching enough to kiss the corner of his mouth.] Best of the benefits. The travelin' and all that are just extra bits.

[He hugs her to him when she does stretch up to kiss him, loosening his hold again shortly after she finishes.] Yeah? S'pose you did get quite lucky then, benefit-wise.

[Just a sort of deeply contented sigh.] Glad you think so. Y'know I love this...love bein' here with you. [She means that on so many levels. She loves being able to snuggle up in bed with him, loves being able to spend her days with him, loves that somehow she found him again, loves that they get to stay. She'd say the same thing about traveling with him once. What she meant was that she loved being with him that time as well. She's just allowed to actually say that now.]