Rose quietly padded along the TARDIS corridors in search of the Doctor's room. She carried the light blanket that she'd been sleeping with wrapped around her shoulders. She stumbled upon the library and peered in.

"Figures," she whispered to herself. On the one night that she needed him, she couldn't find him.

After walking around the dim halls, she reached a room with an illuminate light coming from beneath the door. She knocked a couple of times, "Doctor? Can I come in?"

For a couple of seconds, Rose waited for a reply. When there was none, she opened the door. She blinked into the bright light as her eyes adjusted. The Doctor was sprawled out on his bed with some sort of small engine-y, mechanical-y thing next to one of his hands, his sonic screwdriver next to it.

Rose stepped a couple of feet into his room and took a deep breath. He was all right. His hair was as messy as ever, his shirt incredibly wrinkled, and his tie undone. She softly smiled, seeing that he was the same as always.

The Doctor stirred and she began to back out of his room, but he stopped her. The Doctor sleepily opened his eyes and spoke through a yawn, "Darlin-- Rose, what are you doing in here?"

"I'm sorry, I shouldn't have, it's just that I-- I'm sorry, but I had this awful dream." She turned from him and put her hand on the doorknob, ready to close the door.

"Rose," he called after her as he sat up, "Rose, do you want to stay in here for a bit?"

"No, I'm okay. I'll just make a cuppa or something."

"Come on, just a couple of minutes," the Doctor pleaded and patted the light blue sheet next to him. Rose softly smiled and sat where he'd suggested.

"What's on your mind?"

"It's the dream that I had; I just had to check on you."

"Why?" the Doctor asked as he raised one and lowered his other eyebrow. For once, he had no idea why she needed him.

"Remember, um, when you... Uh, regenerated?" she asked. Rose had no idea if he would be open to talking about his regeneration; if he would even be okay with her mentioning it. Sure, Rose had questions about the process, but it all seemed... personal.

"Yeah, well, how could I forget?" He took off the glasses that he'd been wearing and rubbed the bridge of his nose. Not that he ever really needed them.

"My dream was about it happening again and... and..." Rose trailed off, realizing that she was stupid for bothering him over this and that he probably didn't care.

"Nevermind," she said as she tried to distract herself by tapping each of her fingers on her thumb.

The Doctor turned to face her slightly more. One of his legs dangled off of the edge of the bed and the other was folded, his foot next to the knee of the leg that grazed the floor. The Doctor looked into her eyes, his wild, spiky hair making her heartbeat even more confused. She'd noticed that it had sped up upon entering his bedroom and it didn't seem to be anywhere near slowing down.

"Rose, tell me, please." His tired eyes seemed to soften at the thought of Rose being upset. Especially because of him.

"I had this dream... And I've had it before. Remember when we saw those words, 'Bad Wolf', all over the place?" she asked. He nodded and realized that she probably did remember. "And then we just didn't, after you regenerated. Well, in the dream, I left London in the TARDIS, but I didn't black out. I was conscious, but it was weird, different. There's always this bright, yellow light and I know that it sounds silly, but I think that I'm the Bad Wolf."

"Is there anything more?" he asked. He would have to make a decision. A very, very important decision in seconds.

"Yeah... The Daleks were there and, uh, I think he's called the Dalek Emperor? After that, I, er, the Bad Wolf; I have the dream from it's perspective, said that they were tiny and then... I separated their atoms and then they all died because of me. All of them. And I said that I wanted you safe, and then I always wake up," she finished the dream, "But, sometimes, I try to go back to sleep, and then it continues to when you regenerated."

The Doctor engulfed her in a hug, which actually took her by surprise. 'Oh, shit,' he thought, 'how do I tell her? I could lie, but I could never lie to her. How could I lie to her? Or tell her that she really did this when she's so obviously upset about it.'

Rose shifted in his arms and shifted on his chest, totally resting her head on him. She made a noise-- a speaking-like noise and he loosened the hug.

"Hmm?" he inquired.

"It's just that," she looked up and into his eyes; to his surprise, her cheeks were stained with tears, "I don't want to lose you. I can't-- not again."

"You haven't lost me," he cradled her face with a hand on either side and wiped her tears with his thumbs, "Don't worry."

"I just thought that you had left me."

"You know that I'm still him, don't you?" he asked, "I am the exact same man, just with smaller ears."

"I know." Rose smiled a little as she returned her head to the Doctor's chest and he put his hands back on her back. "How do I make the dreams stop?" she quietly asked.

"Rose, I'm so, so sorry, but I don't know how to tell you this..."

"Tell me what?"

She felt his hearts thumping beneath her cheek and heard them too.

"Your dream, it all happened, but it wasn't you and it wasn't your fault."

"How-- what?" Rose couldn't bring herself to sound surprised. She hadn't gotten any decent sleep in the past two weeks. But, of course, she hadn't shared this with the Doctor. She couldn't do anything to make him worried about her (even more than he already was).

"It happened," he softly said, "All of it. I wasn't exactly going to tell you because I didn't think that you were going to remember. But I guess your subconscious did."

"So, you mean..."

"Yeah."

"Do you know what the Bad Wolf is, or was?" Rose asked as she sat back up, her confused eyes locking with his.

To be fair, neither of them really knew what to say now. Which made it semi-awkward.

"I'm not quite sure," he said. 'Yep, Doctor, that's how you comfort a girl who just found out she committed genocide,' he thought, 'good one.'

"So is it still in my mind?"

"No. I thought that I'd removed the memory, along with the Bad Wolf."

"I still don't understand... How did you regenerate? You've never said."

Well, now he really didn't know what to say. He never thought that she would ask.

"That power, Rose, it would have killed you," the Doctor said.

"Oh." She actually hadn't been expecting that.

"I took it from you and absorbed most of it, but the thing is that... It was the Time Vortex. No one's ever meant to do that. But you did."

"I killed you." This was somewhere between a statement and a question.

"No, you didn't. I just, I, well, died to save you. Sort of died. And I'd do it over and over again."

"Isn't it my fault?" she asked.

"I would have died anyway if, you hadn't come. But, I didn't really die. And, besides, you just wanted to help. You couldn't begin to pilot the TARDIS, so you looked into the heart. Once that happened, you couldn't control what you did. What the Bad Wolf did."

"What about... At one point, in the dream, I say 'I want you safe, my Doctor'. And I think that was me."

"There's nothing wrong with that; I want you safe too." He suppressed a light-ish feeling in his chest. It was something... something that he wasn't used to, but he was sure that he'd felt it before. He didn't know what it was about this girl that made him feel so breathless-- so nervous. He didn't know what made her special. But he liked it.

"How did you get the Bad Wolf to leave me?"

He hadn't thought that she would ask that either. But she did. He could lie. But he could never lie to her. They truly and honestly and completely trusted each other. He could never ruin that.

"Uh," he nervously laughed, "I kissed you."

"Really?" she asked.

"Yeah." He felt a blush rising in his cheeks, "If that's okay. I just didn't want you to, well, die."

"Thanks." She nodded and he could almost see the gears turning in her head. "So I committed genocide."

"No. The Bad Wolf did. You were just... it's vessel. You didn't do anything wrong. You'd never do that, I know you, and I know that if you had the choice to, you wouldn't have. Your use of the domestic approach is quite effective," he assured her.

"But--" she started.

"You saved the entire earth. From myself and from the Daleks."

"You wouldn't have though."

He thought for a second, "True." They were silent in comprehension until Rose broke the silence.

"Would you mind if I slept in here?" she asked, "Just for tonight..."

"Sure, why not? Or any night, if you want, nightmare or not." He told her and watched as she moved to climb beneath his sheets and then lay on her side.

"Thanks." Rose smiled and put an arm under one of two pillows, simultaneously laying her head down onto it. The Doctor sat against his headboard, a few inches away, but quickly found himself laying on his back right next to Rose. Her face was buried in his shoulder and her arm across his stomach. He was slightly confused as to how she was breathing, but she seemed comfortable. The Doctor sort of got his arm out of the way by putting it below her side, but around back her so that he could rub small circles between her shoulder blades and down the middle.

"Can I ask you something?" he asked after a few minutes and she slightly nodded, "Why didn't you come to me earlier?"

"I don't know... You just kind of always seemed busy. I didn't want to bother you," she murmured into his arm. At this point, he wasn't too sure if she was awake or not and just sleep talking a response. Part of him wished that she was asleep and getting the rest that she so needed, but the other part wanted to stay up and sleepily talk with his pink and yellow girl.

"Rose, I'm never too busy for you," he whispered and hoped that she had heard him.

"Mmmhm," she made an affirmative noise and her muscles relaxed as a deeper sleep flooded anything that remained of her consciousness.

"I'd almost go as far as to say... Never mind..." The Doctor tilted his head enough to kiss her forehead, "Rose Tyler... Goodnight." He couldn't help but smirk a little bit as he fell asleep with his favorite girl in his arms. His Bad Wolf.