"I'm technically undocumented, because of, you know, the time travel, so they couldn't adopt me back then anyway. And now I'm too old for it." His smile wavers a little; it's not as if he doesn't believe Barbara, but there's a limit to how loved he can feel before he gets preoccupied thinking about how he'll lose it. "Anyway, I could have made it on my own if I have to, they just were really kind."

And while he says that, he doubts he'd be alive if not for Ian and Barbara. Especially Barbara. It would have been too easy to lose hope entirely.

"He told me about being a mechanic and wanting to write," Rose says. "And about you and Ian being teachers. I suppose that probably helped with the writing bit."