  We explore the origin of the strong soft X-ray excess in Narrow Line Seyfert
1 galaxies using spectral-timing information from a 120ks {\it XMM-Newton}
observation of PG 1244+026. Spectral fitting alone cannot distinguish between a
true additional soft X-ray continuum component and strongly relativistically
smeared reflection, but both models also require a separate soft blackbody
component. This is most likely intrinsic emission from the disc extending into
the lowest energy X-ray bandpass. The {\it RMS} spectra on short timescales
(200-5000s) contain both (non-disk) soft excess and power law emission.
However, the spectrum of the variability on these timescales correlated with
the 4-10 keV lightcurve contains only the power law. Together these show that
there is fast variability of the soft excess which is independent of the 4-10
keV variability. This is inconsistent with a single reflection component making
the soft X-ray excess as this necessarily produces correlated variability in
the 4-10 keV bandpass. Instead, the {\it RMS} and covariance spectra are
consistent with an additional cool Comptonisation component which does not
contribute to the spectrum above 2 keV.
