THE STORM

Set after 'The Pit'.

Rose couldn't get it out of her head. She was sat cross-legged on her bed in her room within the mysterious depths of the TARDIS. Earlier that day, Rose had been faced with the prospect of being stranded on an impossible planet orbiting a black hole, with nothing but the Doctor. Then, everything seemed to be turned upside down when Rose believed the Doctor to be . She had felt as though she had lost everything that she'd ever cared about. After all her worry, the fact that the Doctor was still alive was overwhelming, to the point where tears of happiness streamed down her face as she was reunited with him. It was the best feeling in the world, but Rose still couldn't get it out of her head. The 's words kept playing over and over again in Rose's mind, like a CD player that had been set to 'repeat'.

'The valiant child who will die in battle so very soon…'

Rose didn't know what that meant. She was scared and alone. Even as the Doctor gathered her up in his arms and swung her around with joy, holding her close to him, she was terrified of the Beast's words. When they stood together by the console, saying goodbye to Danny, Zach and Ida, she had mentioned it in what she hoped was a casual voice.

'It said I was going to die in battle.'

'Then it lied.'

Rose was comforted a little by the Doctor's words. Why would he lie to her? The Doctor would never lie to her. Or maybe it was because he didn't know…

Rose shivered. She was only wearing a thin pair of pyjamas. Deep in thought, she barely noticed the gentle knock on her door. It came again, a bit louder this time though.

"Yes." Said Rose quietly, not turning around. She heard the door open, light footsteps, and then she felt a hand on her shoulder. It gave her a tender squeeze before the bed dipped a little as he sat down next to her. Rose still didn't take her eyes off of the spot on the wall she was staring at. He tried to lighten the mood.

"So where to next? We could go to the Grand Canyon, the deserts of Klom, Barcelona…your…choice." He trailed off, seeing a single tear rolling down Rose's face.

"Rose?" the Doctor said, concerned.

She turned her eyes towards his with a look of pure terror and she was beginning to shake.

"I'm going to die Doctor. Soon. How did the Beast know?" Rose whispered.

"Rose, no. I told you, it lied. That's what the does – it plays on basic fears. It wanted you to be scared. That's it's aim." The Doctor said, desperately trying to persuade her.

"But…but the Beast talked about the others on the base, and it was telling the truth then. Why would it lie to me only?" her gaze was fixed upon the Doctor, who leant over and took her hand, pulling her closer to him. Rose let herself fall against his chest, while the Doctor rocked her gently.

"I'm not going to let you die, Rose. You're not going to die any time soon." The Doctor said firmly. But he didn't answer her question. He had avoided t, and Rose was more than aware of it. Minutes passed, or was it hours? The Doctor waited until he was sure that Rose was asleep before laying her down on the bed and pulling the blanket up, tucking it around her shoulders.

"Doctor…" she murmured, half asleep.

"It's okay Rose. It's going to be okay." The Doctor whispered as he silently left the room. The TARDIS automatically switched the bedside lamp off when the door clicked shut.

Rose was left with her dreams of the and black holes haunting her. Those words were still there. Over and over again…

'The valiant child who will die in battle so very soon…'

'Something in the air, something coming.'

'What?'

'A storm's approaching.'

Rose shivered violently at the Doctor's ominous words. Moving closer to him, they both stood, looking up into the cold night sky, watching the dazzling fireworks erupt above them.

They never did see any of the Olympics, after spending the night watching the fireworks, the Doctor had hurried Rose back into the TARDIS, saying, "we should leave here. Something doesn't feel right."

Now, the Doctor was underneath the TARDIS console. His pinstriped jacket had been cast aside and was lying across the bench that Rose had made herself comfortable on. She was reading the seventh Harry Potter. Rose had managed toe persuade the Doctor to visit Earth 2008, so that she could buy a copy. She looked over at where he was working. All she could see was a mop of dark brown hair occasionally bob up. It was strange, when the Doctor had first regenerated, she would have done anything for the 'old' Doctor back. The one with the dark cropped hair, the one with the goofy grin, the one with the adorably big ears, the one with the battered leather jacket who used to say 'fantastic' all of the time, the one who Rose had grew to love. But now, now Rose found it difficult to imagine without this Doctor. The one who looked younger, the one with floppy brown hair, the one with the beautiful big intense eyes, the one with the pinstriped suit and the converse trainers, the one who she now loved more than the old one.

"Rose?" the Doctor called out.

"What? You want a cup of tea? A banana?" she answered with a grin.

He emerged from under the controls, glasses slightly askew. He raised an eyebrow at this last comment.

"Na, could do with a cuppa though…anyway. Can I have a hand down here?"

Rose held out her hand casually. The Doctor grabbed it, pulling her onto the floor with a little shriek.

"Pass me the sub-temporal-dimension…oh, that thing over there with the two levers." He said, nodding his head in a vague, hardly distinguishable direction.

"Oh Doctor? I've been meaning to ask you, what was it like? I mean when you were in that drawing that Chloe drew, what was it like? What happened?" Rose asked, crawling over to the thing with the two levers and handing it to him.

"The Doctor scratched his head, knocking his thick rimmed glasses, making then even more crooked, balanced precariously on the tip of his angular nose.

"It was weird. One minute I was standing talking to you, the next, I was in this sort of…um…doodle land. But the TARDIS was there. I dunno, but all that matters is that I'm back now!" he said, giving Rose a wink as he descended once again under the console, leaving Rose knelt on the hard metal grating of the TARDIS floor.

"Oh." Rose frowned, still a little confused.

"Good drawings though, much better than me." The Doctor's voice floated up.

"Yeah me too! I was always rubbish at art. Imagine that, a 12-year-old who has never left the country, can draw better than a 900-year-old Time Lord and a 19 year old who travel all through time and space." Rose laughed, half to herself.

The Doctor smiled at her as he lifted himself out from under the console. He swiftly picked up his jacket and started to brush it down.

"This is getting a lot dirtier than the leather one." He moaned.

"Oh, that reminds me. Can we stop of home? It's just that I have a load of washing that I need doing and I can get mum to help." Rose said, eyeing the Doctor nervously, as she mentioned her mother.

"Do we have to? I'm sure there's a washing machine somewhere in the TARDIS." THE Doctor complained, sounding like a little boy who can't get his own way. Rose nodded.

"There is, but the fabric softener you have in her has strange blue bugs in it that smell funny. No, we're going to mum's and that's final." She finished with defiance.

"Fine." He sighed, putting his jacket on and doing up the buttons.

Sitting back down on the bench, Rose gazed up at the cylindrical column, transfixed by it's soothing rhythmic beating, as the TARDIS set course fro Earth 2006.

Rose was beginning to piece it all together. Starting with the saying she was going to die in battle. And now the Doctor's words concerning a storm approaching. Now Rose didn't have many A levels, but she was smart enough to work out that something terrible was coming their way and the Doctor knew it. But, as Rose laughed and joked with the Doctor, she was unaware that her days of travelling with him were drawing to an end and she was hours away from having her heart broken forever.

The lever was so close. If she could just reach it, she could open the void fully. Still clinging tightly onto the metal clamp, Rose extended one arm…it was barely inches from her fingertips. Rose knew what she had to do. If she didn't, the whole planet would become a fierce battleground fro the Daleks and the Cybermen. She let go of the clamp, to get pulled forward by the void. Rose grabbed hold of the lever, still feeling the immense strength of the void beginning to pull on her legs. She managed to put the lever back into place, which rapidly increased the power of the void. Rose couldn't hold on. She was being lifted higher and higher until she lay horizontally in the air. The Doctor watched, unable to speak, with a look of pure on his face. His eyes were wide and as Rose's fingers were being prised off her only support, he yelled out,

"HOLD ON!"

Rose knew this was it. She had saved the world from the Daleks and Cybermen, but now she was going down with them. With a final glance, full of pain and fear, back at the Doctor, who was still hanging onto his metal clamp on the wall, unable to move, Rose's last finger was pulled away and she screamed.

"ROSE! NO!" the Doctor's scream was barely audible above Rose's own.

She was being sucked straight into the void.

"ROSE!" the Doctor yelled, screamed, cried. He could do nothing.

Rose was falling, falling into the void. She was going to die and it was all his fault. Suddenly, Pete Tyler appeared at the entrance to the void and caught his daughter. Rose, now in the arms of her father, turned to see the Doctor, hair everywhere, eyes wide with shock, and shaking. Then she was gone. Rose and Pete both vanished and the void closed up. The Doctor was left trembling with shock, pain and despair. Rose was gone. His Rose. But he hadn't been ready for her to leave him. He needed her back. But now it was too late.

Breathing heavily, the Doctor stood up and walked slowly across to the large blank wall. He laid his hand against the cold stone and turned sideways to lean his head sadly against the wall, pressing his cheek in. He could almost feel Rose's presence on the other side. In fact, in reality, Rose was feeling the same. She had been cruelly separated from he companion. The one man she understood, and felt understood her. Now her was gone. As her father, who was standing with her mother and Mickey, announced that the bridge between the Doctor's world and her world had been closed off, Rose crumpled. Tears streaming down her face, she moved to press her hand and face up against the lifeless wall. Her mascara was running badly, but she didn't care. Rose kept playing the last moments before the Time Lord and his loyal companion were separated forever.

The Doctor tore himself away from the wall and began to tread wearily up the room, dragging his feet behind him. He felt blank and empty, staring around the silent, deserted room, alone again. He knew he had to reach Rose, even if it was only just for a few minutes to say a final goodbye.

Here he was. Orbiting a sun as it collapsed in on itself. The Doctor had found a tiny in the void in which he was able to talk to Rose. It had taken him around a year to find it but to Rose it would only seem like a couple of weeks, but those weeks had been absolute . Forcing herself to admit that the Doctor was gone was basically impossible. Every night she had dreams of the Doctor, trying to give her a message. A message to meet him. As Rose's days blurred into nights, she found herself walking along a beach in Norway somewhere, searching for him.

They stood facing each other, barely knowing what to say. Even the Doctor was lost fro words as he looked down at Rose's face. It amazed him how she still managed to look beautiful when she's upset. He watched her fight back tears when he told her that she couldn't touch him and that he could only stay for two minutes

'I lo…I love you.' She cried, hair blowing in the wind, making her tears fall faster.

'Quite right too…' the Doctor's voice ed a little, '…and, I suppose, if it's my last chance to say it, Rose Tyler…'

Then he vanished. Rose let great sobs of despair heave through her body as she clung to her mother, but wanting only to be in the arms of the Doctor.

The Doctor was stood, back in the TARDIS. His mouth was slightly open and his eyes shone with grief. If only he hadn't wasted time and fooled around, saying something stupid like 'quite right too'. If only he had said those three little words…now he would never get to tell her how he really felt. If only he had more time, the last of the great Time Lords needed more time.

A tear began to fall down his face and he closed his eyes hard, sending another fat tear rolling down, leaving the Doctor empty and full of sorrow and regret. He ran his hands over his face and through his windswept hair, before standing upright.

The lonely wanderer, once saved by a 19-year-old human , was left travelling alone, once again…