A/N: I am not abandoning Journey, but the muse bit me and demanded that I get this one out or she was going to fly off and leave me forever … which would probably be a good thing, really

Another post GitF fic to add to the growing list out there... Had to give it a shot myself. :)

Yeah. New fic, add disclaimer. I don't own Doctor Who, the characters, or the rights to it. I make no money off it – just having some fun with some really neat characters…

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There was something rather brilliant about the steady glow of a fully healed and recharged TARDIS. That something extended far beyond the ability to finally take off back inside the Vortex to begin adventures anew. When she wasn't feeling well, neither did he, and so to have his beloved ship humming a happy tune inside his head instead of the more recent shudders of discomfort, the Doctor was elated. His ship was happy, he was happy, and so the Universe could breathe a long sigh of relief that its loyal protector was back at the helm and ready to save the day again.

…Once Rose was back on board that is.

Rose. Oh his poor companion. What wringers she had been put through these past couple of trips. She had such an unbelievable strength to her that he couldn't help but admire her with mild envy at just how strong she truly was. So to see her finally succumb and show such weakness after the loss of Mickey to the parallel world, the brutal death of her parallel mother, as well as the rejection of the man who was her father all inside a span of a few hours – well – it broke his hearts. He didn't hesitate when she asked to see her mother. He didn't hesitate when she asked if they could stay a couple of days. He gladly agreed when two days became a week.

Oh, of course he had feigned a whimper and may have uttered a mild complaint about it – to save his reputation of course – But he swiftly acquiesced with the excuse that his TARDIS was ill, and so the extra time might just do her the world of good.

Truth was. He needed the downtime as well. He was as shattered as Rose was.

Shattered? Over the loss of Mickey?

No. He'd never admit that out loud. Mickey was a good and decent bloke who the Doctor had come to respect – all teasing aside. That daft young man who had clutched tightly onto Rose's legs in absolute terror after the Nestine Consciousness, was now a brave and capable man in his own right. The decision to leave it all behind to begin anew in the parallel world, where he could do so much good, was a choice that hit the Doctor hard inside his chest.

Brave. So Brave.

But his bravery had a cost, and that cost was Rose. His decision fractured her beautiful heart and bruised her deep inside her soul. The Doctor felt the pain within her. He felt it, he wanted to take it away from her, and if he had to pull the stars from the sky and give them to her on a golden platter, then by Rassilon he would.

…Because, he pretty much could, couldn't he?

The thought made him grin a wide smile as he quickly set coordinates to the most magnificent constellation in the universe, where they could simply hover in the purple, pink and blue nebulas so she could look outside the TARDIS doors and pick exactly which of the eight planets she wanted to see. And if she wanted to visit them all, then he'd take her to each and every one of them. He could hold her hand and let her curl herself around his arm as he told her stories about life on each of the planets as they watched the suns descend behind the mountains in a brilliant display of colour that would make her simply gasp in wonder.

His hand suddenly itched. He looked down at it with a mild frown as he recalled the last time that her hand was actually inside his. Oh. It had been a while. So long. Too long. This hand – his fighting hand – missed the warmth of hers. It was a hand that needed to be held, to be comforted, to become a lover and not a fighter.

Wait. What was he talking about again?

Further reflection fluttered from his mind as the TARDIS door squeaked open and Rose stepped on board the ship. He couldn't fight the beaming grin that flashed across his face to see her standing in the doorway of his beloved ship. The shroud of light from Jackie's living room behind her, and the gusting of the wind coming in through an open window shot a sharp breath into his chest; and for a moment he was taken back to the Gamestation, where a similar ethereal image gave him the Bad Wolf, salvation, a kiss and a new body.

"Rose," he breathed in awe as she stepped around the open door and pressed her back against its twin beside it.

"Hello, Doctor," she said along a breath that was more a whisper than a voice.

The Doctor blinked his eyes against the distinct overture of pain inside her greeting, but quickly shook it off and started his typical dance around the console.

"So where to this time," he asked with a cheer. "I'd like to give you the choice this time around, but I really did have such a good idea for where I could take you. I think you'd love it," he paused to tighten his teeth together in a manic grin, and perhaps to let her get a sigh, a smile, or a giggle in. She didn't and so he continued. "There's this brilliant constellation only a few hundred light years away from here. Eight planets all perfectly aligned along an orbit that has them in a perpetual ring around their…"

"I'm staying."

His words caught, and then he swallowed them as he tried to decipher the sounds from the doorway. If he wasn't mistaken – and he typically wasn't – Rose had just implied that she was staying.

But where?

He stopped his excited puppy bounce and pressed an unsure hand on the edge of the TARDIS console. "Excuse me?"

She slipped her hands into the back pockets of her jeans and looked off to one side, nodding with decision as she spoke. "I … I think I'm gonna stay," she answered softly.

He swallowed. "As in here … on the TARDIS, or…" He didn't want to finish that question.

"Here," she said weakly, with a tic of her head toward the doorway. "My … My mum needs me," she managed on a broken voice. "With Mickey gone, she has no one, and I just can't up and leave her."

"Oh." He couldn't shield his disappointment.

She looked to him quickly. "I'm sorry, Doctor, but…."

"We can come back more often," he interrupted quickly with the hope that it didn't sound too eager. "I mean. Sunday dinners every week if you want – until your mother is settled."

Rose gave a light snort. "Yeah. Like you would really want to stop and visit every few days."

He managed a cheeky smile. "Well. We wouldn't have to come back every week. We have a Time Machine, yeah? A month or two travelling, return home in time for Sunday dinner with your mother." He scratched at his sideburn. "We could."

"With your driving," she challenged. "We'd be lucky to make it home once a year."

"Once," he admonished indignantly. "One time I brought you home late."

She gave him a smile that held pure adoration. "I don't have enough fingers to count off the times that you – a Time Lord – messed up the dates…"

He rubbed a sheepish stroke of the back of his neck. "I'll do better."

Her smile faltered only slightly. "I can't, Doctor. I just can't leave her right now."

"Do you need more time," he offered softly. "We can stay a while longer if you want. Or. I could let you stay and come back in a month or so to pick you up."

She closed her eyes, and for a moment he let himself believe that she was seriously considering letting him do just that. That hope faded fast when she shook her head. Once again she took her eyes from his and looked everywhere but at him.

"No." she inhaled, and he could hear the incredible sorrow in that one, wet, sniff.

"Rose…"

She saw his tentative approach and shook her head to keep him in place beside the console. "Thank you," she said with a shudder. "For everything."

"Please…"

"You showed me so much," she continued. "And you'll never understand just how much I appreciate being able to travel with you; to see everything; to feel so much about … so much." She finally looked at him, her eyes red-rimmed and brimmed with tears. "You showed me that life is to be lived, and that it can take one person – only one – to make such and incredible difference in the world .. in the whole universe."

He couldn't stay in place any longer and took several long strides toward her. "Yes," he began earnestly. "Yes. One person can make a difference." He paused on the ramp about four feet from her. Presented, now, with the undeniable devastation inside her, he felt his knees weaken. The urge to tug her against him was overwhelming. "But," he choked. "A wonderful, brave, intelligent woman I know once said that it's better with two."

She chuckled wetly. "Flattery will get you everywhere."

"Will it get you to stay with me?"

At the tremor in his voice she immediately shot her eyes to his. "Please don't."

"Don't what?"

"Don't make this harder for me than it already is," she begged. Rose wiped at the tears on her cheeks. "It's taking every bit of willpower I have to walk away, Doctor."

"Then don't." He dared stride closer. "Don't walk away." His advance stopped when she visibly stiffened. "You can still travel the stars at my side," he ventured with false bravado and an even faker smile. "We can still explore everything the universe has to offer and then come home and visit your mum when she needs you." He grinned his tight-tooth grin and thrust his hands into his pockets. "Just a phone call away, right?"

"You don't need me," she huffed with perhaps a little more hurt in her voice than intended.

Okay, a lot more hurt than she intended to show – but nowhere quite as much as she really felt.

Oh, but he heard it. He heard it and actually stepped back a half stride at just how much hurt was conveyed. "What?"

She took a couple of calming breaths. "I mean. What I mean to say. What." She cleared her throat. "You'll find someone else," she managed finally. She looked up to him. "You always do, yeah?"

All he could do was stare at her with an expression of absolute confusion as to where this came from.

"It's not like I'm your first, Doctor," she explained. "Not the first in a long line of companions. I know that." She sniffed and looked away from him again. "I certainly won't be your last."

Something clicked. He wasn't sure exactly what or why, but it clicked. "Is this about Sara Jane? Because I thought we'd …"

"It's not about Sarah Jane," she clarified quickly. "Sure. That was an eye opener, but," she looked at him. "I understood what you were saying; what you were trying to get across to me."

"Then what?" His voice was barely a whisper. "I'm getting the impression that you wanting to stay has more to do with something other than your mother needing you."

"Maybe," she offered quietly. Then she smiled and stepped up to him. Rose ran her fingers along the lapels of his blazer, refusing to let her eyes meet his. "I have to do this," she squeaked sadly. "Because I can't do this any more."

The Doctor touched lightly at her elbows. Usually, this was his invitation for her to put her arms around his neck to hug him, but today she was ignoring his guidance.

"What can't you do," he questioned softly as his hands fell to touch almost imperceptibly at her hips.

She let her eyes slide up to meet his. A blink loosened the damming tears and they rolled shamelessly down her cheeks. "Love you," she huffed quickly, and then gasped as hit feather light touch became a sudden tight grasp on her hips. She writhed her hips to loosen his hold on them. "Doctor, please. Don't."

He didn't hear her plea. His focus was still stuck on the two words of declaration. "What did you just say?"

She had to laugh, a rueful one at that. "Don't tell me that you don't know, Doctor. I haven't exactly kept how I feel about you a secret."

All he could do was stare at her.

"And. Well." She rolled a shoulder and used the motion to pull back from him. "Recent events have shown me that the feelings aren't reciprocated, and before my heart is broken any more than it is right now, I have to walk away."

"How have I possibly made you feel that way?"

At that, she laughed. If she was being honest, she would admit that, yes, it was a cruel laugh aimed at making her feel more confident to keep her resolve and walk away. "Oh, the list is long and varied, Doctor." She sighed as she recalled the space ship and the Doctor's hurtful abandonment as he ran – lovestruck – after a woman he'd known mere hours. The memories of that entire hurt-filled trip brought a fresh wave of tears, and even a single choked sob. "You'll be fine without me. I know it."

"I need you," he blurted suddenly.

She closed her eyes, dropped her chin, and shook her head. "No you don't." The Doctor shifted in a movement to suggest that he was going to snatch her against him in a crushing hug. She stopped him by pressing her hand against his chest. "A Time Lord doesn't beg," she chided softly. "And you're moving pretty quickly toward that territory right now."

"No, time Lords don't beg," he confirmed. "But they do ask why, and put forth their own arguments."

"You want to know why?"

He put on his most confident expression and nodded as he folded his arms across his chest – a nervous and guarded stance. "Yes. I want to know why. I want you to tell me why you – the one companion I've had that loves the universe, the travel, the danger and the beauty as much as I do – why you are willing to just walk out of my TARDIS doors and leave me."

Rose was expressionless as she stared into his face. She read the sudden insecurity in his expression, shielded behind his arrogance. "Because," she whimpered sadly.

"Because why?"

Rose lunged forward into his chest. She clutched at the lapels of his jacket and rose up high onto her toes and slammed her mouth against his in a crushing kiss that caught the time Lord completely off guard. His stance faltered a moment, and his arms flailed unsurely. But as her kiss became more aggressive and demanding, he gave a possessive growl and opened his mouth to hers. His arms snapped tightly around her to haul him up against him in a fierce embrace that lifted her feet from the ground as his mouth sealed firmly against hers.

Rose gave into the passion of their embrace for only a moment. She began to pull from him as she felt him begin to walk them backward toward a thick coral strut just off to the side of the ramp. For a moment his mouth followed the pull-back movement of hers to prevent them parting, but she quickly gained the separation she needed and gasped as she wriggled out of his hold.

"…Because you left me," she answered on a devastated breath.

He gaped in utter confusion and reached out to draw her to him again, hoping beyond all hope that he could probably kiss her to her senses and make her stay. "I don't…"

"I've gotto go," she managed with conviction and decision. "Thank you, again, Doctor. Our time together will stay with me for the rest of my life." She smiled weakly. "I'll love you forever."

"If I leave," he blurted on a voice more hurt than anything. "I won't come back."

"I know," she admitted softly. Her eyes tightened their close and her heart ached that he refused to acknowledge her love for him. "You never look back, I know that. This is goodbye, Doctor."

"Please," he peeped. "Can you please just tell me why?"

"I did," she snapped with exasperation. "Because. You. Left. Me."

"I'm still here," he argued. He opened his arms in presentation. "Here, Rose. I'm here. With you. I haven't gone anywhere."

"Five and a half hours," she muttered more to herself than him and turned to walk toward the door.

His eyes flared in horrific realization to her words. "Rose. No. You can't. Not based on…"

"Good bye, Doctor. I'll miss you."

"Rose. Wait!"

Rose continued her stride, too scared to turn back to him in fear that she'd never leave. Her breath inhaled sharply and she found herself stepping backward when the door slammed shut in front of her. "What the…?" She flicked a look over her shoulder and saw that the Doctor still stood at the top of the ramp with a look of surprise as sharp as the shock she felt.

"TARDIS," she queried softly. "Oh, old girl."

"She doesn't want you to leave, either," he said with a slight amount of humour; an ounce of pride, and a splash of sorrow. "She likes you."

Rose smiled and stroked her palm along the door. "My sweet, beautiful, old girl. I'm definitely going to miss you."

"She's sad," he offered gently. "You can break my hearts if you want to, but please don't break hers."

Rose pressed a kiss into the doorway and stroked lovingly at the white wooden surface as she dropped her forehead against it. "Look after him, TARDIS. Don't let him do anything stupid, okay? You just keep taking him to where he needs to be, okay?" She let her tears fall onto the grating at her feet. "You have to let me go, okay? You know he'll be fine. He'll find someone." She looked over her shoulder at him and gave a weak smile. "He always does, yeah?"

The ship seemed to rattle a TARDIS equivalent of a sad sigh.

"Don't open your door," the Doctor demanded of his machine. "C'mon Rose. Let's just head into the vortex for a bit and you and me, we can talk about this." He moved to the console to input a series of coordinates. "I think we've had a seriously huge misunderstanding, and I would really appreciate the opportunity to share my side of things before I let you walk out of my TARDIS."

"Let me out," she whispered against the machine's doors. "C'mon, sweetheart. Let me go."

"Coordinates set," the Doctor boomed from the console with a smile on his face. "C'mon Rose, one more trip. You and me. We'll sort this out. No rushing into hasty decisions." He looked up to the quiet time rotor and gave it a firm slap. "Come on, my beautiful ship. Time to move. I bet you're just dying to get back up there."

Rose persisted her whisper against the doors of the ship. "Please TARDIS." Her doors opened finally, and Rose quickly stepped out into her mother's living room.

The Doctor's eyes widened and he quickly jogged toward the open doors. "Wait," he called as the rotor began to move. "Rose. Wait. Don't do this."

The Doors slammed shut in front of him and the familiar wheeze and whine of dematerialization filled the command deck. He punched once at the door with a growl of annoyance at his ship. "How could you," he demanded sharply as he turned and ran to the console to try and counter the commands he'd already set. His ship refused to obey his new coordinates.

"Take me back," he growled. "Don't just leave her there."

The TARDIS refused.

The Doctor tried again.

Still she refused to obey his command.

"Please," he pleaded softly as both eyes spilled long held tears down his cheeks. "Give me the chance to explain to her. To tell her."