Title: Saving Rose Tyler

Author: Nagi Kokuyo

Fandom(s): Broadchurch & Doctor Who

Rating: T

Warnings: Some swearing, spoilers, depression, dealing with the topic of death and dying

Spoilers: I don't think there's anything important, but you should probably see up to ep 8 of Broadchurch, just in case. Sequel to "The Blonde in the Leather Jacket," you should probably read that first. Also, this contains spoilers for The Stolen Earth and Journey's End. Mildly AU after Journey's End, because there is no Meta-Crisis Doctor.

Summary: The Daleks have been defeated and the Earth is saved, but all is not right for Rose. She's trapped in Pete's World again, and she is not okay. After her world changes for the worst, she returns to Broadchurch and DI Hardy to live her life, and brings with her a question that will haunt him: can he save her?

A/N: Back by popular demand—no, wait, that's not right. I felt bad for leading you guys on about a relationship between Hardy and Rose, and I did want to write a sequel…I warn you, this one is going to be rather more depressing.

oOoOoOo

Rose Tyler is a lot of things—daughter, sister, friend, girlfriend, shop girl, companion, time traveler, Defender of the Earth, Bad Wolf, professional meddler—also crazy, depending on who you ask.

But, she is not a fool.

She considers herself a smart girl, even though she didn't finish school and never got her A-levels; not book smart, maybe, but she is street smart, and that's what counts when you're running across the universe with a madman, getting in and out of trouble. She gets where she's not supposed to and can talk her way out of just about anything, and for what she can't, she's got a very big gun and her team to back her up. She's smart enough to have led the dimensional cannon development, and no matter what that pompous supervisor said, it wasn't because Pete's her step-dad. It was because she's clever and determined as hell, and she'd learned enough from the Doctor to understand most of this tech.

And all that paid off in the end, didn't it, because she made it back to the other side. Rose made it back to her Doctor. She hugged her mother and little Tony, kissed Jake and her head researcher, Ianto Jones, on the cheeks, and let those scientists catapult her molecules through a tattered rip in the universe. She was really glad she was right and it didn't kill her, because she found her Doctor again. She knew she would, she'd always known; there was nothing that could keep them apart, not even the universe and the fate of all reality.

Throwing her arms around him and feeling him—solid and real—was almost worth what she left behind.

Because she was ashamed to know that relief for finding him was the second thing that she felt when she finally came face to face with the Doctor; the first was a pang in her chest and a feeling of longing for a rough and awkward detective in a boring little village—Alec.

How could Rose ever admit to the Doctor—her Doctor, the man who showed her the stars and introduced her to a whole new kind of living—that she was wishing for another man?

When she volunteered to go establish a Torchwood operation in the Dorset town of Broadchurch, she'd never heard of Danny Latimer or the Sandbrook Murders or Detective Inspector Alec Hardy. She'd had no idea what she was walking into; she'd just wanted to be near the Rift. If things were slipping through into the town, maybe she could find a way to the other side. Broadchurch could have been her way home.

Instead, she found someone nearly identical to the second man she'd called Doctor. For a moment, when she first saw him leaving the hotel, she thought she'd managed to cross dimensions without noticing. She was so excited, heart pounding and blood singing with the memory of all that waited beyond blue doors; she even took a step off the pavement.

Then, reality caught up with her and she stopped herself; it took actual, physical effort to keep herself from running across the road and throwing herself into his arms. No, that wasn't her Doctor; she could see the differences. His hair was a floppy mess, not the carefully styled mess she knew; he was pale and thin, and had a fair amount of scruff on his face. Now, it looked good, but it meant that he, whoever he was, was not the Doctor.

He was Detective Inspector Alec Hardy, and he was not the Doctor.

She watched him, followed him, and enjoyed teasing him more than she should have; but, she did feel bad when she saw exactly how far he was going to track her down. Jake thought it was hilarious to watch the guy go nuts, Mickey wanted to push the guy into the ocean for shits and giggles, and Ianto rolled his eyes and called them both insufferable. Rose thought it was kinda mean to make him think he was crazy.

Maybe he could help, she said; maybe, he could be the inside man with the police. He could keep an eye out for the weird stuff, and give them the head's up.

He's not the Doctor, they said, don't let your heart get in the way of your job. He can't help us, he doesn't even know about us.

Since when did she refrain from doing something just because it could go wrong? She told the Detective Inspector anyway, and somewhere along the way, Rose Tyler started to fall for DI Alec Hardy.

She was glad, of course, that she found somebody. She wasn't in love with him, not yet, but she could see it. For the first time since Canary Wharf, she could see having a life on this side. Alec was a good man. She deserved a good man. The Doctor would understand that.

He would understand, right?

There were a million chances for her to tell him, even with all the fighting and running for their lives, but she couldn't bring herself to do it. Either she would get to stay on that side and she would move on, eventually forgetting Alec, or she would be sent back again. She didn't know which would be worse.

It was incredible, fighting and defending alongside Team TARDIS again. She'd missed it; fighting Cybermen and the odd violent visitor wasn't nearly as exciting as saving the world constantly. And seeing old friends again? Martha and Sarah Jane, and her Captain Jack, of course; it was better than anything she'd imagined. For the first time in years, she felt home.

Of course, it couldn't last, because that would have been too damn easy, and that's not how life works.

At the end of everything, Rose is right back where she was after Canary Wharf: on her knees in the sand on that damned beach, sobbing until she can barely breathe because the Doctor left her. Again. And there isn't a thing she can do about it, because she can't exactly argue with the safety of reality itself, no matter how much it hurts. She hears her superphone ringing, knows she should pick it up; by now, everyone at this side's Torchwood knows it's over. It's probably Jake or her mum, callin' to find out what happened, if she's even still alive.

She can't bring herself to answer it, though. She doesn't want to talk to anyone; she just wants to be alone for a little while. She wants to get away from all the aliens and pressure, and she wouldn't mind some chips, because crossing dimensional borders really takes it out of a girl. So, she just sits there and cries until the tears just won't come, and then she falls asleep, curled up on the damp sand in a too-big coat that she swiped from Jack. She doesn't want to think. She doesn't want to feel.

She doesn't want to remember how, for the slightest moment, she had the opportunity to live out the rest of her life with a human Doctor, someone who could spend the rest of his life loving her.

She doesn't want to, but she does, and it hurts more than any flesh wound.

Rose Tyler cries, and something inside her breaks.

oOoOoOo

I'm BAAAAACK! When I started uploading The Blonde in the Leather Jacket, I'd already written the entire story. This time 'round, I have the first few chapters done, but the rest are still in the works. So, the in-between updates might be a little erratic. Bear with me, will you?

I'll update next Sunday, or when I get some reviews, whichever comes first.

So, shall we begin?

Allons-y!