Title: Struggle of The Wolf

Author: JediLlama

Rating: T

Description: After the events of Journey's End, Rose Tyler was left in the alternate universe with a human Doctor duplicate. But when she finds that the wolf in her doesn't allow her to age, she is once again left without the forever the Doctor promised her.

Chapter One:

"What have we got Tosh?"

Rose Tyler stormed into the Torchwood institute, making her way behind the young Asian woman on the computer.

"Three Sontarans storming around Big Ben, a Slitheen in the parliament building, and it looks like someone down in that little pub by Gwen's place has somehow acquired a Racnoss egg." She informed her, typing away.

"Right, okay, I'll have John and his team take the Sontarans; you, me, and Owen will take the Slitheen, and Ianto!" She called over her shoulder to the man currently playing with a Judoon's scanner. He looked up abruptly, dropping the device. Rose rolled her eyes. "Take Gwen and go talk to the guy in the pub." Ianto nodded and stood up, adjusting his suit. He left the room, Gwen following quickly behind him.

"Do you think it'll be okay to just send the two of them? I don't know that Ianto really knows how to-" Toshiko began, but was swiftly cut off by Rose.

"He's with Gwen, they'll be fine." She said.

"Yeah," Owen scoffed, coming up behind the two women. "Gwen knows everything!" Rose ignored him, choosing instead to go pick up her weapons belt from a shelf in the corner while Tosh quickly printed off the quickest route to parliament.

"All right everyone," she said. "Let's go."

"Wibbley wobbly timey wimey, remember?" The Doctor muttered to himself in the control room of the TARDIS. "Don't let a silly Ood get you down!" The TARDIS gave a warning hum, trying to remind the Doctor to be cautious. "Yeah yeah, I know." He said, waving her off with one of his hands as he started fiddling with things on the console. The TARDIS responded with a disapproving humph as the Doctor set them to travel to 1960's Hollywood. If he was going to die, might as well make the most out of the time he had left. And Rassilon, did '60s actors know how to have a good time.

"So basically, we have absolutely no idea what this Slitheen wants, it just happens to be raiding through the parliament building in its natural form?" Rose questioned from the passenger seat of Owen's Torchwood issued black jeep. She looked up into the rear view mirror at Tosh who just shrugged.

"I suppose so... I couldn't really get a fix on what it was doing. You know how people are, they see an alien and immediately react as negatively as is possible." She said, exasperated.

Rose blinked and sat still a moment before a small smile began to form on her face. She released a quiet giggle causing both Owen and Tosh to look at her questioningly.

"Sorry," she said swallowing her laughter. "You just sounded a lot like the Doctor there." She smiled again causing her teammates to look at her sympathetically.

"Oh, don't look at me like that! I have John now, he's all I'll ever need."

Tosh opened her mouth to say something else, but was quickly cut off by Owen.

"We're just about there," he said unenthusiastically. "I can practically smell the chaos."

"That made no sense," Rose stated as they jeep pulled up in front of the grand building and she hopped out. "Slitheens in the parliament building," she muttered to herself under her breath. "Deja vu much?"

Three and a half hours later, Rose and her team had returned to Torchwood headquarters and were now cleaning the Raxicalicaphaliportian off their bodies. The group laughed together as they relived the highlights of their day. As Owen was just beginning to tease Rose over a comical fall she endured, Gwen and Ianto walked into the room looking exhausted.

"Rough mission?" Tosh inquired with a raised eyebrow. Gwen scoffed before replying.

"Just some sketchy guy with a smuggled egg huh? Right. Good thought. The git pulls a flipping Cyberman arm out of his jacket and starts firing at us! We managed to get the egg and bring it back to HQ, but the man got away. Luckily, we acquired some genetic material and his fingerprints." The brunette said exasperatedly causing the rest of the team to let out a laugh.

"Well, feel free to go home early." Rose said, hanging her jacket and weapons back on their place on the wall. "That goes for all of you, go home and get some rest." Everyone smiled gratefully before turning to leave. Rose made her way over to her desk in the hopes of sorting out some paperwork before she too retired for the day. Upon sitting down however, she noticed that Owen was lingering precariously in the doorway.

"Is there something the matter Owen?" Rose asked. The man paused momentarily before taking a calming breath and approaching his team leader. Reaching into his jacket, he pulled out a small folder and placed it on the desk before him, sliding it towards Rose. She took it curiously and opened it revealing a picture of herself and many sheets of medical records. "What is this?" She inquired, quirking a brow.

"It's some medical records I've been collecting over the past couple years." He explained, rubbing the back of his neck awkwardly. "It's just, you've been working here for four years and you, well... You haven't changed at all."

"What?" Rose asked, now very confused. Owen sighed and continued.

"I've been collecting your medical records and taking some DNA samples. I also observed your healing progress after you sustained any injury in the field. There's been no change Rose, none at all. Your body isn't growing, it isn't changing. You haven't gained nor lost any weight and your healing rate is forty six percent faster than that of an average human." He added. Rose looked up from the medical records in her hands, confusion still evident in her eyes. "And from what I've observed of your DNA, well, what was DNA, it doesn't look a thing like regular human DNA anymore. There's an extra nucleonic strand interweaving with the original two. Plus you've got extra codons on all three strands, as well as a bunch more ribosomes and RNA. And it all looks a little bit... I don't really know how to explain it, but it just looks different; wrong."

"What are you saying?" She inquired sceptically. Owen sighed again before leaning down and placing a comforting hand on the young woman's shoulder.

"It means... It means you're not exactly human Rose. And, by the patterns on the records, it looks like you haven't been for a long time."

"How long exactly?" Rose asked, sounding calmer than she felt. The field medic quickly studied the chart before providing his team leader with an answer.

"It looks like you've been in some sort of temporal stasis the entire time you've been here, which explains why it doesn't look like you've been physically changing, plus an additional about... Uh... Two years? So I'd say you've been like this for the better part of five years, and that's at the least." Rose froze, memories of her life on the TARDIS racing through her head at an alarmingly fast rate. If Owen was doing the math right, that meant that somehow, during her time with the Doctor's ninth incarnation, she was exposed to something that caused all her bodily growth to come to a standstill. Quickly, she went over many of her adventures with her northern, leather clad Doctor. She remembered the Slitheens, her first Dalek, the living plastic, Cassandra the bitchy trampoline, Charles Dickens, World War One, her parent's wedding day, and Satellite Five. What in these adventures could have possibly caused her entire DNA structure to change? As she thought, her mind drifted back to a time on Satellite Five where her, Jack, and the Doctor were forced into playing deadly game shows and ended up fighting Dalek forces. But what could she have exposed herself to that was any different from the ordinary atmosphere of the TARDIS? As she thought about it, two words slowly made their way to the forefront of her mind.

Bad Wolf

Realization struck Rose like a lightning bolt. She let out a groan and leaned back in her large office chair. Of course, she thought. When I looked into the heart of the TARDIS and absorbed the time vortex, some of the huon particles must have ended up staying in my body even after the Doctor took them in himself. They must have been rewiring my DNA the entire time without either of us noticing.

Owen watched as his friend buried her face in her hands. He wasn't sure what was happening, but he did know that it was bound to cause some major issues in her life. He went to ask her what could have been the cause, but decided at the last moment that it would probably be best not to. Instead, he picked up the file and looked over it again. Beside him, he heard Rose begin to mumble to what he first thought was herself, but later realized was the man who had ultimately caused the current situation.

"My God Doctor," she whispered, her voice shaky. "I promised you forever and I lost you. You promised me forever, and I lost you again! You told me to never say never ever, but I give up. I'll never ever be happy." After all the pain Rose had been through, after losing the Doctor on what her family now considered 'Doomsday', and having the Doctor leave her at Bad Wolf Bay, Rose had finally found comfort in John Smith, the Doctor's human clone. He had all the same memories as the Doctor and felt for her just as strongly as she had for the original Doctor. She had been given an out, a way that she could be with the man she loved and he could be with her until they both grew old and died together. But now, there was no way for Rose to happily go on with her life. There was no way to determine when she would die, or even if she would die. She could end up spending all of John's life watching her lover grow old and wither away while she stayed young for who knows how long.

Is this how the Doctor felt? She asked herself, fighting back the tears that were springing to her eyes. Is this the reason why he wouldn't love me back? Because it would have been too painful?

She couldn't hold the tears anymore as she finally understood his pain. If this was permanent and she was like Jack, doomed to live forever and unable to die, she wouldn't know how to cope with it. She could never go back with the Doctor, as he was in another universe and cross-dimensional travel of that sort was impossible. But she also couldn't stay on this earth and watch as her John Smith aged and died. Either way, there was no possibility of her being happy.

"Owen, what do I do?" She whispered in fright, looking to the older field medic for help. "How long will I stay like this?" The man sighed and continued trifling through the file.

"I'm sorry Rose, I really am, but I don't think this is ever going to just go away. I don't know what happened, nor can I begin to explain how it possibly could have, but my best guess is that you're something else now, you won't be able to age, you'll have superior healing and intellectual skills, and who knows what else? Of course, you could still be killed I'm sure, maybe, if your body's accelerated growth didn't have a chance to kick in before death." Rose let out a humourless laugh.

"Oh, the similarity is uncanny!" She exclaimed, standing up and walking towards the window. She looked out at the slowly setting sun with determination. Owen looked at her as if she was crazy, and chances are that she was. He had heard her tales of the Doctor and she had never displayed any signs of insanity, but as he looked at her now, he could see her going into a state of hysteria.

"You look out Doctor!" She shouted viciously at the closed window. Owen flinched and took a step back. "To hell with your stupid worlds and your damn physics, because I'm gonna find you!"

"Rose?" Owen questioned carefully, slowly moving towards the blonde woman. "Are you okay?"

Suddenly, Rose whirled around to face him, a feral look in her eyes. Panicked, Owen stumbled back but the woman in front of him continued to advance towards him with her teeth bared. Her demeanour was that of a highly irritated wild animal and Owen backed away as quickly and cautiously as he could.

"Oh I'm fine Owen, I'm just great!" She growled menacingly, raising her arm towards his throat. "I'm-" she cut off with a gasp and froze where she stood, her eyes widening in panic. She quickly dropped her hand and scurried back behind her desk in order to create as much distance between her and her teammate as possible.

"Rose?"

Owen slowly crept toward the desk. As he reached it, he instinctually reached a hand out to the shaking woman in front of him.

"Stay back!" She exclaimed suddenly and Owen withdrew his arm. "I-I need you to call John. Call him and tell him to come here, and call my mum too. Please." She whispered. He made no move to leave, instead choosing to stand in place and watch Rose. "Please". She repeated. Finally, Owen nodded and went to call her family. Meanwhile, the assumed non-human woman wrapped her arms around herself and groaned.

"What's happening to me?" She whispered shakily, standing and approaching her window once again. She looked out dramatically as the first few stars began to come out. She stood reminiscing until Owen appeared at the door to inform her that her family was on their way to the Torchwood building. "Doctor." She prayed, her eyes scanning the rapidly darkening sky. "My Doctor, I need you."

Back in the TARDIS, the Doctor woke up to find himself in the console room after having fallen asleep in the jump seat. He shuddered slightly as he stood up, remembering the dream he had just had. He was dying, about to regenerate, but just as he was about to give in to the regeneration energy and be born again, he heard a voice calling for him, pleading for his help. He had then refused to die, straining himself in order to get up and help the invisible woman that was calling to him. The effort of fighting off regeneration and staying conscious must have forced him to awake, as he had found himself alone in his ship. He shook his head and made his way to the kitchen for a cuppa, doing his best to dismiss the voice from his dream.

"Doctor. My Doctor, I need you."

(A/N): Hello there :) This is my new (and first) Doctor Who story. If you're someone that is following me and noticed how I haven't updated any of my other fics in a long time... I will, at some point. But this story popped into my head, and I know the whole 'Rose not aging because of Bad Wolf and getting back to the Doctor' is super common and a little bit cliche, I really wanted to give it a shot! I'm doing my best to make it different from other fanfics I've read, and I hope you all enjoy it! My plan is to update a chapter every Sunday, but of course with diplomas and work and sports and all that, I may occasionally forget. But I can guarantee that this story will not be like my last ones- I will update as regularly as I can! Plus this time I have an amazing BETA reader! Thank you times 100 to Bailey :3

Please drop a review if you feel inclined to criticize, praise, or just comment!

Thank you for reading!

~JediLlama