Writer's note: Rose/Doctor is my OTP; therefore, I have spent a lot of time thinking about those words in Journey's End. I hold no objection to the suggested "I love you" but can't be satisfied with it. Then, I figured out what I wanna hear and decided to do something with it.

Angst is to be expected, but I do not want it to be the core of this piece (or maybe I am not qualified to write angst :D). I just wish to produce something neat and not a blasphemy of what I love.

Reviews are warmly welcomed.

-oOo-

Prologue

The TARDIS engine rumbled as the dematerialization process commenced. The blue box seemed to have vaporized into thin air, along with her skinny man. He left her. This time, there was no burning up a sun to say goodbye, no unsaid words, no tears shed. This time, he left her. For the greater cause, of course, always for the greater cause. She could not blame him, that wonderful man had had his hearts smashed to keep the worlds unbroken. But she could not help feeling bad towards him either.

She turned away from the blank space where that magic box, that wonderful world with all the laughter and tears, used to stand. She couldn't bear looking at it for any other second without breaking down. Too much for a day, too much. On turning around, she caught the sight of him, the other him, looking at her with confused eyes.

"Thank you", she sighed, "for working with me on that kiss. Only through breaking a part of his heart can we set his soul in peace." And before he could say anything in return, she carried on, "and for being honest to me."

"You know?" he whispered, then realized it was not a decent thing to say.

"Course I do, long time ago."

"Know what, sweetheart?" Jackie asked, a certain amount of worry could be heard in her voice.

"Some day after his hand had been cut off, I asked him about that, mom. He told me once it's gone, there was no longer a connection, either physical or mental, between it and the rest of him. That being said, he", she paused, eyeing the Doctor, "knew nothing about our life in the TARDIS after that Christmas Day."

"Even if I did, nothing changes. There are some things he keeps ultimately to himself." the Doctor uttered.

"Then what did you whisper in her ear…?" Jackie stopped. She was clever enough to know what had been uttered. And after a while, she declared, "Come on, you two. Pete's waiting. Let's get the heck out of this damn cold beach."

Following Jackie, they slowly removed themselves from the sandy spot. The wind was still roaring, and Rose felt thankful. The angry sound of nature could help calm down what had been ranting in her mind since his departure. How could he expect her to move on, after all that time, after all that effort just to get together with him? What were she supposed to do with her life now? If she could easily settle down with someone else, she would have done it years ago. How dare he think she would accept this man to be him right away? Was she just another soldier of his, who would take his word as the ultimate order? She couldn't help but sensing a surge of bitterness in her veins.

The high-pitched voice of Jackie's calling Pete snapped Rose out of her thoughts. She looked sideways, realizing that this Doctor had not taken his eyes off her since they started walking. Oh, there was one question worth asking.

"You could lie to me, couldn't you? With your brilliant mind, you could just come up with something you know that I want to hear?"

"I would never do that to you, Rose Tyler," he smiled. "I am not a Time Lord with the twisted tongue to keep the universe in balance any more. I am just a man now. Your man. How can I lie to the woman I love?"

"Could not say the same to you, at this time!" she sighed.

"I know," he said. "You have crossed multiple universes to find me. Now it's time for me to cross your universe to find you."

"We'll see then. By the way, I can't call you Doctor anymore. You're still not him. Sorry."

"John Smith. Just call me John Smith, the very human I have longed to become centuries ago," he held her hand while saying so.

"So, John Smith then. Heard that alias a few times. Never thought that it will become your real name," she finally managed to crack up a faint smile. "Come on, John. We have a long story to tell Pete."

The wind and the ocean kept chatting in a mixture of indistinctive sounds. It seemed that they were in an enthusiastic discussion about the three words he breathed into her ears, "I don't know". Well, nobody knew. In the other universe where the "stuff of legend" shop girl had been in the list of the dead, the Bad Wolf and the Oncoming Storm could not fight against all odds alongside. But this was a whole different world, with its own rules. Rose and John might not end up happily, but a chance had been offered.

She was not a naïve teenager any more, and he had shrugged off the burden of the last of the Time Lord. This time, journey's start.