He could hear her calling, felt the pull on his hearts. It was sixty years later, but she hadn't forgotten him. And he hadn't forgotten her. The Doctor stood in the TARDIS deliberating, should he go to her? Should he risk tearing yet another hole in the universe just to see if Rose was okay? Of course he should.
The Doctor turned and set the controls of his TARDIS, destination: Pete's World. He chuckled as he remembered naming the parallel universe, but his laughter died quickly as the rest of that fateful day flooded his mind. Those were memories that had been restrained for the last sixty years, kept under lock and key but now they were all that the Doctor could think of.
"Rose?" The Doctor called as he left his beloved blue box. He was standing in a large house that he had visited once before; he had been a waiter at a birthday party in the very same large entrance hall where he now stood. This was Peter Tyler's house.
"Rose?" The Doctor called again, this time louder. He began to walk through the downstairs rooms of the house.
Memories flooded back to him. Rose had been unruly the last time they were there together, it had irritated him at the time, but now he understood. When you've lost someone you would do anything to seem them again, you would even risk upsetting the whole of time and space. The Doctor knew all about that, this particular trip was evidence of that. He looked out onto the lawn that sat in front of the house. He had stood on that lawn many years ago, not scared for his own life, but scared for the life of his companion, his Rose. The Doctor blinked away tears and turned away from the window. He wasn't here to relive painful memories, he was here to see if she was okay.
"Rose, are you here?" There was still no reply so he tried again even louder. "Rose?"
There was a noise from one of the rooms upstairs, he ran, up the stairs, following the sound that he prayed would lead him to her.
"Rose!" The Doctor exclaimed, bursting into a random room. Inside sat a young blonde girl, this was not Rose.
"Who are you?" The little girl asked.
"I'm the Doctor, who are you?" The Doctor replied with his usual lopsided grin. He sat down on the bed beside the little girl.
"The Doctor, are you really?"
"Yes." The Doctor frowned, this little girl confused him.
"Wow." He tried and failed to hold in his laughter. She knew who he was, that didn't happen very often.
"Well, thank you, I think. Do you know where Rose is?"
"Grandpa is with her, should I go and get him?" The Doctor nodded, following as the girl jumped up and ran out of the room. She had said grandpa, did that mean that Rose had married and been happy? The Doctor wanted to be pleased but couldn't help the feeling of jealousy that swelled within his stomach.
He followed her down the corridor until she stopped at a door halfway along. When the door opened, the Doctor heard a quiet voice speak; it was a male voice that he didn't recognise. But then, then he heard the most beautiful sound and pushed his way inside.
"Rose!" This time she was there, but she had changed so much.
Rose Tyler lay in a large double bed, she looked frail and delicate, she had never been particularly delicate before. Her perfect skin was wrinkled and her long blonde hair had greyed considerably. If the Doctor's maths was right, as it always was, she was now eighty years old.
"Doctor." The word came out on a short breath. "You're here."
"Of course, I am." He rushed to the bed and took her hand in his.
"You've changed faces again." She rested her other hand against his cheek, the skin was so soft.
"Oh, only three times since I last saw you." He grinned.
"Really? I've missed so much."
"I've missed you so much," He replied with the honest truth.
"Oh, Doctor. You have no idea." It was only then that he noticed, there was no ring on the hand that was pressed against his cheek. Rose had never married. The man in the room was not her husband and the little girl not her granddaughter. The Doctor wasn't sure whether to be upset or relieved; she had not moved on and been happy, but at the same time, she had never given up on him. Both answers hurt, he shouldn't have spoiled her for every other man and he should have come to her sooner.
"I'm here now." He pressed a kiss to her forehead.
"Rose, is this the Doctor?" The man asked.
"Yes, Tony, this is him."
"I have heard so much about you. You saved my parents!" Tony offered his hand for the Doctor to shake it.
"You too, Tony. And don't worry about it, it's what I do." The Doctor didn't look at Rose's brother, he was too busy studying her face. It was so different and yet exactly the same.
"Doctor, you're being rude again." Rose laughed, the Doctor saw the pain that this caused her when she began to cough violently.
"Are you okay?" He asked, panicked.
"Fine. Just short of breath. It happens in old age, not that you would know."
"Hey, I've done old age!" He grinned.
"We'll leave you guys alone, see you later, Rose." Tony said, guiding his granddaughter from the room. Rose smiled in thanks.
"Lie here with me." Rose patted the free side of the bed. The Doctor complied. "You know, I used to dream about this."
"About me lying next to you as an old woman?"
"No, just about lying next to you, falling asleep and waking up by your side. Spending a whole lifetime with you," She said, a faint smile curving across her lips.
"Rose, I wished that I could have spent my whole life with you. I wished that I wasn't a Time Lord, that you weren't human, that I didn't have to watch you grow old."
"Wished, past tense?" Rose frowned.
"Wish, present tense," The Doctor said after a slight pause. There went the truth again, it seemed to have a way of creeping out today.
Rose smiled brightly. That was the smile that was imprinted on his mind and both of his hearts.
"Come with me, one last time." The Doctor sat up as the idea popped into his mind.
"Okay, where?" Rose asked eagerly.
"It's a surprise." He knew just where he wanted to take her.
The Doctor helped Rose out of the bed, she was so weak that he almost changed his mind and decided that it was a bad idea. But the look in Rose's eye wouldn't let him, it was a look of excitement. It was the look that she used to get every time they visited a new planet. He knew that she wouldn't be able to walk the distance to the TARDIS so instead he called it up, a new and incredibly useful technique that he had mastered only recently, and carried her in.
"You've redecorated in here too!" Rose sighed. The Doctor placed Rose on a seat and fiddled with a few controls. The surroundings melted only to be replaced by their TARDIS.
"Better?" He grinned.
"Much."
The Doctor fiddled with the controls, setting their course, before returning to where Rose sat.
"So, what have you done with yourself all of these years?" The Doctor asked.
"I went back to the shop but only part time. I helped out at Torchwood, it felt like a link to you. Whenever we came across something that we had seen together, it reminded me that it hadn't been just an amazing dream, it was real."
"It was real."
"Sometimes I wasn't sure. I would wake up in the morning some days and think, surely that didn't happen? Nobody could travel the stars with someone as amazing as the Doctor, not even me."
"But you did, and you were fantastic!" It was a word that he hadn't used for a long time, but it got a smile from Rose. It had been a favourite of his when they first met, everything had been fantastic and then it had been brilliant.
"And you know what, so were you," Rose responded. This made the Doctor smile too. The day that he had kissed her for the first time, the day that he regenerated in front of her, he had said the exact same thing. He was surprised that she remembered.
Moments later, the TARDIS stopped; they had reached their destination. The Doctor whisked Rose into his arms and carried her out. There was a large expanse of green, green grass in front of them, then after that there was a body of water and then a large city. It was New New New New New New New New New New New New New New New Earth.
"What made you pick here?" Rose asked quietly, face contemplative.
"We came here after I regenerated, I seemed like an entirely new person that you didn't know but you still trusted me, still loved every second of it, with me. But now I've changed again. I don't look like the same Doctor who came here with you, but I am. This is my way of saying that I'm still your Doctor."
"Thank you." Rose placed a hand on his cheek.
The Doctor placed his companion down on the soft apple grass and lay next to her. The situation was so similar to the day that had spent here many years ago, lying on his long coat, surveying the large city, talking and laughing.
The pair talked until the sun began to set, discussing everything from her life in the parallel universe to his lonely life in the TARDIS. She told him about her family, about Mickey and he told her about his new companions. She wasn't upset as he had feared she might be, in fact she was glad. Rose didn't want her Doctor to be lonely again, as he had been when she found him. She hoped that the TARDIS had been full of life and happiness in her absence. The Doctor's stories suggested that it had and she found herself feeling relieved. The sun set was beautiful and it was soon replaced by the stars. They looked at the sky, the Doctor pointing out all of the places that they had been, all of the stars that they had visited. Rose was quiet whilst he spoke, she loved to hear his voice again after so long of wishing and wanting.
There was a moment of silence and the Doctor realised that it was time for the truth to come out. It was time to speak an honest truth that should have been spoken a long time ago.
"I love you, Rose," The Doctor said simply. There was no response to he continued. "I'm sorry that I didn't say it sooner and I'm sorry that I wasn't there for you when you needed me. But I'm hear now and you need to know, I love you. I tried to say it that day on the beach but I didn't know how and then it was too late, but I do, I love you."
He felt like he was babbling, but wasn't he always? Rose still didn't reply, so he rolled over to look at her. A tear rolled down his cheek. Her eyes were open but she wasn't breathing. Rose was gone and she had never known how he felt about her.
The Doctor gathered Rose up in his arms and held her tightly, the tears coming thick and fast. He stayed there, gently rocking back and forth long after the tears had stopped falling. Finally, he stood up and returned to the TARDIS. Without putting her down, the Doctor found the long coat that he had favoured during his tenth regeneration and placed it around Rose's shoulders.
The Doctor returned to the house and placed Rose on top of the bedcovers, still wearing his brown coat. Then he kissed her lips and said a final goodbye to his favourite companion.