The TARDIS landed. What was he doing here? It was Earth, but it was somehow different. He walked outside. Bloody hell. No, no, no, no, no! He was on Parallel Earth! How did he get here? It was literally impossible to be here. He closed gaps and cracks. Every last one. That was the last time he saw Rose. Fifteen years ago. He had brought 10.5 to her; and for the first time in fifteen years, he was without a companion on his ship. It wasn't safe to be here. Physically or emotionally.
"Old girl, why did you bring me here? We need to leave now."
The TARDIS hummed in protest and her systems locked up.
"NOW!"
Again she just hummed.
"No! I will not calm down! We-I can't be here!"
After a half hour of working the levers and dials, he gave up. She wasn't budging until he took care of something. He just had to figure out what that something was. So he walked. For hours. The sun began descending behind the clouds, and the orange-peach rays of the setting sun started taking over. It would be dark soon. Very soon. As he walked down an alley towards no place in particular, he saw her. His flower. She wouldn't recognize him in this form. He just had to play it cool. But he couldn't keep his eyes off of her. The way her hips moved, the way her eyes lit up. He recognized that look on her face. It was bliss. It was love. It was happiness. It was everything. She looked everyone in the eyes as they passed by. Pure kindness and love for every living creature. Human and alien alike. She was perfection in its purest form.
When her gaze met his, she looked at him with the eyes of an old friend. Did she recognize him after all? When he accidentally bumped shoulders with her, causing her to drop her things, he was quick to drop to his knees and help pick up her items. He didn't bother to notice that she was still standing. When he realized he was alone on the ground, he looked up. Rose had her mouth covered. He stood up and attempted to hand her things over, but she didn't take them. She just stared.
"…D-Doctor?"
With that acknowledgement, he dropped the handful of items and pushed her against the wall, kissing her more passionately than she'd ever been kissed. Even by her husband. Her husband. Rose pushed the Doctor off softly.
"…I can't."
And she ran, leaving her items behind. He protested taking them to Jackie's, but he didn't know where Rose Smith lived now. His heart ached at the sound of her name change. Luckily Jackie would have no clue who he was. He ran to her house and stood in the doorway for ten minutes before he had the courage to knock. An aged Jackie answered.
"Finally! You been standing out here long enough."
The Doctor gulped after seeing his yellow flower walking into the kitchen. Rose was here.
"Rose T-Smith left her things at work. Just thought I'd bring them by on my way to the pub."
Jackie hesitated. "Let me see your identification."
The Doctor pulled out his psychic paper and prayed that it would work.
"Fredrick Dahlia from Torchwood, eh? Sorry Freddy, can never be too sure nowadays."
"Why not? What's been going on? Has somebody been bothering you?"
"You're asking some personal questions there Freddy. Watch it."
"Right…sorry Jackie. I'll go now."
"Oi!" Jackie closed the door behind her. "How did you know my name?"
"Umm…"
"I knew it! You're the spy. Well you can tell Aldrich that we do not have a Time Lord here."
"Wait. What? Someone is looking for a Time Lord?"
Jackie covered her mouth. "You're not the spy…"
He shook his head. He couldn't help himself. As much as it would hurt to see Rose again, he had to know what this Aldrich wanted with him.
Jackie began rushing back up the stairs when he grabbed her arm.
"But…you do have a Doctor."
Her eyes grew wide. Not in surprise. In rage. She proceeded to slap him.
"Ow! What was that for?"
"You leave my daughter with this thing and expect me to be all rainbows and smiles? Well think again!"
"Thing? What are you talking about?"
"Ask the girl you bumped into not an hour ago."
He should have known that Rose would have told her mum immediately. What a mess the TARDIS had thrown him into.
"Where is she?"
"Rose is out back in the garden."
That name held so much pain. So many times, just the thought of her brought him to his knees. But he had to stay strong. He walked outside to see her walking back and forth in befuddlement. She glowed in the moonlight.
"Rose."
So many times through the years he had spoken her name, but never before had it felt so foreign on his lips.
"Why-how are you back?"
"I don't know."
"What do you mean?"
"Exactly what I said. I don't know. The TARDIS brought me here to take care of something, but I don't know what I'm supposed to do. There were no distress calls."
"Maybe she heard something you didn't."
"Like what?"
"Me."
"You? But how?"
"The TARDIS and I are still connected in some way. Even through the fold of the universe."
"Why not contact me?"
"You would never have come on your own."
"And how do you know that?"
"Because you're smart. You know it's dangerous…" Rose trailed off.
"What?"
"…John told me how much you hated me for choosing to be with him instead of you."
"That's a lie. I could never hate you Rose. Even if I wanted to at one point."
Rose flinched. He wanted to hate her? She had so many questions. So much anger. It just burst out.
"It's been ten years Doctor. Did you even think about me?"
Silence. What a ridiculous question for her to ask. Wait...only ten years?
"Well? Did you?"
Silence again. This question was so stupid, so unlike her to ask. She was so brilliant, but sometimes being human got in the way.
"I didn't think so. You're out there, saving worlds with some other woman, hardly ever thinking about me. You've probably fallen in love with her now, haven't you?"
What an appalling accusation. He couldn't keep silent anymore. She really didn't know the depths of his hearts…not anymore. Not after so long apart.
"There has only ever been you. I may have crossed paths with other female companions, yes, but none of them were you Rose Tyler. And they will never be you. Even in chaos, my mind is filled with you. You and only you. I have faced death so many times, and met it quite a few times as well, but I have never been more terrified than I am in this moment, because I know I'm pouring my hearts out to you, but you still have John. That's the face you fell in love with. Not this one. And I wish you would have chosen me! I could have been human with you! In the face you loved so dearly. Instead I have lived day after day for ten years thinking about the loss of you. Replaying the last time I saw you over and over again in my mind. Watching you kiss an extension of me…but not me."
Without warning, he fell to the ground and began to weep. Rose looked down at the broken man at her feet. After ten years of watching the woman he loved loving another, he finally broke. Her eyes were brimmed with tears as she picked the Doctor up off of the ground and wrapped him in a hug. He caught his breath. He had dreamt about her touch for so long. She just held him and cried. It hurt her so much to see him like this. He was a wreck. He had watched entire civilizations crumble underneath him. He had watched every person he ever cared about die all around him as years passed by, but never had he run into a pain so strong that he could not handle it. Throughout the years Rose was by his side, she had never seen him break. Once he was finally done, he took a large breath.
"I have a question Doctor."
"And what is your question Rose Tyler?"
Rose pulled away from the hug and looked deep into his now emerald eyes.
"Would you have really turned human for me?"
"In a heartbeat…maybe two."
Rose laughed a bit and looked away. How he had missed that laugh.
"You haven't aged a day Rose Tyler."
She smiled and looked at him again. His smile faded after a few seconds and he smooshed her cheeks together with his thumb, index and middle finger.
"No, really. You haven't. That's not right."
The Doctor grabbed his sonic screwdriver and pointed it in her eyes.
"You're literally not aging."
Rose grabbed his hand and pulled it off of her face.
"I know…"