Disclaimer: I don't own Doctor Who. I'm pretty sure it owns me.
For now we see through a glass, darkly; but then face to face: now I know in part; but then shall I know even as also I am known. I Corinthians 13:12
She had almost given up, after that heart-wrenching goodbye on Bad Wolf Bay. She had fallen to the ground, sobbing, feeling like her world was over, and wanted nothing more than to shatter into a million pieces and cease to exist.
But she couldn't do that. He had almost said it – almost told her he loved her – and as her tears subsided, she swore to herself that she would find a way to get back to him. There had to be a way, she was not going to give up and die without hearing her Doctor say those words.
She threw herself headlong into her work at Torchwood, and when someone mentioned a Dimension Cannon she was naturally the first to volunteer. She used her TARDIS key as the focus, hoping it would allow the Cannon to find him and get her to him.
The first attempts were exercises in frustration, but finally she saw the TARDIS – but he wasn't there. She was looking at the inside of the TARDIS, shouting his name, but only for a second – and she saw a red-haired woman, but no Doctor. Emboldened by this near success, she dedicated even more time to the Cannon project – and found herself looking at the back of his head as he spoke to a bedraggled group of people on some strange ship. This time she shouted his name twice before the image faded, but he didn't hear her, didn't turn to see her face…
Frustrated, she felt herself on the verge of tears, but refused to give in and be swallowed by the misery. She was so close, so very close, and she was going to find a way.
She would not stop until he could see her face too, until they could finish speaking the words that had begun on Bad Wolf Bay.
Little did she know that her journey was not yet over. She would have to meet the red-haired woman, and help put her life right, before she would see her Doctor again – and even then, it would hardly be the fairy tale ending of her dreams.