Several Second Chances

Kimmzie

-Based on the Prompt 5 times or so something didn't happen and the one time it DID. This will be in 2 parts. Read, Review, Enjoy.

Prologue:

Something was rotten in the state of Tyler, Rose Tyler, if you want specifics. A few nights ago, her TARDIS key had glowed just as her eyes were opening. It couldn't have been a trick of the light. Hopeful, thinking? Oh yes, quite a possibility. Just don't tell her that. She bites in fights, not always in a good way…

Now here she was on the beach that she stood on the worse day of her life. This place made up wake up in the middle of the night from bad dreams. The heiress closed her Torchwood operative coat closer to her slim frame, she held her TARDIS key until her knuckles went white. It had been three years and six days since they had been separated from… Well, moving on, she had missed that horrible anniversary by a few days, bad winds. Unfortunately today, the key was cold and lay dormant in her shaking grasp. She scrunched her nose looked at the key and threw it to the ground thanks to three years (1001 days) of frustration. Before it hit the ground, panic hit her like lighting. She eyed it warily. Wordlessly she scooped it up and put it back around her neck where it belonged. She tried to freeze her heart and keep it from escaping her chest.

He was never coming back. It was impossible. Maybe the glow was a hello or something. More like a mechanical malfunction…but shhhh.

He never said she couldn't get back to him. The dimension cannon was almost into beta-testing. Soon…

"Rose, we got to get going!" Her Mum called from the jeep. She saw Tony's chubby arms trying to escape the cab of the vehicle. They did have a zeppelin to catch. Over the next few months there were going to be a variety of charity auctions to help families disposed by the Cybermen sponsored by Vitex. She worried her bottom lip as she trudged up the hill to get back to the jeep. She could swear the wind smelt faintly of time and saltwater. She looked scanned it for a few more moments until her Mum's hand pulled her into the backseat of the jeep. "Time to go, sweetheart. If he's here he'll find you."

Rose smiled and hugged her Mum awkwardly around her squirming brother.

"Not if I don't first," she whispered her face leaning against the window.

-Not this time. I'll get to her.-

End Prologue

After the jeep was out of sight there was a muffled wheezing noise. A blue box appeared on the beach and the door opened. A tall, slim man dressed in tuxedo stepped on the sand and looked around with a raised brow. He slid a hand to smooth out his sliver windswept hair.

"Ah, not this place again. I guess this is where the rips start." He stroked the door. "Sorry you have to wait Old Girl, but she can't see you yet. Keep Clara busy…"

The TARDIS hummed in acknowledgment.

"Don't have too much fun. Well, time for you to go into hiding. There's Torchwood here too." The Doctor said in his Scottish burr. "No complaining, only I'm allowed to do that."

He put the TARDIS a second out of sync so it would be VERY hard to find on the beach. "Let the bidding begin, as they would say." He noted that a car had rolled up to the edge of the beach. So far his arrangements seemed to be in order. It was of course all for charity. Maybe he was a good man.

The first auction was in Paris. The city had suffered a lot of damage and loss from the battles. There had been a lot of rebuilding and restoration recently, and yet, there was still much more to do. Rose wandered the halls of the Musée d'Orsay with a flute of champagne and was looking at some of the singed artwork. Many were still a work in progress. There was an ominous pit in her stomach as she knew what the next item was. Of course, it was her mum's idea.

She needed more champagne, or a shot.

She stopped in front of another one of the darkened paintings and stared at it blankly on her way back to the bar. Her feet refused to go any further. "Now is it supposed to be like that? Or is this its new incarnation?" A raspy voice asked from behind her. She shivered.

"What?" Rose turned to see an older man in a tuxedo. He could be one of the board members or someone important with the air about him, and grey hair. "I'm sorry do I know you?"

"You could. I barely know myself these days, so that question is quite useless. You didn't answer the first question." He raised a very intent eyebrow.

"The painting is a Monet and should have color and movement. Impressionist are all about that. Note that most of it is singed, burnt, a brown and a yellow. Not really the artist original intent, I think." The older man nodded in agreement "But it could be said to have morphed into the current state to match society." Rose presented the painting, laughing. "It's the same painting just a little battered and in need of some restoration. The intent of which it was painted is still there buried underneath and there is a new context added to its existence."

"Hmm," he replied.

"Is that the answer you were looking for?" Rose's tongue peaked through the corner of her mouth. A habit she had disposed of at events such as this.

The Doctor was speechless. Rose was still Rose, even more so. She seemed to have grown-up more. He was about to say something when the lights flickered.

"Well, I got to go. Nice chat." She turned and was gone in a twirl of black satin.

The Doctor took his seat in the back of the room and watched as: "A Date with Heiress Rose Tyler," took the stage. He tried to hide the bile coming up from in his stomach. This must've been her Mother's idea. Rose just smiled on the stage. He knew she was uncomfortable by the tension in her forced smile.

Then the bidding began. The Doctor raised his number to counter every other bidder that dared try and take his Rose. He may have double bid a couple of times. Time seemed to slow down. At the end the auctioneer said some amount of money which apparently was astronomical or something.

"42 is the winner!"

The Doctor grinned.

Rose was weaving through the crowd to see who won but the Doctor kept himself out of view. All she would see was a flash of black in a sea of more black. He wasn't sure how he was going to pull this off. He sat patiently through the rest of the auction, but his foot was tapping the marble floor lightly.

She found him in front of the same Monet after the auction. She swayed over and presented him with a flute of champagne.

"So I hear you are the lucky winner," she smiled.

"Or you may be," he countered. "I suppose that stunt was your mother's idea."

"Seemed to of worked." Rose dug her heel into the stone floor. "I was the most expensive lot, or whatever you call it, tonight."

"You really think you can be bought, Rose Tyler? After all this time?" His blue eyes narrowed on her hazel. She took a step back.

"Sometimes you have to play a part. That's what they say. I've been trying to leave ever since I got here." Rose's voice echoed through the vacant hallway. "You would think playing heiress would be, I don't know fun. All the glitz and glamor. Every little girl grows up wanting to be princess…"

"Not you?" She was holding back tears, but her cheeks were turning pink.

"There's more to life than all that."

He stepped forward and took her empty hand and took a deep inhale. It was silence for a few calm seconds.

"I'm the Doctor, by the way. What's your name?" Rose's eyes grew wide.

"Rose." Her smile grew as he gave her an encouraging smile.

"Nice to meet you, Rose. Run for your life!"

Their rapid footsteps echoed down the hallway. Their escape was borne witness only to the scorched portraits that lined the walls.

Rose followed in the Doctor's footsteps with too many questions buzzing in her head to form a coherent thought. She just took in the crisp Parisian night air and uneven sidewalk under her feet. His hand felt the same. His eyes were a deep and old, even older now. In a blink she was led into a non-descript hotel room.

"So um…"

"Rose, I don't have much time."

"Typical," Rose said with a playful shove. "I see you have gotten through and changed. It's good. A little more dignified. I like the Scottish. Not ginger. Am I leaving, then?"

Her face fell when he shook his head no. "No, not yet. But if you agree we're going to change some of my and your timeline around. I'll come for you."

"Won't two Universes collapse?"

"Possibly, hasn't happened yet. I've had a lot of time to plan and look back."

"How long?"

"Give or take a millennia." He shrugged. Rose came closer and tried to encircle him in an embrace. He didn't want to bother and tell her that he wasn't a "hugger anymore."

"Blimey, I thought three years was a long time. You must already know about the dimension cannon, the stars going out. We start testing soon."

"Yes, I know."

"Does it work?" Rose's eyes lit up.

"Yes, it does. Hopefully, you won't need it." The Doctor finally fully returned Rose's embrace and placed his cheek in her silky hair. "I've already gone and made quite a mess of my own timelines. You don't have to worry about that."

Suddenly, her mass was back against the wall of the room and the Time Lord's hands were in her hair. He tilted her head and their lips met together with crushing force. "Are you sure you want to do this?" he breathed.

Rose nodded and pulled his tuxedo lapels towards the bed. "Yeah."

-TBC In part 2