BANG.
I am slammed into consciousness. I hate that, when you bolt awake in the middle of the night, heart pounding, gasping for breath.
I was dreaming, nothing new there. About the Doctor, still nothing new. I dreamt the Tardis had landed in a woodland area nearby. He was here, he was back.
I lie back against my pillows with a sigh. I've had similar dreams before, not every night anymore, but often enough to leave me permanently tired. That's all they are though, just dreams, I tell myself as I close my eyes. As soon as I do though the Tardis flashes before my eyes, there's this… feeling, in my belly, my blood is like ice in my veins. A dream, a dream, a dream I repeat in my head, trying to slow my rapid breathing. The feeling inside me doesn't go away though, it grows.
I get up and look out of the window, it's pitch black outside and raining. It's 3:26am and it's November. My eyes strain for something I know cannot be there, but the feeling grows and grows. Somehow, somewhere, He's here.
"Rose Tyler, you are a total nutter," I mutter under my breath as I tiptoe down the landing to the stairs. I'm in a jumper and leggings now, I don't even know what I'm doing or where I'm going but then I'm in my car and driving. Rain buckets down and I can hardly see. I drive with no conscious destination but soon I'm turning into a car park, Lenbourne Forest it says on the sign, what the hell am I doing here? I get out my torch and I'm soon deep in the forest searching, searching. It's here, I know it is. The rain has soaked through my jumper already, I never thought about a coat. My hair is sticking to my head in pathetic strings but I keep searching.
Cold. So so cold. I stumble over roots and bushes, I turn hopelessly round and round in circles, searching, searching, then I see it. I turn and stare. A blue police box, half hidden among the trees, but it is there, the Tardis. My heart pumps so hard I can feel it in my throat. The silver key that has never left my neck is hot, burning actually, I realize as I touch it.
"Wanna see if it still works?" a voice says from behind me. A very familiar voice. I swallow down a sob as I hear footsteps moving closer. I am rooted to the spot. I cannot turn around, I cannot allow myself to believe. It's not, it cannot possibly be.
A hand gently touches my shoulder and that achingly familiar voice says the one word that haunts me most.
"Rose"
I'm turning at the slightest pressure of his hand. I'm sobbing, great big gasping sobs that rack my body, and as I melt into his arms I can feel that he is too.
Hours pass, at least it feels like that and still we stand, in the rain, clinging to each other. Finally he lifts his head from where it's buried in my hair and I look into his eyes for the first time in a
year.
"Hello," he says with a grin that threatens to shatter every sliver of composure I have managed to bring together in the past 5 minutes or so.
"Hello," I manage.
" Let's go somewhere a bit less wet shall we?" he says, taking my hand in his and leading me towards the Tardis.
It's considerably warmer in the Tardis and I immediately feel the full effects of two hours in the pouring rain in November wearing only a stupidly thin jumper. My knees threaten to give way but he is there, taking my weight and guiding me through the control room, down the corridor and into… my old room. It looks just the same, down to the clothes strewn over the chair in the corner and my bed not quite made. The Doctor leaves my side for the first time since we found each other again but returns in an instant with a large white towel.
"Take off your wet things, wrap this round you, I'm gonna make you some tea." He pauses for a second, just looking at me, an unreadable expression on his face, and then he leans in and presses the most tender of kisses on my forehead.
"Be right back" he whispers softly.