"I love you," Rose said, fighting back tears.
"Quite right, too. And I suppose, if it's my one last chance to say it, Rose Tyler –" But he was cut off. The Doctor didn't quite get the chance to finish his sentence. The projection in Bad Wolf Bay vanished.
"No!" Rose shouted. "Come back! Please! Please, Doctor! Come back." But it was no use. He was gone. Rose collapsed to the ground in tears. She kept whispering that one word: No. A thousand thoughts ran through Rose's head. No. He isn't gone. He can't be. It's a trick. He'll reappear. He'll show up again. He'll be back. With that goofy grin. And his laugh. He'll come back. And pull me up. And reassure me. Tell me everything's all right. That he'll always be here. Always. Tell me that he... loves me. She knelt in the damp sand with her head in her hands and tears flowing from her eyes.
"Rose," Mickey called, jogging over to the small, dark figure. He laid a hand on Rose's shoulder. "C'mon. Let's go home."
"I would if I could," Rose muttered.
"Rose, y'know what I mean. Our home is here. In this world. Now let's go."
Rose shook her head. "No. My home is where the Doctor is."
"Rose!" Jackie yelled across the beach. "You're not getting back to the TARDIS, so come on! Come home with your family and boyfriend. Please."
"No! He" she pointed to Mickey "isn't my boyfriend and he" she pointed to her 'father' "isn't my dad!"
"Whadaya mean, I'm not your boyfriend?" Mickey exclaimed.
"I mean," Rose shouted, "I don't want you hovering around my life like you mean something when you don't! Go off and play with Ricky's friends or something worthwhile, please."
"Oh, and taking care o' you isn't worthwhile now, is it?"
"Mickey, I can take care of my self! I sure as hell don't need you here!"
"Fine, then. I'll just leave you alone."
"Come on, Rose," Pete called to his "daughter".
"No. I'm going to find the Doctor." Rose stood and walked away from her mum and dad.
Mickey, having not left yet, ran up to Rose. He wrapped his arms around her midsection tightly and lifted her off the ground.
"Let me go!" she shrieked.
"Nope. You can break up with and leave me, but I'm not letting you leave your mum and dad behind to go on some pointless search for someone who's never coming back!"
"It's not pointless! Put me down! I can find him!"
Mickey continued to carry the squirming girl back to her parents. "He isn't coming back," he said again.
"I don't need him to come back!" Rose argued. "I'm the one who will be finding him! Now, put. Me. DOWN!"
To her surprise, this time she was let down, but only because they had reached Jackie and Pete again.
"Get in the car," Mickey ordered.
Rose crossed her arms over her chest. "No."
"Rose Tyler, stop acting like a spoiled little girl and get in the car. You're going home."
Rose sighed. There was no use fighting back. It's not like they would listen to her.
"Why didn't you just leave when I told you to?" she grumbled under her breath as she climbed into the car.
"'Cause I wanted to make sure you don't get into trouble," Mickey answered her. He slid into the seat next to her and shut the door. "And that's why I'm coming with you. To keep you safe."
"No!" the Doctor shouted, banging his fist on the TARDIS control board. "Dammit!" He lowered his head. A tear streaked down his cheek. "I'll find you, Rose. I'll give you a proper goodbye. Even if I have to go tearing through time and space to see you again."
And so they did. Rose, being grounded to her room so she wouldn't go wandering off and get herself killed, spent her time scouring the internet, every chat room and every site, to find a way through dimensions. And the Doctor, he went off on a grand, universe-wide search to find even the smallest little rift, as long as it would let him through.
The first to find something was, of course, the Doctor. The Time Lord managed to find a gap, and, just his luck, it lead exactly where he needed to be.
But this was a very small hole. The Doctor could not possible climb through it himself, much less send a simple apparition as he had done last time.
But he didn't want to leave Rose behind once again. He didn't want to go without a proper goodbye. So, going against his entire life of saving the world, he did the exact opposite and pushed himself through into the other world.
And there he was. Standing in Rose Tyler's yard, just outside her window. The only thing that made this moment any less than perfect was the swirling, unstable, inter-dimensional vortex behind him.
Rose, hearing a strong wind outside her window, looked up, and, to her amazement and joy, saw the Doctor. She gasped, and rushed to the window, fiddling with the latches. She yanked the window open and shouted out, "Doctor!"
"Rose!" the Doctor replied as he ran to Rose, embracing the part of her body she had pushed through the window.
"Doctor! I'm not saying I'm not glad to see you, but, why?"
"Oh, that silly old vortex?" the Doctor laughed. "Don't worry about that. I'm here with you again."
"Doctor, is that going to destroy the universe?"
"Yes," he admitted. "But I don't care."
"Are you mad?!"
"Maybe I am. That's what love does to you. Makes you mad."
"Love?"
"Yes. And I suppose, if it's my one last chance to say it, Rose Tyler, I love you."
He crashed his lips against Rose's. Though there was a hole the Doctor had punched through the fabric of time and space behind them, destroying everything, the only thing that mattered to the two of them was each other.