Ch. 1 The one he lost

Rose Tyler. Amy lifted the neatly Labeled box out of the Doctors drawer. She had gotten curious, made Rory distract the Doctor, and snuck in. Who's Rose Tyler? She had to have been a former companion, a pretty Important one seeing as there were no other boxes to be found. She then headed for the door, box under her arm, and poked her head into the hall. She checked to make sure no one ( especially the Doctor) was coming, then snuck out. She had to tiptoe down five hallways and open twenty-seven doors to find her's and Rory's room ( the TARDIS didn't seem to like her very much).

After getting there Amy climbed up to her bed, the top bunk, and sat down with the heavy box. She pried it open, and looked inside. Amy's eyes went wide. Inside the box was a picture of a very pretty girl and a thin man holding hands and running. The man was unfamiliar, the clothing was not... It was the clothing the Doctor had been wearing when they had met, and she knew that somehow, this man was the Doctor. The girl, Rose Tyler, was a pretty bottle-blonde girl, with brown eyes and a big smile. From The way they looked together...the hand holding, laughing...the people in the Polaroid had a romance going on. Amy gingerly picked the picture up and laid it on the bed next to her. She next took out a denim jacket with pink flowers on it. This must have been hers. Amy looked at it for a while, if Rose was gone now, why were her clothes still here? There were a handful of photos like the first. Some in fancy ballrooms of the past, one of them on top of the pyramids. In one, they were dressed fifties style, and there were brochures from all kids of museums and exhibits.

There was a beautiful picture of Rose ( Amy's favorite by far) that moved like the pictures in Harry potter. In it, rose was standing shin deep in clear water on a beach that looked like something out of a dream. The sand was made up of precious minerals. One handful of that sand was worth more than she would have earned in three lifetimes being a kiss-o-gram. The sun was shining brightly down on the laughing Rose Tyler, making her hair look like it was glowing gold. Amy could have sworn that she saw flecks of gold twinkling even in Rose's chocolate brown eyes. She was splashing water at the camera, and when the sun caught the water, it picked up a rainbow hue. Rose herself had her hair in two braids, with her usual excess of make-up, denim shorts, and pink bikini top. She was so beautiful.

Where was Rose now? Amy had snooped enough and started to load the items back into the box. She shoved the lid on and climbed down, grabbing the box and the picture of Rose that she had left out. The TARDIS hummed encouragingly, urging her forward. Amy was pleased to find the console room on her first try.

"OW! Was that really necessary?" Amy had to stifle giggles at what she saw. Rory was tangled up in the wires under the console, The Doctor was pulling at them feverishly, and they were bickering like an old married couple . "Try just unplugging one. What about that green one?" The Doctor slapped Rory's hand away from the before-mentioned wire. "That would punch a hole in the time vortex the exact size of...of Belgium!"

"Can't we just plug it back in?"

"Plug it back in?" The doctor mimicked Rory "You,Rory Williams, are a true genius." The Doctor said, throwing him a scathing look. Finally finding a safe wire the Doctor untangled Rory with a flourish. Rory took a fall face first into the Doctor, both of them ending up in a heap on the floor. Amy decided that it was a good time to make her entrance.

"Hello boys, look what I found!" Amy noticed the Doctors eyes grow big as saucers as his gaze fell on the box oh yeah she was definitely thinking girlfriend. "Who is this?" Amy held the picture out for him to see.

His eyes darkened, and a kind of sorrow settled on his face. "Her name was Rose" when he spoke her name his voice softened. He had loved her, she could tell. Untangling himself from Rory, he took the photo from her. "Was she a companion?" Amy spoke softly, she had never seen the Doctor so vulnerable before. "My first after I lost my people..." He sat on the steps and motioned for Amy to do the same. "She helped me heal, reminded me how wonderful seeing the universe for the first time could be... Back then I was all big ears and leather and she..."

"You loved her." It wasn't a question and he was quiet for a long time before nodding. "Where is she then?" The TARDIS hummed mournfully. "Happy." The Doctor ran his fingers over her laughing image. He had lost her. She seemed so happy with him though why would she have left. "What happened?" He closed his eyes against the tears that threatened to spill over. And he began to speak. He told the Ponds of Canary Wharf, Bad Wolf Bay, and the time he spent without her, The time that the stars started to go out, The Metacrisis, and once again Bad Wolf Bay. Even Rory came to listen to the story of the Bad Wolf and her Doctor, and Amy found herself clinging to him. She couldn't stand the thought of losing not only the man she loved, but her best friend as well. After the Doctor finished, he took the picture and went to hide somewhere in the deeper areas of the TARDIS. Rory went to bed eventually and she was left alone, well, as alone as you can get aboard a sentient time machine.

Amy wandered the halls, thinking of Rose Tyler and her so-called 'happy ever after'. She brushed her fingers against the wall, feeling a humming in the back of her mind. How had he just let her go like that? Couldn't he see that he needed her. The previous Doctor had looked so happy in those pictures, the face was a bit older, but the eyes were bright. Her raggedy Doctors eyes held the deepest sadness, through even his brightest smile his eyes remained distant. Her fingers dragged along metal, plastic, glass, and wood doors. Then she came to a stop as her middle finger caught a splinter. Grimacing, she tugged at the offending scrap of wood until she had removed it. She glanced at the door that had wounded her, it was a soft smooth pink, no trace of roughness, with a word in the Doctor's native writing carved into the surface, and a scratched message in the upper right corner. 'You could have found a less painful way to stop me' her irritated thoughts were aimed at the TARDIS. She felt the pull in her mind, urging her towards the door.

Amy leaned in, the words scratched into the wood were large and angular, and gave of a faint glow. Bad Wolf. Amy jumped back. Bad Wolf, this had been Rose's room. She reached out and turned the crystal doorknob, pushing into the banana scented air.

The room was a nice one, not unlike her own. Cream coloured antique furniture filled the space, an armchair, a bed, a dresser, a small table, and a vanity. The curtains cushions and bed spread were all light pink, the same colour as the wall. The box of pictures Amy had found earlier was nothing compared to the memorabilia she saw now. Pictures, knickknacks, and tickets covered most surfaces. The bed was unmade and there were clothes left out everywhere. It was all clean as far as she could tell, and she sat down on the bed. In various places around the room, Amy could see the faintly glowing, freshly carved message. Bad Wolf, on the dresser. Bad Wolf, on the wall. Bad Wolf, on the bathroom door. Bad Wolf, written on the vanity mirror.

The TARDIS was trying to tell her something, but what? Why her and not the Doctor? She received an image of the Doctor holed up in his bedroom sulking, and then one of the front doors just starting to open.

Amy stood and went to the door to the hallway. Carved on the back, the Bad Wolf is at the door. She yanked the door open, stumbling directly into the console room.

Big golden brown eyes met hers, and the young woman at the console grinned at her. The hair was different, longer, more natural. And the eyes too had lightened, if it had been hard to see before, now the gold was prominent in her irises. Rose Tyler had returned.

Rose cried. It felt like all she ever did on this beach was cry. She cried when they had said goodbye the first time, and she cried when he left her, she cried when John told her he loved her, and now she cried again. She held him close, refusing to let anybody come close.

The Metacrisis, John, had started complaining of a headache a few minutes after the TARDIS left, but still he sat with her. She had asked if they could at least wait six hours, and he hadn't minded at all. He held her and let her cry. About an hour later her tears had stopped. He was babbling, telling her everything on his mind. In a lucid moment, he told her how he had always loved her. For three hours, he grew worse. She watched his mind decay, and she cried. He kissed her, pressing his fingers to her temples and unlocking the power that once burned him, then he shuddered and grew still. There was a brilliant stream of gold clouding her eyes, and she could see all that ever could be again. A choir of time itself drowned out her thoughts, her body changed ever so slightly, giving her physical advantages, elongating her lifespan. She could sense the progression of all events, could see every possible outcome of every possible situation. And oh rassilion her head was killing her. Then her mind and eyes cleared. Her gaze fixed on the limp shell of her Doctor, and once again Her hearts shattered. She had thirteen lives now. Thirteen lives she would have to live without him. There were new tears, of pain and desperation.

She cried as she held the body of the man she tears still flowed as the baby Tardis grew in an instant. She let her last tear fall onto his face as she kissed him goodbye, and it landed with a small illuminating splash. His body turned to golden dust, and time's champion was carried off on the wind. then she tore open the void, and flew into it. The walls of the universe stitching neatly closed behind her.

For 328 years she roamed the universe. For the first hundred years she just tended to her young Tardis, never going outside. She had stopped crying, she had shed enough tears, she never wanted to cry again, tears would only make her hurt. At two hundred and twenty four she went to woman wept, wandering among the frozen waves, then she went to speak with captain Jack.

When she landed in the hub, Jack was delighted to see her, he had yet to see either her or the Doctor since the game station. He had listened to her story, asking a question here and there. He believed her. Remembering their brief travels together, and a few of Jacks adventures, They laughed together, it was the first time she had even smiled in one hundred and fifty years at least. He was the one who told her that the doctor had died again many years later.

She worked at Torchwood for 101 years. She cleaned up the messes the Doctor left behind, she had a special talent for that particular job, seeing that she herself was one of his wrecks. She watched his movements, and studied his past, adding and correcting files from her own travels. She even saw him briefly, while out doing field work with Mickey and Martha. It was her Doctor, as foxy as ever, the face that had been shared with her human doctor. This was the last time she saw him before he died. He hadn't noticed her.

That was when she remembered. It had been New Year's Eve, 2005, she was lonely and sad. It had been a month since she ended things with Jimmy Stone, and she had almost made up her mind to go crawling back to him. Then she met a stranger who stood in the shadows of the Powell Estates. He told her what an excellent year she would have. And she believed him, the next morning she applied for a job at Henricks, and went on a date with her best friend. Jimmy murdered a woman he was seeing the next week.

The Doctor had saved her long before he showed her the stars. He had died no less than five minutes later. She had been the first and last face that his tenth face saw. The words didn't need saying. He had loved her, but there was no guarantee that the new doctor would even remember her.

She followed his TARDIS, charting where it landed. She landed in the same place as him three times. Twice she had left after one look at him and his new companions. The third time she told Jack good bye. She followed him into the vortex, landing the younger Tardis inside the mother TARDIS. She stood at the doors, hearts pounding, fingers pressed gently against the corral of her ship. She stepped out, holding her breath. The console room was empty. The polished interior of the elder TARDIS lit up, joyful hums filled her mind. Bad Wolf was home at last. Rose practically ran up the stairs to the console, stroking the ships controls.

There was a scuffling noise behind her. Her hearts beat painfully slowly, she turned, only half expecting to see him. Ginger. It was the Doctor's new pet ginger, Amelia Pond Williams. She was fairly pretty, and had made Rose jealous the first few times she had heard of her. The fact that she left her fiancée behind meant nothing, Rose had left Mickey. Then Rory Williams joined team TARDIS, and Rose was pacified. She shot a wolffish grin at Amelia and waggled her fingers.

"You're Rose Tyler!" Amelia shook a finger at her. The red head's eyes were wide with shock.

Rose's smile grew, "so you've heard of me then?"

Amelia's voice failed her, she nodded dumbly.

Rose sank gratefully onto the jump seat, "so tell me Amelia, where's my favourite timelord... Sulking in his bedroom or napping in the library?"

"How did you- "

Rose laughed "wibbly wobbly timey whimy." While she was no longer jealous of the current companion, Rose was enjoying messing with her. "I take it he's in his room?" Without waiting for an answer, she patted the console and headed up the stairs. 'Help me out here old girl'.

The Doctor's door was the first one she came to, and she turned her head to wink cheekily at Amelia, before rapping on the door. "Go away Pond... I'm fine." Ooh new voice, Rose checked her appearance before knocking a little harder. "Pond I told you I'm fine!" Sighing she rolled her eyes at Amelia as she sonicked the door.

Amy, finally recovering from the Wolf's return, gave the blonde a thumbs up. Rose quietly stepped into the room that Amy had been snooping in only a few hours ago. Amy smiled, this would certainly be interesting. But seeing as the Doctor was occupied, she slipped away to see if the time ship had done away with the bunk beds. Now he had Rose to play with him, maybe it wouldn't be quite as hard keeping up with the Doctor.