Theme / Prompt: #51 (Changes)

Word Count: 759

Summary: Rose can't help but wonder if her mother right. Is she still the same old Rose?

Notes: Uh, Rose didn't get taken into the alternate universe. (If only...)

Disclaimer: "Doctor Who" is not mine... sigh.


"And you'll keep on changing. And in forty years time, fifty, there'll be this woman - this strange woman... walking through the marketplace on some planet a billion miles from Earth. She's not Rose Tyler. Not anymore. She's not even human..." Jackie Tyler.

Everyday Rose recalled her mother's words. And everyday she made a point of examining herself in the mirror, just to make sure that she hadn't changed dramatically over night. Today was no different. She woke up and, after making her bed, dragged herself into the bathroom and over to the mirror. Rose stood on tip-toes, to get a better view, and peered at her reflection. Blonde hair, check. Brown eyes, check.

She knew this wasn't what her mother had meant when she'd given her the warning, but it was still good to check. Right? I mean, they would be the first differences that anyone would notice. And anyway, the other changes were a lot harder to notice.

She'd lost weight. And she knew it. All that running had defiantly had a major effect on her, after all. Plus, in the midst of saving the world, there wasn't always time for lunch. When she did eat though, My God did she eat. She could see the bags under her eyes too; the ones that had been gradually growing for the last few months. She put that down to the running too. Well, the running and nightmares. At the moment she woke up every night after having a horrific dream about one monster or another. At the moment Rose would give anything for one good nights sleep.

Again, these weren't the changes that Jackie had been talking about.

Rose just couldn't see any of 'these' changes.

She shuffled forwards slightly, trying to spot anything different. There was nothing visibly different. She sighed, wrinkling her brow in concentration. She was a lot braver than the Rose Tyler from two years ago. That was a given. She was defiantly smarter than she was when she'd originally met The Doctor. And, of course, she was a lot better at running. She hardly even lost her breath nowadays. She left out another sigh, lowering herself back onto her feet. All of those were good changes. Nothing for her to be worried about. And nothing for Jackie to be worried about, either.

She pulled her eyes away from the mirror and trudged back to her room. She paused when she reached the doorway, taking it all in with new eyes. She'd grown up- that was for sure. When she lived at home with her mum her room had been bright pink, with hair bobbles and teddy bears strewn all over the place. She had a bin by the door, overflowing with rubbish. The floor was covered in discarded clothes. A total mess. Just like the normal teenage girl's room.

Now, however, the room looked barely lived in. The bed was made, something that she'd not once done at home. All her clothes were safely stored in the giant wardrobe and she didn't bother with her hair so much these days. Apart from one bear perched on the wooden chair in the corner of her room, there were no toys to be seen and the only reason that she kept that was because The Doctor had won it for her.

The room looked unlived in, but it wasn't. She just didn't spend much time in there. And who would when they could be out in the main part of the TARDIS, traveling the world? The things that awaited her outside of the TARDIS were a lot more exciting than those inside it.

"Maybe she's right…" Rose mumbled under her breath. She was changing. Not exactly how Jackie had meant, but she was changing.

There were good changes. There were bad changes. And then there were other changes. Not good, nor bad. Just changes. Maybe one day Rose would wake up and see the truth in her mother's words. Maybe not. She'd never know unless it happened. For now though, she was just an almost normal twenty-year-old, going through completely normal changes.

Albeit she was going through this changes while living in a machine that took her through time and space in a matter if minutes. And while traveling with an alien with no name. That wasn't exactly normal, but she was still going through the normal changes.

Occasionally she'd take time out of changing and being normal to go and save the world. Then she was back. The same old Rose. Just slightly different.


AN: Thoughts?