AN: This is the reunion of Ten and Rose from She Was Stolen for You. If you don't read that story, this one probably won't make any sense. It takes place between chapter one and the epilogue of SWSfY. A couple of you said you'd like to read the reunion. I hope it meets expectations.
"Think, Donna!" The Doctor yelled. "Did Rose say anything else?"
Donna racked her mind, but was drawing a blank. Before she could answer, however, there was a flash of bright light. Blinking away the spots in her eyes, she looked to the Doctor, only to see his face pale dramatically.
"Hello," a familiar voice said from behind her.
Donna spun around while the Doctor stared in heartbreaking disbelief. A blonde woman stood leaning against the TARDIS, staring at the Doctor with so much love, Donna knew he was the only thing in that moment to her.
"Hello," he rasped back, "Rose Tyler."
Then, she grinned with a hint of tongue touching her teeth. In two steps, the Doctor had her swept into his arms and was raining kisses in her hair.
"Oh, Rose, my precious girl," he whispered over and over.
She was real and here with him, holding his waist with the same desperately fierce joy fueling him. There was a large device slung across her shoulders that slammed into his thigh. Pulling back, he let his eyes drink in the sight of her. Choking a laugh that could have been a sob, he pressed a tender kiss to her forehead.
"How?" he managed.
Her reply was cut off when a mechanical voice called, "Exterminate!"
Moving faster than humanly possible, Rose swung her device around, switched settings, and blasted a sonic wave at the Dalek. It flew backwards, slamming into a wall and crumpling in on itself. Scowling, Rose mentally berated herself. She'd come all this way and had almost screwed it up by forgetting that damned thing. When she looked, the Doctor and Donna were gaping at her.
"Right!" the Doctor grinned, clapping his hands and waving Jack over when the man appeared. "Into the TARDIS. Let's save the universe and then have a Q and A."
His eyes were intent on Rose, making her blush prettily. He wiggled his fingers in invitation and felt whole for the first time in years when she laced hers with them. Jack was staring at Rose in wonder, but kept his questions to himself for the time being.
"So, Daleks taking twenty seven planets from Time and Space to make an engine to power their reality bomb," Rose said grimly. "One second out of Time in the Medusa Cascade and they have the ability to pull your TARDIS onto their flagship, the Crucible. What are we going to do about it?"
The Doctor blinked at her in surprise, but shook it off and assimilated the information. "Alright, first, what kind of reality bomb; b, let's move into the Vortex; and c, or third, how do you know this?"
Rose's face was hard. "They are using the twenty seven planets to form a compression field which can cancel the electrical energy of atoms. I'll tell you how I know in our Q and A scheduled for after the show."
The Time Lord sucked in a sharp breath. "Is your source sure? Do you trust it-because that is extremely very not good."
His eyes bored into hers, but she was unwavering as she nodded. "Absolutely. Now, what's the plan?"
A slow smile slid across his face. "Think I could borrow that device of yours?"
Arching a brow, Rose pulled it off and passed it to him. "It's a dimension cannon. I realigned the settings to reverse relay the anti matter propulsion in order to emit a sonic pulse."
Taking it, he shot her a look while scanning it with his screwdriver. A moment later, his face lit in glee. "Brilliant! And if I wire this to the TARDIS and reroute the molecular stabilizers through it while boosting the quantum accelerator…" he cackled, pulling things from the console and frantically dismantling the cannon.
"…you can emit a massive pulse when the TARDIS materializes," Rose whooped.
Jack moved to help his friend. "Big enough to take out the Daleks?"
The Doctor glanced at him. "Big enough to take out their ship, yeah. And, if they're pulling us into the Crucible, that's all we really need to take out to stop the engine."
Donna eyed him. "What about the rest of them?"
"Let's cross that bridge if we come to it," Rose answered swiftly, having seen the Doctor's shoulders tense.
They watched on screen as Dalek Caan cackled insanely while the Crucible blew apart. Any Dalek not caught in the blast retreated too quickly for a trace, recognizing a lost cause. Rose was rapidly working around the console to keep the TARDIS steady while the Doctor worked to control the blast.
"Look at them run," Donna said, wide-eyed.
"I think that's done it, Doc," Jack told him in surprise.
A peek at the monitor proved him right. Relieved, the Doctor disconnected the cannon. He noted with suspicion what Rose had been doing and was startled that she seemed to know what she was doing. Her grin was infectious when she pushed the screen to face him, though. Martha and Sarah Jane stared at him in shock.
"What?" Martha asked.
Laughing, the Doctor gestured manically. "Crisis averted. No need to panic. We'll have these planets home in a moment."
Sarah Jane smiled in relief. "How?"
"Oh, I'm that impressive. Brilliant, me," he bragged. "Sit tight."
"If you use the tachoid time crystal and the gravity tractor beam, you could send a controlled blast with the sonic and send the planets back without having to tow them," Rose suggested.
Jack's eyes cut to her sharply, but the Doctor mumbled to himself and agreed. Once he'd rigged up what he needed, he moved to open the door. Checking his calculations, he aimed the cannon and fired. One by one, he adjusted the coordinates and sent the planets home. Finally, they watched Earth disappear back into its proper place and Time.
Rose swallowed as he shut the doors. The look he have her was guarded, making her chest twinge painfully. He'd never looked at her like that.
"That's sorted. Now, I believe there was the matter of a Q and A appointment." His tone was cheery, but his face was closed off making Rose suddenly wonder if his future self had known this would happen. Taking a shuddering breath, she touched the console for support and nodded.
The four of them sat at the table, cups of tea in front of them. Rose fiddled with the delicate pink chain on her wrist. It had been a gift from the future Doctor and she tried to draw strength from it. He'd managed to slip it on her wrist without her knowing during their last goodbye. Meeting the present Doctor's eyes, she saw that he'd noticed the jewelry. His gaze was sharp-Delvish bracelets were rare and extremely valuable. She could almost see his mind whirring to figure out who could have possibly given it to her.
"What happened?" he asked her slowly.
Rose sighed and looked at him again. "Look at me, Doctor," she prodded. "Really look at me. See the whole me."
Confusion skittered across his face until Rose gently touched one of the glowing swirls around him. Gasping, he jerked back and stared at her incredulously.
"How did you…?" he coughed.
"Look, you stubborn Time Lord! You have twenty seven senses-use them," she commanded forcefully.
Nose flaring, he shifted his sight to see in more than three dimensions. When he did, the color fled from his face. The crisis was gone and now he noticed the warm buzzing at the back of his mind. His ears strained and heard the six hearts beating in the galley. Flailing, he leapt backwards, overturning his chair and colliding with the counter.
"That's-that's not possible!" he yelped.
Donna and Jack looked from the shaken Time Lord to Rose, who seemed exasperated at his reaction. However, Jack knew her well enough that he caught the flash of hurt she'd hidden at his words.
"What's not possible?" he asked carefully.
Rose smiled and leaned back in her seat. "The TARDIS has been meddling with me since I first came with the Doctor." She wiggled her fingers at him. "Time Lady."
Their flabbergasted, disbelieving expressions were all she glimpsed before the Doctor yelped again and waved his hands.
"No! No, no no! Two hearts doesn't make you a Time Lady! You have to have years of education and, and a shared history!"
The blonde scowled. "I have had ample study, ta. And excuse me if I wasn't born on Gallifrey, but this Lady was born in the TARDIS; you know, the ship we spent years together in?"
Brows slamming together, he dropped his hands. "What? Who could have possibly have taught you?"
She looked at him like he'd dribbled on his shirt. He waited a beat before the penny dropped and realization washed over him.
"Oh. I did-or I will." Forcibly calming himself, he righted his chair and eased back into it. "I think you'd better start at the beginning."
Thankful for the reprieve, Rose sighed and agreed. Slowly, she told him about working with Torchwood and building the dimension cannon when the stars began going out.
"You're not easy to track down, even when I got lucky and landed in the right universe," she joked half-heartedly, taking a sip of her tea. "I ran into Jack on Casis VI. As I understand it, I was one jump away from meeting you on that street with the Dalek. Instead, he changed the cannon's coordinates and sent me to meet the future Doctor. We…had a bit of an accident that may have overloaded my mind. It triggered the dormant changes the TARDIS had been instigating. She'd been lacing anything I'd ingested while living here with Gallifreyan biografts."
The Doctor's jaw dropped as his mind raced to puzzle everything out. "Your human mind wasn't big enough so your body accommodated by rewriting your genetic makeup to keep you from burning up."
At her nod, he took in her appearance for the first time. He'd only glanced at her enough to see she'd become a six dimensional being before. Her long hair was pulled back in a loose plait, though a few strands framed now golden eyes. She'd lost her baby fat and carried herself with a quiet grace and self confidence that a human could never truly manage. And she'd traded in her jeans and hoodies. Now, she wore a pale pink button down, brown trousers, and a tweed vest of all things. Her trainers had made way for elegant running boots.
The biggest change, though, was that she glowed. Time swirled around her in caressing adoration. If Jack was a fixed point, Rose was infinite possibilities. Anything or everything could happen with her. It was making him feel unrelentingly drawn to her-like Time Lord cat nip.
"So, the TARDIS guided the change and when I was done, future Doctor ran a plethora of tests on me-three times," she stated, rolling her eyes. "This didn't happen in his Timeline."
"What?!" the Doctor squeaked.
Jack and Donna were watching them like a tennis match, uncharacteristically restraining themselves.
Rose's eyes snapped to the Doctor's with a barely banked fury. "I let him decide. I gave him a choice. He could have modified my memories and sent me back after locking my genetic makeup or using the Chameleon Arch. Everything would have worked out as it did originally. He chose to teach me-to make sure I knew what I needed. But don't you dare judge him, Doctor. You don't know what that other Timeline was like-what it would have done to you."
Scowling, he sat forward. "That's the most completely irresponsible thing I've ever heard! Time can be rewritten, but not like that. That's rewriting great swaths of fixed points!"
"Would you like to know what would have happened, Doctor?" she hissed at him. "Do you want to know what would have happen to Donna-fantastic Donna who's gone through Hell with you?" She snatched his hand. "Do you want to know what became of poor Rose Tyler, the stupid ape who absurdly dared to love a Time Lord?"
He couldn't answer as her mind surged out, pushing the memories of the original Timeline at him. She didn't force the memories into his mind, but they were right out there-daring him to look. He tried to ignore them, but he couldn't help it. He could only watch in mounting horror as disaster struck relentlessly. Tears spilled over when he saw himself leaving a devastated Rose and then immediately having to wipe Donna's memories. But, Rose continued on, showing him what he'd become on Bowie Base I. Time Lord Victorious and madness was almost a welcome thing. The sound of Adelaide's suicide faded as Rose pulled back, wiping her own eyes as she did.
"That-"he wheezed, even his bypass system frozen in the wake of that nightmare.
"Those were your memories. When I slammed into you, the TARDIS initiated a memory transfer." Rose tilted her chin up defiantly. "Look me in the eye and tell me he made the wrong choice now."
Slumping back, the Doctor crossed one arm over his chest to prop up the other as he covered his mouth. Glancing at the confused Donna, he shook he head and returned his attention to the exhausted woman in front of him. She'd crossed universes for him-changed her entire species for him.
"Oh, you impossible thing," he whispered, making her whole face light up.
The Doctor had decided to finish putting the TARDIS to rights after the discussion in the galley. Jack needed to get back to his team and he wanted to check that the planets had made it back to their proper places. Rose figured he also needed a moment to digest what had happened and would want more details later. In the meantime, she felt that Jack probably had a few things on his mind, too.
She found him in the observation room, staring at a passing asteroid.
"Reckon you want a word before you get back to your team," she said, crossing her legs as she took a seat.
Turning from the large window doubling as a wall, Jack met her eyes. "Yeah. Can you change me back?"
He literally repelled her now, so she was grateful he stayed where he was. Canting her head, she mulled that over.
"I don't know. I've seen a bit of your future, though, Jack. You protect and save billions of people. You have families scattered across the universe. If you really want, I'll try to find a way, but there is a good chance you'll turn to dust if I do."
The captain clenched his jaw and glanced out to space. A long while passed in silence before he sighed. "No, no, you're right. I can do so much more as the man who doesn't die." He gave a wry smile. "Don't much fancy turning to dust anytime soon, besides."
Nodding, she stood to leave, but paused. "The 456," she began, watching as his body froze, "they're coming back. This time, they'll ask for ten percent of Earth's population. When they come, call us." Cutting off, she looked at something he couldn't see. "And you should probably install better security-something to scan every person entering or exiting Torchwood. There is a window of time between your deaths and revivals. Someone could do anything to you during that time and you'd not know it."
Wide-eyed, he watched as she began walking again. "You're changing things, aren't you? Why?"
Tilting her head, she looked at him over her shoulder. "We were friends and I'm more than the blonde who didn't get left behind."
He flinched at that, wondering what else she'd learned from the Doctor's memories. "Rose, I didn't mean that. You and the Doc made me a better person. We are friends-Hell, I built Torchwood Three in honor of you two. I even checked up on you when you were a kid."
Angling around, she gave a small smile. "I know. I can't guarantee anything, Jack. With the 456, we may not be able to help, but we'll try. They'll make contact first through the children. They're a telepathic race who will threaten the release of a virus on Earth. World leaders will panic, but maybe we can find a way to reverse the psychic feed." She mused over it and then focused on him with a shrug.
"What do they want with the kids?" he managed to get out.
A flicker of something crossed her features before they hardened. "You don't want to know, Jack."
Donna approached the Doctor as he was fiddling under the console. Sitting in the jump seat, she nudged his foot with hers.
"Oi, spaceman! You gonna tell me what's going on around here? I thought you'd be happier to have Rose back, the way you've always gone on about her."
Muttering curses the TARDIS was offended enough not to translate, the Doctor emerged from the console scowling. His hair was wilder than normal and there were smudges of grease on his face.
"What are you talking about?"
Eyeing him, she crossed her arms. "You got your Rose back, saved the universe, and yet I find you hiding out under the TARDIS."
"I'm restoring her. In case you didn't notice, I rigged up the dimension cannon to her today. She needs to be put to rights. I'm not hiding," he denied, soldering two wires to a circuit board as he spoke.
"Doctor, she showed you something about me. I want to know what it was," She tried a different track, recognizing his stubborn look.
Cutting his eyes to her, he mentally winced when he took in her unmoving, demanding pose. She wouldn't stop nagging him until he told her. It was tell her that, or let her keep harassing him about Rose. Adjusting the settings on his sonic, he went back to work, answering in low, resigned tones.
"If Rose hadn't jumped to where she did, that Dalek would have shot me in the street. Through a series of very, very disastrous events, you would have accidentally created a Time lord metacrisis-a half human clone of me. But, in doing so, you would have gotten a transference of my memories." He took a moment, closing his eyes. "You heard what Rose said-the human mind can't hold that much knowledge-it would burn you from the inside. I left Rose in a parallel world with my clone. Then, I took you home and buried your memories to save your life. You couldn't ever see me or anything of this life again, Donna. Doing so would trigger your memories and kill you."
The ginger was staring at him in petrified shock. Shifting, the Doctor knelt in front of her. "Donna, I wouldn't have done that if there'd been any other way, I swear. But it was killing you."
Swallowing, she nodded slowly and pushed her nausea away. She could see the pain in his eyes at the thought of doing that; she couldn't imagine what that other him had felt being forced to actually carry through. A profound rush of gratitude washed over her for Rose. Donna hadn't missed the way the other woman had spoken protectively of her in the galley. She wondered if she'd ever be able to repay her.
"Yeah, I believe you," she told him, seeing his shoulders relax in relief. "Now, tell me why you're hiding from your Rose."
Flopping back, he ran his hands through his hair, pulling in frustration. "Well, that's just it, isn't it? She's not my Rose-my pink and yellow human-anymore. Saving you aside, it'd have been better if she'd stayed in Pete's world."
He had his head hanging morosely between his raised knees, so Donna was the only one who saw that Rose had entered the room. The desolation on her face broke Donna's heart. God, she remembered that feeling, with Lance laughing at her and her dreams in tatters around her feet. How much worse was it for Rose who had been with the Doctor for years and given up everything for him? The Time Lady wrapped her arms around herself and swiftly disappeared on silent feet.
Fury filled Donna, but when she turned back to unleash it on her friend, he let out a pained hiss and clutched his head.
"What is it? What's happened?"
Falling back against the console, he rubbed his temples, eyes squeezed closed in pain. "It's Rose. Her mental shields are so reinforced now that she's isolated herself. I can't feel her anymore," he realized, lids snapping open in shock.
Huffing, Donna sniffed and mentally cheered the other woman. "Well, isn't that what you wanted? Her leaving you alone because she's not human anymore? God, you're thick. For all your 'superior biology' you're just like any other bloke."
Leaping to his feet, he shook his head. "What? No, no, no-Donna, this kind of isolation isn't ever done by Time Lords. It's like she isn't even here! I can feel every living thing on the TARDIS, but where Rose should be is just…nothing."
Panic had set in. Donna pursed her lips and said nothing as the Doctor frantically ran a scan of the TARDIS in search of the blonde girl. After a moment, he cursed and slammed his hand against the console.
"She's refusing to help me."
Donna wrinkled her nose. "Duh. The girls stick together."
He didn't bother to reply as he rushed out of the room. Rolling her eyes, Donna glanced to the ceiling.
"I don't know how you put up with him."
The TARDIS hummed her agreement.
Jack's eyes sprang open as Rose nearly bowled him over in her haste down the corridor.
"Rose?" he called in concern, but she kept running.
The woman herself threw up her strongest mental shields and kept a tight lid on her emotions until she made it into a room the TARDIS put in her way. Rushing into it, she gasped a sob when she saw it was the bedroom the future Doctor would have. There weren't any personal effects there yet, but she welcomed the room nonetheless. A spot of brown was the only thing that hinted at the man who would eventually occupy the space. Rose succumbed to her tears at the sight of a very familiar tweed coat draped over the duvet. Kicking off her shoes, she climbed onto the bed and wrapped herself in his jacket.
"Please don't let them find me," she whispered to the TARDIS.
The ship hummed sadly and dimmed the lights for her. She didn't care how his clothes came to be there, she just needed a part of him that had loved her. What did she do now? They'd never talked about what to do if he didn't want her. She had no home and no TARDIS; a Time Lady stuck on the slow path with no purpose.
The TARDIS chimed indignantly.
"You know I love you, girl, but you stole him first. You and he belong together and as much as I've called you home, he's made it clear that I can't stay here indefinitely."
Rubbing the chain on her wrist, she was startled when an image of herself and the future Doctor was projected into her mind. Emotion choked her upon recognizing the scene. It had been the first time he'd kissed her; one of only a handful. Feelings washed over her that were not her own and she realized he'd hidden his memory for her in the bracelet. Watching the two figures together-feeling the intensity of his thoughts made her hearts clench in loss.
She was caught off guard yet again when the memory paused on him holding her past self. He had his forehead pressed to hers and was watching her with such awe. Her present attention snapped to a second Doctor that appeared, looking directly at her.
"Hello, my precious girl," he smiled. "I'm an idiot."
A wet laugh escaped her at his self deprecating look.
"I've hidden some of my memories in your bracelet for you. You can view them by touching different parts of the chain and focusing on this me." He glanced to the scene behind him wistfully, and then turned back to her. "I hope that all you ever see are the memories, not my little narrations, but I know myself enough to realize I'm not going to make this easy for you. If you're getting this part of my message, then I've hurt you enough for you to hide from me. I've put a few messages in the memories that will only be triggered by certain emotions of yours."
His hair flopped into his eyes as he looked down. Rose had to stop herself from mentally reaching for him. Her first Doctor had protected her, her second Doctor had laughed with her, but this Doctor-this Doctor had loved her. He'd absolutely adored her and she missed the shared feelings. She missed the longing looks and the proud excitement that transformed his face when he taught her. All that time, she'd thought that everything would be alright as soon as she got back to her pinstriped Doctor. She never dreamed that she'd be wishing to be back with that so broken version of him.
"I'm an old, daft Time Lord, Rose and I was inordinately selfish by letting you go back. I need you, but that me hasn't been broken like I have. At that point, I think I have. Oh, Rose, I think I know the very worst the universe could throw at me. You and this me know better, don't we? He won't let you in right away. He won't want to get close only to have you ripped away from him."
The eleventh Doctor lifted his gaze determinedly. "So, I'm sorry. I'm sorry for what I said or did to hurt you like this. I'm sorry for not preparing you better for my reactions. I'm sorry that I couldn't keep you here with me instead of sending you back at all. But, I won't apologize for how I feel about you. In all my long life, I've gotten very few things right. Asking you that second time will always be up there with taking Susan. You made me better before and I'm afraid that me has neglected your work those years without you. Please, my precious impossible girl, don't give up on me-on us."
With a last tender smile, he disappeared for the memory to finish. Wiping her eyes, Rose watched as the memory faded and she was left alone. One shaky breath later, white hot fury swept through her.
Jumping up-she began pacing and muttering to herself as if to talk through the problem. The TARDIS chimed encouragingly, seeming to extend an offer to listen.
"Thanks, old girl," she answered. "He's a right git, you know?"
She'd spent her tears and moved on from her pity party. Vaguely, the Time Lady was embarrassed at how pathetic she was being. It was, she supposed, just that she'd built their reunion up so much in her mind that his rejection felt so brutal. His future self had made his feelings for her very obvious; she shouldn't have assumed that the present him would do the same. She has his memories-she should know better.
Drawing herself up, Rose nodded. She'd changed in the years between Canary Wharf and now, too. No longer was she that naïve teenager who thought the Doctor hung the stars just for her. Maybe she didn't have as much experience as he, but she was an equal now. She'd been trained by the best and he was counting on her to make his future brighter; to make their future brighter.
Right, then they needed to talk. Glancing in the mirror, she saw no evidence of her previous tears, bless her new genes. Half way to the door, the TARDIS gave an amused chime. Rose blushed, realizing she was wearing his coat still. Reluctantly, she slid it off her shoulders and laid it across the bed. Her fingers stroked the fabric tenderly before she made herself step back.
"Thank you," she told the TARDIS. "You're far too good to all of us."
The ship hummed, pleased to be appreciated. Tugging down her cuffs and smoothing her vest, Rose felt infinitely better. Without a backwards glance, she strode out to confront her idiot.
It turned out he was searching for her in a fine frenzy. Apparently, reinforcing her shields as much as she had and isolating her mind completely had made him unable to feel her. He seemed to have freaked.
Rose saw the look on his face when he found her and her anger turned to concern.
"What's wrong?" she asked immediately.
Once upon a time-when she'd been human-a situation such as this would have him snapping her into a fierce hug and then berating her for whatever she'd done to make him worry while simultaneously trying to distract her from the fact that he'd been worried in the first place.
Now, he studied her intently, moving no closer than two arm lengths.
"Doctor?"
Shaking himself, he shrugged and shoved his hands into his pockets. "Your mind snapped closed rather forcefully. Didn't want you regenerating anywhere but the zero room if something had gone wrong."
Just like that, her fury blazed back to life.
The Doctor internally winced at the words and had to restrain himself from stepping back when he looked at Rose. Her face had hardened and her eyes were black pools of Time's aggression. It was almost like seeing the Untempered Schism again and that unsettled him more than he cared to admit.
"And you came to find me," she said in an eerie, dangerous voice that smacked of Time Lady authority.
"Y-yes," he stuttered an answer, wondering at the very odd feeling of being on the receiving end of that kind of rage. He'd always wielded his with tight control-like a surgical scalpel. His seventh self had been particularly adept at it.
Rose wore that power like an extension of herself. If he'd entertained any doubts at all about her species, this obliterated them. The right words and she could destroy worlds or birth galaxies now. It was a heady feeling and made him instinctively reach for his own in response. A second later, however, she reigned herself in and the moment passed.
He had no illusions that she was over her anger, though. She'd simply gotten very good at masks.
Saying nothing, she opened the door to her left and motioned for him to precede her. A corner of his mind itched with the urge to run.
"Well?" she demanded when he simply stared for too long.
The Doctor frowned and walked in, running be damned. She'd only chase him down and run with him.
Why wasn't he running, again?
They'd entered the library, he noted while moving around the pool. Rose followed him quietly in her sock clad feet. That made him wonder where she'd left her shoes. He'd checked her old room and all the places she used to favorite when he'd been tearing up the TARDIS searching for her. Facing her, he watched as she took a seat on the couch.
"What do you want to know?" she asked, knowing that he'd want those details now.
Running a hand down his face, he paced. "You said the TARDIS initiated a memory transfer."
Rose nodded.
"What you showed me in the galley-was that all you received?"
Biting her lip, she looked away. "I saw everything from Canary Wharf until his present Time." Her face was unreadable when she met his eyes again. "I'm so sorry about Jenny, Doctor."
Feeling abandoned his legs, so he took a seat on the couch as well. He vaguely wondered if he'd ever been this lost. Well, Time War aside.
"I showed you that?" he whispered, but it wasn't much of a question and she didn't bother to answer.
Sighing in something like defeat, he dropped his head to his hands and rested his elbows on his knees.
"I don't know what to do, Rose," he admitted finally, as if the words had been ripped from him.
Slowly, tentatively, she reached and took his hand. He let her, watching as their fingers twined together without thought. Here, in that moment, that gesture brought home their reunion more than anything had. A shuddering breath escaped the Doctor as he raised his damp gaze to hers.
"Rose Tyler," he breathed, "I've missed you."
Laughing wetly, she squeezed his hand. "I missed you, too, you daft man." With her free hand, she wiped her eyes, glad she'd forgone makeup. "I was in Pete's world for a long time, you know. After your goodbye, I waited five and a half hours on that beach. I waited five and a half hours staring at a white wall months before as well, if I'm honest. Couldn't sleep for the longest there. Everything was so quiet and I was used to the TARDIS's hum and your tinkering. Nearly drove me mad at night in that big house that didn't move," she confessed. "Every mission I went on, I was half expecting to find you slap in the middle of it."
Swallowing became difficult for him because he'd felt the same desperate hope himself. On the heels of that came shame.
"I told you it was impossible," he rasped.
Her laugh was a brittle thing. "Yeah, and you've said that before. I didn't believe you."
The shame rose to nearly strangle him. She'd waited for him; believed in him more than he did himself, and when he didn't return, she'd come after him on her own. She'd even set Donna to rights in the Trickster's alternate world. What had he done? Wallowed in his grief and sulked.
Light glinted off the pink chain on her wrist, drawing his eyes and providing a welcome distraction from his thoughts. Pulling their clasped hands to him, he took out his specs and examined the jewelry.
"Delvish crafted," he confirmed, then felt his face go slack in surprise. "It's a memory chain."
His eyes were wide when he looked at her. To her consternation, she could feel herself blushing.
"Yes."
"Rose, these are inordinately rare. Actually, I don't think I've ever seen one save in pictures. Where did you get this?"
Pulling away, she held her wrist and the chain protectively. It was all she had left of that Doctor. Time was being rewritten, so it was all she'd ever have of that Doctor.
"A friend gave it to me. That's all you need to know," she answered sharply as he put his glasses away.
"Memories have been stored on it. Yours?"
Looking away, she shook her head. "No."
Frowning, he sent a mental nudge at the chain and felt his world fall away. An unfamiliar voice filled his head.
"Hello, me. I suppose this means you decided to poke your nose into Rose's bracelet. Well, you're not getting the memories I gave her. They're for her. Don't go trying to unlock them, either. I've got a few centuries on you and you haven't learned all of my tricks yet. But, I figured I'll be too curious to just leave it alone, so I'm sending you this memory. I know who I was when I was you and I know that you won't appreciate the gift we've been given." There was a bitter laugh. "You think you've seen darkness, don't you? You think you've seen the worst the universe can do. You know nothing."
Suddenly, the Doctor found himself staring at an awed, younger Rose.
"Doctor? Why are you glowing?"
Blinking, he glanced down at himself and then back at her in concern. "Glowing? I'm not glowing. What'd you mean 'glowing'?"
Slowly, she reached out and touched one of the swirling lights around him. Inhaling sharply, he jolted and caught her hand. How had she done that?
"I mean, there are all these swirls and lines around you. It looks like you're glowing. And…and, I saw you," she whispered, meeting his stunned gaze. "When we slammed into each other, I saw what's happened to you." It was almost too much to process. "Oh, God, I'm sorry!"
His reply was cut off when a burning pain ripped through her mind. Grabbing her head, she cried out as the flame spread like wildfire to every part of her psyche. The Doctor caught her when her knees gave out and her eyes rolled back in her head.
"Rose? Rose! What's happening? What's wrong?" he demanded, pulling out his sonic and scanning her frantically. Disturbingly, it couldn't get a read on her and that meant-in his experience-that things were very, very not good.
Breathing hard, she squeezed her eyes closed and clutched at him. "TARDIS," she managed as a familiar song began to temper the pain. It was barely enough to allow her to force the instruction out. She felt like acid was washing through every nerve ending and cell in her body. Screaming, her body began to convulse in seizures from the neural overload.
Not understanding, but terrified, the Doctor swept her up and ran as fast as he could to his fabulous blue box. The door swung open of its own accord as he rushed toward it. Once inside, however, all exits from the console room disappeared.
"What? What are you doing? I need to get her to the infirmary!" he begged as Rose, his beautiful out-of-Time Rose screamed in a way that would haunt him for years after. "Please!"
A tingling in his mind refused his request and urged him to the console. Helpless and more scared than he'd been in centuries, he followed the old girl's prompts. His own hands were shaking as Rose's pain elevated to a level that saturated the air around him. He could literally feel her agony as her mind went supernova in want of help.
Gold light blazed from her eyes as she opened them and the panel protecting the Heart of the TARDIS slid away.
"No! Rose, that'll kill you," he protested, holding her shaking form tightly against his chest.
The TARDIS' urgings became fierce and demanding-pleading with him to trust her. Taking a fortifying breath, he nodded once and gently lay Rose down in front of the bright power. Pushing onto her side, the girl stared into the Heart and reached out her hand to touch it.
"Oh, I've missed you so," she whispered.
And somewhere a wolf was howling.
Her screams echoed off the walls, filling his head with agony beyond imagining. Her pain radiated in the air to the point the tenth Doctor could taste it. Light flowed over her body and something shifted, as though Time held its breath. The scene faded and the voice returned.
"That's a portion of what she went through for us," the voice said fiercely, "and it deserves to be remembered. You can't fathom what's in store for us-what they're planning to do to us. We live through it and that's the rub, isn't it? We just keep living and breaking and hurting until you're me and you've got nothing left but Time. Time to drown in everything the Could Have Been King and the Nightmare Child and the Neverwheres and Meanwhiles would have gleefully brought. So, yeah, when Rose came back to me, I couldn't let her go. She pulls me out of the madness and my hallucinations. She made me remember who I used to be; made me give into hope just one more time.
The voice had a half hysterical inflection that softened into wistfulness and longing at the end. It took a turn, however, and descended into an abyss of despair and insanity when it continued.
"Don't you dare piss away this one beautiful second chance the universe never gives! You are nothing without her. You'll spend the rest of your lives praying for a miracle that will never come, you fool. This and Rose is our one single shot at anything even resembling happiness. So, get the Hell over yourself. You cherish her because I would have kept her. I almost did, you know. Almost couldn't send her back. She was right there-in front of me for years and I couldn't let myself touch her."
His voice became painfully tender. "I was quite proud of me for holding back. Didn't want to keep my hands to myself, but she deserves better than what I am now. So you have to be better for her. She gave herself to us. Don't fuck it up."
The tenth Doctor came back to himself with a jerk. The library filled his vision as he struggled to process what just happened.
"Doctor?" Rose asked, touching his arm.
Gasping, he felt his eyes grow wide and stared at her. "I gave you that."
She blinked, but hesitantly nodded. "What happened? You zoned out there for a minute. Well, more like three and a half, but still."
Pulling on his ear, he jiggled his leg. "Future me decided to leave me a message via your bracelet." His throat worked as he lunged to his feet and began pacing. "You didn't tell me I'd completely gone 'round the bend." Though, the memory of Time Lord Victorious should have tipped him off to his less than questionable mental state.
Confusion flickered across Rose's face. "What? What did he tell you?"
Brown eyes were dark as he clenched his jaw. "He showed me your change." The Doctor shrugged. "Yelled at me a bit." Pausing, he gathered his scattered thoughts and came to kneel in front of her. "Rose, how long were you with him?"
"A very long time," she answered vaguely, wary of the expression he wore, "years. Why?"
"That me wasn't sane," he told her seriously. "He'd lost even the little I have and he was absolutely fixated on you."
Her confusion washed away when she realized what he was getting at. Taking his hands, she smiled and shook her head.
"He didn't hurt me, Doctor. In fact, he was very rational while I was with him. If I didn't have his memories, I wouldn't have known how bad off he really was. He took exceedingly good care of me. I think the knowledge that he was essentially erasing himself calmed him quite a bit. Even in madness, he was trying to protect the rest of the universe from himself."
Relief loosened the tension in his body. "Good." He moved to return to his seat. "Now, tell me everything."
"I could show you," she offered tentatively.
The offer surprised him because of how much she'd been shielding her mind from him. Trying not to appear as eager as he felt, he agreed.
Even with the knowledge of his future madness, he was not prepared for the horror waiting to befall him. Rose showed him everything from crashing into Amelia Pond's backyard to the moment she'd slammed into him. Panting, he jolted back to his body and stared at her in near panic.
"Oh," he choked, suddenly understanding the situation so much he would have fallen had he been standing.
A memory of the Valeyard sprang up, making him ill. His future self was well on that path and yet he'd desperately clung to the hope that he could alter that fate. He'd had so much faith in Rose-the one thing he'd still believed in.
Rose left her shields at a normal level, letting him revel in the golden brilliance of her mind buzzing against his. Words failed him, but meeting her soft gaze, he decided they weren't needed now, anyway. Instead, he cupped her cheek and smiled just a bit.
"You precious, impossible thing," he whispered, bridging the gap between them.
Finally, he kissed her. It was so soft and gentle, full of everything he'd been feeling since the moment she ran into his ship. Rose sighed, sliding her hands into his kitten-soft hair.
"How long are you going to stay with me?" he murmured, lips brushing hers as he spoke.
Golden eyes brightened as her mind glowed with happiness. "Forever, my Doctor."
The beautiful moment was then shattered by two amused people certainly not eavesdropping at the door.
"Room for another?" Jack teased cheekily.
The couple on the couch stood and glared at the man. Laughing, he held up his hands in a placating manner.
"Just wanted to let you know we've arrived and I'll be shoving off."
Rose smiled and swallowed her repulsion to hug him before the group said their goodbyes. Donna grinned at the Doctor's arm draped possessively around Rose's waist. When the doors closed after Jack, Donna felt her decision cement in her mind.
"Think you can drop me off at Granddad's? I'll have a visit and you'll pick me up in three days."
The Doctor arched a brow, but nodded. Seeing Rose positioned to help pilot, he smirked and made an inviting motion.
"Show me what you've got."
Beaming, she flew into motion and after a moment, the TARDIS landed smoothly and silently. Donna cracked up and began making fairly disparaging remarks about his driving ability.
Rose shrugged when he glared at her. "I found a copy of her manual and didn't chuck it or use it to prop open a vent when I disagreed."
"Get off my ship," he grumbled at Donna.
With one last cackle, she waved jauntily and slipped out the door. Rose's face saddened slightly, drawing his attention.
"What is it?"
Sighing, she took his hand. "Don't you see it? This was Donna's last trip as a full time companion."
Startled, he found the ginger's most probable Timeline and followed it. Tonight, she would go out and meet one Mr. Shawn Temple and they would hit it off. He'd ask her out, she'd agree, and when the Doctor returned a week late, she'd hesitantly ask for more time. Her trips would become few and far between until she announced that she was getting married. She'd have a brilliant life and die at a very old age, her family around her.
"That's fantastic," he whispered happily.
He hated that her time with him was over, but her life was littered with surprise visits from him and Rose. It was all he could ever wish for any of his friends.
"Yeah," Rose agreed, sending them into the Vortex. "Her kids will be right terrors."
"I'm not changing nappies," he declared firmly. "Moving on, Rose Tyler, let's see about this business with the Silence and Pandorica. Can't have the universe exploding, I'd rather not deal with a psychotic half Time Lady, we're going nowhere near Mars, and the Dalek asylum apparently needs blowing up."
"Don't forget the bus and that rift," she smiled. "Less flirting with the thief this time, yeah? Oh! And Clara. We have to find her."
"Soufflé girl!" he laughed. "I am about to suggest something rather unprecedented, you impossible thing. I believe we need to formulate a plan—a few plans—plans within plans! My next self seemed fond of scheming; let's raise the bar a bit. Blasted Angels-we need to work on them, too."
Taking his hand, she sent her happiness to him. A twinge ached in her hearts when she thought about how he would become his next self much sooner than he expected. It was a fixed point, and she hadn't shown it to him. There were some things even a Time Lord shouldn't have to know and she wanted him to enjoy this body as long as he had it. The TARDIS would know when the Master should be found again.
"You've hidden things from me," he said quietly, making her look away. "You didn't show my death."
"It's a fixed point." Her voice was rough with emotion. "Do you really want to know?"
Silence bloomed around them until he finally shook his head. "No. No, I suppose even I don't really want to know when my luck runs out. Now, come one; we have a future to plan!"
"We need to sort out Mum and Mickey, you know. And you'll need to let the Brigadier know what happened."
The Doctor pulled a face at the mention of Jackie Tyler, but relented. "We'll need to hurry. The cracks are closing rapidly."
When she kissed him, he drew her close and sent up a thanks to his next self, a self that would hopefully have a much happier future.
The TARDIS mentally kicked her feet up and buffed her metaphorical nails. Sometimes, she even amazed herself.