Author's Note: Just another take on Journey's End. Assume everything up to the point where Mickey leaves with Jack & Martha. The only difference is that before the journey to Bad Wolf Bay, Donna's condition falls rapidly and Rose is still on board the TARDIS to witness it and has a secret of her own. It's been a good few years since I've done much writing, so my apologies if this is somewhat rusty.
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With one hand stretched out, her order was obvious. "NO!" Every part of Rose's energy and passion for this was directed at the Doctor, as Donna's emotional state quickly increased.
Only five people remained in the TARDIS now. The two Doctors, Donna, Rose and Jackie. Rose and the original Doctor were stood looking defiantly at each other, the Doctor with a rushed impatience. Rose, in contrast, was eager to interrupt him with the winning hand for once. They were both mid-argument, over the human-Time Lord metacrisis Donna was plagued by.
The Doctor looked back at her. "I have to. That energy, it will fry her mind. She'll burn out, she can't handle it. She'll die," and his words wrenched at every part of Rose, the look in his eyes that of a desperate man.
"You don't understand, I can try something. Residual energy, they called it and it always shone from me." Rose explained. "They never knew what it was but the technicians tested me for months! Words came to me though. Bad Wolf. After that, I just stopped being around the testing facilities, somehow I interfered with results - they'd be inaccurate or completely off the radar."
"Agh!" Donna's scream broke through the moment, causing the Doctor and Rose to look immediately from each other to the anguished red-haired woman fighting against her own mind. "I can't go back. Don't make me go back. Doctor… Please! Don't make me go back!"
"Donna, shush," Rose whispered, hurrying to her side. She raised her arms, placing her hands over Donna's own, that were already pressed close to her head in a frantic attempt to stop the pain. "Trust me, I can silence the voices." With the Doctor and the others watching, a golden glow passed from Rose's hands to Donna, small sparks at first before increasing to spread around Donna. Rose slowly knelt with Donna and rested her on the floor of the TARDIS, after the woman fainted before her
Almost as quickly as it had started, the golden light vanished and Rose stumbled backwards, suddenly drained. "She... she's fine. It won't... hurt her now," Rose whispered, her words intended for the Doctor, who was now by her side, catching her in his arms before she fell. Leaning against the Doctor, Rose sighed in a weary manner. "I didn't expect it to be so demanding. She thought I was trying to make her forget, like you were going to. Donna can certainly put up a fight. She'll be okay though."
"Are you okay?" The Doctor asked, scanning Rose's face for an answer. "My sweet Rose. All this time, I thought the Bad Wolf was gone. How? Why?"
"I'm fine, just tired. And I don't know," she smiled, shaking her head at the man before her. "You should be the one with the answers. I don't even remember it the first time but I remembered pieces of it when I stood with Donna, somehow I just knew inside of me what I had to do then."
"I guess part of it stayed with you. Enough to settle inside of you so that the TARDIS would always have you. Not many people see into her heart you know."
"I know that you need Donna as much as she needs you. Throughout time, no matter what happened, you two were destined to meet. Wilf, too. She really was the most important woman in the universe and now she still can be."
The Doctor interrupted with a few added descriptions of his own, "and the loudest, bossiest, most demanding woman too!"
"Someone has to keep you in check." Rose smirked, a slight pang of sadness crossing her look and she glanced down where her hand fitted so perfectly inside the Doctor's hand.
The Doctor grinned. "You can do that too!" For once his wisdom had passed him over, missing the signs Rose displayed at the present moment.
"Not here. I have my own Doctor and another world. Besides, I don't think mum would let me stop here and avoid babysitting duties. She had a little boy, my brother. It's a proper family this time round. Me, mum, dad and little Tony." Quickly wrapping her arms around the first Doctor, Rose buried her head against his shoulder, breathing in his smell for a moment and stopped herself from saying anything more.
Returning her hug, the Doctor knew it was goodbye. "Of course."
"Donna stays with you. I stay with him. You men really can't live alone." Rose pulled back, taking hold of his hand once again. "You'll have to get us back before the walls of the parallel world close again. Tell Donna from me that she has to take care of you." She squeezed his hand softly, knowing that words couldn't break the distance they both knew was coming.
Crossing over to the console of the TARDIS, the Doctor pushed a few buttons, flicked some switches and pulled a couple of levers down. "Hold on!" He called out, mainly for the benefit of Jackie. Rose looked wistfully around the TARDIS, as she held herself upright. As the TARDIS came to a stop, Rose crossed to the door first and opened it, glancing outside to check they were in the right place.
Darlig Ulv Stranden, she thought. Bad Wolf Bay. "End of the line, mum! You'd better get on to Pete and arrange for us to be picked up!" Jackie wasn't one to be told twice and though she was ready to go out of the TARDIS without a second thought, she paused when she neared the console, looking thoughtfully at the Doctor for a moment. "Thank you... for everything." Jackie smiled drawing him into a hug before she quickly hurried out of the TARDIS. The second Doctor followed in her wake, raising his hand to say goodbye without looking back.
Rose lingered by the door, her back to the bay outside. "There's something to a name. Bad Wolf Bay and now I've still got that in me. As for Donna, she was called the Doctor Donna for a reason. Coincidences pass you by. Maybe you should pay heed to that. She'll not remember it all at once but the knowledge is still there in her mind, all I did was make sure it won't overload her. Afterall, I managed all this time without it coming back to the surface. Have faith in her, Doctor. Donna is incredibly brave and strong."
She steps out from the TARDIS onto the sand of the bay and watches as the door closes on it's own, the TARDIS fading in its visibility and she closes her eyes, keen to fix its sound to memory, something Rose never wants to forget. As she turns, the new Doctor is already walking up behind her, stretching out his hand for her to take. Clasping her fingers through his, they walk together side by side and on reaching Jackie, Rose takes her mother's hand in her free hand.
Alone on the sands of Bad Wolf Bay, the three stand looking out to sea, silent except for the thoughts in their heads.
* * * * * * * * * *
In the TARDIS, Donna awakes from her slumber, finding the Doctor's jacket placed under her head as a cushion. She sits up and spots him sat leaning against the console. "Hey." Noticing the look on his face, it is easy for Donna to guess what has happened. "They've gone home then?"
The Doctor nods, jumping to his feet and strolling over to her. They sit next to each other. "They've gone," he confirms. "Do you remember what else happened? With you, I mean, more than anything."
"Yes. Rose made it so that I could remember. It no longer hurts having Time Lord thoughts inside me. They don't overpower my thoughts. They're so quiet in the background that I don't notice them unless I want to," answered Donna. "You're stuck with me now." As she grinned, Donna wondered how much more she should say about the transference between her and Rose, what she had read from the blonde woman's mind when they had connected in the light.
"I suppose I can live with that." It was meant to be teasing but the Doctor's words were empty, both well aware how close they came to having a completely different outcome.
"Doctor... It isn't just that. I saw inside Rose too, she clung to Bad Wolf as a way of keeping you close. Bad Wolf was about you and her through time and space. She kept fighting to bring it to the surface so you'd never be out of her life and that's how such a small figment of it gave her the ability to do this for me."
"And now she can let it go because she'll have me by her side again." The Doctor mused, thinking over Donna's words as silence fell between the two as both of their thoughts turned to Rose; the blonde woman who had blessed both of their lives.
Donna broke the companionable silence first. "So, Doctor, where to now?"