I'm new to this, you might have guessed. And have a Mac, which makes everything just that LITTLE bit harder. I hope this turns out okay, and the layout isn't... squiffy (yes, I know it's not a real word). Oh, well. Here goes nothing.

Begins midway (er, more than midway, really) into the actual action. This story is SO not linear. I can't write anything linear, it's like I see what's happening as scenes and I string them together and come up with... tripe. Sorry. Wait, what was my point? Oh, right, essentially everything begins post-Age of Steel, aka post-Mickey's departure. Then things get worse. And worse. And worse... and here I am, packaging it all into angsty-sci-fi goodness. With hints of the inimitable TenRose.

Kindly read the first chapter as well, it's much better (and about ten times as long). But it's all un-betad (also not a word) so there might be spelling, grammatical or some other kind of errors.

I'll shut up now.

Don't own it, wouldn't want to (storms away in a childish huff).

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He always thought he knew all about death. He's certainly seen a lot of it in his 900 years. It was always said that time travels fastest for the oldest, but he proves to be an exception to that rule, as he so often is with convention. The older he gets, the slower the time passes. He supposes that means he's ready to die, although it's never really felt that way until now.

As he sits in the back pew of a church, his head bowed in respect and crushing sadness and he's not quite sure what else, listening to the ghost of Rose Tyler sob uncontrollably, he wants to die.

The sound is echoing around the building, ricocheting of the walls and ceiling, bouncing back at them a hundred times, almost drowning him in her grief. There is something so monumentally, epicly, incomprehensibly, Earth-shatteringly human about this moment he feels guilty when he can feel his alien heart break.

Her body is shaking in it's thick, cream coat, hunched over, her long golden hair hiding her face, and she looks far more vulnerable than he's ever seen. There is no one next to her, the church empty but for the two of them. He's not sure if she knows he's there, but he knows that it's irrelevant, even if neither of them would see it as such. They're in the presence of something much greater here, something much more malevolent. The world has simply stopped turning for Rose Tyler, and as much as he would like to be, he cannot allow himself to be the one to start it again-it isn't his place, not now. There is no one there for her, she is entirely alone.

He picks himself up and walks from the church, not bothering to make an effort to walk quietly. She won't hear him.

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So, um... yeah. Don't review yet. Read Chapter One. I actually quite like that.