TURN LEFT/THE STOLEN EARTH/JOURNEY'S END
"What was he doin' with me?"
"He thought you were brilliant."
"Don't be stupid."
"Well you are. It just took the Doctor to show you that, simply by being with him. He did the same to me, to everyone he touches."
"Were you and him?"
She still couldn't explain why she didn't answer Donna. It was an easy enough answer. Yes, they were. They still are as far as Rose was concerned. Of course, he had probably moved on, maybe that was best. Up until now, it seemed impossible that they would ever see each other again. She had Samson, and all the Doctor had was the heartache that came with losing a family, and since he had already had that, it must have been doubly painful. She removed these thoughts from her mind. She didn't like to think of him being sad.
She used the cannon and appeared near Donna. The sadness in her eyes knew no limits. She had used words to convince this woman to take her own life. The redhead had grown to trust her so completely, and she had played with the woman like a toy, as if she were no better than one of her son's stuffed animals.
Rose walked into the street and watched as Donna took her last breaths. She had her chance, and now she would get a message to him. She came nearer to Donna's face and whispered the two words that would make the Doctor understand everything. "Bad Wolf." And with that, Donna Noble died.
The blonde woman could feel the universes begin to right themselves. She was prepared for it. Once she appeared back in her correct universe, she rushed to the Tyler mansion, where her mother and father were currently watching Sammy. She drove as quickly as she dared, knowing that time was of the essence. By now, the Doctor would have already learned about her involvement and would, she hoped, be desperately awaiting her return. She didn't want to disappoint him.
She left the car running and raced into the grand house, calling for her mum.
"Blimey, Rose! We're all right here!" hushed Jackie Tyler as she walked into the entry way, Tony on her hip. "What's going on?"
"Where's Sammy?" Rose spoke quickly. "We've gotta go."
"He's here," came the reply from Pete, the man who had become a wonderful father to Rose and Tony and an even better granddad to Sammy. He stepped into the room with said grandson unstably rushing after him. Upon seeing his mother, he let out a loud giggle. "Mummy!" he cried and rushed to Rose. She smiled and drew him close to her.
"Hello my darling," she cooed, hoisting him off the floor. "Ready to go?" He nodded into her hair. His mother faced Jackie. "Is he all packed?"
"Yeah, his bag's here." Pete went back into the living room and appeared a few seconds later with Sammy's baby bag. "Rose, what's the rush?"
She paused for only a moment, knowing that her parents wouldn't like what she was about to say. "We're going home, mum. Home, home."
Jackie's eyes widened. "You mean-?" Rose nodded in answer to the unfinished question. "We got the problem with the parallel universes figured out, but the stars are still going out, so the whole picture is still wrong. But I reckon the cannon will still work which means I've got to go. This may be my one chance to get back to him."
"But what about Sam?" Pete asked. "What if the cannon doesn't work now that the universes are set to rights? You could both get hurt."
"We won't," Rose said with absolute faith. "We'll be okay, and we will find him again." She hugged her mum as close as she could with two toddlers between them. "I love you all," she breathed before moving to Pete. "Sammy, say goodbye to grandma and granddad."
"Bye!" the tot cheered while waving enthusiastically. Rose clutched her son and his bag and ran out to the car. Soon they made it back to Torchwood and the dimension cannon. She slung Sammy's bag over her shoulder and gripped her own with her free hand. Taking a deep breath, she walked forward and looked at the soldier operating the machine. A nod was sent his way once she and her son entered the center. The device fired up, and Torchwood disappeared.
Rose opened her eyes, blinking at the change of the light. What had been early afternoon on Pete's world was now late night in her home universe. She looked up at the sky and realized why. There were a dozen planets, probably more, blocking the light of the sun. People ran around in a mad panic, and she knew that she had just entered the heart of whatever it was that had caused the stars to disappear.
Thinking quickly, Rose ran to the nearest phone booth and grabbed a telephone book. After inserting the correct change and punching the correct numbers, she waited for an answer.
"Hello?" came the voice of a somewhat worried young boy.
"Hi, I'm looking for Sarah Jane!" Rose spoke quickly.
"She's a bit busy-"
"Look, my name is Rose. I know the Doctor. Please, tell her it's me!"
She waited impatiently as he moved through the house to hand the phone to the woman she desperately needed to talk to.
"Rose?" Finally!
"Sarah Jane, it's me! I need to see you. Where are you?"
After getting the woman's address, Rose raced from the phone booth to the location she had written down. Without a single taxi in sight, she started making her way to the Smith residence on foot.
She couldn't have been more exhausted or more ecstatic when the house came into view. Sarah Jane must have told the boy who answered the phone that they were expecting someone, for the door flew open a mere second after Rose knocked.
"Rose?" he asked. She nodded. "I'm Luke. Mum's upstairs in the attic." He politely took her bags and set them on the floor before hurriedly leading her to Sarah Jane. They re-entered the attic just in time for the computer to inform Sarah Jane that there was an incoming message from who- or whatever it was that had done this to the Earth. Rose stood next to her and Luke joined them as well as Sarah Jane spoke, "Put it through."
Rose's knees buckled and she almost fell over when she heard the chorus of "Exterminate!" blast through the computer's speakers. She clung tighter to Sammy, the poor boy who hadn't the slightest clue what was going on. Placing a kiss to the top of his head, she begged for her tears to dry, not wanting him to see mummy cry. She turned her head and saw Sarah Jane absolutely frozen, a few stray tears getting the better of her.
"No," she spoke, barely above a whisper, a silent plea for this whole thing to be a dream. Finally she reached out for Luke, sobbing into his shoulder. A surge of determination flooded Rose. She placed Sammy in an empty armchair and told him to stay there. Walking back over to the crying woman, Rose gently pried her away from Luke.
"Sarah Jane," she said with determination, "we will survive this. The Doctor is coming, I promise you that. I've only just got back home, and I am not about to die without seeing him again. We'll find a way. We will."
Sarah Jane merely nodded. "So what do we do?"
"First? We do what we do best. We wait for the Doctor."
She reached out and dried the older woman's cheeks with her thumbs. Sarah Jane sniffed and gave a sad smile. "Aren't you going to introduce me to that handsome young man you came in with?" From the armchair, the little boy giggled. Rose smiled as well. She beckoned for Sammy to join them, and he tottered over quickly.
"Sammy, I'd like you to meet Sarah Jane. She's a very good friend of mine. Sarah Jane, this is Samson, my son."
Giving a smile, Sarah Jane knelt down to match the boy's eye level before reaching out a hand, which was taken, and saying, "It's very nice to meet you Sammy," which resulted in another giggle. She turned to face her own son. "Luke, could you read to him? Who knows how long we'll be waiting."
"Sure mum," he replied before taking the younger boy's hand and leading him over to the corner by the bookshelf. Sarah Jane moved herself and Rose to the opposite side of the attic.
"Rose, is Sammy the Doctor's son?"
Rose merely nodded. "Two hearts and all."
"I...I didn't realize that you two were-"
"We weren't," Rose said, "until after you and I met."
Sarah Jane nodded. "I...had heard about the battle at Canary Wharf. I saw your name on the list of the dead."
"Oh," Rose paused. She hadn't realized...well she supposed it made sense. She and her mum had disappeared to another universe. They must have assumed that she was dead. "Uh, no. Actually, my mum and I got trapped in a parallel universe. I lived there for a while, had Sam there, but it was time to come home. I only just got back before I called you."
"Some homecoming," Sarah Jane spoke bitterly, referring to the reappearance of the Daleks, the race that just never seemed to accept the fact that they had been subject to genocide, three times at that.
Over the next ten or so minutes, the women sat near the computer, watching their sons try to escape the panic that seemed to encapsulate the whole world. Finally, the sound of the Dalek's mechanical tone was replaced by the sound of static and then...
"Can anyone hear me?" Rose's head perked up immediately. "The sub wave network is open. You should be able to hear my voice."
"Who's that?" Sarah Jane looked up to see Luke coming near them, his eyes glued to the computer screen.
"Some poor soul crying out for help," his mother answered dejectedly. "There's nothing we can do."
Rose stood and moved next to Luke while saying, "No, I know that voice!" As the picture became clearer, a smile appeared. "Harriet Jones!"
Suddenly, the image of the ex-Prime Minister called out, "Captain Jack Harkness, shame on you!"
"Jack?" Rose breathed. "Oh my God, Harriet! Jack! It's me, it's Rose! Can you hear me!"
"Rose Tyler?" Harriet asked. "Where are you?"
"I'm with Sarah Jane! She's here too." Rose beckoned for the named woman to stand and join her, which she did.
"Good," spoke the ex-PM. "Now let's see if we can talk to each other." She pushed a few buttons and soon enough, the image of Jack Harkness appeared alongside her on Sarah Jane's monitor. Rose almost began to cry when she saw the Captain.
"Rose," he breathed. Suddenly he gave out a triumphant laugh. "God it's good to see you!"
"You too, Captain!" she cheered. Faith and exultation filled her entire being. They would make it out of this alive. She and Jack were working together again and they had Harriet and Sarah Jane. They would find the Doctor, and they would save the world. They just had to.
After a touch of difficulty, the fourth contact made her way in, a Martha Jones apparently. Rose looked slightly affronted. Who was this woman? How did she know the Doctor? Of course, Rose didn't want him to be alone, but she wasn't too sure that, even for all her talk, she actually wanted him to move on either.
"Who are you?" Rose asked, trying to keep her annoyance in check.
"Martha Jones," she reintroduced herself. "I used to travel with the Doctor. And you are?"
"I'm Rose Tyler."
The effect was immediate. Martha's face first fell before breaking out into a slight smile. "Oh my God, you're back. He'll be so pleased."
"We can talk about this later," Harriet interrupted. "Right now, we have to find the Doctor and get him here. He's the only chance we've got."
A plan was hatched, one that involved Harriet Jones potentially sacrificing herself to the Daleks, all in order to find the Doctor. Rose didn't like it, but she had become used to sacrifice. She knew that there was no other way to get to the Doctor, and she knew that without him, Harriet would just die anyway, along with the entire planet. Each person went to work on their end boosting the signal and dialing the number. Rose moved into the corner with her son, noticing that even among all the chaos, he had fallen asleep. She smiled as she pulled out her phone and began to dial the number as well.
Suddenly her head snapped back to the computer, called Mr. Smith apparently, just in time to hear Harriet Jones speak. "Oh, you know nothing of any human, and that will be your downfall." Another round of "Exterminate" resounded, and the screen went dead. She closed her eyes and briefly mourned the woman who lead England into a golden age and gave her life due to her unending faith in one man, one Time Lord.
"Where the hell have you been?!" came Jack's voice. Rose opened her eyes again and her breath caught in her throat. There he was, standing there in the TARDIS next to Donna Noble. Tears formed and her throat began to swell shut.
Everyone began talking all at once. She could see the Doctor's eyes flit from screen to screen as he determined who he would address first. Her heart pounded in her ears, blocking her hearing. She didn't pay attention to a word anyone said. Her entire focus remained on the Doctor. Sudden giddiness swept within her and the smile that appeared threatened to split her face in two. She was thrust out of her thoughts when she heard him say, "Everyone except Rose."
"I'm here!" she cried, moving in front of the computer. His expression changed immediately. He had looked happy before, but that was nothing compared to the joy written on his face when their eyes connected. She was closer to him now than she had been at any point within the last two years. She knew she only had a bit longer to wait before his arms were wrapped around her again. Hope was added to the mix of emotions swirling within her.
"Rose," he breathed. "You're here. Rassilon, I can't believe...but...is he-?"
"He's here," she answered, her smile remained fixed. "Sleeping, of all things." The Doctor gave a chuckle and moved to say something else before the screen was overtaken and a voice crept through the speakers. Rose couldn't help but feel as though it was a perfect mix between a human tone and a Dalek. It seemed to affect Sarah Jane rather violently.
"Who is it?" Rose asked.
"It can't be," she breathed. "He's dead." Rose put a hand on the older woman's shoulder, an encouragement. "It's Davros. But it can't be..."
Rose listened intently to the exchange between her Doctor and the man who was responsible for the existence of his greatest enemy. She could hear the anger and despair in the Time Lord's voice, and her heart broke for him. She could feel his frustration. She had disintegrated the entire Dalek race only for them to have survived. Then he had sucked them all into the void, only for them to have survived again. Wouldn't they ever stop?
She supposed they would have to defeat them one more time.
The screen cut out, and she moved over to where Sammy slept. She pushed his blonde hair out of his face and placed a kiss upon his forehead. "I'll be back soon," she whispered. Her heart was divided. She wanted to stay with him, to guarantee his safety, but she knew that if she didn't leave, she had absolutely no way of doing that.
"Luke," came Sarah Jane's voice, "stay here and watch over Sammy. Keep yourselves safe." Luke merely nodded before hugging his mum goodbye. Soon she and Rose were bounding out of the house and driving off towards...well wherever the Doctor might be.