Spoilers! This story contains material from the end of season 2 and some from near the end of season 3.

Disclaimer: I don't own anything you might recognise from Doctor Who, it belongs to the BBC

Post Doomsday.

Tears coursed down her face as she stared at the spot where her Doctor had been – technically it hadn't even been him there at all, just a hologram. Still, it didn't make the pain any less, no matter which way she thought about it. Rose knew he hadn't been able to finish whatever he'd had to say, but she thought she knew... or maybe it was just wishful thinking.
Turning back to her mother, she buried her face until she could no longer smell the tang of salt in the air – just the smell of Jackie Tyler. It was a small comfort, but at that moment in time, any comfort was welcome. She heard Pete... her dad approach and let out the breath she hadn't realised she had been holding. It came out ragged and harsh and she realised that she was sobbing. A hand – she didn't know whose – stroked the back of her head and together, the Tyler family left Bad Wolf Bay.

The only good thing about this parallel world was that Rose didn't need to get a normal job to support herself. Her father insisted he look after her every need and Rose had plenty of time to work on simply being ok. Jackie would have been happy if she spent most of her time curled up in bed, but Rose would have none of that. After travelling through all of time and space, she simply wasn't able to stay still for very long. So she wandered.
At first it wasn't very far; to a familiar pub, to the local park. Then she went further.

The sweaty, fat man wrenched the door open and sneered at her, grunting rudely. "Wotcher want?" he snorted. The sound of arguing children and a nasally sports commentator flooded through the doorway.
"I... I was just wondering... I think this is the apartment I used to live in when I was little. Would you mind if I just... had a look?" Rose cringed and added "I recently lost someone. I thought that maybe visiting this place... all the happy memories..." she trailed off, peering hopefully at the watery-eyed man still leering at her chest.

After a long silence, he grunted again and moved out of the doorframe, gesturing for her to come in.
"Thanks", Rose nodded.
Immediately after entering the apartment, she regretted coming. Even the smell of this place was different. At home, the rooms all smelt like tea and Jackie's latest favourite perfume. This version smelt of mould and soggy tobacco.
The first room she came to no longer had the Christmas tree-shaped hole in it. They hadn't bothered to repair that part of the damage left by the robot Father Christmases all those years ago and even though it looked odd to visitors, it had been part of what made the apartment home.

Forcibly tearing her mind away from negativity, Rose made her way into the lounge. Two scruffy-looking children brushed past her as they bolted through the front door, clutching a well-chewed Frisbee and nearly knocking her into the glass coffee table.
After recovering, she gazed around the half-familiar room until the sweaty man appeared from behind her, clutching a beer and scratching his armpit. Trying not to wrinkle her nose, Rose flashed an awkward smile at the man – he had been kind enough to let her in his home, after all.
"I'm very grateful for you letting me in here, but I think maybe I should be go..."
"Y'not goin anywhere" the man interrupted her, swaying a little as he drew himself up to his full height.
"What?" Rose mumbled, her mind not quite sure if what it thought was happening.
"I said, you're not goin anywhere!" he lowered the tone of his voice, dangerously and took a step towards her.
"Y... you don't want to do this" Rose backed away, wishing she had gotten over the aversion to weapons she had developed from living so long with... She found it hard to even think his name, even at a time like this.

The advancing man grunted again, seemingly having used up most of his vocabulary. The sports commentary continued, unheeded in the background. Spotting a mug on the tale she had nearly fallen over earlier, she snatched it up and held it in front of her.
"I'm warning you. Stay back" she tried to edge towards the front door, but Sweat-man was still blocking it. He was still advancing.
"STAY BACK! I'LL SCREAM!" Rose raised her voice, starting to panic.
"ROSE!" a familiar voice called from outside and the door burst open. Sweat man stumbled and turned around to face the business end of a very intimidating gun.
"Step away from my daughter. Now." Pete Tyler's eyes focused on Sweat man's wide and slightly unfocused ones. The man obeyed.
With a sob immediately muffled in Pete's jacket, Rose flung herself into her father's arms. He lowered one hand off the gun he was still pointing at Sweat man and ran it down the back of her hair, quietly shushing her.
"Come Rose. I've got you." Together, they left the stink of the apartment and Pete nodded at the agent on standby beside the front door.
Sweat man, also known as Tim Sawyer, could never bring himself to drink alcohol again, though for the life of him, he couldn't remember why. The only think he could see when he saw a beer was the blurry face of a man in a suit pointing a strange, blinking light at him and he felt too nauseous to drink.

Rose wasn't a hundred percent sure how she ended up in Cardiff. It was something to do with one of Pete's business trips to the city's branch of Torchwood and he thought it would be best if she tagged along so he could keep an eye on her. Still, he wouldn't let her join any of the meetings and Rose usually spent her days wandering the streets and trying to stay out of trouble.
It wasn't completely the same – a few buildings were shaped differently here and there, a tree stood where in her world there was a park bench - but it was still Cardiff. She wondered if any of the events she had witnessed in her version of this place had even happened here. Not for the first time, an ache spread through her body as she remembered the way he once ran around like a madman, clutching her hand and grinning from ear to ear – even when those ears resembled dinner plates.

Out of the blue, she heard shouting and – incredibly – some sort of phaser fire. Looking about, she saw she was in a relatively empty street when a bustle of soot-streaked people burst out of a building, running full-pelt toward her. Not far behind was some sort of misshapen creature which ran on all fours and looked very hungry and not a little bit angry. The man at the front of the group of fleeing humans looked up and saw Rose watching and gasped.
"DUCK!" he yelled and threw himself towards her, knocking them both to the ground. There was a horrifying crack, followed by a squeal and the acrid smoke billowing from somewhere near where Rose was lying smelt awfully like rancid meat.
"W... what..." she gasped as she caught her breath.
"Sorry about that, I guess it's not every day you wind up pinned beneath someone as devilishly good looking as I am", the man who had knocked her out of the path of the blast was still sitting on top of her and he sounded familiar. Rose looked up at his grinning face.

"JACK!" she yelled and threw her arms around him, squeezing furiously. "I thought you were DEAD!"
"What?" Jack Harkness muttered and when she let go, he sat up and faced her.
Suddenly, she punched him in the arm, "THAT'S for risking your life like the idiot you are," she punched the other one "And THAT'S for surviving and not telling me about it!"
Her grin faltered as her old friend only stared at her in confusion.
"Oh, come on! You know me. Rose! Remember me, the Doctor, London... Not even the Daleks?"
He shook his head.
Her face fell. "You... you're not my Jack. You're THIS world's Captain Jack Harkness, aren't you?"
Jack stood and offered her his hand. "I think you should come inside and explain from the start."