A note on timelines:
For Rose this occurs late in Series 4, before The Stolen Earth. For the Doctor this occurs shortly before Storm Warning, and he is suffering from one of his many bouts of amnesia - in this case, the incident that he will later remember in Terror Firma. There are gentle allusions to, but no significant spoilers for, all of these episodes. The first chapter will be pretty tame, ratings-wise, but eventually it will heat up to M.
She hit the ground gasping with the force of the blast. Looking around she saw no trace of Torchwood, and not a zeppelin in the sky. Had she... made it? After all this time... had the dimension cannon finally worked? With shaking fingers she pressed a few buttons on the device clutched in her white-knuckled hand.
Rose could hardly believe it, but the transmat wouldn't lie. There was the evidence, as plain as day - it had located the TARDIS and locked onto its coordinates.
Home. she thought to herself, daring to hope, her throat tight with emotion. Take me back to him. Take me home. She pushed the button.
When she saw a hint of blue in the alley her heart started pounding. As she walked towards it she pulled the TARDIS key out from under her shirt, where it always hung from the cord around her neck. Slowly, with shaking hands she fit the key in the lock, nearly crying from joy as she felt it give way.
"Doctor?" she called out, in a quivering voice, wiping the tears from her eyes as she stepped inside. "Doctor? It's me!"
Then, blinking, she took in her surroundings. The TARDIS... it looked so different. Posh. Gothic. Ornate. This wasn't right. What had happened?
Rose glanced at the readings on her transmat device again, trying to make sense out of what she was seeing, and so she didn't notice when he entered the room.
"Well, hello there, Miss," he said in a soft, warm baritone, startling Rose out of her calculations. "You called?"
"Did I?" Rose replied stupidly, taking in the sight of him. He was fit and handsome, with brown curls that fell into his face, doing their best to obscure a pair of curiously intense blue eyes. He wore a brocade waistcoat over a white shirt with his sleeves rolled up to the elbow, and he was wiping his hands with a cloth, which were presumably dirty from working in the innards of the TARDIS. His TARDIS.
"You... you're him," she stammered.
Regeneration, her mind reminded her as the shock wore off, either older or younger. Younger, most likely, since he doesn't seem to have a clue who you are.
"Indeed," he replied, apparently amused. "Unless, perhaps, you were wandering into my Police Box by chance, looking for someone else called Doctor?"
He smiled teasingly and Rose relaxed just a little. There he was. She could see him now, inside this stranger's eyes. Calmer, she took a breath and looked up at him.
"Actually," she told him, "Now that you mention it, I was."
He quirked an eyebrow and gave her a curious look.
"I was looking for you," she attempted to explain. "But not you you. A different you. And I guess this stupid thing found the first TARDIS it could sense and just locked on." She gestured with her transmat.
"And then I saw her here..." she went on, trying to speak past the lump that was forming in her throat, "and it... it's just been so long. I've been trying so long to find you... I was so happy to be back. So, I didn't think- I... I just let myself in. I didn't mean to intrude."
He nodded as she spoke and she could almost see the gears turning in his head, making sense of her stumbling words.
Rose wasn't sure what to do. On the one hand, she knew she should apologize, leave immediately, and avoid influencing the Doctor's past, which might create a paradox. He hadn't known her, after all, when he'd met her in the basement at Henrik's.
Or had he? a voice in her head whispered dangerously.
On the other hand, now that she had made it to her own dimension once again and her transmat had led her here, she had no idea how to find the "right" Doctor. And her reasons for wanting to find him, she reminded herself, were not only personal. The fate of the universe depended on it.
And if this man is still the Doctor, she thought to herself, he would never let the risk of a silly little paradox keep him from saving the world.
"Doctor," she addressed him more confidently this time, her course of action decided, "I know you don't have any idea who I am but... I'm... a friend, I promise you. And I'm lost. And I'm afraid there are an awful lot of people whose lives depend on me finding my way. Can you help me, please?"
The Doctor looked at her thoughtfully for another moment, then said, "Well, Miss... ah... I confess you have me at a disadvantage. It seems you know a great deal about me and it appears you even have a key to my TARDIS, while I don't even know your-"
"Rose Tyler," she offered hastily, reaching out her hand to shake his.
Apparently amused, he lifted her hand to his lips and brushed them against her knuckles softly. Something in Rose's belly tightened at the playfully chivalrous gesture. He seemed so light-hearted, so happy. Her Doctor would never have been so cavalier as to kiss a complete stranger.
"Rose Tyler," he said, as if trying the name on for size. "It's nice to meet you. And don't worry. We'll get you sorted out, and figure out where and when you need to be. But first things first: can I offer you a cup of tea?"
The Doctor studied Miss Rose Tyler as she appreciatively inhaled the scent of the tea. She was human, appeared to be in her mid-twenties, but with a hardness in her eyes that made her seem a bit older. She had known suffering. She had known loss.
He marveled at how she seemed so at home in the TARDIS, and even more at the TARDIS' warm reaction to her presence, as though they were close friends.
How would the TARDIS know anyone so intimately who isn't a Time Lord? He wondered. But the TARDIS wasn't telling.
"Where are we?" Rose asked him after a quiet moment and a few warm sips.
"We're in Kent," he replied. "Folkestone, I believe. I confess I'm having rather an odd week - a bit of memory trouble, you see. And I can't put my finger on why, but this place seems important... I came back to look for clues. But since I can't remember when I was last here, it's a bit difficult to retrace my steps. I know there was a library... but let's not worry about that, shall we? One problem at a time. What brings you here, Rose Tyler?"
She looked trepidatious.
"I'm not really sure how much I can say," she began slowly, "without creating a paradox."
"As much about you, and as little about me as possible," he suggested. He found her acute awareness of such risks incongruous for a young human. And intriguing.
She seemed uncertain of where to start, and stared down into her teacup with knit brows. Reaching across the table, he brushed her hand to reassure her, and felt an unfamiliar jolt in his belly as she looked up into his eyes with a flash of desperate longing. But why? What had happened to this poor girl?
When she spoke, it was to the cup in her hands, and her voice was hollow.
"I travelled with the D- with you, I mean, for a few years. Future you, I guess. But something... happened. I got trapped in another dimension. Without him. So I started working with... with an organization in that dimension that specializes in alien technology. I wanted to get back. I promised... I..."
The pain in her voice made his hearts hurt.
"Rose," he said but she held up a hand to silence him, then wiped the tears from her eyes.
"Time goes faster there, y' see? And something big is coming. Something really, really bad. That's why I've been trying so hard to get back. And I made it... I actually made it, so I have to find him. I have to warn him in time, so that he can keep that bad thing from happening in this dimension too."
"So that's the objective?" the Doctor asked gently, to clarify. "Locate my future self and get you back to him?"
She nodded, tears threatening to spill once again.
"Easy as pie," he told her, which was not exactly a lie, smiling reassuringly at her as he stood up, offering her a hand, which she took gratefully. "First, we'll get you some rest, which it looks like you could use, and in the meantime I'll find all of the equipment I need to calibrate my TARDIS with his. I will get you back to him, Rose."
He was unprepared for the force with which she flung herself into his arms, burying her face in his shoulder and clinging to him like her life depended on it. Perhaps it did. So he did the only thing he could do: he held her tight and tried to project comfort and safety with every thought.
She smells wonderful, he noticed, and immediately felt guilty for noticing such a thing when she was obviously in distress. Familiar somehow. But exotic. It made his seventh and eighth senses tingle, and he wasn't sure why.
"I... I'm sorry," she said, once she had relaxed her grip and stepped back. "That was inappropriate. I just... you're not him, I know, not yet... but really, you are. Deep down, I know you are. And I just... I thought I'd never see him again. Never thought I'd see this universe again. And you..."
"Don't apologize, Miss Tyler," he told her gently, wishing he could do more to comfort her. "I am honored that anyone would ever miss me so much, no matter which of my faces they preferred. Now let's see if we can't find you a bed to rest in, shall we?
She nodded gratefully, and followed him again out into the corridor.
"Rose," he addressed her thoughtfully as they walked, "I just want to ask. If we can't do it, for some reason. If things go haywire, because I'm sure you know they sometimes do... can I help? If it's as terrible a thing as you say, I can even call up Romana and see what we can organize with the Time Lords. Even Gallifrey has limits on its non-interference policies. Braxiatel and the rest of those sniveling bureaucrats will no doubt have reservations, but Romana always does manage to convince them to act if she believes something is really imp-"
Her eyes shot up to meet his, as wide as saucers. She looked haunted and anxious at his words. "No, I don't think you can help," she said hastily. "There are some... events. Some... whad'ya call 'em... fixed points, between you and him, time-wise. Big ones. I don't know who Romana is, or how much power he or she has... but... yeah, I think it has to be him."
How doesn't she know who Romana is? he wondered, worried. And why does she look so sad?
She looked at him as if she could see the thoughts turning over in his head, and stopped abruptly in front of a door near the console room as he opened his mouth to speak.
"This should be fine," she said with a tight smile, cutting him off before he began. "Right, old girl?"
To the Doctor's surprise, the TARDIS hummed warmly, as if in agreement.
Rose pushed open the door, then inhaled sharply, raising a shaking hand to her mouth in wonder.
He hastily came to stand behind her, trying not to focus on her intoxicating scent as she reached back to grab his hand in hers. He looked in and saw a bedroom, reasonably unremarkable, with a deep pink bedspread and a plush gold rug on the floor.
"It's my room," she explained, turning to meet his eyes, clutching his fingers in hers as though it was the most natural thing in the world. He could feel the human heat of her skin radiating over the distance between them, even through all of the layers of clothes they both wore.
"But... how?" she asked him. "This... I haven't happened yet."
Good Job, Old Girl, he thought warmly to the TARDIS. Good Job.
Then, he looked down into Rose's soulful brown eyes, and said, "She's dimensionally transcendental, remember? That includes time. The TARDIS has always known you. She always will. And it appears that she's more than a little fond of you."
Rose smiled, the first genuine, pure smile he'd seen, and he found himself smiling back just as sincerely. Her joy was infectious.
"Yeah. Well. We've been through a lot, me and this TARDIS," Rose said, grinning up at him with her tongue teasing the edge of her top lip.
"Have you?" he asked, amused. "That's usually my line, Miss Tyler."
She took a step back from him towards the bedroom and he repressed the sudden, unexpected urge to pull her back towards him again.
"Good night, Rose Tyler," he said, placing his hands in his pockets to remind them to behave.
"Good night, Doctor," she said quietly. "And thank you. I know you weren't expecting this. I know you don't know me. And I know tomorrow, finding him, isn't going to be easy, even though you're trying to make me think it is. But I made it back. And you're still the Doctor. And that means anything is possible. And... and it's just really, really good to be home."
A/N: In my ongoing love affair with the Eighth Doctor, the eventuality of Eight/Rose was probably inevitable. I love the idea of Rose encountering a Doctor unencumbered by the Time War. And it tickles me to think of Eight negotiating with a companion who knows more than he does. And as for the eventual sexy stuff... they paint a pretty delicious mental picture in my mind. I can't wait to share it with you. Thanks for reading! xxoo -OA