A/N: Only a half-hour piece. A 'what if?' piece that I entertained for a while. I haven't read it over, so there may be a few mistakes. Nonetheless, enjoy.
"We're leaving." Zach stated.
"I'm not going." Rose dead-panned. Zach turned to look at her, confused.
"Rose, there's a space for you." He explained.
"No, I'm going to wait for the Doctor." He voice broke. "Just like he'd wait for me."
"I'm sorry, but he's dead." The factual way in which he spoke made Rose's heart break. She struggled to hold back her tears.
"You don't know him." She insisted weakly. "'Cause he's not. I'm telling you, he's not."
Rose looked mournfully behind her at Toby and Danny, fingers tangled in the hem of her jacket.
"Besides…how could I leave him? All the way down there, on his own…?" She cut herself off, face cast down, as she tried to keep optimistic. He was still alive, of course he was. And the thought that he wasn't just wasn't worth even a lingering thought.
"No." Her voice wavered, but she stood determined, sure of her answer. "No…I'm going to stay."
The three men looked sadly at her.
"You have to know he's dead, deep down." The Captain said gently. "And if not, he will be soon. There's no way to reach him. But you still have a chance to live your own life."
"There's no life without the Doctor." Rose replied readily.
Danny sighed, frustrated, and pulled at his hair agitatedly, the thought of Ida dead still weighing down on his heavily. Zach couldn't be seriously entertaining the idea of letter stay, could he? "Jesus!"
Zach did not take his eyes away from the suddenly sad, sad eyes of Rose Tyler. She beseeched him with everything in her heart to leave her there, to get on the rocket and go. If they forced her away, she'd be leaving her heart attached somewhere to the Doctor, for the black hole to devour them both. If it came to it, she'd die, too; she wouldn't have to suffer through that half-life. Hesitantly, the Captain gave one slight, imperceptible nod of his head towards her.
"Come on, men, we're going." He declared. He turned his back on her. The other two started, shocked, and watched his retreat. They looked back at Rose, who in turn tore her eyes away and stared into the abyss of the tunnel. Silent tears trailed down her cheeks.
"Are you crazy?" Toby demanded. "We can't just leave her-"
"That's an order."
Rose heard no more. She heard nothing but the dull buzzing in her own ears as grief overtook her. A few minutes passed and she felt that she was all alone.
She picked up the radio and held it tightly in her hand. Something in her knew the Doctor wasn't coming back.
"Sorry about the highjack, Captain, this is the good ship TARDIS!"
The relief felt in the rocket was palpable. The two men laughed as tension diffused – they'd escaped, they'd won – they were alive!
"Thank God." Danny closed his eyes and whispered.
The Doctor was bouncing on his heels on the grating, drunk with adrenaline and giddy delight in surving another epic adventure.
"Now first thing's first, have you got a Rose Tyler on board?" He continued, grinning. "Could we do a swap? How's about you give me Rose Tyler, I'll give you Ida Scott?"
Silence.
The grin on the Doctor's face didn't slip. "Is that a fair deal?" He was already bustling about the console to ready the docking station.
"I wasn't able to save the Ood." He said, more solemn. "There was only time for one trip. They went down with the planet. Ida's a little oxygen starved, but she should be fine."
Still no reply.
"Hello?" The Doctor stilled his movements. There was a crackling on the radio.
"Captain?" He demanded, more urgently.
"Doctor…" There was a heavy, desolate sigh from the Captain. The Doctor's face closed off as a sickening realisation dawned on him. He swallowed thickly.
"How's Rose?" He asked, expression stony.
"She stayed on the station, Doctor. I'm sorry. She refused to come with us."
The Doctor staggered forward, winded. He thought of Rose's sweet smile, joyful eyes, excited expression, pure nature…and then the hateful sight of the planet falling into the black hole, disappearing into nothing.
An unfamiliar pain clenched at his heart and he groaned.
"No. No no no…"
"She didn't want to leave you, she said…"
The Doctor slid to the floor, held his aching head in both hands, only half listening, lost in his own grief.
"I'm sorry, Doctor." The Doctor raised his head up slightly, face a mixture of inexplicable sadness and unconfined rage.
"Why didn't you force her onto the rocket?" He hissed with bitter fury. "Why didn't you keep her safe? Was it so hard to…to sedate her, to carry her with you? If it meant her life?"
"She insisted!" The Captain defended. "There wasn't enough time forcefully bring her along without risking the lives of my crew."
"You selfish bastard!" The Doctor snarled.
"I was respecting her wishes!" The Captain replied, strongly indignant.
"Oh, she told you what her wishes were, did she?" The Doctor cried, outraged. "Suicide?"
There was another pained silence.
"She wanted to stay on the station because she didn't want to leave you behind." The Captain replied. He was aware of the pain he was giving the poor man, but he had to know.
"She had her whole life ahead of her." The Doctor moaned, eyes stinging with unshed tears.
"She said…she had no life without you."
This was the final blow. The Doctor smashed the communications panel with his hands, howling like a wounded animal. He ripped away wires and metal, scratching his hands, tearing and pulling. When it didn't feel like enough, he stopped, shaking with unspent rage.
He spotted Ida, still slumped by the door. He pressed a few buttons on the other side of the control panel, let her fade away, onto the rocket, to safety. He broke the connection between the two ships, now being at a safe distance from the black hole for the crew to escape.
He closed his eyes and croaked, "…away. Take me away from here."
The TARDIS dematerialised.
"You alright, Ida?" Danny rubbed a hand on her knee comfortingly.
"Yeah." She raised a hand to her forehead, to massage it. She felt so dizzy. "What happened?"
"The Doctor saved you." Danny explained gently. "He brought you back to the rocket, and he escaped himself. He's…he's gone now."
Zach closed his eyes, and swallowed his guilt.
"What about Rose?" Ida enquired. "Did the Doctor pick her up, too? From the station?"
Both men looked at Ida.
"She was talking to me, on the radio." Ida explained through the haze of her brain. "Before I passed out, she was telling me not to worry. She said the Doctor would come for the both of us. She insisted he was still alive." Ida smiled triumphantly as she thought over the sweet words the girl had spoken when she thought she'd die. "I suppose she was right."
Danny couldn't speak. His mouth glued together when he remembered the dangerous timbre the Doctor's voice had taken on, and thought on the sadness of Rose Tyler dying…still believing the Doctor was alive.
"Yeah." He mumbled. "She was right."
A/N: You know the drill – read and review…please?