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Sharing the Mortgage

"I'm sorry Ida, I have to turn around this time, for once I am not going to say we give up and go back to safety," The Doctor announced, turning away from where Ida stood perched over the covered hole, knowing something sinister lurked down there that simply rose the hair on his arms.

Ida, knowing from the tone of his voice that he was not going to change his mind, reluctantly followed him back to the elevator shaft with a sigh, turning around and glancing around at the beautiful ancient architecture that they had discovered, but would never see again.

The Doctor, on the other hand, felt his hearts breaking, as his only hope of finding his lost TARDIS was gone, he really was stuck now, more than he had ever been before in his life and he didn't have an inkling of a plan that could ever fix this. Not only had he lost his ability to travel, but he had lost his the only home he had left, the only truly constant thing in his life for centuries, and now it was gone forever and he was alone again.

"Doctor, are you coming up now?" came Rose's worried voice from the intercom, as they had finally reached high up enough with the elevator for the signals to be working properly again.

"I'll see you in a bit, all in one piece exactly like you requested," The Doctor responded, unable to keep from smiling as he said the sentence, as he could just imagine Rose smiling with her tongue stuck between her teeth at his words.

Thinking of Rose, the Doctor realized he wasn't really alone without the TARDIS, he knew she would never leave him now, after all, she had promised him forever and it looked like that was what he was going to get. Hell, she had even joked about getting a mortgage with him. At the time, he hadn't thought much about the truth behind her words because he had felt confident that he would get his TARDIS back and they could go back to their old way of life, but now it was reality. He had trapped her here, thousands of years into her future with no way home. She knew no one except for him and he had to protect her, she was still so young, only twenty one years old, and she couldn't even call her mother to tell her she couldn't come home.

Breaking his thoughts of Rose and what they had to do, the elevator suddenly shifted, quickly approaching the top of the line. Glancing at Ida, he was surprised to see how disappointed she looked, as she had such a spirit for adventure and now she would always wonder, never knowing what was deep inside of the pit.

With a loud clang, the elevator reached the top, the doors quickly opening as the faces of the crew looked at them, knowing that something wrong was happening with this planet and that they needed to evacuate as fast as possible.

"Doctor! I thought I was going to lose you!" Rose called out, pushing Jefferson out of the way as she launched herself at him, almost knocking him over as he hugged her tight and lifted her feet off of the ground, burying his face into her hair as he relished in the fact that she was there and wasn't mad at him for trapping her here yet.

"Of course not Rose Tyler, you can't get rid of me now," The Doctor tried to joke, realizing he was failing when he saw the glistening tears in her eyes, as the reality that she would be stuck here without anyone she knew from her past for the rest of her life finally hit her.

Before the Doctor could say anything else to Rose, Zach spoke up, announcing that all was ready. "The shuttle is ready, we can evacuate now before the gravity collapses, let's get going back to Earth."

Rose attempted to put a smile on her face and grabbed the Doctor's hand, squeezing onto it tightly as the crew all went to their assigned tasks as the minutes quickly flew by and they were soon to enter the shuttle that would take them far away.

"Well then, Allons-y," the Doctor exclaimed, relieved when the corners of Rose's mouth turned up at his familiar phrase. The phrase that meant so much more right now, as this time even though they were not running to save the world, it was the most appropriate thing to say at the moment. As they were going into the unknown, and nothing was more appropriate than the words 'let's go' as they faced the most difficult challenge they had together, living a life day after day, in the right order nevertheless, with only each other and no idea what would happen next.

Sorry it is so short, but this is just a basic prologue? Keep going? Think you will enjoy it?

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