"Can't you come through all the way?" she asked, her voice thick with emotion.
"I can actually," the Doctor answered.
"Then why haven't you?"
"I'm not sure if you want me to."
Rose was so confused. "Not sure? What makes you say that?"
"I was…" he paused, his two hearts breaking. "I was prepared to let you go."
"Yes and I'm still quite mad at you for that," Rose stated with a small smile coming onto her face. "But you're here now. And I want to go home."
"But isn't this home?" the Doctor asked. "With Mickey, your Mum and Dad/"
"And the baby on the way," Rose added.
"No kidding?"
"Yeah," she stated with a laugh, despite the fact that she was crying.
"You would want to walk away from this home of yours?"
Rose shook her head. "It isn't home Doctor. Home is with you."
"Being with me is dangerous."
"Being here is dangerous," she pointed out.
"Why? What's wrong have the Cybermen returned?"
"No, no." she assured, calming his fledgling fears. "They are gone. I'm just been working for this universe's Torchwood, that's all."
"Rose Tyler—Defender of the Earth,"
Rose smiled. "It is pretty special…."
"But?"
"But I'd rather be with you," she admitted. "I love you."
The Doctor smiled and extended his hand. "Well come on then,"
Without even thinking about turning to say goodbye, knowing in her heart of hearts that her family would understand, Rose Tyler took the Doctor's hand and stepped across the void into her own universe. In one instant she was on a beach, the next she was in the TARDIS and the moment she realized that she was finally home she allowed herself to cry tears of joy. She stood apart from the Doctor for just a micro-second before he pulled her into a tight embrace and she could feel a tear of his land on her shoulder.
"I am never letting you go again." he whispered quietly in her ear as he held her close.
"I should hope not," she whispered back. A moment of silence passed before Rose pulled away just enough to kiss her Doctor. "I love you."
"And I suppose I should say it before something else goes wrong" the Doctor stated as he placed both hands on either side of her head, "Rose Tyler, I love you."
Rose smiled more brightly than she had since she had been parted from him, and the Doctor, the eternal Time Lord who thought that he could never find it in his two hearts to love, was in love with a human girl from the twenty-first century and for the first time since his world had been destroyed he felt no longer alone.
