Characters/events don't belong to me... Title is from the Stephen Sondheim musical "A Little Night Music" (which is also not mine)

oO*Oo

The TARDIS vanished before their eyes, the grinding falling like a mournful betrayal on their ears.

Suddenly Rose's palm met the Doctor's face in a slap that resounded in the heavy silence of the beach.

"What?" he gasped, a hand flying to his cheek.

"You arrogant idiot!" hissed the girl furiously before turning away from the bewildered man. "Mum, I need your –"

Tears forming in her eyes, Jackie pressed the dimension hopper into her daughter's hands. Dropping the chain over her head quickly, Rose wrapped and arm around the Doctor's waist and slammed the yellow button.

The weeping Jackie Tyler and the beach where she stood faded out of sight.

A universe away, the Doctor felt himself solidify on another beach, identical but for the older woman, and then, a moment later, he dimly felt the walls between universes snap closed.

"Rose… you just – ! The walls are closed!" the Doctor protested.

"I know, Doctor." Her voice was cold with anger. "And I told him – you – that I would stay with him forever, and that should've been my choice to make, but it's bigger than that, even."

Pacing angrily, Rose continued over his half-formed questions. "A few months after Bad Wolf Bay, Torchwood began picking up on these tears in reality. The universe was unravelling and –"

"Yes, that was Davros, and the reality bomb."

"No, Doctor. It wasn't Davros. The scientists tracked down the source of the disturbances, and they found me. It's like you said, back with my Dad; there was someone alive who shouldn't be. It was okay for Mum, and I guess Mickey, too, 'cause there was room for them, sort of. There was a space in the timelines for the actions of Jackie Tyler and Rickey Smith. There was no possibility for the actions of Rose Tyler, because I didn't exist." She laughed bitterly. "I was put under house arrest, practically, because even walking down the street, I was tearing apart reality. And so Torchwood began investigating dimension travel, before the stars started going out."

The Doctor stared at her, putting together the pieces. "So when the bomb began destroying the walls, your Torchwood already had the equipment."

Nodding, Rose agreed, "Yeah, and they called me up. But the calibration was a bit off, mostly 'cause of the way time passes differently from one universe to another, so I kept missing you. Ran into Donna a few times, saw a few other companions of yours.

"I was meant to stay in this universe – I have to stay in this universe. And you just left me on the beach there, without even sayin' goodbye!" Tears threatened as Rose finished, her voice growing high and thin. "So," the blonde continued, trying for professionalism, "even if – even if he doesn't want me anymore, I have to stay here. I'm sorry for dragging you back, but I couldn't know for sure that you wouldn't have the same effect."

"I want to stay with you." The Doctor replied immediately, staring into her eyes. "He does want you; you have to know that."

Rose just shrugged, and the Doctor's heart (his one human heart) cracked a little because he had finally broken Rose Tyler's unshakeable faith. He had abandoned her one too many times and shattered her will to fight a way back to him.

"We could go to Cardiff," Rose offered. "Jack said, before we dropped him off, he said I was always welcome."

Wordlessly, he reached out a hand and she took it tentatively. Hand in hand, they walked down the beach and the waves reached up and wiped away their footprints.