Prologue

They hadn't sat in silence like this for some time. The soothing hum of the TARDIS seemed much louder than usual, as if the ship had a point to make, and even the Doctor was motionless, just staring into the console as if it would reveal something to him.

Rose slumped further into the battered plush of the jump-seat, propping her legs up on the console's rim and exhaling heavily. The motion made the Doctor's eyes flick over to her for a second, his features dark and unreadable, not entirely actually looking at his companion. The light in the room was dulled and it made the glow from the monitor in front of him colour his skin in an eerie green-blue. Kind of just reminding her of their differences, once more.

She tugged her hoodie down because it riding up her back a little, and then begin to inspect her nails, the need to say something and break this stupid silence between them now greater than ever. It filled her chest to the point of bursting.

'Funny how I was right about the prince all along wasn't it?' She didn't look at him as she said this, still examining her cuticles. It was meant to be mildly teasing, because she didn't exactly want to worsen the situation, but the Doctor was so hot-and-cold on her (especially lately) that she didn't always know just how to handle him. Her probe made his brows draw closer together until he was practically scowling behind his shield of the console. His jaw tightened and he jabbed a few buttons with more force than necessary.

'Of course, someone's gotta do the talking-'

'Rose.' This time they looked at each other, really looked. Every lines of the Doctor radiated discomfort and tension as he was practically hunched over behind the monitor and a muscle was pumping in his jaw. She held their gaze for a little longer, seeing vulnerability, but wanting him to react. It seemed cruel, but with how he'd been playing with her emotions lately –courtesans, old-new faces and parallel worlds- Rose felt she deserved to push him. Mickey had once commented that their relationship was a tad on the side of self-destructive. Maybe he was right.

Their connection broke as the Doctor looked away, pulling himself away from the warmth and glow of the TARDIS' metal-encased heart. He stood still stormy-faced, hands deep in the pockets of his coat.

He usually left that coat on one of the first struts near the door, Rose noted sadly. His long coat was his shield, much as his leather jacket has been before him. And he was wearing it with her in the room.

She sat up in the jump seat, her legs slipping from the console rim and landing on the grating with a metallic clang that resounded for a few seconds, mingling with the softer sounds of the Doctor's feet. Rose didn't look up, but she could sense he was about a couple of feet from her and he was staring, because the hairs on her nape came to life suddenly.

'Well, I'm sorry if I seemed to interfere, but I do recall a talk, oh, sometime last week, you know, about possible impending death and all that?' He crossed his arms and look pointedly.

'Hm?'

Rose looked at him again, but was staring off at a point just past his shoulder, and her brows were drawn. The Doctor leaned forward, and his voice was soft and imploring this time round.

'You're worried about how we behave.' It was a statement, not a question.

'I can understand that.' He straightened up, not really being truthful, and rubbing his neck in consideration. Of course, he could see the timelines, spindly threads the lot of them – and one particular one started from their encounter in 19th century Scotland. In their giddy earlier days, he just hadn't realized what they'd started. What it would mean for them both, in the end. Oh, there were a few different paths this could go, nothing was certain. But Rose knew, perceptive as she was.

She looked at him, and it was clear she didn't quite believe it.

'I do understand,' the Doctor entreated, stepping closer and putting a hand on the back of the jump-seat. But she made a small noise even his hearing couldn't decipher.

'Sorry?'

'I said…I don't think you do, Doctor.'

'I-'

'I mean, how can you even stand there and say that?' Rose pushed herself forcefully up from the seat with her hands and took a few steps back. How could he? How could he, just, assume he knew her and what she was trying to do for them both when he could so easily forget what they had and feel for somebody else?

It was quite clear from her clouded expression what her brain was ticking over about, and the Doctor, well, he wasn't gobsmacked as such –that was too strong a term really- but, he, well-

'I thought we discussed this,' he remarked, both looking and feeling quite confused.

Rose threw up her hands and turned around. 'Oh yeah, 'cause all we do is discuss, isn't it?' Oh great, the Doctor thought. Sarcasm, just what he ordered. He sighed sharply and began to speak but was cut off.

'I mean, when we got back from the bloody pit of the Devil-or-whatever itself, you couldn't wait to talk about, could you?' Her tone was getting on the side of out of control (but not quite hysterical, not yet anyway) but then she stopped pacing, struck by another thought.

'I don't even know what it was.' Now Rose looked as confused as he felt.

'I told you. Whatever it was, we beat it. Saved the humans,' he quipped, though feeling a pang of gnawing guilt at the lives he was too late for, 'stopped a planetary adventure going horrifically wro- well, it was like that when we got there, but –you're safe.'

He closed his eyes and pinched the bridge of his nose, feeling thoroughly emotionally exhausted, and when he opened them; his companion was looking at him worriedly.

'Am I, though?' Rose enunciated the words slowly and clearly, silently begging him to be truthful. He was, honestly, about to answer, but the question penetrated and his inner mixed feelings must have shown on his face, because her face fell.

'You know.' He didn't reply, just leant on the console rim and pretended to examine a read-out.

'I can't believe this.' At that moment, the ground beneath them shifted as the TARDIS powered up and landed within seconds. She raised an eyebrow at the glass-and-crystal column.

'Well at least someone's talkin'' She swept round the Doctor and shrugged on her parka (about half the time worlds turned out to be snow and/or ice) and headed towards the doors, completely stumbling the Doctor who was still blinking at the monitor.

'I- what- no, wait!' He ran to the doors after her, pausing to subconsciously go to don his coat, before remembering that he was wearing it and then starting up again so rapidly he nearly fell up his own Converse-clad feet in his haste. The Doctor burst out the TARDIS doors after Rose like a force of nature contained too long.

'Rose!' He skidded to a stop a metre from her, before actually taking in the surroundings and recalling not checking where they were. The place, anyway, was deserted. There was hill over dusty hill, scattered with rubble and small thorny bushes here and there. The image seemed familiar and echoed in the back of mind –and he instinctively knew something was very wrong.

They both froze, and Rose turned around ever so slowly. In the distance they could both hear a faint whistling.

'Doctor, I think we shou-'

She didn't get to finish her sentence because in a matter of seconds their world exploded around them, cloaking them in a cloudy hell of dirt and gritty sand. Just about everywhere reverberated with the sound of the detonation and she couldn't see her hand in front of her face for swirling sand. Rose cried out as she tripped over something and fell awkwardly on her knees, face down in the sand. There was yet more eerie whistling, growing closer and closer, ever louder. She felt the force of the Doctor's full weight as he fell on her back, clambering to shield her. His body pushed into hers as they toppled forward from the sheer energy of the next blast, and he grunted as he bore the full brunt of it.

Rose felt her vision clouding with black, ears ringing with the booms –or was that more of them? Just before she passed out she heard the Doctor's agonized scream. It was something that would stay with her forever.