Title: 24 Hours

Characters: Tenth Doctor, Rose Tyler

Genre: Friendship/Romance/Drama/Hurt/Comfort/Angst

Rating: T for sensuality and slight language

Summary: When the Doctor and Rose are about to lose each other after the Battle of Canary Wharf, the Doctor comes up with a way to give them 24 more hours. One more day to be together. But will the Doctor be able to say what he most wants her to know before it's too late? TWO OUTCOMES: Goodbye/Canon Version and Reunion Version+Sequel

A/N: Been a while since I've written a fix-it story. I guess it's been done so many times before for Doomsday by other people, but I've never seen one with this idea, which is all my own. First chapter is the goodbye version, for those who like to stick to the canon. Second chapter is a reunion version, where the Doctor and Rose figure out...well you'll just have to wait and read it :) Third chapter is a sequel to the second, just because it's not substantial enough to be its' own story. Warning: The first chapter is a lot more angsty than the actual episode "Doomsday"(if that's even possible) Theme song for this fic is Somewhere Love Remains by Lady Antebellum, which I think fits perfectly. Don't worry, this isn't a songfic, I just inserted a few paragraphs from the song where it was most appropriate. Have fun reading!

Chapter 1: Goodbye Version

"Here we go again
Sitting on the edge of leaving.
You don't have to speak,
I can see it in your eyes.
I know you too well,
You know I can tell you're hiding
Something inside."

"I...I'm never gonna see you again." Rose sobbed. The Doctor's eyes were full of emotion. Mostly sadness, and something else.

"I-I..." He paused, and Rose looked up at him. Suddenly the other emotion became clear. It was hope. "Rose I...I've been saving energy for the past five hundred years, in case I ever needed to do something against the laws of time." He blurted, as if he wanted to get it out before he stopped himself. "I can pause time for twenty-four hours."

"What, really?" Rose wiped the tears from her eyes.

"Twenty-four hours, that's all we get." He insisted. "No more, no less. I can give you the greatest day of your life, but you'd have to come back here to this universe right after."

"One more day?"

"Yup. You in?"

"Of course. I mean...it's so hard to say goodbye, but if I can have more time with you I'd take it. I'd give anything to have another second of us together, much less a whole day." The Doctor smiled sadly. He wished he had the power to bring her over to her correct universe for good, but in order to do that he'd need to save energy for another five hundred years. He figured it wouldn't do any good to mention that, nor the fact that if he hadn't destroyed Gallifrey he could have brought her back three months ago just after it happened.

"Alright." His smile grew a little wider, but it was bittersweet. They'd just have to do this all over again tomorrow.

Rose frowned as the Doctor closed his eyes tightly and his whole body began shaking. He muttered in a language she couldn't understand, she assumed it must be Gallifreyan. This went on for about 30 seconds, then suddenly the Doctor shouted in English:

"I am a Time Lord! I command Time!" Soon after everything began to slow. The noise of the ocean died down as the waves paused in their paths. Rose looked back at her mum, Pete and Mickey. There were standing still as statues.

"Everything's paused except for us?" She asked.

"Yes. Now Rose, come with me." The Doctor held his hand out for her.

"You mean I can even come back to the TARDIS?" She was surprised.

"The gap in the universe is paused just wide enough for you to slip through, but you must be here before time resumes again, or both universes will be out of balance, causing dire consequences." Rose's face fell. She was hoping there might have been a way to stay on the other side with her Doctor.

Without another word Rose grabbed his hand, and he pulled her through. She nearly collapsed on the other side.

"Woah," He said, steadying her. "Get your bearings. Jumping between universes is difficult." When she could stand on her own, they suddenly found themselves staring into each other's eyes. At the same time they threw themselves into the other's embrace. Rose began crying again. She had waited three months for this since the worst day of her life. If she hadn't been able to hug him one last time – for the rest of her life – she probably would have gone mad.

The Doctor held her close, breathing in her scent and rubbing her back as he tried to comfort her. He felt his own eyes start to tear up.

"I...I can't live without you." Rose choked. The Doctor was about to reply with the same thing, then decided it probably would just make things worse. He needed to get her mind off the inevitable.

"Rose, we only have one day. You need to decide what we're going to do." She pulled away from him, wiping her tears away with the back of her hand.

"I don't care. Anything, as long as I'm with you."

"Well, we don't have to worry about being chased or thrown in a prison." Rose contemplated about that thoughtfully, before mentioning something she had been wondering earlier.

"Could all the Time Lords stop time like you did?" The Doctor ran a hand through his hair.

"They had the capacity, yes. Just not many had the will. I mean, why store off so much energy for hundreds of years when all you did was sit around all day and merely watch the affairs of others?" There was slight disgust in his voice.

"But why did you do it?" Rose asked. "And why didn't you use it...in the Time War?" Great. She managed to bring up both the Time Lords and the Time War. So much for putting him in a good mood on the last day they'd be together.

"To answer your first question, I've always traveled on my own, figured it would come in handy sooner or later. And the Time War it...it lasted for hundreds of years. 24 more hours wouldn't have made much more of a difference." He looked downwards. Rose felt even more guilty for bringing it up. Suddenly the Doctor shouted, startling her.

"Okay! 24 hours! And Rose Tyler, I've got the perfect place to start." Rose couldn't help but grin. Seeing him all excited and bounding around the console, for a moment it felt like nothing was wrong. Then she caught a glimpse of his eyes and was shocked to see the same grief that she felt in her own heart. He was hurting just as much as she was, he was just better at hiding it. Somehow that surprised her. Hadn't he left other companions behind before? Maybe every goodbye hurt for him. Or maybe she was special. Either way she was touched. It gave her a small comfort to know she had made an impact in his life as much as he did in hers. After all, the memories of them together could never be destroyed.

Everything was so familiar; the shake of the TARDIS as she flew through the vortex, the crash of the landing and the (this time subdued) laughter that followed, the cold of the Doctor's hand as he pulled her up...

Everything was so familiar: the brown sparkle in her eyes, the joy on her face as the TARDIS sailed to the next destination, the warmth of her hands as he pulled her up...

"Baby just breathe in, breathe out.
Before you turn around, just slow down.
Think of all the love we've made.
If we give it just one more try,
Maybe we could stop this goodbye.
I know through all this pain,
Somehow somewhere love remains."

-Hour 1-

"Parc de Bagatelle." The Doctor exclaimed upon throwing the TARDIS doors open. Rose sighed in wonder. France's most famous garden was beyond anything she could have imagined. "Here, smell one." He beckoned her over to a cluster of blood-red roses. She bent over and put her nose up to one.

"Mm." She said. "I thought maybe it wouldn't give off a scent, seeing as how you stopped time and all." The Doctor raised an eyebrow.

"I stopped time, not life itself." He chuckled. "Otherwise you couldn't breathe." A cheeky grin spread across his face. Rose stood up and smacked him lightly on the arm.

"Come on Time Lord." It took a lot of will, but she mustered enough joy to give him her signature grin, the one with her tongue poking out her mouth. The grin she knew he particularly liked. "All the world to see y'know." The Doctor grasped her hand and entwined his fingers in hers. She took a deep breath and released it slowly. She leaned on his shoulder as they walked, cherishing this extra time she had with him.

-Hour 2-

"This is Cardiff." Rose declared as they exited the TARDIS at their second destination.

"Not just Cardiff, look closer." The Doctor whispered in her ear.

"Oh! It's where we had our first date!"

"Correctamundo! Ooh I vowed never to say that word didn't I?"

"We had chips."

"And we will again. Accompany me milady?"

"Of course." The two of them strode up to the same cart as they had a year ago. Rose giggled, seeing the same man working there, his hand stopped in midair as he handed a bag of greasy chips to a literally waiting customer.

"Why thank you." The Doctor said dramatically, grabbing the newspaper bag from the immobilized man. Rose set a few quid on the counter and ran after the Doctor, who had found the same bench they sat on back when he had short hair and a northern accent.

"Oh!" Rose cried upon eating one. "The other universe has chips, but they just don't taste quite the same. The Doctor frowned.

"Well, that calls for your own bag then." He pulled out another few quid and stood up. "This one's on me."

"Since when did you start carrying money around, Mr. 'I don't do domestic'?"

"Since you showed me how often I would need money. You could drain a man's pockets like they had a hole in them. Especially with your intense love of chips."

"Oi!"

-Hour 3-

"Is it okay if I take some of my things back to the other universe?" Rose leaned on the console and glanced up at the rotating spinner.

"You mean from your room here on the TARDIS?"

"Yeah, just a few things. Clothes and pictures."

"I don't see why not." The Doctor scratched his ear thoughtfully. "Shouldn't be enough to upset the balance, not like a living being would." The Doctor trailed behind his companion as she made her way down the hall and toward her bedroom, still knowing the way after being gone so long. She stopped upon coming to the doorway.

"Everything's still the same." She muttered, stepping in.

"What, you thought I would change it the day I lost you?" There was a slight tone of bitterness in his voice.

"No of course not...but it's like I never even left." The unmade bed, the clothes hanging out her dresser drawer, the makeup and perfume bottles strewn out on her vanity.

The Doctor, with an unreadable emotion on his face, handed her a backpack she had stashed in her closet.

"In the other universe I found I didn't need so much to live off on as I did before." But nevertheless, the Doctor couldn't help but feel upset as she grabbed clothes and other items and stuffed them into her backpack. It was selfish but he wanted to hold onto as much as possible that defined her. As if sensing his distress, Rose came over to her desk and grabbed a picture. After gazing at it fondly, she turned around and placed it in the Doctor's hands. He looked at it, the memory of that day crashing over him like a tidal wave.

It was a photo that her mum had somehow secretly took of a grinning him and Rose, that night after that incident with the Sycorax, their first Christmas after he regenerated. Without a word, he stuffed the photo in his front coat pocket, where he knew it would live for the rest of his lives.

Hour 4 – The Doctor took Rose to the Australian Outback and even found a koala for her to hold (much to her amusement).

Hour 5 – He took her to a planet covered in sparkling jewels, ruby for the ground, sapphire for the sky, and numerous others surrounding them.

Hour 6 – They swam in the TARDIS pool.

Hour 7 – He took her to a Beatles concert, but he had to sing a few of the songs himself, due to the performers being frozen in time. Rose said she liked his voice better but the Doctor didn't believe her.

Hour 8 -

"I'd like to write some farewell letters to some of my friends." The Doctor looked up at her.

"What would you say? You're supposed to be dead here."

"I know." Rose frowned. "I would just tell them goodbye. I want to give Jack one too. I can tell by the look on your face that he's still alive. And I want to tell him the truth. He deserves to know."

"Okay." The Doctor reached under the console and handed her a few sheets of paper and a pencil. She sat down on the Captain's chair and began writing quickly. The Doctor looked over her shoulder at what she wrote. The first letter was to her best mate Shireen. She wrote saying she had time to say goodbye to a few people she loved before her death. She thanked her for a good friendship, even if she did lead her down the wrong path one too many times.

The second was to a woman named Lianne who worked with her at Henrik's, and one of the only employees who was ever nice to her besides Wilson the electrician.

The third was to Adam. The Doctor wrinkled his nose in disgust. Rose merely scowled at him. She felt mostly responsible for what Adam had done to himself, but she urged him to stay strong. He could still have a long and happy life if he made the right choices.

And finally the last one was to her closest friend Jack Harkness. She wrote it quickly and set it with the others. The Doctor nodded and piloted the TARDIS to the places Rose needed to go to deliver them.

And when Jack would wake up out of paused time, he would find a letter on his desk at Torchwood 3 that read as follows:

My dear friend Jack:

You may have heard how my mother and I were killed in the Battle of Canary Wharf 3 months ago. But it's not true. The Doctor was able to save all our lives (including Mickey and my dad from a parallel universe) by sending us over to the same parallel universe, forever. I'll never be able to see him again or come back to this world, but the Doctor has found a way to pause time for 24 hours, that's how I got this letter to you.

Be careful Jack. I don't know why the Doctor wouldn't let us see you again, and he wouldn't tell me why. Hopefully you'll find out someday.

Rose Tyler

The final few hours seemed to pass by in a blur. They went back to Women Wept and all the other planets they had seen before. Finally, the last two hours they decided to spend together, alone in the TARDIS. Hour 23 found them exploring and the last hour found them in the den in front of a roaring fire. The lights were on low, and Rose snuggled deeper into the Doctor's embrace on the couch. She was exhausted, but she knew very soon she'd have to leave him, forever.

She tried to keep the tears back, but her entire body trembled, trying to keep her emotions down. The Doctor already knew, he just held her closer.

"I...I love you." She gasped, and the Doctor's entire body seemed to stiffen. He had been thinking and dreading if this moment ever were to come.

Rose lifted her head up to look at him questioningly. The Doctor smiled down at her sadly and wiped the tears from her face. After a few silent seconds had passed by he sighed.

"I'm a Time Lord Rose. The last of the Time Lords. I've been on my own for so, so long. I've forgotten what it feels like to be whole again. I was a broken and bitter man when you met me." He paused. "You should have turned and run the other way, got as far away from me as you could. But you didn't. You stayed and...and I'm so grateful."

"Doctor, what are you saying?" Her eyes brightened up with hope and tears.

"Rose I...I love you too." Neither was sure who started the kiss, but it was passionate and desperate. The Doctor felt a strange feeling he hadn't felt in so long as he deepened the kiss into her. Before he knew it his hands were fumbling with his tie, trying so hard to get it off. Rose began to unbutton her blouse but stopped.

"Are you sure you want to do this?" She whispered.

"I...I don't know. But I need you. I need you Rose Tyler." Throwing his tie off, he kissed her again, trying to imprint as much of her as possible onto his soul before she was gone forever.

"I need you Rose Tyler." He repeated, breathless.

"So baby just breathe in, breathe out
The only time for love is right now.
Forgive all of the mistakes we've made."

Twenty minutes later they lay on the Doctor's enormous bed, breathing heavily, the blankets barely covering them.

"That was brilliant." The Doctor leaned over to look into her eyes. "Not much time left."

"I know." was her reply. Her eyes teared up.

"No, please, don't cry." He begged her. "I want to remember you, like this." He looked down at her body and got up over her. Leaning down to kiss her, he whispered.

"I love you."

"I...I can't! I can't go, you can't make me!" The two stood in the console room of the TARDIS, and the enormity of everything had just hit Rose. She tried to run around the Doctor and back towards her room but the Doctor grabbed her at the waist and pulled her back, a grave look on his face.

"NO!" She screamed, beating on him and sobbing hysterically. "I can't leave you!" She beat her fist on his chest one last time, before allowing his arms to wrap around her. She clung to him desperately, her tears muffled by his shirt. The Doctor held her for a minute, wondering if giving them an extra 24 hours was really the best thing for her. But the things they had done, the love they had made, it was worth a little extra heartache. This next part would be the hardest though. He had to get her in control of herself.

"Rose? Rose." He pulled her away from him. "I need you to do this. You need to go back." Rose didn't reply, she could only look at him with heartbroken tears in her eyes. "I need you to live the fantastic life I never can. I need to know you're safe. I can't go on not knowing whether you're okay or not. And don't ever, ever give up. Don't stop living. Do all you can. I can't bear anything less from you."

"Love takes time to build its defenses.
And trust takes time to tear down those fences.
And what remains is stronger than ever before.
So don't walk out that door.
I don't wanna hurt anymore."

"I won't give up." Rose replied, sniffing. The Doctor released her and she grabbed the bag filled with the things she had gathered from her room. The Doctor used his sonic to transport an image of himself with Rose's full form back to Bad Wolf Bay. Rose dropped her things to the sand with a soft 'thud'. Apparently just in time, slowly around them time began to start again. The waves began to crash against the rocks, the birds chirped and cawed as they flew overhead, and Rose saw her mum, Pete and Mickey look at each other in confusion, wondering what had happened and why they felt slightly frozen. Rose looked back and noticed the Doctor still there.

"How much time?" She asked.

"Any second now." He said. "Rose I...I love you."

"I know." She replied. "I won't give up Doctor. I'll find a way back, I..." But it was too late. The Doctor vanished. Rose sobbed into her hands. Turning around, she ran into her mother's waiting arms.

The Doctor stood alone in the TARDIS, the room's silence pressing into him like never before. The Doctor shuddered before collapsing to his knees, tears strewing down his face. He placed his hands over his face and breathed heavily, feeling the wrath of the Oncoming Storm rise up inside him. Looking up towards the ceiling, he shouted

"It's not fair! The one thing in life I want and I'm not powerful enough to keep her here with me! Why couldn't I be strong enough?" He continued to shout and curse at everything that had tore him and Rose apart. Soon the Doctor felt a warm presence in his head that he recognized as the TARDIS' consciousness.

"She's gone." He gasped, feeling the tears of hopelessness coming back. What was he to do now? These last twenty-four hours had seemed to break him, making him realise how much of a better man Rose made him. How could he ever go back to that life without seeing her face, hearing her laugh, feeling her love?

The TARDIS soothed his aching hearts and wrapped him in her golden embrace, reminding him that he never was truly alone, not with the TARDIS and Rose forever in his hearts. It seemed to work. The Doctor ran his hands over his face to wipe his tears and stood up. Walking around the console, he prepared to send the TARDIS into the vortex. At a noise he looked up and saw a ginger woman clothed in white.

"What?"

"What the hell is this place?"

"I know through all this pain
Somehow somewhere love remains."

- Chapter End -

Wow, that nearly killed me to write that last part. Sure it makes me cry when Rose does, but just to think of the Doctor doing that...Total. Heartbreak. Story Alert if you'd rather see them back together! Expect it on Tuesday the 22nd, and the Sequel the 24th.