She allowed herself fourteen days. Fourteen days to grieve a love lost, fourteen days to wallow in her misery, fourteen days to take the sharp edges of her broken heart and let the fountain of pain flow freely. During those fourteen days since Bad Wolf Bay, Rose Tyler neither ate nor left her bed on her own power. She ate only when Jackie forced her to, talked only when Mickey forced her to answer his questions and cried unendingly. At the end of the fourteenth day, Rose sighed heavily, rose from her bed and walked to her bathroom to take a shower. After her shower, she stripped the bed of the dirty linens and grabbing a fresh blanket and pillow, laid down on the couch to sleep.
Jackie, Pete and Mickey were surprised, to say the least, when Rose showed up downstairs in the kitchen for breakfast. Her hair was combed, she was dressed for going outside and she had her makeup on. Rose glanced around at all three of them, sighed, and with a fist pressed against the empty spot where her heart used to be said, "Let's get to it, yeah?"
Two years later, Rose Tyler was head of the field agents in Pete's Torchwood branch. She had worked her way up through the ranks quickly while taking her A-Levels and some college courses. To her own surprise she passed all her physics, science, history and language courses without any effort at all. It seemed her time as Bad Wolf had left a lasting impression on her IQ. Now, after all those accelerated courses Rose was a Doctor in her own right. She had a PhD in Physics and a Masters in History and English, the only big surprise was the History degree since this was a completely different world. That was something Rose thought the Doctor could have explained if he was here.
Rose didn't think of the Doctor constantly anymore, it wasn't every waking nanosecond but was down to every waking second. She wasn't afraid that she was getting over him, that'd never happen, but she was a little glad that her mind was freer for other thoughts. Especially since she needed all her concentration for the paperwork she was constantly inundated with. She sighed to herself, pressed a fist to her heart and began to read the report that Mickey had dropped off a few minutes before.
"Unusual Rift Activity near Cardiff", she read out loud.
Looking up, she focused on the only picture she had of the Doctor and herself, taken by her mother in her own universe in what seemed like a million years ago. "Why is it always Cardiff?" She continued reading the report, her eyes skimming faster and faster while her chest beat out a quicker tattoo with every line. Mickey and Jake were the ones that had investigated this new anomaly and it seemed that Mickey had drawn an impossible conclusion but a logical one. Rose picked up the phone and called the motor pool. She was out the door moments later.
Cardiff looked the same. Nothing had changed since the Cybermen and Daleks had come through the void on both sides of the universe. Steeped in memories, Rose almost failed to turn onto the proper street according to the reports. Once arriving at the park, her destination, Rose parked in the closest space, grabbed her scanner and hopped out of the vehicle. The moment she stepped into the park, Rose felt the vibrations in the air. They were so familiar it felt like coming home. "Time," she whispered to herself. She looked down at the scanner to see that Mickey was right. A Time lord had been here. She could still feel his or her TARDIS' time vortex signature. Hope surged in her breast instantaneously. Maybe her Doctor had made it through the void and had come back for her! She scanned the park quickly for a familiar blue police box but saw nothing out of the ordinary. Remembering her Doctor tell her about the chameleon circuit that TARDIS' were equipped with, Rose scanned for anything out of place with her memory. Seeing only the new memorial to the world's dead, Rose decided quickly to move in that direction. She might as well pay her respects before heading back to Torchwood.