Disclaimer: All characters owned by the BBC sob. I'm just borrowing them for a bit.

Summary: One year on from 'Doomsday' Rose returns to Bad Wolf Bay. OneShot.

Author's Note: I smell an addiction to Doctor Who One Shot Fics here… my second one in a week. Ah well can't be that bad. Except I'm supposed to be working on my novel but since the one person who's pushing me to write it doesn't speak to me every day and what they don't know can't hurt them… well you get the idea ;) This is just my take on what might happen a year after losing the Doctor. Hope you like! Xx Ravena Storm xX

One Year Later

One year later I went back. I had to. I took two weeks off work, packed up and went. I didn't even tell Mum and Dad where I was going. I just left them a note saying not to worry and that I'd be back. There's only so much they can understand. The rest… well there's only one person in the whole of not only this universe but another as well who understands what I feel. And he's the one person I can never see again. They say that Time in the number one healer. I'll believe it when I've got proof. Because for now, the only healer I can see is death… but then again I'm already dead. So what do I do now?

Rose Tyler stepped onto the white sand of a lonely beach on the coast of Norway. The Norwegian name abandoned her but the English translation would burn her memory forever. Bad Wolf Bay. Her bay. Her solitude, her memories. And the last place on this Earth that she had seen the Doctor.

An all too familiar ache was already beating in time with her heart. She thought that she would have grown used to it but every day the pain just became more and more alien to her. Like it was someone else that was hurting. Like it wasn't meant to be this way. But she'd had a year to accept that it was meant to be this way. And no amount of dreaming was going to change that.

Rose walked further onto the beach, letting her shoes scuff the smooth sands, only for the incoming tide to wash away all signs someone had ever been there. She walked until the place looked familiar. And then she stopped and stared out at the ocean. She thought she was in the right place; the spot where she had last stood and seen the Doctor, her Doctor fade out right before her eyes. But she couldn't be one hundred per cent sure. After all, a year was a long time.

A year. Three hundred and sixty five days of not seeing his face, hearing his voice. She was twenty-one now. Just one year older. But it felt like she had aged a lifetime. She had told him she'd stay forever. And there it was. A three digit number proving that there's no such thing as forever. Not in the real world.

The sea wind whipped at her hair, dragging it across her pale skin but she didn't even flinch. Something as bitter and sharp even as the North Sea wind couldn't compare to the pain she had lived with day after day for twelve months. The pain of knowing she'd never see him again. The burden of knowing that she'd never be able to love another. Not truly. That she was destined to live out her life forever wondering what had happened to the passionate Gallifryaean who had appeared in her life abruptly three years earlier to vanish just as abruptly two years later. There was that word again. Forever. It crops up too easily.

There was a boy who worked at Torchwood. A young man more specifically. Called Mark. Rose knew he was interested in her. She had known for months. But she was out of bounds to everyone. It was a subconscious thing in the minds of her work colleagues she knew, but she had travelled with the infamous Doctor. She had been places, seen things that most of the people working at Torchwood Tower could only wonder about. It was no secret she had loved the Doctor. And no secret that she wasn't looking for a replacement man in her life anytime soon. But Mark was sweet. He called her 'Roswell' after all the stories she used to tell him about her travels. The nickname came after she'd told him the Roswell landings were real. She'd been there. Mark had laughed and told her she was lucky he believed her. Anyone else would've locked her up a long time ago. She had smiled and ducked her head, embarrassed. Mark was deeply fond of her. And she appreciated the little things he did which made her smile. But he deserved someone who could love him like he wanted them to. Not a lonely young woman from another universe who pined for someone she couldn't have. He deserved better.

One wave ran far enough up the beach and splattered Rose's boots with sea water. She cast her saddened eyes briefly to the floor but they were raised again without even taking in what she'd seen. She didn't care if she drowned out there. Sometimes it was much too much for her to carry on.

She'd stayed strong after her Dad had brought her to the other Earth. She'd tried so hard. She'd taken the job at Torchwood and had helped her father to build up a resistance against possible further alien attacks. She'd found out her Mum was pregnant and had gone through lists of possible baby names. She had tried to push all thoughts of the Doctor to the back of her mind. But then he came to her. Then he called her and she went running. But it hadn't been enough. He'd left, leaving her name dangling on the air like a metal spike. A spike aimed at her heart. And she found herself back where she'd started.

So she tried again. She buried herself in her work. She went baby clothes shopping with her Mum and spent whole evening's getting to know her Dad and visa versa. She watched Mickey fall for a receptionist at Torchwood and watched their relationship grow. For a while it had made her happy. Happy to see someone she cared about getting on with their life. Then the baby had been born. A little girl called Aurora. Only they called her Rory for short. She was beautiful. The months had passed taking care of Rory and sorting out the alien index of Torchwood. And then it was a year later. And she was back.

If only she could say the same for him.

Rose bit her lip as he filled her mind. She had almost bitten through the skin before she closed her eyes and gave in to the hot tears which were already sliding down her face. A choked sob left her throat and she covered her mouth with her hand, trying to smother her grief, as if she didn't want the universe to know she was crying. There was no one to hold her this time. No Jackie to run across the sands and hold her tight as she tried to accept he was gone. No one to tell her it was real. Because right now, three hundred and sixty five days later, she still couldn't believe it was. She still thought she would hear the TARDIS at any moment. That cheeky lob-sided grin inviting her back inside. Her tears ran faster as pain cut her soul in two. It was days like these when she felt she couldn't carry on…

Rose fell to her knees in the wet sand, ignoring the lapping of the waves against her knees. She buried her face in her hands and wept, the sounds of her cries echoing across the empty beach. Her hands ran backwards through her hair fiercely and she gripped the blonde strands, entangling them around her fingers and not caring. Some strands ripped from her scalp and she welcomed the distraction. This was what she felt in the dark of the night, when no one was around to hear her scream into her pillow. She'd tried to stay strong. She'd tried to forget. And she couldn't. It was too hard.

Her lithe body shook from the pain of loss as she tried to curl into herself, into a place where it wouldn't hurt anymore. Into a place which sounded like a rusted whirring. Into a place where a bright light pumped up and down in the centre. Into a place where warm arms held her safe and whispered to her that everything was going to be okay. Into a place where the voice of the only person she had ever loved whispered her name…

"Rose."

But it was all just a lie. Because she was dead. And he was long gone.

"Rose."

Rose clenched her fists in anger. It wasn't real! It was the things of her dreams. Things that caused her to wake up feeling like the whole world was sitting on her chest. Things that were now spilling out into her waking hours. She was slowly driving herself insane and she didn't care. She didn't care.

"Rose, open your eyes."

And she obeyed. And what her blurred vision gave her made her cry out in shock. For in front of her was the familiar control room of the TARDIS. And when she looked down she saw two familiar arms wrapped in a pin-stripe suit wrapped around her. And when she turned her head she saw him. And then he kissed her and her eyes closed again.

And that's how my world became whole again. The Doctor explained to me that the crack hadn't been sealed properly. He said it wasn't his fault but he got that look in his eye when he's not quite telling the truth. I didn't press the issue but I knew. I knew he'd left it knowing it would re-open and that he'd be able to drag me through the gap into the TARDIS. He told me he'd burnt another two suns to manage that. I told him I loved him. And, finally, he told me back.