1.

He hadn't said it. He had been wanting to say it for ages, and this has been his last chance. And he'd failed. Why hadn't he just talked a little bit quicker? He noticed a tear running across his cheek. Standing there, in his TARDIS, The Doctor felt so sad, so empty. He couldn't imagine travelling without her. His mind flashed back to all the happy moments they had shared: Betting on Victoria saying, "I am not amused", laughing at the stupidity of the Daleks, and 'just' enjoying each other's company. How could he face Daleks and devils without her? He just couldn't imagine it. He heard her voice in his head, telling him that she would stay with him forever. They both knew his forever was longer than hers, but that hadn't stopped him from hoping he'd find a way to keep her with him, for his forever. But now that was impossible. Why did everything always have to end? He sat down on the TARDIS floor, and leaning his head in his hands, crying.

That was when he realized what he had just thought. He had called something impossible. But he was the Doctor, he was a Time Lord, and he had a TARDIS, he could do everything he bloody well wanted. And, Rose had always believed in him, and was probably still believing he'd find a way back. He had to get to her, for her sake, and for his. Running towards the library, he frantically looked for the most recent TARDIS manual. He'd never had so many mixed feelings. He was sad that he'd lost her, and because he didn't really believe he could do it. But he was hopeful that he could return, and the realization that he had even a small chance of seeing her again, made him happy. He quickly found the chapter on parallel universes. It said this:

At one point, travel between parallel universes was relatively simple for the Time lords although TARDISes were still equipped with security protocols to stop them travelling into other universes on a regular basis. Travel to parallel universes became almost completely impossible after the Last Great Time War, and could only happen under extraordinary circumstances.

For a few seconds wondered why there had been a manual update after the Time War, but he didn't care now. He could get to Rose. Well maybe... What on earth would those "extraordinary circumstances" be? He tried to look the words up in the manual, but didn't find anything. "Well that doesn't help does it?" He remarked, unhappily. He walked back up to the console, where he saw her jacket still hanging on the railing. His sight became blurry again, and he noticed that he was starting to cry. The Doctor hoped there was another way, but he just couldn't think of one. He sat down on the chair, and tried to clear his mind. It wasn't working... Every time he thought he'd found a way, he immediately noticed a reason why it wouldn't work. He could try to invent a void-manipulator, but he knew that would rip the whole of space apart. He really considered that one, but he knew that he would feel guilty for ripping the whole of space (and time with it) apart, to be with her.

After thinking for about an hour, he remembered the time Rose, Mickey and him had ended up in the universe Rose was now. If they'd been there before, he should be able to get there again. The memory came flooding back. Mickey had been holding a button too long, and the TARDIS nearly died. That's when they noticed they were in some alternate version of London. Then they had battled the cybermen, that eventually helped him lose Rose. But that button, which button was that? He'd only have to hold it for half an hour, and then let go, that would work. It worked last time. So, he stood up to the console, and started holding the button.

That half an hour seemed to be years. Having nothing to do but holding a button, makes your mind wander. And right at that moment, he only needed one second to be reminded of Rose, which made him feel awfully sad. There were also moments, when he thought she would just walk in if he would wait for another minute. When half an hour had finally passed, he lifted his finger from the console... Nothing happened. He checked the TARDIS screens for stats on what was happening. Of course, the security protocols. Last time, the TARDIS had been able to lock onto some kind of earth, so she'd landed there. This time, there being no void hole, she couldn't land anywhere past the void, so she wouldn't go anywhere near there.

He grabbed the TARDIS manual again, but couldn't find anything. He got angry, because he was a bloody Time Lord and he should be able to get to any alternate universe he wanted. He walked to the TARDIS door and threw the stupid manual in the supernova he had just created to contact Rose.

2

She'd just watch him fade away, and had to cry even more than she had. Her mom was now running towards her, and when she arrived, she gave her a hug. Rose sobbed in her mom's shoulder.

"I can never see him again, mom" Rose said through the tears.

"Don't believe that, you'll find a way." Jackie replied, almost crying herself.

"Come on, let's go home." Jackie and Rose slowly walked back to the car. Pete and Mickey didn't say anything, and they stepped into the car.

That trip back home was the hardest thing she had ever done. Nobody dared to speak a word, and all the music somehow reminded her of the Doctor. She tried sleeping, but she just couldn't stop her mind from keeping her awake. She did try to eat something, but even food could bring back memories. When they finally got back to England, Rose crashed in her room. She closed her door behind her, and didn't come out for three hours. After the horrible trip, she didn't want sitting at home being just as horrible. She thought about what he had said, that the universe would rip if he came to her. So maybe, she could go to him without any problems. She knew it didn't make sense, but she had to have something to give her hope. Her mind was suddenly very creative, and came up with at least 10 possibilities to get back to him. She decided she would go to Torchwood tomorrow, because they could help her, and she worked there anyways.

This night, sleeping wasn't a problem at all. Her mind kept making new scenarios, of what would happen when she found him again. They made her feel happy, and that helped her eventually fall asleep.

The next morning, she woke up at a 7:30, time to get to work. She walked into the kitchen to get breakfast ready. She also made tea for both of her parents and herself. Jackie woke up ten minutes after she did.

"Goodmorning, mom!" Rose said happily.

"Goodmorning to you, Rose! What's made you so happy this morning?" Jackie said.

"I think I could be able to go back to the other universe. I mean, if there is a way to get there, we'll have the stuff and the brains at Torchwood!"

"Yeah, just, don't get your hopes up. I mean, he said it would tear the whole universe apart!"

"We'll find a way mom. And if I don't get to him, he'll get to me." Rose quickly picked up the sandwiches she made, and ran out the door, as Pete walked into the room. He looked astonished at the change Rose made from crying in a car, to sprinting out of the door with a smile on her face.

"She thinks she'll find a way to get back to him," Jackie explained, "I just hope she doesn't disappoint herself."

Rose ran into Torchwood at 8:15. She was much earlier than she usually was. "You're early." Jack noticed, not looking up from his work.

"Yup. Have a new project I want to start working on." She replied, sitting down at her desk, taking out a notebook.

"And what would that be?"

"Trying to get into a parallel universe." Now that got Jack's attention.

"You want to return to your universe?"

"Yup."

"Do you have any ideas on how you are going to do that yet?"

"I'm making a list" she replied. After a couple of minutes, she had composed a list of the three ideas most likely to work. (Which still sounded quite unlikely, if she was honest with herself) The ideas were:

1) Make contract with alternate Time Lords: They might exist here, and might still be able to travel between universes.

2) Create a new hole in the void. A small one, mind you. I could jump to the other side, and then close in behind me. A void door!

3) Building some sort of machine. Like, vortex manipulators: If you can manipulate the time vortex, you must be able to manipulate the void? If possible without ripping a hole in the fabric of time and space. (Will probably end up being a machine similar to the void door of point 2)

She got up from her chair, quite content with her three plans. Walking over to Jack's desk, she nearly tripped over a cable. Her mind had floated off to another universe. Literally.

"Jack, what do you think of this?" She shoved the list in front of his nose.

"Time Lords?" Jack asked, after scanning through the points.

"The Doctor is a Time Lord. His species live on some planet called Gallifrey. In our universe, they all died in a Time War. I'm hoping they still exist in this universe, so they can help me get back to him."

"And how do you want to make contact with them?"

"I don't actually know yet, but there must be a way."

"Honestly, I don't think they exist here. But you can try, you get one week to try and contact them. If that doesn't work, you can scrap that point from the list."

"So, I get to work on these projects for the time being?"

"Yeah, I'm assuming you wouldn't do anything else anyway."

"Thanks Jack!" She ran back to her computer.

She opened up the Torchwood database, and searched through all of the alien stuff they had ever found or encountered in this world. There were no results for "Gallifrey" or "Time Lord". But when she searched for "circular language", she found a small pocket watch, with an engraving on it. The language of the engraving was unmistakably Circular Gallifreyan. Apparently it had been found in the center of London, and had been thought to just be a normal pocket watch. But when someone at the police had taken a better look at it, there had been voices coming out of it, talking about some kind of time, and Lords of some sort. Rose had to laugh at those descriptions, knowing what the voices had really meant. The watch was now somewhere in the Torchwood warehouse. Luckily, she knew a few people that worked there, who were coming to the main building for lunch break. She asked one of them if they could bring it for her.

Knowing they were really there, meant that she could try to contact them. But how do you contact a planet, of which you don't even know the location... PSYCHIC PAPER! That sounded crazy, but it could work. The Doctor had once told her a story, about how some people could mentally send a signal into space, that was strong enough to appear on psychic paper. So, she could try thinking really hard, asking the Time Lords to help her.

She knew she would need a backup plan though, so she looked on the file again, looking for communication material. She found a box, apparently some sort of message box, which seemed to also have Circular Gallifreyan on it. She contacted her college just in time, and she brought down both the box and the watch for lunch.

When her college arrived, Rose quickly thanked her, and retreated back to her office. Blocking out all the chatter of the other Torchwood staff in the background, she decided to look at the box first. If the box had answers, she would know if anything with psychic paper would be able to work at all. Concentrating really hard, she slowly translated the Gallifreyan. The Doctor had taught her once, when she'd asked him about his people. It said "Hypercube". After looking at it for a bit longer, she came to the conclusion that it was actually more a cube (like the name said), than a box, which she had called it earlier. She tried to open it (which didn't work because it was a cube, not a box), and she tried writing on it, but the surface was weird. Not knowing what to do anymore, she put it on her table, and mumbled "stupid Hypercube". When she said Hypercube, the thing started to move. It opened up, and showed some kind of menu. You could chose a person to send it to, put in a message, and you could put the address of the sender in it. One of the locations you could send it too, was "The High Council of Gallifrey". That sounded promising! She selected that option, and started 'writing' a message, by just 'telling' her message to the cube. After she did that, she put in her address, and luckily, the thing knew the coordinates of earth. Before closing it again, she wrote down the coordinates of earth and of Gallifrey, for future use. "Hypercube, send!" She said, and the thing closed, and flew away.

Rose was anxious for the return of the box. In her message, she had explicitly asked the Time Lords to send it back as soon as possible. She couldn't think of anything else. When, after a week, the box finally came back, she was jumping for joy. However, when she told it to report the message, it said this:

"The High Council of Gallifrey has been destroyed in the Great Time War. Therefore, I cannot deliver your message. Apologies for any inconvenience."

'Any inconvenience' really was the understatement of the age. She would have laughed if it hadn't made her feel so lonely. Rose sadly realized that in this world, the Time Lords were also dead. No hope for point 1 then… Point 2 on the other hand…