She stopped, because she knew there was nothing she could do to stop him; it was too late. As the TARDIS dematerialized she brought herself to the realization that the Doctor, her Doctor, was leaving her again. What had she been thinking? Why did she kiss him? He wasn't the Doctor. Sure he looked like the Doctor. He sounded like the doctor. He acted like the Doctor. But he wasn't the doctor. The Doctor, her Doctor, would never have said those three words she wanted so desperately to hear. No, the Doctor would have told her they didn't need saying, but that didn't mean it wouldn't have been nice to hear, but he didn't say them. This Doctor said them. This Doctor was the only Doctor she had now. He wouldn't tell her not to run off. He wasn't going to leave her behind. No, this Doctor was the Doctor she'd always hoped the Doctor would be. So maybe, just maybe, this Doctor could be her Doctor.

This was all too much for Rose Tyler to handle. The newly formed human-timelord metacrisis version of the Doctor was brought nearly to tears as he watched her fall to the sandy beach of Bad Wolf Bay. Rose wrapped her arms around her knees and rocked herself back and forth as the reality that theDoctor had left her again set in and tears streamed from her eyes.

It was nearly five full minutes later that she willed herself to her feet again and turned to face this Doctor and her mother, both of whom looked as though they might start crying themselves as they watched her. She forced a smile in their direction, but even this new human doctor could tell is wasn't real. "Best call Pete then, Mum. Have him send someone to get us."

"Yeah, right then," was all Jackie could say as she took her phone from her pocket and started to dial before realizing something. "No service out here though."

"Oh," Rose said, "We'll have to walk to town then."

"What about your super-phone?" the Doctor said casually.

Rose pulled the phone out of her pocket and stared at the Doctor. "You really do remember everything, don't you?"

"I've told you. I am him, Rose Tyler. Just a little more human."

Á little more human, she thought. Yeah, just a bit. She allowed herself a sarcastic laugh, but decided it better not to say anything. Though knowing the Doctor, he knew exactly what she was thinking. She looked up to find him staring back with that smirk she'd missed so much spread across his face, but she quickly busied herself dialing the number to father's mobile phone.

"ROSE! Are you alright? Where's your mum? Is she alright? Are you with her now? Did you find the Doctor? Is he with you? Is he alright? What happen?" Pete was talking to fast and asking so many questions that Rose didn't know where to start.

"I'm fine. I'm fine. Mum's fine. She's right here. I found the doctor. He's not here. He left me, again. He's alright though, moved on…"

"I most certainly have not moved on, Rose Tyler. You shouldn't lie to your father."

"Was that him? Rose? Are you lying to me? Where's Jackie? Let me talk to Jackie."

"I told you, Mum's right here, she's fine, and you can talk to her in minute. The Doctor isn't here, but that was his voice. The Doctor isn't here, but some sort of half-human/half-timelord version of the Doctor is here. The Doctor stranded both of us and Mum here. We can explain everything when we get home, but that's the problem just now, isn't it. He's went and dropped us off in bloody Norway. Dårlig Ulv-Stranden to be precise."

"Dårlig Ulv-Stranden? That's that beach again, isn't it? Why'd he do that? Why didn't he bring you home?"

"Bad Wolf Bay. And we're stranded here, so if you wouldn't mind sending someone after us…"

"Oh, oh, RIGHT! Yes, yes, I'll just put a call in and ring you back when it's settled, alright then, Rose?"

"Yes, yes, alright. Just call, hurry. I want to get back to my flat. I've been awake for days."

"Of course, dear. Just as quick as I can. Tell Jackie. Tell Jackie, Tony. Tony misses his Mum."

"Alright, just hurry," and the line went dead. Rose looked up to find the Doctor standing much closer than she'd remembered and her mum just behind him. "Mum?"

"Yes, Rose?" Jackie said.

"Pete said Tony misses you."

"Of course he does! I've never been away from the boy!"

"You shouldn't have come, Mum. I told you not to use the dimensional cannon."

"But I survived, didn't I? I couldn't just let you go wandering off again."

"Yes, but you could have died, Mum. I'm a grown-up now. I don't even live at home anymore. I don't know what you're so worried about."

"Because, Rose. I don't care how grown-up you are, you're still my daughter."

"I love you, Mum," was all she could say as she collapsed into her mother's waiting arms. As Jackie comforted her now once again sobbing daughter she looked at the man standing before her, a perfect replica of the man her daughter had been searching for over these past years while they adjusted to life on his parallel earth with her new Pete and their new life. The man before was not, however that man her daughter had been searching for but rather his brother of sorts. Half-him and half some other red-haired human she'd met briefly. This Doctor, she thought, was better suited for her Rose. After all he only had one heart and no freaky regeneration stuff, just a human with a human life, but of course her Rose wasn't one to see the practical implications of that, she was more concerned with what he wasn't, and this Doctor wasn't a timelord, he wasn't full of adventure, rather he was stuck here on this parallel earth without his TARDIS just like the rest of them, which Jackie, speaking as a mother, thought was absolutely perfect. No more running off with the Doctor through all space and time with no phone calls or letters for a year like the first time.

The Doctor, or this version of the Doctor was standing and just watching Rose and Jackie embracing each other, trying his best not to cry. He knew he had years before the new TARDIS would be ready, he had years just here on the slow path with Rose. He'd have to get a real job and a proper home. He'd need to go shopping, too; he only had the suit he was wearing. He should pick a human name, too. A proper name, since he'd be sticking around. It was a very good thing he'd kept a spare sonic screwdriver in his spare suit, there was that at least. And the piece of TARDIS coral he had; the real Doctor had given him that before they got to this parallel world where he'd then left them. Of course this Doctor knew that was going to happen; they'd discussed it, him and the other Doctor. He was right of course, the other Doctor, this Doctor was born in the middle of a war and needed time to heal, and Rose could provide that. Rose had saved him from himself once before when she barely knew him and this time he knew she could save him again. For some reason though, he wasn't as rage-filled and hatred-centered as you might think a timelord born in the middle of a war with the Daleks might be. He thought that maybe it was because that hand, the hand he'd formed out of was still his hand. That hand, it was the hand that Rose had held all those times so many moons ago, before he'd met Donna for the first time, before he'd landed on the moon with Martha Jones, it was that hand, which he was now examining carefully, that Captain Jack Harkness or should he say the Face of Boe, (that was still hard to wrap his mind around) had saved as it had fallen from his arm atop a space ship in the midst of a brutal swordfight with another alien race. That hand would be part of him forever and that hand, he thought¸ might just save him.

"Doctor?" Rose had released her mother and was standing in front of him. He hadn't even noticed her approaching, too engrossed in his own thoughts about that hand, but now that he looked up, he saw that she was smiling. His beautiful Rose was smiling, a genuine smile, something he had missed so dearly, was now clear as day before him.

"Rose Tyler?"

"Doctor, are you alright?"

"More than alright. I am so much more than alright."

"Are you sure? It's a bit strange for you though isn't it? Being human?"

"I've been human before, Rose. Never permanently and never with my timelord consciousness intact, but I've been human before."

"You have? How's that?"

"When Martha and I were travelling, we came across a group who called themselves 'the family,' and the only way we could get away from them was for me to use the Chameleon Arc. All of who I am was locked up inside a golden fobwatch. I was human, I did not even know who Martha was, but I'd given her detailed instructions and eventually she convinced me to, at just the right moment, open the watch and regain the parts of me which had gone. I broke the heart of a young matron in the process though."

"You've broken my heart, too, in case you forgot," she didn't know where this sudden burst of anger and bitterness came from, but here it was. "So many times, Doctor. I've spent the past three years building the most risky thing in this universe or any universe. I built that cannon so I could come and find you. Do you know that, Doctor? Do you really?"

"Rose, my beautiful, wonderful, brilliant Rose. I can never thank you enough for what you've done for me. You built that dimension cannon and you came and you saved me, yourself, your mother, Mickey, Sarah Jane, Martha, Donna, the other Doctor, the WORLD, the UNIVERSE, Rose. You've saved the entirety of the Universe, no, no; Rose Tyler, you have saved all the universes. Every single one of them as only you could do. The Ood may sing of the Doctor-Donna, but I will always sing of you." He didn't know if words would ever do this justice, but he had to try. "Rose Tyler, I have missed you more than all the beings in all the species in all the universes in all the spans of time combined. I have never once forgotten you, Rose Tyler. And I am so sorry that words could never do it justice. I am so sorry that I have broken your heart," he began to cry as the final words flowed from his lips.

Rose did not have words. She simply stood there staring at the Doctor with wide eyes wondering if everything that he said could possibly be true.

Through his now flowing tears the Doctor managed to put into words the best he could just want he was thinking. "Rose, beautiful, lovely, wonderful, brilliant Rose, please give me a chance. I promise you, Rose Tyler. I promise you, I will never leave you again. Rose Tyler, I love you and that has never changed and that will never change. I. Love. You. Please, Rose, give me a chance to prove it. I will be with you until we both die very human deaths if you'll have me."

Before she really knew what she was doing, Rose threw herself into the Doctor's arms and was kissing him again. She was kissing him because she had no words to describe what she was feeling towards him. She had no words for any of this. When they finally broke apart nearly two minutes later, they were both gasping for breath and smiling like giddy school children. "I love you, too, Doctor," she said in a small voice as she lay her head on his shoulder. "I've missed you more than words and I am so glad you are here even if you are human. You're still you and I still love you, nothing could change that." Rose's tears began flowing onto the doctor lapel as he wrapped his arms around her and they both stood there, holding one another staring out into the ocean.

During this whole exchange, Jackie Tyler, had been holding Rose's mobile phone, waiting, and at just that moment, when Rose had finally found her words again, the phone rang and Jackie immediately answered it and shoved it to her ear. "Pete! Is that you?"

"Jackie! Oh, Jackie, it's wonderful to hear your voice."

"Oh, Pete, how is Tony? Is he alright? Tell him that his Mummy loves him very much and that she'll be home just as soon as she can."

"About that, there should be a helicopter landing on the beach at Bad Wolf Bay in about two hours. They're leaving London just now. Tony and I will meet you at the heliport when you get back."

"Thank you. Thank you."

"Thank you, Jackie, and thank Rose for me, too. What you, all of you has done is beyond words. You've saved the world."

"Not just the world," Jackie informed him. "The universes. All the universes. All of creation. Our brilliant daughter saved them all. Every living thing has her to thank for being alive today."

Almost as if by cue, the sun began to rise over the horizon of Bad Wolf Bay just as the helicopter landed. The two hour ride back to London was very pleasant. Jackie was quietly looking forward to seeing her husband and son while Rose was telling the Doctor about all of the difference between the universes, specifically what he'd need to know living here in this one.

The helicopter landed shortly after 8:00 in the morning at a heliport in central London. Just as he'd promised, Pete had brought Tony and was there to meet them as soon as their feet hit the ground. Jackie ran to her husband's arms, kissed him as though she hadn't seen him in years rather than hours then bent down and picked up her 2-and-a-half-year-old son from the ground and held him close, showering him with kisses.

Rose and the Doctor, their arms around one another strode over to where Pete and Tony stood. Rose hugged Pete once and then did her very best to explain to him exactly what had happened in the past 24 hours including the creation and current presence of the half-human Doctor next to her. This continued through the entire car-ride home.

Once they were all safely back at the Tyler Mansion in the suburbs of London, Rose glanced at her phone for the time (it was just after 9:00). "We best be going, then," she said to Pete and Jackie, taking the Doctor's hand.

"Why don't you just stay here, Rose? No reason to drive the whole way to the flat just now," Jackie said in her most persuasive tone, but to no avail. The Doctor insisted that they would be fine at Rose's prodding and the two of them got into her car and she drove back towards the city.

"Where's your flat then?" he asked as they reached the end of the winding drive that led them from the mansion.

"Not that far. Just down the road here. I have a spare bedroom you can use if you want."

"Thank you."

"Well, I stayed in your home all those nights, so I figure you can stay in mine now," she said as she turned into the parking lot next to a large apartment complex that seemed strangely familiar to the Doctor.

"Isn't this where you lived back on the other Earth?"

"It is. Same flat and all."

"How'd you manage that?"

"It was available when I came to see, so I took it. This feels more like home than that mansion ever could," she said turning off the engine and opening the door.

It was only once they were inside and Rose had made a kettle of tea for them, that the Doctor realized he had a bit of a pressing issue.

"Rose?"

"Yeah?" she said looking up from her tea.

"I haven't got any pajamas. Everything's in the TARDIS."

"Oh, right. Should have borrowed something from Dad before we left the mansion, huh."

"There's a shop just up the road, no? I could just run and get some."

"I know you. You take years picking out clothes. You need to sleep."

"Not now. That was just because I was new and I didn't much know what I liked to wear yet. I know this me pretty well now, so I think I could…"

"I'll go with you."

"Rose Tyler, you need to sleep."

"As do you, Doctor. You're not all timelord anymore, remember? You're part human and you need more sleep than you used to."

"I knew that would catch up to me sooner or later, oh alright. Let's go then."

Rose and the Doctor returned to Rose's flat less than half an hour later, the Doctor carrying a shopping bag containing his brand new pinstriped pajamas. Once they had both showed and changed into their pajamas, the Doctor stood in Rose's doorway. This was the same room in which he'd once overcome a regeneration. Of course, it wasn't this room, but yet it was. "G'night, Rose," he said, reaching to pull the door shut.

"G'night, Doctor." She rolled over and closed her eyes as he pulled the door shut, but just as he was about to walk away, she sat up and spoke again. "Hey, Doctor?"

"Yes, Rose?" he reopened the door again and looked at her, sitting up again.

She paused. She knew what she wanted, but she wasn't sure how to ask. "D'you …um…well, I was thinking…would you…or well, do you want to…maybe…"

"You want me to stay with you, Rose Tyler?"

"Would you, please?" she sounded so delighted at the very thought that he could only smile and close the door behind him. He took a step toward her bed.

"If you want me here, there is no where I would rather be." Rose lied down and shifted to the side of her bed and folded the blanket down. The Doctor closed the door and stepped out of his slippers, sitting down on the opposite edge of the bed. Once he sat, Rose sat, too and wrapped her arms around him from behind.

"I really have missed you, Doctor."

"And I, you, Rose, but now. Now, we must sleep, for we are both very human," and he lied down and wrapped his arms around Rose who lay her head upon his chest and he could feel her smile against his cotton tee-shirt, which made him smile. And with those smiles still on their faces they both fell into a deep sleep nearly instantly.