Rose knew the lever was going to fail before it did, almost like a premonition. She could see every motion played out like a stop motion film, bursts of her life shuttering and flickering for a few seconds at a time. Then, it happened. One second, Rose was smiling over at the Doctor just feeling the wind of the void wash over her face and hair rippling behind her, and then there was a series of sparks. The computer calling out coldly that the systems were offline.
"Turn it on!" the Doctor yelled, his face quickly slipping from the smile it wore moments ago and instead steadily moving into terror.
Rose grabbed for the lever, cursing her faulty genetics that made her arm short by that much. Maybe that much might have made all the difference. She strained as far as she could, finally collapsing onto it, exhaustion gripping her entire body. She grunted with the effort, trying to force her lever back into its online position.
"I've gotta get it upright!" she exclaimed, although she was sure she was saying only to motivate herself. It was obvious that was what had to be done.
With a final heave, she managed to slam the lever back into place, the computer proclaiming its online status. But now, all she has is the lever, the flimsiest feeling thing in the world to her right now, when it came down to trusting your life in its hands. She could feel the suction pulling on her, pulling as hard as it could, and she knew.
Rose Tyler wasn't going to make it. That was fine, it was, as long as she could get the Daleks and Cybermen out, and she could keep the Doctor safe. She chanced a glance at his face, a frozen mask of horror by this point.
"Rose, hold on!" he cried out desperately, like he too could sense her precarious grip on the lever. She tried, she really did.
The suction only increased its pull, and Rose, well, she was already exhausted from the effort expended to get the lever back online. If only her arms weren't too short, she could grab the clamp once more.
"HOLD ON!" the Doctor screamed, and she wanted to believe she could, for him. She would do anything in her power to make him happy.
She cried out in pain as the suction increased on her ever more, and her arms felt like jelly, and her grip felt like she was holding on to noodles instead of steel. She watched as the Doctor tried to reach out for her again, and once again, like the cruel fate of the universe, their arms could almost connect, but not quite.
She could feel the moment her grip slipped, before it registered. Now the Doctor is screaming her name, and then she can see him let go, too. She's screaming inside her head "You daft idiot, now we're both goin' to die, and the universe needs you!" but the words won't come out.
He grasps her hand, and he pulls her close, like he can shield her from the terrible coldness and the death that's about to follow. It never comes.
To the surprise of them both, their backs hit a solid wall, and they crumble to the ground.
"I-wait, what?" the Doctor asked.
Rose laughed from joy and confusion, and then she slaps the Doctor as hard as she can, harder than Jackie ever has.
"Ow!" he protested. "What on Earth was that for?"
"We could have died," Rose pointed out.
"So?" he shrugged. "We didn't."
"But we could have!" she insisted. "And then that would leave the universe without ya, and I thought we talked about always puttin' yourself before me?"
"I couldn't just let you die," he said quietly, pulling her against his chest tightly. "Never ask that of me, Rose."
She sighed. "I just feel bad for my mum. Stuck in a parallel universe with someone that looks like your dead husband, but isn't, and no daughter to boot."
"No love for Mickey Micks?" the Doctor teased, poking her in the side.
Rose shrugged. "Ya know I care 'bout him, but it's kinda not as Earth shatterin' as my mum, considerin' he left on his own choice a while ago."
"Suppose," he agreed. "I'm so happy you're still here," he said sincerely.
"Me too," she beamed at him.
"Shall we go back home?" he asked her, happiness dancing in his eyes.
"No objections, but…" Rose trailed off, biting her lip.
"But what?" he asked.
"Shouldn't we, ya know, clean up?" She gestured to the room they were currently in, all the windows sucked out of their frames, papers and desks smashed against the wall.
"Well-" But the Doctor was interrupted by whatever he was going to say next by someone bursting through the door.
As if by instinct, the Doctor stood up quickly, throwing Rose behind him, ready to defend them against anything.
"Well, well, well, this is a surprise," a voice said behind the door, a familiar low whistle accompanying it.
Rose looked at the Doctor confusedly, and he shrugged. The voice in question appeared from behind the door, and it revealed itself to be none other than Captain Jack Harkness.
"Jack!" Rose exclaimed, barreling towards the American with more excitement than the Doctor had ever seen to his dismay. She wrapped him in a tight hug, allowing him to pick her up and spin her around.
"I thought you were dead," she said.
"I hope the Doc over here did, too," Jack said, casting an accusing glance at the Doctor.
Rose left go of him and faced the Doctor, trying to read his face. "Did you?" she asked.
He looked at the floor, his eyes shifting all over the place. It was clear he knew he was alive.
She stood there, gaping at him. "You knew?" she said quietly. She could feel Captain Jack gently squeeze her shoulder, but she shrugged him off. "You knew he was alive, and ya left him stranded?" her voice was rising from the anger threatening to take control of her body.
"It wasn't like that," the Doctor pleaded.
"Oh, really?" Rose asked, her hands on her hips now. "What was it like, then?"
Jack stepped in between them. "Look, you know how I love to see the domestics between you two, but it isn't worth it, Rose."
"Isn't worth it?! Jack-"
"I know what he did," Jack interrupted her. "I know. But why don't we go back to the TARDIS and talk about it calmly?"
"But I-"
"I know you love to argue," Jack winked at her. "But he does have a good reason, Rose. I promise. I did some researching on my own."
She sighed. "Fine. Let's go back to the TARDIS, then."
….
"Alright, talk," Rose insisted as soon as they got inside.
"I was a bit, uhm, busy," the Doctor started.
"Too busy to save your friend?" Rose asked angrily.
"Just let me finish! I was worried about you coming back with the Daleks and all, then the singing, and then I was regenerating. And I could sense what he was. The TARDIS doesn't like him!" As if to prove a point, one of the lights in the console room burnt out at that moment.
She huffed. "You couldn't have at least dropped him off somewhere? Ya had to leave him stranded at the end of the world?"
"He was fine-"
"I'll take it from here," Jack assured, and the Doctor breathed a sigh of relief, slumping into the captain's chair.
"So, there I was, stranded in the year 200100, ankle deep in Dalek dust, and he goes off without me. But I had this," he waves it in front of Rose's face, "remember?"
"Excuse me," the Doctor spoke up, "just wanted to point out, that's not really time travel. It's like...I've got a sports car, and you have a space hopper."
Rose turned to glare at him, and he squeaked.
"Erm, sorry, Jack. Continue."
"Alright," he conceded, "so, I bounced. I thought 21st century, best place to find the Doctor, except that I got it a little wrong. Arrived in 1869, this thing burnt out, so it was useless."
"Told you," the Doctor couldn't help but pipe up.
"I had to live through the entire 20th century, waiting for a version of you that would coincide with me."
"But that makes you more than one hundred years old," Rose said, looking confused.
"And looking good, don'tcha think?" Jack asked, winking. "So, I developed a signal to tell me when you were near the London area, and here we are! Took me forever to find you two, though."
"The thing is," Rose said, "how comes he still looks like the same Jack, Doctor, if he's one hundred years old?" She turned to face him.
The Doctor rubbed the back of his neck uncomfortably. "Well-"
"Something happened at the Game Station," Jack told her. "Something that made it to where I can't die."
The weird deja vu sense creeped into Rose's mind, and she could remember faintly a voice saying "I bring life" .
"Someone brought ya back to life," she said, realizing.
"It was-"
The Doctor cut him off with a sharp look. "It was something unexplainable."
"Yeah," Jack agreed. "Definitely that."
Rose looked between the two of them suspiciously. "There's somethin' you're not tellin' me."
"Aren't you tired?" the Doctor sighed.
"A little," she huffed.
"Then go to bed," he suggested.
"Will he still be here?" Rose asked, pointing to Jack.
"I don't know."
"Please at least give him one trip," she pleaded. "You at least owe him that."
The Doctor opened his mouth to protest.
"Don't even say ya don't," she said accusingly. "Ya know ya do. Now, goodnight, my Doctor and Captain Jack." She placed a kiss on Jack's cheek and ruffled the Doctor's hair affectionately.
There was definitely something they weren't telling her, and Rose was going to figure it out.