- This starts off right at the end of the third series just as Martha Jones is about to leave. It is not strictly speaking a rewrite but rather I worked in events from the show into the story.
Also, just a heads up, this is on the angsty side of things. That is not to say it is all doom and gloom but the characters will be facing heartbreak, loss and be forced to make impossible choices. But they'll also find hope in the darkest of times, strength and kindness and unspeakable joy.
Well, if you decide to give this a chance I really do hope you enjoy it! Should you not, feel free to tell me why or if you do please tell me that to! -
Chapter I - A twist of fate
"I'll see you again mister."
The Doctor watched as the girl turned around and walked away. Martha Jones, she'd saved the world without firing a single shot. Oh, he'd liked her. He smiled sadly. Just not the way she'd wanted. He turned back to the console of his TARDIS. You're not going to leave me though are you, old girl? he thought just as the door opened and Martha came back inside for the second time. He stared in surprise at her.
"Doctor," she said, her voice hesitant. The look in her eyes stopped him short.
"What?" he asked, a twinge of worry in his gut. He really didn't like that look in her eyes. It took a while for Martha to answer.
"There's this girl," she said, pointing behind her.
"What girl?"
"This blonde girl, she..." Whatever else Martha said the Doctor heard none of it. His blood was rushing so fast in his veins he could hear it as a buzzing in his ears. He took a step away from the console, away from Martha. He couldn't keep doing this, he thought. He still saw her everywhere. Wherever they went he saw her as a reflection in a window or her smile on a random passerby. If he didn't stop this it was going to kill him. She was gone. Rose was gone and he was never going to get her back.
The Doctor shook his head to clear it. Slowly his hearing returned to normal. Martha was staring at him.
"Did you hear me?" she asked.
"No, sorry, what?" he asked, shaking his head one more time for good measure.
"The girl, she says she knew you," Martha repeated. The Doctor cleared his throat.
"Yeah... um... what did she want?" he asked, trying and failing to sound casual. Martha looked at him worriedly.
"Just to give you a message," she said, hesitant again. She was looking at him as though she feared he would at any moment simply keel over. He went back to the console and flipped some random switch he wasn't even quite sure exactly what it did.
"What was the message?" he asked, not looking at Martha. The longest two seconds in history past while he waited for her answer.
"Bad Wolf."
The Doctor's head flipped around and he stared at her. "How do you know that phrase?" he asked, a little harsher than he had intended. Martha took a step back.
"It's what the girl said to tell ya," Martha explained. The Doctor felt his heartbeats drumming away at an alarming rate inside his chest. He rushed past Martha and practically flew out of the doors. He looked around, scared and panicked and tragically hopeful. Then he froze. Because there she stood. Just a few yards away from him.
"Rose?" he breathed, a thousand different conflicting emotions colouring his voice.
She gave him a little smile. A smile he knew like he knew the shape of the flowers blooming on his home planet. And that is exactly what it felt like looking at her. Like coming home. He took a couple of steps towards her but stopped.
Her being here was impossible. She was lost to him. If she was here it meant universes were collapsing. She really couldn't be here, he thought.
Rose stood still, that small smile still about her lips. He had dreamed of their reunion a hundred times but never had she just stood there. Why was she just standing there? Rose? he mouthed silently. He took the last couple of steps towards her. He reached out his hand to her face, his eyes roaming over every angle, trying desperately to detect some inconsistency. Some flaw that didn't match with his memory of her, proving she wasn't real. But there was nothing. She was exactly as he remembered. Her hair was a bit longer and her skin a little pale but other than that she was unchanged. His hand hovered inches away from her face. He didn't dare to close the distance, fearing his hand would pass through her as though she was nothing but a ghost. A mirror image of the longing in his hearts. "You can't be here," he whispered, his voice breaking. "I lost you."
Sadness filled her eyes as though she too relieved the memory of that day and all the empty ones that followed.
"Doctor..." A lonely tear spilled down her cheek. He brushed it away without thinking. He hated seeing her cry. Only after he had done it did he realise he had felt the warmth of her skin. He could even now feel the tear against his finger. She wasn't a trick. Not a ghost. She was here. Somehow she was here. He closed the distance and touched her face. Her skin was warm and alive and before he knew what had happened he had caught her up in his arms.
She threw hers around his neck, her fingers in his hair. "Doctor," she mumbled with joy. He held her fiercely to him. This was some kind of miracle. Some unbelievable twist of fate and at that moment he didn't care if she had broken time to get to him. He didn't care at all.
"Rose. My Rose." His fingers got tangled in the blonde stresses of her hair and she was clutching the collar of his jacket tightly in her fists.
"My Doctor," she whispered. The sound of her voice nearly broke him.
"Tell me how you are here," he mumbled into her hair, not letting her go. "Tell me how this is possible."
"Do I need to explain something to the Doctor?" she said with a smile in her voice.
"To be honest I'm not sure I care as long as you're real."
"I'm real," she assured him. "I'm real."
The Doctor let her go, finally pulling away. As much as he had missed holding her, his eyes were equally starved. They roamed over every inch of her, taking her in.
"I'm not really sure," Rose told him. "The walls between universes, they're breaking down. I was able to slip through."
"But that must be something, something massive. I mean..." The cogs were spinning inside his head, possibilities being examined and rejected at an infinite rate. "Cataclysmic."
"I know."
Rose could see his mind running in a thousand different directions at once, trying to solve the puzzle. And it needed solving but right now it could wait. Rose caught his face with the palm of her hand and turned him towards her. Right now she just wanted him. That crazy man and his blue box. That was all she wanted.
"Doctor," she said. His eyes focused on hers and his lips spread in an amazing smile.
"Hello," he said. Rose smiled back at him.
"Hello," she replied, laughter bubbling out of her mouth. His eyebrows drew together in a sudden frown.
"How did you find me?"
"I didn't. Found the TARDIS," Rose explained, pointing at the familiar blue box behind him. The Doctor glanced back at his ship. TARDIS - Time And Relative Dimension In Space. His ship. But not only his ship. It had been his home since before the Great Time War. The war that had claimed his entire race and left him alone in the universe.
The Doctor looked at the blonde girl before him. She had made his life less lonely. She had made his existence not only bearable but fun. She'd saved him. He liked to think that every moment with her he'd lived to the fullest. But he knew he hadn't. Fear had always held him back. He couldn't make that mistake again. He had to make every moment with her count. How much time could he get with her? Fifty more years? Sixty? One minute? He had to make it count.
He gave her a smile. "She isn't an easy thing to track," he told her. Rose smiled impishly back at him, the tip of her tongue sticking out playfully between her teeth.
"It's easier if you know what to look for," she told him. The Doctor picked her up, clasping his hands around her waist and spinning her around. Rose gave a surprised yelp, which swiftly turned into laughter. He put her back on the ground.
"You clever girl, you," he told her, his whole face filled with the unbelievable happiness filling his chest. Rose glanced past his shoulder.
"So, who's she then?" she asked. The Doctor twirled around to found Martha standing there, staring at them. Martha gave Rose a sad little smile.
"No one," she said and turned away.
The Doctor put his arm around Roses shoulders and grinned.
"This is Martha Jones," he declared proudly. Martha stopped and glanced back at them, surprise in her eyes. The Doctor leaned down to Rose. "She saved the world," he told her. "All on her own."
"Well, not all on my own," Martha said, blushing. Rose left the Doctor and walked over to the pretty girl. She held out her hand.
"Nice to meet you Martha Jones," she said with a smile. "I'm Rose." Martha shook Rose's hand.
"Yeah, I kinda figured," she said. Rose glanced back at the Doctor who was smiling unabashedly. "Anyway, I should get back to my family," Martha reminded them. "I guess you two have quite a lot to talk about."
Martha Jones turned around and walked away, smiling a little to herself. There had always been that hint of fresh sorrow in the Doctor's eyes even when he'd been smiling and Martha had wanted nothing more than to wash it away. And she had tried; sometimes she even thought she had succeeded if only for a moment. But the minute he'd looked at Rose it was like the pain had never been there at all. He looked at her like she was the first rays of sunshine after a big storm. Like he couldn't quite believe she existed but couldn't be more thankful that she did. Martha glanced back at them one more time before she disappeared inside the house.
Rose spun around and headed back to the Doctor where he stood leaning against the TARDIS. He smiled as she got closer.
"The whole world by herself?" she asked him, smiling back.
"Yep, the whole world," the Doctor confirmed.
"She must have been quite something," Rose said as she sidled closer to him.
"Oh, she was brilliant."
"Then why is she leaving?" Rose asked. The Doctor shook his shoulders as though he didn't know.
"Other things to do," he said. "Take care of her family, finish med-school."
"She is going to be a doctor?" Rose asked in surprise. She was close now, inches away. The Doctor nodded in the affirmative, his gaze for a moment dropping from her eyes and slewing down her. When his eyes came back to hers she was smiling. He couldn't help but smile back.
"Oh, Rose Tyler!" He exclaimed, a big old stupid grin on his face. He clasped his arm around her waist and spun her, pushing opened the TARDIS door and depositing her inside. He closed the door behind them and flicked the lock.
"Did you just lock me in here?" Rose asked.
"If you think I am ever letting you out of this box ever again, you are sadly mistaken," he said with a mischievous grin. Rose backed up.
"Oh, and you think you can keep me here do you?" she asked, smiling that wonderful way of hers. The Doctor sauntered after her, hands in his trouser pockets.
"Weeeell," he said, drawing the word out. "I still have a few tricks up my sleeve," he assured her. Rose's eyes strayed from his and roamed around the room. The amazing, familiar room. Her eyes took in everything. The coral-pillars surrounding the edges, the grated floor, the round console in the middle of the room. She ran her hand along the edge of it. Hello again, she thought to the TARDIS. Missed you. The TARDIS seemed to hum in response. Rose smiled. "I think she missed you too," the Doctor said. Rose turned back to him.
"Really?" she asked with a smile.
"Who wouldn't miss you, Rose Tyler," he countered. Rose laughed and the Doctor thought it must be one of the most wonderful sounds in the whole world.
He came up to her and stopped right in front of her. He caught her eye as he fished his sonic-screwdriver out of his pocket. He began running it over her, the blue light flickering and the familiar hum filling Rose's ears.
"What are you doing?" she asked, placing her hands on her hips.
"Making sure you are not a hallucination," the Doctor explained calmly.
"Can a hallucination do this?!" Rose asked, reaching around and pinching his arm.
"Ouch!" the Doctor exclaimed, offended. Rose scurried away from him before he had a chance to finish the scan. She couldn't let him finish it. She couldn't.
Rose danced around the console, staying out of his reach, the Doctor watching her.
"Oh, I missed this," she said with a sigh. "I missed this room, I missed this ship..."
"And me?" the Doctor cut in. Rose peaked out at him from behind the console.
"And you," she confirmed with a smile. He smiled back at her.
"Sooo," he began. "The walls between universes are breaking down?" he asked. He saw her nod as she ran her fingers lightly over the switches on the console.
"They are. We don't know why." She looked up at him. "Thought I better warn ya though. Whatever's going on it's not just happening to one universe it's happening to all of them."
"Sounds bad," he replied. She nodded. They watched each other for a moment, their joyous reunion temporarily clouded by the darkness looming from the future. But then the Doctor cleared his throat and flipped a switch on the console, the TARDIS coming to life.
"Good thing we have a time-machine then," he said with a careless smile. "Fancy a bit of running?" he asked. Rose smiled.
"Oh yes," she replied. There was nothing in the world she wanted more.
"Allons-y!"
