Rose sat down at the edge of the bed, reaching her hand out to her husband. She brushed his grey hair back, funny how even at 87 years old he still had great hair. His eyes fluttered open and he whispered her name.

"Yes, John? Is there anything I can get for you?" She asked, knowing that she would do anything except for the thing that he would ask for.

"Rose, you know what I want. I want you to go find him. I want you to leave me to die…" He trailed off, knowing from 55 years of marriage she wasn't going to start obeying him now. He gazed lovingly at his wife, wishing not for the first time that she had grown old with him like they had planned. He knew that people looking on assumed she was his granddaughter, and would never believe the truth. The truth being: she was his 78 year old wife that didn't look a day over 19, thanks to Bad Wolf. As the Doctor he had been grateful for Bad Wolf for giving him a second chance with Rose, but as John Smith, he hated Bad Wolf. The Doctor thought he had absorbed the entire vortex out of Rose, John got the privilege of dealing with the consequences of that mistake. He had loved every minute with Rose, but as he lay confined to his bed in the prison of his old body he felt bitter that his counter-part hadn't paid attention enough to prevent this tragedy. He was grateful for his time with her; she had saved him from himself countless times, all he wanted was to save her from herself this one last time.

"Will you stop brooding?" She demanded, "Look at what happened last time you tried to send me away. I ended up changing my DNA irrevocably. Who knows what trouble I could get into if I let you send me away again?" She laughed and nervously tugged at the TARDIS keys hanging from her necklace. She knew he wanted her to leave, wanted to save her from having to see him die. Just like she knew she never could, never would be able to do that. This time she couldn't save him, and although it killed her inside, she wouldn't leave until the last breath left his body.

"Rose. My love, there is only a short window of time; I can't guarantee that I will expire before your chance to find the Doctor does." He secretly hated the idea of her with anyone other than him, but he knew it was ridiculous to be jealous of himself.

"I don't want to hear it. We have discussed this countless times, the Doctor can is the man I had loved…You are my husband, the man I vowed to love until death do us part…and then some." She reminded him, and even though he felt crazy for thinking it, he felt better every time she said those words. Over the 55 years they had been together, every time she said something along those lines, he felt a weight lifted off his chest.

"Promise me this then, promise that you will leave as soon as I die. Don't mourn me; don't cry for me, until you find the Doctor. Don't even stay to bury my body, let your nephew do that. I already talked to him, he agrees that you should find the Doctor sooner rather than later. Please Rose, promise me." He had set everything up, he knew that time was getting scarce, and he hated to leave anything to chance.

"John, please." She started, but seeming to realize that there would be no arguing with him she said, "I promise." She started to cry then and he wanted nothing more than to kiss away her tears, but all he could do was squeeze her hand.

LATER THAT NIGHT

The night nurse entered the room as silently as possible, not wanting to cause any disturbances until absolutely necessary. The Smiths had been kind to her, not to mention they were related to the Tyler family, as in The Tyler Wing of the hospital Tylers, and she didn't want to needlessly disturb them. She looked at Mrs. Smith curled up in the chair sleeping peacefully. She shook her head, the girl looked even younger in her sleep, and it was hard to imagine what had brought her to marry the significantly older man in the bed. She walked over to the bedside and checked Mr. Smith's pulse…and felt nothing. She checked his other wrist with the same results. Sighing she went back to the light switch so she could confirm what her mind was telling her. She hesitated with her hand over the switch, glancing at Mrs. Smith sorrowfully, wishing that she didn't have to be the one to bear this news.

Flip.

FIVE HOURS LATER

Rose had left as soon as she could, she had gone to her TARDIS, had aimed herself into the cracks of time and space and had successfully managed to reach the universe she had come from, the one with the Doctor. She had only been back for ten minutes, and she felt restless. The promise she made making it hard for her to breathe. She set her TARDIS in orbit near the Earth, but instead of landing she sent out the mauve distress signal. She hadn't the foggiest idea where the Doctor was, or even if he would still have the same face as he had the last time she had seen him; but she knew he never could resist a distress signal. Rose smiled, reminiscing about their first mauve distress signal, but as quickly as it had come the smile slid off her face as she spotted John's jacket lain carelessly over a chair. It had been months since he had had the stroke, and she hadn't been in here since then.

Rose gingerly grazed her fingers across the khaki material, then swiftly brought the jacket up to face, stifling a sob. She closed her eyes and inhaled deeply, taking in his scent. She hadn't slept in an actual bed in days, but she wasn't emotionally strong enough to go to the room they had shared alone, and she didn't have the will or energy to find a new room. Too tired to think on it any longer, she wrapped the jacket around her, settled into the chair, and closed her eyes against the sorrow that filled her.

ACROSS THE UNIVERSE

The Doctor had been brooding in the dark for hours now, and his TARDIS was humming at him angrily. There were planets in need of saving, adventures waiting to happen, the TARDIS hated lulls. She could feel his sorrow, and fighting evil and sure death was the only way she knew to help her Thief. After hours of the Doctor ignoring his friends and even her messages, she decided it was time to take control. Already on auto-control, it wasn't difficult to manipulate the course a bit, moving them closer to the mauve signal in the distance.

SOME TIME LATER

The Doctor jolted awake-not that he had actually been sleeping- to the blaring alarm of his TARDIS. "What? What? WHAT is going on?" He yelled at his ship. He checked the screen, mauve…distress signal…he sighed. "I told you. No more. Let the universe save itself!" he shouted, but it was obvious that his ship wasn't going to be quite until he gave in. "Fine! You win! Just land already and I will see what I can do." But the words, 'CANNOT LAND' showed up in reply. "What do you mean 'cannot land'? You can always land! What is going on here?" He stomped to the door, swung it open and looked out into the open space before him.

"There's nothing-"He started to shout to the TARDIS when he saw it, a TARDIS just like his except red.

ROSE

Beep. Beep. Beep. It was a soft noise, but Rose recognized it as the 'ship approaching' warning. Her eyes snapped open and she checked the screen. Sure enough the video showed the Doctor's TARDIS coming up to hers. She smoothed out her hair and straightened her jacket and headed to the door.

********** a/n please review and let me know if I should post chapter two. :)