Title: Symmetry

Genre: Television

Series: Doctor Who

Characters: 10.5, Rose Tyler

Spoilers: 4x13-Journey's End

Rating: PG

Summary: Drabble/tag/thingee that takes place seconds after the now infamous Bad Wolf Bay scene.

"I did it on purpose," she said quietly as they continued to stare into the empty space where the Tardis used to be. "I kissed you and made him leave on purpose."

Her hand is loose around his and he doesn't realize that at her words he let her hand fall to her side. He stared at her; her hair danced in the wind and concealed her face, a face that had always been so readable to him.

She continued to speak without stopping. "I knew the second I asked the question what was going to happen. I knew that he would leave and you would stay and that it was my decision, despite what he may think." She paused and licked her lips before she turned to gaze at him with aching eyes. "You're not the Doctor," she said shakily, "but in a way I'm not Rose. Not the one he loved. Not the one you love. I'm not that girl who took your hand and ran away with you just because you told me to. " He wanted to interrupt, to stop this disquieting conversation in its tracks, but just as she couldn't stop speaking, neither could he stop listening. "The Rose Tyler he loves died on this beach years ago. The Rose Tyler he loves would never have asked that question. She didn't need to hear the words because she knew. She was young and naïve and soft in a way I'm not. I've lived without him and it's changed me almost as much as living with him did."

The sudden silence between them was broken only by the soft whistle of the sea wind on the rocks. Their eyes have locked and neither can look away. The truth of the situation bared itself before them and its ramifications stung deep.

This time when she started to speak again it was slower and quiet, her words almost but not quite lost to the wind. "Between saving the universe and taking the Earth home and then making sure all his companions got where they needed to be, we didn't get a chance to talk. I didn't get to tell him all the things I've done here, the aliens I fought, the ones I befriended, the adventures I had without him." She wanted to look away, to not see this man with his face. This was as close as she would get to tell the Doctor what she'd crossed universes to tell him, though. "I grew up. I've done things I'm not proud of, and I've done things that I am. You weren't here but someone had to fight. Someone had to stop the Slitheen and the Cardiff rift and the ghosts and the werewolves. Just because there is no Doctor here doesn't mean that one isn't needed. So I stepped up, I did my best, and sometimes my best wasn't enough."

There was an edge of bitterness to her voice and he realized, finally, that she was speaking the truth. The Rose of his memories didn't have a bitter bone in her body, but this woman did. She had edges and pain and for all her hesitance in telling him this it only made her more appealing to him. He had been forged in war but so had she.

Her Doctor breathed deep and exhaled slowly. "You're not Rose."

She smiled slightly, a mere quirk at the corner of her mouth. "You're not the Doctor."

Their hands clasped once more without conscious thought.

They weren't a lot of things, but they were together.

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