I still do not own Doctor Who or NCIS
My second DiRozzo fic :) and companion fic to Wrong Time and Wrong Continent enjoy...
Rose looked over at the young black man at the controls of the as yet untested dimension cannon. Mickey Smith was a good man, her ex-boyfriend in fact, who she turned away for an alien who had shown her t the stars.
She'd been trapped on the parallel world for 1 ½ years and in her mind that was 1 ½ years too long. She'd given up waiting for her alien, the Doctor and was making her own way back to defeat the coming darkness, with or without her Doctor. Rose Tyler was determined to go back to her own universe and with a quick thumbs up towards Mickey she dived into an electric blue glow.
It was strange, inside the glow; she could see all of the universes playing alongside each other like film screens. She smiled brightly when she saw the Doctor, her Doctor and his newest companion. Martha Jones. Rose watched the woman save the Earth, alone and felt a weird sense of pride for the medical student she'd never had the privilege of meeting.
The smile grew as she saw another woman step onto the TARDIS, the Doctor not far behind her carrying a lot of boxes. It was the one she was looking for: Donna Noble. Rose stepped forwards but she was moving to slowly to reach the doorways in time, the scenes in front of her moved faster and faster. Davros, Daleks, Cybermen, back to Canary Wharf, Martha's wedding to Tom Milligan, her own christening, and the blue glow swallowed her again, kicking her out onto a street and straight into a young man.
"Hello" The man smiled at her from his position on the ground with her. She was struck by the warm glint in his brown eyes as he watched her and she felt a grin set itself up on her face.
"Hi." For all her time with aliens Rose was still uncomfortable around humans, especially males. She got to her feet as quickly as she could, offering the man a hand, which he took, standing next to her. She shouldn't interfere; she was obviously in the wrong place but she was drawn to the man. She asked him his name.
"Tony Dinozzo." As the name left his lips she could see his life playing out before her eyes, all the time leading back to the golden badge that sat proudly at his waist.
"Rose Tyler." Now she knew it was a bad idea telling him who she was because he was a federal agent and if he looked her up he would find that she was legally dead and in all of the lifetimes playing in her head she could see no happy outcome if he found that. She now felt the need to know exactly when…and where she was she felt a little silly as she asked the question and she was a pleasantly surprised when Tony answered.
"13th May 2005 and we are in one of my almost favourite places. Washington USA, my favourite being Hawaii." Rose fought a flush at the wink, just like she would have if it was a chocolate-eyed Time Lord in front of her. She couldn't fight the giggle that sounded at the comparison but she managed to turn it into a frown.
"I'm early. Really early. And on the wrong continent." And she really was, now Rose was never brilliant at geography but after years of travelling time and space in a blur box she thought she'd be able to find the right time, just once. She tilted her head and ruffled her hair trying to think. "I think I took a wrong turn at the Jones-Milligan wedding. What do you think Tony Dinozzo?" It was the last event she could remember seeing and saying it aloud was worth any problems it could cause for the sight of Tony Dinozzo's tiny frown as he blinked at her, reminding her of a young owl in the night she had seen once on the parallel world that she had never called home.
"I think you should let me take you out tonight." Rose laughed when the simple sentence threw her nearly a hundred years back to WW1, the London Blitz and to the top of an invisible spaceship as she danced with a suave young captain. She saw the hurt in his eyes and forced herself to stop hurrying an apology to the man who she could now compare so easily to Jack Harkness.
"Oh? Was he as handsome and charming as I am?" His eyebrows danced and she once again dissolved into laughter. Maybe the agent had a little of the Doctor in him after all. Her amusement died when she remembered him.
"No contest Tony. You'd win every time." It was simply that tiny piece of him that shone like the Time Lord that tipped the scales in his favour over the dead mans and that sparked guilt in Rose Tyler's heart. She stood straighter and saw the man's eyes drawn to the large gun that she had strapped to her back before she left, at Mickey's instruction no less. She saw time stretch before her eyes again when the man's boss, Special Agent Leroy Jethro Gibbs, called to him and she let herself fade away without saying goodbye. Unable to say goodbye to the man who reminded her so much of her lost boys.
It had been a long time since she'd been to 13th May 2005, Washington, USA but it was there she needed to be. Sure it wasn't the ultimate destination of he journey but after passing through worlds that are dying, watching its people, her friends die as they met Daleks or the darkness or if they were really unlucky Davros himself. She'd seen Tony Dinozzo and his friends, his team, rushing the Crucible in a small craft they 'liberated' from NASA. Had barely restrained herself from joining them as they fought their way to Davros, only the man himself and the Leroy Jethro Gibbs left but one point of the monster's metal finger and they were both dead.
That was what brought her back, she hadn't said goodbye and she needed to know he was still alive, still happy and himself, that Jack and the Doctor were still with him, if only in her view of the man.
She was leaning on the wall of his workplace waiting for him to finish talking to her outside and come inside so she could talk to him. She'd lost the gun a few worlds back and made a mental note to go back to Mickey, see if he had a new one for her. The sight of the special agent she came to see's smile blew all other thoughts from her head and she flew forwards to meet him, pulling him into a tight embrace as she talked to him, knowing he wouldn't understand but needing him to know anyway. "This was the first world I found Tony. I've been to so many since then but it was only minutes ago for you wasn't it? Everyone of them, Tony I was too late every time, I watched them die, I watched you all burn. And I couldn't help you." Rose was rambling and tears were falling from her eyes and into Tony's shoulder but the man didn't seem to mind, just like they wouldn't have. When he started to rub her back the tears slowed, knowing she had worried him, after all she'd been all smiles outside hadn't she? "I'm sorry Tony. I remembered that I never said goodbye to you and I couldn't watch you die again without seeing you happy. Alive and happy." It was true it was her sole reason for returning: to see him.
"It's ok Rosie. It's ok." There was a protective tone to his voice and the way he'd switched to a new name for her almost brought a smile to her lips as she remembered the last person to call her 'Rosie', Jack. She pulled away from his warm body and she instantly noticed how cold it was away from him as she spoke, fighting the urge to run back into his arms and never leave no matter how many of the universes needed her. She smiled at the thought, at him. "Anytime Rosie. Anytime." He meant it and that was strange for him, she knew because she had seen his entire life spanning before her eyes.
"Thank you." She whispered moving forwards and before her conscious could convince her otherwise she placed a light kiss at the corner of his mouth, promising that she would come back to him once it was all over, not knowing if she could but if she had too she'd build another dimension cannon and break down the walls again. Again Rose moved away from Tony and this time the smile was genuine as she bid him goodbye and gave him a salute that she knew the Time Lord he reminded her of would hate.
"Yeah. See you Rosie." His voice rang in her ears as she was engulfed by the blue light of the walls of the worlds, still smiling. It had taken her a lifetime of seeing him die but she finally knew that it wasn't because he reminded her of those she'd lost that she loved him it was because he understood.
Now writing this has proven to me that I was wrong when I thought it would be easier to write from Rose's POV than Tony's.