They'd just left 36th century Mars, not where he'd planned on taking her but nothing bad had happened. Well, nothing too bad at least. That is to say, they still had their shoes. Actually, he still had his shoes. These were good shoes, they didn't get lost easily. Martha however, she appeared to have lost one of hers in the run, she should wear proper shoes.

Martha, Martha Martha Maaaartha. His mind chewed on the word and he cast his mind over her. She was different to… Well, she was different, he could say that much. She was smarter, more opinionated. She was posher and wore more expensive clothes.

The Doctor was torn away from his thoughts by the sound of heels on metal grating. Glancing up he quickly gripped a lever and thrust it down, trying to look impressive.

"So… Where to next?" She asked, wiggling her eyebrows.

That was different as well. She wiggled her eyebrows, no more chewing on a lower lip or biting of the tongue.

"Uhrm… Ooh, I don't know…" He wiggled his brows in return and grinned at her. "Where do you feel like visiting?"

"Well. I've always fancied seeing the Ancient Olympics, only that might be tricky… Now women allowed, right?" Frowning she tried again, "Maybe… The building of the pyramids. How does that sound?"

That was different as well, she knew more about history and things. She always had ideas about where to go. He missed the spontaneous leaping from place to place, the surprises that came with it. He missed the excitement; she used to get so excited when they set off to someplace, any place any time, he could see it in her eyes… Best not to think about that, best not to think about any of that.

So he flashed her another brilliant smile and ran around to the other side of the console, "That sounds marvellous." Grabbing what looked suspiciously like a basic mobile phone he started punching in numbers.

"Pyramids… 1300 AD it is then. That's pretty much when Giza was finished." He pressed the call button on the phone and wiggled his eyebrows at her "1300 AD it is."

--

He fumbled with the key, he couldn't fit it into the door with Martha clinging onto his arm like that. She was laughing, they both were. He was close, so close. Apparently there was quite a big difference between 1300 AD and 1300 BC. Especially when it wasn't Egypt, at least he was in the right solar system. Almost.

"And… And then they… No, wait a minute…" The Doctor waited patiently for her to get her breath between fresh bursts of giggles. "And then they…" She trailed off and made horns on her head with her fingers and waggled them, grinning.

"Yes, Yes!" He agreed, waggling his fingers in reply.

He was walking backwards, still wiggling fingers. He stuck his tongue out and crossed his eyes, leaving Martha to close the door between hysterical bursts.

"I know! I know!" He grinned, then stopped. She wasn't laughing anymore. She looked shocked, scared even. "What? What is it? What's happened?"

She just stared and, stepping around him, asked in a soft voice, "Are you alright? I'm a doctor, well nearly. But are you okay? I can help."

The Doctor furrowed his eyebrows, "What me? I'm fine why? I… Oh. Oh… Ooh…" He trailed off when he realise she wasn't talking to him. But if she wasn't talking to him then that meant that there was someone else onboard and that… Well, that wasn't good at all.

Martha was oblivious to any danger, that wasn't much different. "I'm going to come closer, okay? To see what's wrong."

The Doctor rolled his eyes, that wasn't different. They're always blind to danger, go running off into it, leaving him to save them.

He swung around to grab her arm, trying to make her see the problem, "Nonono no Martha. We don't do that, we… Oh good god no…" He froze, mouth opening and closing silently, trying to process and voice all the thoughts going around his head at once. It wasn't possible, it just couldn't be.

"Rose?" He whispered her name, barely daring to hope. The figure lifted it's head, he could see blood trickling out of her mouth. "Rose… Oh god Rose. No no no no no." He reached forwards to touch her, he needed to know she was real, she just couldn't be.

He was startled to see her backing away from his hand, she almost looked scared. Frowning he took another step towards her, "Rose," he whispered, trying to get her to understand, "It's me… The Doctor, remember? New new Doctor?" She just took another shaky step backwards, he tried to warn her about the wire behind her but too late, she tripped right over it.

Before he could stop her Martha ran forwards, she crouched down and took Rose's pulse.

"Are you alright?" Martha asked gently, one hand on Rose's forehead. "What's your name?" She glanced at the Doctor and frowned before turning back to the girl on the floor, "Rose? Is that your name?"

Rose, the Doctor was sure it was Rose now, it had to be, glanced between the two of them and licked her lips. "Yeah… It was, Rose."

It was her, he'd been right. But how? It was impossible, wasn't it? He'd said it couldn't be done and he'd been right, hadn't he? Yes, of course he had. So how was she here? She just couldn't be. But she was. He frowned and reached he hand out towards her, snatching it back when she shifted away from him. He had so many questions, he had to know the answers.

He could see from the look on her face he wouldn't be getting them any time soon. She looked at him with large, watery, eyes. Eyes which contained so much pain, he didn't think it was possible for a human to hurt that much. He could sense it, see it in her wounded expression as she managed to squeeze out one more sentence.

"Yeah, it was Rose. You can call me Sarah Jane now 'though." And then she fainted, leaving the Doctor to take in her last few words. Now he hurt, he'd forgotten how much he could hurt.