Shreds of Memories and the Whispers of Ghosts
"Rose,"
Rose heard him calling her name, and though she know the breach has been sealed and will never hear his voice again - not really - she dreams of it still. At three fifty-eight, every morning, she sits up in bed, gasping, swearing that he's calling for her. And she smiles as shy cries, because, for a moment, her heart soared and she very nearly felt the warmth of his hand in hers. And every time, it is so, because as long as Rose can remember his voice in her ears, his laughter, his smiles - well, then, she'll be just fine.
"Rose,"
In another universe, so close and so far away all at once, the subject of all her hopes and dreams stands, a dark figure alone against a blue sky, at the water's edge on a particular beach in Norway. The sky is no longer stormy, as it was the first time he came here, and as it's been every time since, but the Doctor doesn't need bad weather to convey his mood; he is the Oncoming Storm.
"Forever."
Everyone around Rose moves on, for though Rose clings desperately to her past, they have nothing to hold on to, and they want her to let go as well. Mickey gets her a job working at Torchwood, and that Rose lets slip, because maybe - just maybe! - she'll figure out the dimension cannon one day. However, when Rose's mum tries to set her up, Rose refuses and the two don't speak for days. How can Rose even think of anyone at all, other than her Doctor? She will carry him in her heart, as long as she promised to stay. Forever. Because they don't understand how long it takes - hundreds and thousands of years, from 1869 to the year 20,000 - to find a love like this. They don't understand that Rose will wait forever.
"Rose Tyler, you are brilliant!"
On his worst days, the days when he mopes about the TARDIS while she makes comforting noises and brews tear which he ignores, the Doctor remembers the adventures he had with his Rose - or, more specifically, he recalls every opportunity he had - and lost - to tell her, to hold her, to kiss her. He remembers a thousand days and times and places, a thousand planets and galaxies and stars. He remembers an island on an alien planet, their singing breezes and whispering flowers, one of which he put in her hair. He remembers holding her hand as they strolled along, azure skies and seas all around. He remembers what he told her, once upon a time - I can feel it... the turn of the earth. The ground beneath our feet is spinning at a thousand miles an hour. The entire planet is hurtling around the sun at sixty seven thousand miles an hour. And I can feel it. We're falling through space, you and me, clinging to the skin of this tiny little world. And, if we let go... That's who I am. - and he remembers that, though he felt the world spinning every second of every day, she held him in the there and then.
"Will I ever see you again?"
The Doctor may bloody well have said that she could never see each other again, but if travelling with him had only taught her one thing, it would be this: nothing is impossible. And she'd never been good at taking 'no' for an answer. So, yeah, one day - one day! - she'd come home.
And then she would keep her promise, and stay with him. Forever.
Inspired by the Glee Cast Version of "Lucky" and set post-Doomsday.