So, I watched Doctor Who, 2005-2006. I can't say I didn't expect the ending, but it doesn't make me any happier. I really enjoyed the show, and I'm sad the Doctor and Rose have been parted. For anyone who didn't watch the end of the second season, sorry for the spoiler. Anyway, I have written this one-shot in tribute to the Doctor and Rose and what could be.
All standard disclaimers apply.
Eternity
June Goddess
Forever. It was an awfully long time. As long as never. But that was the curse of the Time Lords. The curse bestowed upon those who kept ships designed to travel throughout all of time. They said there was only one left. Just one Time Lord, and he was the Doctor. Doctor Who? one might ask. But he was just the Doctor. Alone. The last of the mighty, god-like Time Lords.
Rose Tyler stood upon the shores of Bad Wolf Bay in an alternate world than the one in which she had been born. To think of it used to upset her greatly. But she had worked at Torchwood for many years since she had last seen the Doctor… since he had projected himself to say goodbye. She had raged, sobbed, and finally given in to the inevitable: She would never ever see him again. He had once told her to never say "never ever," but she believed it fit.
Until she realized a truth not even her Doctor had known. It was her thirtieth birthday. She had a younger brother, Sam, who was eight, almost nine, at the time. He was the first to notice. Then her dad Pete began to look at her strangely. It was on her thirty-second birthday when her mum Jackie burst into tears. The family heard her crying for days. She would not stop. She could not stop. After a week of crying, she finally stopped. She hugged her children, told them she loved them. No matter what.
Mickey had been away, traveling with Jake and their gang, and when he came back, he knew it too. It was his forty-third birthday, and he had promised to visit Rose, since he had only kept in contact through phone calls and letters for years. They had arranged to meet in a pizza place near where his Gran had lived. He walked into the pizza place, happy to be seeing his oldest friend again. And when he saw her, her hair was a golden halo from the sun outside and her smile still made her eyes dance.
But he did not mention it. He did not want to upset her. They ate, they talked, and they laughed. They held hands as they walked the streets of London. They spent their time together ignoring the glaring truth. They pretended for this day it did not exist.
A few years later, Mickey came back for his forty-seventh birthday. He called Rose, and they met at an Italian place. He told her he had a surprise for her. She laughed, eyes dancing, and protested that it was his day. But he just took hold of her hand, and told her to meet him at the airport in the morning.
So she did. She and Mickey left London for northern Africa. Once there, they talked to research team that had been trying to find the secrets buried at the crux of civilization, Mesopotamia. The next two years passed deciphering ancient texts and pictures. Combined with the information at Torchwood, they had the key. Rose sat in shock as Mickey held her close.
They went back to London for Sam's wedding to a woman named Janie. They had met at, fell in love at, and graduated from King's College. And now they were getting married with only their families present. Rose made it back just in time. She hugged her brother close, kissed her new sister-in-law on the cheek, and ran to her parents. They were in their mid-sixties now, getting on in years.
Time had not meant much to Rose since her time with the Doctor, so she was quite surprised when her mum died of old age. Her dad passed away exactly a year later. Losing his wife had been hard on him, and on the anniversary of her death he joined her. Rose helped out Sam and Janie with their kids. Lizzie was named for Queen Elizabeth II and Albert was named for Queen Victoria's husband. Sam had been enthralled with the stories his older sister had told him as he was growing up about other worlds about the universe. When he had told Janie why he wanted to name their children after dead monarchs, she had shaken her head and said she would pick their middle names. She loved her husband, after all, so what else could she do?
All the while, Rose spent her time researching and building, researching and building. When Lizzie announced her engagement to a young man called Will Jakes, the family called Rose to celebrate with them. She came, welcomed her soon-to-be nephew-in-law, kissed her niece and nephew, and hugged Sam and Janie. They laughed all day and night, and the truth of Rose was overlooked again. It was what they did when they were together. They could not bear to speak of it in her presence. But they all knew, and they all wondered how long her researching and building would take before she left for the stars.
It was when Janie and Rose buried Sam amid tears that the project was at last finished. Because of her brother's death, Rose could not leave, however. She refused to leave Janie and the family without support. For seven months they struggled to live through the pain of losing a loved one. It was on Rose's seventy-ninth birthday that Janie gave her a letter Sam had left for his sister in his will. In the letter, Sam demanded that Rose leave, that she return to the stars, that she find her Doctor. He wrote he loved her, that he would always love her, but she did not belong to him. She belonged to the Doctor, the last of the legendary Time Lords.
Three weeks later, Rose stood on the shores of Bad Wolf Bay. She activated her machine. It would be a one-way trip. The rift she would create would heal itself. It was part of the programming she had installed. And the machine would self-destruct once the rift was sealed. All her plans had been burnt to ash long ago, so no one would be able to reconstruct it and use it in the future.
She sighed deeply, gathering her courage, and stepped into the archway. She felt her body being ripped and torn. She felt herself coming apart at a molecular level. The pain was intense and sudden. As quickly as it had come, it left. The pain was gone. She was standing on the shores of Bad Wolf Bay in the world into which she had been born. She stood there breathing, the pain just a shadow of a memory. She reached into her pocket and pulled out a key. It was such an ordinary-looking key.
But it was not, in fact, an ordinary key. It was the key the Doctor had given her so long ago to unlock the Tardis. It was his sign of trust, and she had kept it close to her heart in all the years they had been separated. She concentrated all her focus on the key. After a moment, it began to glow. A faint siren started wailing in her ears. It became louder and louder and she saw a blue police box slowly materialize in front of her.
The door opened and a man stepped out. He looked perplexed to be standing on a beach. His Tardis had suddenly and without warning dropped from the vortex to land on a beach. And it was cold. This beach looked oddly familiar, though, and he wondered at it. He did not recall having come to a beach. He found they were unappealing after his last goodbye to woman called Rose Tyler. He smiled sadly as he looked at the water. Bad Wolf Bay, Norway, Earth, Milky Way Galaxy.
He reminisced for a moment, thinking of the woman he had loved so much. He turned around, ready to take the Tardis far away from here, and stopped. There, standing before him, was Rose Tyler, his Rose. And she looked just as she had the last time he had seen her… when he had said goodbye.
"Hello, Doctor," she said with a smile, her eyes dancing, always dancing.
He stumbled towards her, not quite his graceful self, unsure if this was real or a dream. He let his hands touch her hair, his trembling fingers traced her face, his eyes stared desperately into her own, and his mouth moved wordlessly. He crushed her in a tight embrace and buried his face in her neck, breathing in her scent. He realized she was speaking, and he pulled back enough to look at her.
"What?" he broke in. She gave him that look she always gave him when he was rude, but it only made his hearts skip a beat. He had missed that look.
"I said," she began again, teasingly, "you once asked me how long I would stay with you. Do you remember my answer?" She smiled gently, seeing in his face the wounds that marked them both.
He could not speak. His throat had closed up completely. In response, he nodded jerkily.
"Well, then. That's that," she said briskly. She slipped her hand into his and started pulling him towards the Tardis.
"Rose?" he called brokenly, pulling them to a stop. "What-?" He could not finish.
She looked up at him. "Forever, Doctor. I'm with you forever." She laughed. "You're not getting rid of me that easily, you know!" She tugged him towards the police box again.
In shock, he let her pull him inside. She closed the door and walked towards the kitchen. When she came back, she handed him a mug of tea. He looked at it like it was an alien object. She laughed again, and he looked at her.
Her laughter faded and she sighed. "You looked like you could use a cup of tea, like Mum always said," she explained.
"Rose, how old are you?" he asked, hardly daring to answer it in his own mind.
She averted her eyes with another sigh.
"Rose?" His voice was slightly harder, demanding an answer.
"Does it matter?" she asked quietly.
"How old?" he returned softly.
She looked at him, stared deep into his eyes, those eyes that changed yet stayed the same. No matter what form he had, he was still the same underneath it all. She had not realized that at first, but she saw it now. He would always be the same.
"I'll be eighty on my next birthday." She walked to the console. "As best as I can figure it, when I absorbed the time vortex to save you, I changed myself." She was fidgeting under his intense gaze. "I even analyzed my blood." She locked eyes with him briefly before looking away again. "The cells regenerate, but they don't age. I… I don't age." She turned to look at him, but he was not there.
A hand whirled her around, and she fell against the Doctor as he hugged her again. Her pressed kisses to her cheeks, her neck, her lips. All the while, he whispered "I love you" again and again and again.
She returned his embrace. At last they were reunited. He pulled back, suddenly, looked down at her and laughed. The sound was startling, but very happy. In his excited state, he shouted, "Rose Tyler, I love you!"
She laughed with him. She reached out a hand and cupped a cheek. His laughter faded, but his eyes still glowed with his happiness. "I love you, too. My Doctor."