The Doctor and Rose were on the floor laughing after a bumpy landing in the TARDIS. They had been thrown around in every direction, and couldn't do anything but laugh about it.
"I thought you knew how to fly this thing!" Rose teased.
With a sparkle in her eyes, she playfully nudged him, making him nearly topple over from his kneeling position. He chuckled, and sat back to look at Rose Tyler, the caring, yet often stubborn, 19-year old who had given up her whole life to go see the stars. Her safety rested on his shoulders, and he was so afraid of losing her. Hadn't had anyone since before the Time War, and Rose was helping him heal without either of them knowing it.
"Well, Rose Tyler, we can't just sit here all day" said the Doctor, snapping back into reality.
"Last one out is a rotten egg!" Rose shouted as she strolled out of the TARDIS.
Picking up his black leather jacket, the Doctor headed for the doors leading to a new planet. With a sudden rush of air, the TARDIS doors slammed shut.
"Rose!" The Doctor Shouted.
The TARDIS took off without any warning. The Doctor flipped every switch on the console, hoping something would take him back to his Rose. Nothing seemed to work. He sat with his head in his hands; the one thing he had been worrying about for months was becoming real. While Rose was stuck on planet light-years away from Earth, he was being thrown around in the Time Vortex. How would he ever explain this to Jackie? Or Mickey? He had sworn to himself that he wouldn't lose another companion. He told himself that Rose would be different.
Finally, the TARDIS came to a jarring halt. The Doctor stumbled outside the door to see where she had taken him. As he looked around, he realized that he was back on Earth. Birds chirped, the sky was blue – nothing but an ordinary day. There was something different, however, that he couldn't quite put his finger on. Brushing the thought aside, he stuck his hands in his leather pockets and decided to find out when and where he was.
The Doctor walked down a nearby street, trying to figure out why he had been brought here. After passing some familiar looking restaurants, he realized that he was only blocks away from Rose's home at Powell Estate. An abandoned newspaper was sitting on the sidewalk, revealing that the date was May 10th, 2010, five years after Rose and the Doctor met.
Just as he was about to round the corner, the Doctor spotted a flash of blonde hair on the other side of the street.
'Could it really be..?' The Doctor thought, 'No, there are people other than Rose with blonde hair. Don't be so daft.'
He was about to continue on when he heard a voice to go with the blonde-haired girl.
"Hey! Come look at this!" the girl shouted.
There was only one person that voice could belong to. He turned around to see a slightly older, yet very beautiful, Rose Tyler calling to a skinny man in a blue suit.
Along with the blue suit, the man was wearing red trainers and had a head full of light brown hair. The Doctor couldn't see his face, but he saw Rose smiling up at him. The two were looking in a shop window, heads together and hands entwined.
A sharp pang shot through the Doctor's hearts. It was foolish to think that Rose only belonged to him. He knew sooner or later that someone would win her heart, but he had always secretly hoped that it would be him.
The man turned around just for a second, and he and the Doctor locked eyes for a couple of seconds. The man seemed to recognize him, but quickly turned his head. The Doctor kept staring, however. He knew those eyes, they looked so familiar. Was it one of Rose's cousins she had introduced him to? Was it one of Mickey's friends?
Suddenly, it hit him. There was only one man with eyes so old and sad: this man was a future version of himself. There was something somewhat off about him, though. He seemed so…human! He didn't seem to have the same Time Lord air of carrying himself.
'Maybe this regeneration is trying to be "hip" and "cool"?' he thought.
Rose lifted her hand to point at something in the window, and the Doctor spotted the gleam of a diamond. He looked at the future-Doctor's left hand and saw a shiny gold band. Rose had never looked so happy, and he smiled at the thought that one day Rose would be more than just a friend who traveled around the universe with him. One day, Rose would be with him for as long as she lived.
Knowing that he had seen what he needed to see, the Doctor headed back to the TARDIS, his mind more at ease than when he had arrived.
The Doctor opened the doors of the TARDIS, back on the planet Rose had been left on.
"Doctor!" she yelled as she bolted towards him.
He wrapped her up in a hug, taking in her sweet scent and warm embrace. After remaining in each other's arms for a few minutes, the two strolled back in the TARDIS, hand in hand.
"Where did the TARDIS send you?" Rose inquired.
The Doctor shifted on his feet, unsure whether to tell Rose about their future together. He wanted to tell her that her heart would not be broken, and that she would never be alone again, but he knew that he had to let her live that adventure herself. Instead, he lied about how the quantum bio-mechanics were unbalanced, causing the doors to shut and send him away.
Rose gave a suspicious look, but brushed it off as she went to her room that the TARDIS had made for her.
The Doctor leaned against the console, thinking about all that had happened. He understood now that the TARDIS had sent him to Rose's future to lift the worry from his chest, to show him that days would come where they would be happy and safe in each other's hands, that they had many years ahead of them to spend together.
The Doctor walked past Rose's room, and saw that she had fallen fast asleep on her bed. He stood in her doorway, marveling at her: everything they had already experienced, and everything they would become.
"Tell you what, Rose Tyler," he whispered, "You and I, we're gonna be fantastic."