"Loosing the key to the TARDIS."
"I would never. When your mother and Mickey get into arguments over nothing."
"Oh, please, those happen too often to be bothered by them. The noise the TARDIS always makes, the VROOOM sort of thing?"
"That noise is beautiful, Rose Tyler! It's gorgeous, that noise, beautiful!"
"Oh. So the noise doesn't annoy you, it's when people insult your wonderful phone box."
"Among other things, yes."
Rose Tyler sat on Bad Wolf Bay, her feet covered by water and surrounded by sand. The wind blew thin strands of blonde hair into her face, and she found her self glancing at where she'd seen the Doctor what seemed like eons ago when she attempted to shake the hair away.
"So did I win, then?"
"Nah. There are other things that drive me mad more than people insulting my TARDIS."
"Like, uhm… Oh! Do you remember when you… Re-something. You changed your face, and-"
"Regenerated."
"Yeah, Regenerated. You regenerated, and I told you that you looked different. You asked if it was a good different or a bad different."
"Then you told me I was just… different."
"And you asked me if you were ginger!"
"But I'm not. I'm brown."
"Yeah, I can see that. But is that it, not being a ginger?"
"Well… Hm. Can't chose how I regenerate, can I? Can't let that get to me."
"Fine, then. You win."
A crab pinched at Rose's toes as she wiggled them under the sand, pulling her out of the memories. A jacket fell onto her shoulders, and Mickey squatted beside her.
"You're thinking about him again."
"Yeah," Rose admitted quietly, a small smile forming on her lips. "He used to sit on the edge of the TARDIS, stroking the open doors as all of space flew by."
"That makes him sound like a loon."
"But it doesn't. I miss it; I miss traveling around with the most feared being in the universe, I miss seeing the stars with the Oncoming Storm, I miss him."
"I'm sorry, Rose."
"It's not your fault."
"It's almost six, we should go." Mickey said quickly, standing back up and kicking at the ground.
"You go ahead. I'll be right there."
"You go ahead. I'll be right there."
"No, you won't. You lot always say that, and you take forever. Then I tell you not to run off, and what do you do?"
"Doctor, not running off is boring. I didn't come with you to stand around and look pretty."
"Though you're doing a good job of it."
"Flattery will get you no where."
"But this old girl will get me anywhere I'd like! Look now, the TARDIS has brought us to… This planet! Lovely planet, very nice aliens, perfectly- oh."
"What is it? Is something wrong?"
"No. Well… No. Back into the TARDIS we go, then, Rose. We shouldn't be here."
"Why are you so against this planet? Let me see it."
"There isn't anything to see!"
"Doctor. Let me through."
"No, Rose. If we go out there, you might die, and you are not dying. Not here, not now, not ever when you're with me."
"Then I'll live forever."
"Stop that. Stop saying that. I've told you a before, you will die and it will be my fault, and I'll have to go on for the rest of my life thinking about what I've done and how I could've saved you."
"That's sweet, Doctor, but you're stuck with me forever."
'No one could be more wrong than I was at that moment,' Rose thought, biting her lip as she stood. She cast a glance- not a hopeful glance, but one out of habit- at where she'd seen the Time Lord long ago.
With no luck, and no longer any meaning for her in the word forever.