Disclaimer: I do not own Doctor Who or any of its characters.
Prologue
In Pete's world, in the summer of 2010...
The London sky was a lovely hue of blue this time of the year, unstained by dark clouds that brought in weeks of never-ending rain, and decked with zeppelins that looked like tiny specks of Christmas decoration. Stuck in a single planet at a single time, the Doctor duplicate had learnt to search for places and weathers that closely resembled the ones he adored throughout the Universe, his human heart blissfully aware of how excited Rose was every time he took her on one of these adventures.
Right, Rose. Usually, just the thought of her was enough to light up his face like a Gallifreyan white star. But this day was different. This was the day that was going to decide their future. And although he knew how things were going to go, he couldn't stop fidgeting with the tiny velvet box in his hands. He opened the lid, and looked down at the silver ring, with engravings in Gallifreyan that he had designed for her by himself, after hours of discarding sketches that he deemed unworthy of adorning the finger of a hand that was his to hold. He had chosen their favorite spot too for this occasion- a secluded spot in the garden in the Tyler mansion, where they would sneak out and meet in the middle of the night, like rebellious teenagers, back when she was still living with her parents and her brother and hadn't moved into their apartment yet. He leaned against the wall, remembering all the little and big things that brought them where they were- together, and happy.
And then it happened.
Sometime in 2008...
She still couldn't believe how lucky she had gotten- to be back in her original universe, the one she had been born and brought up in, travelling through space and time with the wonderful person she loved, having all these adventures that she only watched in sci-fi movies and dreamt of, and living the perfect life. Rose Tyler was the happiest girl she ever knew. She never thought she could feel this way again, not since, since-
There was this nagging feeling at the back of her mind, like a constant hammering across the veils of consciousness, a pounding, something screaming at her, telling her she was missing something of extreme importance, something crucial, something vital to her existence, but she couldn't remember what. She sighed, taking comfort in the familiar thrum of the TARDIS, like the beat of a heart singing a soothing lullaby, willing her worries to rest. No, nothing was wrong, in fact, things couldn't be better- she was where she belonged- home, with him, and that was all that she could ask from life, especially after the-
There, the disturbing feeling was crawling under her skin again, burning through her flesh, seeping through her bones into her veins, staining her blood as it made its way into her heart that suddenly started beating faster, like it was trying to leap out of her chest and wake her up from a nightmare.
"What's wrong?" His voice broke through her thoughts, his breathe invading her left ear as he planted a soft kiss there and wrapped his arms around her waist.
She shrugged, melting into his embrace. "Nothing, it's silly."
She could feel him arch an eyebrow across the skin of her neck in silent question.
"Just feel like I'm forgetting something important that I was supposed to be remember, is all."
"Hmm", he hummed, fingers slipping under the hem of her shirt and tracing patterns in Gallifreyan on the soft skin of her stomach, the movement successfully making it impossible for her to think. Ever since she had returned and they had got a second chance, he had vowed to make the most of it, and had definitely opened up to her about his feelings more than he ever did before. He grinded against her, making his train of thoughts clear. "Quite right, you are. You are forgetting something very important."
She laughed, smacking him on his arm and turning around to face him, letting him keep his hold on her but putting enough distance between them. "Oh, no, you don't. We promised Wilf we would be there for lunch."
He whined, pulling her closer to him again, "Time machine, remember?"
"Daft pilot, remember?" She teased, tongue poking her teeth.
"Oi!" He frowned in mock hurt, finally letting go of her to hold her hand and lead her out of the TARDIS, not wanting to risk the temper of two Noble women. "Allons-y then!"
"Blimey, you're getting skinnier by the day. Rose, don't you feed him properly?" Donna Noble exclaimed as soon as she opened the door and noticed her and the Doctor standing outside, tugging on an ear.
"Good to see you too, Donna", The Doctor mumbled, while Rose smiled and walked into the house, dragging the Doctor with her by the lapels of his jacket before he could run away. "She's my friend, not my cook."
"Oh, shut it!" Donna shot back, closing the door behind them. "We all know what you really are. When are you going to propose, John?"
"Donna!" Rose exclaimed, scandalized, but that didn't stop her.
"I'd like to see my friend married too. You remember Mandy? Linda from the mall's cousin? Her daughter got married last weekend. It was such an amazing wedding! Should have seen her, looking all radiant. I want to see you in that dress too, Rose." She shot a pointed look in the Doctor's direction.
This was when he decided it was time to intervene. "Okay, first of all, Donna, if- and that's a big if, a big fat fatty fatty if- if Rose and I were getting married, there would be no wedding, we'd elope. Secondly, we're not getting married! Thirdly, marriage is not a pre-requisite for having children!" He finished, with a look on his face that said it was the end of discussion.
Of course, it was just the beginning of a new discussion. "Did you knock her up? You did, didn't you? You dog!"
Rose groaned, holding her face in her hands, leaving her friend and her Doctor to enjoy their never ending verbal tug of war- she was not getting dragged in the middle of this again. Despite the embarrassing commotion around her, it was still wonderful to be here, after managing to convince the Doctor to visit Donna as John Smith, her grandfather's friend, a normal human git. Even with Donna's memories of him wiped, they had quickly formed a bond, and so had she and Rose, Rose sympathetic of the woman after missing a part of her memories herself. A few months back she had woken up in a desert in the right Universe and the Doctor had found her. She had no idea how she got there, she only had some vague memories of working on the dimension cannon - the last thing she could recall clearly was standing on a beach and hearing him tell her, "Does it need saying?" Of course he did whisper the words in her ear later while she-
Rose blinked. That thought hit her like a cold wind that intended to sweep away whole of existence. Where did that thought come from? She had never felt this way before, not even when she was stranded in a parallel universe some two years back. It felt like she had been so far, far away from home for so long with no way of getting back, and that he had been with her. What was-
"Rose?" She found the Doctor staring at her expectantly, cutting off her thoughts for the second time that day.
"Sorry, what?"
He studied her for a moment, wondering why she was distracted, but didn't ask, not in front of Donna at least. "I said, Jane Smith is a good name for a baby, don't you think?"
Rose blinked, staring back and forth between the two banes of her existence. "How did you two even get to baby names?" Seeing the Doctor opening his mouth to explain, she cut him off with a wave of her hand. "I don't even wanna know."
The Doctor, of course, took her lack of comment on the subject as a victory. "See, she likes it."
Donna practically scowled. "No she doesn't, that's why she didn't answer, you pear! I thought you could do better than Jane Smith!"
Rose snorted, trying to ease some of the tension in her mind. "What about my middle name? Marion, really? Unique doesn't always mean good."
Donna huffed, getting up from the sofa and getting ready to set the table. "You are two peas in a pod, I swear! You drive me barmy! Wait till you have your own babies, then you'll know how it feels! GRAND-DAD, THEY'RE HERE!"
The lunch was rather peaceful, barring Donna and the Doctor dominating the conversation and getting into heated debates on certain topics which ended with Slyvia telling them to "behave like adults". Rose and Wilf managed go get only a few words in sometimes, but mostly, they had to be content with communicating via looks, one that said "yeah, I know what it's like living with someone who never shuts up."
Once lunch was over, Rose excused herself to go to the loo, washing her hands in the basin and smiling to herself at the domesticity of things. She had never imagined she would be able to drag him to lunches and dinners, but there he was, with his best friend, with her family, with-
Rose blinked again, the feeling of something not making sense returning to her. Her family was still in the parallel universe, and the Doctor had never had dinner at her place, except that Christmas after regeneration. So why did she feel like this was a thing, him and her having dinner with people they loved? Shaking her head, she splashed water on her face, willing the thoughts whirling in her head to just fade away. She wiped her face with the towel, and looked at her image in the mirror, only to find a woman standing right behind her. She jumped in surprise, but years of dealing with aliens allowed her to supress the instinct to scream. She had to do this herself- Donna could not know about the aliens, they couldn't risk her remembering.
Taking in a deep breath, she turned around to face the woman, fixing her with a gaze that showed she meant no non-sense. "Who are you? How did you get here? What do you want?"
The woman studied her for a moment, and Rose felt self-conscious, the pounding of her heart and the cadence of her breath suddenly very loud in the small bathroom, like a siren screeching to alert her of impending danger. She studied the woman too, blond, short hair, a simple white suit with a skirt. She didn't look threatening or malicious at all.
"You know something is wrong, don't you, Rose? Open your heart. You know the answers already. I'll be here to help you." And then she vanished into thin air, without answering any of the questions, leaving Rose to wonder if she had just imagined the whole thing, leaving her even more confused. How did she know her name? The whole day had been too weird, even by their daily routine where trouble was normal.
Regaining her composure, she stepped out and saw the happy look on the Doctor's face, and immediately decided not to bother him with the knowledge of what happened, at least not yet, not until she was sure it wasn't just stress or sleep deprivation playing tricks on her mind and making her hallucinate. He was so happy, finally, after all the pain he had been through, all the losses he had suffered, and she was not going to let him worry needlessly for her.
She had to figure it out herself. The woman did say she knew the answers already. Did she, really?