Okay, with this we're all caught up on everything I'm working on. Rose isn't entirely happy with the Doctor in this one. It is a reunion fic, but with some real life problems thrown in. :)

Amy and Rory were gone. The angels took them and there was nothing he could do to get them back without destroying the universe. He thought about it, briefly, okay, a bit more than briefly, but he couldn't bring himself to do it.

To hell with the universe and every bloody thing in it. If that's all he was going to get was heartache, being forced to lose everyone he loved over and over again then he didn't care. Why should he save the universe if it was going to take everyone he loved?

He growled, slamming his hand against the console. River was gone. To the Library. He saved her, his past regeneration saved her, but again, he'd never be able to see her again. She wasn't Amy and definitely not…he rubbed his face, no, don't think about her. He couldn't think about her.

She was gone forever. Safe. Happy. But far beyond his reach. He sighed. Why? Why couldn't he be happy? Just once, why couldn't he have some bit of happiness. Something for everything he sacrificed. It wasn't fair!

Another sigh escaped. Then he turned around and set the coordinates for Victorian London. The universe could bloody well get on without him. The TARDIS rocked, pitching him to the side. He grabbed onto the console to keep from falling.

"What?" he glared at the time rotor.

He was greeted by another violent pitch. What the hell was wrong with her? The TARDIS shuddered. He started flipping levers and pushing buttons, but that only seemed to make matters worse as she pitched again.

"Oh, come on," he growled, irritated that she was meddling when all he wanted to do was find some out of the way place and forget about the universe, forget about everyone he lost.

A familiar zapping noise greeted him and he quickly spun around as someone teleported inside his TARDIS.

"That's not possible," he said as thought and speech combined in his surprise. In the next moment both thought and speech dissolved into nothingness as he realized who was standing in his TARDIS.

"Who are you and what the hell did you just do?" Rose demanded, eyeing the man standing a few feet from her.

She'd been in the process of teleporting to the coordinates Jack sent her via text, but the moment she pressed the button she felt a strange pulling sensation. Did he have something to do with taking Tony? Was this some sort of trap and how the hell did he manage to control her vortex manipulator.

"I…" was all the bloke managed.

She looked at him then, really looked. He seemed surprised, startled, and something else. Not fear, but something akin. Okay, this wasn't him.

"I'm sorry…I uh…" she began, trying to come up with a credible lie as to how she managed to pop out of thin air, but at that moment her eyes fell on the console, which was completely different, yet, familiar. She gazed around the room, also completely different yet familiar. Then she felt it. The TARDIS. A presence in her mind, but more than that. Then again, of course she would be more than that, because Rose wasn't the same. She was different. Finally, her eyes came back to the man who was now looking at her as if she were a ghost. That almost made her laugh…almost, as she thought of the words she once spoke to him, You look like a ghost.

"Rose?" he asked in the whisper of someone afraid that the last vestiges of hope were about to be ripped from him.

The moment recognition entered his mind all those emotions he walled away came rushing back. The wall dissolving like rice paper in water. He wanted to reach for her. To hold her. Touch her golden hair. But he dared not move for fear that his hand would go through her. That she was a hologram or a trick of some sort because she couldn't be real. Oh, god, but she looked real. Solid. Whole. The same as the day he dropped her back in that parallel world. Different clothes, short, black leather jacket, red, low cut tank top, very low cut, jeans that were a bit too tight, trainers, but exactly the same otherwise. As if she'd just popped home to change. His hand twitched involuntarily, but he held himself back…barely.

Then her eyes connected with his and he smiled. Only, she didn't return his smile. Instead she looked as if she'd rather be anywhere else in the universe.

"Brilliant," she snapped with more sarcasm than he'd ever heard from her.

Then she did something that made both his hearts synch in panic. She typed coordinates into the vortex manipulator on her wrist. The rational part of his mind, which there wasn't much of with her standing right there in front of him, told him she couldn't teleport off the TARDIS, but somehow she'd gotten on the TARDIS so it was a possibility. One he couldn't ignore.

Rose had to get out of there. This was bad on far too many levels. He shouldn't even know she was back. She'd done a good job of avoiding him for the past two months, not the easiest thing in the world when the mad alien would pop up at any number of random places and times and she herself had been traveling to different places and times trying to track down…No, best not even think it least the TARDIS realize what she was hiding.

She pulled the walls down in her mind and felt the startled and then curious presence in her mind that told her the TARDIS knew something was up. Bollocks! She definitely had to get out of there before things went anymore sideways than they already had.

"Wait," the Doctor cried, hurrying toward her, but paused when she looked up and stepped back as if she didn't want to be anywhere near him. This wasn't the Rose he remembered. Wait. Maybe she didn't know who he was. "Of course," he exclaimed, slapping his forehead, which made her eyes widen a moment. Not in fear, but…humor? He couldn't tell. "You, I, I'm the Doctor." She continued to stare at him. "I'm the Doctor," he repeated. "I regenerated. Different face." He bent toward her and she backed off again. "But I'm still the same."

"I got that with the TARDIS, yeah?" she replied, as if she already knew who he was, but if she did then why was she acting so strange?

"You knew."

"I'm on the TARDIS, you're the only other person here, doesn't take a genius to figure it out."

What she didn't mention was that she felt him. In the back of her mind. It's what told her he was the Doctor and not some companion. Another reason to keep the walls up, least he figure out what she was hiding.

Sister! The TARDIS' musical voice rang through her mind. Bollocks! She should've known the TARDIS would figure it out. It's one of the reasons she'd been avoiding the Doctor. One of many reasons.

Both of the Doctor's hearts fell. She knew, but she didn't care. Why didn't she care? He wanted to ask, but he doubted she'd tell him. Not with her flippant answers. So, he settled on the next question.

"How are you here? You should be-"

"Back in that parallel universe where you dropped me, yeah?"

He took a step back at her answer, as if it bit him.

"I didn't-"

"Don't even bother, Doctor. I've had a long time to get over you and this time I didn't come back to you. This," she waved her hand around the console room to indicate the TARDIS. "Wasn't my doing. I was trying very hard to stay as far from you as possible."

She saw the hurt in his eyes, but she ignored it, okay, tried to ignore it. After everything he put her though she shouldn't let him get to her, but he did. He was the Doctor. Damn him!

No, she wasn't going to let him do this to her. Suck her back in. She gave him a chance. Hell, she crossed universes to find him and she was going to tell him and then he just left. Left her with a copy of himself. No, that wasn't fair to John. He tried, he really did, but he knew that she needed the real thing, especially after he found out…No! No, don't go there, if she went there the TARDIS would know. Know what? Crap!

He tried to pull all those emotions back. To slip the mask into place, but it was nearly impossible with her. So, he refocused. There was something in the way she said I've had a long time to get over you.

"How long?"

"Sorry?" she asked, taken back by his question, but that was a good thing. It refocused her thoughts.

"You said you've had a long time to get over me, so how long?"

She blinked and then realized she let something slip she shouldn't have. Quickly, she tucked away her surprise, though she knew he'd seen it.

"I don't have time for this," she snapped and moved to press the button on her vortex manipulator, but this regeneration was much faster than she thought and he caught her wrist before she could hit the button and in another, faster than she expected move, he pulled the vortex manipulator off her wrist.

"Give that back!" she demanded. "I have to go. I have to…" she trailed off, knowing she couldn't tell him.

He'd want to help, but she didn't need his help. Yes, you do. Her own thoughts this time, but she told her mind to sod off. Okay, maybe she could use his help. Really, definitely could, but she didn't want it. Not after he abandoned her, abandoned both…She pushed the thought aside before it formed.

"Have to go where?" he asked, smiling and she wanted to slap that smile off his face.

"It's mine!" she yelled. "You have no right!"

"My TARDIS. My Rules," he replied, giving her another smile that made her hand itch to slap him.

"Fine," she growled, pulling her wrist out of his grip, turning on her heels and stalking for the doors.

She could always get another vortex manipulator, wouldn't be easy, but Jack would take her back to Dorian, not that she liked dealing with him and it would cost something dear to Torchwood. Jack would do it though because he knew how important this was. She stopped in her tracks when she heard the unmistakable sound of his sonic and then the doors locking. If he thought locked doors were going to stop her then he didn't remember her very well. She pulled her own sonic out and unlocked the doors.

She had a sonic? The Doctor raced across the room as she opened the doors and caught her before she stepped out into –

"Of course we're in space," she said with that sarcasm again. "Why the hell are we in space?"

"I hadn't decided where to go yet."

God. He was touching her. Actually touching her. His arm around her waist and she was close. So close. He leaned over and smelled the strawberry shampoo in her hair.

Wait. Was he smelling her hair? What the hell was he doing? Not that she minded his arm around her waist. No, no, this was bad, really not good. He left her. Abandoned her! She couldn't let him pull her back in.

She pulled away from him and stalked back toward the console. She needed to get out of there. To get to those coordinates, but the Doctor was being his usual nosy self and wasn't about to let her leave until he found out why she was there.

How the hell did I even get here? She shouldn't have been able to teleport aboard the TARDIS.

I brought you here, the TARDIS replied.

"Why?" she asked, glancing at the time rotor.

"Why what?" the Doctor asked.

She gave him a glance and then ignored him.

We missed you.

Now she did look at the Doctor. No, no! I can't do this again.

The Doctor watched her. She didn't seem to be talking to him, but who else…Wait. No. She couldn't be talking to the TARDIS. He was the only one who could communicate with the TARDIS.

"Who are you talking to?" he asked.

Instead of answering she folded her arms and eyed him.

"Look, I need to get back. Are you going to take me or not?" she demanded.

"As soon as you tell me what's going on."

"What's going on with what?" she asked, feigning ignorance.

"With you. This," he indicated her, "Isn't you."

She laughed a bit more bitterly than she intended, but she spent years trying to get back to her universe after Tony was taken. It was enough to make anyone bitter, especially when everything came down to him and his bloody insistence on making decisions for her.

The bitterness of her laugh told him that something was definitely wrong with her. The Rose he knew never laughed like that. She was the most human human he knew. Compassionate, happy, caring. Not this bitter, angry woman standing in his TARDIS. What could've happened to her to change her so much?

"How would you know? You haven't seen me in…" she trailed off, realizing that he was trying to bait her, but she wasn't about to bite.

"Yes?" he prompted.

She could feel the TARDIS prompting her too, but she didn't have time for this. She also knew he wasn't about to let her go until he got answers. Damn him!

There was no getting out of this. She'd have to tell him something or he'd never let her leave. Fine, but there was no way in hell she was letting him help her. She didn't need his help, hadn't needed it since the day he walked away.

"You want to know how long it's been?" she snapped.

She was angry, but that could be sorted later. Answers. That's what he wanted and he was about to get them. He folded his arms and waited.

"Yes," he replied.

"Twenty years ago, linear time, I acquired a vortex manipulator from a Kahler seeking refuge on Earth. I spent eleven years hunting down everything that I would need to make a working dimension cannon, popping in and out of different times because most of the equipment I needed was highly advanced. Then I had to wait the twenty years for the TARDIS coral to mature enough to use it with the dimension cannon, which was the only way to be sure I'd wind up in the proper universe at the proper time."

"But that means-" he began, disbelievingly.

"For me, Bad Wolf Bay was thirty-four years ago," she finished. "Now, I'd like to go."

Standard Disclaimer.

Thank you to all my brilliant readers!

Reviews are always welcome. :)