A.N.: Umm... I apologise in advance...

Warning: Slight Doctor self-bashing/self-hating, minor spoilers for The Day of the Doctor, minor spoilers for the TV Movie with Paul McGann, slight religious references

Disclaimer: Don't own Doctor Who (or the lines from Doomsday)


Chapter 2 – Bad Wolf Bay

The next twenty-four hours for the Doctor were spent clearing up the mess of what was now being called the Battle of Canary Wharf. He had little time to ponder on the loss of Rose, only when he looked around to say something to her, and he found that she wasn't there.

When his duties were over, however (and they were his duties, for he was still considered to be an employee of UNIT), he began to think about his pink and yellow girl, and how – even if they could never travel together again – he might be able to say goodbye.

Then it hit him.

There was no way that the cracks between the universes were completely closed just yet. There must have been a tiny opening, somewhere, where he could send a projection to Rose.

So he got inside the TARDIS, went to a supernova and placed the ship in orbit until he could generate enough power to send a tiny part of himself across the Void, and began to call her name.

He repeated the single word, calling across the Void until he could feel her, so close to the gap in the universe that they would be able to see each other. A relieved smile broke out on his face as he aimed the sonic screwdriver at the console, so that he could project himself to the alternate universe.

A projection appeared in front of him, like a Time Lord painting – a flat screen before him of a beach with four humans and a jeep in three dimensions: Ricky, Pete, Jackie, and Rose.

Rose.

The Doctor felt his hearts skip a beat each at the sight of her; how long had it been for her?

But she was looking the other way – she didn't know that he was there. He was about to speak up to tell her, to call her, when he was cut off by an ear-splitting scream.

Rose whipped round so that her back was facing the Doctor, to see what had so upset her mother. Jackie was clinging onto Pete's arm while Ricky's face was set in a disbelieving scowl. Pete merely looked confused.

"What is it?" Rose called back, as Jackie pointed behind her at the Doctor with a horrified expression on her face.

"He's there! He's got wings! How's he got wings?"

Rose turned to face him then, her hard expression softening at the sight of his sheepish smile.

"Doctor," she breathed, a smile tugging at her own lips. They stood there, merely staring, for a brief second, before Jackie was shouting again.

"Rose! Is there something you're not telling me? What's going on?"

With each word that she said, the Doctor was getting more and more annoyed. He leaned around where Rose was standing to call over to Jackie.

"Oi! We've only got two minutes to talk, and I thought we could do it in private, so could you keep quiet, alright?"

Jackie shrunk back, one arm still interlocked with Pete's, and mercifully shut up. The Doctor gave her a firm nod before standing up straighter, returning his gaze to Rose. She was chuckling, and it was infectious, but their soft laughter soon trickled away into silence.

"Where are you? How come they can see your wings?"

"I'm in the TARDIS," the Doctor explained. "There's still a gap left in the universe, won't be open for long. As for her," he inclined his head to Jackie, "this is just a projection, weak enough for humans to see the wings."

"You look like a ghost," she told him, shaking her head slightly.

"Oh, sorry about that." The Doctor retrieved the sonic from his jacket pocket and twisted the top, pointing it at the console.

Slowly, Rose approached him, one hand reaching up to his face. "Can I-"

The Doctor smiled sadly and shook his head. "Nah. Sorry."

Rose sniffed sadly but seemed to understand, dropping her hand back to her side. "Can't you come through properly?"

Yes, the voice in the Doctor's head supplied, but he ignored it. Of course there was a way to go through to the other universe properly, but – as it always was with these things – the eventual outcome would be too devastating. "Rose… I can't. Both universes would collapse, the gap is still so unstable."

"So?" she asked, and he couldn't help but chuckle. There was no response to that, because they both knew that they could never justify making collateral damage out of two universes just so they could spend a few extra minutes with each other – besides, it went against the Doctor's calling.

There was a moment of silence where they merely stared at each other, somehow captivated in a way that didn't need words to accompany it. The Doctor was the first to break the silence, with a light-hearted question.

"Where are we, anyway?" he asked, looking around the beach.

"We're in Norway," Rose explained, and the Doctor felt a pang of guilt at making the four of them travel so far to let them say goodbye; well, he didn't really mind about Jackie and Ricky, but Pete was alright, and he certainly cared about Rose. "About fifty miles out of Burgen. It's called… Dålig Ulv Stranden."

The Doctor's blood ran cold at that. "Dalek?"

Rose shook her head. "Dålig. It's Norwegian for 'bad'. This translates as 'Bad Wolf Bay'." They both chuckled sadly at that; even in a parallel universe, they couldn't get away from those two words.

When the laughter had faded away to silence once more, Rose smiled sadly up at him. "So we've only got two minutes, then?" The Doctor nodded. "I can't even think what to say!"

The corner of the Doctor's mouth twitched, as he wracked his brain for a way to move the conversation on. "Tell me about your life here. What are you doing with your time?"

"I'm… I'm back working in the shop," Rose told him, and the guilt that the Doctor was so familiar with returned with a vengeance. He had torn Rose's life apart and sent her to a parallel universe, and now she was back at square one.

"Well… at least I'm not gonna blow this one up."

Rose laughed at that, though tears were beginning to form in her eyes. "Oh, shut up! There's still a Torchwood on this planet, it's open for business. Think I know a thing or two about aliens."

Now that was more like it. "Rose Tyler: Defender of the Earth," he grinned. "Fantastic!"

Rose gave him a small smile, but it wasn't enough to offset the intense sadness in her eyes. He had to rid her of that; that would not be the last thing he saw of her.

"You're dead," he told her, not sure why. "Back home. They're calling it the Battle of Canary Wharf, and you're on the list of the dead. But here you are, living a life day to day. I can't have that."

Rose was crying now, and he wondered what he had done wrong – though he was trying so hard to not start crying himself that the next silence was broken by Rose's tearful voice. "Am I ever gonna see you again?"

The Doctor didn't want to say. It was easier to believe that it wasn't true if neither of them said it out loud. Yet it had to be done, and so, with heavy hearts, he told her that no, they couldn't see each other again.

"What are you gonna do?"

"What I've always done. Travel. Get into trouble. Be the Last of the Time Lords. You know, same old, same old."

"On your own? Rose sniffed.

The Doctor hadn't really thought about that; it had obviously been a lot longer for her than it had for him, and he hadn't really had time to think about what he was going to do next.

He had had many companions before, but he had never quite felt this way about any of them before. He had been close to falling for Grace, but he had never had the chance to travel with her like he had with Rose; he had visited her, certainly, but he had spent almost two whole years travelling with Rose, and he was finding it difficult to conceive of travelling with anyone else. He nodded in response, and Rose sighed.

"I l-" she began, but her breath caught in her throat and she had to look away. The Doctor felt his hearts rate increase; surely this couldn't be happening – she wasn't going to say what he thought she was…

"I love you."

His instinctual reaction was to ask why. Why would she love him, the alien screw up who had put her in so much danger, then stranded her? He was rendered speechless for a moment, before he realised that he should probably say something back.

"Rose Tyler-" he began, but then she was gone. The gap in the universe had closed, and he had never had the chance to say that he loved her as well. Tears fell silently down his cheeks, but he would not admit defeat. He would finish that sentence.

He began skipping around the console, ready to find another supernova to orbit, or to find one of his younger selves so that he could use the power of the Time Lords to cross the parallel universe – because he didn't care about all of the Laws of Time that he would be breaking, as long as Rose got to hear the end of that sentence.

"Excuse me," he said distractedly to the redhead in the wedding dress, gently pushing her out of the way so that he could get to the console.

"No! I will not excuse you!"

The Doctor froze. Redhead in a wedding dress?

He looked up to see a furious woman glaring at him, though there was fear and perplexity present in her eyes. "Where am I? What the hell is this place?"

The Doctor's brow furrowed in shock and confusion. "What?"


A.N.2: The next part has been written, and will hopefully be posted soon. Next up: Forest of the Dead!

A.N.3: I have an idea for a mini-series set within the Angel!Verse, but that won't get written for a while, probably...

UPDATE 02/07/14: Part six of the Angel!Verse, Who Are You?, is up now.