A new man had taken the place of her beloved Doctor. He was ranting and rambled, happily exploring himself but she couldn't remember the words caught in a daze of her own grief. And then he had said the words imprinted on her wrist, the one that told the story of the end of her old life, and the beginning of the lie she had always been running toward.

"The very first word I ever said to you. Trapped in that cellar, surrounded by shop window dummies, ooooh, such a long time ago. I took your hand, I said one word, just one word I said: Run!"

Those words being spoken, telling her that story, even in his unfamiliar voice made her realize exactly who he was, and with those words on her wrist both new and old she knew it could be not lie. And because of that her heart had broken in a whole new way as she was filled with a sense of betrayal, as well as the crushing feeling of loss and regret.

But they recovered, just like they always did. Her second Doctor defeated the Sycorax and in the process he showed her exactly the kind of man he was and the potential for the man that he would become.

He was both lighter and darker then her first Doctor. He would laugh, joke, and smile more easily then her first Doctor ever did, and because of that it became easier to relax around him and for him to relax around her. His guard would eventually begin to slip around her as their relationship began to change and morph from the firm friendship they'd had together when he was in his previous body to the more ambiguous relationship they shared by the end of her time with him. This is the relationship that would leave her questioning what she was to him in the end.

Her second Doctor also talked more, but he said less. He seemed to guard his heart a little more, some of his defences rebuilding, but she could still always see through him. Her second Doctor was also the one who broke her heart, first with the revelation of Sarah Jane, then by sending her away, and finally the first time at Bad Wolf Bay.

She had known that he was her second soulmate from the moment he had spoken those words, but like her first Doctor she never told him about the run on sentence on her arm below run. This one was much harder to hide, and later her Doctor would reveal that he often wondered why he had to take her to buy concealer so often.

There was a point where she wondered why she kept hiding it from him between Queen Victoria and the Werewolf and Sarah Jane. She wondered why she continued to hide the marks on her left arm. He knew she had none on her right because it had caused trouble more then a few times. Once in particular after her lack of a mark on her right wrist had nearly gotten burned at the stake on a particularly religious planet, which saw the absence of a mark as the sign of the devil. The Doctor had reassured her that it was a fluke, that when she was going to meet her soulmate the mark would fill in as a sort of countdown. She could see him trying to smile through the heartbreak in his eyes as he said those words.

She had gotten to her room and had been pouring the make-up remover onto a cotton pad, and about to swipe at her arm when she wondered if it was worth revealing the marks only to get rejected. She knew there was something between them, that she loved him, and perhaps he loved her, but was it worth risking their friendship, the one she valued most above all else, when they could never truly be together?

She hadn't been able to decide, and had ended up crying herself to sleep that night mourning something that she thought could never be. She didn't know until much later that the Doctor had been on the other side of the door caught in a fierce debate about whether to go into her room or not. They laughed at the irony of it all later because had he walked in that night he would have seen the words on her the skin of her forearm: the words that had permanently marked her as his soulmate. They might have been able to have at least some happiness before the heartbreak of their separation, although the pain may have only been greater in the end, at least they would have had the memories.

After she lost Mickey, she wondered again if it was worth keeping her marks hidden, because as it turned out the Mark that Mickey thought he would never have appeared the moment he landed in the alternate universe. He had taken it as a sign hat he belonged there. He left her alone, sending her back to the Doctor. His parting words still echo in her ear: Tell 'im Rose he deserves to know.

She never did, not when they had landed on Krop Tor, not after the mess with Elton, not even after the Olympics.

When he had taken her to the planet with the things that looked like Pterodactyls, not even then could she find the courage to tell him, even as she promised him to stay with him forever. After those words she had seen him hesitate for a moment, his left hand fidgeting with the cuff of his right sleeve, before shaking his head and walking back toward the Tardis.

She stayed behind for a moment, admiring the scenery of one of his favourite planets, she couldn't help but wonder why he had taken her here. Later, when her Doctor took her there in their baby Tardis she found out exactly what he had planned to do that day, the same ring and all.

It was probably for the best in the end that her second Doctor had been a coward that day on the planet brimming with potential and only just starting because just as that planet was starting her world was being upheaved into something beyond recognition.

It was a story of the day that she died, and the story of how for the first time in her life became stagnant, standing still instead of running towards or away. It had happened so suddenly. One day she had been traveling with the Doctor, laughing and joking around as they explored a bizarre thousands of years in the future and galaxies away. The next day she had been banging on a white wall, begging to be taken back to her second Doctor. It had been a story that stared with ghosts that turned out to be Cybermen with a side of Daleks tossed in for good measure. It was a story of a world saved, but at to high a cost, three hearts shattered and two souls broken beyond recognition, crying out for the partner they would never see again.

It was a story that ended on a beach thousands of miles from the city she had always and never called home. It ended on a beach that bore a name she would not understand the meaning of until years later when her Doctor explained it to her. It was the place where she said goodbye and, although she didn't know it at the time, would one day again say hello.

It was the place where she said "I love you" to him for the first time.

It was where he had responded with, "Quite right too."

He had tried to be strong for her, but in the end she heard the quiver in his voice and had see the barely suppressed tears in eyes.

It was the story of her death because without his hand in hers she felt empty.

It was the day that the first two marks on her left wrist turned grey telling her that bond was shattered.

But it was also the day the skin of her right wrist began to darken.