Small explosions suddenly rocked the console, sending Jack and the Doctor flying. "I'm pretty sure this is normal!" the Doctor yelled as he struggled to make his way back to the controls.

"Pretty sure?!"

"We're breaking through to a parallel universe – not popping down to Cardiff!"

"How can you even go to another universe? I thought that was impossible!"

"Can we focus on my exploding TARDIS for the moment?!"

With a final jerk, the TARDIS stabilized and moaned loudly. "I think we made it," the Doctor pushed his hair back and flashed Jack a dopey, youthful smile. Jack rolled his eyes and stood up, heading toward the doors. As Jack threw him a look, he reluctantly released the brake and followed Jack to the doors as the TARDIS materialized.

Stepping out of the TARDIS, the sun over Bad Wolf Bay hit him directly and he was forced to shield his eyes. As he regained his focus, he saw her. She stood only 100 metres away, facing the ocean that lapped at her feet. "Where are you, Jack?" he heard her say to the sea. Jack pushed the Doctor forward, making him trip over a log with the sudden movement. Jack audibly sighed and Rose turned on her heels to look at the bumbling bowtied man. Her hands instantly went to cover her mouth as tears sprung to her eyes. The Doctor pushed his hair back, fighting his own tears, "Hello, Rose."

His gaze fixated on the small gold band encircling her left right finger, and met her eyes again, distraught. "I don't love him, Doctor. John still isn't you."

"Rose -"

"No, we aren't going to do this again."

"Rose Tyler. I missed you!"

He closed the distance between them and picked her up off the ground, holding her tight. She was crying now, he was still fighting back tears. Jackie and Mickey ran up behind Jack, Jackie immediately gasping as she took in Rose and the Doctor. Jack smiled back at them, leaning against the TARDIS, "I told you I'd find him."

"So that's him? That's the Doctor?"

"Sure is, Mickey Mouse!"

The Doctor set Rose down, and she beamed up at him. "I missed you too."

The Doctor smiled back at her, held out his hand, and wiggled his fingers. She grasped it tightly, never dropping his gaze. "Well everybody, I think we've got some people to save!"

He winked at Rose, then leaned down to her ear and whispered, "Run."

She pulled him along, and they sprinted across the Bay toward the city shining in the distance. When everybody had gotten to the small house at the edge of the beach, they assembled in the living room.

The Doctor started them off, "Okay, what I've heard so far: we might be able to save Amy and Rory, still not sure how you know about them, we need to save River, anything I've missed?"

"Well, yeah Doctor," Rose chimed in, "the sudden surge of alien activity a while back. But there hasn't been anything – anything at all – in months. It's completely quiet. We don't know why everything would suddenly abandon Earth – I mean, parallel Earth."

"They wouldn't."

"What do you mean?"

"They wouldn't. They wouldn't abandon Earth unless something was happening," the Doctor paused "Or, something is here. Something is here right now and nobody else wants to go near it. Oh this is extremely very not good."

His eyes darted around as he put the pieces together in his head. "Oh. Oh! Oh… oh no," he looked around at the concerned faces staring up at him, "Yes. Well, something is here. I'm sorry, I'm so sorry, but it is not good. Not good at all. Jack, your theory about the weeping angels taking people across time and dimensions. What if you're right? What if the angels are here, now, and they are more powerful than we thought. Powerful enough to move people to parallel universes and scare all other alien species away from a planet. I know River; she'd catch onto that. She would've come here. She has a vortex manipulator too, Jack. Well, yours. Well, yours from the future, another point in its time stream."

"I'm not sure I follow, Doctor," Rose piped up from the chair in the corner.

"The weeping angels, they're a race, a species. They date back to the Time Lords, but I don't know how. They're quantum locked, only move when they aren't being observed, and they move people in time – and apparently dimensions – to feed on their potential energy."

"Okay then," Rose smiled, "Let's get 'em."

"It's not gonna be that simple, Rose. These would be more powerful than any angel – any alien – I've ever seen. There's no telling what we're up against."

"Right, well we do have to get your friends back."

"My friends, yes," he looked at Jack, who shrugged, and the Doctor realized Rose didn't know. About his family, his wife, any of it. Jack was protecting her. He nodded his thanks back, then looked to Rose once again. "You're right. We do need to save them."

"You know," she looked at him hopefully, "we might have something that can help."

Just an hour later, the Doctor, Jack, and Rose found themselves outside of a nondescript building on the outskirts of the city. The doors slid open and they walked through. The Doctor stopped inside and looked around gleefully, "Ah! Parallel world, parallel UNIT!"

Rose gestured down a hallway, flashing a shiny badge to the guard. "Well, come on. We've been working on something."

The Doctor followed her down the small, brightly lit hallway into a white paneled room. "Rose, this is brilliant! Dangerous… but brilliant! A paradox machine? You're bloody brilliant, Rose Tyler!"

He reached for her cheeks and kissed her forehead. "The angels made a mistake. They thought I couldn't get to a parallel universe, but they were wrong. I can get here, well… obviously. And since we're in a parallel world, it's not the same New York I lost them in! It's less dangerous to go back, and now we have a paradox machine to stabilize the dangers that are still there! Rose I could kiss you!"

He leaned over, floppy hair falling in front of his childlike eyes and kissed her forehead again, Jack still laughing in the background. Rose was smiling; this was the Doctor she was used to, maybe a different face, but her Doctor all the same. "Ok, so what do we do now? We got this machine all set up, but none of us really know how to go about using it."

"First, we need the TARDIS. I left her on the bay! I'll be back, Rose Tyler! Allons-y!"

He threw her a wink with his old trademark saying and ran out the door, flailing over his own limbs. Rose smiled to herself and sighed. He was so much more childlike, but he was happy. He had been so miserable the last few times she had seen him, maybe a chance to rescue everyone he loved was bringing him back to her. Her Doctor, but different. Not the same man born out of his love for her, but the man born out of loss. She wandered around the room, examining the familiar and unfamiliar machine, trying to figure how it could possibly work. She heard the painfully familiar materialization noise and ran to the other side of the flashing device as the Doctor enthusiastically popped out of the TARDIS. "Ah! River said I leave the brakes on, but that is a brilliant noise!"

Rose giggled, "So how does this work?"

The Doctor showed her which cables to hook into the TARDIS console and tried to explain how it would work. "Rose, see if we plug that large cable in…the other large cable. Here, over here. Great, now I need you to operate the machine from here so I can go in the TARDIS."

"But I don't know how to use it, I wasn't technically on the team that developed it."

"Oh you can do it Rose. I believe in you," he smiled at her and disappeared into the TARDIS. "Just make sure the numbers on the display stay steady!" he yelled from inside.

There was a creak and the TARDIS dematerialized. Jack sprinted over to Rose, who watched the display when suddenly the middle column spiked. "Doctor! What do I do?!"