The last chapter's song was Not Over You by Gavin DeGraw, since I kind of forgot to mention it. This one is on The Monster by Eminem, though I based the story off of the chorus sung by Rihanna. It went a bit longer than I thought it would, and I'm not sure if I like it, cause it feels rushed to me, but it feels good to be writing again, so I'm gonna go with it.

"Rose, he's not real. You know that."

She didn't know that, actually. She was pretty sure he was real, her Doctor. He hid under her bed and came out at night to tell her stories. Beautiful stories of far off places and heroes and golden wolves with the power to save or destroy.

The one about the Bad Wolf was always her favorite.

"The Bad Wolf, Doctor," she would beg, night after night. "Please, again!"

And he would chuckle good naturedly and tell it again. They would stay up until the early hours of the morning, the Doctor telling Rose stories—and Rose always begging for more—until Rose finally fell asleep. And no matter how late she'd stayed up, she always woke up perfectly rested the next morning.

Rose tried to tell her mum about the wonderful Doctor under her bed, but her mother didn't believe her. Said it was nice for Rose to have an imaginary friend, but she would have to grow up someday.

Only, Rose never did. At least, she never out grew the Doctor. Seven, twelve, fifteen, nineteen; he was still there. He still visited her, still told her stories. And Rose fell in love with him.

The problem was, if one didn't outgrow their childhood imaginary friends, they usually ended up in places with white walls, bad food, and lots of doctors.

Places like where Rose was now.

She'd been here, Mercy Asylum, for two years now. Her mum tried to keep her out of these places for as long as she could, but Rose made the mistake of telling her boyfriend, Jimmy Stone, about her wonderful Doctor.

Jimmy always had been a bit of a git.

Pills. So many pills. And words like Schizophrenia and Bipolar Disorder. This was Rose's world now. It was killing her, she was sure. She'd stopped speaking months ago; it only got her in trouble. She accepted her pills like a good little patient, and spat them out as soon as the nurses weren't looking.

At night, her Doctor came to her, and told her the secrets of the universe. And that was enough to keep her going.

"I hear voices sometimes, you know…" she told him sleepily one night.

"What?" he asked, stroking her hair absentmindedly.

"In m'head," she continued, nuzzling into his hand. "She likes you, I think…" she yawned.

"Who does?" The Doctor asked, his hand stilling.

"The voice. In m' head. The Bad Wolf, just like from your stories."

Next to her, the Doctor went very still. "Rose, listen to me," he said urgently, pulling her from her doze. She turned to look at him curiously, her brow furrowed at his tone. "It's time," he told her solemnly.

"Time for what?" Rose asked, tired and confused. What was going on? Her Doctor was never this cryptic.

"I'm coming to get you. I might take a while, but I need you to be brave, and wait for me, okay?" He took her by the shoulders and stared at her intently, as if willing her to understand.

"But…what do you mean you're coming to get me? You're right here…" Rose mumbled, reaching out a hand to touch him.

The Doctor sighed, and suddenly the weight of his hands on her shoulders was gone, though his hands hadn't moved at all. The hand Rose had stretched out towards him passed inconsequently through him, as if he were made of air.

Rose gasped, jerking her hand back, shrinking in on herself. "But…but…"

"I was never here, Rose. Not physically, anyway," he added quickly. "I've been coming to you telepathically, visiting you in your dreams, all these years. It was the only way, don't you see?"

Rose shook her head, closing her eyes against the tears already spilling down her cheeks. No no no no no! He couldn't be telling her this! He couldn't be…He wasn't….What if her mum had been right? And Jimmy and the Doctors and everyone…her Doctor, he wasn't…he wasn't real….

"Rose. Rose! Rose, listen to me!" The weight of the Doctor's hands appeared on her shoulders again, but Rose refused to open her eyes, scared to find herself alone. "I'm real Rose, I swear to you I am real, and I am coming for you." His hands squeezed her shoulders for a moment, and Rose was pulled against a chest. A warm, comforting chest with an irregular heartbeat that had lulled her to sleep for years. "Thing is…I'm not gonna be able to visit you like this anymore. But I'll see you in person, in physical person, soon, I promise!" He whispered, pressing his lips to her hair. "Just…just…don't stop believing in me, okay?" The quiet desperation in his voice was enough to make Rose's eyes fly open, but he was already gone, and she was alone.

For the first week, Rose struggled with her doubts about the Doctor. As promised, he didn't show up at nights anymore. Rose spat out her pills and stared at her ceiling at night, until the sun came up, and it was time for more pills.

The second week, Rose convinced herself the Doctor had been telling the truth. He was real and he was coming for her and he would save her from this retched place. She slept very little this week, so sure the Doctor would pop out from under her bed any minute and whisk her away.

The third week, she lost all hope. Everyone was right about her—she was crazy and the Doctor was a delusion. She started swallowing the pills the nurses gave her. They made everything fuzzy and muted and she wasn't sure if she was crying as she fell asleep at night or if she only dreamt that. She wasn't sure if she dreamed at all.

The weeks blurred together in a haze of anti-psychotics until five and a half months had passed. Rose's doctors were encouraged by her "progress," though they were worried that she still didn't talk, or move, really.

"Rose, sweetie," her mum said softly from the chair by Rose's bed. It was visitors day, a day Jackie never missed. Rose stared blankly at the far wall, her thoughts muted and sluggish. "They're moving you to a new facility, sweetie," Jackie continued, reaching out to take Rose's limp hand. "They think it might be…better. For you. Only…" Rose dimly noticed how Jackie's breath hitched before she continued. "Only it's in Scotland. I'm not gonna be able to visit as often, love. But you'll get better there, you'll see!" Even in her drugged state, Rose knew the cheer in her mum's voice was false.

"I've got to go now, love, but I'll write you, I promise. And visit as soon as I can." Jackie kissed Rose on the head, then left the room, still sniffling.

Rose didn't move until the sun began to set, and her nurse brought her the little cup of pills. Wordlessly, almost mindlessly, Rose put the paper cup to her mouth, barely noticing the plastic-feeling pills brush past her tongue and down her throat.

It was about a minute before she noticed that the nurse hadn't left the room. Two minutes before she realized it wasn't her regular nurse. Four minutes before the haze in her mind began to clear. Six minutes before she finally turned to look at the nurse, eyes widening as she realized it was the Doctor.

"But…" She wasn't sure if the word actually left her mouth. She wasn't sure if the man before her was real or not. But she found she didn't much care, since this was the first time she'd seen him in so long.

"Anti-anti-psychotics," he grinned proudly. "You humans. Takes you almost another century to realize how rubbish your medications are."

Rose didn't move, didn't speak, only stared in wide eyed fear and trepidation at the man (monster?) before her.

"Hello, Rose Tyler!" The Doctor said cheerfully. He held his hand out to her. "I told you I was coming for you. And you gave up on me!" He frowned in disappointment.

Rose slowly, carefully, put her hand in his, and stood up on shaky legs. Slowly, slowly, she reached up her free hand to feel his face, his solid face. And then she hit him in his solid face, energy she hadn't felt in months surging through her veins.

"You git!" She yelled, not caring that the rest of the hospital could hear and would probably come running. "You absolute prick!"

"Oi!" The Doctor complained, rubbing his cheek. Now he was the one staring at Rose wide eyed.

"Five and a half months you left me!" She shrieked, her voice hoarse and cracking from months of disuse. "You were the absolute only thing I had in the world and you left me! Not only that, but you left me seconds after dropping the bomb that you'd only been in my mind all these years!" She paused to hit him again, this time going for a solid whack to the abdomen.

"Oof," the Doctor grunted. Served him right.

"Do you know what I've been told all my life? 'He's not real, Rose.' 'It's all in your head, Rose.' 'You're mad Rose!'" She backed away from him, the anger slowly ebbing out of her. "Am I mad?" She whispered. "How do I know you're real now?"

"Rose…" the Doctor murmured, reaching for her; she shied away.

The door to her room burst open, and an orderly, belatedly, rushed in. "I heard shouting…who the hell are you?" She demanded, glaring at the Doctor.

"Good enough for me!" Rose announced, appearing at the Doctor's side in a second.

He glanced at her, one eyebrow raised. "What, that's it?" She grinned. "Maybe you are a bit mad…" he muttered.

"I said, who the hell are you!" The orderly snapped, her hand drifting towards a radio on her hip.

"I'm the Doctor," he grinned, waving.

"He's the Doctor," Rose agreed.

"No he's not, I know all the…wait, you mean like…The Doctor?"

"Yep," He grinned popping the 'P.' "Now, if you don't mind, Ms. Tyler and I have places to be."

"You can't just leave!" The orderly snapped, reaching for her radio again.

The Doctor whipped a small, silver device, with a blue tip from his pocket, and pointed it at the orderly's radio, making sparks fly from it. "Wanna bet?" He grinned. He took Rose's hand, and smiled at her. "Run!" They shoved past the frightened orderly, and ran cackling down the halls of Rose's prison.

"Where are we going?" She panted; she hadn't exactly been getting a lot of physical exertion these past few years.

"You'll see!"

A siren went off somewhere in the building, and Rose began to feel uneasy. What if this was still all a delusion…

"Here we are!" The Doctor announced, throwing open a closet door and all but shoving Rose inside.

"What're you—" she started, but stopped short when she saw the blue box sitting in the small closet. "That's…that's the…" She whispered.

"TARDIS," the Doctor supplied, stepping past Rose in the confined space to push the doors open.

"She doesn't like that," Rose whispered, edging closer to the box. At her angle, she couldn't see inside, but, oh, she could imagine.

"What?" The Doctor frowned.

"The doors. You're supposed to pull, not push. Says so on the sign. She doesn't like that." Rose finally stepped past the Doctor, and into the TARDIS. She thought she heard the Doctor mutter something like "Two of them…" but his words were lost on her as she took in the console room of the TARDIS; the room she'd had described to her in stories, that she'd seen in her dreams, and that she was now seeing with her own eyes.

"I wanted to bring you here sooner, you know," The Doctor said quietly from behind her. Rose didn't dare say anything, just ran her fingers over the coral struts. "Had to wait, though. Wait for the Wolf to be ready. Wait for you to be ready."

"Ready for what?" Rose breathed.

"Do you remember the story I told you? Of the Bad Wolf?" Rose could feel hands ghosting on her shoulders, on her ribs.

"She loved a monster so much, she sacrificed herself for him, and became the most powerful being the universe."

"But?" The Doctor prompted, after Rose fell silent.

"But the power came with a cost." Rose closed her eyes and leaned her forehead against the coral. "It was burning her. Killing her. Destroying her mind."

"So her monster took the power from her, to save her," the Doctor continued. His hands rested a healthy distance above Rose's hips, but still low enough to be considered intimate. "He took it, but it was too late. She was still dying. So he did the only thing he could do. He stole all of her memories of the event, and hid them away." Rose frowned. She'd never heard this part of the story.

"He left new memories in place; memories of a childhood, and growing up, memories that were only slightly altered, so that they included him. He rewrote her mother's memories, too. And then he waited." The hands left her sides, and Rose could feel the Doctor move away from her. "He waited while she healed, while the power that had almost killed her, now saved her, remade her, changed her." He sounded sad, so sad… "He couldn't tell her the truth. Telling her too early could jeopardize the whole thing, since even the memory of power is a power. He waited and he visited her in her dreams, telling her stories of their adventures as if they happened to other people."

Rose turned to face the Doctor. He was looking away from her, off into the distance. As he talked, something in Rose's mind wiggled, trying to break free.

"One day, she mentioned hearing voices, the voice of the Bad Wolf, and he knew it was time. The changes were done, and it was safe to come and get her. But he had to make sure, he had to make sure she wouldn't be hurt by remembering him, and everything they'd done." He'd turned to her now, his voice desperate for her to understand. "Everything'd we'd done. Rose." He scrubbed a hand through his hair. "You are Bad Wolf. You've always been Bad Wolf."

Rose blinked, and wondered what new brand of pills they'd put her on because they were fantastic! All those dreams she'd had for all these years culminating in this one moment, this one plot twist! Really, bravo to the psychopharmacologists.

The Doctor's face fell. "You don't believe me. You don't remember."

"I'm dreaming." Rose shook her head. "I've always been dreaming."

"Rose—"

"I'm dreaming!" Rose yelled, and turned to run out of the TARDIS, out of the dream and into reality, when a splotch of pink pulled her up short.

In the corner, as if it had been thrown there, was a pink jacket that said "Punk Fishy" on the back. Slowly, Rose walked towards it. "I…" She frowned. "I was wearing this," she started slowly, brows furrowed as she struggled with the memory. "I was wearing this when the Daleks took me. No…when…when we ended up on the game station. Then the Daleks."

"Yes, yes!" The Doctor breathed from behind her.

"And then… and then…" She threw the jacket down abruptly, and marched over to the Doctor, slapping him across the face in a way that would make her mother proud.

"Bloody hell! That is not something that should be genetic!" The Doctor yelped, clutching his face.

"You bloody idiot! I was going to die so you wouldn't have to!" Rose yelled, ignoring him. "But no, couldn't let that be, could ya? No, you had to go and play the hero and suck the vortex out of me! And don't think I don't remember how you did that, either, cause I do and we'll talk about that later, but you are a git and you went and got yourself regenerated all because you were to stubborn to just let me do what I meant to do!" She glared at him for a moment, huffing. "And how the hell do I suddenly have knowledge of regeneration?" She added, too angry for the confusion and slight fear she had over this new knowledge to show in her voice.

"It's what I was telling you, or trying to, anyway," The Doctor explained, letting go of his face as he moved to take her by the shoulders. There was a red hand print on his face, the exact shape of Rose's hand. She knew she'd feel guilty about that later, but at the moment she just felt an odd sort of pride. "The vortex energy you took in…the Bad Wolf…it made some changes to your biological makeup. Even I don't know how much. But you're different now, Rose." He stared at her for a moment, trying to make sure she was understanding. She wasn't. "You're…well, not like me, exactly, but closer to me than before. You have knowledge about time, a longer life span. With enough practice, I wouldn't be surprised if you were able to become at least a low level telepath."

"So…I'm not human anymore?"

"Not completely. You're about 51% human and 49%...something else." The Doctor's face was calm, but Rose could clearly see the worry in his eyes. "Is that alright?"

Rose was silent as she thought about it. It had been what she wanted, before. An eternity with her Doctor. But what about her mum, and Mickey? She'd have to watch them age, and die. The Doctor's curse, she now shared in it. And she wasn't human, besides. She remembered how angry she'd become when she'd learned the TARDIS was rooting around in her mind without her permission, changing how she heard things and said things so that she could understand and speak the native language of where ever they were. Wasn't this so much worse? Having her biological makeup, her very species, changed without her permission? Without so much as a warning? And her memory of the very event that changed her stolen from her for God knows how long? It was a huge invasion of her privacy, a violation her will.

'But is it?' a voice whispered in her mind, the same voice that she'd been hearing for months before, the voice of the Bad Wolf. 'I am you, as you are me. Is not my will yours, and your will mine? We are the same; I just have a little more control than you. Is this not what you wanted, deep down?'

Rose closed her eyes and covered her ears, as if that could block out the voice.

'We wanted this. Forever with our Doctor. I gave it to us.'

"Rose?" The Doctor asked, concerned. He bent a little to peer into her face.

"Will the voice stop?" Rose whispered, not opening her eyes. "Will she go away?"

"She? Bad Wolf?" Rose nodded. "No, I don't think so. She's a part of you. She was actually always there, since she really is you." The Doctor squeezed her shoulders. "Rose?" He asked, almost timidly. It was strange; she'd never heard him so unsure. "Are you alright?"

"No." Rose said flatly, opening her eyes and looking him dead in the eye for the first time in a while. "But I think I will be, in time." She smiled hesitantly, then threw her arms around him. "I missed you," she whispered near his ear.

She felt him press his lips to her hair. "I know. Trust me," he chuckled, "I know."

Eventually, Rose came to terms with all that had happened to her. Eventually, she managed to sit the Doctor down and tell him her feelings; all of them. And eventually, he managed to tell her he had the same feelings. It didn't take her long to drag him off to his bedroom after that.

Thanks to everyone who followed and reviewed! I'll get on the request sent to me soonly, promise.

Until next time!