Jump No. 6

Rose was hurled onto a field of calf-length grass and nearly fell over. That dimension cannon took some severe getting used to. She took a deep breath in, shielded her eyes from the strong sun and looked around for the TARDIS.

Please let this be the one.

She heard a feminine laugh, vaguely familiar, and her heart raced. Donna Noble? She certainly hoped so. She had learned by now that running at the sight or sound of something familiar left her reeling with exhaustion at the end of a disappointing day, so she walked with purpose through the grass, her mind on fire and her teeth clenched. Please.

"Woaw!"

She turned at the exclamation and saw…herself?

Her heart sank.

"Woaw," she said back, lamely. Any other time, this might have been exciting, possibly dangerous. Now it was just another failure. Rose Tyler. Not Donna Noble.

The Doctor would have marvelled at the paradox. She would tell him about it if she found him again.

When. She had to believe in when.

The Rose Tyler in front of her looked her up and down.

"You're…"

"Me."

"Me."

"Right."

They looked at each other for a few, very long seconds.

"How did you get here? When are you from?" The other Rose interrogated her, her eyebrows furrowed. Then she laughed and covered her mouth, as though she was surprised to hear herself saying those words. "This is too weird."

"You're telling me," Rose said back to her, taking in her light dress and longer, slightly darker hair. "I haven't seen a 'me' before. Where is this?"

The other Rose smiled and looked beyond her, as if remembering something fondly. "Not the right place," she said. "Not the right universe. Your calibration's off."

Rose frowned. "What? How do you know?"

The other Rose looked at the ground. "Er…" she seemed lost, but rather than looking for answer she seemed to be trying to remember one. "This isn't the first time you've been here," she said, cryptically and laughed again at herself. "…now I understand…" she continued, apparently, to nobody.

Rose looked at the other woman darkly, confused. "Is The Doctor here?"

The other Rose looked at her with wild eyes for a second, then smiled again. "I don't travel with Time Lords anymore," she said. "I'm living a human life." And she seemed very amused by what she was saying.

"Right…" Rose answered, feeling uneasy. Whoever this Rose Tyler was, wherever and whenever she was from, she was very unsettling.

Both Roses were snapped out of their individual thoughts by a bundle of brown hair running toward them.

"Mummy," the little bundle called. "Daddy says the oscillator is set on six hundred and that if you get your human bottom back to the house, he'll show you the entropic…" the child trailed off, staring at Rose. "Mummy?" she asked. She hid behind her mother's legs.

Rose stared back at the child then at the other Rose.

"Human bottom?"

The other Rose flashed a grin. "Sweetie, you tell your father that he can put his human foot in his human mouth." The little girl laughed and ran out of sight, through the long grass.

Rose frowned. "I don't understand," she said. "The cannon locks onto the TARDIS. If The Doctor isn't here, how am I here? How do you even know him?"

The other Rose looked thoughtful for a moment. "The coral…" she murmured to herself.

"Coral?" Rose asked.

"TARDIS coral," the other Rose answered. "It's…well, it's a long story. But there are no functioning time machines here, no Time Lords and certainly no Donna Noble. I'm sorry Rose…ooh, that's weird, saying your own name…Rose…"

She sounded like The Doctor. It was unnerving.

"Anyway, I'm sorry. I'm so sorry but you're not even close."

Rose sighed with frustration that was more directed at the other her than at the situation, which was refreshing, at least.

"Thanks," she said, half-heartedly and prepared herself to jump again through the void and into another universe, hopefully the right one this time.

"No problem," the other her said and looked at her with something that resembled nostalgia. She smiled again. "Good luck," she said and waved as Rose turned and walked into the clearing; into the void.

As the light and void engulfed her, she thought she noticed a zeppelin in the sky.