I Promise

By the Alternative Source

Author's Note: This is set after Journey's End. Donna has gone back home. The "Actual" Doctor is all alone now. This happens before the Christmas Special. That's all that I'm going to say.

Disclaimer: I do not own Doctor Who.

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Previously on I Promise:

'You are gone,' her eyes began to glow a soft golden hue, 'and I can't go with you.'

Her body began to glow brighter as the seconds passed. She reached into her pocket and opened the pocket watch. As her body grew brighter the Doctor's body flashed a golden hue and turned into a misty form that eventually disappeared into the pocket watch. Rose closed and pocketed the watch as the golden light finally became too much and the world around her disappeared.

"I'm coming, my Doctor. I'm coming."

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Chapter 2: Location Unknown?

Rose could feel the void dance upon her skin as she flew through the air. The wind whipped her hair around her head like a halo. And her clothes fluttered slightly against her skin.

The Bad Wolf had given her this power. Well not only the Bad Wolf. It was her. She was the Bad Wolf. And that had been the center of her problems. That is what had brought her to start this journey.

She arched her body and closed her eyes tight as she gained more speed through the void. And in a matter of seconds she felt a jolt and a rush of warm air as her feet landed on soft grass. She crouched down for a second and caught her breathe. She had never traveled through the void and time without the Tardis and the landing seemed to have a dizzying effect.

Standing straight she opened her eyes and gasped. She wasn't supposed to be here.

"Oh my god, John."

Rose could only stand there as she looked at the burnt orange sky that held two suns. Soft cream colored clouds drifted over silver-leafed trees and she watched as they swayed slightly in the breeze. She could also see small houses littered all over the mountains around the silver-leafed trees. But what made her eyes water was the sight of a dome covering a city. A city with tall striking towers of every length all over it, with the tallest being in the middle. The city that she had heard about only from the stories John had told her.

"Gallifrey? How did I get to Gallifrey?" Rose suddenly felt a warmth in her pocket and pulled out John's fob watch. It seemed as if a strange light was emitting from inside it. Slowly she opened it and the light became brighter and brighter and she heard a voice emitting from it.

Instantly she recognized it, "You are probably wondering why you are here out of all the places in the world and time."

It was John.

"You've got that right."

"And you're probably glaring at the watch with your pink and yellow self. But enough of this jibber jabber. On to the important stuff. I have set the fob watch to help you find me. But there are some things that I think you need to see to better understand the Doctor. There are places that you must discover for you to understand why the Doctor is who he is today."

"But I…."

"I know that you understand me, or as you sometimes call me the Doctor, better than anyone else but there are things that we have experienced. Things that I remember that happened to my original self. You have always been honest with me about life and now it is my turn. For myself. For me and the Doctor."

And then the bright light was gone and the fob watch was closed. Rose looked away from the watch and then looked at Gallifrey. Squaring her shoulders she knew that the city in front of her held some sort of mission for her. There was something that she was to discover here before she continued on her journey to find the Doctor.

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After walking for about two hours Rose could see the entrance to the city in the distance. As she quickened her pace she thought about how all this was possible.

After ten years of marriage they began to notice some things that were weird about her. First off it seemed that she was not aging and secondly she never became sick or injured. She passed it off as having good genes but as the years passed and the world changed around her she came to realize that something was very wrong.

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John was sitting in front of her clicking away on the computer. Rose had finally agreed to go through with some tests after she realized that he was right. There was something wrong with her. As John's face became more old and wrinkles began to appear on his face she remained the same. The breaking point was last week when she fell off a ladder and broke her leg. After it was adjusted and placed in a cast she realized that her leg was already healed and that it was no longer broken.

So now she was sitting in front of John watching him as he worked through the multiple piles of test results from all the examinations he had given her earlier in the day. He had been going through the results for hours when he suddenly stopped and placed his head in his hands.

Everything was too quiet as she waited for John to say something, "John."

He responded to her voice and looked up at her with sadness in his eyes, "Oh, Rose."

Rose was up and immediately at his side as the distress in his voice became apparent, "John, what's wrong love?"

John could only look at her as his eyes watered. Rose cupped his face in her hands and smiled gently, "John, please tell me what's wrong?"

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The results hadn't been good. It had seemed that her body had been changing and in some ways for the better but in some ways for the worse. It seemed her body was staying young because it was regenerating itself and making itself stronger and more resilient.

The only explanation was that the Bad Wolf and Tardis heart had been merging themselves with Rose for the past couple of years. They were now one being. And that would mean that she would not age with John like they had thought. That night had been the hardest for both of them. They had spent the remainder of the day crying in each other's arms at the cruelty of fate.

Her thoughts were interrupted as she realized that she could hear people talking and laughing. Coming around a bend she noticed that there were people entering and leaving the great city. They looked like humans but their clothes were the most different things. They were wearing robes of many different colors with trinkets and emblems on the shoulder blades of their robes. Many of the women also had their hair pulled up into swirls and points that looked quite elegant. While others had hats that fanned out in different lengths and styles on top of their heads.

"I'm definitely going to stand out," Rose said as she looked down at her purple jacket and jeans. Her hair would stand out the most. She had stopped dying it blonde for many years now and it seemed that her body had taken over it and kept it that way. It now rested a little past her bottom with soft curls ending it. The people would definitely look at her strangely because all of them had dark brown hair.

She watched the various people entering and leaving the city and she noticed that many of them were merchants with carts pulling being pulled behind them by strange creatures that looked like horses except that they were blue with orange eyes.

'Strange. But how am I going to get in there without a robe.'

And as fate would have it she spotted something. A merchant had stopped to talk with a person at the opening gates of the city. Crouching down she kept to the edges of the pathway and hid behind rocks that were placed on the edge of the pathway. When she reached the merchant she watched as he spoke to the person at the gate as she stretched her arm towards the pile of robes. Her fingers had barely grasped a robe when she heard the merchant bid the man goodbye and pull the cart and strange animal away. Luckily her fingers had grasped a rose colored robe.

As she put it she couldn't help but scoffing at the irony, "Seriously. A rose colored robe. Fate is so mean."

But it was quite a beautiful robe. The clasps that closed the robe were golden colored with an interesting script on them that she assumed was Gallifreyan. The shoulders were what fascinated her the most. They had pads on them that came to a point on each shoulder. They looked like all the other robes except that words were stitched in gold thread all around them.

"Beautiful."

Running her hands over the robe to smooth out the wrinkles she threw the hood of the robe over her head and tucked her hair in it so it wouldn't spill out. Joining the crowd she easily made her way into the city and noticed that it looked exactly what she imagined it would.

Gold streets that went everywhere. There were shops of every kind selling trinkets, plates, containers, and jewelry of all sorts. There were families walking the streets laughing and joking around with each others. There were couples holding hands while talking with friends. It was a normal city. Except for the fact that it was way more advanced and cleaner than any city she had ever seen. Plus every once in a while she could see something that looked like a car zooming through the air.

She smiled, "Definitely not a regular city."

Walking further into the city she could see that the towers were never ending. Some were shops and some were homes. The fact was that they never ended. But the thing that she couldn't figure out is why John had sent her here. What was she supposed to learn here?

Rose stopped suddenly as she felt a great weight press against her chest. She stumbled and held on to a passerby to keep herself from falling over.

'Something's wrong. This feeling. It's so familiar.'

She felt someone nudge her shoulder and ask her if she was alright. She couldn't respond. Her mind was going a hundred miles an hour trying to understand the feeling that was pressing against her chest. It had gotten worse.

Whoever was next to her shook her shoulder harder and she looked up into the face of a young man. He had brown hair cut like all the other men in the city. His skin had a slight tan with a sprinkle of freckles across his cheeks. He looked to be about 25 years old in human years. She knew that he was probably much older.

"Are you alright miss?" he said as he looked her over looking for the reason why she toppled over for a second in what seemed like pain.

Rose could hear several footsteps approaching them but all her attention was on the man looking at her intently. Her world began to spin as he kept shaking her shoulder.

One of the man's friends said, "What are you doing? Darxie is going to kill you if she finds you flirts with other girls."

"I'm not up to anything what so ever. What is Darxie going to do? Kill me because I'm helping someone one out? Come over here and help me," the man that was checking her out said.

Rose could feel one of the other men come to her other side and help to pull her to her feet. The pressure against her chest became even greater as she felt the first man that helped wrap her arm around his neck to lift her up. She could feel him. That's what was causing the pain. She could feel him somewhere around her. He was here.

"I don't think she looks too good Theta," one of the men said.

A sob escaped her lips as she recognized the name. It was the name that she had heard many times in John's story. She leaned forward hoping that her hood wouldn't slip as tears began to slide down her face. She was already attracting attention to herself and she didn't want to add to it by having the passerby's see her blonde hair or her tears.

"I'm alright," she whispered. They must have heard a whisper come from her but not clearly enough because the next thing she knew she felt Theta shift his arm and reach for her hood.

"What did you say miss?"

She panicked as she thought about the consequences and changes that could happen in the future if he saw her face. 'No, he can't see my face.'

"No!"

But she was too late. For as he reached for her hood and removed it his finger tips touched her head and she felt the pain increase ten-fold. Her body began to shake as the pain became worse and Rose could only stare wide eyed at the man holding her up.

She could clearly see his face now because the hood wasn't blocking her vision. She gasped as she saw his eyes. She knew those eyes. They were deep brown eyes that told the story of years spent making trouble and running. They were the eyes she would one day love.

She smiled faintly before whispering, "Doctor."

And then she fainted in his arms.

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Author's Note: So what do you guys think? I had to do some research to get the facts as close as possible to what Gallifrey was said to be like.

So review and make me happy, happy, happy!!!!