Losing Your Way Across Star Riddled Skies

Chapter 1

Hi It's me again back with another exciting chapter There are loads of references to South African products and things in here but I do know my stuff. I spent Christmas over there and like my whole family is South African.

He shouldn't be here.

He knows it's wrong, so terribly, terribly wrong, but in his defense it wasn't his fault. He didn't want to come here. The TARDIS malfunctioned, sending them both on a spiral journey that ended up with them crash-landing here.

He didn't want to come here.

Okay, that was a lie. He had wanted to, so many times, but was physically unable to. Even though the majority of his brain was cursing and screaming about it, the moment he'd stepped out the TARDIS and seen the zeppelins in the sky a little part of him had cheered.

He didn't know if it was the right universe. He thought it was the right universe; but what he thought and what was actually true were beginning to become two completely different things. God, he's getting old.

He wandered about for a while, trying to find any trace of them. It had been 7 years since he had been last in this universe. Seven years since he had seen his beautiful Rose. What hurt him the most was the fact that he had never been able to tell her how he truly felt about her. He loved Martha and Donna like sisters but with Rose it was different. He could not see her. She had probably moved on. Maybe she and Mickey made a go of it. Maybe they were married with children. He couldn't blame her for moving on; God knows he had tried to. Besides Rose would no doubt have no idea who he was, the regeneration had been painful; they seemed to get worse each time. Maybe he could go up and talk to her. Just a chance to talk to her one more time and then he would go back to the TARDIS and close the time fracture behind him. She had told him on Bad Wolf Bay that she worked for the parallel Torchwood. She would love that he thought with a laugh. A passer by gave him a strange look. He supposed he must look suspicious, a random man dressed all in black holding a glowing pen thing laughing to himself.

It was only then that the Doctor came to his senses and took in his surroundings. Hmmm. Heathrow Airport. Interesting, of all the places in this universe the TARDIS brought him to the world's busiest airport! Sometimes he questioned the logic of his brilliant time ship. He spun on his heel and walked back towards the little blue box. Once inside he practically jumped over to the monitor and looked up Rose Tyler. He managed to pull up the government website and hack into the database all in the space of 5 minutes. Oh and eat a banana! He still loved bananas! He clicked onto her file. Name: Rosaline Marion Tyler, Age: 29, Height: 5"4! All meaningless trivia. Like he didn't know her age, the colour of her sparkling brown eyes! The only useful bit of information was that she was Head of Human Resources at Torchwood. He smiled, good for her. Rose Tyler defender of the earth! That was it, all he needed to do was set the co-ordinates for the time vortex and he would slip back through the fracture un-noticed. That's what he needed to do. That's what he wanted to do, wasn't it?

And then the console exploded.

"What's the matter old girl? Hmmm tell me." He asked with a hint of panic in his voice. The last thing he needed was to be stuck in the wrong universe! The TARDIS beeped and whined in response then the console sparked again and the TARDIS made the familiar noise as it disappeared from outside Heathrow and materialized in an entirely unknown place.

Rose was rushing. She wouldn't ordinarily be doing 60 miles an hour in a 40 mile an hour zone but she was running about twenty minutes late and Mickey would kill her if she was any later. She mercifully didn't encounter any police officers and made it into the car park of terminal 4 with about 3 minutes to go. She bought a coffee and waited in the arrivals area. She had just thrown her coffee cup into the bin when she heard her name being called.

"Rose! Rose babes! Come here and give me a hug you daft cow." Charlotte Hanson was about as gobby as Jackie Tyler on a sugar rush but that was why she loved her. Before Char had been Mickey's girlfriend she had been Rose's best mate, in fact it was Rose who had introduced them to each other in the first place! Rose squealed and ran up to Charlotte wrapping her up in a huge hug. Charlotte had lived in Johannesburg until she was about 7 but her accent had long since been obscured by her cockney twang. She was tall, relatively curvy and a trim sort of way with fiery red hair cut into a side fringe with choppy layers. Her bright green eyes clashed violently with her hair but it never seemed to stop her layering on the L'Oreal Feria in ruby red every six weeks or so. She was the complete opposite to the relatively shy and retiring Mickey Smith but Rose thought that was the reason behind them being such a wonderful couple. You know opposites attract and all that jazz. When Charlie released her from the death grip hug she found herself being nearly knocked out as a hand was thrust out in front of her face.

"This idiots only gone and proposed aint he! I said yes, Rose. I'm getting married!" Charlotte squealed and her and Rose started jumping up and down like toddlers on skittles. Rose inspected the decent sized diamond on Charlie's finger and grinned. She was genuinely happy for her best friend and her ex- boyfriend whom she loved like a brother. When she had first arrived in the parallel universe she and Mickey had come to the mutual agreement that they were better off as friends than anything more.

"Oh My God!!! Char! I'm so happy for you babe!" Rose yelled over the squealing and pounced on Charlotte to give her another hug. Mickey Smith just rolled his eyes and began pushing the trolley loaded with luggage towards the automatic doors.

"Women!" he muttered as he stalked off

"What's his problem?" Rose asked with a hint of amusement in her voice

"God knows, he's probably gone for a smoke." Charlotte smiled at her friend as they began to walk towards the exit

"So did ya get me a present then missus?" Rose asked jokingly and Charlotte shoved her hand in her oversized handbag and pulled out a startlingly yellow packet and threw it at her. Rose caught it and felt a bit like a ninja.

"Jelly Tots?" Charlotte laughed at Rose's puzzled expression.

"Don't be daft! Your proper prezzie's in Mickey's suitcase but believe me those are good! Got a whole load in here, loads better than the British ones these are!" Rose shrugged and tore open the packet. She had missed breakfast and she was starving. She shoved a load in her mouth and nodded. God they were good. She didn't even want to look at the calorie content! Charlotte studied Rose carefully and watched her expression change as she swallowed.

"Ok I'll admit it these are nice. But you can't blame me for being suspicious! I still remember that meaty stuff you give me! What's it called? Gawd that was awful Char!"

"Billtong. Hmph still never met a British person who likes it! Its practically a delicacy!"

"Yeah whatever. Anyway look at the colour of you! Lucky cow." Rose exclaimed as she examined her friend's bronzed arms and face.

"Ooh it was so hot I wish you could have been there. Next time you're coming right! No questions asked its final. You'd love it Rose." Charlotte had a dreamy expression on her face and didn't even seem to realize they had reached the car already. Rose got into the drivers seat of her Mini and Char got in beside her. Mickey sat in the back and looked a little miffed at being shoved into the back seat. All the way back to the Tyler Mansion Charlie nattered on about Spur steaks and how wonderful this place called Steers was to eat and something about the chips. Chips. Rose laughed internally and thought of the Doctor and winced. It had been a long time but it still felt as if a whole had been punched through her chest when she thought of him. She was pulled out of her trance when a car beeped behind her. The traffic light had turned green and she had just been sat there. She continued to drive and when she finally pulled into the Tyler drive the heavens opened and thunder immediately crackled through the sky.

"Welcome back to sunny England eh?" Mickey joked as he unloaded the soaking luggage from the boot and dragged it into the warmth of the entrance hall. Rose checked her watch she had made good time and didn't need to leave for work for another hour or so. Rose followed Mickey into the family room where Charlotte, Jackie, Tony and Pete were all sat around the table sharing out Jelly Tots and laughing. Mickey and Rose pulled up a chair and Tony clambered onto Rose's knee as he often did. Charlotte was recounting a tale of their eventful trip to the Kruger National Park and showing pictures on her phone.

"Right this one honestly nobody would believe me when I told them this. Ok so there we were in Nelspruit airport just outside Malelane gate and our flight got in late so we were rushing like hell to get there before dusk when they locked the gates. So first of all the bloody police of all things for speeding stops us! Luckily she was very understanding once we explained. Ok so we finally get to the gate no bother and there we are speeding through the bloomin twilight and there are these cars stopped in front of us. Bare in mind that some people go to the Kruger park 'bout a hundred times in their life and aint ever seen a lion. But oh no Mickey Smith here first time in SA first time in the Kruger! First animal this guy sees, no impala or nuffin' is a lioness with two cubs! Unbelievable!" Mickey looked a little embarrassed as Jackie stared at him. Rose glanced at the clock on the wall.

"I'd best be going now don't wanna be late for work do I? Doesn't give off a very good impression if a head of department stumbles into work 20 minutes late." Tony hugged her tight and then slid off her lap.

"Don't forget the pizza Rosie!" He yelled before launching himself out of the room to go and play on his Sony Wii (Alternate Universe remember I do know it's Nintendo.) Rose laughed ,he was definitely a Tyler. She kissed Mickey on the cheek and shouted a quick goodbye before catapulting out of the room herself. It was still raining and Rose hugged her coat tighter to her body. The drive to Starbucks for her daily Cappuccino was uneventful except from the fact that she nearly ran over a raven that refused to move from the center of the road until the very last second. It was only when she walked into the café something happened that would change her life forever.

Starbucks? Really? Of all the places in the galaxy! The Doctor shook his head. Now he was here he may as well treat himself to a coffee before he went on his merry way. He grabbed himself some kind of frothy thing with chocolate dust on top. He gazed at it suspiciously before sitting down at a free table and taking a tiny experimental sip. He felt the caffeine hit his system straight away but took another sip. He had to admit it was pretty good. He heard the small sound of a creak as the door opened and turned his head to see her standing there. Rose Tyler. The woman he had loved for 9 years.