Alright guys, just one more chapter! Please enjoy and review
"Whoa." Captain Jack Harkness murmured to himself as the ground shook beneath him slightly. He looked around to see if the other members of Torchwood had felt that. Ianto was gluing Owen's hand to his crotch while Tosh attempted to stifle her laughter so as not to wake up Owen before the glue dried. Gwen was filing away the notes from their latest case, also keeping an eye on the sleeping doctor.
Jack grinned despite himself. He knew there was going to be hell to pay when Owen woke up and discovered what the Welsh had done, but for now, Jack enjoyed the moment, almost completely forgetting the slight tremors he had felt. Seeing that nobody else had noticed it, he let it go.
"It needs more power!" Mickey Smith shouted to his partner, Jake Simmons. Jake nodded and gunned the engine even more, the tires spinning in the dirt frantically, kicking up mud in every direction. As the panel began to light up, the red turning to green, Mickey grinned.
It was going to work.
"Donna!"
Donna Noble quickly tried to find somewhere to hide the banana peel before The Doctor found her. She looked around the room frantically, before looking up at the ceiling. "Help me!" She hissed and the TARDIS let out a soft hum before a black trashcan appeared in the corner and Donna rejoiced, jamming the peeling into it and walking away, resisting the urge to whistle. She entered the corridor and looked left and right.
"Donna!"
"Yeah, I hear ya shouting! I'm coming!" She bellowed, hoping he wouldn't be able to tell that she had eaten the last banana, a crime on the TARDIS (according to Sunshine) worthy of a trip home permanently. She knew he wouldn't really take her back home, but she could only take some much of his whining and complaining before she started to go mental.
She entered the console room to see him engaged in his usual (mad) dance around the room, pushing buttons and slamming levers and pumping the bicycle pump and just generally doing nothing while it looked like he was doing so much.
He was good at that.
"Ah, there you are! Thought you got lost!" The Doctor greeted and Donna rolled her eyes. "Anywhere, how'd you fancy a nice relaxing trip?" Donna scoffed. "Where would we go?" He looked at her, his eyes twinkling in delight. "Oh, I have the perfect place!"
As the night began to roll into morning, Jack's mind went back to the tremors he had felt earlier that day. What had caused them? Was it an earthquake? Did Cardiff even experience earthquakes? Ianto would know. He made himself a mental note to ask Ianto about it tomorrow, before going back to what could've been the cause. Was it the rift? Usually it made more of a scene; subtle the rift was not. He started to get up to check to see if the rift had been active that day, deciding at the last moment to wait until morning.
For Rose Tyler, the morning light that signaled the dawn was her enemy. It meant that the night was over and so were her dreams of her and The Doctor. At night, under the cover of darkness, she could slip into a dream world, one where she and The Doctor were together again, and this time they were more than just friends, they were a couple. A true couple, one where she was allowed to see him in pain, in grief, in anger, all the previous moods he had hidden from her. Nothing was kept secret between, they were both open and honest and vulnerable with the other. And it felt right, to be able to share all that in-between with each other, because not only did they communicate…
They danced.
They danced like there was nothing outside of the universe but them. They were the universe. Rose Tyler and The Doctor. They were all the other needed and that was just fine. Before the separation, their love was there, it was real, but unspoken. It was all in the looks, the touches, the hugs, the way they could read each other's thoughts (metaphorically), the way they just got each other, which seemed odd, considering one was a nine hundred plus years Time Lord, whilst the other was a twenty-one year former shop girl from South London. Somehow, despite all that, they fit perfect.
That was why it hurt so much.
Rose knew that one day she would have to leave The Doctor, not by choice, mind you, but leave him nevertheless. It had never occurred to her that she'd still be alive when that finally happened.
She was woefully unprepared for the pain.
She never expected having to still live without him, knowing that he was out there, and she was stuck somewhere else, somewhere he couldn't reach her.
That old saying was right; there were things worse than death.
She felt like she was dying, felt like she was barely holding on. She kept waiting for two things; The Doctor to rescue her, or to be put out of her misery.
She was really leaning towards the former, though, just to be optimistic.
And it had finally all paid off when Mickey and Jake came sprinting into her office at Torchwood, the former covered in mud and both grinning widely, telling her those four, beautiful words:
"We got it working."
The year was 2005. Donna and The Doctor were standing on the sidewalk, watching a couple lingering outside the chip shop The Doctor had demanded they visit. The Time Lord in question was standing very still beside Donna.
The couple in question were as different as night and day. The man was short and stocky, dressed in black jeans, a green jumper and black work boots, topped off with a black leather jacket. He had short hair, cropped close to his skull, big ears and nose, a northern accent and looked old enough to be his companion's father. He had a dark aura to him, one it seemed he wore like an armor.
The other was different. The girl was young, blonde and beautiful. She looked just about near her twenties, dressed in trousers, a white shirt and a faded pink hoodie. She had a London accent, and a smile that lit up dark spaces of her companion. He grinned at her, looking at her like she was his world. And she was.
"So, that's you?" Donna finally asked, wanting to break the silence that had fallen between them. The Doctor nodded slowly. "You look happy," she commented softly and he inhaled slowly. "I was. For the first time in a long time, I was happy. I was in a dark place, and when I met Rose…" he paused, exhaling softly, his features softening. "When I met Rose, it was like feeling the sun on my face for the first time. It was like having my very first adventure, visiting my very first planet (by myself), it was like…discovering the universe, all over again." He looked over at his companion. "I wanted to die, Donna. And Rose showed me what it was to live."
Donna looked back over at the young girl. So much power, in one so young. This girl held the Last of the Time Lords in the palm of her hand, and had treated him like he was the most precious thing she'd ever seen.
That was when Donna Noble really began to believe in the term "soul mates".
They stood in silence a bit longer, watching as Rose grabbed her companion's hand and playfully dragged him down the street, giggling madly as he pretended to drag his feet and complain. The Doctor smiled at the scene, remembering it clearly.
"Are Time Lords able to regenerate from a broken-heart?" Donna had had the question on her mind for a long time, and it seemed that now was the time to ask, now when he was being honest. The Doctor's smile faded. "No. Even if one heart fails, the other keeps pumping, keeps living, because of the survival instinct. It's so strong that it overrides the desire to stop." He looked at her. "You Humans have a history of being able to die from a broken-heart, from grief. I wish I could, Donna, but like Rose, it is one more thing I am denied."
"Donna! We're here!" Donna jolted out her thoughts, shaking her head slightly as she sat up in the captain's chair, looking at The Doctor. He was smiling at her, already pulling his coat on. "Ready?" Donna smiled, shaking off the remnants of that particular conversation. "Better not be another library, mate." She warned, half joking, half serious. He sniffed, offended. "Have some faith, Donna, at least." He pushed opened the door and walked outside.
