Rose leaned against the Tardis as she waited for the Doctor to finish with his business here on Demon's Run. She had wanted to stay with him, but realized, that, if things went wrong, as they had a habit of doing, she was too weak to be of much use.
The Doctor ran past Rose, who immediately began running after the Doctor upon seeing the panicked look upon his face as he shouted Amy's name.
"I know," Amy said hoarsely, staring down at her empty arms.
"Doctor?" Rose asked quietly.
"The replaced Melody with a Flesh copy, and let us take the copy. They have Melody, Rose," the Doctor explained quietly.
Rose reached out, placing a hand on Amy's shoulder, the redhead sobbing in her husband's arms. "We'll find her," Rose promised. "I promise."
Amy turned in Rory's arms to face Rose. "You can't know that."
"I looked at her timeline. I don't know when, or how, but we meet your daughter again. She isn't gone forever," Rose told her friend, not telling her everything she knew. Amy would discover the truth for herself in due time.
Amy didn't question Rose's words, but took them as the reassurance they were. Amy would see her daughter again.
The Doctor glanced curiously at Rose, but sensed that now wasn't the right time to ask the questions he so desperately wanted answers to.
The quartet of time travelers returned to the large room where the Tardis was located, tears still leaking from Amy's eyes.
There, leaning against the Tardis, as Rose had been doing only a few minutes ago, was a very familiar woman, with curly hair.
"Hello, sweetie," River Song said, staring at Rose with a smile on her face.
"River!" Rose met River halfway, and the two women hugged each other, laughter bubbling from their lips.
"What?" The Doctor glanced between the two women curiously, trying to figure out the connection between them, before seeming to remember that River hadn't come, hadn't helped them when they needed her.
"This could have been avoided if you had helped," the Doctor ranted as River and Rose released one another, still grinning at each other. "But you weren't here!"
"Doctor!" Rose interrupted his rant, before River could retaliate. Rose pulled the Doctor over to the wooden cradle from Gallifrey, pointing at the name written on the crib. "Read it."
The Doctor glanced between a smiling Rose, and nervous River, and a confused Rory and Amy, before reading the name painted on the crib, before looking back up with a gasp.
River stepped forward, the Doctor gaping at her. "Hello, sweetie."
"But, that means…" the Doctor trailed off as River nodded, humming in agreement.
"And we…" the Doctor said, flapping his hands in the air.
"Yes," River agreed.
"And you knew?" The Doctor asked, turning his gaze on Rose.
"Yes!" Both River and Rose said.
The Doctor squared his shoulders, straightening his red bowtie. "How do I look?"
"Fantastic," River and Rose chorused.
The Doctor grinned smugly, before grabbing Rose's hand, dragging her back to the Tardis. "River, I trust you to get everyone home. Rose and I will see all of you soon, I'm sure of it."
Rose waved goodbye to everyone as the she and the Doctor entered the Tardis, Rose plopping down on one of the benches in the console room, the Doctor settling next to her, absentmindedly fiddling with a strand of her hair.
"How did you come back? Why did you come back? What about me?"
"Jonathan. That's the name he chose. A human name for a human life, he said. Jonathan Noble. The Daleks, they survived in the universe. And they killed John, and destroyed our Tardis. I'll never be able to forget that night. I managed to hide from them long enough to build a new dimension cannon, which I destroyed upon returning her. I thought my problems were over, that all I had to do was find you. But that's not how it worked."
"Tell me," the Doctor said quietly, sliding an arm around Rose's trembling shoulders.
"First I met River. Or, rather, River found me. She told me that I couldn't find you yet, that there was still something that had to be done first, but she didn't tell me what. We struck up a friendship, and she told me who she was. She told me that her real name was Melody Pond. She also helped me with my powers."
"Powers?"
"I am the Bad Wolf. I create myself." Rose's eyes glowed golden, and the hum of the Tardis grew louder, and happier, her song running through Rose's mind, a song of the Tardis welcoming home her beloved sister.
"But I took the Time Vortex out of you!"
"Doctor, do you really think a mere human would remain unaffected, unchanged, by looking into the Time Vortex? The effects were hidden, taking place over a length of time, until, finally, I became what I am today."
"And what are you, Rose?" The Doctor asked hesitantly.
"I am the Bad Wolf," Rose responded. "I'm one of a kind, the closest thing to me is a Tardis, but I'm not a Tardis. I'm something new and unique, something that can't be categorized. The Tardis, both mine and yours, recognize me as their sister."
"How did you end up here, though?"
"Just as a Tardis can, I can travel through Time and Space at will. I ended up being tracked by Madame Kovarian, who created a trap for me, which led to me being captured. She wanted my powers, but the Bad Wolf will protect herself. I will always protect myself."
"What kind of trap?"
Rose said nothing, merely laying her head on the Doctor's shoulder, sighing heavily.
"I was lucky, I guess, with the Daleks, back in the other universe. Torchwood had finally realized I wasn't aging, and they were planning to run some tests on me to discover why. The Daleks distracted them," Rose said bitterly. "John and I were at the front of the lines, trying to destroy the Daleks."
Rose's confidence had never once wavered, admirable for the girl who had been tortured for over a year now, but the Doctor could sense that she was scared. Scared that he was going to send her away, leave her alone once more. But he had no plans of doing that this time. The first time she had come back, she had saved his life. The second time she had come back, he had sent her away. And the third time, well, he had no plans of sending her away this time.