Nope, still don't own.


"First came the cracks in time and space, then stuff-and people- started disappearin' and no one could remember them. It was like they'd never existed," she begins, an automatic response to the Doctor's demand for information, "Sean said it was like the entire universe was bein' erased, but in bits and pieces at a time. Then he figured out that it wasn't just one universe, it was all of them. He's actually the one who came up with a plan to cross universes so we could help you reverse things before it was too late."

"Who's Sean?" the Time Lord interjects, his confusion plastered on his face, "Friend? First companion? Family dog? Mobile pincushion? Just tell me he's not that worlds version of Jack Harkness."

She swipes her tangled hair away from her face and gifts him with another sad smile, "He's you, the other you. Sean Noble Tyler. Picked the name 'cause he said that he was tired of bein' plain ole' John Smith and since he only had one life to work with this time around, he wanted a good name to be remembered by."

The Doctor glances around for a moment, ever mindful not to shift the woman resting on his legs, "Where is old Handy anyway? I'm surprised he hasn't come to say hello yet. Or strangle me into my next regeneration. He isn't going to do something disgustingly abhorrent like jump out from behind something and pelt me with pear bits, is he?"

The horrified expression manifesting on her face makes him realize his grievous error. "Something happened, didn't it?"

"Yeah."

"Please tell me what happened Rose," he begs, inwardly cursing his ill timed humor all the while, "I need to know what happened to my brother."

"He got injured while we were launching our TARDIS," Rose shudders and shifts closer to her companion, "Sean wasn't even sure that it-she- was mature enough to get us out of there, but we were out of options. One of the support cables in the console room snapped during take off an' hurt him bad. 'Course he said he was fine and I was too distracted to argue until it was too late to save him. Kept telling me how sorry he was and that he loved me. When he-when it happened, he just exploded into this gold dust that the TARDIS sucked up. I kind of went a bit mental for a while after that."

The trickle of tears has become a torrent and Rose feels the gentle pressure of the Doctor's head come to rest on top of hers when she pauses to regain a bit of her shattered self control. "I'm not sure when we broke through, hardly noticed the landing too, to be honest. I just knew that I had to get out of there once we stopped movin'."