It felt like seconds but must have been hours that Rose sat alone in her bed, looking up at the ceiling, nursing her aching heart.

She wracked her brain, trying to think of a reason why the Doctor would just leave her. She tried to convince herself that something was wrong, that there was something he was not telling her, and he'd fix it and then he'd be back for her.

Then she remembered the cold, almost hateful look in his eyes and she fought back tears for the hundredth time.

An untouched, now cold cup of tea sat on her nightstand. Tea always used to make her feel better but now all it did was remind her of the Doctor.

Once he had learned what her favorite tea was he took her to a 30th century market where they had perfected the brew. She had scoffed at him, saying the tea was already perfect but once she tasted it, she nearly died and went to heaven on the spot with the taste.

She gasped as that memory suddenly played very vividly in her mind. It was as if she was there again, hanging off the Doctor's arm, smiling up at him as he bought her a case of the tea.

The Doctor had smiled down at her as he shuffled the large box under his other arm, his blue eyes soft with amusement and warm affection.

Then just as suddenly the Doctor's expression morphed, into the cold Doctor who had thrown her out hours ago.

She stifled a whimper and tried to focus on the good memory but all she could see was the Doctor's glare.

She could even hear the wheezing sound of the beloved time ship as it landed, still echoing around her.

No, wait…

The sound continued to grow louder and louder, coming from right outside her door.

She flew off her bed and ripped open the door, hope rising her chest.

She saw the familiar blue box standing in the hallway and just caught a glimpse of a leather clad figure disappearing through a door down the hall

A smile lit up her face at the thought that he had returned for her.

Her smile slowly faded as she realized the Doctor had not gone to her but into her mother's room.

Did he not know which room was hers? It made sense considering he didn't ever bother with domestics.

Then her heart leapt as her mother suddenly let out a blood curdling scream and within seconds Rose was at her mother's door.

She gasped sharply as she saw the Doctor holding her mother against his chest, his large hand wrapped around her throat.

Jackie' s eyes were widened in terror and she grasped a the Doctor's arm, her lips parted as she gasped for air.

Rose stared horrified at the situation not knowing what to make of it.

Just that morning she'd been having breakfast with the Doctor and they talked and laughed happily over tea and toast, especially the Doctor's overuse of the jam.

Now he stood there, nothing but rage and hate in his eyes, threatening her mother's life.

"What're you doing?" She wanted to yell but her voice came out as nothing but a despondent cry.

"I couldn't leave with clearing my unfinished business." He said as if it were obvious.

Rose frantically looked between her mother and the Doctor. She took a step forward but her mother made a horrible choking sound as the Doctor's grip tightened around her throat.

Panic and anger suddenly ripped through Rose as she watched her mother struggle.

"What unfinished business?" She demanded, her voice now unwavering and strong. "What did my Mum ever do to you?"

"She never did like me, she attacked me she did. I can't let a threat like that go."

Rose gaped at him disbelief. "She what? She slapped you once Doctor and that's because you were a year late in taking me home! She thought I was dead!"

"The reason is unimportant."

"No," she snapped, pointing a finger viciously at him, "you were fine about it when it happened! So don't give me that! You know damn well it wasn't a threat. My Mum was just upset and with good reason!"

The Doctor rolled his eyes. "I don't need to explain myself to you."

"Like hell you don't!" She cried. "You drop me off for no reason and then come back and threaten my Mum because she slapped you once? I think that very well deserves an explanation!"

His eyes narrowed slowly into dangerous slits. "I would watch my tone, if I were you."

"Doctor just stop this now, please! This isn't you! There's something wrong, there's gotta be!"

His lips twitched in a sinister smirk. "There is nothing wrong with me. You're just finally seeing the real me."

"This is not-" She tried to protest.

"This is!" He thundered and a shudder passed through her body at the volume and force of his voice.

"Say goodbye to your mother, Rose Tyler." He snarled.

Rose's eyes widened in horror as the doctor roughly grabbed her mother's arm and tightened his other arm around her neck. He squeezed his fingers around Jackie's arm and Jackie gasped out in pain, her body tensing up and then convulsing violently.

"No!" Rose cried and covered her mouth with her hands, watching helplessly as her mother continued to convulse for a few long seconds.

Then her body went limp in the Doctor's arms and the Doctor then released her and she fell to the floor with a loud thud.

Rose cried out and immediately rushed to her mother's side, taking her face in her hands. "Mum? Mum, come on, wake up…" Hot, angry tears filled her eyes and spilled down her cheeks as she shook her mother, trying desperately to wake her up.

Her mother still lay limp and completely motionless and Rose frantically felt for a pulse.

She let out an anguished sob at finding none and buried her face in her mother's chest, willing her back to life.

"Mum, please…" She sobbed, her chest heaving.

Then she gasped and lifted her head as the door to the bedroom clicked close and the Doctor was nowhere in sight.

She clenched her teeth together so hard, if she cared she might have worried about breaking them but nothing filled her but despair and rage, directed at the man she once loved.

A few tears rolled down her cheeks as she looked down at her mother, letting out a shuddering breath as she caressed her cheek.

Then her face steeled and she was on her feet and racing after the Doctor, rage burning through her veins.

She followed him back through the blue doors, blue doors she had once called home but now seemed as alien as the man casually standing at the console.

"How could you do that?" She cried, angry tears pooling in her eyes as she pointed furiously behind her. "You killed her!" Her voice broke at the word and she swallowed thickly, fighting to keep the sobs and bile from rising in her throat.

The Doctor turned around slowly, his face an expressionless mask and a shiver jolted through her.

She was shaking, glaring at him through her tears. "What happened to you?" She asked, now softer and broken.

"Nothing happened to me, Rose. You're just seeing the real me."

Rose shook her head, her fists curling at her sides. "But you're not...I know you, Doctor and you're not!"

He chuckled, a dark and sinister sound matching the smirk on his face. "You don't know me, Rose. How could you possibly?"

She exhaled loudly through her nose. "Because we've spent the last few months together! I saw you face the Slitheen, and a dalek, and what happened with my father and the time reapers and you were never like this! The Doctor I know would never, could never, hurt anyone none the less kill them!" Her voice grew louder with each word and she fought back a sob as a fresh image of her mother's limp body flashed through her mind.

"Oh Rose… You are too young, too stupid…"

She scowled. "Excuse me?"

"You think you can trust me? Just because we spent a little time together?" His face turned dark and cold as he took a few steps toward her

Her eyes widened and her instinct was to step away but she firmly held her ground.

"You think you can just step into a silly little blue box with a strange alien and think you know everything about him? And above all that, are able to trust him?"

She jutted her chin out. "I thought so, yeah. You had proved yourself more than enough -" she paused and slowly, her brow furrowed as she realized what he said. "Hold on." She whispered and her heart hammered in her chest as she came to a sudden realization. She narrowed her eyes and took a slow step toward him and he eyed her curiously. "What do you call this ship?" She asked.

He frowned. "What?"

"This ship, your ship, what's it called?" She asked a little more forcefully.

He stared at her blankly for a few seconds and then scoffed. "I don't have to tell you the name of my ship."

Her lips twitched. "No, you see, I know the name of this ship. And maybe, maybe, the Doctor would change his mind about me but he would never call his ship a silly little blue box. There is nothing he cared more about than this ship."

Something akin to fear passed in the Doctor's cold blue eyes but it was gone as soon as it came. It didn't slip by Rose who now held a little smirk on her lips as she walked towards him.

He narrowed his eyes. "What are you doing?" He asked as she continued toward him, a furious glint in her eyes. "Stay back or I will kill you just as I did your mother."

Rose's jaw twitched at the painful reminder but kept on until she has the Doctor pressed up against the console.

She stares directly into those familiar yet somehow so unfamiliar blue eyes and then her hand shot out and pressed flat against the left side of his chest.

His eyes narrowed at her inquisitively and for a few seconds she just let the feel of his heartbeat resonate under her palm. Then slowly she slid her hand to the right side of his chest and her stomach flipped in both relief and terror at the feel of...nothing.

She snapped her hand back to her side and took a few long steps away from him, glaring at him. "You're not the Doctor." She told him surely.

He scoffed. "Of course I am!"

"No you're not." She countered, calmly. "Because the Doctor, my Doctor, has two hearts. You've only got one."

His face slowly fell into a stern, cold expression and he stared at her in silence

Her heart continued to pound as she stared back, waiting for him to confirm what she already knew.

Then his lips curled back up in dark smirk, and he chuckled humorlessly. "Oh, very clever."

A gasp got caught in her throat at the sudden change in his voice. It was still the Doctor's voice, thick with the Northern accent but it now held a dark hiss undertone.

"You are far more clever than I gave you credit for. And I so admire your dedication to this Doctor of yours."

The short-lived relief that the man parading around as the Doctor, doing very un-Doctor like things, was in fact not the Doctor had completely faded and gave way to anger.

She narrowed her eyes at the imposter. "Where is he?" She snapped.

"Honestly, a human! Who would've thought it…"

"Where's the Doctor?" She tried again, more forcefully.

He moved himself off the console, keeping his intense stare on her. She huffed and took another shaky step backward toward the doors.

"Your Doctor is far away and won't be able to find you."

Her heart leapt into her throat. "You're wrong. The Doctor will always come for me."

She knew that, with a sudden rush of faith and trust she held for the Time Lord that had faded as he kicked her out hours ago. But that wasn't the Doctor and her Doctor was still out there and she knew, she just knew, he would come.

Though she couldn't deny the fear pooling deep in her belly at the thought that this imposter had the Doctor's face and his voice…and his ship.

How would the Doctor find her?

The Fake Doctor's eyes suddenly narrowed at her. Then his smirk grew and he whirled around, flipping a few switches and pressing a few buttons.

The TARDIS lurched to life, the time rotors moving in that familiar wheeze as she was pulled into the time vortex.

Rose's eyes widened and she gasped in terror. "No!" She bounded toward the doors and pulled at the handles desperately, only to find them locked.

"Take me back!" She cried, whirling around to face him and glaring daggers at him.

"No can do, Rose." The dark hiss in his voice had faded back to the Doctor's normal tone. "You've figured me out, good on you. But I'm done with you yet."

A shiver ran through her body at the words and she pressed herself up against the door. She refused to let her fear show to this stranger in her Doctor's body.

"Where are you taking me?" She asked sharply.

He shrugged. "Haven't decided yet." He said simply.

She watched him carefully, constantly reminding herself that it wasn't the Doctor no matter how much he looked like him.

She swallowed thickly. "How can you fly the TARDIS?" She demanded. "Only the Doctor knows how to do that."

He lifted his head and looked at her and only smirked.

Not the Doctor. She reminded herself at the chilling look.

"How do you have his face? His body...his voice?" She tried to keep the quiver out of her voice but the thought of any creature overpowering the Doctor scared the hell out of her. Was it another creature possessing him? Was her Doctor trapped inside his own mind? Or was it a shape shifter doing a near perfect imitation?

No, one heart, she remembered. This fake Doctor only had one heart.

Shape shifter then.

The fake Doctor chuckled. "I know what you're thinking and you're wrong."

She frowned, her heart leaping. "What am I thinking then?"

"You're trying to guess what - who - I am. And you'll never guess."

She narrowed her eyes at him, now more determined than ever to figure him out.

She had only been traveling with the Doctor for a few months, and she still knew there was so much out there, so many types of creatures she couldn't even imagine but she liked to think she was learning. She could work it out.

A dark looked suddenly passed over the fake Doctor's face as he scowled. A growl rumbled in his throat and he violently slammed a lever down as the TARDIS landed.

Rose was half tempted to just open the doors and run for her life but she had no idea what lay beyond those doors. She could be walking right into a death trap.

The fake Doctor crossed the distance between them in a few large steps. She pressed herself further against the doors but kept a fierce glare on him.

He paused just in front of her, minimal space between their bodies.

Slowly his face softened from the cold, hard glare he had been wearing into a warmer, more familiar expression that her Doctor wore.

"Rose," his voice softened too, wrapping around her name in almost familiar adoration and he lifted his hand, using the back of his knuckles to caress her cheek.

Her heart pounded and she felt frozen for a few long seconds before she whipped her head away from him, inching to the side and out of his touch.

"You won't fool me." She hissed, glaring at him.

"Rose," he said again in the same warm Doctor voice. "What was your favorite place that I ever took you?" He turned his head, blue eyes imploring hers. "Picture it now, Rose. Your favorite place."

She tried not to but a vision appeared in her head and then just like that the dark smirk returned to his lips. He reached behind her and unlocked the doors.

Then before she knew what was happening, he grabbed her by the arm, pulled open the door and pushed her out.

She gasped as she stumbled out, closing her eyes for a brief moment, scared of what she'd find.

Then a warm breeze drifted past her, whipping her hair flying up around her head.

She popped open one eye and then the other and her breath released at the sight before her.

It was a planet called Pixaramo, a small planet that the Doctor had taken her to just after dropping Adam off. They had both been shaken by what happened with the dalek and then on Satellite 5, though neither of them would say it.

The Doctor suggested something relaxing, peaceful and danger-free.

"That exists with you?" She had teased, grinning at him, tongue-in-teeth.

"Very funny." He remarked, pulling a face.

So he had taken her to Pixaramo, a mostly un-habited planet, with warm weather and the most beautiful sight Rose had ever seen.

The ground was covered with a green grass, a beautiful, vibrant green that made any of Earth's green hues pale in comparison,that was soft as cotton.

The sky was filled with vibrant, colorful gaseous clouds, all swirling together to create what could have been a painting.

And just as he had promised, the day was danger-free and Rose had never been happier than she was that day.

She stared now once again at those vibrant green fields and sky swirling with color. She could feel the squish of the cotton-like grass underneath her feet.

The same grass that she had fallen asleep on, her head in the Doctor's lap as they rested, enjoying the peaceful, joyful silence of the planet.

She swallowed thickly and took a shuddering breath.

Her favorite place, her favorite day with her Doctor...why had the fake Doctor brought her here? And how did he even know about it?

"Ah." She jumped, taking a few long steps away before whirling around to face the fake Doctor who had stepped out of the TARDIS behind her. A little smile was on his lips as he looked around. "This is a beautiful little place, isn't it?"

She clenched her jaw and glared at him. "What are we doing here?"

He looked at her but ignored her question. "This is a good choice, I can see why it's your favorite. A sweet, relaxing day with your Doctor...how lovely."

"What do you want?" She growled at him.

"It's almost as if you're still here with him…"

He trailed off as he looked out in the distance and despite her better instincts she followed his gaze.

Her breath caught in her throat when she spotted two figures in the distance, and not just any two figures - herself and the Doctor.

His leather-clad tall frame was unmistakable and her own blonde hair stuck out in contrast as they walked together.

For a moment she remembered the time reapers and how two versions of herself being in the same place at the same time was dangerous but if the Doctor was there, she had to get to him.

She took off in a run toward the figures in the distance, calling at the top of her lungs. "Doctor!"

She ran and ran but it seemed no matter how much she ran, the figures just got that much further away from her, deaf to her desperate cries for help.

She came to a sudden halt, gasping as the figures of the Doctor and herself suddenly disappeared from view.

Her chest heaved as she stared at the now completely empty, wide open space. "Doctor!" She called again, and her voice seemed to echo but there was no response.

"Doctor." She whispered and her knees suddenly felt weak and she collapsed to the ground.

She rested her head down in the cotton-like grass, an overwhelming feeling of helplessness and fear suddenly washing over her, paralyzing her.

All hope had vanished with the Doctor.

Her mother was gone, dead. The Doctor was who knows where with no telling of when, or if, he'd find her. The past Doctor had vanished into thin air with her past self and she wondered if he, they, were even ever really there.

This creature posing as the Doctor was clearly powerful and she was usually good at handling herself in dire situations but this time, somehow this time felt different.

She felt completely powerless. And so very, very alone.