Author's Note: Oh my God, guys, don't kill me. I am SO sorry I haven't updated in forever. Been busy with school and some personal stuff and just really haven't had the time or energy to work on this. But anyway it's 1 AM and I can't sleep so I figured I'd come update this thing. Here's Chapter 4 :)

Rose woke slowly, not bothering to open her eyes just yet. Instead, she listened to the roar of the waves and the steady thumping of the Doctor's hearts, comforting and quiet.

The thumping got louder, and Rose opened her eyes in confusion. The thumping seemed to be coming from the sky, almost like wings. She looked up and nearly screamed.

As soon as it saw Rose looking at it, it opened its beak and let out a terrible screech. There was a sudden flash of light, and the steel bird was gone. But it was too late- Rose had already seen its red eyes, its ten-meter wingspan. This planet, she thought to herself, appeared to be somewhat less than uninhabited.

At the sound of the bird's screech, the Doctor had sat bolt upright, sonic screwdriver already in his hand. "Rose?" he asked, not taking his eyes off of the sky. "Are you all right?"

"Yeah, I'm fine," Rose replied, sitting up and trying to keep the tremble out of her voice. She cleared her throat. "Whatever that creature was, it sure didn't look friendly."

"I didn't see it," the Doctor said, finally looking at Rose. "What did it look like?"

"Big steel bird," she told him, brushing a piece of hair out of her face. "Wings about five meters each, red eyes. Ring any bells?"

His eyes opened wide at her description. "That's not a creature," he said. "That's a mode of transport. It was built thousands of years ago by a race called the Gaxicans to get around the universe. It's like the TARDIS, only a bit more primitive. My guess is, it followed us here, although from where, I'm not sure."

"What are the Gaxicans?" Rose asked. "Oh, and I forgot to say-" She leaned over and kissed him, then rested her forehead against his so their noses touched. "Good morning."

He smiled, closing his eyes. "Good morning, my love."

They were silent for a few moments, leaning gently against each other, until Rose drew back and looked at her Doctor seriously. "Gaxicans?" she asked.

"Oh, right." He cleared his throat and smiled at her, running a hand through his slightly messy hair. "You scramble my brain sometimes, Rose Tyler. Anyway, the Gaxicans are creatures without legs or teleport abilities, so you would think them a fairly weak race, correct?" Rose nodded. "Well, they're not," said the Doctor descisively. "They do have arms, and they build amazing modes of transport. You should know that they're probably here because of me-"

"Aren't they all," Rose joked.

"-because they have a bit of a grudge against the Time Lords," the Doctor finished.

"Why?" Rose asked. "What happened?"

"You know how I often have to make very difficult choices in order to save one world or another?" the Doctor asked her, and she nodded again. "Well, I had to make a very difficult choice pertaining to Gaxicoricon, their planet. I saved it, but I did have to blow up an entire section of it. Long story," he added, catching Rose's confused expression. "Anyhow, they were appreciative that I saved their world, but angry too. I can understand why," he said, looking down in apparent shame. "Over forty thousand of them died, and I was responsible. It was either forty thousand or the entire population- about ten million. Still...none of them should have died. That's the most living things I have ever..." He swallowed, and then looked Rose in the eyes. "Killed."

Rose reached up and stroked his cheek. "Love, it wasn't your fault. You had to."

He rubbed a hand across his eyes. "I know, I know I did. I know I had to. But it was terrible." He looked up at the sky again. "It was a terrible death, Rose. I had to vaporize them. Vaporization only takes a few seconds- but it's an awful, agonizing few seconds. I felt like a monster. I was a monster. They died because of me. I'll never forgive myself for that day."

'That's one of the things you dream about, isn't it?" Rose asked.

"Yes," the Doctor said, sounding surprised. "How did you know?"

"Just wondered," she answered. She had never told the Doctor about the time she had looked into his dream. It had terrified her so much, she didn't even want to remember it. She thought to herself that the Doctor must be incredibly strong to endure that agony night after night.

"What do you think they want?" she asked, almost afraid to know.

"They probably want me dead," he answered, somewhat harshly. Noticing the flash of worry that crossed his soulmate's face, he reached out to her and pulled her close to his chest. "Nothing will happen, Rose," he promised her. "We'll talk to them. I'll make them understand. The Gaxicans never travel alone; their primary thought is family. If I can make them understand that there's a connection between me and them- that my family is also gone- we should be able to reason with them. They're not engineered to fight. They're engineered to negotiate, and if they can't do that, they flee."

"Then why did they follow us here?" Rose asked, her voice slightly muffled. She drew back to look at the Doctor. "If they're engineered to flee, and they saw the TARDIS, wouldn't they try to escape it, not go after it?" She shook her head. "Something's not adding up. As soon as I saw that bird, or spaceship, or whatever you want to call it, they were out of there. But why would it be hovering above us if they didn't want us to know they were here?"

The Doctor sighed. "I'm really not sure," he admitted. "And that's not something you hear me say often. But I haven't seen the Gaxicans since before the Time War-" and here he winced- "and I don't know what's happened to them in between then and now. They might have evolved or something. I don't know. But we have to face them, because there's no other option. If we go back to the TARDIS, they'll continue to follow us around the universe."

"Can't we outrun them?" Rose asked, part of her already knowing the answer, but still hoping.

The Doctor shook his head. "They're very intelligent creatures," he told her. "They'd figure out a way to trap us. I don't know if they've come to talk to me in peace, or if they mean us harm. I truly don't. Since the incident on Gaxicoricon, I've had zero contact with them."

Rose locked her eyes on his. "So what do we do?"

The Doctor stood up, reaching a hand out to Rose to help her up. "We go and find them," he said bravely. He took Rose's hand and together they jumped down from the rock where they had been sleeping. The Doctor started to walk towards the thick wall of trees that separated the beach from the forested rest of the small planet, but before he got far, Rose stopped and pulled gently on his hand. He turned around, coming back to her. "Rose, what is it?" he asked, concerned.

Rose said nothing, simply wrapped her arms around his neck and kissed him hard.

She always felt like she had to, before they did something like this.

She never knew if she might be kissing her Doctor for the last time.