Notes: Contains quotes from the End of Time Part II and the Parting of the Ways. (Jack's lines in the third section are expanded on in my AU oneshot, He Who Fights with Monsters.)

Alternatives

Summary: They sometimes catch glimpses of things which didn't happen, and things which may yet come to pass.

Warnings: brief, vague mention of domestic abuse.

-DW-

"The Could've Been King, with his army of Meanwhiles and Neverweres."

-DW-

In the palace of King Julani V, there is a fortune teller with fine, flowing silver hair a glowing white eyes. She gives a grin which is as wide as the Doctor's and just as empty, and states,

"There are other places, you know.

"Someplace else, Rose Tyler never came to her senses. Jimmy got carried away one night, and she never woke up."

Rose feels herself pale.

"Another place, Captain Jack Harkness never existed as you know him. A boy died on Boeshane, and his younger brother lived."

Jack flinches as though struck.

"Somewhere not too far from here, Theta never left Koschei's side. They stood together and watched the Universe burn."

The Doctor's breath catches.

They leave as quickly as possible. None of them ask.

-DW-

On a research satellite in the sixty-third century, they encounter a substance which is harmless to humans but has some extremely adverse effects on Time Lords. One of them is delirium.

"Rose?" he rasps out, in one of his more lucid moments. "Rose, what are you doing here? You can't be here; I lost you . . ."

"You found me again, remember?" says Rose with a forced smile, brushing back his sticky, sweat-soaked hair from his face. "You and Jack, you came and got me."

"No, no, Jack's gone too; I ran away; I left him . . . . Martha. Where's Martha?"

"Who's Martha?" asks Rose. He's mentioned old companions before, but this isn't a name that she recognizes. She prays that, whoever she is, she's one of the ones who went home safely, of her own free will.

"She's brilliant, Martha," he says, with a shaky grin. "Almost-Doctor Martha Jones." His grin fades, his eyes dark beneath the sheen of the fever. "She thinks she's in love with me. She thinks that she can fix me, that she can heal me. I'm only going to hurt her in the end."

His eyes roll back in his head. The next time he wakes, he's babbling about his ties and demanding random pieces of fruit. It is several days before he recovers and Rose gets the chance to ask him about Martha Jones.

"Martha Jones . . ." he repeats, looking thoughtful and leaning back in his chair. "Rings a bell. Let's see, Martha Jones, Martha Jones . . . ."

"Isn't that the medical student we ran into in Royal Hope?" asks Jack as he enters the kitchen.

"Oh, yes!" exclaims the Doctor, grinning delightedly, as if he came up with answer himself. "Brilliant woman, quick thinker. Very fast on her feet."

"Not bad to look at either," adds Jack with a leer, and then they're off again, bickering about libidos and one-track minds and 'can't a guy appreciate beauty when he sees it?'

Rose doesn't bring it up again.

-DW-

In the underground lair of a megalomaniac on some far distant moon, they are captured and placed in separate containers, with wires attached to their heads and snaking into their brains. It's all hooked up to some strange machine which, according to the Doctor, is somehow monitoring timelines.

Rose dreams that she never lost her grip on that lever. She mourns the mother whom she will never see again, and runs and runs and runs, with the Doctor at her side and the whole Universe in front of her. It's too good to be true and they both know it, know that they're lying to each other and to themselves, but neither wants to stop for long enough to face their demons. No one can keep running that fast for long, though, no one human anyway, and eventually, Rose is that crucial second too slow.

She jerks back to consciousness with the afterimage of the energy bolt burnt into her retinas and the Doctor's anguished scream echoing in her ears. Jack is in front of her, looking more shaken than she's ever seen him as he frees her from the device.

"Rose," he gasps, pulling her into a tight embrace. "Oh, god, I dreamed you were – I never even met you; you were already – in Utah, with a Dalek – and the Doctor – that Delta Wave – he was –" He cuts himself off, sets her back down, and clears his throat, visibly pulling himself together. "We need to find the Doctor."

They do find him, but only after they've taken care of the megalomaniac and his followers. Which is a good thing, as it turns out, because the Doctor is in no state to defeat anyone. Rose has to support him as Jack detaches him from the contraption, because he's shaking too badly to stand on his own. Once the last of the wires is removed, he collapses into a heap on the floor, choking and sobbing and babbling frantically in a language the TARDIS won't translate. It is long minutes before they can calm him enough to speak English again.

He never tells them what he dreamed.

-DW-

". . . all that ever could be."

-DW-

In a café in London in the near future, there is a dark-skinned, middle aged woman who keeps shooting them nervous glances over her husband's shoulder. They spend all of lunch coming up with increasingly ludicrous explanations for this, and finally, on their way out, they ask.

"'Scuse me," says Rose, who tends to be their unofficial spokesperson in normal, everyday situations like these. "We can't help but notice you've been watching us for while. We were wondering if we have something on our faces or something?"

"Oh, dear child," says the woman, looking terribly troubled and sounding close to tears. "So much darkness behind you – and so much more is yet to come."

"What?" asks Rose, her friendly smile fading as she feels Jack and the Doctor tense behind her.

"Carmen, what's wrong?" asks her husband, taking her hand and stroking it reassuringly. "What do you see?"

"I see – oh, such pain! A promise will be broken –" Her gaze shifts from Rose to the Doctor. " – and with it, a mind –" Her tearful eyes meet Jack's. "—and with that, a heart."

"What are you talking about?" demands the Doctor, his face very pale and his eyes very dark. "What promise?"

She turns back to him, and her face is full of sorrow and pity and knowledge, and Rose feels a chill go up her spine even before she speaks.

"Forever."