Author's note: The story about a future incarnation of the Doctor, also starring the 10th Doctor Duplicate, Rose Tyler, and - last but not least - the TARDIS. Never underestimate the TARDIS!

For prequel, see 'Forever: The Broken Fragments'

[Disclaimer: I don't own Doctor Who. BBC does. I only happen to love Doctor Who, which I believe is not punishable by law.]

THE MEMORY

An elderly man wiped his glasses and placed them carefully on his nose before looking at the ID and checking the list of employees. He always did that, just in case, no matter what intricate security systems they installed. That was his job. They had all the fancy stuff: voice recognition, iris recognition, fingerprint scanner, but in the end, what could be more reliable than a living person? He was proud to be there, checking their IDs. He had little idea of what the institute did, some sort of scientific research, good for humanity. That was quite enough. He smiled.

'Thank you, Mr Tyler. Have a nice day!'

Mr Tyler was quite a celebrity. A rich man, too, spending his fortune on science. Handing back the ID card, the guard plucked his courage and asked a bit sheepishly:

'Sir? Hope you don't mind, sir, I've always wanted to ask... but somehow it slipped my memory... that blonde lady that comes here, she is also a Tyler, right here...' he pointed to a name on the list, just below Peter Tyler.

'My daughter, Rose,' Pete explained.

That was not exactly true but the guard didn't need to know the details. Besides, after twenty years she was really like a daughter to him. Amazing years, with the new Jackie, and Rose, and little Tony.

'Oh, right, didn't know. Such a nice and kind person, sir! Always smiling, even when she looks sad! Haven't seen her today, though?'

'No, no, she's not coming today. She is... well, she's travelling... abroad. With a friend.'

That was not exactly true, either, but he really didn't feel like discussing it. For all he knew, Rose and Doctor were dead. Even with the enthusiasm of the Doctor, even if that whole idea of closing cracks from the outside was correct, it didn't seem probable that they survived. But as long as he could tell Jackie he wasn't sure, it was okay to use present tense.

The image of Rose and Doctor waving them goodbye somehow caused him more pain today than it last night. He remembered he would have to take the readings Rose usually took. Some data was transferred remotely but some required field trips. It was not easy to think they would be taking a new person in her place soon. But before they did, it was his job to do. He would also have check the Doctor's experiment in the lab. It was still unfinished and the results could be useful to Torchwood even after the Doctor was gone. Besides, there was the conversation he had with the Doctor some weeks before they left. The Doctor warned him that all means of extradimensional travel should be destroyed as soon as the mission launched. They should not be left in human hands: way too dangerous to play with. Funny, they actually talked about it quite often: the Doctor kept reminding him about it - but somehow Pete he never paid much attention. Now it was all coming back. He cleared his throat, wished the guard a good day, and rushed to his office.

He was met by a sniffling sound from behind a huge monitor.

'Betsy? Are you all right?'

'Yes, Mr Tyler... am all... right,' came the reply, broken by sobs. His assistant was a sweet girl, young and affectionate, but sometimes overly emotional. 'Just can't stop thinking... poor Commander Tyler, and Doctor Smith... such a handsome man! They won't ever be coming back, will they? They're gone...'

'Oh, we can't know that!' he winked at her with pretended cheerfulness. 'They are mad enough to succeed! Cheer up, Betsy! I'm sure they landed somewhere safe. Now get me the data base for Storage X-1, will you, love? We've got work to do.'

Betsy wiped her nose loudly and got to work.

'Poor Commander Tyler... you should have told her to stay! I would stay if my dad told me not to go!' she murmured.

When the phone rang, Tony was rather surprised.

'Dad? Is anything the matter?' He didn't remember his Dad ever calling him from work.

'Son? I need to ask you a question. Tell me the truth because it's serious.'

The tone he used and the way he addressed Tony were so unlike their usual conversations that Tony almost got scared.

'So... have you been to Storage X-1 recently?'

Ooops. Right. So this one was out, then. He wasn't quite sure what was the safest thing to say.

'Erm, Storage X-1? No, why? I mean, not recently. Have you had some leakage down in the storage area?'

Pete Tyler's voice was bit impatient.

'There's nothing that can leak there, not in X-1, and you know that perfectly well. Someone's sabotaged all the stuff that is kept there, though. Quite a good job, too. Very subtle. Very thorough. I wouldn't have noticed if it weren't for the... Anyway, the logs show you were the last person to access X-1, so I've got to ask you...'

'Oh come on, Dad. Could have been the Doctor. You know he used other people's passes sometimes. He even got in without any pass, and we never knew how. If it's something about the dimensional stuff, then I bet it was him.'

Not very fair, trying to put all the blame on your accomplice, he thought. But for one thing, the accomplice was safe from any repercussions at the moment, and Tony was not. And besides, he expected his father to dismiss the idea, as usual. Somehow he never paid attention when it came to Bill*.

'Funny you should say that. I've been thinking the same thing, actually,' came a completely unexpected reply. 'He was so set on getting the whole stuff destroyed for the safety of our world that he might have become impatient. I don't mind if he did, he probably did it better than anyone could. But I would rather be sure. And then, there's all the cleaning we need to do. File reports and all that stuff. You don't think Rose was in it, too?'

Tony's heart beat faster. It's been ages since he heard his father mention Rose.

'Rose? Erm, no idea, why would she be?' he asked innocently.

'Well, knowing them, they would both be in it, right? Besides, everybody keeps mentioning Rose to me today, so I just... Tony? Tony?! Are you there?!'

The phone slipped onto the desk. For a moment, Tony stood still, chasing a vague memory of something that he must have heard... or read?... very recently. Something really important. But where was it? He rummaged through the pile of things on the floor: there were books, records, the t-shirt he wore yesterday, a few unpaired socks, a Geiger counter, a valentine card from Betsy, a swiss army knife and some empty plastic bottles. His mum had always complained about the mess in his room, now he could see why. The volume he needed to find was huge and heavy, not far from the top of the pile though.

It was the title that caught Tony's attention in the first place: The Name of the Rose. In Bill's hands it appeared, well, meaningful. Bill said it was a detective story. Well, sort of. And that he knew it from the old world, so he wanted to compare versions. It never came up again, until last week he suddenly asked Tony if he wanted to borrow it. To be quite honest, Tony was never keen on big heavy books. Nor on small ones. He preferred audio books, so he could listen to them while doing some boring chores. But with Bill and Rose going on the mission soon, Tony felt like he couldn't really refuse. He tried to read it the first night but it wasn't like a detective story at all. More like something about philosophy. Some passages were underlined, and there were hand written notes on the margin, scattered across the pages. Not making much sense for Tony. He asked Bill about it the next day, but Bill just shrugged.

Now it all came back. Impatiently turning the pages, Tony looked for that one specific note that caught his eye before, next to an underlined passage. Was it here? "What is love? There is nothing in the world, neither man nor Devil nor any thing, that I hold as suspect as love, for it penetrates the soul more than any other thing. Nothing exists that so fills and binds the heart as love does. Therefore, unless you have those weapons that subdue it, the soul plunges through love into an immense abyss."** Nah, not this one, this was philosophy. But somewhere else... there was something that mattered.

Here it was! "Yesterday's rose endures in its name, we hold empty names."** The sound of the sentence gave Tony the creeps. And right there, on the margin, was the note he was looking for.

You asked me if there was a way to know if we survived. There may be. Pay attention to names. If you cannot hold on to Rose's name any longer, then she's gone. But if you hear her name mentioned in conversations, if people seem to remember her more clearly than ever before, then maybe, just maybe, she made it. I hope she did. Take care, and pay attention to names. Bill

Tony's heart raced as he read and re-read the note. Then he burst out laughing madly.

'Tony?! Are you all right?! Tony, what the hell is going on there?!'

He completely forgot he had Dad on the phone.

'Dad, you're not gonna believe this... I think I just got a message the other side...'

Author's notes:
* Bill is explained in my other story, 'Forever: The Broken Fragments'
** Both quotes are from 'The Name of the Rose' by Umberto Eco.