Disclaimer: I own Doctor Who! (I wish)

The End of Time Part 2

Take One-

"But where are you going?"asked Wilf. He stared at the Doctor in concern. He was obviously not well and the events of the day had been extremely stressful for them both but especially for the Doctor.

"To get my reward." the Doctor answered before stepping into the TARDIS. He knew where he was going and he knew what he had to do. For once, he was doing something because it was what he wanted. For once, he was acting on selfish impulse.

This was harder than he thought. Seeing Martha, Mickey, Sarah Jane, Jack, and Donna had been hard, but compared to this? Compared to this, those were a piece of cake. Because this, this time he was seeing her.

He heard her before he saw her. "It's late now. We missed it." Rose. Oh, how he missed that voice! He planted his feet firmly on the ground to prevent himself to running to her. Every second it became harder and harder not to.

He wanted to run to her so much. Every muscle in his body long to. He wanted to hold her again. He wanted to see her eyes sparkle. He wanted to see her smile. He wanted to feel her lips against his. But he couldn't have that.

"It's midnight. Mickey's going to be calling me any second." The Doctor felt a jealous pang at the mention of Mickey. She cared for him then, but he quickly reminded himself that Mickey married Martha. Rose was now in the alternate universe...with his human version. "This is your fault."

"No, it's not!" The Doctor smiled in spite of himself. Jackie. "It's Jimbo's. He said he was going to give us a lift then he says his axle broke. I can't help it."

"Get rid of him, Mum. He's useless."

"Listen to you! With a mechanic. Be fair though, in my time of life, I'm not going to do much better."

"Don't be like that." said Rose, gently. " You never know. There could be someone out there."

"Maybe." said Jackie smiling hopefully. "One day. Happy New Year!"

"Happy New Year!" repeated Rose, giving her mother a hug. "Don't stay out all night."

"Try and stop me." said Jackie walking in the opposite direction.

It was almost over. In a few seconds she would be gone, but just as she passed the place were he stood, the Doctor felt an immense pain in his chest and groaned instinctively, catching Rose's attention.

"You alright, mate?" she asked kindly. Just listening to her talk to her mum had been bad enough, but seeing her and actually having her talk to him was infinitely worse.

"Yeah." he answered, still in pain, but not the pain was emotional as well as physical and he found himself torn in two. Part of him wanted to her go away and leave him alone in his misery, but the other part...the other part wanted her to stay and talk... stay and talk forever.

"Too much to drink?"

"Yeah, something like that." He hated lying to her like that, but what could he say? He couldn't say "No! I absorbed a bunch of radiation and I'm about to regenerate" now could he?

"Maybe it's time you went home." she suggested.

"Yeah." he agreed, reluctantly. But where was home? Gallifrey? No, that was locked back up in the time lock. He remembered a saying that the humans have, "Home is where the heart is." Both of this hearts were with Rose, but he couldn't stay. It was there fate to be forever parted.

"Anyway," said Rose giving him the smile that he loved so much, "Happy New Year!"

"And you." She smiled once more and turned to walk away. "What year is this?" he found himself calling out.

"Blimey!" she said turning back around. "How much have you had?"

"Well.."

"2005. January the first."

"2005." said the Doctor, realizing that that was the year when he first met Rose. Sometime within the next 365 days, she was going to met him and she would experience their adventures together. "Tell you what, I bet you're going to have a really great year."

"Yeah?" asked Rose. She gave him the smile once more. "See ya!" He couldn't take his eyes off her as she turned and left. Rose. She was gone...again.

The pain hit him again, but worse this time. He knew he wouldn't last long. He tried to walk but the pain was so bad, that he couldn't stay on his feet. He crawled towards the TARDIS, each movement more painful than the last. He was almost there. He collapsed, breathing hard. His vision was getting bleary. He fought the darkness that was threatening to engulf him. "Doctor." he heard someone gently say his name and the last thing he saw before he lost consciousness was her face staring down at him. Rose.

The Doctor opened his eyes to find himself lying down in the medical quarters of the TARDIS. He sat up tentatively. He felt...fine. He frowned. He didn't usually feel this good after regenerating. Usually his mind had a hard time catching up and he tended to be a bit destructive, but he didn't feel like that now. What had happened?

He closed his eyes trying to remember. He had been in pain. He had crawled to the TARDIS and then...his eyes flew open. Rose. Surely he must have been delusional. Had she gone back and found him lying there? But if she had...she couldn't have known about the TARDIS. Unless...unless it was not the past Rose.

The Doctor shook his head, trying to clear his thoughts. No, it couldn't have been Rose. She was in the alternate universe. She couldn't come back. But then how did he get here? It was all too confusing.

He swung his legs over the side of the bed. Out of the corner of his eye, he spotted his reflection in a mirror. He froze. He hadn't changed. He hadn't regenerated. He was still...him. He frowned. What did this mean?

He stood and found that he felt great. He opened the door and made his way back to the control room only to find that it wasn't empty.

She was there. She was moving around the console and hadn't noticed him. His legs suddenly refused to move. So he hadn't been imagining things. "Rose."

She looked up and the Doctor saw that her eyes were red from crying. She went over to him and hesitated for a second before throwing her arms around him in a hug. "I thought you were going to die." she sobbed.

He put his arms around her and just held her. She's here. She's really here! A smile slowly found it's way to his face. "Shhh." he gently hushed her. "I'm fine. I've never felt better." She slowly pulled away and nodded. He furrowed his brow. "How did you get here?"

"Well, a few weeks ago, Mum, Dad, and John, and I-"

"John?" he interrupted.

"Oh, John Smith. That's what we named the human doctor."

"Oh." He felt a stab of jealous but quickly thrust it aside. What right did he have to be jealous? It was because of him that Rose was even with the human doctor after all.

"Anyway," Rose continued, "we were sitting around and Mum was telling Dad and John about one really crazy New Year's Day we had many years ago when I was like eight years old. I started thinking about all the New Year's Days since then, and then I realized."

"Realized what?"

"New Year's Day 2005. It was you. So, I asked John about it and he didn't know what I was talking about, so I knew that meant you came...you came to see me after you had left us. Then I remembered how you I had thought that you had had too much to drink, but I understood that you were in pain. I thought...well, I thought you were going to die." Tears start flowing down her face and the Doctor gently wiped them away.

"But how did you actually get here." he asked tenderly.

She held up her wrist. She was wearing what looked like a vortex manipulator. "It's a time machine and dimension jump all in one. I knew the dimension part wouldn't work, so I went back in time to the day when I saw you last because the gap was still open then. I hid, so the other us wouldn't see me. Then I used the dimension jump to get back to this universe. Then I went back in time today. When I got here, you were trying to crawl to the TARDIS and thought you weren't going to make it."

He nodded. "But...how I was dying. I was going to regenerate. How come I didn't?"

"Nanogenes."

"Nanogenes?" She nodded.

"I remembered that we had met Jack he had nanogenes. I took a quick trip to Torchwood. Jack wasn't there, but fortunately he had found a huge supply, so I..borrowed them. Then came back here. They healed you. I wasn't sure it would work but it did."

"Ah." The Doctor walked around the console and began flicking switches. "So, how long were you planning on staying?"

She blinked at him in surprise. "I'm not leaving, if that's what you mean."

"But...John Smith..."

"What about him?"

"He needs you, Rose."

"And I need you." she said simply, going up to him and slipping her hand into his. "I need the Doctor. The real Doctor. The Doctor with two hearts. The Time Lord Doctor."

"But how can you abandon him like that?"

"We're not together."

He looked at her in surprise. "What?"

"We're not together, Doctor." said Rose, a smile beginning to form on her face. "He's like you, but he's not entirely you. We're just friends. Nothing more. He knows that and has accepted that."

"But he is me!"

She shook her head, her smile widening. "Mostly you. He inherited some of Donna's personality, not that that's a bad thing. He and Mum actually get along."

"You're right." said the Doctor grinning. "He can't possibly be me." She laughed and his grin changed to a full fledged smile. "But you kissed him!" he suddenly remembered.

"Only because he was the one you admitted how he felt about me, but it was a mistake on my part."

"Oh." He turned back to flipping switches.

"So?" she asked.

"So? So what?"

She reached out and gently turned his face to look at her. "Can I come with you? Or are you going to force me to leave?"

"You can stay...if you want to."

"I want to."

"Good." He bent down and kissed her. "I love you, Rose." he whispered.

A/N: Alright as you might have gather I am going to do another take on this one. So, the next chapter will still be The End of Time Part 2, only a little different. So keep an eye out!