A/N: Thanks to everyone who reviewed and voted, it means a lot that you guys take the time to give me your input. The poll is still open, and I really will go with whatever choice wins. :) It's a shorter chapter this time, I know, but I've been busy with school and trying to get a summer job and lots of other stuff, so... forgive me? And don't forget to review!!!!
Disclaimer: If I owned Doctor Who, David Tennant would have been forced to stick around for a few more seasons. ;)


Searching Souls

Part the Eighth

"Rose, love, I know you've got to keep everything quiet, working for Torchwood an' all, but I'm your mother. I deserve to know what my daughter has been doing that will cause her to leave me eventually."

After a minute Rose sighed, knowing that although she probably would not like it, Jackie deserved to know what she had been doing for the past two months. The problem was, she wasn't quite sure how to explain it. "Look, mum, the process is hard to explain; I'm not even completely sure how most of it works... If you're willing to come in to Torchwood with me, though, I can show you, and Mickey can try to explain."

"Rose, I don't need the fancy scientific explanation for what you're doin', I just want to know in plain English, what you are doing every day when you go to Torchwood." Jackie's voice was kind yet firm, the tone parents typically took on when they were in "no-nonsense" mode, and Rose knew she would not get away with telling her mother complete technobabble that even the Doctor would have needed a minute to fully understand.

Sighing again, Rose decided to say it as simply as she could, "Well, Mickey an' I took the old dimension jumps an' we re-programmed them. For the past two months, Mickey an' I have been jumping through the universes tryin' to get back home."

The elder Tyler frowned, concern welling up inside her. "I remember those things, not a very pleasant way to travel... Are you sure it's safe? You know, for the baby?"

"After the first jump, Pete made me visit Dr. Harper to make sure everythin' was okay before I could jump again. Now I have a checkup at the end of every week, and Dr. Harper says the baby is fine. I think it's 'cause he's half Time Lord. He's meant to travel the stars; this is just not as stylish as TARDIS travel."

Although some of her fears had been assuaged, Jackie still frowned slightly, concerned, as always, for her daughter. "When you find 'im, you'd better make 'im bring you back so I can say a proper goodbye." The unspoken, 'and so I can slap him for all the months of misery he put you through' was not missed by Rose. The underlying threat was not the part of the sentence that captured Rose's attention, though. Instead, she focused on the 'when' that had been uttered, the simple word that gave her so much hope, rather than the 'if' everyone else used when talking about her getting back to the Doctor.

"You know I'd never leave without sayin' goodbye - I remember what happened the last time I did that." Rose smiled to herself at the memory of her first Doctor - and the trouble he'd gotten them both into by landing twelve months late.

"Well, when you do come back to say goodbye, you'd better make sure 'e doesn't mix up the dates again - if I have to go through the pain of thinking you're dead again - and my grandson too - he'll get more than just a slap from me."

Despite the fearsome promise in her mother's words, Rose had to smile, knowing that her mother would keep her word, should such events transpire, and wondering just how the Doctor would react, having been safe from Jackie Tyler and her slaps for who-knows-how-long.

xOxoxOx

Pulling out the book she read to her brother every night, Rose wondered, yet again, why she was doing it. She knew Tony could not understand the stories, and yet she felt as though she needed to do it. It was like she needed to tell her stories to someone, and neither her mum nor Pete had the time or wish to listen anymore.

Opening up the Journal of Highly Unlikely Things (it had started off as Impossible, then switched to Improbable, and then even that had been crossed out), Rose found the page she had marked the night before, and began to read to the youngest Tyler.

"Although it's difficult to measure time in the TARDIS, the Doctor and I had been sitting in the vortex for a few days, since he was tinerin' with somethin' or other. When he was finally satisfied with the result (or had given up, I never could tell) he picked our destination: Australia. I'm still not sure whether or not he meant to land us right in the middle of the Great Kangaroo Revolt of 2442, but either way we ended up hopping for our lives."

When she had finished the tale, complete with hand gestures and a new voice for each character, Rose placed the ribbon on the page and closed the book, looking down at her sleeping brother, not yet old enough to walk, let alone run. She wondered, absently, if his dreams, much like her own, were filled with bigger-on-the-inside ships, leather jackets, northern accents, and desperate escapes from angry mobs.

Her thoughts wandered to the day Jackie and Pete had found out they were having a boy. They had all been worrying that, since there had not yet been a Rose Tyler born in Pete's universe, another Rose would be born. As soon as they were told otherwise, everyone had breathed a sigh of relief.

Looking over at the clock, Rose knew it was almost time for her to get to bed herself, she was supposed to jump again tomorrow, after all.

xOxoxOx

Looking over at his beloved, the Doctor knew that it was plain as day to everyone in Pete's World that she was pregnant, if the expected mood swings had not tipped everyone off to the fact ages ago. She looked about five or six months along by human standards, but from a Gallifreyan perspective it was more like seven or eight. Well, seven or eight according to his near-perfect memory, anyways.

Running to the blond, the Time Lord engulfed her in an embrace that spoke volumes about the pain he'd suffered since they last met. Just from their kiss, Rose could tell his hopes had risen and then crashed back down again, just as they had with the Master, a story that had taken quite a bit of coaxing for him to explain.

This time, he simply held her tight, needing to feel her, needing to feel the life growing inside of her; the proof that soon he would no longer be the last of his kind.

"Doctor?" Her voice was laced with concern, "Doctor, what's wrong?"

Not able to say anything, the Doctor simply pulled her tighter, resting his head on her shoulder and breathing in her soothing scent.

"C'mon, you can tell me. What happened?"

The only response was a deep sigh that sounded quite a bit like her name, but she couldn't be sure whether or not her ears were deceiving her.

After a minute, the Time Lord loosened his grip and she pulled back so that she could face him. "Doctor," she murmured, love and concern clear in her voice, "I'm here for you, alright? But I can't help you unless you tell me what happened."

"I-I couldn't... I couldn't save her, Rose, I couldn't do anything..." The pain was clear in his voice, and Rose knew it was a tribute to how close they were that he was telling her about the problem, rather than changing the subject abruptly to something lighter as he had in the earlier days of their travels.

"Doctor, listen to me, I'm sure there was nothing you could do. If you had been able to, you would have saved her. Days when everybody lives are hard to come by, you know." Drawing him back into her arms, Rose continued in soothing tones, not betraying the worry eating away at her, "Can you tell me who 'she' is, Doctor? Can you tell me the whole story?"

Pulling himself together, the Doctor pulled away a little and began to tell Rose the story. "Donna and I - well, Martha helped, but it was mostly Donna and I - well, actually it was mostly Donna, but anyways, we had just defeated the Sontarans and stopped them from poisoning everyone on Earth to make a cloning planet, when the TARDIS decided Martha needed one last trip. She decided to send us to Messaline, a colony planet, where this war was going on between humans and Hath..."

When he had finished his somber tale, Rose kissed the Doctor before murmuring, "Oh, Doctor, it's going to be okay, I promise. You and I both know that the pain gets easier with time." After a moment, Rose tried to lighten the atmosphere a little, "At least you didn't have to worry about Reapers coming if you saved her."

Smiling a little, the Doctor whispered, "Oh, Rose, I don't know what I'd do without you..."

Still trying to receive his trademark grin, Rose continued to tease, "Well, for starters, you'd still have big ears and a leather coat." As she aimed her cheeky grin at him, the blond was graced with a view of his own smile, and she knew he would heal.

Instead of continuing to talk, however, the Doctor brought his lips down upon hers and did his very best to forget about his troubles as he kissed her. The kiss was deep and slow, burning with all the intensity that fueled the Oncoming Storm.

Rose returned the kiss with the same amount of ardor and passion, knowing that it was not only what she wanted, but also what he needed.

Soon enough, if all went well, they would be back in the TARDIS together, heading off on another adventure, just like they always had.