The Unexpected Reversal
AKA: School Reunion. From Hell.
"Well, that's that, then," said the Doctor with a contented sigh. "Sarah's back where she belongs, Tegan's back where she belongs, Jack's back where he belongs -ish." He smiled up at her and held out his arms. "And you, Rose Tyler, are back where you belong."
She fell into his arms and hugged him. When their lips met, it was a kiss even the TARDIS seemed to have been waiting eons for.
At last they parted, each looking splendidly goofy and grinning like an idiot. Rose, however, soon lost that grin, looking thoughtfully over the Doctor's shoulder as if steeling herself. Her face said clearly, in fact, that she'd rather confess to collecting chia pets than say what she had to say.
The Doctor's giddy joy left his face.
"Before we left Pete's World," Rose began, "did you notice anything... off... about Jackie?"
He shrugged, then grinned and nodded, as radiant and innocent as a child claiming good behavior to Father Christmas. "She was nice to me. Didn't slap. Didn't snog, either, which was actually better, let me tell you."
Rose smiled, a sweet but sad smile, almost as if humoring the small child previously mentioned (the one who'd put ink in the fish tank.) "That's because that was Jackie Harper, my niece."
"What?" he demanded.
"She's my baby sister's daughter. She's 42."
"What!!"
"My sister got married really late because she was seeing this impossible bloke... oh, nevermind. Point is, my sister had her when she was 40. She's 42, now. And my sister was born when I was twenty one. Both of 'em grew up on stories about you - they'd never treat you funny, ever."
"What?!?!"
"I'm more than a hundred years old, Doctor." She sighed as he stared at her, face impossibly pale and expression utterly uncomprehending. "That's why I have to go, now."
He didn't say anything, just moved between her and the TARDIS door, eyes ferociously demanding answers. Possibly he had lost all English words except "What" from his vocabulary, because normally by this point, he would have started spouting out absolute pages of arguments.
"You see," she said slowly, "the thing is. You don't die, you regenerate. I haven't got used to the idea of watching that happen again and again to someone I..."
"You what?" he breathed.
"Look, the thing is..." she sighed. "I'll never age, I'll never change, I'll never die. I'll just go on and on. I'm wrong, you see."
He gasped harshly and shook his head, firmly, frantically, fidgeting with his hands as if he didn't know where to put them.
She looked into his eyes and spoke, in a voice heavy with pain and the darkest of bitter irony, "You could spend the rest of your life with me, but I can't spend the rest of my life with you."
Then she batted around him and shoved the door open. Before they parted, though, she smiled up at him. "We will meet again. My Doctor!"
Someone was waiting for her, sitting on the edge of the ornamental fountain near Torchwood Three's headquarters.
"That was mean," he said, pouting.
"I know."
"He didn't get it," her companion added.
"I know."
"Sarah Jane would have loved it."
"I know."
"Will you stop that?" he demanded.
"Hey, all the times I had to listen to you randomly yell 'what'. So glad you grew out of that, yeah?"
"Well, it hurt! I was torn up, absolutely shattered. Didn't know what to do with myself for months!"
She smiled. "I'm sorry."
"Kiss it and make it better, Rose Tyler," he requested in that dark, soft, flirtatious tone he had taken with her since the first time they'd met. Well, aside from first asking her to turn off her cell phone.
She snorted, and ran a hand along his face, smiling into his vivid green eyes. She let their heads draw closer and then, the instant she knew she had him, she shoved him into the fountain.
He came up coughing and sputtering and laughing in outrage all at the same time. Rose beamed sweetly at him. "Physician," she quoted, "heal thyself."
