This is one of those chapters that is sort of reflective and sad, the calm before the storm that will be the big finale! Maybe not that big of a finale, but a finale nonetheless. Anyway, have a slightly angsty sad chapter.

Rose shut the door after her mum and leaned against it. She had managed to quieten Tony down, and had just about kept up a charade of being normal and happy in the few moments that she saw her mum. Luckily for Rose, having a 3 year old son and being extremely tired can cause a person not to be too observant when it comes to their 23 year old daughter.

She stayed with her forehead pressed against the cold wood of the door, trying not to let in the thoughts that she was just about managing to keep at bay. She wasn't successful. Why did you do that? she asked herself furiously, beginning to pace around the room in a way that reminded her of the Doctor, which made her feel even worse. What sort of stupid thing to do was that?!

But he had been being so infuriating! Rose couldn't just let him never talk to her about anything, they couldn't live like that, it would be ridiculous.

"Stupid idiot!" Rose muttered, kicking the sofa hard and wondering whether she was referring to herself or the Doctor. She slumped down on the sofa and rubbed her bruised toes. She felt almost numb, as though everything that had happened had been happening to someone else. It was a strange sensation.

It was hours of confused, whirling thoughts and staring out of the window at the slowly darkening sky before Rose finally moved, standing up and stretching out her aching muscles. She was so tired, despite the fact that she hadn't really done that much today. Rose walked slowly into her room, kicking off her shoes and taking satisfaction in the way that they slammed into the wall. She dragged off her clothes and climbed into bed.

She did not sleep.

The Doctor did not appear again the next day. Or the day after. Rose could not think where he could be. He had some money, she knew, but where would he go? Surely he wouldn't have just cleared off forever? Rose wished she hadn't even entertained that idea – images of the Doctor setting off for some distant country, to explore and live and adventure alone for the rest of his one life filled her head.

She didn't dare to call her mum and ask whether the Doctor had been 'round. The last thing she wanted was for her mum to stick her nose into this. It was between Rose and the Doctor, and they had to sort it out on their own.

On the second day without the Doctor, Rose had to go into Torchwood. The entire day seemed flat, uninteresting. She looked at alien artefacts and checked mysterious signals and answered questions from co-workers but there was no meaning behind any of it. Not knowing where he could be was worse than anything else.

On the third day without the Doctor, Rose saw an advert for the upcoming "Toy Story 3." She remembered their conversation of a few days ago, begging the Doctor to tell her what happened to Woody and Buzz. She cried herself to sleep that night.

Two more days passed and Rose went through phases of anger, grief and hope by turns. She tried to sort out her feelings about what had happened – her feelings for the Doctor – but she couldn't keep her mind straight from one hour to the next, constantly changing her mind and doubting herself and grabbing handfuls of her hair in frustration, something which she knew the Doctor did and found herself getting very angry about.

On the evening of the fifth day she was sitting on the kitchen side, staring at the handle on the opposite cupboard as though it had wronged her in some way. She wanted the Doctor back her. It wasn't the cupboard's fault, she supposed. Rose had had to admit that it was only hers and the Doctor's fault that they had ended up in this situation. She sighed, rubbing her hands over her face, trying to clear her head.

When the Doctor came back (she tried not to think 'if' but it buzzed around her brain anyway) they would have to continue talking. She wasn't going to budge on the "needing to talk to each other thing" but she knew now that shouting about it was not going to help. They needed – somewhat ironically – to talk about it. Rose knew now she would do whatever she could to make this easier for the Doctor – she understood how hard this was for him. She would listen to him and give him time, but he had to agree that this was the right thing. Rose was not going to accept a different answer from him. If he wanted them to spend their lives together (and she was almost 100% sure that he did) then he was going to have to compromise on this, as well as the Torchwood thing – Rose still wasn't done arguing about that yet.

She jumped down from the side and went to sit down on the sofa, happy that the haze of anger and sadness had calmed down, that she could think clearly about what they were going to do. Five days seemed too long to spend in a temper, but she had been very angry, and she had always been stubborn. Rose was just thinking that she now had the task of trying to find the Doctor in order to sort things out with him, something that could prove to be very difficult, when she suddenly became aware that she could hear footsteps coming upstairs, heading towards their flat.

She stood up, hoping and praying that it was the Doctor. She had sorted out her feelings now, she was finally ready to see him, to work this through. She found herself itching to hug him, almost able to feel his body against hers as she stood there. She heard the footsteps approaching the door. She was nervous, her palms were sweating and she could feel herself beginning to tremble slightly. No time like the present for apologies and understandings and reunions. Rose held her breath as the Doctor approached the door.

The Doctor was fed up. He hated staying in a hotel. He hated that he had had to buy new clothes, but none of them were as nice as the ones he had picked out with Rose. He hated the feeling of loneliness that came with not being able to talk to Rose. He hated not being able to go into Torchwood, or go and see Jackie, Pete and Tony. The Doctor didn't usually like to hate things, but right now he hated everything, and the thing he hated the most was the thought that he might never patch this up with Rose. He had been stuck inside his own head for days, thinking and sorting and trying to understand what he wanted.

It was only in the last few hours that he had finally figured it out. He loved Rose. He needed Rose and he wanted Rose and he loved her more than anything. He wanted to spend his life with her. He wanted to tell her his thoughts and let her help him when he was angry or upset and to help her in return. He wanted her to know all his thoughts and feelings, to know him inside out and know her the same way. He didn't want to hide himself from her any longer. It wouldn't be easy, but that was what he wanted.

The only problem was that he wasn't sure if he could fix it after five days of being AWOL. He knew that when Rose had said he had to go if he couldn't talk to her that she had been angry and not thinking straight, but if he had been any sort of sensible human being he would have talked to her there and then. That's what comes from being a half-human Time Lord – the emotional repression of a Time Lord coupled with the hot-headed anger of a human. What a brilliant combination.

Within minutes of working out what he wanted, he was on his way back to the flat. It was about 8 o'clock in the evening, the sun had almost finished setting and the Doctor rubbed his hands together to ward off the evening chill as he walked the hundred yards from the bus stop to their building. He tapped in the code and quickly climbed the stairs, bounding down the corridor before suddenly screeching to a halt just in front of their door. If he had been in a cartoon there would have been the squealing of brakes as he struggled to stop, staring wide eyed at the door. It was ajar, which would have been suspicious enough even if there hadn't been dents and splinters around the lock, as though someone had been kicking it in order to get in.

The Doctor suddenly felt movement rush back to his frozen limbs. Without a second thought he shoved the door open and hurtled inside, scared to think of what he might find.

Hee hee, cliffhanger - of sorts. Don't worry, I will hopefully post tomorrow, you will not have long to wait :P Thanks for the reviews!