Just wanted to write a quick "thank you" to everyone who has posted a review. I'm so glad that you all like it! I'm trying to update as much as possible - if only I didn't have to work and could just write all day... This story is a bit darker than my other one and the "big bad" will be a bit scarier - but it is just as much fun to write! I was going to only write one story and then hopefully I'd be out of my writer's block for my own book, but I just can't get this one out of my head. But thank you all for your encouragement! It is so appreciated!

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Rose jolted awake. She had fallen asleep on the sofa watching television and was now staring at an "Off Air" screen. Shaking the haze from her mind, she tried to remember why she woke up since she was clearly still exhausted.

And then she remembered. A voice – one that was all too familiar. A voice of a man who was not in the room because it wasn't really his voice.

She got up from the couch and started to walk. She didn't know where she was going until she left the cabin. All Rose knew was that she needed to follow the voice.

Rose.

It was just like last time. She could hear him, across the dimensions, saying her name. She had to follow.

Rose.

Her socks were caked in dirt and she was still in her pajamas, but she didn't even notice. The only thing that registered was the voice that was growing louder and more insistent as she walked along the dirt road and out into the forest.

Rose.

Once she had wandered out far enough that all she could see were trees in every direction, Rose started to realize what was going on and she began to panic. She was lost.

And that was when she heard it. Not the voice, but the engines. That unmistakable sound; and there was only one thing that made that noise. She took off running through the forest in the direction of the sound.

Just when her legs began to grow tired and her feet were raw from running across rocks and broken twigs, she heard it again. This time it was closer. She was almost there. It was just beyond a row of trees up ahead.

Rose skidded to a halt when she saw it. The TARDIS was right there in front of her, sitting between two massive trees. She had never wanted to run towards something and run away from it at the same time so badly in her life. Now, she stood in the forest, about twenty feet away from it, frozen.

Then she saw him.

Rose.

His form stepped through the TARDIS. Not out of the door; through it as if the police box dematerialized around him. And then he was standing in front of her, alone in the forest, his long brown coat blowing in a breeze that she couldn't feel.

The Doctor, the Time Lord, was calling her name.

"What are you doin' here?" she asked him, finally finding her voice and taking determined steps forward. "Why now?"

His deep brown eyes found hers and he swallowed. "I've made a mistake," he said thickly but matter-of-factly. "I should have said it."

Rose glared at him through the tears that were building in her eyes. "How are you here?"

"I'm not," the Time Lord Doctor said. "Again, this is just an image." He took a deep breath and shoved his hands in his pockets. "My TARDIS was able to lock on to the coral that I gave you. Why are you in a forest?" he asked, looking around.

"We're stuck at a resort in 1974," she explained before she caught herself. Why was she telling him that?

"1974?" he asked. "What?"

"Long story," she said, dismissing it. "And I should get back. The Doctor's gonna wonder where I am."

She noticed the pain in his eyes and the way that his jaw tensed when she said that.

"Rose, wait."

"Why?" she demanded.

"I found a way…" he looked away from her, cleared his throat, and then met her eyes again. "I found a way for you to come back…if you want."

"How?" she asked on instinct.

He gave her a small smile. "We'd have to use a dimension cannon and the TARDIS coral, but it's possible."

Rose found that she had nothing to say to that, so she simply stood there, looking at him blankly.

"Are you happy?" he asked.

"Yes," she said curtly. "Yes, Doctor, I am."

He nodded and looked away.

"Are you?" she asked him softly.

He gave her a manic grin and then started to fade. "I have to go. I'll find you again, Rose Tyler."

"I don't think you should," she said. It was her turn to look away. She didn't want to see his face.

"You might change your mind," she heard him say as the sound of the TARDIS echoed around her.

And then he was gone and she was left standing in the middle of the forest. She was in the middle of the forest with no clue as to how she was going to find her way back.

"At least it isn't Norway," she muttered as she picked a likely direction and started trudging her way through the trees.