Series: iPod Shuffle Challenge

Fandom: Doctor Who

Character / Pairing Focus: Rose Tyler; (Tenth) Doctor x Rose Tyler

Rating: K Plus / PG / All Ages

Notes: S4, pre-finale.

Disclaimer: Doctor Who and all respective properties are © the BBC. Megan D. (Veritas Found) does not, has never, nor will ever own Doctor Who.

Whistles the Wind (performed by Flogging Molly)

Well, it breaks my heart to see you this way

The beauty in life – where's it gone?

Well, somebody told me you were doing ok

Somehow I guess they were wrong

She sees his face, only for a moment, but for Rose Tyler a moment is long enough – at least where the Doctor is concerned. He's in the middle of saving a world, a fiery redhead by his side (where she should be, she can't help but think), and everything's falling apart around him. She's not even corporeal this time – barely visible – and she can't bring herself to hope he'll see her. She shouts for him, knowing that without a physical body he can't hope to hear her (but he's slightly psychic, and that must count for something, shouldn't it?), and he continues being the Doctor. Continues trying to save everyone. Continues…

But then he turns, and she sees his face, and she can't scream anymore. She feels the Void tug at her, feels the universe that's not her own pulling, and his eyes haunt her as her ghost is pulled across hell.

He promised her he'd be ok. She thinks he lied.

He promised he'd be alone. She knows he lied.

And she doesn't know if she can be happy for the woman by his side, because she doesn't want him alone – but she doesn't want him with anyone but her, either. It's a selfish, childish thought she hasn't quite been able to release yet; she knows he's the Doctor, knows he belongs to everyone – has known since the fiasco with Sarah Jane – but she still can't stop the thought.

And maybe she would be happy for him, if she hadn't seen his eyes. If she had seen him there, going on like he said and like she knew he wanted her to, instead of locking onto those ancient eyes that…they had never seemed so…she didn't want to call it dead, because that word didn't seem him. But that was exactly what it seemed: like he was surviving instead of living, like he wasn't her Doctor anymore. Like she had broken him, and that thought breaks her.

He promised he'd be ok.