Amarantos
By TwinEnigma
X: Same Difference
She hums in joy as she follows Noble's trail, a phoenix taken flight, and yet it's not long before she realizes it's not the same. She's horrified to realize that's she's forgotten so much of her Doctor and his companions in the long, long years since these two departed and her Doctor's death. Rose is little more than a mote of memory, an impression of a girl she clearly is no longer, and she realizes sadly that this Doctor does not have the burden of the added losses and horrors his later incarnations endured on his shoulders. He is her Doctor, but he is different.
It's a sobering thought.
She sighs, her joy dwindling to melancholy. She'd known this was a possibility when she'd leaped into the tear, hadn't she?
No, not really, she supposes. She hadn't intended to survive the journey in the first place, at least not more than the moment it'd have taken to see him again, and, thus, she had failed to consider the possibility of both her success and survival. She'd just wanted to see his face again, no matter what the cost.
It figures. This is the first time she's been able to grant her own wish and it's exactly what she wanted and everything she hadn't given a thought to. Goodness, wishes can be a complicated business.
She shivers off the melancholy, replacing it with resolve. She's got one last shot, one last grand adventure with her Doctor, and that's one more than she could have hoped for. She's not going to waste it.
She turns her attention inward, to her Doctor, and gives him an affectionate mental caress.
"How did she get here, Doctor?" Rose asks, running her hand along the console. Her mind flickers with a mix of things, confusion and worry and an old ache that has not quite healed. "Last time, she died, right?"
"I'm curious myself," her Doctor replies, but his mind says he suspects and his joy at seeing her is mixing with his disappointment at what he supposes she must have done to get here. He's a confounding, dizzying mix of emotions good and bad. He glares at the console and adds, "I think I know why, though."
"I'm sorry," she tells him, even though she's not and he knows it. It's impossible to put one past him. She tries to explain that he shouldn't worry and it comes out a pathetic "Jimmy fixed it."
Her Doctor looks up at her, past the time rotor, and sighs heavily, "It's because I'm the only Doctor with a timeline she's able to cross. All the other me's, she can't go back into their pasts. It's too dangerous – well, on her own, anyway. Because I chose to stay with you, I'm out of their timelines. With every step forward I take here, I'm making my own path. She can hone in on that, right, old girl?"
She hums in agreement, typing out a yes on the screen for good measure.
He pauses, his head lowering again. This time, it is with the weight of loneliness and a fathomless sorrow reborn. "And, more than that, I'm the only Doctor left. The other me is gone."
Rose's emotions spike in horror and shock. "No way! That's..."
"Thirteen lives," her Doctor reminds her, sadly smiling. Weary acceptance hangs around his mind like a shroud. "Thirteen lives well-lived. The old girl stayed with him to the very end."
"But," Rose murmurs, her face falling, "He's... He's supposed to be forever."
"I know," he replies, hugging her close with one arm. "I know."
She lets them mourn quietly and continues tracking. She has mourned too long already and, though the ache will never fade from her heart, she doesn't want to linger on it now that she's found her Doctor again. Someday, maybe, her Doctor will ask about the three incarnations that followed him and the events of his death, but she knows it will be a long time in coming. She remembers that this incarnation was fond, too fond, of that form and had resisted parting it in his attachment to that life. She suspects her Doctor will be no different now.
Her Doctor changes, but never that much in the end, not really.
Noble's signature flares to the right and past the next century, slowing perceptibly. She knows immediately that the other TARDIS is getting close to her target destination and is preparing to land, so she taps her Doctor's mind to get his attention and displays the telemetry.
"Looks like we're catching up," he manages, his voice a little rougher, raw with emotion held back. "Honestly, you'd have thought he'd have had her appear as a DeLorean. Much more appropriate for a time-traveler, a DeLorean. Loved that movie – all wrong, of course! You know, it'd have never worked, not with those equations. In fact, the inhabitants of Hemulry Twelve used to use a similar engine system, well, sort of... It had a habit of blowing up spectacularly, but it definitely couldn't travel in time, no!"
Rose resists the urge to giggle, sniffling as she rubs her eyes.
She watches them, amused. Her Doctor always seems to know what to say to clear the air. Oh, she remembers it drove some of his companions mental, but she wouldn't trade it for anything now. She's missed him too much.
"I still can't believe there's another TARDIS out there," Rose says, her mind calming and leaving the raw emotions to be dealt with later.
Her Doctor's face darkens. "There shouldn't be. I sensed none in this universe before."
She presses against his mind, telling him what she'd learned of Noble and the implications, and receives a whirl of confusion and disbelief in turn. "Understandable," she tells him, because she didn't believe that Noble existed either, not until she talked to the too-human other TARDIS and had undeniable proof smack in front of her sensors. She still isn't able to quite wrap her mind around the idea of others, though, no matter how her intuition circuits hum with possibilities.
"Why do you suppose he looks like you?" Rose asks, thoughtfully, her mind wandering with curiosity.
"Not sure," her Doctor says, but ideas and fears are percolating there in his head in a dizzying rush.
She tells him about Jimmy and Noble's relation to Cardiff just as Rose pipes up with: "You don't suppose it's like that Gwen girl from Torchwood looking like Gwyneth?"
"Spatial genetic multiplicity! Oh, that's brilliant!" he exclaims, something clicking in his head, and she can feel him trying to feel out the threads of possibility and timelines with a strange, fervent reverence. His fingers dance across the console even as his expression turns into something funny with realization. "Suppose we'll have to move to Cardiff, though."
"Cardiff, why?" Rose asks, confusion bubbling through her. "You think the Rift has something to do with this?"
"Yep!" her Doctor laughs, smiling knowingly as he adds, "I'll explain later."
Rose says she's not amused as she cuffs him soundly on the arm, but her mind and body speak of clear affection and fond humor. Rose threatens mortgages and white picket fences and her Doctor threatens to steal her away to Barcelona if she thinks of making him clean up his toys.
She watches them and thinks she could grow used to this and their strange comfort with each other, but it's not the time. They're landing and somewhere out there Jimmy and Noble have the answers they want in more detail than mere glimpses of intuition, probability and wriggling timelines.
"Allons-y!" her Doctor says, and she and Rose both echo him happily.
AN: I was tempted to go right to the confrontation, but this is better. There were things I wanted to touch on first, such as the timeline bit and MetaTen.
I assure you, all will be more or less explained.
More or less.
Mostly.
And I promise if I do get around to a sequel, Jimmy and Noble will both get their chance to POV.