"Okay, Rose," said the Doctor, his voice drenched with anticipation and edginess, "you can open them."
The first thing that assaulted Rose's vision was a deep blue color. She stared at it for a moment, not comprehending. Then she tilted her head to the top of the object, and read "Police Public Call Box."
Rose took a step back and gasped. "It can't be!" And yet there it was; the TARDIS, same as always. She glanced next to her at the Doctor, who wore a bright smile as he watched her. He laughed, and Rose joined in, still unbelieving. She remembered him constructing the growth chamber, but she wondered how he had moved it from place to place.
"But how-"
"When I moved, the TARDIS was still small enough to move with me, though I had to disassemble the growth chamber. I kept her in an old unused warehouse right by my flat in Scotland. I forgot about her for a while, but when I went back to see her tonight she was unharmed and fully grown."
"That's why you left," Rose realized with a smile, "And you really weren't gone for long at all."
He winked at her and nodded, his smile huge and bright. "Oh yes."
"But how does it look the same?"
"I just took a trip back to the 1960s and broke the same thing in the TARDIS that I did last time. Good thing they still had police boxes in this universe. Couldn't go on without the same old TARDIS, could we?" He gestured to the door of the spaceship and time machine with his free hand. "Are you ready to see the inside?"
Rose nodded. The Doctor let go of her hand, and she pushed open the door with the same old familiar creak. Unable to keep a smile off of her face, Rose walked into the new TARDIS.
The Doctor kept his eyes on Rose as she took in the inside of the TARDIS, not wanting to miss a second of her reaction. She stared at it all in awe, her eyes wide. She opened her mouth a couple times as if to say something, but no words came out.
"Beautiful, isn't it?" asked the Doctor, admiring it himself. The wide tube running down the center of the TARDIS bathed a soft blue light over the circular control panel. The floor was almost like some sort of milky white glass; it seemed translucent at first glance, but was really opaque and thick like a stone would be.
"It's- It's-" Rose just shook her head, still seeming to be amazed beyond words.
"Bigger on the inside?" the Doctor suggested.
Rose looked over at him and smiled. "Yes. A lot bigger." She proceeded to walk around the TARDIS at a slow walk, as if she didn't want to miss one detail. She stopped when she reached him, and looked up at him with her eyes full of hope. "Are we going to travel again like we used to?"
"Only if you want. Or we could stay here and live an ordinary life. Up to you."
Her eyes widened. "You would stay here with me?"
The Doctor smiled. There were no words to convey his devotion to her. He would follow her anywhere. He reached out and took her hand, feeling a sort of wholeness as she interlaced their fingers. "Rose, I will never leave you again. And that's a promise."
A huge grin spread across her face. After a few seconds, her brow furrowed. "Do you want to travel again?"
"'Course I do. It's just how it should be; the Doctor and Rose Tyler in the TARDIS." The Doctor measured her stoic expression, trying to keep his face void of emotion. He couldn't believe that it was actually happening; he was going to travel through time and space again with Rose Tyler. It was perfect, like he had dreamed a million times since he had left.
After a minute, the Doctor let his huge, joyful smile break through, and opened his arms wide, breaking their hold. Rose jumped into a tight hug, wrapping her arms around him. The Doctor had ached to hold her in his arms again for so long, and he relished the moment, picking her up and spinning her around. After a good, long moment, he let go and smiled at her.
"So," said the Doctor as he approached the control panel, "where are we off to?"
"Me?" She followed him to the swiveling chair in front of the controls and sat down in it with a huff. A huge yawn followed, but Rose shook her head as if trying to shake off drowsiness.
"I'm not the one who knows all about time and space."
"Oh, but Rose, I know just about as much as you do now. Well, except for the few books I studied in Scotland, and those weren't much help. These humans are ahead of the other universe, but not much." He continued to switch the controls to be ready for takeoff, the system coming back to his memory as it had earlier that night. "But now we have the chance to discover a whole new universe, where all of time and space is-"
The Doctor paused, his hand on a lever. Was the whole of time and space unexplored? Or was he not alone? The time lords were gone in the other universe, but here...
"The time lords," he murmured out loud. "Rose, I-" But as he looked up at her, he saw her head down, chin resting against her collarbone. Her chest moved in and out at a steady rhythm, and her legs were limp as they dangled off the chair.
The Doctor smiled to himself. He had given her next to no time to rest, when she should be able to sleep for hours to gain back her strength. She certainly deserved it, after all the excitement, good and bad, she had just undergone in the past two days.
He approached the chair with muted footsteps, and, being as gentle as he could, picked her up in his arms, letting her head rest against his chest. To his surprise, she didn't even stir as she was moved.
The Doctor carried her from the main control room and into the first hallway. The floor was the same as in the other room, but a red light shone up from underneath and created patterns all over the low ceiling. The Doctor paused at the first door he came to, and it slid open sideways. A soft glow emanated from the ceiling in the new room, as if the TARDIS knew that one of its occupants need rest.