The shore was cold and gray in the waning afternoon light, the spray from the ocean dampening everything, even their moods. It had taken more than a day and a half to get there, driving first to mainland Europe before taking the ferry from Denmark to Norway. Despite frequent stops and a kip at a motor in for the exhausted and motion sick Jackie, they stood there on the dull stretch of sand, overlooking the North Sea.
"What's it called again," Rose whispered, pulling her purple jumper out from under her leather jacket.
"Miles said it is Darlig Ulv Stranden." Pete stumbled on the unfamiliar words.
"Sounds like a cheerful place," Mickey snorted, kicking at a stone in the damp sand with his trainer, leaning heavily against the Jeep.
"Odd name if you ask me," Pete supplied, shoving his hands deeper into his pockets. "Something about sick wolves, poor wolves, bad wolves...Miles apparently speaks Norwegian, how that got through his files without me knowing, I don't know, but he's been holding out on me."
"Bad wolves?" Rose stuttered the words, disbelief paling her face. "Did...did you say 'bad wolves'?"
"Well, more or less. I guess in English it's Bad Wolves Bay or something." Pete didn't like the wild look in Rose's eye, no more than Jackie beside him did.
"Or Bad Wolf Bay!" She turned to grin triumphantly at a suddenly ill looking Mickey. "You know what that means."
Before the boy could answer, Jackie gasped quietly beside him, tugging Rose's sleeve. Out in the distance of the dull expanse, a wavering image stood. Even from this distance, Pete could see the familiar brown suit and mad hair..
Rose simply stared.
"Go to him," Jackie quietly urged her, nudging the girl across the sand towards where the strange alien seemed to stand. As if in a trance, Rose trudged along, arms wrapped around herself as she approached. Pete took Jackie's hand and held tight, watching her - his daughter - as she stopped.
"He looks so faint," Jackie mused. "Like Princess Leia in Star Wars, when she calls for help."
Thankfully, that was a movie that had some sort of reference in this world. Many of Jackie's pop culture references did not. "Maybe it's just a message of some sort, a signal."
"Likely has the TARDIS sending it," Mickey added, frowning worriedly. "Guess this means he can't get to this side without destroying everything. Which means Rose is staying here."
"Yeah," Pete conceded, gruffly.
"Yeah," Jackie managed on a choked whisper. "He's going to leave her. Just like that, he's going to walk away."
"At least he came to say goodbye," Mickey replied, sorrowfully. "More than he's done for anyone else. I guess this means..."
Mickey drifted off without finishing his thought. The Doctor now solidified, but Rose only pulled away after he did. They stood, watching whatever private conversation was being had. That it wasn't going well, he could see, the hunch of Rose's shoulders, the watery glance she threw over her shoulder. He could feel Jackie long to rush over and make it better, to fix it for her little girl, like she always did. But Pete held her firm. Rose needed to do this on her own.
The Doctor only spared them a singular glance, then, as if only just noticing them. Perhaps he did at that, or maybe he was reserving his attentions for the one person in this world he needed to see. Even from where they stood, Pete could sense the heartbreak in the ancient being, the sadness, and the quiet pride for the young woman in front of him. And love. That, Pete would have needed to be blind not to see. It was no sooner than that thought even occurred to him then the solid image that had been the only link to the Doctor disappeared.
Without another breath, Pete let go of Jackie's hand, as she immediately rushed over to her slowly crumbling daughter. Even over the crash of waves pounding the cliffs, he could hear the keens of Rose, sobbing once again as if her heart would break. A sound he had so thoroughly hoped he would never have to hear again.
"He's gone," Mickey sighed, more in sadness than disbelief. "He's not coming back."
"I know," Pete murmured. "He said he would close the gap between the universes for good, no more getting through. I suppose this was his last chance to say goodbye. Though, he could have stayed here for all that. Been with Rose."
"No, he couldn't." Mickey stood up, pushing himself off the Jeep. "TARDIS doesn't recognize this universe, it wouldn't run. And that's all he's got. He's the last of his kind. That's it. And he's going to outlive Rose, and he's going to outlive me, and then where will he go? He knew that. Sarah Jane knew that. Rose...I think she just never cared. But he did."
"You think he left her on this side on purpose?"
"No, not really. I think that she got trapped here. I'm just saying that the worst thing in the universe is to sit and watch everything you love die. And he's seen it more times over than most of us. Perhaps he was trying to give Rose her best chance, knowing she was happy somewhere."
Mickey acted slightly gormless most of the time, but there were many moments, like this one, when Pete saw through to the sensitive, insightful young man he really was. He had matured in the time he had known him. "She's going to need you."
"Nah," Mickey shook his head. "She's not needed me, not ever, really, but especially not since the Doctor wandered into her shop and blew it to kingdom come. Ever since, I've just been along for the ride."
"You've made the most of it," Pete pointed out. "And she will still need you. As a friend, if nothing else."
"She's going to need all of us." He nodded to the two women crossing the sands again, Rose's head buried deep in her mother's shoulder. Jackie hummed and cooed, as if her daughter were still an infant.
"Hush, love, let's get you inside, all right." She glanced at the pair of them, with Mickey hopping to it to open the door and help Rose inside. Limply, the girl curled in on herself, as Jackie looked on sadly.
"It's been a long couple of days," Pete offered, pulling out his phone, looking briefly through a list of hotels. "Bergen's not far. Let's find a nice place to stay, get settled in for the night."
The other two only gave mute reply as Mickey crawled in beside Rose and Jackie in the passenger's seat by Pete. Rose said nothing as she sobbed quietly to herself. Pete started the engine, and without a single glance backwards left Bad Wolf Bay, wondering what in the world that name meant to Rose.
Hours later, he sat by the window of their hotel, overlooking the picturesque city of Bergen, it's lights glittering like stars around the reflection of a fjord below. Phone calls were placed as Jackie settled Rose into her room. Mickey had tiredly gone to his own quarters for the evening without so much as a by-your-leave, and Pete had left him to it. He'd gone to the room he'd reserved for he and Jackie, though he had no idea how much time, if any, his wife would actually spend in it. Almost numbly he had settled into the routine of checking his mail for reports. The only one that caught his eye was from Dr. Singh. He reported that the anomalous activity along the rift between the worlds had abruptly stopped, and there was no more sign of any further cracks or breaks. The breech was effectively sealed for good.
Somehow, oddly, this didn't make Pete feel any better.
He'd drifted into a fitful doze watching the news when Jackie finally made her way in, looking dead on her feet. She fell into the bed, stripping off just enough clothing to be comfortable, curling up beside Pete wordlessly as she pressed herself into his side.
"She going to be okay?"
"Don't know. She hasn't spoken much, really." They'd been through this before with Rose, when they had first arrived months ago. Jackie had sat with her then.
"She didn't tell you what he said?"
"Not so much, but I can guess." She didn't sound angry. She only sounded sad. "If he wasn't going to come back for her, why did he bother at all? After all of this, he's gone and broke her heart again. Just when she was starting to get better."
Rose hadn't been getting better, though. She'd been moving along, slowly, but he knew as well as Jackie that there was a part of her that still clung to the hope that one day, somehow, the TARDIS would impossibly arrive to whisk her into the stars again. And the fact it never would, ever again, made his heart ache for his daughter.
"Maybe he was saying goodbye so she could move on, you know." He'd considered it on the long drive from the beach to Bergen. "Maybe his hope is that she will move on, live out her life, and not waste away hoping he will come back in to take her away."
"Letting her grow up," Jackie whispered tiredly into his shoulder. The words caught him, the very words he'd told Jackie just the day before.
"What'd you say?" Pete cracked an eye to look at her.
"Letting her grow up," Jackie repeated, face turning to look at him. "You were right, you know. I didn't want to admit it, but you were. She's a grown woman, got to make her own decisions. And I won't always be there. And God knows what she was up to with the Doctor, I don't know even half of it, and she came out just fine. I just...have to be okay with letting her be herself."
He knew how hard that had been for her to say.
"And you know," she continued. "I watched himself out there on the beach today. Looking like his heart was breaking. Well, I guess hearts, he's got two of them. But he knew the truth. There was no coming back, not without destroying everything. And he had to let her go. A man who's lost everything, giving up even that. And it made me feel a little selfish. Look at me, I got to spend nineteen years with her, and I was crying over letting her go, and he…"
She trailed off, as dampness began to seep through his undershirt. Without a word, he pulled her up enough to kiss her lightly and settle her forehead against his, wiping tears away with the flat of his thumb. "She's staying, Jackie."
"But not because she wants to. And there was a part of me that was so happy to have her here forever, but I wonder if it was worth it to see her hurting like that."
"I know." He too had felt that guilty happiness that his daughter was staying. He'd only just got her, after all, and to lose her so soon seemed unfair. And then he thought of the Doctor standing on that lonely, gray beach. And he felt somewhat ashamed.
"You know, I used to hate him," Jackie murmured in the small space between them. "I hated him for taking her away from me. I hated that he was amazing and wonderful, that he could show her things I never could, and of course she'd want him more than staying around with me, who'd never done anything with herself."
"Do you still hate him?"
"No. I don't know. I don't hate him, even if I wish he hadn't. If he didn't, I wouldn't have you. I just feel...sad for him. Because I know how he feels, that being alone. It's how I felt when Rose was gone. And I had people, the neighborhood, the pub, but he's got nothing. No one left. And to see him stand there on that beach and say goodbye. He was letting her go, so she could be herself. Suppose I wish I was half that brave."
"I wish I was half that brave too." Slowly, he brushed a kiss across her nose, then rolled her down to lay on the mattress more comfortably once more. "She's amazing, Jacks. She will do fine."
They were silent for long moments, the quiet hum of the television on low the only sound in the room.
"Sometimes getting exactly what you want isn't as wonderful as you thought it would be," Jackie finally breathed, burrowing into pillows with a sleepy yawn.
"Doesn't make it any less worth it," Pete qualified, finding himself just as drowsy.
"I suppose not."
Tiredly, he rolled, gently turning Jackie so he could curl himself up behind her, placing his palm on the gentle swell of her belly. "I think it is pretty worth it."
Her soft snore was the only response she gave. Smiling softly, he kissed her hair gently and slipped into sleep himself.