Disclaimer: Maybe I'll just hop across the Atlantic, visit the Doctor Who set in Wales, hop into the TARDIS, and convince the original owners to sell it to me before it becomes huge. Sadly, I have not the moneys to go to the UK, nor any proof that the TARDIS they use for filming actually works. :(

I have only seen The Eleventh Hour so far, please remember that with any Series 5 comments you may have to share with me.

Searching Souls

Part The Eleventh

"Rose! What's going on?"

As she regained her senses after the rushed jump, Rose turned to see Mickey rush into the room, Jackie and Pete trailing behind him. In response to his query, Rose said the only thing she could, "It's starting."

"What do you mean, 'its startin''? What is startin'?" Jackie burst out, not caring that her outburst had gained the acute attention of everyone in the Jump room.

Rose sighed, knowing that her mum would not stop until she had gotten a direct answer. "D'you remember that universe I told you about, Mum? The one that was nothin' more than darkness?" When the older Tyler woman nodded, Rose continued, "It's been spreading, that darkness. Across the universes, causin' 'em to collapse. And that universe I was just in? It collapsed, too. If we can't find a way to stop it, pretty soon the darkness will end up in this universe, too."

Rather impatiently, Jackie pressed, "Well, how are you goin' to stop it, then?"

Rose sighed, a hand on her protruding stomach as she gave the only answer any of them had been able to supply, "I dunno, Mum. None of us do. That's why we've got to find the Doctor. He's the only one who can save us."

Jackie sighed, knowing that fighting her daughter on this would be as pointless as trying to stop a drug addict from using when locked in a room with their drug of choice. That didn't mean she wasn't going to try, though. "But what if you can't find the Doctor, Rose? It's been months and there are countless universes for you to sift through! What's your plan for if you can't find 'im?"

"Mum, not finding him is not an option! Don't you get it?! He is our only hope. We don't even know exactly what we're up against! If we can't get in touch with him, the right him, then we might as well give up!" Cursing the fragile emotional state that accompanied her pregnancy, Rose hastily wiped at the tears that were leaking from her eyes, trying to keep herself together so that she could continue her search for the Doctor. Jackie hastily wrapped her up in her arms, comforting her daughter with softly murmured words.

When she had pulled herself together, Rose led the group over to where the technicians were working at their computers. "How does it look?" Pete inquired, hoping for the best.

Toshiko, as head technician, answered promptly, "Its... interesting. Remember the 'Bad Wolf Virus' we encountered before?" Her query was directed at Rose and Pete, who nodded, while Mickey and Jackie both started in recognition. Tosh continued, "Well, the virus has been acting up again, except this time, it has been restricting our landing coordinates to a different universe. See?" She pointed to the numbers, 22503141, that appeared on the screen.

Rose did her best to quell the hope rising within her as she whispered, "Is that what I think it is?"

Tosh smiled up at her from the computers, "There's only one way to find out."

Grinning, Rose turned to Pete, expectantly. For a moment he considered feigning ignorance, but then the director of Torchwood remembered that he would be standing between a Tyler woman and the object of her desires, a feat that no one had ever accomplished unscathed. "Oh, alright, but make sure you bring one of the guns with you - we don't know what dangers are lurking out there."

Grinning ecstatically, Rose turned to her mother and best friend, pulling them both into tight hugs of excitement before heading over to the weapons rack and grabbing one of the bulky guns, too elated at the prospect of finally getting back to the Doctor to care that she was carrying a weapon, something the Doctor loathed to do.

Turning back to the three people in Pete's World that she care about the most (Had Tony been present, it would have been the four), Rose addressed Mickey first, "Look, I know you're gonna tell me that it's dangerous and that I should bring someone else with me an' all, but I have to go, and I have to do it on my own. It's like how you had to stay here the first time we visited." Mickey nodded resolutely, and Rose continued, "You can't come after me, do you get that?"

"Rose -"

"Mickey, I know what I'm sayin'. If I get caught by whatever is causin' the darkness, it's gonna be really dangerous. Do you really think I'd want you to come after me and get yourself into trouble? I'd feel better knowin' that you were here, safe, rather than knowing you might be out there, in the middle of all the danger, lookin' for me."

Mickey frowned but nodded in understanding, making no further move to confirm or deny her request.

Turning to her mother and the man who was a close to a father as she was ever going to get, Rose said, "Look, I know it's dangerous, and I know that you probably want me to stay here, Mum, but you know that I can't do that. If not for myself, than for my child. How am I supposed to teach 'im all about being a Time Lord if I don't know anything about how they're supposed to be brought up?"

Jackie sighed, knowing that even if she managed to force her daughter to stay in their current universe, Rose would be the most miserable creature in it. "As soon as the universe is saved and you're back with the Doctor, you're going to come back to say goodbye, if not for me and Pete then for Tony. You got that?"

Rose smiled and nodded, knowing that her mother would most likely give the Doctor a piece of her mind as soon as she saw him. She turned to Pete, finally, "Please don't send anyone in after me, okay? I can call to check in, if you like, but if I don't call in four hours, just assume I'm out. I don't want anyone else to get hurt or worse, just because I do."

Pete's expression was entirely serious, as though the fate of the world rested with his decisions at that very moment, which they may very well have. After a long moment, he spoke, "Rose, you know that I cannot just let you go headfirst into trouble without sending someone after you to verify the safety of the world. It wouldn't be responsible of me, as the leader of Torchwood, or as your father." She was about to protest when he continued, "I will give you a chance, though. If you don't call in three hours, however, I'm sending our best team after you, and there is no convincing me otherwise."

Rose nodded in resignation as she stepped into the designated area. She turned to face the trio once more, "Right, well, wish me luck!" She slammed her hand down on the button, allowing the familiar sensation of being torn apart and put back together slightly wrong to overcome her. When she was once more on her feet moments later, Rose found herself on a dark street.

There was chaos all around her, people screaming, looting, and running for their lives. The large gun slung across her back was bulky, but she ignored the minor discomfort, pulling out her phone, only to find that there was no signal. She frowned. After the Doctor's Jiggery Pokery way back at the beginning of their travels, she had never lost the signal. Not even when she was trapped on the parallel world. Frowning, she put the phone away, turning her gaze to the sky, which was filled with planets. Without a thought, she hit the button which would read the timelines before she began to move down the street.

The traveler moved through the streets hastily, despite the inhibition of the gun. Approaching a computer store, Rose noticed two looters, just as there had been all along the street. This time, however, she needed to get into the store, and knew that the two looters could only interfere with finding the Doctor.

"Oi! You two," she called, getting the looters' attention. "You can put that stuff down, or run for your lives." Pausing for dramatic effect, Rose cocked her gun, asking threateningly, "Do you like my gun?"

Rose watched the two men run off, smiling inwardly at their panicked reactions before getting to work, opening up the nearest laptop and trying her login on the Torchwood interface, hoping that it would actually work. Strangely enough, she received a message claiming that either her username or password was incorrect, and yet she saw the swirling background take over the computer, with the words 'BAD WOLF' across the top of the screen. The fact that the words were still showing up worried her, but Rose was distracted by the incoming transmission that took over the screen.

The deadly cries of "EX-TER-MI-NATE!" filled the store and shook Rose to the core with shock and fear. All she could do was stare at the screen in horror, wondering what was going to happen; how they could stop and entire fleet of Daleks. Again. The cold fear ran through her veins, and even the baby seemed to still.

Shutting the laptop and leaving, Rose hardly noticed when the shop got caught in the attack and exploded, mere moments after she left. She was too caught up in trying to figure out where the Doctor would go, were he on the Earth.

Traveling with the Doctor, Rose had learned pretty quickly to follow her gut instinct, and this time her gut was telling her to find Donna Noble's family, that they would lead her back to the Doctor.

Catching a bus map, she noticed that she was already in Cheswick, where she had found Donna in the parallel world (well, before the Titanic incident). It was by sheer coincidence that the traveler found herself in a desolate alley, void of all life, save for a Dalek, an old man, and a woman a bit older than her Mum. She smiled as the man tried to ward off the alien with a paint gun, knowing that the Doctor would approve of the weapon choice. Before the Dalek could harm the two humans, Rose quickly took aim and fired the large gun, thankful, not for the first time, that her father had made her carry the weapon.

As she approached the duo around the Dalek's smoking remains, the man held up his makeshift weapon as he offered with a relieved laugh, "Do you wanna swap?"

Rose would have smiled at his offer, were the situation not so incredibly dire. Instead she listened to her gut once more and prodded, "You're Donna Noble's family, right?" When they nodded confusedly, Rose briefly recalled the Doctor's recollections of formally meeting both during the ATMOS incident before shaking off the memory and stating, "I'm Rose Tyler, and I need you."

oxOx0xOxo

The Tandocca Scale had been his last hope, his last way to find the Earth, and he knew, as soon as it stopped, that the trail would not pick up again somewhere else. Still, their location brought a wave of nostalgia over him as he announced, "The Medusa Cascade... I came here when I was just a kid, ninety years old. It was the center of a rift in time and space..."

Donna was beginning to guess what he had already realized, asking nervously, "So.... W-where are the twenty seven planets?"

The Doctor could only sigh, defeated, as he answered, "Nowhere. The trail stops dead. End of the line."

"So what do we do?" Donna pressed, knowing that there had to be a way to save the Earth, that the Doctor wouldn't just give up. When she received no answer, Donna urged further, "Doctor - what do we do?"

The Time Lord remained painfully silent, knowing he could do nothing further.

Growing hysterical, the ginger woman continued, pleading now, "Don't do this to me. No don't. Don't do this to me. Not now. Tell me: What we're going to do! You never give up! PLEASE!"

The Doctor sighed, running his hand through his hair in frustration. After a moment, he snapped, letting his frustrations out at his companion. "Donna, there is nothing I can do right now, absolutely trail has stopped, I cannot trace it any further!"

For many long moments, the two stared at each other, fire in their eyes, Donna's insisting that there was some way to fin the Earth, and the Doctor's burning with the belief that there was no conceivable way to locate the missing planets. Their stalemate dragged on for what felt like hours, neither one backing down until a shrill ringing filled the room.

He was so startled by the noise that it took him a moment to exclaim, "Phone!"

As the Time Lord picked up the small device, he heard Donna's excited utterance. "Martha's phone."

"Martha, is that you?" The Doctor frowned when no response came, but then a thought occurred to him and he murmured, "signal," still deep in thought.

Donna's voice pulled him from his thoughts when she asked hopefully, "Can we follow it?"

Grinning, the Doctor replied, all confidence and audacity, "Just watch me!" As he said the words, the Doctor was pulled back to oh-so-long ago, back in the underground laboratory in New York (the first one), back to Tallulah with three L's and a H, when he had felt a similar surge of confidence. He quickly shook off the memory, jumping into action, pressing buttons and flipping switches, knowing that the bumpy ride would be worth finding the Earth (and the other missing planets) once more.

When the TARDIS had stilled once more, the Doctor and his companion peered at the monitor, elated with the glimpse of their surroundings.

As he explained to Donna about the pocket in time in which they found themselves, he registered a hopeful feeling stirring within him, a sensation that suggested he would be seeing Rose again quite soon. Suddenly, a series of swirling words on the monitor caught his eye, telling him that there was something trying to get through to him. "Ooh... Hold on. Looks like a sub-wave network," he muttered as he opened up communications.

As soon as it opened up, the screen split into four segments, showing him and Donna in the upper left corner, with the other three showing people he had not expected to see in a very long time, including the ex-Time Agent. The former con-man began the deluge of words directed at the Time Lord by exclaiming, "Where the hell have you been?!?! Doctor, it's the Daleks."

The flood of explanations from Jack, Martha, and Sarah Jane informed the Doctor that the Daleks had returned, and that they were taking people, for some nefarious reason or another.

In joy and amazement, the Doctor spoke fondly, "Look at you, all you clever people!"

"That's Martha," Donna said, nodding in the former companion's direction before looking at the upper right corner of the screen and indicating with a pointing finger as she asked, "Who's... he?"

Sighing tiredly, the Doctor answered shortly, "Captain Jack. Don't. Just... Don't." He sounded, even to himself, as though he had needed to warn people away from the flirtatious Captain far too many times.

After another minute of frenzied conversation, the Doctor felt something akin to lead fall into his stomach, weighing him down as he spoke sadly, "Everyone except Rose..."

When the sub-wave signal was interrupted by another, the ancient alien's mind instantly jumped to one oh-so-young human, letting his hopes soar as he uttered her name, "Rose."

Although in that instant the Doctor had sent a prayer to every single deity he knew of (and that was quite an impressive list) that it was his lost love on the other end of the signal, the Doctor was both disappointed and horrified to hear the familiar grating voice reverberate throughout the console room.

The sound of Davros's voice after the man had died so long ago shook the Doctor to the core, scaring him far more than even the Master had. The panic shook him, and he did not pay Donna's concerned assurances of their safety any mind as he spoke with the creator of the Daleks, trying not to go mad at the shock.

He registered Davros's cold words, "I have my children, Doctor, what do you have now?"

The Doctor, desperate to save the Earth and find his love (along with their unborn child), found the words to say, "After all this time, everything we saw, everything we lost, I've only one thing to say to you; bye!"

With those words, the Doctor closed the communications channel, setting the coordinates for Donna's house, knowing that she would want to verify the safety of her family.

oxOx0xOxo

Rose sat at the kitchen table in the Noble house, awaiting any news from the Doctor on the sub-wave, but, alas, there was none. With a startled glance at the clock, Rose realized that she had been in the universe for almost three hours, and still had not called in.

When Pete immediately picked up, she knew that the older man had been anticipating her call. "Pete," she began, knowing it was probably too late, "I'm alright, the Doctor is coming, everything is going to be okay." The silent 'I hope,' she knew, was not missed by Pete.

From the sigh she received as a response, Rose knew what was coming as Pete explained, "Rose, we waited for you, you have to know that. It took quite a lot of convincing to get Mickey to agree not to jump right away after one hour. By five and a half, there was no stopping him..."

Rose frowned as the man who she had come to think of as her father trailed off, commenting in confusion, "Five and a half...? Pete, it hasn't even been three for me..."

"Rose," Pete began, not wanting to know, but knowing it was his job as leader of Torchwood to ask, "Have you figured out what's causing the darkness?"

Sighing, Rose replied with fear and anger in her voice, "I don't know what is causin' it, but I do know who. It's the Daleks, Pete. They've returned. Again."

The man on the other end whispered in fear, "Jacks..."

Frowning, Rose asked in shock, "You didn't let Mum come look for me, did you?"

"I'm afraid there was no stopping her, you know what she gets like," came the rather sheepish reply. "Look, Rose, I've got to go see if I can get Tosh to figure out how to safely pull Jackie back, and I may very well do the same for you and Mickey, if you get into too much trouble. Find Mickey if you can, alright? It'll put my mind at ease."

After a hurried goodbye, Rose put down the phone and looked up to see Sylvia in the doorway, holding a mug of tea out for Rose to take. "Thanks," Rose muttered, taking a sip of the proffered drink before saying, "My Mum always said that a good cuppa could solve any problem." Absentmindedly, she added, "Her tea even saved the Earth, one time."

She had resigned herself to sitting at the Nobles' house, waiting for information when she heard the grating whir of the ship that she called home. Jumping up and grinning, Rose ran to the door, throwing it open and running down the steps to see that wonderful blue box parked down the street, with a figure clad in brown stepping out of it.

As she ran towards the man who had owned her heart from the first time he said 'Run,' Rose knew that this was the right universe, that this was her Doctor, and that they would defeat the Daleks.

As they neared each other, the two weary travelers were filled with elation, love, and the sense that they were finally home. The Doctor knew, deep in his hearts, that there was no need to worry about Davros or the Daleks, that it would all work out, and that his Rose would once more travel at his side.

Anyone watching their reunion would have described it as something akin to a scene out of one of the movies, with the two lovers finally being reunited.

The two collided, arms out, quickly turning it into a hug, much like the countless ones they had shared before. Except this was different from all of those other embraces, and the bump pressed into the Doctor's stomach was a blatant reminder of that fact. Grinning wider than he ever thought possible, the Doctor pulled back to look Rose in the eye before crashing his lips to hers, drowning himself in her unique flavor.

The two were so wrapped up in their kiss that neither one noticed the Dalek roll onto the street until they heard its call.

A/N: Sorry for the wait, guys, we had some unforeseen computer trouble that left us with only on computer for four people for a little while. I hope this chapter made up for the wait. Thanks for all the reviews, guys, you really rock my world! The 100th Reviewer gets... something... A one-shot, possibly? I'll figure it out and find a way to get in touch with whoever is number 100. :)

Also, did anyone else see John Barrowman on Desperate Housewives? XD

Thanks for all the pickup line suggestions, I'm still accepting more. :)