A/N Rose attempts to reach for the Doctor through their link, resulting in more than she bargained for.


Chapter 11

It had now been two weeks since the conflict occurred between Rose and the Doctor just days into their new relationship. Two weeks since he subsequently disappeared without word, with no sign of a return.

Rose continued doing well in her new job position that was not only a necessity for support but a means to providing her with immediate knowledge if the Doctor were to return. Part of her daily routine at work included continuing to scan for the TARDIS through the planet's monitoring system. Because of this access, she knew for a fact the ship had not been logged as having returned at any point during this time period. There was only a record of the TARDIS' arrival and later departure two weeks prior.

It was a continual battle for Rose to keep from growing even more concerned with each passing day. Even though she now had visual evidence that the Doctor had left of his own accord, she still worried that something might have happened to him afterward. And if not, then that meant he purposely chose to stay away this long. She wasn't sure which was worse. Rose constantly vacillated between fear over what might have become of him and anger at the thought that this was his own doing.

In the midst of it all, Rose's daily work continued to help, at least to a degree, in distracting her during the daytime hours. That was, until a workplace encounter brought her a strong reminder of what was missing from her life.

It happened at the beginning of the second week. She was in the process of registering a couple who had booked a weekend stay. The man and woman were from a nearby planet whose population resembled the common humanoid form, though they were shorter and had prominent reddish-hued eyes set against a dark complexion. Their style of dress was vividly colorful – bright reds and greens and yellows woven together in an intricate pattern that made up their long, draping cloaks. Despite physical characteristics, it was the inward distinctions of the exotic couple that Rose was soon to be made aware.

She had been quickly learning the importance of cultural diversity in her position, as many species had certain requirements and particular requests. The couple she was currently registering, for example, was very sensitive to loud noises and also preferred an environment of constant light, making Paradise's Southern pole the ideal location for Rose to recommend, as it received perpetual sunlight this time of the season.

The man and woman were pleasant as she worked with them, but the longer Rose was around them making arrangements for their stay, the more she began to notice some peculiarities. She would catch their large distinct eyes looking at her with an expression that was…unsettling. It was as if they were looking not just at her but through her, seeing something deeper than most others were capable of.

Rose shrugged off the intensity of their gaze, attributing it to cultural differences as she finished the registration process. It wasn't until after the couple was ready to depart that the woman asked to speak for a moment with Rose privately. The nod shared between the couple seemed to signify agreement about whatever the issue was. Trying to maintain customer satisfaction, Rose agreed to the request.

Once off to the side and out of the earshot of others, the woman spoke candidly. "Forgive me for being blunt since I am an outsider to you, but I cannot help but be aware that your pain is projecting loudly."

Rose hadn't been prepared for such a comment and wasn't quite sure how to respond. "I…um. Beg your pardon?"

The woman then lifted her hand to touch Rose's temple. Rose flinched and drew back a step. At the contact, her thoughts went immediately to the bond she shared with the Doctor. Rose suddenly realized that she was protective of it. For one thing, it was intensely private; and for another, it was currently all she had of him.

The woman continued. "You are newly joined with your mate…here." She indicated her own temple. "The connection is intense yet fragile, still developing. But there has been a partial withdraw of the link that is causing you distress. I can feel it reaching out, seeking to once again be whole."

"H-how do you know this?" Rose questioned in unease.

"I am of a race of empaths."

"You're reading my mind?" Rose asked, alarmed at the possibility of such an intrusion from this stranger.

The woman shook her head. "Only emotions. And even then, we make it a rule not to read the projections of others. Yours, however, are broadcasting unfiltered."

Rose folded her arms around herself in unconscious protection, wanting to be shielded. Her inward emotional struggle was private. "I'm sorry," she answered shortly. "'S not intentional. I'll try to block it, if I can."

"Oh, do not block it," the woman quickly admonished. "Tell me, has your mate been lost to you?" she then asked, though had already sensed this.

Rose felt her chest tighten – a painful, aching sensation. The unpleasant question was spoken with such empathy, however, that Rose felt compelled to answer. "He's…gone right now. I'm not sure where he is," she confessed softly.

The empathetic woman took compassion on Rose and offered guidance, realizing she was unfamiliar with controlling this new telepathic link. "Then continue reaching for him until you find him. His loss to you cannot be one of permanence unless by death. The shared link will be your guide to him."

This gave Rose a momentary spark of hope, but then her uncertainty over the reason for his absence came stalking back. She looked away and answered quietly. "He might be lost to me, but I'm not lost to him. He knows where I am if he wants to find me."

The woman nodded. She placed a hand on Rose's arm. "Then make certain he is aware of your distress for every moment until he returns. He should not have left you with such a burden," she stated firmly.

Rose realized there was still so much she didn't understand about having this kind of mental connection with someone. "But…how? The link we have is faint. I can barely even feel it. Especially now."

"Oh, but there is great potential within it. That much is evident. Even partially diminished, your link is vibrant." The woman then produced a small, luminous, oval-shaped pendent from an inner fold of her cloak. It was translucent, but pulsed crimson in Rose's proximity. "Here. Take this. It will help you heighten your projected emotions, but only toward the one who shares in your union. Concentrate on what you are feeling and channel it toward the connection that is still between you."

Rose tentatively took the pendant, but was unsure of what to say. This had been an unusual conversation, to say the least. "Thank you," she finally answered. "I'll…I'll try."

The woman gave a single nod before turning to go, rejoining her waiting husband. Rose watched the couple as they left, then looked down at the glowing pendant clasped in her hand. She debated for a moment, then finally decided to slip it on as she returned to work. She was willing to try anything.

-:-:-:-

After finishing work and returning to the suite that night, Rose's thoughts kept circulating back to the encounter she'd had earlier in the day. The female empath had given Rose a clearer understanding of what she was experiencing due to the Doctor's absence. The pain was not just in her heart but in her mind. In pondering this more deeply, she realized how the newly-formed bond they shared had so readily become a gentle, soothing presence in her subconscious. The Doctor's absence, however, stifled this, making her mind ache and feel raw around the edges.

Rose went to bed early that night, hoping to simply sleep and get a reprieve from these feelings altogether. It seemed no use, though. She tossed and turned, rest eluding her. She couldn't shut down her thoughts. Rose gave further contemplation to what the woman had suggested, but she questioned whether she really could manage to mentally reach out for the Doctor. It would have no doubt been difficult enough simply separated by distance. Where the Doctor was concerned, depending on where he had gone there may very well have been time separating them as well. How could she possibly hope to reach him if that were the case?

Hopeless as it may be, she had to at least try one more time. In the dark solitude of this lonely night, Rose focused on projecting her emotions and all that she was feeling through their faded link. All of her pain, fear, anger and heartache was gathered and concentrated on that one place in her mind where she hoped the Doctor could still feel her. She focused with such intensity that it became exhausting. Prior to this, she had been trying very hard to push down these feelings in order to simply get through each day. Finally unleashing this now with such magnitude made it feel like her heart was being torn in two.

Sleep finally came, but her rest was fitful as her mind continued to churn. The crimson pendent she wore grew brighter, pulsing with each beat of her anguished heart.

-:-:-:-

Rose was unexpectedly woken in the pre-dawn hours by a message coming through the suite's communication system. She rolled onto her back groggily. Her bleary eyes opened to the sight of the small pulsing spherical communication device hovering just over her in bed. She startled for a second. Rose briefly wondered if she would ever fully adjust to alien tech. She reached for the sphere and tapped it once, answering the message.

"Um…hello," she said, feeling a little awkward talking into a glowing ball.

"Rose, I'm sorry to disturb you. This is Jaise."

Rose rubbed her eyes. Blimey, did the Registration Center never close? "What is it?"

"We've detected something that I think you'd want to know about." Rose immediately sat up in bed, hoping this was the news she had literally been dreaming of hearing. "The ship you've been searching for arrived back here just a few minutes ago."

Rose's heart jumped to her throat. "The TARDIS," she murmured, feeling a little breathless.

"Yes."

"Where?" she inquired hastily, already out of bed and fumbling around for her clothes. She had hoped the Doctor would have been the one to come straight to her when he finally returned, but since he apparently had not, she wasn't going to wait on him. She'd waited long enough.

"It's not far from where you are. Just across the street from your guest village, actually."

By then Rose was hopping on one foot to get her other leg into her jeans as she moved over to the front bedroom window and pushed aside the drapes, but a flowering tree out front obscured her view to the street.

Jaise continued. "I was hesitant at first to even notify you and perhaps interrupt, thinking that surely he'd come to you straight away. But then again…"

She knew what Jaise was thinking. He thought the Doctor couldn't be trusted to come to her on his own. The same doubt had made its way into her own mind knowing that he was still out there delaying this. "Thank you for letting me know," she said shortly but with gratitude. "You did the right thing. I'm gonna go straight out there now."

"Or you could make him wait a good long while," Jaise suggested dryly.

Rose smiled at the friendship they'd formed in this short time. "Yeah, I probably should. I'd go spare waiting for an explanation, though. I'll talk to you soon."

Now fully dressed, Rose rang off. seconds later she was out the main door of the suite. She hurried down the front path and was casting her anxious eyes to the street beyond as she moved in that direction. The main route was now all but empty, free of the activity of waking hours.

She was half afraid to believe this news herself until her eyes landed on the TARDIS standing stoic and silent just a few meters away on the other side of the boulevard. It was then her hurried pace came to a stop.

In imagining this moment in her mind, Rose had expected herself to barrel into the TARDIS and scream at him, cry at him, tell him she loved him, tell him she hated him, smack him senseless and then finally hug him so tight she'd never let go. As the scene played in her mind, however, she realized she needed to gain some semblance of control over her scattered emotions. Plus, the fact that he still just sat there, not making any attempt to come find her and explain himself, just made Rose all the more angry and hurt than she'd already been, which was something she wouldn't have thought possible.

After staring at the unmoving blue box for what felt like minutes, but in reality was probably no more than a few seconds, Rose moved forward, wondering what to say and just where to begin. Hopefully, he would do the talking first. He certainly had an enormous amount to explain.

She was within several feet of the TARDIS when the doors slowly opened, creaking in that achingly-familiar greeting. The Doctor was silhouetted in the dark as he moved forward. He stepped out, eyes not yet on her as he looked about at his surroundings, and Rose nearly fell back in utter disbelief.

The image that had lived only in her memories was now standing directly in front of her in vibrant, impossible life. From the dark cropped hair to the well-worn black leather jacket – her first Doctor, the man who had first taken her hand and captured her heart, was now standing before her.

Piercing blue eyes then locked on hers in a heart-stopping moment, and Rose did the only thing she could think to do in that split second of shock.

She turned and ran.

He had clearly already seen her in the second before she darted.

"Oi! I want to talk to you!" His thick Northern accent called out in that indignant tone that made her heart ache just in hearing it again. She kept moving, though, not looking back at this impending paradox.

Rose ran across the street and ducked down an alley between a row of guest cottages. She wove through various back access routes, trying to put distance between herself and this potential disaster. Her racing mind didn't even have time to contemplate the impossible complexities of how or why he was here. All she knew was that they mustn't meet outside the established timeline of what had already taken place between them. As it was, the current situation was complicated enough. The very last thing that needed to be thrown into the mix, now of all times, was Reapers. That was an excruciating experience Rose never again wanted to re-live.

Breathing heavy from her mad sprint, she finally slowed down behind the seclusion of a stone wall that separated a line of guest suites. She slowly crept to the edge of the wall and peered around it back out to the street. There was almost no one about, the street eerily empty in the soft light of the luminous trees that lined the main boulevard. There was also no sign of a Time Lord – past, present or future.

Life just wasn't fair, she concluded. In fact, it was downright sadistic and treacherously cruel. She had been going half out of her mind for the Doctor to return. Now he was here, but he was the wrong bloody one! A part of her wanted to march right up to this implausible man and rage at him for leaving her, even if for him, the incident had not yet occurred. She also had the overwhelming urge to find him, throw her arms around him and cling to him, assuring herself that the Doctor, any Doctor was here. A deep, shielded portion of her heart also ached to say the goodbye to this Doctor that she'd never had the chance for, even though he had never truly left her – only changed. He had never truly left until two weeks ago, that is. She wasn't sure whether she wanted to laugh or cry. Was her life with this man ever anything but complicated?

She considered the possibility that maybe she needed to confront him instead of fleeing. Maybe he had somehow come here with some type of message to her from his future self. But even without deep knowledge of the intricacies of Time, she knew such a scenario could create an impossibly-tangled mess and was not the sort of thing the Doctor would risk. No, something in her gut told her this was all wrong. This was dangerous. She could feel it.

Rose took in a weighted breath and turned back around, her back resting against the white stone partition behind her. She nearly jumped out of her skin when she saw the very man she had been trying to evade standing directly across from her.

He was the picture of cool restraint and thundering potential. His arms were crossed over his leather-clad chest, crimson jumper layered beneath. He stared her down, one shoulder resting against the white stone wall that stood on the opposite side. The alleyway created by walled partitions behind and before was currently trapping her in place. Rose realized that trying to avoid or outrun this was futile. He was dogged in his tenacity. If this Doctor intended to find her then he would find her. Simple as that. And trying to avoid a paradoxical encounter was now already too late.

Rose stared back in calculated silence, waiting for him to make the first move.