Rose turned and looked at the girl. "Lanie…" Rose stopped. She wasn't sure what to say to the girl – she was a mystery to her.
Lanie looked up at Rose with curious green eyes. "Yeah?"
"Do you even understand where I'm going?" For the first time, Rose really looked at Lanie. Perhaps it was just the pregnancy, but she felt protective of her. She was so young, but wise beyond her years. Her bright green eyes contrasted with her pale blonde hair in a way that made her eyes the first thing you noticed when looking at her.
Lanie smiled. "Well I wouldn't have asked to go with you if I didn't know where we're going!" She began walking toward the ladder leading to the void ship. "On new adventures, through hell to a new land!"
"Well, yeah. But we can never come back here. Don't you have a family?" Rose stood in front of the ladder, preventing Lanie from coming aboard.
"Nope. Mum's dead, and dad's long gone. No brothers, no sisters, not even a dog." Lanie hesitated. "But I am gonna miss my Dalek. Can I bring him?"
Rose was reminded of a time when she had to prevent the Doctor from bringing a horse onto the TARDIS. "He's gonna have to stay. Mickey will look after him, yeah?"
"Sure," Mickey replied, giving a playful wink to Rose.
Rose said a tearful goodbye to her mother. Eventually, Rose had to pry Jackie's arms from around her. Tears running down her face, she said "I love you Mum. I'll find a way to visit someday."
"I know you will, sweetheart," Jackie said softly. She placed her hands on her daughter's pregnant belly. "Let her know that her grandmother loves her."
"I will." Rose smiled at her mother. "What makes you think it's a girl?"
"Wishful thinking," Jackie replied. She kissed her daughter on the cheek.
Pete walked forward and hugged Rose. "I just got you a few months ago, and now you're leaving," he said tearfully. "But, I know it's what's best for you, and for you baby." He laid a hand on Rose's belly. "Take good care of her," he whispered.
"I will, Dad." Rose smiled at her father.
"I wasn't talking to you," he confessed. Giving her a kiss on the cheek, he turned and stood by Jackie.
"Rose." Mickey walked up, tears in his eyes. "I would've done anything for you. You know that, right?"
Rose smiled a tearful smile. She wrapped her arms around him and gave him a tight squeeze. "I'm going to miss you, Mickey. Take care of Mum and Dad for me."
"Of course," he said.
Her goodbyes done, Rose turned and climbed the ladder, with Lanie following after. She took one last glance over her shoulder as she closed the metal doors of the void ship, and saw tears running down the faces of the ones she loved.
As with all of the spaceships she'd experienced thus far, the void ship was bigger on the inside. A central console, much more impressive-looking than the one in the TARDIS, sat in the center of the round room. How the hell am I supposed to fly this thing? Rose thought to herself.
"Look at this thing!" Lanie exclaimed, pointing toward the console. "I think it's the controls. All you've got to do is put your hand in it."
"Lanie, if you're coming with me, we've got to establish some ground rules. Number one: stop reading my mind." Rose walked toward the console to inspect the controls. Lanie was right – the controls were psychic, similar to the ones she had seen on Space Station 5. You put your hand in, and the ship took you where you needed to go, psychic sidekick and all.
"I have no idea what you're talking about," Lanie said with a laugh, but there was a twinkle in her emerald eyes that suggested she was lying. "Hey, what's this thing over here?" Lanie was pointing to a large, dome shaped structure. The Genesis Arc. The reason she had lost her Doctor in the first place. "Don't worry, I won't touch it," Lanie assured her.
"It's got millions of Daleks in it. I had to bring it with us. I couldn't leave that on the planet with Mum and Dad," Rose explained.
"Yeah, I figured that," Lanie said, staring at the dome. There was a strange look painted on her face, but Rose couldn't quite place it. She suspected that the girl knew something she didn't.
Rose turned to the console, and carefully placed her hand in the controls. The great metal ball shook, then suddenly took off at a velocity Rose couldn't have predicted. Both her and Lanie were thrown violently to the floor.
"Oi! You okay over there, Lanie?" Rose called, standing up and brushing herself off.
"Fine, thank you!" She had dusted herself off and was pacing the perimeter of the ship, curiously poking and prodding at pieces of the ship.
Rose put the girl out of her mind and tried to focus on the fact that soon, though she didn't know how soon, she would be in the Doctor's arms once more.
There was no time in the void, so Rose couldn't tell how long they had been flying the ship. The monitor indicated that they were still in the empty space between universes – the space that doesn't exist.
Lanie had fallen asleep on one of the couches in the ship, leaving Rose to her own devices. She had spent a considerable amount of time mourning the loss of her family, but she knew it was for the best. Once they reached Rose's home universe, she would start her life with her new family. She rested her hands on her abdomen, reveling in the feel of the baby half-human dancing in her womb. Her heart was beating fast with the anticipation of seeing the baby's father.
Suddenly, Lanie popped out of her slumber and stared at Rose with wide eyes. "Rose, the Genesis Arc!"
Rose looked over at the dome, which sat motionless near the wall of the spaceship. "It's not doing anything, Lanie. You were just having a bad dream."
Lanie, ignoring Rose's reassurance, started walking to the edge of the spaceship. Near the doors, she flipped a few switches. "Manual mode activated," a robotic voice said.
"Lanie, what the hell do you think you're doing?" Rose stood up and began to run toward the girl, who was busily typing a code into the keypad by the door.
"No time to explain. Hold on, Rose!" Lanie pried open the sliding metal doors of the ship. Rose caught hold of a handle on the console just as the doors slid apart to reveal a white nothingness beyond them. Rose hadn't expected whiteness – she had figured the void was a black expanse of nothing.
Rose felt herself being pulled toward the open doors, and was reminded of the day she lost the Doctor. She tightened her grip on the handle and watched as Lanie caught hold of a bar near the door. Why the hell did I bring this kid with me? She's going to get us both killed! Rose thought.
Rose heard a large thud, and looked across the spaceship to the opposite wall. The Genesis Arc was lifting off the ground and being pulled to the void as well, just as its doors were starting to open. Now it all made sense – Lanie had knew that the Daleks would find a way out.
As the Arc flew toward the door of the ship, Daleks began spilling out and being sucked toward the void. As the Arc and the last of the Daleks flew out of the spaceship, Lanie swung her legs to kick a button on the wall. With a thud, the metal door slammed shut, sealing Lanie and Rose inside.
"Lanie," Rose demanded as she caught her breath, "what the hell just happened?"
The teenager gave Rose a proud smile. "Oh, just saved your life, that's all. Nothing to worry about."
Somehow, Lanie had seen it coming. Rose didn't care how, or why, but she was glad Lanie had come with her. She walked over to the girl and embraced her, leaning her cheek on the top of Lanie's head. "Thank you," she said into the girl's hair.
The console of the spaceship started beeping. Rose sprang up from the couch where she lay resting her sore ankles and ran to the monitor. "Lanie, I think we're here."
Rose and Lanie walked to the door of the spaceship, and the doors began to slide open. In front of them lay the city of London under a bright blue sky, but Rose didn't notice. In fact, she could not have cared less where they were, because standing right in front of her was a blue police call box. The TARDIS.
