A/N: Whups, my finger slipped.

And yeah, I've decided for sure that this is the last Ramble. So I can kill WHOEVER I WANT.


Chapter 28 – The Day The Doctor Died

"But she needs a name!" Jack was protesting, Jackie holding the unnamed baby girl in her arms with the newborn Jack.

"No, Jack! Just no!" The Doctor sighed, fingers on either side of the bridge of his nose.

"It's a good name!"

"Jack, for the last time, we are not calling her Xena! Rose? Rose, support me on this!"

Rose pursed her lips, considering. "Well…"

"Wait!" Jack said suddenly, finger in the air. "What was it we promised about the namin' when Jill and Rose first got pregnant?"

"That you…" the Doctor trailed off as he realised the exact words that had been said. "Oh great."

"I said 'if you name mine, I'll name yours'. That doesn't imply a single child! I have full namin' rights over her. Rose?" He turned to the woman, who was considering. She had the final say. The Doctor was staring at her, puppy expression currently working overtime.

She looked between them both. "Y'know, Jack is kinda right…"

"Yes!" Jack exclaimed, delighted. "You're callin' her Xena! Unless of course you'd prefer Gabrielle or Callisto…"

The Doctor sighed. "I'll haunt you."

Everyone laughed, but right now the words cut like razor blades. They had talked all night. It was mostly reminiscing about past adventures and what they'd done together, but they steered clear of the inevitability still to come. The Doctor was dying tomorrow. There was nothing any of them could do.

In the following silence, the clock struck midnight.

"I'll save you," Jack said quietly as he watched little Lottie laid in her father's arms, sound asleep. "I'll save you, Doc."

The Doctor didn't even need to dismiss this verbally. They all knew there was nothing they could do. He stroked back his daughter's hair absently for a moment before glancing up at the clock by the door, outside of which he knew guards were on patrol. No escape.

"Bedtime," he announced to the crowd. No one replied as gazes swivelled down to meet the floor. "New day tomorrow."

That was when the tears arrived.

Jackie had been desperately holding back the tears all night but even she couldn't stop them as she watched the Doctor kiss Lottie good night for the last time.

"Look after them?" the Doctor asked Jack and he nodded, taking the sleeping Lottie into both arms. Zoë was still awake, tears in her eyes as she tugged on her father's trousers.

"I love you, Daddy," she whispered, voice trembling. The Doctor smiled briefly at her, dropping to his knees to hold her tightly for the last time.

"I love you too. Be good now," he whispered, wiping away the tears from her cheeks. She nodded. She knew what was going to happen. She had always known it. "Look after Drunky, eh?"

Zoë nodded, holding the bear closer to her heart. The Doctor turned next to an extremely tearful Jackie with a baby in each arm, both of who were crying quietly.

"Have a great life, both of you," he said to his newborn son and daughter, kissing them both farewell. They both fell silent, staring up at him with sad brown eyes. They seemed to already know, just like their sister. "I'll be watching you."

Jackie blubbered all over him as he said good bye to her, making his shirt damp. Words were not exchanged – they didn't need to be. Soon it was just him and Rose left in the room, and finally the Doctor turned to his wife.

"Well, I guess this is it, then, I have no regenerations, no way of coming back," he said with a shrug, grinning.

If she had the heart to slap him, she would've. Instead she smiled seductively at him, taking his hand and leading him to the door of the bedroom. "Where we going?" the Doctor asked, genuinely puzzled. Rose sighed, exasperated. Men could completely miss the point. She closed the bedroom door behind him, flicking on the light switch to reveal possibly the biggest bed he'd seen in his entire life – and that was saying something. He was so intent on staring at the bed that he completely missed Rose's clothes coming off right in front of him. As a result when he looked up, he almost fell over in surprise. Rose rolled her eyes, moving forward to pull his shirt over his head.

"We've got six hours, and a bed. Let's make it count."

The Doctor couldn't agree more.


"D'you remember it?" the Doctor was saying, playing absently with her hair. "Charles Dickens? Ghosts at Christmas?"

"Oh yeah!" Rose exclaimed with a grin. "And then Slitheen! I still can't believe I went in Downin' Street."

"Your mother slapped me," the Doctor recalled in a voice on the edge of terror, "it hurt."

"You're such a girl!" Rose giggled as she turned over, burying her head in his chest.

"You try getting hit by a hundred pound sledge hammer on the side of the face!" the Doctor defended, "I'm surprised it didn't break my jaw bone."

"Just 'cause you're dyin' tomorrow doesn't mean you can slag off my mum y'know," Rose said with a smile before she stopped, and realised what she'd said. Tears instantly welled up in her eyes just thinking about the fact that in a few hours he would no longer be alive. The Doctor turned his head to look at her, watching the tears slowly run down her face.

"Hey," he said gently, pulling her closer and pulling the cover up over them. "It's all right. I'm ready for it now. I've had these last few precious hours with you, our kids and our friends; that's a thing that not many people get to do in my position. We got to talk about old friends, what we did, places we've gone. The happiest day of my life has been the day before I died. Kinda ironic, eh?"

More tears slid down her face as she nodded, biting her lip.

"Thank you, Rose. Thank you for turning my life around the way you did. I don't know what I would've become if I hadn't met you – I don't even want to imagine it. I know that when I do die tomorrow I've left everything safe in your hands."

"But…" Rose began, but the Doctor cut over her.

"Please Rose, please don't wallow in my death for years and years. I don't want it to go that way. Celebrate it. Please. Everything I've ever stood for has been about bringing life and healing and I don't want you to forget that."

"But why should you have to die…" she whimpered quietly. "After all the good you've done. All the people you've saved. You don't deserve this."

He didn't say anything in reply to that. The guilt spoke for itself. He kissed her again before readjusting his arms around her, watching her slowly drift off into sleep. He wouldn't sleep tonight. He'd watch her sleeping for his last few hours, and he'd treasure every second.


When Rose woke up, the bed was vacant.

In shock she sat up, looking around the room… but to her immense relief she saw him standing in front of the mirror, readjusting his tie. She'd brought him fresh clothes the night before – there was no sense in him dying in rags. The Master had taken the Sonic Screwdriver, however. Last chance. Gone.

"What time is it?" she asked.

"About 5:51am," he replied, putting the last few finishing touches on his hair. "And ten seconds."

There was an ensuing silence as Rose got out of bed, coming up behind him and wrapping her arms around his chest. She didn't care that if the Master came in right now he'd see her completely naked. The Doctor breathed a sigh, turning to hold her close. Eight minutes, forty seconds, and counting.

"Please Doctor," she begged into him, "please… let's runaway… let's escape…"

He smiled gently. "You know that's not possible Rose."

"Doctor," a voice suddenly said from outside the room; the Master.

"Give us a sec," the Doctor called back, kissing Rose's hair. "Get dressed."

She nodded, forcing back the tears once more. When she was dressed he took her hand, leading her out of the door to come face to face with the Master and his expected platoon of guards. He gave the Doctor a smile.

"Someone got lucky," he said, raising an eyebrow. The Doctor turned and kissed Rose again before the guards grabbed both his arms, pulling him forcedly away from her.

"No! Doctor!" Rose cried out as she tried to reach out to him, but the guards were holding her back too. Tears flooded her face now, grief of the inevitable setting in. The Doctor tried to reach out to her but it was far, far too late as he was dragged back through the door.

"Rose!" he yelled desperately.

"NO! DOCTOR!" she screamed again, louder, trying desperately to pull away from the guards but the grip was too strong.

"ROSE! I LOVE YOU!"

"DOCTOR!"

"ROSE!!"

"DOCTOR!!"

"ROSE!!"

Then the calls faded away to nothing.


The noose was put around his neck, and for once in his life the Doctor was truly terrified. His eyes searched the crowd for his friends, seeing Jack, Jackie, Lottie and Zoë restrained by guards over the other side of the square, Rose being dragged kicking and screaming by more guards, next to the rest of his family. There was nothing they could do. There was nothing anyone could do.

This was it. He was going to die. It seemed a pathetic way to die, after everything he'd done. Death by one of the most human ways possible – hanging. If the drop didn't break his neck then his respiratory bypass wouldn't hold on for more than thirty seconds with the pressure.

"Does the condemned have anything to say?"

The Doctor shook his head. Let it be done with.

"Then let justice be done," the executioner said, hands resting on the lever to pull the trapdoor from beneath the Doctor.

Nanoseconds felt like hours.

The Doctor could only watch, helpless as the lever was pulled and suddenly there was nothing beneath his feet. Pain shot through his neck as the noose tightened, and it was only a split second before the entire world around him faded into nothing.


A/N: Chapter 29 – Unnamed

Even though she didn't want to see the sight for herself Rose's head automatically looked up at the gallows, her eyes fixing on the body hanging suspended by the rope around the neck, motionless. He was dead. Her husband was dead. The Doctor was dead.

She felt numb. Her brain was numb. Her body was numb. She was vaguely aware of her mother taking the two children from her grasp, herding them swiftly back to the TARDIS. She was vaguely aware of the guards' grip on her, a single pull of her arm and she was free. She screamed as she ran towards him and him only, pushing through the crowd with ease.