Meetings (and Partings)

A/N: Many many thanks to Aibhinn for outstandin beta work! (Which is to say that this needed a major tweak or two!)


Mickey pulled himself up off the deck, searching for whatever had just hit them. The whole plan had gone to hell with just one blast. One minute they were straining to make out the object coming through the brightness of the rift; the next, the airship was rocking violently, with a force that sent all three of them to the floor.

He spotted a silvery object hurtling their way. "Did that come from the rift?" he asked, pointing.

Madhukar struggled to his feet and paled. "No! It's my ship! They fixed it, but they must have done something to it. It didn't have weapons before. No weapons, never weapons!"

"Well, it's got weapons now, and we're the target! But they keep missing and hitting the village!" Rose shouted. Smoke was billowing upwards, obscuring their view of the ground below. "Mickey, can you get us back to the rift?"

He spun the wheel, but the airship didn't respond. Vitex One wallowed in the air, her top and bottom fins shredded. "Damn!" he swore. "I can't steer her! We're sitting ducks!"


"Grab the railing!" Jack shouted to Kit. She sat on the deck and wound her arms and legs around one of the rail posts, and Jack wrapped himself around her protectively. "I've got you," he said into her ear. He felt her clutch at his arms, trembling in more fear than he'd ever seen from her before.

Then he remembered. Her parents. Flight 93. Oh, God…

He held on to her more tightly and repeated, "I've got you, Angel. You're safe, I've got you. I won't let go…"


The Doctor could feel the TARDIS' pain as she slammed down to earth. Echoes of agony as she scraped across its surface, stopping with a second, jolting impact. Then, a sense of relief. She was still alive in this world. Injured, but still alive.

But what of his companions? "Jack? Kit? Are you all right?" he called as he got to his feet. He stepped around the console to see them disentangling themselves from the railing.

"We're okay," Jack said, helping Kit rise, pale and shaking. He pressed a kiss to her forehead once she was up.

Despite their situation, the Doctor grinned inwardly at that. He was even more pleased when she leaned into Jack for support instead of pulling away. Then he checked on the fourth member of their group. "Oh, no."

Alonzo was sprawled on the floor, his beautiful glass head smashed. The Doctor knelt beside the android and saw pieces of clockwork scattered about. "We'll fix you up later," he said, and turned his attention to the Stellar Manipulator. Still functional, but he could smell something burning. He swallowed hard, gorge rising at the knowledge that his severed hand was starting to roast inside the device. "The Manipulator is being pushed to its limit. The bioelectromechanical control is starting to break down. We have to hurry, or we'll lose the energy link back to our universe."

"The external monitors are out, Doctor," Jack reported, looking over his side of the console. "I saw two bogeys before we crashed. One of them was firing on us."

The Doctor rose. "We need to see what's happening out there. Kit," he motioned her over, "with Alonzo gone, you'll have to keep the Manipulator's power flows stable. Watch this gauge, and adjust this dial to keep the gauge just where it is now."

She nodded. "Got it."

He bounded toward the doors. "Let's go, Jack!"

But Jack didn't follow. Instead, he strode over to Kit, gathered her up in his arms and kissed her, fiercely but quickly. When they broke apart, he said, "Just in case I don't get another chance to do that." He pulled his blaster out, and in his usual cocksure tone, said, "See you in hell."

Kit caught his arm and drew him back to kiss him, just as quickly. When they parted this time, her voice was husky, as if she was holding back tears. "Not hell, Jack. Give yourself more credit than that."

"Angel?" Jack sounded confused.

She shook her head. "Tell you later. Go! Be careful."

He nodded and joined the Doctor at the door. "No lecture about my timing?" he asked in a low tone.

"No, Jack. This was the time and place," the Doctor replied with a grin.

Something pounded on the door from outside. The two men nodded at each other, and the Doctor pulled the door open and stepped back to let Jack pass through, blaster aimed straight in front of him.

There was a screech outside. A very familiar-sounding screech. And…crying? The Doctor's eyes widened and he dashed out the door—

To find his arms filled with Jackie Tyler. Jackie, with a wailing bundle in one arm, hugging him with the other. The baby. The new Tyler arrived, he thought absently as he looked around wildly. Pete and Jake were staring down the barrel of Jack's blaster. The Doctor motioned for him to lower the weapon, and everyone started talking at once.

"Doctor! It's really you! I can't believe it!"

"What the hell hit the TARDIS?"

"Onyx Division's caught up to us! The ground units will be here in a minute!"

"We thought we were dead when we saw the TARDIS falling toward our motorhome!"

Everyone talking at once, but no one telling him the one thing he wanted to know, the one thing he needed to know. "WHERE IS ROSE?" he bellowed.

Silence now, except for the baby's crying, as Jackie, Pete and Jake all pointed upwards. He followed their pointing fingers and saw an airship above them, the Vitex name emblazoned on it, its fins in tatters. It was awkwardly maneuvering around a brightly glowing space in the sky.

And it wasn't alone.

"What the hell is that?" Jack asked.

The Doctor shook his head. He didn't recognize the craft either, a sleek silver wedge circling the airship like a hawk seeking its prey.

Then it struck. Not with talons, but with bright red bolts of energy. Most of the bolts missed the airship, falling instead to earth. They churned up clouds of dirt and dust, blasted apart a huge standing stone, and reduced one building to splinters.

Most of the bolts missed the airship. One of them didn't.


"They got one of the rear propellers!" Mickey exclaimed. "But the other is still running. I might be able to use it to turn us back to the rift." He began working controls, and the airship began to turn.

"We're going too slow!" Rose said. "We won't make it before that ship comes around again!"

"Here it comes!" Madhukar warned.

The silver wedge shot by, firing fewer bolts this time. The airship was rocked once more. But as the wedge passed, it seemed to wobble and stall…and then it fell, plunging into the village below.

"Did something hit it?" Rose asked.

Madhukar shook his head. "No, nothing. They brought themselves down. My ship wasn't designed for weapons, never for weapons. They completely drained its power!"

"They didn't do it soon enough," Mickey declared. "They hit our envelope, and we're losing gas. Strap in! We're going down too!"


"My God! They're on fire!" Jackie was frantic. "They're going to explode!"

The attacker's last volley had torn a long, narrow gash in the fabric of the airship's envelope. The edges of the gash were burning slowly, proof of fire-resistant construction. But they still burned and the airship was sinking to the ground, slowly at first but picking up speed as the hole expanded.

"No, they won't," the Doctor said, glancing over at Pete. "Helium for lifting gas?" Pete nodded.

"What difference does that make?" Jackie demanded.

Jack answered. "Helium's not flammable."

"Can you use the TARDIS to get them off?" Pete asked.

The Doctor shook his head. "She's crippled. We can only go back to the Vortex now, but I'm not going without Rose." He raked his hand through his hair. "It's up to her pilot. Who is it?"

Jackie and Pete looked at each other, then back to the Doctor. "Mickey," Jackie said in a small voice.

"He knows how to fly!" Jake said defensively.

"Jake, this isn't a video game," the Doctor said in a low voice. He exchanged a look with Jack. Rassilon!


Mickey had done everything he could. Vitex One was going down, but at least he'd been able to use the lone working propeller to angle it away from the village, aiming for an open field to the southeast. He glanced out the window, and cursed. He could see military vehicles speeding up the road.

"We're going to have company!" he said as he belted himself in next to Rose. Seconds left now. "Brace yourselves!"

Vitex One hit the ground.


Jackie screamed and buried her face in Pete's chest as the airship plowed into the field. The burning, deflating envelope rapidly collapsed over the gondola like a shroud.

The Doctor began to run toward the crash site, but before he'd gone more than a few steps, he was cut off by a military Jeep. He looked around to see more vehicles surrounding them, and a helicopter landing not far away. He looked back for Jack.

Jack had already pulled the TARDIS door shut, safely sealing the timeship. He tossed his spare blaster to Jake, and the two men took defensive positions around Jackie and Pete as soldiers jumped out of the vehicles and aimed guns at them.

"THIS IS ONYX DIVISION COMMAND! DROP YOUR WEAPONS!" boomed a voice through a bullhorn.

"Not gonna happen!" Jack shouted back.

"DROP THEM OR WE'LL SHOOT!"

Jake sneered. "You gonna shoot a woman with a baby? Won't that look good on the telly?" He jerked his head upward.

The Doctor followed the motion and grinned. A news helicopter was circling the site, maneuvering for a landing. "The power of the press! A shield for the innocent!" His face turned serious as he walked up to the unit commander. Ignoring the weapons trained on him, he said in a low, deadly voice, "Get out of my way."

The other man's tone was just as low and deadly. "I can't do that, sir. I'm from Torchwood and I have orders to contain the alien threat."

The Doctor stepped closer, his eyes narrowing. "Torchwood again?"

"Worse. Onyx Division. They kill aliens," Jake told him.

"Really? Well, they can try, but I don't die that easily," the Doctor said, still holding the Torchwood commander's eyes with his own. "Commander, I assure you that I'm an alien threat only for as long as you stand in my way."

The other man didn't move. "I have my orders, sir."

"Orders to shoot down an advertising airship? Orders to destroy an historic site?" the Doctor demanded. "Whose orders?"

"Mine," said a cold female voice behind him. "Harriet Jones, President of Great Britain."

The Doctor turned to see a harder, fiercer looking woman than the one he remembered. "Oh, I know who you are," he growled. "Let me tell you who I am. I'm the Doctor, and your men are in my way."

Harriet Jones smiled. It did nothing to warm her expression. "The Doctor? Excellent! Two aliens for the price of one strike."

"And the cost of how many lives?" the Doctor thundered. He waved his arm around. "Look at what you've done here, Harriet Jones! How many people dead in the village?"

"How many, Madam President?" The news team had arrived, camera rolling. A reporter elbowed his way through the troopers, thrusting his microphone forward. "We're live, Madam President! Emergency services radio says there are people trapped in those buildings! A class of children is caught in one of them! Why aren't these troops rescuing them?"

"Good question!" the Doctor replied. "British citizens trapped, a national treasure in ruins and she's doing nothing. Want to know why? I'll tell you in five words! No—make that four!" He stepped closer to the microphone, staring coldly at Harriet. "Because she doesn't care."

Even Jackie's baby had fallen silent by now as the Doctor and Harriet locked eyes. She faltered under his gaze. "Get to the village. Start search and rescue!" she barked. "Go!"

"And you let him go, too," Pete said to Harriet, motioning at the Doctor. "He's getting my daughter out of that airship while you explain on national television why your alien hunt is more important than the people you swore to serve and protect."

Harriet began to bluster to the camera, but the Doctor didn't have time to listen. "Jack, with me!" He ran across the field toward the airship wreckage, Jack and Jake both on his heels.

The envelope was still burning, slowly. It covered the boxy shape of the gondola. The Doctor surveyed the ruins, trying to figure out where the door might be. "Here!" He took out the sonic screwdriver, chose a setting and began to slice through the envelope's fabric. "Rose? Rose, can you hear me? Mickey?"

The other men began pulling the fabric away, finally revealing the door. The Doctor reached for the handle and tried to open the door, with no success.

"Locked?" Jack asked

He pushed at it. "Stuck. The impact knocked everything out of alignment."

"We'll get it," Jake said. He nodded at Jack. "On three…one, two, three!"

They slammed against the door, forcing it open. Smoke billowed out from inside the compartment. All three men covered their mouths and noses with their hands and began to search.

"Rose? Can you hear me?"

"Where are you, Rose?"

"Mickey?"

Parts of the interior truss had fallen. He spotted a trainer-clad foot poking out from under some of the metal. "Here! I found Mickey!"

The others lifted the truss. "That's not Mickey!" the Doctor exclaimed in surprise.

The red-haired man strapped in the seat blinked at him with wide green eyes. He pointed back toward the fallen trusses. "Mickey…Mickey's there!"

Jake knew the stranger. "Madhukar? You all right?" The stranger—Madhukar?—nodded, and Jake helped him up and out of the gondola.

Jack was still moving trusses. The Doctor worked with him. They came across one large panel. "Looks like the control console fell," Jack said. Together, he and the Doctor lifted it and moved it out of the way.

She was there.

Rose was belted into her seat and bent over double. Mickey was in the seat next to her, and had protectively covered her upper body with his own. Neither moved, and the Doctor felt terror surge through him.

Jack pulled Mickey upright and undid his seatbelt. He checked for a pulse. "He's still alive, Doctor. What about Rose?"

As soon as Jack moved Mickey, the Doctor had gone to Rose, unstrapping her belt and lifting her in his arms. "She's unconscious, Jack. Let's get them out of here."

Jack slung Mickey over his shoulder, and they made their way out of the wreck. Rose felt so light in his arms. Too light, too thin. What happened to her?

They moved away from the fallen airship to a patch of open grass. He laid Rose down gently and looked for injuries.

She didn't just feel thinner. She was thinner, drawn and gaunt and so very pale. The crash didn't cause this. "Rose, what happened to you?" he murmured, caressing her cheek with one hand and holding one of her hands with the other.

"She's dying, Doctor."

The Doctor looked in horror at Mickey, now conscious and sitting up, rubbing the back of his head with one hand. "They thought it was cancer, gave her chemo and everything, but it didn't work. We know what it really was. Something happened when we opened up the TARDIS console to save you that time. When she got left here, she got sick. The TARDIS wasn't protecting her anymore. We were trying to get through the rift to get back to you. I think the TARDIS will get her well again."

Cancer treatments. Chemotherapy, radiation, and probably worse. No wonder she looked like a shadow of herself. Guilt twisted his insides. "Wake up, Rose," he murmured. "I'm here. I've come for you. Please, come back to me." He leaned in to kiss her lips, his mouth moving gently over hers, his hand sliding from her cheek to stroke her hair.

She moved slightly in his arms and made a soft sound. The hand he was holding tightened around his. Hearts in his throat, he pulled back to watch her eyes flutter open and focus on him. In a voice just above a whisper, he said the words he'd meant to say for so long. "Rose Tyler, I love you."

Her eyes grew huge, and she gasped. "Doctor? Oh, God, this can't be real. I must be dead!"

He gave her the brilliant smile he knew she loved. "Does this feel like you're dead?" He pulled her up against himself with one arm and kissed her thoroughly as she clung to him. He brought one of her hands to his temple and opened his mind to her, letting her see the longing and love he'd kept inside since losing her. With a whimper, she moved his hand to her own temple, an invitation to look into her own mind. He didn't hesitate.

Flashes of her life without him, building a relationship with Pete, caring for her baby sister, making a name for herself at Torchwood. Oh, he was so proud of her! She'd grown so much. Then the illness, and the agonies of the treatments. All because she'd saved him. He felt wetness on his cheeks and knew he was weeping for her. Oh, Rose, my sweet Rose. I'm sorry, I'm so sorry.

One of her hands slid into his hair, the other making gentle circles on his back as if she could caress away his guilt. He could hear her voice in his mind as he kept kissing her. It's all right, Doctor. I wouldn't change a thing. You're worth it all. I love you, love you...

Love you… "I love you." His voice was rough with emotion as they broke apart. She was crying too, and they brushed away each other's tears.

"I can't believe you're really here," she said. "I thought you said you couldn't do it."

He laughed. "I was wrong!" he said as he helped her to a shaky stand.

"Jake, mark that down!" Mickey said, sounding husky himself. "It's not every day you hear the Doctor admit he was wrong, and we've got witnesses!"

"Too bad the TV news camera wasn't here to get that," Jack teased from behind Rose.

She hadn't seen him yet, and she whirled at hearing his voice. "Jack? Jack?" She was crying again as she fell into Jack's arms.

"Hello, Rose," he smiled, kissing her forehead. She reached up to pull his head down and kiss his mouth.

She was smiling when she let him go. "The Doctor said we'd see you again, when you finished what you had to do. I'm so glad you're here."

"Me too. Especially when it means getting a kiss like that!" he told her with a wink.

"Oi! Kiss your own girlfriend when we get back to the TARDIS!" the Doctor scolded. "Come on, Rose. Let's go home." He put an arm around her waist and started back toward the TARDIS. Jack fell in step and put his own arm around her shoulders.

Rose was glancing back and forth between Jack and the Doctor. "Girlfriend?"

The Doctor grinned down at her. "Oh, we have lots of stories to tell you. You're going to like Kit. But first, tell me something. Who's the ginger fellow who was in the airship with you?" he asked, with a jerk of his head back toward Madhukar, who was following with Jake and Mickey.

Rose grinned. "I have this habit of picking up aliens."

The Doctor did a double take. "Harriet Jones said two aliens for the price of one strike. I thought she meant Jack. He's the other alien?"

"His name is Madhukar. He calls himself a Seeker," Rose told him. "Doctor, I think you're what he's looking for."

He looked at her curiously. "How's that?"

"He can walk, literally walk, between dimensions," Rose said. "In both time and space."

The Doctor stopped dead. "That's not possible."

"So was this. Us being together again," she said, giving him a squeeze with the arm she'd wound around his waist. She pointed at the glow in the sky. "See for yourself. He opened that rift with nothing more than my TARDIS key. And that brought you here."

He gaped at the rift above them. "We were already tunneling through from the other side. But the TARDIS key would have drawn us to this spot." He looked over at Madhukar. "You're seeking me? Why?"

"I walk between the ages," the Seeker replied. "Rose says you can teach me the wisdom to use the power."

The Doctor stared into the other man's eyes, and the words of the Face of Boe came back to him. Find the other dancers. You were never alone.

Was this what he meant? Was this man the first step to rebuilding the Time Lords?

At any rate, he needed to be taught how to travel through time without mucking things up. And he seemed to be willing. "I can teach you."

The Seeker beamed. "Yes, yes! You teach me what you know, and I will teach Rose what I know."

The Doctor raised an eyebrow at Rose, who just smiled. "I've got stories of my own for you. I'll tell you on the TARDIS." She furrowed her brow as she looked ahead. "What in the world?"

A crowd of news media had gathered around the TARDIS' crash site. As they got closer, the Doctor could see Harriet Jones had shrunk back, overwhelmed by Pete Tyler.

"The destruction here at Avebury is just a symptom of how tainted our system has become, because our leaders just don't care!" Pete was saying. "Harriet Jones claims she's trying to protect us from alien threats, but it wasn't aliens that attacked this village. It wasn't aliens that shot down my airship. And it wasn't aliens that nearly killed my daughter! That was all done by Harriet Jones' personal task force of British soldiers. They're supposed to be anti-alien, but I think they're anti-us!"

"Hear, hear!" Jake cheered as they reached the crowd.

Mickey joined in. "Pete Tyler for President!"

That set off a new round of questions aimed at the President from the gathered media. None of them paid attention to Jackie hurtling toward Rose and the Doctor. She ran into their open arms, crying, "Thank God you're all right!"

Pete waded through the reporters to join them. "Doctor, those four words of yours are bringing down Harriet Jones' government." He motioned back towards where Harriet was desperately trying to defend herself from the questions. She didn't look hard or fierce any more.

Rose smirked. "Four words this time?"

"I'm just that good," the Doctor grinned.

"This time?" Jack asked with a raised eyebrow.

"Another story for later," the Doctor said. "We don't have much time now. The TARDIS needs to get back into the Vortex to heal. Rose, you have to say your goodbyes."

She looked around at her family and friends. "We've already said everything. I don't think I can do it again."

Jackie kissed Rose, and then caught the Doctor as he tried to back away. With a sigh, he submitted to being kissed as well, and decided it wasn't so bad after all. "Take care of each other," Jackie told them in a quavering voice.

He regarded her teary eyes for a moment, then dug into his pocket. "Jackie, take this," he said, pulling out the memory sphere. It began playing its series of images. "It will help you remember, and help—" he quickly reviewed the memories Rose had just shared with him, "—it'll help Violet know her sister."

Jackie looked at him gratefully. "Are you sure you want to give me this?"

The Doctor smiled and pulled Rose closer. "Yeah. I've got the real thing."

"Thank you, Doctor," Jackie said. One of the images caught her attention. "Oh! I'd forgotten how big your ears used to be!"

The Doctor glanced down at the sphere, to see a memory of his previous self dancing with Rose on the TARDIS. "I didn't put that in there!"

Jack took a look. "That was me, Doctor. I recorded it when we were fueling up the TARDIS."

The Doctor furrowed his brow. "You did?"

A loud crackling sound drew his attention to the TARDIS. A streak of energy arced from the top of the timeship up to the rift, then disappeared. "We're running out of time. Kit can't keep the Manipulator's power stable too much longer. Jackie," he gave her a fast hug, then reached to shake Pete's hand. "Pete! You sounded…presidential over there."

"You did say one ordinary man can change the world, Doctor," Pete replied. "This world needs some changes. I think I can do it. With a little help from Jackie and these lads," he indicated Jake and Mickey.

"Jake! Mickey!" The Doctor shook both their hands, and then winked at Mickey. "Not such an idiot after all!" He grinned broadly. "I'm wrong twice in one day! Mark that down, Jake! It hasn't happened in a few centuries!"

He started toward the TARDIS. "Come on, you lot. All aboard that's going aboard!" He pulled his key out and unlocked the TARDIS door. As he pushed it open, Rose looked back one more time.

"I love you. Goodbye," she said in a shaky whisper. Gently, the Doctor drew her inside, Jack and Madhukar following.

"Welcome home, Rose," he said softly.

She let out a little shuddering sigh as they started up the ramp to the console. "Oh, I've missed her so much."

"She's missed you, Rose." Kit spoke from around the other side of the console, hidden from view by the time rotor. "Doctor, we have to get back. I can't hold the Manipulator much longer."

The Doctor frowned. Something didn't sound right about her voice.

Jack bounded up the ramp and passed them, smiling widely. "You did it, Angel! I knew you could!" He circled the console, and then stopped short. "Angel? What did you do?"

At Jack's suddenly panicked tone, the Doctor quickly moved to where he could really see Kit, and gasped at the sight.

The Stellar Manipulator lay open in front of her. The charred, smoking ruin of his hand was on the TARDIS floor. In its place, she'd thrust her own hand to close the circuit.

Taking the power of the Eye of Harmony through her body.

"The hand burned out," Kit said calmly. "I had to hold the link." Her eyes met the Doctor's. They were too bright, too blue. "The TARDIS can't take this world any longer, Doctor. We need to get into the Vortex."

He felt a nudge from the TARDIS herself. Wordlessly he nodded and worked the controls to start the rotor. With a sigh of relief, Kit pulled her hand from the Manipulator and shook it a little. Jack grabbed her hand and stared at it, then looked at her face. "How— how did you do that?"

"Jack, allow me?" The Doctor took her hand as Jack stepped back, glancing between the two in confusion.

The Doctor raised Kit's hand to look closely at it. "No visible damage." He leaned closer, sniffed her skin. "But there's energy residue."

Kit didn't say a word, just watching him with eyes that were still too blue. He sniffed again, and ran his fingers along hers to feel the texture from palm to fingertips. He grasped her wrist and turned her hand to examine it again, front and back. Kit remained impassive, until he suddenly licked her hand. Rose and Jack both made small exclamations of surprise, but Kit only chuckled.

"I'm not an ice cream cone, you know," she said with a small smile. "That tickled."

The Doctor was not going to let her distract him. "Your hand closed the circuit when the Manipulator was about to fail," he said. "By the scent and flavor of your skin, a huge amount of power passed through you."

He released her hand and stepped back, looking her up and down. She gazed back with an eyebrow raised expectantly.

"No human could do that and live," he said. "But you're not human, are you, Kit?"