Well, the story is winding down in the next few chapters, so I hope you feel a sense of closure here, because it won't be much longer! I also hope that you don't feel cheated out of your vindication scene... there should be enough Rose/Doctor/Martha/Mickey angst to chew on for a while without actually having to SEE how it all came crashing down. Enjoy!

IN ALL FAIRNESS

The telephone in Martha Jones' pocket rang. "Hello?"

"Hi, it's me. Are you still at your parents' house?"

"Yeah, but my mum went to pick up my dad – he's coming back from Holland today. Ahead of schedule."

"So you're alone?"

"Yeah, she left about fifteen minutes ago. I was just having a sandwich, and then I was going to come back to the park."

"Actually, I'm not in the park anymore," the Doctor said. "Sorry, I know I said I wouldn't move, but we sort of had to get back to Chiswick in a hurry."

"It's okay," she said. "Long as you didn't leave town."

"Now that, I really wouldn't do."

"Where are you calling from?"

"The end of your block."

"What?"

"I sonicked a dead phone box back into working order. I mean one of those red ones. Not that anyone will want to use it…"

She went to the window and spied the TARDIS sitting across the street. She wondered why she hadn't heard it materialise. She must have been deep in thought. Or self-absorbed – whatever they're calling it now. "Why don't you just get a mobile like a normal person?"

"If you're going to ask and answer your own question in the same sentence, then what do you need me for?"

She sighed with a smile. "What do you want?"

"Is it all right if I come round?"

"Of course." Martha gulped. "Why?"

"I just need to see you."

"Is everything all right?" she asked, a little afraid of the answer.

"It got a little ugly, but it's fine. Everyone's fine. Or will be."

"What got ugly, exactly?"

"I'll see you in a minute." With that, he cut the line, and almost immediately, Martha saw a tall man with his hands shoved into his trench coat pockets coming round the corner looking sombre. Sombre but beautiful, and her stomach tingled with the thought of being alone with him again. It had only been about twenty-four hours since the Earth moved and the Dalek mêlée began, but considering the ride they'd had, it felt like eternity.

But almost in the same moment, she realised that there was every chance he was coming here to say goodbye. Back in the Crucible, she thought she could almost see the switch that flipped in Rose's mind as she changed her position, and Martha had certainly seen her fire both barrels at the Doctor.

As he appeared at the bottom of the front steps, she opened the door. He smiled small with his mouth, but big with his eyes and came toward her without breaking a single stride. He walked into the house with authority, shut the door behind him and then pushed Martha against it. His hands found her cheeks and neck, his lips found her lips, and she sighed with relief as they both sank into a long but restrained, warm but desperate kiss.

When it was finally over and he pulled away, he saw that there was worry in her eyes, a great down-turn of her features, a pleading. He ran his thumb over her cheek and eyelids, brushed her hair out of her face. "You look horrified. What is that about?"

"I didn't mean to. I was just scared."

He sighed. "I guess I haven't been very clear, have I?"

She broke eye contact. "Not really."

"Yeah," he said, moving away a bit. "I've been learning that the hard way over the past hour and a half. Like I said – ugly. Guess I've still got a lot to learn about this relationship business."

Martha chuckled,. "Don't we all?"

"Well, let me be very, very clear," he said, taking her hands and looking her dead in the eye. "I love you, Martha Jones, and only you."

She burst into tears and covered her mouth and nose with her hands. This made him smile, in spite of himself.

Once again, he touched her face, her hair, wiped her tears, stroked her neck, her arms..."You, and no-one else. No ambiguity, no doubts, no hesitation."

"Oh my God," she sobbed.

"The best decision I ever made was to try and keep you in my life," he said, now choking up a bit himself. "Do you remember what you said to me a year ago?"

"No," she confessed.

"Well, I do – almost every word. And now, one year later, I can give you what you want. You are my favourite, the one I depend on. You are absolutely indispensible to me, and in all of that need and dependence, I am madly in love with you, and I couldn't live one more second without telling you. I feel so empty when you're not with me that I am almost non-functional and so on-fire when you are with me that I'm biting my fingers to keep from tearing your clothes off."

These words brought a new flood of tears from Martha.

"I promised that after one year, I would be honest with you," he whispered. "And that's as honest as I can get with words."

Martha took a minute to pull herself under control. Then she looked up and said, "You know I love you too, right?"

He nodded, smiled.

"But I have to ask," she said. "What happened with Rose?"

"I'll tell you after we're finished."

***

The TARDIS seemed a slightly more appropriate venue than her parents' house for what they had in mind. Certain things were simply not meant to happen in one's childhood bedroom, and besides, she wasn't sure when her parents would be back, and they didn't want to have to hurry.

But time could almost literally stand still inside the blue box, and so they took it sweetly. In all of their meanderings, in all of their intimacies and pleasures and heated moments within this vessel, this was the first real love to ring out in the air and corridors and chambers of the TARDIS in far too long.

Of course, it wasn't their first time, but it felt like a homecoming. It was a re-affirmation of their new life together, and it felt just right to confirm their feelings once and for all, then to make love in their own bed. London fluttered round outside, but there was no one in their world right now.

Only one thing was missing. As they lay together, cooling in the afterglow, he asked, "Do you still want to know?"

"If you want to tell," she answered.

"I want to tell," he said.

"I'm listening."

***

Rose Tyler stumbled out of the TARDIS and walked briskly to the edge of the sea, letting the salt water wash over her boots. She bent down and stuck her hands in the frigid water and smoothed her hair back with both palms.

Mickey Smith came through the door behind her, and joined her with his shoes in the water. "You okay?"

She stood straight up again and sighed. She paused, and looked at him squarely with her hands on her hips. "He called me presumptuous."

"Yeah, only after you called him worse. You got off light, babe. Besides, what is the word for when someone wrongly assumes their own importance?"

"Mickey, I'm serious!"

"So am I," he chuckled.

Rose opened her mouth, but nothing came out.

"I've texted your father," Jackie announced, exiting the blue box as well. "Told him to get Consuela to watch the baby, and to fly up here and get us – bloody Norway, the back of beyond."

"Where is the Doctor?" Rose asked. "He said he wanted to say goodbye."

"He will," Jackie said. "He said he had to take a few readings to make sure they could get back through to their own universe."

"Where's Martha?"

"Sweetie," Jackie lulled. "Just let it go."

Rose looked askance at Mickey.

He shrugged with amusement. "She's staying out of it, Rose. She's being smart, if you ask me." Mickey said.

"She's hiding from me, you mean," Rose grunted.

"No," Mickey said. "Staying out of it. There's a difference. I wish I could do the same, but unfortunately, I'm an inextricable part of this insane little soap opera, so here I am."

Once again, Rose put her hand on her hips in disgust. "Not hiding from me?" She scoffed and then pointed angrily at the TARDIS. "He's wearing a different suit than he was when he dropped us off in Chiswick!"

"Yeah, I noticed that, sweetheart," Jackie conceded, a tenor of irritation in her voice.

"You know why, don't you?" Rose asked her mum.

"Yes, Rose. Let. It. Go."

"He was in brown, now he's wearing blue. It's not even the same colour! He wanted me to know! They both wanted me to know!" she insisted.

"You're being stupid," Mickey said bluntly. "The man's not allowed to change his clothes?"

"In the middle of the day?"

"Yes, Rose, in the middle of the day!" Mickey said, even more bluntly, and with his voice raised. "Maybe he got lucky. The best kind of lucky! The naked kind of lucky, and it wasn't with you! And then he put on different clothes, because who knows what happened to the original suit! It happens every day in every country, probably on every planet in the universe, which does not happen to revolve around you, so get the hell over it! It's done!"

"Ugh! Fucking Bad Wolf Bay," she spat, turning away from both of them. "Every time I come here, I wind up wanting to kill myself."

"Well, how did you think this was going to end?" Mickey asked, lowering his voice again.

"I thought…" she said, pushing her hair out of her face and staring out at the sea.

"What?" he asked.

"I just thought… I don't know, that…"

"Jesus, Rose, I'd thought you'd got past this," he said. "I thought you said you'd grown, and were resigned to your fate, and that you had considered all the options, and the Doctor is supposed to be with Martha Jones…"

"That was then," she said. "Circumstances have changed."

"Donna's safe," he said. "That's good. But it doesn't mean you have the right to change history."

"But he does," Rose insisted. "It's who he is! I thought…"

"…that as long as you were up for it, he'd automatically want to be with you, instead of the woman who's been by his side for almost three years? Even if it changed history."

"Well" she whined. "Is it that crazy?"

"Yes, Rose!" he cried out, slightly losing his composure again. "It's barmy, and it makes you sound like a rotten, jealous ex! You're better than this. Besides, even if he felt that way, he'd be a right cad if he dropped her now for you, after all she's done."

"Love is supposed to transcend everything," she said flatly. "All the hardship and circumstances..."

"Maybe it is. Transcending all of that, I mean. Only with them, not with you."

"But I still love him," she said, her voice breaking. "How could he not still love me?"

Mickey threw up his hands in disgust and shot back, "I ask myself that same damn question every day, Rose. I have been asking it ever since you disappeared into that stupid blue box with the man in the leather jacket. And there is no good answer. Life is unfair and love is… just stupid. Believe me, after dealing with you this past year and a half, I wish to high heaven that I could turn it off, but I can't. And you can't either, so deal with it."

"It's not the same, Mickey," she sniffled.

"Isn't it? I love you, but you love him. You love him, but he loves her. It's rubbish, but life goes on. People go through this all the time, and they don't die. Just accept it, because otherwise you're going to make yourself miserable. And me."

"And you?"

"Yes," he sighed. "Of course me. You know I'll be there for you, in spite of my better judgement."

Jackie just watched the two of them, her eyes wide as saucers. She had no idea what to say, so she resolved simply to comfort her daughter.

Mickey looked at Rose, sobbing with great convulsions into her mother's shoulder. All that time at Torchwood before she'd come across to guide Martha Jones back into the Doctor's life, all that time looking for the two of them in London, fighting with the Doctor on the Crucible, Rose had been very brave, and had been a big person. She had shown growth and maturity, had demonstrated that she could go on living even if she didn't get her way. He now realised how truly thin her resolve had been, and how much she had been keeping pent up. He knew she'd been sincere about wanting the Doctor to be happy with Martha for his own sake, but bottling up her feelings had obviously taken its toll.

If it meant saving the Doctor, she could do anything. But once she'd decided to let her feelings loose, there might be no pushing them back in – the only remedy now was time.

He understood that pent-up feeling, being brave and wanting to burst with jealousy and anger. He felt that way, still, just a little, whenever he was around the Doctor. He knew that Rose wanted the two of them to be friends, so he made friends. But all the while, there was the underlying resentment, no matter how much he respected the Doctor.

He just had a better handle on his emotions than Rose did.

Almost as if on cue, she pushed away from her mum, and bent and picked up a rock and hurled it into the ocean with a great, frustrated cry.

Mickey sighed. "Rose, you need to calm down and show a little dignity. How will it look if he comes out here to say goodbye and you're throwing things and screaming?"

She looked at him as if to tell him to get bent, but whatever she was about to say died on her tongue. She turned and stared out at the horizon and wiped her tears. This is how she looked when the TARDIS door opened.

The Doctor stepped out and stopped.

Mickey walked up to him and shook his hand. "I saw you crack the door open a few minutes ago."

"Timing is everything," the Doctor replied. "No-one knows that better than me."

"Thanks for waiting, mate. She wouldn't have wanted you to see her like that."

"Sure."

"Er, I reckon I'd better go say goodbye to Martha," Mickey said loud enough for Rose to hear. "We've had a harrowing journey together."

"You'll find her in the kitchen," the Doctor said. "She's making tea."

"I could go for some tea," Jackie said, scurrying back into the police box with Mickey.

The wind whipped across Bad Wolf Bay, blowing Rose's hair out of her vision, and revealing the Doctor, in his blue suit, standing silently.

"A real goodbye this time," she said to the ocean. "For so long, that was something I thought I'd never have from you."

He didn't say anything.

"I thought it would either be left the way it was," she said, and then her voice caught, and she took a deep breath to stop from crying. "Or there would be only hello, and then forever."

"Life has a funny way," he said.

She turned and faced him. "Don't patronise me. I'm not your bloody protégée anymore, you can't talk to me like a child."

"Well," he said, taking a few steps toward her. "You've sort of been acting like one."

"Bollocks."

"Rose, you threw a socket wrench at me."

"I'm sorry about that."

"You kicked the console and damaged the precision coordinates circuit," he said. "Going to be difficult to aim the TARDIS for a while."

"I said I was sorry."

"And you called me a lot of names. You're lucky I'm not going to tell your mum about that mouth of yours."

"I was angry."

"And you said I never cared about you," he said softly. "You accused me of abandoning you on purpose. You said that I used you. Name calling and mild violence I can let go, but saying things like that..."

She convulsed with sobs. After today, he wanted no more crying for a long, long time, he decided.

After a pause during which she cried and contemplated her wet boots, she asked, "But... we were... I don't understand how this happened. I thought..."

"Let's not go down that road again," he told her. "We've already hashed it out, now let's just say goodbye like two proper friends ought to."

"I'm not your friend," she wept. "I never wanted to be your friend."

"Fair enough," he said, taking a step back. "Then thank you for all of your efforts, Miss Tyler. Your help in this most recent crisis was most valuable, and I shall be grateful for your hard work. Now, I'll be on my way." He stepped forward and offered her his hand to shake.

She didn't move. She just stared at him in disbelief. After a few moments of staring, the Doctor lost his mettle, dropped his hand. A pause, then he asked, "Are you going to let me do this properly, or are you going to fight me?"

She couldn't speak.

"Are you my friend, or a stranger? I can send you off either way – I know which I'd prefer."

She gasped again, catching her breath. "Your friend."

"All right then," he said. He took two steps forward and closed the space between them. As he hugged her, he felt her jolting in his arms, again convulsing with tears and sadness. In spite of the very dark side of Rose he'd seen this afternoon, he ached for her. He knew how she felt because he'd felt that way when they'd been separated, and again when he thought the TARDIS and Martha had been killed... and now he was putting her through it again.

Several minutes later, she stopped crying and pulled away. The TARDIS made a little hum in warning.

"I have to go, Rose," he said. "This reality is sealing itself off forever."

"It's still not right," she whined.

"No, it's not," he agreed. "It's not fair, any of it. You and me and Martha and Mickey, we've all made each other miserable, and why? Bad timing. That's all it ever was – bad timing. You and me, meeting when we did, your dad grabbing you when he did, Martha coming into my life when she did, you coming back into my life when you did..."

"Maybe the universe was against us from the start," she said.

"Maybe. But I never was," he said. "I'm not against us."

"Just... past us."

He nodded sadly.

"All right," she said. "If that's true, then answer me this. When I last stood on this beach, on the worst day of my life, what was the last thing you said to me?"

He was at a loss. He knew what she wanted, but he wasn't sure he wanted to give it.

"Go on, say it," she demanded.

"I said Rose Tyler."

"Yeah, and how was that sentence going to end?"

He sighed. "Does it need saying?"

"If you're going to give me a proper goodbye, if you're going to do this right, even if it's not true anymore... just tell me what you were going to say."

He took a deep breath and resisted the urge to look back at the TARDIS. "I was going to say that I love you."

She exhaled and closed her eyes. "Thank you," she said. And then she hugged him again, tightly. She felt different this time, much more relaxed, and not jerking in spasms of tears. He actually bent and kissed the top of her head, and she said, "I just needed to know."

He nodded, but she didn't see.

When she pulled away again, she was not crying anymore.

"Are you going to be okay?" he asked.

"Of course, yeah," she said, nodding a bit too emphatically.

"I am sorry, Rose," he assured her. "I'm sorry if I hurt you."

She continued nodding. "I know you are," she whispered. "Now go make it worth it."

He smiled. "Thanks," he said, reaching out to squeeze her hand. He turned and walked slowly back to the blue box, and she watched. As he opened the door, he looked back and said, "Goodbye, Rose."

"Bye," she squeaked, giving a little wave.

A minute later, Mickey and Jackie emerged, and the TARDIS disappeared from Bad Wolf Bay.

Jackie stroked Rose's arm. "I'm not sure what to say, dear."

"How about let's get the hell off this beach?" suggested Rose.