Rose's jump back into her parallel universe ended up being surprisingly smooth. It took her no time at all to be reunited with her parents, Mickey, and the rest of her Torchwood team. She soon learned that, from their point of view, no time had passed at all. They hadn't even had time to concern themselves over the fact that Rose's dimension cannon had gone off-line before she had suddenly popped back into their lives again. It seemed that while she had spent an entire week on Gallifrey with the Doctor, her friends and parents had barely had enough time to blink.
As predicted, her team was baffled and intrigued by the modifications that the Doctor had made to the dimension cannon. However, Rose was impatient to get back to work. She gave them only a few hours to fawn over his clever rewiring before insisting that they reset for another jump.
"We have to get back," she declared. "The cannon is far more accurate now. I know that it'll be able to lead us to exactly the right time and place. We have to go through now while we still can, before it's too late …"
"Well, if you're so sure, then you're not going through alone," Mickey reminded her sternly. "If we've finally got the right time and place, then we're coming with you."
"Fine," Rose agreed distractedly. "Do whatever you need to do to get the other cannons up to speed. If you link them to mine, we should be able to all get through together. Just hurry!"
When Rose next stumbled back into the correct universe again, she instantly knew that she had gotten it right this time. Even if the strange planets hanging in the dark sky over her head hadn't been there, she would have been able to tell somehow. It felt exactly the same way as she remembered it, right down to the familiar smell of the city in her lungs. She looked around the empty, suburban street that she had landed on and wondered how much time they had left before reality started crumbling around them.
She immediately began searching for the Doctor, with a focused efficiency that was near-manic. She fought desperately to make as much use of her time here as possible. She had trained herself early on during her work with the dimension cannon to use every second that she had in this universe to her advantage if she was ever going to be able to run into the Doctor again.
She didn't find him right away, but she found the next best thing in Donna Noble's family. The last time Rose had run into Donna, she had very nearly managed to get back to him. She had to hope that the Doctor's current companion would still be a reliable link to help her find him again.
However, the grating, menacing voice of the daleks closing in all around her was making her feel more pressed for time than normal. Just when Rose was beginning to lose hope and resign herself to yet another doomed attempt, she was greeted by the familiar voice of Harriet Jones. She was forced to sit in silence and wait as everyone but her was allowed to connect with one another and unite under the single purpose of finding the Doctor.
When she finally heard his voice and saw his face again at long last, Rose felt her heart immediately leap into her throat. Her mind reached for him without thought, as though she still might somehow be able to connect with him in the same way that she had done with his past self.
"Doctor, it's me," she whispered, even though she knew that he would never be able to hear her. "I came back."
"Everyone except Rose …" he sighed as he eagerly greeted his assembled team of humans. It seemed that even though they couldn't quite manage to fully connect with one another, he still somehow knew that she was there, waiting for him. The sheer hope in his voice made Rose's heart flutter in silent answer.
I'm here, Doctor, her mind cried out silently. I've come so far, I've fought for so long, I did everything you told me to, and I've found you again. At last ...
She quickly made plans to hack into the subwave network that Harriet Jones had set up, but she never got the chance to implement them. As she watched the assembled team begin to jump into action, Rose eagerly grabbed the gun that Mickey had insisted she take with her and programmed another jump that would take her directly to wherever the TARDIS happened to land next.
The jump worked so easily and so accurately after the adjustments that the Doctor had made to her device on Gallifrey. She could scarcely believe her eyes as she stared down the dark, suburban street before her and watched as an old, blue box slowly materialized into existence. She could feel time slowing to a crawl around her as she froze in place and simply stared.
The Doctor burst through the doors first, though he didn't see her as he made his initial survey of the dark, abandoned street. Donna, however, immediately locked eyes with her as she followed after him a moment later. Rose watched as recognition sparked in the other woman's eyes and a knowing grin turned up her features.
When the Doctor turned to see what his companion was staring at, Rose suddenly felt as though she couldn't breathe. A wide, eager smile instantly slipped over her features. The Doctor didn't smile, though - he turned and burst into a run before he even got the chance. Rose soon decided that he probably had the right idea about things. She broke into a sprint a moment later and they both raced to see who could reach the other first.
A slow smile of understanding was gradually beginning to brighten the Doctor's features. She gasped and nearly tripped over her own two feet as she suddenly felt a second presence creeping up around the back of her mind.
Rose … he whispered in wonderous disbelief.
She could feel tears pricking the backs of her eyes as she realized that he remembered everything - all of what they had been through together on Gallifrey. She had no idea how or why, but in that moment, she didn't particularly care.
She paused only long enough to abandon the large weapon that she had been hefting along with her, which gave the Doctor time enough to slow his pace so that they didn't violently collide into one another. However, when she leapt into his arms and he eagerly caught her, she still hit him with enough force to send them both tumbling ungracefully backwards into the pavement below.
How …? she asked wordlessly as she squeezed her arms around his neck and fought to calm her wildly racing heartbeat. Despite the fact that he had his own arms wrapped solidly around her middle and was currently burying his nose against her neck, she could scarcely believe that she was actually here; that it had actually worked.
The Doctor seemed to understand immediately what her half-formed question was referring to. The memory blocks were designed to disappear when our timelines finally lined up, he informed her as he filled her mind with so much breathless wonder and happiness that it made her dizzy.
"I missed you," she murmured earnestly against his shoulder.
"Rose," he replied breathlessly, finally speaking her name out loud. The sound of it made her pulse skip a beat as the two of them filled each other's minds with their combined years of yearning and waiting. "Long time, no see."
"Been busy, you know …" Her voice came out sounding choked as she forced herself to speak past the lump in her throat. She breathed a small, watery laugh as she forced her grip around his neck to loosen so that she could lean back and see his face - the face that she had waited so many years to be reunited with.
The Doctor's hands were immediately around either side of her face, his warm brown eyes dropping to her lips with a look of eager anticipation. However, he seemed to hesitate at the last moment. Rose watched as nervous apprehension froze him in place and his brow furrowed ever-so-slightly. So much between them had changed since the last time they had seen each other in his timeline. He found himself suddenly unsure of how to act around her.
However, Rose immediately set aside the concern that she could sense growing in his mind as she reached forward and completed the action for him. She brought her lips crashing down over his own and slid her fingers up towards the sensitive skin of his temples.
Contact, they sighed in unison as they clung tight to one another and felt their minds slowly slide into place against one another again.
Missed you, missed you, waited so long … their thoughts sang in perfect harmony with one another. At last, at last, together again ...
"Blimey." The sudden, unexpected third voice made Rose startle slightly as she finally pulled her lips away from the Doctor's. Her eyes immediately landed on Donna, who was watching the two of them with a wry, amused look. "Might have known you two would be just repressed enough to start snogging in the middle of the street like that. Seems it's up to me to remind you that the rest of us are currently facing life-threatening danger. Is that ringing any bells for you? Hmm, Time Lord?"
The Doctor rolled his eyes and glared up at his fiery, red-headed companion, but there was no real ire in his gaze as he slowly pulled himself back to his feet once more. His hand never once left Rose's as the mental connection between them remained strong and open.
Still work to be done, his thoughts sighed warily.
I've waited two years, Doctor. I can wait a little longer, Rose assured him patiently.
I've waited eight-hundred. The stern look in that he shot her did nothing to hide the desperation in his eyes. I don't think I can.
Despite the Doctor's insistence that he could not put aside his burning desire to be alone with Rose once more, the threat of a whole fleet of daleks stubbornly refused to be ignored. Still, they managed to save the day in the end and everybody lived.
With the Doctor's innermost thoughts still open to her, Rose could sense the way that he still regretted every single goodbye that he was forced to make that day. However, with each lingering farewell, Rose was there to fill his mind with hopeful reassurances as she patiently reminded him that not every goodbye had to be forever.
In the end, it was just the two of them and Donna left. At least, Rose was relatively certain that Donna was still around the TARDIS somewhere. She had disappeared at some point with more subtlety than Rose had known the woman to be capable of, leaving the Doctor and Rose alone in the console room together.
"What now?" Rose asked as she hesitantly broke the tense silence between them.
She could sense the exhaustion in the Doctor's thoughts as she slowly rounded the console to stand at his side. They had both been running for far too hard and far too long.
"I don't know, Rose Tyler," the Doctor sighed as he warily avoided her gaze. "You tell me."
"Doctor," Rose muttered severely, "I spent all that time trying to find you. If you seriously think I'm going back to that parallel world now, then you're not nearly as clever as you claim to be."
"What about your parents?" His gaze finally lifted from the TARDIS controls so that he could level a serious, pointed look on her. "What about Mickey and Torchwood and your brother?"
"They don't need me." Rose forced herself to meet his gaze with a stoic, unflinching expression. Not like you do, her thoughts added silently.
Rose Tyler, the Doctor's mind sighed in resignation. Sometimes I think you know me perhaps a bit too well.
Rose felt a wave of self-doubt rush through her mind before she had the chance to attempt to hide it from him. She nervously dropped her gaze from his as her thoughts replied solemnly, Not as well as I would like.
She could sense the Doctor's answering wave of confusion as he focused his gaze more intently on her. She forced herself to meet his dark eyes once more as she muttered, "Just answer me this, Doctor - when you left me standing on that beach on the worst day of my life, what was the last thing you said to me?"
She watched with a sinking heart as a familiar, shuttered expression stole over the Doctor's face and his thoughts turned hesitantly away from hers.
"Go on," she insisted stubbornly. "Say it."
"I said 'Rose Tyler' …"
"Yeah?" Rose pressed. "And how was that sentence going to end?"
"Does it need saying?" The Doctor's gaze dropped once more to the TARDIS controls as he studiously attempted to avoid their conversation.
Rose didn't attempt to hide her wave of embarrassed disappointment. Her cheeks flushed and her own gaze slid towards the TARDIS floor grating. After all they'd been through and all that they'd said and done, it seemed that she still wouldn't ever be enough for him. She had told him she loved him once at Bad Wolf Bay, and once again on Gallifrey, but it seemed that he would never be able to give her those three, simple words in return.
She was distracted from the sensation of her heart breaking into a million little pieces as a powerful wave of emotion suddenly shot through the Doctor like a lightning bolt. Before she had time to react, he was suddenly standing directly before her, his hand reaching tentatively for her elbow as he silently begged for her to look up and meet his gaze.
As soon as she did, she gasped as she was nearly overcome by the sensation of his mind filling hers. How could you not know by now? he whispered silently as his dark eyes bored into hers. How could you possibly doubt? I've already tried to tell you twice before. Do you still not know?
Say it, Rose encouraged him desperately. Please, Doctor, just this one time.
His expression was stern and serious as he gazed down at her, but Rose thought that she saw a small spark of something vulnerable in his eyes as he slowly leaned forward and placed his lips next to her ear.
"Rose Tyler," he whispered, the soft sound of his voice and the feel of his breath on her skin making her shiver, "I love you."
When he pulled away from her once more to inspect her reaction, Rose stared up at him in shocked silence for so long that she could feel his thoughts beginning to grow self-conscious. She forced herself to blink as she slowly came back to her right mind and reminded herself to breathe. As soon as she was able to think clearly again, she reached forward and roughly grabbed for the lapels of his suit. She pulled him close and leaned up on her toes to plant a long, desperate kiss against his lips.
It didn't take long before the Doctor raised his arms to circle around her. He eagerly slanted his head to the side in order to pull her in deeper.
You have no idea how long I've been waiting to tell you that, his thoughts sighed contentedly in the back of her mind.
Can I give you some advice, Doctor? Rose replied teasingly. She pulled away just far enough so that she could whisper against his lips, "Don't wait so long next time."
She could feel the Doctor's amused thoughts and the upward turn to his lips as he leaned in to continue their snogging once more. "Rose Tyler," he murmured between kisses, "I love you."
I love you, too, she agreed silently. Always have, and always will.
When the week of half-forgotten memories finally came rushing back to me, they filled my mind and my hearts until I felt as though I was going to burst. How had I not realized that Rose was the missing piece that I'd been searching for all this time?
I've waited so long for my chance to give her those three words that rightfully belong to her that I nearly miss the opportunity yet again. But some things really do need saying. The words fill both of our minds until there can be no more doubt.
Rose Tyler, I love you.
A/N: Thank you for reading! Since I missed a chapter update earlier this week due to my busy schedule, I'm just going to go ahead and upload the final two chapters for you all today. The next chapter will be an epilogue of sorts with the Tenth Doctor and Rose.