Back again with Rose as she begins her journey back to the other universe. I skipped pretty quick around, but we all get the gist!

The Stars Going Out

Rose was humming a now familiar lullaby to Clara when she heard her cellphone ringing. And not just any ring, the song she had set to Torchwood. Rose glanced down at the three-month old baby just beginning to nod off to sleep before she stepped out of the nursery and answered the phone.

"Rose!" Zoey's voice scared her, it sounded so heated. Rose hadn't even spoken up yet, Zoey had just started talking the moment she picked up the phone. "I think it's time."

"Time for what?" Rose asked as she froze right outside of the doorway to the kitchen. She knew exactly what she meant, she just couldn't wrap her mind around it. Oh, she had noticed that the time was nearing for it to begin. Almost every night she brought Clara out onto the balcony and told her about the adventures she had with the Doctor. She wished the little girl could respond to her, tell her that she would remember the stories that Rose had a hard time telling. There were times when she would stop halfway and just let the tears roll down her cheeks, hardly believing that part of her life was over and done with. That she would probably never feel the rush of adrenaline as the Doctor turned towards her with a goofy grin on his face as he grabbed her hand and said the words that had become sacred between them: run. And it wasn't only that, it was seeing so much more of the universe. Here she hadn't even had a chance to visit anywhere besides London, Cardiff, and Norway. On most days she didn't have anything to do with Torchwood. Instead she spent the day with her precious daughter, often going over to Pete's mansion to spend time with her mother and to the man that was slowly but surely becoming her father. On the rare times she had to actually go into Torchwood for work she usually brought Clara with her, needing her to be in her arms as she watched the ominous halls.

"You know the stars have been going out more frequently," Zoey continued in a practiced voice. That was something the woman was very good at, telling things exactly as they were, but not being unnecessarily cruel. Still, Rose was rather fond of Zoey and considered her a good friend.

Rose let out a breath before she responded. Of course she knew that, she had studied the readouts herself. In fact, on the nightly escapades to the balcony Rose had looked up at the star filled sky and had physically seen one of the stars blink out existence on more than a few occasions. "The dimension cannon is working?"

"I think so," Zoey began to say with so much hope in her voice Rose couldn't help but smile. "You better come in. And don't bring Clara with you, we don't want her near anything until we are sure it is safe for the people standing around it."

"Thank you, Zoey!" Rose breathed into the phone. "I'm on my way," she said as she began to frantically get everything ready to go.

"Rose," Zoey warned before she hung up. "Don't get your hopes up yet…even if it does work, it'll take a while to lock onto the correct universe and find the Doctor."

Rose assured her that she wouldn't expect results in a couple of hours and couldn't help but smile as she scooped Clara up and started to go bring her for Jackie to watch. As the little girl in pink blinked sleepily at her, Rose couldn't help but hold her closer. "We're going to get daddy back!"

…

Three months later and Rose could hardly recognize the sky above her. Everything had changed so fast that it scared her. The dimension jumping had started a while ago and so far they had failed to land in the correct century even once. Each time they did another test Rose would sit in the room with the rest of the team, waiting for the field worker to come back with the data that would tell them which universe they ended up in. So far her old universe was out of reach, as if the breach still wasn't large enough.

Mickey had jumped multiple times and always shared his experience with Rose, which is what they were doing now. For the first time Rose wasn't there when they used the cannon because Clara had stayed up all night crying and had a slight fever, but she seemed to be much better now. Still, Rose wasn't about to leave her with her mother, which is why she had missed the phase and was getting the information from Mickey right now.

"So, how did it go this time?" Rose asked as she brought Mickey his well-deserved tea and plopped onto the couch next to him.

"Different, Rose," Mickey responded in a half-hearted tone as he sipped on the hot tea. "It was so weird, Rose."

"Good weird, yeah?" Rose questioned, letting her hope rise. After all, Mickey usually just said it was the same as always. Ending up in some totally unfamiliar place that definitely was not the correct universe and getting phased back only minutes later. Sometimes the locations were dangerous, but more often than not the parallel universes were just like barren lands.

"I guess you could say that…" Mickey answered in a solemn tone. "We were in the correct universe for sure."

"Did you?" Rose mumbled, her eyes widening at the news. "Did you find the Doctor?"

Mickey stared at her for a long second before he responded again. "It isn't time yet, Rose. But we do know we were in the correct universe. There was this woman there, this loud redhead."

"Oh my god!" Rose squealed, leaping off the couch with a panicked expression on her face. "Did the Doctor regenerate into a woman?... What would I do?"

"He can do that?" Mickey exclaimed with a small smirk. He had come to terms with the Doctor and Rose's relationship, but it still surprised him at times. He just couldn't comprehend how Rose had fallen head over heels for an alien. Of course, if that would happen to anyone it would be the Rose Tyler that he had grown up with.

"Unfortunately…" Rose whispered halfway to herself, but she sat back down on the couch with a serious expression on her face. "But what were you talking about the loud redhead for?"

Mickey gulped before he spoke again, unsure of how Rose would handle his response. "She is our link to the Doctor, or we hope she will be. There is all of this energy coming off of her, like she is the center of an entire universe. So our plan is to time our shifts along with the universe that is forming around her and figure out what to do from there."

"How is she connected to the Doctor, though?" Rose gasped as she leaned forwards. "I mean, how will following this one woman with the dimension cannon help anything at all?"

"Ummm…we think she is the Doctor's companion," Mickey explained with a glance at Rose to gauge her reaction. "We will know more in a few days after some of the readings come through."

To his surprise, Rose wasn't looking upset like he thought she would be. Instead she wore a mournful smile. "Good…I'm glad he isn't alone. I mean, I'm not alone, I've got my precious little girl and I wouldn't want him to be."

It wasn't until long after Mickey left that Rose allowed herself to cry. She could scarcely hold it together so well as he had lingered around explaining some inconsistencies she really didn't care about in the slightest. She had absolutely no idea how long it had been since the Doctor had lost her in his timeline, but obviously enough time to get a new companion. Or maybe it had been centuries and he wore a completely different face and gone through multiple companions that had fallen in love with the alien in a blue box. Whatever it was, she just hoped he was happy.

…

It didn't take long for Rose to figure out something was going on without her knowledge of it. All of her team at Torchwood were doing a great job ignoring her and even when they didn't the atmosphere was tense and she knew they were trying to get away from her. It wasn't until one month later that it happened.

"Rose! It's time," Mickey announced early one morning when he showed up at her flat unannounced. "We have so much to tell you."

"Am I going somewhere?" Rose mumbled, still in a sleepy haze as Mickey ran about throwing a lot of Clara's things into a bag and tossing it at Rose before he appeared in front of her once more with the cranky seven month old baby in his arms. "What are you doing?"

"We got to get to Torchwood right now!" Mickey said in an exasperated tone as he practically pulled Rose out of the flat and slammed the door behind him, not stopping his mad pace until they were all inside of his car.

"Did something terrible happen?" Rose asked, desperately hoping that was not the case right now.

Mickey let out a tense chuckle as he sped down the road, barely explaining a thing. "Pete and Jackie are at Torchwood waiting for us."

"Mum never goes there…she hates that place," Rose exclaimed, finally fully awake as the enormity of what was happening finally hit her. "Did you find it, Mickey? The correct breach?"

"Yep," Mickey responded just as they pulled into Torchwood. "But there is a longer story than that."

"Then tell it to me now!" Rose practically begged. If there was one thing she hated it was if people didn't tell her the whole truth because they thought that she was too fragile to face reality.

"Fine," Mickey began as he led her through Torchwood. "Well, I did all of the phasing when it came to the redhead woman. Donna Noble is her name. You see, a parallel universe formed around her just as we had predicted and we found a way to delete that universe."

Rose stopped dead in her tracks as her mind processed what was being said. "Wait, why would you want to delete a universe?"

"It was wrong," Mickey explained, telling her the whole truth. "The Doctor was dead in that universe," he glanced down at Rose, but saw that she appeared fine so continued talking. "With some nudges in the right direction from me as I used the cannon to get me to important times, Donna was able to get rid of that universe and go back into the correct one. And that is where she is traveling with the Doctor, but the stars haven't started going out there yet. Which is why Donna was important, we gave her a warning to tell the Doctor. Because the stars are about to go out in that universe and we are going to go help him right now."

"Right now?" Rose asked in a quiet voice after she had digested what Mickey had told her. "But I'm not ready. My whole life is here right now…what about my mum and Pete?"

"They know about it," Mickey said, hoping his apology would cut it. "We just couldn't tell you, didn't want your hopes to get up until it was time. So don't worry, your mum and her husband will be able to clean up any lose strings after you leave. Jackie wasn't too happy at first that you were leaving her, but she knew that it was always inevitable. She wanted to come too at first, but we just can't let here. After this last jump with the cannon there is no coming back to this universe."

"I understand," Rose mumbled as she worried her bottom lip. "I guess it is time then, what I have been waiting for so long for…"

Mickey sent her what he hoped to be a reassuring smile as he pulled her and Clara with him to make sure it would all work out okay. He knew it wasn't positive that Rose and he would end up near each other, but they would be in the same time and universe. But he knew Rose could do it, if anyone could it would be her.

It seemed like days later, even though it was only a few hours, when Zoey informed her that everything was set and it was time to say goodbye to her mother. Pete had left about half an hour ago, proclaiming that he had to go to the other Torchwood to ensure that no leak happened that the authorities would happen upon. His goodbye to Rose had been full of tears and thoughts of the now lost days of the future, but she knew it would be nothing like facing Jackie Tyler.

"Mum," Rose whispered in a heartbroken voice. For once Rose was glad that Clara wasn't with her. "You knew this was going to happen."

"Rose," Jackie responded in a choked voice. "We have to make sure this is safe, Rose. Don't you dare do something reckless and stupid like you have in the past. You have to make sure that Clara doesn't get hurt. She is still a baby."

Rose gave Jackie an exasperated look before she spoke again. "Mother, you know I would never let anything happen to Clara. I have to do this, to warn the Doctor to save all of the universes. I am doing this to keep her and everyone else safe."

"After all this time, you still sound like him," Jackie exclaimed.

Thinking back to the day she had gotten trapped in Pete's world, Rose remembered when Jackie had said she was even starting to look like the Doctor. Then she had meant it as a bad thing, willing Rose to come back to her. But today Rose felt like she was proud of her. After all she had been through, all she had to suffer through by herself, Rose had worked as much as she could to defend the universe the only way she knew how. "You know it is time."

"I wish I could go with you," Jackie whispered. She was so thankful her daughter was with her, but she knew it couldn't last forever. But she knew she couldn't leave her life here. It was so wonderful, being with Pete in this universe. They had briefly discussed having another child, but with Rose raising Clara by herself they decided that wasn't something they could do at the moment.

"You will be happy here with Pete, Mum," Rose explained, finally leaning in and pulling Jackie in for a hug.

"And you," Jackie began, swallowing back tears. "You will be happy with the Doctor. Because if there is anything I know about my daughter it is that she will not give up. She will keep on fighting and doing what she knows is for good."

Rose clung tighter to her mother. She didn't want it to end, not yet. At that moment she was just a little girl who needed her mummy. "Mum, I love you. Know that I always will and if it is ever possible for me to tell you again I will."

"Of course you will, Rose," Jackie explained as she kissed Rose's cheek. "I love you, sweetheart."

With a final hug, Rose turned away from her mother and went down the hallway, towards the room where the dimension cannon was housed. She was surprised that they both had been able to hold it together during their goodbye with barely any tears shed. She was sure that she would be able to grieve later on in private, but right now there wasn't time. Earlier that day when Jackie had said her goodbyes to Clara the woman had been outright sobbing the moment she saw the little girl. She had halfway expected her mother to forbid them from going after that. But she hadn't and now here they were, with minutes left.

The moment she entered the familiar room, Zoey came up to her and handed her Clara along with a bag that had some things that the baby would need. Thankfully Clara was being quite good today and not complaining about being held, so Rose just hugged her daughter tight against her chest as Zoey explained exactly what was going to happen. Her instructions were to find Mickey amongst the chaos that would be occurring in that universe and find the Doctor. The most important thing was to find the Doctor.

"Zoey," Rose whispered as she looked at the woman that had quickly became her good friend. "I cannot thank you enough for the amazing part you had in the dimension cannon."

"I know, sweetheart," Zoey responded with a soft smile. "I just hope with all I've got that everything works out for you and Clara. And I hope this doesn't come off wrong, but I hope I never see you again."

Rose agreed in a teary voice before she turned towards where Mickey was waiting for her, as her instructions were to go directly after him. "Ready, Mickey?"

"It's time to find the Doctor," Mickey announced as he hit his dimension cannon and vanished from view.

Rose turned to look at Zoey and gave her a brief and what she hoped was final hug. She glanced around her at the parallel universe and thought about how much she had despised this place at first. Still, she had lived there more than half a year and it was her home now. So she just nodded once to signal it was time, ensured that Clara was strapped tightly to her chest, and pressed the button as well. Her only thought was that this better work as everything around her dissolved.

Hope you guys enjoyed it, let me know please!

Next chapter is about Donna!

Gabrielle