Rose circled the console morosely. The TARDIS' humming the only sound in the cavernous room. It wasn't right, she thought to herself, this wasn't how it was supposed to be. She wasn't supposed to be doing this alone.

-x- - That Morning - -x-

"Are you sure about this?" Rose asked the Doctor for what could have been the dozenth or even the hundredth time, she'd lost count at this point.

"Of course I'm sure. It's a fixed point Rose, we can't run any longer." The Doctor told her just as resolutely as he had all the times before, as he circled around the console plugging in their flight path to deliver the TARDIS blue invitations currently sitting on the captain's chair.

Rose stopped momentarily in her task of following the Doctor around the console to glare at the invitations as if they were the culprit solely responsible for the fixed point they were heading towards. Long ago the Doctor had explained to her that he always tried to avoid fixed points and why, as a Timelord, he could sense fixed points and knew they were not something to be trifled with. And after the disaster that was her trying to save her father, she understood too. But this wasn't a fixed point they could avoid as it involved them. Or more specifically the Doctor.

She turned away from the invitations to look back at her husband as he continued to prepare the TARDIS for flight. She knew the Doctor had a plan, had ever since he'd learnt about today from Amelia and later also the teselecta, but she didn't know what he was planning to do. Didn't even know what today really involved other than it being a fixed point. He hadn't wanted her to worry he'd said, not that it had been much use. The secrecy had just made her worry more.

-x- - That Afternoon - -x-

Rose's heart was pounding fearfully away in her chest as her stomach twisted itself into nervous knots. It was almost time, she realised as her own time sense - courtesy of Bad Wolf - tingled in warning while they sat on the beach having a picnic with their friends. She rolled the glass of wine between her fingers as her eyes flickered over the people before her. Her husband, their friends Amy and Rory, their goddaughter River and even Jack was there.

Gods she didn't want to go through with this. She couldn't bare the anxiety and fear that was creeping in in trepidation. Something was going to happen and she had no way of preparing.

-x- - That Morning - -x-

"Are you sure about these invites?" Rose asked, flicking through the four blue envelopes in her hands.

"Absolutely, they're who needs to be there. No more and no less or we'd risk destabilising the fixed point. Each person has a role to play."

"Do I get to know my own role in this or not?" She couldn't help but ask, trying to push down the bitter feeling growing in her chest about being left in the dark about something so important as she eyed her husband warily, hating how calm he seemed about it all.

She was used to him putting on an air of indifference during a crisis for their companions, but it was usually different when it was just them. More honest. This mask of calm had her more concerned about everything that could go wrong than if he had admitted that he was terrified.

He'd reacted more to his potential death when he'd last regenerated, than he was to this current looming fixed point. There was so much that could go wrong that his not wanting to confess as such, had her concerned that he was going to do something reckless that he didn't want her to worry about. And she should know because she would do the same in his shoes. They'd been married for centuries now and she knew his habits almost as well as her own.

The Doctor finally turned to look up from the console to regard her with his head cocked to the side and his brow furrowed as he registered the concern and trepidation laid bare across her face. He stepped forward easily to cradle her face between his hands.

"We're going to be okay, you know that we've already done the first part." He tapped one of the invitations in her grasp, "You remember Canton? And we know where this ends, we've got proof of that in Jack and River and all the stories we haven't lived yet. We're going to be fine." He met her gaze steadily, willing her to trust him as he pressed a soft kiss to her lips.

"I know," She murmured, "But it's my job as your wife to worry. Especially when we're about to do something reckless."

The Doctor stepped back with a grin, his hands dropping to circle her wrists.

"Reckless is where we do our best work." He told her punctuating the remark with a tap to her nose. "Now let's get these invitations sent, ay?"

-x- - That Afternoon - -x-

Rose watched the familiar shape of an Apollo astronaut rise from the lake with a sinking feeling. She knew what was coming, at least in theory, the teselecta's words in Germany had been playing on a loop in her head pretty consistently since she'd heard them. She had to resist the urge to let her gaze flicker over to her goddaughter and bore into the archaeologist with the full weight of all her unanswered questions. It wasn't fair to River, particularly when Rose didn't even know how this was all going to transpire. She had the chapter headings but not the context of having read the pages.

At least not yet.

Rose didn't even notice Canton's arrival with how focused she was on both Rivers. It was a little difficult to remain present at all while sick with fear that was a growing and clawing monster in her gut. It was screaming at her that something was going to go wrong and it would all be her fault because she'd known and she hadn't done enough. Her husband was going to die because she hadn't done enough and it would all be her fault because she'd let him pull her along when she should have pushed back and pressed for answers.

And then she missed her chance.

So paralysed by fear she didn't have time to do much more than let her fingertips skim the tweed of the Doctor's back as he walked away to meet the astronaut in the lake as the fixed point pressed in closer and closer in on them.

The Doctor's last words barely registered as he stepped out of her reach. "You all need to stay back. Whatever happens now, you do not interfere. Clear?"

Distantly she acknowledged Jack stepping up to her other side, hovering at her left elbow as her right came to drop back at her side. If she'd been a little more aware, a little less terrified she would have been able to recognise the intentional positioning as him preparing to pull her back in case she stopped the fixed point from reaching completion. She would have been able to recognise that Jack's presence here went beyond his role as an ex-time agent who would be able to recognise a fixed point when he found himself in one. She would have been able to piece together all of their roles in that moment if she could think beyond the fear twisting through her growing teeth as its venom sank into her veins and filled her with blame.

But she wasn't. So all she could do was watch as everything played out as though it were all a play and she was merely a captive audience member waiting to see how the protagonist would escape certain death. She had the play's outline in hand but whether a happy ending was in the cards was as of yet unknown to her.

She knew that the Ponds were speaking amongst themselves but the words don't register in her current state. Her gaze was fixed on the Doctor as he spoke with the astronaut. It didn't deviate, not even when Jack's hand came up to grasp at her elbow, only in a gentle hold for now, but no less present for it.

When the first shot rang out she lunged forward on instinct, sympathy pain blossoming across her sternum as the shot ricocheted through their marriage bond. She was aware of Jack's arms snapping up around her waist and hauling her back in the same way that she was aware that she was screaming although she couldn't hear the sound, it was almost as if it were happening to someone else and she was merely a spectator.

She turned to bury her face in Jack's chest as the second shot rang out as it was all she could do to stop herself from doing something as equally reckless as the Doctor, like putting a stop to this.

The heat of regeneration was creeping across her in phantom waves when a third shot rang out and her knees gave out from underneath her. Jack managed to keep her somewhat upright, not even stumbling as though he was likely expecting her to collapse.

And then there was nothing. No pain. No agonising mental tearing as the marriage bond was torn asunder. There was just nothing in a way that had her face scrunched up in confusion from its place in Jack's military coat. Perhaps she should be glad for the absence of pain but really all it did was make her wary as she turned away from the thick fabric of Jack's coat.

That was when the sound came rushing back in.

"No! Doctor!" River cried as Amy screamed, "Doctor, please!"

They were running down the beach towards the Doctor's body. Rose pulled herself away from Jack to watch as River futilely shot at the retreating astronaut. Jack was gently coaxing them down the beach towards the Doctor but Rose stopped before she could get too close. She knows she should be doing something to comfort her friends, Amy was rocking back and forth in a ball in the sand, but she can't bring herself to come any closer. As if all that was stopping any of this from being real was her proximity to the tweed-clad body there. If she just stayed back she could remain a member of the audience rather than getting sucked in as a member of the grief-stricken cast that had just lost her husband of two centuries, as she'd been assigned.

She watched as Jack crossed that invisible line between observer and participant as he tried to calm Amy down with gentle words to little avail. She watched as Canton crossed that same indistinct line to cease their discussion about the reality of the Doctor's death, putting an end to any speculation or conspiracy. Still, she didn't join. Even as they began talking about funeral pyres and the marvel of the Timelord body. Instead, she turned away, willing back tears trying not to think about why a funeral pyre would be necessary at all. Tried not to think about the last Timelord funeral pyre she'd stood beside and how terribly wrong that went.

She turned back around at the soft uttering of her name to find Jack watching her mournfully, silently pleading with her. She made the mistake of looking to the others then, only to find them manoeuvring the Doctor's body onto a boat. She took a step back involuntarily before meeting Jack's gaze again. She shook her head at him, desperately willing him to understand as she ran from them. She couldn't do this. Not today. Not ever.

-x- - The Present - -x-

Rose circled the console morosely. The TARDIS' humming the only sound in the cavernous room. It wasn't right, she thought to herself, this wasn't how it was supposed to be. She wasn't supposed to be doing this alone. But there are instructions left on the console with her name on and as much as she wanted nothing more than to pretend today hadn't happened, she had to honour her husband's plea to trust him. She had to see this through, had to believe he was right when he'd spoken about all the chapters missing from their own stories when they compared them with their fellow time travellers. But there was a healthy dose of guilt in that thought, as she recalled the way she'd left Jack and River on that beach without a word, only their own grief to keep them company.

She plugged in the coordinates trying to push down her guilt as she let her body move on autopilot, allowing her brain to take a backseat as she piloted the TARDIS with familiar ease. She almost dropped to the floor as the TARDIS came to a shuddering stop and her body ran out of directives to keep it busy, the guilt and grief starting to creep back in without distraction, when the door was flung open.

She spun to face the door instinctively, as her body shifted into fight mode, as adrenaline flooded through her. Running on instinct with confusion and grief clouding her it took her a moment to recognise the figure standing in the doorway of her home backlit by the corridors of the teselecta, her husband.

"Doctor?" Rose stuttered out, grief giving way to confusion and apprehension. "But how - I felt -" She couldn't get the words out as her gaze roved over the apparition before. But she distinctly remembered the pain of each shot finding its home in her husband through their bond even if she hadn't felt said bond being torn apart by his death.

The Doctor stepped tentatively towards her as if approaching a skittish animal and under normal circumstances, it would have had her snapping at him but right now she didn't trust herself to hear this ghost of her husband out.

"I'm sorry about that love. The universe believes the Doctor died at Lake Silencio; they wouldn't have believed it if you didn't believe it also. I had to push the memories across the bond and close off my end to sell it." At his explanation the bond flares back to life, the Doctor's apprehension coasting over as she sagged in relief.

She was in his arms before she'd even properly considered the desire.

"I know I should be mad about you keeping me in the dark and making me think even for a second that you were dead. But right now I'm just glad you're here and not on that beach."

"There's nowhere else I'd rather be." His arms moved to wrap around her waist. "Don't worry you can yell at me tomorrow."

"Oh, I fully intend to but for now I think I'll settle for avoiding any beaches for the near future." She murmured into his neck as she considered how he'd almost lost her on a beach in parallel Norway and she'd almost lost him on a beach in Utah.

The Doctor's grumble at the reminder vibrates through her in time with the waves of reassurance he was sending her. Her arms tightened around his neck in response. She squeezed her eyes tightly shut as she tried to shut out the memory of energy blasts skittering across her skin and the sight of her husband's lifeless body lying in the sand.

"No beaches or reckless escapades for the near future I promise." The words passed over like a balm to her lingering grief as though it was the final push she needed to shut the box on those memories for good.

The TARDIS was still as large and cavernous as it was moments before but it didn't feel as empty now as the humming of the ship seemed to fill the room. The sound of the Doctor's dual heartbeats rang out beneath her ear to join the humming of their dear friend to complete Rose's favourite melody. Yes, this was exactly how it was supposed to be.

A/N: Found this uncomplete in my drafts so heres some eleven light elevenxrose. Can't remember what originally prompted this story but I'm glad I remembered how it was supposed to end at least as I didn't leave myself any notes. Let me know your thoughts in the comments :)