Rose:

She meant to stay with him forever, even if it did mean leaving behind everything she had ever known. He couldn't be alone, and she couldn't be without him. There was no way she would leave him.

She had to help seal the breach, pull that lever back just a little bit, then they would be safe, the world would be safe. As it clicked back into place she felt the power of the void tugging, clawing at her. The Doctor screamed at her to hold on, hold on just a little longer. She tried, oh how she tried, but the pull of the void was irresistible, and no matter how hard she clamped her fingers around the lever the void was stronger. Slowly, painfully slowly she lost her grip.

Over her own screams of terror she could hear his. She was going to be sucked into the void; there was nothing she could do about it. A fate worse than death, for all eternity, an eternity without him.

But she collided with something solid. Briefly she registered her father, then turned to look back at the Doctor. Their eyes locked for a split-second before she was ripped away from the universe, from him.

She flung herself at the hateful wall and beat her hands against it as sobs wracked her body. Her only thought was the Doctor, just on the other side of the wall. Just on the other side of the wall . . . she could feel something, a warm energy where her face was pressed against the plaster. Abruptly she stopped crying and guided her open hand to where she knew his to be. He was there, right next to her, she could feel him, and hold his hand through time and space.

Then he was gone, she was left clutching at a cold and lifeless wall. She almost doubled up with the pain as fresh tears streaked down her face. All her family could do was watch as Rose fell apart in front of them.

Rose didn't know what to do with herself. She had cried so much that she had run out of tears, and everything felt numb with the shock. She sat and stared out of the window of Pete's car, never seeing the scenery pass her by, only the Doctor's face. None of her new family knew how to console her, so they stayed silent, quietly letting Rose grieve.

Pete took them back to his house and Rose was jolted from her reverie by the familiarity of the building. It was where she had first encountered the Cybermen. She and the Doctor had gone undercover to investigate. She gave a small gasp and squeezed her eyes shut against the memory. Mickey placed a knowing hand on her shoulder and she opened her eyes again. Without looking at him she inhaled deeply and walked resolutely forward into the house after Jackie and Pete.

Jackie tried to comfort her daughter, but to no avail. She could see that Rose needed to be alone. Pete showed her to a room, where, after an awkward moment, he left her. Rose leaned heavily against the door to close it, then turned around and took in her surroundings; all bright whites and warm pinks, a double bed which only took up a small portion of the room, lush carpet beneath her feet, everything that she had become unused to. It wasn't like her room on the TARDIS, and at once she felt very small and alone. She took a blanket from one of the surfaces and wrapped it about her, then sat on the bed and shuffled back to rest her spine against the headboard. She hugged her knees to her chest as her hand instinctively found the TARDIS key hung around her neck. It was the only small piece of him she had left. The thought made her whole body stiffen and she pulled her knees closer to her chest.

She stared contemptuously at the room. It seemed to be mocking her with its cheerfulness. But her mood was reflected in the weather outside the window; dark clouds hung in the air and the rain drops dripped down the glass. She fixed her gaze on the sky, ignoring the alien room, thinking of nothing except the ache in her heart. As she stared fresh tears began to form and she gritted her teeth, stifling a gasp. She clasped the TARDIS key so tightly that it almost cut into her hand, but she didn't feel it. She took a shuddering breath and a quiet moan passed her lips. Rose Tyler didn't sleep at all that night.

It seemed too cruel to her, that now she had everything she'd wanted before she met the Doctor, and Rose couldn't bring herself to be happy about it, not without him.

The days passed by slowly. The first week she indulged her grief and loneliness, sinking into a deep depression. She spent most of her time alone, only eating when she was forced to and leaving her room simply to sit outside and continue to stare into the distance.

She barely noticed the comings and goings of everyone else in the house; Pete going to work, Mickey going to meetings with the other Preachers, her mother going to the shops for supplies. Until one day she got herself up, washed and dressed and came down for breakfast in the morning. She had decided, the Doctor wouldn't want her to be moping about and wasting her life. He had once asked her to have a fantastic life for him, and so she would. She would continue investigating, and learning about the universe, just like Sarah Jane.

So she picked herself up, got herself a job at the Torchwood in her new world. An ordinary 9 to 5 job could never be enough for her, not now that she knew there were billions of planets and species out there just waiting to be discovered. There was so much more she had to learn, and so much she could teach the people of this world.

As she continued to move forwards so too did Jackie and Pete; they got to know each other all over again, and Rose came to enjoy having a father, even if he wasn't, strictly speaking, hers. So when her parents told her that they would be expecting another little Tyler she was surprised, but excited at the prospect of a sibling. And Mickey was always there for her, keeping her company when she felt lonely, and listening to her stories about the Doctor and her adventures with him when she would reminisce. In many ways, Rose knew, she was lucky.

But still, sometimes, in the dead of night, when sleep eluded her and all she could think of was him, sometimes she fancied she could hear his voice calling across time and space to her. He filled her thoughts and she would find herself thinking about what the Doctor would have done or said in certain situations. She imagined all the things he was doing and sights he would be seeing during his lifetime, while she, on the slow path, lived her life perhaps thousands of times over.

In her sleep she wandered the halls of the TARDIS and visited strange new planets with even stranger names, and still there was that ever present feeling of the Doctor reaching out, letting her know that he was still there. Until one night the Doctor in her dreams sent her a message; he was coming.

She told her family about it, and because they all knew the Doctor they knew to pay this dream more heed than any other. They packed their things and set off that very night, driving for miles until they reached the ferry port, crossing the sea, and then driving further, always following the voice.

They drove right on to the beach where Rose got out and carried on searching for the source of the voice, whilst her family watched. Then suddenly it stopped, and she looked around. There he was standing in front of her. He almost didn't look real, but he was there, and she walked over to where he was standing. She wanted to touch him, but he told her that she couldn't, he was just an image.

She let him know what she was doing, that she was okay and getting on with her life. Making small talk and stalling for time before she had to say her final goodbye. He would go on travelling, alone. The thought of it upset her, she didn't want him to be alone, to be without her, and so she had to let him know. She took a deep breath to calm herself.

"I l . . . I love you." She managed to stutter out.

"Quite right too." He replied, smiling at her. She smiled back fondly at him; he was still as cheeky as ever. Her heart skipped a beat as he opened his mouth to speak again.

"And, I suppose, if it's my last chance to say it . . . Rose Tyler . . ."

The Doctor vanished in front of her and Rose was left staring at an empty space. She breathed in sharply as the realisation hit her. He was gone and she could never see him again. They both loved each other, but they could never again hold each other's hands and run for their lives together.

Her world had just slipped away in front of her very eyes. After taking a few steadying breaths she turned and ran to her mother's open arms. Jackie held her and let her cry out her pain and loss, all those things which she herself knew too well. She walked Rose back to the Jeep and they sat there for a few minutes before driving off. On the way back Rose fell asleep from the emotional exhaustion she had suffered, and her dreams were silent.

After the initial shock of saying goodbye to the Doctor, Rose regained the composure she had found in the six months they had been separated before, and continued on as she had done. She had made so much progress in getting on with her life that she couldn't let the Doctor down now.

She lived life from day to day, trying not to count the hours, days, weeks, since she had seen him last. She threw herself into her work at Torchwood, and quickly became very important within the organisation due to her extensive knowledge of all things alien.

Her family got larger, and the bonds grew closer. Rose and Mickey regained some semblance of the relationship that they used to have, but both knew that they could never be together again in the way they were before, not when Rose was in love with another man. Mickey still stayed with the Tylers, as he was as much a part of the family as any of them. On long nights being kept awake by the baby Rose was glad of his company.

At work, although she was well respected amongst her peers, she was also known for being a little eccentric. She had friends, some of whom became very close, but she always rebuffed offers from men, saying that she had lost someone very dear to her and was not yet ready for a relationship. Once it became clear to people that Rose's 'not ready yet' meant 'never' the sense of mystery about her deepened.

As she rose through the ranks of the organisation she was allowed more time and resources to enable her to further her understanding of alien technology and put it to use. Alien invasion and the acquiring of extra terrestrial technologies didn't happen on a regular schedule, so having things to do during 'down time' kept the employees happy, and the pursuit of their own projects was encouraged, as long as these didn't interfere with the work they were doing for the organisation.

Rose had managed to salvage several of the inter-dimensional buttons used by the Preachers and her own father on that fateful day. At first she spent vast amounts of time learning all she could about up to date Earth physics and electronics, grappling with the finer points of quantum mechanics and confusing herself in circular arguments; she even had some of the scientists at Torchwood teach her degree level maths. Rose could see why the Doctor had said that travel between dimensions was impossible.

However, her very existence proved that wrong, and she knew that when the Time Lords had been around travel between dimensions had been as easy as popping next door for a cup of tea. She was sure there was a way, a safe way that would not result in both universes collapsing, so she persevered.

It took her almost two years of hard study, all in her spare time, to fully understand and be able to manipulate the complex equations and theories she needed before she could start tinkering with those buttons, taking them apart and putting them back together again. And she used the psychic training provided by the organisation to try to access the knowledge she had once held in her mind, knowing that it would help her immensely. Sometimes she wondered how the Doctor could possibly know so much about practically everything, even though he was an alien. But she also imagined the look of glee on his face if he could see how much she was learning about how the universe, even the multi-verse, worked. And she smiled to herself at the thought that several years in the past there was another her who didn't even know what that meant. Oh how she wished he could see her now.

She had decided some time ago that in order to live her life on the slow path she would have to devote that life to trying to find her way back to him. Even if she never did manage it, it at least gave her a purpose, and some hope. It allowed her to appreciate her life and to enjoy it the best she could.