A/N: The inevitable Doomsday fic! Bit sad really sigh. Some of the chapters are VERY short, but I think the last one's the best.

Rose look sideways sharply as he spoke. For a brief moment, she'd felt his hand go cold, like the blood had drained out of it, and his eyes had flickered as he looked up at the sky. Imperceptible to most people, but to her, after all she'd been through with him, it was obvious. For that split second, she saw something she hadn't seen in his face for so long, not since he'd regenerated anyway. Fear.

"Something's in the air. Something's coming," he said, his voice even and calm, but tinged with something else. "A storm's approaching."

Rose gazed up too, trying to find what the Doctor was seeing. All she could see was the fireworks from the opening ceremony, in all their colours and shapes. She'd always liked fireworks. She could remember all those bonfire nights when she was younger, when she and Mickey had sat peacefully together, hand in hand, just looking up at the sky. Fireworks had always seemed other-worldly to her, like something alien. Beautiful, but alien.

Beyond the fireworks were the stars, places she'd been and places she hadn't. She could see them all, spread out like crystals against the velvet sky. But there was nothing untoward there, nothing she could see. No Sycarax spaceship, no Dalek fleet. Nothing apart from the night sky, looking down on a celebrating world.

She looked back at the Doctor again. If he said something was coming, he was probably right. But what? And when?

Things had come before. Things were always coming. That was the way life was with the Doctor; things just happened, and when they did, you had no choice, you had to jump in with both feet. It was fight or die. It wasn't part of the Doctor's world to ignore things that came along; he had to get involved. And when he got involved, you got involved.

Rose sometimes lost track of time. Some mornings she'd wake up and wonder what day, month, year it was. For Christmas, the Doctor had presented her with a watch.

"It's got two dials," he'd pointed out eagerly. "So you can set it to your time and to… well, wherever we end up."

It had been so thoughtful of him, so sweet and kind. Just like what he'd done with her phone all that time ago, fixing things up to give her a link back to home. When things got bad wherever she was now, she was able to look at that watch and think what her mum would be doing back home. She used to think of Mickey too, but Mickey wasn't there anymore.

Even though she'd lost track of time, Rose would never forget that first meeting with the Doctor. When she looked back, it was like experiencing it all again, she could remember every detail. The feel of the cold basement wall up against her back. The sudden sense that someone else was down there. The grasp of her hand. The rough feel of someone else's skin. And of course, that word, that was imprinted in her memory forever.

"Run!"

Without thinking, she'd entered his life, immersed in everything he did. Even after being told what he was, how he brought death with him, she'd still followed him. Because she had to. Because she needed him.

Together they'd done it all, seen so much, been to so many places, places she couldn't even spell. No one would ever believe what she'd seen, who she'd met. Charles Dickens, Queen Victoria, the Dalek Emperor. They'd walked into every approaching storm and faced it head on.

"Together we faced the cold outside, no one can say we didn't try, and I won't ever give you up or let you go."

They were an odd pair really. The Last Time Lord, and a nineteen-year-old London girl with no job, no future and no expectations in life. Both outcast and given up on. Sometimes, Rose had lain awake at night and wondered if in actual fact, it was the Doctor that needed her more than she needed him. When she'd first met him, he was cold, unfeeling. He'd been ready to brush her off and leave her behind. But then he'd paused, he'd come back for her. This man, this man full of infinite power, who could go anywhere… he'd come back for her. Why? It wasn't until she'd seen the end of the world that Rose had realised just why the Doctor had wanted her to come with him. Because he was lonely. He'd admitted as much today. He needed someone to hold his hand. The universe was a cold lonely place on your own. She knew that. The Powell Estate was a cold lonely place on your own.

Maybe they weren't such an odd pair after all.

"Together we faced our final fears, remember the moments that we shared, that's why I'll never give you up, or let you go."

Together they'd seen so much. He'd given her chances that she could never have dreamed about. Meeting her father… what other bloke would take you on a date to meet your long dead father? He'd given her another chance to set things right and when she'd screwed up he'd forgiven her. She'd caused a rift in time and nearly destroyed the universe and he'd forgiven her. Most guys found it hard to forgive you if you accidentally shrank their favourite football shirt.

That had been hard, seeing her dad and having to admit defeat and let time do its own thing. Terrifying. Rose would always say that had been the worst thing she'd had to see, no matter what else had happened along her journeys with the Doctor. She'd faced her fear, seeing her dad die and being able to do nothing to stop it. Because the Doctor had been there, they'd faced it together.

That was why she believed that this time, no matter what he said, whatever was coming, they'd be fine. Just like they always had been before.

Lyrics from "Curtain Falls" by Blue