A/N: Oh I do have a thing about being nasty to Rose don't I? Tee hee. This chapter might go a little more M rated later on by the way so you have been warned in advance. I work so hard but I still don't own anything.

The message had spread out across Gallifrey about the death of their Doctor and the people wept despite their elation at their victory. The majority of ships from the alliance planets returned to their home worlds to aide with the clear up operations from the Daleks' initial attacks but the Torchwood force, knowing Earth had not been too badly damaged, stayed to assist the Time Lords. Humans and Gallifreyans worked together in the massive base in Arcadia, rebuilding space craft, tending to the sick and wounded, cataloguing the names of the dead and informing their families. The Doctor wandered aimlessly amid the organised chaos, not hearing the gentle words of comfort from those around him, ignoring the cheers as friends and families were reunited. He saw the ship he was seeking, relieved in part that it was still in one piece. He jogged the last few steps over, running a hand over the Torchwood insignia on the side of the craft before helping its pilot out onto the landing bay. No words needed to be spoken as the Doctor pulled Mickey into a hug, both of them crying for their loss and not caring who saw.

"Where's Sumi?" said Mickey, his voice a choked shadow of its normal self.

"She's with Ero and Rasillon," said the Doctor, "She's in a bad way, so is Ero…they…I…I heard her die Mickey. I heard her scream."

Mickey stood fighting back the sobs as the Doctor slid down the space craft onto his heels, crying into his hands, not caring as his coat dragged in the oil and blood still staining the landing bay floor. He knotted his fingers into his fly away hair, tugging as if the pain would numb that in his hearts. He felt Mickey sit down next to him.

"She died a hero," he said softly, "She would have wanted it that way. This was her planet."

"She shouldn't have been here," said the Doctor, "I should have done what I promised Jackie and taken her away from this place the second I got here."

Mickey's snorted laughter contained no humour as it escaped him, running his hands over his face to wipe away the tears, "She wouldn't have gone. These passed two days with her again, seeing who she has become, she loved this place and she wouldn't have left it, not even for you."

"The only reason she came here is me. She had some ridiculous romantic notion about this place but its poison, the whole of its poison and I hate it. All Gallifrey has ever brought me is pain and now its taken her from me," said the Doctor smashing his fist into the steel floor beneath him, "I wish she'd never heard of me. I wish I'd left her the first time she said no to travelling with me."

From the corner of his eye he could see the black boots of a soldier and looked up into the young man's face, swathed with bandages over one eye and a shattered helmet under his arm.

"You knew the Doctor?" he asked.

The Doctor steeled himself, wiping his eyes with the sleeve of his jacket, "Yeah I did, she was my best friend."

"I can't tell her so me and the boys, we wanted to tell you, thank you. She was amazing. No one knew who she was but she was the best thing to ever happen to us," said the young soldier, his fingers twitching against the helmet he carried as if ready to run from the crying man before him, "I was in the East group that flanked her when she went for that ship, she was so brave going that close in, she…"

The Doctor raised his hand and pushed up to his feet, "Please…whatever your name is…spare me the details. I don't want to know. She's dead, that's all I need. No declarations of how she was a hero or how brave she was, that doesn't bring her back to me."

"I'm sorry, its just…"

"Leave him be," said Mickey, laying a hand on the soldier's arm as the Doctor stormed off back into the palace, "He's in a lot of pain right now."

The Doctor's eyes were so blurred with tears that he didn't notice Rasillon until he collided with him in the doorway to the palace. The president steadied him gently as he swayed on his feet, his body and mind failing to co-operate. The Doctor saw Ero and Sumira standing behind the older man, gripping on to each other in a way that was usually looked down upon by the planet's government but for once convention did not prevail. He watched as Ero extended a hand for what the Doctor assumed at first would be a gesture of comfort but then he saw a small device in his palm and he took it. He recognized it as a message recorder, one that could be plugged into the TARDIS console, it was an old design and make but would still be functioning.

"She recorded this when she arrived," said Ero as the Doctor examined it, "And she told me if she was to ever die and that a man who loved her was to come to this planet then I was to give it to him. I think we both know who she meant. I know its no consolation Doctor but take it, listen to it."

"Thank you," murmured the Doctor, closing his hand around the tiny device before slipping it into his coat pocket, "I'm…I need your help, to go home. Sumira if you could would you check over my TARDIS to make sure the shields are still functioning, I'd like to go back to my own dimension. I can't…I don't want to stay here, see this all put beck together, see people live on with her gone."

"Of course," said Sumira, "Once the injured have been seen to I'll look at the ship, you should be ready to go by tomorrow. Doctor she…"

"I know Sumi. She was a hero," said the Doctor as he turned away from the band and back to his own TARDIS, slamming the door behind him against the noise of the landing bay.

XXXX

A day had passed since the defeat of the Daleks and night had fallen again over Arcadia. The landing bay was quiet save for the occasional clank of the TARDIS as Sumira fiddled beneath its console, augmenting the shields already in place for the Doctor's return to his own dimension. The Doctor himself was propped up on the console room chair, picking mindlessly at the patched up cloth with his fingernails. He hadn't moved from the chair since the night before, simply sitting and pondering over the events that had played out like a hurricane reeking havoc throughout his life. He cursed silently in every language he knew, weeping silently for everything he lost, not just Rose but for the memories of his own people that he failed to save. Sumira's presence had stopped the tears but his mind still wandered aimlessly in the pits of despair.

He almost laughed at himself as he thought he heard the gentle, fluid rasp of the Valiant's engines in the night's silence. The gentle throb that ran through the console room floor as it sounded louder. He heard the loud clang of bone against metal as Sumira's head impacted solidly with the base of the central hub and then he heard the sound of the red alert as it rang throughout the landing bay, the sound of booted feet as they descended to meet their uninvited guest. He ran a hand through his hair, trying to pull himself back to reality before Sumira grabbed his hand, reality smacking him hard in the face as his feet connected with the floor and then he was running. Running and crying, pushing back the guards as he watched a familiar outline fade into existence before him. A Blue Box, a battered old blue box with a little flashing light on the top. He paled in realisation, Rose's ship had been in battle mode when she had faced the Dalek mother ship, the image before him had to be an illusion.

He rubbed his tired eyes as the noise faded and the box stood silent in the landing bay, every pair of eyes in the room trained on the door, willing it to open. The Doctor took a step towards the box, tentatively reaching a hand out and caressing the wooden exterior that he knew wasn't wood at all. He stepped back as he heard the lock on the door click and slowly swing open. His heart stopped beating as he stared at the figure before him, bloodied and battered but totally and utterly beautiful, her long leather jacket bearing a tear or two but her silhouette still the same. He heard the cheer go up from behind him but paid it no mind as he held out a hand, willing it to be taken, to confirm everything he was seeing. Warm, ragged fingers curled around his and a foot took a tentative step forward and then another before collapsing into his arms. Holding him close as if it was the first and last time it could be done.

"How did you…"

"Told you I was the best god damned pilot in the universe."

"Rose," he said into her hair, pulling her closer still, "God Rose its you!"

She pulled back to look at him, brushing away the tears on his cheeks as her own flowed freely down her face, "Of course its me. You're the only other person dumb enough to drive around in a big blue box," she said sobs choking her words, "I couldn't leave you all lonely again could I?"

"But how did you…You're ship…you…we saw…"

She smiled fondly up at him, gripping tightly around his neck and smiling all the wider as she noticed both Ero and the President frantically descending the stairs behind him, "When you form a coherent sentence I'll be able to answer you."

"How did you escape?"

"I programmed a time jump, as I hit the button for the Bad Wolf I let the TARDIS jump. Landed in the ninety fifties on Earth, had to get my baby back into shape."

The Doctor pressed a desperate kiss to her lips, pulling her as close as he could and still not finding it close enough, "You're a stupid, stupid woman," he said pulling back and resting his forehead against hers, "There was a one in a million chance of that working. You stupid, wonderful, brilliant woman!"

"I did it for you," she said against his shoulder, "For you my Doctor. Your planet does live on, the Time Lords will live on because of you. I never would have known what to do without you."

"Yes you would," he said pulling her close once more, "Because you're Rose Tyler."

XXXX

Being reunited with her friends was something Rose would not easily forget in a long time. Mickey cried, Sumira screamed, Rasillon span her round like a rag doll and Ero held her so close she feared she would never be released from his arms again and yet she revelled in his warmth, crying into the silken robes she knew so well. Cheers and celebrations had rung out in the landing bay and she had told the tale of her escape so many times she barely had to think whenever someone asked. She heard of her people's successes, how the Daleks had been destroyed, any remaining to be hunted down by the new task force Rasillon had commissioned. The Time Lords were no longer to be dusty senators but were to go out into the universe, hunting down evil and making sure it never prevailed. Rose listened to their stories and their dreams but her mind resided solely on the man at her side, the man she had fought for, the man she had died for. She had sacrificed herself as he had done for her, given herself to save him from his demons and as she saw him watching her, smiling that same boyish grin that had won her heart a hundred times over, she knew that whatever came in the future, while he was by her side, she was home.

XXXX

Days and nights had seemed to merge since the defeat of the Daleks and it was only the longing to feel the cool, silk of her bed sheets against her skin that pulled Rose from her friends the night after her return. She perched on the end of her bed, her eyes trained on the long black, leather jacket that hung haphazardly over the bed post, all the tears expertly stitched but one, angry scorch mark still marring one of the sleeves. She picked it up, folding it in her hands before wrapping it in a spare sheet from her closet, setting her sonic screwdriver and the TARDIS key on top of it. She heard the door to the bathroom click open and returned to her place on the bed as the Doctor came to her side, his hair damp and his shirt only half buttoned over just his suit trousers. He threw her one of his customary grins as he sat down and leant back against the pillows, opening his arms to her. Rose scooted up the bed, resting her head on his chest and counting the dual beats of his hearts against his cheek.

"I have a confession to make," she said against him.

"I already know you love me," said the Doctor against her hair, his face falling as his comment wasn't met with a laugh, "Rose?"

"I did find you," she said, "When we met the Time Lords. The TARDIS that crashed is the Valiant, her pilot had died and she had no one to love her so I took her on. I searched for the Doctor through all the archives, he didn't exist but then I remembered a picture you showed me after we met Sarah Jane, your fourth incarnation. There were no records except one entry, from an old college professor, not a real name, just a nickname. Theta Sigma. All records of him had been removed from the archives, he had run away from Gallifrey, stolen a TARDIS and run across the stars. He never took a pseudonym, never took the title but I knew who we had found. The man who would have been the Doctor had died in the crash, failed to regenerate. He left behind a son and a baby grand daughter but she was never to know about him, he was not to be mentioned again on Gallifrey even after the stolen TARDIS had been recovered. Doctor I found you but Gallifrey was to be without you so I took your place. I know that Theta Sigma was your college name, though I know I'll never know your birth name. I know when you were born and I know that Sumira was born Adella, her name changed to protect her because it was the same as your mother's. That's why I took her on, I knew she would have her grand father's spirit and I wanted her to know what she was being protected from. She's yours Doctor, this is all yours."

She felt his lips move the hair on her head, "I know. I spent a lot of time thinking when I thought I'd lost you. You let me know things you shouldn't have known and I knew you had found me but he was not me Rose, nor is Sumira my grand daughter. I do not belong in this universe, I have no claim to anything."

Rose sighed against him, "When are you going to ask me?"

"Ask you what?" said the Doctor as Rose snuggled deeper into his arms.

"Ask me to come away with you," said Rose, "Ask me to come home?"

"I didn't know if you wanted to," said the Doctor, "You seem so settled here. Will you come away with me Rose? Will you come home?"

"Yes," she said raising herself up to face him, straddling his hips and pulling his face up to hers for a kiss, "I'll run away with you, race across the stars with you."

"Love me?" said the Doctor gently unfastening the tie holding her dressing gown together.

"I've always loved you," said Rose shrugging off the garment before giving his shirt the same treatment, "Can you give yourself to me my darling? Can you finally give me your heart?"

The Doctor nodded before pulling her against him for a kiss that set fireworks off behind her eyes before lowering her down onto the bed, whispering against her ear.

"My Rose Tyler," he murmured softly, "You have had my heart since the day I met you. I love you."

"Love you too, my Doctor."

A/N: Only one more chapter to go on this I thin, or perhaps two, I'll have to see how it goes. Did you really think I'd kill her? I couldn't do that. Only question remains is how will Rose tell her friends she is leaving? Please review.

Nova x

PS I won't be writing anymore stories for a few weeks until after my wedding so if anyone wants to stay in touch let me know and we can do.