Home again
Rose spent the rest of the night with the Doctor, attending to his needs like getting him water or fluffing his pillows up. She would not let a doctor in there, because they would just question her about his two hearts. She looked over at the Doctor. He was asleep at the moment, the cover going up and down in time to his breathing. Rose looked at his face. It was hard to believe that he hadn't aged, or indeed regenerated, in the last twenty years. Rose was also surprised but guiltily pleased that, from what she could tell, he hadn't picked up another companion. She also felt sorry for him at the thought of the Doctor, alone for two decades. She remembered what the doctor had said to her during their final goodbyes: 'oh you know, same old life, last of the Timelords.' She thought of the grief on his face when he said these words: at the thought that he might be alone forever. Rose cast all thoughts of the horrific ending to their travelling twenty years before out of her mind as she drifted off to sleep in the chair beside the Doctor's bed.
The next morning, Rose woke up to sunlight flooding in through the window. She looked at the Doctor's bed. It was empty.
"Doctor?" she said quickly, her stomach starting to tighten in panic. "Doctor, where are you?"
"Looking for someone?" The doctor was standing in the doorway, dressed in his suit and long coat with converse. Evidently he was feeling better, as a Gallifreyan he must heal faster.
"Oh, Doctor! Don't ever scare me like that again!" She ran to the doctor and put her arms tenderly around him. The Doctor returned the hug, and they both relaxed into it…it's like we've never been apart, Rose thought as she held the love of her life close.
Later that day Rose was back in the TARDIS. They had got a taxi to Camden town and located the TARDIS, and now Rose felt she was home.
"So where do you fancy going? Mauritius, Hawaii, Sahara? How about Devon?" While the Doctor was rambling about the best places to go, Rose had an idea.
"Oh, I don't know. Can we have a surprise this time?"
"Ok, surprise it is." He set the controls on the console, and then instructed Rose to hold on to something. The TARDIS then proceeded to tremble violently, causing Rose to fall over onto the Doctor. She got up, blushing.
"Ok well, we should be here now. Would you like to do the honours?" He indicated that Rose open the TARDIS door. She did so, and gasping in wonder, stepped outside.
"Wow, doctor, it's beautiful! Where are we?" The Doctor grinned in amusement at her obvious delight.
"We're on a planet in the far edges of the milky way called Tranquillia. As good as its name. Completely uninhabited – in fact, I'm surprised the tourists haven't got hold of this place yet…"
In front of them was a vast, rolling land of green lush grass, and undulating hills, with a lot of trees. It was a beautiful day and quite hot, with clear light purple skies.
"Purple?" questioned rose.
"Yes, well, Tranquillia gets its light and warmth from a sun going in the opposite direction to Earth's own, and it happens to be blue, although giving out as much heat and light as ours… and since this atmosphere filter is red, it mixes the colour to make purple. Very pretty indeed."
Rose had already lain down on the grass by the TARDIS. "I think we should just lie here and do nothing."
"Nothing? Where's your sense of fun gone?" The Doctor teased.
"Well it's not as if there are any hostile aliens here to fight or anything." At this point she pulled the doctor down, and he reluctantly lay down beside her.
Suddenly there was a huge fizzing noise, and an object appeared out of the sky. It fell through the sky and crash landed somewhere ahead of the Doctor and Rose. The Doctor lifted his head up and looked at Rose, who looked at him with a 'typical' expression.
"Suppose we'd better go and explore that, hadn't we?" he said with a grin.