It had been over a month since the terrible night in Whitechapel and still they remained in Victorian London. The Doctor worked daily on the TARDIS, trying to repair the damage caused in the crash and in the emergency power up. Rose recovered slowly, keeping to the sanctuary of the TARDIS interior and only venturing to the control room when necessary. She was quiet but healing. As she had predicted she would wake in the night screaming, but similarly the Doctor would be by her side to calm her and rock her back to sleep. Jackie had accepted their relationship with more ease than Rose had ever expected but Mickey had taken it hard, moping about the TARDIS like a sulky five year old and sniping at the Doctor at every opportunity. He often disappeared for hours on end into the maze of corridors but his behaviour in turn was beginning to calm, merely whinging now and then how much he wanted to go home.
Rose hadn't been able to let the Doctor touch her since the attack by the Hatrevic, hugs and kisses were one thing but true intimacy was still elusive to the pair. The Doctor accepted it with good grace, assuring her that he would wait forever if she needed him to. She would give him a watery smile and he'd pull her close, only then would his face cloud over in anger, not at her but at the fiends who had hurt her. Clutching her thin frame to him he began to formulate a plan, he knew it would be a risk but he needed to avenge her and he knew the night he would be able to. Each night he counted down the days, the hours, the minutes until the time finally came.
Rose stirred in her sleep but the Doctor ran a hand along her back to calm her and she soon fell into a deeper slumber. Checking once more that she would not wake the Doctor slipped from the bed and began to silently dress in his black clothes, slipping the sonic screwdriver into his pocket and a palm sized device into his jacket. He turned to the sleeping figure before drawing two letters out of his bedside draw, he set it beside her on the pillow before pressing a kiss into her hair.
"I love you," he whispered over her before silently slipping from the room into the darkened corridors. He moved along the grating, careful not to make a sound and wake his passengers. He reached Mickey's room and pushed the door open slightly. He heard the steady rhythmic breathing of sleep and slipped inside. He had to suppress a laugh as he saw Mickey sucking his thumb and moved to the side of the bed. Placing another letter next to him on the pillow. The boy didn't stir and the Doctor left.
Mickey's eyes opened as the door closed and he climbed from beneath the duvet, fully clothed. Pocketing the letter, he slipped on his trainers and made to follow the Doctor, keeping equally silent as he walked into the TARDIS corridor. He stopped at the doorway to the control room to see the Doctor staring up at the central column. The Doctor ran a hand along the console, unaware of his audience before programming something into the computer and laying the sonic screwdriver down by the screen.
"I'll try and come back to you," he said to the ship, "But if I don't you know what to do. Thanks for everything old girl."
Mickey left several minutes later, following the Doctor out of the TARDIS doors and into the Whitechapel night. He didn't need to fear losing sight of him, he knew exactly where he was headed. He had used his time cooped up in the TARDIS well, he could easily say that the Doctor now wasn't the only Ripperologist in residence. Hurrying his feet, he headed towards Miller's Court.
Rose stretched and reached over to the pillow next to her. It was cold, the bed vacated sometime before. She sat up and flicked on the light, listening to the resting ship around her. It was only when her eyes had adjusted to the brightness that she noticed the envelope with her name on it, his familiar, loopy handwriting staring back at her. She picked up the letter and tore it open. Scanning her eyes over the page she couldn't suppress a sob and before she even reached the bottom she had fled her room. She ran along the TARDIS corridors to the control room but was not surprised to find it empty. The sonic screwdriver lay on the console beside the monitor, he was gone.
"Rose? Doctor? Is anyone there?"
"Mum?" cried Rose falling back into the battered old chair, "Mummy?"
Jackie trotted down the steps, fastening a dressing gown around herself. She went to her daughter and took in her distressed features, "Did you have a nightmare?"
Rose didn't speak but held out the letter. Jackie took it and began to read it silently to herself.
'My darling Rose,
That sounds so much better in my head than it looks on paper. I am sorry to do this to you but I have to think of the safety of Earth before myself. I could not defeat the Hatrevic when we rescued you but tonight I have a chance, I know where they'll be and I intend to avenge everything they did to you. Problem is I doubt I'll return. How I wish I'd spent more time learning the ways of my people, this would be so much easier, but I must do what I can. Please understand. I have made arrangements to get you home, the TARDIS will take you back to your own time and when you get back you're going to smile and you're going to be happy. You have made me so happy since the day we met, you are my best friend and my soul mate and I never thought I'd find that. I will look in on you from time to time if I can, from whatever place I will go to after my death for this time I will have no second chances. This is my sacrifice for you Rose Tyler. Do not try to follow me just remember me. I love you.
Dx'
"Oh Rose," said Jackie, hugging her quivering daughter to her, "My poor darling Rose."
"How could he leave me Mum?" she cried into her shoulder, "How could he just leave me?"
"He's the Doctor," said Jackie gently, "And he has to do things that other people can avoid. Those aliens are dangerous and he has to do what you two always do, save the world."
"But I love him."
"I know, sweetheart, I know."
Mickey kept to the shadows, he had caught the Doctor up but was not ready to be detected just yet. He knew they were only a few streets from Mitre Square and his blood ran cold as he thought of the ritual that would soon be occurring just ahead. He shook the image of Rose, bound and injured, from his mind and returned to the task in hand. He still didn't know why he had followed, what he would do but he was compelled. Mickey watched as the Doctor stopped in his tracks and turned his senses to the wind, a light chuckle escaped his lips.
"Mickey Smith," came the deep, northern tones, "If you're going to follow me at least refrain from wearing an aftershave that will not be invented for at least a century."
Mickey let his shoulders drooped in defeat before jogging to the Doctor's side, "I didn't think you'd notice me."
"What are you doing here?" said the Doctor but without the menacing tone Mickey had expected.
"I know what you're planning, I wanted to help," said Mickey, "I think."
The Doctor began walking again and Mickey followed, "Did you get my note?"
Mickey tapped his jeans pocket, "I haven't read it yet though I expect it tells me to take care of Rose and how to get the TARDIS to take us home if you don't get back."
"Am I that predictable?"
"The TARDIS has been ready to fly for a couple of weeks hasn't it," said Mickey, "But you had to wait until tonight."
The Doctor tried to hide his shocked expression at Mickey's perception but the boy caught it.
"What makes you think that?"
"Because right now, at thirteen Miller's Court, where we're headed, Mary Kelly is currently on her way to becoming the Ripper's next victim. You know those shadow creatures are there in force because of the devastation of Mary's body and you intend to fight them. See, I haven't wasted my time when I've been moping, that library of yours is very informative."
The Doctor laughed to himself, "There's more to you than meets the eye Mickey Smith. You know I have to do this?"
Mickey stopped in his tracks, causing the Doctor to also, "I know you have to die and I know something stops the killings tonight. I know that time is not a straight line but that some things have to happen. I can see it in your face. I should hate you for what you're going to do to Rose but I can't."
"Thanks," mumbled the Doctor before moving them onwards.
They continued to walk in silence until the Doctor grabbed Mickey's arm and dragged him into a nearby alley. He pointed to a building down the street.
"That's the place," he said in a whisper, "I have to go on my own. You need to go back to Rose and take her home, take care of her for me."
Mickey nodded, at a loss for any words as he finally felt the weight of the Doctor's life settle about his shoulders.
"Stay here, stay hidden," said the Doctor, "Wait until dawn and then go back to the TARDIS. Take this."
Mickey held out his hand and the Doctor lay Susan's necklace in his palm before closing his fingers around it.
"Give that to Rose, tell her I love her."
"I will," said Mickey, "Good luck."
Without another word the Doctor began his journey to the house, throwing Mickey one final fleeting glance before he walked through the door. It was only then that Mickey realised he was crying.
Rose paced the control room frantically, wringing her hands. Jackie tried time and again to get her to sit down but to no avail.
"Where could he be?" muttered Rose to herself, "Why tonight? November the ninth, what's so important about November the ninth?"
"Rose darling please sit down," said Jackie.
"No!" cried Rose, "I'm going to find him and I'm going to save him. I'm going to bring him home and we're going to leave this place, you, me, Mickey and…Where's Mickey?"
"Probably still sleeping," said Jackie as Rose ran up the steps to the TARDIS interior. She returned several minutes later, paler than a ghost.
"Mickey's gone too," she said before collapsing into her mother's arms.