Disclaimer: I do not own Doctor Who, hence the fanfiction.

Author's note: This fic is my way of saying goodbye to Rose Tyler, who has brought me so much joy. I'll miss you!

We'll go down Together

They were running again. Rose felt her chest tightening and constricting as she fought for breath. Why was this is all they ever seemed to do? Blood was pounding in her ears and she could hear her footsteps echoing on the hard metal floor. She gripped her heavy blaster gun so tight it was beginning to hurt, terrified of dropping. She couldn't see ahead of her all she knew was that she had to move as fast as possible. She felt herself crash through a set of heavy steel double doors and found herself staring at a thick sheer wall. It was a dead end. Nowhere else to go.

"O.k. stop, stop." She heard the Doctor's voice as if from a million miles away, it sounded disjointed and breathless. She collapsed onto the floor (more hard cold steel) with her head in her hands, exhausted. The Doctor was fighting with the doors, pushing them shut and shoving a thick metal bar in place across them. Rose knew she should help him, but she was too worn out. "There" he said in satisfaction "that should hold them for a bit."

Rose gathered what little energy she had left and stood up, looking around "come on" she muttered to herself "there must be a way out of here". She stared at flawless, gleaming metal walls, was there a window? There was light and not electric light either. Then she looked up, and saw above her head a plate of clear glass, that let the sunlight stream in unchecked: and it was ten feet above head, was there anything she could use to climb up to it? There was a table in one corner, if she could get up onto that…

She ran towards it and began desperately pushing at it, throwing her whole weight against it, trying to move it underneath the skylight, it wasn't shifting. She gave a moan of frustration and threw the gun down on the table top. The Doctor was leaning against the wall by the doors, eyes closed weariness, his gun by his feet. Rose gave him a look of acid disgust "aren't you going to help me!" she groaned.

"Rose," he said very quietly "It's sealed to the floor".

"Then you'll have to unseal it," she hissed through her teeth.

"I can't," he said very softly "not without the sonic screwdriver, and that's on the TARDIS."

"What?" she said, the colour draining from her face "but there must be another way up there, or out of here- there has to be." She screamed the last few words.

"Can you see one?" he asked, his eyes finally opening to look at her and they were- dead.

She sank down to the floor, leaning against the cold wall, the world suddenly spinning. "We're… we're not getting out of this one, are we?" she said very, very slowly. She found herself staring at her hands without knowing why. She was shaking

He ran across the room, dropping down to the floor beside her, putting his arms round her shoulders and pulling her close. "Rose," he said his voice shaking a little, "Rose, I'm sorry, I'm so, so sorry. This is all my fault. I should never have brought you here, never have…" he trailed off, not knowing how to finish. Did he regret brining Rose with him in the first place? Regret telling her to run all that time ago?

"No!" she said fiercely, turning to look at him with an almost savage energy "I chose to come with you, and none of this is even a tiny, miniscule bit your fault. So don't you dare even think about starting that."

"Thank you." He said gently.

There was a long silence. Finally Rose said "How long, how long so we have before…before they find us."

"Fifteen, maybe twenty minutes." He answered in a flat voice.

She bit her lip, trying to stay calm, thinking furiously. Then she said with a resolute little nod "Good, that gives us time."

He looked at her in surprise "Time for what?"

"There are things…" she was twisting her hands over and over each other nervously now, she couldn't meet his eyes. "Things I should say."

"Like what?" He asked, still looking at her curiously.

She took a deep breath and gave forced a smile onto her face. Her brave-in-the-face-of-danger smile that was of the things the Doctor most liked about her. "Like…I don't know…like thank you I suppose"

"Thank you for what?" he said with a hint of bitterness in his voice "for trapping you here with no way out and a hoard of hostile aliens about to break in at any minute?"

"For showing me there's more to life than being a shop assistant in south London, for introducing me to the universe, for…for just being you!" she said all of this very fast with a determined edge to her voice.

A broad smile spread over his face "I'm so glad I met you. You're amazing, do you know that?"

Rose blushed, and grinned back almost shyly. It was strange, she was facing certain death, but the fact that the Doctor had just told her she was amazing was much more important than that. She reached out and took hold of his hand, it was warm, almost the only warm thing in that whole room

"I want you to promise me something," she said.

"Yeah?"

"I want you to promise me that if you get out of here and I don't, that…" she faltered a little, then took a deep breath and continued "That you'll find Mum, and you'll tell her, tell her I love her, yeah? And that I'm…that I'm sorry. Just…make sure she's O.K, yeah?"

His face stiffened, "Oh God, Jackie…" he said quietly

"Oh come on!" said Rose with a slightly nervous laugh "You're not still scared of her are you?"

"I don't know; she's pretty damned scary." They both laughed at that.

Suddenly Rose's face became serious again "Promise me?" she said quietly, looking at him with an intense expression.

"I promise," he assured her.

"Good, and you better keep it, 'cos I swear if you don't my ghost is going to hunt to you down and haunt you like you wouldn't believe." She said with a broad grin on her face.

"Now that really is terrifying," he laughed, then his face fell "I promised, I promised her I'd keep you safe…"

"I'd rather be here with you than safe any day." She said, giving his hand a quick squeeze

"Yeah?" he asked, a little doubtful

"Oh yes, by miles." And it was true; the choice between safety and the Doctor was the easiest one she'd ever had to make.

She shivered a little; it really was cold in here. She supposed it was because of all that metal. The Doctor noticed, he always noticed things like that.

"You're cold. Here, have my coat" he said, beginning to pull it off.

She tried to protest, but he gave her a scathing look and said "You're wearing a vest top Rose, how many times have I told you to dress properly?"

She took it gratefully, sinking into its warmth as she wrapped it round herself. "Thanks," she said. There was a long silence. Rose felt she was gathering her courage to say the last, the most important thing of all, because she wasn't going to get another chance to.

"I want to tell you something," she said, and she was staring straight ahead at the doors, avoiding his eyes.

"Yes?"

She gulped, her mouth was very dry. "I love you." There it was, she'd said it, it was out in the open, and a whole stream of things seemed to burst out after it. "I know I shouldn't, and you don't do…all that, and its stupid, but there it is, and I can't help it, and I had to say something because…This is my last chance isn't it?" She mumbled, seeming to have run out of things to say, her cheeks were bright red. Why didn't he interrupt her?

He looked at her, first in astonishment, and then a look of pure happiness spread over his face. "Oh Rose, have you any idea how much I love you?"

"You do?" she said, shocked "but I thought…"

He had shifted onto his and reached out and took both her hands in his "When I met you, I, I was so alone, so completely alone, nothing, nothing meant anything…till you."

Her breath seemed to have caught in her chest, her heart was pounding far harder than when she'd been running. "And what do I mean?" she said in a very small voice.

"You, you mean, oh you mean everything Rose Tyler. You, this is such a cliché, but you, restored my faith in humanity. That sounds sickening but its true."

Before rose knew what was happening they were kissing, she could feel both his hearts beating. Finally they drew apart, He ran a hand through her bright blond hair "You were right you know, I couldn't have said anything, or done anything. I mean the centuries wide age gap… we don't even come from the same planet, it wouldn't have been right, it wouldn't have been fair. But these are exceptional circumstances."

"You're, you're worth dying for; do you know that?" she told him.

"So are you," he replied softly. They looked at each other for a long moment. She felt she was drinking him in.

All at once the spell was broken: there was a crashing, roaring noise from the corridor outside, they sprang apart jumping to their feet. "They've found us!" the Doctor yelled. Rose ran to the table and grabbed her gun. "We take some of them with us, yeah?" she said breathless, a strange kind of euphoria running though her.

"Oh yes!" he replied resolutely picking up his own gun, and smiling at her. Their eyes locked. He ran across to her kissed her swiftly, then they both turned to face the doors. "Goodbye Doctor." She said, trying to sound cheerful

"Goodbye my darling Rose," he replied. They stood side by side, guns outstretched as the doors crashed open in a blaze of light.