A/N: How much was I crying on Saturday night! Arghhhhhh I hate Russell T Davies! So, so, so close to an "I love you". It was so beautiful though. I'm going to miss Rose so much but at least there is a faint glimmer that she'll be able to come back into it. Three Cheers for Billie Piper- the best companion ever.
Right on with the story. Still don't own anything though. If I did he'd have said "I love you" thirteen episodes ago!
The mortuary was a quiet solitary place, a place that could be called spooky if you were superstitious but Grace wasn't. To her everything could be explained by science and so the mortuary for her was a place of quiet reflection as she worked. It was rare though for her to work on bodies after death, as the head of the Cardiothoracic department she often delegated the work to her students or newer members of staff. Today however she felt the need to complete the autopsy on Rose and prepare her for burial.
The clock struck nine in the evening as she punched in her key code for the door and entered the silent room. The trolley with Rose on sat silently in the middle of the room, the body still covered by the green surgical cloth. Grace snapped on some gloves and made her way over to the table, wheeling the equipment trolley behind her. She settled herself on a high stool and pulled back the cover, nearly sobbing as she looked down at the now colourless face of Rose Tyler. Rolling the cover reverently back she exposed her open chest and lay the cloth to rest at her hips, noticing with some surprise the black tattoo on Rose's hip bone. It was just one simple word, Doctor, in elegant script, wrapped in light green vines with rosebuds on the ends. Grace wondered whether the Doctor knew of this profession of love and quickly grabbed a pen to note down to mention it to him when she next saw him.
Turning back to the task in hand, Grace picked up a small scalpel and set her tape recorder rolling.
"This is Doctor Grace Holloway, head of Cardiothoracics at San Francisco General. July 5th 2006 at twenty-one ten hours. Completing the autopsy on Rose Marion Tyler, 20 year old female, came to me presenting with shortness of breath, hallucinations and irregular heart rhythm. After my initial consult I diagnosed unknown damage to a…"
Grace trailed off as a soft thud sounded in the room, a sound that was so familiar to her and yet so out of place in the mortuary. She looked down at Rose's open chest and couldn't help but scream.
XXXX
Jackie tucked the Doctor's coat tighter around him as he lay sleeping on Grace's couch having collapsed from exhaustion only half an hour after arriving at her house. She brushed back his fly away hair, feeling odd to be comforting a nine hundred year old alien who she couldn't help but blame in a way for her daughter's death but needing to all the same. She could see the pain etched on his delicate features, the tear tracks still marking his face. She got to her feet and paced the small living room, unable to do anything of use but not wanting to sleep either. Sleep meant dreaming of Rose and Pete, the two people she'd loved and lost. She took a strangled breath as Mickey rose to her mind also and, to her surprise, the Doctor's previous incarnation. She looked down mournfully at the sleeping alien, pitying him as she thought of what must flash to his mind so often. Rose had told her many times about the destruction of his home planet. Jackie struggled to remember the name, she would have to ask him when he woke.
Realising that know amount of staring would wake the Doctor as he turned and muttered sweetly in his sleep, Jackie set off in search of paper and pens, smiling to herself as she heard her daughter's name on his lips. Once she'd located a pad of lined paper and a pen she settled herself at Grace's dining room table and began to make a list of people she needed to tell about Rose, what kind of flowers to have at the funeral, what songs to play. The lists kept coming and coming, hour after hour, as did the fresh, hot tears on her face. The ritual bringing her little comfort but she found herself to do anything else. The lists became more erratic, what Rose had eaten the last times she had visited, how many blue tops she owned. She wasn't aware of any movement until she felt two strong arms around her shoulders and the soft brush of fly away hair against her cheek. One slim, ivory hand reached out, moving the lists and examining each one. He stopped on one listing songs for the funeral.
"Aerosmith," said the Doctor, gently, moving to sit beside her, "Don't want to miss a thing. Rose loved that one, you should play that for her. I remember her playing it on the radio in the TARDIS. She made me dance with her to it. She sang it when we were dancing, she had such a pretty voice."
"I'll put it on the list," said Jackie, returning to her frantic scribbling. The Doctor took the pen from her hands before folding his own over them.
"Jackie stop, this won't help."
"What else am I supposed to do?"
"Talk to me," said the Doctor, "If anyone her can feel half of your pain its me."
"Do you know what it feels like to lose a child?"
The Doctor nodded solemnly, "Five actually, not too long ago. Their mother a long, long time ago, far too young."
"Five?" said Jackie, her voice barely rising above a whisper, "The war?"
The Doctor nodded, "Eight grand children too and someone I thought of as an adopted daughter."
"You don't look old enough to be a grandfather," said Jackie, "Hope I look as good as you do when I'm a…"
The Doctor pulled Jackie into a hug as she realised her words couldn't possibly come true now, hushing her gently. He rocked her, murmuring words that she was sure weren't English into her hair. The shrill ringing of Grace's phone startled them both. They both made no move to it but were soon on there feet as they heard Grace's voice echo after the recorded message.
"Doctor? Jackie? Are you there? Its Grace. You need to get to the hospital now. Something's happening. I can't explain it. Its Rose…her heart… oh God its impossible. Doctor her heart is beating!"
The line had barely dropped dead as the front door slammed closed.
XXXX
The route to San Francisco General was ingrained in the Doctor's memory from the taxi ride earlier, he had kept his mind from Rose by memorizing every twist and turn and so now it took him no time to speed his way through the traffic on a 'borrowed' motor bike. He mused with some humour that his last time in San Francisco had resulted in him and Grace stealing a police bike, he'd soon be getting a record. Jackie clung tightly to his waist, her language making even the Doctor blush as she berated him for his terrible driving and their lack of helmets. The wind in his hair drowned out part of the noise and his focus on their destination the rest. He'd heard it himself, Grace's terrified words, Rose's heart was beating. She hadn't said that Rose was alive, only that her heart was beating but still he allowed himself to hope. Uttering a silent prayer to Gods he had long thought to forget he kicked the bike up another gear and sped through the streets.
XXXX
Grace paced frantically back and forth beside the autopsy table, wringing her hands as she tried to rationalise the scene before her. Rose's chest was still open to the elements, without any machinery attached to her but her heart was beating. A soft, steady rhythm beat out in the silent atmosphere and a gentle hum plagued Grace's ears like the pressure building before a storm. She turned as she heard the crack of bone, a sound she was so used to hearing turning her stomach over in a second. She turned back to Rose's body and saw the chest slowly pulling together, golden threads pulling at the edges with a strength way beyond its size. She had seen the glow before from the piece of Vortex the Doctor had removed but she knew she had seen it elsewhere also, like a memory from a dream, the delicate play of gold over her own body. As the chest closed Grace could see more movement than just the heart. Rose's lungs began to gently twitch and the sound that soon echoed in the room barely startled her. The desperate gasp of a newly drawn breath.
XXXX
The Doctor waved the psychic paper wildly in the security guard's face before pushing passed him and entering the lift before any further questions could be asked. Jackie's hand protested in his but he held her fast. He punched the button for the basement and danced from foot to foot and the numbers descended.
"Come one! Come on! COME ON!" he cried loosing Jackie's hand and hammering the wall, "Can't this thing go any faster."
"Hitting it isn't going to help," said Jackie as the Doctor shook his hand furiously, "Did that hurt?"
"Yes," said the Doctor sheepishly.
"Let me see," said Jackie taking his hand in hers, "What do you think is happening?"
"I don't…oww, Jackie!"
"Don't be such a baby!"
"It hurts," whined the Doctor, "Leave it. We've got more important things to worry about."
Jackie grabbed hold of the hand rail as the lift juddered and came to a halt, the emergency light flashing from the control panel. The lights blacked out and she groped wildly for the Doctor, half smiling at the yelp of pain as she grabbed his hand.
"I think you've broken it."
"I think," said the Doctor, the blue light of the sonic screwdriver the only light as he ran it over the control panel, "This is more than your average power cut."
XXXX
Grace jumped as the lights flickered and went out. She muttered comforting words to herself as she waited for her eyes to adjust to the darkness. The hum was louder now but the glow was no where to be seen. She thought to search for Rose's body with her hands but found herself frozen to the spot with fear. She only hoped that the Doctor had got her message and was on his way. Rose's breathing rang out like music in the darkness but it brought Grace little comfort. She felt her mind slip every time she tried to rationalise the happenings before her. The child before her had been dead for nearly nine hours yet her she was, breathing, her heart beating. A bed in psyche seemed on the cards. An idea supported when a voice rang out in the darkness. A small, female voice with a London accent.
"Doctor."
