She knew she'd never see him again from the moment she saw her.
She was pale. Grief-stricken. Heartbroken and inconsolable. Sobbing until she couldn't sob anymore, when she hadn't the energy and all she could do was to stare into space and silence and try to come to terms with the situation. Sarah-Jane Smith sighed, staying silent as she watched the girl staring outside the window and looking at nothing in particular, clutching the mug between her hands as if she was holding on for dear life. Neither had spoken for five minutes.
An hour before, she'd received a phone call. She'd given the girl her mobile number and other contact details a while ago, and asked her to call if something came up. And she did. Rang up in tears, crying, unable to get her words out. Took her a while to calm down and to tell her that something had indeed come up and would they "be able to meet?", as, according to Rose, she was all she had left. Her mother'd gone.
She supposed she knew then, really. He was never coming back. Something had happened, something had happened which meant he was never going to come back.
The Doctor was gone.
-+
It took six days before Jackie Tyler emerged from the bedroom, exploring her new surroundings for what seemed like the first time, ultimately deciding that she didn't like what she saw and that whatever happened, she was absolutely not going to stay there. She was going to find a way back, her way back, and find her daughter.
Find Rose.
"Jacks...you can't get back there. The Doct -"
"My daughter's there. I don't care what the Doctor says. I'm gonna find a way back."
"Jacks -"
"You gonna help me out or not?"
-+
"What do you remember, Rose?"
Rose closed her eyes. "The void."
"The void?"ﾝ
"He called it 'Hell'."
"Hell,"ﾝ Sarah-Jane whispered. "What happened? What else?"ﾝ
"Daleks. Lots of them. Millions."ﾝ
"Yeah, I saw them,"ﾝ Sarah-Jane nodded. "So did half of London, by the looks of it. And then they just sort of...went. The Cybermen too. Disappeared."
Rose nodded. "Into the void."ﾝ
"Into the void."
-+
"You know, I really wished you hadn't saved me."
Pete Tyler glanced up, watching as the man who'd once been sat next to him now stood up, staring out over the roof ledge. The Doctor sighed, seating himself down on the ledge and moving so his legs dangled from the side. Pete immediately stood up, nervously approaching him. "Doctor - "
"I'll never see her again."
"Come away fr -"
"She's beautiful, you know that? Utterly, utterly beautiful. Fantastic too. Saved more lives than you've had hot dinners," he grinned, watching the cars on the road. He sighed. "I lost the TARDIS too. I'm stuck here. How depressing is that? The TARDIS, stuck on the other Earth, so I can't get out of this bloody universe and find Rose. Mind you," he paused, "the chances are of finding a rift or something...I wouldn't be able to get back even with the TARDIS anyway."
"Doctor - "
"Guess Rose was right! Guess I'll have to get a mortgage! A house and a mortgage! A job! Yes, a job! Oh, but I don't want to work in a shop though. All that stock-taking and price-checking and dealing with Old Mrs Higgins from down the road who's come to refund her jacket potato because she cooked it all wrong and no-one told her that she wasn't supposed to stick it in the dishwasher. That's boring. Know of anywhere that's looking for someone, Petey-boy?"
"I -"
"Preferably somewhere that doesn't mind the fact that I'm an alien and I've not got much of a CV. I don't think 'annoying good old Queen Vic' will impress them much, even if she did knight me."
-+
Three weeks later, after Rose had spent days and nights at Sarah-Jane's house trying to come to terms with things, they found the TARDIS in the basement at Torchwood, which was - strangely - rather deserted. Sarah-Jane sighed, remarking that perhaps the authorities weren't ready to admit that the Torchwood organisation were practically responsible for the events, with all the ghost shifts and that. Perhaps, she thought, they'd disbanded for good. Rose shook her head as she fumbled for her key. "There's other offices. There's at least two in the North, there's one in Glasgow, and there's one in Cardiff. There's one down in Brighton too. They're all still up and running."
"How do you know?"
"Looked it up when you were on the phone. Computers are still logged in. Don't think anyone had the chance to log off. Ah," she smiled, pushing the door open. "There we go. Don't suppose you know how to fly this thing?"
Sarah-Jane frowned. "Don't you? After the whole...Bad Wolf thing?"
"I remember bits. And the Doctor showed me a few things, like how to set a year and a place. Nothing else though. What about you?"
"Same. Bits and pieces. The basics, really."
"Reckon we'll manage?"
"We're gonna have to."
-+
"He's going mad, Mickey."
Mickey Smith shook his head. "He always has been. Right from since I first met the bloke. 'Sides, wouldn't you be?"
"If it'd been Jacks then yeah, I would've."
-+
The estate still looked the same as ever.
Big, haunting blocks of concrete. Graffiti. Posters stuck over posters stuck over posters stuck to the walls near the local garage, advertising "MC nights" and pub quizzes and gigs. They were dirty, some torn and some not stuck up properly, and some left lying in the gutter nearby, probably down to some kid who wanted a bit of pocket money but didn't want the work.
He grinned. At any moment, Rose would come tearing around the corner, with some clothes and belongings and nic-nacs all shoved in a bag without a care or a damn in the world. And she'd drop the bag and run towards him, and hug him, and tell him never to leave her again.
No.
That was wrong.
It was never going to happen.