Entr'acte: Women Wept

They didn't discuss the Doctor's disappearance from Rose's room. There wasn't anything to discuss, really. She knew that he didn't sleep much, and that he was filled with a nervous energy that kept him moving forward at all times. The idea of him staying in bed with her while she slept was a little disconcerting, if she was honest with herself. She didn't know what she would have done if he'd still been there when she'd woken up.

He didn't pretend it hadn't happen, though. He was the Doctor, and he expressed himself in his own ways. His way of handling her mourning was to take her to a planet called Women Wept, where she could walk upon a continent that shared her pain.

Wrapped up in a parka, scarf, and hat, arms crossed tightly and hands tucked into her armpits, Rose walked down the deserted beach, tracing with her feet the curve of the crying woman's back where she curled in on herself, holding her own broken heart. The Doctor leaned against the TARDIS, watching her but not interrupting. Rose's eyes traced over the glistening ice waves, frozen forever in time as they crested toward the shore. The sky and the ice were a pale, endless grey; the sand, striated with beige and black. The beach was silent except for the low whisper of a soft, cold wind and the sound of her boots crunching on the untouched sand.

"It's beautiful," she murmured, her voice carrying across the empty coast back to the Doctor. "But it's so sad."

"Sometimes sadness can be beautiful," the Doctor answered, walking up behind her and wrapping his arms around her body. "When we mourn something, we acknowledge its importance. If losing it didn't hurt, it probably wasn't worth having. There's solace in knowing that. That's beautiful, in a way."

She sighed and leaned back against him, tilting her head up to look at the strong outline of his jaw as he gazed out at the frozen waves.

"Is that how you feel about your people?" she asked him softly.

He swallowed and didn't look down to meet her eyes. "No," he answered quietly. She nodded in understanding and looked back out at the ocean, letting the warmth of his body and the beat of his hearts join with the whisper of the wind and the scent of the ice as she used the desolate, beautiful beach to say goodbye to her father and the life that she might have had, had he only lived. Closing her eyes, she let him go.

Turning in the Doctor's arms, she looked up at him, and this time he tilted his head down to meet her gaze.

"Thank you, Doctor," she murmured, and he nodded in understanding. Moving her hands to his shoulders, Rose lifted herself onto her toes and kissed him softly. His eyes fell closed as he responded, carefully kissing her back without either of them making any move to deepen it. It wasn't a kiss of passion, but one of understanding and shared pain, of finding beauty in loss, of solace and togetherness and knowledge that nothing lasts forever.

Pulling away, Rose slid her hand down the Doctor's arm and into his hand. He squeezed her fingers and gave her a soft smile, and together, they walked back to their ship — their home — ready to move forward and lose themselves in the infinite possibilities of the universe.