Disclaimer etc.: see Prologue.

Hey! Finally wrote this chapter, and I am really sorry for the massive delay. The evil of writer's block struck again and I started yelling at my laptop several times.

But it's done now, and I think I might be nearing the end. Another chapter and an epilogue maybe? I dunno. Anyway. Reviews are much appreciated, so yeah. You know what I mean!

Enjoy!

Golden Death

9 - Remembering

The Wolf rejoiced.

It had thought that all was lost, that Rose Tyler was going to die. It had felt itself dissembling, felt its molecules drifting apart.

And then the Doctor had crashed through the wavering golden barrier, falling to his knees with tears in his eyes. The Wolf watched as the Time Lord reached out, his hand wavering. And he asked her to come home, his voice cracking as he spoke.

The Bad Wolf took a moment to reflect. The Doctor was different. His shields had dropped; all barriers erased by the fear and pain that Rose's disappearance had inflicted on the fragile balance of his mind. The Wolf knew that the moment things were better again, when Rose was well and they were once again running hand-in-hand from terrible dangers, his façade would spring back into place. Cocky, happy. But now, as the vulnerable Time Lord knelt in the ruins of Heaven, he was broken, his face glistening with cool tears.

But that was just for now.

The Wolf felt a tug on its being. Rose was calling to it, her unheard voice desperate and joyous all at once. They needed to be intertwined once again to be able to enter their corporeal form. The golden wisp that was the Wolf drifted down to mingle with the golden dust, and they swirled around the befuddled Doctor. "Rose…" There was a question in his voice, and the Wolf could feel the ache in Rose to answer him.

Rose. The Wolf felt her attention turn to it. It's time.

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The Doctor could only watch, helpless for once in his life, as the gold dust strayed over from him to cluster around Rose's body. Every single square millimetre of her satin skin was dusted with a skein of gold.

He heard a gentle sigh in the back of his mind, a sigh of release and joining.

The gold began to sink down, passing through Rose's skin with the barest amount of pressure.

Please let this be real. He was begging, pleading with someone he didn't know existed for Rose to come back to him. He needed her in his life; without her, he didn't know what he'd do. Please let her live. His dark gaze watched as Rose took on a soft golden glow. He briefly remembered; another time, another face, another lifetime. The birth of the Bad Wolf. Please let her come back to me. The glow remained, highlighting her face with lustrous tints. Hope stirred in the Time Lord's heart. Please.

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All that was left of her erstwhile companion was a faint dusting of crimson in the air and a puddle of spilling lukewarm tea seeping into the thin carpet. Jackie Tyler didn't know what to do. The Doctor's dealing were confusing enough without him dumping a helpless red being of some sort on her doorstep, who didn't know about tea of all things, and then having said red being vanish before her eyes.

Jackie's head was fuzzy. She was positive that the cocky alien had something to do with the poor thing's disappearance. It had been such a nice companion, very polite and appreciative, and there was no way that it had just died.

No way. No way in Hell.

Jackie Tyler bustled about the flat, wondering where the red being had vanished off to, her shocked and brutalised mind refusing to consider the possibility that her new friend wasn't coming back.

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It was warm, and that was the first thing that she noticed.

Too warm; she could almost feel flames licking against her naked skin. She shifted slightly, her limbs feeling oddly sluggish, like she was disconnected from her physical form in some way. Her lips parted, barely parted, and a soft moan slipped out. That was reassuring. If she could feel discomfort then that meant that she was still alive. That she had escaped Them.

'Them'? She tried to remember who They were.

She felt someone take her hand, long cool fingers intertwining with her own. "Rose?" The voice was faint but undeniably familiar. "Rose, can you hear me?"

She wanted to reply, she wanted to scream "Yes!" at the top of her lungs, but she found she couldn't. Her body was stiff and lethargic at the same time and she struggled to sync her physical movements with the demands of her mind.

"Rose?" Fear had entered the oh-so-familiar voice. "Rose, please." A quaver. "Can you hear me?"

Who was he; what was his name? She dredged her memories for him, but she just couldn't remember. She squirmed within the enclosure of her foggy mind, but found no answers.

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She doesn't know who I am.

The Doctor felt his eyes suddenly tear up as his shaking fingers lightly stroked the back of Rose's limp hand. He'd seen her move; seen her eyes flicker beneath the closed lids. He'd heard the soft moan as it escaped her ruby lips. And then he'd called her name.

But she hadn't responded.

And it terrified him.

"Rose, please." His voice had dropped to a scared, intimate whisper. "Can you hear me?" His voice cracked and he closed his eyes for a brief moment, a single sparkling tear making its way down the side of his nose. The diamond of sorrow rested against his upper lip and his tongue instinctively darted out, sucking the dampness into his mouth. She can't be gone. She can't. She knows who I am. I have to believe that.

He opened his eyes again, the tears held back for the moment. "Rose." Again his voice cracked, but this time he kept it under control. "Rose, please." Believe in her. "Do you know who I am?"

She didn't answer, and in the silence he heard his heart shatter into a million pieces, shards of agony piercing throughout his soul.

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The Wolf was last to join the mix, and with it came all the memories that Rose Tyler could not grasp. It eased into the human girl's mind, brushing lovingly over synaptic pathways and delicate webbings of neurons, erasing the damage that the Angels had done to her brain.

Rose Tyler gasped as she felt her knowledge come flooding back into her healed mind, and a smile tilted her lips upwards.

She was smiling. The confusion of a moment ago was gone, replaced by joy and… remembrance?

Hope returned to the Time Lord's broken spirit, and he squeezed her hand lightly in his. "Rose?" he ventured, praying that she was fixed, praying that she was his again. She shifted lightly on the rough, warm ground. Her smile remained in place, an easy upturning of the lips. No answer was forthcoming.

But this time it didn't break him.

This time it didn't shatter him.

Because he could feel that she was going to be alright.

He squeezed her hand again, his hearts thumping in pounding synchronisation. "Rose?" he asked again, louder. "Rose, can you hear me?"

Her eyelids fluttered, once, twice, and then they opened. She gazed up at him, her gentle brown eyes flecked with iridescent, sparkling gold. A pink tongue darted out to moisten her dry lips, and she frowned softly up at him. "Doctor?"

He broke out into a wide, insatiable, manic, crazy grin. "Rose!"

With that cry he grabbed her up into a fierce hug, his face buried in her neck, her arms tightly around his neck. They held onto each other in the ashes of Heaven, and as one, they wept with joy.

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The doors to the ancient blue box swung open of their own accord and the Doctor carried Rose into the TARDIS, bridal style, his trench coat tucked snugly around her nude body. They refused to let go of one another, even when they reached the console and the doors closed firmly.

Rose twined her arms securely around his waist, resting her cheek against his chest. Her eyes were closed and tears of joy and love still glittered on her human cheeks. "Thank you," she murmured, listening to the beating of his hearts, hearts that beat solely for her.

"Don't thank me," he whispered in return, one hand resting on the back of her head, the other around her slim waist.

"You saved my life."

His thumb gently caressed her silken blonde hair. "I saved my life too."

She understood the implication; if she had died, he would have followed her. It wrenched her heart. Her eyes filled with tears once again, and she tilted her head up, pressing a kiss to the corner of his mouth. "When I die, promise me you'll go on. I couldn't live if I knew that…" She couldn't say it.

He gave her a mischievous smile. Almost Puckish in fact. It reassured her. "Who says you're going to die before I do?"

She frowned questioningly. "Doctor?"

"Never mind."

She narrowed her eyes at him playfully, but she decided that, for the moment, it was enough just being in his company, in his arms. She had thought, in a broken moment, and instant of fear and pain and sorrow, that she would never see him again.

"I love you Doctor," she whispered against his chest, closing her eyes, listening to his dual heartbeat.

She felt him press a soft kiss into her hair and a warm feeling swept through her. "I love you too Rose. Never forget that."

She paused, and then groaned.

"Rose?"

"I wrecked Mum's flat."

He chuckled softly. "Yeah. I remember that."

"Oh no…" She buried her face in his chest. "She's gonna kill me," she mumbled against the cloth of his shirt.

"No, she's gonna kill me," he corrected.

She giggled and nodded in agreement. She placed her hands on his chest and pushed back slightly, still standing within the circle of his arms, looking up at him with love in her gold-flecked eyes. "Well then," she started, "better get it over and done with then?"

"What?" He looked horrified. "Your Mother?"

"Yup."

"But…" He was lost for words.

"Lets go visit Mum!" She pouted sweetly at him. He found himself melted. "Like I said, get it over and done with." Her eyes twinkled at him.

He harrumphed as he turned to the console, her hand still joined with his. "Like I said," he mumbled, "I am so gonna get slapped."

Rose just giggled.

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Jackie decided the flat was finally tidy, that she could see no faults, and she sat down lightly in an overstuffed armchair, her fingers jerkily tracing the patterns worked into the woven fabric. Her eyes were wide and her blonde hair was ruffled, falling limply to her shoulders, unrestrained.

She began to rock forward and back in the squishy chair, forward and back, forward and back. She was waiting for the Doctor to come back with her daughter and her friend, and until then, she could wait.

Jackie Tyler sat amidst the mess of clustered coffee cups and disarrayed magazines, and waited.

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