As the coupling song birds twittered and flapped through the air, the bright, shinning sun looked down on the inhabitants on earth, the blue sky stretching as far as the eye could see. From where the young woman stood, all she could see were fields. Fields that were untouched by the ugliness that set upon the nearest village the night before. Martha picked at the strands of grass poking up at her, carefully separating one end from the other. Her back lay flat against the big, blue police box sitting behind her, her big ticket out of 1913. Well, so she'd hoped. When she and the Doctor had arrived in this troubled year, there were three of them; herself, the Doctor and the TARDIS. Now, as they prepared to disembark from the land, there were four.
Martha felt a spark of jealousy strike through her as she thought about her new 'flying mate', the young woman who'd the Doctor- her Doctor- had told her so much about. 'Rose this', 'Rose that'. Now, the figure behind all the stories was right behind her, in the big wooden box that was her home.
Martha was quickly awakened from her thought as the man himself began crawling up the hill. She got up to meet him, but was easily disheartened by the look on his face, the look in his eyes.
Visibly, he was tired. His shoulders had the hunched over look they had whenever he was approaching exhaustion, which was rare as he didn't tire easily. However, his eyes told a whole other story; he was happy. Excited; eager even. Martha had never seen him this happy in all the time she'd known the man, and it made her… jealous… to know it wasn't her that gave him this emotion.
The two travelling companions made their way into the TARDIS, the young blonde standing near the monitor, watching as Tim grew a look of confusion on his face. The Doctor waltzed to the other side of the console, tapping a sequence of buttons and levers that would send them into the Time Vortex. Rose smiled at the actions, not realising how much she'd missed this life until now. The beautiful hum that erupted from the TARDIS console made her smile grow. Those sounds had once haunted her dreams, turning them into nightmares easily as she woke from her slumber, a thin sheen of sweat covering her trembling body.
There was a long silence after the ship had rested comfortably into the Vortex. Martha quickly got he hint that both near the console were waiting for her to leave, to leave them alone- together. This thought gave Martha a horrible shiver. What if the Doctor didn't want her anymore? No longer needed her? Even if he allowed her to stay, she'd probably want to leave anyway. She didn't want to be their third wheel, his side companion. She didn't want to watch the Doctor throw hidden glances or gaze at his once lost flower.
Sighing mainly to herself, she hid her grave expression with a happy mask. "Well, I'll leave you two to catch up, then," she smiled falsly, walking toward the never-ending string of hallways and corridors. "Nice to meet you, Rose," she ended as she disappeared through the door.
As soon as Martha left the Console Room, the Doctor looked up from the Rotor, across the blue haze towards Rose, who was smiling at him widely. Slowly, he stood straighter as he walked toward her. When she came into his reach, he slid his arms around her tightly as she mirrored the gesture, snapping onto him as her body came into contact with his.
Rose couldn't believe this was happened. She'd waited years for this moment, her being reunited with her Doctor. During those years, she'd been tortured, abused, hurt more than ever before. There were parts of that time she believed she'd never see him again. But here he was. Breathing in his musky scent, she croaked, "I missed you." His response came quickly as he hugged her tighter. He pecked at her shoulder gently and pulled her away, noting the small changes.
Her eyes had changed, first and foremost. She was no longer the young, naïve girl he'd once travelled with. She was older and wiser.
She didn't where as much make up anymore. Torchwood probably got that out of her, showing her that false confidence wasn't needed in such an establishment. She was more independent and confident.
And lastly, the long mound of white tissue that ran along her cheek. It showed him the difficulties and pain she had endured. It also showed in her eyes, but her personality had hardened during their time apart.
"You have some explaining to do," he joked, squeezing her shoulder with one hand as he gently traced the scar with two fingers. She gave a sad smile and nodded in agreement as she walked blindly to the Jump Seat, letting her legs hit the cushion as she sat down. "Where do you want to start?" she asked, holding his hand tightly.
The Doctor gave a stiff chuckle. Where did he want to start? Everywhere would be the simplest answer. He wanted to know how long she'd been away from him. What she'd been doing in that time. How she got back to her Original Universe. All these question he wanted answered, but he settle with one.
Raising his free hand gently, he trailed a single finger down the side of her cheek, along the white scar that popped out at him. Without asking the question, he knew that she understood. Taking a breath, she began. "Like I said on Bad Wolf Bay, I joined Torchwood as soon as I could. We were quickly starting to reshape bits and pieces of the world, helping with different programmes, stuff like that. On one of the missions, there was… an accident. There were these power readings coming from some underground cavern, somewhere in Russia, I think. But, Russia got there first and saw us as a threat. They caught us and… well, you can guess from there," she ended, gesturing to the scar. "We found out about the Bad Wolf not too long after that, that I still had it."
The Doctor frowned in confusion. "I took it out of you," he argued as he sat back in his side of the chair.
Rose shook her head slowly as she mirrored his action. "Not all of it. On of the biologists- Marie, I think her name was- said that something like what happened in the Gamestation... I would leave a mark, whether It was taken away or not. A lot of it stayed. As you can imagine, a lot of people were after me because of this. They wanted to find a way of extracting it, to use it. When Torchwood finally found us, they did this... I don't remember what it was called. They were able to supress some of my memories, put it all behind a door. I think the plan was to wait until the threat was dealt with then bring them back... 'Bad Wolf Returns' was the trigger if I remember rightly. But after a while, they found me again. Pete sent me off with the bag and the Dimension Cannon, said that it was locked onto the TARDIS' energy, hense 1913," she ended lightly.
There was a spacious silence after Rose had finished talking, during that time Rose had rested her head on the Doctor shoulder, her lips milli meters from his neck as she breathed his scent in. She'd missed this so much. They'd often cuddled together like this after a days work. At first, walking alone into her own flat in the Parellel Universe seemed so alien to her. She was used to walking through the blue doors and into the huge Console Room, watching as the Doctor skipped around the console as her blabbered on about where he was going to take her this time, reminding her to bring running shoes or not to come in high heels. She'd spent night after night in her comfortable bed crying herself to sleep or dreaming she'd get back to her Doctor, but after every time she awoke, she had to remind herself it was just that; a dream. To actually be here, in his arms; in the TARDIS, she could hardly believe it.
When she thought about the people back home, her mum, her dad, her little brother Tony, she felt saddened, guilty even. For the first few hours of regaining her memory, she didn't even think about her family, how they were coping. Now, however, she started to think about how her mother would react. How she'd bully Pete into coming back to get her. How Tony would miss the stories she always used to tell him before he went to sleep.
She broke the silence with the Doctor, telling him everything about what had happened in the Parallel Universe. She told him everything of Torchwood, her family, even the place she'd lived in. He told her about the places he'd been to since they're separation, how he met Martha and even the fiasco of Donna Noble after Bad Wolf Bay. Upon hearing himself say the words 'Bad Wolf Bay', the Doctor remembered his cut short confession; and by the look in Rose's eye, she was reliving that heart wrenching moment too.
He looked down at her carefully, waiting for her to meet his gaze. She glanced up hopefully, swallowing down the lump in her throat that refused to go down. The words were on the tip of his tongue, all he had to do was open his mouth and say them... but he couldn't. All he could do was stutter the word 'I' over and over again. And he knew why. Because if he really said those three simple words out loud, made them known and real, it would be that much more difficult for when she'd leave him again. It would hurt that much more than it had the first time.
Feeling the gentle pressure of her hand on his cheek, the Doctor looked down into her eyes, to her small smile that played on her lips. Leaning up, she carefully pressed her lips to his, her hand dropping to his neck to keep him in place. For the first time in years, he let his guard down. Wrapping his arms around her waist, he brought her into his lap, gingerly deepening the kiss as he felt her tongue glide against his bottom lip.
She separated their lips as she took a breath, pressing her forehead against his as he kept his eyes shut. Feeling the slight chuckle erupt from her throat, he heard, "I know, Doctor. I know."
