Life After Death
Chapter 7: Impossibilities, Part 2
By Kate Carter
A/N: All right…you have NO IDEA how hard I laughed at some of the reviews I've gotten. People were horrendously upset that I killed Rose. I can't really blame you, I'd be upset in your place too. But come on guys…do you really think I'd make her stay dead?! The story's called "Life After Death" (true, in this case it's more of a coincidence, but still…)! Cruel, yes, but it's just so funny to see it from the author's perspective.
The Doctor sobbed as he held Rose's broken body in his arms. He felt a hand grip his shoulder. "Rose!" Pete whispered hoarsely, falling to his knees beside the Doctor.
The Doctor turned his tearstained face towards Pete. "She's gone," he whispered brokenly. "She's gone. I just got her back and she's gone."
Tears were streaming down Pete's face as well. "How am I going to tell Jackie? It's going to break her heart," he said.
"Rose!" Mickey was running towards them now. "No…" he whispered in disbelief, dropping down to join the other two men and Rose's crumpled body, still being held by the Doctor. "No. She can't be. Not after all she's gone through," he said, his eyes wide. He stroked her arm tenderly. "Oh Rose," he said sadly as he also began to cry.
Suddenly, Rose gasped.
In his shock, the Doctor nearly dropped her. Surely that couldn't have happened? But as he watched, her eyes flickered open. "Owww," she groaned. "What just happened?" She stared in confusion at the three men. "Have you been crying?" she asked incredulously.
The three men stared at her in open-mouthed confusion. Finally, after he'd gaped like a fish for a moment, Mickey was able to stammer out, "B-b-but you were dead, Rose!"
"What?" Rose said tiredly, snuggling into the Doctor a bit more. "That doesn't make any sense, Mick."
"Yes…it does, actually," said the Doctor slowly. "It's the same thing that happened to Jack."
He felt Rose stiffen. "Jack?!" she said. "What happened to Jack?"
"Oh…haven't mentioned that, have I? Haven't you read that in my journal yet?" the Doctor asked.
"I've only made it to the Daleks in Manhattan…we've been busy, remember?" she said, her cheeks flushing slightly. The Doctor flushed too as he remembered exactly how busy they'd been.
"Well, it seems that Jack…can't die," he explained.
"What? Why didn't he tell us that when we met him? We wouldn't have left him behind on the Game Station," Rose said.
The Doctor sighed. He'd known it wouldn't be easy. "No, Rose. When he was with us, he was just as mortal as you and I were. But he was killed, and you resurrected him."
"I did?" she said, her eyes widening. "I don't remember that…actually, I don't remember much of that at all," she added thoughtfully.
"You did. You put just a very little bit of the Time Vortex into him, just enough to make sure he couldn't died for as long as it was in him," said the Doctor. He sighed. "And I think you must have managed the same thing for yourself."
"What?" Rose asked blankly. "You mean I have a bit of the Time Vortex and now I can't die?"
"Exactly," said the Doctor. "I'll have to do some tests to see, but it won't be until we can get back to the TARDIS, although I'm fairly positive that's what's happened."
…she was standing there, all light and sound and fury, and he could feel it radiating from her, and he could feel her love too, love for him, and it stunned him, and amazed him, more than anything else had in his nine hundred years of existence…
…and then he could hear her whimpering, in the back of her mind, as the Time Vortex possessed her, body and soul and mind and heart and spirit all merged, and she was Rose, and she was Time, and she was neither, and she was both, and she was terrible, and she was wonderful, and she was dying…
…and he kissed her, and let his love for her overwhelm her just as her love had overwhelmed him, and she'd melted in his arms, and for just a second, she was not Time, she was Rose, she was the simple human girl who he had learned to love with an intensity that had surprised him, and she was kissing him back…
…and then it burned, and he transferred it back to the TARDIS, back where it belonged, and he was empty, and she was cleansed, and they went back to the TARDIS…
…and then every cell in his body screamed…
…and he'd regenerated…
…and things went wrong, horribly wrong, and he had no idea why, had no idea there was a trace of the Time Vortex still within him, trying to fight to keep his body as it was, to keep him alive, but regeneration overwhelmed it, and it had fought, and it was over, and the shred of Vortex he wasn't even aware of had come to accept it, and rested in the back of his mind, and he wasn't even aware of it…
The Doctor gasped as the truth hit him.
Jack couldn't die.
Rose couldn't die.
He couldn't die.
It was impossible.
And yet, it was there.