"No, absolutely not," Rose said. "Don't even think about it."

They were all silent, all four of them. Rose stood, her arms crossed, her breathing coming in painful rasps through a throat tight with emotion. Finally, Jamie shifted away from his father and held out his hand. She took it, then pulled him close into a fierce hug.

"Mum," he said, muffled against her shoulder, "it has to be done."

"No."

"Mum, please listen," he insisted.

"No," she said firmly, clutching him close. "We'll find another way. We'll find something else. I'm not giving you up, either of you."

She looked to her husband for support, but he refused to meet her eyes and walked over to the overstuffed Victorian chair where he sat down heavily with his head between his hands.

So that was it, Ten thought, watching him. This one, this version of himself, wouldn't have to sacrifice Gallifrey to save the universe.

He'd have to sacrifice his children.

"Mum," Jamie said, "it's not death. We'll change form, yes, but we can be changed back once it's all finished."

"No," Ten said, finally finding his voice. "It won't work like that, Jamie. The Key will reset Time itself. All traces of this universe and the time lines touching it will be cleansed. Events will start over in each separate reality, and there's no telling the point it will restart from. You and your sister may not be born, and since it was an anomaly that sent him," he nodded to Eight, "into your mother's timeline to begin with…there's no guarantee things will happen the same way. Even if you are born to a different Doctor and Rose, you still won't be the same. It is, in a way, a death."

"So is regeneration," Jamie pointed out. "Gwyn and I are connected to the Key. Even if time resets, we won't vanish. Changed or not, we'll still be us, essentially."

"No," Rose repeated, but she knew it was futile. "Please…" she cried, her voice cracking.

Eight was on his feet and moving to take Rose into his arms before Ten could react. Rose dug her fingers into green-velvet shoulders and buried her face into an elegant silk cravat. Ten had a sudden memory of her doing the same to him before, only it had been black leather and a wool jumper.

He missed her.

The TARDIS door opened and the other one, Nine, came through, all smiles until he saw the tableau before him. His eyes darted around automatically for his Rose and he looked over at Ten, who supplied, "She's in the library with the little girl, Gwyneth."

Nine came closer. "What's happened?" he asked, gesturing to the huddle of Eight, Rose, and Jamie.

"It's the same," Ten said in an empty voice. "The entire world of Gallifrey or one simple family, it's the same. Just traded one sacrifice for another."

Nine watched him for a moment, then looked back over at the others and sighed. It was the sound of a broken man, Ten thought.

But just then the other Rose reappeared and immediately went to Nine's side, automatically gripping his hand as she looked around questioningly. He looked down at her, and a long look passed between them, one which she understood somehow and moved closer to him, her arm wrapping round his waist, and his going around her shoulders.

Ten flexed his own empty fingers, and vowed that no matter what happened here, he would not lose his Rose. He wouldn't let her leave. If it was too late for that, he'd get her back. No more running, no more hiding. No more staving off future loneliness by holding back people in the present. He didn't deserve Rose, but he needed her.

……………………………………………………………………………….

The Time Dilation Field was holding back the Daleks for now, giving Jack enough time to finish the work on Weapons Station. As soon as the field was reversed, Jack would have enough firepower to destroy the fleet.

Or at least enough of it to allow the Doctors to complete their work and set the universe right.

Rose guessed she should be relieved, but it was hard. The other her, Rose-Two, had to sacrifice so much to save the universe. She knew now, understood that it wasn't exactly her future, but still…even though she didn't have kids, she knew how much the other Rose must love her family.

She knew, too, how much the other Rose must love the Doctor because it was the same for her.

Rose sighed, leaning back in the TARDIS consol chair. The familiar one; they'd all retreated back to their own TARDIS's to do something or other to the power sources. Rose wasn't sure of the details, but she knew it was complicated.

The Doctor was outside, saying goodbye to someone he'd introduced to her as an old friend. Sarah-Jane Smith was her name. She must've met her sometime, the other her at least, because Sarah-Jane had hugged her and whispered, "Stay with him. No matter what, stay with him as long as you can."

It was funny, she hadn't really thought about it before. Her life now, traveling with the Doctor, had seemed like a dream at first. Like she'd wake up and find herself having to go to work or meeting Mickey somewhere for chips or something.

And now, it felt like the only reality. She knew she'd never be able to go back to that life. What would she do without the Doctor? She hadn't even thought about it, had just behaved like him; living in the present.

The consol beeped, and Rose leaned forward and flicked up the switch the Doctor had told her to. A light turned green, which apparently meant that something was charging up. She wasn't exactly sure about that, either, but had followed the instructions he'd given her.

Her thoughts turned to the other Rose. She was with the Doctor, her Doctor but still the Doctor, and her children for probably the last time. She'd married a past version of him, so she had to have known…she'd known the dangers and the pain of this life and still she'd thrown herself into it.

Because this…as lovely as traveling with the Doctor was, it wasn't permanent. What Rose-Two had was permanent. No more unspoken meanings behind words, no more cryptic looks, no more hiding behind the pretense of just friends.

She'd been as guilty of that as the Doctor. He was wonderful, but he was still alien, and it had frightened her more than she'd ever admit to when she first knew she was in love with him. Rose had denied it, chucking it up to the inevitable sexual tension between two people who are around each other so much. Just her silly hormones.

But the way he'd look at her sometimes…those blue eyes holding a wealth of emotion just barely below the surface. She hadn't let herself truly see it, even though she dreamt almost every night of it. What had he said about humans?

Always willing to believe unless they were staring it right in the face.

…………………………………………………………………………..

"I really am sorry, Sarah-Jane," he said, tucking his hands into his leather coat.

She smiled at him, that smile he remembered so well. "I know."

"I never meant to hurt you, I just didn't…I didn't think."

"I know," she smiled again. "You were never good at that."

"What?" the Doctor said, injured. "Thinking?"

"Yes," she drawled. "Thinking about emotions. And not just human emotions, Doctor. You're crap with your own, too."

"True enough," he admitted, giving her a lopsided smile. "I never did tell you how much you meant to me, Sarah."

"You didn't have to," she said softly. "It took me a long time to understand why you didn't come back for me, but eventually I did. It's funny, I still didn't fully understand even after I saw you again – the tenth you, that is. It wasn't until the alliance with Farristell."

"Oh?"

A sad look came over her face. "For as many people that took advantage of the advanced medicine and anti-aging technology, there were as many who didn't. I had friends, people I was very close to, choose not to live an extended life. I stood by and watched them again, pretending not to notice, pretending it didn't bother me."

"But it did."

"It hurt," she whispered. "A lot."

"I know," he said, pulling her into a hug. "I know, Sarah-Jane."

She patted his shoulder and pulled away. "But as much as it hurt, there was one woman I was friends with. Her name was Ellen, I worked with her at the paper. She'd refused treatment, but where the others were distrustful, she was accepting. She knew her lot in life, she knew how it would end, and she chose to meet it with grace."

He tilted his head at her.

Sarah-Jane looked him in the eye and said, "You can't keep death from touching you forever. No one can, not even you, Doctor. She may die and you may live on, but that's in the future. What matters is now. And she's here, now. You may live in the present, but you let it pass too quickly. Just stop and stand still, even if it's only for a moment."

The Doctor swallowed past a painful lump in his throat and nodded. "You always were a smart one," he said hoarsely.

"I know you," she said softly, touching his cheek briefly. "But I've let you go, now, Doctor. She won't."

He took her hand in his, pressing a soft kiss to her fingers. She smiled.

"Thank you," he said.

…………………………………………………………………………………

Rose looked up as the Doctor shut the TARDIS doors behind him and leaned against them. "Is it charging up?" he asked.

She nodded. "I think so, yeah. It's doing what you said it would, anyway."

He snorted. "That's a first."

"Tellin' me."

He walked towards the consol, shrugging out of his jacket and setting it aside. He seemed remarkably calm for the end of the universe, she thought. "I feel terrible," she sighed.

The Doctor looked at her. "What's wrong?"

She shrugged. "I just feel so bad for them. I mean, I know it's not us, but it still felt so close, y'know? They're so much like us. And then there's him, the other one. He's all on his own."

"Yeah," he said softly, a shadow crossing over his face.

Rose watched him for a moment while he fiddled with some control she was sure didn't need fiddling with at all. "Still," she said, a small twitch pulling up the corner of her mouth, "good thing he'll realize what a git he is now."

He looked up at her in surprise, frowning. "What do you mean? Do you know why they're not traveling together, then?"

She couldn't help but smile. "Your eighth self is a gossip."

He winced. "What'd he do?"

"Apparently," she said, "they had an argument."

"We have arguments all the time, you haven't trotted off yet."

She chewed her bottom lip. "I guess something happened on a space station. He went to save someone, but ended up nearly stranding his Rose and Mickey –"

"Mickey?!" he exclaimed.

" – on the space station without him to fly the TARDIS."

The Doctor paused, digesting this. "Well," he said, "that was just stupid. Who were they?"

"Who?" she asked.

"The person he went to save. Who were they?"

"Ah," she said, shifting in the chair and raising an eyebrow. "Apparently that's the big issue. It was some old French tart…what was her name? Madame de Pompadour."

"What? Seriously?" he blinked. "Interesting. Why was that a big deal?"

Rose looked at him, jutting her chin out a bit. "Because," she said slowly, "you had a thing with her."

He stared. "What?"

"Well," she amended, "not you, him. Still. Apparently you developed a little torch for her."

"And she got jealous?" he smirked.

"Think about it from her perspective," Rose said. "I mean, if it was me – and it is, which is sort of weird – at any rate, if it were you and me now, I know how upset I'd be. Seeing you run off to be the white knight to someone else without a second thought to what would happen to me? I'd be a bit angry, yeah."

"You got your pretty boy, and I didn't say a word about it! Not to mention Mickey the Idiot."

"Yeah, but I didn't leave you for them. It was the other way around. God," she moaned, "I think I know how Mickey feels. I'm horrid."

They were both silent for a long moment. The Doctor stirred, crossing his arms and leaning against the consol next to where Rose was propping her feet up. "Rose," he said softly. "I can't promise you that won't happen to us. I…well, I have a tendency not to think sometimes. I just get caught up in things, and I don't think about the consequences until it's too late."

"I've noticed," she said dryly.

He raised an eyebrow at her. "But the other Doctor – what were you calling him? Ten? – at any rate, he's not that far off from me. Neither of them are. I know what he's thinking, and I know how much he must miss having his Rose with him. Especially after seeing you and me and the other two. He'll do what I'd do."

"And what's that?"

"Find you," he said softly. "He'll go back for her. Just this once in his life. Just her. The only person in the universe he'd go back for."

She smiled, blinking away tears. "She'll go with him," Rose said. "Because life without you and the TARDIS is worth it. It's worth any pain, any sorrow, any loss. You're worth it."

He moved, closing the gap between them, and pulled her into his arms. "Rose Tyler," he said softly. "So are you."

…………………………………………………………………………….

Rose pulled at another wire, busying herself with work and trying not to think about what would happen soon. Beside her, the body of her husband shifted as he pulled up another floor panel. "Pass me the hydro-spanner."

It wasn't the one he wanted, so she passed him the right one. He never could keep the names straight half the time. It was why he'd invented the sonic screwdriver; so he didn't have to carry around a box of tools with names he couldn't remember.

His fingers closed around hers as he took the tool from her, and he met her eyes. His gaze was soft, understanding, and full of the same emotions she was feeling.

He sighed. "It always seems to end like this. In pain."

She touched his cheek. "Yeah, but there was so much joy, too. If we avoided all of life for fear of the pain when it ended, we'd be no better than Cybermen."

"So it's worth it?" he asked, his soft cultured voice laced with emotion.

Rose leaned forward and brushed her lips against his, her hand closing around the familiar feel of green velvet as she gripped his shoulder. "Yes," she whispered. "It was worth every second."

……………………………………………………………………………..

He leaned against the TARDIS consol, watching lights shift from red to green, indicating the ready status of the external drive. This was it, then. Some calculations, some minor work hooking all the TARDIS engines together and then…

…what?

He didn't know. He wasn't entirely sure how his own universe would be reset. There were so many variables, so many ways he could go back to an empty life without Rose.

It had only been one day without her, and it felt like a lifetime.

Breaking a promise he'd made to himself when she left, he picked up the TARDIS phone. With great care, he dialed her number and forced himself to take a few steady breaths as her mobile rang.

He didn't know whether to be relieved or angry when her voice mail picked up, but at this point, he'd take anything.

"Rose," he said, his voice not at all as steady as he would have liked. "I know I said I wouldn't do this. I told you I wouldn't call, that once you were gone, that was that. But I was wrong, Rose. I was wrong about everything. I should have never let you go."

He sighed. "I hate how this all sounds like some ending to a horrid Hugh Grant movie, but it's the truth. I'm sorry, Rose. But the truth is that I'd just grown so used to you being there…I'd assumed you always would be, no matter what. I knew, somehow, when I was stranded back in France that I'd find a way back to you, even if it meant living a whole three thousand years on Earth."

He slid into the consol chair, still holding the phone. "I just always thought you'd be there when I got back, and I should have…I should have said something, I know, but I just took for granted that you would understand. I'm sorry, Rose. I didn't think. I do that, you know, I screw up. I'm not perfect. And I've never done this, you know."

The consol beeped and he flicked another switch. "I've never let anyone as close as you. And," he paused, realizing the other Doctors were trying to contact him, "and I don't have a lot of time right now, Rose. Some things are going on, and…well it's me versus the universe again, you know. Same old routine. Only now I'm doing it alone, and I want you with me, Rose. I don't care what it takes. When this is over, no matter what happens, I'm coming back for you Rose."

He stood, about to hang up the phone, then added, "Look, the point of this is that I need you with me, and right now all I've got is your voice mail, and that just isn't good enough. How do the lyrics go to that stupid song you always listen to? Something about still loving you tomorrow even if the world ends tonight? Funny thing is that sort of applies right now. Quite literally, in fact. I love you, Rose. No matter what happens, just remember that, okay?"

………………………………………………………………………

Rose toweled her hair dry and slipped on her favorite jeans and t-shirt. She winced as she remembered that her mum had set up a job interview for her today. The reality of that wasn't something she wanted to face right now.

In fact, the only thing that kept her from completely falling apart was the fact that she was still pissed at him.

Stupid alien git, she thought bitterly.

She shuffled into the kitchen, depression sinking in on her. This really was it. This wasn't like last time, when he'd threatened to leave her in 1987. She'd told him to shove off, this time. And he had.

And he wouldn't come back. He didn't do that. Once he left, that was that.

Maybe she should try and give Sarah-Jane a call. Rose shuddered as she poured herself a cup of coffee. No, she couldn't do that just yet. Talking to Sarah-Jane would make it all too real, and she didn't think she could handle that, either.

From the kitchen counter, her phone gave a beep. New voice mail.

Oh, yippee, she thought. Shareen, maybe. Or more likely her mum, calling her from Howard's, making sure she was up and about.

But it wasn't her mum.

She blinked at the small screen, trying to clear her vision. It had to be a mistake.

When she looked at her phone again, though, it still said the same thing. Rose's breath caught and her heart hammered furiously against her ribcage. She sank down into the kitchen chair, staring at the name on the screen.

One new voice message from TARDIS.

It was the Doctor.

……………………………………………………………………………………

TBC