Rose looked at the girl, who was staring at her intensely, then she looked at Jason, who was now skipping to a large rock in the middle of the clearing and sitting down.
"Who are you?" Rose asked. "Why do you know all of this?"
"I'm a psychic," the girl replied. "My name is Erin." Erin looked down. "I'm looking for my best friend in the world."
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"Wait!" The boy turned around, to see the Doctor running to catch up with him. "Would you like to come to my ship?"
The boy looked at the Doctor, as if unsure whether or not it was a trap. "I suppose," he said hesitantly.
The Doctor grinned. "Well, then, let's get going," he said, leading the boy towards the corner where he had parked the Tardis.
"What did you say your name was?" the Doctor asked the boy.
"I didn't, but it's Eric," he replied, half-smiling. "I'm looking for my best friend in the world."
The Doctor said quietly, "You could say the same about me."
"I think you feel more for her than simply best friend," Eric drawled. "Shall we go to your ship? Then I'll explain."
The Doctor shrugged; he had nothing else to do and this boy could offer him some hope. He turned on one foot and began walking briskly towards the Tardis. Eric half-jogged to catch up, because the Doctor's legs were much longer than his.
Eric's eyes widened when he saw the Tardis. "An old phone booth?" he scoffed. "Really?"
"It's bigger on the inside," the Doctor retorted, stung. He opened the door and gestured for Eric to go first. Eric walked through, froze, and his jaw dropped.
"Wow," he said, observing all of the buttons and switches on the Tardis. "Nice rig," he said enviously.
The Doctor smiled to himself and sat down, patting the ground next to him. Eric sat down as well. "Now, you said you would explain," the Doctor said, trailing off.
Eric sighed. "Right," he said. "It's a long story."
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"Well, where is he?" Rose asked the girl. They had sat down on the large rock in the middle of the clearing, and Jason was now circling them happily, dancing small patterns in the grass.
"I don't know," Erin replied sadly. "I can't find him, so he must be very far away. You see, we were on a nearby planet, and we were helping out this small nation of shapeshifters. But then their enemy attacked, and we were separated. There was so much smoke, so much fire. . . ." She looked down again, trailing off as her mind replayed images of that day. "I didn't know what to do. A shapeshifter friend, she helped me get away, but there was a loud boom as soon as we left the city. Eric could've still been in there . . .," she stopped, her throat closed up.
Rose pulled the young psychic into a hug. "Wouldn't you be able to tell if he's dead?" she said comfortingly.
Erin wiped her eyes, sniffling slightly. "That's just it, I don't know," she admitted. "I can't even get a dim contact with him, but my heart says he's still alive." Erin looked up. "And my heart says the same thing about your missing friend."
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"So you two were separated by the blast, right?" the Doctor asked Eric.
Eric nodded. "That's the long and short of it," he said, trying to smile and failing. "I know she's still alive, I know it, but it's so hard when you can't even find them. . . ."
The Doctor nodded. "Yeah, I know that feeling," he said, his eyes dark.
Eric perked up. "But maybe there's a way I can help you," he said.
The Doctor nearly fell out of his chair. "How!?"
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"What? You can help me find the Doctor!?" Rose nearly fell off the rock.
Erin smirked. "Maybe," she said, fiddling with her jacket's buttons. "It depends. Do you really love him?"
"More than anything," Rose replied without hesitation.
Erin seemed even more hesitant. "And he's the one thing you want to find more than anything else in this world?"
"Yes, of course!"
"Well . . . I could use your connection with him, and trace it back to the Doctor. If he feels the same way."
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"Of course I love her!" the Doctor exclaimed. "I burned out a sun just to get the chance to say that, and I didn't even finish my sentence! Come on, man, spit it out!"
"Well . . . if she feels the same way, I can trace the connection back to her."
"Of course she does!" the Doctor said, his eyes wide with excitement.
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"I am one hundred percent sure that the Doctor feels the same way," Rose declared.
"Okay, then," Erin said, reassured by Rose's unhesitating declaration. She closed her eyes.
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"Well, I'll give it a shot," Eric said, closing his eyes.
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Two pairs of eyes, a dimension apart, snapped open simultaneously. One set glowed bright green, and the other a warm, liquid gold. Two flaring patches of spiritual light reached out from the eyes, and latched onto a rosy-pink cord, stretched impossibly thin. Wrapping themselves around the cord, the two patches began to make their way to one another.
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The Doctor waved his hand in front of Eric's blank, glowing eyes. He got no reaction, not so much as a flicker. It seemed Eric was staring past their dimension and into the next. Fascinating!
Eric's eyes flared brighter, and the Doctor's sensitivity to psychic energy allowed him to glimpse two flares of light, one green and one gold, meeting one another in a spectacular burst of color, before he was pulled into a complete and utter darkness.
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Rose was floating in some incredibly dark material. It was like space, but she shouldn't be able to survive in space, right?
Eric! The loud cry rang through her entire body. She ordered her body to move to the source of the sound, and found two bright patches of light. As she grew closer, they formed into two vaguely human-shaped bodies, glowing bright green and gold.
Erin! You're alive! This cry was in an unfamiliar voice, a boy's voice, and he had an incredible amount of relief in his voice.
Where is this place? another voice wondered. A familiar voice, a painfully familiar voice. Rose looked off to the side of the glowing shapes and saw a painfully familiar person. Oh, God no.
Praying with all her might that this wasn't an illusion, Rose shouted out in her mind one word: Doctor!
The Doctor turned. Rose! His voice was full of disbelief and shock. He swam through the non-space to reach her. Their outstretched fingers connected – and went right through each other.
What's going on? Rose cried.
The golden shape swam over. This is the space between dimensions, he said as the green person followed him. You can't touch one another here, because you aren't actually here.
Rose almost cried. Doctor, she said again, putting all the emotions she'd been having over the past few months into that one word.
Rose, he replied with equal force. Before anything else interrupts us, I have to say what I should have said at Bad Wolf Bay. Rose Tyler, I love you.
I love you, too, she said, near tears.
The green shape drew closer to her. Rose, I can't hold this connection for long, Erin said, her worried face forming on the light. We have to go back.
Same here, Doctor, Eric said to the Doctor. I'm going to be in bed for a long time as it is.
I'll keep searching for a way, Doctor, Rose promised.
So will I, he replied. I've got a long life ahead of me, and I'll spend all of it searching, if I must.
This isn't goodbye, Rose protested.
The Doctor paused. No, it's not, he agreed. Then, I'll see you soon?
As soon as possible, she promised as they were drawn further and further apart, back to their own dimensions. Rose heard Erin and Eric calling their own goodbyes to one another, but she barely heard it. She had spoken with the Doctor, and he had finished the sentence he'd begun at Bad Wolf Bay.
She smiled as the world reformed around her.
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"This is great, ecstatic, wonderful, fantastic!" Eric gushed, spinning dizzily around the Tardis. "Erin's alive!" he shouted at the top of his lungs.
The Doctor smiled at Eric. "So, where will you go?" he asked. "You're welcome to stay with me for a while."
Eric shook his head. "No thanks, Doctor," he replied. "I know what I need to do. I'll be seeing you, Doctor." He walked out of the Tardis door, still whistling happily.
The Doctor smiled after the young psychic. 'Good luck, kid,' he thought. 'I hope you find her.'
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"This is amazing, awesome, magnificent, extraordinary!" Erin enthused.
"Why's it so great?" Rose asked skeptically, though she was smiling.
"If Eric's in your dimension, that means there are still other ways to go between dimensions! We just have to find them!"
Rose drew in her breath sharply. She hadn't given that a thought.
Erin waved goodbye to Rose. "I've got to go, I've got an idea for finding Eric. I'll call and let you know if I find anything out." She turned to Jason. "You want to help me in my quest for the ultimate?" she asked him.
"Yeah!" he said, following her into the woods.
Rose looked at the spot where the two teens had disappeared, and smiled to herself. So she could find the Doctor, eh? She would have to get ready, then. Find a way to cross the dimensions after getting ready to leave this one, her mind advised her.
The first thing to go, she decided, would be the tombstone. It was a sign of defeat, a sign that she had given up on getting the Doctor back. Besides, what would he think if she told her they had given him a tombstone?
After all, you don't bury survivors.
Grinning widely, Rose left the clearing to begin her search.
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Well, I'm not as pleased with this. It could've been better than I made it, but it needed closure. I hope you like it better than I do. -Crow