A/N: First of all, a huge thanks to everyone for being so patient with me during the huge laptop-breaking nightmare! It had to be sent away to the computer-fixing people and get a new keyboard, so I'm currently feeling quite thankful for 12 month warranties… Sorry it's taken so long to get this chapter up- I hope it's worth the wait :D Enjoy the penultimate chapter! xx

There was relative silence for a while as the four people sat on a bench in the rose garden of the park of Valtallahan, Heather's revelation slowly sinking in. It wasn't a situation that could just be ignored; there was no way that they could allow such a new and innocent life to be born into such an unforgiving and hostile environment, even with the revolution that had just taken place.

'Surely that makes things somewhat clearer,' the Doctor suggested after a few moments.

Damien raised his head from where it had been hanging down to the ground and looked at him as though he was as thick as mud. 'Exactly how does it make things clearer?'

The Doctor frowned, before leaning forward with an earnest expression on his face. 'Damien, it's simple. You need to get yourself and Heather away from here so that she can raise the baby in a safe place, anywhere that isn't here.'

The other man stood up and moved a few steps away, turning his back and running his hands through his hair distractedly. 'But don't you see that makes it worse?!' he exclaimed, whirling back round with hurt and anger and confusion in his eyes. 'How can I take another woman away with me when I was supposed to be going with Airlia? And now there's a baby…' He trailed off and stared at Heather. 'Are you sure you're pregnant?'

The woman looked indignant. 'Why would I lie? Ganjud and I were leaving Eustance so we could raise our child in a safe place!' Her face softened and she stood, walking over to stand next to Damien. She touched his shoulder hesitantly. 'I'm not expecting anything from you,' she told him quietly. 'I'm not asking you to forget the love of your life. I… I just want to save my baby.'

Damien nodded and his shoulders slumped. 'I know,' he whispered. 'But what do I do about Airlia?'

He sounded so lost, so alone, and the Doctor felt his hearts ache for this man he hardly knew. He stood up and went to the man, guiding him across to the opposite side of the rose garden with a hand on his arm. He cast a glance back at Rose to see her already taking the hint and pulling Heather down to sit next to her on the bench. He watched her until she started to speak and then turned back to Damien, drawing them both to a stop next to a large dying plant. 'You should go,' the Doctor said. 'Take her with you.'

'But Airlia,' Damien protested. 'I don't know where she is!'

'She's dead, Damien,' the Doctor stressed, gripping the man's sleeve when it looked like he might try to bolt away. 'I know it's hard and I'm sorry, but you need to get away from here. You can't afford to wait.'

Damien sighed and lifted his head to meet the Doctor's eyes. He suddenly looked very old, and weary, and there were signs of his underlying pragmatic personality shining through at last. 'I know that,' he admitted. 'And I… I want to help her, I really do.' He glanced over at Heather, who was sitting and staring off into space, occasionally nodding or replying to something Rose had said. 'But I…' His face was open and honest and scared as he continued. 'What do I do about Airlia?' he asked again. 'Her body is gone; we don't know if we can find her. I'll always be wondering about her.'

'Yes,' the Doctor agreed. 'You probably will. But you can't spend the rest of your life wondering what could have been. You have to move on.' His expression faltered as he thought of his own life, always moving on without stopping to think about consequence or deal with what had been lost. He told himself he should listen to his own words.

Damien sucked in a ragged breath, a second wave of grief washing over him but this one was different from the last. This was the grief of resignation, of reluctant acceptance, of the knowledge that he would still be able to live a life without the one he loved the most even though that life would be somewhat diminished without her there. 'What do I do without her?' he asked, correctly guessing that the Doctor knew all about having to carry on whilst missing a part of yourself.

'You do what you have to,' the Doctor told him brusquely, doing his best to stay detached and not put himself in Damien's situation. If he lost Rose… He decided that it was best not to think of that. 'You'll find yourself looking for her in every woman you meet, roll over to kiss her when you wake up in the morning, cook enough food for two. But then you'll find yourself slipping, you won't think about her quite as much and it will make you feel guilty.'

A cold breeze blew and the sky dimmed further, the burnished sun slipping behind Hansley Bridge and casting a shadow over the park. Damien faltered as he listened to the Doctor's words, stumbling backwards to lean against a tree, his head resting against the rough bark. 'I'll never stop thinking about her,' he said.

'No, you won't,' the Doctor agreed. 'Not completely. But eventually you'll start to think about her less and less, you'll find you stop comparing every woman you meet to her. And one morning you'll wake up and realise that you're fine. And you will be.'

'Then what?' Damien whispered. It was clear that this was an unfathomable situation for him at the moment. He still hadn't been able to fully comprehend that Airlia was dead.

The Doctor sighed, clenching his fists as he fought with the emotion bubbling up inside of him. He knew that his words were true, but he also knew that it was hard to see them in perspective when they were been spoken in the future tense. 'Then…' he continued on. 'Then you'll move on with your life. You'll start to live again, instead of just existing.' And how those words rang true. He recalled the mess he had been before he met Rose, and how she had made him see that life was still worth living. She had picked him up from rock bottom, brushed him off and helped him to carry on. And, if he dared to admit it, life with her was better than it had ever been before. If he lost her now, he wasn't sure he would ever be able to fully get past it. But then, he realised, that was exactly how Damien was feeling about Airlia. He had to convince himself as well as Damien that what he was saying was true.

'Really?'

He nodded slowly. 'Yes. One day you'll be out, you'll be out somewhere in public and you'll see a woman. You'll stare at her, and for a moment you'll think it's Airlia. But then you'll catch yourself and realise that it can't possibly because she's long dead and buried. And you'll walk away, willingly. You'll walk away from her. And you'll know you've finally managed to move on.'

Damien straightened away from the tree. He looked across the garden, his gaze drifting over Heather for a few moments before his expression softened and he turned back to face the Doctor. He nodded curtly. 'Okay,' he said.

Twenty five minutes later, the Doctor and Rose stood by the side of a bench as they watched Damien and Heather walk away together. If the circumstances had been different, Rose thought that it would almost have been romantic to see them disappear off into the sunset together to start a new life someplace else, somewhere better than here. But this was not an enticing elopement, or even a juicy affair. It was necessity; it was unfortunate where it should be happy, devastating where it should be exciting. They kept their hands to themselves where they should have been joined as though they'd never let go in another lifetime, another setting. There had been far too much death for romance to be a conceivable concept. Everyone had simply lost too much. Everything seemed to be backwards on Eustance. Even her relationship with the Doctor had been turned upside down since arriving here.

The sun had set almost completely now, and on any other night everyone would be scurrying inside before the curfew came into effect and the guards were legally obliged to capture you, arrest you or shoot you. Tonight was different. The sounds of an insanely happy crowd could still be heard from the government district just under a mile away, firecrackers and burning wood being thrown up into the air as Damien and Heather began to fade from view, walking further away before rounding a corner and then disappearing completely.

Rose turned back to face the Doctor, touching his sleeve to get his attention and bring his gaze down to meet hers. He instantly gave her one of his soft smiles, his hand slipping automatically into hers as she looked up at him with a question in her eyes. 'Doctor… What now?' she asked quietly, feeling her muscles protest as she shifted her stance slightly. She decided that she'd quite happily give her right arm for some aspirin right now.

The Doctor obviously noticed the look of pain that crossed over her face, as he led her round to the front of the bench and helped her to sit, one arm looping around her shoulders and pulling her to him before he answered her question. 'Now… We leave,' he said. 'There's nothing more we can do here.'

'So we're just gonna walk away?' She couldn't quite manage to keep the surprise out of her voice at that.

The Doctor nodded. 'Yes. We did what we could, Rose. We helped to liberate the people. We helped to take down the government. What else is left?'

She shrugged. 'Nothing, I guess.' She sighed and dropped her head to his shoulder, smiling slightly as she felt his lips meet her hair and press down gently, his breath washing over her forehead. 'So we're going home then?'

She felt him nod above her. 'Yes.'

'As long as we can find the right door back to Earth!' she poked him in the ribs and giggled before they both groaned as muscles cramped and aching bruises turned into sharp stabbing pains for a few moments.

'Sorry,' they both said at the same time.

They pulled apart then, both turning sideways on the bench so that they could face each other. The Doctor carefully traced just above the raw patches of skin on Rose's collarbones whilst she rubbed at a bit of dried blood on the underside of his chin.

'I think the medical room might have to be the first place we stop at once we get back to the TARDIS,' the Doctor said.

Rose nodded her agreement. 'Yeah definitely. And then maybe the shower… Then the kitchen for some food.'

He smiled at her. 'And then bed.'

She raised her eyebrows and poked her tongue out playfully. 'You trying to suggest something there, Doctor?'

He laughed, a chuckle rumbling out from his chest. He reached out and brushed a strand of her hair back as the wind blew it over her face. He waggled his eyebrows. 'Maybe,' he said. 'I have got somewhat used to sharing with you over the past couple of days.'

'Me too,' she admitted, feeling the slight blush that stained her cheeks at his words. She grinned at him before dropping her gaze to his chest, sensing that the mood was somehow shifting between them.

The Doctor cleared his throat, and Rose could feel his gaze on her. His hands came up to grasp her arms, his thumbs rubbing lightly over the fabric of her- his- coat. He smiled again. 'I like the way you look in that,' he told her, a hint of nervousness coupled with reverence evident in his voice.

'Your coat?' she asked to clarify, bringing her face up to look at him once more. She knew that she had to be blushing even more brightly now, but she hoped that the dim light would help to conceal it a little bit. The fact that his cheeks seemed slightly more flushed than they normally did in the dark also helped her feel a little bit better.

He nodded. 'Yeah. It suits you better than it does me.' He smiled.

'Thanks,' she whispered before raising her voice and leaning into him slightly. 'But you wouldn't be the Doctor without your coat! I'll give it back once we get somewhere a bit warmer. I don't think this planet understands the concept of raising the temperature above freezing.'

'No, it doesn't really, does it?' The Doctor fumbled nervously for a moment before leaning forwards and pressing a kiss to her forehead and sweeping his arms round to her back and enfolding her in a hug. 'It's nearly over now,' he whispered fervently. 'I'm so, so sorry for everything that's happened. But it's going to be okay now. We're going home. It's going to be all right.'

Rose relaxed in his embrace, letting his words wash over her and lift her mood. She rested her head on his chest, enjoying the feel of his body rumbling against her gently as he spoke, his lips brushing over her forehead as his mouth moved against her skin. His voice lulled her and soothed her, his arms rocking her gently, shielding her from the chill in the air as they sat together on a bench in the rose garden in the park of Valtallahan; the trouble was finally over now and they could go home, back to where they came from. Back to where they belonged. She let her eyes slip closed for a moment, enjoying the feel of the Doctor's solid embrace, his body warm and inviting against hers. She took a deep breath, committing this moment to memory before they moved again, this time to start their journey home, the last time they would ever have to walk the streets of Eustance.

'Hold on a minute.' The Doctor brought them to a stop outside Bitsy's Café, once again feeling the disappointment that the owner of the establishment hadn't actually been called Bitsy.

He let go of Rose's hand and stepped up to the glass of the window. The street behind him was deserted; everyone was either dead, disappearing without a trace, or celebrating a couple of miles away. It seemed to the Doctor that not much had actually changed in that respect, but the people dying and disappearing had swapped places with those who were celebrating since the revolution earlier in the day.

He peered into the interior of the café, finding it dark and empty. He glanced back at Rose. 'Doesn't seem like there's anyone home.' He pulled out the sonic screwdriver and opened the door, stepping inside and striding to the back of the room. There was no trace of Sadie; he guessed that she must have discovered what was happening and taken herself elsewhere. His suspicions were confirmed when he stepped through into the back room and found it a mess, items knocked over and things strewn all over the floor giving the distinct impression that someone had left in a hurry. He wondered if Sadie was being hunted like her son was.

Out of interest and curiosity more than anything, he flipped through the settings of the sonic screwdriver before holding it against the wall that joined this building onto the derelict baker's shop next door. The little device informed him that the room he was standing in did in fact exist, unlike its counterpart next door. He wondered what it was that contained the strange occurrences to that single shop. He guessed that it may have indirectly had something to do with the fact that it was empty and not in use.

'Doctor?' Rose came up behind him and touched the small of his back gently, her hand lingering longer than was necessary as he turned back round to face her.

'We can go now,' he told her, once more taking her hand in his. He realised that it was second nature to him now; his hand felt empty without hers clasped tightly within it. 'Sadie isn't here anymore. We can only hope that she's safe.'

'I liked her,' said Rose. 'She was nice.' She smiled. 'She made nice soup.'

The Doctor laughed softly. 'Yes, she did.'

He turned them and led her back outside, careful not to tug on her hand too hard for fear of aggravating the raw and bleeding places on her wrists where the chains that had held her earlier had been done up too tightly and rubbed through her skin. The Doctor felt sick at the thought of the angry red welts that marked her wrists like cruel and disgusting bracelets. He felt sick at the thought that they might not actually be able to find their way back to Earth after all. He hoped like hell that their theory about one of the hundreds of doors leading back to the carnival in France was correct.

Two minutes later, they were about to find out.

The Doctor held the sonic screwdriver to the door at the back of the baker's shop, the smell of mould and damp heavy in the air until they crossed over the threshold into the room of doors and the gateway to Eustance clicked shut behind them.

He led Rose into the centre of the vast room, where they stood and turned in a slow circle as they surveyed the scene before them. The room seemed to pulse with energy, as though it sensed its purpose, as though it knew that this journey was almost at an end.

'Run this by me one more time,' Rose requested. 'What exactly happens when we leave here?'

'I hide the existence of this place once we get back to the TARDIS. Make sure nobody else ever gets lost here.'

'What if they have already? We can't have been the only people to have gone into the House of Mirrors that day.'

'No.' There was silence for a moment as the Doctor thought that one through. It was a good question. He couldn't guarantee that people hadn't already been lost as a result of the gateway to humankind's conquests opening up when technically it shouldn't even have existed yet. And if people had been lost, there was no guarantee that they would have all ended up in the same place, although it was obvious that the connection between Earth and Eustance had been stronger- or arguably, weaker- than all the others. It had been images of Eustance the Doctor and Rose had seen at the carnival- the blurry crowd and strange happenings symbolising the accidental merging of the two realities, and the Doctor had earlier discovered that Heather played the cello. It made sense that he would see her on Earth before meeting her on Eustance… if that made any kind of sense at all. He thought that it did in some strange way. But there was something else as well… 'I saw him.'

'What?' Rose frowned and stepped round to face the Doctor. 'Saw who? Where?'

He smiled at her questions before his expression sobered and he fixed her with an intense gaze. 'Damien,' he replied. 'When we went on the ghost train, I saw a man. A man with a bag like the one that Damien carried. He was standing in front of the train, staring at something.'

The crease between Rose's eyebrows deepened. 'You didn't say anything about that.'

'I didn't want to worry you at the time,' the Doctor said. 'And it didn't seem particularly relevant until now.'

She seemed to accept this, nodding and moving away to get a closer look at some of the doors that lined the room. The Doctor's coat hung off her, its hem slightly worn as it dragged along the ground due to her shorter stature. 'You didn't answer my question,' she said.

'Which question?'

'How do we know that we're the only ones who got dragged through to another timeline? What if other people have got stuck somewhere? They might not ever be able to find the way back like we have.'

He shook his head. 'I can't give you a definite answer, Rose. Although, it makes sense that this would happen to us, don't you think?'

She flashed him a wry grin over her shoulder as she stood examining a shiny metal door. 'Jeopardy friendly, yeah?'

'Something like that.' He smiled. 'No, I mean because of what we do. We travel through time, through space. Time isn't linear for us like it is for everyone else. All it would have taken for something like this to happen is a slight weakening in the fabric of reality- which isn't uncommon, by the way- and our presence in that area could easily have turned something minor and practically unnoticeable even by the TARDIS into a highly significant event. I imagine our recent trip to the parallel universe probably had an impact on it as well.' He frowned at the memory of that recent adventure.

'So how come stuff like this doesn't happen more often then?' she asked as she slowly made her way to another door. Her movements were slowing now, and it was obvious that she was tired and in pain. 'If it's not uncommon for reality to be weakened, how come we haven't had a disaster like this before?'

The Doctor smiled once again. 'It's a big universe, Rose.'

She nodded, too tired to question his logic. 'I'll give you that one,' she said.

They descended into silence for a little while as they both studied the room, trying to work out which door would get them back to Earth. The Doctor blinked a few times to clear his hazy vision; he was tired as well now, the events of the day having taken their toll on him. He couldn't quite manage to focus properly, all of the doors blending together and not a single one of them standing out.

'Doctor,' Rose called after a few minutes of quiet. He turned from where he had been holding the sonic screwdriver against a random door, willing it to give him a reading of some kind. Nothing had happened no matter how hard he tried. He walked over to where Rose was standing, in front of a large oak door. The wood was old, and the frame had chipped in a couple of places. It had the feel of something ancient, something timeworn and encrusted with history. 'I think it might be this one,' she said when he reached her.

He watched her for a few moments as she ran her hand over the wood of the door before turning her gaze to meet his. There was a kind of hesitant confidence in her eyes, and it gave him hope. 'And what makes you say that?' he asked.

She shrugged. 'It just feels right, I guess. It's old and I can actually name the stuff it's made out of. It seems… original. And it feels like Earth.'

The Doctor reached out and ran his hand over the wood of the door frame, feeling no differently towards this one than he did to any of the others. But then, he supposed, he wasn't human. He didn't have the same instinctive connection to Earth that Rose did. Without the sonic screwdriver to help him, he was lost. But he had his connection to Rose, and his belief in her was giving him confidence. 'Are you sure Rose? Don't think about it, just answer.'

'Yes,' she said, and then frowned and stepped back. 'But what if it's wrong? What if we get stuck somewhere else? Doctor, we can't-'

'Yes, we can,' he replied. He grinned at her. 'It's always good to trust your instincts, Rose. More often than not they turn out to be right.'

'But not all the time,' she challenged.

He sighed. 'No,' he conceded. 'Not all the time.' His gaze softened. 'But what else do we have right now?'

She thought about that for a moment, before nodding and stepping back towards him and the door. 'Okay,' she said. 'Let's get out of here.'

'Excellent!' He held his hand out to her, his smile threatening to burst off his face as she folded her hand around his. He felt the tension radiating off her and his joyous expression dropped a bit. 'Hey,' he said gently, reaching up with his free hand to chuck her under the chin. She shivered as his touch tickled. 'We're doing this together now, Rose. It's not like last time you were here. Whatever happens now, we do it together, okay? I'm here with you.'

She smiled up at him, an almost shy expression crossing her face as she regarded the man in front of her. 'All right,' she said. Her voice dropped to a whisper. 'Let's do it.'

The Doctor reached forward and opened the door, his hand instinctively tightening on Rose's. The door opened into the room, revealing darkness beyond. They took a step forward and paused. Flashing lights were visible at the edges of the blackness, the sound of a crowd and the smell of bonfires and candyfloss drifting through the open door.

The Doctor and Rose turned to each other, sharing a smile and a quick, impulsive kiss on the lips before they both took a deep breath and turned back towards the door, towards the future and the past, everything wrapped up in one, everything happening all at once. They stepped over the threshold and into whatever lay beyond.