Author's note: I'll be trying to get the chapters out as quickly as possible, I've got the first few mostly finished, but I'll be slowing down a bit. I shouldn't be more than a couple days between chapters. Thanks! :D
Rose watched as her half-human Doctor frantically built some sort of small device. He was growing old so quickly. It has only been 24 hours... He said he only had 24 more. and he was spending it building something. So like him. Then he finally stopped, and handed her the device, it hung from a chain; a necklace. He was panting. "Return... Back... Real... Home..." and then his eyes rolled back into his head and he passed out. Rose screamed out for someone to call an ambulance.
Then Rose was leaning over him, and he pressed the button. "Doctor! No!"
Her own thrashing woke her up, or so she believed. Swallowing, she recognized her throat as being sore from calling out. She felt another tear role down her cheek as she wished she would fall back to sleep, wanting it all to have never happened. Then she recognized hands resting on her shoulders, and realized she hadn't woken herself up. Her eyes flew open as she heard a voice she did not expect to hear.
"Rose?" The Doctor stood above her, worry battling with relief in his eyes. He spoke softly, hesitating above her. "Are you okay?" His voice was rough, too many emotions battling inside him to keep himself completely under control.
"Doctor?" Rose lifted a hand to touch his face. When she felt the solidness there, and his own hand reached up to hold hers, Rose let out a sob, "You're here.. You're actually here.." her voice held disbelief along with pure, unblemished happiness.
The Doctor let out a shaky breath as he fought to keep his own emotions in check. "Rose, brilliant Rose, I will always be here for you." With that he got up and sat beside her on the bed to hold her while she cried.
After several minutes, Rose was silent. She had gone into overload, there was no other way to describe it. There was a part of her that chastised her for just breaking down like that, but the other part of her recognized that she had been through quite a lot in such a short time. First she managed to return to him, the man holding her now, then once again sent back to the other universe. With a copy of The Doctor. Then, she had to go through the hell of caring for The Doctor (half-human version) while he grew old and died within 2 days time.
Now she was back in her home universe, the one with the real Doctor. And he is holding her right now. The Doctor, who would never accept, let alone admit, his feelings for her while she was actually there. Things won't be the same.
Rose pulled back from the Doctor, letting out a breath as belief finally took root. And she looked at him, and saw what she hadn't seen earlier. His hair was the same, he had the same face as before, his clothing the same, continuing with his pinstriped suits. But his eyes, his expression, was different. The Doctor looked older somehow, more weary. Close to how we was when she first joined him. He looked so serious, his usual grin and childish excitement was gone.
"Doctor..." Rose breathed out, "My Doctor." While she felt worry for her Doctor's state of mind, a smile still began to creep into her eyes. She wasn't alone. She had her Doctor back. He had her now. He was no longer alone as well.
As soon as The Doctor saw the ghost of a smile in Rose's expression, something lifted off of his shoulders; a guilt he hadn't been aware he was harboring. Then a slow grin formed on his face.
The Doctor's transformation was clearly visible, and it created a mirror effect on Rose's own expression. Soon, the two of them were sitting on the hospital bed grinning like a couple of loons, a sight so similar to that of ones they've had in the past.
Rose spoke, momentarily forgetting about the past couple of days. "I'm back!"
The Doctor, for the first time in two years, had an true, honest smile in his eyes, and joy in his face. "Yes, Rose Tyler, you definitely are."
Then, much to their dismay, the doctor attending to Rose chose this time to enter the room. The Doctor's brain then did something it hadn't done in at least 600 years: it blanked out. For a moment The Doctor could not think of any excuse to give the *medical* doctor for Rose and his' situation and/or position. So, when the doctor stepped over into Rose's section of the room, The Doctor looked at the man, and completely spoke without any preparation.
"Hello!" The Doctor said, jumping up from the bed. He grabbed the doctor's hand and shook it heartily, a smile still plastered on his face. "My name is John Smith." With the doctor staring at him with a weird expression, The Doctor continued off the top of his head. "Rose here has been missing for quite some time, and I just found out she was here, so I was curious when I could take her out of here?"
The medical doctor, whose name tag said Dr. Jacobson, narrowed his eyes at The Doctor. "And what is your relation to her?"
"Oh!" The Doctor blinked once. Once again, his mind gone completely blank. Twice in one day! So, he spoke without thinking. Again. "Why-she's my wife!" And then his mind caught up to his mouth, quickly working to correct the situation he put himself in. "Er, well, um" his hand moved to rub the back of his neck as he did whenever put in an awkward position.
"Well," he began again, his mind now working fast to cover up his mistake. "it's like I said, she's been missing for some time, so I don't know what the, uh, court or law or whatever says about that." He was quite deliberately not looking at Rose by that point.
Rose just continued to stare at The Doctor, dumbstruck by the turn of events. He just called me his wife, Rose thought, the only thing in her mind right then. The Doctor, my Doctor, just called me his wife. I must have heard that wrong. Her thinking caused her to miss whatever it was that Dr. Jacobson had said next. "Sorry, what was that?" Rose asked, trying to clear her head. The Doctor still did not look at her.
Dr. Jacobson continued to give the two of them weird looks, obviously doubting their honesty, as he repeated his question. "I need your confirmation, is this man your husband?"
Rose's gaze shifted over to The Doctor's. He had finally turned to look her in the eye. His face no longer held the playfulness that had been there only moments ago. Now it only held seriousness, and a question. Rose might have been in a different universe for the majority of the past two years, but she knew what The Doctor was asking. He was wondering whether she was going to go with him, travel with him for her forever.
It was a stupid question. A smile started to cover up her shock. She might have been answering Dr. Jacobson's spoken question, but her answer was directed towards The Doctor's unspoken one. "Yes. Yes he is."
A smile spread across The Doctor's face.
Dr. Jacobson stood and studied them for a minute while he thought. Then he spoke. "Okay, well, Rose, I guess it is, seems to be in good health. We, for some reason, could not find her fingerprints on record but that's not wholly unusual, so you haven't been officially checked in. You can leave any time then. Just get one of the nurses to take out the IV, and you will be good to go."
The Doctor grinned at that, an Rose smiled in relief and gratitude. Dr. Jacobson then nodded at them before leaving.
The Doctor then turned to Rose, a smile growing on his face as he raised an eyebrow. "So are you ready?" He asked, this time questioning her without an audience, leaving Rose more room to decline if she did not actually want to travel through time and space again.
Rose rolled her eyes, swinging her legs over the side of the bed. "How many times do I have to come back to convince you that I am going to stay, Doctor?"
He smiled, but it didn't quite reach his eyes as he thought back to those times that he had to say goodbye.
He opened his mouth to say something, but he seemed to change his mind.
He changed his expression once again, grinning at her. "I'll go get the nurse then." And he was gone.
Rose stared after him, wondering what he was going to say... But she knew that she had all the time in the world to figure that out.