Beaches
Summary: The beach. That same beach. It was always there wasn't it. Where everything came full circle. Where every single bad thing between two universes happens. It had to be here. She knelt by him, fists clenched and holding tight onto his suit jacket.
Disclaimer: Don't own Doctor Who
In her grief she doesn't quite hear the foot falls approaching the TARDIS until they're at the door, jimmying a key in the lock. She sits up quickly on the floor and lets out a strangled cry. She isn't sure what's about to come through that door, but she knows she isn't ready to face it.
The TARDIS, as if sensing her distress, nudges her mind gently and she turns and takes off down the corridor just as the door is pushed open. Everything is so different and she is certain she'll get lost and that's why she's surprised when she finds herself outside of a very familiar looking door.
The door seems different from the ones around it, as if even though everything else changed this one stayed the same. She touches it gingerly and gasps as it slides open. The scene before her makes her heart ache.
"Oh my god," she whispered, walking into the room slowly, legs trembling with every step. Everything was just as she left it. With the exception of a jacket laid out on her bed with a TARDIS blue envelope placed on top of it.
She took a shaky breath and closed the door behind her before making her way towards the bed. Her heart thudded uncomfortably in her chest and she was beginning to find it hard to breathe.
She sat down on the edge of the bed to steady herself and touched her old jacket gingerly. She let her fingers drift across the cool fabric, remembering who she was all those years ago. Then she touched the edge of the envelope, staring at it for a long moment as if picking it up would make what was happening real.
It took several long minutes of sitting there, gazing at it sadly before she picked it up and gazed down at it. On the front in silver writing was simply her name written in good old fashioned English. She bit her lip and flipped it over, noticing that at the top on the flap the number "0" was written in that same silver pen. She blinked at that for a second before tearing the envelope open.
She wasn't quite sure what she expected to be inside the envelope, but staring down at the coordinates, the date and the time she realized she was not expecting that. How could she be sure what time she was even in anyways. All she knew was that she was stranded inside of a very new looking TARDIS. That meant she could literally be anywhere in space or time. How was she supposed to somehow show up at these coordinates at this day in this year that was two years ahead of the year in her universe.
She sighed and laid the envelope down on her old bed before digging in her pocket and pulling out her phone. She was a little surprised to see that it still registered a signal, but her Doctor did do a lot of tinkering behind her back. She swallowed thickly and rubbed at her stinging eyes at the memory of him once again on that beach.
"How could I leave him?" She whimpered, dropping her phone to the bed and covering her face with her hands. The TARDIS nudged her gently, expressing some form of urgency at the coordinates in the letter. Rose laughed harshly, letting her hands fall to her sides before picking up her phone again and opening her GPS application.
"Fine," she whispered angrily at the TARDIS, silent tears rolling down her cheeks, "fine." She picked up the piece of paper again and typed the coordinates into her phone. She hit "find map coordinates" and waited as her GPS figured out the location.
"America," she hisses under her breath, glaring down at the phone. How the hell was she going to even manage that. She was stuck in a TARDIS in the future with god knows who her old Doctor was traveling with nowadays and for all she knew it was her from a different time line sometime after this stupid note thing.
She couldn't risk being seen, even if she couldn't exactly cause a paradox from within the TARDIS seeing him again with someone else or even an older version of herself would just hurt too bad. She didn't need another reminder of what she had left behind on that beach. Or rather, what she was forced to leave behind on that beach.
The TARDIS nudged her again and she let out a short frustrated breath. She wasn't ready to return to this world, not yet. She had spent so long in the other one. She had been dead too long here and the prospect of having to return to her old life was too painful. That was even if that were possible. It was highly likely that she was nowhere near her own time in either universe. There was an even greater chance she was stranded somewhere in outer space.
She sighed, frustrated as she felt the TARDIS nudge her again and the overwhelming need to leave came over her. She grabbed her phone, her old jacket and the TARDIS blue envelope and letter before huffing and exiting her old room. When she entered the corridor however, her Torchwood training kicked in and she moved stealthily against the walls.
"You're not gonna tell him I'm here, are you old girl?" She asked in a whisper as her fingers brushed against the wall she was sliding against. The TARDIS remained silent, but she assumed that was a good sign, considering she still led her to a very empty console room.
Rose held her breath as she stalked out of the shadows of the corridor and back to the well lit and very open console room. Still not convinced she was really alone, she slowly and carefully made her way towards the door of the TARDIS, all her senses on high alert.
When she gets so close to the door she can nearly taste her hopefully not on an unknown planet freedom she lets herself relax a little as she reaches for the door. However, the moment is very short lived as she hears a gallifreyan curse from behind her and she jerks in surprise.
Oh god, oh no, she thinks as she whirls around, blonde hair flipping around her face as she turns to look at the person who she really wished she didn't have to see.