One one-shot to go, but I may continue this in a part 2, not sure yet.
Warning: There are feels ahead...step lightly.
A week after the Baskerville case Sherlock received a text he'd been waiting for. He pulled his phone out as he stepped into his flat. Hyde Park North East Corner. He grinned.
"It's not another case is it?" John asked. "We've just got back from the last and I've surgery in the morning."
He slid his phone back into his pocket, glancing at John, distractedly.
"What? No, no it's not another case. It's…something I've been waiting for."
He stepped back to the door without taking his coat off.
"Where are you going?"
"Out," he replied, closing the door and heading down the stairs.
Nearly two months. That's how long it'd been since he saw her. Rose. If that was, indeed, her name. The day after their last meeting he searched the names of all the renters in that building. He only had her first name, but none of the flats were rented to anyone with that name.
She could've been flat sharing, as he did with John so he went through the task of finding out. After describing her to a few tenants he finally located one who rented the flat next to hers. She wasn't home at the time so he went back to the renters' list and located the name. Jackie Tyler. After a quick search he found that Jackie Tyler was the wife of Pete Tyler, better known to the public as the Vitex King for a health drink he invented that made him quite wealthy.
This knowledge only proved to unearth new questions. Why would the wife of a wealthy business man rent a flat for her? There were similarities between the two that made him suspect they were related, but after a search he could turn up neither a mention of Rose nor a photo. At that point he knew he could've gone to Mycroft, but something held him back. Sentiment isn't an advantage, Sherlock. He kept those thoughts at bay and went back to her flat.
He hailed a cab, gave the driver the location and then sat back. His mind turning back to his second trip to her flat. She didn't answer, but he used his lock picks on the door. He never was one for patience. One look around the living room and he knew she hadn't been there in a few days. That stinging sensation shot through his heart as a thought struck him. What if she was gone? What if she already used the device? The memory of the chip shop floated through his mind. I don't leave my friends without saying goodbye. It was a truth. He'd seen that in her dark eyes.
She hadn't left, but then where was she? Working on the device. Most people would leave at that realization, though most people would've have broken into her flat, but he was there and he knew her flat held answers. He couldn't leave without finding them.
There were pictures on a side table. He walked over and examined them. There was one of her and Jackie Tyler, but Mrs. Tyler wore clothes far below her station. They appeared to be in a Council flat. A second of them with a young toddler he knew to be Tony Tyler at a beach. A third with all three of them along with Mr. Tyler and a man with blonde spiky hair. They stood in a state of the art room, a birthday cake on one of the many desks. Rose was blowing the candles out. She smiled in all of them, but knowing what she told him at the chip shop he wondered how much of that was forced. He knew all too well about hiding things.
He was drawn out of his thoughts as the cab stopped next to the park. He paid the driver and climbed out. It didn't take him long to find her, sitting in the grass, gazing up at the night sky. She didn't look up when he approached, but he knew she noticed him. Noticing things was part of who she was. It was probably one of the reason she intrigued him.
"Beautiful, aren't they?" she asked as he sat down next to her.
He followed her gaze, reminded of a conversation he had with John over the same subject.
"I've always thought so," he replied.
"They're different. Have you noticed?"
He gazed around the sky and realized she was right. There appeared to be a few missing. He might've wrote it off as stars burning out, but there were too many for that to be true. Not so many that anyone outside of the field would notice, well besides himself.
"How is that possible?"
"They're going out. One by one."
The stars were going out. Whether it was possible or not was irrelevant. The proof was in the sky. A primal fear stirred inside of him. He glanced at her and caught her gaze. There was fear in her dark eyes, but something else, it was the same emotion he'd seen in John's eyes when they were on a case that turned dangerous. It was John's hope that Sherlock could find a way out. Her hope wasn't directed at him, but he could see it.
"Can anything be done?" he asked.
"Yes and it's all thanks to you." His brows drew together in confusion. "Because of you the dimension cannon works. The walls between the universes are weak and I can find him. He'll know how to stop it."
"Dimension cannon?" he asked, his mind having paused at her revelation, which didn't make any sense.
"That's the device you helped me with. I'm telling you this because we're friends and because-"
"You're leaving."
She gazed back up at the night sky.
"In two days, yeah."
"You believe your friend can stop this?" he asked, indicating the stars.
He'd seen pictures of her friend in her flat. A man wearing a pin striped suit. He knew the moment he saw the pictures of them, the way she smiled at him, the way he looked at her. It washed an angry, sickening wave through him, something he never felt before and he really didn't know what to do with so he banished it to the far reaches of his mind, far enough away that he wouldn't have to think about it.
"I know he can," she replied, glancing at him with a smile.
"You mentioned walls between universes. What does that mean?"
"Exactly what you think it does. I'm not from here, from this universe. In my universe I was the daughter of Pete and Jackie Tyler, but my dad died when I was little. I grew up without him on a Council estate. I worked in a shop and then I met someone-"
"Your friend," he said, thinking about that picture of her and Jackie.
The idea that she was from a parallel universe was absurd, but he'd seen the picture and even if he didn't believe that, there were the stars to consider.
"So, you're from a parallel world," a statement not a question.
"You believe me?" she asked and he could hear the surprise in her voice.
"So far everything you've told me has been true. I don't believe you'd begin lying to me now."
She bumped his shoulder playfully and grinned.
"I knew I liked you." His eyes found hers as his brows drew together in what most people would consider a scowl, but it only made her grin widen. "Oh, don't look so surprised, Sherlock, I said we were friends, yeah?"
Right. He turned his gaze back to the stars. He wanted to tell her to stay, but he spent too many years keeping things hidden. The words wouldn't come out.
"You're going back to him then."
Rose could hear something in his words, but she wasn't sure what it was, a question, perhaps. Why? Is what she thought.
"When I first met him he was alone. He lost everyone he ever cared about and after I started traveling with him I made him a promise. I promised I'd never leave him, but I did. It was an accident, yeah, but I still left," she explained, her voice choking at the end because it still stung.
The idea that the Doctor was alone hurt. He didn't deserve that. Not after everything he sacrificed. He deserved to be happy and after that day on the beach, after she spoke to him she knew that she made him happy and he made her happy.
The sound of her voice breaking reached into some dark, unused part inside of him. His hand found its way to her far shoulder and nothing could've prepared him for what she did next. She leaned toward him, her cheek coming to rest on his shoulder. Her arms wound around his chest, a shuddering sigh escaped her.
"It wasn't your fault," he replied, the words falling from his lips as if they had a life of their own.
"Yeah, but it still happened."
He could hear the way she was trying to gain control.
"You love him," Sherlock said, his voice devoid of emotion, as that scalpel twisted itself inside of him, but she didn't seem to notice and maybe that was best.
She didn't reply, but she didn't have to. He knew, had known for a while and that was fine, at least, that's what he told himself as they sat in the grass under the star strewn sky for what felt like an eternity and no time at all.
"I have to go," she finally said, sitting up.
He dropped his arm, standing up and then helping her to her feet. She gave him a smile that turned watery, confusing him until she spoke.
"I'll miss you, Sherlock."
The thought that she would miss him, stunned him and for a moment all he could do was stare at her, but she didn't wait for a reply. Instead, she flung her arms around his neck and he found himself hugging her back.
"I will miss you Rose Tyler," he whispered into her hair.
She laughed, which told him that she heard him and he couldn't stop the smile from forming even though she was leaving, even though he would never see her again. When she pulled back she gazed at him a moment. Then she reached up and brushed something from his cheek, something he hadn't even noticed. He closed his eyes at her touch, then it was gone and night became a bit colder.
"No tears now," she insisted, making him realize what she must have brushed away, which proved to both confuse and unnerve him, but then she was smiling and for that moment he forgot. "Wish me luck."
Then she pulled away and began her walk back to wherever she came from. He watched her for a moment and, although he knew it was selfish, he found that he could not wish her luck in any endeavor that would take her away from him. After a few moments he turned and headed back to Baker Street feeling that the world had someone become darker and knowing it wasn't for the missing stars.
Standard Disclaimer.
Thank you to all my brilliant readers!
If you have time reviews are always welcome. :)