There you go. Enjoy and all that junk. I'l quit the talk so you can just get to the story. Reviews are motivation.
Today… today was the day that Rose made it back to the Doctor. Well, actually, today was the day that she made it back to the universe that she would find him in. Although she knew that there was a long and probably harder journey ahead, she couldn't help but feel… giddy, almost, with excitement. She was going back to the Doctor and everything would be alright again.
She often fantasized her reunion with him. Her favorite version was when they'd run to each other, overwhelmingly joyous. They would shed happy tears. The Doctor would finish his sentence and they would kiss. Well, actually, she always imagined more of a snog.
But such a Hollywood ending was probably just a dream. What if the Doctor didn't want her? What if he didn't return her feelings? He'd never actually given any implication that he reciprocated. What if she hadn't really been all that important to him as she'd thought? What if he had changed from the man she knew and loved and she didn't want him anymore?
No. She would always want the Doctor. He was broken when she met him the first time and if he is broken again, she would fix him and love him back to wholeness. Even if he didn't love her back, that was fine. Really it was. Because she doesn't deserve somebody like him, but he does deserve the love of at least one thankful soul.
Well, now that angst time is done and over with, Rose thought, I can get back to actually getting back to him. At the moment, Rose was sitting at her desk anxiously awaiting Mickey to call her down to the laboratory. She'd tried to go down there earlier, but had been promptly, and literally, shoved out.
So she was sitting at her desk, waiting for something, anything to happen to give her something to do. The Time Agency had allowed her this one jump, but for their help, she had to sell almost half of their stock for a much lower price than was usually granted. Pete wasn't too happy with that, but she assured him that it was definitely worth it. Either way, the stock would grow again sooner or later.
A knock came to Rose's door and she jumped up and practically yelled when she said, "Come in!"
She expected that it was Mickey coming to tell her it was time, but when the door opened, she was met with the face of her mother.
"Mum! What are you doing here?"
Jackie put her hands on her hips and cocked her head. "Well, what a way to greet your own mum! You 'aven't changed much from when you were with 'im. Still no 'hello, Mum', 'good to see ya, Mum.' You're still not too old for a good spankin', ya know." Her mum's thick London accent complained.
Rose put her face in her hands. "Mum!"
Jackie looked up at the ceiling with an innocent face. "Still 'aven't got a hug yet."
"Mum, I'm at work. I'm about to make the most dangerous and the best decision in my life and I really can't be bothered for little things. So, what do you need?" Rose knew that the way she was speaking to her mother was less than appropriate, but she really was busy. That is, she was busy being anxious to leave and worrying about the Doctor.
Her mum sat down heavily in a chair directly in front of Rose. "Rose, that's what I wanna talk t'you about. Are you sure you really wanna do this?"
Rose scrubbed a hand over her face. "I've been over this with Mickey already. I don't need this from you too."
"But shouldn't you think it over more? You're leavin' your whole family. You're not gonna see us again. Are you prepared to do that?" Her mother pushed.
"It ain't my whole family. Not if the Doctor's not in it." She replied.
Her mum's face screwed up in worry. "But, Rose-"
"I promised him a long time ago that I was gonna stay with him. This is my chance. I want to do this, Mum. I'm goin' back to 'im." She said and she meant it.
Jackie's eyes filled with tears. "Well, then, you tell that alien that he better take care o' ya and to treat ya right or else I'm comin' to give the slap of 'is life! Parallel worlds or not!"
Rose smiled endearingly. "'Course, Mum."
Right then, the door opened and Mickey stuck his head in. Rose jumped up. "Rose, it's ready."
They all made their way down to the laboratory. As soon as they entered, Rose was whisked away to get a jumble of technological warning get spouted off at her about the time travelling risks and the TARDIS tracker. It reminded her of when she was with the Doctor and he would ramble on about all of the alien and scientific talk that she couldn't follow past the first word.
Once everything was explained to a point that she could understand, they put a Time Manipulator on her wrist and a vest covered in devices around her middle. "I'm using a Time Manipulator?" She asked the person helping her. "I practically gave all Torchwood tech just for this?"
The woman looked up. "I'm not part of the Agency, Ma'am."
"The conmen!" Rose accused. Now she knew where Jack had gotten his inspiration. They finished and Mickey came up to her to explain some more.
"Okay, Rose. What we're gonna do first is send ya back to 2007 using the Time Manipulator. This is the code for it." He held out a piece of paper. "It's hooked up to the vest, which will track the TARDIS time signature and send ya to the other dimension. Don't move the devices on there. No wires, no nothin'. You mess with one of them, you better be able to fix it.
"When you get to 2007, we'll kick you into the parallel world and you'll just be one step closer. Now, I wasn't able to fine tune the tracker as much as you'd probably like, so you'll go to places the TARDIS has been, is, or will be, but I can't ensure that you'll find him quickly."
Rose nodded. "Got it." She put the paper in her pocket and looked over herself.
"One more thing, Rose. Put this on." He held out an ear comm.
"An ear comm?"
"Yeah. So we can talk to you. When you're in the other dimension, once, you leave the time when there were cracks in the walls, our connection is gonna get cut off. We won't be able to talk to ya. You'll be on your own. Okay?"
"Yeah." She didn't really expect that, but whatever it takes. Even if it takes never seeing her family again.
A man in a lab coat announced that there were five minutes to the jump. So, Jackie, Pete and Rose's little brother, Tony, came up to say goodbye. Jackie was crying again.
Immediately, her mum threw herself at Rose and squeezed the life out of her, sobbing over her shoulder. Rose could feel her own eyes fill up with tears as she realized that she was saying her last goodbye to her mother.
"I'm gonna miss you, Mum." If anything, Jackie just cried harder. After a couple more sobs, her mum pulled away.
"Now, Tony, give your big sister a hug." The two-year old seemed all too happy to do so. He giggled when Rose tickled him under his arm.
"Rose," Pete interrupted. She straightened up. "I know that we haven't exactly known each other that long and our relationship has been somewhat… awkward, but I want you to know that, despite however long, I have enjoyed getting to know you and holding the place of your father. I'm proud of you."
She smiled at him and reached up to hug him, standing on her tiptoes. "Thanks." She released him. "And I'll miss you also."
She stepped back from them and mentally filed the image of her family in the deepest parts of her mind so that she could never forget them. "I love you." She told all of them. Then, they were ushered out of the room.
Rose pulled the paper with the code for the Time Manipulator out of her pocket and entered it. She looked over the vest to make sure that everything was in order.
"Rose! Don't touch anythin'!" She winced as Mickey scolded her.
She turned to face him. "I'm not! I ain't plannin' on messin' up my one chance at gettin' back to the Doctor."
"Sorry," He shifted awkwardly from foot to foot. "Jus', be careful out there. Don't want ya gettin' hurt."
"Aww, you care!" He nudged her playfully. Then he hugged her abruptly and Rose laughed. "If all this hugging keeps up, I'm never gonna want to hug anyone ever again."
"Right, well, it's time to get goin'. Have you got the code in?" He asked. He took her wrist and typed some things on the time device. Without looking up he said, "These are both the time and location coordinates, okay?" They hugged one last time. "You ready?"
Rose nodded. Then he went and stood a safe distance away. She took a deep breath. This was it. She was finally gonna be with the Doctor again after two and a half years. It felt like forever since she'd seen him, but his face, both faces actually, were etched into her mind permanently. She couldn't forget him even if she wanted to. And she certainly didn't want to.
She stood back and smiled at everybody with moistened eyes. And they did the same. She held up her wrist so she could see the Time Manipulator. She didn't look up again in the fear that she would change her mind to stay. She pressed the activation button and in a bright flash of white light, she was gone.
This chapter was extremely difficult to write. I was trying my best to lengthen it, but all I got was 1,600 or around there. Next chapter will tell some of Rose's journey to find the Doctor. I'm not gonna include EVERYWHERE Rose lands, but I will mention a couple places. I'm trying to get her back to the Doctor as soon as possible, but right now, I really really need to use the restroom. So you'll have to wait.
