Thanks for all your reviews! This chapter's a little longer, and I changed Edith's personality a bit (she's a lot more like a teenage girl now). I hope you like it.

After impatiently waiting for Rose to get back from the toilet (I guess you can't blame her, being a hundred and twenty and all), she was finally ready to keep going.

"This new man looked at me and grinned," she said. "I can't describe how scared I was. The man that I'd known for so long now, who'd become my best friend and maybe even more … had been replaced by this stranger. And the strangest thing was that he knew who I was. He knew how to work the TARDIS, and he knew about Barcelona."

"How?" I asked. Nothing prepared me for Rose's answer.

"He was the Doctor."

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

I can't imagine how hard it must have been for Rose to adjust to a new face, new body and new personality (although, from the way she described him, he sounded pretty hot!). Even today I can't quite get my head around the whole concept of 'regeneration'. I know from Biology at school that some plants regenerate after a bushfire or something, but they never turn out looking completely different. Anyway, the New Doctor had all these different traits. For one thing, he ate Christmas dinner with Rose's family! What happened to 'I don't do domestic'? Another difference was that he tended to flirt a lot more with Rose. Okay, so the way Rose described it to me I can tell she was trying to be subtle, but it's so obvious! She told me about how he took her to New Earth, and how they lay in the apple grass together. Then she went on to tell me about meeting Cassandra again, and what she did in her body.

"The feeling is so hard to describe," said Rose. "I was like a puppet. I could still see what was going on, but I had no control over what I was doing. And the longer Cassandra stayed inside my head, the smaller and smaller my mind shrank away. I was being compressed inside my own head!"

"That trampoline could have killed you!" I exclaimed, picking up a glass of water and drinking it.

"Ah, but Cassandra did something whilst inside me that I wouldn't have experienced otherwise," said Rose. "She…"

I dropped my glass.

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

Rose's adventures with the Doctor were a lot more dramatic this time round. I couldn't believe he'd travelled with other companions before, although I still firmly believe that Rose was the only one he ever cared for, especially after:

"Humans decay. You wither and you die. Imagine watching that happen to someone you…"

I just wish he could have finished that sentence! I never thought I was one for romances, but when you're presented with a love story this beautiful, this epic, you can't help but be enticed.

"Rose," I said. "This Doctor sounds so perfect. Like, I know you said he could be intense, or sad, or scary, but the one thing he sounds very much like is loyal. To you." Rose laughed.

"It's funny you say that," she said. "Because now I'm going to tell you the story of Madame de Pompadour."

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

I can't count the number of times I uttered 'bitch' during Rose's adventure in the 51st century. Rose kept telling me to watch my language, but I knew she was feeling the same thing. I much preferred her adventure in the 1950s, where she got to go on a motor scooter (apparently it's this really old type of transport) with the Doctor, plus they shared this adorable hug. I've never had a boyfriend, but if I get half as much attention and love from him as the Doctor gave to Rose, then I'll be happy. And yet, as her story went on, I kept wondering why it was that it was only 2 years that Rose spent with the Doctor, who she obviously cared for a great deal.

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

"The TARDIS was gone, and we were stranded," recounted Rose. "Centuries from home, orbiting a black hole. I was worried, but I tried not to let it show. I remember discussing with the Doctor that we'd have to go back to Earth and settle down."

"That would have been hell for him," I said.

"Yeah, and for me too, having to give everything up, plus never seeing my mum again," said Rose. "But then there was this other part of me, this tiny little part that was wishing the Doctor wouldn't get the TARDIS back, and that we'd have to get jobs and houses and mortgages."

"Why?" I asked, confused. Rose blushed. I frowned, then got an idea.

"Did you want to live with him?" I asked suggestively.

"So then the Doctor went down to the planet…" said Rose, apparently not hearing me. I didn't bother asking the question again. I didn't need to.

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

It was at the mention of ghosts that Rose became a little uneasy. She was shifting around a lot, and every word seemed harder to say. It was then that I became worried that the end was near; that the approaching storm the Doctor had spoken of had finally come. And what a twist! Cybermen and Daleks! I could tell that this was going to be a tough battle for Rose and the Doctor.

" 'That's why you have to go'," said Rose, quoting the Doctor. " 'Back to Pete's World'. But I couldn't do it. I couldn't leave the Doctor at a time like this."

"It sounds just like when he sent you away from the Gamestation," I remarked.

"It was," admitted Rose. "When the danger got too much, the first thing he made sure of was that I was safe. And do you know what he did? He took the transporter and placed it around my neck without my knowing. But after everyone teleported across, I came back for him." I smiled.

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

"My palms became sweaty as I held onto that lever," said Rose, a fire in her eyes. "The howling wind of the Void was beckoning to me, but I was determined not to let go. I could see the Doctor looking on from his position in the hope that everything would be all right." Rose closed her eyes, and a single tear made its way down her cheek.

"I slipped."

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

I felt somehow personally responsible for what happened to Rose. Maybe it was because it was John Lumic from my universe who had created the Cybermen. Maybe it was because it was Pete from my universe who had torn Rose away from the Doctor (even though he prevented her from falling into the Void). Or maybe it was because I'd gotten so close to Rose in just a couple of hours that I felt her pain. Whatever the reason, I was crying. I cried as she described her anguish as she banged her fist against the wall. I cried as she spent weeks in her new world with nothing to live for. But most of all, I cried as she said her goodbye on Bad Wolf Bay.

"It was hard on me," admitted Rose, wiping away a tear. "But I plucked up the courage to ask him if there was any chance I could see him again." I knew what the answer would be even before she said that the Doctor had replied in the negative.

"Go on," I said.

"I knew this was my last chance to say what was in my heart," said Rose. "Through my tears, I managed to choke it out. I said to him 'I love you'."

"Oh God," I said, the tears streaming down my face. "What did he say?"

" 'Quite right too'," said Rose, choking on her words. " 'And I suppose … if it's my last chance to say it…" I gulped. "… Rose Tyler…' "

"What? What?" I asked. "What happened next?"

"Nothing," said Rose. "He'd vanished. The gap was closed. Forever."

"Oh no," I said. Rose nodded sadly.

"That's the reason I don't have any pictures," she said. "Everything I had was left in the TARDIS or in my room back on the Powell Estate. The only reason I had the picture was that it was the one Elton had, and my mum found it scrunched up in her pocket after we came through to this universe." I was speechless. This woman had been through absolute hell.

"Um … do you mind if I put the telly on?" I asked, hoping to have some time to recover from everything Rose had told me. I got the remote and switched on the news.

"And this just in – in downtown London, a large group of people has appeared out of nowhere. No one knows who they are or where they came from. The local church has opened its heart to the new arrivals, providing them with living quarters for the time being. Reporter Sally Sparrow is on the scene."

Rose and I exchanged glances as the camera centred on a young woman inside the church.

"Thank you Kathy. Well as you can see behind me, there are people of all races, ages and genders who are now seeking refuge here in the church. Many of the people keeping insisting that this is their normal London, only to go outside and scratch their heads whilst looking at the zeppelins. All the arrivals are being given health checks, however there was one elderly man who kept refusing to have one and insisted that he be allowed to leave, though it is imperative that no one leaves until they have been identified and the proper paperwork has been filled out. If anyone knows anything about these people, please call 1300 653 231 or visit the church. Back to you, Kathy."

Rose looked like she was having a heart attack, and who could blame her?

"Rose, please calm down," I told her. "Deep breaths, come on…"

"It's a sign," Rose said. "Those people, they must be from a parallel universe, from my universe. And the Doctor – he'll be with them…"

"You don't know that for sure," I said, trying not to get the poor woman's hopes up. "Even if they are from a parallel universe, the Doctor has the whole of time and space at his disposal, what are the odds that he'd be there?"

"I've got to go to the church," said Rose defiantly. "I've got to see if he's there…" The nurse came into the room.

"What's going on here?" she asked.

"I've got to leave," said Rose. "The Doctor…"

"The doctor wants you to stay in bed," said the nurse. She then turned to me. "Have you been filling her head with ideas?"

"What? No…" I began.

"Don't give me that," said the nurse. "Young people don't do the elderly any good. You fill their heads with ideas, making them think they can do anything. The next thing you know they need a hip replacement. Miss Tyler is to stay here in bed." Rose looked around desperately.

"Can I at least use the phone?" she asked. "It's an emergency!" The nurse sighed.

"Very well," she said. "But make it quick." Rose reached towards the phone and dialled madly. She raised the phone to her ear in hope, but soon hung up again.

"Answering machine," she said bleakly. "Says the line opens again at nine in the morning."

"What's so important that you need to call again tomorrow?" asked the nurse suspiciously.

"Nothing," said Rose, sighing. "Well Edith, I think you'd better leave now." I checked my watch. I'd been there almost 3 hours!

"Yes, I suppose I should," I said, somewhat disappointed. Don't get me wrong – fantastic epic tale of aliens and monsters and spaceships and time travel, but the tragic ending didn't do me any good. I got up to leave.

"I'll come back tomorrow, yeah?" I said. Rose nodded, and with that I made my way out of the nursing home.

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

The final part should be up soon.