Um...Hi. Still alive!
"Agent Tyler," a young Torchwood agent whose name was on the tip of Rose's tongue distracted her from the screen she was sharing with Richard Paler, searching for gravitational space corridors linking their own universe and the one holding The Doctor.
She straightened from her position (which had been leaning over Paler's shoulder), feeling her back pop, making her wince. "Agent?" She groaned, trying to smile but feeling it turn into a grimace.
"Sorry to bother you, but I believe we've got a lock on the TARDIS." The agent continued, his face a strange mix of proud and sheepish.
Rose's eye widened, her backache forgotten, and Paler whirled in his desk chair, his expression quite similar to Rose's.
"Show me," Rose demanded, following the agent to his station, Paler on her heels.
"Shit," Rose slammed her fist against the desk, biting her lip in frustration in attempt to prevent more curse words from spilling out. She couldn't believe that after all their work, their sleepless nights, and the incredible amount of tea and coffee they'd gone through, they'd failed.
"Language," Paler muttered, ignoring Rose's answering glare. She was allowed to swear at a time like this, thank you very much. She didn't understand how he was so calm and collected, when she was damn near ready to explode.
"Whatever's been happening across the universes has just happened to the one we're tracking," Doctor White stated, also receiving a glare from a pacing Rose. "The starts have gone out and the planet is gone."
"We don't know where it is," Paler whispered, "we can't send her now."
Rose halted in her steps. "You can and you will. Send me." Paler and White exchanged a nervous glance, unwilling to send Rose hurtling through the walls of the universe without seeing the destination. "Come one," Rose rolled her eyes, "we did this all the time before we locked on. Send me!" She wasn't about to let all their work be for nothing. She would find the Doctor. It wasn't not like the cannon was locked onto earth, anyway. It was locked onto the TARDIS. It shouldn't matter that earth was gone.
Or so she was stubbornly telling herself.
"Holy fu-," An agent on the other side of the room blurted out, cutting herself off before she swore, but still catching the attention of everyone in the lab. She pointed to her screen. Rose's eyes widened when she saw the familiar shape of the culprits.
She didn't waste any time. A chaotic flurry of movement filled the lab, doctors and scientists shouting at each other, and Rose shouting at damn well any one who would listen. Even in the turmoil, Rose was ready to go in the next seven minutes.
She was equipped with her usual clothes – the blue leather jacket, pink t-shirt, and black trousers, and given one extra piece; a rather large, Dalek-killing gun. She nodded to Paler and his fellow doctors, watching them press a sequence of buttons and feeling the familiar tingle in her fingers and toes. She blinked, and when she opened her eyes, she was standing in the middle of a dark street, being stared at by an obviously confused milkman.
Her gaze lifted to the sky, catching sight of the completely wrong sky. "Right, now we're in trouble," she cocked her gun, feeling it charge up, "and it's only just beginning." When had she begun talking to herself?
The gun stayed strapped over her shoulder and she walked calmly down the familiar streets of London, her face grim as she watched people run in every direction.
Car alarms caught her attention and she turned to find two boys stealing from an abandoned telly shop. With a sigh, she made her way over.
"Right." She huffed, "You two, you can put that stuff down or run for your lives," she cocked the gun. "Do you like my gun?" She asked airily. When they'd run off in fear, she sat in front of a monitor, seeing an image of the ships surrounding earth, obviously somehow sent from her Torchwood.
When she exited the shop, she saw a Dalek ship flying low, shooting aimlessly at her planet. Her resolve hardened and she headed to find the people she needed.
Rose watched in horror from afar as a man argued with the Daleks, sending his wife and child back into their house, to their certain death. She couldn't take on several Daleks, she knew, she couldn't help them.
"HALT. YOU WI-LL CO-ME WITH ME." The broken voice of a Dalek said from not far. Quietly, she tracked the tin can, finding it face to eyestalk with just the people she needed. The Nobles. She ignored the rest of its speech, shooting it and blowing up its head with a twisted sense of satisfaction.
"Wanna swamp?" The older Noble suggested, holding up what looked like a paintball gun. Rose felt pride swell up in her heart at a human's bravery.
"You're Donna Noble's family, right?" Rose confirmed. They nodded, eyes wide. "I'm Rose Tyler, and I need you." She wasn't able to provide more information to them, for which she was sorry, but she saw no disagreement when they took off with her, away from the streets and from the Daleks, to the temporary safety or their home.
Rose felt bile rise up in her throat when she couldn't connect to Harriet Jones' sub-wave network. She could help find the Doctor. She'd come this far, she could din the Doctor. She saw Jack, Sarah-Jane and Harriet, and felt more pride at human resistance.
She dialed The Doctor's number, praying for him to hear her. She'd made it this far, he could do a little work too.
A painfully familiar face appeared on the subwave network. Each of the Doctor's companions talked at once. She forced her eyes not to swell with tears, and to not shout in frustration at having him so close but being unable to reach him..
"Doctor, it's me. I came back."
She was gone from the Nobles' home in a flash, Torchwood locking her onto the TARDIS. Now that she knew that the Doctor was still accessible from her position, not thrown out of the Moment of events (although, obviously, he might have been, but stayed in enough denial and been so full of himself that he'd found a way out), she was going to get him.
When she landed, she saw two familiar faces in intense discussion. The Doctor turned, catching her eye. A smile grew on her face as her mouth popped open in shock, but turned quickly into a wide grin.
Finally.
He began to run and she met his pace. They were running to each other, and though she felt like she was in some cheesy romantic comedy, she found she didn't care so long as it was the Doctor she was running to.
She saw the Dalek too late.
She ran to where The Doctor had fallen, falling to her knees and holding his head with her hands, feeling his soft hair through her fingers.
No.
She'd just found him. The universe could not be so cruel as to take him away from her when she'd just found him.
"I've got you. I missed you," She smiled tearfully, willing her hands not to shake. "Look, it's me, Doctor."
He smiled weakly. "Rose," he breathed, his voice shaking with pain and his face contorting.
"Right," she nodded.
"Long time no see," he gasped out through what she could only guess was an incredible amount of pain.
"Yeah, well, been…busy, you know." She said, trying to keep conversation light. He gasped, and she held him tighter. "Don't die. No, don't die. My god, don't die!" I just got you back!
Donna and…was that Jack? Finally met them. "Get him into the TARDIS, quick!" Jack ordered in his no-nonsense tone. "Move!" The three of them grabbed hold of The Doctor and dragged him into his time machine.
"What do we do?" Donna asked, frantically looking between Rose and Jack, both of whom looked like they'd given up. "There must be some medicine or something!" Rose bitterly sympathized with how Donna felt – she remembered feeling oh so very out of the loop, confused, and desperate to do anything to help.
"Just step back," Jack said quietly but firmly. He placed his gun on the jump seat, turning and seeing both women kneeling over The Doctor. "Just step back," he continued, speaking to the one who would understand what was happening. "Rose, do as I say and get back!" he walked over to her. "He's dying, and you know what happens next." Rose knew in the back of her mind that Jack was right – she should stay back, she should get out of the way of the regeneration energy. But all she could think was that she'd just found her Doctor and now he was leaving her again. Not on purpose, obviously, but it never was with him.
"What do you mean?" Donna demanded, looking at Jack. Rose ignored them, ignored Donna's cries and Jack's confident orders.
"He can't," Rose sobbed, staying by his side. "Not now. I came all this way."
"What do you mean? Donna demanded again. "What happens next?"
The Doctor held up his hand and Rose saw a familiar ripple of gold slid under his skin. "It's starting," he whispered as his hand began to glow brighter.
"Here we go!" Jack was no longer giving Rose a say in the matter. To her annoyance, he ran over and picked her up and dragged her away from the ailing Doctor. "Good luck, Doctor!"
"Will someone please tell me what is going on?" Donna shouted as The Doctor used to console to pull himself to his feet.
"When he'd dying, his body…it repairs itself…it changes." Rose explained through her sobs. "But you can't," She said to The Doctor. Please don't!
"I'm sorry," The Doctor told her quietly, gasping for breath. "It's too late. I'm regenerating."