The longest chapter I've ever written. Not a huge fan myself, because, while I needed it for the progression of the story, this chapter is essentially just the entire episode called Journey's End.
Rose felt Jack's hands on her arms, wrapping around her tightly and pulling her away from the Doctor. She could feel him starting to burn under her touch, see the gold emanate from him in a familiar yet frightening way.
The last time the Doctor had regenerated, she'd been young, new to the whole process, afraid. She hadn't known what was happening. Not far from her, she could feel Donna panicking, clueless as to what would happen next. Rose remembered the feeling.
This time, she did know, and she wasn't alone. Jack kept both women enveloped tightly in his strong arms, shielding his own eyes from the bursts of gold that were coming from the Doctor. Rose realized then that it didn't matter that she knew what was happening. It was just as frightening, just as heartbreaking.
So, when the glowing stopped and a Doctor with a very much the same face gasped for air, Rose could do nothing but blink. She looked up to see Jack reacting much the same way.
He blew (from what Rose could tell) excess regeneration energy from …was that his hand? "You see?" He said cheerfully, "used the regeneration energy to heal myself, but as soon as that was done, I didn't need to change. I didn't want to. Why would I? Look at me." Rose smiled a bit. "So, to stop the energy from going all the way, I siphoned off the rest into a handy bio-matching receptacle. Namely, my hand. That hand there. My handy spare hand," he continued with a cheeky grin. He stood up, and Rose could feel his eyes on her, if wavering only slightly, but she kept her gaze directed toward the hand. "Remember? Christmas day, Sycorax? Lost my hand in a sword fight. That's my hand." Rose lifted her eyes to meet his, which were staring quite intently at her. "What do you think?"
She stepped out of Jack's grip, which she'd only just realized was still there, towards the Doctor with an uncertainty she'd never expected to feel. She could feel Donna's eyes on her back, and almost sense the smirk that was inevitably growing on Captain Jack's face. "You're still you?" She asked him, angry with herself for feeling so relieved, but relieved all the same.
A small smile grew on the Doctor's lips as he looked at her, following her every movement quite intently. He seemed unsure as she continued to move much to hesitantly for her own liking. Rose felt tears prick at her eyes and she threw herself forward, wrapping her arms tightly around his neck and letting their cheeks graze as she hugged him tightly. His hug was warm and familiar, and he smelt as he always did, with the distinct sense of timelessness hanging around him. It was so familiar, felt so much like home, that Rose felt herself choking back tears as a smile pulled at her lips. She could feel his own relief; even feel the smile that he wore, as she hugged him tightly. She wasn't sure how long she stayed in his arms, but his grip never loosened, and neither did hers.
"There's a massive Dalek ship at the centre of the planets," Jack explained. "They're calling it the Crucible. Guess that's our destination."
"You said these planets were like an engine. But what for?" Donna asked the Doctor.
Rose turned to look at him, and was taken aback by the sullen look on his face. He looked…angry. And confused. Then, quite suddenly, he turned to her, anger disappearing from his face, changing to hopeful. "Rose!" She jumped at the mention of her name. "You've been in a parallel world. That world's running ahead of this universe. You've seen the future, what was it?"
Rose hesitated. She could feel Donna's and Jack's eyes on her back, watching her, hungry for answers. "It's the darkness," she finally replied quietly.
"The stars were going out." Donna realized behind her.
Rose didn't look back. "One by one." The hope was gone from the Doctor's face, and he suddenly looked quite ancient. The empty sadness growing in his eyes made her chest ache with pain. "We looked up at the sky, and they were just dying." She took a breath. "Basically, we've been building this…um…travel machine, this…uh…dimension cannon…so I could…well, so I could…" she didn't dare say the words. She saw his face change from weary to something else.
"What?" the Doctor said quietly, his usually warm brown eyes boring into hers.
"So I could come back," Rose forced back a grin, which was nearly impossible when he looked at her as he did, with a bright grin and pride. "Shut up," she told him, though the grin only seemed to widen. "Anyway, suddenly it started to work. And the dimensions started to collapse." There went the hope again, fear starting to become evident. "Not just in our world, not just in yours, but the whole of reality. Even the void was dead. Some thing is…destroying everything."
"In that parallel world…you said something about me," Donna said, the woman being unusually quiet.
Rose met her eyes. "The dimension cannon could measure timelines, and it's…it's weird Donna, but they all seem to converge on you."
Rose held the Doctor's hand as they watched the TARDIS be eaten in the z-neutrino energy, feeling bile rise in her throat as she thought of the brilliant time machine and Donna be destroyed and killed. She knew that though the Doctor was clutching her hand like a lifeline, as though she were only thing holding him steady, she knew that he hardly knew she was there, too caught up in the pain of losing his TARDIS and his friend. She could feel some of his pain through a mental link, her telepathy not strong enough to feel much of it.
She turned in shock when she heard a gun go off, her eyes immediately flying to where Jack had been standing, now crumpled on the ground. The Doctor gripped her waist tightly as she recoiled from the blast of the Dalek's shot. When he was down, the Doctor released her and she fell to her friend's side. Not seconds later, she felt the Doctor kneel beside her, "Rose, come on." An arm went around her waist again, "come here." He whispered.
"They killed him," she wanted to sound angry, but she sounded weak and sad, and she hated herself for it almost as much as she hated the Daleks.
"I know," he whispered again. "I'm sorry. There's nothing we can do." She let the Doctor lead her away from her fallen friend, not sure where the surrounding Daleks were taking them, but knowing she had no choice but to follow.
"Activate the holding cells." An old, warbled voice broke through the darkness. A bright light shone over the Doctor, then her, and a sort of half-Dalek form rolled out of the shadows. "Even when powerless, a Time Lord is best contained." He said with what sounded like distain to Rose, though she knew a true Dalek would never let any emotion like that show. Though, she supposed, if a Dalek were to have emotions, it would certainly have distain.
"Still scared of me, then?" The Doctor asked, anger so well hidden in his tone that Rose wondered if the Dalek-thing even heard it. She watched as he pressed his hand to the edge of the light and a sort of…energy…rippled around it. Curious, she repeated the action.
"It is time we talked, Doctor, after so very long." The thing said, rolling away.
"No, no, no, no, no." The Doctor interrupted, seemingly annoyed now. "We're not dong the nostalgia tour. I want to know what's happening right here, right now. 'Cause, the supreme Dalek said 'vault', yeah?" Is that what it'd said, Rose wondered idly. She hadn't been paying attention. "…As in dungeon, cellar, prison." The Doctor rotated on the spot in his cell, taking in their surroundings as Rose watched him closely. "You're not in charge of the Daleks, are you? They've got you locked away down here in the basement, like, what, a servant? Slave? Court jester?"
"We have…" the Dalek-thing started angrily, "…an arrangement." He finished with much less force. Rose raised her eyebrows at its response, looking carefully between it and the Doctor.
"No, no, no, no, no." The Doctor said again, laughing this time as he spoke. "I've got the word. You're the Daleks' pet!"
"So very full of fire, is he not?" the thing demanded, now rolling towards her. "And to think, you crossed entire universes, striding parallel to parallel, to find him again." Rose felt bile rise in her throat as he spoke, suddenly very much wanted to punch him in the face.
"Leave her alone." The Doctor said, his voice dropping several octaves.
"She is mine, to do as I please." Rose felt her skin crawl at the Dalek-thing's response.
"Then why am I still alive?" Rose demanded of him, standing rigidly, proudly.
"You must be here." He replied. "It was foretold. Even the supreme Dalek would not dare to contradict the prophecies of Dalek Caan." The thing pressed a button and suddenly illuminated was a Dalek.
Rose wanted to recoil in shock. She had met Dalek Caan before, she remembered. One of the Cult of Skaro. She never believed she would see any Dalek as she was seeing now, completely exposed and out of his metal caging. "So cold and dark," it said, moving its…tentacles…? "Fire is coming. The endless flames."
"It flew into the time war, unprotected." The Doctor told her, his face taught with anger.
"Caan did more than that." Continued the Dalek-thing. "He saw time. Its infinite complexity and majesty raging through his mind. And he saw you – both of you."
"This, I have foreseen in the wild and the wind. The Doctor will be here, as witness, at the end of everything. The Doctor and his precious children of time. And one of them will die." Caan laughed madly. Rose's mind repelled the idea of a Dalek who could laugh, who had some sort of emotion.
Rose watched attentively as the Dalek-thing taunted her Doctor, anger building in her belly as he spoke. She watched him panic when the thing – Davros – told him what was happening, as the planets aligned. She stayed put, keeping her face steady as he screamed, though it went against her whole being.
"Doctor, what happened?" She asked him.
"Electrical energy, Miss Tyler." Davros answered instead. "Every atom in existence is bound by an electrical field. The reality bomb cancels it out. Structure falls apart. That test was focused on the prisoners alone. Full transmission will dissolve every form of matter." Rose felt her mouth fall open as she turned her wide eyes to the screen.
"Stars going out." She murmured, understanding, finally, the horror of what was happening.
"The 27 planets, they become one vast transmitter," the Doctor said, seething with anger, "blasting that wavelength…"
"Across the entire universe…never stopping, never faltering, never fading. People and planets and stars will become dust, and the dust will become atoms, and the atoms will become…nothing. And the wavelength will continue, breaking through the rift at the heart of the Medusa Cascade, into every dimension, every parallel, every single corner of creation. This is my ultimate victory, Doctor. The destruction of reality itself!"
"This is Martha Jones, representing the Unified Intelligence Task Force on behalf of the human race. This message is for the Dalek Crucible. Repeat – can you hear me?" Rose remembered the face and voice from the videochat where Harriet Jones had urged them all to find the Doctor, giving her life for the cause. She felt her heart squeeze as she thought of the fantastic woman.
"Put me through!" The Doctor shouted to Davros, bringing Rose back to the present.
"It begins, as Dalek Caan foretold." Davros cackled excitedly.
"His children of time will gather. And one of them will die." The exposed Caan laughed, making Rose's skin crawl once again.
"Stop saying that! Put me through!" The Doctor said angrily.
"Doctor! I'm sorry. I had to."
"Oh, but the Doctor is powerless." Davros said. "My prisoner. State your intent."
"I've got the Oterhagen Key. Leave this planet and its people alone or I'll use it."
"Osterhagen what?" The Doctor interrupted. "What's an Osterhagen Key?"
"There's a chain of 25 nuclear warheads placed in strategic points beneath the earth's crust. If I use the key, they detonate, and the earth gets ripped apart."
"What? Who invented that? Well, someone called Osterhagen, I suppose. Martha, are you insane?"
Though Rose understood the Doctor's reaction – he was very non-violence, non-blowing-earth-up, and he'd given everything he had to make sure the earth stayed safe, she couldn't help but admire Martha. Threatening the Daleks was bold, but anyone's standards.
"The Osterhagen Key is to be used if they suffering of the human race is so great, so without hope, that this becomes the final option."
"That's never an option," The Doctor told her angrily.
"Don't argue with me, Doctor! 'Cause it's more than that. Now, I reckon the Daleks need these 27 planets for something, but," she held up the key, "What if it becomes 26?" What happens then? Daleks? Would you risk it?"
"Oh, she'd good," Rose murmured appreciatively, ignorant the angry and disbelieving look the Doctor gave her.
"Who's that?"
"My name's Rose. Rose Tyler." Rose introduced herself to this Martha girl.
She watched the shock explode on the other girl's face. "Oh my god. He found you." She whispered. Rose felt unwanted happiness warm her core. She'd not been forgotten. Other companions knew who she was. The Doctor had not dropped her off and moved on, as she'd both feared and hoped he would.
A second screen popped up. "Captain Jack Harkness, calling all Dalek Boys and Girls. Are you receiving me? Don't send in your goons or I'll set this thing off."
Rose thought her jaw might hit the ground. "He's still alive." More faces came into sight. "Oh, my god, that – that's my mum! And Mickey!" But she'd seen Jack get beamed…she didn't understand, much less that her mother and Mickey were there.
"Captain, what are you doing?" The Doctor demanded.
"I've got a warp star wired into the mainframe. I break this shell, the entire crucible goes up."
"You can't! Where did you get a warp star?" The Doctor cried in shock.
"From me." Sarah Jane! "We had no choice! We saw what happened to the prisoners."
As Sarah Jane and Davros spoke to each other, Rose snuck a look at the Doctor, surprised to see tears barely forming in his eyes and disbelief written across his features rather than pride or happiness.
"Now, that's what I call a ransom," she said cheekily, hoping to lighten the Doctor's mood and get him to realize that his friends, his family, were fighting for him and for the entirety of the human race.
But he continued to look sullen, standing with his shoulders hunched and his eyes down.
"Doctor?"
"And the prophecy unfolds." Davros said, amusement at the Doctor's pain evident in his tone.
"The Doctor's soul is revealed," Caan said again, laughing maniacally. "See him. See the heart of him."
"The man who abhors violence, never carrying a gun. But this is the truth, Doctor. You take ordinary people and you fashion them into weapons. Behold your children of time, transformed into murderers." Rose tried to get the Doctor to meet her eyes, to look at her, but he kept looking downwards, away from all his companions. "I made the Daleks, Doctor. You made this."
"They're trying to help." The Doctor whispered, as though he couldn't quite convince himself of the truth. Rose understood what he was realizing – that because of him, his friends had become defenders of the universe, and in the process they'd needed to resort to violence.
"Already I have seen them sacrifice today for their beloved Doctor." Davros continued to taunt. "The earth woman who fell, opening the subwave network."
"Who was that," The Doctor asked, genuine confusion crossing his face.
"Harriet Jones." Rose replied quietly, hating the look of horror and shock on his beautiful features. "She gave her life to get you here." Rose, too, felt the loss of the brilliant woman, deep within her core. She watched as the Doctor was forced to recall everyone who had ever died in his name, watching his friends die to save him, watching anyone who was affected by his presence.
Rose watched in horror as every one of her friends and her mother were locked into cells like hers. She wanted to avert her eyes as the Daleks detonated the reality bomb, but couldn't bring herself to look away from the horror before her.
A humming began to sing in her mind, and the most wonderous sound she'd heard got louder as the TARDIS – the brilliant, amazing TARDIS – landed not 20 feet from her. The door opened to reveal a glowing interior and a man in a suit, carrying some form of gun.
"Brilliant." Captain Jack breathed, talking to no one in particular.
The second Doctor ran at Davros but was shocked, the weapon falling from his hands.
And then Donna.
Rose flinched as Donna was thrown back, eyes wide.
"How come there are two of you?" She asked, ignoring Davros' taunts.
"Human biological metacrisis. Never mind that, now we've got no way of stopping the reality bomb."
8 – 7 – 6 – 5 – 4 – 3 – 2 – 1…
Rose waited for the end of the world.
Alarms went off.
"And…closing all z-neutrino relay loops," a calm voice spoke, "using an internalized, synchronous backfeed reversal loop – " Donna clicked a button. "That button there." She grinned cheekily as everyone stared at her.
"Donna, you can't even change a plug." The brown-suited Doctor said in disbelief. Rose was inclined to side with him. She knew that Donna was a brilliant woman, and respected her very much, but Donna was…technology impaired.
"You wanna bet, time boy?" Donna replied, her voice airy and cheerful.
"You'll suffer for this," Davros interrupted angrily. He stuck his hand out to zap her with the electrical …whatever it was, but Donna simply smirked and cranked a lever. Rather than extending to hit her, Davros screamed as the shock seemed to go into him instead. Rose watched in disbelief, her wide eyes on the smiling Donna.
"Oh, bioelectric dampening field with a retrogressive arc inversion." Donna said calmly.
"Exterminate her!" Davros yelled to the Daleks, who followed suit with their cries of extermination.
Donna began to press buttons as though she were typing on a computer. The Dalek weapons ceased working. "Oh, macrotransmission of a k-filter wavelength blocking Dalek weaponry in a self replicating energy blindfold matrix."
"How did you work that out?" The original Doctor asked desperately, "you're…"
"Time lord." The blue-suited Doctor interrupted, understanding suddenly. "Part Time Lord..."
"Part human," Donna finished. "Oh yes. That was a two-way biological metacrisis. Half Doctor, half Donna."
"The DoctorDonna," The original Doctor breathed. "Just like the Ood said, remember? They saw it coming. The DoctorDonna."
Donna smiled at him before pressing more buttons. "Holding cells deactivated. Unseal the vault. Well, don't just stand there, you skinny boys in suits. Get to work."
As Donna continued to mess with the Dalek systems, Rose joined Sarah Jane in pushing away a spinning Dalek. She couldn't help but grin at the scene before her, the Daleks helplessly spinning. Mickey and Jack grabbed Dalek guns from the TARDIS, holding them toward Davros.
Together, the two Doctors and Donna sent home planet after moon after planet.
"Is anyone gunna tell us what's going on?" Rose asked calmly, though really she was quite desperate to understand.
"He poured all his regeneration energy into his spare hand," Donna explained, pointing at the original Doctor. "I touched the hand, and he grew out of that," she indicated the blue-suited Doctor, "but that fed back into me. But it just stayed dormant in my head till the synapses got that little extra spark, kicking them into life – thank you, Davros! Part human, part Time Lord. And I got the best bit of the Doctor," Rose resisted laughing when she saw the blue-suited Doctor raise his eyebrows, a smirk on his face, "I got his mind."
"So there's three of you?" Sarah Jane interrupted.
"Three Doctors?" Rose repeated.
"I can't tell you what I'm thinking right now," Jack muttered.
"You're so unique, the timelines were converging on you – human being with a Time Lord brain." The brown-suited Doctor explained to Donna. The three of them continued to work on machinery, and Rose knew she wouldn't be of any help.
When the original Doctor was working in the TARDIS, Caan spoke again, this time to the metacrisis. "I have seen the end of everything Dalek, and you must make it happen, Doctor." Caan said to him, his voice just as cheerful as before, which was still quite strange for a Dalek in itself, but even more so now that he was dying.
"He's right," the blue-suited Doctor said quietly, "'Cause with or without the reality bomb, this Dalek Empire's big enough to slaughter the Cosmos. They've got to be stopped."
Rose didn't understand what the Doctor is, but suddenly the ship was shaking as Daleks began to explode.
"What have you done?!" The brown-suited Doctor yelled angrily, his eyes on his other self.
"Fulfilling the prophecy," The Doctor in blue replied, his voice carrying over the explosions even though he did not speak loudly.
"Do you know what you've done?" The original Doctor shouted angrily. "Now, get in the TARDIS!"
The blue-suited Doctor looked angrily at his twin but ran to the TARDIS, following instructions anyway. Everyone ran into the ship, to safety.
They all stood around the rotor, holding on for support.
" But what about the earth?" Sarah Jane demanded as they took off. "It's stuck in the wrong part of space!"
"I'm on it!" The original Doctor replied, swinging the monitor around so he could see the screen. Rose leaned in to see as well. "Torchwood hub, this is the Doctor. Are you receiving me?"
"Loud and clear," two figures Rose didn't recognize popped onto the screen. "Is Jack there?" one of the two, the woman, asked. Rose squinted at her. Had they met?
"Can't get rid of him," the Doctor responded with a smirk, making Jack smile. "Jack, what's her name?"
"Gwen Cooper," Jack responded, a grin on his face.
"Tell me, Gwen Cooper, are you from an old Cardiff family?"
It suddenly clicked in Rose's mind where she knew the woman from, and a grin broke out on her face.
"Yes," Gwen replied. "All the way back to the 1800s."
"Ah, though so, spatial genetic multiplicity." Rose and the Doctor shared a bright smile. "Now, Torchwood, I want you to open up that rift manipulator. Send all the power to me."
"Doing it now, sir." A man's head popped came into view briefly.
"What's that for?" Rose asked the Doctor.
"It's a towrope." The Doctor explained. "Now then, Sarah, what was your son's name?"
"Luke! He's called Luke! And the computer is Mister Smith!."
"Calling Luke and Mister Smith!." The Doctor spoke to the computer, and the screen split into two, like a videochat with several people. "This is the Doctor. Come on, Luke, shake a leg!"
A young boy came into view, "is mum there?" He asked urgently, and Rose smiled at the boy.
"Oh, she's fine and dandy," The Doctor told him over Sarah Jane's cries of joy. "Now Mister Smith, I want you to harness the rift power and loop it around the TARDIS, you got that?"
"I regret, I will need remote access to TARDIS basecode numerals." The computer answered, somehow sounded remorseful.
The Doctor frowned. "Oh, blimey, that's going to take a while."
"No, no, no!" Sarah Jane came over to join them. "Let me! She joined the Doctor in front of the monitor. "K-9, Out you come!."
"Affirmative, mistress." The little voice made Rose laugh from pure joy.
"Oh, good dog!" The Doctor shouted cheerfully. "K-9, give Mister Smith the basecode."
"Master, TARDIS basecode now being transferred. The process is simple."
"Now then," The brown-suited Doctor gave everyone a task (except Jackie) on the TARDIS console. When he finally flicked a final switch, the TARDIS began to move rather slowly, each person helping to hold it steady. They all grinned cheerful at each other as they helped to pilot the alien space-and-time ship, and quite literally pulled earth to its correct position in the sky.
They cheered enthusiastically once the Earth was finally in the right place, and hugs went around the TARDIS quickly.
The Doctor dropped everyone off to their proper timelines and homes, except Mickey, who took off with Martha and Jack, saying goodbye to many of his companions for the final time.
As Rose exited the TARDIS, stepping into the wet sand of Bad Wolf Bay, she felt her heart drop.
"Hold on. This is…the parallel universe, right?"
"You're back home."
"And the walls of the world are closing again, now that the reality bomb never happened, it's dimensional retroclosure." Donna explained. "See, I really get this stuff now," she finished with a shrug.
"No, but I spent all that time trying to find you. I'm not going back now." Rose argued.
The original Doctor stepped towards her, "but you've got to. 'Cause we saved the universe, but at a cost. And the cost is him." He nodded to the blue-suited Doctor. "He destroyed the Daleks. He committed genocide. He's too dangerous to be left on his own."
"You made me," the metacrisis replied angrily.
"Exactly," the Doctor said, "You were born in battle, full of blood, and anger, and revenge." He turned his gaze to Rose. "Remind you of someone?" She said nothing, but looked away from him. "That's me, when we first met. And you made me better." Rose felt angry tears prick at her eyes now that she knew for sure she was being left behind.
Again.
"Now you can do the same for him." The Doctor finished.
"But he's not you," Rose forced sobs away.
"He needs you. That's very me." The Doctor admitted.
"But it's better than that, though." Donna interrupted. "Can't you see what he's giving you? Tell her, go on."
Rose turned to look at the blue-suited Doctor, the perfect replica of the man she loved. "I look like him I think like him. Same memories, same thoughts, same everything. Except I've only got one heart."
"Which means?" Rose didn't dare hope – after everything that had happened to her, she couldn't allow herself to.
"I'm part human – specifically the aging part. I'll grow old and never regenerate. I've only got one life, Rose Tyler. I could spend it with you…if you want."
"You'll grow old at the same time as me?" Rose repeated.
"Together," the blue-suited Doctor told her, his eyes locked on hers. Nervously, not quite believing it, Rose stepped towards him, her hand reaching out to his chest, where she rested it lightly, feeling the single heartbeat beneath her palm.
The TARDIS engine whooshed, pulling her from the moment.
"We gotta go," the original Doctor said. "This reality's sealing itself off – forever." He and Donna turned to the TARDIS.
"But – " Rose chased after them. "It's still not right." The Doctor turned to look at her, sadness hardening his face. "Cause…the Doctor's…still you."
"And I'm him," he replied.
"All right," Rose said with sudden determination. "Both of you, answer me this." Both Doctors came to stand at her side. "When I last stoof on this beach, on the worst day of my life, what was the last thing you said to me?" She looked desperately at the Doctor in brown. "Go on, say it."
The original Doctor answered, "I said, 'Rose Tyler…'"
"Yeah," Rose replied, "And how was that sentence going to end?"
The Doctor looked at her, his eyes starting to redden with withheld tears, his face determinedly stoic. "Does it need saying?"
Rose held his gaze for several seconds before turning to the blue-suited Doctor. "And you, Doctor? What was the end of that sentence?"
The Doctor leaned towards her, brushing her arm with his hand, leaning in close to whisper the words in her ear. "I love you," he breathed to her, the emotion of a thousand years coming through, the pain, the joy, the excitement, and the fear of hundreds of years resonating in the quiet breath.
Unnoticed by Rose, the original Doctor held his breath, looking over their heads rather than directly at them, worked to calm his body, to stand stoically, to not be jealous of himself.
Because the half-human him would have what he'd been waiting for, desperate for, for the past several years.
He refused to let a tear fall when Rose tugged the Doctor down to her level, pressing her lips against his insistently, lovingly, and the response of his other self, adoring the woman that he loved.
It took everything he had to turn away from his Rose, his wonderful, beautiful Rose, and walk to his TARDIS, leaving her behind for a final time. He could not watch her wrap her arms around the man that was only half him.
Rose watched the TARDIS disappear for what she knew had to be the last time, tears falling from her eyes as the Doctor left her. She felt the human Doctor come stand next to her, gently taking her hand in his and squeezing it reassuringly. When the TARDIS was completely gone, the last whooshing sound gone from her world, she looked at her Doctor, and he at her. He carefully brushed the hair from her face and she leaned into him, resting her head on his chest, listening to his single heartbeat.
He wrapped his arms around her and held her, pressing a gentle kiss to the top of her head.
He still smelt like the Doctor, felt like him, and Rose thought maybe, just maybe, she would be all right this time.