Rose was alone, covered in dust, standing on an empty street, looking at the building she'd worked in for a year turned to rubble on the ground. The sun which had been so high momentarily disappeared, cloaked by thick black smog. She looked to the blackened sky, studying the space where the room she had just fled sat. There the sky was cracked with silver, like a lightning bolt had permanently cut the sky. She studied her hands in front of her, they still glowed gold, and as more black smog poured out of the crack in the sky, her glow only grew stronger.

The smog seeped down from above and weaved through the streets, shops, skyscrapers, bridges and now abandoned cars of London. She followed the silky movements all around her, feeling surprisingly calm and centered amongst it. She noticed the smog spread thicker and faster, rolling away in all directions, snaking around corners and beyond her own limited perception. The darkness grew deeper as the sun went down, and Rose soon found her own glowing body as the only light source around her.

The quiet of the town enveloped her, but the sudden sound of a soft growl in the distance knocked her out of her calm as she started and turned to face its origins. The growl rumbled through her, getting louder as it grew closer. She took a quick step back, bumping into a bin behind her. Soon she could hear it so clearly that she was sure the cause of the sound was directly in front of her. As she stepped forward with all manner of caution, her glow grew stronger, and soon she was able to make out the terrible growling creature before her.

At first she saw two piercing big black watery eyes, her own glow shining like flames in them. Then she saw the shine of its white teeth and the pink of its drooling tongue. Soon she was able to make out its wrinkled snout, its bulbous head and its curled back ears. As its giant paws padded the ground closer to her, she saw the sleek shine of its jet black coat and, as it was almost the same height as her, she found herself practically face to face with the giant monstrosity. A wolf it was, and such a wolf, with long languid movements rippling through the air, and a growl that grew so fierce it echoed through Rose's brain. Rose watched it pause for a moment, as if to consider her, and then crouch down low ready for the attack.

Rose didn't take time to consider the wolf's intentions; she turned immediately and ran blindly down the street with the speed and agility one can only muster at the height of an adrenaline rush. Its footsteps rushed behind her, swift and light, seemingly dodging every obstacle in its way. Rose was in a sharp state of panic, she had nowhere to run. She could only see an arms length in front of her, and was completely unable to distinguish a door from a wall to escape into. She could almost feel the wolf's hot breath at her neck as she pushed her body beyond its own limitations, forcing it into a quick sprint. But then she tripped, tripped on a deep crack in the road. She felt her bare hands scrape against the cold asphalt. She pushed her body around, scrambling back, her eyes dodging back and forth through the darkness. She could hear the wolf, but she couldn't see him. She tried to get back up, keep running, but she had twisted her ankle and fell to the ground once more, in a tremendous amount of pain. It was then that the wolf pounced.

"Oh no you don't, you bad wolf!" The wolf had bitten clear through her calf when Rose had heard his voice, through the pain, from the heavens. The Doctor zapped the wolf with some device, and lifted Rose onto one leg by her upper arm. Suddenly Rose felt woozy, and it was then that she lost consciousness.

Rose woke to the voice of her mother. "Oh look, shoosh, she's waking up. Rose…darling, you're at home. You're alright. Oh no she's drifting off again."

"Maybe you should slap 'er?" She heard Mickey's voice in the distance. "You know, wake her up."

"Rose…" she felt a gentle tap on her cheek, "Rose, dear." And then a big slap. "MICKEY!"

Rose snapped out of it. "What the heck was that for!?" She tried to sit up but her head spun out of control as she lay back feeling a little sick.

Jackie gave Mickey a stern look. "I should give you a right good slapping, I should."

"Well it worked, didn't it!?" Mickey puffed out his chest and then bent over Rose in concern. "It was the Doctor that brought you here."

"He's not the Doctor." Rose said through a sudden headache. "He's not the bloody Doctor we know." She tried to sit up again, this time feeling a sharp pain in her leg.

"We've had a doctor in…a real one." Jackie said turning to a corner of the room Rose couldn't quite make out through her hazy eyes. "He stitched you up, gave you some shots, and filled you up to the brim with pain killers. Says you should be alright as long as we keep the wound clean."

Rose felt her mums fingers run through her hair and welcomed the touch. Suddenly, out of the dark corner she heard a familiar voice once more. "Leave us, we need to talk."

"Oh no I'm not leaving you alone with my daughter, look what happened to her, look what you let them do!" Jackie stood up to her full height, and Mickey stood along side of her, both with looks of pure disgust on their faces.

"Look, it's alright mum…I wanna have a word with this…Doctor myself."

"But sweetheart…"

"Just go."

Mickey and Jackie headed for the door in defeat, but as Mickey left, Jackie turned to the Doctor. "You touch one hair on her head, one hair and I swear I'll…"

"MUM!"

Jackie looked to her daughter, then to the Doctor and then exited in a huff.

"Well she's pleasant, isn't she?" The Doctor swaggered towards the edge of Rose's bed looking back towards the door and then at Rose as she stared at him with dagger eyes.

"You left me." She said in a sinister tone. "You left me there, alone, and I almost got KILLED!"

"Well I came back didn't I? Anyway, I was only, say…a hundred meters away, or thereabouts, up in the sky, at the crack."

"Why didn't you take me with you? It wasn't safe down there, and you knew it. I know you did!" Rose looked away from him, her eyes filled with tears of abandon.

"Well, you know, I don't normally take in stowaways…"

"Stowaways!?" Rose was in a sudden fury.

The Doctor stepped back from her rage, looking at her quite perplexed. "You know, I don't normally let people on board my TARDIS. It's not really a safe environment for someone who isn't, well, quite as clever as me."

"But you always have someone with you, always! A companion, an assistant, a little robot dog…"

"A robot dog? That seems a little undignified, even for me."

Rose was confused, so entirely confused that she felt wearied from it. "So…you don't have a companion…?"

"Nup." The Doctor balanced himself on his heels, scanning the room momentarily and then looking back at Rose with an almost surprise.

"Never have done?"

"Nope."

Rose contemplated this for a moment. "Did my mum tell you…about where we come from?"

"Yep, she filled me in on everything I hadn't worked out for myself, including how her favourite daytime soap was never created in this universe, which is a shame for her…I suppose…" The Doctors words drifted off as he looked more sternly at Rose. "Tell me about Bad Wolf." It was more direction then question.

Rose sat silent for a moment, working out a way to explain without giving away too much. "It's a message, it's a message I spread throughout the universe, through space and time, to direct me to a certain moment in time in order to save the Doctor." Rose corrected herself. "My Doctor."

"Ah yes, and how exactly did you manage that?" The Doctor enquired superficially, giving Rose the idea that he already knew the answer.

"I absorbed the time vortex."

"And you didn't, say…die?"

"No, I didn't bloody well die, obviously. The Doctor…my Doctor saved me." Rose studied the expression on the Doctors face. It was his 'deep thought' expression she had been so familiar with. It almost made her smile.

"Well!" The Doctor startled Rose with the abruptness of his voice. He pulled up a chair close to the edge of her bed, sat down and faced her directly, so directly that Rose felt compelled to shift back in the bed a little. "Have I got something to tell you!" The Doctor beamed.

Rose stared at the ceiling remembering every word he had said. Those words changed her life. They changed how she saw the universe, how she saw the Doctor, how she saw herself.

"You mean, I did this? I've…changed the world to take myself back to the Doctor." Rose sat up. It was a lot to take in all at once.

"Yup." The Doctor smiled. "It's absolutely incredible. You're absolutely incredible. Well, future you, that meaning past you, that meaning you as you are, as you were and as you will be."

"Uh…" Rose gave him a small confused look. "Thanks?"

"It's just superb, you humans, give you the power to control time and space dimensions and all you think about is love."

Rose blushed slightly.

"You managed to open the rift, contain it so the universe wouldn't collapse and send through millions of furry, albeit a little over the top, messages all in a moment, one single moment, stretched beyond infinity. And you made yourself the key, the key to open it all up and to lock it all behind you. I must say, I'm impressed. And I don't often say that, you know."

"Yes I know." Rose couldn't believe what she was hearing. She turned to look out her window, it was daylight now and all the wolves were gone. "Where do they all go?"

The Doctor turned to face the window. "Well, on their home planet it's never daylight, so I'm honestly not quite sure."

"So…if I pass through the rift…"

"…and find the Doctor…"

"…yeah, they will all be…?"

"Sucked up into the rift as well, along with any other message you've left yourself here."

"But, even when I cross the rift, how will I find the Doctor?" Rose felt her stomach climb into her throat. He really could be anywhere.

"Don't you worry Rose Tyler. You being here is wrong, and I'm going to make things right."

"But how?" Rose didn't want to let go of her cynicism so quickly, and she wasn't sure she even trusted this Doctor.

"I'll tell you how, Rose, I'm going to build you a way to find your Doctor and leave this world behind." His smile was genuine and effortless. He bounced to his feet and Rose watched him walk to the door, turning to her once more with a cheeky wink and then with a small creek and a bang he was gone.