Stranger

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She felt it as yet again her biology changed. It didn't hurt like last time, which she found strange as her every single cell was changing. She should be burning, and yet she wasn't. But suddenly she had two hearts and not one. She could feel her mind expanding, her memories all coming back to her. Her past as the girl known as Zeta.

Yet it was strange. She had read in the accounts that it was like waking from a dream. That there would be no attachment to any human memories. That she would feel and act different.

…And it could be because she had only just regenerated into an infant when she had been changed, but she didn't feel any different at all. It was like she had become a different species… but she remained the same person. She didn't feel like she had woken from a dream. It was more like she had remembered lost memories, and that was it. She was still Rose Tyler.

She realised that it must have been the TARDIS that had changed her. Drall had been in a hurry. He hadn't set it properly. And the TARDIS, knowing she had been forced against her will, gave her a chance. A chance to be who she really was and remain so after. She had never been so thankful of a single creature in all her long life.

And then she gasped as she realised another thing. The man before her, the man she loved… the Doctor, was her Theta. The same boy who had kept her hope alive for 234 years. The one person she cared about most in all of space and time.

Suddenly she had wrapped herself around his waist as tears slid down her face. "Oh, my Doctor! My Theta!" she cried in delight and relief. She was safe. She could hardly believe that the universe had been kind enough to give him back to her! And she had unknowingly been travelling with him for the last two years! Giving her more of a chance to fall for him.

Her happiness was shattered as he finally spoke. "Who are you?" he asked in a strained voice. His body beneath hers was stiff and unresponsive.

"Rose," she told him. "I'm still Rose." She should tell him who she was. But she wanted him to know her as Rose first and foremost. She didn't want him keeping her justbecause she was his long lost friend. She wanted him to know that she was the woman he loved. So until he realized that, she wouldn't tell him. Besides, she hated the name Zeta. The Doctor had never truly called her by that name as a child. He had called her by her real name, but that had been wiped from his memory and replaced with Zeta. She had never actually herd him call her Zeta before. The only people, who had really called her that, were people she despised. It was her prison name.

"No, you're not," he said gruffly, pain evident in his voice. He took her by the shoulders and held her back from him. A hurt scowl flitted across his face. "My Rose died when she opened that watch." The pain and anger grew on his features as he glanced down that the watch in her hands. "Now tell me who you are."

"I'm Rose," she insisted.

"No. You're. Not!" his yell was hissed through his clenched teeth. "Tell me who the hell you are!"

"No!" she said childishly wriggling from his grip and glairing at him. "I am Rose. Somehow the change was different and I'm still the same. And until you realise that, I'm not going to tell you the name you would know me as."

"So, I know you then?" his voice still angry.

"For far too short a time for my likes, but yes." Tiredly she fell back against the pillows. As she realised yet another thing, a small smile flitted across her face. "I'm free," she whispered.

The Doctor tried to reign in his anger. First this woman replaced his Rose. Then she tries to torture him further by saying she wasRose. Now she has the gall to be glad that she was free of the watch, when if she really was still Rose, then she wouldn't worry about being free!

"So," he said grudgingly, realising he would get no where by asking the same question to someone who was probably just as stubborn as Rose had been. He was stuck with her, he had to at least try and be civil. "How old are you?"

"I should be as old as you," she told him. "But we seem to have gotten out of sync. Including human years, I'm only 263… Wow, and you thought you were bad with regenerations!"

"Sorry?" he said.

"You're on your tenth incarnation right? Me too. Nine regenerations in 100 years… that's got to be some kind of record, right?"

"You lost nine regenerations in 100 years!" he cried aghast. "What the hell did you do?"

Rose didn't answer for a very long time, and she felt the Doctor becoming more agitated. "I ran," she whispered, not quite willing to tell him what had happened to her yet. "Doctor?" she rolled over to face him. He was still sitting up, ridged and staring off at the wall with a hurt scowl. "How many years have you been happy?"

This seemed to take him by surprise and he looked at her and blinked. "What?"

"How many years have you been happy? My guess would be hundreds. You've been running freely through time and space for so long now. And that makes you happy. I bet that even the years that you've been truly happy couldn't be counted on your hands." He looked at her, confused as to where this could be going. She took a deep breath and let it out as she closed her eyes. "Twenty-six. That's how many years I've been happy. And I've only ever been truly happy for seven." She didn't tell him that those seven years were the years she had been with him. From the day she had met him when she was three years old, to the day she was locked up, and the last two years with him. She had never felt so happy in her life. And she had lived 237 years of hell.

"You're 263 and you've only been happy for twenty-six years! What did you do the rest of the time?"

This time Rose didn't answer at all. She didn't want to talk about it. She didn't want to tell him just yet. And if she kept on talking, he was bound to figure it out. And she knew what he as like, even if his hearts were breaking, he was still curious enough to ask questions all day. And if she couldn't convince him that she was Rose, it was best to leave him to his thoughts.

Sighing, she got up off his bed and walked to the door. She placed a hand on the handle and looked back. He still looked upset and angry, but he now had that curious light in his eyes. He wanted know the answers.

"Drall wasn't the man you thought he was," she told him. "I would never even wish pain on anyone… but I'm glad he's gone."

The last thing she saw as she opened the door and walked out was the Doctor blinking in surprise. But then, just as she stepped out, another thought occurred to her. Such a horrid thought that it froze her in place and clenched her hearts painfully.

"Doctor?" she said quietly, slipping back inside.

"Yes?" He still hadn't moved.

"Y-you're not… are you going to leave me behind somewhere?" Tears welled in her eyes at the thought. Memories of him telling her that he wouldn't leave her. 'Not you' he had said. And the day she had promised him forever. Perhaps now that he thought she wasn't Rose he would want her gone. After all, she did look just the same as his 'lost love'. But that was because she was the same. She was Rose Tyler. She just needed to stick around long enough to show him that.

"No," he said flatly and just as quietly. His head was lowered and he refused to look at her. "No, you may not be her anymore, and you look so the same that the reminder is painful, but I'm not going to leave you. You wouldn't have anywhere to go, but despite that, you're my responsibility. You're stuck travelling with me for however long we have."

"Not all bad then," she tried to joke. But it failed miserably when the lump in her throat chocked up her words. And she fled the room before he could see the tears fall.

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Responsibility. He saw her as a responsibility!

She ran back to her room and jumped on the bed. Despite the fact she'd had a few hours sleep already, she was exhausted. And she was still emotionally drained from the fight with her mother, now added to that with what had just happened. She was about ready to drop. And that was saying something. When she had been trapped in Drall's homes, she had sometimes gone weeks without sleep… Not really the best plan when you were trying for an impossible escape.

She tried to sleep, but despite how exhausted she was, she just couldn't. She'd nearly drift off, but then she would remember the Doctor's expression when she had opened the watch and burst into tears. How was she going to convince him who she was, without giving away who she had been?

It was easy for him when he had regenerated; he just had to tell her some memories and then be his usual heroic self. But she was supposed to have all her human memories, and even if her personality had turned out different she would still have some of the same traits. He could never really believe it was her.

At this she began to cry even more.

She felt a nudging at the back of her mind, and a humming filled the room. She smiled as the TARDIS tried to comfort her.

"You knew all along didn't you?" she sniffed. The TARDIS let out a hum that could only be described as guilty. "I knew you liked me for a reason," she laughed. "And you knew I would be me after didn't you? That's why you wanted me to open the watch." Another affirmative hum. "So will you help me convince him?" The TARDIS gave an eager hum and Rose knew that she would do anything to help.

She wanted her Time Lord to be happy. And what made him happy was Rose. They just had to make him see that his Rose was still there… somehow.

?...DW…?

The crash rung through the room as the chair broke against the wall. Fiercely, he rubbed the tears from his eyes. He had never felt so broken, not even after the Time War.

And he couldn't even find it in himself to blame Rose. She had wanted to open it so he wouldn't be alone. He had known what those watches were like. He shouldn't have fallen asleep! Maybe then she would still be with him.

The TARDIS gave him a mental nudge. He got the gist. "What do you mean she's still here?" he said angrily. "That is not Rose, not anymore. That is a stranger in her body! She won't even tell me her name!" The TARDIS gave an angry hum. "No, she's not Rose!" he shouted in reply.

He stopped short when he felt another mental nudge, but it wasn't the TARDIS this time. It was the Time Lady. It startled him at first, he wasn't used to having anyone there anymore, but there she was. Another Time Lord presence in his mind, it had been so long since there was anyone else. Suddenly his mind didn't feel so lonely.

He had to try and stop the smile that threatened to tug the corners of his mouth. He succeeded when he realised what the nudging meant. No, she wasn't trying to communicate with him. It was her emotions. Her emotions right now were so strong that they were pushing through to anything that was even slightly telepathic. Her grief…

Well of course she was grieving. She had just woken up from being human for 21 years. And found that, not only had she technically skipped 639 years - But she was forced to travel with the man who had destroyed her home and people.

Yet oddly mixed with the grief was pure joy. For some reason she was exceedingly happy…

He could hardly blame this stranger, it wasn't her fault either. But she was more of a mystery than he was. He just wished he knew who she was.

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This one is a little short. But yeah, hopefully it's good. This is the part where my definite ideas start running out. But I still have my base line. Oh well, I'm sure you'll forgive me when (if) I write my next 'definite' idea in the next chapter. We'll see if it fits.

Anyway, hope you liked it!