A/N: The paragraphs in italics are what's happening to Eleven and the ones in normal text are about Rose in the parallel world.
Part Three: The Stardust Melody
by The Valiant Child
Right from the start
You were a thief
You stole my heart
And I, your willing victim
I let you see the parts of me
That weren't all that pretty
And with every touch you fixed them...
... Just give me a reason
Just a little bit's enough
Just a second we're not broken; just bent
And we can learn to love again
It's in the stars
It's been written in the scars on our hearts
We're not broken; just bent
And we can learn to love again
~Pink: Just Give Me a Reason
There's a man called the Doctor. He lives on a cloud in the sky and there was a time when all he did, all he ever did was help people and save worlds. Now, he's gone on a holiday but it's looking more and more like a retirement. A permanent one.
And word of this has spread far and wide across galaxies; to the good and the evil. Especially among the evil, and if you're really, really quiet, you can even hear some of them breathing sighs of relief.
But then, after a few months go by, the wrong people get wind of this news. The Family of Blood hear about the Doctor: the Time Lord who can live for years and years. The temptation is too strong to resist because they're dying, and they don't want to, and he's the perfect solution to their problems.
Now the Doctor is running again, but not to save civilisations and blow things up. He's running because he's being hunted.
Although, he does blow up a few things while he's at it.
Rose Tyler has been working with UNIT for a while now. Five months and eighteen days to be more precise. She doesn't particularly like them, or rather, doesn't approve of some of their methods, but she can't bring herself to lead a normal alien-free life. Not after all she's seen and been though.
Also, she doubts that UNIT will let her get away that easily. They do their best to remind her that they were the ones who'd caught her, kept her from falling into the void and brought her to their world and even helped her meet the Doctor for the last time in Dårlig Ulv Stranden.
Her designated title is "consultant," but sometimes she feels more like a prisoner.
There is a Doctor in this Universe. But Rose doesn't try to find him. She thinks about it sometimes but it's not that easy, she tells herself. This Doctor isn't her Doctor. Her Doctor is too far away, and this life right here is all she has left.
Even so, more often than not, she finds herself looking for a blue Police Box on street corners with a man in a bowtie and a promise of the stars.
He's been running for days now, and the TARDIS is in a dire need for a refuel, but he can't stop or the Family will catch up. He occasionally contemplates dealing with the Family and getting this over with but he still continues running. Part of him likes it. The chase momentarily keeps his thoughts away from what he has lost.
Just a few more months, he tells himself. He's doing the Family a kindness. Rose would want that.
But then the TARDIS breaks down and crashes. At a little girl's backyard no less. The Doctor hasn't been this frustrated in a long while. It's just been longing, brooding, crying and avoiding friends who've been concerned for him since he lost Rose. (Except Jackie. He only picked up calls from her. She lost Rose too.)
"Oh, look," he smiles and tells the little girl after he's done screaming at his TARDIS. "I'm experiencing frustration. Ha! Haven't done that in a while."
The little girl thinks that he's possibly crazy.
Nonetheless, she'd asked for a policeman and his box says "Police" (the same box he is now calling names that she's positive are not meant for her young ears), so she asks boldly, "Are you here about the crack in my wall?"
She is sure that this is her life for however long she has left. She's had her phase of denial and has come to accept that the Doctor really is gone.
But the Universe is huge and ridiculous. And sometimes, there are miracles...
She's called in over a case involving ATMOS, the Atmospheric Omission System, and that's when she meets Martha Jones. Rose is more than a little surprised when after she introduces herself, the medical officer covers her mouth in shock and then hurls herself into a tight hug that squeezes all the air out of Rose.
"Oh my God," Martha exclaims. "Does he know you're here?"
"Um, does who know that I'm here?" Rose asks cautiously.
Martha's eyebrows rise almost all the way to her hairline.
"Wait right here," she says. "Just...please, wait right here. I'll be back in a moment."
Before Rose can formulate a reply, Martha is pulling out her phone and running as fast as she can as she dials.
"...two parts of time and space that should have never touched...pressed together. Right here in the wall of your bedroom."
He starts to feel a little more alive again now that he's staring at the face of another adventure. Oh, how he's missed this. A crack in the universe, a little Scottish girl living in an empty house that shouldn't be empty, and an escaped prisoner; just the thing he needs.
But of course, the Universe has other plans.
There's a loud crash somewhere outside and a tremor follows. The Family has found him. He has to run. Cracks and prisoners can wait.
"What was that?" Amelia asks.
Yes, cracks and prisoners can wait, but he can't leave little Amelia Pond here. She'll end up fodder for the Family.
"We have to go." He grabs her hand and makes a dash for the front door.
"Why? What's going on?" she demands.
The Doctor turns around abruptly and presses his lips together. "You know when grown-ups tell you, 'everything's gonna be fine' and you think they're probably lying to make you feel better?"
"Yes," she answers.
"Everything's gonna be fine," he says.
There's a man in blue pinstripes and a light brown coat with the craziest—but also very nearly the coolest—hair she has ever seen staring at her like he's seen a ghost. Beside him, Martha has the biggest grin while the red-haired woman standing on the other side is simply confused. Rose is, too. Very confused.
"Um," she says tentatively. "Hello."
The man takes a step forward, but it's more like a stumble.
"Hello," he squeaks.
They run far and wide, right to the Medusa Cascade when he realises that he can't run anymore. The TARDIS is bone tired and now with Amelia Pond with him, he can't risk it. The Family will have to get what they've been asking for.
He braces himself against the console and closes his eyes; his head hangs low. He doesn't want to do this.
"What's that song?" Amelia asks.
His eyes snap open, and he can hear it too. It's haunting, yet happy; familiar, yet strange; old and yet something so very new...it is the song of the stars and of time. He's heard it before.
There's a burst of gold but he doesn't close or avert his eyes and soon enough, when it subsides, she's there...standing in front of him in all her golden glory: Rose Tyler, the Bad Wolf. She doesn't say anything at first, merely stares as though she hasn't seen him in forever. He feels the same way.
"Hello," she whispers hesitantly.
"Hello," he whispers back.
At first, his face falls when he realises that she doesn't recognise him. Then, it gets worse when she tells him that she's from a parallel world. He looks like he's been punched in the stomach.
She, on the other hand, isn't all very surprised. She'd known that she might end up meeting the Doctor here. She's also not very fazed to see that he looks entirely different from her Doctor (they had breached the regeneration conversation after she'd almost lost him in one adventure). In fact, that makes it easier for her not to hug the life out of him then and there.
There's a crisis outside, but none of them care. The Doctor is leaning against the wall with his eyes on the ceiling and his hands in his pockets. Rose is standing all the way across the room, leaning on the wall opposite him.
"I'm sorry," she mumbles. It comes out so quiet that she thinks that he probably can't hear her, but he does. His eyes immediately snap towards her.
"What for?" he asks, almost as softly.
"I'm not her," she says.
The Doctor's gaze holds hers for a long moment before he leans away from the wall and starts walking towards her.
"But you are Rose. Rose Marion Tyler," he says. "Not the same Rose that I've known, but you are Rose."
She tries not to cry, but when his arms wrap around her and she realises that he smells the same as her Doctor and she can hear the double beat of his twin hearts, she breaks down. She'd been thinking that she'd had her fill of crying. Hours in the Ghost Shift room, hours in the beach at Dårlig Ulv Stranden, and months and months later every night as she slept and dreamt. But here she is, crying again as he holds her just like he's always had (which makes it worse because this him is not really hers), and he's gently rocking her to and fro.
This time, he's the one apologising.
His hugs have never been so tight before. Then again, they've never been apart for so long before. She can feel him shaking ever so slightly, and the moisture on her shoulder where his head is buried is proof that he's crying. Again. He's being doing that a lot lately, he absently realises.
"Don't go," he pleads into her hair. "Please, please, please, don't go."
"I'll find you," Rose reassures. Or tries to. She can tell that he's not convinced from the way his hold only tightens further.
"I don't want you to leave." His voice cracks.
"I don't want to," she admits. "But I can't stay."
"Why?" he asks. He sounds almost angry now.
"Because if I do, I'll burn."
That snaps him to his senses in an instant.
"I'll find you," she tells him again. "I will find you, Doctor."
"How can you know that?" he asks.
"Because I can see it," she answers. "I can see everything. All that is, all that was, all that ever could be."
He leans down and kisses her.
"I'll wait," he murmurs just as she vanishes into a burst of gold. He closes his eyes this time and when he opens them, he sees that the TARDIS's Chameleon Arch has been lowered.
After the Sontarans are gone and the world has been saved, he invites her to travel to the stars with him. She doesn't know if this is a good or a bad idea, but she can't bring herself to say no.
They are hurled into an adventure almost immediately. You can expect nothing less from a company so brilliantly mad. And maybe, that's a good thing. Having something to do leaves little room for the Doctor and Rose to be awkward around each other.
They save words, dabble with explosives, get imprisoned, hold hands and run. It doesn't feel as natural as it used to, but it isn't uncomfortable either.
They go to a library once. Actually it's THE Library. A library that's the size of a planet and to quote him, it's, "so big, it doesn't need a name. Just a great, big THE." But of course, it isn't just a simple visit. Nothing for them is simple. Not even their relationship. Especially their relationship.
There's more running and more aliens and things get even stranger with the appearance of a certain Professor. Professor River Song, Archaeologist; who knows far too much about everything and everyone than the Doctor is comfortable with. He distrusts her, but Rose feels strangely drawn. She can hear a song when the Professor is near.
"Trust her," Rose prompts.
"What?"
"You can trust Melody," Rose says.
Professor Song visibly flinches.
"Rose—" the Doctor starts.
"Trust her," Rose insists harder.
The Doctor frowns but relents.
In the end, River saves them all. And the Doctor saves River.
Donna keeps a close eye over the interaction between the Doctor and Rose, frowning all the while. It's like they're trying to get close and avoid each other at the same time. They get restless if they're not in the same room, and shy and awkward if they are. It's infuriating.
When they aren't off saving civilisations and defeating evil aliens, they spend most of their time in the TARDIS library: the Doctor in one corner and Rose in another, both throwing sad, longing looks (which almost makes Donna gag and cry at the same time) when the other isn't looking.
But they still hold hands and hug after every adventure. This is the only time when no one is stammering or blushing or pining away from a distance. This is a time when things feel almost normal. Donna thinks that there might be hope yet.
One time, with Rose and Donna's insistence, the Doctor decides to get a few hours of sleep. It's been a few weeks for him and it has come to the point where there're bags under his eyes. He can't find the energy to argue so he simply collapses into his bed. Or rather, Rose's bed. His Rose's, that is. They've switched rooms. As neither Rose not the Doctor felt quite comfortable with Rose using his Rose's bedroom, he'd offered her his own. Of course there are several spare rooms in the TARDIS and they're both aware of the fact but neither brings it up and merely sticks to this arrangement.
A couple of hours later, when Rose exits the shower and wanders around her designated room (which is surprisingly messy, especially considering how it's actual owner never really spends time in it anyway), looking for clean towels, she's more than a little surprised to suddenly find herself in the arms of a very upset Time Lord. She is concerned about him, but she's also very aware that she's very, very naked.
He, however, doesn't seem to have noticed.
"Um, Doctor?" she begins.
He makes a small noise of acknowledgement at the back of his throat.
"I, um...I'm...not...um, wearing anything," she mumbles with embarrassment.
"Oh." His voice turns incredibly squeaky, but he isn't letting go. There is a long moment of awkward silence before he springs away and hurriedly covers his eyes with a hand.
"I'm sorry," he says. His face is as red as his trainers. "I didn't...um, I should have knocked. I'm so sorry."
She assures him that it's okay, even though she's blushing just as much as he is. As she rushes about to put some clothes on, he hurries to tell her that he didn't see anything. Or feel anything. He's wearing too many layers to have noticed and he was very upset at that moment as well. Plus, he wouldn't have done that—hugged her while she was naked—if he had known that she was naked. He isn't that sort of a man. He doesn't sexually assault companions. Well, he just did, but it was an accident! He didn't mean to. Honest. He's very sorry.
He thinks that she's going to slap him, but she laughs and hugs him instead. He doesn't move. His eyes are still closed.
"Rose? Um, are you still...er..." he trails off.
"No," she says.
He sighs in relief, opens his eyes and hugs her back.
He can no longer remember what his nightmare was about.
Once, Rose gets taken by an evil dictator on an alien planet they visit. Donna has never seen the Doctor so angry and so scared at the same time.
They want her as a sacrifice. Apparently, that's what the kings do to anyone with blonde hair on this planet. They think that they can gain more power by doing so. The Doctor hadn't known, and Donna knows that he's blaming himself as he frantically rushes about to find Rose.
It doesn't take very long. She manages to escape on her own, and she finds him instead. It's not like either of them haven't been kidnapped by aliens before, but never has Rose seen such sheer panic on the Doctor's face. Or such blind hatred when he sees the dried blood on her forehead.
She tries to tell him that she's fine, but she's too weak and too tired, and before she knows it, she's collapsed into his arms.
Donna has never had to work so hard to convince the Doctor not to burn down the entire city. In the end, he settles for overthrowing the king and his allies.
He doesn't let go of Rose's hand for months after that.
Trouble hits in Midnight next.
Rose does not know the exact details of what happened in the shuttle to the Sapphire Waterfalls, but she knows the gist of it. She'd stayed back with Donna who had insisted that they get to have some time for a little "girl talk."
She regrets it now. So does Donna. Especially when they see the look on the Doctor's face when he gets back to them.
That night, Rose doesn't go to sleep. Instead, she stays with the Doctor in the console room, helping him repair things that aren't really broken. They talk about everything and nothing and leave no room for silence. They even dance to Glen Miller. This Doctor is really good at it.
Hours later, Donna wakes up to find the Doctor under the console, tinkering aimlessly and talking a hundred miles per hour about this oriental planet of Shan Shen where he thinks they should go next. She clears his throat to get his attention and points at Rose who has fallen asleep in the jump seat with his long brown coat wrapped around her.
He carries her back to her bed and it is then that he realises that she might not be his Rose and he might not be her Doctor but they're still the Doctor and Rose. They're still best friends. He lays her under the covers and reaches out to gently brush a strand of hair from her face. She smiles in her sleep, and he leans down and kisses her on her forehead and closes the door behind him.
They don't go to Shan Shen next but to Wickery (which is known for its vibrant gift shops) when he realises that it's Rose's birthday in a few days. He sneaks away from her and Donna when they're distracted and sets off to find something that Rose would like.
When the day arrives, he hands her a messily wrapped box with a grin on his face that is as wide as the Cheshire Cat's. Inside lies a music box, or rather, a sphere. It's transparent but turns smoky and plays songs that compliment the mood of the person who is holding it. The smoke inside also changes colours accordingly. His grin widens further at her sheer delight.
Later, he and Donna try to bake a cake for Rose. It's an ever bigger disaster than what happened on her last birthday. The kitchen looks like a battle ground when she walks in to find the Doctor and Donna yelling at each other.
"We'd have had a perfect cake if you hadn't meddled with the oven, you dumbo!"
"This is not my fault!"
"Yes, it is! I'll make it more sonic, you said. It'll be better, you said. Well, I don't like your definition of better."
The Doctor is about to retort when Rose can't help it anymore and bursts out laughing. The kitchen is a right mess, but they look even worse. Donna looks like an entire bag of flour exploded on her face, and the Doctor has chocolate smudges all over. Even in his hair.
The Doctor frowns. "This isn't funny, Rose. Your cake is ruined."
Rose shakes her head and gives Donna a thank you hug and then stands on her tiptoes to kiss the Doctor's cheek.
"Let's have chips instead," she suggests.
She's coming back. His Rose is coming back.
But it's also the end of the world. Not that anyone expected any less.
Rose is unnaturally quiet the entire time, and Donna thinks that it's because she's afraid that she's going to lose the Doctor. When she moves to talk to Rose about it, Rose looks at her with glassy eyes and asks, "Can you hear it?"
"Hear what?"
"The singing," Rose says. She sounds distressed. "It's the same song I heard around Melody."
Donna doesn't understand and almost all of Rose's sentences start making even less sense after that. The Doctor is scared now. The Earth is missing, they have no leads, and Rose is acting mad. He doesn't know what's going on and not knowing has him even more on edge.
"Can't you hear it?" Rose demands.
The Doctor shakes his head solemnly and guides her to the jump seat.
The singing gets even worse after the find the Earth.
When the Doctor steps out into the street that looks like a ghost town, Rose can barely make it to the TARDIS doors. The singing is so loud now, that it's drowning everything else.
She stumbles out somehow and can see that the Doctor is running like his life depends on it. Far ahead, she can see herself running towards him with the biggest smile on her face. They don't see the Dalek but she does. Just as it yells, "EXTER-MIN-ATE," the song in Rose's head reaches crescendo and the Dalek disappears among swirls of gold. There is only dust left.
Rose faints.
She's falling with the TARDIS.
While the others stepped into the Dalek Crucible, the song held her back. Then the door had closed in her face, and then she was falling.
The song draws her to the console and as the TARDIS starts to burn, a hatch opens and all she sees is gold. She's been drawn to this moment for so long now. The song reaches its peak, and in that moment she can see everything. All of time and space. She knows what she has to do.
"Let go, Rose," the Doctor pleads.
This is just like the other time.
She doesn't think she can. But she has to. She has done what she created herself for. She has saved her Doctor in the Game Station, saved him again from having to destroy the Family and now saved him and everyone else from Davros and his Reality Bomb. Every Dalek in the ship is now nothing but dust.
And if she doesn't let go now, she knows what he will do. He can't die here, she knows. She's seen how it happens, and this isn't it.
The burn that is spreading inside her is making it hard to concentrate though.
"I don't know how," she says. There's a hint of fear in her voice.
"Listen to the song." The other Rose tells her all of a sudden.
"Song?" she vaguely hears the Doctor ask. She's already doing as instructed.
The singing is still very loud but it no longer hurts. Instead, it chases away the burn that was spreading through her, and the gold that swirls around her moves back into the TARDIS. Before she collapses, strong arms catch her.
She can't handle it when she wakes up. She can still hear the song, and there is an insistent drumbeat hammering at the base of her skull.
"Make it stop," she moans. She's not sure whom she's asking. She just wants it to stop.
"I'm sorry," the Doctor tells her. "I'm so sorry."
"What's happening?" she asks. She's scared now.
"You absorbed the Time Vortex," he explains. "That by itself is very dangerous, but you absorbed the vortex of a world you are not from. Even after you've let go of the power, it's still killing you."
She doesn't know what to say. She doesn't want to die.
"There's something I can do though," he says.
"What?"
"You'll have to forget me," he begins, and she immediately starts protesting.
"You'll remember your Doctor," he hurriedly says. "You'll just be forgetting the past months since you've met me and travelled in the TARDIS. You'll still remember him."
"But I don't want to forget you," she says.
There's moisture in his eyes. "You'll have to. I can't let you die, Rose. And I promise that I'll try to find your Doctor. There might still be some cracks in the Universe. I'll find him for you."
"What'll happen to me after I forget?"
"Jack will take care of you," he tells her.
Rose sniffs and hugs him. "Thank you for everything."
"Thank you, too." He says.
A song lights up the room when she wakes up. It's a bittersweet melody.
Rose notices that she doesn't recognise the room she is in. Neither does she know where the strange sphere that she's holding came from. She feels oddly attached to it though. It's the thing that's playing the song.
She sits up and examines the object carefully. It's transparent and inside it swirls a curious smoke. It's sort of like the Rememberall from Harry Potter, only it's like a music box and the smoke inside it is sort of...brown. She can't describe the exact shade but it gives her a warm feeling...like the kind you get from a mug of hot chocolate in a snowy day. And it reminds her of books for some reason. Old, worn, brown leather bound books that contain a pantheon on never ending knowledge. She also gets an image of a smile. A bright grin with lots of teeth in a face full of freckles.
It makes her smile too and when she looks closer at the sphere, she can see swirls of yellow amongst the brown. They surprisingly remind her of bananas, which is rather strange. And also a bit of a burning sun.
It reminds her of a goodbye.
She listens to it for a while longer before she places the sphere on the bedside table and wanders out. Her mouth falls open when she sees who's sitting on the other room.
"Jack," she whispers.
He swivels around to face here. There a large grin on his face.
"Rosie!"
She runs to hug him, and he spins her around. She hasn't been this happy since she came to this world. She doesn't even care at the moment that this Jack might not be her Jack. It's been months since Canary Warf, but for some reason she feels like she's just lost the Doctor again and having Jack here makes things easier.
From the corner of her eye, she sees a man in a pinstriped suit—who'd been standing by the door—leave the room.
Two weeks later, she's walking back to her flat from work when she hears a sound that she'd thought she would never hear again.
She runs to the source as fast as her legs can carry her. She's almost afraid that it might disappear before she can get to it. But when she turns around a corner and steps into an alley behind a department store, it's still there. She takes each step slowly and cautiously. She feels like her heart is trying to break through her rib cage and jump out and run into the TARDIS before she does.
She fishes out the key that's always hanging around her neck and fits it into the lock and turns it.
When she opens the door, the first thing she hears is the panicked voice of a child. Rose sees her then. It's a red-haired girl around seven or eight and she's shaking the unconscious body of a man lying on the floor.
"Doctor!" Rose cries as she runs over.
Just as she kneels over to him, the monitor on the console lights up.
"This working?" the Doctor in the video says as he taps the screen. "Rose? Are you there? Well, I'm guessing you are. This video is only programmed to start up if the TARDIS detects your presence inside it. Anyway, I know that you're probably confused but things are about to get even more wibby-wobby. By the time you find me, I'll have turned into a human..."
A/N: So, was it any good? It's much longer than the previous chapter so it took a while for me to finish. I'm sorry that there's so little Eleven and Rose interaction but at least you get lots of Ten. And I just LOVED writing him. Makes me want to write more...which leads me to think that I might write a bonus chapter at the end of this fic. It'll focus on Ten and his Rose and what happens after this Rose left. Maybe I'll throw in a little Eleven and Rose as well. So, what do you say? Would you want to read that or should that plot bunny be chucked into the trash?
And who's looking forward to sassy little Amelia Pond in the next chapter?
Anyway, thank you for all your kind reviews in the previous chapter. And for adding this story to your favourites list and following it. Knowing that there are people reading this makes me write more and faster. So a great big thanks to the following: SittingOnTheEdgeOfTheUnivers e, xAppleDownx , blue sky, JollyRoger1, Laikayanel, The Doctor Rose , keepcalmandcoldplayon, Arella1, Independent.C , Klexenia, Konran no Tenshi, NicNack4U, Rude and Slightly Ginger, Trivial Pursuit, aLphAkiTTy, magic blue box, mmendoza688, xRoguexRavenx, Acoustic Dancer, Blue0007, FallToPeices, Thunder31, aquarius15, fairyfaum, and nastya. bartlby.
Also, a shoutout to Valerie E. Mackin for being a fantastic beta reader.
Look out for Part Four and don't forget to leave a review. :)