Rose drummed her fingers nervously on the TARDIS console. This Doctor was so different from the Doctors she had always known and... loved. Yes, she had loved him, although she only told him once, that day on the beach. He had loved her too, she thought, or least he did when he had his other face. She wondered if this Doctor cared about her in the same way hers had. How much had he changed this time? He seemed more... childish, she thought, as she watched him chatter on the way he often did. At least that hadn't changed.
"And then I just... appeared! The TARDIS must've found a way into your universe, I didn't even think that was possible, or that you'd want to come after all this time, and this new face... look at it! Look at the chin! And the hair! I thought I was a girl! Oh, Rose, how I've missed you." the Doctor ran to her and took her in his arms. "I will never leave you again." he whispered into her hair. He felt so different, yet so familiar to her. And he still cared. She started to tear up with happiness and relief.
"Doctor..." she stepped back a bit and stared into his eyes. "I've... I've waited... so long..."
"I know. Oh, Rose, I know. I thought I would never see you again." He pulled her back into an embrace and they stayed that way for several minutes.
When the TARDIS landed, they stepped out, blinking, into the blinding light. After their eyes had adjusted to the light, Rose saw that they were on a ship of some sort, crawling with little white blob-like creatures.
"They're adorable!" she exclaimed. "Doctor, what are they?"
"Adipose! Little blobs made of fat that can grow to almost twice the size of a human male. I suppose they are a bit 'cute', aren't they? I wonder why the TARDIS brought us here, unless there's something going on..." He pulled the sonic out of his coat and scanned the room, but there seemed to be nothing amiss as far as he could tell. "A window!" The Doctor ran to the small, circular porthole and peered out. Far below, standing on top of a tall building, stood two figures. One wore a long, billowing coat, and the other had fiery red hair. They were waving, as if it was completely normal to wave politely at a ship full of fat. "Rose! Rose, come look! It's me and Donna!"
"Donna? Is that the red haired one?" Rose ran to stand beside the Doctor, looking out at the figures from the past. His past, but not hers.
"One of them, yeah. I remember this! The Adipose grew from human fat, disguised themselves as weight-loss pills, then popped out in the middle of the night until they had enough to fill the ship! Completely harmless. Of course, when Donna and I found them out, they started turning whole people into adipose instead of just the fat, sped up the process and all that, but other than that, fantastic little creatures, adipose." He beamed. Rose laughed. She had missed him so much... When the meta-crisis Doctor was still alive, some days she would almost convince herself that he was the real Doctor, about to whisk her away on some fantastic adventure. But he never did, and then he died one day, hit by a car on his way to work. He didn't regenerate. Rose had been alone for years now, pining for her Doctor. But now he was here, he really had come for her, and he was just as wonderful as he had been when she knew him. She grabbed his hand and pulled him back into the TARDIS.