On the Tardis

The Doctor, still pacing around the control room, didn't notice when Martha entered, desperately trying to compose herself. The tears she'd been crying had left damp streaks on her face and she quickly wiped them away with her sleeve. She stopped walking when she reached the side of the consol opposite the Doctor. He was continuing to pace, and Martha was afraid that if he didn't stop, he'd wear a hole into the Tardis floor. He was muttering incoherent words, most in English, but some in a language that she didn't understand. She figured that it was his native language, but she didn't ask.

After standing there for what seemed like hours, he still hadn't acknowledged her presence, so she cleared her throat. The Doctor stopped mid-step and turned to face her, his expression unreadable. He looked as though he'd been crying, but she couldn't be sure.

He just stared at her for a few seconds, clearly deep in thought. When he did speak, it startled Martha, and she jumped.

"I'm sorry, Martha," he told her, his gaze dropping to the floor.

"Yeah, well, you should be! How could you call me 'Rose'? How could you do that? You just can't get over her, can you?" she yelled, not caring whether she hurt him or not.

The moment she had began yelling, the Doctor's mouth had dropped open. Martha was usually so collected, and the outburst proved she was very upset.

Martha turned away from the Doctor, new tears forming in her eyes. The Doctor didn't know what to do, so he just stood there and shoved his hands into his pants pockets, and action that his current regeneration did often, he'd noticed.

Martha quickly wiped her tears away, but didn't turn back to face the Doctor. Many thoughts were swimming through her head, but one thought seemed to cover the rest.

"I have to go home," she finally addressed him, still refusing to look at him.

She heard the Doctor sigh deeply, and then a barely audible, "Alright."

He watched Martha leave him to go pack her things, and then he turned his attention to the consol. He began to push different buttons, pull levers, hit things, all sorts of motions, but his expression was solemn. He hated losing companions, and he didn't know if he'd ever see Martha again. He didn't really know her that well, but she was still his companion. But, of course, even with his current companion leaving him, his thoughts soon drifted back to Rose. He ran his hand through his unruly brown hair, trying to shake her from his mind. He didn't want to stop thinking about her, but he certainly didn't want to call Martha 'Rose' again. Nope, he didn't want to regenerate again anytime soon, thank you.

He set the co-ordinates for Earth in the year 2008. The Tardis immediately jerked and began the journey. Rose still hadn't left the Doctor's thoughts, but he soon found something to concentrate on. The interior of the Tardis had a soft pink glow, and the Doctor could hear this beautiful singing inside his head, a melody of time and space itself. It was the Tardis, and she was

"Happy? Why are you happy? Don't get me wrong. I'm happy you're happy, but why are you happy all of a sudden?" The Doctor asked, totally bewildered at how she could possibly be happy at a time like this.

She's leaving.

"Oi! Since when did you go anti-companion?" The Doctor asked, utterly confused.

I am not anti-companion. There are just a few that I don't like, that's all. Martha happens to be at the top of that list. She's not right for this life.

"I'm beginning to think that no one is right for this life," The Doctor sighed.

A Pause.

Rose was.

The Doctor sighed and answered, "Yes, she was, Tardis, but I lost her."

Another pause.

Oh, Theta, you haven't lost her yet.

The Doctor's head jerked up from looking down at the consol.

"What?!" he loudly demanded, his eyes glancing this way and that, concentrating on his telepathic link to his ship.

You will understand with time, Theta.

The link between them closed, and he didn't hear the Tardis' voice again.

If he thought that his mind was racing before, now it was threatening to burst.

'It can't be. She's…I mean, she's trapped in Pete's World. She can't…No, she can't get back. I closed the rift. It's impossible,' he thought, again pacing the Tardis' control room.

Martha again interrupted his unending pacing, carrying three bags filled with clothes. This time, the Doctor noticed her due to the sound of the bags rubbing against her legs as she shuffled towards the consol. He turned towards her. She looked deep in thought, and he couldn't say that he himself wasn't. The Tardis had completely caught him off guard.

Martha searched the Doctor's eyes for any sign of remorse or sadness at her decision to leave, but as usual, his emotions were hidden behind an unseen mask he kept firmly in place at all times. She continued to walk towards the consol and him, and when she reached it, she sat her bags on the floor. That's when she noticed the change in the interior color of the Tardis.

"What's with the pink?" She asked him, pointing to the walls vaguely.

The Doctor panicked. He couldn't tell her the truth. It would break her heart further than it already was, so he lied.

"She's sad," He quietly answered, glancing at the walls for effect, and then running his right hand through his hair and turning his eyes back to her.

The Doctor heard a very annoyed humming from the Tardis, but he didn't pay much attention to it.

Martha smiled, and replied, "I'll miss her."

The Doctor suddenly found his shoes very interesting. Just as he began to think that the image of his converse shoes would be imprinted in his vision for the rest of time, the Tardis jerked, signifying their arrival to Martha's present day Earth.

Martha and the Doctor just stood there for a few seconds. The Doctor's eyes had moved from his shoes to Martha's bags. Martha had fixed her eyes on the Doctor's.

"Is this, for sure, what you want?" He asked, his tone understanding.

Martha paused before answering, but replied, "Yeah, I mean…I just can't take any more of your beating yourself up over Rose, your crying 'cause you lost her, your calling me 'Rose'."

Halfway through her reply, actually the first time she mentioned Rose, the Doctor's eyes had dropped again to the floor. He again just stared at the cold hard floor of the Tardis. Midway through the thought about making the Tardis' floor a better sight to look at, because it seemed his gaze very frequently visited the dull base of his ship, when he realized Martha had stopped talking. So, he looked up. She was staring at him with the most annoyed expression that could ever be upon a human's face.

"What? Are you back inside the Tardis now?" She sarcastically asked him, rolling her eyes.

"Sorry. I kind of spaced out there for a minute. I was actually thinking about redoing….." He began, but stopped when he saw the look on Martha's eyes.

She just lightly shook her head, as if to further convince herself to leave. The Doctor accepted her decision, and watched as she slowly picked up her bags and again looked at him.

"It's been fun, really, but…." Martha began, but trailed off.

"I know," The Doctor whispered.

"….I just can't," Martha returned, new tears forming in her eyes, but she quickly wiped them away and regained composure, "So, I'm going. Thanks, Doctor, for everything you've shown me. I'll use it, I promise."

"I know you will, Martha Jones. I know you will," He answered, his voice still quiet.

"So I guess this is goodbye," Martha presumed.

"It would appear so," The Doctor replied.

"Well,…..goodbye," Martha whispered, and made for the door.

"Goodbye," The Doctor again whispered, but he knew that Martha had heard him.

Martha exited the Tardis, and admired her surroundings.

"What?!" She cried, dropping her bags.

After regaining her use of movement, she turned back towards the Tardis, but it was already dematerializing, heading off somewhere far away to some planet that she'd never seen before.

"Doctor! Wait! You've dropped me off at the wrong planet!" She screamed, but to no avail.

The Doctor and his tardis were gone. Martha turned back to her surroundings and took them in, observing every detail of this planet for any similarity between it and Earth, praying that she'd just gotten excited, and that this really was Earth. But, after about five minutes, she confirmed:

"Nope, definitely not Earth."

Parallel Earth

Rose walked slowly home, paying little attention to the tiny droplets of rain falling from the sky, slightly dampening her blonde hair. She couldn't feel it, not anymore. Her headache had gotten worse. The smallest thing seemed to set it off. Her mum said that it was from working so many hours at Torchwood, but she knew better. At first, she thought there was something wrong with her brain, but she denied that after the doctors at Torchwood told her that her brain was completely ordinary. Completely bloody ordinary. That's what her life was now, without him. Ordinary. She hated every second, from the moment she climbed out of bed to the second she climed back in, because...he wasn't there. She imagined him, now, walking beside her, holding her hand, talking to her about some far off planet she'd never ever see.

"Never say never ever, Rose," She whispered, her lower lip quivering.

She walked on until she reached the Powell Mansion, and then took shelter under the huge weeping willow in the front yard. Its branches were extremely long. They draped around her, sheilding her from this ordinary life. There, beneath those branches, sheilded from the world, she could just...be. With her Doctor. She imagined him sitting next to her, adn she even talked back to him, even though he really wasn't there. She had told him a million times how much she loved him, even though it wasn't her real Doctor. She still meant it. She'd always mean it.