Sorry it's been so long, but I was kind of freaked out when one of my stories got deleted for no apparent reason.

Disclaimer: Not mine, not mine, not mine.

Forever: Or, Four Time Ladies And A Double-Decker Bus

"Doctor, I want you to take me home."

"What?" The Doctor stuck his head up from under the floor where he'd been tinkering once again with the TARDIS. Funny, he seemed to find himself doing that a lot lately. "For heaven's sake, why?"

Rose sighed, looking at his wide puppy-dog eyes and messy hair, so exactly the same as the day she'd first seen him. "I just can't do this any more, Doctor. Gallivanting around the place irresponsibly is fine when you're a lovelorn teenager, but in case you hadn't noticed, I'm getting on a bit."

"Really?" the Doctor said, squinting. True, she'd been looking a bit more bleached an painted lately, but he'd thought she was just trying to attract his attention. "I hadn't noticed."

"Doctor," said Rose, looking rather like she was going to slap him again (that seemed to be happening a lot more often as well) "I'm ****-ing forty-six."

"So?" said the Doctor. "That's not old at all. You'd be a little, wittle baby on my planet. Aww, baby Time Lord Rose, how cute!"

After a moment considering this disturbing image, Rose continued. "I get pains in my back when we run from aliens. Dashing young men are more likely to fall in love with you than with me. And don't tell me that was just a native custom, that guy back on the swamp planet was definitely flirting with you."

The Doctor shrugged. He couldn't help it that he was just so damn attractive.

"I've thought about this a lot, and I can't stay. So I'd be much obliged if you'd drop me back on Earth."

"Well, I'm proud of you for making a tough decision," the Time Lord said, setting the coordinates.

"What?" Rose shrieked, dropping her bag in order to yell at him better. "That's it? What about all that 'I want you to stay with me forever' guff?"

"We-ell," her erstwhile traveling companion replied, pulling levers absentmindedly, "I'm just glad you came right out and said it. No hard feelings all round. Much better than when Tegan left me. She was whining all the time. So what if some people die? That's life, I say. Don't know why I ever liked her. Then there was Ace. Said I was too manipulative. Romana said I was holding her back. Holding her back! Ha! If it wasn't for me, she'd never have amounted to anything except maybe some boring high official! Of course I did kill her along with the planet later, but still. Then there was Leela and Peri and Jo. They were the really attractive ones. Left because they'd 'fallen in love' with someone who was just like me, only younger and more responsible. Then there was Mel, but quite frankly I was glad to see her go. She kept trying to get me on a diet. Me, a 900-year-old Time Lord, on a diet! The nerve! And then Grace. Stupid Grace. Kissed me and then said she wasn't brave enough to come. That was just great. Using me like that. And then there was Fitz. Ah, dear Fitz. He was quite brilliant, and he played the guitar. That leather jacket used to be his. Smoked and drank. Kept splitting into parallel universe Fitz's or something, I never could keep track. So-" He broke off at the look on Rose's face. It was very lucky for him that the TARDIS took off just then, or else he probably would have gotten the smack of his life.

After the spaceship had finished rocking, Rose picked up her bag and walked to the door. She turned to face the Doctor one last time. "You, Doctor," she pronounced, "are an idiot." Then she walked out, slamming the door behind her.

The Doctor stared for a moment, and shrugged. "That's a new one," he said as his TARDIS took off again, bound for the Magellanic Cloud.

Outside, Rose discovered that instead of being in London 2034 AD like she'd expected, she was somewhere with two suns and a great grassy plain with a dense tropical rainforest on the horizon. She sat down on a convenient rock, and laughed, and then weeped, and then took out her kit and reapplied her makeup. After that she stared out over the plain and thought of what she'd do to the Doctor if she ever saw him again.

She waited five and a half hours, just in case.

Five hours and thirty-three minutes after the Doctor had left her, she heard the familiar wheezing sound, and turned with a mixture of joy and rage to see...

... a materializing red double-decker bus, number 22.

The doors opened, and four blond women stepped out.

The first was even older than Rose but was definitely drop-dead glamorous and wearing an outfit that should have been illegal. She was also wearing a huge grin. "Need a lift, dearie?" she cackled, shaking out her long blond tresses.

The second also had long hair. She wore a slightly more modest but still very revealing red dress. Her eyes were dead and cold. "Please tell me we're not picking up another stupid human," she said dryly.

The third had hair that was just as blond and long but she was about half their height. She had a girlish, innocent look and wore an antique-looking white dress. When she spoke, however, her voice was very dry and intelligent. "Another abandoned companion, eh? My, he does tend to leave them about the place wherever he goes."

The fourth was clearly very young and wide-eyed and vivacious. She had some kind of army uniform on. "I'm not stupid!" she said to the one in the red dress. "And I'm not human, either! I'm, like, a clone or something!"

"Same difference," the one in the red dress replied.

Rose said weakly, "Hello."

The glamorous one stepped forward. "How'd you like to travel with us for a while, darling?" She extended a hand with hot-pink painted nails.

Rose looked at the hand. "Not forever," she warned.

"Definitely not," agreed the glamorous lady.

Rose shook her hand firmly. The lady laughed. "Well then, welcome aboard! Jenny, be a dear, go get us some drinks, will you? Not for yourself, mind; you're too young."

"Whatever," the teen mumbled, and slouched off.

Rose decided this could be fun.