Authors note: I had spent weeks trying to work out how to write the Voyage of the Damned without having the Doctor getting involved with Astrid but Astrid not fading in the background. It got to the point where I gave up and decided to do a cop out and do this instead. I hope you like it. Please review.
After the dreaded titanic incident the Doctor found Rose packing all off her clothes into a box.
"What are you doing?" he asked "are you moving out?" he was starting to panic. Were the deaths on the Titanic the last straw? Is Rose leaving for good?
"These clothes don't feel like me" she said "I wore them when I was nineteen and young. I no longer feel young and god knows how old I am actually"
"Oh" he sighed with relieve "need any help?"
"No thanks" she said "the TARDIS is perfectly capable of helping me pick out a new style. You being a guy will only get in the way"
"Oi! Cheek!" he admonished
She chuckled lightly as she walked down the corridor towards the wardrobe room. As she started shuffling through the clothes she could feel tears building up in her eyes. She won't admit it to the Doctor but the last adventure upset her in more ways than one. She liked those people. All of them and they died. One by one.
Astrid Peth, a beautiful, sassy waitress. She reminded Rose of her sister Gwen, of her mother Jackie, of her friend Martha. She was going to travel with them like Gwen and Martha did.
But she died. She died helping save the world. Sacrificing her for them. Her sight blurred and tears fell freely. They never stayed. Gwen and Martha. Jack, Adam, Mickey. Even Donna who was there on accident didn't want to stay.
It was nice with a third person. It gave her and the Doctor a bit of freedom. It gave her someone to gossip with and giggle with while the Doctor tinkered with the TARDIS.
She dried her tears on a long woolly scarf from the Doctor's fourth incarnation (when he showed her the pictures she laughed till a rib cracked) and blew her nose on it (it's not like he was ever going to wear it again). Astrid was free; Rose had to remember that, she was stardust, flying along the skies.
She started her search for a new wardrobe again when a certain outfit caught her eye. It was the Doctor's ninth incarnation outfit. Something about it inspired her. Soon enough she had a box filled with black jeans, black suit trousers and the occasional black skirt, she had a box filled with dark green and dark purple t-shirts, blouses and tank tops, and she had a box filled with black leather jackets, black suit jackets and the occasional cardigan. She threw in a few dark coloured converses and a few black boots.
She looked up and caught her reflection. She was still wearing the grand black dress she wore in the Titanic. Did she subconsciously know it was the colour she was going to favour when she got dressed? Who knows, all she knew was it was time to move on to the next adventure.
And it was going to be fantastic.