A/N: Alright, we're almost done! One more chapter after this, maybe possibly two ... Anyway, I hope you enjoy this!

Disclaimer: It is more likely that Fox will come to it's senses and bring back Firefly than that I will ever own Doctor Who or the amazing video by Seduff that this story is based on.

Nobody Sees

Chapter 3: Pick You Up, Play Your Fool

"Who's gonna pick you up? Who's gonna bend your rules? Who's gonna be your prop? Who's gonna play your fool?"

John was still there – just outside Rose's flat, in her flat. Echos of him – memories of him haunted her. She would wake up in the middle of the night, convinced that she heard his footsteps on the stairs. Not someone else's – his. She had long ago memorized his sound.

But every time she went to check, every time she looked outside her door, she saw nothing. The sound of his footsteps, the smell of his favorite tea faded as soon as she looked for him. She had kicked him out – John was really gone, but yet, he was still here. It was torture because she was starting to realize what she was missing. She'd wanted to forget, but she kept being reminded of him. And so, it was impossible. She couldn't forget. But what was the alternative?

Memories constantly popped into her head uninvited. They weren't even profound memories. They weren't memories of amazing places, of fantastic love making, of people they'd met. No these were simple memories, and some how, they hurt even more than any others ever could. They were memories of John's smile and the way she'd smiled back at him. Memories of their happiness before she'd got it all wrong.

Because Rose had finally realized that she had gotten it all wrong. Being with out him, and alone with her thoughts, had some how made everything clear. John was the Doctor. She didn't know why it had taken her so long to figure that out. She really was a stupid ape … Honestly! He'd been trying to tell her that from the beginning – that he wasn't just a consolation prize. He was her best friend, the one who'd grabbed her hand, the one she'd run with for years, the one who loved her! It was like when the Doctor had regenerated, changing from a daft alien with big ears into a skinny, rude, and not ginger one. He'd changed but he had still been … himself. John had just one heart but it was hers and he was still the Doctor. How could she not how realized that before now?

It had to have been because she had been so disappointed. She had torn through the barriers of time and space to get to the Doctor and he'd rejected her (never mind the fact that he'd done it so that she could be happy). And then, just when she'd started to welcome happiness with John, she'd been reminded of that heartbreak and the reason for it. All the issues she'd pushed to the side when the Doctor had left began to resurface, ruining everything, and rather illogically, she had longed for the man who had run away in the first place. She hated him and, because he was unattainable, she wanted him.

She'd forgotten that the Doctor given her himself.

John was still the one she had ran with, the one that had made her laugh, the one she had lost.

Except- he was found.

He wasn't lost anymore.

He wasn't unattainable anymore.

John was the Doctor, found and hers.

And he'd given her a chance at happiness - a chance she had ruined.

Was that something she could fix?

Maybe it was, maybe it wasn't. All Rose knew was that she needed John. She needed him back – now. She was ready to call him, to apologize to him, to beg him to come back. She would talk to him for hours about how she was wrong and how she really needed him – if only he'd come back.

She had her phone in her hand. She was ready to call.

But what if he didn't want her anymore?

What if she'd hurt him too much?

Unbidden, she heard his voice in her head.

I'll love you for the rest of my life.

She'd been the unfaithful one. He never would be.

She made the decision and pressed call.


John was alone. Physically and in his thoughts. Such depressing things he thought as he sat at his desk in his hotel room. He'd never expected things to turn out this way. Neither of them had. No one had. Yet, this was how things had turned out. He'd lost the love of his life – of his lives – and he was alone.

John was startled out of his reverie by the shrill ringing of his phone which lay in front of him. He absentmindedly wondered who it was. He wondered, that is, until he saw the name that flashed before him.

Rose.

She was calling him. After all this time, she was calling him!

But why? He thought as stared at his phone. Why is she calling me? Was there something wrong? Does she need me to fix something? Or does she want me back? Would it be better just to not take the very large chance that she didn't want me? Would it be better just to ignore her, to save myself from more pain?

In the end though, he could no more have ignored her call than he could change a fixed point in time. He reached for his mobile and with only a moment of hesitation born of fear, he pushed connect. And he said the first thing that popped into his head – not hello, not hi, not any type of standard greeting.

He said, "Are you alright?"

He asked her if everything was ok, because somehow, he couldn't really believe that she could want him. She had to be calling because something was wrong. Yet even though he thought that, he had answered her call. It didn't matter that he saw heartbreak in his future – if Rose needed him, he was there. He couldn't help it - he was willing pick her up, to save her, to play her fool.


Rose had planned to explain everything to him when he answered the phone. She was going to tell him that she realized that she had been an idiot. She was going to beg his forgiveness. She was going to say something that might, might, make things better.

But when she heard John's voice on the other end, when she heard him ask her if she was alright, all her thoughts, her plans, went out the window and she began to cry. He wasn't blaming her, he didn't sound annoyed or angry – he just sounded concerned for her. Rose broke down, and all she could manage to say, through her tears was, "Will you come round?"

Maybe everything would be alright.

A/N: Thank you for reading! Feedback is very much appreciated, so please review!