Yes, I know I haven't posted a chapter in over a month but life got in the way. I've had weddings, our local Renaissance Festival (I go every year that I can - so much fun!) and my mother's 80th birthday party happening on top of full time work during the busiest time of the year for my workplace. Alex and Rose just weren't at the top of my "to do" list. To compensate for the delay, I'm giving you two chapters! Yep! Two! That means that, after these two, there are only three chapters left in this book. On the plus side, I am already working on the next book. Just keep in mind, however, that this may mean another month of waiting for future chapters as I am a busy person in real life.

Chapter 17

Early May 2015

The investigation into the cause of Aderyn's death was extensive. Since the Avian was one of her employees, Edna Parsons headed the investigation. Aderyn had been quite open to allowing Torchwood to study her biology as long as it had been done with respect. Thus no autopsy other than to determine her cause of death was performed. A week after the alien's death, Rose walked into Edna's office at her request.

"So, what happened? How did she die?" Rose questioned. The memory of that day still haunted her and she was anxious to find some sense in it all, though she doubted that anything they discovered would really help in coping with the loss.

"Poisoned by the gas that was in the lab," Edna informed her. "Aderyn was apparently doing some unauthorized research. We don't exactly know what it is she was working with or why, only that whatever it was created the gas that killed her. From her autopsy, we discovered that it caused her internal organs to shut down, resulting in blindness, severe pain, and finally heart failure. We were able to get a sample of the smoke before it dissipated. We haven't been able to identify the exact properties of it but, whatever that smoke was, it's harmless to humans and becomes inert quickly. We think the answer to our questions are probably in the notebooks she kept but we are having a great deal of trouble translating it. She didn't record anything verbally for us to filter through translation software. The only thing we did get was the recording of her last few minutes."

"Play it for me," Rose instructed.

The scientist obliged, bringing the recording up on her computer. The translation printed below as the video played.

"Great Goddess of the Forest! What have I done? I can't let it out." Rose and Edna watched the recording as the bird-woman moved quickly around the lab, which was rapidly filling with a gray smoke, apparently trying to stop the chemical reaction she had started. Seeing that she was unable to halt the spread of the smoke, the Avian squawked, desperation tingeing her voice. "I need to get out of here! I need to get out of here! Oh, Great Goddess of the Forest, I'm going to die!" As her panic increased, she clawed at the large window for a couple of minutes, pleading for someone to help her. "I can't see! Let me out! Let me out! It hurts! I don't want to die!"

Five minutes into the video, when her strength seemed to have left her completely, the sound of three buzzing chimes sounded in the room followed by the muted sounds of shouting.

"That's me… sealing her in and Alex and me fighting," Rose whispered, refusing to let her emotions get the best of her. There was a long pause before a familiar but muffled voice came through on the audio. "And that's Alex saying goodbye to her," she added somberly.

"Righteous Defender… don't blame Wolf Flower. My fault." Aderyn gave one last chirp, which the software translated as "Forgive me." It was her last words as the video showed her slipping to the floor at last, clearly dead.

Rose closed her eyes tightly to regain control over her collapsing emotions. The video brought back the horror and sadness of the day, not in the least diminished by the need to read the translation rather than hear it.

Parsons took a slow breath, her own memories making her tone somber. "If we're going to figure out exactly what happened to Aderyn, we need to translate her notebooks. Dr. Kingston is working on it but, with the resources that we have currently, that's going to take months, possibly even a couple of years. We could use Dr. Smith's help on this. Maybe he can figure out Aderyn's written language since he can speak it."

It was common knowledge among the Torchwood staff that Alex had written their translation software and could speak to Aderyn in her own language. While Hanna Kingston was the best alien linguist they had on regular staff, her knowledge of alien languages was dwarfed by the Doctor's. He had taken what she had been working on for years and accomplished it in a matter of a few months when he developed the verbal translation software. They were still years away from being able to translate the written word however. As such, Rose couldn't help but agree with Edna that they needed Alex. She just hoped that the hybrid had overcome his hatred for Rose just as she had forgiven him for breaking up with her, even though she hadn't told him. "I'll talk to him. I'm sure he'll agree if it means figuring out why Aderyn's gone."

OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO

The day after the fight he'd had with Rose, Alex woke to the realization that he had several problems to contend with. The first problem – and really the crux of all of his problems – was money. Earth was a difficult planet to live on without monetary income, regardless of which universe you were in. The only money he had was the earnings he had made while working at Torchwood. While the pay hadn't been insignificant, it wasn't enough, he knew, to continue to live in a hotel room for very long. He needed to find lodgings that were far less a pull on his wallet. As such, when he went down to the hotel's restaurant for breakfast the following day, he procured a newspaper and, bringing it up to his room, poured through it for cheap housing. He found an inexpensive studio apartment nearby and, after making quick arrangements with the landlord of the property, was able to move into the apartment by the fourth day of his self-imposed exile from the Tyler clan. It wasn't much to speak of but how easily Alex was able to get it was enough of an ego boost to convince him that finding a job would be just as effortless.

The second thing that was a problem was his limited supply of antipsychotic. He needed to make more soon to maintain his dosage level which meant that he required some place to turn into a lab. He also required supplies. The necessary chemicals he used to make the drug were expensive. However after paying the rent, buying the limited furnishings he needed, and ensuring he ate regularly, he just didn't have the funds to rent a storage space like he did when living with Rose nor could he buy the supplies he needed to make more antipsychotic, not without a steady income. Out of sheer necessity, he was going to have to limit his drug intake.

The first day he went with a lower dosage, which had been six days into his exile, had been hard. It also had been a wake up call. The severe cravings he had for the drug forced him to acknowledge that he was an addict and that he needed to wean himself from his addiction as quickly as possible. As such, he deliberately took whatever remaining drug he had and put them in specific daily doses so that he would have to think about how much he was taking rather than continue to take however much of the powder made him feel more in control. By doing so, he was able to stretch what normally would be only two weeks worth of antipsychotics into nearly a month's worth. It was yet another reminder of how he'd allowed himself to fall into the dangerous habit.

Finding a job he felt would fit not only his personality but also would challenge his abilities was a lot more difficult than he anticipated. He thought that the three doctorates he officially had would be enough to procure the employment he needed. He'd tried all the high profile positions he knew he qualified for but potential employer rejected him because he refused to list his employment at Torchwood or any references; he didn't want help from anyone with the last name of Tyler and the reference that Pete had gotten for him from Heywood Roland became worthless when the technological tycoon was murdered by his son two months before, causing a great scandal. Of course, he thought part of the problem was likely his reactions to being denied employment. His reduction of the amount of antipsychotic he was taking made him more than a little sensitive to rejection.

As if things couldn't get worse for him, the paparazzi had caught onto his and Rose's separation and were making speculations as to why the "perfect couple" were no longer seeing each other. The first accusations made were that Alex beat Rose, which was retracted almost immediately only to be replaced with other outrageous theories. All were eventually retracted, thanks to either Rose's or Pete's intervention, except the last theory: that Dr. Alex Smith was just plain an arrogant, pompous prick who broke Rose Tyler's heart. Given that neither Rose nor Pete forced a retraction, the hybrid was starting to think that the mass media press was probably right.

Two weeks into his separation from Rose, Alex was getting more than a little desperate in his efforts to find a job. He really wanted to find one on his own but he knew that his chances were growing slim and his finances were dwindling quickly. There was a couple of openings at the University of London but, given his lack of ability to get a job worth his skills, he figured that he'd have a better chance of trying to get a position at the local chippy. Swallowing his pride, he applied for the positions and listed both Pete and Rose as references. He also listed his employment at Torchwood, figuring that a lack of employment history also wasn't helping in his getting a job.

Once he returned to his studio apartment, however, he berated himself for his actions. "Stupid, stupid, stupid! She'll never give me a reference. Why should she? We didn't part under the best of terms. Of course the whole thing was my fault. I was an arrogant prick. She was just following procedures after all. But then again, Aderyn did die and she wouldn't have if I'd been able to get her out of there. But then Rose was insistent that I would've died if I'd gone in there. Maybe she was having one of her premonitions," he ranted as he paced. Stopping at a wall, he banged his head against it lightly a couple of times before letting his forehead rest against it. "Damn it, I need her. I don't want to but I do." Deep inside, he knew he was talking about more than her ability to get him a job.

As if in answer to his statement, his mobile rang. Seeing who was calling on the caller ID, he was hesitant to answer but decided that if Rose was calling him, she had to have a good reason. Did the University already start checking his references? If so, was Rose about to tell him off for listing her? Taking a deep breath, he prepared himself for rejection.

"Hello, Rose," he answered. He hated the way his voice sounded as if he were desperate.

"Hi, Alex. I've got a job for you," she told him after a moment.

His eyes widened at her words. He couldn't have been accepted by the University that quickly, could he? "What job?"

"Translation."

He deflated physically, slumping into the worn couch he'd bought. He didn't want to work for Torchwood again. "You have translation software," he reminded. "I wrote it."

"That's verbal. This is written."

"Where did you find this written alien language?"

There was a pause on the other end of the line. "It's Aderyn's notebooks."

The hybrid was instantly silenced by Rose's words. A thousand thoughts ran through his mind, the foremost being a deep sense of loss followed by wariness concerning Torchwood's intentions.

When she didn't gain a response from the hybrid, Rose pressed gently, "You there?"

"Yeah, I'm here," he finally answered, taking a deep breath. "Why do you want to know what Aderyn's notebooks say? She's gone. Can't we just… let her rest?"

It didn't take a stretch for Rose to realize what was bothering him. "Alex, it isn't her diary. It's her lab notebooks. Dr. Parsons investigated her death and the only thing she found, even after all this time, was that whatever she was working on killed her. Some experiment she was doing went wrong and flooded her lab with some kind of gas that was toxic to her but was harmless to humans. It dissipated too quickly for us to get enough information about its composition, even after an autopsy. The only way we'll really know what happened now is if we translate her lab notebooks. Hanna's been trying to do it but without your help, it could take months, maybe years. You know we can't give her a decent memorial until we know what exactly happened."

"I know," he replied. "If you needed to examine her body again, interring her remains would cause a serious problem." Torchwood regulations required that her ashes be sealed in a container and placed in the vault with other Torchwood agents who didn't have relatives or who were extraterrestrial. It made the Doctor think what would possibly happen to his remains when he eventually died. He didn't think that he wanted his tomb to be hidden away from public sight because he wasn't completely human. He understood the reasons for the policy and that it was more to protect the remains of the dead from abuse by outsiders than from protecting the public; it was just disconcerting that it was necessary.

"So… will you come in to translate them?" Rose pressed gently. "Please."

"I won't work for Torchwood, Rose," he countered, his pride once again getting in the way of reason.

"When you left, I convinced Dad to keep you on our payroll as a consultant. You can choose to accept any assignments we offer you and in return we'll give you full compensation for each instance where you act as a consultant. And if you sign a contract, you'll also get a retainer's fee. That's a heck of a lot better than spending every day staring at alien artifacts. Besides… I understand you're having trouble finding a job."

He groaned mentally. Of course, Torchwood would be keeping an eye on him. He was half-alien after all and, after the way he left, he didn't blame them for being a little anxious about his activities. And, he had to admit that he did need a job, even if it were a temporary one. "I'll come in tomorrow morning," he finally agreed.

"Thank you," Rose replied gently. "See you tomorrow, then." She took a breath then, having nothing else to say, gently hung up.

OOOOOOOOOOOO

The Doctor didn't expect returning to Torchwood to be an easy thing but it was turning out to be more difficult than he had imagined. Just walking through the front doors and then accessing the higher levels with his Torchwood clearance ID brought memories of sharing lunches with his colleagues - most of the time Rose, Hanna, or Aderyn – and the work that he'd performed for Research and Development. While he missed the camaraderie with his friends, he didn't miss the tediousness of the work. Nor did he miss the looks he was getting now from those who didn't trust him because he was a) an alien – or rather half-alien – and b) Rose Tyler's again/off again boyfriend. Too many in the organization had xenophobic feelings concerning aliens despite him and Aderyn having been on the staff. Others believed that Rose got as high up because of her relationship with Director Tyler and felt that Alex received the same sort of benefit when he came on due to his relationship with Rose.

Ignoring the various looks sent his way, whether it was disdain for him in general or surprise in his being there after the heated manner in which he'd left, Alex made his way to Rose's office. He knocked briefly to inform her of his presence before entering without invitation. "Reporting for duty," he announced as he closed the door behind him, looking on Rose's face for the first time since their argument. The moment he did, the circumstances that had caused their falling out came back to him in a rush, forcing him to look away from her to clear his mind. The last thing he wanted was to get into yet another argument with the woman. He couldn't help but notice that Rose too felt a little uncomfortable to be in his presence.

Rose gazed on Alex for a long moment, her own emotions clear on her face. She had wanted to see him for so long and yet she couldn't seem to get any words out of her mouth now that they were face-to-face. She took a deep breath, determined to regain control of herself, before reaching into her desk to retrieve a couple of keys. Standing, she walked around the desk so that she and Alex were near each other. "Hanna's at the Guesthouse right now but she'll be here in an hour so you two can go over Aderyn's notebooks together." The Guesthouse was the nickname Torchwood had for the building that housed Xenobiology, the same building Aderyn had called home when not on duty.

"I work alone," Alex contradicted.

"Alex…" Rose started, surprise clear on her face.

"I work alone," he repeated adamantly. "Private room, no disruptions. I don't want to be paired up with anyone, certainly not someone who will question every translation I make. And as much as I like Hanna, we both know that her interest in the subject will cause her to do exactly that, making it more difficult for me to translate the notebooks expediently. Neither am I going to be interrupted by constant questions from the staff concerning what I am doing here, especially not with all the emotions people are directing towards me. It's extremely uncomfortable and it would be far easier for me to concentrate without such distractions. I'm here to find out what happened to Aderyn. That's it."

Rose had briefly forgotten that Alex was an empath as well as a telepath. Hearing his concerns on the matter, she could easily understand his uneasiness. She knew she wouldn't be able to concentrate on an assignment if everyone was constantly interrupting her, whether they realized it or not. It certainly would be annoying. "Okay," she finally relented. "Richardson retired last week so there's an empty office right across from mine. Hanna has been working in there for the last week on translating the notebook so anything you need should be there: papers, pens, pencils, computer... There's even a chalkboard if you want to use it. The office is yours for as long as you need it. I'll call Hanna and let her know that you're going to work on the translation on your own." She offered him the keys in her hand. "Here's the keys to the door and to the desk inside. The notebooks are in the desk."

"I'll get to work on this right away, then," he replied, accepting the keys. He started towards the door, knowing exactly which office Rose had given him to do the job.

"Alex," she called out, halting him. "Lunch?" The single word held so much hope.

There was hesitation on his face before he shook his head. He wasn't yet ready to be around Rose for longer than a few minutes and that only professionally. Without saying a word, he left the room and walked into Richardson's old office, closing the door behind him.

Sitting at the desk, he immediately started to go through the drawers to see what was available. As Rose had indicated, Aderyn's lab notebooks were locked in the desk. There were also plenty of pens and pencils as well as all-purpose printer paper, which he immediately pulled out and put on the far right corner of the desk. He decided to work with pencils in case he needed to make any corrections. Once he'd organized his workspace, he pulled out his glasses and perched them on his nose. He then took an empty sheet of paper from his pile, opened the first notebook, and started working, deciding to completely ignore any work that Hanna had done on the job. The translation was likely incorrect anyway, given Hanna's lack of experience with the Avian language.

Each few pages seemed to follow the same kind of pattern. Aderyn had been studying the properties of various plants and bacteria, trying to grow them and alter them to bring about a certain result. She didn't mention in the notebook exactly what she was looking for but wrote the results of each test she performed. Each experiment involved live human DNA samples and each resulted in deadly cell damage, which was a negative result. Where she got the samples, she didn't indicate. At least Alex gained the satisfaction of knowing that, whatever she had been working on, she wanted to make sure that human lives were not in danger. From what she had logged in her notebook, she had been working on her experiments practically since the day she agreed to work for Torchwood, though she had done them on her off-time.

The further into the translation he went, the more confused he was as to what she had been looking for with her experiments, especially when he finally ran across a positive result with her experiments, namely a reaction that didn't damage human DNA. Her experiments had continued with the same bacteria as before but it seemed as if she were trying to find a different result because her results indicated a positive interaction with human DNA but a negative result in whatever it was she was looking for. After a couple of weeks of conducting tests, she eventually dropped the bacteria and moved onto another one, basically starting over with finding a positive reaction with human DNA.

Deciding that he needed to take a break from his work, Alex leaned back, removing his glasses and rubbing his eyes. He stretched out his mind to find that he'd been working on the translation all through Rose's proposed lunch date. Seven hours had passed and he'd only gotten through two of the notebooks. He still had no idea what Aderyn had been doing in her lab the day she died. The only thing that he thought she could have possibly been doing was trying to find some cure to a disease but that theory didn't quite fit with her notes.

Now that he'd taken a break, he realized just how tired he was. He hadn't yet had anything to eat that day and he could feel the effect it was having not only on his energy level but also on his concentration. It wasn't much of a leap of logic to recognize that the rest of the translation would have to be completed later. He gave a yawn as he tucked his glasses into his jacket. Gathering the papers that had the translations he had completed, he carefully placed them on top of Aderyn's notebooks and then put the whole pile into the desk. He locked the drawer with the key provided.

Assured that everything was secure, he stood from the desk and left the office, walking across the hall and entering Rose's office without knocking. She raised her head in surprise at the interruption but didn't comment as he took a seat across from her.

"The translation's going slower than I anticipated," he admitted. "I'm going to need at least a couple more days. Possibly even a week."

"Okay. I'll make the appropriate approvals for your consultation," Rose commented, refusing to look at him. "Same time tomorrow then?"

He nodded in agreement. "I'll be here. Here are the keys," he told her, handing the objects in question to her.

"See you in the morning then," she replied, tucking the key into her own desk.

He took a deep breath, his discomfort around her growing, though he knew now he wasn't as angry with her as he thought he would be. "Yeah. Good night."

OOOOOOOOOOOOOOO

Alex had worked on the translation of the notebooks for four days and was almost done when he finally understood what all of Aderyn's experimentation had been for. He sat still at his temporary desk, not wanting to move due to the shock the realization had brought upon him.

"Oh, Aderyn. What have you done?" he whispered, plainly heart-broken. "Why? Why would you…" Feeling a tear slide down his cheek, he found the energy to move, wiping the tear away before slowly standing up. He gathered all his papers as well as Aderyn's notebooks and exited the room. Going across the hall, he knocked on Rose's door and waited for her permission to enter.

Seeing Alex coming in, the blond woman smiled, glad to see him. It was close to noon and she was thinking seriously about getting something to eat. She assumed that he had finally accepted her invitation for him to join her; she had invited him every day since he started the consultation. That supposition, however, was dashed the moment she saw the expression on his face.

"What is it?" she questioned with growing trepidation.

"I know what Aderyn was doing in her lab when she died." He placed all his papers and the notebooks on her desk.

Rose felt her stomach tighten at the tone of his voice. "What was she doing?"

Alex looked into her eyes. Anger, disappointment, betrayal, and sorry were all there, coming out through his gaze. "She was making a biological weapon against the species that enslaved her people. I don't know where she got a sample of their DNA but she did. She was also intent on making sure that no other species were affected by the deadly gas, especially Humans. She was advancing her experiments to make sure that the weapon didn't hurt other species when the accident happened." He looked up towards the ceiling, not wanting to cry again. "She accidentally killed herself with her own weapon."

Rose covered her mouth, feeling her own tears building. Standing, she moved around her desk and wrapped her arms around the Doctor, who put his own arms around her. The two stood in silence for several minutes, taking comfort in each other's presence.

"Oh, Rose, I'm so sorry. I shouldn't have blamed you. You were right to seal the containment room. You saved millions of lives including me. Being only half-human… if I'd gone in there… I might have… What are you going to do?" he finally asked. He maintained his hold on Rose, knowing that neither of them were ready to be separated just yet.

"Are you sure about what she was trying to do?"

"Later in her notes, she mentions 'the Empire' several times. And she often talked about the Powerful Ones or the Empire of Great Power to me, how they'd taken everything from her. But I didn't realize just how angry she was. I didn't think she'd ever go to these lengths. To even think of genocide…"

"You thought the same way about the Daleks," she commented without spite.

"I never went out of my way to exact revenge on them. I took advantage of opportunities that came my way. What I did was wrong. But this… this is monstrous. How could she? How…" He sniffed, failing to hold back his tears once again. "I thought I knew her, Rose."

"Me too," came the whispered, sympathetic agreement. She paused for a long moment, allowing herself to cry with him before pulling away and wiping the tears off her cheeks. "Is there any indication of who these people are? If she was so frightened of them as to resort to genocide, they have to be dangerous."

The half-Gallifreyan nodded. "I agree. She may have hidden her activities and intent well but I can't believe that she was an evil person. Just extremely misguided. Whoever this species is, we have to be ready for them. She said they hate the Earth and its inhabitants but they know we don't have the technology to be a threat to them."

"They don't know about Torchwood then," she concluded.

"Or they don't think that Torchwood is much of a threat."

"Could it be the Daleks?"

"If it is, they're not like the ones in the other universe. The Daleks there didn't imprison people for long. Used them and got rid of them when they didn't need them anymore. From what Aderyn said, these Powerful Ones keep other species as domestic slaves, sometimes treating them like pets. That just doesn't fit the Daleks as we know them. Plus, Aderyn indicated that the Powerful Ones are humanoid, which explains why she was so concerned about her weapon not affecting Humans." He seemed to ponder his words for a moment. "They could be the Kaleds. Remember I said Davros was a Kaled? He manipulated the Kaled genome, engineered everything humanoid out of it and thus created the Daleks. After they were created, they simply wiped the entire Kaled species from existence with the exception of Davros. The Kaleds were a war-like species in the other universe, very similar to the Nazis. If the Kaleds never became the Daleks in this universe, then it is possible that they could have built an empire."

"Well, if it is the Kaleds, they're pretty scary without becoming the Daleks," Rose told him. "I've been doing research into this empire that Aderyn had been talking about. Have been for a while. I thought that, if she were frightened of them, we needed to get as much information on them as we could. I found something to corroborate her story when I went through old records from before the Great Britain took over Torchwood. About fifty years ago, Torchwood encountered a couple of refugees who wanted asylum."

"And you never told me this?"

"I only discovered it a couple of weeks ago just after Aderyn died. Plus I had other assignments to take care of. The thing is the refugees said that their planets had been wiped out by a powerful enemy that they just called 'the Empire', as if everyone knew what that was. The people who questioned them didn't believe them. Torchwood thought they were scouts for a future invasion and they killed them. We have to assume that this empire they talked about is the same empire that had Aderyn so frightened as to break the principles she believed in."

"We've got another problem. One refugee from this empire coming to Earth isn't much to worry about. But now we have three: Aderyn and those two. How many more refugees escaping this empire are there? You said yourself that you're always getting aliens from other worlds wanting asylum. Maybe most of them haven't been as honest as Aderyn and the other two in their reasons why they want asylum, especially if they're afraid they may run into a spy for the Empire. Think about it. People who fled Nazi Germany were always looking over their shoulders, afraid of running into a Nazi spy who would send them back into Germany as prisoners of the Third Reich. This doesn't sound all that different."

"You think Earth's become a popular planet to escape the Empire?"

"Certainly would explain why the Powerful Ones, whoever they are, hate the Earth and Humans in general. Right now, we aren't advanced enough to be a threat to them. If we keep taking in refugees from their empire, however, they just might change their minds. We need to be more careful. The last thing we need is someone on Earth hunting down the people who have been running from the Empire." He huffed at his own words. "We need to find out who these people are and soon. For one, calling them the Empire and the Powerful Ones makes us sound as if we're in a bad sci fi movie. If the danger weren't real, it would be almost laughable."

"I'll keep digging into Torchwood's records," Rose promised. "We'll find out who they are. There's got to be a transcript of that interrogation or something." Even as she spoke, the phone on her desk rang, pulling her attention away from Alex. Lifting the received, she responded, "Rose Tyler." She listened for a few seconds. "All right, I'll send him down." Hanging up, she returned her attention to the hybrid. "That was Harry. He wants you to go to medical for a scan."

"I had a scan when I went in for my semi-annual check-up," he countered with a frown.

"All I know is he wants you down there," she replied with a shrug.

For a fleeting moment, the hybrid was afraid that Harry had discovered his taking more antipsychotics than prescribed. He was extremely tempted not to go but realized almost immediately that would appear suspicious. "So, I'm done here?" he questioned, wanting to delay his going to the medical ward without seeming too anxious.

"With the assignment, yeah," she confirmed. "I know it wasn't easy." Her expression showed how hard the realization of Aderyn's actions was on her. "I'll make sure that payroll deposits your fee into your bank account."

"Thanks. I better get down to Harry, then." He started for the door but hesitated at the door. Turning around, he looked into the blond woman's eyes. "Rose?" Seeing her look on him with questioning, he swallowed before admitting, "I love you." It was the first time the thought even went through his mind since the argument that broke them apart.

Rose's face brightened noticeably at his words. "I love you too."

The both waved their goodbyes as the half-Time Lord exited the room and headed for the elevator, both lighter in heart for their words.