Chapter 2

Disclaimer: Last time I checked I still don't own Doctor Who….

The stars began going out two months before Tony Tyler's second birthday. It was only a few at first, it worried the authorities but the general public didn't notice. The Tyler family however, was not the general public.

"We need the Doctor." Rose announced to her father and Mickey as she burst into Pete's office. "There's nobody else that can help us. Our best scientists can't figure this out. Finding a way to get into the parallel universe needs to be our top priority."

"That's what Mickey was here about." Pete told her. As the head of Torchwood, he was incredibly stressed out about this. He needed to keep a calm front for the public as the head of Vitex, but the stress still shone on his face.

Rose looked to her best friend and former boyfriend. He had grown so much from the kid he had been when they'd first met the Doctor. He was a man now and he would make another woman so happy one day. Sometimes Rose had wished that she had loved him like she'd loved the Doctor. Things would have been much simpler, but unfortunately life didn't work that way. Mickey acted as the father Tony would never have, but he would never take the Doctor's place in her heart.

"Yeah. I think we found something." Mickey told her, giving her a smile.

They'd had the Dimension Cannon built three months later, however it hadn't worked until the walls between the universes began to thin. Eight months after the stars began to go out, Rose Tyler was able to travel to her home universe.

Seeing the Doctor again brought a whole new type of heartbreak. No matter how this ended she would lose somebody. If the Doctor would have her (and Tony, of course) and she chose to go, she would lose her mother and father. If they stayed in Pete's World, she would lose the Doctor and Tony would lose his father.

Agonizing over whether she would be with the Doctor would have to wait, Rose Tyler, Defender of the Earth had universes to save.

Rose had known that Mickey would stay on their home universe. They'd already said their goodbyes on Pete's World. He loved Tony almost like a son, but he needed to find his own life. Now that his grandmother was dead, they were the only things holding him there. They might not even be there much longer if Rose went back to the Doctor. Any way that it turned out, Mickey decided that he needed to go home. Rose understood, he couldn't be expected to raise another man's child and especially when nothing would ever happen between Rose and him. She knew how hard it had been to for him to leave Tony, but she knew it was for the best. She wished him all the happiness in creation. He certainly deserved it.

Rose hadn't gotten a chance to tell the Doctor about Tony amidst all of the action going on around them. She thought that she would get the chance to tell him later. Then the meta-crisis happened.

Rose hadn't known what to think about this new new new Doctor. How would he fit into the picture?

"Fat lot of good this is! Back of beyond! Bloody Norway." Jackie complained as the five of them piled out of the TARDIS. "I'm gonna have to phone your father. He's on the nursery run." She turned to the meta-crisis Doctor "I was pregnant… do you remember? I had a baby boy." She lied, nervous to make conversation. All that she could think about was if she would she lose Rose and Tony today.

"Ah! Brilliant. What'd you call him?" the meta-crisis Doctor enthused.

"Doctor."

"Really?" The meta-crisis asked, surprised yet flattered.

"No you plum, he's called Tony."

"Hold on, this is the parallel universe, right?" Rose asked, confused.

"You're back home." The Doctor answered.

"And walls of the worlds are closing again, now that the reality bomb never happens. It's dimensional retroclosure. See I really get that stuff now!" Donna explained.

"No but, I spent all that time trying to find you. I'm not going back now." Rose told him.

"But you've got to. Because we've saved the universe but at a cost. And the cost is him. He destroyed the Daleks. He committed genocide. He's too dangerous to be left on his own."

"You made me." The meta-crisis Doctor defended himself.

"Exactly. You were born in battle full of blood and anger and revenge." He turned to Rose. "Remind you of someone? That's me when we first met. And you made me better. Now, you can do the same for him "

"But it's not you." Rose protested.

"He needs you. That's very me."

"But it's better than that though. Don't you see what he's trying to give you? Tell her go on." Donna said, excitedly.

"I look like him, I think like him. Same memories, same thoughts, same everything. Except I've only got one heart." The meta-crisis told her.

"Which means?"

"I'm part-human. Specifically the aging part. I'll grow old and never regenerate. I've only got one life, Rose Tyler. I could spend it with you, if you want."

"You'll g-grow old at the same time as me?" Rose asked him, astonished.

"Together."

Was this really happening? If this man was truly the Doctor, this could be her dream come true. It couldn't be this easy… could it?

The TARDIS' familiar sound carried over the beach.

"We've got to go this reality is sealing itself off forever." The Doctor told them.

"But it's still not right, cause the Doctor's still you." Rose argued, torn. Torn between the man who she had always loved, the proper Doctor and the same man who might be able to provide the happy ending for her and her son.

"And I'm him."

"Alright, both of you answer me this: When I last stood on this beach on the worst day of my life what was the last thing you said to me?" She asked. "Go on say it." She urged them.

"I said Rose Tyler-" the Doctor answered. He wouldn't say it. He never would, she realized.

"Yeah, and how was that sentence gonna end?" She gave him one last chance.

"Does it need saying?"

"Yes! It absolutely needs saying!" Rose thought to herself.

"And you, Doctor? What was the end of that sentence?" She asked.

The Doctor in the blue suit, leaned into her and whispered in her ear, "I love you. I will always and have always, through time and space, loved you."

Rose looked at him for a beat, after finally hearing the words that she had been so desperate to hear since her first Doctor with his big ears and blue eyes. She did the only thing she could do. She grabbed him by his lapels and pulled him in for the most passionate kiss of their lives.

She was so consumed by that kiss, after living for over three years without the feel of his lips against hers, she could think of nothing else. She could think of nothing else but the feel of him against her and the words he had just said, still ringing in her ears. The only thing that pulled her back to reality was the sound of the TARDIS dematerializing. She pulled away in shock and ran towards the disappearing ship. Would he really leave like that?

Of course he would, as much as she loved him, that's what he did. She could only watch the TARDIS disappear in shock, and suddenly she felt a hand in hers. The same hand that she had been longing for. Things would be ok.

She turned to the Doctor. "You're really him?" She asked in disbelief.

"Yes." He assured her, still holding her hand.

"Oi! The two of you, start walking! I can't get a signal so we can't get a cab."

The Doctor pulled out his sonic with a familiar grin. "Hand your phone over, Jackie."

They had a cab twenty minutes later.

The ride to the hotel was uneventful. Pete would be unable to send a zeppelin for them until the following morning so he booked them two hotel rooms.

Jackie cornered Rose before they were involved in the awkward conversation about who would be bunking with whom.

"I'll stay with him, Mum. We've got things to discuss." Rose told her.

"Yeah, you better just be talking, I'm too young to have two grandchildren."

"Mum!" Rose hissed, taking the keycard from her mother and walking to the Doctor.

"You're staying with me?" he asked, unsure. He looked unsure about everything and exhausted as well.

"Yep, is that alright?" Rose asked, suddenly unsure herself… What if his feelings had changed over the years they'd been apart? She hadn't asked him if he still meant what he had been about to say almost three years ago.

"That's fine. Brilliant!" the Doctor stammered.

They made their way to the hotel room and got settled in. There wasn't much to settle, considering that they had no luggage.

"We need to talk." Rose told him, sitting on the bed next to him.

"Here it comes." The Doctor thought to himself. "She's not in love with me anymore, I've scared her away… there's someone else…."

"W-what about?" the Doctor asked, nervously.

"Do you remember how I told you that Mum was pregnant?" Rose asked, nervous herself. He'd hate her for keeping this from him.

"Oh yes. Had a boy! Tony Tyler." The Doctor told her smiling. He was confused about why she needed to talk to him about her brother. "She cornered me when we got here. Do you like having a brother? I bet you're a great older sister. What else could a little boy ask for in a sister? He's got Rose Tyler, Defender of the Earth."

"You see, that's the thing. Tony isn't my brother. He's my son." Rose told him, deciding that it wouldn't do any good to beat around the bush.

"Y-your son?" the Doctor asked, amazed. This couldn't be… could it?

"He's yours." Rose told him, stating the obvious.

The Doctor sat there, silently for a moment. He couldn't believe it. A son… He thought he'd never have children again. He'd resigned himself to being the last of his kind. He'd never expected this.

"How old is he?" the Doctor asked.

"He's almost two and a half. He looks just like you."

"I've missed two and a half years of my child's life." He said to himself, more than her.

"I'm sorry." Rose apologized, tearing up. "I should have told you, but when you told me that you couldn't come through I thought that it would hurt you too much to know. I'm so sorry. I was a coward."

"No." he told her, lifting her chin towards him. "You are not close to being a coward. You did what you thought was right and I don't blame you at all. I just wish things had been different. I just wish that I'd been there from the beginning."

"I do too." Rose admitted. "It's been so hard. I've had a lot of help from Mum, Dad and Mickey, but they're not you. I don't know how to raise a half-Time Lord. But you'll be there for us now. He knows all about you."

"Does he?" the Doctor asked, as if he was shocked that she would tell their son about his missing father.

"Of course! He loves you and he's never even met you. I've told him about all of our adventures… Well, at least the ones that aren't too scary for him."

"What's he like?"

"He's amazing. He's got one heart, but he's so intelligent. He was walking and talking at eight months. He was completely potty-trained by eighteen months and he spoke in full sentences at twenty months." Rose beamed with pride, talking about their son. "He knows about so many of our adventures and he's always talking about the TARDIS. I don't suppose he'll ever see it now though."

The Doctor smiled, reaching into his pocket. He pulled out the TARDIS coral. "Donna gave this to me and told me how to accelerate the growth. We should have a TARDIS in about five years… He'll be the perfect age to start travelling."

Rose smiled and threw her arms around the Doctor.

"The thing is," she said when they released each other. "I need to know that you're not gonna run. Travelling is one thing, but if you want to be Tony's father I need to know that you're going to be around at all times. You can't just go swanning off when things get too 'domestic.'"

"I know," the Doctor told her, looking deep into her eyes. "Wherever I go, the two of you will go. I want domestic. I've dreamed of domestic ever since I realized I was in love with you. That's why I've kept you at arms length for so long, I couldn't have that with you. Now I can and I will never let that go."