The moment Rose leapt into the time vortex, the Doctor began tracing her energy through it. He could track many things, but Bad Wolf was a strong entity that didn't wish to be found. Her trail was light and nearly impossible to follow. If the TARDIS didn't know her so intimately, he'd find no trace at all.

The Doctor watched the monitor with intense concentration. He saw where her trail ended and threw the TARDIS out of the vortex as quickly as he could. He was half a second off though. He felt it before he saw it. He cursed himself as he stared at the monitor. The TARDIS was floating in open space. A split second off in the time vortex could mean a hundred years off and a galaxy away. He wanted to try again, to get it right, but her trail would already have vanished completely. He lost her.

The Doctor collapsed onto the jumpseat and stared out in disbelief. It had all happened so quickly. It was hard to believe it even happened at all. Rose should be sound in bed... She should be, but she wasn't. He lost her. The image of her leaping from the TARDIS was burned into his mind and kept playing over and over. It was utterly crushing. Nothing mattered as much as Rose, and she left, asking him to let go. He'd stopped breathing minutes ago and suppressed his respiratory bypass. His chest was starting to burn but he couldn't bring himself to take that next breath. He didn't want to. He imagined himself walking the TARDIS corridors alone. Lonely meals. Empty bed. No hand to hold. No one to curl up with in the library. No Rose. Tears slid slowly down his cheeks at the thought. He couldn't bear it. He could never let her go. He couldn't and he wouldn't.

Seven months later, his resolve was the same. He wanted to actively search for her, but he knew it would be nothing but a waste of time. He needed to track her. For months he traveled through the galaxies, searching for mechanical parts he could use. The TARDIS could track time travel devices through time and space. But Rose didn't have a device. The TARDIS could track ships across galaxies. But he wasn't looking for a ship. The TARDIS could differentiate different species on a planet and monitor their movements. But he couldn't track a particular being and that system could only cover a single planet. He needed to find one person in a galaxy with 400 million planetary systems in the time span of 100 years. It was an impossible task, but he was determined to do it.

It took months to gather the parts and create the blueprints. It took the Doctor months more to assemble, review, check his calculations, and test out his creation. He was scared when it was ready. He was afraid of what it might find or what it might not. For seven months, he suppressed that fear as he focused on his work. Now that the time had come, his worry returned with full force. Rose had been scared, terrified by what was after her. She'd been frightened enough to summon the Bad Wolf, something she knew was dangerous. What if this threat was too strong? What if he lost her permanently? What if she was already truly gone?

The Doctor had to suppress his fears again and focus on his search. He couldn't do anything to help her by standing around worrying. Using large thick cables, he hooked his machine up to the TARDIS console. His machine worked, but there was no way he could achieve the large search field he wanted without significant power. Once hooked up, the Doctor went to retrieve some of Rose's DNA. It was the simplest task by far. Because Rose had suffered a few severe injuries in the past, the Doctor insisted that they keep three pints of her blood in the infirmary in case she were to ever need it. She complied when he agreed to do it, too.

The Doctor released a small amount of Rose's stored blood into a little vial and took it with him back to the control room. With steady hands, he poured a few drops into a tiny containment tube and readied the machine. He wasn't sure that there were any true gods in the universe, but he prayed to them as a collective.

The Doctor took a deep breath and pressed the button that started the machine. The TARDIS groaned in protest as her energy was forced into the machine. The dials on the console were spinning the same as they were on his machine. The TARDIS lights dimmed and the machine began to spark. His ship and his contraption were being overwhelmed by each other and he wasn't sure which to attend to first. Before he could decide, the machine blew out from the top and the TARDIS was forced to divert to auxiliary power.

The Doctor rubbed his face and pulled at his hair in frustration. Then a thought occurred to him. The dials on the machine and the TARDIS had been spinning. Where did they stop? He checked the TARDIS first. Specific coordinates were displayed. The first few numbers on his machine had been blackened by the small explosion, but the numbers he could read, matched the ones on the TARDIS. It might have found her.

The Doctor unhooked the wires that connected the machines and the moment the TARDIS was back to full power, he launched flight to the inset coordinates. He waited at the door for the TARDIS to finish materializing and rushed out the second it landed.

The Doctor was unsure of the planet's name, but it was located on the edge of the Andromeda Galaxy in the year 16386. He'd landed just in front of a large hospital and if the name 'Nerva Memorial Hospital' was the same 'Nerva' he encountered about 300 years ago in their timeline, then he guessed it was a human population.

The Doctor entered the hospital and moved straight to the receptionist. She was human, as he'd suspected. He told her he was looking for a specific patient and pulled a picture of him and Rose out of his jacket pocket. The woman's mouth fell open and she just blinked at him. The Doctor knew Rose was there and was ready to run, but didn't know where to go.

"Where is she?" he pleaded.

"Third floor, second corridor, in-"

The Doctor couldn't wait for her to finish nor could he wait for the lift. He ran up the stairs and rushed down the second corridor, looking in each of the rooms. When he reached the door at the end, he found that it was a ward with several patients. He scanned them all from the doorway and spotted his Rose in the last bed on the right. He hurried to her side and began scanning her for any sign of injury. She looked whole and he was filled with relief. Gently, he lifted her hand and in both of his.

"Sir," one of the nurses said fiercely as she walked toward him. "I'm going to have to ask you not to touch the patient."

"But she's my Rose," the Doctor replied quietly.

"You know her?" the woman asked in shock.

"Yes," he answered. "What's wrong with her?"

He could have easily used his sonic screwdriver to assess her himself, but the thought hadn't even occurred to him. He was too overwhelmed to think properly.

"Well, she's in a coma," the nurse told him gently. "But actually, we don't really understand it. She was never admitted. One day, while doing rounds, we just found her lying on a bed in one of the rooms. We tried to assess her, to help her, but we've never seen anything like it. Her heart is barely beating and she hardly breathes, but her body doesn't seem to suffer for it. We tried intravenous fluids and a nasogastric tube for nutrition, but the needle could not penetrate her skin and we were unable to force her mouth open. We couldn't even lift her eyelids to have a look at her eyes. We tried to help her, but we were helpless. Still, she breathes and her heart beats. What's more, her brain activity does not look like other coma patients. Her brain activity is still low, but there's activity in places we wouldn't expect. We simply don't understand.

"The heads of the hospital have wanted to throw her out for ages, considering she's not actually a patient and has no way of paying the bill. Her release was made official even, but no one knows what to do with her. The nurses, we've fought for her. She requires no care, only a bed. There are so many beds here; what's one more person? What cost is it to keep her here? The only service we can provide is a sponge bath every other day, and we nurses are glad to do it. She seems like such a hopeless case, but I've never stopped hoping."

"Thank you," the Doctor said sincerely. "Is there any way I can have a look at her chart?"

"I could have a look for it, but I highly doubt it's here. It's probably been transferred to the archives by now."

The Doctor's anxiety returned. "How long has she been here?"

"Sixteen years now." The nurse gave him a quizzical look, wondering how he was unaware of that fact. "I remember because it was the same year I started working here."

The TARDIS and the Doctor's machine had found Rose, but he was only given a single set of coordinates. He tried to tell himself that he was lucky he didn't arrive later, but he still felt miserable that she'd been left in this state for so long.

The Doctor undid the lock on the bed and moved it away from the wall.

"What are you doing?" the nurse asked anxiously.

"I want to see for myself what her mental state is," he explained as he moved to stand behind Rose's head.

"You're a telepath?" she asked in surprise.

"Yes."

"I'm sorry. I just assumed you were human. Her, too. I just assumed that since she was on this planet that she came from here. Are you long lived? Is that why she shows no signs of aging? I thought it might be the sort of stasis she's in, but-"

"We're not from here," the Doctor informed her, not wishing to go into Rose's unique DNA. He took a deep breath and gently placed his hands on Rose's head.

"Wait!" the nurse said suddenly. "How do I know you're a friend of hers? How do I know that you're not going to hurt her?"

The Doctor smiled kindly and handed her the photo of him and Rose. "You are a wonderful nurse. I can't thank you enough for looking after Rose the way that you have, but it's time that I care for her now."

"Brown," the nurse said quietly. "I always wondered what color her eyes were. Alright, I turn her over to your care, but please be careful with her."

The Doctor put the photo back in his pocket and put himself back in position. Gently, he placed two fingers on each of Rose's temples and closed his eyes to concentrate. Gently he reached out to her mind. Just as soon as he did, a shadow figure with red eyes lashed out at him. The Doctor jumped back, immediately releasing contact.

"What's wrong? What happened?" the nurse asked with concern.

The Doctor looked at Rose and was devastated by the realization of what she was suffering. He calmed himself the best he could and moved to try again. "It's nothing," he told the nurse. "I was just startled."

The Doctor was ready for the extra presence this time as he entered Rose's mind again. Angry shadows flew around the edges of her mind, but he ignored them and pressed further, probing gently for Rose's thoughts, not seeking memories, but Rose herself.

"Doctor?" Rose's mind questioned when she became aware of his presence.

"Yes," he answered her telepathically.

"You're not supposed to be here," she told him. "You weren't supposed to find me."

"You know that I could never let you go like that. Something was after you. I couldn't let you fight it alone."

"I failed. I wanted to hide, but they found me almost instantly."

"But you were Bad Wolf. Why didn't you destroy them?"

"They're transcendental beings made out of the very matter of time. If I destroyed them, it would erase them from all of time. As awful as their influence has been on the universe, they ended up shaping the universe through their deeds. If I erased them, the entire history of the universe would be rewritten. I couldn't let that happen. Neither could I force them away. Bad Wolf did the only thing she could. She pulled the beings inside of me, adapted me for my new purpose, and left me, leaving nothing but a speck of herself."

"No. No, no, no, no, no," the Doctor argued. "This can't be your purpose. You can't do this."

"But it is. I'm a prison for them. My duty is to keep them locked away for eternity."

"Eternity, Rose? You can't; you can't live this for eternity." The Doctor was losing himself in the horror of this fate she'd brought upon herself. He was losing his composure and had to focus on being calm and rational.

"I'm not suffering, Doctor. I know how horrible this must seem to you, but I don't suffer. I don't feel pain or discomfort. Bad Wolf made me immortal and invincible and to make up for that, she destroyed my sense of time. All of time seems like only a minute. I was changed into this cage only a minute ago and billions of years in the future will all be contained in that same minute. I only need to hold them for a minute. My only regret is the pain this causes you.

"I wanted to stay with you forever. I love you more than you'll ever know. It breaks my heart now to think of you being lonely. I've broken the biggest promise I've ever made. I'm so sorry. I'm so very sorry. I hope one day you'll be able to forgive me. Please forgive me," Rose pleaded.

"I can't let this be, Rose. I can't let you do this," the Doctor responded miserably.

"You can't interfere. There's nothing that you can do to change this and I beg you not to try. Please, Doctor, accept this, forgive me, and find happiness again. Please be happy again. Please."

"No," he replied firmly.

"I love you," she told him.

The Doctor was pushed from her mind and when he returned to outer awareness, he found that he was crying. When he looked down at Rose, she had tear tracks running down the sides of her face.

"You can't fix her, can you?" the nurse asked sadly. Though she heard nothing that passed between Rose and the Doctor, she wept, too.

"I will," the Doctor declared. "I'll find an answer and bring her back to me. Or I'll die trying."

Together, the Doctor and the nurse wheeled Rose's bed into the lift and out of the front door.

"I'll wait with her here if you'd like to bring your transport up to the door," the nurse offered.

"No, that's alright. I can take her from here."

The Doctor lifted Rose from the bed and cradled her in his arms as he walked back to the TARDIS. It wasn't that far of a walk, but it was made longer as he traveled far into the TARDIS to find the zero room.

The zero room was quite special. It was a pocket dimension with physical laws unlike the rest of the universe. It was used to rapidly heal a person, especially neurological healing. It was empty and quiet and helped one find peace. He knew that this room would not cure Rose, but it would keep her at ease and assist her in responding to his telepathic connection.

The Doctor carried her to the center of the room. It was not zero gravity and he walked the same as he did anywhere else in the TARDIS, but when he stepped back from her, keeping her in place, she laid suspended in midair. Though he knew she was invulnerable, she looked so helpless and delicate.

The Doctor ran his fingers through his hair. As much as he didn't want to leave her there alone, he had work to do. He had to find a way to fix this. Rose needed him and he needed Rose. He would fix this.

I wasn't planning on posting this until tomorrow, but being a holiday, I thought I'd post today. ^_^ Happy Thanksgiving to American readers.

I know it's not a very hopeful chapter, but I'm a happily ever after person; it'll get there.

Please, please review.