Chapter 9

The funeral was a blur, and then it was back to life as normal. Strange, how normal it could be without him. Rose worked part-time on a special salary her father had extended, picked the kids up from the Tylers', and they spent the rest of the day at home, doing normal things. Washing the dishes, doing the laundry, painting pictures, going for walks in the park.

Rose didn't get it. Her heart had been broken. Life seemed impossible, yet it went on—even on the days she couldn't manage to drag herself out of bed.

Those days grew less frequent, but she still didn't understand how the planet continued to turn. Death was just so—wrong.

Six months after John left, she sat on a park bench on a Monday afternoon, listlessly watching her kids climb around on the playground.

Dragonflies buzzed around her. Dandelions and other wildflowers bent over in the occasional warm breeze, scattering petals and flying seeds. All around her there was life—in the ancient trees that soared impossibly tall and skinny into the air hundreds of feet above her head, extending green, leafy branches in every direction and entwining with one another; in the shining of Earth's single yellow sun, in the laughter of the children skipping around on the playground. Her own single heart beat within her chest.

It was so impossible. It wasn't possible, unless—

"Hi, Honey. I'm home."

Clear as day, it was his voice. She hadn't imagined that.

She spun around, almost expecting to see him behind her, but the walk was empty as it had been before. Somehow, though, she knew he was there.

It wasn't possible, unless he was still alive…

The sun had gone behind a puffy cloud, but as she tried to calm her wildly beating heart as she went to sit down again, it suddenly broke forth and filled the air around her with sunshine. The warmth bathed her skin and penetrated much deeper—she felt warmed to her very soul. And suddenly, taking a deep breath, she understood.

She would see him again. After all, she was only human. She would die, too, and they'd be together.

But that's not why she had to keep looking—she had to keep looking for him because he was the Doctor, and the Doctor was the reason she'd been born. She was meant to find him. To save him from himself, over and over again.

A small grin made its way across her face as she turned her bright eyes upwards.

She had some looking to do.