Disclaimer: I've got no TARDIS. I've got no Doctor Who rights. No pony, no Ferrari, but I'll tell you what I have got. Cough medicine.

A/N: Ten/Rose. Set during GitF.

What Happens When You Leave Rose Tyler

The Doctor sighed silently to himself as his eyes roved the ever familiar stars above, stars he would only ever get to see from below now that he'd opted for the slow path. Not that he'd been eagerly anticipating moving at the same sluggish speed humans had to live with. He'd just been doing what he always did when he'd smashed through that window with Arthur: choosing others over himself. He thought of the woman who waited beyond this door for him.

But she wasn't the only one waiting, and he had to admit she wasn't the one he was looking forward to seeing again. No, the woman he could hardly bare being apart from…he wouldn't see her again for over two hundred years. And if the wait didn't kill him, then the manners of transportation he'd have to settle for until then would.

A commotion from the hallway beyond stirred him from his reverie. Raising his eyebrows, he turned on his heels and headed for the sign of trouble. Some things never changed.

What he saw when he slid into the nearly empty ballroom surprised even him. Shocked, really. Doctor of impossible. He expected everything, him. Except for this. The TARDIS was materializing in the middle of the polished wood floor, the sound like the most beautiful music in existence to his ears. He hardly registered the shocked servants or Reinette's beautifully carved confused look. He started forward when the doors suddenly blasted open, knocking him backwards a few feet.

The strongest wave of déjà vu crashed over him as he took in the horrific sight of Rose's golden apparition in the doorway. The light pulsed through her, and she was floating majestically through the air to land in the middle of the ballroom between him and the TARDIS.

"What manner of magic is this?" Reinette spoke in tones of wonder and even fear.

Rose turned her intense gaze now from him to the uncrowned queen of France who bowed her head in wondered submission. "Not magic," her voice echoed timelessly. "Time."

"What are you?" Reinette couldn't seem to stop her curiosity from getting the better of her.

"I am Bad Wolf. I am time. You are but a speck in all I see and know."

She looked sharply in the Doctor's direction when he tottered forward one step. "Rose, what have you done?" His voice held a tremor of terror.

Her eyes blazed with fire. Suddenly she stood mere inches from him. "Everything and nothing to get you back. You left me." The human tone of accusation in her majestic angelic voice turned into a grin on his face. She scowled.

"But you're here," he couldn't control the emotion in his voice at that truth.

"One good reason I shouldn't leave you stranded here in the middle of nowhere." The light was beginning to fade, and her voice was losing some of its ethereal quality.

"Oh, I'd hardly call Versailles the middle of nowhere." A spike of panic burst through his veins when she was suddenly standing in the doorway of the TARDIS, her hand on the door. "Wait! There is one reason."

The light was almost completely gone. She hesitated and took one step out of the TARDIS. "Yeah? What is it?" She crossed her arms.

He laughed joyfully as he skipped across the room to her. "I love you, you stupid ape." And suddenly his mouth covered hers in a slow, loving kiss. She smiled through it, but later she'd make sure he knew that if he ever left her, Rose Tyler, again stranded in the middle of literally nowhere, there'd be hell to pay.

A/N: Wow, guilt trip you guys a little, and look at the response. Y'all didn't disappoint. Thanks for all those lovelilly reviews!