Hello all my hopefully still ever faithful readers! I'm sorry I've been so neglectful these past years (literally, count that, years). But I'm back, hopefully to stay! Here's the newest edition to my baby, my favorite, shhh don't tell the other stories. Please find it in your heart to review. I think I need the encouragement. And I also hope you all like much, of course, as always! 3

What Would Nine Do: GITF Edition

The thing was...he sorta liked making Rose jealous. She was the cutest kind of jealous. But this French woman was coming on just a bit too strong. He wasn't aiming for the silent treatment just to have a laugh. He almost told her about the snog but thought better about it when she asked why Madame de Pompadour? Why Madame de Pompadour indeed.

"You alrigh'?" Rose interrupted his thoughts from behind as he fumbled with the droids' screens.

"Always alrigh'." He grinned back at her. "Fetch the sonic, will ya?" He gestured toward his jacket pocket.

Tongue between her teeth, Rose obliged. He used his chin to gesture at the screen. "We've got to freeze this in place before I can let go. Use setting 39b."

"What's the plan?" Rose asked as she obeyed.

Screen frozen in place, the Doctor took the screwdriver delicately from Rose's hand and wagged his eyebrows. "No fun if I tell ahead of time."

"Oh, I don't know," Rose responded cheekily. "It's always fun with you."

"Can't argue with that." The Doctor shamelessly flirted back.

Mickey cleared his throat suddenly. "Is it supposed to be doing that?" he asked worriedly.

Broken from the flirty stupor, the Doctor gazed across the room. "Is what s'posed to be doin' what?"

Mickey was pointing at a brightly flashing red sensor.

"No!" The Doctor exclaimed. "No, no, no, no, no." He rushed over to the console across the room and hurriedly clicked away, apparently to no avail.

Rose and Mickey stood at his sides, ever the ready to supply a hand. "Doctor, what is it?" Rose wanted to know.

He stopped, frozen himself in place now, his head bent. "There's no way through."

"But-" Rose froze as well, her heart sinking. "I promised 'er. We've got to."

"Unless..." The Doctor trailed off, lifting his head to stare at the wall straight ahead through which a ballroom blazed with frightening activity.

Rose grinned brightly. "Knew you'd figure somethin' out. He always does." Rose said in a sideways to Mickey.

Arthur neighed loudly from the next room and the Doctor swiveled slowly to face Rose. Her grin faltered, then disappeared. "What is it?" She pleaded.

"There's only the one way." His warning tone was clear.

Rose wasn't going to like what he had to say. She soldiered on. "Whatever it is. You've gotta do it." Her voice weakened. "We promised."

The Doctor only had eyes for the woman in front of him. "It's got to be me."

"We're wastin' time here." Mickey urged, with no reaction from the other two.

"'course it's got to be you." Rose finally couldn't hold his gaze. She didn't want to know. She really didn't want to know.

The Doctor might not have reacted to Mickey but he knew he was right. They had minutes if not seconds left to do what needed to be done. He grasped Rose's hands in his. "That's the last window left." He lets his eyes point towards what he meant. "Once I break through..." He couldn't finish.

Rose knew though. She always knew. "The link will be broken for good." She might as well have said that the world had just blown up in front of her very eyes.

"But how're you gonna break through that? You'd need a truck!" Mickey exclaimed, clearly impatient with the quite slow exchange of all the obvious.

"Oh, Mickey. Do be creative. We haven't got a truck, have we? But we've got at least second best." The Doctor said all this without breaking his gaze with Rose and with none of the humor.

Rose spoke again before the Doctor could even try to reassure her. "A promise 's a promise." She didn't mean a word.

"I won't be able to come back." The Doctor's voice almost broke. Almost. He made a semblance of keeping it together for her.

She smiled sadly at him, almost pitifully and put her hand over his cheek. "I don' believe that for a minute. Never will." She answered the puzzled look on his face. "You always come back to me."

"It's impossible." He tried one last foolproof-less argument.

She clicked her tongue. "And you're the Doctor. Impossible's your profession."

He blinked. The grin that lit his features lifted her heart from its sunken spot. "Isn't it just?" It was his turn to take her face in his hands, but he didn't stop there. "Hold this for me." He kissed her full on the mouth, turned and strode purposefully out of the room. Seconds later, he was back, galloping Arthur at full speed. "Hyah!" The glass shattered startlingly. For just a split second, regret painted Rose's features.

"What about us?" Mickey exclaimed, as the patch sealed itself into the metallic wall it was meant to be, blocking their view of the Doctor doing what he did best: saving everyone.

Rose took a deep breath and smiled. "Oh, I reckon we'll be just fine, Mickey." She swung her arm around his shoulders. "Just you wait."

"Now, then," the Doctor stated cheerfully, clapping his hands together. "I'm off."

Reinette blinked in surprise. "But...the window. It's gone. There's no way back."

The Doctor tilted his head at her in a cheery grin. "Where there's a Rose, there's a way. Now where's that fireplace?"

They strode side by side towards Reinette's room. "Will you-" She broke off but garnered her courage to finish. "Will you be back?"

He glanced sideways. "Don't know. Haven't thought about it." He then thought about it and gave her a puzzled glance. "Why? Do you want me to?"

Reinette rolled her eyes as gracefully as she could. "I would ask where your thoughts truly lie, my Doctor, but now that I've been there, there's no need. Tell me, does she know just what she means to you?"

The Doctor didn't know. He thought she might. She should. "My right hand man? 'Course she does."

Reinette chuckled softly. "You're not fooling me. Rose. She lives in your mind as you do in mine." Her look sobered. "You must tell her. You musn't let anything get in the way. A love like that...well, a love like that doesn't know the meaning of impossible."

The fireplace faced them now. "What if it doesn't work?" Reinette tried cautiously, hope fluttering its flirty little wings among her heartstrings.

"Oh, Madame de Pompadour. You just said it yourself." He worked the sonic screwdriver and found the switch. Turning to face her, he grinned manically. "No such thing as impossible. Not today."

"Wait!" Reinette rushed forward before the Doctor could flip the switch. Her lips met his softly. "Thank you. I shall never forget you." She whispered against his lips.

The Doctor smiled softly towards her. "You're going to be fantastic, do you know that?"

"Oh, Doctor. My Doctor. If only that were so, but now...having known you, I fear I shall never be quite as fantastic as the world you know."

"Fear is for fools. You're Madame de Pompadour!"

"And don't you forget it," she cheeked at him. "Goodbye, Doctor."

The fireplace swiveled around swiftly. Excitement raged in the Doctor's veins. He tucked the sonic away and strode back down the now familiar hallways of the vessel.

"Just you wait." He heard a most magnificent, reassuring voice.

"No need." He sung, as he turned the corner.

Rose's grin was automatic. "Toldja." Sliding her arm back from behind Mickey, she enveloped herself now in the Doctor's arms. "Impossible, you are." She whispered.

"Oh, I can't take all the credit." He shot back happily. "Wouldn't be this easy without you."

"Got something of yours." She spoke against his shoulder.

He leaned back, puzzled, then grinned, as she rested the tip of her finger on her lips.

"Well, give it 'ere."

To Mickey's slight disgust, she did just that.