It seemed that the early hours at Torchwood had destroyed Rose's ability to sleep past seven in the morning. And that was late for her to be getting up. Rose puttered in the kitchen after her breakfast, trying to figure out a way to spend her time. She cleaned her whole flat before it was time to meet up with Jake and Mickey.

Over lunch, her mates informed her that she'd be having lunch with them every day that week. They were, as Mickey put it, under orders to keep her out of trouble, whether that trouble came from aliens or her own boredom. She laughed but she didn't entirely believe them. At least, not Mickey. The same way he called her out the night before, she knew him and he was worried. Later, as she walked through Hyde Park on her way back to her flat, she got a call from her mum, ordering her to dinner at their place all week. Rose realized that could could be another way to fill her time and invited herself over earlier so she could play with her baby brother and chat with her mum. Jackie's enthusiasm at the idea made Rose feel a bit guilty.

When they'd first arrived in that universe, Rose helped out at Torchwood, lending her expertise until the Doctor figured out a way to get her back. She was utterly confident that he would, but she needed the distraction to avoid dwelling on just how much she missed him. 'Course at that point, Pete and Jackie were getting reacquainted and Pete was struggling to accept an adult daughter that he'd never had, so the distraction from that was nice too. But after Dårlig Ulv Stranden, Rose had collapsed into her grief. She allowed herself one month to wallow before she threw herself back into the world of fighting aliens with a vigor that surprised and worried her family.

After an encounter with crab-like empire building species known as the Macra left her injured and clinging to life by a thread, Pete put her on indefinite leave for reckless behavior. She never endangered others, usually it was to protect other people that she risked danger, but her own life seemed so void that she had no trouble putting it on the line. Lying in her hospital bed with a concussion, five broken ribs, and slash sewn shut that ran from the front of one hip around and across her back to her other shoulder, injuries that the doctors said she shouldn't have survived, she had her epiphany. She had wondered idly if the Doctor felt like this, not caring whether he lived or died. A terror gripped her at that and she knew immediately that she didn't want that for him, nor would he want it for her.

"Have a fantastic life, Rose. Do that for me. Have a fantastic. Life."

She'd turned to her mum, who had hardly left her bedside despite her obvious pregnancy, with tears welling in her eyes.

"Mummy." She said, her voice wobbling as the tears spilled down her cheeks. And Jackie had held her as she'd cried. "I'm sorry, I'm so sorry."

From that day forward, she'd worked to build a life, a real life. She set aside the hole in her heart, honoring it with a monument, a statue dedicated to the life and the love she'd lost but it no longer consumed her. She was back to the Rose that Mickey and Jackie remembered, almost. She laughed and smiled, but there was always something a little wistful about her. She took her A levels while still on bedrest. After her health was back completely, a full month before the doctors expected, she enrolled in university, earning a degree in astrophysics in two years instead of three as well as a minor in mechanical engineering. She was loaded with course work until the day she graduated. Afterward, Pete had no reservations about reinstating her at Torchwood, where she was more successful than ever. But she still lived for her work, so she spent time with her family rarely. She was quickly promoted and ran her own team of field agents. As a top operative, she was often called in even when she was off-duty, not to mention the off-world trips.

So she'd neglected her mum. Plus, trusting River, she'd be leaving this entire universe behind, and hopefully soon. She had better spend time with them while she still could.

When the dinner finished and Rose returned to her apartment, she felt happier than she had for a long time. Just chatting casually with her parents and playing with Tony felt nice. Domestic the Doctor's northern voice said in her head, but it made her laugh rather than weep. Yes, she would be leaving this behind, but she wanted to leave with good memories and this way she would leave them with good memories of her too. Feeling serene, she changed for bed and sent her mind to River.

"You're getting awfully good at that, sweetie." River called from the back of the house. Rose had arrived only a moment before. This time she was able to move almost at once instead of fading in and out like the last time. Rose followed River's voice through the mansion and out the patio doors into the garden. River was reclining in a padded lawn chair sipping a cool drink lazily.

"How come I always find you during the day?" Rose asked, settling back into a chair next to River and turning her face into the warm afternoon sun.

"Because when you come here, you're focusing on me instead of this place. I subconsciously reroute your arrival for a convenient time. The time when it's easiest to connect to me. Sort of. Does that make sense?"

"Yeah, sure. Mostly."

"What time was it for you?"

"Evening. A bit past eight."

"Did you have a good day? Chase any aliens?" River teased.

Rose sighed dramatically. "I feel like a teenager, I'm grounded for the week. Technically I'm on medical leave. I guess it feels the same when the boss is your dad."

"You didn't tell him what happened?"

"I fall unconscious and mystery woman tells me that my wish is granted and I can see the Doctor again? He'd think I need to be sectioned."

River laughed, "But you will tell him. Them. Your family."

"Yeah, 'course. Just, when I have something more solid than strange dreams they can't wake me from. I know it's happening, by the way, I don't think I've made this up." Rose added her signature cheeky grin which River returned.

"Shall we check your mental shielding then?"

Rose nodded.

Some time later they both opened their eyes, panting. But Rose had successfully kept River from breaking through.

"Good. Keep practicing that. With your line of work, we wouldn't want you to get attacked by a telepath. I wanted to make sure your mind was safe before we did anything else." River told Rose.

"Makes sense." The younger woman replied. "So, how do I get back to the Doctor."

River's smile dimmed a little.

"What? What is it?" Rose asked, worried that maybe the reunion she so desperately craved was actually out of reach.

"Oh sweetie. We'll get you there, Rose, but it's going to take some time. Even after you get back to the proper universe, you can't go straight to him."

"Why not?"

"Because that's not how it happened. Mainly you have to go around saving the Doctor and then saving me."

"Well that doesn't sound so bad." Rose hedged.

River's smile dropped. "Some of the things you have to do, Rose, you told me they were the hardest you'd ever faced. And the Doctor can't know that you're there."

"But why?"

"At least one of them, the first thing, is because you could be used as a weapon against the Doctor. After that I'm not sure, but you've checked with the Tardis, and she told you that it can't be changed, he mustn't know you're back until the right time."

"Okay, step back, the Tardis told me?"

"In this case, I think you meant that she showed you several possible timelines and the only one that didn't end in chaos was the one you followed. But, you are part of the Tardis and she is part of you, so she can speak to you. She just doesn't do it often because she's very poor at tenses. You'll get hums and feelings and sometimes pictures a lot more often now though."

"There's so much for me to learn, isn't there? And I want to know all of it now but it's all intertwined so it's difficult to find a place to start." Rose said with a sigh.

River laid a comforting hand on her shoulder. "Difficult, yes." She said, "But not impossible."

The two women smiled at each other. Rose was so very glad that she'd found this once and future friend.

"Where do you want to start?" River asked.

"New, Tardis-y abilities." Rose said after some thought, she decided to go with what was the shortest of the topics she wanted to hear about.

"The telepathy obviously, the ability to move in time and space, you have a mental connection to the Tardis and to me, the translation circuit should pass back into effect, some control over your external appearance, and you'll sometimes sense things before they happen. If something really good or really bad happens soon, you'll sense it. It should give you enough time to duck." River added with a teasing smile.

"Oi, cheeky."

"Oh, and an extended lifespan."

Rose gulped. "How extended, exactly?"

"I'm not sure. If you figured it out, you didn't tell me. But long enough that the Doctor won't have to worry for at least a few centuries. What next?"

But she won't be Rose Tyler, she's not even human.

Humanity is what's inside us.

Her mum's words and River's played and replayed inside her head, beating like drums. She swallowed and took a slow, even breath.

"How do I get back to the Doctor?" Rose spat out all in one breath.

River raised an eyebrow and Rose got the feeling she was holding back a laugh at Rose's emotion. Hope and desperation mixed in equal parts.

"You can't do it on your own. You aren't anywhere near as near as powerful as the Tardis and she can't travel universes willy-nilly. You have to build something you called a dimension cannon. Though I don't know if you really decided that or because I told you... Anyway, it will help you step across the void. But it can only do that because the walls of the universes are going to damaged. Once they're fixed again, you can't go back, until the next time the Doctor has to stop the collapse of reality at least.

"When you first go across, the damage is slight enough that only you'll be able to cross. Later, when the darkness comes, the dimension hoppers Mickey and your dad used the last time will be enough to get them over. You'll actually have to cross three times."

"Why's that?"

"Because you can't risk staying in the unraveling of reality."

"What?" Whatever Rose was expecting, that was not it.

"You were right, everything is all intertwined." River moaned. "Can we agree to go into the physics of the machine later and I can tell you the main bits of the story?"

"Yeah, I think you'd better."

River ran a hand back through her thick tangle of curls, deciding where to begin and what needed to be told right away, and what could wait.

"Right then. So, immediately after his image faded away from Dårlig Ulv Stranden, the Doctor was preparing himself for a good long sulk. At least half a century. But his impending sulk was stopped by the appearance of a grumpy redhead in a wedding dress in the Tardis who immediately accused him of kidnapping her."

"But how-" interjected Rose.

"Shh, fingers on lips!" River told her.

Rose bit on her lip as she pressed her finger to it, remembering when the Doctor used that line on a group of adults. From the creasing at the corners of River's eyes, she was referencing that story. Which, Rose realized, probably meant that she was quoting Rose quoting the Doctor.

"Good. This woman, Donna Noble, was being used by an alien who wished to begin eating through the galaxy. As per usual, the Doctor's offer to move away from Earth was refused, so he had to destroy the threat and save Donna. The Doctor took Donna home and offered her a spot in the Tardis, which she refused. But she told him to find someone to travel with, he needed someone to stop him from going to far. Now remember Donna, she's important, but she leaves for a while.

So the Doctor found a new companion, Martha Jones. She was a medical student he met in a hospital that ended up on the moon. She didn't necessarily stop him from going to far, he kind of walked all over her, but she helped him live a bit more.

The Doctor, Martha, and Jack ended up at the end of the universe where they found another Time Lord. He had been in hiding since the Time War as a human. There's a device in the Tardis that can change the species of a person. It locks away the memories of the previous self, so he thought he was human. The Time Lord consciousness was locked into a pocket watch. He was actually the Master, the Doctor's childhood companion, his worst friend and his dearest enemy. He was shot by his assistant after he opened the watch and his madness became apparent, so he regenerated, taking the Tardis and flying off. The Doctor was able to fuse the controls before he left so the only time and place he could go was Earth, the last time and place the Tardis had been. It was off by eighteen months, so the Master had plenty of time to establish himself before the Doctor, Martha, and Jack returned by way of Jack's vortex manipulator. They arrived on election day to find the Master elected Prime Minister under the name Harold Saxon. The Master turned the Tardis into a paradox machine, maintaining a global paradox. The paradox opens the first cracks in the universes for you to slip through. After that disaster is fixed, Martha leaves and the Doctor encounters Donna again.

"After some time in the Tardis, Donna's timeline is altered by an extradimensional being and it causes a causality collapse. You have to get out before that happens or you might die in the aftermath. You'll have to pop into that causal nexus though and fix it, then get out as it disintegrates. Your final jump will come as the darkness is coming. Stop the stars from going out.

"Later I'll tell you a bit more about the things you'll have to do, more details, but that should sum up the crucial events." River finished, still looking pensive, trying to decide what she could and couldn't say.

"What causes the stars to go out?" Rose asked.

"I can't tell you. But it happens in every universe, not just your home one. It will also happen in the wrong causality."

"And when do I get to see the Doctor?"

"Not until you don't recognize the Earth's sky."

"Gee, could you be a little less cryptic?"

River laughed, "Sorry sweetie, I do have timelines to protect. Spoilers." She added with a wink.

Rose tried to glare at her but River's smile was infectious.

"Now I think you and I should start working on the designs for the cannon, don't you?" River asked.

"You mean you don't know how to build it?" Rose asked.

"Not exactly, you didn't tell me, which means I didn't tell you. So we figure it out together. But we're both brilliant, so it shouldn't be to bad and I know the theory behind it." River smirked.

The remainder of Rose's visit was spent discussing the theories River had and some general concepts. Rose came back to her body and immediately rolled over and fell asleep.