Sorry all, apparently my copy and paste skills need work.
I own nothing.
Rose's stay on Mursag was wonderful. It was more relaxing than she expected, things always seemed to go wrong when she was around... But the company was pleasant, no natural disasters, and no attacks. Just happy, elegant aliens having a blast. The ambassador was sad to hear that Rose would be unable to return to visit them, but as the Mursagi were empathic, he was happy for Rose to leave for a place that was better for her.
The time away gave her the time and space to breathe on her own and analyze her actions and motivations. She spent a large portion of the extended spaceflight with River, also an added bonus since she wasn't able to see her long on Monday or Tuesday, and not at all on Wednesday. Rose hoped that her mum had used the time to get fully acquainted with the idea. Things with her mum were so often complicated but they had a usual set of components. They'd done the shouting and the crying, the ball gave them the space. Lots of it, and literally- space.
It also gave Rose the chance to prepare for Tuesday morning.
Commander Davis called a division wide meeting and Rose squirmed as everyone from the team captains to combat trainers took seats.
"Good morning to you all. I know there's plenty of work to be done and you lot are good at doing it, so I'll keep this brief. Captain Tyler has an announcement for you." He sat down and folded his hands.
Rose stood from her position at the end of the long table of captains. "I'd, uh, I'd like to thank you all for your continued work, support and companionship here at Torchwood. It's something I'm proud to say I was a part of. Which is why it's hard for me to tell you that I'll be leaving Torchwood next week. I will miss you all." Concise and to the point without having to spill into the details. Rose returned to her seat amid a buzz of voices.
"We will, of course, give her a proper send off. Captain Smith is organizing the potluck for the party, so contact him with regards to what you should bring next Wednesday." Commander Davis said over the whispering crowd.
Mickey winked at Rose.
"You're dismissed."
Rose caught up with Mickey as they were leaving. "Any excuse for a party?" She teased, "Or just glad to be rid of me?"
"Never, Rose. You know I wish things between us had been different, but we aren't the same people we started off as. So yeah, I'm glad you're goin' back to the Doctor. 'Cause you need him, and he needs you, and you don't need me."
Rose bit her lip. "But I'll always want you there, Mickey. You know that?"
"Yeah, I know." He gave her a brief hug and walked into his office.
The moment Rose set foot in her office, she was swarmed by her team and questions.
"Slow down, slow down, I can't hear any of ya!" She yelped at them.
"Why are you quitting?" Lucy pouted.
"I'm leaving. Not just Torchwood, London too." She told them.
"Where are you going?" Vance asked in the flat, blunt tone he always used to cover anxiety.
Rose gave the only answer she could and the look of pure joy on her face stopped any further questions. "Home."
Rose finished the remote for the cannon on Friday. It looked simple on the outside, just an egg shaped ball of metal with one end that twisted off to reveal a button, but the workings were so much more complicated. She had to include a transmitter that could resonate on a frequency strong enough to cross the void and one that only her device would use. Rose very much did not want to find out what having reality unravel around her would be like. Her time working on it kept visits with River short.
Rose and her team were assigned to the weekend shift. Things were dull and moods were low. Her team would miss her certainly, but they were also unsure about their future. Vance was great as a second, but he didn't have the right intuition to be a captain and he knew it. None of the rest of the team was up to it either, which meant someone would be brought in from another team. They weren't sure if Commander Davis would reshuffle the entire division to form new teams or just throw a new person into an established group. Their nervousness made Rose's guilt compound, though she was firm in her resolve. She had to leave.
After work, Rose started packing. Her parents volunteered to take care of her flat, putting it on the market and dealing with her things, but she should get things ready for them. In one corner of her bedroom was a small pile of things to take with her. She had to travel light, she'd be on her feet for a year after all. A few pairs of the sturdy Torchwood trousers, athletic tops in neutral colors, a waterproof jacket, practical spandex knickers, and sportsbras made up the clothing. Hat and gloves for winter. Several water bottles, a pack of nutrient and protein bars, and freeze dried meals for her food. A tiny camping stove and several cans of fuel went next, nestled inside a small cookpot. A full survival kit sat on top containing a well stocked first aid kit, a small pocket knife and a larger survival knife, a compass, an emergency blanket, a compact down sleeping bag, an impossibly thin rain tarp (scavenged from a crashed spaceship), matches, and yards of parachute cord. And, as per River's instructions, a few cans of Tardis blue spray paint. Her journal still sat on her desk but she'd add it before she left, as well as the remote.
River promised she had at least until Thursday, but by Sunday night, Rose could feel something coming. It must, she realized, be the sense River mentioned with the joke about ducking. A very faint sort of nausea lingered deep in her stomach that was more than just nervousness.
When Rose had sold all her science books to university students, given away her household appliances, and carted the box of food supplies to her parents house, her usually spartan flat was nearly completely empty. She had dinner scheduled with her family until she left, so the only food still in her flat was breakfast food.
Her family had come to terms with her departure in the time though they were, understandably, sad to go. Little Tony had sobbed against her legs when she told him she was leaving. He was happy that she got to go on adventures again, but jealous too. Someday he too, would work at Torchwood. Rose hoped that by the time he was there, they were doing more space travel and exploration. She wasn't sure how far into the future her time at Krop Tor had been, but they were connected with Torchwood, she recalled. Tony promised to always remember Rose if she would do the same for him. She gave that promise gladly.
Tuesday after work ended, Rose hopped back to her nearly empty flat carrying the cannon. It was decently heavy and slightly awkward to hold, which made Rose glad she could hop with it instead of lugging it around. She set it down and collected the rest of her belongings, a few days worth of clothes and her rucksack for the trip. Taking the cannon in her arms again, she hopped the whole load to her parents' house where she'd decided to stay until she left.
After dinner and some downtime with her family, which included Mickey and Jake at this point, Rose slipped off to see River.
The two friends embraced tightly. With the party at Torchwood followed by a party her mum insisted on throwing, it was unlikely Rose could visit the next day and any day after could be the day she left.
"Hello, sweetie." River said softly into Rose's hair.
"Hello, River." Rose said as they broke apart. Then she greeted the members of River's crew. They'd interacted only slightly in the month that she'd been there, but enough to break up the monotony of their lives too.
Rose and River walked through the house and into the gardens. River wound them through the hedge maze to the benches in the heart of it.
"Are you ready?" River asked.
"I think so."
"Did you remember to pack a pen for your journal? Enough food? Your gun?"
"Yes, Mum." Rose teased.
River's face grew wistful. "Funny, I remember saying that often enough to you when I was growing up."
Rose sighed softly, she hadn't meant to bring up the tricky timelines. They were sometimes painful for River to dwell on. "You're sure I can't rescue you after the Year that Never Was?"
"No. Because of the reality collapse, anything that happens in the Doctor's timeline before the paradox year or after darkness will be inaccessible to you. You have to wait until you meet my mother."
"Yeah, sorry. I know you've explained it before. It's just, it'll be so hard to leave the Doctor again. Even for you." Rose added with a wink. "I won't regret the time away if it means I can save you though. Not in the slightest."
River smiled gently at her, accepting the sentiments. "Oh!" She exclaimed.
"What? What is it?"
"You're still blond." River said, baffling Rose.
"What?"
"Martha can't know who you are. If you're blond, she might figure it out since a certain captain said certain things."
"Oh." Rose frowned, "I guess tomorrow I'll buy some hair dye, though it'll be a pain to keep dying it for a year... Hang on, I haven't dyed my hair at all in Pete's world, it's still blond!" How had that happened and how the hell had she not noticed?
River grinned before it broke into a laugh at Rose's bewildered expression. "I did tell you that you have some control over your appearance. Just like the Tardis."
"But I've been there ages longer than the Tardis in me has been active."
River shrugged. "Some things bled through. You healed faster from the Macra, right? The Heart was helping with the important things."
"How is my hair color important?"
"The Doctor and the Tardis do love their pink-and-yellow girl." River grinned.
Rose moaned. "And how do I do that, then? Change my hair?"
"Same way as the rest, connect to the heart and imagine yourself with a different color."
"It's been so long since I've been anything but blond... Imagining might be difficult."
"Assemble a transdimensional spatioaccelerator, learn to control the most powerful force in the universe, easy. But what you can't do is imagine yourself with brown hair?" River chuckled.
"Maybe I could go ginger. Make the Doctor jealous." She grinned, "I suppose that might stand out a bit too much, though."
"Whatever you think is best, sweetie." River said, laying a hand gently on Rose's shoulder. "And remember, the most important thing in the paradox year is to keep Martha Jones alive. Well, no, keep yourself alive first, anyway. After those, it's important that Martha grows to see her own worth and strength. Starting off will be hard for her, she doesn't have supplies or foreknowledge or training like you do. She'll need help, but not so much that you're wrapping her in bubble wrap."
Rose nodded. River wouldn't tell her exactly why Martha needed to prove herself so badly, she said it would be apparent fairly soon.
"Got an alias picked out, then?" River asked.
"Yep." Rose said smugly, popping the 'p'.
River didn't bother asking, she already knew what it was. "Do you have any questions?"
Rose hummed to herself as she thought. "That thing with the Firtux, will we be able to do that while I'm walking the Earth?"
"I don't know."
"No." Another voice said from one of the pathways into the maze. As River and Rose spun to face the newcomer, Rose felt another telepathic signature press against her. It was familiar, impossibly familiar...
The owner of the voice stepped out of the shadow of the hedges as they turned, freezing both women.
It was Rose. Another Rose, an older Rose. There was no sign of aging on her face, no graying to her hair, in nearly every aspect she was identical to the younger Rose still sitting beside River. It was her eyes that betrayed the passage of time. The chocolatey brown eyes of the younger Rose were gone, in there place were deep, honey colored orbs. Brown with gold mixed in. They carried a weight in them too, similar to the one reflected in the Doctor's eyes, regardless of the regeneration, though not so heavy. Still, older Rose smiled just as cheekily as her younger counterpart.
"Hello me! Hello Melody."
River sprang from the bench and embraced older Rose. By the name alone, River knew this was a Rose that had gone through her childhood already. "When are you from?" She asked.
"Just after Manhattan."
Younger Rose's eyebrows shot up as River jerked, as if stung. Something big happened in Manhattan. "Why come now?" Younger Rose asked the elder, who smiled.
"Well, I remember myself coming. I'm here to answer a few questions you didn't know to ask and River doesn't have the answers to. First off, the cracks open on Thursday, make your goodbyes count. Second, you can go back to blond as soon as the paradox year is over. Third, don't tell the Doctor that you know River was here or you met me, not until after Manhattan. Fourth, you won't meet River here again, because I'm taking her and the rest of her team out of the datacore today." She finished smugly.
Younger Rose and River both gaped at her. "But how? It's impossible?" River sputtered.
"You really should know better than to apply that word to us." Older Rose said with a wink to younger Rose. "Besides, I'm very clever. Nothing that can be remembered is ever truly lost."
Younger Rose blinked. Those were the words she was to give Donna to tell River in the library.
"Ah. That means more than this place." Younger Rose said with a smile as it clicked.
"Yup." The older Rose agreed with a pop. "Anyway, I'm going to go inside and round up the rest of the crew while you two make your goodbyes." She spun and walked back into the maze leaving the other two staring after her.
"Well, I don't change much." Rose said with a grin.
River smiled back at her before pulling her into another hug. "Keep yourself safe, Rose. And remember, you don't have to do it all in one go, take some time for yourself. You are a time machine."
"Where would I go? Everyone thinks I'm dead. I've got no family to go to, my friends would freak out."
"There's one place you have a standing invitation. Think on it."
"I will." Rose said, though she was still puzzled as to where River meant.
"And you haven't read ahead in your journal, have you?" River asked.
Rose shook her head. River had written out more than just directions in the pages she filled, but she wouldn't tell Rose what all they were. Things she should find out at the right times.
"Good. Sweetie, when things get hard, remember how much you are loved. By him, by me, and by so many others."
Rose felt tears beginning at the corners of her eyes. "I love you too. I'm so glad I'm going to rescue you."
"Good bye and good luck. We'll meet again soon."
"You too. Keep yourself out of trouble this time, I don't want to have to rescue you three times." Rose teased.
River grinned. "Now there's a promise I can't keep."
"I assume, since I told us to say our goodbyes here, that I'm not supposed to come back with you."
"Probably not. This is the last bit of foreknowledge you're going to get for a while."
"But I'm going to keep running into you!" Rose protested.
"Yup. And I won't spoil anything."
"Goodbyes are hard." Rose said after a pause.
"Yes, yes they are. Go home to your family, tell them."
Rose nodded. "Goodbye, River. Thank you." She said around a final hug.
"Goodbye, Rose. It's been wonderful."