Hey babes! Back with a new one for ya! After several conversations and many clowning sessions in Discord, this idea for a fic hit me and wouldn't leave me alone until I wrote it. Part of me wanted to wait until I'd actually seen more of 15 and Ruby together, to really get their personalities/dynamic right, but then I started writing and couldn't stop. I'm really happy with the way this turned out, so I hope you all like it too.

Enjoy!

He'd tried to ignore the similarities when he first noticed them. A young blonde girl in London, who unwittingly gets wrapped up in his problem, is relatively chill with him not being human, and is eager to travel in a time ship. But he's not the least bit attracted to her in any romantic sense, which is the biggest difference. He simply enjoys her company and has fun showing her the universe and all it has to offer. They have fun together. She's a good friend.

They get into all sorts of trouble together, even if it's not on every adventure. He does enjoy the more relaxing adventures, of course, and has fun showing Ruby some of his favorite places to go through the galaxies to simply take a breather or stock up on various items for the TARDIS. And he can tell that Ruby loves every moment of it. Even the moments that most would consider highly dangerous and would have earned him a slap from a mother or two if they found out the truth.

Which is why he never gives details to the mothers.

"Doctor? A little help over here?"

He's pulled roughly from his thoughts by the call for help from his Companion, concentrating back on the moment and the situation. Two warring species on a planet that isn't their own, both trying to take over and either conquer or enslave the inhabitants. And there's a giant swirling hole of death looming over them, both physically and metaphorically. The painful similarity of the moment hits him but he pushes it away. He needs to focus.

"Right, yeah, sorry babes," he says loud enough for Ruby to hear him over the loud cacophony of sounds around them and then immediately jumps into action. He absentmindedly grabs a coil of rope sitting nearby among dozens of other random pieces of equipment the workers of the planet had been using for some project or another, and slips it over his head as he hurries to the center of the commotion.

Everything goes swimmingly well after that, they're able to get the remaining citizens out of harm's reach of the swirling hole, ushering them out of the building and outside to safety. He nearly has to laugh at how exciting the whole thing is, being able to save so many of the planet's inhabitants. He jumps right into working to shut down the swirling hole, a giddy smile on his face the entire time.

But then Ruby trips. Or gets knocked into. And falls to the ground. Then she slowly starts being dragged toward the swirling hole by the sheer force of its gravitational pull.

The color drains completely from his face.

Suddenly he's back in that white room. The wind is rushing past him, Cybermen and Daleks are flying past him at breakneck speeds. And Rose is barely hanging on.

And then her grip is slipping.

And then she's falling.

Faster and faster toward the Void.

But then Pete's there. And he catches her. And he takes her back to his world.

Which means Rose is gone forever. He can't ever get her back.

Of course, he does get to see her again. But even then he knew it wasn't going to last. Because it never does. It was a nagging feeling in the back of his mind that he tried desperately to ignore. Until the Metacrisis happened, and he shared a look with Donna. And he knew what had to happen.

He had to let Rose go. No matter how much it broke both of his hearts.

But he won't go through that kind of pain again. He can't.

Even if his relationship with Ruby is much different from his relationship with Rose, he can't take the heartbreak of losing her in such a similar manner. Not when the similarities between them are already so many.

So he takes a deep breath, focuses on the moment, and tries his damn hardest to find a solution.

It's only when he starts moving to find a way to save Ruby that he feels the rope shift against him. He stops but barely stares at it before he's moving again.

He quickly ties one end of the rope around his waist, making sure it's knotted securely, and then ties the other to a hold in the wall used for construction purposes. He triple-checks both knots as quickly as he can and then starts moving toward his friend. He can feel his hearts pounding in his chest, trying his hardest to shove the memories back so he can focus on saving Ruby. She's the one who matters in the present moment.

"Ruby!" he shouts as he slowly moves toward her, bracing himself for the inevitability of falling while silently thanking whoever's listening that Ruby found something to grip onto. Though it does very little to keep her entire body on the ground, the force of the whirling hole tugging her up. "Ruby!"

Her head whips toward him. "Doctor! Help me!"

He takes a deep breath and then lets the gravity completely overtake him, praying that the rope stays attached for as long as it'll take him to get Ruby to safety. He winces in pain at the jolt when he reaches the full length of the rope, but ignores it to stretch his arms out for Ruby. "Give me your hand!"

Ruby shakes her head. "I can't! I'll fall in if I let go."

"No, you won't. Because I'm going to grab you. And then I'm going to pull you back." His eyes start stinging. "I need you to trust me, Ruby, more than you've ever trusted me before. Now grab my hand!"

Ruby shifts, stretches, and reaches out as far as she possibly can. "Doctor!"

"Keep reaching!" he shouts back, blinking a few times to keep his vision from blurring. "Please, Rose, you just have to grab my hand and hold on. I can save you this time," his voice cracks. "I promise."

A moment later there's a hand in his. He grips tightly, smiles brightly, and then turns just enough to use his other hand to hold the rope and start pulling himself back. He carefully wraps the rope around his arm as he goes, shortening the length to pull himself and Ruby back into a safer area.

He makes sure she's safe and then quickly finishes shutting down the whirling hole. So it's only a few minutes more that the room is in chaos.

Then it all stops.

And he finally has a moment to breathe.

He strides across the room to his Companion and pulls her into a fierce hug, holding her tightly against him and swaying slightly from side to side. He closes his eyes to try and keep the tears at bay but it only makes the memories come on faster and more vividly.

So he opens them again and pulls back just enough to cup Ruby's head in his hands, looking her over, checking for any injuries he might have missed. "You alright?" he asks her, his hearts still pounding. "Nothing's broken or feels broken?"

Ruby shakes her head with a smile. "Nah, I'm alright. Coulda been worse, yeah?"

The Doctor sucks in a sharp breath. "Right. Coulda been worse." His attention is pulled away momentarily by distant shouting, and then he turns back to Ruby and takes a deep breath. "Shall we get going, then?" he asks, holding out a hand.

Ruby grins and grabs hold, the pair of them immediately starting for the exit. "Oh! You called me Rose earlier, when you were trying to reach for me. What was that all about?"

The Doctor swallows thickly, plastering on a smile. "Later. Promise. Right now, we need to leave before something much worse happens."

.

.

.

Despite how much better he feels about everything that's happened in his past, he'd be lying if he said that certain subjects weren't still a bit of a sore spot. Yes, he's learned to work through all those emotions in a relatively healthy way, but some of them still cut deeply. Rose Tyler will always be one of those topics. No matter how long he lives, or how many bodies he goes through, Rose Tyler will always be ingrained in his hearts and seared into his memories.

"So, what was that back there?" Ruby asks sometime later when they're simply floating in the vortex and she's leaning back against one of the railings near the console. "You called me Rose, which is absolutely not my name, and you had this…look on your face. You said you'd explain later. It's later."

He sighs heavily. He knew he wouldn't be able to get away with not talking about it. But as much as it does pain a part of him to speak the words aloud, he knows it'll be good for him.

He turns and leans back against the console, sliding his hands into his pockets. "I had this friend once, called Rose Tyler. She traveled with me for a while and very quickly became one of the most important people in my life. But I kept myself at a distance from her, emotionally, never letting our relationship grow to more than what it already was, never telling her how I truly felt about her. Because I knew it would hurt when I inevitably lost her.

"And I did lose her. And it hurt. A lot. I'm not exactly proud of the person I became when I lost her. I wasn't exactly a kind man at that point in my very long life, at least, not where it should have mattered. I saw Rose again a couple of years later, but then I lost her again to the same parallel world she was trapped in before."

Ruby's brows shoot up. "A parallel world? What? Those actually exist?"

"Yes. But they're not easy to get to. We only found the one we did because the walls between universes were breaking down. We fixed it, though. So no more of that. No more seeing Rose again either."

"How did you lose her the first time?"

He takes a deep breath. "Something terrible happened. They called it the Battle of Canary Wharf, when Daleks and Cybermen were both trying to take control of the planet, kill off every last human. They failed, obviously, because Rose and I stopped them, sent them all into the Void, a place between all the worlds."

"You stopped them? But Rose still got lost?"

He nods. "Yes. One of the levers keeping the Void open got loose, the one near Rose. So she fixed it back into place and tried to hold on. But the winds pulling everything in were too strong for her and she couldn't keep her grip." He takes a deep breath. "Thankfully, her dad from the other universe popped back right in time to save her, take her back to his world. And then everything got sealed up."

"And you never saw her again?"

"Only once. When she came back to help save the universe. But I lost her again to a human version of myself who could give her the forever she promised to spend with me. After that, no," he says with a tight smile, "I never saw Rose Tyler again."

"I'm sorry. That can't have been very easy."

He shakes his head. "It wasn't. But it got easier, as time went on. Though, sometimes there are moments when the pain becomes too much." He offers her a small smile. "But having friends around really helps."

Ruby smiles back. "Well then, I'm happy to be of service."

"I'm happy to hear it." He lets out a breath, the smile still on his face. "You remind me a bit of her, actually. You're the same age she was when she started traveling with me. You've got a similar energy about you too, and you're always eager and excited to see what's out there. That's what I loved best about traveling with Rose, she was always wanting to see more and help anyone who was in distress."

"I'm honored to be compared to someone you very clearly cared about so much."

The Doctor's smile widens. "Oh, I didn't just care about her, Ruby. I loved her. So very much. She will always be on my mind."

"I suppose that's why you called me her, then? Seeing all of that reminded you of when you couldn't save her. So you did everything you could to save me. But the two moments blended together for you."

"Probably." He reaches out to grab her hand and grip it tightly. "You're sure you're alright?"

"I promise I'm fine. Think I'm gonna go lie down for a bit, though."

He nods, releasing her hand and shifting on his feet. "Of course, yeah. Go on," he says, waving her toward the corridor that'll lead to her room as he turns around to face the console. "You humans and your ridiculous need to sleep."

Ruby simply laughs as she turns and walks away.

The Doctor watches her for a moment until she disappears through the doorway and then turns his attention back to the console. He absentmindedly flips a few switches that he knows won't do anything at the present moment and then lets out a heavy breath.

The lights around him dim for just a second.

He smiles sadly. "I know. I still miss her too. Let's just hope Ruby doesn't go the same way, yeah? Or worse. Worse is definitely something we want to avoid."

The lights flash again.

He nods. "You're right. It doesn't help any of us to dwell on the past or one possible future. Let's live in the present. And we'll start by figuring out where to take Ruby next." He grins up at the time rotor. "I'm thinking somewhere fun, with lots of music and excellent food. Any ideas?"

So? What did you think? Let me know in a review down below. I'd love to hear your thoughts.

Until next time,
Jellybean96 out!