Chapter Text
“That’s why you’ve got to go,” The Doctor said, meeting Rose’s eyes with a familiar cold look. It wasn’t exactly the first time she had seen that expression, but it wasn’t exactly common either.
The computer in the back chirped that there were two minutes remaining until it rebooted.
“Back to Pete’s World,” he continued. After a second, he turned to point at the alternate Pete Tyler. “Hey, we should call it that. ‘Pete’s World.’ I’m opening the Void but only on this side. You’ll be safe on that side.”
Rose’s jaw clenched. He couldn’t really be trying to send her away again.
He only looked away from Rose when Pete spoke up; “And then you’ll close it? For good?”
The Doctor nodded. “The breach itself is soaked in Void stuff, In the end, it’ll close itself. And that’s it. Kaput.”
“But you’ll stay on this side?” Rose asked quietly.
“But you’ll get pulled in,” Mickey pointed out, from his place next to Jackie.
The Doctor stole a glance at Rose before dashing over to the equipment he had taken amid the Dalek shootout. “That’s why I got these!” He proclaimed, heaving one up into his arms. “I’ll just have to hold on tight. Shouldn’t be too hard, I’ve been doing it all my life.”
“I’m supposed to go?” Rose asked.
“Yep.” He dropped the first magnaclamp onto the floor.
“To another world? And then it gets sealed off?”
He barely looked up as he ran over to one of the room’s computers. “Yeah.”
“Forever?” There used to be such love in her voice when she uttered that word, but it was gone now. She scoffed. “Yeah, that’s not gonna happen.”
An explosion shook the building, and Pete led the majority of their little group over to the great empty space. In his eyes, the plan worked and there was no use arguing. Rose and Jackie were both keen to argue, with the former wanting to stay with the Doctor, and the latter not wanting to leave her daughter. Pete didn’t care, they were going. When Rose began a tangent on everything she has seen the Doctor do, all the people, all the planets he’s helped, the Doctor himself stepped behind her and placed the teleportation pendant around her neck and met Pete’s eyes. He pushed his own, and just like that, they were gone.
The Doctor was going to need to try a lot harder than that if he wanted to leave Rose again. She pushed hard against the pedant and landed right back in her world’s Torchwood.
“I think this is the on switch,” she said, catching the Doctor’s eye as his head shot up at the sound of her voice.
The Doctor rose from his knelt position and grabbed her shoulders tight. “Once the breach collapses, that’s it. You’ll never be able to see her again. Your own mother!”
She resisted the urge to roll her eyes. For someone who was hundreds of years old, he really was daft. “I made my choice a long time ago, and I’m never going to leave you.” She inhaled sharply. “So, what can I do to help?”
The computer chimed in that the systems had rebooted, and there was now open access. The Doctor released her shoulders and pointed to one of the computers. “Those coordinates over there, set them all at six, and hurry up.” She obeyed, taking the pendant off her neck as she walked over as he directed, blatantly ignoring the angry tone his voice had taken.
Out of the corner of her eye, she noticed Cybermen on the security camera footage heading up towards their location. She informed him as such, and he asked; “How many floors down?” He ran to stand and watch over her shoulder.
“Just one.”
The Doctor retreated back into the office and grabbed one of the magnaclamps. He tapped a few keys on one of the desktops, and the automated voice informed him that the levers were operational. He grinned.
“That’s more like it,” She joked. “Bit of a smile, the old team.”
“Hope and Glory, Mutt and Jeff, Shiver and Shake,” he responded, handing her a clamp. It wasn’t exactly a heavy weight, just uncomfortable.
He walked away to attach the other clamp near one of the said levers. She attached her own clamp and followed behind him.
“Which one’s Shiver?” she asked, tongue in cheek.
“Oh, I’m Shake,” he responded.
The robotic voices of the Cybermen could be heard getting ever closer outside the door. There wasn’t much time left, especially not with the Daleks floating around outside. The Doctor and Rose ran over to their respective levers and held on, at the ready.
The Doctor spoke again, this time with instructions. “When it starts, hold on tight. It shouldn’t be too bad for us, but the Daleks and the Cybermen are soaked in Void stuff. Are you ready?”
Rose went to nod before she caught a glance at the hundreds of Daleks outside the office windows. “So are they.”
“Let’s do it!”
The two pushed with all available strength to move the levers into an upright position. Once they were, they ran back to where they had put their clamps, and prepared to hold on for dear life. Almost immediately, multiple Daleks came crashing through the window and were pulled right into the breach. It wasn’t long before hundreds upon hundreds of robotic-esque aliens were screaming as they followed the breach, almost like a drain. But with each one to go through, it became that much more difficult to hold on.
It also made it difficult for the levers to stay in their spot. Rose’s lever went loose, and was slowly falling back to its initial placement. She released one hand from the clamp and attempted to stretch to pull the lever back, but the lever still kept moving, just out of her reach. So she let go of the clamp completely, moved to the lever and pulled as hard as possible. After a moment of struggle, she succeeded.
As the Daleks continued to fly through, Rose’s only tether was the lever, and her whole body floated upwards as the breach attempted to pull her in as well.
“Rose, hold on!” the Doctor shouted with wide eyes, knowing he couldn’t do anything without risking himself getting pulled in.
She tried but the force quickly became too much. Luckily just as her fingers started to slip, the breach closed up behind her. She slammed down hard against the concrete floor and heard, more than felt, something in her chest crack.
The Doctor was on her in a second, grasping her hand and pulling her gently to her feet. He cupped her cheeks in his hands and held eye contact with her for a quiet moment.
“Rose, are you alright?” He asked, quickly glancing her up and down for any external signs of injury.
“Yeah, yeah, I’m okay,” she responded, attempting and failing to catch her breath. His hand brushed her side and she hissed loudly in pain, one of her own hands going to cover the area.
“Well, that doesn’t sound okay.” He attempted to grin in hopes of getting her to smile, but the fear was obvious in his eyes. “What’s wrong? What hurts?”
“My ribs.”
He dug into his pockets and pulled out his trusted sonic screwdriver. He scanned her up and down, and read the results. “You cracked two ribs on your right side when you fell. Blimey, Rose… I don’t even want to think…”
He fell silent. There weren’t words to describe the pain if Rose had fallen into the Void. He pulled her softly against his chest and pressed a chaste kiss to her hair. She leaned her head on his shoulder, and they slowly started to walk together.
“Let’s go home, yeah?” she asked into his jacket.
-
Back at the TARDIS, the Doctor practically dragged her to the medbay. As advanced as the screwdriver was, the TARDIS’ technology was significantly more precise.
What was strange however was the dramatically different results.
“Huh,” the Doctor hummed, reading over it again, even going as far to put on his specs.
“What?” she responded, looking over her shoulder at him.
“The sonic screwdriver and the TARDIS had different readings. Maybe the sonic needs recalibrating. It looks like those ribs are just bruised.” He tilted his head to the side.
She rolled her shoulders. “Well, that’s good.”
His lips tipped upwards. “Yeah, it is.” He turned his back and dug through various drawers and cabinets. As he went, he threw a couple objects onto the floor. In the back of her mind, Rose heard a feminine scoff, but she ignored it. “I could’ve sworn I had something to help with that… Ah, here it is!” He passed her a canister filled with almost-holographic looking pills, which she tucked into her pocket.
She stood shakily, and kissed him sweetly on the cheek. He grinned and wrapped an arm around her. “Let’s get you, Miss Tyler, to sleep.”
She giggled and nodded.
-
The next day (and don’t you dare make a comment about time not passing on the TARDIS, I don’t want to hear it) was more quiet than anyone would expect. It was almost like waiting for the other shoe to drop. Rose found herself in the galley with a bowl of oatmeal and mug with tea sitting in front of her.
All at once, it hit her. She was never going to see her mother again. The last words she had said to her weren’t I love you, they were why she needed to leave her behind. She didn’t even say goodbye.
A sob erupted out of her suddenly. Her chest felt tight and she struggled to breathe properly. Her vision went blurry as her eyes filled with tears. They trickled down her cheeks and dropped onto the table below her. She wrapped her arms around herself in an attempt to stop crying, but that might’ve made the tight feeling worse.
“Rose?” the Doctor asked quietly behind her, almost as if he had just miraculously appeared. Rose jumped slightly.
He came up behind her, and pulled an additional chair besides hers. He sat, wrapping a loose arm around her shoulder. “Rose, are you alright?”
She shoved her face in his collar and shook her head. A gentle hand rubbed her back in some kind of attempt of comfort. No matter how inexperienced he was in that area, the Doctor wasn’t too bad at it.
“What is it?” he asked again, tucking her head under his chin.
“I didn’t… I didn’t say goodbye.” Another sob wracked her chest. “I didn’t even think about it. I was so focused on making sure you didn’t leave me behind again, and it didn’t even cross my mind. And now the Void’s closed, and I’m never going to see her again.”
There was no I told you so, that Rose had come to expect from the Doctor in these types of scenarios. He had told her that she wouldn’t see her again, so it wouldn’t be unusual for him. Instead, his grip around her just tightened.
“I’m sorry, Rose. I’m so, so sorry.” He pressed a kiss to the top of her head. He sat with her until her sobs subsided and her breathing was under control.
-
The TARDIS didn’t go back to its natural noisy state for quite a while. The Doctor was closed off for weeks at a time. When he wasn’t working on repairs, he was right by her side.
They would cuddle up in the TV room, watching whatever absurd movie or space drama they found. Half the time he would sit next to her as she fell asleep, though he never actually stayed the night.
One night however, she woke to his weight settling on the mattress next to her, and him gently shaking her shoulder.
“Rose.” He spoke in a stage whisper. When he got no response, he repeated her name. “Rose.” Her eyes crept open, barely awake, and the Doctor grinned at the sight. “Get up. I’ve got a surprise for you, but you need to hurry.”
“Okay,” she slurred, rubbing her eyes as she sat up.
He stood, and threw a t-shirt and a pair of jeans at her. “You should get dressed first.”
Rose tilted so that the shirt which landed on her head would fall on to the bed next to her. “Doctor, I’m not ready to go on another trip.”
He walked out the door, and peaked his head in briefly. “Not a trip, promise. Just hurry.”
So Rose got dressed in the outfit picked out by the Doctor, threw on an old pair of chucks, and shrugged on the much-too-big leather jacket she had stolen after the Doctor regenerated. When she left her room, she found the Doctor in the console room, typing away. He looked up at the sound of footsteps, and smiled.
“What’s going on?” she asked, coming to stand beside him.
The Doctor turned and took her hands in his. “I found a gap in the Universe that’s just about to close. It takes quite a bit of power to power this projection, so we’re orbiting a supernova. But we haven’t got a lot of time.”
She shook her head in confusion.
“Rose, I’m burning up a sun just to say goodbye.”
He gestured behind her, and she turned to see a projection of her mother.
“Rose?” Jackie spoke, quivering.
Rose’s face split into a grin, even as silent tears fell down her face. “Hi Mum.” The Doctor’s hand was still tight in her grasp, but she wasn’t letting go any time soon.
“Where are you?” Jackie asked, holding her hands against her chest.
“The TARDIS.”
“We’re just a projection,” the Doctor added. “Anything more than this, and the Universe would collapse.”
“You two look like ghosts,” Jackie said, her eyes filling with water.
“Hold on.” He grabbed the sonic screwdriver with his free hand and pointed it at the console. Jackie’s image became all that clearer, and the mother reached out to grasp her daughter’s hands. And without thinking, Rose responded in kind. When her hands went straight through, Jackie whimpered, and hugged her hand to her chest.
“Sorry, we’re just an image, no touch,” the Doctor added morosely.
“Can’t you come through properly?” Jackie questioned.
“The whole thing would fracture. Two universes would collapse.”
“So?”
Rose let out a wet laugh. “How’re you settling in, Mum?”
“Fine. Pete and I, well, we’re expecting.” She smiled sadly.
Rose tightened her grip on the Doctor’s hand. “I begged my entire childhood for a younger sibling, and you finally follow through when you’re in another dimension?”
“Yeah. About three months now. Pete gets the family he’s always wanted, and this little one will hear all about his big sister.”
Rose sniffed. “Not much to tell, I’m afraid.”
“Oh shush. There’s so much. Big sister saved two worlds.”
“Jackie,” the Doctor began. “Where’d the gap come out?”
“Bloody Norway!” Jackie groaned, tilting her head back in disbelief. “Pete says this place translates to Mad Dog Bay or something.”
“Bad Wolf?” Rose and the Doctor asked in unison.
Jackie pointed at them and nodded slightly. “Well, Doctor, how long do we have left?”
“About two minutes.”
“You better take good care of my daughter, alright? No leaving her behind anymore. Make sure she doesn’t end up alone. If I found out you’ve done any different, I’ll rip my way back through the Universe myself.”
The Doctor nodded in silent promise, with a sad smile crossing his face.
Rose knew exactly what to say. “I love you, Mum.”
“I love you too, sweetheart. I’m so proud of you.”
And just like that, the projected image of her mother was gone. The Doctor pulled her into his chest and held her and she sobbed. Rose found comfort in the dual heartbeat. He leaned down and pressed a long kiss to her forehead. To think, all the quiet hours were him trying to surprise her, to let her say goodbye.
She pulled back slightly to meet his eyes. He smiled back at her for a moment before looking past her with a face of complete confusion. She turned to see what he was seeing, and there stood a woman dressed in a wedding dress, veil included, and seemingly bright red hair.
“What?” the Doctor asked aloud.
The woman spun around and let out a high squeak.
“What?” The Doctor repeated.
“Who are you?” the woman asked. “Where am I?
“What?” Rose asked, this time.
The woman’s voice rose steadily. “What the hell is this place?”
The Doctor, for once, lacked the words. “What?”
Rose smirked slightly. “Well, this is different.”