**Fluff: the kind of fluff you realize you need after watching (or re-watching) the beautiful people that are the Doctor and Rose. I also threw in some angst for good measure (also because I really couldn't help myself). AU notes: This "missing" scene begins sometime after "The Poison Sky", and goes on to include altered scenes from "Midnight" and "The Stolen Earth".
The way a cell phone was used in this Fanfic was inspired by a similar usage in "The Escape Artist", a TV mini-series starring David Tennant.**
Safe again. The Doctor collapsed into his chair in the TARDIS and stared at the blue column rising out of the central console. Maybe someday, he would allow himself to rest long enough for his hearts to return to a normal tempo. But that day was not today. Already his mind was scouring the content of his memories and knowledge, in the hopes of finding another interesting spot where he and Donna could travel to.
The lost Hearth Fire galaxy? No, he knew how much Donna hated searching for things that weren't guaranteed to exist. Maybe the tropical planet of Lunpike? That was out, too. Donna would never forgive him if he accidently landed in the middle of a bog, which was entirely possible, if not probable. 20th century Russia in the midst of the Russian Revolution? New York during the New Year's Eve of the year 9999? The first people to colonize New Earth? Not happening, nada, and a—
He rubbed his hands down his face. He'd almost gone a whole day without thinking of her. Half a day was something, though. It certainly beat his previous record of one hour and twenty-one minutes. The Doctor didn't want to forget her, but he'd tried his best to move on, at least mentally. Physically was easy, and emotionally was a prospect he didn't even want to consider. But for her, the Doctor knew that he would wrap up the entire universe in a TARDIS-blue gift box and give it to her as a birthday present. He couldn't find it in himself to congratulate himself on his victory, however. If he was being honest with himself, the Doctor would consider each second not thinking of her to be wasted. Not reliving each and every cataloged memory, or remembering the way her smile would light up the world, or imagining like he was seated next to her on the pilot's chair, seemed as dismal a prospect as a Dalek as a flat mate.
"Thinking of Rose again?"
The Doctor paused his morose thoughts and looked up. The voice who had interrupted his musings belonged to Donna, who was currently standing to the right of the TARDIS console. Though her hand was resting on her hip in its usual position, her face had softened into an almost motherly, tender expression. The Doctor didn't reply, and Donna sighed heavily and looked down at her hand resting on the console. "Don't go looking at me like I'm the alien. I'm a woman, and we females know when men get into these kinds of moods."
"And what kind of mood would that be?" The Doctor had been going for a light-hearted tone, but he winced inwardly when he heard his real voice. It sounded soft and defeated, like a man who had encountered so much sadness in his life he had no hope left. But then again, the Doctor supposed that that description summed him up pretty well.
"You know…this!" Donna waved her hand around her head, flitting between herself and the Time Lord in front of her. "The same mood you're in now. You always sink into it at the most random moments. It's like you've got a split personality or something."
The Doctor huffed, but Donna wasn't finished. She lowered her voice and murmured, "That's when I know you're remembering something. Or, more specifically, something that reminded you of her. Of Rose. I don't know what you went through, Doctor, and I won't pry. But ever since you mentioned her on my wedding day, I've wondered: who could be so unique, so special, and so extraordinary that they would be capable of turning a mighty Time Lord's world on its head?"
The Doctor seemed to freeze mid-breath. In his mind he saw his pink and yellow human as if in a slideshow: the shop dummies and "run", the regeneration and a kiss she could never remember, the "impossible planet" and the Devil himself, and a wall. A white wall that stretched far and wide and impossibly high. Of one last chance to say good-bye, and her last words to him, and his attempt at giving her the same…His heart tensed as if it was prepared to split apart again as the torrential emotions that plagued him day and night revisited him. He could feel her hand, hear her laugh, smell her shampoo, taste her enthusiasm, see her eyes that shined like stars.
And he couldn't keep it in, not this time. Most days he could hold back his feelings behind a wall, at least until his newest companion would go to bed and he was alone once more. As Donna inhaled deeply and made as if to walk away, the Doctor surprised himself with the sound of his voice saying, "She's gone."
Donna stopped and gave a tiny nod. "Yeah. That's what you said when I, uh, dropped in."
"It's true, though," the Doctor slowly explained, "There was a battle, and she became trapped in a parallel world. When you appeared…that was seconds after I had said good-bye to her for the last time."
She dimly recalled the peculiar shifts in the Doctor's mood on that fateful day, but now Donna knew the reason behind it. She couldn't fathom how he must have felt. And for her to start yelling and scolding the poor man like a nag? What a wonderful passenger she had been. Donna tried not to let her self-loathing linger too long and said, "Tell me about her."
At first it seemed like the Doctor was going to shut his gob and change the topic, but then he started speaking again. "She was brilliant, Donna. Absolutely fantastic in every way. The way she treated other species was so human. She felt that everyone deserved compassion and sympathy, like they were worth something. Even if that other species didn't believe a word of it, she would be there to help them see the good behind the bad."
Donna couldn't help but wonder if the Doctor was talking about a certain species in particular.
"Rose…Rose was that light that everyone needs, but doesn't know exists. Oh, you should have seen her in the TARDIS, ready for anything and willing to try everything if she could. She was so brave, and kind, and she…" He looked down at his hands, which seemed to grasp at empty air. They were like two different creatures attached to a strange Time Lord body, and at times, they could be unruly and troublesome. But right then those hands were craving a certain human's touch as much as their owner was. "She deserved so much better."
Donna was silent for a while. "You still care for her, don't you? You loved her then and you love her now."
The Doctor said nothing, but when his eyes met Donnas', her breath caught. One side of her mind was jealous of that look, a look with an amount of passion and need that could never come out of some bloke off the London streets.
But the other side of her brain felt sadness and pity for the broken man sitting in front of her. Alien or no, this man had lost something precious, and every breath would pain him for the rest of his days if he remained without his love.
Suddenly, Donna's motherly compassion changed to determination. With a fixed jaw, she stood up straighter and proclaimed, "Well, I think you ought to find her again. Don't you think so? Then once you find her, you yank her out of that parallel world and back into the TARDIS, where she belongs."
The Doctor found himself wearing a grim smile as he imagined Rose saying exactly the same thing. It didn't take a genius to see that Donna and his Rose would have been very good friends, had they met. "I've tried everything, Donna. I don't think there's a book left in the entire universe that can tell me how to cross parallel worlds. Even the Time Lords couldn't help me. I vividly remember chucking their TARDIS instruction booklet into a supernova."
"Who needs books when you've got 21st century technology?" Donna retorted. "You picked Rose up from present-day London, right? Give her a ring on her mobile!"
The Doctor opened and closed his mouth several times, unable to formulate a response. "Donna, the connection wouldn't go through. It'd be impossible. There has to be a hole in the fabric of space and time, she wouldn't be able to…" But as his mind ran through the scenario, he wondered, could it possible? The TARDIS was too big to fit through the natural gaps in the fragile fabric that occurred between worlds. But a phone signal was tiny, miniscule even. He didn't know what that kind of signal was capable of, but he bet that it would be able to fit through a hole no wider than a few molecules across. Coupled with the transmitting capabilities of the TARDIS…
Donna saw a look of astonishment pass over the Doctor's face, and she knew her work was done. She quietly slipped away from the console and towards the TARDIS hallway just as the Doctor bounced to his feet and pulled out a simple, black cell phone from his pocket. The desperate Time Lord, so focused on the potential break through, did not notice her departure.
He quickly adjusted a row of knobs on the console to increase the signaling power of his phone, sucked in a breath, and dialed Rose's number. During his time with her, the Doctor had usually been so physically close to Rose he hadn't had the need to dial her mobile. But he'd never forgotten the number.
A brief pause. Then one dial tone, and a single beep. The Doctor let his breath go in one whoosh of air. It hadn't worked, it couldn't connect. Another failure.
He was just about to hang up when he heard it.
It was like slow motion. He could calculate how many milliseconds were in between each moment: the intake of breath, the short laugh that a person makes when they're nervous, and a voice. A voice the Doctor had only heard in his memories:
"Hi, this is Rose Tyler speaking!"
The Doctor sat down on his pilot chair heavily, as if dragged down by gravity to prevent him from toppling over. It was her! Rose's voice! A younger voice, to be sure. She sounded like she was just out of secondary school. But it was her! So astonished was the Doctor that he nearly missed the rest of the voicemail.
"Sorry, I'm not really available right now, but feel free to call back another time. Thanks, and, uh, bye!"
Another beep sounded, signaling that the message was over and the Doctor had the opportunity to leave a voicemail. But he couldn't bring himself to speak. It was so surreal, hearing Rose's voice out loud for the first time in months, maybe even years. The Doctor didn't know how long the TARDIS could sustain the connection, so instead of leaving a message he pressed the "redial" button on the cell phone. Another dial tone, a second beep, and Rose's voice returned.
"Hi, this is Rose Tyler speaking! Sorry, I'm not really available right now, but feel free to call back another time. Thanks, and, uh, bye!" Redial, dial tone, and a beep.
"Hi, this is Rose Tyler speaking! Sorry, I'm not really available right now, but feel free to call back another time. Thanks, and, uh, bye!" Another redial, dial tone, and beep.
"Hi, this is Rose Tyler speaking! Sorry, I'm…"
The Doctor wasn't sure when the tears began. All he knew was that it wasn't until the ninth or tenth time pressing the redial button that he became aware of them. They were silent waterfalls that streamed down his cheeks, one trail hot, like it was burning off old wounds, and the other calming, like it was cleansing him of all sin. The Doctor couldn't describe the feeling in words. He couldn't imagine trying to tell anyone what hearing Rose Tyler's voice again was like. But he supposed he could try to describe it as beautiful and heart-wrenching and wonderful and terrible, everything that he had dreaded it would be. There was no hiding pain from anyone now. He could hear the voice of the one he…loved, yes, LOVED! He dared to scream it to the cosmos, to cruel fate and ironic destiny, if they were still listening to him. The Doctor could hear Rose Tyler's voice and yes, he LOVED HER. And the next time he saw her, he was determined to make sure she knew of his love. As frankly and candidly as she had made her love known to him.
In the end, he lost count of how many times he listened to the steady rhythm of Rose's voicemail. There was no way to measure the weight of his feelings and his heart, or the amount of tears that flowed from his eyes and onto his pinstripe coat. One more redial, the Doctor vowed. One more chance to hear her voice, and then it was time to put the phone away and return to reality. It would hurt more than anything, but he knew that he couldn't abandon Donna for the remnants of a phone call.
With a heavy heart, the Doctor hit redial one last time.
But as luck would have it, the TARDIS sensed the Doctor's intentions through their telepathic link. Just as her lonely Time Lord hit redial for the final time, she gathered all of her energy and poured every last drop into the signal. With all that power, the phone call had enough strength to cross space and time. Even cross through tiny holes and into a certain parallel universe.
The dial tone sounded, and the Doctor prepared himself.
But the beep didn't come. The dial tone was ringing, and it was continuing to ring, as normally as any inter-universe call would.
The Doctor lurched from his seat, his ear pressed to the cell phone and his hands clutching it like it was his life line. Maybe it was. He listened intently to the ringing, guessing what the TARDIS had done but not about to try and find out how. He couldn't risk accidently aborting the call, and he had already sworn to himself to never try again.
He waited, and waited, and waited. If he had been paying more attention to his surroundings, he would have realized that Donna had appeared in the hallway entrance again. Curiosity of what the Doctor was up to drove her from her gossip magazines and back to the console room.
Suddenly, the dial tone abruptly stopped. The Doctor froze, not daring to breath, lest the connection fray and break off. Then it was there: the nervous intake of breath, a swallow, and—
"Hello?"
No, it couldn't be. He must be imagining it. He must have fallen asleep while he was redialing her voicemail, and this was all a dream. But then his respiratory bypass saved him from passing out from shock and the Doctor knew that this wasn't a dream. It was her! Rose! Her voice! It wasn't part of the voicemail, it was real, Rose was real, and she had picked up! He didn't know how the TARDIS had managed to shove a whole phone signal through the cracks but he felt like kissing her for the magnificent ship she was.
"Hello?" Rose repeated, "Who is this?" Her words brought the Doctor back into the present. He had to say something, otherwise she'd think it was some kind of prank call and hang up.
He didn't hesitate. "Rose! Rose, it's me! It's the Doctor!"
"Um, sorry? I can't hear you very well, I think the connection's faulty. Something on your end."
His brilliant Rose, always knowing the answer to everything. But her words meant she could hear him! It was a terrible signal, of course, but he was getting through. Now she just had to hear him more clearly. "Hold on, Rose, I'm going to try and strengthen the connection." The Doctor held the phone to his ear with one hand and used to the other to spin a series of dials scattered over the console board. "Don't disconnect! Whatever you do, don't hang up!"
There was a pause on the other line, and the Doctor froze. Was the call disconnected completely? So soon? Then he heard a gasp that sounded like a subdued sob. "D-Doctor…?" she whispered.
"Rose! Can you hear me? Rose, it's me! It's the Doctor!" She could hear him! She knew he was there! She had to understand, he couldn't let her slip away this time. "Rose!"
"Doctor! Is that you? I can't…trying to…again…"
"ROSE! No, no, no, don't do this to me. Stay with me, you hear?" The connection was faltering and the TARDIS sadly informed the Doctor through their bond that she could only hold on for so long. He was losing time with her, and there was no way to make up for it. If only he could have more time, if only…
"I'll find you, Rose, I will! I haven't forgotten…I—I have to tell you…" But the signal was gone. A steady drone was all that came from the cell phone, sounding eerily similar to the long, final beat of a heart monitor.
The Doctor slowly lowered the phone and closed it. He was just putting the device back in his pocket when Donna spoke up. "You found her?"
He didn't turn, but she saw his shoulders sag. "Yeah. I did." When the Doctor did turn towards his newest companion, Donna was surprised to see that his expression was, for once, hopeful. "But she's alive, Donna. Oh, she is so alive…"
Donna nodded and walked to the Doctor, arms wide. He accepted the hug, and the last Time Lord in existence found himself eternally grateful for his newest friend. Perhaps luck was finally on his side after all.
And maybe it was, if only for a short while. Moments later, the Doctor and Donna sat at the kitchen table in front of their mugs of tea, and the Time Lord regaled his companion with his adventures with Rose Tyler. He told her of the planets they'd seen, the monsters they'd faced, even what Rose Tyler looked like. As luck would have it, Donna remembered seeing such a face briefly appear on the TARDIS monitor during the recent Sontaran invasion. It only took a few clicks for the Doctor to replay the footage of that particular day, and watch as the face of the love of his life flashed on the screen before him. He hadn't said anything, but Donna noticed a definite lightness in his step for the rest of the week, as if the image of his beloved Rose Tyler had given him a whole new reason to live.
Then came the trip to Midnight. As luck would have it, the Doctor recalled how Rose's face had appeared on the TARDIS monitor, and continued to stare at the blank screen on the train for just a few more seconds. Rose Tyler flashed onto the screen, just like he'd hoped, and he leaped into action. The Doctor tried to use his sonic screwdriver to establish some kind of video connection, but although he was able to trace the signal, the system on the train didn't have enough energy to send a message in reply. What kind of power did Rose have on that parallel universe? Certainly enough to attempt to contact him, multiple times.
And then suddenly, the Earth was gone, along with 27 other planets. The Doctor wished Rose could be there to help, but there was no way to contact her. Team TARDIS, indeed. It just didn't feel complete without Rose Tyler there by his side.
But Donna nodded at something behind the Doctor's back, and he turned, daring to hope. Yes! There she was, standing on the other end of that street with the biggest smile on her face, and her golden hair lit up like a halo. The Doctor wasn't sure which of his legs moved first, but he knew he was running, and so was she. Not away from something dangerous, but towards something new and exciting. It was the fastest the Doctor had ever run. Indeed, he wasn't even planning on giving Rose enough time to put her enormous gun down. The Doctor knew in his heart that this time, no matter what happened, Rose Tyler would be at his side. Or better yet, in his arms. Because he was going to tell her those three words, right here, right now. In a dirty street with empty cars and planets in the sky, because they were the Stuff of Legends and nothing could be more perfect.
And this time, as luck would have it, there were no Daleks around to get in their way.
This is not quite the end. In fact, I believe this could be called the beginning.
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