Breaking Point

Summary: The wall between dimensions is closing faster than anyone thought it would. This is the story of what happens when they never make it back to Pete's World. AU Journey's End.

Standard disclaimer: (These are so boring, aren't they?) I don't own, or have affiliation with Doctor Who, the BBC, or anything really, I'm freelance thank you much. No money made off of this. This is just a labor of love.

A/N: This is a plot bunny that took my mind and wouldn't let go ever since I read another fanfic in it's early stages and dreamed about it. (that fanfic is Before it Breaks by Resile. I recommend a read.)

My fic takes a very different turn though :)

Chapter 1:

Jackie's Choice

Jackie was sad. Sad wasn't really the word to describe what she was feeling. She had just said a very permanent goodbye to Mickey, who had decided to stay in their original universe and start over. She had known Mickey his whole life, had even helped raise him. It was like losing a child.

Speaking of losing a child... her eyes drifted to her daughter, who was stroking the console absentmindedly. She was deep in thought and didn't even seem to notice that she was caressing that rough coral like a lover. Rose was watching the Doctor in the brown, pinstriped suit walk out the doors with a worried look on her face. She then pulled her old phone from when she fell at Canary Wharf out, looked at it, and relaxed. Jackie thought that was an odd gesture, but then again, when had Rose ever been normal? Come to think of it, Rose was probably checking to be sure it still worked.

Her mind then turned to the fact that she had to think about what suit the Doctor was wearing, which made her look at the other Doctor. This was a whole new kind of weird, but then again, the man could change his face, who knows what else he could do? And Rose wasn't going to give details. Ever since that alien came into her daughter's life, she expected weirdness.

This other Doctor was wearing a blue suit, and-according to the explanation she heard earlier, this Doctor was part human. Her thoughts were broken when the door to the ship opened, and the fully Time Lord Doctor walked in the doors and up to the console saying, "Just time for one last trip."

This was it. This was the moment she'd lose her daughter forever. But then a look passed between both Doctors, one full of anguish, the other full of fear and anger. It clicked in her head, and at once, she both wanted to smack the Doctor and hug him in joy.

The Doctor settled himself between Rose and Donna, took a look at the monitor, and says, "Dar- wait, what? No, no, no!"

"What is it?" Rose asks with a tinge of fear in her voice.

The new Doctor was over there in an instant, hand on Rose's shoulder, peering at the odd swirling lines, dots, and circles making up the written version of their language. "No, that's not good, that's very, very not good," he said.

"What's 'not good'?" Rose pressed.

Both Doctors were looking at each other with worried looks. Jackie remembered that Rose had said he could know what another person was thinking under the right circumstances, and she wondered if that's what was happening. She called it tallie-pathee or something like that. The two Doctors hadn't actually said a word to one another yet, with the exception of right before they all had to run back into the TARDIS- and that was yelling. Maybe they didn't need to say anything to each other.

Both Doctors and Donna then turned to Jackie with almost identical expressions of grief on their faces.

"The cracks and holes in the skin of the universes have gotten too small to be able to pilot the TARDIS through them," Donna explained in simple terms that Jackie would understand, "we can't get you home Jackie."

She pulls out her hopper button, a silver and copper disc with a yellow button on it. "You weren't supposed to, you daft alien, I was gonna get back using my hopper here, now wasn't …."

"Mum, don't, it won't work, and you're not gonna want to do...," Rose interrupts.

Jackie is starting to panic now. "Yes I do! Yes, it will, it has to!" before Rose can stop her, she pushes the button, nothing happens. She pushes it again, harder this time, and again, nothing happens. "It just- Rose, give me yours, yours works with even the tiniest-!"

"The walls are closed, now Jackie," Donna says gently, "dimensional retro-closure is already complete. I'm sorry, but it won't work anym-"

"THEN TAKE ME TO WHEN IT WORKS!" Jackie shouts.

Rose grabs her mother's arms gently, "Mum, it's doesn't work like-"

"Make. It. Work!"

"I'm sorry, so sorry," The Doctor in brown says, head hung.

"What about Tony and Pete!" Jackie cries out.

"Mum."

"My little boy-"

"MUM!" Rose practically shouts, "Listen to me!" This startles Jackie into silence for a moment so Rose can say what she has to say, "OK, now first of all, Remember what we learned when I tried to take that vortex manipulator back to the day of the battle? The walls of the universe aren't broken down at just one point in time, but in all points of time. Because the walls of the universe are closed in our time line, we cannot go back. The only safe way requires substantial cracks between the universes, and it could be-"

Jackie cuts her off, "I don't care how bloody long it could be, I'll wait forever while you work your alien mumbo jumbo to get me back home," her voice is full of grief.

Rose drops her bombshell, "Mum, Pete and Tony aren't over there anymore. They're here."

Rose stops for a moment to let that information soak in. Jackie's emotions were written plainly on her face. She went from deep grief, to confused, to tentative hope in two seconds. "I knew the walls would close fast, and you weren't supposed to come," Rose continues, "but I knew that you'd come anyway, so I made some plans."

Rose holds up the cell phone. "He has the one we left with Mickey when we went there the first time, I got a text saying he was here, and I'm now waiting for information on where he's at right now."

To say Jackie was relieved was an understatement. She was sure that she'd never see her son or husband ever again. Then a thought occurred to her. "Wait, what kind of plans?" she asked, "and how did you know I was going to come anyway?"

"That's a really good question, actually," The Doctor in Brown says, sending a querying look to Rose. Rose looks over to the other three people in the room, who had been uncharacteristically silent through this whole exchange.

"Pete and I got together after my first jump into this universe proper. We came up with an emergency pack just in case Mum decided to come here and weren't back by the time the walls started closing. Just things that couldn't be replaced and some clothes. As for how I knew, well, I was told that it was a strong possibility," Rose hedged, shrugging her shoulders like it was no big deal.

"By who?" the Doctor in blue asked.

Rose took a deep breath and steeled herself. She wasn't sure how the Doctor-either of him- was going to take this. "By myself," she said. Both Doctors and Donna had an expression of shock on their faces. They did not see that one coming. "You were there too," she told the fully Time Lord Doctor, who was now wearing a mask of confusion.

"'S a ontological paradox," Rose explained as she dug through her jacket pocket for the piece of paper she kept in there. When she pulled it out, she handed it to the Doctor in the blue suit, who was closer. He unfolded and began reading it. "Sometime in my future, you," she pointed to the fully Time Lord Doctor, "go and stop past me from getting back too soon. Then I hand myself that piece of paper. It's always nice to know you have a future."

Donna exclaims, "You've got to, because you did! Brilliant!"

The part human Doctor finishes reading the letter with an impressed look on his face, and passes it on to his brown-suited counterpart. He looks at Rose with a smile and shakes his head. "This explains a lot. You and your paradoxes. I'm starting to wonder if your whole existence is a paradox." He chuckles a bit.

The brown suited Doctor finishes reading the letter and looks up at Rose, face thoughtful. He hands the letter back to her. "That's-" Rose never gets to hear what he was going to say, because at that moment, her old phone rings shrilly, interrupting what the Doctor was going to say.

She answers the phone with, "figure out where you are yet?" she nods, smiles, and says, "OK I know exactly where that is, see ya in a bit," and hangs up.

She looks over at the Doctors, who are standing shoulder to shoulder with each other. They both know that was Pete calling with his location and are waiting to hear where he is. "That was Dad. He and Tony are at that chippy we went to after the end of the world."

Both Doctors look confused for a split second, then the one in the blue suit grins, and the one in the brown suit goes, "welll, then, let's not keep good ol' Peter Tyler waiting! Quick hop across London, coming right up." He then strides over to the monitor and begins setting coordinates. Both of them and Donna start piloting the TARDIS over to the chippy.

He flips the de-materialization lever, and says "Allonsy!"