He could now see all possibilities of his life on this new world. Countless scenarios and situations flew in front of his eyes, some joyful, some heartbreaking. All human. All with the pink and yellow girl by his side, his Rose.

Only such insight would allow him to consent to a job at Torchwood. A glance into his time stream revealed no void, no corruption, and sadly, no Jack Harkness. He didn't belong in this parallel universe. The Doctor chuckled darkly to himself as he considered his friend and their new parallels; both now worked at Torchwood, both were quite old, both had traveled the universe only to be stuck in Cardiff, of all places. Jack now had something the Doctor lacked; near immortality. In his mind, the Doctor cancelled out this advantage with one of his own- a life with his soulmate.

The Doctor was drawn from his musings as a soft, manicured hand slipped into his own and gave it a squeeze.

"Ready, Doctor Smith?" she asked, bracing herself for her first day back at work.

The Doctor kissed her worried brow and responded quietly, "always am, my love".

After what seemed like hours of paper filing, security checks, and badge distributions, Rose and her Doctor boarded the lift to the most elite level of Torchwood. Unused to such procedure, he grumbled something along the lines of "never used to...just fly away...rules are restricting" while Rose drowned him out with further information.

"Right then," she said. "Pete's the head of Torchwood, but most of the work, particularly in the field, is done by our top agent, who you're about to meet. She can seem quite scary at first, but once you get to know her she's very caring and a lovely friend. Terrible dancer, though". Rose grinned, lost in memories in which this agent had taken her out in an attempt to get her mind off of her lost doctor.

"Anyway, she's brave and stubborn, just like you. You'll get along famously. Her husband's quite the man as well, head surgeon at the hospital down the street."

The Doctor smirked at Rose, guessing her intentions. "So basically, I'm about to meet a fiery alien hunter that will be going on many double dates with us?"

Rose grinned, delighted, and answered "exactly" right as the lift opened.

As the Doctor stared at the woman, he suddenly viewed a different part of his time stream. He saw fiery red hair floating in space, a woman leaping off a building, new aliens, flashes of beautiful galaxies, marks on skin, lots of running, and many, many hugs. But there was something wrong. These visions were blurry, and incomplete, as if they could never happen. The days that would never come.

Oh, he realized with a jolt. They will come alright, just not on this universe.

The woman assertively strode forward and shook his hand.

"Hello, Doctor", she said with a brilliant smile. "My name is Amelia Williams".