Thanks everyone for your warm welcome back! It's encouraging me to perhaps divert my attention from animation in the coming months and get that sequel going...

-^^-W-^^-

PART TWO

The Doctor and Rose stood side by side in their sealed space suits, looking out at the tiny blue box from the open airlock of the outpost. They could barely make it out, and he had needed to search the blackness for a minute before he had spotted it. The Doctor had transferred half his oxygen supply to Rose's suit, and now he had a mobile jetpack system strapped to his back that was significantly more robust than his suit's internal emergency system. It was a good thing, too, because when the console room had decompressed, it had thrown the TARDIS back, and with nothing to stop its journey, it was still drifting further and further away.

Rose was shivering, the cold of deep space seeping through to her already half-frozen body. She was tough, though, and would see this through. She had to. Once they got to the TARDIS, they would work everything out and it would be okay. Dead or not, just being inside would offer protection from space until they got her working again.

"All right," the Doctor said with finality. "Stay here, I'll be back soon."

"What?" Rose exclaimed, latching her right gloved hand onto his suit. "You're not leaving me behind!"

"Rose, it's dangerous. Jetpack or not, the TARDIS is a significantly small mark to make. I know the outpost is out of power, but it's still safer than floating out in deep space."

"But you're going!"

"Well yes, someone has to!"

"So I'm going with you!"

The Doctor peered down into Rose's face shield through his, their eyes connecting. From her expression, he could see there would be no swaying her. "There are no guarantees," he assured softly.

"There never have been," she replied, as if that explained it all, and really, it did.

He smiled slowly, again proud of his courageous companion. The Doctor placed his own right hand over hers, the one holding his suit in a deathgrip. "We go together." Rose relaxed in relief, and the Doctor reached for the tether line reel on her suit and latched it to a ring on his. Only then did Rose let go, her right hand still held by his. They couldn't thread their fingers through the gloves, but the grip was tight and reassuring and so very right.

The Doctor maneuvered behind her, released his magnetisation to the floor of the airlock, and with his free hand gripped her shoulder until his knees were locked around her hips. "All right, let go of the floor." Rose did so, their right hands still firmly clasped. "Ready? Here we go!"

The jetpack hissed and propelled them forward and away from the outpost. At first it was tiny adjustments, compensating for their unusual centre of gravity and getting them going in the right direction. Rose's helmet pressed back into the Doctor's front as he steadily built momentum towards their target. Neither of them could look back at the outpost, facing straight forward to see nothing but the enveloping expanse of starfield and a tiny blue box that didn't seem to be getting any closer.

It was a bittersweet sight, the TARDIS drifting distant and alone in a cold vacuum sea. The last time the Doctor had seen her, and although from this distance he couldn't tell, he knew she was lifeless and helpless to repair herself. He had felt helpless himself, then, so alone without her or Rose. But he had Rose, now, floating through space with literally no one but her, the lack of anything around them accentuating just how alive she was. He gripped her a little tighter around the waist with his legs and gave her hand a grateful squeeze, which she returned.

And soon, if their fortune continued, the living coral produced from the TARDIS herself would bring their magnificent ship back to them.

Their ship. He really liked the sound of that. It was as much hers now as his, wasn't it?

"We're coming!" Rose called through the linked comm of their space suits, and the Doctor grinned. She clearly was thinking similar thoughts to himself.

The size of the TARDIS increased in size so slowly and gradually that it seemed to not even be growing nearer at all until they were almost to it. It was then small course adjustments became much more frequent as the Doctor concentrated on not overshooting their mark.

They suddenly seemed to be moving so fast as they neared it, the wide gaping doors swung unusually outward and the interior blacker than the space outside. The Doctor triggered the reverse thrusters and he could see the whoosh of gas on either side of his helmet and feel them past his legs as the pair of them eased into a slower speed to match that of the TARDIS.

Rose caught the edge of a door first. "We made it!"

"Indeed we have. We're not safe yet, though." Once inside, Rose fell forward when normal gravity was suddenly pulling unexpectedly at her. The Doctor tried to catch her by the tether, but he had nothing to hold on to and was pulled down on top of her into the darkness.

"Oof! What?"

Despite his discomfort, the Doctor had to laugh. "You okay?"

"How is there gravity?"

"It's the TARDIS," he quipped, as if that explained everything.

"There's gravity even though there's no power?"

"The interior is in a different dimension than the exterior, you know that."

"But...okay, so I can take off my helmet, then?"

"No!"

"But you said—"

Gravity doesn't travel between dimensions! Gases can, just like we can, and it all got blown out." The Doctor managed to right himself enough to blindly unclip Rose's tether from his suit. "Got a nice ride with it towards the outpost, too."

"Well, when you put it that way," Rose responded wryly. She picked herself up and switched on the beacons on her helmet and looked around properly. "This isn't how I imagined seeing her again."

The Doctor was pulling the chunk of coral out of his pocket. "I've noticed you've become quite handy with that space suit," he commented appreciatively.

"Yeah, well, I've been in it for a while. When you don't have much, you learn to appreciate what little you do have."

"Tell me about it." The Doctor carried the coral to the console but didn't set it down. Instead, he bent down and somehow managed to get his gloved fingers through the grating, pulling up a section and setting it aside. He turned to check on Rose and found her reaching outside. "Careful!" he scolded her.

"I'm just trying to shut the doors, I'm fine."

"They're useless now. Closing them won't do any good until the TARDIS can repair them. Come back before you stop one of my hearts again." When Rose turned around and began walking towards him, he turned and lowered himself carefully down through the gap in the grating.

"How d'you mean, 'again'?"

"Blimey, this isn't an easy fit in a space suit," the Doctor murmured in deflection. "Here, shine your torches down here." As she neared and cast enough light to see by, the Doctor poked and prodded the lower workings of the TARDIS until he found what he was looking for. "There you are, my beauty!"

"Say wha-? I'm up here," Rose teased.

The Doctor grinned good-naturedly, but due to the cumbersome restrictions of his helmet, Rose couldn't see it. The happy sound from the back of his throat that came through the comm system was enough to satisfy her, though.

After sandwiching the piece of coral between two ends of a cable, the Doctor stilled in dramatic pause. Rose couldn't see what he was about to do, and he had to admit, she would no doubt find it impressive, but only if he narrated for her. Besides, he had been disappointed she had missed the first time around years ago. "And now, a few years of my life in exchange for a resurrected TARDIS, well worth it, I'd say."

He emitted forth his essence, willing the TARDIS to absorb it and waited, but nothing happened. Frowning, he repositioned the ends of the cable and tried again, flicking bits of the frayed one and trying a third time, but still nothing happened. "Uh, Rose. See anything up there? Lights, motion, any sort of activity? Anything?"

Rose stood and rotated her whole body to get a proper view from her helmet. "No."

The Doctor stuck his tongue to the roof of his mouth and gripped the coral hard, pressing the cable ends into its surface. "Now?"

'No, Doctor."

Something was wrong. The Doctor's bravado was beginning to wane, and he failed to keep it out of his tone. "This doesn't make sense. It should work."

"But you'll make it right," Rose assured helpfully.

He shook his head, another motion she couldn't see. "Don't know how. This is the interface. So unless something between the cable line and her heart is fried..."

The Doctor placed the coral on the edge of the console above his work area, securing down the ends of the cable with the paperweight. There was a pause of silence as he then began delving deeper, pulling aside nonessential components that got in his way. Rose peered down, making sure her light reached what was in front of him. He dug for a while, losing a battle against hopelessness.

Rose seemed to pick up on it. Her voice was light, encouraging. "So, in the meantime, we've got more air somewhere, yeah?"

The Doctor grimaced, feeding a cable through his gloved hand in an attempt to feel for a break. "No."

"But...we've only got half an hour each."

"I know." There was an uncomfortable pause, then his voice wavered. "That's why I've got to keep working."

"You've got a mighty time and spaceship with no spare oxygen?"

"I did have!" the Doctor growled, only stopping momentarily in his work. His frustration and fear for her safety were beginning to get the better of him. He took in a calming breath, one of the few he would have left. "I checked the tanks when I went to get my spacesuit. Apparently, they exploded, judging by the damage to the medical bay."

The light fell away. In the Doctor's restricted and tangled state, he couldn't easily extract himself to look up. "Rose? Come on, I'm not giving up yet, and to keep trying, I need the light."

"Sorry, yeah," came her soft reply, and the light shone back through the floor grating.

-^^-W-^^-

It really wasn't fair. After all of their efforts, all the distance they had traveled and risks they had taken, it was going to end like this. It felt like Rose had already run out of her oxygen supply as she laboured to breathe while fighting to keep the light steady. At least they would die together. That's how it should be, really. At least with this end, she got to see him. The original him.

"I'm going to see you die twice, you know," Rose said flatly.

She could see the Doctor's movements momentarily still in the light. "I won't let that happen."

Rose nodded, fighting back tears. "That's what he said. He couldn't stop it, though." She meant to say more, but it was too hard to speak. They were bitter words, anyway, so she was probably better off.

"We're not done yet." He was silent for a few moments, but she could tell by his voice that he was fighting his own battle with emotion. "But, if it does come to that, I'll make sure I have a little more." His verbal speed picked up, his tone rising. "You saw him die, and I'm so sorry for that, I really am. I never meant for that to happen, I swear. From your perspective, he was essentially me. I'll...I'll make sure that when you sleep, it's in my arms."

Rose could hear his words end in a choked sob. She couldn't be angry. It wasn't his fault. They had both struggled so hard to get back to each other, and that's why it hurt so much. For so long she had desperately wanted things to go back to the way they were when they had last traveled properly together, just him and her, before the war at Torchwood. She had never been happier in all her life. If she dared let herself believe, Rose thought that just maybe, the Doctor had never been happier, too.

"We've got to keep calm, Rose," the Doctor insisted, his voice stronger now. "We need to conserve what we have."

Rose nodded to herself. She had been about to tell him that she would never get to touch him again, but that wouldn't do either of them any good. While concentrating on keeping the light steady, Rose glanced up past the top edge of her helmet's transparent face at the coral sitting on the edge of the dead, dark console. She wished so much that the console would again glow that deep, satisfying green. Feeling useless and attempting to be helpful, she reached out with her gloved hands and pressed the cable ends to the surface of the coral.

"Rose, please. I need the light."

There was something in it, alive and stirring, that she had never felt before in all the times she had touched the coral. Rose frowned and stared in wonder. The TARDIS coral was alive and calling to her. If only she could touch it properly without the spacesuit in the way.

Everything was suddenly lost in amber white.

-^^-W-^^-

Rose was clearly focused on something else, but she wouldn't even answer him. In the dimness, the Doctor could see the beams of her helmet torches shining back at him from the nearby wall. What, then, was casting the soft amber glow from above?

It was then the hairs on the back of his neck prickled. Energy coursed through the cable in his hands. The Doctor kicked at the floor in his sudden haste to back out of the crawlspace, banging his helmet into the floor grating above. "Rose? Rose! What's going on?"

After struggling for much too long, the Doctor pulled the hose from around his waist and pushed up from the gap in the floor. He cried out in fear and fell back against the opening when he saw the golden glow shining on the console from Rose's helmet. Her hands were on the coral and her back was to him, but he could also see her hands glowing around it.

Hands that were no longer sealed within her spacesuit.

"Rose!" The Doctor scurried out and onto his feet as quickly as he could, but he knew it was already too late. Part of him dreaded that this was happening again. He feared it would kill her, but he knew both of them hadn't had long anyway, and he told himself this was at least a chance.

Now that he was standing, the Doctor could see her spacesuit had disappeared from her arms as well. As he watched, it spread faster and faster until Rose was standing as if she weren't actually exposed to the vacuum of space as she was, gleaming and clutching the TARDIS coral on the edge of the console.

This time, the energy hadn't come from the heart of the TARDIS. Its heart was cold and dead now, but Rose was surrounded by its vortex energy.

This time, the energy had come from her.

The luminescence began to dim, and Rose began to shake.

"No, no, Rose. It's too much!" The Doctor stepped forward, next to her, and peered into her glowing golden eyes. She couldn't see him, and his hearts twisted in his chest. He didn't know if she was even still alive.

The Doctor looked down at the coral in her hands. There was nothing else for it, now. "Take me with you," he whispered. Sucking in a breath, the Doctor placed his hands over hers.

The power of the time vortex ripped through his mind, and he could hear the TARDIS sing with joy. Rose was with him, selflessly pouring her life energy into the TARDIS. He supplemented it with his own, and also gave the power direction.

The console and column of the time rotor began to glow, emerald and vibrant. The outer doors swung shut and sealed, and the room began to pressurise. A throbbing hum filled the room, and a strong and insistent voice filled his mind.

Out!

The Doctor was next aware of staring at the dome ceiling of the console room, but it wasn't black anymore. He could make out all the roundels in their healthy soft golden brown, everything appearing normal, as the TARDIS had always been.

Groaning, the Doctor turned his head against the grating for the second time that day, and was suddenly alarmed. Where was his spacesuit?

Rose lay a few feet away, unconscious. The Doctor gasped in perfectly sustaining air and clambered over to her. "Rose? He tried, noticing his voice was still the same. Apparently, he had cheated regeneration yet again, but was Rose as fortunate as he? There was a strong pulse in her neck against his fingertips. Gently he threaded her hair away from her face, his thumb settling in a rhythmic pattern at her temple as he gazed at her face. She was breathing, and her colour was good.

The Doctor looked up at the console. A wide grin stole across his face as hope flared in his chest. Maybe, just maybe, everything would work out after all. Getting to his feet, he began flipping levers and pressing buttons, testing the systems to assess the TARDIS' condition. He was so wrapped up in it that Rose's stirring caught him by surprise.

"Rose!" he welcomed joyously.

"Erph." Rose propped herself up with a hand and rubbed her head with the other. "What happened?"

"You happened," he chirped simply.

"I wha-?"

"The TARDIS. She's well on her way to a full recovery, good as new. Well, I say 'good as new'. At least the console room is in one piece. Can't say the same for the wardrobe. How are you with hanging up clothes?"

Rose sat up fully and narrowed her eyes at him. "Why do I get the feeling I should be asking you if you're about to regenerate?"

"Nope!" he popped, dancing around the console. "Why would I wanna do that? Like myself just the way I am." He grinned sidelong down at Rose and bobbed his eyebrows. "Think you do, too."

"You're so full of it," Rose admonished, which only caused him to giggle. "You're in a good mood. So the TARDIS isn't gonna freak out and spit us up or anything, I take it?"

"As I said, recovering! We're safe!" He crouched down next to Rose wearing a reverent expression. "You did it."

"I did?"

"Yep!" The Doctor offered Rose a hand up. "Apparently, the coral was much more in tune with you than me. Perhaps it had adapted somewhat growing in this universe, like you."

Now on her feet, Rose stared at him in shock. "The TARDIS. It was in me!"

"Yes it was. Although this time instead of the TARDIS lending you power, you lent yours to her."

She screwed up her face. "I'm just human, though. I don't have power."

The Doctor's eyes flicked up and down her. "Apparently you do. I don't know, perhaps left over from before, latent all this time. It would also explain how you called out to me from across dimensions. Whatever it is, it has 'Bad Wolf' written all over it." Rose stared off in thought while the Doctor watched her for a moment. Suddenly he turned, bounding for the console again. "So! Once we've given her a few hours to repair, where do you want to go first?"

Rose shook her head in disbelief and grinned. "I can't believe this is really happening." He grinned back, but then hers faded. "Can we go back to the universe we both came from?"

He shook his head. "No. I shouldn't have even been able to get here in the first place. We're stuck here, now."

She gazed at him. "You stranded yourself."

"Yeah." The Doctor fiddled distractedly with the console.

Rose walked up to him. "For me."

The Doctor summoned his resolve and met her eyes steadily. "Yes."

"I think I might be in love with you."

The Doctor fought a grin that tugged at the corners of his mouth, delighted and amused. Of course she was. She proved as much in everything she did.

"That all right?"

Glancing away, the Doctor attempted to play off the significance of her words cool and casual, but he couldn't keep the grin out of his expression. "Oh, I should think so."

Rose narrowed her eyes at him, her tongue poking out. "Really? Are you sure?"

He turned his eyes up to the ceiling as he pretended to give this some serious thought. "Mm, yes. I'm quite sure it is, yeah."

She slowly shook her head, peering at him dangerously. "I'm so gonna slap you."

The Doctor's grin turned silly, helplessly happy at heart.

Rose advanced on him, taking the Doctor by surprise. She ran her hands through his hair, making him forget which way was up until he found himself bumping backwards into the console. When she pulled away, she looked fuzzy and unfocused in his vision.

"Let's go visit my mum first."

The Doctor sobered. "What, you mean we didn't leave her in the other universe?"

Rose seemed to take the jab towards her mother in stride and pursed her lips as she shook her head. "Nope."

"Do we have to?"

"The last she saw of me was hitching a ride to the stars and flying all the way out to this blasted little outpost on my own, not knowing if she'd ever see me again." Rose stepped backwards, away from him. "Besides, I'm sure she would love to see that you made it through alive."

He arched an eyebrow. "Are you sure she wouldn't rather slap me instead?"

Rose grinned at him over her shoulder as she turned. "Like I just did to you?"

The Doctor bugged his eyes at her, even more horrified. "Oh, please, no."

Her melodious laugh bounced around the console room, and the Doctor thought just maybe, the TARDIS console glowed a little brighter for it.

Rose wandered towards the corridor and peered around the dark corner. "Seems the TARDIS could care less about out here for now." She gripped the doorframe and gazed back at him, looking to him for all the universe a picture of life and love, his most treasured and fulfilling companion. "While we wait until the TARDIS is ready to fly, care to right some chairs in the kitchen and see if we can get the kettle working?"

The Doctor grinned. "Oh, brilliant!"

Everything was going to be more than all right.

-^^ End ^^-