Mickey and Jackie returned to the flat, neither of them having said a word since stepping out of the TARDIS and giving Rose her space.

It was all sort've muddled. He rightly didn't know what to do or feel. Because on one hand, it was clear from their first reunion after meeting the Doctor that Rose was lost to him. However, that alien did it, he'd won her over completely, and there was nothing Mickey could do or say to win her back. He wanted to be supportive of Rose, because she always was and would always be a friend before anything else. But on the other hand, the Doctor had sent her back. He didn't know how, and he had some questions for a certain mate of his, but that's what the Time Lord had done. He had sent Rose back to live a life without him, to move on and be safe. She could have moved on with him. They could have been happy. A small part of Mickey had still hoped that he and Rose could live the sort of domestic life he'd imagined with her.

Jackie went right for the kitchen, putting on the kettle. Mickey lingered by the sofa, not sure if he should sit back down or go out for a walk. Or just stand and think.

"Did you call 'im?" Jackie asked, and not for the first time that day. She'd asked earlier when he first brought the sobbing Rose home. She asked again as Rose ran out the chippy.

Mickey looked up and then shook his head.

"He might know, Mickey. He might know how it worked out." She reasoned, not for the first time.

"He might not." He reminded her. "You know what he said. He was left, just like Rose."

"Not just like," Jackie countered as the kettle began to boil.

Mickey snorted. "Right, bit worse for him, wasn' it?" He countered crossing his arms and just about ready to sit down when the pages of the magazines stacked on the coffee table began to flutter. It was just a second later that that tell-tale wheezing and groaning began to cut through the living room, causing Jackie to drop a mug in the kitchen and storm into the living room as the big, blue box began to materialize in the corner. A small part of Mickey's mind was amused by the shifting chair.

The smirk that began to form on his lips died the second the ship was fully formed, but a very solemn looking Doctor stepped out.

"Where's Rose?" Jackie asked immediately.

The Doctor looked older than Mickey remembered him. Tired, as if the weight of the universe had finally become too much to bear.

"She's in the TARDIS." The Doctor replied, and Jackie went to make for the doors. He held up his hand. "Jackie," He said softly, apologetically.

Jackie's jaw dropped. "No," She begged. "No, don't say-"

"She's alive. She's… she's alive but I don't… I don't know if…. I'm not sure-"

Smack!

The clap of Jackie's palm against the Doctor's cheek was loud enough that Mickey thought it must have broken the sound barrier. It was still echoing in his head as he watched Jackie lower her hand, lips quivering and eyes watering. The Doctor stood still, tall, the red hand visible on his cheek.

"Don't say you aren't sure!" Jackie hissed. "You're a Doctor, fix her!"

"I've tried, I did. I swear, Jackie, I did what I could." He replied as evenly as possible. "Believe me, I want her whole and healthy as much as you do. But as of now it's a matter of time, we just have to wait. And if, for some reason, she doesn't pull through, I wanted her home. I wanted you to have a chance to say goodbye."

Jackie's face crumpled, and she approached the Doctor once again, but this time with her hands over her face. And Mickey watched as the thousand plus year old alien wrapped his arms around Rose's mother and held her, eyes misting as he murmured things in an attempt to comfort or reassure.

It was then that Mickey pulled out his cell phone, stepping into the kitchen as he dialed.

"Hey, Mickey Mouse." Jack Harkness greeted him, somehow making the childish nickname sound lascivious.

"They're here." He cut to the chase. "It's after they left you."

"You're sure?" Jack asked.

"Yeah." Mickey replied, clearing his throat. "Sounds like Rose is dying, though."

Silence.

"I'm on my way." Jack said, just as Mickey was about to check for signal. He was gone before he could reply.

~DW~

"She's cold." Jackie said as she held Rose's hand, kneeling beside her as he had done earlier. "She's cold as death, are you sure?"

"She's still breathing, still has a pulse." The Doctor assured her, his hand resting on Jackie's shoulder. She'd cried for a good ten minutes before she was finally able to ask to see her.

There had been an argument as to whether or not she should be able to move her daughter into the flat, but in the end, he'd won. He'd explained how he didn't know how Rose was being affected by the combination of what she'd done, and how he tried to fix her, and that being as close to the TARDIS core as possible was probably the best thing for her.

"She's so pale." She commented quietly, brushing a lock of hair away from Rose's face.

He was about to reply when he was suddenly quite overcome with the need to curl into himself while fighting a terrible headache. He first tried his mental links, both with the TARDIS and more cautiously with Rose before he heard the front door of the Tyler residence open.

"Mickey? Jackie?" Jack's voice echoed.

"I'm in here, Jack." Jackie called back, and the Doctor stumbled back.

Jack appeared in the door way, first looking to where the Tyler women were, then to the Doctor. He crossed his arms and glared. "You left!"

"You're getting on my nerves." The Doctor grit out, reaching into his pockets and fumbling for the potion Ohila brought out to him.

"You could have just said-"

"No, I mean literally. Give me a mo-ah ha!" He crowed as he pulled the potion out and pulled the stopper. It was a bitter, minty sort of thing that had him shuddering after gulping it down, but he could feel himself beginning to tolerate Jack's presence. "There," he said. "Now. Yes, I left you. Do you know what happened to you?"

Jack's stance loosened. "I woke up alone on that station. Everyone else was dead, you took off. I went back thought maybe I could meet up with you here, only I went back too far. Spotted you guys around Cardiff a little bit after I landed, but Rose looked right past me, so I knew it wasn't a you that knew me. So, after that little bit I decided to head across the Atlantic. 1892 I get into a fight on Ellis Island, shot through the heart. I woke up, thought it was an odd one off, but it kept happening."

"Rose," The Doctor said. "She took the vortex into her and she brought you back. A bit too well, I would say. You became a living fixed point. You're not supposed to exist, ever. And I don't know how to reverse that, if it's even possible. So, admittedly, I ran. I had Rose to worry about, and I couldn't think with you so near."

"Seem to be doing alright now," Jack said as he eyed the empty bottle in the Doctor's hand.

"Yes," the Doctor replied, giving it a glance. "I have an acquaintance who has a very unreliable sense of prophecy. She prepared for your possibility." He set the empty bottle on the console. "What have you been up to in the meantime?"

"This and that," Jack replied.

"Is there anything I can do for her?" Jackie interrupted them, drawing their attention back to the Tyler women. "Will tea help?"

"Drinking it? I'm not sure." The Doctor replied. "But there's a chance the smell, the steam, may be a benefit."

He wasn't sure if that was true, but he had the feeling that Jackie was getting restless and needed something to do, something to occupy her while she waited.

"I'll give you a hand," Jack said, opening an arm to Jackie as she stood and headed for the entryway. He dropped it around her shoulders. "Maybe find out where Mickey's been hiding." He said as they left the TARDIS, leaving the doors wide open. That was just fine by him, the Doctor didn't want to either of them to feel shut out right now.

With Jackie gone, he returned to Rose's side, taking her hand in his, kissing her knuckles.

"Come on, Darling. You need to pull through." He said to her in a whisper, leaning in to allow his words to brush against her ears. "It was Lizzy taking care of Eugene, not the other way around." He heard something, maybe a sigh, maybe a breathy laugh, and he pulled back to examine her face. Still the same, still pale, maybe a little bit less so. But her pulse was still slow, and her skin was still cool. If Rose had responded in anyway, it was likely just a brief moment of consciousness. But still, brief was better than nothing, and so he rested his head against her side and waited.

~DW~

Jackie had brought tea two hours ago. And while she stayed with him, Jack and Mickey joining as well, it was beginning to feel a bit like a memorial service. They had been telling stories about Rose until Jackie, mid-sentence, stopped and became nearly as pale as her daughter. She'd downed the rest of her cup and promptly left so she could wash the dishes, or tidy up, or something to keep herself busy.

Jack brought Mickey deeper into the TARDIS, showing him all the little recreation rooms he'd never seen before.

The Doctor stayed with Rose.

He didn't tell them she had grown a touch cooler, that her breathing grew a little shallower, that her pulse began to stutter.

Change or death, something was on the horizon, just on the edge of it all. Either way, her days as a human was over, that he knew for certain.

He sat once more with his back against the jumpseat she was laying on, her arm draped over his shoulder so he could clutch her hand.

"If you come through this," He began, "You're going to be different. You're going to see the world, the universe through a new set of eyes." He smirked, a hint of sadness coloring it. "You'll be able to keep up with me like never before. We'll be able to run further, faster… but if you don't- no." He cut himself off. "No, I can't think of that." He turned kissing her hand quickly. "I can't think of any other alternative. You've come to mean too much to me."

There was no sound in the room except the hum of the TARDIS, which had grown stronger over the last few hours. She was nearly recovered, he hoped that meant Rose would be coming around soon as well.

"Charley once did something similar." He said, letting his mind wander, the words mean nothing and everything in hopes it would lure her back to consciousness. "Instead of sending her away in the TARDIS, she snuck back on when I meant to take myself and the Old Girl to another dimension. I was cross with her for a long time, deep down. I should be cross with you, but I think…. I think I'm not because you were fully aware of the danger you were putting yourself into. Or, at least as aware as you could be, given that the TARDIS encouraged you to go to extremes. And I did trick you." He sighed heavily. "I suppose this is as much my fault as the TARDIS and yours."

~DW~

He lulled his head in the direction of the doors as Jackie came in a few hours later, another cup of tea in hand. The Doctor smiled at her, and she gave a sad little grin in return.

"Thought you might like another cuppa," She explained as she set the mug down beside him on the floor.

"Thank you, Jackie." He said, watching her as she shifted about, a restless and nervous energy about her. "How are you?"

"Terrified," She admitted. "That's my daughter laying there. She wanted to go after you, and I let her. I didn't stop her, and I shoulda tried harder."

"Do you really think you could stop her?" He mused.

Jackie pursed her lips. "You didn't know her dad, but Pete was mad. Had mad ideas and mad dreams, and I loved him for it. Much as I wish Rose was more like me, she's her father's daughter."

The Doctor smiled, "We briefly encountered him a couple times. We were at your wedding."

"Oh, mess off." Jackie countered.

"No, we were. Me, Rose, and Jack. Back of the church. He didn't get your middle name right." He smirked.

"Never told Rose that." Jackie pursed her lips. "Didn't want her to know the bad bits about her dad." She became thoughtful. "Police said there was a girl there, when he did. Said she looked like she mighta been a relative, but when they went to ask her about things, she was gone." Jackie looked at him with suspicion. "Wouldn't know about that, would you?"

"It was her." The Doctor confirmed. "She wanted to go back and see him, and I took her. She was there with Pete when he died."

Jackie's eyes misted and she nodded once, looking away at the rotor for a moment.

"Don't always know what to think 'bout you, you know. Came swanning in, turned our lives upside down, took my daughter away." She shook her head, but still wouldn't look at him. "One moment, you're the alien that brought trouble to my door, next you're the man who let my little girl meet her dad. You, Doctor, are like the best and wo- Oh my God, what's happening to her!?"

The Doctor, on Jackie's shriek, twisted and got to his knees to look at Rose.

She was glowing gold, wisps of what looked like vortex energy coming from her slightly parted lips.

He scrambled, grabbing her wrist and pressing his fingers to her pulse point, feeling her heart rate slow down to nothing.

Not a beat, not a flutter. Nothing.

He stopped breathing, waited, counted.

Change, or death.

Change.

Or death.

Please be change, please, please, please be change….

He closed his eyes, not daring to reach out to her, afraid of what he would find on the other end.

Thump-thump.

Thump-thump-thump.

Thump-thump-thump-thump.

His eyes shot open as Rose took in a deep breath, her new, double heartbeat becoming stronger and more steady.

"What the bloody hell is going on, Doctor?" Jackie demanding. "What happened to Rose?"

"She's on the mend." He replied, slowly getting up, turning to meet her. "But I think there's something you should know."

~DW~

The crack in the room had Rose opening her eyes. She blinked, because something looked off, but the sensation didn't fade. Rose frowned, because she knew where she was, but it looked different. She just couldn't put her finger on why. But the crack, that was a slap. She knew that was a slap.

She looked to the side, and there was the Doctor and her mother standing in front of the console. Her mother looked at the Doctor like she had just been told something upsetting, but she wasn't angry. And he, he looked genuinely surprised.

Her mum looked tired, far more tired than normal. No, she didn't. She was the same, but there was something different.

"What's going…." Rose stopped, half sitting up, her arms against her sides. It wasn't just her sight that changed. There was something different inside her. "Doctor?" She asked, getting up the rest of the way and slowly putting her hands on her chest, over each side. There was a beat on each side, and right now they were racing.

She had two hearts.

"Rose," He said calmly, coming immediately to her side. He gently took her hands off her chest, holding them in his hands, giving them a little squeeze. "Rose, what do you remember?"

"I…" she frowned, trying to think. "I remember… the TARDIS… she got me to look at this… this light…"

"That, my darling, was the time vortex. Something no one, not even a time lord, is supposed to look into."

"Oh," She said, both hearts beating rapidly.

And then she heard it, not really in a word, but it was more than a feeling. More than a flash of images.

Sorry.

It wasn't the Doctor. It was feminine, it was warm and familiar. She'd heard it before in her mind, saying words with her, sharing a body while their souls merged for a moment to save the idiot they loved.

"She's, Rose choked out, looking up at the ceiling. "She's in my head. Like, more than she was before. An', an' my hearts… I have two hearts. I'm… what…."

"That part, I'm afraid, is my fault." He grimaced.

"Yeah, it's why he got the smack of a life time, an' I ain't done with 'im yet." Jackie growled, crossing her arms and staring at the back of the Doctor's head.

"When it was over, when you… well, we'll discuss what you did after the vortex another time. But after you let it go, you were a bit weak. I thought to try and help you out by giving you something an old acquaintance had brewed for me. However, I gave you the wrong one."

"So," Rose began. "You gave me somethin' that turned me into a Time Lord?"

"A Gallifreyan," The Doctor corrected. "I have no idea if you'll regenerate, and I frankly don't have a wish to find out anytime soon."

Rose nodded slowly, letting that sink in.

She did something bad, something that almost killed her by the sounds of it. She'd been out of it, for a few hours, she knew. How she knew, she didn't know, though at least she couldn't tell down to the second. And during that time, the Doctor had made a mistake and now she wasn't human anymore. At least not technically. With the exception of the alien feeling in her chest, and her sharper vision, it didn't seem all that different than what she was used to.

"Okay," She said eventually.

"Okay?" The Doctor repeated, confused.

"Yeah, jus', alright." She nodded again, slowly; brow furrowed as she met his eyes. He looked genuinely taken aback. "Wha? Expect me to get mad at you for savin' my life?" She smiled, tongue sticking out the corner of her mouth just a touch.

"No," He replied. "I was more concerned you'd take issue with the fact I took away your humanity."

"Just a species." Rose shrugged. "Doesn't change who I am. Still look the same, yeah? I didn't change faces, did I?"

"No, no, you're still you. Still wonderfully you." He smiled, dropping one of her hands to cup her cheek. "And even if you do change faces down the road, I will still love you."

She smiled at that, leaning in and kissing him squarely on the lips. "Better not try and send me away again or you'll be the one with the new face." She warned against his lips.

"I'll keep that in mind." The Doctor replied, shifting his hand in her hair and kissing her back, much more deeply than she had.

"Now, really, in front of Jackie?" Jack's voice broke them apart, and Rose buried her face in the Doctor's shoulder and laughed.

"You have a knack for walking in on our moments. Don't be so sure it was your headache inducing existence that caused me to leave you behind." The Doctor said, probably turning his head away to say it over his shoulder.

"You like me. I know, I have the memory of your lips to prove it." Jack countered.

"We were all going to die." The Doctor verbally waved it off.

"You keep telling yourself that." Jack teased, the leer in his voice earning a chuckle out of Rose.

"Not sure I wanna know what you all get up to in this thing. Can she eat? She allowed to eat after turning into a… whatever you turned my daughter into?" Jackie asked, and Rose lifted her head to see her mum nearly back to normal.

"Food is likely the best thing for her, Jackie." The Doctor assured, shifting his hold on Rose once more to help her stand, his fingers not leaving her once in the process. "Food, and likely more rest."

"Right, well, before you lot take off again, we'll order in. You can explain to me what's different about my daughter." Jackie said as she headed out the TARDIS.

"You coming with us, Mickey?" Jack asked as they all started to follow.

"You going? Whaddabout your job?" Mickey countered.

"I've been with Torchwood nearly a hundred years," Jack replied incredulously. "I think I'm owed some vacation time; don't you think?"

~DW~

"Beautiful," Rose said, as she looked over the red, rocky cliffs before her. Bird like creatures soaring above the canyon below, oblivious to their presence, or maybe just ignoring them.

The Doctor was at her side, holding her hand. He wasn't cooler than her anymore, she hadn't realized that when she'd first woken up a few days ago. And neither of them was used to the casual touch of skin to skin awakening their telepathic connection. It had always needed to be the temples, but now it didn't. Now, she got a litany of how lovely she was, how lucky he was, and a couple of instances when he wondered if he'd remembered to turn the kettle off, and where he'd managed to put his favorite spanner. He'd had a good laugh at some of her own casual thoughts slipping through, but they would work on that.

"It is," he agreed, though she knew he meant you are. She smiled like he had anyway, her hearts fluttering in a way that still gave her a bit of a fright. He squeezed her hand, reassuring her, reminding her to breath properly. "Now that you're… now that you're … different, longer lived, how long are you planning on staying with me?" He asked.

She smirked. "Think now that I'm alien, I'm gonna go off on my own?"

"You might," He smiled back. "Take a clipping of the old girl, grow her yourself, take off with Jack."

"No, not goin' anywhere with him." Rose said with such certainty the Doctor laughed. "No, I think I might just stay with you forever."

"Forever?" He repeated, "Sure about that?"

"Yeah, pretty sure."

"Good." He said, letting go of her hand and bringing her closer, wrapping his arms around her. He kissed her head, and Rose sighed happily.

It had been, officially, a year. At some point, through all the running and traveling, of alien planets and trips through time, a year had passed since she took his hand and never looked back. It felt like eons ago, most days, since she was merely a shop girl. Like he'd been fresh from the war and was still aching to find his people, his home planet. Two lost souls, looking fora hand to hold and an adventure around every corner.

And now here they stood on an alien planet, the Doctor and Rose, together watching the sun set on the anniversary of the first day of the rest of their lives.

There would be so very many more to come.

This is the end.

I want to thank you all for following this story, whether you were here from the very beginning or jumped in along the way.

There may, at a later date, be an epilogue added to it which would be a stepping stone into a sequel that might happen. I will not make promises because this took over three years to finish. So many things happened along the way that took away the inspiration to write it, and I don't want that to happen again, so I won't be posting a story until I know I have the time and the drive to finish it.

An answer to a question was posed as to whether or not what Ohila said was supposed to happen was the original plot. It was not. Admittedly after 3 years I don't remember precisely what I had had in mind, but Rose was always meant to become like him, and the Doctor was never meant to regenerate at the end.