As they drove to the beach where Rose had said goodbye to the Doctor all that time ago, Rose remained quiet, Alec just glancing at her now and then.

"We can turn back if you're not ready for this," he told her.

"No, I can cope with it Alec. You've been so good about it, I hope I don't let you down."

"Rose, you could never do that love. If you can't say it when we get there, then maybe we're expecting too much? I can live with the fact you can't let go but I know you are with me now and you will let go in your own time. Let's see what happens on the beach?"

"Yeah, it's not like I'm gonna see another hologram, is it?" she tried to joke.

"I hope not love," he smiled back as he saw a sign and hoped the sat-nav had got the right beach.

Rose was also hoping that her going there wouldn't prompt the Doctor into making a trip across the void. Who knew what had been going on in the other universe while she'd been gone. He could have adapted the Tardis to work in this one, he could have changed a few times but if he had, he'd maybe think she wouldn't want to see him again.

As Alec drove onto the beach, Rose was wondering if Pete's jeep tyre marks would still be there or if other vehicles or even the tide had erased them.

"Looking for something love?" Alec asked as he stopped the car engine.

"Just signs we were here before, I'm just being daft."

"You are not being daft love, I believe you were here, you don't have to prove it to me. You would not have learned how to pronounce the name had you not been before. Is there anything else you may want to tell me, now is the time. Just how did he get a projection through to the right spot?"

"One night, just after we'd moved in with Pete, I could hear his voice calling me through the gap. He told me to drive as far as we could and I'd know where we were going. Bad Wolf was a bit of a standing joke between us and when Pete looked at the map, I did know where we were supposed to go."

Alec wanted to believe her but she worked for Torchwood, she must be well practiced at covering things up.

"I think it's a bit more than that Rose and we are staying right here until you tell me. I've been trying to work things out and I think I finally got it. So, tell me Rose."

"Do ya believe there are other worlds out there? If ya don't, you may as well take me back to the hotel and I'll fly back to London. I'll have someone pick up the rest of my things from the hotel in Aberdeen."

"You're being serious. It's all to do with the Cybermen, is it not? Then tell me the whole story Rose and don't miss anything out. When you've finished, tell me you love me."

"You might leave before I get the chance, then it'll be just the opposite of what happened before."

"Never. I love you Rose and yes, I believe it's possible other universes like ours exist but you would only be asking if you came from one yourself and maybe your mother? Then how did you get here exactly?"

An hour or so later, they were sat in the car, trying to keep Rose warm as she hadn't realized just how cold it was there and Alec was trying to keep up.

"So, you were safe here and you still went back to help him, then Pete caught you as you were being sucked into this 'Void'?" Alec wanted to make sure he'd got it right.

"You're taking this all very well. Yeah, my mum kept on at him to go get me even though the walls were closing. He took us to his house, it freaked me out going back there after what happened but mum knew nothing about it at the time. There are three years difference Alec, we suddenly found ourselves stuck here and we had to blend in. Pete covered everything and claimed he'd met my mum through me when he'd been looking for me, to thank me for trying to rescue his wife."

"You faced the Cybermen Rose, not many people could have done that. So it was that madman Lumic?"

"Yeah, they turned him into their cyber leader, he went mad."

"Rose, I think he was already mad, that just sent him over the edge. So you got back and then the Torchwood in your world got involved when they thought they were harnessing a new energy form?"

"Yeah, the Cybermen couldn't get through properly, well some did, the rest appeared as ghosts, everyone thought their loved ones were coming back. Even my mum got to think my granddad had come back. The Doctor guessed it must have involved Torchwood, we went there and my mum refused to let me go on my own with him. That was when Pete appeared, she got a shock he looked just like my real dad, I'd not had the heart to tell her I'd already met him."

What else could she say without involving time-travel?

"So, you and the Doctor crossed into the other universe with your other friend Mickey when the Torchwood here made a gap?"

"Yeah, the Doctor was a bit on the curious side."

"Come on Rose, tell me the truth. He was no ordinary doctor, was he?"

"I'll have to get Pete's permission to tell ya. No-one knows about him."

"Then call when we get back to the hotel because I want to hear it all. That's why you were so reluctant to say you love me, you thought I wouldn't believe any of it?"

"I didn't want to tell you then you walk away and leave me when you found out."

Alec turned to her.

"Rose, I would never do that. I'm glad you could at least tell me some of it and I suspect that your stepfather agreed with you that if you had to, that would be what you would tell anyone. I understand Rose, really I do. Feel like a walk on the beach?"

She knew she had to this, to put it all behind her. Alec loved her, she knew that already, he deserved to know whether she loved him or not. Alec led her to the water's edge, not being all that keen but if it meant Rose told him she loved him, he could put up with it. Rose stopped suddenly, seeing something on the wet sand.

"What's wrong love?" he asked as she stopped. "What have you seen?"

It was impossible after all that time that the Tardis had got through without the Doctor contacting her but there were four marks on the sand, roughly where the ship would just fit. Alec went to look.

"You know what made the marks, don't you?" he asked her. Rose just nodded. "Want to tell me?"

"I can't explain how they got there Alec but I know what made them and since the water hasn't erased them yet, they were made fairly recently. Alec, how do ya feel about time travel?"

She saw the smile creep across his face.

"Really? Then I want to know more. You mean the Doctor was a time traveller and you went with him? Rose, that's more believable than what you just told me. So all those comics I read as a boy were all true?"

"I should have told ya the truth but I thought you'd leave me."

"Rose, I already told you I would never do that. What parts were true?"

"Most of it except how we got here the first time. He had this ship, in the shape of a phone box, well a police phone box but you never had them here. It just appeared and disappeared but it landed here, recently and I never knew. He never tried to contact me again."

"How recently?" Alec asked, looking at the marks. "Rose, what if he landed and saw you were with me? Would he have known where you were?"

"He would have been able to locate me using the ship's sensors. I'd have stuck out, well so would my mum and Mickey 'cos we're not from this world plus when we crossed the void or travelled in time, we have this sort of background radiation."

"Then I think he saw us together, saw you were happy and left. He didn't want you to know he'd come back because he did love you and let you get on with your life. Would you have gone back with him?"

"No, I can't leave my family, not now and I've got you. I know he loved me Alec but he'd never be able to tell me. He can change his appearance Alec, when he's dying or badly injured. He changed in front of me once and I bet he changed again and didn't think I'd want to see him so he just found a way to check on me."

"Then you may be right love, he saw you with me and didn't want to make you choose. He did the right thing Rose, he knew you wouldn't go back with him, he was making sure you were okay."

"Torchwood were trying to get the old devices working again Alec, that's why I came here, so I wasn't tempted to use one. I bet something had happened and he took advantage of it. I bet it wasn't that long ago, maybe a day or so since he was here."

"Rose, it's okay. You chose to stay and he knew it and maybe he has changed but how did he look when he changed before?" He saw the look on her face. "He looked like me, didn't he Rose?"

She knew she couldn't deny it and in spite of him saying he loved her and would never leave her, this would be his limit after everything else he'd heard.

"I'm sorry Alec, I didn't know how to tell you."

"That was another reason you couldn't say you loved me, because you were trying to tell his double."

"What can I say Alec?"

"That you love me for who I am, a stranger you met on a train that you were only going to spend the one night with yet you couldn't let me leave. Tell me I'm not a substitute for him."

"Alec, you re in no way a substitute for him. I went after you because I did want more than that one night with you. Now you won't believe that I do love you."

"You love me? Then say it again Rose because no matter what you have just told me, I still love you and you have a lot more to tell me."

He got closer and held his arms out. Rose closed the gap and put her arms around him.

"I love you Alec."

"Then let's get out of here and back to the warm hotel eh?"

They were about to walk off when they felt a sudden breeze even though it had been calm while they'd been standing there talking. Rose stopped.

"Alec, he was here, as we talked."

"What? How is that possible? I know I said it was recent. You mean he heard us?"

"He could put the ship out of sync so no-one could see it, like a perception filter though I should have known."

"Maybe he's perfected it and hid himself from even you, I mean if he saw you with me?" Alec suggested.

"Yeah, that means he has changed and didn't want me to see him and he didn't want to be reminded of how he used to look. He always said he liked that version of himself and something bad must have happened to make him change."

"Come on, let's talk about it back at the hotel eh?"

The next morning, having delayed the ferry since they'd spent more time on the beach than they had intended and Alec having the sense to tell the hotel they may be back, they caught the early ferry back to Aberdeen, Rose having called Pete and got his blessing to tell Alec all he needed to know. Once back, they headed towards Dundee, then made their way to Edinburgh, planning on spending a few days, Rose getting to see the castle and the night before they were leaving, Alec took her out.

"Rose, you know even after what you told me, I still love you?"

"Yeah, I know Alec. The fountain looks lovely, all lit up," she smiled as they'd stopped in front of it, the castle all lit up behind them.

"Then, Rose Tyler, will you wear this ring I bought you and when the time's right, will you marry me?"

He got a ring box out of his pocket and showed it to her, Rose holding her left hand out.

"You can wear it on the other hand Rose. I was going to give you it, back on the beach in Norway but maybe that would have been too soon for you?"

"I don't know Alec but it's not too soon now. I want to wear it on this hand."

A few days later, they were in Alec's hometown, him showing her around, then they headed towards Oban, to get the ferry to the island of Mull, Alec locating a local historian who dug into his past, Rose seeing how much it meant to him. It was when they got to the small town of Callendar, Alec had a surprise for her.

He told her to wear something nice and they were going for afternoon tea at a stately home but first, he wanted to take her around the gardens but Rose didn't know he'd contacted Pete, who had given Alec his blessing to marry Rose but told him to expect to do it again when they got back to London. He'd also contacted the local registrar, who had been happy to meet them by a fountain and of course, as they approached it, Rose realized what was going on as the man greeted them.

People began to gather around and after the short ceremony, a man offered to take some photos of them kissing in front of the fountain on Alec's phone. Having tea in the caf garden, those that had seen them get married offered their congratulations to them, making Rose blush several times.

"Well sweetheart, we go back to Fort William in a few days. I guess you're not taking that job after all?"

"Well when you've met my mum and she makes us get married in front of her, where are we gonna live?"

"How about making Broadchurch our home? Your stepfather told me he can get me back in so what do you think?"

"That it'll be perfect, if you're sure ya wanna go back there?"

"I used to hate the place but with you there love, it'll seem more like a home than I've had for a long time."

"Well then, Broadchurch it is," Rose smiled as she raised the glass of champagne a waitress had brought them each, the manager having heard they'd just got married and sent it with the caf 's compliments.

Alec returned the car once they got back to Fort William and they had sorted their train tickets out to go back to London, Alec saying they should have travelled overnight again but Rose just laughed and said they were no longer two strangers on the night train.

Epilogue

As they'd been standing on the beach at Bad Wolf Bay, the Doctor in his present form, who had by accident discovered that the Torchwood in the universe Rose had gone to must have been experimenting with crossing the void, squeezed the ship through, although still under protest until he told the temperamental ship it was to go check on Rose.

He'd been there a while, easily picked up Rose, her mother and Mickey the idiot but was happy to find Rose was close by, over in Aberdeen, of all places and he remembered Sarah-Jane complaining he'd landed her there instead of Croydon and wondered if she'd pay a visit. He'd not had long to wait and had already put the ship out of sync, he didn't want her to see him in his present form but as she had got out of a car, he couldn't believe he was looking at his former self, two regenerations back.

Satisfied they'd told each other how they felt, he'd tried to sneak away, having perfected a way to silence the ship on departure if needed but he knew the way Rose had looked back that she'd known he was there Rose Tyler had always been too clever for him. Now, she was where she belonged, with a man who could be his old self's double who had come though a lot and survived, to be destined to find Rose, who must have surely thought he'd abandoned her. Now she'd know that he hadn't, that he'd made the effort to see she was happy and he knew she was, that was good enough for him as he crossed the void back to their old universe.

The End!