A/N: Right, the last chapter that should have been updated AGES ago! Sorry, people I went to Greece...

8. A Heart-Shaped Necklace

"Doctor!"

I screamed and threw myself at him. He hugged me tightly- so much like the embrace I'd just been in- and whispered smugly in my ear; "Sorry about interrupting you snogging me, by the way." I pulled back, embarrassed but also confused. How did he-

"You know about that?"
"Sure. Happened to me when I was that young. Nice robes, by the way. Suits you way more than those chavvy London stuff." He winked, running a cursory glance over my new outfit (subsequently making my cheeks flame at the look on his face) He grinned widely at my bemused look, and then looked over my shoulder, where the younger version of the Doctor was leaning against the library doorway, looking at his older self with open curiosity.

"Oh, please tell me my hair looks like that now, Rose- it's ace!" My Doctor begged me, walking over to the young Doctor and walking around him critically. "All fluffy and tufty and brown. Shame about the brown; this would look so nice ginger…"

The younger Doctor shot me a slightly unnerved look, and I tried to look as nonchalant and as reassuring as possible, as if I'd known all along that my Doctor would could waltzing in. Which, of course, couldn't have been farther from the truth.

"Stop it." I said, crossing my arms at my Doctor. "You know he's probably equally as confused as I am- no, actually even more so." The older version tilted his head in agreement.

"Weelll, I suppose having yourself walk through your door is slightly odd. Sorry about this." he said to his younger self, who had recovered by now and was grinning at my Doctor, the exact same expression mirrored on the older's face. "It's just her mother will kill me if I leave her here."

I frowned at him sternly. "Leave my mother out of this- he doesn't meet her for seven hundred years; he doesn't need additional scaring."

The Doctor laughed. "True. Now, I rather think that myself would like an explanation?"

"Er, wouldn't say no." The younger one said, still looking at himself disbelievingly. I giggled; this must be the first of many times the Doctor ran into himself. My Doctor grinned.

"Right-ho. Let's go in the library; that was always my favourite room in Varen's house." He glanced at the younger one. "Have you read Moonlight's Winter Child yet?"

"I guess not." I remarked on the blank look on the Doctor's face. My Doctor sighed.

"Shame- that one's a good one- make sure Omega gives it to you." He said, and then fell backwards onto one of the greens sofas; making sure he made ultimate use of it by resting his head on one arm rest and his ankles on the other.

"Take a seat." He said casually, his eyes closed.

"Oh, act like you own the place." I teased, and he cracked open an eye.

"Er, I do actually, Tyler- so shush up."

I paused and raised an eyebrow at him as I remembered something. "Cassie?" I murmured out of the corner of my mouth, and my Doctor winced.

"Don't judge me, Tyler- it was a nickname, alright?" I smirked and shrugged. My Doctor scowled at me, and then turned to himself, as if he didn't want the conversation to continue. I grinned to myself as he spoke-

"Right, assuming I can still recall my exactly feelings on the day this happened to me, and I can- which, considering it was more than seven hundred years ago, is quite good- then I shall say this; I actually really am you, Doctor." I blinked, and then realised that, the Doctor having already had this conversation, would know what the younger Doctor was thinking; and he seemed to be contemplating that the man in front of him was an imposter.

"Spatial dimension relation-jumps." My Doctor said, and the other Doctor frowned. "Using re-boosted fibre-optics with a parallel chronic regulator."

"The parallels are locked- the only way they could be surpassed is if..." he hissed and looked at his future self, who stared back expressionlessly. I felt a surge of pity for the Doctor's younger self as he sat down heavily, a horrid realisation in his eyes.

"So it happened then." The Doctor's past self said softly, and my Doctor nodded, the ghost of pain in his eyes so evident.

"You can't stop it- even though you'll try."

"I'm so sorry, Doctor." I whispered, and he nodded silently, his eyes still locked with his future. I swallowed- how could I even begin to understand what the two of them were feeling?

I looked between them as they stared at each other; either looking at what they used to be, or what they would later become.

The Doctor (110 yrs old)

The man in front of me was so obviously me.

He had the same eyes, the same way of smiling; he held his shoulders back in exactly the same way as I did.

And yet he so different.

I looked into his eyes and saw what I would become. He wasn't me- a lot of me wasn't there, not anymore.

Where had half of me gone?

His eyes held humour- a lot of it in fact, I'd just seen it- but there was also a constant ghost that flickered behind it; there was a lot of pain in this man's eyes. His face was worn and so very tired; his expression was one I would associate with someone who had seen many a century slip by.

"Nine of them." He answered my unasked question- of course, he would know every thought I was having, because he had had them as well.

"It's nice to know I live that long."

"There are several close calls."

I smiled, and he smiled back –the exact same smile- but I saw the sadness behind it and I swallowed. What was it that I would go through that would put such pain behind my eyes?

"Loss."

It was my future companion, Rose, who answered; maybe I'd said the question out loud, or maybe my expression was just obvious on my face. I, of course, hadn't yet learned how to push half of the pain away so that nobody but me would see it, like he had. Her response intrigued me- what would I lose?

How much would I lose to become so tired and pained as I now knew would be?

I studied her face and didn't like what I saw there. There was a lot of sadness on both of their faces- for me. I felt dread well in my stomach.

What was so bad that it would make me look so tired and haunted, and make Rose Tyler cry so many tears for me? I didn't want to think about it. I had a very horrible feeling that I knew what it was.

And if what I thought was true, I could truly say that every ounce of pain in my future eyes was completely justified. We all knew about it- we'd heard the rumours of darkness brewing, far away but getting closer….

I closed my eyes.

I didn't want to think about it.

"When?" I whispered, without opening my eyes. I heard Rose Tyler stifle a sob.

"Soon." I heard him answer, and I nodded silently, resigned to my fate.

Soon, it would be over, and I would lose half of me forever, and become the man sitting in front of me. I swallowed and straightened my shoulders; opening my eyes and staring at my future self unflinchingly, feeling no fear for what I knew would happen.

"I do not fear the future, Doctor." He smiled at me, and nodded.

"So you shouldn't." He said softly. "There is always something worth living for- remember that, Doctor." And with that he stood up, the Tyler girl following instinctively. I smiled- they couldn't see it, but I could. I caught the Doctor looking at me, and I held his gaze for a second, and then purposely sliding my gaze over to Rose. He nodded- perhaps to show he understood, perhaps to agree; I didn't ask.

I would know one day.

* * *

Rose

The Doctor stood up and silently put a hand on his past's shoulder; their gazes locking for several heartbeats, before the hand dropped and my Doctor slipped past, and without another word he'd disappeared through the library doorway. I looked longingly after him and started forwards, the other Doctor following.

When I stepped through the now open front door, my Doctor was leaning against the doors of the TARDIS, several hundred yards away, his face expressionless as he waited for me to say my goodbyes and join him.

Before I left, I turned to the younger Doctor and smiled, holding out my arms. He stepped into them and I held him close, burying my head in his shoulder. He kissed my forehead again.

"Meeting you is one bit of my future I'm very looking forward to." He whispered, holding me tightly. I laughed into his shoulder, and then a thought occurred to me, and I broke away.

"Here." I said, as I reached up to my neck and unlinked the necklace around my neck. "Take this." I held out the silver necklace with a small heart hanging from the end. "It was given to me when I turned eighteen by my mother- she got it on her eighteenth as well, and so did her mother. Take and keep it safe." I hugged him tightly again and whispered in his ear, my throat thick with tears. "Use it when life gets really hard, and remember that you've always got our meeting to look forward to. There's always a way out." And I kissed him again; my face lingering close to his even after I drew away- I tried to say more, but I couldn't get past the lump in my throat.

This was too hard.

"Go." He whispered, and without another word I ripped my hands from his and ran with every ounce of speed I had towards the waiting arms of my Doctor. I threw myself at him like a drowning person would a life raft, and he held me just as he had eight hundred years ago whilst I cried for him and his past. I felt him guide my gently into the TARDIS and shut the door behind us, and then my legs left the floor, just before they buckled under the weight of my tears, as he carried me- seemingly effortlessly, despite our similarities in weight- to the faded yellow seats, where I slumped, the tears cascaded down my face. He sat next to me silently as I cried, my eyes aching for the amount of tears that had fallen from them in the last hour.

Gradually the flow stemmed until my sobs subsided and I was left feeling hollow and empty. My shoulders shook, but there were no more tears.

"I'm sorry." I choked hollowly. I didn't even know what I was crying for, but then again I did. I was crying for all the pain I knew but didn't know the Doctor had suffered, and I was crying for the pain I knew that the Doctor I had just left would suffer in the time to come. "I'm so sorry."

"It's alright Rose." He said quietly, his hands holding mine gently. "It's fine." I closed my eyes, but he held my face and forced me to look him in the eye.

"You helped me more than you'll ever know, you know." He said softly, and reached into the voluminous depths of his overcoat. Pulling his hands away, he showed me what he'd kept safe in his pocket for eight centuries.

It was worn- the chain looking like most of the original links had been replaced-and rusted in places; the rest that wasn't was a dull, almost translucent silver colour. The heart was cracked and almost all of the diamond were missing now, but it was the most lovely sight I'd ever seen.

"You kept it?" I asked, my voice astounded, and he nodded.

"Through everything that happened, Rose- I had this, every step of the way. When I was imprisoned by the Judges of Vladir, I took this from around my neck and looked at it, every single night without fail, watching the moonlight glint of the diamonds. That sight became my life for three decades. It kept me sane when I saw no-one at all for days on end, and all I had was four featureless walls to stare at.

"Back then it still had the diamonds, but they got lost in my travels. Sorry about that." he added sheepishly, but I didn't give a sod about the diamonds. I just couldn't believe he'd kept my necklace that I had given him so many years ago.

"So... I was always going to meet you when you were a hundred and ten?" I said slowly. Thoughts were running around my head like puppies- about what the Doctor had said; about me kissing him when was 'that young'. About him saying to me, before I even went into Gallifrey, that he would find me.

And now he was showing me the necklace I just given to him, but his younger self.

"Yes, Rose."

"Why did you never mention you'd met me before?" I asked.

"Would you have ever done what you did had you know you would?" he asked, and I knew that honestly I would never have asked him to take me there, to see him before the War, to kiss him so uncontrollably; to do any of it. I winced; especially not running around in my underwear.

Had I known, I would not have done any of the things I did.

I smiled tenderly at him, even though he didn't see because he was busy tapping controls, as if he had decided the intimacy of the moment had reached its peak and so he had to cut it off immediately.

"Doctor?"

The Doctor looked up, and put his hand over mine, holding my gaze.

That moment was moment I didn't ever forget.

Even after everything that happened later- even after I was screaming for him, trapped on a parallel world, saying goodbye to him for the first time... … that single, fleeting moment stayed with me; engrained into my thoughts, my dreams. Even when my world ended, it stayed with me; offering me salvation when my life crumbled and I lost everything. Lost him.

Our gazes remained locked as he smiled at me. Innocent. Happy in the present, not looking to tomorrow. Not seeing what would happen. Not wanting to.

"Onwards and upwards?" He asked me, and I smiled back and nodded.

"Onwards and upwards."

A/N: Thanks to everyone who reviewed-especially Lizzle09- even after you had to track the next bits down! I hope you liked it!...