Disclaimer: I don't own Doctor Who; I just borrow the characters and mutate their inner voices. Please don't sue, my house is small, my car is useless and my dogs are a pain in the arse, but they're all I have.

A/N: This was meant to be Rose angst and fluffy lemons… it didn't turn out that way and I'm sorry. All the same, I hope you enjoy the ride - my muse certainly took me on one writing this. Definitely not appropriate for younger fans. As the story grew, so did the Rose/Doctor physical relationship. Please use caution for the explicit scenes.

Crossroads

By: Danae Bowen

The dimension cannon provided many things to many people, mostly to Torchwood. Their explorers were able to visit many different dimensions. Their scientists were provided reams of new information to study and learn from. Their inventors gathered many different types of technology to build and expand upon. Discoveries were made, secrets were kept and everyone was happy. Rose Tyler was the only Torchwood agent left unsatisfied.

Each world she landed on, she knew instinctively was not hers. Each time she waited out her thirty minutes, she added to the list - the list of everything she wanted to do when she met her own goal - going home.

The closest she'd been was meeting Donna Noble - God, had she been close that time. It was enough to bring hope back to her, light up chocolate eyes that had been dead for longer than she cared to remember. She felt no happiness, revelled in no sunsets, experienced no fear - all that made up her existence was emptiness. Her heart had slowed, her mind had dulled, laughter all but gone from her soul. She was just plain old human Rose Tyler - without him.

A wistful smile crossed her face as she penned another addition onto her list:

Make him finish the sentence.

The sentence. The one thing that's kept her going since he'd blinked out of her existence. Words she had to hear, longed to hear, needed to hear to feel alive again. So, she stuffed the list back into her backpack, adjusted the temporal transponder and leaped back to Pete's World and the Torchwood staff waiting for her. Her eyes didn't shine, her cheeks were not flushed with excitement, none of the old Rose Tyler poured through when she looked up at Pete and Mickey and shrugged. This last world proved to be just another addition to her list - she was no closer this time, but it was one more world to scratch off her list. Several thousand more to go.

She watched as Mickey turned to Pete, his eyes flashing. She watched as Pete nodded and shrugged, gesturing at her hopelessly. At least this time she'd come back in one piece - she could tell that's what her dad was thinking. A few dimensions ago she'd not been so lucky - she'd broken her jaw, busted an arm, practically rotated a leg right off her hip - she'd been a mess when she'd finally jumped back to her dimension. Still, as soon as she was able to walk, she insisted on returning to work - even if her jaw hadn't quite set right, and she had this kind of permanent ache in her hand the physicians weren't sure would ever fade. All it meant to Rose was that she was that tiny bit different on the outside - mirroring the differences on the inside, she supposed. With a limp and a stretch of her jaw, she jumped to the next world.

After all, she had a Doctor to find.

~~~~TBC