"Jackie Tyler..." murmured the Doctor with a gulp.

"Yeah, who's asking?" said Jackie with a scowl.

The Doctor merely stared at her, mesmerised. His hearts pounded. He knew exactly what year this was and why the TARDIS had brought them here tonight.

He swiveled around on the spot, making his way across the bar and away from Jackie, as fast as he possibly could.

"'Ere! You need to pay for these drinks!" yelled the surly barman, slamming down Amy and Rory's drinks onto the bar, but the Doctor was far too preoccupied to hear.

When he reached his two companions he was breathless and shaking.

"We have to leave now," he said in a panicked voice, his eyes darting this way and that.

"Why?" asked Amy leaning back in her seat comfortably. "I like it here."

"We just have to, okay," he uttered, his eyes wide. "I'm begging you, please!"

Amy cocked her head. "Doctor, what's wrong?"

The Doctor looked almost petrified and gave a gulp.

"I shouldn't be here. I can't- I can't see her," he muttered. "Not again..."

"Can't see who?" asked Rory, but before the Doctor could even attempt to answer the door opened and a chilly wind hit them directly in the face.

"ROSE! ROSE!" Jackie's voice from across the bar yelled. "Over here!"

The Doctor froze.

It was as though time itself stood still.

It wasn't meant to be like this. He had said his goodbyes. That was supposed to have been the end of it.

His hearts pounded in his chest. She was here. Behind him. Mere feet away, but he couldn't look up...

"Please, we need to leave now," he said to Amy and Rory through gritted teeth.

The pair stared up at him worriedly.

"Okay, okay," said Amy grabbing her jacket and getting to her feet. "Come on Rory."

The Doctor bit his lip and turned towards the door, staring straight ahead, avoiding his peripherals and any pink and yellow thing that lay within them.

Suddenly a burly hand grabbed his shoulder roughly, pulling him around.

"You think you can just waltz out of 'ere wifout' payin'?"

It was the barman, his face was red and his jaw tense.

"You order drinks, you pay for 'em!"

The Doctor faced him and paled. In his long years he had come up against cybermen, daleks, even the devil himself and yet the look on Bill the Barman's face told the Doctor he was not to be messed with.

"Ah... right...yes" he said, his hand patting at his pockets. "I've got cash in here somewhere."

His hands dashed frantically from one pocket to another pulling all sorts of weird and wonderful items out but no money.

"My friend Rory here gave me a twenty... " said the Doctor tugging at his collar, uncomfortably. "...it was definitely here somewhere..."

"What choo fink this is? Some kind of doss house?" spat the angry barman, jabbing the Doctor in the chest with a sausage-like finger.

The Doctor gulped and shoved his hands into his deep pockets, still rooting around desperately. "I...ummmm..."

The barman growled. "Are you gonna pay or am I gonna 'av to make you pay?"

He cracked his knuckles threateningly, as a few of the surrounding pub-goers turned to look at them.

The Doctor glanced at Amy and Rory who were both on their feet, staring wide-eyed at the scene between Bill and the Doctor.

The Doctor gave them a pleading look.

"I don't have my purse," Amy said wincing, as Rory shook his head.

"I'm sorry Doctor but that was my last twenty."

The Doctor rolled his eyes. "I am deeply, DEEPLY disappointed in you two," he said pointing.

By this point, half the pub was watching them, drunken eyes glued to the scene.

Giving a sniff and tugging at his lapels, the Doctor turned back to Bill the Barman.

"Look, I am sure we can come to some kind of arrangement-" But before the Doctor could even finish his sentence, Bill had landed a punch right across the Doctor's jaw.

The entire pub seemed to cringe at the impact.

The Doctor almost fell backwards as stars appeared across his vision and in amongst the din of the room he was sure he heard the voice of Jackie Tyler yelling- "BREAK HIS LEGS, BILL!"

The Doctor grasped at his jaw and straightened up.

"Well," he said frowning, "that was a bit uncalled for..."

Bill merely snarled, grabbing the Doctor by the collar.

"Maybe Jackie's right, maybe I should break your legs."

The Doctor opened his mouth to argue for his limbs, when suddenly a crisp twenty pound note was shoved underneath his nose.

"Excuse me mate, but I fink' you might have dropped this."

The Doctor gave a gulp and his breath caught in his throat as he heard the voice.

A voice he would recognize anywhere.

From the corner of his eye he saw her.

Her bright blonde hair, that wide, contagious smile.

It was the salty air of a beach, it was a sad goodbye, it was tears in the TARDIS when he was alone.

It was her...

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