Author's Notes: Written for Then There's Us Challenge 84: 'Rose'. Goes AU at the end of that episode.

Rose wished she could take back a lot of things in her life, particularly from those last few rocky years. She'd never have gone to that party where Jimmy Stone had just stood there and stared at her until Rose couldn't help but go up to him and ask what his problem was, just for starters. That second time she'd been arrested had also been so far beyond stupid that she'd kill to have that night over again.

Never, however, had she ever regretted anything as much as the words 'I can't'.

By the time she realised the enormity of what she'd just done, it was far too late. The blue box was barely a fading outline, and then it had disappeared altogether. Rose stared at the spot for a long while before leading a shell-shocked Mickey away, still feeling half-dazed herself.

The Doctor had swept in, changed her life, and now he was gone. Where exactly did that leave her?

The only evidence that anything had even happened when Rose arrived back at the flat was the remains of glass from the broken coffee table that her Mum hadn't quite managed to properly sweep up and the frantic tone in her Mum's voice as she recounted her clash with the animated shop window dummies. Her Mum quickly went on to talk about what Joe from down the street was getting up to with the girl who babysat his kids, though, and Rose was left wondering how she could just move on like that from something so enormous.

Why was it that Rose was the only one who seemed to think it should have been life-altering?

It was even worse when Rose went out the following day. The traffic inched along as usual, and the people rushed off to work as if it was just any other day... as if they hadn't been shown proof that aliens existed just the night before. Rose watched the bus that she would usually have taken to work (back before her job had been blown up, at least) pull away from the stop nearest the Estate with no sense of wistfulness. It wasn't those things from her life before that she missed. Work had never been anything but a means to an end, and an especially dull one at that. The loss that was giving her such trouble was what she'd discovered those few days in between then and now, when there had been so much more on offer.

She honestly didn't know she could have turned that down in favour of this – this depressingly average existence – when really it was the last thing she wanted. If she could answer that question again...

"Thought we could go down to the pub," Mickey announced that evening when Rose's Mum let him into their flat after he returned from work (Rose couldn't believe that he, of all people, could have got on with his day as usual just like the rest of them, after being kidnapped by aliens and then seeing that wonderful world inside the Doctor's ship just as Rose had).

"The pub," Rose repeated flatly. "Seriously?"

"Well, yeah," Mickey said. "Or you could keep on hangin' about the flat like a misery if you want, but I thought it'd be good to get things back to normal."

Normal, Rose thought dismissively. That was the last thing she wanted.

"Go on, Rose," her Mum called out. "You've spent half the day loungin' about in the flat not doin' much of anythin'. It's about time you got some fresh air."

Rose sighed and left the flat with Mickey. As soon as they were out of her Mum's earshot, though, she said to Mickey, "Can we go back to your place instead?"

"Bit early for that, isn't it?" Mickey replied with a smirk.

Rose whacked him lightly on the arm. "Not for that! I need to borrow your computer."

Mickey took one look at her determined expression and apparently didn't even need any further explanation. "This is about him still, isn't it?"

Rose shrugged.

"If you're so obsessed, why didn't you just go with him, then?"

"I dunno. I really don't. I should've. With Henrik's gone and all, there's not much really keepin' me here. And I don't wanna just go back to that life anyways," Rose said, knowing without looking that her words hurt Mickey. It was the truth, though, and Rose thought she owed him that. She loved him, of course, but that would never have been enough to keep her here on its own. It was her fear of the unknown that had stopped her from going with the Doctor, no matter what she'd said aloud. And there was no use pretending now that she didn't wish she was off in that mad spaceship of the Doctor's, instead of walking down the dingy hall towards Mickey's tiny flat.

"Right," said Mickey. "It's like that, is it?"

"I just... you saw it, Mickey. There's so much more out there. How can I just ignore that?" Rose said. "I'm sorry."

"Sure. Whatever," Mickey muttered sadly. He shook his head and walked silently alongside her for a while, a dark but thoughtful sort of expression on his face. As if he'd come to some sort of decision in that time, though, eventually he forced a smile. "So, looks like we're gonna have to track down this Doctor of yours again."

"Oi, he's hardly mine, is he?" Rose protested.

Mickey gave her a disbelieving look. "With you ready to run off with him at the drop of a hat? What else could he be? It shouldn't be too hard to find him, even if he is some kind of space-hoppin' alien. A guy like that is bound to leave a trail."

Rose forgot sometimes – what with him being just a mechanic, and a bit of an everyman – just how good with computers Mickey actually was. Before the night was out, Mickey had found the website of some classified government agency called 'UNIT' that Rose had never heard of, which he'd determined, following a list of clues across the internet, was almost certainly connected to the Doctor. It was going to take him some time to hack into the site, he said – he certainly hadn't had any success by the time Rose returned to her own flat for the night – but it was far more progress than she'd expected to make so quickly.

She dreamed of the look on the Doctor's face when he found out she'd tracked him down with the help of Mickey Smith, of all people. She was awoken from the wonderful imaginings of how he'd ask her to come with him again and she'd stroll back through the doors of his spaceship as if she owned the place by a knock on the front door.

She dragged herself out of bed, trying to smooth her bedraggled hair down as she went, only to hear that her Mum had already answered the door.

"What're you on about? We don't need any doctor," Jackie's voice echoed through the flat. "If this is you tryin' to sell some kind of medical insurance, try some other sucker. We don't want any of it."

Rose picked up the pace and rushed to the door just after her Mum had shut it. She pulled it open – ignoring her Mum's protests – and shut it firmly after her, calling down the hall after the retreating man.

"What was that about the Doctor?" she called out.

The man whirled around and drew in a long breath in kind of a sniff. "You know him?"

"Yeah. I met him a few days back."

The man approached her with a creepy sort of smile and a look of calculation in his eyes that made Rose realise that she'd probably made a mistake in admitting that. All things considered, harmless conspiracy theorists like Clive probably weren't the only other people out there looking for someone like the Doctor.

"Um, I mean," Rose backtracked quickly. "Which doctor are you talkin' about? 'Cause the guy I met is this surgeon, and I thought –"

"Quiet," the man ordered. He breathed in sharply, like a long sniff. "You're lying, you silly little girl. There are only tiny traces of it, but you still do smell like his TARDIS. We've been following it for long enough to recognise it. So tell the truth. Where is the Doctor?"

"I don't..." Rose started, and flinched as the man grabbed her arm. She thought to call out for help, but probably the only one who'd answer at this time of the morning was her Mum, and no way did Rose want to drag her into this.

Instead, with a sharp twist that made her arm burn painfully, Rose broke away from the man's grip and sprinted down the hallway. She flew down the stairs so fast that she feared she'd trip and fall at any moment, but that didn't make her slow down at all, especially when some kind of shot – a laser beam, it looked like, like something out of one of those sci-fi movies that Mickey liked so much – just barely missed her head.

Rose jumped the last five stairs in one leap and then swung wildly through the open door at the bottom, only to be caught barely a step outside the building.

Rose shrieked and struggled against the arms that had grabbed her until they let go. She spun around, her arm outstretched and ready to slap at him. The face that met her clearly didn't belong to the man who'd been chasing her, though. Rose might think that the two of them were in league all the same, except that this man looked just as surprised as Rose was certain she herself did, though his expression quickly turned to annoyance.

"Oh, I should have known it'd be you. I thought this building looked familiar."

Rose barely had time to wonder how on Earth this man seemed to recognise her, even though she'd never seen him before in her life; she'd have remembered that hair, not to mention the way he so easily trapped Rose under his gaze like a fly in a spider web, not completely unlike the look that had first made Jimmy Stone seem so intriguing to her.

The crash that sounded just above them up the stairway effectively distracted both of them.

The stranger grabbed her hand and told her, "Run!"

What was this, Rose wondered, déjà vu or something? Surely there were only so many strangers out there who could pop up out of nowhere and save her with that single word, especially in the space of one week.

"C'mon!" the man urged when Rose stood just gaping at him for a moment, tugging at her hand until she took off at a run with him.

"You're a bit of a trouble magnet, aren't you Rose Tyler? So much for having a quiet life back home with your Mum and that stupid boyfriend of yours."

"What?" Rose asked. "What're you on about? I don't even know you!"

The man looked incredulously at her, never missing a step as he ran despite not looking where he was going. Then a look of comprehension dawned over his face. "Right. The face. It's been so long that I sort of forgot. I met you before the regeneration, didn't I?"

"Regeneration? Are you just talkin' rubbish or what?" Rose gasped between quick pants of breath.

"Mmm," he said noncommittally. "I do that a lot, actually. I definitely didn't lose the gob in the change. I mean, you can judge for yourself if you like, but personally I think, if anything, it's even more pronounced than it was back when you met me. That's not a bad thing, though, I don't think. You'd be surprised how many things you can talk your way out of when you can fire off words at about the same rate as this planet of yours turns."

Rose had always heard it was best to humour crazy people instead of breaking their delusions, much the same as with waking sleepwalkers. While the man seemed harmless enough now, if incredibly strange, something about him gave Rose the impression that he could turn very dangerous very quickly.

Besides, he seemed to have a much better idea about what was going on than Rose did, or so she gathered through all the insanity. She figured she'd better stick around at least until they had that all cleared up.

"Here, this way," the man directed. They turned a corner and Rose stopped in her tracks, pulling him up with her. There, just twenty feet or so away, was the blue Police Box.

"You know the Doctor?" Rose asked.

"I am the Doctor," he corrected.

"No," Rose said. "I've met him, and he's –"

"Look, I know it's a lot for a human brain to take in, but right now we have to go before they catch up to us," the man said. "And I'm sorry. I'm really sorry. But you're going to have to come with me after all, at least for now. It's not safe here for you."

Whatever madness was going on, Rose wasn't about to fight against being inside the Doctor's spaceship again. She let herself be guided inside.

She grinned as she looked around at the massive coral-filled room that she hadn't quite remembered properly when she'd dreamed of it. She supposed that nothing could quite compare to the reality.

The man jumped around the column in the middle, pulling and flicking at the controls seemingly at random in just the same way as the Doctor had when he'd moved them halfway across London in just seconds.

"That man was part of a group. There are four of them, I think, though it's hard to be sure when I'm trying to make sure they don't ever even get close enough to see my face. They lost my scent for a little while there," the man said as the ship whipped into motion, nearly knocking Rose clear off her feet. "It took me weeks – relatively speaking, at least – to shake them off. But when they lost track of me, they apparently got the bright idea of going back along my time stream trying to find a younger version of me who wouldn't know they were coming. Not as easy as they thought it was, actually, but even if they didn't know it, they were still getting close enough that I had to come out of hiding to attract their attention again to save myself. After spending all that time looking unsuccessfully, and now that they're on my trail again, I'm fairly certain they'll leave past versions of me alone, since they'll think I'm the easiest option to find. And they'd probably be right. I've never usually stuck around anywhere long enough to be found. I don't know how they even got as far as finding you, actually. Maybe I left some trace of myself in that flat of yours."

"You've never been in my flat, though," Rose insisted.

The man smiled at her. "'Course I have. I told you, I'm the Doctor. Remember the plastic arm? That was me. And the shop window dummies in the basement, and the fake boyfriend in the restaurant, not to mention you swinging on a chain like you were doing some kind of Tarzan impression. Years of time and space, and that sort of image definitely still sticks with a man."

Rose was speechless. He looked nothing like the Doctor. Nothing at all. And yet there he was, flying the same spaceship, and knowing things that only the Doctor could know.

"Doctor?" she asked tentatively.

"That's me!" he said as the spaceship jerked again, as if abruptly changing direction. "And this is me leaving a nice complicated trail through the Vortex that ought to take them some time to follow. Hopefully."

When Rose caught her balance, she said, "But you're all sort of long limbs and mad hair and stuff now. You look completely different. How's that even happen?"

"Oi, don't insult the hair," the Doctor said indignantly. "I like it." So did Rose, actually, but she wasn't about to tell him that. "The change is called regeneration. Sorry, it's confusing, and we don't have time for the long story just now. Just believe me when I say that I really am still that same man. Well, mostly."

Rose shook her head and figured she didn't really have much choice other than to go along with it, actually. They might be out somewhere in the depths of space by now, and she didn't fancy having him drop her off on Jupiter or something. She distracted herself by focusing on one of the many other things that had bothered her about what he'd been saying.

"What you mean, time streams?" she asked.

"Sorry?"

"You were sayin' somethin' about these people, whoever they are, lookin' for a younger you. Somethin' about time streams," Rose reminded him.

"Ah, yes, right. This ship stops anywhere and anywhen throughout the history of the universe. At least, she does when she's in a good mood. Didn't I mention that I'm a time traveller? Time Lord, actually. I was sure I told you that."

A snicker burst out from Rose's mouth. "Nah, I think I'd have remembered that sort of thing, actually. Is there anythin' you can't do?"

"Tie my shoes one-handed," the Doctor offered.

Rose rolled her eyes at him.

She was somehow more certain than ever, in finding out all these mad things about him that should really have made her run screaming in the other direction, that she'd been stupid to turn down the possibility of travelling with him. Clearly, she was never going to meet another man like this in all her life. And now that she had a second chance, so close on the heels of that first missed opportunity, she had no plans to push him away again.

"All right," Rose said. "So apparently you can travel in time. And so can these... what exactly are they?"

"They call themselves the Family of Blood," the Doctor said. "They have a stolen time travel device, but the TARDIS – that's the name of my ship – has a few tricks up her sleeves that no rubbish 51st century human technology could compare to. We still can't just outrun them this way, though. Time doesn't pass the same way in the Time Vortex, and they could just keep following us indefinitely."

"So what, then?" Rose asked. "We can't exactly just give ourselves up. Or, I dunno, can we? What do they actually want?"

"Oh, you know, just to kill me so that they can live forever and spend eternity terrorising the universe," the Doctor said glibly.

"Oh, well, that's all right then," Rose said sarcastically. "Look, there's gotta be somethin' we can do to stop them. What's the Family of Blood version of anti-plastic?"

"There isn't one. But there is something I could do," the Doctor said with a strange sort of smile, "If they were travelling through linear time, the Family only has a month or two left to live. But I'd have to lure them out of the Vortex without letting them actually find me. There's only one way I can think of to do that, and I can think of a lot of things. Only I can't do it alone. I can't risk not having back up, in case things go wrong. You know, someone told me recently that I needed someone," he said. "It's been so long since I've had anyone with me that I thought to myself, how do you even go about finding someone? I did look, though, after that. I really did. Because it turns out that Donna Noble was right. Among other things, I could've been safely in hiding from the Family weeks ago, waiting for that time to pass them by, if I'd just had someone to keep an eye on me once I hid myself away. But I never did find anyone. I suppose it's because I thought I already had – twice, even – and was turned down both times."

"I didn't mean to," Rose said. "Or, well, I guess I did, but I didn't really have time to think about it properly. I wished I'd said yes as soon as you were gone. I started looking for you and everything."

"You what?" the Doctor asked, suddenly looking at her more closely than he had since she'd literally run into him again, as if trying to see right into her to figure out whether she was having him on. "You actually want to come with me?"

"Well, yeah," Rose said. "Who wouldn't? And here I am back with you after all, like it was meant to be. So it turns out you're not alone. Whatever this plan is, we can do it."

"Rose Tyler," he said sadly. "You have no idea what you're saying. I can't ask you to put yourself in danger like that for me. You don't even know me."

"Yeah, well," Rose said. "Guess you don't know me either, if you think I'm gonna let you decide for me. Like you said, you've thought it through and there's one option. I believe you. So what other choice have we got? Tell me what this plan of yours is, and we'll get this show on the road."

The Doctor grinned.

The man jerked awake, half in a panic even though he didn't have any idea why.

"Easy there."

He spun around, trying to ignore the wave of dizziness that hit him at that too-quick movement.

"What's going on?" he asked. "Who are you? And where are we? And who am I, for that matter?"

"Don't you remember?" the girl asked gently. "You hit your head pretty bad, but I thought..."

"No, no," the man said. "I think... it's coming back to me... My name's John Smith. And... Barcelona. That's where we are, isn't it?"

"Yeah," the girl – Rose, he suddenly remembered – said. "Looks like it."

"And we're here because... we're on holiday? No!" John exclaimed, grinning. "Honeymoon! That's right. I don't know how I could have ever forgotten that. Sorry. This isn't the best start to it, either, is it?"

"Honeymoon," Rose said, looking oddly stunned at the idea of it. Maybe she'd hit her head too, the man thought. Or maybe she was just getting used to the idea of no longer being single. That concept felt strange to him as well.

John leaned up towards her, for she was hovering over him with a worried expression, and he kissed her. She seemed surprised by it, but quickly seemed to get used to it and then some. In fact, she didn't seem to want him to pull away from her after that. He smiled reassuringly at her. "I know it's weird, suddenly being married," he said, "but we'll both get used to it. Together."

Rose burst out laughing. "You know, a few weeks of that and I think I just might get used to it, actually. If I'd known you could kiss like that, I definitely wouldn't have hesitated to... um, you know. Marry you. Yeah."

"Oh, well, don't worry. I've always liked girls that play hard to get," John said. "Or, at least, I think I have. Strange. I can't really remember. Maybe I'm still a bit off from that bump on the head." John frowned for a moment, but then firmly pushed aside that feeling that something was missing.

He climbed to his feet and then offered her his hand, helping her to pull herself up off the ground even though he was the one who'd clearly gone and brained himself somehow. The grip of her hand in his felt comfortable – right – even though at the same time there was something about it that seemed peculiarly unfamiliar to him.

That was all right, he thought. They had the rest of their lives to learn every inch of each other, after all, and John Smith didn't think he'd ever grow tired of familiarising himself with this beautiful girl whose smile lit up her whole face. He felt like he'd been waiting years for her, perhaps longer, as if he'd known for a long time that she was exactly what he needed, but he hadn't been able to have her.

But he had her now, and that was just as well. He never intended to let her go again.

~FIN~