Title: Forever
Authors: Gillian Taylor
Rating: PG
Characters: Rose Tyler (with many references to Ten)
Summary: Time would steal her away from him and him from her.
Spoilers: Doomsday
Disclaimer: Don't own them. I just like playing with them...a lot.
Archive: Sure, just let me know.

A/N: Thanks, as always, to my lovely betas NNWest and WMR. It's short, it's sweet, and, yes, I've committed post-Doomsday fic.

"Forever"
By Gillian Taylor

Once upon a time, when she was young, he was old, and the universe was theirs to explore, she'd considered forever. She'd thought that maybe, just maybe, this could last. An eternity travelling in a blue police public call box. An eternity with him.

She loved him, loves him, and will love him throughout her life. Her version of forever, she supposed, though she knew that forever wouldn't last. He was for all intents and purposes immortal, never aging, never changing but for the sake of regeneration. She aged.

Time and forever could never be more opposite. Time passed in seconds, minutes, hours, days, months, years. It could be measured, categorised, and traced. Forever had no quantity, no description, no meaning beyond eternity.

Forever had never seemed so short.

Time would steal her away from him and him from her. It was as inevitable as the sunrise or the sunset.

He told her that he'd never leave her behind. She was different, she was special. She was his Rose. His constant companion. He wouldn't leave her. Not like Sarah Jane. Not like any of the other people that'd travelled with him.

It'd be her choice, he'd said. He wouldn't force her to go. Not her. Never.

Never was such a powerful word. Never could be a lie. Never could last for the space of a heartbeat. Forever, eternity, never all meant the same thing.

There came a time, after adventures were done, after Mickey had come and gone and returned, as she faced the end of the world, that she realised the truth.

He'd lied.

He'd put the device around her neck and let them take her away from him. Made them do so. Willed them to. Because he didn't want forever. He'd wanted her safe. But that didn't matter, couldn't matter, because the only safety she knew was with him.

A single press of the button and she was back with him, back in danger, back to him. She'd promised him that she wouldn't leave him. She'd chosen him. She'd chosen this version of eternity and it'd have to be enough.

It wasn't.

She'd tried. Tried to hold on, tried to stay with him, tried to hold onto everything that she'd ever wanted. But she couldn't. She wasn't strong enough. The pull of the Void was too strong.

The last sight she'd had of him in the 'real world' – for this alternate reality was just that, an alternative, not real because it didn't have him – was him screaming her name, reaching towards her. She'd felt Pete's arms close around her and she'd looked at him, met his eyes, and said goodbye and 'I love you' with the force of her gaze.

Then she was gone and he was gone and this was her forever. This was her present and future. He was the past, this was now, and somehow she'd have to learn how to survive without him.

And she would. She knew she would. There was no other option. She wouldn't pine away, missing him. She wouldn't cry every night, wishing he was there. She'd live. She'd live a fantastic life for him.

It'd be what he'd want of her.

She'd seen it in his eyes, months later, when they'd said goodbye on a Norwegian beach. It'd felt like her heart had been breaking since she'd learned the truth.

Forever was transient for those who travel in time. Forever was an illusion. And, now, she'd have to make do with whatever version of forever she could muster for herself. With Torchwood, with her family, without him.

That was what he'd want. That was what she wanted for herself.

This was forever. This was now.

And she'd make it a fantastic life.

THE END