Choices

It was finally over.

The 'Darkness' as Rose had called it was destroyed. The fabric of time and space was rebuilding itself. As her UNIT team packed up their gear and waited for the moment to return to their own universe, Rose stayed behind to say goodbye.

As the wind blew her hair, she walked toward the TARDIS, stopping only a metre away. Farther down the shore on the beach in Norway was the portal, the exact same place where the Doctor last said his goodbye to her. It was the point in all realities that marked the last hole, the safe place to jump until a few more minutes, and it was here that the last batch of the people from her universe were going home.

Rose had stayed to say goodbye to her friend Donna.

Not so much the Doctor, though. The looks he gave her...she could see it. He no longer thought of her as the Rose who had travelled with him. She felt so inadequate next to Donna.

Her new redhead friend approached her, dressed in her brown overcoat, but the Doctor remained at the threshold of the TARDIS doors.

Donna enveloped Rose in a hug, which she gratefully returned. "It's good to properly meet you, Rose."

Rose pulled away, smiling at the woman. "And you, Donna. Take care of him."

Donna's expression changed as she now noticed the metal armband Rose was wearing, the same one that all the UNIT soldiers wore as they waited for their departure time.

"Ten minutes till we jump, ma'am," came a voice over the radio on the metal armband.

"Thanks, Ross," Rose replied. She turned to look at Donna.

"What the hell do you mean, 'take care of him'? You're coming with!"

Rose smiled, shaking her head fondly yet sadly. "I can't, Donna. That world...they need me. I'm the one with the most knowledge of aliens. 'Sides, the Doctor's got you." Her eyes flickered to the Doctor for a brief instant, and Donna saw that the pain and sadness in those eyes matched the expression she had seen so many times in the Doctor.

"What's so great about me?" asked Donna, her voice calm. "I'm nobody important--"

Rose gripped Donna's coat jacket. "You're the most important woman in the universe, Donna," she stated firmly. The words took Donna aback as she was reminded of the parallel universe. "Don't ever forget if not for you, then the Doctor would be dead and you and I both know what could've happened. You died to save him, Donna, and you're a lot braver than I could ever be."

"But he doesn't need me, Rose," Donna's voice grew a little more. "And don't say I'm not any braver than you 'cos you won't see me running around to fight off the creator of the flippin' Daleks. He needs you, Rose. At the mention of you, when he starts talking about you or when one of us remind him of you...he's so sad. He was a right mess when I met him, when he just lost you. I don't want him to go through that again."

"But he's not like that any more," Rose protested. "He's got you and he had Martha and he's not all sad and depressed and he's moved on. He's got you, Donna. That's all he needs."

"But I'm nobody. I'm just a temp."

"And I'm just a shop girl."

Donna paused, smiling at her words and their meaning despite the situation. Rose truly had no idea what the Doctor thought of her, that she really just was an ordinary human, but she knew he thought of her as so much more. Rose didn't see his face when Donna told him the words 'Bad Wolf,' didn't see the grin on his face because Rose was returning even though it meant the universes were ripping apart.

"When I came onboard the Doctor had already had met Martha and she had already left. The Doctor would always talk about her. But with you...when either of us mentioned you, he would turn cold, distant. Him losing you was like losing his planet. He has the same look."

"But that girl that he lost, Donna," Rose protested, her voice cracking and tears prickling behind her eyes. "It isn't who I am anymore. I'm different than that Rose. There's so much I've seen and done and I can never go back to being just an ordinary shop girl again. And the Doctor knows that. He knows what I am and what I am is no longer what he knew. He hates what I've become, Donna, and that's a soldier. I'm not brave; I'm just a coward. But you're so much better for him than I'll ever be. Because the way I see it, you're the reason he's alive, and I'm the reason he's dead!"

There was a pause as Rose felt Donna's eyes searching into her, as if looking through her soul. Rose dropped her gaze to the sand.

The radio on Rose's wrist cackled to life once again.

"Five minutes, ma'am," Ross said.

Rose muttered a thanks and clicked off the radio before meeting Donna's gaze.

"You really think that?" Donna asked her. "You really think that's how the Doctor sees you? Rose, if it weren't for you getting stuck in that universe, it wouldn't make a bloody difference if I had turned right or left! If you had stayed with him he wouldn't have needed someone to pull him outta there cause he would've never thought of staying in there more than he had to! If you had stayed there you two would've been skipping happily out there long before the Doctor and I had left! All I was was the universe's substitute because he didn't have you anymore! And if you leave him again right now, I doubt I am going to be much of a substitute anymore! When you left him the first time it wasn't either of your choices and this time...it is your choice, and he knows it. And you can go on and on about how none of this is supposed to happen, but maybe it is. Maybe this is the universe's way of giving you a choice."

A few tears were sliding down Rose's cheeks.

"And as for what he's thinking...every time I catch him looking at you it's like he's seeing you for the first time and he can't believe you're there. And that sadness that's always behind his eyes is gone, Rose. I've never seen him like this. And if you leave now, you'll break his hearts. He loves you."

Rose looked up, her eyes hurt and vulnerable. "H-he said that?"

Donna shook her head with a small smile. "Didn't have to. How many companions did he ever talk about to you?"

She looked past Donna, at the man standing in the TARDIS doors.

"It was a second chance, coming here," Rose began calmly, as if only realising it. "See if that's what I really wanted."

"It's your choice, Rose. Go to him. If not to stay...then just say something," Donna told her.

"Thank you, Donna," she hugged her friend again, before heading toward the TARDIS.

He was standing there, hands in his pockets, his head down. He turned toward her as she approached him, but she saw that his eyes were masked, bracing for her words.

She stopped, a few paces from him, hands in her pockets. There was a very awkward pause. She smiled, not reaching her eyes.

"Here we are again," she said.

"Here we are," he echoed, a small and unhappy smile ghosting over his lips. "Dårlig ulv stranden. Bad Wolf Bay."

There was a slight and uncomfortable pause.

The Doctor looked out beyond her, to where the UNIT team--looking like ants at this distance--we all standing up now, gear packed and waiting to go. "Look at you, Rose Tyler. Got your own UNIT team who can't salute you, out there defending the Earth...took me 700 years for me to get that. And they still salute!"

Rose smiled a bit, sadly, tears beginning to form in her eyes. She bit her lip, remaining silent because she was afraid to speak.

"Still, you got a good thing going. Saving other universes, defeating Davros...what is it with you and destroying the Dalek rulers? First the Emperor and now the creator? You're out to get them more than I am!"

He paused, noticing her trying everything to keep it together. He smiled, genuinely. "I'm proud of you, Rose."

"Two minutes, ma'am," Ross's voice inturrupted.

She didn't reply this time, just looked the Doctor straight in the eye.

"It's not the same," she choked out.

"I reckon it isn't," the Doctor smiled. There was a pause. "Jack's back."

"I know," Rose replied.

"He's working at Torchwood."

"I know."

"And the Daleks returned. Again."

"I know."

There was another pause, and this time it was Rose's turn to speak.

"I missed you."

"I know," the Doctor replied, somewhere between sad and cheeky.

"So much."

She closed the distance between the two, enveloping him in a long overdue hug. "This wasn't supposed to happen, you know," she started, never ending the embrace. "None of this. But it did and maybe...maybe she's giving me a choice. Stay here or go back."

"Probably the after-effects of the Bad Wolf," the Doctor agreed.

"And the thing is, if I stayed here, I'd be leaving Mum and Mickey and Dad and the twins. I've made my choice."

"I know," he said, pulling away from her and looking into her eyes fully for the first time. She saw so much heartbreak in there... "I understand."

"One minute, ma'am!" Ross' voice was slightly panicked.

She looked the Doctor back, fully into his eyes, and for the first time in two years smiled genuinely.

"I meant it, you know," she told him. "What I said last time."

His eyes changed, the pain and sadness leaving. A slow smile formed on his lips. "What was that again?"

"I love you."

His whole face brightened with the three words. He removed his hand from her shoulder and brought it up to her face, brushing a stray strand of hair away. "One minute. More time than I had last time. And if this is the last time to say it...Rose Tyler--"

"Thirty-seconds, ma'am!" Ross called, his voice know worried. "Ma'am?"

She stopped, frowning a bit before bringing the wristband radio/teleporter up to her lips. She never took her eyes off the Doctor's.

"Ross? This is Rose. Congratulations, you're now promoted. You're head of the UNIT team now. See you in another life, yeah?"

"I--ma'am--" She turned the wristband off, unhooking it and dropping it in the sand.

"You mean it?" he asked, his voice full of happiness and relief.

"All this was so I could find a way back to you," she replied.

"Oh, Rose Tyler. I love you!" he pulled her in another embrace and swung her around.

He put her down and pulled away, his face full of confusion and yet so much happiness. "But what about your mum and dad and Mickey and the twins? I thought you said you made your choice?"

"I made my choice a long time ago, and I'm never gonna leave you," she replied, remembering the day they had lost each other.

"Never say never--"

"You finish that sentence you are a dead man." She put her finger on his lips. When she lowered her finger, he pulled her close for a chaste kiss.

"Donna!" she called over her shoulder. "You coming?"

"Oi, what took so long?" Donna asked as she hurried over to the two, grinning. "You ready for an adventure, then?"

"Never readier!" the Doctor replied, looking between his two companions. "Let's go then!"

"Allons-y!" cried Rose, sharing a grin with the Doctor before the three entered the TARDIS.

As the engines began to fade away, the wrist band in the sand dissapeared in a small vortex.

A a few yards from them hung a sign in English.

Bad Wolf Bay. That which is lost is now found. Founders: Dr. John and Rose Smith.

A/N: Wow! I guess I got kinda carried away. It was supposed to be like a 100 word drabble, but obviously it's not! So how was that for my first one-shot?

I think Rose would really be like this. She's so different now, and since she's with UNIT and I saw her carrying a gun on the upcoming things, I thought that was how she would view herself. I love the interaction between her and Donna, and I think they'd get along really well.

And I think (but I'm not sure) Billie Piper has signed a contract for series 5 in 2010? I thought that this was kinda a good tag to the series finale and yet a remedy of sorts for Doomsday.

Tell me what you think!