Author's Note: Spoilers for Season 5. Set in Pete's World, the part-human Doctor and Rose have to head off disaster as the crack in Amelia Pond's bedroom appears on their earth as well. As much as possible, the solution for their problem is what I could borrow from the TV canon. And, in my Pete's World, Rose and the Doctor do NOT have the TARDIS (I prefer writing them that way), and this story can be read as a continuation of "The Distance to Here", my previous fic. You do not have to read the other to know what's going on here, but it may save some guesswork as to what's happened so far between them since Journey's End. I'm keeping the rating M to be safe, because ultimately Rose and this Doctor will find where the 11th Doctor went when he sealed the cracks in Amy's world, with himself on the other side...

Gently Up the Stream

The Countdown

It had been such an ordinary morning. He'd had breakfast with Rose, then they'd made their ordinary, usual way to work, when Pete Tyler paged the Doctor to see him in his Torchwood office about "something alien and technical." The Doctor had thought there was nothing special about that. He'd given Rose an ordinary kiss and ordinary hug before taking the ordinary elevator up the Torchwood tower. Knocked on Pete's ordinary door and walked into his ordinary office before staring at Pete's screen at what was not so ordinary after all.

The part-human Doctor had thought he was mostly used to this body with only one heart, but the sensation of all blood draining from his face was decidedly new and unpleasant.

"When did this first appear?" asked the Doctor, eyes fixed upon the sight of a glowing line in the shape of a smile, hanging in mid-air like a menacing smirk. Pete's screen showed an urban setting that seemed somehow familiar to the Doctor, like he'd been there before, even if this spot had temporarily been cordoned off (from a public space, he presumed) with construction site hoarding.

"Someone from the public phoned it in late last night," said Pete. "I had a team go down there to hide it from the public. It looks like a construction site now, but it's secured, and we do have the cameras."

"Our sensors pick up any readings?"

Pete hit a key on the keyboard, and another screen flashed to life on Pete's desk, showing numbers that did not make the Doctor feel any better. He sank back into the chair, only realizing now that somehow he was in Pete's chair, and he didn't remember when he'd sat down.

"What is that, Doctor? Or, I should say, what are they? There are two of them."

"Two?" The Doctor heard himself ask faintly. "Where?" Suddenly the sound of his single heart was too loud, and there was a rush of blood and accompanying adrenaline through his body that almost hurt. He knew what Pete Tyler was going to say, and did not want to hear them, but the words came anyway:

"Downtown London and Dalig Ulv Stranden."

Almost four years of being with her, her touch still managed to both thrill and comfort him. Rose slipped her hand into his, and as their fingers intertwined, the cool, hard press of her silver ring was an added, welcome balm. A reminder that whatever they faced, they faced it together.

So why did it feel like his world was about to fall apart? He couldn't tear his eyes away from the sight that was right before him: a shining white crack in the universe, suspended in the air, leering at him. An impossible thing. But there it was anyway. If he took a few steps forward he could touch it...

"So," said Rose. They stood in silence for a moment, an unnatural calm amidst the sounds of London (Pete's World) around them. They didn't need to be able to read each other's minds to know the other was wrapped in memory—the last time they'd been in this same spot, it was with the TARDIS. Then, they'd had to say goodbye to Mickey and Pete Tyler for what they'd thought was forever.

"What does it mean?" There was a shiver in Rose's voice. "What does it mean that this...thing has appeared wherever the TARDIS has been in this universe?"

The Doctor looked at her. Rose Tyler, Defender of Earth, the Valiant Child grown up into a woman and usually so assured, was biting her lip and fidgeting on her feet, like she didn't know whether to run toward, or from, the anomaly. She took a hesitant step closer—and the Doctor, in a panic, squeezed her hand and pulled her back.

"No," croaked the Doctor. He took a deep breath, and Rose gave him that moment to compose his thoughts, to add, "It's bad, Rose. The others—" he referred to the other Torchwood agents who had been there with him earlier, before she'd joined him "—I didn't let any of them touch it. Tim, though, on a hunch, threw a radiation-counter at it..." His voice trailed off.

"What happened?" prompted Rose.

"That's just it. It's like it never happened. He forgot about it; forgot why or that he ever did it. None of the others remembered, either. I was the only one, Rose. Once it touched, that crack erased that object from ever existing."

"Erased? From existence?" Rose caught on fast. She always had. She took her hand out of his, giving the Doctor a reassuring nod that she would not approach it. He watched as she circled it warily from six feet away, as he had done earlier. Then she picked up a stray empty drink can and lobbed it at the crack. It disappeared in a small flash.

Rose blinked. "Well, I still remember that," she said, and the Doctor sighed in relief, though he didn't completely understand why. "Why do we remember?" asked Rose.

Her question galvanised him into nervous energy. Hands in his pockets, he paced back and forth as he thought aloud. "It's related to the TARDIS. This only appears where the TARDIS has been. And we've been in the TARDIS. Maybe that's all that's needed to see something get erased. We've traveled space and time. We've traveled universes. It must be that we've been in the TARDIS, or that we've traveled that allows us to see. Or both. We could certainly test it, with your dad..."

"We could. Though if I had to guess, I think it's connected to the TARDIS. Doctor, you were connected to the TARDIS. Can you, I don't know, feel anything right now?"

"No," he said, a little too loudly and too quickly. He growled in frustration and ran his hands through his hair. "Can you? For that matter. I just... I wonder if the crack in Norway would be any different—"

"I'm not going back there," Rose said flatly, which surprised the Doctor not at all.

"Alright, but I could..."

"Doctor." She used That Tone. She stood before him, then gripped his hands firmly. "Something's happened to the TARDIS, yeah? What could have happened to lead to this? I know it has to be bad. So tell me how bad. Is the TARDIS destroyed?"

The Doctor shook his head. "I know this is going to sound pedantic, Rose, but I swear, there are several ways to destroy the TARDIS and none of the ways I know of would lead to this result."

"What is this result? You don't think it's a way to get back to our own universe? What if you or I were to touch it? Maybe we'd just... appear on the other side..."

Are you trying to leave me for him already? thought the Doctor, regretting it immediately, knowing that Rose could hear his unspoken question. Her face darkened, and aloud he said:"It doesn't work that way. Not with total erasure from the history of the universe you're leaving. There would be no you to appear on the other side. You'd just be erased, completely. Time's being unwritten. It doesn't make sense." The Doctor shook his head again. Coherency of thought seemed to be fleeing him. His mind was a whirl of emotions, with fear dominating. The crack shouldn't have been there. At all. And now that they were here, he didn't know what it meant, beyond the very real possibility he could lose everything he now had. He could lose Rose.

Rose's face was unreadable. "I'm just trying to understand the possibilities," she said. "We are Torchwood."

The Doctor wasn't reassured. And he didn't know whether to feel despair or relief when Rose turned away from him, breaking their contact and drawing her phone out of her pocket. He watched silently as Rose called Torchwood headquarters and asked for the Dimension Cannon. It was a good call on her part; the cannon's ability to measure timelines had the possibility of revealing more about the anomaly, but it did little to comfort him to know it was same device she'd used to walk through the universes to find him... the other him.

"Bloody fool," said the Doctor, though whether he meant himself or his fully timelord counterpart, he wasn't sure.

Rose raised her eyebrow at him. It seemed her ears had heard that. She put away her phone and took his hand. "You're not losing me. We're going to fix this," she said, "and leaving you is not on my agenda. I said 'Forever.' Remember?"

That wasn't me, he wanted to say. But Rose had moved on.

"These cracks. Is there any way they'll get bigger, you think? Or more dangerous? Can we close them? Even if we know the cause is likely coming from the other world..."

"I don't... know." But she was asking good questions. The right questions. Defender of the Earth questions. "I need to think." He rubbed his hand over his face, wondering why his brain had taken sudden departure, why his hands were starting to tremble, why dread was squeezing his heart and sounding doom, doom, doom in his chest. Something that was obvious was eluding them, both of them.

Rose was looking at him worriedly, and once again he shook his head.

"Rose, I'm missing something," admitted the Doctor. He stared at his own hands. The answer seemed to be just beyond his grasp, taunting him. "I can't think of any way the TARDIS could leave these cracks behind in this universe without leaving them everywhere in the other universe..."

He heard a little gasp from Rose, and replayed what he'd said in his head. Everywhere in the other universe... The realization hit him with a groan: Whatever had happened to the TARDIS, if these cracks were everywhere and everywhen in the other universe, then that universe was facing a collapse into nonexistence.

"Bloody fool," said the Doctor again, and this time he knew he meant the other him.