This is the combination of several different things, but began from a question I asked when recently rewatching "Turn Left"-how did Rose know what the Doctor thought about Donna? And so, paired with a few other ideas and headcanons I had been throwing around, this was created.

It is obviously AU, set during the very end of S4 (the prologue and first chapter are very script-based because of the nature of the setup), and will fix some of the loopholes within the Day of the Doctor. The rating starts at T but will probably go up to M in a few chapters because of an increase in intensity. However, this prologue does have language and mentions of suicide, as well as character death.

Accompanying images will be posted on my tumblr (linked from my profile), and this will also be on Teaspoon, if you prefer that site.

Disclaimer: I own absolutely nothing recognizable. Enjoy and please let me hear your thoughts!

The Moment of Gallifrey

Prologue

The first time she jumped, it seemed to be a mistake. It wasn't until later that she realized she had found the right place but didn't have the supplies or time to make an impact. "Listen, there is this woman that's going to come along. A tall blonde woman called Sylvia. Tell her that bin there, alright? It'll all make sense. That bin there."

But before she could ask to what the red-haired woman was referring, the woman had turned away, and the scene before her was fading. That awful white wall was in front of her once more, and she immediately spun around to glare at the team behind the computer stations.

She didn't know what the hell just happened, but she needed to find him. It was important.

Occasionally, she felt trapped in the dark but could sense him nearby. She would call out for him, screaming his name, but he never heard her. Whenever she landed in the wrong universe, she tried to keep herself alive. It wasn't as simple as it seemed.

On one landing, there was a great white star in the night sky, shooting beams of electric light out over London. She didn't know where she was running, but she ran and ran and ran until she reached a police barricade and a crowd of people along the Thames. Turning to the first person she can find, a woman with red hair, she quickly asked, "What happened? What did they find? I'm sorry, did they find someone?"

If only someone would answer her. And then the woman beside her did. "I don't know. A bloke called the Doctor, or something."

"Well, where is he?" she as quick to ask, nearly jumping on top of the woman in anticipation.

The woman looked genuinely sympathetic as she said, "They took him away. He's dead. I'm sorry, did you know him? I mean, they didn't say his name. Could be any doctor."

Her heart sunk and she thought she as actually going to be sick. "I came so far," she murmured, not wanting that to be true. How could the Doctor be dead? Why wouldn't he just regenerate?

"It-it could be anyone."

She returned her focus to the woman. Something was off about her, like she had the opposite of a perception filter on her. "What's your name?"

"Donna," the woman replied. "And you?"

She didn't want to say, knew she couldn't. She could ruin so many timelines. Of course, now that the Doctor was dead, did it really matter? It was only a matter of time before the universe went to hell anyway. "Oh, I was just passing by," she said, trying to determine what exactly was wrong with the woman. "I shouldn't even be here. This is wrong. It's wrong. This is so wrong. Sorry, what was it? Donna what?"

Donna seemed alarmed and frustrated when she asked, "Why do you keep looking at my back?"

Her eyes flicked to Donna's as she defended herself, "I'm not." Well, at least she knew where the anomaly was now. How some sort of alien attention whore managed to manifest itself on Donna's back was beyond her. And why did a redhead named Donna seem to have ingrained herself in her memory when she only just met the woman?

"Yes, you are," Donna said, but she wasn't paying attention, focusing solely on the monster on Donna's back. "You keep looking behind me. You're doing it now. What is it? What's there? Did someone put something on my back?" She started to bend around like a dog chasing its tail to see what was wrong.

Before she could meet Donna's eyes again, she was fading out of London and back into her personal white hell.

And then came the real mission: the stars were going out and she seriously had to find the Doctor. She stumbled into the right universe, watched the proverbial shit hit the fan, and faced the Daleks once again with the man she loved by her side. But then she was standing on an all too familiar beach with two version of the men she loved and her mother and new friend, a certain Donna Noble.

With her back to the water and two versions of the Doctor, one fully Time Lord and the other half-human, on each side of her, she asked the question she had been begging to be answered for two years. "Alright, both of you answer me this. When I last stood on this beach on the worst day of my life, what was the last thing you said to me? Go on. Say it."

The proper Doctor, the man in a brown pinstriped suit, looked at her sadly and stated, "I said, 'Rose Tyler.'" His voice was detached, his eyes obviously fighting a losing battle to be the same way.

"Yeah?" she prompted, needing to hear the words she'd dreamt about. "And how was that sentence going to end?"

Her heart broke when he just said, "Does it need saying?"

But there was one last chance, one more man who could say it, one more man who offered her his forever. "And you, Doctor?" she asked, though she was uncertain if she could really call him that. "What was the end of that sentence?"

He took a small step towards her, leaned in and whispered that which she had longed to hear. Only a second passed before she grabbed his lapels and pulled his lips to hers. He was stiff for a moment before bringing his arms around her to pull her close. The kiss was firm and almost bruising in chaste intensity, but they were holding each other close enough that every cell felt connected. It was only until the sounds of the TARDIS dematerializing could be heard that they knew anything was wrong.

She pulled away and looked to the disappearing blue box, feeling betrayed even though she had the perfect man standing right next to her. He gently took her hand, still a perfect fit, and laced his fingers through hers, thumb stroking her hand just like always. But somehow, this time, it meant so much more.

Their so called honeymoon period (sans the actual wedding, of course) lasted only two and a half months. He started getting headaches, his gob running rampant until he was completely out of breath, wheezing and gasping for air. He was burning from the inside out until the only thing he could feel was agony.

His funeral was on a Tuesday in September. She cried and cried, because this was worse than being left behind the first and second times combined. He had promised her everything, and she was never going to get any of it.

Again an old maid at twenty-three, she threw herself into her work. Not to find a way back to the prime universe again, but as a distraction from the anguish she felt. She was miserable, had moved back in with her family and needed reminders to eat and sleep and bathe. Jackie's untimely death in a hostage situation gone wrong was the straw that broke the camel's back.

She was sitting in her car, waiting to pull out of the Torchwood car park, when Pete jumped into the car. At first, she was angry that he was going to try and stop her, but then he explained what he had been working on for the last month. Pete fastened the leather strap around her wrist and explained that everything had been programmed by the Doctor as a precaution in case something were to happen to him prematurely; all she would need to do was push the button.

"Thank you," she said, leaning over to kiss him on the cheek. There were tears in her eyes because regardless, this would be the last time she would see him. He climbed out of the car and nodded.

She pulled out onto the road and drove aimlessly, eventually getting on the motorway due north. After driving for an hour or so, she felt she finally had the strength to jerk the wheel and overturn the car's center of gravity, just like she'd planned. But at the last second, she chickened out. Tears filling her eyes, she pulled off the side of the road and broke down.

"Why?" she whispered to no one in particular, but clearly directing the question to the man she loved. "Why did you have to leave me?"

The leather on her wrist was tight and chafing. She looked at the vortex manipulator, wiped the tears from her swollen eyes, and pressed the 'enter' button. Rose Tyler disappeared in a flash.