Summary: She looks up and meets a pair of green eyes – out of pure instinct she kisses him. Not because of the look, not because of that smile, but because of that bright, blue box behind him.

She is left behind for the second time, and it hurts just as much as the first.

There is still that familiar ache in her chest – shaped like a forever they can't have – and the tears that burn in her eyes as she untangles her hand from the Clone – not the Doctor, never the Doctor – and holds herself because she doesn't want him to do it for her.

It fascinates her how her heart can still hurt even when it isn't beating.

(When the Doctor leaves her on that beach, Rose Tyler dies.)

No one knows how long they stand there, Jackie being held by Pete, Mickey standing stock-still feeling more like an outsider than ever, and the late-Rose Tyler trying to stand as far away from the Meta-Crisis as she can.

Sobs fall from her lips like a bitter rain tumbling from a gray sky.

It takes moments, mere seconds, but it feels like forever, for a sound to echo in the beach. A sound like grating and whirring and wheezing, like home; the late-Rose Tyler turns to face it – like she faced the Daleks, the Cyberman, the pain, and Time itself working against her.

Before she can see anything else there is a body in front of her. A body that's lean and thin and dressed like an old man, but oh his voice is so familiar ("Rose, oh sweet Rassilon, Rose, Rose, Rose.")

She buries herself in his chest, ignoring the sound of the Meta-Crisis' heart breaking behind her, and breathes in the scent of love and forever (and this one feels like just as much a lie as the first one; but there is a howl in her bones that disagrees).

They separate for a moment, and she looks up and meets a pair of green eyes – out of pure instinct she kisses him. Not because of the look (like she's the only one in the universe that matters), not because of that smile (stretched like taffy on this new face of his), but because of that bright, blue box behind him (homehomehomehome).

The Doctor came back for her – it doesn't matter that he waited until he was regenerated (itdoesitdoesitdoes), that he had another companion (isshemorebrilliant), or that there's something aching in her bones that's worse than the one in her heart.

Rose Tyler has returned and that is all that matters.

Aimlessly Unknown