Yet another one that came to me in a dream. What if something happened to Rose and she could only remember bits and pieces about the Doctor, but has no idea who he is. And yet she still yearns to get back to him.

Set during the last week of the 'Year that Never was'. Rose is very confused and trying to find the answers.

Hope you like it!

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*Confusion*

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Decimated Almost-Home

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The air crackled and with a flash, the blonde woman appeared in the alleyway. Tentatively, Rose stepped out onto the road. She gasped in shock.

This place had been decimated! It looked like London… a London that had been through a war. Buildings had been reduced to rubble and those that were left were dark and boarded. The streets were eerily empty and there wasn't a zeppelin in the sky. Wait, should there be zeppelins in the sky? She couldn't remember.

Mickey had said that he was sending her somewhere safe. This didn't look safe. She also didn't understand why everyone had insisted on looking after her like she was sick or handicapped! She could look after herself just fine, couldn't she? Sure she wasn't herself lately, but still. She was still Rose. She was just as strong and confident as she had… had she always been that strong and confident? But to suggest she take a break from Torchwood? Now that was ridiculous!

One thing she knew, this wasn't h… where she had been. She wanted to say 'home' but for some reason it had never felt like that, no matter how much her family told her it was.

Now if only she could remember who she was looking for…

She was always forgetting things. She couldn't even remember when it had started or why. It was probably a few months ago, but her whole life was a huge blur. Bits and pieces popped up, but they didn't seem to fit together. Like the memories of growing up in a council estate without her dad. And the face of a man… Slim and foxy with soft, deep, old chocolate eyes, really great gravity defying brown hair and a wide cheeky grin. Thoughts of him made her feel so happy and so unbelievably sad at the same time…

But despite all the destruction, being here made her feel extremely happy. She finally felt like she was - almost - home. And now if only she could remember. Mickey had said some kind of job… no a title… no, it was a name. Closing her eyes, she concentrated.

?...DW…?

She sat at her desk at Torchwood. Desk work, she hated it! She wanted to get back out in the field and actually DO something! But her father had banned her from all field work. Yeah, because having a screwed up memory was going to effect her out there. Everyone was so concerned about her health lately, even more so than when she suspected the memory problems had started.

They were trying to convince her to take leave, if only for a few months. But she couldn't leave. She lived for the excitement of field work, despite the fact it felt strangely hollow, like she knew she could be doing better. Let's face it, they were lost without her. For some reason, she was the only one who could understand the aliens. Mickey was a little put out that he couldn't. He seemed to suspect it had something it had something to do with something called a TARDIS. But all that word triggered in her mind was the image of a police public call box. There hadn't been any of those around here for a good ten years.

The other reason she stayed was because she felt as if there was something she needed to do here. Something she had to finish… somewhere else she needed to get to.

Suddenly her office door burst open and Mickey charged in, he was looking slightly battered. He was carrying a large bag. Without any explanation or hesitation, he grabbed her by the wrists and dragged her through Canary Warf.

"Daleks!" he spat. "Who would have bloody thought they'd be in this universe too!"

"Mickey, what are you doing?" she demanded. "You're hurting me. Let go!"

"There's no time to really explain, Rose," he told her firmly. "But we have to get you back home."

"I can work on the field!" she said in annoyance.

"No you can't," he told her. "None of us really can. These things aren't like other aliens. Their only objective is to kill anything that isn't one of them." Images of large pepper-pot like robots flashed through her mind brining a wave of fear and hatred. "We have some guns we made after you got stuck here, but we've never been able to try them before. This doesn't look like a fight we can win. But we'll try. And we'll keep you safe. We promised your mother that if anything really bad happened that we would send you back. So that's what we're doing."

They entered into the large top floor that she had come to call the 'white room'. She had never liked it in here.

"Sending me back where?" she said in confusion. "Mickey, what the hell is going on?"

"We're from a different universe, Rose," he told her quickly. "And we're sending you back. This bag has everything you'll need until you can find the Doctor. It's got clothes and food, but you shouldn't really need them. There's a phone and a letter in the front pocket. The second you get back, call the Doctor and give him the letter. Remember Rose, CALL THE DOCTOR."

"What about my drugs?" she asked in panic. "It's bad enough with them, what if I end up in hospital again?" She shuddered at the memory of having Torchwoods private doctor come to her house everyday because her screwed up memory had caused her to forget basic care like eating and sleeping.

"You don't need them anymore," he told her. "You'll be fine." He reached behind him and grabbed some sort of large button thingy and handed it to her along with the bag. "This has been working for months… I'm sorry we didn't send you back sooner. And I'm sorry we had to do what we did… Really Rose, I mean it." He seemed very serious and it was clear he was begging forgiveness for some wrong he had done. But he hadn't wronged her, had he? Clearly she just hadn't realised yet, especially by the way he was acting. Asking her to understand why he had done something…

"Mickey-"

"Just say goodbye Rose," he told her.

"Um, goodbye. But-"

"Right. Now, goodbye Babe. I'm really going to miss you. You're my best friend and I love you. Now, take care of yourself, take care of the Doctor… and take care of the twins," he said the last part forcefully.

"Wait, what twins?" she asked. But he didn't reply. He grabbed her hand and brought it down on the button. In the next second, she was gone.

?...DW…?

Right. The Doctor. She was looking for someone called 'the Doctor'. She looked in the front pocket of the bag, and sure enough, there was the phone and letter. She took out the phone and began to scroll through the contacts.

Next second a hand was clamping over her mouth and she was being dragged back into the alleyway, hiding them behind some rubble. She tried to scream, but the man holding her shushed her and pointed back out to the mouth of the alley. She watched terrified as three floating metal spheres glided past. One of them was armed with deadly looking spikes.

When they were gone, the man released her. He pressed his finger to his lips, silently telling her to keep quiet and gestured for her to follow him. She did as he asked and followed him to a near by back door. He knocked quietly on it five times and with the sliding of a lock, it opened. She was then dragged into the house.

The house was packed. Everywhere she looked people huddled together like refugees. They all looked at her curiously, their pale, sunken faces lighting up a little. She was lead to what looked like the kitchen where she was given some water, which she drunk gratefully. She only just realised now how dry her mouth was.

"What the hell were you doing out there? Are you mad?" the man who had brought her here asked.

"Um… I-I don't know," she stuttered. Truly on both accounts, she didn't really know. "I've seen lots of aliens before, but I've never seen one of those. What were they?"

The man looked at her incredulously. "Never seen them!" he cried. "How can you not know what they are?"

"I don't even know how I got here," she told him. Some kind of teleport or transmat or jump… but where the hell was she?

"What's your name?" he asked her curiously.

"Rose, Rose Tyler," she blinked at him.

"I'm Tom Milligan," he told her. "Those things are Toclafane. They're the Master's minions. Ruthless and bloodthirsty. They kill anyone. They came almost a year ago… actually, exactly a year in a week's time. Most of the human race has been wiped out. Where have you been all that time? You look fairly healthy."

"I don't know… I was in Canary Warf a few minutes ago…" He just looked at her like she was mad. - Didn't she realise that Canary Warf had been destroyed two years ago? - "I'm sorry," she told him. "My memory's terrible. I… had an accident I think. Anyway, it's hard enough for me to put my life in the right order, let alone the last four or five months."

Tom nodded sympathetically. "Well, it's late," he told her. "You must be exhausted and a woman in your condition certainly needs her rest. Come on, let's get you sorted out, shall we?" And so he led on, leaving her standing there a moment, thoroughly confused.