Rose Tyler is Dying

Rose Tyler was dying.

In all the universes there was only one unique creation, there were thousand if not millions of copies of every other thing in the uncountable universes but there was only one Rose Tyler and she was dying.

The universe was rejecting her.

This world, this universe was not hers and she did not belong, she had nothing to anchor her to this new world. She had tried so hard to make it home but now would become her grave.

The Doctor had left her on a windswept beach, to lead a happy ordinary life, but now Rose Tyler was dying.

She had been happy, so fantastically happy with her metacrisis Doctor. They had begun to build a real life together, but then in one horrific moment in time, everything was gone and Rose was alone again.

In the days that followed she wished that her own life would end, it was only the promise that she had once made to her first Doctor, that she was able to pull herself out of the blackness of her sorrow. She trained hard and quickly became the Commander of the elite field team of Torchwood and defended her new Earth.

Slowly the years passed, and while she wasn't the bubbly girl that the Doctor first showed the stars to, she was content. She didn't allow herself to dwell on the pain that would visit her in her dreams, but made herself live each day to its fullest.

But she was dying, slowly at first, a bruise that wouldn't seem to heal, headaches that would last for days.

The doctors at Torchwood ran tests but could not find anything wrong with her. They recommended a holiday and less stress.

Rose could only laugh at the idea of taking a holiday as it seemed that this Earth was even more jeopardy prone then she ever was. But she did try to relieve her stress by learning to play the piano, something that she always wanted to do but her mum couldn't afford when she was a child. Rose found that she was rather good at it and spent many nights playing when nightmares kept her from sleep.

Everything came to a head on an ordinary Monday afternoon in the middle of December. Overnight London had turned into a winter wonderland that made travel a real hassle for her team as they were looking for a gang of bank robbers who were using off world blasters to rob banks. Her team had managed to track them to their hideout in an old warehouse. During the brief firefight, she had been nicked in the arm by a stray leaser bolt when she had jumped to pull one of her team members out of the line of fire. At first she barely even felt the pain, but as she was directing her team the pain became intense and she began to feel wobbly and faint.

"Commander, your arm!" Thomas her second in command yelled, pointing at her.

"It's just a nick nothing to it," she said, brushing him off and pointing to the group of sullen humans sitting on the ground in front of her, "round up the prisoners and make sure you find out where they got these damm guns from. I am sick and tired enouth, yeah, of being shot at by aliens much less humans."

"Commander you need to sit down and let me look at your arm you seem to be losing a lot of blood." Lydia the team field medic said.

"Just a nick, I said"

"Even so you are bleeding all over the crime scene and you need to let me do my job." Lydia asserted.

"Fine, field dress it and lets go" Rose said as she sat on bit of convenient rubble.

Once she sat down the weakness she had been fighting back hit her with force and she swayed slightly.

The medic noticed that Rose's face was very pale and that she seemed to be sweating a quick scan showed that her heart rate going double time and that her temperature was dropping, all signs of shock. Lydia used her laser to cut away the arm of Rose's uniform to get to the wound. At first glance it was as Rose had insisted just a nick, but her blood wasn't clotting and it kept bleeding. She knew that it had been about an hour since Rose had been shot and by the amount of blood that was flowing from the wound, Rose had lost to much blood. She had to stop the bleeding before the Commander went into complete shock. Lydia changed the setting on her leaser to cauterize the wound, "this might hurt a bit, Commander" she said as she began.

Rose didn't say a word. She just sat looking out into nothing, a slightly confused look on her face. She knew what she was looking at was impossibility but she couldn't help but smile, a real genuine smile, tongue in tooth that lite up her face from inside out. A smile that had once made a Doctor's two hearts skip a beat.

"Commander, Commander!" Lydia shouted as Rose slipped down the rubble and hit the ground.

Rose could hear the frantic voices of her team around her. Her breath was labored and it came is short gasps, she could feel the pain in her chest as her heart struggled to beat. But she didn't care, all she wanted to do was look at what couldn't be there and smile. Tears flowed and she fought the waves a blackness that were tugging her eyes closed.

"Just one more moment" she thought, "and I'll give in. Just one more minute of this fantastic moment and I will go into the darkness happy."

Lydia worked franticly over Rose; the wound wouldn't close it kept bleeding. Rose's life was flowing out of a wound that was barely two inches long and less then half an inch deep. The medic screamed for help.

"Thomas, help me put pressure here, we have got to slow the blood down. Somebody call for transport, we have to get her to medical she needs a transfusion."

Dammit, this shouldn't be happening it was just a nick. She had seen Rose get hit with more serious wounds and bounce it off like it was nothing. What the hell was going on?

The scanner went crazy and Lydia realized that Rose was going into cardiac arrest. Lydia rolled Rose on her back, and began CPR.

Rose was in pain, the pain was overwhelming, and the darkness seemed like a wonderful peaceful place to go. She thought about just giving into it but even as she thought it, she fought it. In the darkness she knew that the vision in front of her would not be there. So she held on for just a moment more, her eyes never wavering, all of the love she had shining like a sun though them.

Rose Tyler was dying. The universe didn't recognize her. So it sought to destroy her. Her heart stopped beating.

Rose Tyler was dead.

In another universe, the TARDIS awoke from its doze. It was TIME. The MOMENT was at hand. Every seed that she had planted in time would have to now bear fruit. Her beloved Thief would be feel pain again and again but if everything worked out all the pain would be a dim memory and joy would be unsurpassable. If they failed then this universe was dead and perhaps others would die as well. She had been gathering energy for this moment for eons, hiding it from her thief, and now it would take every bit to do what needed to be done. TARDIS hummed to herself as she sent messages though time, the time for the gathering was at hand.