The Universe; Defined

1

"Where are you?" She asked the ghostly image of her beloved.

"Inside the TARDIS. There's one tiny little gap in the universe left, just about to close, and it takes a lot of power to send this projection. I'm in orbit around a supernova. I'm burning up a sun just to say goodbye." His smile is faint, and holds pain behind it. Rose felt her heart stutter. He was burning a sun to say goodbye to her. Her! Rose Tyler, of all people. The shop girl from Powell Estates with nothing promising in her future. Except now her future consisted of living with the crippling pain of never being able to see the Doctor again. She almost broke down right then and there at that thought. He would never know about- no she mustn't think about that now.

"You look like a ghost."

"Hold on." she watched as he raised the sonic and pointed it somewhere in the TARDIS control room. Then his image wasn't ghostly anymore and the Doctor was standing in front of her. His hair even blew in the salt filled breeze from the bay. She reached her hand out slowly, hesitantly.

"Can I?" His eyes held deep sorrow when he responded.

"I'm still just an image. No touch." She couldn't hug him one last time. Couldn't kiss him ever again. Couldn't feel the defined muscle hidden beneath his soft skin. She wouldn't ever be able to feel his cold hand in hers, his stubble on her cheeks when they kissed. She could never run her hands through those unruly brown locks. She would never again be able to feel him.

"Can't you come through properly?" The tears were starting to build in her eyes, she couldn't let them fall yet, though. She couldn't cry in front of the Doctor yet until she could tell him the news. She wouldn't last another second on this damned beach if she started crying now.

"The whole thing would fracture. Two universes would collapse." Looking at Rose Tyler, the Doctor felt nothing but love and crippling sadness in his hearts. He loved this woman, the first in a very very long time. Now she was going to be stuck in another world for the rest of their lives. He could do nothing about it for risk of the two universes. Oh but he wanted to. His Rose was worth burning up a sun to say goodbye and she was worth destroying worlds to get her back. His brave Rose.

"So?" There she was. That was his Rose. He laughed despite himself. This was his Rose through and through. He felt that sentiment as well. So what if two worlds would collapse? There were plenty other universes out there for them to live in. Together. But he knew that couldn't happen. It would destroy everything to do that. She stared at him and he knew she was waiting for an answer from him but he just couldn't. He couldn't say those final words again. He looked around at the beach they were on.

"Where are we? Where did the gap come out?"

"We're in Norway." He nodded. Norway was a beautiful country.

"Norway. Right."

"About fifty miles out of Bergen. It's called Dårlig Ulv-Stranden." His eyes widened in alarm.

"Dalek?"

"Dårlig. It's Norwegian for bad." She paused and he just watched her for a moment.

"This translates as Bad Wolf Bay." He laughed at the coincidence. Of course it would be Bad Wolf Bay. Bad Wolf had been created by Rose to protect him, save him, and right now he could use a little saving from himself.

"How long have we got?" Rose choked on her tears as the question came out and his eyes soften. She could hardly look at him because all she was thinking about was that he was going to say a number and it wasn't going to be enough.

"About two minutes."

"I can't think of what to say." She smiled at the irony. Normally neither of them could shut their gobs, and now neither of them could speak a single word. The Doctor laughed and she lit up to hear that sound again. His eyes drift behind her and she knew he saw her mum and dad behind her along with Mickey.