The Doctor watched John take Rose's hand. He wished he could be the one to do that. It had been so long since he'd left her here on this very beach. It had killed him to do it. He wished he could tell her that. He wished he could tell her everything.
Rose smiled at John. It was a genuine smile. Tony tugged at the Doctor's shirtsleeve. "Did you see what I did? Did you? Did you?"
The Doctor nodded again.
"Wasn't it cool?"
Rose laughed. "Tony, it was very cool."
John looked down at Tony. "We really should get going, Jackie is probably wondering where we are."
"Alright, well, nice seeing you ag-" Rose paused. She frowned. "Nice meeting you, Doctor."
"You too," The Doctor replied. He hid the pain from the pause. He did it pretty well. He'd had a lot of practice at it.
The Doctor watched the trio leave. Rose looked over her shoulder at him and smiled. He smiled back.
The Doctor started off in the other direction. He hoped that John, the clone of his past self, didn't find out who he was.
If John finds out that I'm the Doctor, he'll never let me near Rose again. The Doctor frowned with his last thought.
He stepped in to the TARDIS. "Let's see what's wrong here..." The Doctor looked around the console. The TARDIS had stopped smoking a while ago, but it was still evident what was wrong.
The Doctor lifted a panel underneath the console up. The wiring was fried. Not much to worry about, but a pain to fix. It would take him a while.
Not that he minded much. The longer it took to fix the TARDIS, the more time he had with Rose.
He needed to get more wiring though, so he replaced the console and walked out of the TARDIS, locking it behind him. He walked to Rose's appartment building. He hoped she still lived here. He could use some help getting the supplies he needed, and she seemed to be the best person to go to.
The Doctor cleared his throat. "Excuse me," He asked the young man at the front desk, "but do you know where the Tyler's live?"
The young man gave him a look for a few seconds. "The mansion." He answered, like it was amazing that the Doctor hasn't known the perfectly obvious.
"Oh. Right. Thanks." The Doctor wanted to kick himself. This was a parallel universe. Pete was rich here. Of course the Tyler's didn't live in an apartment anymore. "Hmm, well yes," The young man looked at him again. "What direction might the mansion be?"
The young man pointed. "Take a left at Worths, and a right at Bennings. Can't miss it from there."
"Right. Thank you for your help." The Doctor walked outside of the apartment building. He then followed the young man's directions to Rose's mansion.
