for doctorsplusone: A What-if for RS Verse (AU)

[rude_not_ginger]

It had been twenty years.

Twenty years since they first landed in London with the communicators. Twenty years since he'd re-met his Rose. Twenty years since he'd entered this universe.

And no escape. Not yet. Oh, there was a brief reprise, five years earlier, when he'd taken one last trip back to France. But other than that, it was London. London all the time. Traveling to find clues to figure out how to save the universe, but the universe wasn't having any of that saving business.

And there he was. In London. In his silver-tree-shaped TARDIS. Alone.

Reinette had died. Five years earlier. Lived much longer than they'd expected, and as she started to wither, he and Louis took her back to France, to die in the palace. Where she wasn't supposed to die, of course. Being a non-noble. But she was loved by a King and a lonely God. That was enough of a title for them. Louis stayed in France to tend to her. To make sure her grave was not lost in their universe as it was in the one the Doctor returned to.

Suzie left far earlier. Found her own calling or some such nonsense. Or maybe she was simply tired of the domestics. Now, he was simply alone. He'd gotten used to it, by now. It had become the norm these last five years as dressing in French silks had become the norm in the three years he spent in France before coming here.

He sat in a chair outside the TARDIS, looking over new information. The neverending war against the cosmic apocalypse that seemed to never come. The sonic screwdriver twirled in one hand. A gift from Reinette to the Doctor many, many years earlier. Helped made by Ted. How long had he blamed Ted for Reinette's death? Too long, he decided.

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[doctorsplusone.livejournal.com]

She approached from the other side of the silver tree, out of sight, still able to back away, to run, if she suddenly chickened out. It had been five long years since she'd fled to Jamie's side -- largely out of the pain of loving this Doctor. Her Doctor. She'd ran hard and ran far and now it was time to come home.

He'd been right. They would always be The Doctor and Rose.

And she'd come as soon as she'd heard...

She moved nearly silently to the side of the silver tree, watching him from afar and reawakening that old ache with each step she took closer. Silently, silently...

Until she trod on something noisy -- a twig, a crisp packet, she wasn't sure, only that it heralded her approach and froze her in her tracks.

[doctorsplusone.livejournal.com]

After the tangle of bodies and minds, Rose drew his head down to rest on her shoulder. Her fingers absently stroked through his long hair.

"Well..." she murmured.

There was a pleasant ache through her body and the lingering presence of him in her mind and... Rose had never imagined after. She'd imagined The Event Itself countless times -- in infinite variations -- but never After. When it had all changed. When they had finally gotten what they'd both wanted for years. It seemed somehow desperately significant to be lying there beside him and yet... utterly ordinary. Commonplace. Anticlimatic. She wondered what Jack would make of such an assessment and found herself smiling; she pressed a soft kiss to his temple.