Work Text:
The Doctor danced around the console, rambling at a hundred miles a minuet, and Rory and Amy stood back to watch. They didn't really know what he was going on about anymore. Something about one of the greatest music festivals in all time.
"It goes down in history!" the Doctor shouted as he slammed a lever. Rory and Amy glanced at each other as the Doctor kept going. The Tardis landed with a slight bump, and the Doctor laughed.
"Where are we?" Rory asked carefully. The Doctor deflated a little.
"Weren't you listening?" he asked.
"You were talking to fast," Amy told him.
"We're at a musical festival. It's one of the best ones to ever happen. I've been meaning to go for ages now," the Doctor said. He'd wanted to take Rose, but he'd never gotten around to it. "Come along Ponds!" The couple followed him out of the Tardis and into a bright sunny field.
The Doctor showed the man at a makeshift hut the physic paper, which was apparently conformation of three tickets, and received a leaflet. He handed it to the Ponds.
"Anyone peak your interest?" he asked. They looked over it. Stage three was full of Earth themed acts, which could be interesting, but they didn't want to see an alien impression of Elton John. The main stage had one name the couple were familiar with.
"I'd always assumed Rosie Wolfe was a human singer," Amy said.
"I thought she was a little ahead of us, but the Tardis is always playing her songs so I assumed it'd be Earth," Rory added.
"Do you want to see Rosie Wolfe then?" the Doctor asked. He didn't want to see Rosie Wolfe, because the name reminded him too much of Rose Tyler and the Bad Wolf, but if his companions liked her music then so be it. He could think about the Tardis playing her music later.
"Can we?" Amy asked.
"We're here, I don't see why not!" he said, grinning.
"Brilliant, let's go," Rory said, following the map to find the right place. A crowd had already formed, and given she wasn't the first act it wasn't a surprise. What did slightly surprise the Doctor though was the growing crowd around the main stage. This Rosie Wolfe was clearly popular.
"I didn't think she was this popular," he said. Amy shook her head at him and Rory sighed.
"She's playing the main stage at what you said was the one of the best music festivals ever," Rory pointed out.
"Right, yes, so she is," the Doctor said. Amy rolled her eyes at him, took both his and Rory's hand, and dragged them as far through the growing crowd as she could. They weren't that much closer but they had a better view of the stage.
That better view of the stage helped when Rosie Wolfe walked out onto it. The Doctor's hearts stopped, and it seemed like the rest of the world fell away.
Rose had known for a while that she didn't age. She'd figured it out before John, the metacrises version of her love, had been brought into existence. It could have been the surviving of the void for thirty minuets, or the time she'd been trapped in another universe for three years instead of three weeks. Or perhaps it was the time that she'd spent twenty years in a different universe instead of the twenty hours it had been for her family. She hadn't told anyone about those instances though.
When the Doctor had ditched her and John in the other universe without asking, she'd sat her family down and told them the truth. John had been horrified, Jackie had been worried, and Pete had looked tired and unprepared. Tony didn't get told until he was thirteen and used to keeping family secrets.
John had been worried about her future, so together they had figured out plans for when he inevitably died and she was left on her own. They found a way for her to leave the universe, and ways for her to fake new identities when she would inevitably need them.
Now she'd gone through all the lives and names and personas she had created with John. She'd lived lives in many, many, universes. Rose had been many people, she had had many lives. For some time had she basically been the Doctor of her other universe. Now though a hobby she had given up on after her awful time with Jimmy had become her job.
She'd gotten drunk and picked her name this go round. A bit on the nose, but Rosie Wolfe worked well enough. Definitely a famous persons name, and well here she was. Ready to go out onto the main stage at the biggest music festival in the galaxy she had found herself living in. The crowd out front of the stage was steadily growing, waiting for her.
Rose wan't too sure how this had happened. It had started with gigs in her local pub after her shift at the fish and chip shop. Gigs that she had been talked into by Jack, and somehow that had lead to her being a galactic success. This was her first big event like this. Well, in her home universe anyway. She'd had a few brushes with fame in other lives and other universes.
She took a deep breath and walked out to the screams of her many fans. The sun and the spotlights meant she couldn't see her fans too well, with a deep breath she fell into the routine she'd prepared.
Rose, because it had to be Rose, ended her set and the Doctor dragged Amy and Rory away from the crowd. The couple happily chatted about her music as he pulled them away.
"How would you feel about meeting her?" the Doctor asked.
"Could we?" Amy asked. "She's brilliant!"
"I mean, it'd be a little odd," Rory said. Amy elbowed him and he rolled his eyes.
"Brilliant, lets go," he said, not really listening to them on the topic. He lead them to the side area with the dressing rooms tucked away. A guard stood by the door and he approached him, psychic paper in hand. He pulled out his most charming smile and the guard glared at him.
"I've got this personal invite to meet with Rosie Wolfe, two friends included," he lied easily. Amy and Rory glanced at each other behind him. The guard took the psychic paper from him and shined his torch at it. After a moment he gave it back. He signaled another guard over and headed into Rosie's dressing area.
A knock sounded at her door and she called out for them to come in. Frank, her go to security guy, stuck his head into her room.
"Hi," she greeted, spinning her chair to face him as he stepped into the space.
"Sorry Rosie, there's someone out here claiming to have a private invite to meet with you," he said. Rose scrunched up her face and thought about it.
"I checked, doesn't seem faked," he added.
"Psychic paper?" Rose asked. Frank shrugged.
"Too hard to tell. It's in a leather pouch thing," he said. Possibilities rushed through her head. Things she was worried about, things she was hopeful for. The impossible and the very likely. Rose
"This is going to be an odd question," Rose warned him. Frank nodded. He was used to Rose by now. "Did the person that gave you this have awful dress sense?"
"He was wearing a bowtie," he said shrugging slightly. It might not be the Doctor, Rose thought. But she wanted it to be. She wanted desperately for it to be him, because if he'd found her then he'd done the hard part for her.
"Ok, send him in but stand inside until I give you the signal," she said. Frank nodded. Rose had once gotten very drunk with Frank and told him most of the truth, it was part of why he was so protective of her. He nodded and left her room, giving her a few moments to prepare.
The guard came back and looked them over quickly.
"I'm going to need names," he said. The other guard next to him quirked an eyebrow at him but didn't ask any questions. The Doctor didn't know what to say. John Smith was stupid, if it was Rose she'd see right through it.
"James Pond," the Doctor said, realising how stupid that was a second later. "This is my sister, Amy Pond, and her husband Rory."
"Brilliant, follow me then," he said.
"James Pond, really? What happened to John Smith?" Amy asked. The Doctor waved her question off. There would be time for that later. The guard knocked on the door with a wolf sticker on the front. Rose's familiar voice came from inside, calling them in.
"This is James Pond, his sister Amy, and her husband Rory," he said, pointing to them each. The Doctor barely listened to him. It was hard to pay attention to anyone other than Rose, it always had been, but that was amplified by the impossibility of the situation. Rose wasn't looking at him though, she was looking at Amy who was talking away happily about her music.
"Thank you Frank," Rose said suddenly, looking to the guard.
"Happy to help," he said, stepping out the room.
"Rose," the Doctor finally managed to say, interrupting Amy's new line of talking.
"Hello Doctor," she said, turning to him. Her eyes were more golden than he remembered, and they looked older.
"Rose," he said again, almost like a prayer. The pain he felt in that moment was obvious in his voice.
"Miss me?" she asked, quirking a small smile. Tears threatened to spill from her eyes.
"How, how are you here?" the Doctor asked. Rose knew what he was asking, but she hadn't had enough time to prepare herself to talk about her past yet.
"Started as a hobby really, all the way back before Jimmy Stone. Didn't think I'd make it big. Started out at this little pub by my flat, it was Jack's idea actually, and here I am," Rose said.
"That wasn't what I meant," he said sadly.
"I know," she echoed, just as sad.
"What's going on?" Amy asked. Rose grinned at her.
"The story starts in 2005 with a girl just going about her life, eating beans on toast and chips. A boring life of work sleep and food, until one day a man shows up. He's mysterious, and far too old for her, but she's drawn in immediately, even if he did blow up her job," Rose said, smiling softly at the Doctor.
"They had a good time together," he took over, looking sadly at her. "They ran, they danced, they saw the stars. And then the daleks came."
"The Daleks and the Cybermen, and she got trapped in another universe. Saved from the void by a parallel version of her dad by her mum's convincing," Rose said.
"But she came back. She did the impossible because she always would, and she came back," the Doctor said.
"Ok, we get it, you two knew each other," Amy said. Rory gave her a look.
"Until he and his best mate created a metacrises clone version of him that wasn't really a clone, and he sent her back to that universe without asking," Rose said, glaring at him slightly at the end. "They had a good life, the girl and the metacrises. But the girl wasn't fully human anymore, and she didn't age," she continued on, voice breaking slightly. "She watched her family grow old, her husband grow old, she watched her children and grandchildren, and she created new lives for herself constantly. Until she found a way to explore other universes without breaking them."
"Oh Rose," the Doctor said, dragging her into a hug. Rose clung to him.
"I didn't know how to find you, didn't know if I was ready to," she admitted to him.
"Are you, I mean do you want to come with me?" he asked, pulling back.
"I'd love to, but Rosie Wolfe can't just be a mystery," Rose said, pulling back. The Doctor sighed.
"Sorry, I'm still confused," Rory said.
"This is Rose Tyler, an old friend of mine," he said. Rose snorted. There was another knock at the door and Frank stuck his head in.
"Sorry Rosie," he said, "But your manager called. They want you at the pub in three nights time, they've finished the garden and the stage and want you back for two nights."
"I'll do it," Rose said as he walked in properly. "We need to figure some things out though. This got out of hand and my old life is calling me back." Frank nodded and dropped onto the small sofa at the back of the room.
"You're doing the album too, and you should do a tour after it's release," Frank said.
"I know, but this is home calling and it seems so easy to just run off," she admitted.
"Pick a date, I'll come pick you up then and not a second later," the Doctor said.
"So that's the husband," Frank said.
"Fiance," Rose corrected. "I was married to the metacrises, we've been over this before. Keep up." Frank laughed at that. "And I don't think he'd be on time, you know this I've told you the stories."
"I thought you said she was a friend?" Amy asked, turning to the Doctor. He floundered for a moment. The Doctor turned to Rose for help, but she had pulled out a planner and was whispering with Frank.
"Er," he said. Rory rolled his eyes at him. "It's complicated," he tried.
"It probably isn't," Amy said, glaring at him. Rose snorted.
"It is though," she said, looking at them all. "We had this sort of relationship not really, and then he proposed after we got trapped in an impossible situation, and not long after that I got trapped in a parallel universe. Then I came back but got sent back to that universe with a metacrises of him and his best mate."
"Ok, that's complicated," Amy agreed.
"Doctor," Rose said, drawing his attention easily. "I figured out a date for you to pick me up. You better not be late."
"Come on Rose it was one time," he complained.
"12 months instead of 12 hours, Queen Victoria instead of Ian Dury, the coronation instead of Elvis, your flight is awful!" Rose said. The Doctor pouted at her as Rory and Amy laughed.
"Fine, but this is important, I won't be late to pick you up Rose," The Doctor promised.
"You better not be," she said, pointing at him threateningly.
Amy and Rory went off to enjoy the festival some more, while Rose and the Doctor did some catching up. It'd be just over a year before Rose saw him again. A drop in the bucket really with how long she had lived. It'd be just a few moments for him though.
Once they were back in the Tardis, without Rose, the Doctor sat Amy and Rory down and told them everything. He told them the stories of Rose, how much she meant to him, all the things he knew and all the things she'd done. Then he whisked them off to pick her up. Right after her final show of her final concert.
The pub Rose had first started performing in was called the Bad Wolf Inn. A call home if he had ever seen one. It was the final place she would perform at as Rosie Wolfe. The show had ended with her announcing her retirement from the spotlight. It was better than vanishing on her fans.
The Tardis sat a small ways away from the front of the pub. The Doctor, reminiscent of the first time he had invited on her board, was leant in the doorway smiling at her. Rose turned to Frank and hugged him one last time. He'd stopped at her flat to pick up her bag, and he'd deal with everything else for her. Frank watched as Rose ran towards the Tardis. She was finally home after so long.