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There was a moment, a moment that could have been years or eons, or could have been seconds or minuets, a moment in which Rose had seen everything. Everything that was, everything that could be, everything that could have been, and everything that should never be. She had seen everything. Time had ran through her veins, she had been a being of Time, Time had been her playground, Time had been her essence.
Rose didn't fully remember everything about her time being a Goddess so full of power but she knew several things. Her numerous times travelling through the void had unlocked both the memories and some more extensive Bad Wolf abilities. She didn't age. She had become a timeless being, and she could never come back from that. It hurt to lose her family, and John, but she wouldn't change it for anything.
She was happy to travel through Pete's Universe her own way for some time. She would one day return to the Doctor, and she couldn't wait. Time meant very little to someone who had seen it all.
There had been a moment, a very small moment, in which the Doctor had hope. Hope that they would get Rose back. Hope that Rose would come back, that they would get their love-story. That hope had been shattered not long after. Rose had gone off to the other universe with the metacrises and while she had never given her the choice of universe, no mater what she couldn't have her back.
Rose was gone, the Doctor had accepted that long ago. She missed her, she missed her every day, a part of her hearts felt empty and gone without Rose, but accepted she could never see her again. She refused to call the pain grief. Grief, at least in her mind, was for those that were dead. Rose, well she would die, but to the Doctor she would always live on. Rose was probably alive having a grand old time with the metacrises, raising a family and being all domestic.
If the Doctor called what she felt grief, she didn't think she'd ever stop down a path of destruction. Rose had meant so much to her. Now, well now, she could pretend Rose got her happy ending. With nothing to prove her otherwise she could believe whatever she wanted about Rose. It was better that way really.
Some days were worse than other. The Doctor could admit that. Some were better. Others were so bad she wouldn't do anything if it weren't for the fam. The Doctor refused to let them see her in so much pain. It was for the best really. Time may have taken her further away from Rose, but it would never remove her from her heart. It was fine, she knew that living in the past was no way to get Rose back. There was no way to get Rose back.
The day was like any other. The Doctor running around the console, Yaz and Ryan chattering happily about things, Graham looking slightly confused and a little tired. An argument over where to go. The normal things.
"Come on, somewhere fun!" Ryan said.
"Somewhere historical, we've done plenty of fun alien places recently!" Yaz said. The Doctor and Graham shared a look.
"What do you think Graham?" she asked.
"Well the galley is looking empty," he said instead siding with either of them.
"I know just the place!" The Doctor said, spinning around the console with practiced ease. She didn't often go to her favourite market asteroid. It had been Rose's favourite, but she was feeling nostalgic. Besides, it had some of the best fruits in the universe. "Though we should probably stop on Earth too, just to get you lot some familiar favourites."
"We're going somewhere alien for food?" Ryan asked. The Doctor nodded and he looked happy.
Rose rather wished that she could remember how her reunion with the Doctor went. When it would happen, and how it would happen. She couldn't though, and really it was probably for the best. It'd probably drive her insane if she could remember everything she had seen and done as the Bad Wolf. It'd give her a hell of a headache.
She'd definitely been making progress though. She was back in her home universe, and it felt so much better. In all her years in the other universe she hadn't noticed how it itched at her skin, how wrong it had felt for her to be there. The relief she felt now she was home, or at least in her home universe anyway, was brilliant.
Rose had gotten the universe hopper working, and it was working better than ever. She'd gotten to her home universe in one attempt, and it was the smoothest journey she'd had yet. Once she had arrived she'd changed it to just a hopper, a bit like a vortex manipulator but better. She'd visited a few old friends, giving Shareen and her fiance the shock of a lifetime. Mickey had hugged her for a few minuets, utterly shocked to see her again despite knowing she didn't age.
Now though she was stood among the crowds at her favourite market. She'd tried visiting the alternate universe version of it, and had been sorely disappointed. Rose had already gotten her favourite fruits, a must have every time she had stopped here before the other universe had become her home.
She had really missed the stalls there. The owners were all polite, and friendly. It was one of her favourite places in general. The Doctor had loved it too. It was their go to shopping place, and one of the most domestic things they did was shop on the asteroid.
Rose had a vague feeling that something important was going to happen soon. Not a dangerous something important, a happy something important. Those weird feelings had gotten her through many things, and she had learnt to trust them. They were just something from Bad Wolf, from her time holding Time in her hand.
An unfamiliar voice stood out to her, she hadn't heard it before but it felt rather familiar in a strange way.
"Come on fam, this place has the best fruits!" the voice said. It shouldn't have stood out above the other voices around, not the words nor the voice itself, still it did. It drew her in. The words were familiar. An almost perfect recreation of the words that the Doctor had said to her when they had first come here. Without really meaning to she could hear her first Doctor talking about the asteroid. Words which were echoed by the voice she had become focused on.
Something in her urged her to investigate. See who it was. She followed that urge. It was laced with Bad Wolf, and those skills had never turned her wrong. There was a blonde woman leading a group of three through the crowds. Earrings, a longish coat, suspender, trousers just a little too short.
If anyone were the Doctor, it was her. There was a sort of tug to her, either from Rose's own love for the Doctor regardless on regeneration, or a confirmation from her leftover Bad wolf abilities.
"Everything is safe for human consumption," the Doctor said, almost at the end of the speech. Rose was stood close by now.
"Including the bright pink lemons," Rose finished for her. The Doctor turned to her then, frozen in place in the crowd. "They taste sort of like apples actually."
"Rose," the Doctor said. It sounded sort of like a pray, and sort of like the Doctor's hearts were breaking. Rose's heart ached.
"Miss me?" she asked, grinning.
The Doctor wanted to keep Rose. She wanted to take her hand and run back to the Tardis. She couldn't. She knew she couldn't. But she desperately wanted to. She almost needed to. Rose looked as she had the last time she'd seen her, properly. The last time they had both known each other.
"You've got the wrong one," she said instead.
"Stars aren't going out this time," Rose said, smiling softly at her. That couldn't be right, that really couldn't be right. If this Rose was from after the stars then she had the metacrises and her parents. And the fact she still looked so young that meant it couldn't be long after the stars.
"No universe ending events as far as I can tell," Rose added.
"How are you here?" the Doctor asked.
"Bit of a long story, starts back when I was nineteen and you were all grumpy and leather," she said. The Doctor's hearts ached for a moment. "I'm oh, seven hundred and thirty two now I think."
"Oh Rose," she said, voice laced with her pain.
"Let's get your shopping done, then we can properly catch up in the Tardis," Rose said, stepping closer. Her hand ghosted over the Doctor's and she nodded. She watched as the woman she loved so much and never thought she'd see again turned to her friends.
"I'm Rose, I used to travel with the Doctor, and I'm mostly human," she said, grinning.
"Mostly human?" Graham asked.
"Well, sort of," she said.
"Yasmin, my friends call me Yaz," Yaz said.
"Ryan, good to meet you I guess," he said.
"I think the only one not confused right now is Rose herself," the Doctor said. Rose laughed at that, took the Doctor's hand, and dragged her over to a fruit stall. The fam followed after. Things could be cleared up later. It felt rather suddenly, to the Doctor at least, like they had all the time in the world. She smiled at Rose as she dragged her through the market stalls. It was something she had missed greatly, and she was so happy to have the simplicity of life with Rose returned to her.