#nonpara

Going home was usually rough in a number of ways.

Emotionally. Mentally.

But generally the trip was pretty smooth.

"WHOA!" Rose yelled as the TARDIS console exploded, and she flew forward, slamming her head into it. Stars burst to life before her eyes, though she managed at least to keep from passing out.

She did, however, hit the grating hard when the TARDIS finally landed with a crash. "Oh god," she groaned, not bothering to pick herself up just yet. "Please tell me we're in the living room at least." At least that way she wouldn't have to walk far.

I am...not sure.

That sent up alarm bells like no one's business. "What do you mean not sure?" She said suspiciously as she sat up, glaring at the smoking console.

Something is...wrong.

Rose laughed weakly, and the sound cut off into a rattling cough that wracked through her entire body, and her lungs flailed to try and gather air, to force her to keep breathing.

It was a gunshot. A stupid, stupid gunshot. She'd thought she was stronger than that, thought a bullet wouldn't kill her.

But apparently it was enough of it hit her in the right place.

"Always just...keep my heart beatin'." She sucked in a startled breath as the organ in question gave a sharp seize, and she brought a hand up to claw weakly at her chest. A bullet to the heart. It should've killed her straight off, would have if she'd been completely human.

But she wasn't. She wasn't, and her body was stubborn. It wanted to keep living.

"S'what the TARDIS always said. Keep my heart beatin' and I'll be fine. I'll...I'll h-heal from anythin'." Another cough that tapered off into a small whimper. She could hear the TARDIS humming mournfully in the back of her mind. Her Wolf was dying.

Yeah, he could say that all he wanted. He could keep looking at her like expected her to be the same person she had been before they had been separated.

But she wasn't.

And she never would be again.

"Sure." She never should have tried to talk to him about this. Of course he'd try to rationalize it. Of course he'd try to make it better.

"Forget it."

From Here (bananaconverse)

Rose cringed as she examined the Doctor's lips. The area around the stitching was red and clearly aggravated.

"God," she muttered, gritting her teeth a bit. This was going to be very unpleasant to undo -- for him and for her.

"Come on, let's get you back to the TARDIS," she said, taking his hand and giving him a tug to pull him around. "Can't turn my back on you for a minute, can I?"

She was trying to make jokes about it, but this actually scared her quite a bit. Who had done this? Why? It didn't make any sense. The only thing she could imagine was that the Doctor really had annoyed someone to the point that they just sowed his lips up, but that was a pretty extreme reaction to something that could be solved with a simple "shut it."

So yeah, it shook her up a bit.

Continued from here.

Rose stared in disbelief at the woman before her, not entirely certain what to say. On the one hand...she knew things only the TARDIS would know. Like the fact that the ship called her 'Wolf' and the Doctor 'Thief.'

But how the hell was she human? It didn't make any sense! Sentient ships didn't suddenly take on human forms!

Granted Rose wasn't exactly an expert. But she felt pretty safe in assuming that.

"Okay...okay." She ran her hands through her hair. She was going, for the moment, to just assume that the woman was who she said she was, and take it from there.

From Here. (bananaconverse)

Rose was laying in her hammock, staring at the trees that lined the horizon line of the room. It had been a trying few days of watching people die. That always got to her.

But at the same time it had felt strangely...right. Not watching people die, of course not, that would never be right. But working alongside the Doctor, helping as many people as they could possibly help...that felt right.

And that bothered her more than she cared to admit.

The TARDIS hummed suddenly, and Rose shot up, blinking dazedly. "What? What's wrong?"

But she just hummed again, urging Rose on. She untangled herself from the hammock, stumbling up and rolling her shoulders back as she left the room.

"Where is he?"

A door appeared right across the hall from her -- the med lab. Rose made a face as she walked in -- just in time to see him kick the cabinet.

"Doctor! What--"

But her eyes were drawn to the screen flashing his test results. She opened and closed her mouth few times, her breath coming out in a low, shuddering huff.

It took her a moment to formulate her thoughts.

"No."

From Here

Rose hated going to him -- hated showing him this weakness. Showing him any weakness. The thought of it made her sick honestly.

But the alternative was so much worse.

And she couldn't go to the Powell Estates, couldn't let her mother see the Doctor. Jackie Tyler was going to have to be eased into the idea of the Time Lord being around again, and if Rose showed up half in tears and ready to snap...well, Rose wasn't ready to see a new face on the Doctor just yet.

So instead she went to the Doctor even if the idea of showing weakness did repulse her, and when his arms wound around her she clung to him, pressing her face into his shoulder and letting out a shuddering breath.

badwolfpinkandyellow:​

Rose just nodded silently as he told her what he remembered of the accident. After taking a few moments to look back and remember that tragic day, she filled him in on the little bit of information she knew. 

"They said that a man who was running late for work ran a red light, hitting your car in the process. Stupid bastard hardly even got a scratch on him, though. A broken collarbone is nothin’ compared to what you had to go through." She thought back to when they’d told her that the other man had turned out all right. She’d been so angry that everything was his fault and he didn’t even have to suffer for it. Eventually she learned to let it go, though, knowing it wouldn’t do any good to hold a grudge.

Rose shook her head a bit, trying to push away the bad memories and just focus on the now. Her Doctor was back, she didn’t need to look at all those horrible things anymore.

"So on a happier note." She said, an excited smile creeping across her face. "If you remember things that happened while you were… away, then you remember finding out about this." She pushed the blanket away from her before taking the Doctor’s hand and guiding it to where it laid on her stomach, a definite, but small, baby bump replacing the flatness that use to be there. 

"It could have easily been the other way around," the Doctor told her quietly. Seeing that kind of hate in her scared him, honestly. Even if she had let it go by this point. There was no point in dwelling on it after all. It was done, it was over with.

He was back now. That was all that mattered.

The Doctor was grinning even before she rested his hand over the tiny baby bump, but feeling it -- really feeling it -- sent a small thrill for him. Oh sure, he knew it existed. Hell, before he had fallen asleep -- while she had already been sleeping -- he had kissed the bump and informed it, quite seriously, that no matter what happened he was going to be there. Always.

But those memories had the weird filter over them, and he didn't like it. He wanted real memories. He wanted memories that were really his.

"You're pregnant," he breathed. "You're really, really pregnant."

And this time he actually remembered how it had happened. His eyes flitted up to meet hers, and he grinned widely before moving both his hands to clasp her face and kiss her good and soundly. Again. That was going to happen a lot for a while. He couldn't hep it. He was happy. He had his memories back, Rose still loved him, she was pregnant.

Everything was finally falling back into place.