Rewrite -- Rose/10, Rose/Others, Rose/9

[A Moment In Subtext]

Doctor Who
Rewrite
By. A Moment In Subtext

The first time it happens, Rose is a bit too preoccupied running for her life (turns out that poking the giant blob of purple goop was a bad idea) to notice. Her feet are pounding on the asphault, the Krenoden is rolling along behind her, keeping pace almost perfectly. Her head is turned back to watch its approach, eyes looking desperately for something she can use to fend it off.

She whips her head forward when she hears her voice, staggering slightly as she begins to lose her balance. The world shifts, everything becoming slightly fuzzy, like looking at it through frosted glass. Then it clears again and she rushes into the Torchwood bunker, slamming the door shut behind her, and leaning against it in relief.

She leaves her Tardis key home the next day.

~ ~ ~ ~ ~

The second time it happens is on the day that Mickey proposes. She's been expecting it for a while, after all, they've been dating again for almost two years, and they both know she's going to say yes. She's wearing a beautiful, sequined golden dress and her hair is up out of her eyes, and she's beautiful. Its valentines day and they're in the middle of a restraunt, eating steak and chips, and even though its perfect she feels a bit lonely.

She's sitting in her chair, drinking wine and looking so sophisticated, when Mickey gets down on one knee and offers her a ring. The world shifts, and she thinks his eyes are the wrong color, and his voice is pitched wrong, and the lighting is off and everything is just a little bit fuzzy. And she tells him yes, yes, she'll marry him, and her vision clears.

She shakes it off as shock, and tries not to feel disappointed that everything is so normal.

~ ~ ~ ~ ~

The third time it happens, she's pregnant with her first child. She's laying on the hospital bed, clutching Mickey's hand in hers because oh god, it hurts to give birth, and the epidural isn't doing any good at all. Her breathe comes in short gasps, and she can feel the baby moving, struggling to force its way out. Its turned around, bottom first, and its a tricky thing getting it turned around again. She hasn't been told what gender her child is, she doesn't want to know until its born.

A moniter begins to beep, and she and Mickey exchange worried looks. The world shifts, everything going slightly out of place, as if it were all the wrong size and shape and color, and its fuzzy and makes her dizzy so she closes her eyes.

The baby is a boy.

~ ~ ~ ~ ~

The fourth time it happens is a tuesday, the day Mickey is diagnosed with terminal cancer. The doctors give him sixth months, and she drives him home in silence. Their three children gather around them and they sit and hold each other for a long time, and Mickey promises to watch over them all when he gets to heaven. It helps the children. But Rose stopped believing it things like heaven a long time ago.

That night she lays beside Mickey on the roof, just holding hands and looking at the stars, all the constellations in the wrong shapes and the wrong places. Its been more than twenty years, but they're still not her stars. They might not be his either. The world shifts, and the sky is darker and the moon isn't so big and the stars aren't so bright and far away, and she sighs, because wouldn't that be wonderful?

Mickey just looks at her with a sad smile and squeezes her hand.

~ ~ ~ ~ ~

The fifth time is, coincidentally, both her thirty-fifth birthday, and the day she hands in her resignation from Torchwood. With Mickey gone, and her eldest child out of the house and on the other side of the world, she needs to be at home to watch the others. It isn't as if its that much of a hardship, she doesn't need the money, and she's long stopped believing that she'll find a way back to the Doctor if she keeps going.

The twins are are confused as to why she's so sad, being eight and nine respectfully. (Because they'd been born on either side of midnight, December 31-January 1.) She doesn't tell them that its because she's left another piece of her past behind. What she does tell them is that she's happy that she gets to spend so much time with them now. She stops telling them stories about time travel and mysterious creatures that night. In the silence after her story, the world shifts, and the darkness gets a little fuzzy and the angles of the furniture stick out and seem wrong, the clocks ticking out of synch, like timelines crossing except--

~ ~ ~ ~ ~

The sixth time, the twins have grown up and left the house, and she's lonely, and in her forties, and a little bit stircrazy. That day, she gets a job giving tours of historic sites. Nothing glamourous, just something that lets her travel. The history of most of the sites is foreign to her, of course, but she's a quick study, and she's easy to work with.

They hand her a pile of paperwork and send her home, making an appointment to meet the next day for her assignment. The world shifts, but it isn't anything noticable, and she doesn't sway slightly on her way out the door, causing a man to catch her by the arm and steady her. Which doesn't lead to him driving her to her home and making her dinner.

His name isn't Sam.

~ ~ ~ ~ ~

The seventh time, her parents are being buried, together, after being murdered in a shoot in a local shop. Sam holds her hand during the funeral.

~ ~ ~ ~ ~

The eighth time, she and Sam have left the country, heading south for a well earned retirement. She only gives one glance at the Torchwood building, thinking of the safe in what was once her office. Maybe two.

~ ~ ~ ~ ~

The ninth time, after three miscarriages, her child with Sam is stillborn. She weeps, and carefully doesn't think of anything. They decide to stop trying.

~ ~ ~ ~ ~

The tenth time, she's lying in a hospital bed. She eyes aren't open, she isn't moving, her heart isn't beating. The world shifts.

~ ~ ~ ~ ~

She collapses against the Doctor's chest, the Vortex dragged out of her, and stares at him stupidly for a minute. It him, her Doctor, her Doctor, and he should be dead and regenerated and left in another universe. He stares back, challenging her to say something.

"I was married twice." She blurts, then stops. He raises an eyebrow at her. She blushes and looks away. "I lost you."

He wraps her in his arms and hold her. The world shifts, everything slowing down, pausing to revolve around this moment. The colors become brighter, the angles sharper, the sounds clearer. History is rewritten and wrapped around them. He doesn't regenerate, she doesn't fall into the void.

Around them, the universe burns.