To Love And To Love Again

AN: I had forgotten to mention that this will be a minor crossover with Black Pool, as it is the parallel Peter Carlisle that Rose had been married to.

To Love And To Love Again.


Before the Doctor could protest he was hit with all one hundred and eighteen years of life belonging to Rose, spent on the parallel world. One hundred and eighteen years, far too long for someone who was human, he realised with sudden and dawning horror.

Rose had been twenty when she had been stranded, meaning the woman that had stood before him, was every much one hundred and thirty eight years old.

He felt Rose’s emotions after he had left her on that beach, Bad Wolf Bay, in the other reality. He felt what she felt and saw what she had experienced for the first three and a half years after she had been stranded in that reality, and had felt immense guilt for having caused her so much heartache.

But then much to his relief and delight, Rose did exactly what he had asked of her. He had asked her to have a good life, to live for him. Meet someone and fall helplessly in love with them. Get married and have loads of beautiful babies. She had done just that.

Jackie had given birth to a baby boy, who she and Pete had named Tony. The gorgeous little boy had Pete’s red hair and features, but Jackie’s eyes and temper.

Not only had Rose met someone, she had gone back to school also, earning GCSE’S and A Levels. She had then gone to medical school much to his amazement and delight. Rose, amazing and beautiful Rose, was a qualified Doctor and surgeon, working for Torchwood in that reality.

He saw the moment she had met DI (Detective Inspector) Peter Carlisle. He was stunned beyond belief, as he realised this man could have well and truly been his human parallel self. All except this man had been sporting a Scottish lit to his accent.

Peter had an oral fixation like he himself still had. He was always eating or putting things in his mouth. He wore glasses. But there were also a few differences besides the fact he was very much human with only one heart.

He could be a cold bastard and had a sarcastic and cynical streak, shown to those who provoked him. The Doctor had immediately sensed this obviously was man not to be trifled with, and a man who would give back what he had been given in spades.

This man who would capture Rose’s heart, he could also be caring and compassion and very humorous when he wanted to be. And then finally, the Doctor concluded with a sense of approval, a man who was immensely skilled in his chosen profession.

He saw how Rose had first met him, during when the police from down at the North Lakes had worked with Torchwood on a case for over three months, before it had been completely solved.

He saw and felt how shocked and horrified Rose had been to see Peter for the very first time. She had just gotten over him, she was able to move on, the Doctor realised. Obviously Rose had been blown away by the fact the DI had literately looked like him.

Rose had been crushed when Mickey and Jake, who the Doctor noted had all been Rose’s field partners, had easily and silently told her all she had needed to know. He was not the Doctor in anyway shape or form.

He had also noticed with delight that Jack was the fourth member of the team in which Rose was the leader of. He looked exactly like the Jack that ran Torchwood three in his reality. And that great and big military coat of his included.

Rose had avoided and had not gotten along with Peter at first, meaning the DI had returned the favour and been very much hostile without actually becoming physically or verbally abusive.

He saw how the investigation had progressed and eventually been solved. He watched Rose and Peter fall madly in love, during the three months in which they had worked together, along side Mickey, Jack, Jake and DC McKenna, Peter’s young partner.

Next he was hit with memories of Rose and Peter’s relationship spanning over three years before he had asked her to marry him. He had quit the police force and had moved to London, where he had been accepted as a member of Torchwood on Rose’s team, along with McKenna.

He practically cackled in disbelief, when saw how Rose and her team’s own encounter with the Racnoss empress, and that reality’s Donna Noble had turned out. Apparently even with or without The Doctor and the TARDIS, Donna still managed to get mixed up with The Racnoss unwittingly.

He had no idea whether to be proud or horrified when he saw Rose get rid of the Racnoss like he had. He drowned them, by draining the river Thames, after the Racnoss had refused to leave in peace. And she had unknowingly followed his example.

He was both amused and unsurprised when he saw Jack and Donna flirting with each other. It just took much longer in his reality then it did in Rose’s. Jack had married Donna four and half years ago.

That had surprised The Doctor. That was a pair he had not anticipated. But all the same they worked together as a couple brilliantly. She was now a member of Torchwood three on earth, along with Martha, who was married to Ianto Jones. That’s of course when they both weren’t pregnant and popping out baby Harkness’s, Noble’s, and Jones’s.

The Doctor continued to watch Rose’s memories. He saw how Peter had proposed, and how Rose had been in tears, but had been beaming like a manic and had let out a shriek of delight, throwing herself at him. The Doctor smiled slightly at this. Peter had put the ring on her finger, and they had kissed passionately.

He saw her dressed in a stunning white gown, looking beyond beautiful and goddess like. And he had been dressed in a tuxedo, which the Doctor could tell the other man loathed with a passion, the tie in particular.

It had been a simple but beautiful wedding conducted on the lush grounds of Pete’s mansion. It had been a beautiful and sunny day, not a single cloud in sight.

Next he saw the memory of when Rose had told Peter she was pregnant. She had squealed in utter delight, as she had been spun around by an equally delighted and laughing Peter.

He saw humorous scenes of the nine months in which Peter dealt with a hormonal Rose. He had been greatly amused by some of her less then stellar episodes. Poor Peter, The Doctor had thought in amusement and part sympathy.

Their first born after fifteen and half hours of hard and gruelling labour had been a set of twins, two sons who were an absolute spitting image of their father. They had been named Michael Peter and Stuart Theta Carlisle.

The Doctor had been stunned as he realised Rose had named one of her sons after him, or least given his nickname as a middle name. The Doctor remembered wearily that the TARDIS had taken great pleasure in letting that little piece of information loose to Rose.

Two years later Sara-Jane Jacqueline Carlisle was born, with her mother’s much darker hair and looks, when compared to her older brothers much lighter hair, and their father’s features. Sara-Jane had her father’s temperament.

And The Doctor realised with great pride and delight, that the female Carlisle’s name sake was in fact Sara-Jane Smith. Obviously Sara-Jane had much more of an impact on Rose then he had ever imagined. A very good impact in fact.

The fourth and final to be born four years later had been another girl, who was a perfect blend of both of her parents, all of the best parts of them. She had been named Gwyneth Lucy Carlisle.

She had been named have the Gwyneth they had met in his ninth incarnation, when they had met Charles Dickens and The Gelth. They were the absolute good times, the Doctor thought in remembrance.

He saw all of Rose’s children grow up, marrying, have children and Careers of their own. And provided Rose and Peter with grandchildren, and Jackie and Pete with Great grandchildren. Even Rose and Peter had been gifted with great grandchildren.

But what the Doctor noticed was, that Jackie and Pete, along with Mickey, Jack, Donna, Martha Jones, Mickey’s wife, Jake and McKenna, they all aged and died and had families and children of their own. Peter continued to age bit by bit, but Rose never aged a single day from the time he had met her.

Peter had accepted this, accepted the fact he along with their children, grandchildren and great grandchildren, was going to age and die, whilst his beautiful wife, their mother, grandmother and great grandmother, would continue to be young and beautiful.

And then the memories, memories that had truly made the Doctor’s hearts ache for both of Rose and Peter. Not only did Rose have to sit back and watch the man she loved age and slowly writher away before her very eyes, as she remained unchanged by the passing of time. Peter at the age of eighty two was diagnosed with Cancer.

That reality may have been more advanced then his own reality, but not enough for there to be a solution to curing Cancer. This meant Rose had to care for Peter, as he fought a six year battle before he had died in his sleep peacefully at the age of eighty eight, not long after his Cancer had thankfully gone into remission, sparing him a painful death.

Rose had either been dating or for the longer time, married to Peter for over fifty years. Fifty two years to be precise, of loving one man. And Forty Nine years of marriage, now that was true love, the Doctor realised.

He could feel Rose’s heartbreak when Peter had died in his sleep, peacefully sleeping in the cradle of her loving embrace. The Doctor realised with tears in his eyes, that Rose’s pain over losing her lover, friend, husband and the father of her children, was in fact much greater then his pain over losing River, after twelve years of marriage.

Greater because he knew he would not be able to spend the rest of his life with her, but had fallen in love with her and married her anyway. He had known he would out live her. Had even known what her final fate would be.

But Rose on the other hand, she had been under the impression that she would age and die with her love, the father of her children, her loving and eternally devoted husband of over fifty blissful years of love and marriage.

After Peter had died, Rose had spent the rest of her years in which she would remain on that earth’s reality, working herself to the point of exhaustion constantly. She would have worked herself into a grave if she could have died and stayed dead.

The Doctor had inwardly howled in horror and anguish when he realised Rose was in the same predicament as Jack. Obviously taking the Time Vortex into herself had more and lasting consequences then any of them could have ever imagined.

The Doctor had truly been anguished as he had watched Rose try different and creative ways to kill herself. But always she would completely revive without a single scar or blemish on her, indicating she had done anything at all.

And finally he saw the memory where Rose discovered Pete before he had died, had arranged with Peter and their children to start designing and working on a device that would take Rose back to the reality she had been born in, without breaking down the walls separating both worlds.

So that once she had nobody left there, nobody that needed her to stay that is. Then she could come back to her birth reality. They all figured Rose deserved that, seeing as she didn’t seem to be going to age and die anytime soon.

So before Rose had left, and had used the device, which was the bracelet that she was wearing. She had learned that she could use the bracelet once every two years to crossover to each world without ending either one.

After being told this, she had grabbed a single rucksack, and had filled it with photo albums of her parents, Peter, her children, and Mickey, Jack, Jake and McKenna. She had also packed all of the jewellery Peter had ever given to her over the years that they had been married.

She had then pressed in the small ruby on the bracelet, after saying a tearful goodbye to all of her grandchild, and great grandchildren. She had then disappeared in a flash of blue light, to appear in the TARDIS in front of the grieving Doctor.

The memories had ended there, leaving the Doctor’s hearts aching for Rose. She had been dealt so much pain and heartache. But also she had experienced and lived such joy, happiness and immense love.

Meanwhile Rose was viewing the whole of the Doctor’s memories from the time he had left her on the parallel world, up until the moment she had just teleported into the TARDIS for the first time in one hundred and eighteen years.