A/N: This is the result of what happens when I find out that my stories have so much slash and I think that making a hetero story would equal it out. Instead, I end up getting all emotional about all the Rose feelings. FFFFFUUUU- I just can't handle reading works that involves Rose. ;_; So obviously, writing a Rose fic was heartbreaking for me. /crawls into a corner and bawls

Pairing(s): Doctor/Rose, Amy/Rory

"Doctor, where are we?" It was Amy. She was dressed in a pair of blue shorts, a plaid scarf, a bright red sweater, and boots. She examined the area with squinting eyes. She's got Rory's hand in hers. He's in a blue-and-black striped collared shirt, a brand new pair of blue trousers, and some casual brown dress shoes. Their outfits were simple and they didn't expect snowy or sunny weather. The Doctor did mention that they would go back in time… on Earth. Amy repeated the question again, "Doctor… where are we?"

The Doctor's actually not quite positive in where they're at. He hopped to the TARDIS door and opened it; he poked his head out to scan the area. "Not sure but I'm positive we'll find out eventually." An almost child-like grin appeared on his face. He had his eyes set on a field of green with a bunch of kids playing. There were sidewalks and a large road. Everything seemed normal. The Time Lord turned his head to the left and found a building; more precisely, a school building. The Doctor brought his head back into the TARDIS and looked at his two companions. "We're on Earth. Still in London. Don't know the year, however." The Doctor expected his ship to travel into the future, not the past, which was where they were. The past. "We should probably scout around!" The Doctor gestured to his friends and exited out of the TARDIS. He brought his arms up in the air. "Hello, London!" Very few people heard him and turned their heads his way, but went back to whatever they were doing.

The grin that was planted on the Time Lord's face soon vanished when he spotted a young blonde child getting picked on by two boys. "Hey you! You there," he shouted at the kids and pointed at them, "don't do that!" His voice was mildly stern. The two boys turned around and ignored him, continuing to pester the little girl. He twirled back to Rory and Amy and said, "Do anything you want. Go out shopping! I'll meet you back here when you're ready to go somewhere else, all right?" The two nodded and he patted at Rory's arm before the couple jolted away to find a place to eat.

Going back to the boys, the Doctor casually walked over to the field and poked at one of the boys' heads. "Didn't your parents ever teach you to be nice to girls?" The boy turned around. His hair was in a mop and was a muddy brown color. Freckles attacked his pale skin and his blue eyes shot an icy glare at the adult. He made a comment about the Doctor being 'just some old guy' and went back to pulling at the girl's hair. The other boy; however, put on an expression of fear. Brown eyes, black hair, fair skin. He swallowed and the black-haired boy stumbled away from the Doctor and ran off back into the school building.

The Doctor took a look at the crying girl and widened his eyes when he thought of something. It can't be. The Doctor moistened his lips before speaking again, "you shouldn't really do that. I'll tell your parents and your teacher on you." This little threat made the boy stop and he let out a loud huff before stomping away from the blonde and the adult. "Hey, are you all right?" The Doctor's tone softened and knelt down to the girl. He wiped away the tears from her face. Her hazel, blood-shot eyes locked into his green eyes. "What?" The Doctor mumbled out as he jerked his hand back away from the child. He knew those eyes anywhere. Directionless and a bit meek. He had seen those before. His bottom lip twitched and the Doctor closed his eyes, and when he opened them again, he tried to familiarize the girl's facial features. "No… no, no. That can't be right." It was just above a whisper, but the girl noticed his words. Hearing the child say 'what?', the Doctor shook his head. "Nothing! Um, hello!" A grin appeared again. "Hi! I'm John Smith. What's your name?"

"Rose Tyler."

Shifting away from the girl now recognized as Rose Tyler, the Doctor breathed out a shaky sentence, "How old are you?" She continued the conversation and stated that she was eight years old. Rose… I'm the Doctor. I meet you in 2005, when you're 19... but with a different face. God, oh god, he wanted to say this. He wanted to say that he was a friend of Rose in the future but he couldn't. He simply couldn't. He had already disrupted the timeline enough by just communicating with her. The Doctor turned his head around in hopes to look for a distraction, but the Doctor found none and ended up being stuck. With Rose. An eight year old Rose. That didn't know him. Think quick! He said, "Are you on a… oh, what do they call this? Break? Recess?"

The blonde scratched at her cheek uncomfortably, hinting that she might not want to have this talk with him, and nodded shyly. "Yeah," she managed to mumble out. With a sniffle, Rose looked down and played with her fingers. After a few seconds of gathering up some courage, she said, "I want my mum." There was a bit of hesitation and silence on the other end which prompted Rose to look back up to him. She had expected that the Doctor would get up, walk into the school, and tell Rose's teacher to contact her mother. He didn't get the message at all. Trying to hint it out, the child tugged at his sleeve. "Can you tell my teacher to call my mum?"

The Doctor was too busy in his little daydream, reminiscing of all the adventures a grown Rose Tyler and his previous two regenerations had. It took him a moment to come back to the subject. "Of course I can. Up, up." He saw Rose get up from the patch of grass and slid her hand into his and gripped at his ring and pinky fingers. The Doctor glanced down at Rose and nodded. The two began to walk toward the building. "Why were they picking on you?" That question popped up before the Doctor could even process it in his head. It was too late now. It was already asked. All he could do was hope for the best.

She still felt nervous talking to him based on the tone of her voice. "My dad. We had to talk about our mums and dads today. I told them I didn't have one." She started to tear up again, but wiped her eyes before any tears could roll down her cheeks.

The Time Lord's mind imagined up Pete Tyler. That's right. Rose - his Rose - was stuck in Pete's world, never to see the Doctor ever again except for a few instances. He then made up an image of Rose and his meta-crisis version of himself. They're happy. She's happy. The Doctor let out a near-inaudible chuckle at the thought. "You have your mother and friends to take care of you, Rose Tyler." He saw her perform a small smile. "And guess what? I'm your friend. Well, I hope I am. Am I your friend?" He pursed his lips and waited for a reply.

The two stepped into the building and Rose giggled. It wasn't completely a cheerful giggle or a nervous one. Somewhere in between. The eight year old patted her eyes dry with her other hand and squeezed at the Doctor's fingers. "I just met you. I can't call you my friend. I don't know what you do or where you're from!"

"I'm obviously from here, aren't I?" He pointed at his mouth, implying that his accent meant that he's from London. "I'm a teacher! Different school, just passing by, really. What do you do?" The Doctor's tone turned light-hearted, almost silly. He let the little girl guide him to her classroom and after pacing around, they managed to find it. He heard Rose say that she's not old enough to have a job. "Nonsense!" He squatted down to her level and gestured her to move closer. Once doing so, he whispered in her ear, "Tell you what, I have a job for you. You're the defender of the Earth, Rose." Of course he couldn't say that he's a Time Lord and say that he had met her in the future, but he could say that. "Then again, I live in Superhero-land! Everyone defends Earth!"

Rose grinned at the Doctor's comments and opened the door to her class. She broke free of the Doctor's fingers and slid her way inside, leaving the Doctor outside. Maybe she had forgotten that the initial plan was to have the Doctor tell her teacher to call Rose's mother or maybe Rose just wanted someone to talk to on her way. Two minutes passed and the teacher agreed to call Rose's mom - and the two boys' parents that made fun of Rose not having a father. Rose crumpled up a piece of paper and threw it at the head of the same brown-haired boy that was picking on her just a few minutes ago and darted out of the classroom to return to the Doctor. Her face lit up and held at the Doctor's hand again. "My mum's coming." She stated and swung her arm, causing the Doctor's arm to do the same. "Mister Smith, what's your favorite planet? Mine's Pluto."

Is she trying to have an actual talk with me? Looks like I'm warming up to her. He smiled and told her to come closer. Leaning a bit more, just centimeters away from Rose's ear, he whispered, "Earth. I like it here. Besides, I wouldn't want to live on any other planets… but if I had to, it would be this planet called Gallifrey." It's all right. She doesn't know of it. "It's this beautiful planet, a bunch of light years away from Earth. I heard it from a friend of mine that its skies are always orange. I heard there's red grass there. Silver leaves on trees, too. If I didn't live here, I would be staying there." It was a brief description of Gallifrey. Dwelling into his memories about the planet would just leave him with a broken heart - or in this case, two broken hearts.

Over the course of the time it took Jackie Tyler to arrive at the campus, the Doctor and Rose were talking about almost all kinds of things; what they planned to do during the weekend, guessing how many stars there were in the universe - which Rose made a comment in which stars were just holes on a black sheet of paper, why pens made a clicking sound, and something about bears.

They were standing outside the building and Rose pointed at Jackie's vehicle. "That's my mum!" The car came closer and Rose clutched onto her bag that held all her school supplies, ready to get into the car. She was stopped by the Doctor tugging onto her bag. She twirled around and pulled on her bag, trying to get the Doctor to release his grip. "What? What is it?"

"Before you go, make sure you eat your fruits and vegetables. Speaking of fruits, bananas are fantastic! Always bring a banana to a party." When asked why, the Doctor said that 'bananas are cool' and let go of her bag. "I'll see you, Rose." He waved farewell at her as she got into the car and Jackie drove off. "Now what?" He said aloud, knowing that nobody would answer to him. Rory and Amy haven't arrived back yet. Then, at the corner of his eye, he found the two. "Oi!" He yelled out and waved his arms frantically in the air. There were no shopping bags in their possession, but they did have a small plastic bag. "Hey!" The Doctor yelled out again and sprinted to their direction. When meeting with his companions again, he stuffed his hand into the bag and pulled the item out. In his hand were candy. Hard candy, lollipops, taffy. He addressed a look at the two and took a lollipop, ripped the wrapper, and popped the lollipop in his mouth. "Mm, butterscotch!"

The three of them soon headed to the blue box and the Doctor planned on their next adventure - once he fixed what was wrong with the TARDIS, that is - and suggested another planet. Amy wanted a sunny place, maybe a planet that had the temperature of Hawaii. Rory, not sure what to say, agreed with Amy and the Doctor went on a babbling spree in which there was a planet such as that, but he wasn't sure if the strict rules there would allow them to visit. They had a law about time-traveling, to put it shortly. In the middle of his verbal nonsense, the Doctor laughed happily. It wasn't because he realized that he was talking to his companions about the most ludicrous - and quite possibly useless to their knowledge - things, but because he knew he had not disturbed the timeline. After all, Rose would never be able to see him like this again. He shook the thought out of his head and planned on the other planets in which the group could travel to.

During the next few years of Rose's life, she kept thinking about the Doctor in class. In Art, she would start doodling the Doctor for about four months before her teacher told her to stop and 'imagine up something new.' In English, Rose would create stories about the Doctor and Gallifrey. One story included her being stuck in Pluto and the Doctor arriving on the planet with a spaceship, asking her if she wanted to go to Gallifrey. Rose dreamt about meeting the Doctor again but never was able to. Actually, she did, just not with the same face she had expected. On her adventures with the ninth and tenth incarnations of the Time Lord, Rose deduced that the man that she met was one of his later bodies. She didn't ask the Doctor to confirm her hunch, thinking that he wouldn't know until later. Also, at one point in her life, she took the eleventh Doctor's advice and brought a banana to a party.

And the Doctor didn't know how much he meant to her. Not until she spoke those three words at Norway.