A Final Goodbye

The Doctor paced back and forth in the TARDIS console room, deep in thought. He wasn't sure what to do, for once in his long life. You see, it was an important, yet sad day.

In the other universe, Rose was dying.

She'd lived a long, full life with his metacrisis creation, but now it was time for her to move on. He knew he wanted to say goodbye to her, but since he let her go the second time, he'd regenerated multiple times. He looked completely different, and was so much older.

But on the bright side, he was finally a ginger!

There was an old, dying sun nearby, and he planned on using it to his advantage again. He knew she would remember his gesture from the last time, so he planned on using it to push a larger hole through. (Another huge problem had occurred, causing a tear in the fabric of reality. Basically, it was another day for the Doctor.) He'd have just enough time to say a final goodbye to her before she was gone forever.

He harnessed the power of the dying sun and pushed his way through with the TARDIS. He knew this was something he needed to actually be there for, and he knew he'd have enough time with the size of the sun. Besides, even after all these years, this was important enough that for once, he didn't care.

He landed in a small group of trees behind a house. He didn't have many clues, but he just had this feeling it was this house. Rose was here.

He stepped out of the doors into the sunlight and chewed his lip. It was too bright for a day like this, according to him. But he couldn't think about that. It was now or never. After a split second of hesitation, he started towards the door.

He didn't need to reach the door before it opened, probably having already heard the sound of the TARDIS landing. An old man stood there, and the Doctor froze in place. He didn't need to say a single word. the Doctor already knew who he was.

"You really are human. You've grown old," the Time Lord said to the older version of his previous regeneration.

"And you're finally a ginger," the metacrisis-him attempted to joke, but neither laughed at their comments. They both knew what was coming. "Are you here to-," he then began, but was cut off by the Doctor.

"Yes," he said softly. "Can I?"

"Of course. She even said it was her dying wish, to see the real you one more time." He stepped aside to let him enter the small house.

As the two of them walked down the hall towards the room Rose resided in, the Doctor looked at the pictures hanging on the walls. There were plenty of pictures there. The first one that stood out was a photo of Rose in a white dress, metacrisis-him standing beside her in a tuxedo. After that were pictures of the two of them with children. He counted three, two girls and a boy, by the end. Pictures of their children's weddings were after all of the photos of the young children, with plenty of other family memories thrown in.

The Doctor felt both of his hearts start to break. He wished he had been able to be the one to live his life with her, but both he and Rose knew the day they parted ways that it could never happen. At least Rose was happy, he reminded himself, which helped.

They arrived at the doorway, and the other him poked his head in the door. "Rose, there's someone here to see you," he said softly.

A soft, feminine voice came through the door and hit the Doctor's ears. "Send them in," the voice said. It was older, much older, but it still sounded like Rose.

The Doctor entered the room and he felt his hearts beat faster and faster. It really was her. Sure, she was older, with white hair instead of blonde, and both smile and frown lines on her face, but her eyes and smile were still just the same as always.