Dr Who: Cubed;
an excerpt

“This is your fault,” he said as he looked out the door.
“How is this my fault?” she asked, defensively.
“This is Mal Lupine.”
For once, Rose didn’t need to ask for a translation for the meaning. “Bad Wolf,” she whispered.
“How did you do it?” he asked, incredulously.
She shook her head, her heart tightening. Last time, it had been a sign. A sign that she could get back to him. Was it still? She wasn’t sure. She didn’t want to collapse both universes. That would be selfish. She couldn’t destroy innumerable lives just to get back to him, despite how much she loved him. “I didn’t. I don’t think, anyway. I don’t remember where I put all of the phrase. I only know I did it because the Doctor… My Doctor told me about it afterwards.”
“Well, apparently you did. Why?”
She shook her head, growing frustrated. “I don’t know. I.. It was so I would know I could get back to him when he needed me to do it. I had no choice. But I hadn’t done that here, this is only the second time since I’ve been here” she couldn’t bring herself to say since she was stranded, “that the phrase has reappeared. The first was where he told me goodbye. Dårlig ulv stranden."
“So you are this Bad Wolf?”
She shook her head, “No. I am Rose Tyler. Bad Wolf was… is.. a company on Satellite five. When the Emperor of the Daleks emerged from the Void, there was only one way to destroy him, or so the Doctor thought. A (type) radiation pulse. Problem was, if he let that thing rip, he was going to fry the whole earth, and everyone in that station. He sent me home, in his TARDIS.”
The Doctor was quiet for a moment. “Either your version of me is very stupid, or very, very brave. I’m not sure which.”
“Brave,” Rose said, without hesitation. “No doubt what so ever. My Doctor always had an answer, eventually. I can’t help but wonder how you don’t seem to be the same.”
“Oh, and now the girl’s calling me an idiot. I tell you, it’s no wonder I started trying to avoid humans.”
For a moment, she frowned.”So is that all we are to you then?” she shook her head. “You are nothing like my Doctor.”
He laughed, an almost guttural sound that caught Rose off guard. “You presume you have any right to him? You really don’t get it, do you? You think you were so special to him. If he loves you so much, then where is he? Hmm? Maybe you don’t matter nearly as much as you think you do. You’re just one of many companions he’s plucked from their life, and thrown into his.”
“Like you don’t do just the same?”
“I stopped,” He admitted with a shrug. “It’s cruel to them to be shown that there’s so much more than a mundane, droll existence, and then to throw them back into it, and try to expect them to adapt.”
“It’s not easy,” Rose admitted, “But I wouldn’t trade a moment of it back. I’ve been to the end of the world! I’ve met people I’d only read about, and people I never would have imagined existed. I ran for my life more times than I could count, and yet I loved every last minute of it. Yes, it’s hard to adapt to a mundane life after that, but without a companion, a friend, you’re too alone. No one to talk to. No one to ask the questions you’re always waiting for someone to ask.” No one to save your bum from being destroyed on a near daily basis she thought, but tactfully left that out. “The Doctor I know might pull a lot of it from his arse, but he truly cares about the people he travels with. He grabbed my hand that night, but the choice to go with him was mine, and mine alone.”
The Fuzzy Doctor looked abashedly at her. “Pardon me, child, but you overstep your bounds by millenniums!”
“But you’re being a jerk about this all! It’s not my fault you’re lonely and sad, just like he is, but you’re angry about it instead. He pushes it aside, and just keeps running, and going, and sometimes he just wants to go find the nearest black hole, but he doesn’t. Having someone with him keeps him sane I think. It reminds him there’s joy to balance out the sadness, even if it’s something as small as a sunset over the beach on Trelianus Alpha Nine.”
The Fuzzy Doctor was silent for a moment, apparently thinking. He shook his head, “You think you have him pegged, then, don’t you?”
She shook her head. “No. I don’t think I have him pegged. I know I can only understand such a limited part of him, but I learned a lot about him while we traveled, and I know the sort of man he is. He is honorable, and honest, and sometimes cares a bit too much about the little things that any normal person would miss. He goes into situations with nothing more than his sonic screwdriver and hope, and he pulls a solution out of his hat, every single time.”
“Your Doctor sounds like a man to be much admired.” The Fuzzy Doctor shook his head. “I’ve never had a companion who thought so much of me.”
“Maybe they did and you were just too blind to see it,” Rose suggested, softly, then impulsively took his hand.
He wrapped his hand through hers, surprise making his eyes widen.
“Now, are we going to stand here all day, or see what trouble we can get into?” Her grin almost split her head in two.