Work Text:
Four seconds deep breath in through the nose.
Hold.
Four seconds deep breath in through the nose.
Hold.
Eight seconds count breath out through the mouth.
Repeat.
As the last breath leaves her lungs, Rose opens her eyes, facing the steel wall of the pre-launch canon containment cell. The deep breathing meditation stills the pre-jump jitters before she travels to who knows where and when, helping her to center her thoughts and focus.
Each jump thus far has helped to refine the multidimensional tracker to the TARDIS, and they’re close. So close. She knows it. Something deep down sparks that innate instinct that has never led her wrong. Perhaps this is the trip that takes her home.
Home. Gods, Rose can barely think it.
It’s been so many years, now, since Pete’s universe has become her home. And yet… There’s a part of her that feels slightly out of sync, like her body is a nanosecond out of step with the world around her. This universe has become her home out of sheer necessity, not because it feels right.
The TARDIS felt right; the Doctor, too. Though Rose doesn’t know if he’s moved on or wears another face, that inner instinct pulls her unerringly back to him.
And so, Rose flicks her gaze up to the camera and gives a thumbs up to Mickey, smiling broadly for all those she’s leaving behind. She double checks the sleek dimensional tracker on her wrist, takes a deep breath, closes her eyes, and –