Rose was getting ready for work. She had spent the first month of The Doctor's absence sulking. The second month she had spent looking for a job. It wasn't until most of the way through the third month that she actually found one. A job in a shop. Of course. She hated it. Day in day out working with people who had no idea what was out there. They were so focused on their little lives that they didn't have a clue about the bigger picture. To top it off, it was boring, god awful boring. Nothing interesting happened. Not even for Christmas! So it was just a year of drudging through the days hoping that the next the Doctor would return, but he never did. Rose had gone through most of the stages of grieving, had even called up Sarah Jane and spoke with her a bit, but it hurt too much so they never did more than chat over the phone twice. 

Now she stood in the hall her jaw dropped as she heard the noise she had been hoping to hear for months, for a year. She grabbed her coat and ran out the door, shoes untied. She wasn't hallucinating it was the Doctor, oh he better have a good reason for being gone so long. "Mum! It's him!" She yelled back over her shoulder to Jackie who was in the kitchen on the phone. Before Jackie could react Rose was running down the stairs and toward the Doctor and the TARDIS, the place she had considered more of a home than anywhere before.

"Doctor!" He was just coming out of the TARDIS, smoke following him out of the door before he shut it away. Tears were stinging Rose's eyes. "Where in the universe have you been? It's been a year. I had to get a job." But despite the anger in her voice she was wrapping her arms around him. Her Doctor. 

Jackie had hung up the phone and was following Rose out of the apartment, just not as fast. Her arms were crossed and the cordless phone was in her hand tapping the opposite upper arm. She stood about twenty feet back watching their reunion, and when they were finished she had a bone to pick with him. Rose had been a wreck!