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It was only a week after his mother was taken that Jack was born. The Doctor had almost missed it, busily calculating, desperately trying to find any safe way through to the other universe. Any way to bring Rose back. There wasn’t one, and somewhere in his mind he had known that before he began, but he worked out that he could send an image. And it was at that moment that his ship had interrupted his work, insisting he go and see to his son.There hadn’t been any complications, of course. The TARDIS was perfectly capable of looking after the child on her own before, during, and after his birth, but The Doctor needed his son. And it would benefit Jack to be with his father. Especially considering Rose’s absence.It took The Doctor three weeks after that to find the power source that would allow him to send a message through to Rose. The TARDIS looked after Jack when he was working, and although she had created a nursery for him, he usually stayed in a cot that she placed in the console room. He was perfectly quiet, as Gallifreyan children took years to develop proper vocal communication, but his telepathic presence was soothing to The Doctor as he worked. And being near his father would help Jack to properly develop his telepathy, better than an abstract entity like the TARDIS could.***The first time Rose heard a voice in her dreams in the parallel universe, it wasn’t one she recognised. But, paradoxically, she knew it. She knew him. He didn’t quite use words; it was more of a feeling, or a thought, or a sense. A sense that called her family, or parent, or mother. She knew it was Jack. Somehow, he was calling her.It didn’t take long for The Doctor’s voice to join. Her family calling to her in her dreams. It got stronger; they were calling her. Leading her. It was then that she told her mother, and Pete, and Mickey. And they went to follow the voices. Because she’d do anything to get back to them.It took them a while to find the right place. But when Rose knew where they were going, it gave her hope. Because Bad Wolf meant there was always a way; they’d always get back to one another. Bad Wolf Bay would bring her back to them. It had to.
***He appeared behind her, translucent and hopeless.“I’m burning up a sun just to say goodbye.”And with those words, any last hope she had of getting back to him was shattered. If he couldn’t do it, no-one could.“You look like a ghost,” she told him, and so he fixed it somehow, like he always did. Like he always did, but not this time. This time she was stuck. And he was still just an image. No touch; no way through without destroying the universes.“How long’ve we got?” she asked. They couldn’t waste time. Not if this was all they had.“’Bout two minutes. But, well. Rose, I- I’m not exactly quite doing this just to say goodbye.” And she already knew, she’d known from the moment she heard him in her dreams.“Jack, I know. I- I heard him. In my dreams, like I heard you. Is he okay?”“He’s perfect. Look, he’s just like you.” With that, The Doctor lifted Jack from his cot. And he was right. Jack was perfect. She couldn’t bear to lose him. But she already had.“He’s beautiful,” she whispered, “Can I- Will it work if I take a photo?”“You can try.”So she did. Because if this was the only time she could see her son, she certainly wasn’t going to forget it.He tried to distract her for a while, talk of her job at Torchwood, of her mother, the fact that she’d soon have a brother. But they didn’t have long, and she just watched her son as he stared at her and smiled.“I love you,” she said to both of them, tears running down her face as time was running out.“Quite right too,” The Doctor replied, with the most miserable smile she had ever seen, “And I suppose, if it’s my last chance to say it, Rose Tyler-”
And with that they were gone. Just memories, and a photograph taken on a mobile phone.