19. "Everything's going to be all right" kiss
As soon as the Doctor could get out of the Olympic Stadium, he ran. Carrying the torch had been a necessary save-the-day moment, but he ached to get back to Rose. Time… time was doing something very strange today, and he wouldn't feel at ease until he saw her again.
The Doctor's run slowed to a walk when he reached Dame Kelly Holmes Close. Neighbours milled about in the street, wide, relieved smiles on their faces as they celebrated the return of their children.
But where is Rose?
"Cake?"
A grin spread across the Doctor's face when he heard her voice, and he laughed when he turned around and spotted the fairy cake she offered him.
"Top banana." He took the cake and bit into it, humming in delight when he crunched down on the sugary decorations. "I can't stress this enough," he said with his mouth full. "Ball bearings you can eat, masterpiece!"
To his surprise, Rose's lower lip trembled, and a moment later, she flung her arms around his neck. "I thought I'd lost you," she whispered against his skin.
The Doctor held her tight and swung her around a few times. "Nah," he said as he set her back on her feet. "Not on a night like this. This is a night for lost things being found."
She tugged on his tie and looked up at him through her eyelashes. "It's just… for a moment, I really felt like you were gone, so far away that I could never get back to you."
Timelines trembled around them, and the Doctor caught a glimpse of an empty room with a bare white wall before he yanked himself back to the present.
Fear coursed through him, and he dropped the remains of the fairy cake so he could cup Rose's face between his hands. He opened his mouth to tell her he loved her, but like always, the words got stuck in his throat.
"Doctor…"
He shook his head and leaned down to press his lips to hers. It's going to be all right, love, he told her, repeating the words over and over as he nibbled at her bottom lip.
He felt her hands slide over his chest, and he dropped one hand to her waist to pull her closer. He needed to be as close to Rose as possible right now, after the brief glimpse of a bleak future with out her.
The boom of fireworks starting startled them both out of the kiss. They tilted their heads back to look at the bright splash of colour against the sky. The Doctor would have been happy to ignore the future he felt lurking just out of sight and focus on Rose and the Games.
But Rose was braver than that. "What was that, Doctor?" she asked quietly.
He sighed and looked down at her. "There's something in the air," he admitted. "Something coming."
Fear flickered through her eyes, and her brow furrowed. "What?"
The Doctor swallowed hard. "A storm's approaching."
"Like…" Rose licked her lips. "You mean what I saw, it was a possible future?"
"One possible future," he emphasised. "Whatever is ahead for us, time is in flux. In fact, time is more in flux than it normally is. That's why you caught a glimpse of it, I think."
"Yeah, but…" Rose sighed. "How can I see this at all? You said on Senfina that you wanted to figure that out, but it's been over a month and you haven't yet."
"About that…" the Doctor drawled as he reached for Rose's hand. "Let's go back to the TARDIS and see if we can figure some things out, shall we?"
oOoOoOoOo
Twenty minutes later, they'd changed into pyjamas and were sitting in the library, drinking tea and staring awkwardly into the fireplace. Rose rolled her eyes and sighed when she caught the Doctor looking at her surreptitiously when he thought she wasn't watching.
"So how come we're here, instead of in the med bay?" She set her tea down and shifted so she was looking at him.
The Doctor rubbed at the back of his neck. "Well… I know I said I wanted to run tests, but really, it's more like…" He tapped the side of his head.
Oh. Telepathy.
"Okay." He'd gone into her head more than once to help with a nightmare.
He shook his head quickly. "This wouldn't be like the times before," he explained. "I can't just do a shallow connection. To see what I need to see, I'll need a deeper level of access to your mind. You can still hide things behind locked doors, if there's anything you don't want me to see," he added quickly.
Rose took his hand. "Doctor, it's okay." He didn't relax, so she smiled at him. "I love you, and there's no one I'd trust more to poke around in my head."
She watched him take a shaky breath and exhale it slowly before he nodded. "All right then."
They both turned so they were facing each other, and the Doctor raised his hands. She could feel his fingertips brushing against her hair, but he wasn't touching her skin. "Are you sure, Rose?" he asked.
"Positive."
"You'll need to mirror me," he told her. "The connection needs to go both ways for me to have full access to your mind."
"But I'm not telepathic," she protested, though she lifted her hands anyway.
"I think you are." He pressed his fingers to her temples, and Rose's eyes slid shut at the feeling of the Doctor in her mind. Your turn.
Oh, right. Rose let her fingers rest lightly on his temples, and she could tell immediately when the telepathic circuit was complete. Instead of just feeling his presence in her mind, his form solidified beside her and took the hand of her telepathic self.
Have I ever told you how beautiful your mind is?
Rose felt herself flush. Uh… no.
He squeezed her hand, and Rose could feel the pleasure being in her mind gave him. Ah, Doctor? Is what we're doing intimate?
The tips of his ears turned red. It's the first step towards telepathic intimacy, he admitted. But that's not what we're here for today! His babble took on the high-pitched quality it got when he was nervous. I think, first of all, that we can safely say you are definitely telepathic, Rose. You're maintaining this connection with me without any difficulty at all.
The Doctor dropped Rose's hand and turned in a slow circle. Her mind truly was one of the most beautiful things he'd ever seen, but now, getting a closer look at it, he realised how… non-human it was. Thoughts and memories were filed neatly, and through it all ran a golden thread.
Do you know what this is? he asked as he reached for it.
Dunno, but I could feel it glowing this afternoon, when I thought I was going to lose you.
This is time, Rose. Not just a time sense, like I have, but time itself. The Doctor took a deep breath and looked at his mate. Come on, let's open up our eyes and talk.
A moment later, they were both blinking in the library, trying to shake off the strange feeling of leaving a telepathic connection behind. The Doctor ached to dive back into Rose's mind and never leave—since she was telepathic, they could even bond—but he shoved that thought aside for another day.
Rose massaged at her temple, and he realised the newness of the telepathic contact had given her a headache. "Come here," he said, tugging on her hand until she lay down with her head in his lap.
"So what does it mean that I've got time in my head?" Rose asked as he set out to rub her headache away.
"It means your time sense is much more specific than mine. I see all of time—all the possibilities, all the things that must not happen—and outside of a general awareness of the flow of time, like you described on Senfina, most of what you'll see are glimpses of your own possible futures."
Tears welled up in her eyes. "I don't want to lose you," she murmured, reaching up to run her fingers along his jaw. "I felt so… so alone this afternoon, like I'd lost something that's always supposed to be there, and there was just this… this ache. It hurt so much."
The Doctor's eyebrows rose. Apparently, in this future Rose had glimpsed, they'd already bonded. He'd been thinking about it for a while, trying to ignore the desire to share that kind of connection with her. That was part of the reason he'd hesitated to go into her mind today; he'd known he wouldn't want to leave.
But if we lose each other after we bond… He swallowed hard. Maybe not.
"It's just one possible future, love," he repeated. "We have no way of knowing how far away it is, or what would need to happen in order to make it the most likely future."
Rose bit her lip and looked up at him. "Come on, Rose," he whispered, brushing his thumb over her lip until she stopped biting on it. "You promised to stay with me forever, remember?"
She took a breath, and a tiny smile crossed her face. "That's right. I did." She sat up and he pulled her into his lap, nuzzling into her hair. "Doctor?"
"Hmmm?"
"If I… That thing you did on Senfina, when you made time slow down? Do you think I could do that?"
This time, it was his time senses that tingled. The Doctor pulled back and looked down at the woman in his arms. Just by asking the question, she'd opened up a different possible future for them.
"Are you sure?"
She set her jaw and nodded firmly. "I told you, Doctor. I'm never going to leave you—not even if I have to bend time itself to make sure I can stay with you."
A slow smile spread across his face. The storm that had been howling at the edge of his awareness all day abated. "Do you know what, Rose Tyler?" He leaned forward to bump his nose against hers, making her giggle. "They keep trying to split us up, but they never, ever will."