There was one thing Rose hadn't considered when she'd accepted the Doctor's proposal, she reflected six weeks later.
Jackie's strident voice filled the small chapel. "No, this isn't nearly big enough for the number of guests we'll have."
The confused wedding planner looked at Rose, who shrugged weakly. If she'd realised she was opening herself up to months of wedding planning with her mum, her answer to the Doctor might have been different.
Her ring caught and reflected the sunlight as they left the building, and Rose smiled despite the headache brewing behind her eyes. Then again, maybe not. The look on the Doctor's face when he'd slid the ring onto her finger more than made up for any annoyance she felt towards her mum.
Still, she was grateful when the afternoon was over and the driver dropped her off at home. After muttering reassurances that she and the Doctor would be over for Sunday roast the next day, she escaped the car and nearly ran up the walk to her own home.
The Doctor stuck his head out of the kitchen when she slammed the door behind her. "Long day?" he asked, his left eyebrow arched when he realised she was leaning against the door with her arms splayed out, as if she were intent on keeping something out.
Rose groaned and pushed off from the door. "Just Mum," she said, and that was enough explanation to elicit a sympathetic hum, followed by a hug.
Feeling the Doctor's arms around relaxed her, as always, and after a few moments, she unbent enough to catch a delicious scent in the air. She pulled back and sniffed a few times, then let go of the Doctor and stepped around him into the kitchen.
"Oh, I love you," she groaned when she spotted take out containers on the counter from their favourite Indian restaurant. The food was already dished up and on the table waiting for them, and she shrugged out of her coat and handed it to the Doctor, then took her seat while he hung it up.
"I hope so, since you agreed to marry me," he said, a twinkle in his eyes.
Rose stuck her tongue out at him, then dug into her meal. After taking a few bites, she leaned back and shook her head. "Believe me, only love could convince me to put up with Mum planning our wedding."
The Doctor tore off a piece of naan and swiped it through his curry before popping it into his mouth. "Is she still determined to make it the wedding of the century?" he asked after he'd swallowed.
"At least." Rose sighed when she felt some of her earlier headache return. "I've half a mind to elope—it would serve her right." She rested her chin on her hand and looked at the Doctor. "Please tell me there's some kind of Time Lord ritual we could do instead of this… circus. Preferably something very, very private."
The Doctor nearly choked. He'd been trying to figure out how to bring bonding up for weeks, and after all his fretting, Rose had handed him an opportunity on a silver platter.
Her eyes narrowed. "There is," she deduced quickly. "There is, and it's something you want."
He swallowed his food, then took a gulp of water. "Let's finish our meal, and then I'll tell you about it," he said, not bothering to deny her assertion.
Rose ate her dinner with barely concealed impatience, and as soon as they were sitting in the living room together, she looked at him expectantly. "Tell me."
Her soft request eased some of the Doctor's agitation. He wrapped an arm around her shoulders and pulled her close.
"It was called bonding," he started, jumping right into the middle of the explanation.
Rose nodded. "That's as good a word for marriage as any," she mused. "Binding your lives together."
The Doctor shook his head. "Bonding was more than that," he said, stumbling over the words slightly. The butterflies in his stomach were almost unbearable. In all his years with Rose, there were only four other times he'd asked her a question that meant as much as this one—asking her to come with him when they met, asking her to continue travelling with him after he regenerated, asking her to choose him on that beach, and just six weeks ago, when he'd asked her to marry him.
Rose patted his knee. "Calm down, Doctor," she murmured, and he realised his breathing had sped up. "Just tell me, and then we can talk about it."
The Doctor took a breath and held it for a second before letting it out slowly. Then he said, "A bond would be telepathic, Rose. It would tie our minds together permanently."
She turned slightly to look up at him. "Tie our minds together? What does that mean? Would we be able to read each other's minds?"
"Not… exactly," he hedged. "It would be more like… knowing one another so deeply that we could anticipate each other's thoughts."
The tiniest furrow appeared on Rose's forehead, and his heart sank. She didn't want it; it was too much.
"Would I even be able to do that, since I'm human?"
It took the Doctor a moment to realise she wasn't refusing—that, in fact, she sounded interested, although the interest was tempered by caution. Then his heart sped up and he felt a grin stretch across his face, before he nodded fervently.
"Oh, yes," he promised. "We know you're at least a little bit telepathic, based on your ability to communicate with our TARDIS. And even if you weren't, I'm telepathic enough to support a bond between us on my own."
She licked her lips. "It's permanent?"
He nodded.
"It sounds… intimate. Like we'd be completely open to one another. Always together, always… vulnerable."
The Doctor ran a hand through his hair. "Yeah. Bonds had actually fallen out of favour before my time," he admitted. "Time Lords weren't really keen on making themselves vulnerable to others."
Rose's eyes sought his. "But you would trust me with… with all of you, like this?"
His heart ached with love for Rose, and he wanted to open himself up to her right there so she could see how much he trusted her. Instead, he took her hand and brought it to his lips, kissing it tenderly before saying, "I would trust you with everything I am, Rose."
Finally, a smile broke through her serious demeanour, like the sun peeking through the clouds. "Then I would love to bond with you, Doctor."
The Doctor leaned forward and kissed her, partly in an attempt to conceal the excited squeak he felt in the back of his throat. Bonding with Rose had been his forbidden fantasy since the moment he'd used a kiss to take the Vortex from her. He'd slowly been working up the courage to mention it to her when they'd been separated, and he'd had four lonely years to regret not asking when he had the chance.
Rose curled her fingers into the Doctor's hair as he kissed her. She could practically taste his excitement and eagerness, and they spurred on her own. When his lips moved away from her mouth to trail kisses along her jawline, she turned her head and whispered in his ear.
"Can we do it now?"
He nipped at her ear. "Oh, I intend to," he growled, before pulling her into his lap.
Rose laughed and pushed against his shoulders, putting a little space between them. "Not what I meant, love," she explained when he looked up at her through passion-glazed eyes.
"Then what… Oh." He blinked a few times, and she watched some of his control return. "You mean the bond?"
Rose nodded, and the Doctor leaned back against the cushions and raked his hand through his hair. "Well…" He pressed his tongue to the back of his teeth. "We could, but I actually have plans, if that's all right?"
"Of course," she assured him. It struck her then in a way that it hadn't earlier—this was something he'd really been wanting for a while, enough to plan it out before he even mentioned it to her. "As long as we can implement these plans before my mum drives me mad," she added, remembering what had sparked the conversation in the first place.
The Doctor laughed, the tugged her closer and nuzzled into her neck. "Oh, I think that can be arranged," he assured her. "If I can get Pete to agree to let us have two weeks off, could you be ready to go by Friday?"
After a quick mental review of her calendar, Rose nodded. The Doctor beamed, then pressed a quick kiss to her lips before standing up with her wrapped securely in his arms. "Then I think we were in the middle of something," he said as he carried her to their room.