"Why don't you ask her yourself?"
His hearts nearly stopped when he registered Donna's words, almost afraid to turn around a look – but he looked anyway. And when he saw her smile, her tongue poking between her teeth, a sight he thought he would never see again, his self-control was completely obliterated.
The force that drew them together was magnetic – and it made sense, he supposed. Her overwhelming goodness and loveliness, just down the street, reaching out to his emptiness and darkness, making him better, drawing him in. His footsteps were clumsy at first, still slow with disbelief, but then his body caught up with his mind, and for the first time in his long lives he was running not away from something, but toward something. Toward Rose.
His hearts pounded in his chest, almost laughing breathlessly. Every thought in his mind gone, except for Rose Rose Rose Rose Rose.
She flung herself into his arms, laughing and crying and hiccupping. The Doctor pulled her closer to him, his grip tight and trembling, almost afraid she would crumble into nothing and disappear. He'd had that nightmare one too many times.
Rose was shaking, too, unable to hold herself up any longer. He clung to her so she wouldn't fall, pressed her body into his. He wouldn't, couldn't let her down. Not again. Never again.
"Rose," he gasped aloud, pressing his face into her hair and breathing in her scent. "Rose."
"Doctor," she said, and he broke. The sound of his name tumbling from her lips spurred him into action, and he pulled back from their embrace just enough to cup her face in his hands and drag her into a long overdue kiss.
She responded immediately, her hands winding up into his hair and tugging, hard. He held back a groan at the sensation, his arms falling to rest at her waist, gripping her tightly, desperately.
"I love you," he whispered between frantic kisses, pressing his lips to her jaw when she pulled back to breathe, her chest rising and falling rapidly. She gasped his name, tears in her eyes. "I love you, Rose, I love you."
She grasped his face in her hands to look in his eyes, and a slow smile crossed her face.
"I love you," he said again, softly, brushing her tousled hair out of her face.
"I love you, too," she whispered, her eyes watering. He pressed their foreheads together and delighted in the way their breath mingled, a warm vapor in the cold night air. Her hand rested on his chest, between his hearts. He smiled and pressed another kiss to her lips, gentler this time, relishing in the moment.
"Hello," he said. She laughed, a watery sound that filled him with joy. She was here, in his arms, and already her presence was healing him – the awful ache caused by her absence was fading, and god, she was here, and he'd missed her –
"I missed you," she said, echoing his thought.
His hand trailed down her arm, their fingers lacing together, falling into place like they'd spent no time apart. Her warm hand in his cool one, a familiar comfort, put a wide grin on his face.
He would never let go again. His eyes fluttered closed as she tucked her head into his neck.
"Rose," he breathed. He felt, rather than heard, her response, mumbled into his skin.
"I love you," she said. "Forever."