Disclaimer: Don't own it and I never will. I'm quite used to that.
AN: Totally and completely AU. I have no issues with Ten II, except it felt a bit like a sop to basically give Rose a Doctor she could grow old with. I know Rose couldn't stay, there were things the Doctor had to do and he was trying to keep her safe, but all the same, it felt wrong somehow.
"Does it need saying?" the Doctor asked, hands buried in his pockets and staring at her through shuttered eyes. Rose wanted to scream at him that it did, but something held her tongue. She studied him, shoving her own emotions down for the moment. The way he held himself, the closed off posture practically screamed that he'd rather be anywhere but here doing what he was doing. He was trying to protect himself from the pain he was so sure would follow from this. After years of trying, she'd managed to make it back to his side, only to fall headfirst into Daleks trying, once again, to destroy the whole of reality. Within a few hours, they'd saved everything and everyone (well, those that weren't already dead by the time they fixed it, at any rate). Now, here they stood, the Doctor steeling himself for far more than a goodbye.
Closing her eyes, Rose was suddenly washed in memories. The Doctor had been so closed off at first, wanting someone to see him as a hero instead of the monster he believed himself to be. He'd succeeded admirably, and eventually, she'd helped him see himself that way, too. After he regenerated, once she'd realized that he was definitely the same man, she'd fallen for him all over again. As they grew closer, she knew she was letting little hints about how she felt about him show, but had never really noticed anything from him in return, at least not in a way she understood. Looking back now, she saw every little thing he did that showed that he did love her, as completely and helplessly devoted to her as she was to him, but he tried to keep part of himself back, knowing how much it was going to hurt when she was gone.
The way he made her tea in the morning, knowing she was completely useless without it, how he stayed with her when she got nightmares, the look on his face as she fell toward the Void at Canary Wharf, the absolute heartbreak in his eyes when they'd said goodbye here on this very beach, the grin that stretched across his entire face as they ran toward each other before that Dalek had interrupted, and the way he said her name. There was always a certain something to it that she'd never noticed until this exact moment, the smile that usually preceded or followed one she'd never seen him give anyone else and his hearts in his eyes.
"You're right, Doctor," she said, opening her eyes and giving him the smile she knew he could never resist copying. "It doesn't need saying, because you've been telling me all along." His face lit up when she threw herself into his arms.
"Good for you, sweetheart," Jackie cheered from behind them, making them both laugh and pull away a little. She made her way toward them, giving Rose a gentle push so she could give the Doctor her own hug, but not before she slapped him.
"What was that for?"
"For almost leaving her behind, you plum," she scolded, eyes flashing as she stared at him, "and for not finishing that sentence the first time." Heaving a sigh, she wrapped her arms around the tall, skinny alien her daughter loved with everything in her. "We're going to miss her, you know, but it'll be easier knowing she's happy, doing what she loves out there among the stars with you. Take good care of my girl, Doctor, or I'll be finding my way back to give you a smack that himself in leather will feel, you get me?"
"Yes, ma'am," he replied, knowing she was perfectly capable of doing just that.
"By the way, just in case you manage to do something domestic," she went on, before rising to her toes and whispering something in his ear that his face going first white, then red as a tomato, she pulled back with a superior smile on her face at leaving him speechless. Apparently, the Metacrisis had been doing some talking of his own with Jackie while he'd been focused on Rose. "Even if it doesn't need saying, she'll still want to hear it, so find a way to tell her, yeah?"
"Cross my hearts," he promised, taking Rose's hand in his when Jackie stepped back. "Rose Tyler."
"Yes, Doctor?"
"Run!"