I don't own any of it. Not the Doctor, Rose, the TARDIS, the Tyler gang, Mickey, Norway...etc.

A Life That Could Be Spent Together.

"Doctor?" Rose said softly as she turned to look at the man holding her hand beside her. Her brow was furred with inquisitiveness, as if she didn't really believe what she was seeing. But her eyes shined with tears and a desperate hope.

Rose Tyler had just watched the Doctor, her Doctor disappear in his fantastic blue police call box of a TARDIS for the last time. The FINAL last time. This time there would be no burning-up of a dying star for one more goodbye. This was it.

"Now, more than just time and space stands between us," she thought as she watched the grey, green serf of the Northern Atlantic, off the Norwegian coast. They were forever a parallel dimension apart. Rose knew he would never try to come back for her, nor could she risk the inter-dimensional cannon again.

But here was this man beside her. He looked like her Doctor, he sounded like her Doctor, and he even smelled like her Doctor…Rose had witnessed so many remarkable and unfathomable things in her life, but how could this man beside her be her Doctor, when she just saw him leave her forever. Again.

Looking down at her hand, the one that was firmly clasped with the hand of this other Doctor, she saw his hand squeeze hers before her mind registered the feel of it.

"Rose Tyler." He says with both a smile and a sigh, "My brilliant Rose Tyler, please don't cry." His voice was soft as he said this while his hand moved to cup her cheek as he gently wiped away the tears that she hadn't realized were sliding down her face.

"But you left me! You left me again. How can you be here and leave me at the same time? Who are you? Are you him? Is he you? How can you be both, when you can't be both! You can't be both at the same time, it can't be real," She cries out, her voice tight with emotion.

"I'm sorry, I'm so sorry," he whispers into her hair, holding her tight to his chest. "Rose, it killed me to leave you, but I could only do it again this time because I knew that I still got to be with you."

"But, how can that be?"

"Rose, when my meta-crisis regeneration occurred I was grown from the hand that the Sycorax chopped off so many Christmases ago. Do you remember that Christmas?"

"Yeah" she nodded.

"I was a lucky bastard that I was still within the 15 hours of my regeneration cycle and so I was able to re-grow my hand."

"Your fightin' hand, yeah?" They shared a quick smile at the memory.

"That's right. This body, my new body, was grown from that hand just as that hand was grown from my old body."

"But you weren't within your regeneration cycle this time, how is it that…"

Cutting her off before she could finish this new Doctor continued, "I was though. That is I was, in a way. When that Dalek shot me, my body began to heal itself. It wasn't an immediate killing blow, but I would have died from the wound. Now Rose, stick with me on this because this next part is pure speculation."

"Speculation?"

"Well, granted my brilliant super genius brain is probably right in it's thinking, but as I have no real way to prove any of my theory's legitimacy… that and something like this as never happened before… it is therefore speculative."

"Whatever, go on." Rose ventured a grin and a good-natured roll of her eyes.

Giving her a quick lopsided smile before he continued. "The Dalek's shot didn't kill me but it could have. It was serious, but not instantly fatal. My body needed to heal, not so much to completely regenerate. So I was able to divert the excess regenerative energy into my once severed hand rather than finish the regenerative process."

"You can do that? Then why didn't you do that the first time you regenerated in front of me?"

"That was different, I couldn't help but die and regenerate that time. I truly am a lucky sort of man, as it was only because I had that severed hand that I was able to transfer the excess energy to it. If that hand weren't there, I would have had to finish the regeneration. A new, new me rather that the new, two me that made it possible along with the DoctorDonna of course, to defeat the Daleks and save not only the world, but every other world in every plane of existence. You see, when Donna touched my hand, it was enough of a spark to kick off the regenerative energy that was stored in my hand. As far as the energy was concerned, I was dead and all that remained was my hand. But as a regeneration it was incomplete, it couldn't fashion out a whole new body, but it could regenerate the original DNA source from the hand with the help of Donna's DNA filling in the missing gaps. Therefore I was reborn up to that point. From that moment of creation the Doctor was one, but in two similar bodies."

"Similar? Right, you said that you were human now?"

"No, not completely. I said that I have one heart and one lifetime that I could spend with you, if you wanted me to." He paused for a moment, and his voice sounded, for the first time to Rose's ears, timid, "do you want it?"

"Want what? For you to spend your one lifetime with me? Or your one heart?"

"Both."

Rose hesitated before saying, "I want to say yes."

"But…"

"But I…I'm going to need a moment to take all of this in. I, I…" Rose was starting to hyperventilate. She wanted so badly to believe that this was her Doctor and that everything was going to be perfect, but there was still so much to contend with. She didn't know if she could trust this new Doctor as much as she desperately wanted to. Also, what was it that the other Doctor had said? About him needing her and that was very him? She was supposed to fix this one? How was he broken?

"Rose, Rose, calm down love, there is no rush. We have time, ironically enough. Not all of the time in the world mind you, but enough time that we can catch our breath. Now breathe girly." The Doctor said as he pulled back from their tight embrace.

"Rose! Rose, dear!"

Rose and the Doctor turned to see Jackie running towards them. She was huffing and puffing the freezing air in and out of lungs, slowing down as she neared them. Rose realized that she had forgotten that her mother was there…and that Mickey wasn't.

"Mum, oh god Mum!" She cried as she landed into the embrace of her mother.

The Doctor stood back and watched the two women embrace. He had come to care for both of them, each in their own way. While it pained him, that he was the reason why they were so far from home, he could also take some solace in the comfort that at least they had had each other. They weren't alone, and for the first time in his new body, felt the dark shadow of the loneliness that had been his always-constant companion. He had hoped that with Rose he might have had a chance to escape that life for once, but now watching her as he was, he was unsure.

"I've called your father and he is sending a zeppelin for us but it won't get here until late morning tomorrow, so we might as well get some rest. Lets go, come on now. If I remember right, that little beach side B&B will be just behind those dunes over that way," she said putting an arm around Rose's shoulders. Turning to the Doctor she said, "lets go, you too Doctor."

Rose held out her hand to the Doctor, a silent offering. It was a beginning, which was appropriate because this was the beginning in so many a number of ways. Taking a step forward he reached out and took her hand in his.

END OF CHAPTER ONE. I'd like to write more for this story. I love Doctor Who and I would love to know what happens on Pete's Earth as Rose and the Doctor negotiate their new lives. Since that is a story that will probably never be told in cannon, it is up to the realm of fandom to come up with something. This is the beginning of the story that I would want to see. Anyone else?