"Why don't you ask her yourself?"
The Doctor looked at Donna in confusion for a moment, furrowing his brow. Her words made his way through his brain, but they couldn't mean what he thought. Silently he mouthed, What?, his lips barely moving as a flower of hope budded in the pit of his stomach.
Donna's gaze swept past the Doctor and he caught the hint. He spun his head first, seeing a distant form at the other end of the street. The rest of his body followed as the streetlight illuminated a head of blond hair.
It can't be. He didn't even dare to blink in fear that she would disappear, the woman whose wide smile was visible from here.
Rose grinned at the Doctor, relishing the look of shock on his face. His mouth hung slightly open, and if his eyes were any wider they would surely pop out of his head. This was the moment she had been waiting for, the moment she had worked toward for years.
There was only one thing she could do, only one thing that would get her to him fast enough.
She ran.
The Doctor watched as she started running, echoing his thoughts at that very moment. He started into a sprint, pumping his legs faster and faster. It seemed that if he didn't get to her fast enough, he would wake up and it would all have been a dream.
So the Doctor ran. He ran faster than he ever had before because Rose Tyler, he woman he loved, was back, and this time he wasn't going to let her go.
Rose could hardly believe that she was getting closer to him. She kept thinking it was like one of those dreams where you keep running, but never reach your destination.
But there he was, running at a full sprint towards her, grinning all the while as the edges of his jacket fanned out behind him. His wild hair flew crazily in the wind, but he didn't seem to notice anything but her.
Rose wanted to run faster, to reach him sooner. She hoisted the gun off of her shoulder, not even pausing, and threw it to the ground. She wouldn't have been able to hug him properly with it either, or…anything else that might happen when they reached each other. Not that she would ever hope anything more would happen…
Ten feet…five…one.
Rose Tyler ran straight into her Doctor's arms, caught off balance by the strength of their collision. She wrapped her arms around him and buried her face in his neck, breathing hard as they rocked back and forth. His hearts pounded against her chest as he held her tight, pressing her as close as he could.
She had missed this, missed him, so much, but for a few moments she couldn't say anything. No words really described how much she loved him, how glad she was to finally have found him.
The Doctor squeezed Rose tight in a hug, taking in the smell of her hair and the way she fit so well in his arms. He had missed her so much, and yet he felt he didn't even know how much he had until this moment. That gob of his, always ready with something to say, was stuck. He didn't know what could be uttered to the woman he loved, other than what he promised himself that he would say if he ever saw her again.
But should he really do it?
What about the Daleks? What about her life in the other universe?
The Doctor told himself to stop. He had made himself a sacred promise to not let anything stand in the way of him finishing what he was going to tell Rose Tyler on Bad Wolf Bay.
He felt tears dripping beneath his collar and tightened his grip on her, if that was possible. Slowly, he turned his head slightly so that his lips hovered over her ear.
"Rose Tyler." His voice was hoarse with emotion as tears blurred his vision. Everything inside of him told him to stop because it would change everything… But he didn't care. "I love you."
Rose pulled away abruptly from him, and he thought he had said the wrong thing. Had she lost the love for him that she had confessed on that cursed beach?
Regretfully, the Doctor broke his grip and allowed her to pull away, but kept his hands clamped onto her arms. He wasn't about to let her go.
Rose replayed the Doctor's words in her mind to make sure she hadn't been imagining them. He frowned at her now, probably confused by her actions, but she had to see his face, to know he hadn't been joking.
"You mean it?" she asked quietly as she held onto his shoulders.
The Doctor's expression softened. "Yes," he breathed. His eyes, unblinking, stared her down. Waiting for her reaction.
Rose couldn't repress the fresh tears. She had always imagined him saying those words to her. An overwhelming feeling took over her body, starting from the tip of her toes and spreading to the top of her head. She loved him. God, did she love him. And now, after being away from him for so long, she didn't care about his rules. She had watched him die so many times in other universes, risked her life, just to get to this moment.
And she wasn't going to let it go to waste.
The Doctor was shocked as Rose launched herself at him, pressing her lips firmly to his. He stayed still for a moment, his mind still trying to process what was happening. Rose Tyler, not possessed by Cassandra or the time vortex, his Rose, was kissing him.
She loved him.
He crushed her against him, keeping his arms stubbornly wrapped around her in an unrelenting grip. Rose's fingers became tangled in his hair as his lips began to move with hers. She hummed contentedly and smiled against his lips, pausing the kiss for only a moment to whisper, "I missed you."
The Doctor pulled her back to him. There were so many things he wanted to say, but they could wait. Because kissing Rose Tyler was the best feeling he had ever felt, and he didn't want it to stop.
But humans (curse their single hearts) had to breathe, and Rose eventually pulled away to gasp in air through ragged breaths. The Doctor leaned his forehead against hers, grinning in response to her wide smile.
"I missed you too," he murmured.
"I love you." The confession was followed by his favorite Rose Tyler smile, her tongue poking between her teeth.
The Doctor hugged her, planting a delicate kiss on the side of her head. "I love more than anything, Rose Tyler, and I'll never let you go again."