A/N: Set right after Tentoo and Rose's kiss on the beach. This is my first fanfiction ever, so they might be a little OOC. Don't judge! Actually, please do. Reviews are appreciated. I haven't seen this episode in a while, so tell me if I mess up on any details.

Rose Tyler and the Doctor were kissing.

Or was he even the Doctor? That thought whispered in the back of her mind, for a split second right until the moment when she just couldn't help it, when she saw the Doctor's face and heard his voice, telling her the three words she had been waiting for, and knew he meant it. That was when she made their mouths crash together, and then the pink-and-yellow human ceased to think about anything but that kiss.

She could hardly believe it. She didn't even know he could really feel that way about a human (of course she knew about Madame de Pompadour, she was barely jealous. It was different, somehow. He met her as a little girl, for God's sake!). But he said he loved her. In that way, and proved it. He kissed her back.

She had felt herself falling for him, slowly, sometime after he had regenerated into that rude-and-not-ginger man she became acquainted with sometime after he had died(ish). Saving her.

However, she had never really expected this. Not from a Time Lord. And she never knew how much she wanted it until it happened. It wasn't that they weren't complete without some snogging tossed into the relationship. It wasn't that she didn't know he loved her. It was just that now it was official. And she liked the feeling of being close to him, her arms around him and his mouth against hers.

But then she broke away from him, as she heard the TARDIS leaving, saw it fade away for what she knew, deep down, was the last time.

Why are you crying? A part of her reasoned. You're with the Doctor now. This is what you wanted. This is all you wanted.

But was she really with the Doctor? Wasn't the Doctor the one who had left with Donna? Rose never even got to tell him goodbye…

Who was the man who just told her he loved her? Sure, the Doctor, the real one, told her what he thought she needed to know. This bloke was an exact copy of himself.

But not exact. The duplicate's head was packed with memories, but he was not the one who had traveled with Rose to all those places. He wasn't even a bloody Time Lord! And he made different choices than the Doctor. This other Doctor was a younger version of the second regeneration Rose had traveled with. He had retained every memory the Doctor had since the duplicate's creation, but still. What if he changed? She would have to get to know a slightly different, the-same-but-not, Doctor for the third time.

~?~DW~?~

They were in Jackie's car. How Rose got there was a bit of a blur.

Even when Rose stopped sobbing, when her pain became numb and quiet, just a faint but persistent reminder of a not-quite-goodbye on an ironically named beach, she couldn't stop crying. It was like her tear ducts could not figure out how to stop. Her cheeks were warm and streaming wet; she tasted salt on her Doctor had his arm around her, not letting go once. It felt nice, warm, holding Rose up.

But he didn't try to kiss her again, or even wipe the tears away. In fact, he didn't way a word. He knew why she was crying.

It was a long ride, and they were tired. When Rose finally fell asleep against his shoulder, the Doctor cried a few tears of his own.

~?~DW~?~

They were about an hour from the Tyler mansion when Rose stirred awake. She was curled into the Doctor slightly. She was covered with the Doctor's blue suit jacket like a blanket.

The Doctor.

It dawned on her that he was definitely still in there, somewhere. He did kind things like that.

Now she remembered how she had gotten into the car. He had carried her.

"Doctor," she mumbled sleepily.

For a few moments he waited for her to finish, looking at her in that sad and silent way of his, shadowed eyes and the way he held his jaw, as if he was breaking.

But that was all she had to say, so he responded simply, "Rose Tyler."

"Are you the Doctor? Really?" she said, suddenly. She couldn't hold it in any longer. This was the answer she needed.

Silence. He pondered the question honestly. Rose realized he was confused, too."Yeah." His reply came. It was soft, but he meant it.

"Then-" Rose broke off. "Then I love you too, you know."

The Doctor thought he was done weeping, but one more tear came, along with an emotion he couldn't quite identify.

Rose reached up and thumbed it away.

"Rose Tyler."

The two of them embraced. Rose and the Doctor were together again. Jackie smiled in the front seat, looking at her daughter and her Doctor, then her eyes went back to the road as they started kissing.

The End!

I will (hopefully) be posting another one-shot sometime before the end of the month. Stay tuned if you like these. Also, my next fanfic will probably be shorter and lighter.