Author's Notes: Goes AU at around about Journey's End. Metacrisis? What metacrisis?
The Doctor wasn't sure why he kept letting Rose drag him to weddings. He was even less certain how exactly it came about that the third one ended up being his own.
He blamed Pete Tyler. If he hadn't anticipated that the lot of them would arrive back in Norway and met them there, the Doctor doubted any of this would have happened. He had enough practice, he thought, to have managed to successfully duck Jackie's slapping hand, but something about Pete's look pinned him in place for just a second too long. Then he'd found himself sort of trapped.
So much like the first two weddings – one where the groom couldn't get the bride's name right, and one eventually called off on account of looming apocalypse – Pete and Jackie Tyler were standing there with them in the church. This time Pete, however, was walking alongside Rose with her hand looped around his arm. Jackie was just finishing preceding Rose up the aisle, being the only bridesmaid available at a pinch in the middle of nowhere in Norway on a Sunday afternoon. Donna was standing by his side at the front of the church acting like anything butthe supportive best 'man'; she seemed to be having trouble not collapsing in peals of laughter at the situation the Doctor had landed himself in.
The Doctor would like nothing more than to just block her and the whole surreal situation out completely; everything about it except Rose, at least. That was kind of hard to do, though, when he found himself, much the same as had happened on the beach, unable to avert his eyes from Pete Tyler's thunderous glare. It was ridiculous. He was the Doctor. He shouldn't even have had reason to be scared of Rose's parents. But Jackie had started that ball rolling, and now Rose's not-quite-father was looking at him more like the Doctor was something unpleasant that Pete had accidentally stepped on than as if he was his future son-in-law, sort of.
Oh, that was a scary thought, the Doctor realised. Even if she was going to be trapped a whole universe away very soon, that didn't quite change the fact that Jackie Tyler was about to become his mother-in-law.
The Doctor tried to swallow, but his mouth was far too dry. He had no idea how they expected him to speak well enough to complete his vows at a time like this, especially since he was going to have next to no time to recover himself with the whole ceremony playing out at what seemed like triple speed.
Well, he supposed that much at least was necessary. Just a few hundred yards away, the TARDIS was already groaning piteously in a request for him to hurry up and steer them off that beach and back into the right universe before the gap closed up and trapped them all there permanently.
They would already have been long since gone, the Doctor thought wistfully, if only he could have made a strategic retreat to the TARDIS doors without loss of life or limb. He'd already lost one more of the latter than he was strictly comfortable with since the most recent regeneration. He really didn't need any more body parts being scattered here and there across the universes.
Also, and far worse, he would have had to have left Rose behind. While he'd initially given her the choice of staying with her family when she'd stepped out on the beach and seen where he'd brought them... well. That had been before.
Before she'd called him a complete idiot for even thinking that was an option. Before she'd kissed him.
The Doctor had pressed his lips against Rose Tyler's before. He'd done so twice, actually. But he'd still never kissed Roseuntil that moment. It was so very different to have her completely in control, and knowing what was going on, and desperately clawing at his back and seemingly trying to burrow into him as if she was afraid she'd never get another opportunity and wanted to make the most of it.
Doing that with her – with the entire, wonderful package that made up Rose Tyler, mind and body – was beyond addictive. Now that he'd started, he really didn't think he was ever going to be able to stop, no matter what.
Of course, he hadn't expected Rose to use that fact to get him to agree to this. She'd clearly become more crafty since they'd been separated. Or perhaps he was becoming stupider.
When Jackie had said that the only way she was going to be happy to let Rose go was if she had some proof that the Doctor never planned to leave her daughter behind, alone on that other Earth, Rose had smiled and said, "Why not?", quietly pointing out that it wasn't likely a marriage certificate in a whole different universe was even legally binding anyway. The Doctor, blinded by her grin and half-deafened by the sound of his own hearts racing, hadn't been able to think of anything to say other than, "Of course." Of course he planned to stay with Rose for the rest of her forever, however long that may be. Of course he'd love to marry her one day, if that was what she wanted.
He just hadn't realised that 'one day' actually meant 'as soon as Pete could grab the priest from up the hill that he'd met the last time they'd been in Norway'. He hadn't thought it would involve Rose's parents being right there with expectant (and really sort of deadly, in Pete's case) looks. Or that Rose would be standing in jeans and a TARDIS blue jacket instead of some flowing dress not entirely unlike the one she'd worn the first time he'd told her she was beautiful (and perhaps the only time, now he came to think of it – he was clearly going to have to rectify that). He might at least have hoped that Donna would be there either way, though, given that he couldn't think of anyone he'd rather have at his back. That was one thing he wouldn't change.
Rose's expression was another.
The Doctor finally managed to meet Rose's eyes, which were sparkling with mischief, and a silly grin immediately plastered itself across his face.
Right. Yes. About that thing where the Doctor was a little worried he was the one getting stupider? He rather thought that in this moment he had the proof. He was certain that just a few years ago his superior Time Lord senses wouldn't have been deficient enough to allow the world around him to fade down to nothing like this, leaving him with a kind of tunnel vision focused in on Rose's dazzling smile.
Pete managed to bring the Doctor's attention back down to Earth, parallel or not. His elbow jostled the Doctor as he gave Rose away and turned to find his seat. The Doctor didn't think it was an accident, somehow, given how he levelled one last lookat the Doctor before heading for his seat.
Whole universes away, the Doctor reminded himself. Not many people were lucky enough to say that about their wives' parents.
'Wife', he thought as he stared at her. It sounded ridiculous, of course, the same as 'girlfriend' or 'partner' or 'lover' would have. She was just Rose. But she was his Rose, if she was willing to be, just as he was hers, always, whether she wanted him or not. If that was all this wedding meant, the Doctor thought he might be able to get on board with it after all.
With time being of the essence, as they liked to say, it was just as well the Doctor had many years of experience talking at just short of the speed of sound. Rose tried to match him, but kept tripping over herself because she was laughing. Not laughing at him, thankfully. Just laughing. She was happy, the Doctor realised. She was unabashedly happy, and it was swiftly becoming clear to him just how comparatively lifeless everything in his own existence had seemed over the last few years with him being unable to witness her happiness.
The celebrant didn't look entirely convinced at the end of it all that the vows had been said in their entirety, but he seemed to understand that they were in a hurry, even if he didn't have any idea why, so he was apparently willing to let it pass.
The kiss that sealed the two of them into a status that the Doctor wouldn't have even dared to consider just an hour or so ago was just as good as the one out on the beach. No, he thought, it was better. This one, right from the first touch, seemed imbued with the knowledge that there was no chance either of them would let it be the last. He could feel Rose's lips quirking into a smile underneath his. They separated with matching expressions and to applause that Donna and Jackie made sound so riotous that any passer-by – presuming there was a single other person in this entire backwater area – would never have suspected the church was practically empty.
"We can go now, right?" the Doctor asked quietly while the noise was still loud enough to shield his comment from everyone but Rose.
Rose merely laughed and held up a single finger, gesturing for him to wait. She launched herself briefly at her mother, hugging her tightly and whispering something the Doctor thought he could almost make out as 'I love you' in Jackie's ear. She turned to do the same to Pete, whose annoyed expression finally broke, apparently unable to withstand the force of her enthusiasm. The Doctor could relate.
Then, without any projected warning of her intentions, she reached out, grabbed the Doctor's hand, and said, "Run!"
Donna apparently anticipated their quick departure, for even though she complained about having to run through the sand, she was still only a few steps behind them the whole way back to the TARDIS.
The Doctor thought there would be certainly be a time later when tears would be shed over having to leave her family behind, probably forever. In that particular moment, though, she seemed to understand that they were on a deadline; the TARDIS was whining louder than ever, and he could hear the cloister bells going off even from outside the doors. She also seemed a bit high on the whole 'getting married' bit. She was too happy to be sad.
For the first time in years, with Rose's hand grasping one of his while he reached back with the other to pull Donna into the TARDIS with them, he decided he really could say the same for himself.
~FIN~