just a little doctor/rose ficlet inspired by a line in Taylor Swift's song "Welcome to New York"

It felt like home, being in his arms.

She wasn't exactly how that had come to be true, there were so many things that should keep it from being true. He was a different species and almost a millenia older than her, just to name a few. She'd only known him for a few weeks, for heaven's sake and yet when she found herself wrapped in leather coated arms, resting her cheek against soft wool after a long day where lives were lost and fingers were pointed and hurtful words were hurled, all she could think was that she was right where she wanted to be.

The impossibly fast double rhythm of his hearts under her ear should have reminded her of how different they were, how alien he was and all the reasons she shouldn't be with him.

It didn't.

Instead, she felt her heart beat in a slow counterpoint to his, reveled in the song, the timeless composition, they created together.

When the leather jacket was replaced with a tan trench coat, it felt like home had been ripped away and she mourned the loss. But the first time he tentatively opened his arms, looking uncharacteristically nervous about asking for a hug, she stepped into his embrace and heard that double beat under coat and jacket and oxford. Home, her mind whispered and her own heart concurred, finding a harmonious rhythm once more.

Everything else had changed, but this, this never would. Home wasn't a council flat and her mum or even a magnificent bigger-on-the-inside blue box. Home was in his arms with his hearts thumping out life and love beneath her ear.

(when she lost him and was locked in another universe, she knew it could never be home because he wasn't there with her)

(and then he was. and the song had changed, the rhythms had changed as much as they had in their time apart. when she wrapped her arms around him and pressed her ear to his chest there was only a singular beat underneath the blue material. a slow singular beat that matched her own.)

(matched heartbeats for their matched forevers)