A/N: For anyone reading my Vampire Academy story, please rest assured that I AM still working on it, I just barely managed to get enough time to pump out a couple DW one shots in my free time, so here they are :D
Rose woke from a fitful bout of sleep to the feel of a cool body next to hers and a hand stroking her hair. They'd done this once or twice before, when one or the other of them was having nightmares and needed comfort, but it had become a near nightly occurrence since their near miss.
"Go back to sleep, I've got you." He whispered.
"Not a chance," she rolled over and snuggled against his chest. "At least you've got your jacket off this time."
"Sorry, I didn't know you were uncomfortable!" He laughed, but Rose could hear real remorse hidden in his voice. Even so, she couldn't resist teasing him.
"Well you weren't the one with all the stuff in those Time Lord pockets digging into your back." They laughed for a moment before lapsing back into silence. When the Doctor spoke again his voice was serious.
"What was it this time?"
She hid her face in his chest and twined their hands together before she replied. "It was the battle again. But this time there was something else… a beach and a hologram and an unfinished sentence." She grew still as she realized what she said and hoped he hadn't noticed.
Of course, he had. "An unfinished sentence?" He pulled her head up so he could look in her eyes, but she broke away.
"Nevermind. It was nothing. Come on, I bet Martha's already in the control room waiting for us." She grabbed her clothes from the dresser and had locked the bathroom door before the Doctor could say another word.
He sighed—she was getting to his level of evasion skill. Things had been better and worse since Canary Wharf and Rose's close call. If she'd let go three seconds sooner she would have hit the void instead of the white wall. They'd spent so many nights together since then; he was so afraid to let her go, but at the same time he was more cognizant than ever of the fact that she couldn't stay with him forever. He knew how he felt, and how she felt, but he couldn't bring himself to say it. Instead he just curled up next to her and held her close, hoping it would be enough for the time being.
"Come on, shift!" she said as she came out of the bathroom. "We promised her a trip!"
She swung around the doorframe into the hall and the Doctor could sense the telltale hum of the TARDIS shifting the doors to make it easier for Rose to grab a snack on her way to the console room. Martha had come on with them after the Judoon debacle but both she and Rose had been exhausted so he'd decided to give them time to rest before they headed out.
By the time he got his jacket back on and made his way to the console room both women were waiting for him rather impatiently.
"Alright, alright. Where to go now?" He directed the question at Martha.
After a moment of Martha gaping at the amount of choices Rose intervened. "Why don't we put her on random, let the TARDIS choose?"
"Ah, cause that always works out well!" he rolled his eyes but began hitting the controls.
"Let the TARDIS choose? You talk like the ship is alive!" Martha eyed the pair as they both gave her an 'Of course it is' stare. "Nuh uh. I don't believe you! A living, bigger on the inside, spaceship? I'm still not even sure I believe it travels in time!"
"Well believe it. Go on, step outside!" Rose prompted.
Martha's eyes widened as she took in the view. "We're in London! We are in London aren't we?"
"London, sometime around 1599. Watch out!" The Doctor pulled her out of the way of a person emptying a chamber pot. "Before the invention of the toilet."
"Are you sure it's okay to be back here, Doctor? Last time we came to Elizabeth's reign she ended up fancying me!" Rose asked.
"It's fine! She hardly ever makes an appearance where we're going." The Doctor smiled down at her.
"Where are we goi—wait a minute! Did you just say Queen Elizabeth fancied you?" Martha asked and Rose just laughed.
"Come on, we're headed right up there." The Doctor pointed at a large building across the way.
"That's the Globe Theatre. We're in 1599. Are we going to get to see Shakespeare?!" Martha exclaimed.
"That we are. Allons-y!" The Doctor took off running.
Some time later the trio had managed to find Shakespeare, who seemed quite taken with Martha. Rose and the Doctor just laughed as he flirted incessantly with her, eventually convincing her to stay downstairs with him while the other two retired to one of the rooms the Doctor had rented.
"I trust you've got a toothbrush in one of those pockets?" her tongue poked through her smile as she grabbed the one he held out to her and headed to the water basin.
"Shoes and jacket!" she reminded him as he flopped onto the bed.
He complied but started gobbing as he lay back down. "Magic. Magic and Shakespeare. There's such a thing as psychic energy but a human couldn't channel it like that. Not without a generator the size of Taunton and I think we'd have spotted that. I'm missing something here; I just don't know what it is. Come on, come on, think!"
She lay down and flipped to face him. "Hey, relax, okay? We'll work this out."
His voice was slightly more frantic, "I can't relax! There's something going on here and I'm just a bit away from figuring it out. It's obviously not humans, but I don't know who else would have that kind of technology! I just have to make a run down of any species capable of channeling that kind of en—"
He was cut off and his mind finally went blank. Those… those were lips against his. Those were ROSE'S lips against his. Rose was kissing him and he was kissing her back.
"I told you, it's gonna be fine. Now let's get some rest, I get the feeling we're going to have a lot of running to do before the end of this." Her tongue touched her smile again and he couldn't quite resist pulling her in for one last kiss, better judgment be damned.
"Good night, Rose Tyler."
"Good night, Doctor."
The Doctor, following Rose's lead, managed to ignore what had happened in the bed the previous night throughout the rest of their adventure. Between Carrionites and the end of the world (again) and Martha's flirting with Shakespeare they'd managed to keep quite busy for a few hours. But, eventually, they were back on the TARDIS again and Martha was in her room. The Doctor stuck his 'one more trip' pretense, but Rose knew that they both thought Martha was brilliant and she'd be with them for a while.
The Doctor used the time she was away to think over what had happened the previous night. She'd kissed him and he'd kissed her back. He'd almost lost her just a few days ago but for some reason it didn't affect him the way he expected. He'd been running all his life and he was finally tired of it. Just once he wanted to rest and be happy. Instead of thinking about how much pain he would have been in if he'd lost her, he thought about how much he would have regretted never doing the things he'd imagined with her before she'd gone. Sure, she would age someday, but so would he. Medicine was good in the whole of time and space, humans ended up living for hundreds of years when it was at its best. A few hundred years with her was so much better than a few hundred years alone.
Rose had gone to her room to get changed, putting off the inevitable exchange for a few moments. When she'd finished she'd gone to grab a cuppa before heading to the library where she knew he'd be.
"Hey." She said softly.
"Hello, Rose Tyler." He smiled at her and patted the space beside him. Her eyes widened for a moment; she'd definitely not been expecting him to be so calm alone with her after what had happened the previous night.
"About what happened—"
"It's alright, Rose. I don't… I'm not going to push you away. I'm not going to lie. I'm scared to death of losing you, especially after what happened. But I'm so, so tired of working to keep you away. And if I believe in anything, I believe in you. So I think it's worth it—you're worth it. And this is so, so worth it." He leaned in and pulled her to him, their lips meeting.
When she finally pulled away she whispered "I love you, Doctor." She refused to meet his eyes as she said it, afraid it would make him push her away.
"Rose Tyler…" he trailed off. She had said it. He knew it before, of course, but she'd never come right out and said the words. Words had power; his latest adventure had just enforced that. These words, his true feelings, had so much power. He saw her cringe and a tear leak from her eye as the pause drew longer. "An unfinished sentence…" she looked even farther away.
He cupped her face and pulled her gaze back to his. "Oh, Rose Tyler, I love you!" Their lips met again and the Doctor had never been so happy in his entire existence. He knew, in that moment, it was definitely worth it….
And then he felt the heat against his lips. As he pulled away he saw her eyes glowing. He jumped back.
"No! This can't be happening!"
When she spoke it was with the voice of the TARDIS, the voice of the Bad Wolf. "Oh, my Doctor—here is my gift to you. The least I could do for you." And with that the light faded and Rose's head lolled back.
"Rose, Rose! Are you okay? Rose!" The Doctor panicked, pulling his sonic out to scan her.
"What… what just happened? I'm fine, just a little dizzy. And don't get all puffed up thinking it was your snogging skills!" She smiled widely at him, but that smile faded the longer he stared at the result of the scan. "What is it? Doctor, what's wrong with me?"
"That… that was the Bad Wolf, just then. She said she was giving me a gift, but this can't be right…"
"Doctor, come on now, you're scaring me. What's the scan showing?" She pulled her knees to her chest and finally caught the Doctor's eyes. He snapped out of his trance and looked at her.
"Your DNA has changed ever so slightly. It's just in the right way to slow down your aging to match mine…" He was trying so hard not to hope, but the scan seemed conclusive and he could feel Rose's excitement growing.
"So you're sayin' we don't have to worry about me growing old and dying so quickly? We can just relax and be together?" she tried to hold back a smile.
"I'll need to run more tests to confirm it, but… yeah, that's exactly what I'm saying." Rose hopped up and tackled him in a hug; he spun her around so many times she lost count.
"This is the best gift she could have ever given us. Rose Tyler and the Doctor in the TARDIS, forever." Her grin was so wide it was beginning to hurt her face.
"Forever." He echoed before leaning down and kissing her hard.
"So does a lot of snogging on before travels in the TARDIS then?" Martha interrupted, laughing.
"Occasionally. Is that going to be a problem, Miss Jones?"
"Not as long as you're not snogging me, Mr. Smith!" All three of them laughed and the Doctor grabbed Rose's hand.
"Come on now," he caught Rose's eyes and smiled "Lots and lots of new adventures to be had!"
Rose's smile nearly broke her mouth as she stole the Doctor's line, "Allons-y!"