This is a sequel to Forever's New Beginning. Several people noticed the Doctor never gets around to telling Rose he loves her in the course of that story. (Too short, and he didn't want her to think he was only saying it because she was upset.)
The Doctor found Rose on the couch in the library, surrounded by a pile of books about pregnancy. He leaned against the door and watched her for a moment, still trying to take in the fantastic notion that they were having a baby.
She turned a page in the thirty-second edition of What to Expect When You're Expecting. "Are you just going to stare, or are you going to come join me?" she asked without looking up.
He pushed off from the door frame and went around to stand in front of her. "Actually, I wondered if you'd come with me, love."
Rose took the hand he held out and let him pull her to her feet. "What are you up to?" she asked as he led her through the TARDIS.
"You'll see in just moment," he promised. "It's a surprise."
"I'm not sure what grand surprise you could have waiting for me in the—oh!" Rose gasped when she pushed open the door to their bathroom.
The Doctor knelt by the sunken tub and flicked his fingers through the bathwater, checking the temperature one more time. The ripples sent the petals floating on the surface bobbing, releasing their soft perfume into the air.
He stood up and brushed his knuckles over her cheek. "I thought you could use a relaxing evening. The last few days have been…" He tried to find a word to sum up the revelations that had sent their life topsy-turvy.
As promised, he'd taken Rose to the infirmary the day after Canary Wharf to do an in-depth exam of both her and the baby. That was when they'd discovered exactly how they had managed to conceive a child together, when that should have been an impossibility. Despite the Doctor's best efforts, traces of Vortex energy had remained hidden in Rose's cellular structure, changing it to something more suited to the presence of Time.
Something more like… a Time Lord.
Instead of decades together, he and Rose could have centuries. Centuries to laugh and love and raise their family.
Rose pushed herself up on her toes and kissed the corner of his mouth. "Thank you, Doctor. This is lovely." She glanced at the tub as she started undressing. "Care to join me? There's more than enough room for two."
The Doctor shook his head. "This is only the first part of your surprise," he explained. "I'll let you soak while I get the next part ready, and then I'll be back to help you out of the bath."
He offered Rose his hand to hold her steady when she lowered herself into the water, then he reached for a glass sitting amongst the candles that were scattered around the tub. Rose took it and smirked up at him.
"I won't ask if this is safe, because I know you're going to be completely overprotective the entire time I'm pregnant and you wouldn't give me wine if it could hurt the baby. But I will ask how, exactly, this is safe."
The Doctor laughed. "Enzyme tablet from the twenty-sixth century that completely neutralises the alcohol in a drink. Obviously, you'll miss the buzz a glass of wine gives you, but you can still enjoy the taste."
Rose took a sip and hummed in pleasure when the fruity flavour hit her tongue. "Thank you, Doctor." She waved at the door. "Now, you should go finish the rest of my surprise so you're ready when I am."
He nodded and turned to go, but stopped at the door. "Oh, and I almost forgot. The TARDIS will keep the water at a perfect ninety-eight degrees for you. Warm enough to be relaxing, not too warm to be safe."
She brushed her hand over the rim of the tub. Thank you, dear. The TARDIS' answering hum was affectionate, and the Doctor smiled at them both.
"I'll be back in half an hour," he reminded her before disappearing.
Rose sank deeper into the bath. She could already feel the warm water soothing away the tension of the last few days. The last time she'd truly felt relaxed had been the night before Canary Wharf, when she and the Doctor had dozed on the couch in the media room while a movie played.
She rested her head on the rim of the tub and laughed softly. She'd fallen asleep that night while trying to figure out how to tell the Doctor she was pregnant. Well, that's taken care of, and then some.
The notion that she could actually give the Doctor his forever hadn't quite sunk in yet. Not just forever, either—a family would give them a kind of immortality that even centuries of life couldn't match. Children to carry on their memories after they were gone, who might even keep living this life of travelling in the TARDIS and finding those spots of trouble that were just the bits in between.
Her imagination spun with visions of all the things they could show their children. Standing with them under the waves of Woman Wept for the first time. Walking on the apple grass of New Earth. Visiting Rose's old London haunts, and showing them the rebuilt Henrik's. There was so much they could show them…
oOoOoOoOoOo
The Doctor tried not to fidget as Rose dressed in the soft cotton trousers and t-shirt he'd brought her. She wasn't saying anything, but he could see the question in her eyes every time she looked at him. She knew there was more to this evening than just relaxation.
"Ready," she said after slipping on soft-soled shoes. "Come on, show me what's next in your grand plan."
He smiled and took the hand she held out. "I am fairly certain you will love what I'm going to show you next."
Her tongue peeked out through her teeth. "You think you're so impressive," she teased as they walked to the front of the ship.
The Doctor didn't laugh, like he might have on most days. "I am so impressive," he protested. But maybe I'm trying too hard?Rose's eyes widened, and he knew she'd picked up on his nerves. Before she could reassure him, he opened the door and gestured for her to step outside.
It was night, wherever the Doctor had landed them, and it took Rose a moment to adjust to the dim light. She heard the door latch behind her, and without the light from the TARDIS spilling out onto the planet, she could see more clearly why he'd brought her here.
They were on a hill with an unobstructed, panoramic view, and the inky black sky was covered in more stars than Rose had ever seen in one place. The stars and the moon cast a silvery light on the planet, just enough for her to make out a nest of blankets and pillows on the ground.
"Oh, Doctor."
He took her hand and brushed a kiss over her fingertips, then led her to the blankets. "I'd give you the universe if I could, but we can at least lie here and look at as much of it as possible." He reclined on his back, and Rose rested her head on his shoulder. "This is Gallus, one of the best places in the universe for stargazing. From here you can see more with the naked eye than you can from anywhere else."
"Can we see Earth?" Rose asked.
The Doctor pointed. "Right through there, about… oh, three hundred light years."
Rose allowed another moment to take in the beauty, then she rolled onto her side so she could look down at him. The tension radiating off him was unmistakable, and she wasn't going to let it go any longer.
"Rose?"
She smoothed out the furrow that had appeared between his eyebrows. "It's lovely, Doctor," she assured him. "Are you ready to tell me why you brought me here?"
A tiny huff of laughter escaped him, and he reached up to cup her jaw. "You know me so well, love."
Rose waited, and after a moment, the Doctor rewarded her patience.
"In many ways, Gallifreyan is a superior language to any other in the universe. It's mathematically perfect, and of course, we had more verb tenses than you can imagine. There are tenses to explain if something happened in the past in this regeneration, in the past in a previous regeneration… in the past for me but the future for you…"
He paused for a moment, and Rose took his hand and laced their fingers together. Talking about Gallifrey was never easy for him.
"Thank you."
In the pale light, Rose could see his Adam's apple bob, and she wondered where exactly this conversation was going.
"But even the most precise, accurate language in existence is still a product of the culture it comes from." His hand moved from her cheek to comb through her hair, then he rolled onto his side so he was facing her instead of looking up at her.
"Gallifreyans didn't really engage in romantic relationships, and Time Lords certainly didn't. They were above all that nonsense."
He rolled his eyes, but a stab of sympathy went through Rose for all those millions of people who'd never known how exhilarating it could be to trust another person with everything you are, and know they were trusting you in return. "They didn't know what they were missing out on."
"No, they really didn't." The Doctor took a deep breath and let it out slowly before continuing. "And since even our life bond was more of a business arrangement than a romantic relationship, there is no word for love in Gallifreyan. The closest word we had would translate to 'I esteem you greatly,' but that's not quite the same."
Finally, Rose understood what the evening was all about, but the Doctor didn't seem to be done, so she stayed quiet.
"To be honest, I never really noticed that linguistic gap until I met you." He leaned forward and looked into her eyes earnestly. "There's never been anyone for me like you, Rose."
There was a lump in Rose's throat, and she swallowed past it. "I know." She hadn't, once. Between Sarah Jane and Reinette, she'd wondered exactly where she stood in his life and affections. But she knew now, and she had for months.
"I don't have a word to tell you what you mean to me. There's no one word in Gallifreyan that would convey how much I respect and adore you, or how important it is to me that you are safe and happy. I couldn't tell you that I never want to go a day without seeing your smile."
Rose lost the battle with her tears then, and a moment later, she felt the Doctor's thumb on her cheek, brushing them away. She blinked several times and sniffed, trying to clear her voice.
When she thought she could speak without it cracking, she said, "I know you love me, Doctor. I didn't doubt, not really… I was just feeling emotional that day. But you show me every time you pull me close for a hug, or take my hand as we walk across an alien planet. Every time you find a new place to take me, I know what you're saying… and that's enough for me."
It was an element of a cross-cultural relationship that Rose had never considered, but if he grew up without a word for romantic love, of course he would have problems verbalising his feelings. And she really did know.
To her surprise, he shook his head and pressed his finger to her lips. "Let me finish?"
Rose nodded, and he leaned down and kissed her gently.
"Thank you. I appreciate your generosity, but… your language doesn't have the same shortfall mine does. There are words in English that would tell you how I feel. I don't know why it never occurred to me before, but it should have."
Rose's breath caught. Is he…
The Doctor rested his hand on her hip and smiled down at her. "Rose Tyler… I love you."
Rose's joy spread from her heart through her body, finally escaping in breathless laughter. "Quite right," she teased him.
"Quite right?" he sputtered. "I bare my hearts to you, and that's the answer I get in return?"
She laughed again, then leapt on him, needing to eliminate the distance between them. Her momentum sent them rolling, and a moment later, they were in the soft grass with the Doctor lying on top of her.
Rose ran her hands over his chest and shoulders before linking them behind his neck. "Well," she drawled, drawing out the word the way he loved to do. "I suppose—even though I've told you before—"
The Doctor growled and nuzzled into the ticklish spot on her neck. "Cheeky minx," he muttered.
Rose giggled, then stroked his hair and gently pulled his head up so she could kiss him. "Doctor," she whispered when their lips were just a breath apart, "I love you, too."