And so the Tardis was gone, and my days of wandering the stars were over. I watched it fade, heard that unmistakeable otherworldly noise for the very last time. And the man beside me, the new Doctor, was holding my hand; I could feel his eyes staring at me, waiting for me to turn around and look at him. I couldn't at first – the situation was so strange. It wasn't right; it couldn't be right. This man, this man here, he wasn't my Doctor. He wasn't the one. The one I waited for, and tore the Universe apart to find, this man wasn't him.

But then I turned to look at him, and he smiled that wonderful smile the Doctor had, cupping my face in his hands. There were tears in his eyes.

'It really is me.' He whispered, reassuring me. 'It really is. And now I can spend the rest of my life with you.'

I sighed, and laughed a little. I felt tears sliding down my cheeks: I had been crying for at least ten minutes now without even realising. He pulled a handkerchief from the breast pocket of the blue suit, and dabbed it around my face. From the corner of my eye, I saw my mum roll her eyes and head off for a walk, so as to give us some privacy.

And then he was kissing me again, but it was different this time; it went on and on forever. His hands left my face and one moved towards my waist, the other burying itself in my hair. Our eyes were closed; we clung to each other blindly, and with my arms around his neck, I kissed every part of his skin I could reach, slowly and tenderly. The last kiss I planted on his forehead, the softest of all.

I don't know how long I stood there, holding him in my arms, rocking a little, with his breathing warm against my neck. Eventually, though, we began to feel the cold, and only then did he raise his head and start jumping about a bit to try and warm himself up. We still couldn't take our eyes off each other for long, and neither could we stop smiling.

'We'll need to get out of this place.' he said, 'I suppose we'll have to take a plane, now our higher forms of transportation have vanished into thin air…oh, and we'll need money. Oh dear, do we even have any money?' he asked, looking a little concerned.

'Yeah, we've got a bit. Enough to get us back to Blighty anyway. I saved up a little after you left; it's always been the one thing you never took care of…' I eyed him playfully, tongue between teeth, 'Good thing I thought of that, really, otherwise we'd have had to walk…'

He laughed, and hand in hand, we set off to find my mum, and headed towards the nearest airport without a care in the world.

'I suppose we'd better find ourselves a house, too.' he mused, absent-mindedly, staring ahead. Several hours on, we were halfway to Heathrow, relaxed and comfortable next to each other on the plane. And our hands hadn't separated once.

All the same, my heart skipped a beat. I hadn't even thought that far, I was just happy that we were properly together at last.

'Oh my god…' I whispered, unable to say anything else, hand cupped over my mouth. He had a definite twinkle in his eye as he leaned towards me a little.

'Well, I had the feeling this was a permanent arrangement…' He continued to stare at me, stroking the back of my hand with his thumb. I paused, and then started nodding.

'Yeah, ok. Yeah, we'll get our own house.' I said, still taking it in. He grinned from ear to ear.

'Can we get a car, too? One of those little everyman ones…do they still do the Renault Clio by any chance? Oh, and let's get a dog, I've always wanted a real one…'

'Stop it, Rose, they'll think you're insane!' my mother called from behind us, as I laughed hysterically.

'We'll need to get jobs, too. We can't stay at my parent's house forever.' I reminded him, as we ascended the massive staircase. 'Even though they're not exactly tight for space…'

'I could work as a real doctor, I haven't done that in a while.' he answered. He was still holding my hand.

'Are you actually qualified to do that?'

'Of course I am! Several times over, in fact, and not just on Earth, either. Not sure I'll be able to put much of it on my application form, though…'

'I could find work in another department store, though I suppose they'll want to know why I haven't been to work in three years.' We had reached the door to my bedroom, where we stopped.

'I'm down the corridor, according to your parents.' the Doctor said quietly, but instead of letting him go, I grinned playfully and pulled him a little closer.

'I don't care. Besides, if this really is a permanent arrangement, they they'll just have to get used to it, won't they?'

Without waiting for his reply, I led him into the room after me, closing the door behind him.