Read the Author's Note before you begin, or it'll not make much sense.

A/N: I've really screwed with the parameters of canon here. So here's the deal: this technically takes place right after the end of season two when he leaves Rose on the beach. However, it assumes that all the stuff through season four has happened, but the Doctor hasn't experienced it yet; that is, he's left Rose and Ten2 in the parallel universe, but all of that is in his future, sort of like with 11 and River have going on. It's all very timey-wimey, and admittedly fairly manufactured by yours truly. Please don't be angry.

I don't own Doctor Who!

Chapter One: Runaway Bride

The transmission ended. He'd run out of time. The irony of the moment rushed over him in a cruel wave. That was it; he'd never see her again.

He flipped a switch on the console, not really paying attention to what he was doing. At this point he was looking to occupy the corner of this brain that was inches from spiraling into panic and hopelessness. He'd never been this close to losing it before, not like this, anyway. He'd suffered at the end of his planet when Gallifrey ceased to be because of him, losing his people and his home in one horrible end.

But this, somehow this was different. It was the same pain, that of loss and futility…and guilt, the most intense guilt he could fathom, but this time as the result of losing one person, Rose, who he knew now anyway, meant more to him than Gallifrey ever did. Maybe he knew that the whole time. It is a truly horrid thing to discover something so profound when it is too late to act upon it. It was the eternal pattern of his life.

He sighed and looked up, seeing a golden flash from just beyond the console. He wasn't sure what he was expecting to see, but he certainly wasn't prepared for what was in front of him.

"What?"

"Doctor?" she said.

"What?"

"Doctor—what—why am I—is this—am I on the TARDIS?"

"What?" he repeated again, seemingly unable understand the reality in front of him. Perhaps it wasn't reality. Perhaps it was some sort of grief-induced hysteria making him see things, because it was completely impossible for Rose Tyler to be standing in front of him, considering he'd only just left her crying in a parallel universe.

"Doctor, what's happened? Why am I here?" she asked with a strange sense of calm. She set down her bouquet—a frothy pink affair that looked very nice indeed— on the console and took a few steps forward.

"You've got a bouquet," he noted. It was about all he could manage right now, obvious observations. "And you've got on a wedding dress. That's…that's not how I left you."

"Well, no, I should think not. It's been a year and a half. But you've not really answered my question, Doctor. How did I get here?"

"I have no idea."

She sat down on the jump seat, exhaling profoundly and leaning her head back in exasperation.

"So I suppose you finally got our TARDIS grown? Oh, should I hide somewhere? Am I in the other room or something? Should I not see my future self? I can't remember if that's a paradox or not."

"What? No, Rose…where do you think you are?"

"My future sometime? Maybe the new TARDIS has grabbed me out of my present and into my future for whatever reason? I was really hoping you'd be able to explain it to me, considering that you're making me miss my own wedding."

"Your wedding?"

"Well, yes. I'd think you'd remember, but then, it isn't as though it's technically happened yet, at least for me, but considering this is my future, I'd hope you'd remember our wedding. It's not like I just go walking around in wedding dresses because they're comfortable and convenient."

"Wait, our wedding?"

"Uh, yeah. Who else would I have married? I didn't end up marrying someone else, did I? That'd be rather horrible of me."

"But we're not together."

"No?" A shadow of deep concern fell over her face.

"Rose, this isn't your future. This doesn't make sense."

"When you say we're not together, what exactly do you mean?" She looked around the room more thoroughly this time, and she spotted her shirt that she'd casually throne over one of the railings around the console. For her, that had happened almost four years ago, just before the Doctor had abandoned her on Bad Wolf Bay, before she'd launched herself through different times and universes with the dimension cannon, trying to catch up with him and save the parallel universe from the stars going out. Before he'd left her again at Bad Wolf Bay in that parallel universe with a replica of himself, who she had discovered over the course of time was still the Doctor she knew, was still him, just with one heart. Before he'd asked her one day while walking to the chip shop around the corner if she might want to marry him, because he'd really like it if she'd be his wife, and that he loved her.

"How long has it been since you last saw me, Doctor?"

"Well, now about seven minutes."

"What's the year?"

"2006."

"Doctor, I think I'm in the wrong universe."

I hope it's not too confusing. Or maybe I do enjoy that a bit. Anyway, sense will happen eventually. Please review!