A dream, Rose told herself waking in the dead of night. It was a dream. Of course she wasn't sure she wanted it to be a dream, but she had to convince herself it was, because that was the only option here. It had to be a dream. There was simply no way that could have actually happened. The Doctor was not actually there. There was absolutely no way, that not only was the Doctor, but a brand new human Doctor lying in her bed with her right now. When she finally allowed herself to wake fully, there was no mistaking that sound. There was a heart beating beneath her ear. A very human heart; a very singular human heart. And there were two very human lungs breathing in and out at a slow and steady pace. Then she heard it. The owner of this heart and these lungs was humming and that tune was unmistakable.

Rose's eyes shot open and she sat up like a bolt of lightning, staring at the face of a rather shocked-looking Doctor, who was in deed lying on her bed with her right now.

"Morning," he said apprehensively.

"M-m-morning," Rose stuttered, rubbing her eyes and still trying to figure out if she was dreaming or not.

"Everything alright?" the Doctor said sitting up and looking at Rose's clearly concerned expression.

"Yeah, yeah," Rose shook her head and sighed as she spoke.

"What is it?"

"It's just…" she wasn't sure how to explain what she wanted to say at that moment, but she decided quickly that she'd better try, because the Doctor looked more and more concerned with every passing moment. "I don't know really. I just. I don't know. It's so…it's so…strange. Seeing you…here…after all this time."

"Rose, I assure you, my beautiful darling that I am here, I am real, and I do love you." The Doctor wrapped his arms around Rose and they both started crying again; this was only the first of many times this very scene would play out over the next many weeks.

It wasn't until two weeks after they returned that either of their sleep-cycles resembled anything close to normal. On a dull gray Tuesday morning in late October, Rose woke and for once she wasn't crying. The Doctor woke moments later with a smile on his face. They ate their breakfast and eventually the Doctor decided that enough was enough of sonic-ing his clothes clean and it was time to invest in a new wardrobe. Rose and the Doctor once again found themselves in that little shop down the road. The Doctor bought more suits, and Chuck Taylor's, and a brand-new trenchcoat. They had lunch at Rose's favorite chip shop where they'd had their first date back on the other Earth and then headed back to the flat.

"You can use the closet in that room there," Rose said pointing to the room that had been hers in the Earth equivalent of this flat. That's when something occurred to the Doctor.

"Rose?"

"Doctor?" she said stopping in the doorway of her old room.

"Why have you been sleeping in that room?"

"What do you mean?"

"Why didn't you, take the room that was your mum's? It's bigger, no?"

"A bit, yeah."

"Or your old room here?"

"I don't know." She shrugged, trying to avoid the question.

The Doctor knew she wasn't telling the truth, but he decided that it was best not to push the issue at that moment, so he let it slide. "Alright," was all he said before going about sonic-ing all his new things clean and orderly then hanging them in the empty closet that on the other Earth had held Rose's things.

That evening, the Doctor and Rose were lying in bed as they had done every night thus far just talking. The Doctor telling Rose stories of his travels with Martha and Donna. Then Rose would tell the Doctor stories of her time spent building the dimension cannon on this new Earth and Mickey caring for his Grandmother again. It was nearly 11 o'clock when the doctor remembered something from their first journey to this Earth.

"What ever happened to little Rose the dog?"

"Dad reckons she must have run off just after we went to the Cybermen factory. We haven't seen her since then."

"Been looking then?"

"No, not really. Dad hasn't talked about her in a year or more."

"How long had I been gone exactly? In your time?"

"3 years, 2 months, and 23 days," she said as if that was something she'd been waiting to say.

"I'm so sorry."

"How long has it been for you, then?"

"Year and a half, but you know me and time."

"Yeah. You…and time…you want to know why I sleep in this room?" she said suddenly.

"I just found it a little curious."

"I would have thought you of all people would have worked it out by now."

"I don't understand," the Doctor was honestly confused.

"Think about it. This room. Why would I want to sleep in this room?" the Doctor's confused expression did not change, so she pressed on. "Back on Earth…the other Earth…do you remember this room?"

"Yeah," the Doctor still didn't quite get where she was going. "It was your guest room, right?"

"It was, but who was the last guest to stay in our guest room?"

"I don't know."

"I saw it on your face when we first came in on that morning. The Doctor was the last person to stay in that room. He regenerated there."

"That's why you sleep in here?"

"The Doctor is the reason I do anything. He's the reason I've spent my life these past three years building that cannon. He's the reason I risked my own life crossing the void. He's the reason I do everything."

"I should have known," the Doctor said as he stood up from the bed. Tears started falling from his eyes as he opened the door.

"Where are you going?" said Rose, sitting up, suddenly concerned. She couldn't see his face, so did not know that he was crying.

Through very heavy sobs, the Doctor told her, "…to my bed. Goodnight, Rose." He closed the door as he left and Rose heard the door to her old bedroom snap shut moments later.

Rose decided it was best to leave him. She didn't know why he was crying, perhaps it was something she said. She supposed it probably was since he was so keen on getting away from her. She rolled over in bed and pulled the covers over her head. Not ten minutes later she was on her feet, tears streaming down her cheeks, wondering what she'd done. She threw the door to her room open and ran across the hall and into the Doctor's room. He was sitting on the side of the bed, tears still streaming down his face.

The Doctor looked up with a sniffle when Rose opened the door. Rose thought that he seemed rather not himself in this state. She didn't know what was going on. "Are…are you…are you alright?" she asked him through her own sobs.

"Yeah, I'll be alright. Just wasn't prepared for that."

"For what? I don't even remember what I said."

"He."

"What?"

"You were talking about the Doctor and you used a third person pronoun. It shouldn't even bother me, but it does. I guess, I just thought, I was enough him to be the he in that, but you know, you're right, Rose. I'm not the Doctor. I never will be, and if that means you don't want me, then I'll be leaving soon as I can. I don't want you only loving me because you think I'm him, but you clearly don't even think that, so I don't know. It just…" he took a deep breath and let out a long sigh as he placed his head in his hands. "It's just, Rose, I love you, so much. He loves you so much. We love you so much. I just…I don't even know, Rose. I just really don't know."

"He…you were never like this before…this wouldn't have bothered him…you before."

"You don't have to keep correcting yourself, Rose. I know I'm not him. I don't want to be. This me, right here, is human. This me, right here, can spend a lifetime with you and not have to worry about watching you grow old while I go on living forever. I, too, will grow old in time, just as you, and I, too, will die a human death, just as you. This life is what he would choose had he the choice. I am just so fortunate that he is giving me the chance to live it. He could have killed me as soon as the Daleks were gone, but being the humanitarian he is, he's given me and you this gift of life...together. I have hismemories. I look like him. I think like him, but I'm not him, Rose."

"I know you're not him. That's why I was saying him, and he, and things like that when I was talking about that stuff. You're not the Doctor, but you are my Doctor. You're here; he's not. I don't love you because I think you're him. I love you, because I think you're not." She sank to the bed next to him. He put his arm around her shoulders and they sat in silence for a few minutes before either of them had anything to say.

"I meant that, Doctor. I really did. I loved him; I still do, but not like I love you. You're not going to leave me, tell me not to wander off, any of that. You're going to live right alongside me the whole time, not go zooming away in your TARDIS. That's what I've always wanted from the Doctor. I know I loved travelling, seeing new times and places, meeting new aliens, but sometimes a human is all you really need."

"Are you sure, Rose?"

"Yes. I'm sure. I love you. And that's something he could never say. I'll never know why it was so hard for him to speak it, but you said it, back there in Norway. You were the one that broke the silence. Now will you please come back to bed?"

"You only said all that, because you want me to come cuddle with you!"

"I did not! Doctor! You don't have to come, but you do have to believe me. I love you…for you. Please, please believe me." The Doctor didn't know which was up. He fell over backward onto the bed and covered his face with his hands, thinking. "Please," Rose whispered as she wrapped her arms around the Doctor and laid her head on his chest. "I love your one heart. I love your one life. I don't want to spend my one life with anyone else, not even him. I don't want to give my one heart to anyone else, not even him. It's you that I love, Doctor, you." She lifted her head to look at the Doctor's face just as he moved his hands away. The expression on the face which his hands revealed did wonders for Rose's slowly sinking heart.

He was smiling, really and truly smiling. Rose couldn't help herself; she laughed and smiled and then she kissed him. And in those next minutes, kissing this Doctor, her Doctor, Rose finally realized what she had really been searching for those past three years travelling through the void, risking her life and it wasn't what she had originally thought it was. This new Doctor wasn't who she'd set out looking for and this new life with him wasn't the one she set out wishing for, but this Doctor and this life were the only ones she could imagine now. He was so perfect in every way, even more perfect that the man she'd set off looking for and this life was going to be perfect for both them; a fantastic, normal, human life for both Rose Tyler and her wonderful new Doctor.

The Doctor himself realized that Rose loved him for who he was and not who he wasn't. That was all he'd really been hoping for. When he was born out of necessity during that first ever (and probably only ever) human-timelord metacrisis, his only concern was defeating the Daleks, sworn enemies of the Timelords. Now, weeks later and it seemed years wiser he found himself thinking that perhaps that mission was only part of his purpose in this new life. In this singular human life, the Doctor now knew that he was meant for so much more than just winning wars against alien races and saving the Earth and all of humankind time-after-time, which was all the other Doctor ever seemed to get done doing. No, in this life the Doctor would finally be able to do what he'd wanted to do for many years now, but that he'd thought he had lost his chance at.. He could finally have the life he'd always wanted since the day he'd first met her. He could finally have a life on the slow path with his wonderful, beautiful, lovely, incredible, brilliant (None of these words could do her justice.) Rose Tyler and maybe someday they would find out what exactly you get when you cross a half-human/half-timelord with a full-blown human, if that were even possible. He didn't allow himself to dwell on that last bit for too long, but instead found himself dreaming of what the future of his life with Rose would hold in store for both of them.