"Think, Donna. When you met Rose in that parallel world, what did she say?"

"Just... the darkness was coming."

"Anything else?"

Donna pauses, and a quick glance over the Doctor's shoulder makes her eyes widen, her voice soften. "Why don't you ask her yourself?"

He starts to form the word 'what?' then stops, slightly twisting his torso instead. She's standing there, a grin working its way across her face, and he turns around fully to face her, no more than 50 meters away.

He can't move, paralyzed by the beauty that is Rose Tyler. Even from afar, he can see her body clearly, as if all those nights of aggravation over blurred characteristics and faded memories never existed. She's less pink and yellow, her colours subdued, and if possible, she looks even better. She has a healthy glow of maturity, and he wishes he could have been there to see it set in; wishes their separation wasn't the thing that caused it. She looks more natural, he realises. No heavy makeup, no peroxide. If he's allowed to remark, she looks like a woman, and he loves it. Her powerful stance, her slender and supple frame supported by defined hips, swollen breasts heaving as she starts to make her way towards him.

She's moving towards him. She's moving towards him with a big fat happy grim on her face. And he still hasn't moved an inch.

He finally remembers how to move his feet again, and then he's off. He races towards her, smiling so hard the wrinkles he's acquired since she left are clearly defined. She pours on the speed as well, throwing her gun aside to lessen the load, making her all the faster. Funny, he hadn't even realised she was toting the gun, but he finds he doesn't mind either way. She's Rose Tyler, she's back, and he loves her.

He's going to kiss her. When they finally get to each other, he's going to hold her in his arms until she's got some air back in her lungs, then he's going to rip it all out again with a great big passionate snog. He almost does, too.

They reach each other, coming to a halt not two feet away from each other, and just as he's about to lean in for the hug, she gets there first.

Her lips are lush and full as the land on his face. She misses his mouth at first, but makes up for it by kissing her way down. For their first real kiss, it's surprisingly comfortable. He'd have thought it'd be awkward, trying to find where to put his hands, how to respond properly, but they tackle it like a pair of old pros.

His hands come up to hold those oh so womanly hips he was complementing just a few seconds ago, and her arms start out grasping his shoulders, but move to wrap around his neck as her lips make their way down from his left cheek.

They try out varying degrees of pressure, and when Rose gives his bottom lip a quick nip, she elicits her first gasp out of the Doctor, or at least, she first one she was in the room for. She takes advantage of his open mouth to slowly dip her tongue in, and the approval is instant.

What starts out as a purely innocent, albeit spectacular, kiss soon becomes the epitome of passion. Limbs tangling together, jackets riding up, lips and tongues dancing together in graceful frenzy, they don't even notice Donna walking up behind them, or even Jack popping into existence a few feet away.

In fact, it's only when Donna gives a very pointed cough, punctuated by the barking laugh of Jack in the background, that the pair spring apart, all sheepish grins and rearranging clothes.

"Oi! Spaceman!" Donna starts, causing Rose to let loose a peal of laughter at the Doctor's expense. "I get the whole 'love of my life, haven't seen each other in ages' thing, but do you think you could wait until after the universe has been saved to swallow her tongue?"

Rose stops laughing immediately, and the pair are back to looking sheepish. It's then that Rose finally takes notice of Captain Jack, and rushes forward to engulf him in a bear hug, leaving the Doctor looking more than a little put out.

"Hey, quit with the pouting, I haven't seen him longer, you know. And besides, not like I'm gonna be kissing him, anyhow."

"Let's not be hasty here!" Jack interrupts, but mock aggravation soon gives way to pleasure as Rose flings her arms around his torso and squeezes. "It's good to have you back, hun. He was a right mess without you." He says, jabbing his thumb in the Doctors direction.

"I missed you, Jack. " She mumbles into his shoulder. "And honestly, I was a right mess myself. Those years on the parallel Earth without him, it was hard."

"Oh, Rosey." Jack murmurs, pressing her impossibly closer. "As much as I want to keep hugging you forever, something tells me I'm not the one who's arms you want to be in, am I right?" she chuckles lightly, before relinquishing her death grip, letting her hands fall down to hold his one last time.

"You're right. And thank you, Jack. I love you."

"Love you too, Rosey." His voice softens at the use of her nickname, and he presses a gentle kiss to her forehead before letting go of her hands. "Now, go get him!"

Rose laughs, before turning to face Donna. "Thank you, too. I know I probably didn't make a lot of sense, back in that alternate reality. But you put up with me, and more importantly, you put up with him. I know what he's like alone, he goes a bit potty without someone to ramble to."

The Doctor opens his mouth to retort, but shies away under the combined look from Rose and Donna with a conceding nod.

Rose turned back to face him once more, and after a quick peck on the lips and a touch of their forhead, she pulls back with a grin.

"Right!" she starts, rubbing her hands together. "if I'm not mistaken, we have a multiverse to save. Let's get on that shall we?"

...

It's hours later, after dropping off most of the rest of the dream team and insisting that Jackie show Donna and the blue-suited him how to make a proper cuppa, that they finally get some alone time, just the two of them.

They're walking down a familiar corridor, Rose's fingers intertwined with her pinstriped Doctor, his thumb brushing atop hers as they move. They walk about in silence, which is made deafeningly so when Rose comes to a rather abrupt halt in from of a plain oak door with a faded name plate and a well worn sticky note saying, "Private: Do Not Open."

"It's still here. You kept it, after all these years..." She murmurs, looking up at the Doctor in wonder.

"Well, yeah." He drawls out. "I knew we'd find our way back to each other, eventually, and I knew you'd probably kill both me and the TARDIS if you realised she let me move your valuables to make room for spare parts. Besides, it kept me sane. All those nights you were gone and it'd been so long I'd started to wonder if you'd ever really been here in the first place."

"My names all worn down- and that sticky note is new. Where'd that come from?"

"I would- well, I would trace it. Run my fingers along the letters of your name, imagining I could see that grin you made every time I said Rose Tyler. And the post it, that was because I had house guests. Martha was bad enough already -did I mention she was smitten with me?- always asking about you, then grumbling at how amazing you are. Imagine if she wandered into that pig sty you call a room, we'd never live it down! No, really. She's lovely, and Donna too, but I needed somewhere they'd never know of, someplace to go after a rough day." He glances down at the end of his musings, and immediately backpedals at Rose's shocked expression.

"Sorry if that- well it's a bit rude, innit? Using your room while you're away. It's ok if you wanna tell me off, I know I shouldn't hav-"

He's very sufficiently cut off then, the end of his apology swallowed by Rose's lips.

"That." She breathes in between kisses. "Was the most. Beautiful thing. I've ever heard." With a final tug of her lips she backs up with a laugh. "And you said you didn't do domestic!"

He joins in then, leaning against her as peals of giggles mask their wonderment at the progression of their relationship.

"you're right," he sighs at the end of a particularly longwinded chuckle. "I suppose I have come a long way from big ears and no domestic." She smiles at him, but it soon gives way to another bark of laughter as he attempts the manic grin of his last regeneration.

"Much better now, I should think," Rose quips.

"You should think?" the Doctor prompts.

"Yeah, well as much as I have got a thing for U-boat captains, I prefer the new you. Your, slim, and a little bit foxy." She quotes, trying on the posh accent for size and eliciting a grin from the Doctor.

"Well then, Rose Tyler," and the smile he mentioned is back, "care to join me for a bit of domestic in the bedroom?" a flirtatious smirk working its way across his face as he opens the door.

"I think I just might," Rose retorts with a wink, and is ushered across the threshold, jumping a little, then giggling, when his hands comes up across her bum with a light smack.

...

It's hours later before they can form any sort of coherent noises apart from 'oh, god' and each other's names. Lying there tangled in pink sheets, spooning each other, Rose starts to worry.

"Doctor? What are we gonna do about the other you? And Donna? I mean, lovely woman, it'd be fantastic if she stayed with us, but I think we both know what happens to her next." Her brow crinkles up with her last words, and the Doctor gives it a quick kiss to smooth them out before responding.

"I'd actually had a rather brilliant idea regarding the matter just a few minutes ago."

"You mean while we were-"

"Magnificently stimulating, you are. Managed to figure out how to keep Donna safe, calculate the time left until the universes seal again, and create a whole new subsidiary of Algebra, all while you were-"

"Wow. Is sex always like that for you?"

"Well, I have no idea really. This is actually the first time, but like I said, you are magnificently stimulating. You push me to whole new levels, Rose Tyler." It is at this point that he stars nuzzling her neck rather affectionately, and Rose has to fully concentrate on the topic at hand to avoid being sucked back into the mind-numbing sensations of bliss.

"So what exactly -Oh!- have you worked out, then?"

He pauses mid nip, and turns to face her. "Donna and meta-crisis me are two halves of the same whole, right? So in theory, we should be able to put them back together. Handy goes back into Donna, and since neither of them could regenerate anyhow, you're left with just a super smart human being, whose mind isn't being torn apart and deteriorating, because we patched it back together!" he finishes with a slap of his hands and a triumphant grin, and Rose can't help but feel like smiles are contagious around him.

"It is a shame we couldn't keep the other you around though, that would have made for some wild nights." Rose throws in, giving a wink as she climbs out of bed.

"Where are you going?" the Doctor cries, and attempts to tug her back into his side.

"How long till the void closes again, Doctor?"

"Erm... Roughly an hour and a half."

"Right, well unless you want a slap in the face and Jackie Tyler as a travelling companion, we best be getting a move on. After that we gotta go pick up Jack, too." Rose calls over her shoulder as she starts a wrestling match with her sufficiently tangled bra straps.

"And why would we be picking up Jack?" the Doctor counters, confused once more.

"I saw the way Donna looked at him, and if she stays on the TARDIS with us, it won't be fair if we're the only ones that get to shack up. Besides, I don't think Jack'll complain." Rose smirks, and the Doctor starts laughing.

"Alright, I'll add Cardiff to the To Do list." He says, and starts pawing about on the floor for his boxers, giving Rose reason to pause and stare at the frankly glorious image it presents.

"Doctor?" she asks as she slips on her dark blue jacket.

He doesn't respond immediately, taking the time to hike up his trousers and loop his belt before saying, "yes, Rose?"

"How long do you reckon were gonna stay together?" because she can't help but ask the same question he did to her, all those years and planets and memories before. She hands him his button down, but he refuses it, instead looking her straight in the eye and telling her, "forever," in his most serious tone.

She breaks into a smile, and he snatches his top as she saunters over to the door.

"Fantastic," she says, leaning against the frame as he does up the final buttons.

"Oh, and Doctor?"

"Yes, Rose?

"Forever may be longer than you think." And with a wink she's gone, off to collect her mother and the others in the kitchen, leaving him with one jacket sleeve on, and a smile steadily making its way across his face.

"fantastic!"

~Fin~