Thanks so much to everyone who has already read, favorited, or reviewed this story; it means a lot to me!

This and the next chapter were originally supposed to be one chapter, but the muse wouldn't shut up and it was starting to get a bit unwieldy, so I split it up. Enjoy!

Disclaimer: If I owned Doctor Who, would I be writing fan fiction?

Chapter Two: New Beginnings

The Doctor woke early the next morning, feeling far more rested than he had in years, simply because of the beautiful blond woman who was still sleeping on his chest. He smiled at the sight of her curled up against him, and brushed her hair out of her eyes, placing a light kiss on her forehead. He couldn't remember the last time he'd felt this happy, this at peace with the world. Even before the Time War, he'd always been running, always restless, never satisfied. Afterwards, he'd been a shell of the man he once was, a broken, battered, lonely soldier. That is, until the day he met a lovely, brilliant and rather jeopardy-friendly young woman in a shop basement in London. From the moment she'd taken his hand, she'd begun to put him back together, and had given him a reason to live. And he had loved her almost from the beginning. After he'd regenerated, it had gotten even stronger, so much so that it scared him. He'd shied away from his feelings, knowing that he would inevitably lose her, even if she stayed with him for the rest of her life. He would have to live on alone.

Except, now he was no longer trapped by the curse of the Timelords. He could give her his forever, could spend the rest of his life with her. He could give her all those things she deserved, both the exotic and the domestic. He waited for the shudder that usually accompanied that word, but to his surprise, he seemed far more comfortable with the idea than he was used to being. He wasn't sure whether that was because of the bit of Donna in him or because of the pink and yellow girl in his arms, but whatever the reason, he was glad. His Rose deserved the chance to have absolutely everything.

His stomach growled, shaking him out of his early-morning introspection. He frowned slightly, realizing that he hadn't eaten in… well, technically, he had never eaten at all. 'Well, isn't that wizard,' he thought wryly. He glanced down at Rose, still peacefully asleep, and though he was loath to move her, he decided that he could slip downstairs, grab breakfast for them both, and be back before she woke. He gathered her gently in his arms and shifted her off of his chest, settling her on the pillow beside him. She shuffled slightly, but didn't wake, and he smiled tenderly at her, tucking a lock of her sleep-mussed hair behind her ear and kissing her temple lightly.

"I'll be right back," he whispered softly, and eased himself out of the bed. He quickly pulled on his jacket and trainers, moving quietly so as not to disturb her, and slipped out the door. He headed downstairs in an excellent mood, hoping that he would find bananas at the hotel's breakfast, and that there wouldn't be too many people downstairs so that he could get back to Rose before she woke.

0-0-0-0

Rose slowly drifted into consciousness, the memories of the previous day coming back to her a little at a time. She smiled slightly at her favorites, namely kissing the Doctor and falling asleep in his arms, and reached out to the other side of the bed. When her seeking hand encountered only air and empty sheets, her eyes shot open and she sat bolt upright in bed, her heart hammering. She hurriedly glanced around the room, desperately trying to prevent a panic attack, but he wasn't there.

"Doctor?" she called out, hoping he was just in the bathroom or something. When he didn't reply, she threw the blankets off her legs and got up, padding over to the bathroom door. Which was wide open. "Doctor?" This time her voice was higher, more frantic, and she felt that panic attack coming on strong. Where was he? What if something had happened to him? What if he'd left? What if it had all been a dream, the cruelest dream she'd ever had? What if, what if, what if-

"Doctor!"

Her cry tore her throat, and her knees gave way and she collapsed, unable to breathe. She could hear nothing but the blood pounding in her ears, certainly not the footsteps racing down the hall outside the room, or the door bursting open seconds later. She barely even registered the feel of hands gripping her shoulders, until the sound of that beloved voice cut into the maelstrom of her panicked thoughts.

"Rose, what is it, what's wrong? Rose? Rose! Answer me!"

She gave a choked, unintelligible cry that might have been the Doctor's name, and flung herself into his arms, clinging desperately and shuddering violently. His arms came up to hold her close within seconds, and he rocked her gently, stroking her hair and murmuring words of comfort into her ears, his own heart racing in his terror that something had happened to her. Gradually, she calmed down some, at least enough to ease her death grip on him, though she didn't let go.

"I- I woke up and you were gone, and I, well, I guess I, sort of, panicked," she finished ruefully, beginning to be ashamed of her violent overreaction. How could she have flown off the handle like that? It was like she was one of those pathetic, simpering, moronic girls in those movies she hated. What was wrong with her?

To his everlasting credit, the Doctor did not laugh at her, just held her closer and kissed her head. "It's okay; I just went downstairs to get some breakfast for us, but I'm back now and I'm not going anywhere. I was hoping to get back before you woke up so you wouldn't miss me. I'm so sorry, Rose; I should have left a note or something."

She gave a shaky little laugh. "S'not your fault, I shouldn't have freaked out like that. Sorry," she said sheepishly.

"It's okay, really, it's understandable given the circumstances. Just, try not to scare me like that again. I just about had a heart attack, and I don't have a spare anymore."

As both of their hearts began to return to normal speeds, Rose lifted her head from his shoulder and drew back. "So, you mentioned something about breakfast?" she asked, her voice determinedly light.

He chuckled slightly and stood up from the floor, offering her a hand up, which she readily took. He crossed to the small table by the door, where he'd dropped his prizes in his rush to get to her. "They didn't have any bananas downstairs, unfortunately, but I did find banana-nut muffins, and it looks like I managed not to spill the tea." He handed her one of the muffins and a to-go cup of tea as he rambled on. "Though, that's likely due to the fact that the cups had lids, but still. Nice hot cup of tea, that's the thing, right?"

Rose smiled slightly, which widened into a huge grin after she sipped her tea. "You remembered how I like my tea!" she exclaimed happily.

He sighed, but smiled. "Oh, Rose, I could never forget a single thing about you." His eyes were warm and soft, and his words and expression made her want to thread her fingers through his gloriously ruffled hair and kiss him senseless. So she did. He was a bit startled at first, but quickly relaxed and returned her kiss, both of them reveling in the fact that could now do this together. They broke apart only when oxygen became an absolute necessity.

"I could get used to that," she said breathlessly as he rested his forehead on hers, both of them breathing hard.

He raised his eyes to hers, and the smoldering look he gave her then made her want to whimper. "Good," he said, his voice nearly an octave lower than she'd ever heard it and sending shivers down her spine. "Because I have no intention of stopping."

She gasped as he captured her lips again.

0-0-0-0

After several long, glorious moments, Rose managed to remind him of their decision from the previous night: To not rush their romantic relationship. (She still had no idea how. How was a girl supposed to focus with The Doctor kissing her like that?) He reluctantly pulled away with a low, frustrated groan and placed one more light, chaste kiss to her lips before releasing her, running a hand through his hair.

"Sorry about that. I got a bit carried away," he said sheepishly. "These human hormones make it harder to control myself than before."

"Welcome to the club; I'll get you a T-shirt," she replied with a smirk, then frowned. "Hold on, you said 'harder than before.' Does that mean…"

He sighed. "Yes, Rose Tyler; that means exactly what your filthy little mind is thinking. Honestly, I think you've spent too much time around Captain Jack. Mickey had a point when he called him the 'Captain of the Innuendo Squad.'"

Rose giggled, but was not distracted by his rambling. "So, if you wanted to, well, kiss me before, then how come you never did?" she asked a bit hesitantly.

Instantly, the mood sobered somewhat. He sighed again, tugging on his ear as he struggled to answer her question. This was one of the few things that hadn't come up the night before, but he'd been expecting it, and he knew she deserved a straight answer. "It's a bit stupid, really," he admitted. "It was that 'Curse of the Timelords' thing. I knew I was going to lose you one day, and I thought if I acted on my feelings, let myself love you, that it would just make the pain worse when I had to say goodbye. But after Canary Wharf, I realized that holding myself back had actually made it that much worse, because I also had regrets about the things we never had. I promised myself that if by some miracle I ever got you back, I wouldn't let that stand in our way anymore."

She frowned slightly. "So, if there hadn't been a metacrisis, and there was only one of you, the other Doctor wouldn't have tried to send me back? He would have kept me with him?" she asked. When his face fell, obviously thinking that she was wishing he'd never existed so she could still be with the other Doctor, she hastily continued. "Don't get me wrong, I'm not sorry he did, not anymore. You're the same in all the ways that matter, and I love you, I do. I was just sort of wondering…"

"Wondering if the reason I was willing to love you had more to do with my 'little bit of human' than who I was?"

She winced a little at his phrasing. "More wondering if he didn't think I was good enough for him, and he just felt sorry for me or something."

"No, Rose. He loved you just as much as I do. He gave you up because he thought you'd be better off here, with your family, and a version of him who could grow old with you, and wouldn't regenerate on you. We both knew how hard it was on you when I- he- we- whatever- regenerated the first time, and how upset you were when I almost regenerated again. He just wanted you to be happy, and I think he thought that in the long run you'd be happier with me than you would be with him. Especially once we have the TARDIS again."

"I think he may have been right," she said softly.

At those words, he relaxed muscles he hadn't even realized were tense. Knowing that she didn't consider him to be somehow less than the original meant more to him than he cared to admit. He reached out and hugged her tightly, trying to show her what that sentence meant to him without words, as his voice had completely fled.

"Do you think he'll be all right?" Rose asked softly after a moment. "He won't even have Donna now, and I hate to think of him all on his own like that."

"I won't lie to you, Rose, it's gonna be hard on him. He thought he'd finally gotten his miracle and gotten you back, only to lose you and Donna in the same day. But, I think he'll be okay in the end. I told you about River Song, and whoever she is, she seemed to be a huge part of my future, well, his future now. He'll find a hand to hold eventually."

"But, what you said about the Ood, and his song ending…"

"I think that means he's going to regenerate again soon. Which, honestly, might be a good thing in the end. Becoming a new man may help him to put the past behind him."

Comforted by her Doctor's words, Rose let out a long breath. "Well, I hope he's as happy there as I am with you," she said firmly, and the Doctor felt the discussion close, as clearly as if she'd closed an actual door. This was their life, the life he had given them, and they were not going to spend it worrying about him.

"Now, I'm starving. How 'bout those muffins?" Rose smiled, catching her tongue in her teeth in his favorite smile.

"Your wish is my command, Dame Rose," he said grandly, and kissed her once, briefly, before taking her hand and leading her to one of the chairs beside the tiny table, where they settled in to enjoy their breakfast in a much lighter mood.

0-0-0-0

After they finished eating (which took longer than it had any right to, since they kept playfully throwing napkins and muffin wrappers at each other), Rose decided to shower, feeling as though she hadn't been properly clean in years. She did so much faster than usual, still not comfortable with the idea of letting her Doctor out of her sight for longer than she had to. As she dried herself off in the bathroom, she couldn't help but glare at her three-day-old outfit, wishing she had something else to put on. Well, there was no help for it. She'd just have to change when they got home.

That word brought her up short. Since when did she think of the Tyler mansion, or anywhere else in this universe, as home? The sounds of the Doctor fiddling with something on the other side of the bathroom door reached her ears then, and immediately made her smile. Of course. This universe had become her home the minute he had set foot in it.

She finished drying her hair and stepped out of the bathroom, telling him it was his turn. He kissed her again first, then took his own shower, while she paced and fidgeted around the room, anxious and bored. As she wandered past the place where he'd tossed his jacket, she spotted something poking out of one of the pockets. She took a closer look, and sure enough, it was his sonic screwdriver. She picked it up, marveling at its presence. Had her Doctor nicked it from the TARDIS before they'd been dropped off, or did the Doctor simply keep a spare in every suit?

She heard the bathroom door open again, and turned to face him, holding up the sonic with an expression of mute inquiry. He chuckled.

"After that incident with the Judoon, when my sonic was destroyed, I made a couple of spares and put one in each suit," he explained. "I've got my brainy specs and a psychic paper, too, see?" He reached into his jacket pockets and pulled them out, proudly displaying them with a cheeky grin on his face.

She laughed. "Well, I'm glad you've still got your sonic. Doing without the TARDIS for a year and a half is one thing, but I'd hate to see what you'd be like without your precious sonic," she teased happily.

He opened his mouth to reply, but was interrupted by a knock on the door. She winked at him and went to open it, revealing her mother, who had come to let them know that there was a car downstairs, waiting to take them to the airport.

The two of them babbled happily through the entire ride, making Jackie shake her head in resignation. 'Business as usual, then,' she thought.

They arrived at the airport without incident, and were escorted quickly through security, thanks to Pete Tyler's tremendous connections and influence. They emerged onto the private landing pad where the zeppelin was waiting for them, and as they neared the big grey ship, they were greeted by a small, excited voice.

"Sissy! Sissy! You're back, you're back!" Following this little voice was an ecstatic, adorable little redheaded toddler, who was running toward them as fast as his little legs could carry him, with Pete Tyler following in his wake, a huge smile on his face.

Seeing her baby brother, Rose let go of the Doctor's hand for the first time since they'd left their hotel room and ran forward to meet him, scooping Tony up in her arms and swinging him around in a circle, both of them laughing happily. As Pete and Jackie reunited to his right, the Doctor watched Rose interact with little Tony, a smile on his face. Clearly, the two of them shared a very special bond, and he couldn't help but feel relieved that she hadn't been forced to give that up.

After a moment, Pete and Jackie turned to face the Doctor, who held out his hand to shake Pete's. The two men greeted each other, but Jackie's attention was on her children, an incredulous smile on her face.

"I haven't seen her this happy in years," she breathed in wonder. "Mind you, Tony has been the only one who can get her to smile, last few years, but never like this." Abruptly she turned to the Doctor. "Thank you," she said, surprising the hell out of him.

"For what?" he asked, a bit confused.

"For coming back here, making her happy again, and giving her back to her family, all at the same time," Jackie said, and hugged him tightly. Completely stunned by her sudden display of affection, he barely had time to try and return her hug before she pulled away again.

At this point, Rose came back to the rest of them, carrying Tony on her hip, and gave her stepfather a quick, one-armed hug. She handed Tony to Jackie so she could say hello to her little son, then took her brother back before turning to the Doctor.

"Now, there's someone I want you to meet. Tony, this's the Doctor," she said, nodding at him. "Doctor, this is my brother, Tony."

"Pleased to meet you, Tony," the Doctor said, wearing his most charming smile and holding out a hand to the little boy.

"Hi Docta," Tony replied, taking the proffered hand in his little one and seeming to study him for a moment. "Are you Sissy's boyfriend?" he asked artlessly.

He looked at Rose, a bit taken aback by this question. She grinned and nodded slightly, so he looked back at Tony and replied, "I suppose I am."

The little boy studied him for a minute longer, completely oblivious to the wide grins on the faces of his entire family. He tilted his head to one side, a gesture eerily reminiscent of Rose, and then announced, "I like you, Docta," and held out his little arms, a clear invitation for the Doctor to hold him. Grinning hugely, Rose handed her brother over, a bit surprised at the expert way the Doctor took the little boy and settled him on his own hip.

"Well, Tony, that's good, because I like you too," he said, his own smile widening. "I think we're going to be great friends, what do you think?"

"S'long as you're nice to Sissy," Tony qualified, making Rose laugh.

"Come along then, you lot, let's go home," she said, and led the way to the zeppelin. Her family trailed along behind, with the Doctor still carrying Tony, the two happily chattering away while Pete and Jackie looked on in amusement.

The entire flight back to London was like that, as Tony planted himself on the Doctor's lap and refused to budge. As Rose watched the two of them interact, she felt her heart swell to bursting at the wonderful sight. 'He'll be such a fantastic father someday,' she thought, as the Doctor had Tony and her parents in stitches with some story she wasn't really paying attention to. She then blushed suddenly as she realized where her mind was taking her. 'Whoa, girl, don't get ahead of yourself.'

They landed at the landing pad nearest the Tyler mansion at a little after 1:00, and were greeted by a hoard of paparazzi, much to Rose's disgust.

"Sorry 'bout this Doctor, the pests are everywhere, can't get away from them. There'll probably be dozens of articles in the next couple of weeks as they try to figure out who you are, and once they find out we're together, they'll probably explode with excitement."

"Sudden, mysterious boyfriend of the equally mysterious long-lost daughter of the Vitex CEO, who is also the head of Torchwood?"

"Something like that, yeah," she said, grinning with her tongue in her teeth.

"The press is going to have a field day with you two," Pete warned. "Until they settle down a bit, don't do anything in public that you don't want all over a dozen gossip rags."

"How long do you think that'll take?" the Doctor asked, a bit dismayed by this turn of events. Sure, he enjoyed being the center of attention, but not like this.

"No idea," Pete admitted ruefully. "We're still waiting for them to settle down about Rose and Jacks, and that's been over three years."

"How did you play that anyway? What did you tell them?" he asked, curious.

"Said that Jacks was actually my first wife, and that it turned out she hadn't been killed by the Cybermen, but had been in a hospital with amnesia since the attack. They fell for that pretty easily, though they still made a big fuss over it. Rose was a little tougher to explain, especially since…" he trailed off, glancing at his stepdaughter.

Rose picked up the thread of his story without comment. "Especially since I wasn't in any shape to confirm or deny much of anything to the press, I was such a mess." A brief look of pain crossed the Doctor's face at that, so she leaned up and kissed him lightly, much to little Tony's disgust. She smirked, and playfully swatted her baby brother's arm before continuing. "Anyway, we ended up telling them that I was the daughter they'd had to give up for adoption real early in their lives, and who they'd been trying to find for years. That was a bit of a harder sell, and without the resources of Torchwood, we'd have never managed it, but they bought it in the end."

The Doctor nodded in approval of their choice of story. "Nicely done. Simple, believable, and with just enough scandal to satisfy them. You must be a pro, Pete."

All of the adult Tylers laughed at that. "Nope," Jackie said. "That was Pete's personal assistant and miracle worker, Christina Baker, she thought up the whole thing. She can sell any story, convince anyone of anything. She could probably convince the Pope he was Jewish."

Pete chuckled, but seemed to agree. "She was a lifesaver, always has been. She and her husband have worked for me for years. John's my attorney," he added in response to the Doctor's questioning noise.

"Well, time to face the music," Jackie announced, clapping her hands once. "We can't hide in here forever. Doctor, you'd better give Tony to Rose. No need to give them any more ammunition than we can help." The Doctor agreed, and Tony let Rose pick him up and carry him, though not without whining a bit. The Doctor took Rose's free hand, and together the little family emerged from the zeppelin to wade through the swarms of paparazzi lying in wait.

By the time they managed to escape the clutches of the camera-wielding horde and reach the Tyler mansion, the Doctor was heartily wishing he could exchange each and every one of them with a Dalek.

"How do you all deal with this every day?" he asked in wonder as they settled around the table in the dining room for a late lunch.

Rose snorted. "Practice, mostly. Although, they're not always this bad. I don't usually have to deal with them at work, and they stay away from the mansion for the most part. I think that's because they're afraid that Dad or I will shoot them if they come near us here."

"Why would they be afraid of that?" he asked, puzzled.

"Torchwood's got an interesting reputation. No one seems to be able to comprehend that it's different now, that this Torchwood doesn't go around shooting the people who annoy them."

"And the old one did?" His heart sank at the thought.

Now it was Pete's turn to snort. "Why do you think I decided to shut them down and rebuild it? They had a number of nasty habits, not the least of which being that they thought it was perfectly acceptable to shoot any alien life form they saw, without even bothering to find out whether they were hostile or not. An organization dedicated to understanding alien life and defending Earth from hostile forces sounded like a good idea, given what happened with the Cybermen, but I didn't like their methods, and neither did a lot of other people."

"So, you decided to take control and use the organization to actually defend the Earth. Brilliant," the Doctor praised him, pleased that his Rose wasn't involved in a version of Torchwood like the one that had taken her away from him.

After lunch, Rose took a protesting Tony upstairs to put him down for a nap, with the Doctor trailing along behind them. When the little boy was tucked up in his room, they stepped out into the hallway and Rose turned to face him.

"I have got to change out of these clothes, I feel like they're soaked in Void stuff and it's making me itchy," she declared, then stopped in dismay. "You don't have anything to change into, do you? I'm sorry, I should have thought. We'll have to take you shopping for a wardrobe. Might as well go ahead and do that this afternoon, Dad won't mind helping you out."

A look of comic dismay crossed his features. "Clothes shopping? Really? Do we have to?"

Rose had to laugh at the look on his face. "You sound like Tony, 'Do I have to?' and yes, yes you do. You can't spend your whole life wearing one incomplete suit, and for now you don't have the TARDIS wardrobe with its infinite supply of clothes, so you'll just have to buy some like a normal person."

He grimaced, but had to admit that she had a point, and reluctantly agreed to let her take him clothes shopping, and followed her to her bedroom so she could change.

When they walked in, he was surprised to see that, unlike both her old bedroom in her Mum's flat and the one on the TARDIS, this room was not decorated in excessive amounts of pink, but rather in blue. At the quizzical look on his face, she turned to him and raised her eyebrows.

"What?" she asked.

"Nothing, I guess I was just expecting pink."

Rose's eyes dropped away from him for a moment. "I kinda outgrew that phase," she muttered. Sensing that she didn't want to discuss her change in decorating taste, he dropped it, though he was still curious. While she picked out an outfit from her closet and slipped into her bathroom to change, he wandered aimlessly around her bedroom, trying to suppress the thrill he felt at being in Rose Tyler's bedroom. After a moment, though, he couldn't help but think that the room was heartlessly plain. It was handsomely furnished, and looked comfortable enough, but it aside from the single color decorating scheme, it didn't seem to have any personality. His eyes fell then on the single framed photograph on the bedside table, and he wandered over to have a look.

He recognized it immediately; it was of him and Rose at the 2012 Olympics, grinning happily with their arms around each other, flushed with the success of their adventure. Rose had gotten a friendly passerby to take it with her phone, so she must have had it with her when she was trapped here. He swallowed down a lump in his throat as he realized abruptly that the room wasn't just decorated in blue. Everything around him, from the curtains to the duvet to the cushion in the window seat, was TARDIS blue.

"Oh, Rose," he murmured thickly, gently tracing her photographed face with his fingertips. He heard the bathroom door start to open behind him, and quickly put down the frame where he'd found it, rapidly composing himself.

"Ready to go?" his Rose asked as she emerged, dressed in clean clothes.

"Yeah," he replied, taking her hand. When she started for the door, however, he gently pulled her to a stop. She turned back to face him, curious, and he lifted his free hand to stroke her cheek.

"I love you, Rose Tyler," he said quietly, and lowered his lips to hers, kissing her slowly and tenderly. When they broke apart, she sighed softly and smiled into his eyes.

"I love you too, my Doctor." They stood there for a long moment, reveling in their moment of peace, then Rose led him out of her bedroom. "Come on, we've got loads of shopping to do," she said, grinning at his groan of dismay. Giggling madly, she pulled him down the stairs and out of the house for what he sensed was going to be a long afternoon.

Thanks for reading, and please review!

By the way, this next week is finals week, so I might be a bit slow with updates for a little while, but starting next week this story should have my undivided attention.