He couldn't shake the feeling.

It was like spiders on the back of his neck, or something dancing on the edge of his peripheral vision… wagging its fingers and sticking out its tongue at him until the turned to see… and then disappearing in a puff of logic.

He was getting old and that was the only explanation he had. Gone too many places, seen too many things and his old brain was full. Not only did he have the history of every planet in his head, but he had to keep track of 800+ years of traveling? Impossible.

So, as Rose caught up with the friends that sat around them, he ran through his head what he knew. The date… nothing spectacular about the date. The place… Waring Park… nope… no major historical events. Rose sings? She led a choir strike in secondary school?

Focus.

Hard to focus when he knew what was just under that skirt… or rather what wasn't just under the skirt.

The Doctor shifted and cleared his throat. Rose slid a sidelong glance at him and he smiled, brushing his fingertips across the back of her neck where tendrils of hair had escaped the twisted clip. He liked her hair like this… reminded him how she looked after hours of… he cleared his throat again.

A string quartet began to play near the front of the hall, and everyone quickly moved to their seats. Rose leaned closer to him, tipping her head so her nose brushed his cheek when she whispered in his ear.

"You're doing it again."

"Yeah, well, that's because I'm thinking it again."

"What is it…. Another invasion? Mad scientist? Impending natural disaster?"

"Nooooooo…." He said slowly, dragging the word out even as he scowled out the window. "Nothing so sinister, I don't think."

"That's reassuring."

The ceremony began, and the Doctor stood with everyone else to watch the bride enter the hall. She was a robust woman with rich, dark skin that showed as a sharp contrast to the frothy, white dress she wore. A man – he assumed her father – led her down the aisle.

Why humans felt the need for such pomp, he never knew. No one here probably realized that just a few hundred years earlier, a 'marriage' consisted of two people saying out loud that they intended to be together forever. Simple as that. No one even needed to hear, just the two of them.

As far as those traditions went, he and Rose were married.

He blinked, and shifted his attention to Rose. She watched with a wide grin as her friend walked by, and a pleasant warmth spread between the Doctor's hearts. Somewhere along the way, he had not only learned to love a human, but he'd apparently turned into a sentimental fool. He laid his hand on her shoulder, stroking the cool silk of her dress, and she smiled up at him.

Just about the time the bride and her escort reached the row where the Doctor and Rose stood, a loud clattering from the entry hall drew everyone's attention. The music stalled as the musicians tried to see. A young woman with wavy brown hair stopped briefly in the doorway, scanning the room.

The Doctor's hearts seized and he stared. "Oh, no…Nyssa."

"What is it?" Rose demanded, tugging at his arm to get his attention. "Doctor?"

Then Nyssa… because there was no doubt in his mind that the woman standing there was Nyssa of Traken… turned away and screamed… "DOCTOR!!"

Rose looked up at him, her eyes wide. "Doctor?"

He released a breath through his snarled lips. "I knew this place looked familiar."

And then there he was, dressed in that ridiculous floppy hat, raggy coat and impossibly long scarf wrapped around his neck half a dozen times. Wild hair, wilder eyes and big teeth. Bloody hell... what part of his genetic soup thought that combination might be a good idea? He practically bounded into the hall, raising a hand.

"Hello. Don't mind me. You may carry on momentarily. But, perhaps if you could all please look around your feet. I'm attempting to locate a rather large, rather fast moving rodent and if someone could possibly let me know if you--"

One of the ladies on the other side of the hall screamed and attempted to jump up into her chair, knocking down three others and nearly ripping her companions necktie clear off. A woman in the aisle behind her also screamed, trying to scramble away... and Teeth and Hair ran forward. With a sweep of his coat and a flip of his scarf as he bent over, he straightened again with a wide grin on his face and a rather large rodent by the tail.

The rodent was, of course, blue. The Doctor hissed a "Yes, of course... Kropak Three. Stupid little buggers stowed away in the TARDIS. Ate half my stock of jelly babies."

Rose had taken a step back so her back was against him, and she looked up, scowling. "What are you talking about?" The Doctor avoided answering, knowing it would just lead to a list of questions the length of his arm. Rose's mouth dropped open and her eyes widened. She looked from him to the other him, and back to him. "No. Way."

"Rose..."

"That's... you."

"Shush!" he hissed, putting his finger to his lips, then decided it was more effective to cover her lips, not his. "Keep your voice down or I'll hear you."

Rose smirked, looking his former self up and down, and then back to him. The Doctor felt his ears burn at the scrutiny. She chuckled, but hid her mouth behind her hand. He scowled and pushed his hands into his pockets.

"I told you I wasn't always this good looking."

Rose was trying so hard to hold back her laughter that her cheeks were bright red, her shoulders shook, and her eyes watered. Small sounds — akin to sobs — kept squeezing past her covered lips, and he couldn't look at her, feeling the laughter stir in his own chest.

"It's not funny," he tried so say with a straight face, but it only seemed to fuel her.

She was practically hiccuping, trying not to burst out loud, and drawing more attention in avoiding it than if she probably just let it out. The Doctor wrapped his arms around her and pulled her to his chest, patting her head as if comforting her.

"She's fine. Just fine," he told the many faces currently turned in their direction. "Just a deep seeded fear of rodents. Stems from a childhood trauma when her gerbil decided to crawl into her bed. Thrashed about so much, little Gerard—" Rose choked, turning her face into his collar. He squeezed tighter. "—didn't make it. Haunts her to this day, poor thing."

"No fear, my good lady. We will be off in short time," Teeth and Hair declared.

Nyssa appeared in the doorway again. "Doctor," she said with a theatrical whisper. "We saw another go behind the building. We think it's heading back to the TARDIS."

"Right." The other Doctor held up the rodent, who was still squirming and attempting to escape. "We're off. Go about your business."

Rose seemed to finally compose herself, and pulled out of his hold, wiping her fingers delicately under her eyes. She was breathing hard, and her cheeks were still flushed.

"Should we go help?"

The Doctor sniffed and shook his head. "Not necessary. I have everything quite in hand, as I recall. Nothing too threatening. The rodents of Kraken Three are voracious eaters, so the only thing in mortal danger here is the buffet."

"Don't you want to... I don't know... go say hello?"

He shook his head again. "Not a good idea."

"Why? Is it like a paradox?"

"Only if the same regeneration appears in the same place at the same time. My mind is the same, but my cells are different so the universe doesn't recognize me as an anomaly."

"So, why is it a bad idea?"

"It just is." By not meeting her eyes, and staring across the hall toward the door, he hoped he looked resolved and stern.

"It just is," she grumbled in a mock serious tone. Rose bumped his side with her arm. "Come on, then. Tell me why? What would it hurt? Oh, hello! Look at me! This is what you've got to look forward to, my friend."

His face wanted to smile so much it hurt, but he managed to avoid it by not looking at her. "First, it's not a good idea for the past me to see you."

"Why not?"

"Because that me doesn't know you, and by meeting you now it might influence my decision later to ask you to come with me."

"How do you know that is the reason you did?" She arched a single eyebrow, nodding as if to say 'See?'.

"Because I don't remember you. Not in connection with this place."

"Doctor, you barely remembered being here at all. You might have met me, and completely forgot me."

"Exactly. Rose, if I had seen you ever before that basement in Henrick's, I would remember. Forgetting you…" He touched her cheek, smiling. "That is impossible."

"Okay, you said first... is there a second?"

"I don't remember meeting me. And that's usually something one remembers."

"Anything else?"

The Doctor cleared his throat. "I don't usually get along."

"Get along. You don't get along with yourself?"

"Not really, no."

The minister at the front of the hall announced they would begin the service again, hopefully without interruption, and everyone shuffled back to their seats. Chairs were set back into haphazard rows, some of the ribbons broken and lying across the floor. As they sat, he thought that he'd avoided answering her question. No such luck. Rose had a bone, and she wasn't letting go.

"Have you done this before? Bumped into yourself?"

He jerked his head to the side. "Weeellll, bumped might be the wrong word. But, sufficed to say I have shared the same space with myself more than once. And on occasion, with a rather large crowd of…" He tucked his chin toward his chest, puffing his cheeks. "Me. It's rather like being schizophrenic, I imagine. Except, I can see me quite clearly."

Rose pulled her lips into a small purse, one elegant eyebrow raised slightly. The Doctor knew that face, and it usually meant that she was about to ask for something completely outrageous or suggest something for which he would probably thank her for later. Usually, while he waited for his hearts to find a steady rhythm again with her lying in bed beside him.

"What…"

"I'm just curious. If the previous you, the you I first knew, had met the you of now, you'd know, right? I mean, it would have already happened, right?"

"In theory, yes."

She grinned wickedly, the tip of her tongue peeking between her teeth. "Hmm, that might be interesting."

The Doctor's jaw dropped. "Rose Tyler!"

She laughed, resting her head against his shoulder and he kissed her hair.

Rose settled into contemplative silence beside him as the hall was rearranged and Shireen exited again. He took up his preferred position beside her, arm behind her with his fingertips just finding the edge of her sleeve so he could touch skin. Human skin was so warm, and her skin was like silk.

The Doctor looked down at her, studying the curve of her ear through the veil of curled hair with rapt attention. It was quite a lovely ear, and he knew from experience that approximately five centimeters below her lobe was a spot that made her squirm. She was beautiful, and she was enough to make a Time Lord break all the rules.

And he had. Time and time again. Sometimes multiple times a night, a feat for which he was quite proud.

But, that was precisely why his previous self could never know who she was or what she meant to him. Because while the him sharing the space with them would probably scoff him for his dalliance (after all, Sarah Jane had not left him all that long ago at this point, and whether he admitted it or not, she had meant more than most), this was not the him of the past he worried about.

After the War, if he had known there was some beautiful young girl – human or not – that would see past his darkness and heal him, who would see him as something other than a purveyor of genocide, he would have run. He would have avoided her, Autons or not. He would have never asked once, let alone twice. Because he wouldn't have let her be near him. He had believed he wasn't worth healing.

Not that he really believed it now, most of the time.

She looked up at him, and something in his eyes must have made her pause. Rose reached up and touched his jaw. "What?"

"You're beautiful."

Rose smiled and leaned up to kiss him. "It's a good thing, you know."

"What is?"

"That I met you when I did." She grinned wide. "What's with the scarf?"

"I have no idea." He finally let himself chuckle, smiling. "Seemed like a good idea at the time."