Rose makes it back to the Doctor and unlocks his memories. This epilogue is Ten/Rose.

So I decided to do an epilogue after all. Kind of threw canon straight out the window for this so if you'd like to keep this story in keeping with "canon minus the 50th" which is where it was before, feel free to skip this little addition.

The Doctor slowly circled the console, flicking switches and hitting buttons in a slow motion version of his normal navigational dance. It had been a rough few weeks since their disastrous visit to Midnight and he'd been keeping him and Donna on the run, trying to forget the feeling of having his mind violated as deeply as it had been. It was time for a break though, and Donna hadn't been shy in letting him know it.

His ears were still ringing, actually.

The Doctor knew that a relaxing trip was in order and, for Donna, relaxing was synonymous with shopping most of the time. He'd decided on Shan Shen for their next destination. Donna could wander the giant marketplace to her heart's content while he looked for parts or worked on the TARDIS. It was a win win for them both.

He stroked the edge of the console. The TARDIS sounded off today and was sluggish in responding to the coordinates he was inputting, like she was fighting him for some reason.

"Come on, old girl. We need to get Donna somewhere where she doesn't have to run for her life or she might regenerate me."

The TARDIS groaned at him and before he could send her another plea she abruptly exited the Vortex without prompting from him, the jolt sending him stumbling into the railing. Another bump as she finished materializing had him falling onto the console.

He checked the screen to see where they had landed. It certainly wasn't Shan Shen, that much he knew as the numbers scrolled across the monitor. The scanner revealed his location to be a small, rocky, uninhabited planet in a sparsely populated sector of 42nd century space. The coordinates seemed familiar somehow, like a half-forgotten dream, but he was almost positive he'd never been here before, had no reason to have been here before.

There was no reason for the TARDIS to have brought him here. Something had to be wrong.

He turned the monitor off and made his way under the grating to see if he could figure out what was ailing his ship before Donna woke up.

He missed the blue flash on the surface of the planet that heralded the arrival of another lifeform on the uninhabited rock by ten seconds.

He didn't, however, miss the deluge of excitement and love that his ship started exuding five seconds after he crawled under the grating. The sudden outpouring caused the Doctor to jolt in surprise, the sudden movement resulting in him banging his head against something.

Rubbing the sore spot, he popped back up from the inner workings of his ship. "What is it? Surely I've been giving you enough attention, no need to get excited just because I popped under the console."

The TARDIS sent him the mental equivalent of a raspberry, humming in delight at how this mirrored his first reaction to Rose showing up all those years ago. The console room brightened as she grew more excited, her wolf had finally made it back home.

The Doctor was sending queries to his ship, trying to figure out just why she was so excited, but she was ignoring him. He pulled himself up from the underbelly of his ship and started walking around the console, looking for anything out of the ordinary, trying to ignore the strange sense of déjà vu he was getting.

He froze, hidden behind the time rotor, when he heard a key turning in the lock.

-.-.-.-.-.-.-

Rose appeared in a flash of blue light. Travelling via dimension cannon hadn't gotten any easier but she'd learned from repeated experience how to be ready to run as soon as she landed. When she flashed into existence she immediately started cataloging her surroundings, hand on her stun gun. She stumbled as she recognized the rocky planet.

This is where she'd found the Doctor before. It had been two months, possibly more, since she'd finally found the right universe and stumbled into the TARDIS of an earlier Doctor who was embroiled in the Time War.

Slowly, she started turning, trying to figure out why she'd been deposited on the same planet once more. She was still evaluating her surroundings when a mental wave of love washed over her. Rose squeezed her eyes closed and reveled in the feeling for a second before spinning quickly to locate the TARDIS.

Tears sprang to her eyes as she took in the familiar and missed blue box. It was her TARDIS, the one that she'd been torn away from. This had to finally be the right timeline. It felt right.

Rose took off at a run towards the ship, skidding to a stop in front of it as she dug her key out. Hands shaking, she inserted the key and turned it.

Taking a deep breath and preparing herself for whatever she found inside, Rose pushed the doors open and stepped inside the TARDIS.

Her eyes ran over the familiar coral and grating greedily, drinking in the sights that she'd yearning for since the day she'd been trapped in Pete's World. Haltingly, she took a few steps towards the console, eyes sweeping the room, looking to see if anyone was in or if she was going to have to go find the Doctor.

"Rose?" The single syllable sounded like it had been forced out of his throat. It was full of hope and disbelief and desperation.

Rose's eyes snapped to the left where the Doctor was frozen next to the jumpseat. Her eyes filled with tears. It had been so long since she'd heard that voice, since she'd seen that face, and not a day had passed that she hadn't missed them.

"Hello, Doctor," she choked out, smile taking over her face as a few tears escaped.

"H-how?" He stuttered out, still not moving. "Are you really here?"

Rose smiled even wider and nodded. "I'm really here," she said.

She took a step towards him, then another. Before she knew it she was running across the console room and collided with him with enough force to send him reeling into the jumpseat.

The Doctor instinctively wrapped his arms around her, burying his face in the juncture between her neck and shoulder.

He felt more at home than he had since that day at Canary Wharf.

It was a full minute before he managed to pull back, ignoring the slight wetness on his cheeks. "How, Rose? How are you here? I tried everything I could think of to get back to you."

"Must've come up with something you didn't, then," Rose teased. At his serious look, she continued. "The stars are going out in Pete's World and the whole multiverse is in danger. The damage is catastrophic enough to have weakened the dimensional walls enough for a single person to slip through without causing any further harm. So we built a dimension cannon and I've been hopping through dimensions trying to find you."

"Rose Tyler," he said, wonder coloring his words. "You are brilliant. Thought we were done hopping for our lives but I guess a classic is always in order."

Rose giggled. She reached up and cupped his cheek in her hand. It was time to let him know what else she'd come across while jumping. She'd dreamed about this moment, about getting back and unlocking his memories but she'd never imagined she'd be quite this nervous.

She stroked her thumb across his skin. "Speaking of classics, you used to have horrible taste in sitting room furniture." She ignored his baffled look and forged on. "I really hope that you burned that green monstrosity you called a couch."

"Rose, what are you talking ab-" he cut off mid-word and Rose could practically see the memories unfolding in his mind. A tentative smile spread over her face as his eyes snapped down to meet hers. "Oh."

"Yeah. Oh." Rose answered, tugging at the hem of her blue jacket with her free hand.

"You met an earlier me."

"Yeah, I did."

"Oh, this makes so much sense," he enthused, taking her hand as a goofy grin took over his face.

"Does it?"

"It does. You were the reason I had the strength to do what I needed to do to end the war, why I had the tiniest spark of hope that led me to keep going after the war."

"I'm sorry you had to go through that, Doctor. Seeing you stuck in the middle of it was…" she trailed off.

The Doctor winced and released her hand to rub at the back of his neck. "Yes, I wasn't at my best. I seem to have been unpardonably rude to you. I should probably apologize."

"Wasn't the first time you were rude," Rose pointed out, "at least not for me."

He nodded in assent. "I wasn't the only rude one, though."

"No?"

"Definitely not. It was entirely rude of you to kiss a past me, multiple times no less, before I got a proper kiss from you in our timeline."

"You angling for a snog, Doctor?" Rose asked, looping her arms around his neck.

"Might be," he said with a sniff. "After all, this is a reunion and one that should be impossible. I vote snogging is in order, no more waiting or excuses."

"Then stop talking and kiss me," Rose answered, mouth centimeters from his.

The Doctor did just that. They still had the multiverse to save and memories and unfinished declarations to sort out and discuss but for those few moments while they explored each other's mouths, everything was perfect.