Disclaimer: I don't own Doctor Who; I just borrow the characters and mutate their inner voices. Please don't sue, my house is small, my car is useless and my dogs are a pain in the arse, but they're all I have.

A/N: This was meant to be Rose angst and fluffy lemons… it didn't turn out that way and I'm sorry. All the same, I hope you enjoy the ride - my muse certainly took me on one writing this. Definitely not appropriate for younger fans. As the story grew, so did the Rose/Doctor physical relationship. Please use caution for the explicit scenes.

Crossroads

By: Danae Bowen

She couldn't stay her fingers any longer as they drifted up to loosen his tie. The Doctor grinned lopsidedly as the small scrap of cloth dropped to the floor, a symbol of the crumbling walls around his guarded life. His patience lasted as her long fingers worked free the buttons of his shirt, baring inch after inch of flesh to her very suddenly hungry gaze. The depths of her eyes darkened, pools of near black as she sucked her lower lip into her mouth, working it with her teeth as she devoured him from a distance.

"I've waited for you, Doctor," she whispered, words barely audible. "Years upon years, while I've fought my way back. Some wanted me, but I only ever wanted you."

His eyes drifted shut as she forced the shirt and jacket from his shoulders; he heard them pool at his feet, but it was the feeling of her warm fingers against his cool skin that caused him to suck in a sharp breath. She raised both hands to his collar bone, sliding them over his flesh to his shoulders, down his strong arms, across to his stomach. Another deep breath, and a shiver coursed through his body as her fingers now stroked gentle paths across his ribs, to his chest, coming to rest one hand over each heart.

"Five years, Doctor. You can't imagine, can't begin to imagine, how alone I've been without you."

Rose closed her eyes, revelling in the double beat of his hearts against the palms of her hands, breathing him in as she confessed her great loneliness, words she'd never spoken before, not even to her Mum.

"As if you're heart only beat at half strength? As if your lungs only breathed in half capacity? Everything worked just enough to keep you living, but never really alive?"

A cool finger on bared flesh at her waist, slipping up under the thin cloth that covered her torso. His hands were gentle as they lifted the t-shirt from her body, over her head, and past her raised arms.

"How hard it must have been to feel alive, to remember why you kept breathing and your heart kept beating even when you knew it wasn't really there."

The shirt fell to the ground, forgotten, but rather than drink in the vast expanse of flesh revealed to him for the first time, his eyes were drawn to her damaged arm. Scars that hadn't been there one year, seven months prior. His breath caught again, one heart missing a beat, throwing him out of rhythm as he lowered his lips to her marred skin. The wound running up the inside of her bicep was harsh and jagged and he kissed it lovingly, his lips bringing comfort to the damaged cells that only a few months earlier had been rendered open by her bones splitting out of her body.

"Did you feel alive, then, Rose? Did the pain bring you back your mind when you thought you just may be losing it?"

She groaned softly, eyes fluttering. "Didn't mean it to happen, didn't go looking for it."

"Just jeopardy friendly, right?"

"One bad jump."

"What other scars will I find, Rose? Your beautiful legs?" He dropped to his knees in front of her, nimble fingers stripping her of her boots and socks, stroking the delicate bones of her feet.

"Not so bad, them. Bones never came through, just a bit of a limp, s'all." She whispered softly, her legs trembling, threatening to give way as he raised his hands to her waistband, slipping free the catch, lowering the cool fabric.

Her legs were as long as he remembered, lean and muscular. He ran his hands carefully down her thighs, focussing on her bad leg, sensing more than seeing the damage inside.

"You're wrong, Rose, because I can understand how you've felt. Your world taken away from you, everyone you know and love just suddenly gone." He pressed his lips to her hip, lapping lightly at the bone he found there, dragging a quiet whimper from her trembling lips. "But then, in a weak moment, you let someone in, and they change everything for you." His lips moved across her stomach, tongue tasting every inch of flesh in his path, dipping into her belly button, smiling at her throaty groan. "Suddenly, your life is filled with light, and laughter, and holding hands, and exuberant hugs." He nipped lightly at her ribs, licking better the playful wounds. "Everything looks different, smells different, is different even, and now you're throwing yourself into these horribly dangerous situations not because you want it to end, but because you need it to never end." His lips reached the underside of her breasts, still obscured by her thin, black bra. He darted out his tongue, testing the bra, working up under it briefly before wrapping his arms over her bum and pulling her down to his level. "Your world turns pink and yellow, and you find yourself living for that next moment of wonder, or that next moment of terror, running for your lives and laughing about it because it'll all be all right. It'll always be all right while you're together." Gentle fingers slipped open the clasp of her bra, removing the scrap of lace, baring her chest completely to him. He faltered at that point, breathing heavily, licking his lips as he bathed in the sight of her. "Beautiful," he murmured, pausing in his speech, lowering his lips to gently suckle a budded nipple.

Rose's body arched in response, a quiet cry escaping her lips as she dug her fingers deep into the Doctor's shoulders. Fresh warmth flooded through her, pooling damply between her thighs, sensation glazing over the dark brown depths of her eyes.

"But then the day comes that you knew would eventually, and everything is empty again. Instead of laughter, what rings in your ears is your own name on her lips, screaming for you across dimensions, and you want nothing more than to tear apart galaxies to get to her, but you can't. The universe has to carry on or everything you did together would mean nothing, so you suffer." He raised a hand to her free breast, palming it gently, finding the nipple with cool fingers and tweaking it, forcing her to arch against him again. Her own movements press her breast back against his lips, and he eagerly opens his mouth, darting out his tongue, sucking her wetly before blowing cool breath against her, causing her to pebble roughly against his lips. "But she's still all around you. A shirt left in the console room. A jacket in the kitchen. A bloody sneaker in the corridor outside your bedroom. And her scent, it's everywhere, on everything, slowly driving you quite mad."

Without warning, Rose found herself on her back, the Doctor hovering over her, still dressed from the waist down. His hands stroked her body now, from breasts to stomach, to pause at her hips and the single piece of silky fabric left to maintain her modesty. There was no question in his eyes as his fingers toyed with the black scrap of lace, no hesitation as he pulled it from her body, leaving her naked on her own bedroom floor, open for his eyes to feast upon.

"What do you do when the scent never fades, I wonder? When your ship is so attuned to your needs that it locks what's left of her into an airtight room, controlling the atmosphere, controlling everything to make sure she never fades from memory, as if that were even remotely possible." His fingers trail back up her thigh, feeling her damp heat long before he reaches the sensitive folds of flesh crying out for his touch. "So, you find a new companion and take her the same places, but it's not the same. Have the same conversations, but they're not as interesting. Run from the same threats, but there's no laughter. A temporary fix that fixes nothing."

"Please," It's a soft moan, but Rose's tortured plea brings a smile to the Doctor's lips and he raises his fingers to slide through her damp curls, teasing the hard nub he finds within. Long, cool fingers against a hot, sensitive bundle of nerves and immediately her body arches, a sharp cry escapes her lips, her brain sending fractured shocks of light and heat to every nerve she possessed.

"But you've waited long enough for the return of sensation, emotion, life." His finger slides through her slick folds, teasing the entrance to her body. "She's worked hard while you were separated, feeling the need to be with you just as deeply." He slides into her, his long fingers stretching open her body, causing her to gasp, writhe and moan beneath him. Her breathing picks up pace, her chest rising and falling as she struggles to breathe in desperate lungfuls of oxygen. "And then she's back, pink and yellow in your arms, holding you and telling you she's waited for you." His fingers find a rhythm, at first long, slow strokes in and out of her body, her hips rising and falling in time, her voice lost in non-sensical lyrics of pleasure. "You're right back to knowing that everything's gonna be all right, Rose, because you're together again." His fingers pick up pace, his thumb finding her clit, stroking her roughly, watching as her body freezes, her mouth in an eternal "oh" as waves begin crashing down over her, raising her higher and higher into pleasure, her mind going blank, her ears filled with the sound of her blood rushing through her veins and her own screams as she tightens around him and explodes with all the power of a super nova.

He grins at her saucily as he brings his fingers to his lips, his long tongue licking them clean as she watches through passion dazed eyes. "Now, her scent is fresh again, filling your mind, your heart, imprinting herself on everything around you." He leans forward, his tongue lapping at her core, ripping a short scream of exhausted pleasure from her lips before rising over her and capturing her mouth against his in a long, warm kiss filled with promise and future.

When her breathing calmed, and her eyes began to find focus once again, the Doctor grinned down at her lovingly. A smile tugged at the corners of her lips and she sucked her lower lip into her mouth rather sheepishly.

"Blimey, that's some imagination you have there, Doctor."

~~~TBC