A/N: Sorry about the slower updates. I've had a busy couple of weeks, but hopefully it'll improve. Anyway, thanks for sticking with me.

It was morning again, and the Doctor lay with Rose in his arms. He hadn't answered her question last night, but he thought he knew that it was true. He wanted nothing more in his life then to have the chance to do this forever.

There were just some questions that he still had. It had nothing to do with her, but with his own body. What happened if he regenerated, or would he still regenerated. He understood, somehow, that he would heal even more rapidly now then his Time Lord genes would let him, but did that mean there would be no more regeneration?

That would be a gift in itself. He thought he wasn't the most attractive he had ever been, but Rose seemed to love this face and body. He hadn't even told her about the possibility of it changing because he was scared that she wouldn't want to stay.

Scared of losing her because normal men just didn't change their face, and while he hoped she saw it as a gift- better than dying- he couldn't be sure.

He loved Rose. If he was honest he had loved her since the elevator after run, but it had only grown since then. She had consumed his world, like a wildfire, and he loved it as much as it scared. Rose had taken that broken man, and managed to pull him back from the edge he had been teetering on since the Time War. Without her, he might have fallen, and he didn't know what would have happen then.

It wasn't cliché to say that she made him better.

And he was terrified, because she would always be so fragile and something that could be shattered in his mind. And he was still broken, on the mend, but broken all the same. He knew that no matter how much he liked to believe in the strength of their relationship he knew that there were weak points beneath the surface.

A lot of them were his fault. There was so much he hadn't told her, things about his past, and about himself. So many lies, even if they were only lies of omission and that wasn't anything to build something on.

Rose stirred, and nuzzled closer to his neck, seeming to breathe him in. He smiled at her, wrapped her more tightly in his embrace, and willed her to rest a little longer. There was no rush, and he knew that there was nowhere to run.

He had to face this head on if he was ever going to be man enough to have someone like Rose in his life. No more running. He had forever to share all the details that he had been keeping from her, and he wasn't quite ready just yet.

It would be one of those cases were he would have to pick the scab off the wound, and he knew in the long run the pain of it all would be better, but masking it seemed easier. He remembered his last regeneration, and wondering for the entire universe why he had survived.

He hadn't wanted to, and had very much wanted to end his own life after that, but he was too much of a coward. He could have forced regeneration, but he doubted he would have had the courage to not complete it and then he would have run through two bodies in a short amount of time.

And then he had met a blonde shop girl, who had changed it all. He had never been so glad to be alive as when she ran into his TARDIS. If he would have died he never would have had the chance to know what this kind of happiness felt like.

He would have missed out on real love, and he shuddered at the thought.

"Are you all right, Doctor?" Rose asked. She shifted a little but he didn't let her leave his arms.

"Yes," he said.

As long as she was there, it wasn't a lie. He could do anything with her at his side.

She seemed to understand right now all he needed was her support, and she shifted again, but not out of his arms. She laid her head in between his hearts and he got the impression she was just listening to them beat.

He wanted to kiss her, to make love to her, and to ask her to marry him all at once. But he didn't do anything but chuckle a little, letting it vibrate her cheek. They lay in the silence, and he wondered what she was thinking. His hand had been drawing circles on her back. They were words he wouldn't dare say aloud

Words like mine and the Gallifreyan word for wife. Things that maybe he would say someday but there wasn't a need to rush. Right now he felt like this moment was just as it should be.

"Doctor?"

"Hmmm?"

He braced himself for some important topic. Whatever she asked, he would find a way to answer. No more running, no more hiding.

"I'm hungry."

He couldn't help the chuckle that rose, and she leaned back and grinned at him.

"Me too," he said.

They dressed, him hating to leave the comfort of their bed, but knowing that it was necessary. His wolf had been surprisingly quiet while he had been reflecting but it was begging for food now, and he didn't' want to disappoint it.

One plus was at least he had something in his head again. It helped fight off the silence that the death of his people had left.

"Are you two going to be going to the marriage ceremony in town today?" Abe asked them.

The entire family was watching them. Rose was looking at him, and he didn't know what to say. She wasn't protesting like he thought she might be, but it was still quite a step. Even if the ceremony didn't matter outside of this planet, it mattered to him.

It meant everything if they were doing it on their own accord. He had been forced to marry her about a month ago, but they had both agreed that it didn't count. This wasn't the same.

This was real; this was asking the woman he loved to marry him, and meaning it. For better or worse- forever.

Rose was watching. Rose was waiting, and he opened his mouth.