I know Susan (Harkness) wouldn't be old enough to do what she does in this chapter yet, but do me a favour and ignore that fact, eh?

In Which There Are Far Too Many Zeros.

Thanks to the TARDIS, the wedding happened almost a month after the horror of the Dalek invasion, but in reality it was only about five hours. Donna consented to wear a dress from the TARDIS wardrobe this time, as did Martha and Rose, and Jenny found the most beautiful wedding dress. Donna questioned the Doctor but he replied that it would be better for them all if no one asked.

They all believed him.

--

It was the second wedding in not very long the Doctor had been to, and the second time that nothing had happened (at the wedding, that is). There were only two memorable events.

The Doctor, the loving grandfather that he was, deposited Susie on the bench beside him. Martha, who would have been sitting directly beside him had it not been for the children. Children, plural, because she'd put William between them, beside Susie. And they promptly started fighting.

The Doctor picked up Susan, who was pulling William's curly tuft of black hair and was being bitten in the arm, and put her on his knee, far away from William as possible. Martha lifted her son, trying not to laugh, and put him between her and Tom.

Tom, by the way, was perfectly alright aside from a few bruises and an arm in plaster. Martha had not come in the TARDIS with them, instead opting to take William and find his father.

The second thing that happened was the fault of the Doctor. They got to the bit where the person performing the wedding asks if there are any objections. The Doctor stood up. "Me!" he said.

Every eye turned to face him. Martha, Rose and Donna were staring in disbelief, Jenny looked confused and not a little hurt and Jack was looking like the Doctor had kicked his puppy. (Jack and Jenny's puppy, by the way, was running about the TARDIS at that moment. The Doctor, being cheap, had given them Twig as a wedding gift. And he hadn't kicked him. Just in case you lot at the RSPCA, PETA and the rest of you animal lovers are about to start a riot.)

"What's your objection?" the man looked very confused. No one ever actually objected.

"I object…to having to sit here with this baby who really needs a nappy change. Can I be excused?"

There was silence until, suddenly, Jenny burst into laughter. Jack wasn't far behind her. Pretty soon, the rest of the crowd was falling about laughing.

The Doctor, with a very whiffy little baby in his arms, looked indignant.

"It was a serious question!"

--

Rose caught the bouquet.

This raised her happiness factor by about 0.0000000000000000000000000000000000000001 percent. And then it dropped again. Mainly because, jokingly, people were asking her who was the lucky guy.

She really wished they wouldn't.

--

"So, what was the big deal of that whole thing?" Jenny asked later.

"Oh, thanks." Jack replied in a mock hurt tone.

Donna and Rose, who they were with at this point, both laughed.

"What it means, honey, is that he can't run off with anyone else. Not ever." Rose explained. "Not so much as a snog without your permission."

Jenny laughed. "Good! It'll make things less complicated."

"It also means he's on nappy duty rather than poor old Granddad." the Doctor said, dropping the once again spick and span little baby into Jack's arms. "And you're not having any wedding night in my TARDIS." He warned.

Jack snorted.

Jenny looked confused.

Donna explained.

Jenny wasn't confused anymore, just a little bit embarrassed.

"What now?" she asked, changing the subject quickly and glancing at Rose.

"There's one more thing I need to so before…before…I go back." Rose sighed. "Doctor, on Bad Wolf Bay, I told you that I loved you. And you tried to tell me something too. What was it?"

"Oh, Bad Wolf Bay, brilliant!" the Doctor cried. "Obviously not the fact you left." He added quickly. "But it was just after seeing you I met Donna! She appeared in my TARDIS! In a wedding dress!"

"This wedding dress?" Jenny asked.

"Nah, you're a lot thinner than Don…ow! Did I deserve that?" the Doctor demanded, rubbing his cheek where Donna had smacked him.

Rose, Jenny, Jack and Donna all nodded.

"What happened?" Rose asked, intrigued.

"Well, she accused me of abduction then called me a blinkin' Martian!"

"Well!" Donna said defensively.

"And I've told you about Spiderman!" the Doctor snorted.

"Alright, shut it." Donna shot. "Let's go to Mars."

"Mars? Nah, that's boring." The Doctor said. "No atmosphere. And no bloomin' Martians either!"

"Let's go to Skittles." Rose suggested dryly, in way of a joke. Mars equalled sweets, and Rose's favourite sweets (after Roses, of course, a bad pun forced on her by Jackie practically from birth) were Skittles.

"Your wish, my command!" the Doctor said, running to the control panel.

"You're not going to tell me there's actually a planet-"

"Well, you don't think your lot came up with 'Taste the Rainbow™ ®' all by their lonesome, do you?" the Doctor grinned.

"I can't believe you." Donna said.

"What?"

"You actually pronounce the trademarks!"

And once again the Doctor had avoided admitting how he felt.

--

Skittle (without the s at the end) was a brilliant planet, where everything was actually in rainbow colours and very sweet plants grew. This, the Doctor claimed, was where he'd gotten the idea for Skittles, after finding and loving the sweets on earth, and finding the planet Skittle, therefore discovering the flavour and taking it back to Earth, where at some point in the future his past self tasted a Skittle for the first time, visited the planet Skittle, discovered the flavour and took it back to Earth, where at some point in the future…

You get it.

Skittles plus being eaten equals happy Doctor.

--

Anyway, back to the serious story now.

--

They stood staring at the mirror, Rose and the Doctor, hand in hand. Not far behind them stood Donna, Jack and Jenny, who was holding Susan.

"So, this is it?" Rose said, swallowing the tremor in her voice.

"This is it."

"For real this time."

"Yup"

"I'll really never see you again."

"Never. Still, at least you'll be rich."

Rose paused. "Come with me." She said.

The Doctor paused. "What?"

"There are Timelords there, Doctor! Dalek Caan, he said! You can come with me and…" Rose trailed off as he saw the Doctor look over to his daughter.

He shook his head sadly. "No. I'm a grandfather, and a father. I have responsibilities."

"Bring them with you!"

"And the what, Rose, then what? Jack would need to come too, and he's want to bring Ianto and whatever-her-name-is, and she'd want to bring her family, and they'd want to bring their families and friends, and I couldn't leave Donna either…No, Rose, it wouldn't work."

Rose nodded. "I know." she whispered. "But I love you."

"Rose…"

"Maybe, I dunno, I'll find a parallel Doctor?" Rose said, laughing through her tears.

But the Doctor saw her seriousness. "Rose, promise me you won't wait. Not for him, not for me. Find someone new."

"Why? If I can't have you, why can't I have him?"

"He might not even exist! And even if he did, he could be with anyone…Sarah Jane, Ace, Barbara, Jo, Liz, Leela, Tegan, Peri…"

"Should I be jealous? They're all women, right?" Rose asked tearfully, trying to cheer herself up with a joke and only succeeding in making herself worse.

"Or Susan. I- he – could be with Susan."

"Susan who?"

"My granddaughter. My other granddaughter. Not Susan Harkness. Susan Foreman."

"Her mother wasn't a generated anomaly by any chance?"

"'Fraid not."

"But what if I didn't care? What if I would mind sharing with Sarah Jane, or Ace, or Susan, or whatever the rest of their names were?"

The Doctor smiled sadly, watching as she began to fade. "He wouldn't know you, Rose. And you probably wouldn't know him. He could be in any regeneration, from his first to his last. He might even still be on Gallifrey. Let him go, Rose, forget about him. Forget about me. Live your life."

Before Rose disappeared, the Doctor heard one word. "Never."

"Are you done?" asked Donna's voice, far too cheery for the moment.

Jack, meanwhile, was getting a cable and hooking it up.

"What're you doing?" the Doctor demanded.

Jack and Donna looked at him as if he was crazy. "Getting Rose back, of course." They said in unison.