Rose stayed with him for a few days, enjoying the opportunity to spend more time with her first Doctor. He avoided anywhere with people after that first disaster, and just took her to see the most beautiful things in the universe, insisting that she was even more beautiful.
On what they decided would be her last night with him, they were curled around each other in bed as he played with her hair.
"It's going to hurt so much when you're gone," he sighed.
"But you'll hide these memories too, won't you?"
"No, well yes, I'll hide the memories, but I mean I wasn't talking about that. Humans only live for a century or so. The way we live, probably even less. Don't know what I'm going to do when you're gone," he told her.
"Oh, that's right, you don't remember that part. I'm not just human anymore, Doctor," she said.
"Both of your parents were human, Rose. You can't just change species," he protested.
"Emergency Program One. You sent me home. You wanted to keep me safe, so you tricked me into the TARDIS and sent me home. But I couldn't just let you die, so I opened the console and looked into the heart of the TARDIS. I went back for you and saved the day, but then you saved me, by returning the energy back into the TARDIS. That's how you regenerated," Rose explained.
"And exposure to the time vortex changed you somehow?"
"You said I'm more like a Gallifreyan now. One long life, and telepathy, and stuff. I'm not leaving you, Doctor. Not for a very long time."
He rolled over her, then, kissing her passionately. And when they were both deep in each other's minds, in the throes of passion, he completed his part of their bond. They collapsed in the soft blankets and slept, their arms and legs tangled together.
Rose awoke to light kisses all over her face, and the smell of breakfast nearby. She grabbed the Doctor by the ears and pulled his kisses to meet her lips before sitting up. He had brought her breakfast in bed this morning and she happily shared it with him before they both headed to the shower. It was his fault that she ended up covered in syrup after all, it was only fair that he be the one to clean it up.
He called the other Doctor back to pick her up and it was only a minute before he popped his head through the doors and interrupted their snogging on the jumpseat.
"Oi! It's my turn now, Romeo," the Doctor that had just arrived announced.
Rose looked back at him, in a bit of a daze, from the leather clad arms that had been wrapped tightly around her. "Hello," she said happily.
"Hello, Rose. Ready to go?"
She sighed and reluctantly extricated herself from the other Doctor's arms. He grumbled a bit, but let her go.
"You'll be ok, yeah? You can still hide these memories with the other ones?" she asked.
"What?" her future Doctor asked.
"Yeah, nothing to worry about, Rose. Now, Doctor, I leave our Bondmate in your very capable hands," he said formally.
At that, the pinstriped Doctor's eyes closed the way all the previous ones' had when the memories were unlocking. "I, oh! Oh, Rose," he exclaimed as he remembered each and every visit from her, and pulled her into his arms.
"Right! Well, you two had best be off then," the previous Doctor said, fidgeting with the controls on the console.
"Doctor," Rose called to him. He looked up expectantly. "I'll see you soon, yeah?"
"Yeah."
At that, she was led through the doors and back into her home TARDIS.
The Doctor dashed over to the console and immediately moved the ship into the vortex, leaving Rose wondering just what was supposed to happen next. She fidgeted a bit until he finally walked back over to her.
"Did you want those things you gave me-," he cut her off with a finger over her lips, then took her hand and led her off down one of the corridors. He had taken her bag in his other hand, so she wouldn't have to carry it, but she wasn't sure where he was heading. This wasn't the way to their bedroom, in fact she didn't remember ever going down this way before.
He stopped in front of one of the doors and smiled before opening it and gesturing for her to go first. When she stepped inside, she couldn't believe her eyes. It looked like Gallifrey. There were schelnk blossoms and arkytior all around them, red grass filled the space, and there were even a few of the silver leafed trees. The artificial sky in the room was just the right shade of orange and she looked up in awe at the Doctor when he took her hand.
"How did you do all this?" she asked.
"I used the flowers you brought back to grow more of them. Then I realized that I probably had the genetic structure files for the grass and the trees in the TARDIS databanks. So I found some seeds for a similar grass and altered the genes a bit to match," he explained.
"It's beautiful, Doctor," she said before he started rambling the entire process that she wouldn't understand anyway. "A little piece of home for you."
"Thanks to you. Not sure I would have wanted something like this before. But knowing that you've seen it. That this is something we can share, and we can complete our Bond here, almost in the fields of my home," he told her.
"I love you. It's perfect."
He opened up her bag then and took out the box with the pendants his eighth incarnation had given her. She was a bit surprised when he put both the bag and the box down on the ground. But he reached into his pocket and knelt down in the grass in front of her.
"My precious Rose, today we will complete the Bond that we set out to form between our minds and weave our timelines into one. But to honour the traditions of your society, I present you with this ring and ask you to also take me as your husband in the ways of humanity. Will you marry me?" he said, holding out the most beautiful diamond ring she had ever seen. The metal looked sort of like rose gold, but there was something a bit heavier about it. The largest diamond sat in the middle, a few clusters of smaller ones one each side, the metal itself looked like a braided knotwork design holding the stones in place.
"Of course I will, Doctor," she replied and pulled him up to stand with her. He slipped the ring onto her finger and Rose wrapped her arms around his neck.
He picked her up off the ground easily and threaded one of his hands through her hair as he kissed her deeply. They both moaned as their minds connected, the Bond pulling itself towards completion. He reluctantly released her lips, wanting to do this properly, and reached down for the pendants.
"Is there some kind of ceremony or special words we have to say?" Rose asked.
"No, this is something that was always very private and personal. That's why I didn't discuss it with Romana and couldn't introduce you to my family. No one else was supposed to be involved. Only the couple. The only special words involved are our names," he explained. "Now, you don't have a Gallifreyan name. It was something that was only known to family and hidden otherwise. Wasn't even chosen by our parents, it was something that reverberated back through our timelines. As I complete the Bond, I'll tell you, but you must never repeat it to anyone but me. If you meet me out of order again, and I don't know who you are, just whisper it in my ear and I'll know immediately to trust you."
She nodded her understanding and they moved to place their fingers on each other's temples. Their eyes closed as they sank into the connection. She could feel not only his mind pressing on that special place in her mind, but her own consciousness reaching for the same place in his, as if she instinctively knew what she needed to do.
Their hands dropped to grasp the pendants, but their connection remained open. As the Doctor looped the chain around her neck, he told her his name in the melodic cadence that she recognized as Gallifreyan. She wasn't sure how, but her mind emblazoned it perfectly into her memory so that she could never forget it.
Rose reached to place the other pendant around his neck and found herself saying something in Gallifreyan without even knowing what or how. The Doctor's eyes went wide as he realized that Time had granted her a name to reverberate back on her timeline as well to the point when she had looked into the TARDIS. He felt the name burn itself into his consciousness just as it should during the completion of their Bond.
Both Rose and the Doctor felt their minds open to each other more than ever before. Where they used to revel in feeling what the other felt before, now they shared thoughts and understanding. And while they knew that they didn't need to be touching to maintain it anymore, neither had any inclination towards letting go any time soon.
He laid her down in the red grass of their new Gallifrey room and began removing her clothing. Rose gazed up at him lovingly, allowing him to take his time and dote on her the way he felt she deserved. He left her wearing only her pendant and engagement ring, then stripped himself down to his trousers, leaving his pendant on as well.
The Doctor kissed her softly, then worked his way down her body, teasing her with his tongue and occasionally stopping to suck on her pale skin to leave a mark. When he stopped to pay careful homage to her breasts, her fingers threaded through his hair, scraping his scalp and holding him against her. He squeezed them roughly as his tongue circled her sensitive nipples, then kept his hands there as his mouth moved lower.
When his tongue drew lazy circles beneath her belly button, Rose's hips lifted from the tickling sensation. He smiled at her and moved his hands to hold her still as he positioned himself between her legs. She sighed happily, knowing that she would finally find out just how talented that teasing tongue would be at pleasing her sexually. He now remembered everything he had studied in those books while they were together, and she knew he could put it to good use.
Keeping a hold on her hips, he used his thumbs to spread her open and blew cold air over her sensitive flesh. Rose gasped and squirmed, unable to control herself through the intensity of feeling not only the physical sensations, but his own lust combined with hers. He licked her with a broad stroke from her opening to her clitoris causing both of them to groan in bliss. His right hand moved to sink two fingers into her as he sucked her clit into his mouth and flicked it rapidly with the tip of his tongue. Rose was reduced to gasps and half formed syllables resembling his chosen name. She fell over the precipice quickly and barely noticed when he moved to hover over her and slid himself into her still spasming channel.
The Doctor kissed her slowly, holding himself still until she had recovered enough to continue. It was only a few minutes before she was rolling her hips against his and he began the gentle push and pull that would trigger ecstasy for both of them in short order.
They gazed into each other's eyes, feeling as if they were actually on Gallifrey, in the fields around Lungbarrow, and not just in a simulated room. This was another level of healing for him from the trauma of the war. An understanding of what had been lost, but a new beginning with their lives together.
They both shouted as their pleasure was amplified exponentially through their Bond and they collapsed together in the red grass, staring up at the sky. They looked at each other and smiled, linking their hands together between them.
"How long are you going to stay with me?" he asked.
"Forever."