Author's note: Thank you for reading, and thank you to the wonderful people who take the time to review, here it is, finally, the reunion, I hope it meets expectations.
I don't own anything really. :(
Chapter 14
Amy and Jack hurried over to the other three where they waited in the corridor. Jack had immediately knelt by Rose and helped her shift up into a sitting position. He looked over to where the Doctor was laying unconscious and then to the gun she had dropped when she went down. He reached over, picking it up and checking the settings, "Well, at least it's on stun." He looked at her face and found himself unable to resist a smirk as he took in her dilated pupils. He moved her shirt to the side and looked at the wound on her abdomen, "That doesn't look like it feels too great."
After kissing Rory quite thoroughly in her excitement to see him, Amy and Rory had both gone over to the Doctor to check that he was ok. Rory had looked up at Jack's assessment of Rose's wound. "She actually told me she was a -bit- shot. Can you believe that? A -bit-." Rory moved to kneel by Jack, looking at the wound, it was a nasty burn, from one of the guns that had not been set to stun.
Rose rolled her eyes at him and winced, smacking Jack's hand as he poked at it. The euphoric feelings engendered by the drugs seemed to be wearing off. She looked down the hallway, an expression of concern on her face. "I've had worse. We should really leave, the guards won't stay stunned forever." Jack nodded his agreement and moved to the Doctor, hefting him up in a fireman's carry and standing there while Rory helped Rose to her feet. She swayed slightly and made a face. She wished the drugs had waited a little longer before starting to wear off. She was feeling more shot by the second.
She felt her vision start to narrow and she sighed, managing to say… "I think I'm gonna faint…" Before passing out. Rory reached down and lifted her legs, moving to follow Jack as he led the way back to the TARDIS.
The Doctor was pretty sure he was upside down, he opened his eyes and confirmed that yes, he was definitely upside down. And staring at a part of Jack's body that he didn't care to be this close to. He shifted slightly and felt Jack stop, realizing that he was awake. Jack set the Doctor onto his feet and stepped back after making sure he wasn't going to fall over. They were back in the TARDIS, and the Doctor looked around in some confusion. "What happened?"
Jack smirked at him, "It seems Rose shot you." His smile widened at the Doctor's expression, "Don't feel bad. She shot me too, and she wasn't even high at the time. She's in the infirmary, Rory's patching up the wound she had. I'm guessing you'll want to talk to her when she wakes up."
The Doctor nodded and fiddled with his bow tie nervously, his eyes moving to the doorway that led to the hallway and from there to the infirmary. He moved to the controls and sent the TARDIS floating into the vortex, feeling her brush up against his mind in an interestingly content way. Seemed she was happy to have Rose back. He stroked the console in agreement and Jack cleared his throat behind the Doctor.
"I guess I'll leave you two alone." Jack grinned at the Doctor and left the room, leaving the Doctor with his thoughts and the TARDIS for company.
The Doctor stood in the doorway of the infirmary, feeling silly that he had almost snuck down the hall to the room, and had checked with the TARDIS to make sure that Rose was alone in here before he had done so. He looked at her on the cot, the air smelling faintly antiseptic. She was wearing her jeans and a shirt that he recognized as one of Amy's. He knew that Rory had patched her up and then he and Amy had retired to their room. The Doctor stepped in to the room and pulled a chair up to the side of the cot, sitting in it and turning to look at Rose.
His gaze rested on her face for quite a while, taking in the familiar features, she looked different, but still beautiful with her darker hair. At it's current length she must have quit lightening it quite some time ago. He looked at her face for another moment, wondering at the fact that she looked so unchanged. Like no time had passed.
He sat back in the chair, as he adjusted his position he glanced down at her hands, the one on the side of the bed he was sitting on was her left. He leaned close to it, taking in the wedding rings. He looked back up at her face as he leaned back. He was never really sure how he felt about it when he thought of her living in the parallel universe with the other him. He felt such an odd mixture of happiness, hoping she was happy, and jealousy. Which was just silly he would invariably remind himself, being jealous of himself. Usually reminding himself of that didn't really help.
He sat there and watched her sleep for a while. He was happy she was here; he had to admit to that. Even with the situation, with wondering what had happened to make her come through, with what was going on, those cave paintings he had seen. He needed to get to work on finding out what the writing had been. Seeing her there had been a shock, and the ramifications of the things depicted could be huge. That would wait though. For now he simply wanted to sit and look at her, and feel that sense of rightness that he felt when Rose was near. The Doctor and Rose in the TARDIS. That really was simply right. The way things were meant to be.
The Doctor reached out a hand to hers and held it, not able to resist the need to feel their hands linked together. His face settled into a smile as he squeezed her hand, the unfamiliar feeling of her rings, and the new new him's hand, not detracting from the way they fit together perfectly in the slightest. He jumped when her fingers squeezed his back, almost dropping her hand. His eyes darted up to her face, seeing her eyes open, awake and looking at him. He stared into her eyes for a moment, feeling his hearts contract at the uncertainty in the familiar deep brown of her gaze. She smiled at him then, recognition clear in her expression, and he smiled back somewhat sheepishly, his unoccupied hand reaching up to tug at his ear nervously, in a gesture that reminded him of his tenth self's mannerisms.
Rose smiled wider and started to speak, clearing her throat before she was able to continue. "Look at you… Still not ginger." She sat up, wincing slightly. She pulled his hand into her lap and looked down at their linked fingers. She smiled as she looked up at his face, blushing slightly, "I… um… did I shoot you? I think I remember shooting you."
The Doctor waved his hand, indicating that she should disregard that. He watched as she looked back down at their hands, she had turned his hand over and was looking at the back of it, like she found it fascinating. He scooted the chair closer, and leaned forward to catch her eye, "How did you know it was me?"
Rose looked at his eyes and almost looked for a moment like she was going to reach to touch his face, her hand lifting briefly before she let it drop back down to her side, "Your eyes. Even when the color changes, it's still you in there." She lifted her hand again and completed the motion this time, her palm resting on his cheek as she stroked the pad of her thumb along his temple. "That look, right there. You have old eyes Doctor. Even though your face seems to have gotten younger again. Not quite fair, that."
He was leaning into her touch, caught himself doing so, and struggled with himself for a moment before leaning back, catching her hand in his own and looking at it. He looked up at her, quirking an eyebrow and asked, "So, be honest, how do I look?"
She smiled at him, and echoed her own words from so long ago. "Different."
"Good different or bad different?" He smiled at her, also remembering the last conversation they had had like this.
"Just different." She grinned at him, her tongue touching her teeth.
The Doctor's hearts stuttered at the expression he had imagined so often when he thought of her, and the brilliant life she should be having. His expression became serious as he asked, "What happened Rose? Why are you here? The other me…"
Rose closed her eyes in pain as he trailed off; she opened them again, knowing from the burning behind them that they were shiny with tears. She pressed her lips together for a moment before speaking. "John, he went with John as his name. He died. Almost a year ago."
"How? What happened?" The Doctor could tell that the subject pained her, and he almost regretted asking. She was looking down at their joined hands, and he seemed to sense a sort of reluctance from her. Not a pained reluctance, but something more. She seemed to be unaccountably nervous.
He almost didn't hear her when she spoke, and with his Time Lord ears, that meant she was mumbling very lowly indeed. He strained to catch it as she said, "He died of old age Doctor. He was 107 when he died, from the time he had been created." Absolute silence reigned in the room as he digested that fact. Rose glanced up to look at his face, her eyes were still wet, and her forehead was creased with worry as she waited for some kind of reaction.
The Doctor's mind spun over all of the possibilities and finally he simply asked, "How?" He knew he was repeating himself, but couldn't seem to help it. His mind was awash with all of the possible ramifications of what she had said and what it could mean.
Rose sighed and shifted slightly, she released one of his hands to brush some of her hair behind her ear, the overhead lights reflecting off of the stone in her ring. She looked at the Doctor and smiled slightly, "Bad Wolf. She keeps me alive. I heal pretty quickly too. This here, " She gestured at her stomach, and the bandage that could be seen, wrinkling the shirt. "Be gone by tomorrow. John, he did tests. I give off a little bit of radiation, like the TARDIS. Other than that though, totally normal."
Rose watched the Doctor's face as he thought about this. His eyes had darted briefly to some testing equipment in the corner, and she could practically feel him itching to run some tests, find out for himself the details. Rose sighed, smiling slightly. He was so -him-. She squeezed his hand, causing him to look at her, meeting her eyes. "You can run tests if you want."
The Doctor actually blushed; he lifted his free hand to push his hair out of his eyes and smiled slightly at her. "I don't need to. Not now." He took her other hand back in his and pressed her hands together between his own. "I'm sorry Rose. I'm so sorry about John." He took a deep breath and kept her gaze pinned with the intensity of his own. "And I'm sorry that I… That I…" The Doctor sighed and looked away, trying to find the words he wanted to say. He thought about what it had been like for her, to watch as the person she loved grew old and died. It was what he had feared the most, and he had condemned her to it. She pulled one of her hands from his and lifted it, settling a finger against his lips. He brought his eyes around to hers again and was humbled a bit by the expression in them.
She smiled sadly as she spoke, "I know. I know Doctor. And don't. I don't regret a single minute. We had a good life."
"You're braver than me." The confession startled him as much as her. He hadn't realized he thought that, much less that he was going to say it. But as he considered the words, he decided that they were true. "The thought of… well, the thought of losing you that way, it was too much. Please believe me though, I thought I was making the right decision for everyone."
Rose nodded, surprised by his candor, and relieved to be speaking so openly about things. "I know. I was angry I'll admit. I stayed angry for a while. You need to quit making decisions for me. Sending me away." She looked away briefly before continuing, "But I know. I understand, and I'm not mad anymore, haven't been for a long time. You gave me something precious and I know that." Rose ran her eyes over his face and frowned. "I wonder if it was really best for you though. What happened?"
He knew what she meant and ran a hand over his face, feeling the now familiar features. "Well, I saved the universe you know." He smiled cheekily and was pleased more than he liked to admit when she answered his smile with a genuine one of her own. He sobered slightly as he remembered. "You remember Wilfred? Donna Noble's grandfather?" Rose nodded; he had been a memorable man. She remembered the paint gun he had carried against the daleks. That had been a good idea in theory. The Doctor continued, "He was traveling with me on that particular adventure. And, well… " He trailed off remembering. He had not wanted to die. He had loved being his tenth self. He had loved what Rose had made of him, and really his tenth self had almost been made exactly for her. He smiled slightly, looking at her; it was brilliant, just getting to do that. Look at her. He continued. "It was radiation. Lethal dose. And now here I am. New new me."
Rose moved to the edge of the cot and hung her legs over the side, she dropped to the ground, standing and tugged him up to stand as well. She pulled him to stand beside her and they hugged, hard. The Doctor closed his eyes and turned his head down to burry his face in her hair. He inhaled the impossible scent of her, something he had thought he would never get to do again. They stood like that for a long time before she pulled away. She looked up at him and smiled, "I would love nothing better than to stand here hugging til the end of time, but I need a shower. I smell."
The Doctor shook his head, "I think you smell fine." He relented though, turning to lead her from the room, his hand finding hers and pulling her behind him. It was funny how natural it felt, to hold her hand as he walked. He smiled down at her and she grinned back, squeezing his hand, indicating that she understood exactly what he was thinking. He led her through the halls, stopping outside of her room. He opened the door and watched as she went inside. She stepped inside and sort of stuttered to a stop. She turned back to look at him and he could see that her eyes were overly bright with unshed tears. He smiled gently, understanding her surprise at finding everything just as she had left it. "Will you believe me if I say it was just the TARDIS that decided to keep it this way?"
Rose rolled her eyes and reached out to put her hand on the door. "I'll come find you when I'm clean. I need to tell you what happened."
The Doctor nodded and she shut the door. He stood there for a moment; listening, not hearing her footsteps move away. He was overwhelmed with the need to see her again immediately. He lifted his hand and knocked.
Rose stood by the door; listening, not hearing his steps move away down the hall. She smiled when he knocked, and pulled the door opened and stood there, looking at him. He had his fist still raised to knock and his other hand stuck firmly in his pocket. He was standing there looking like he wasn't sure what to do now that he had her back.
Rose tilted her head to the side in question and had opened her mouth to speak when he reached out to touch the side of her face with his raised hand. Their eyes locked and he leaned forward, his other hand lifting as well, gently cupping her face. They stayed that way for a moment, separated by maybe an inch of space. She could feel his breath on her lips, and she closed her eyes as she closed that final distance, their lips meeting and both of them simply pausing there, in that beginning moment of a kiss, their lips barely brushing. After a moment he pulled back, the slightest bit and tilted his head, resting his forehead against hers.
His voice was low and almost ragged, like he needed to clear his throat as he spoke, "I understand if… I understand that you probably need time; that this situation is complicated, to say the least. I just need you to know. I need you to know that I have always regretted not telling you. You deserve to know that…" He frowned as he realized that he still had trouble forming the words. He continued forcefully, his voice more clear. "You need to know that I love you Rose Tyler. I think I have almost from the moment I grabbed your hand and told you to run." He pulled back and looked at her face.
Her eyes were opened now and she gave him a watery smile through tears. Rose nodded and took a step back, breaking contact with him completely as his hands dropped from her face to be stuffed into his pockets. She looked at his face and her smile widened, becoming less sad. "I know Doctor. I love you too. It is complicated, but you and me, we'll figure this out. We can't not." She paused then, looking him in the eye for a moment before darting forward to press a quick kiss to his cheek before stepping back and shutting the door softly in his face.