Chapter 14

Jackie Tyler couldn't believe her eyes. This was a nightmare—the Doctor disappearing in front of the entire crowd followed by Rose running off in the TARDIS and then their friend Jack blinking out of existence. She longed for the days of normal human problems.

The wedding coordinator, bless, was unflappable. She strode in her practical pumps down the aisle to stand in front of the registrar and address the shocked and bewildered guests. "Everyone please remain seated. We'll resume in just a little while."

"What is she talking about?" Jackie whispered to her husband. "Does she know something?"

Pete only shook his head and shrugged. When the coordinator came back, Jackie dug her artificial nails into the woman's bland suit jacket. "What do you know? Where is my daughter?"

The coordinator pulled free of Jackie's grasp. "People don't just disappear. Not like that. They have to come back."

"Yeah, try saying that when your daughter disappears for twelve months without so much as a phone call," Jackie challenged.

Pete started to edge closer to his wife, not certain how far she was from slapping the other woman. But before the fight could escalate, he caught the faint wheezing sound of the TARDIS. Jackie noticed it just seconds later, her head whipping to the ship's former location near the garden wall. Soon all of the guests were staring as a blue police box faded in and out of existence before fully materialising.

The doors opened to reveal the Doctor, looking no worse for wear except that he was no longer wearing his tie. He bounded across the lawn to resume his place in front of the archway, but this time he remained facing the TARDIS. He was uncharacteristically silent as he waited with his eyes glued to the doors of his ship. Jackie started to approach him when Rose appeared at the bottom of the TARDIS ramp on Jack's arm. Her veil was missing, and her hair was down around her shoulders and brushed into soft waves.

Jack escorted Rose around the back of row of chairs to reach the aisle. Jackie quickly scooped up the discarded bouquet, the flowers now slightly bruised, and hurried towards her daughter as fast as her high heels allowed. Jack nodded to the Tylers and kissed Rose lightly on the cheek before finding a vacant seat near the front of the crowd.

Jackie caught sight of the wedding coordinator wearing a smug expression as she instructed the string quartet to resume playing. "What happened? Where did you go?" Jackie hissed to her daughter.

"I'll tell you later, mum."

The ceremony was short, even shorter than it was meant to be, Jackie realised. They'd completely skipped over the handfasting bit that was supposedly adapted from some sort of Gallifreyan tradition. Sometimes she wondered if the Doctor was just making things up, but he'd been rather insistent about this one. She added it to the growing list of questions to ask Rose later. But brief or not, the ceremony ended with a long kiss that elicited a triumphant whoop from one of the guests.

Jackie pulled a tissue from her tiny beaded clutch and dabbed carefully at the corners of her eyes when the registrar introduced the beaming couple as Doctor and Mrs Tyler. They walked up the aisle hand in hand, just like any other day.

Hours later, after the pictures and dinner and mercifully short speeches, Rose was exhausted. She was taking a short respite from the chaos, glad to be off her feet even though she'd worn practical flats. Her half-eaten slice of cake looked terribly unappetizing now. She knew weddings could be tiring under normal circumstances, but normal brides didn't have to face potentially murderous aliens in addition to all the standard wedding fuss. Well, she reflected, apparently Donna had, according to the story the Doctor had told her. Everything said and done, her wedding had gone significantly better than Donna's.

The Doctor, as usual, seemed to have boundless energy, talking to guests and ensuring he'd tried every single type of food available. But he never strayed far from Rose's side, and for that, she was grateful. She caught sight of Jack chatting up Jake again on the far side of the enormous, heated tent. She almost couldn't see them in the soft glow of the fairy lights strung across the ceiling. Briefly she wondered if Jake needed rescuing when a thought struck her.

"We forgot about Jack!" She sent the urgent mental message to the Doctor, who was currently in the middle of a technology discussion with her father.

To his credit, the Doctor gave absolutely no sign that he was participating in two conversations at once. "He's right over there, flirting as usual."

"I mean the memory storage thing. Did you ever give him back his memories?" This time the Doctor turned away from Pete, and she could tell he had forgotten in all the chaos.

"Sorry," the Doctor said aloud to Pete. "I've just remembered there's someone Rose and I need to talk to. If you'll excuse us." He helped Rose up from her chair, and they wove their way quickly between the large round tables to reach the other end of the tent.

"Sorry, Jake, can we steal him away for a mo?" Rose asked. Jake kept his expression neutral as he nodded and stepped away, but Rose thought she saw the barest hint of relief. Once Jake was out of earshot with another of their Torchwood co-workers, the Doctor reached far down into the pocket of his trousers to remove the large, gleaming silver headphones.

"What's that?" Jack asked.

"We couldn't change your past, but we can at least give you some of your memories back." Jack's eyes went wide as he grabbed the headphones from the Doctor and began to place them on his head. "Fair warning," the Doctor continued. "This might hurt a bit. Possibly more than a bit."

Jack didn't hesitate to place the device on his head, hands clamping it in place. The device emitted a faint hum, and Jack gritted his teeth, his face pinched with obvious discomfort. Despite the warning, Rose was beginning to worry and started to reach for the Doctor's hand when Jack's face relaxed and his eyes opened.

"I remember," he breathed. "The Cybermen and Torchwood and...oh, God, the Time Agency caused that massacre."

"Not just the Time Agency," the Doctor retorted with a hint of anger. "The Daleks were manipulating Torchwood. Trying to let the Void Ship into this universe where they thought no one could stop them."

"But we did," Rose said, giving the Doctor's hand a squeeze and looking down at it after encountering the unfamiliar feeling of hard metal against her fingers. The Doctor noticed, too, and gave her a broad grin that held a hint of mischief.

"I don't know how to thank you," Jack exclaimed, hugging Rose with enthusiasm and picking her up off the ground. The Doctor gave an exasperated sigh but noticed that niggle of irrational jealousy he usually felt whenever Jack got too close to Rose didn't appear. He didn't have time to contemplate that development as Jack yanked him into an embrace, slapping him heartily on the shoulder.

"And now I'll leave you two lovebirds to it," he said with a salacious wink before making his way over to the busy dance floor.

"That sounds like a fantastic idea," the Doctor commented as he wrapped an arm around Rose's waist.

"What, dancing?"

"No, leaving."

She looked up at her husband—that was going to take some getting used to. "This is our wedding reception. We can't just leave. That'd be rude, even for you."

"You seem to keep forgetting that we have the most brilliant time machine in the universe. I think we ought to take a well-deserved honeymoon, and once we've tired of that, we can pop back and finish out the reception. All that preparation put into this single day...why not spread it out a bit?"

Rose pondered that for a moment. They could come back and enjoy their reception when she wasn't dead tired. It was almost too good to be true—and it might be, depending on the accuracy of his driving. "All right, Doctor John Tyler," she smirked, using his new legal name. "Run for your life."

He flashed her a dazzling smile as he found a gap in the heavy vinyl wall of the tent and held it open for her. Hand-in-hand, they dashed across the lawn to the TARDIS in the waning light of the longest day of the year. The light atop the blue police box glowed brightly like a beacon.

The Doctor, trying to squeeze in one more human tradition, swept Rose up in his arms. She gave a brief squeal but quickly wrapped her arms around him. With a snap of his fingers, the TARDIS doors swung inwards, and he carried his bride over the threshold and up the ramp into the console room. Something seemed different. He set Rose gently on her feet and took in the console room. Glittering flower garlands were strung between the coral struts, adding a riot of colour to the usual pinkish gold of the room.

"She decorated," Rose laughed with glee as her eyes roamed the domed ceiling. She pressed a hand to the console. "Thank you."

"And now my dearest, darlingest wife...the honeymoon," the Doctor announced dramatically as he twirled her around. "Where do you want to go? Backwards or forwards."

Rose gave him a broad tongue-in-teeth smile. "Definitely forwards."