Hi Everyone,

I can only apologize for my long, long absence from this story. My only excuse is that I am moving and starting school, so I have been quite busy. I'm sorry. I still intend to finish this story, but I don't know when that will happen. For now, here's another little chapter. I really appreciate those of you who are still interested in this, and have stuck with me this far. Cheers!

"Should we invite Charles Dickens to the wedding?" the doctor asked casually as he and Rose were lingering over a full English breakfast. Rose spit out a mouthful of tea.

"Come again?" she asked, blinking.

"Dickens, Rose, Charles Dickens, you remember him! I just wanted to know what you thought about inviting him to the wedding." Rose made a strangled choking sound, unable to articulate all of the reasons this question was absurd.

"Doctor, the wedding is in three days!" she said.

"Well, yes, for us it's in three days, but for him it's not for ages." answered the doctor.

"Besides, I've already sent the guest list to Mum weeks ago." added Rose, shaking her head.

"Er, yes, but I may have called her up and added a name or two…" admitted the doctor, sheepishly.

"You did what?" Rose was more shocked than angry.

"I, err, phoned up your Mum, and told her to consider your list as a first draft."

"You actually called my mother of your own free will to do wedding planning?" Rose's mouth hung agape.

"Well, yes." Answered the doctor without batting an eye.

"Are you feeling alright, Doctor?" asked Rose, suspiciously.

"Of course I am! Never better!" he exclaimed, a bit indignantly.

"It just, well, isn't this all a bit domestic for you?" To Rose's surprise the doctor let out a loud guffaw.

"No offense, Rose," he answered her, between giggles, "but I think that ship has sailed." He waggled his eyebrows at her.

"Yeah, I guess you're right." said Rose as she looked objectively at the cozy scene they were inhabiting. Her first doctor would have been truly scandalized to see himself as he was now, making breakfast for his heavily pregnant soon-to-be wife.

"You know, it's really all your fault." The doctor added, smugly. Rose looked at him questioningly. "Me being all mushy and domestic, you did it. I was a goner from the moment you stepped foot inside the TARDIS." He smiled fondly.

"I wouldn't say it was all me. If I recall, you had a hand in creating this little family of ours."

"More than a hand. " The doctor gave Rose a saucy wink. "Seriously though, this me was pre-disposed to loving you."

"What d'you mean 'pre-disposed'? You make it sound like I forced you." Rose's brow furrowed. The doctor came to sit next to her, and kissed her on the forehead.

"I didn't mean it that way." he said soothingly. "Bad choice of words. Sorry." Rose relaxed a little. "I just wanted to explain," the doctor continued, "You've made me better in so many ways. You see, every new regeneration of a Time Lord is influenced by the circumstances of his birth, so to speak." The doctor went on to explain. "When you met me, the ninth me, I had just regenerated out of the War. That played a big role in my personality. I was gruff, and jaded, and you might even say hostile."

"You were hurting." interrupted Rose, sadness in her eyes.

"Yes." acknowledged the doctor. "And you changed that. You brought joy and hope back into my life. But don't you see what that means for this version of me?" he asked expectantly. Rose just shook her head.

"I regenerated into the person I am now because I needed to save you." Rose opened her mouth to say something, but the doctor continued. "In short, that cantankerous, big-eared version of me died for love, specifically for your love, Rose Tyler. And that made me, well, a bit domestic." he concluded.

"I still don't get how him dying to save me, makes you wanna call up my mum." said Rose, struggling to keep up with her gobby Time Lord.

"Well, precisely at the moment this me was being cooked up, all the last me was thinking about was you, specifically, kissing you. I suppose that set the stage for all this. The ninth me was born blocked off to emotion, but you crept in and broke down the walls, I guess you could say I'm the product of the moment when he finally let go. In a way, I was born to love you, and I now I want to give you all those little domestic things that you deserve. Even though I'm still the same man, I must admit, I love cooking you breakfast these days." He smiled contentedly. "Speaking of which, do you want that last bit of sausage?" Rose didn't answer, trying to take in all that the doctor had told her. "Rose?" he asked.

"Er, no, you have it." She answered in a daze.

"Now I'm worried about you." said the doctor teasingly, as he plonked the sausage onto his own plate. "You always want the last sausage." He grinned. Only then did he realize that Rose was looking slightly unfocused. The doctor's tone changed at once. "Rose, talk to me, love. Are you in pain? Where does it hurt?" He moved to place his hands on her belly to check on the baby, but she caught them in her own.

"I'm not in pain." She assured him. "It's just you… what you just said, I mean, about being born to love me. That's possibly the most romantic thing I've ever heard." A rogue tear slipped down Rose's smiling face. The doctor was flabbergasted. He had thought they had just been having a nice chat over breakfast, and now his Rose was crying…and smiling. He panicked in response to the mixed signals. What was he supposed to do when his human appeared to be both happy and sad at the same time?

"I'm sorry, I wasn't trying to be too romantic!" he blurted out, without thinking. Rose burst out laughing.

"I know you sodding alien, that's why it was so romantic!" exclaimed Rose, now wiping away tears of mirth. "It was lovely. I'm not sad. I was touched." She shook her head.

"Oh, good." said the doctor, taking Rose into his arms. She snuggled into him, wiping the last of her tears on his cotton shirt. "I thought I had upset you, and that would be very bad, especially at this stage." He stroked her belly, and felt a kick from within. "See, he agrees with me! No upsetting Mummy." The doctor declared. Rose laughed.

"So who else have you invited to the wedding without telling me?" She asked, playfully.

"Oh, you know, just a few people." he said evasively.

"How many is a few?" asked Rose.

"Um, thirty-seven, give or take…" the doctor said hurriedly.

"Thirty-seven people?" Rose gasped.

"Well, that depends on your definition of people really." The doctor lamely attempted to defend himself.

"Who?" Rose demanded.

"Er, let's see," said the doctor, trying to remember. "Well, there were a couple of Oods I know, and that nice Doctor Constantine from 1940s London. Oh yes, and Sarah Jane!"

"You invited your ex-girlfriend to our wedding without asking me?" Rose couldn't believe her ears. "What happened to not upsetting me?"

"She's not, we weren't, that never…" spluttered the doctor. "I told you, Sarah Jane and I were just friends! You're the only one, Rose."

"Luckily for you, I'm not the jealous type." said Rose. The doctor coughed disbelievingly under his breath, but knew enough to hold his tongue. "Besides, me and her got on alright in the end." added Rose. "Still, you could a' mentioned it."

"I'm sorry." said the doctor genuinely. "I just thought it best not to bother you with all the details. I promise I won't invite anyone else without asking you first." he vowed. "Which reminds me, what about old Charlie-boy?"

"You seriously want to invite Charles Dickens to our wedding?"

"Yeah!" said the doctor emphatically. "C'mon, Rose, how many people can say they had Winston Churchill and Charles Dickens at their wedding?"

"You invited bloody Winston Churchill too?!" Rose cried.

"Well, I had to Rose, we're old pals! He'd be terribly offended if I didn't." answered the doctor. Rose sighed. What had started as a simple, little wedding was turning into an intergalactic circus.

"Doctor, what about the guests who don't know about the whole time-travel thing? Won't they be a bit surprised when a whole pack of historical figures drop by for a piece of cake?"

"Don't be silly, Rose. They're all supposed to arrive incognito. I made a note on the invitation. 'Semi-formal attire, BYOD.'" said the Doctor.

"B-Y-O-D?" asked Rose, skeptically.

"Bring your own disguise!" proclaimed the doctor as if it were entirely obvious.

"Right, so not only are we having a load of famous dead people at the wedding, they're all going to be wearing sunglasses and funny mustaches." Rose shook her head, exasperated.

"There are many merits to a funny mustache, Rose. I'm thinking of wearing one to the wedding myself…" The doctor grinned, cheekily.

"Yeah, don't you dare." Rose shot back.

"This is why I didn't tell you about the extra guests, I knew it would make you anxious, and I was trying very hard to prevent anxiety in one Rose Tyler." Rose grumbled. "Besides, it won't be that bad. We'll zip around and collect them in the TARDIS, and I can sort out any wonky disguises in the wardrobe room. Easy Peasy!" The doctor snapped his fingers.

"Easy Peasy?" said Rose, raising an eyebrow.

"Alright, I'm never saying that again." conceded the doctor. "But you take my point."

"Okay," Rose relented. "I guess it'll be fine. Besides, it's not like we can un-invite people since you've already sent the invitations."

"Well, technically we could go back in each individual's time stream and intercept the invitations before they arrive, but that would take quite a bit of effort and could create some dangerous paradoxes that might put the whole universe at risk…" explained the doctor.

"Yeah, I guess we should just leave it then." Rose smiled.

"Probably for the best." Agreed the doctor, beaming back.