I did my best, it wasn't much.
I couldn't feel, so I learned to touch.
I've told the truth, I didn't come all this way to fool you.
Yeah even though it all went wrong
I'll stand right here before the Lord of Song
With nothing on my lips but Hallelujah.

Leonard Cohen - Hallelujah

Glen Miller echoed through the tiny room, the same room Jakie and Pete had married in, and I stood quickly turning to look towards the door. The heads of Rose's friends and family, the room crowded full of them, blocked my view of who walked through the doors. Jack suddenly appeared at my side, having slipped through the side door, giving me a huge grin. Lili waddled into view with a giggle. I scooped her up from the floor, passing her to Jack, and looked down the small isle she had created. Rose stood on Jackie's arm, smile lighting up her face. She made her way towards me and I couldn't help but return her smile. The ceremony was simple, fast, just a formality, but one Rose had wanted. But as I finally found myself looking in her eyes and trying to remember my vows I found myself silent. The practiced speech gone and all I could think was how much I didn't deserve this. "Rose Tyler, I love you, and I find thats the only thing that matters any more. After all I've done I don't deserve you, and I don't deserve Liliana, or the happiness that you both bring me. But you give yourselves and your love still, thank you. I promise you that until the end of my lives I will try to be worthy of that. You are worth fighting for. I love you." Rose smiles up at me, and I run a hand over her cheek mouthing 'I love you' to her one last time before the ceremony continues.

"Doctor, you didn't really give me time to come up with anything so meaningful." She pauses giving me a glare as her family chuckles.

"Sorry." She just smiles once again and I feel uterly unrepentant for what I had put her through earlier. Her anger was worth every moment, because now she looks at me like that. I can only smile back and let her finish.

"But that doesn't matter because there really is only one thing I can say. I love you, and maybe that's wrong or not what you ever really wanted, but I do. I don't want you to feel so alone anymore because you do have us. You are worth fighting for. I love you." I feel one of my hearts stop beating at her words. Because no matter what I will never be worth her life. She must survive, I want nothing more than to see her old, happy with young grandchildren around her. Something I should not be giving her, but will because I want her happy. Something I will give her to try and ease some of my own guilt over what I did to her, even though I know it won't help. As I follow her into the car that will take us back to Jakie's flat I feel my hearts labouring back to their normal pace.

"I'll never be worth that Rose." She looks at me stuned before shuffling as close ast the layers of her dress will alow. "I won't ever ask that of you, or expect it. I don't care about me, I just want you safe."

"So what now you've kept your promise you just gonna swan off? Keep me safe by leaving me behind?" I can hear the waver in her voice as she tries to be angry with me. But I know she is trying not to cry, because not so long ago it was the type of thing I would have done. That I have tried before.

"No, I do believe that by your laws you now have a right to fifty percent of everthing I own, including the TARDIS. You have every right to tell me that I can't go anywhere. Stay here, live on the slow path, be domestic."

"I want that as much as you do. There's too much out there, too much you have to do. I just don't want you to leave me ever." I kissed her in response unable to think of anything worth saying that wouldn't hurt one of us or be just not what I wanted to say. Because she was right, there was no way I could stay here, no way she could now either. I had changed her, and sometimes I wasn't sure it was for the better, that maybe she would have made something of herself if she had never met me. But then I just have to remember her comforting Nancy back in the Blitz and I knew she was never going to be that Rose Tyler ever again.

"Stop the car." Both Rose and the driver look at me and I give them a smile I hope is innocent. "We'll be back shortly." I pull Rose from the car behind me, checking traffic then crossing the road quickly, still pulling her behind me. The TARDIS stands proudly in the alley, and I let us inside quickly as the smile once again dies from my face. "I've told you before this isn't forever for me Rose. I want to keep you with me as long as I can, and if that means locking you away in the TARDIS sometimes its what I will do. But I'm not going to leave you behind, and I'm not going to let you leave." I rest my hands either side of her face, looking down at her sad smile. "This is what it means for me to love you."

"Okay." Her eyes are suddenly bright, a mischevious twinkle. "Two questions though," I raise my eyebrow at her asking her to continue, "Does this make me Mrs Smith?"

"I'm a modern bloke, and I think Doctor Tyler has a certain ring to it."

"That it does. So what are we doing here then, the party was at mum's last I heard?"

I kiss her neck with a smile, "Did I meantion, it also travels in time?" I can't help the grin that envelopes my face as she laughs.