A/N: We're here, in the end. Yay! I made it! And some of you made it as well, thank you!

What comes to season 5, I am not going to write it. I'm sorry, Bad Wolf Jen, I know at least you hoped for it. But I really don't have time nor inspiration. And, to be honest, 11/Rose really isn't my cup of tea. I am, however, willing to consider writing a one-shot about the relationship between Rose and River. Maybe. Someday.

Thank you ELinkA once again for your comment!

Anyway, here's the next chapter! I hope you like it.

Disclaimer: One more time, Doctor Who is not mine.

The End and the Beginning

"So, Jackie", the Doctor said as he went back to the console. "We better get you home."

"What about you two?" she asked.

"Oh, you know, same old life."

"You still haven't got married", Jackie said nodding towards Rose. "She doesn't have a ring."

"Oh!" the Doctor exclaimed. "That's right. I've got it here." He went through his bottomless pockets before pulling out a small black box. "This was meant to be all romantic, but at least you got to show it to your mother", he said as he opened it and took out a gold and silver ring. It had two bands crossing each other on the top and melting together on the bottom. "It's an eternity ring", the Doctor told them as he took Rose's left hand and put the ring on. "Because, well, because this is forever."

Rose stared at the ring for a long while, and Jackie, Jenny and Donna all gathered around her to see it as well.

"It's beautiful", Rose said and looked up at the beaming Doctor. "Thank you."

The Doctor took off his tie, wrapped it around his left hand, took Rose's hand and wrapped the other end around it.

"What're you doing?" Rose asked and looked up at the Doctor. He smiled at her.

"Jackie, one more thing", the Doctor said without looking away from Rose's eyes.

"What?"

"Say 'I consent and gladly give'."

"Why?"

"Because that's what the mother of the bride is meant to say."

Rose's mouth opened.

"What?"

"But..." Jackie hesitated.

"Please, Jackie. It'd really mean a lot to me for you to, well, consent and gladly give."

"I consent and gladly give", Jackie said.

"Thank you", the Doctor said. They all were silent for a moment. Rose wondered what would happen next, but nothing seemed to happen.

"Does this mean that we're married?" Rose asked. "That's all? No big ceremony? No vows? No repeat after me?"

"Do you want all that?"

"No", Rose said.

"There you have it then."

"But… You sould've said something five minutes ago so all our friends could've been there", she pointed out. He pulled his ear

with his free hand.

"Yeah, I should've, shouldn't I…"

"Jack's going to kill you when he finds out he wasn't there."

"You're probably right about that. Let's not tell him."

Rose bit her lower lip.

"Is there at least a kiss?"

The Doctor grinned.

"There's always a kiss."

And there was, a very sweet one, and it lasted until Donna cleared her throat.

"Not that I don't think that it's lovely and all, but there's not much time before the walls close up."

"Oh! Right you are, Donna Noble, as always!"

He freed Rose's hand, pushed his tie into his pocket and jumped around the console setting the coordinates. The other Doctor had sat on the jump seat once Rose had left it. He leaned his head to his hands. Rose went to Jenny and Jackie.

"Didn't expect that to happen", she said. Jackie blinked tears from her eyes.

"I was hoping for a big wedding", she sniffed. "But I guess this is better than me not being there."

"Is that how Time Lords get married?" Jenny asked.

"Um… Ask your Dad", Rose said. Jackie shook her head in disbelief.

"Still can't believe she's your daughter", she muttered. "How long have you been gone?"

"Trust me, not that long", Rose said. "She's a generated anomaly. Means she was created from a tissue sample from the Doctor's hand."

"What? Like… like he?" Jackie whispered, nodding towards the Doctor in blue.

"No, not like that."

The TARDIS landed.

"Home, sweet home", the Doctor said, took his coat and went to open the door. Rose followed Jackie outside. The moment she left the TARDIS she realised how much the machine actually protected her. Because it all hit her hard when she was out; the Earth rotating, the past and the future, all possibilities and could nots packed inside her head. She closed her eyes and raised her hand to her forehead. The Doctor took her free hand, and whatever he did, it made it easier.

"Thanks", Rose muttered. The Doctor squeezed her hand and gave her a sad smile.

"Oh, fat lot of good this is", her mother said when she came out of the TARDIS. "Back of beyond. Bloody Norway? I'm going to have to phone your father. He's on the nursery run. I was pregnant, did you know that?" she asked from the Doctor. "I had a baby boy."

"Yeah, Tony", the Doctor nodded.

"He knows all about you, of course", Jackie continued. "Her brave big sister and her daft alien… well, I guess I have to say husband now, do I?"
She continued talking until Rose stepped between her and the Doctor and hugged her.

"I'm gonna miss you."

"No", Jackie said. "No, you can't leave."

"I'm sorry, Mum, I got to. We got to go, the walls are closing."

"But..."

The TARDIS made a noise to remind them that it was time. Rose hugged her mother again.

"Tell Tony I love him, yeah?" Rose pulled off her mother and squeezed her hands. "And I love you."

She didn't dare to look at her mother but wiped tears from her eyes as she walked quickly into the TARDIS. The Doctor closed the doors and sent the TARDIS on its way. Jenny wrapped her arms around Rose as she cried. Good sides of having an adult daughter.

"So", the Doctor said eyes on Donna. "Donna, how're you feeling?"

Something about his voice alarmed Rose, who wiped her eyes dry and looked from one to another.

"Brilliant!" Donna said merrily. "Thought we could try the planet Felspoon. Just because. What a good name, Felspoon. Apparently, it's got mountains that sway in the breeze. Mountains that move. Can you imagine?"

"And how do you know that?" the Doctor asked silently.

"Because it's in your head. And if it's in your head, it's in mine."

"And how does that feel?"

"Brilliant! Fantastic! Molto bene! Great big universe, packed into my brain!" Donna kept going, and Rose understood why the Doctor sounded so completely miserable. "You know you could fix that chameleon circuit if you just tried hot binding the fragment links and superseding the binary, binary, binary, binary, binary, binary, binary, binary, binary, binary, binary, binary, binary, binary", she gasped. "I'm fine!"

"Donna", Rose began. She had seen this, the Bad Wolf had shown it to her. Donna screaming.

"Nah, never mind Felspoon", Donna said loudly, like she was trying to postpone what was to happen. "You know who I'd like to meet? Charlie Chaplin. I bet he's great, Charlie Chaplin. Shall we do that? Shall we go and see Charlie Chaplin? Shall we? Charlie Chaplin? Charlie Chester. Charlie Brown. No, he's fiction. Friction, fiction, fixing, mixing, Rickston, Brixton", she groaned and lifted her hands to her head. "Oh, my god."

"What's happening to her?" Jenny asked. "What's wrong?"

"There's never been a human Time Lord meta-crisis before now", the Doctor said. "And that's something that can't be."

Rose's eyes went to the meta-crisis Doctor, who looked at them with wide and scared eyes, seeing his own future. Rose swallowed. There had to be a way, she had only seen one death.

"I want to stay", Donna begged. The Doctor moved in front of Donna.

"Look at me. Donna, look at me", he said gently.

"I was going to be with you forever", Donna whispered, tears forming to her eyes.

"I know."

"The rest of my life, travelling in the TARDIS. The Doctor Donna", she began to cry. "No. Oh my god. I can't go back. Don't make me go back. Doctor, please, please don't make me go back!"

"Go back where? Doctor, what're you gonna do?" Rose asked, sounding angrier than she meant.

"There's only one way", the Doctor said. "Donna. Oh, Donna Noble. I am so sorry."

Rose saw a glimpse of Donna, laughing at the possibility of aliens existing. She knew instantly what the Doctor was going to do, and that there was nothing else he could do.

"But we had the best of times", the Doctor said, and he, too, was near tears.

"No..." Donna begged.

"The best", the Doctor said and placed his fingertips on Donna's temples. "Goodbye."
Donna screamed, and for a second Rose could see everything that Donna would forget. Them standing on the rooftop, waiving at fat. Them running in the dark library. Donna throwing the Firestone into the lake. Donna standing up for the Ood. Tears formed into Rose's eyes, and Donna went limp. The Doctor dropped to his knees, holding the redhead on his arms. He looked at Rose, who swallowed. She and Jenny both went to the pair on the floor, and Rose stroke Jenny's arm.

"Is she dead?" Jenny asked.

"No, she'll be fine", the Doctor said with the calmness in his voice that he used whenever he didn't want to show how he really was feeling. "We need to take her home."

"How much did you have to remove?" the meta-crisis Doctor asked. For a moment the two Doctor's looked at each other.

"All of it", the Doctor answered.

"She won't remember any of this?" Rose asked. "She won't remember us?"

"No. And she never can, because if she does, even for a second, she will die."

The Doctor left Donna to Rose and went to set the coordinates. Rose turned to her daughter.

"It's not always like this", she said to her. She smiled weakly.

#####

The Doctor took Donna home. He asked Jenny to go with him, and Rose knew what he was thinking because it was all she could think of. The meta-crisis Doctor, part human, part Time Lord, a combination that couldn't exist. Rose found it hard to believe it. Maybe there was something that she could do. Maybe that's why the Doctor left her with him. Rose looked at the other Doctor and quickly away again. They were silent for a full minute. Then the Doctor took a deep breath.

"How're you holding up?"

"Oh, you know, saying goodbye to Mum, again. It's not like I do it for fun."

"I meant with the Bad Wolf."

"I'm fine", she lied.

"Rose."

"Okay", she said. "I hate it. All of it. I feel just too much, I see too much. It's horrible."

She looked sadly at the Doctor, knowing way too well that he felt like that all the time, that he, too saw it all.

"You can let go", he said. "You don't need to feel like that, not all the time. Not ever again if you don't want to."

"Nah", Rose shook her head. "I couldn't. That's what you feel."

There was a moment of silence.

"I'd hate to know that you're feeling something you hate just because I feel it too", he said. "And the same goes to him", he nodded towards the door.

"Yeah, but -"

"You can let go."

For a moment they just looked at each other. Rose swallowed and closed her eyes. She took a deep breath and blew it out slowly, blew out all that power in her, and she felt how it left her, took its place in the back of her mind. She stopped feeling the movement of the air inside the TARDIS, she stopped seeing all the possibilities, all that was possible and what was not. And with that came relief so great that she felt like laughing. She opened her eyes and looked at the Doctor.

"Thanks", she whispered. He smiled and nodded. Another silence followed.

"What about you?" Rose asked. He swallowed visibly. Rose wasn't sure if he'd even answer.

"You know", he said at last, "when I did it, when I made that decision to end the Time War, I wasn't expecting to survive. I couldn't call myself the Doctor, because the Doctor would never do something like that. He's not a warrior, he… Anyway, when I didn't die, when I found myself from the TARDIS with emptiness all around me I swore I would never ever do it again. And here we are." He looked broken when he said that. She hated seeing him like this. "You said you could've done it, but Rose, you would've had to live it with the rest of your eternity."

"But now you have to live with it the rest of your eternity."

"Yeah, but not that long, not an eternity. I'm part human, Rose."

"What does that mean, exactly?"

"It means I won't regenerate. I only have one life."

"But still", Rose whispered. She had seen him die, but she hadn't seen when. "That could be years, decades."

He smiled sadly at her and reached out his hand, which she took willingly.

"This is gonna be so weird", Rose said and tried her best to smile. "With two of you on board."

"Don't worry, I won't be staying long."

"What do you mean? Where would you go, this is your home."

She'd argue with him about this as long as she needed because there was no way she'd let him go through what Donna just had. The door opened and the original Doctor walked in looking devastated. Jenny followed him and closed the door. Both Rose and the meta-crisis Doctor stood up.

"How's Donna?" they asked at the same time.

"She's fine. She's… she's back to her old self."

There was a silence during which all of them thought what that meant. Rose swallowed.

"Onwards?" she said weakly.

"Yeah", he walked slowly to the console. For a moment they all just stood there. Rose took a step towards the console, thinking that it'd be better to at least leave Earth. But she couldn't even reach the first setting when the meta-crisis Doctor whimpered. At first Rose thought he was crying. But then he bent forward and dropped to the floor, holding his head in pain.

"Doctor!" Rose cried without really knowing which one she was calling. She kneeled next to the one on the floor. "What's going on?"

"I thought I had a little longer", he said through clenched teeth.

"Doctor!" Rose said, and this time it was meant to the original one. "What's going on?"

"It's the same thing as with Donna", he answered. "Human and Time lord combinations can't exist. It's too much for the human mind."

"Do something!"

"There's nothing I can do."

"Do what you did with Donna!"

"And erase what? It's all he has, Rose."

"It's better this way", the meta-crisis said.

"No!" Rose protested and blinked angrily the tears away. "There must be something… Maybe I can..."

"Rose..."

The Doctor laid his hand on her shoulder.

"Don't!"

"All we can do is to make this as easy and painless for him as possible."

"He's right, Rose", the meta-crisis said. "You know it."

She did, she had known it ever since she had first seen the meta-crisis Doctor on the Dalek ship. Even before that. There were no crossroads, there was just one end, and it was this. The Doctor kneeled next to them and helped the meta-crisis up. He was shivering and breathing fast as the three of them helped him to the comfortable room the TARDIS created. Rose sat on the bed next to the meta-crisis.

"Rose, you should leave."

"No!"

"It's not nice to -"

"What if it was you?"

The Doctor fell silent. Rose didn't even look at him, but she knew that he understood.

"I'll go to fetch..." he didn't end his sentence, maybe he didn't know what he'd go and fetch. There was nothing to fetch. There was nothing they could do. The Doctor took shocked looking Jenny with him and closed the door behind him.

"Rose?"

"I'm here", she took his seeking hand to her lips and kissed it. "I'm right here, to the end."

His breathing was fast and shallow, but he squeezed her hand in response.

"I wish there was another way", Rose said in a broken voice.

"Nah, think how weird that... would be", he said through his teeth. "Two of us. You have enough... job with one."

Rose let out a teary laugh.

"It's still wrong that you have to die."

"But I'm dying... in your arms."

Then the tears started to pour, and there didn't seem to be an end of it.

"Don't you dare", she said.

"Sorry."

Rose bent to press her lips to his forehead.

"I'm gonna miss you."

"Luckily you have… me. Just as... handsome... And that is a lot to... say."

"Still."

"I'm dying, Rose."

"Shh."

"The Master was... right."

Rose started to cry. "Don't, please don't."

He managed to smile before the pain hit again and he squeezed his eyes shut, tears of pain rolling down his cheeks, and bit his lips together. He was squeezing Rose's hand so hard she couldn't feel her fingers. And then it was over. His grip loosened. His jaws relaxed. The weak link she had had with him disappeared.

"Doctor?" she tried, even though she knew it was in vain. The door opened and the Doctor came in, followed soon by wide-eyed Jenny.

"Rose", he said gently. Rose turned to look at him, she couldn't see through her tears, but the Doctor came to her and pulled her into a hug.

"I'm so sorry", he said.

Rose couldn't speak. She just let him know that so was she, and that she loved him, and that he was not allowed to die ever again.

"Come here, Jenny", she said and pulled her daughter into a hug. "I'm so sorry. You picked the worst possible time to find us."

"Don't worry, Mum", she said. "I was born to see this."

Somehow that didn't make it any easier for her.

#####

They stood on the beach, looking at the fire against the dark night sky.

"You know, we've had too many of these, considering I'm the last of the Time Lords", the Doctor muttered.

"Not the last", Rose said, thinking about what the Master had said about things being flux.

"What do you mean?"

"There's me", Jenny said. "I'm a Time Lord, aren't I?"

The Doctor smiled a bit. "Yes, you are."

Rose swallowed the sob. It was over. The universe had been saved. With a cost, but saved all the same. And they had each other, their small family. And maybe, someday, they'd pick up someone new to show the universe to.

"Come on", she said. "Let's go."

#####

"How big is this place, exactly?" Jenny asked when the Doctor had sent them into the Vortex.

"I don't know", the Doctor said. "I've never seen all of it. They say it's infinite."

"Can I go and see around?"

"Sure. If you get lost, just ask her to show you the way back here."

Jenny nodded and ran to the nearest corridor. The Doctor stepped next to Rose and wrapped his arm around her waist. She looked up at him.

"How are you?" she asked.

"Getting there."

Rose nodded. It had been a long and emotional day, but there was still something she needed to get out.

"What about..."

"What about…?" the Doctor asked.

"I was just wondering… I just watched you die. And you were that close to regenerate today. So what about when you do regenerate?"

He frowned slightly, looking a bit nervous.

"What about when I regenerate?"

"Just… what happens to us?"

The nervousness on his face turned into fear.

"What do you mean, don't you want me after I regenerate?"

"It's not me who's going to change", Rose said silently. "I'll always love you, no matter what body you're in. But what if you'll change into someone who doesn't love me?"

"Rose", he said slowly. "Do you remember when I said that there's just one whom I've ever loved? In over a nine hundred years there has been just one person I have ever loved. And that's you."

"But -"

"That's not going to change. Whoever I am, you can be sure of one thing. I love you."

Rose blinked and pulled him down to kiss him just when Jenny stumbled into the room, breathless and a huge grin on her face.

"This place is amazing!" she gasped. "And we can go anywhere?"

"Anywhere, everywhere", Rose answered, laughing as Jenny hugged her fiercely.

"Right now?"

"Er, maybe not tonight", the Doctor said. "See, you and I, we're Time Lords, so we don't need that much sleep. But your Mum here, she does. And, if I'm completely honest, right now, so do I. It's been a long day."

While the Doctor babbled on, Jenny's smile slowly died.

"But tomorrow morning", Rose said quickly. "First thing."

"Second thing", the Doctor corrected. "After breakfast."

"Right. After breakfast, we go anywhere you want."

"Yes! Thank you, thank you, thank you!" Jenny hopped around and hugged them again.

"Okay, but before we go, rules", the Doctor crossed his arms and looked firmly down at Jenny. "Rule one, very important. Promise me, Jenny, that you will not, in any circumstances, wander off."

Rose hugged his side and smiled up at him.

"Fat chance", she said. "She's our daughter."

"Yeah", the Doctor said, and he, too, started to smile. "Our daughter."