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"Don't you dare!" Rose cried, as he moved to take off his leather jacket.

He looked startled, slightly wounded, and then he saw her smile. "What?" he asked, non-plussed.

"Let me. You have no idea how long I've wanted to do this." Then she gently pushed his jacket off his shoulders, sliding the sleeves down his arms, tossing it on the ground next to their feet.

"So that's how it is, then?" asked the Doctor with a grin.

The Doctor promised, and the Doctor delivered. Uninhabited, turquoise sky, silver grass, and the light from three moons made the grass shimmer. He sat down on the ground and held his hand out to Rose for her to join him.

Rose hummed in delight when her hands came into contact with the velvety grass. "You weren't kidding about the grass." She enthusiastically removed her shoes and socks, enthralled with how the silky softness felt on her bare feet. "It feels amazing."

The Doctor's grin was almost boyish in its shyness. He loved looking at everything through her eyes. He decided to join the party and removed his heavy boots and socks, long toes curling into the softness. "I said so, didn't I?"

"It feels like cords of those velvety blankets you can buy back on Earth." She reached for the Doctor's hand. "I love it."

He turned and pinned her with a gaze so intense that it took a moment for Rose to catch her breath. "I love you, Rose Tyler. It took me too long to say it, and I don't tell you so as often as you deserve, but I do."

Rose threw her arms around her Doctor, feelings threatening to overwhelm her. A gentle hand tilted her face up towards his as he began to kiss her. Her lips parted, and her tongue began to trace his upper lip. Both of them began moaning softly when they started to slowly explore each other's mouths. The Doctor broke away for a moment, hands on both sides of Rose's face. "You're trembling."

"So are you, Doctor."

He laughed shakily, "So I am. Usually have to resist what I really want to do where you're concerned."

She shot him a grin, beginning to relax. "I know the feeling. But that's why we're here, yeah? To stop resisting." She laid back and extended her hand out to him, beckoning him to join her.

He stared at her sudden surge of confidence, and the way her golden hair fanned out across the soft silver ground, and once and for all, the Doctor stopped resisting his love and desire for Rose Tyler. He laid down next to her, and bent his head towards hers, sliding his thumb across her lower lip before he began to devour her.

"I want you so much, Rose," he murmured between kisses. "All of you."

"Yes, everything!" she cried, as he brought his fingers to her temple, and began initiating the bonding link.

With that unerring trust she had had in him since nearly the beginning, she laid open her entire self. Many things he already knew about her childhood, her teenage years; but while she hid none of it, it wasn't what she needed the Doctor to see. Rose wanted him to know how much she loved him.

The Doctor was flooded with images of their time together, the things she thought but dared not voice. He was the only man who had ever stared in wonder at her- while she stood before him in that period gown in Cardiff. His face was one of awe, rather than leering at her as though she was only good for one thing. The flash of adoration and relief when he kicked open the door and grabbed her away from the possessed corpse. How he made her feel that day at Downing Street, her joy at being reunited with him at Justicia, the way her heart leapt in her chest when she heard him on the verge of tears in Utah. "I thought you were dead!"

She felt needed, especially after he came to her bedroom, seeking respite from the nightmares that had plagued him. Then her relief as he reciprocated the comfort; the nightmares that visited her slumber in the wake of 1987. The Doctor realized for the first time that the tears she wept had been less for her father, but for him. "That's because I didn't need him, Doctor. But I couldn't stand a life without you in it." In spite of the harsh words exchanged, the undercurrent was clear. He was the most important man in her life, and would always be.

She had begun to desire him, and in spite of her goading in the basement of Albion Hospital, she had always seen him as a man first, rather than the powerful alien. She had seen him vulnerable, emotionally unclothed, and had a sense of the demons that never relented. Finally, he saw the most recent events. Her love and pride in him at a fever pitch as he stared down the Dalek fleet and promised to come get her. Her utter heartbreak and desolation as he sent her home in the TARDIS, her steely determination to get him back by any means necessary. The miracle of their survival, their mutual declaration of love, and her promise to stay with him.

Slowly, and carefully as to not overwhelm her untrained mind, the Doctor allowed his feelings to flood into the woman he adored. His happiness at her being thrown into his path again and again. The reason he came back for her- he knew her mind was screaming "yes" even as her lips said "no". He felt immense relief that their first trip didn't send her running back home, and he wouldn't have blamed her if she did. His possessive nature had been ever-present even in the early days of their acquaintance. His pride in her telling Sneed off warred with his secret desire to break his nose for daring to touch her. Even that friendly peck on the cheek she gave Charles Dickens raised his hackles.

He couldn't help loving her. It was part of who this incarnation was- he was born to love Rose Tyler. After Utah, he couldn't stay away. He allowed Rose to see the way he had looked at her when her back was turned. The way he would gaze at her as she slept in his arms. How he couldn't say no to her, even when he should. One by one, obstacles were overcome and they were beginning to cross the threshold into something new. He knew she cared about him deeply, but wasn't sure if she loved him the same way he loved her. Then they were at Gamestation. How dead he felt inside when he thought she had been murdered before his eyes. His relief when Jack came back from the TARDIS and they connected all the dots. His rage at seeing her in the midst of nearly half a million Daleks was barely leashed as he went on a madman's tangent before he made his passionate promise to come for her.

She saw the look on his face as he watched the TARDIS dematerialize as it sent her away and knew his heart was breaking. Then she saw Bad Wolf through his eyes. This...this was the moment he realized that Rose's love for him was as strong as his love for her. She defied everything just to get back to him, determined to save his life. His overwhelmed, gobsmacked expression at that very second of realization- "I want you safe. My Doctor." She loved him, the way he had only dreamed of her loving him.

They began to become nearly lost in each other's emotions as their souls intertwined. Then they both gasped as their eyes flew open and looked at each other- realizing that they would never again be merely separate entities. They were lying on the ground, now facing each other.

"Are you alright?" asked the Doctor. His voice was heavy with emotion.

"Yeah," she reassured him, nodding emphatically. "It's so beautiful. All my life, nothing happened." A single tear escaped and started to slide down her cheek. "Then I met you."

The Doctor chuckled. "Lot more happened than I think either of us bargained for." He tenderly brushed away the tear with his thumb.

"Yeah. But I never really felt like I belonged anywhere until I met you. Like it was like finding the other part of me that had always been missing. Humans can be married for decades, and it will never be like this. I believe in you- the way you feel about me- the way others believe in God, Doctor. Is that what it was like for your race, telepathic bonding?"

"I don't know," he confessed. "I was married once, had children. All through the proper channels, you understand. But it wasn't like this. I wasn't bonded to anyone, not ever." A slow grin spread over his countenance. "You're the first person I ever wanted up here." He tapped the side of his head.

Her palm was unbelievably soft to him as it slid down his cheek. He marveled at how such a gentle touch could ignite such a passionate physical response in him. It reverberated through his mind as well as his body. Rose's own breath hitched as she realized that the bond made her feel what he was feeling.

"Come here," the Doctor whispered.


Yes, I'm mean. No, this isn't fade-to-black. But I wanted to separate their bonding from sex.