They stared at each other a moment, neither quite ready to believe they'd found each other. But it was only a moment, because at the same time they both leapt forward, running to each other. His arms crashed around her as she wrapped hers around his waist, holding him tight. They kissed like two people who hadn't seen each other in ages. Though for the Doctor it had only been eight hours, thirty-four minutes, and twenty-nine seconds. Not that he was counting. For her—
He pulled back, staring into the depths of her deep blue eyes. "How long? How long have you been here?"
Her chest heaved as she caught her breath, trying to keep up with the excitement and running she'd become unaccustom to since coming here, and with the amazing kiss they'd just shared. She whispered, "One year, four months, twelve days, 10 hours, and forty-eight seconds."
Oh, Telana… he whispered into her mind as his hands came to her cheeks and he pulled her into another deep kiss.
Theta…
A throat clearing beside them brought them back to reality, and they broke away from the kiss, but the Doctor didn't let her go far, resting his head gently against hers.
"How long for you?" she whispered.
He sighed. "Only eight hours, thirty-nine minutes…and twelve seconds. But it was the longest eight hours of my life, Archie. I'm so sorry I couldn't come back sooner. But as soon as we found your book, we came to the closest time we could manage and we've been looking all day here around the city, and—"
"It's okay, it's okay, Doctor." She rested a hand gently on his cheek. "You're here now, that's what matters."
"But, can't we go back earlier, like we said? Now that she can tell us how far back to go?" Donna asked.
"No," the Archivist spoke as she leaned back, before the Doctor could speak. "I'm not taking any chances."
"Chances of what?" Shaun asked.
"Alien invasion, another Weeping Angel, tripping off the sidewalk into oncoming traffic…"
Jack's eyebrow lifted in curiosity. "Seriously?"
The Archivist looked at Jack. "Seriously. I'm not letting this man out of my sight, or out of my reach, for a good long while. The past one and a half years has already happened for me. I'm not chancing something happening and it being even longer instead of shorter." She turned her gaze back on the Doctor. Looking him right in the eyes as she spoke. "We're good. You're here. I'm not letting you go."
A very small part of him wanted to argue, wanted to attempt to make the time they were apart shorter for her. But a much bigger part of him agreed—it wasn't worth the risk, not when he had her in his arms now. "Alright. That's that then. Let's get you back to the TARDISes. They're going to be so happy to see you."
"I need to pick up my things from my apartment—well, it's not really an apartment, it's a room. But my things are all there and I can't leave without them."
"Alright, then." The Doctor released his grip from around her waist, but his hand slipped down to hers and held it tight. "We'll meet the rest of you back at the TARDIS after we pick up her things."
"There's only one problem," the Archivist said, chewing at the corner of her lip.
"What's that?"
"The house I live in—the owner, she has a strict 'no men allowed' policy. Even if I convince her you're my husband whose been gone trying to find work, I'm not sure she'll let you in."
The Doctor frowned. He truly didn't want to let go of her hand. They were already going to have to re-tie the ceremonial ribbon as soon as they got back to the TARDIS, but that didn't mean he wanted to let go of her now that he had her in his arms. After another moment of thought, he decided, "All right. Donna, come with us. If I have to let her out of my sight, I want someone else I trust implicitly by her side while she's packing up."
Donna smiled. While she found this whole not-letting-go and not-taking-my-eyes-off-you thing to be a bit much, even for newlyweds (she knew there was more to it with whatever these Gallifreyan bonds were they'd talked about)—she was honored to be the one the Doctor trusted. "Off we go, then."
"No men allowed," the old woman frowned as she stood in the doorway.
"But, Mrs. Flynn, as I said, he's my husband. He's just been traveling to try and find a job and has returned with good news. He's found a job and we're moving. I just need to pick up my things."
"Doesn't change the rules. No men allowed."
The Doctor gently squeezed the Archivist's hand, decided to give his charm a try. "Why, Mrs. Flynn, I understand your rules, and I very much appreciate them, as I know it means my dear wife here wasn't charmed away by any scoundrels while I was away." He pulled a wallet out of his back pocket, making sure to open it where she could see the bills clearly. "Now, ma'am, I'd like to be sure my wife's room is paid up for the rest of this month. What do we owe you?"
The woman stared, wide-eyed, at the bills in the wallet. The Archivist frowned, unsure that such a flashy show was necessary. The woman continued to peer for a moment, before looking back up into his eyes. "You're welcome to pay up on her account, but that doesn't change the rules. No men allowed."
The Doctor sighed, wallet flipping closed.
The Archivist gave him a small smile of pity, then turned back to her landlady. "Very well, Mrs. Flynn. My sister-in-law, Donna, will come in with me then, to help me pack up my things. I'll leave you here with my husband to settle my account."
"I just have a few things I care to take along," the Archivist said to Donna as they went up the stairs of the house. "Most of them are already in a special box I keep. The rest won't take long to collect."
They made it to the top of the stairs and walked down a short hall. The Archivist pulled a small key ring out of a pocket in her jacket and unlocked the door. Once inside, Donna gasped at the sight of three small beds in the tiny room. "How many are living in this room?"
Before answering, Archie closed the door behind them and locked it, then sighed as she turned back and looked around the room. "There's three of us in this room. We're lucky, some of the rooms have four beds. It's the best I could find on a librarians salary."
"What about your book? Surely you make some off that?"
"I didn't really publish it to make money off it, just to get it out there so the Doctor would find it."
"It was me, actually."
"What?"
"I found it—found you. The Doctor was a bit…shell-shocked…he was struggling to hold it together, much less run a search operation."
"Yes, well, I can understand that. I was quite 'shell-shocked' as you put it when I first ended up here."
"Well, let's hurry then and get you two back together. I don't know much about Gallifreyan marriage bonding, but I can tell you're both itching to be touching again."
"It will get better once—" She stopped herself and blushed. "Well, it will get better."
Donna gave a cheeky grin. "Oh yeah, I'm sure it will." She chuckled.
Meanwhile, to distract herself from her embarrassment, the Archivist had knelt down by her assigned bed and proceeded to pull out a wooden box. It was about the size of a case of paper from back home, Donna judged, and had a latch with a padlock securing it. She watched as the Archivist pulled a necklace that had been hiding from around her neck, a small key dangling from it. They key went into the pad lock and soon she had flipped open the box lid.
Once opened Donna recognized folded in the bottom the purple linen shirt the Archivist had been wearing on her wedding day. On top of it was her 'tool' belt, sonic screwdriver still in it's pouch. There were a few other devices, some papers. With the top open, the Archivist then went about her corner of the room, pulling out a few books from under the bed and placing them into the box. One caught Donna's eye and she gasped.
"That's your book, the one you wrote."
"Yes, this was the first printed copy. I saved it in hopes I could give it to the Doctor when he came for me."
Donna smiled. "You knew he would."
"I did. I knew he would keep his promise. I just wasn't sure how long it would take."
"He would have gone to the end of the universe to find you, if he'd had to."
The Archivist smiled back. "Thankfully, he didn't have to."
"Nope, just a few decades back in time—easy peasy," Donna said with a shrug and a grin.
"I think that's everything. I'll just leave a note for my roommates. They can split up my clothes between them. They'll love that."
"I have to say, you look rather good in this time period's clothes. Sure you don't want to keep them around?"
Archie groaned. "Are you kidding me? If I don't have to wear another pair of stockings and heels a day of my life, I'll die a happy woman." The two women laughed together as Archie locked her box back up and picked it up. "Alright, that's it."