The feel of her warm hand clasped in his felt like perfection, and it caused his hearts to break all the more. The moment he had sent the Tardis into the Vortex he knew what he had to do, with the Metacrisis and the realization that Donna would need her mind wiped sooner rather than later, these last few precious moments were all this version of himself would ever have with a one Rose Tyler. His fantastic pink and yellow human who traveled across dimensions to get to him would always hold both, or should he say all three of his hearts in her grasp. She looked up at him giving him her signature grin before winking and walking over to Jack. She was going to hate him and that made his decision all the more painful.
He was a coward when it came to how he felt about Rose Tyler, the most important person to him.
He had noticed it the first moment he had been able to properly see her again, gone were the rounder facial features, the final remnants of her youth. Her features were much more defined, more mature. She was absolutely breathtaking, he hated to admit he was saddened by it. The tell-tale signs of aging, the curse of time, the reminder of eventual goodbyes. All his fears resurfaced when he had realized that she had aged, though no lines marred her perfect face, he knew they one day would. The day would come when she'd leave him, and when she could no longer run, her promise of forever would inevitably be shattered and his soul irreparably broken. With another glance at his other self, he could almost laugh at the irony of it all.
When they landed back in Pete's world his hearts ached with the knowledge of what he was about to do. He wanted to be selfish, just once and give in to Rose Tyler, to whisk her away and run but he couldn't. He was never going to see his precious girl again.
"Does it need saying?"
He saw her heartbreak at that moment, he watched as his metacrisis said the words he longed to say but never would. He felt his mouth go dry, his respiratory bypass failed, as she grabbed the lapels of his metacrisis's suit and kissed him. So the Doctor did what he did best, he ran and never looked back.
He would kick himself later for not saying a proper goodbye, for not getting one last Rose Tyler hug in. She gave fantastic hugs. As the door to the Tardis closed once more, the reality of not loosing just Rose but Donna as well filled him with grief. Yet throughout it all, he did feel an ounce of comfort knowing that out there in a different dimension, Rose Tyler and the Doctor did indeed get their forever. Sure he knew they would fight, and he being well him would inevitably do something stupid, but their love would conquer all. Soon they'll be traveling through time and space and while it may be but a blink of an eye for a Time Lord, he sought comfort in knowing that they'd have each other. Rose Tyler and the Doctor would be in the Tardis again just as it should be, and while it wasn't exactly him anymore, he knew it would be fantastic.
Shiver and Shake, the Stuff of Legends.
X
The newly regenerated Doctor looked into the mirror as he adjusted his bowtie. He was all chin and tweed and for a split second, he thought about what Rose Tyler would think of this new version of him, her new new new Doctor. He smiled, thinking about her didn't bring the same level of hurt as it did in his previous regeneration.
He stepped back into his room and opened the wardrobe, an idea popping into his mind, pulling out the suits and sandshoes of his previous self, piling them into his arms and throwing the trench coat on top. Usually, the Tardis took care of moving the items back into the wardrobe but he had other plans for them. His bedroom door opened thanks to the old girl and he stepped into the hall. The familiar wooden door still across from his bedroom also swung open revealing the pink room.
The smell of her still permeated the air, and his hearts ached slightly at the memories that resurfaced because of it. The room was nearly exactly how she had left it with the exception of the belongings he had saved from the Powell Estate after Canary Wharf, the vanity littered with clutter and pictures, few articles of clothing scattered across the floor but the bed was made thanks to his former self.
The Doctor opened the closet door and was surprised at the sight of the large leather jacket hanging front and center, from back when he was all ears and leather. He looked at it for a moment, smiled, and began hanging up the suits. It seemed fitting that the clothing of both his ninth and tenth selves would stay in this closet, mingled with Rose Tyler's clothing for eternity. He placed the sandshoes at the foot of the bed and hung the trench coat on to one of the hooks behind the door, next to hers.
Taking one final look around the room, he allowed a moment of mourning, he let the loss of his pink and yellow girl gut him one final time before stepping out and closing the door forever. His hearts would always belong to Rose Tyler, but it was time for him to move on, she wouldn't want him to be alone and if there was one thing he believed in, it was her.
As he strolled down the hallway towards his new console room, he felt as the Tardis rearranged the rooms, moving it, hiding it away deep within her walls. A new sense of optimism reverberated through him, and so he ran, his hearts feeling lighter than they had in a long time, and while he didn't have a hand to hold yet, perhaps one day he would.
"Geronimo!"