"You could stay here - fill your life with work and food and sleep, or you could go … anywhere"

"Is it always this dangerous?"

"Yeah."

"Fancy a flower, sir?"

The Doctor blinked up at the tradeswoman before him and glared from beneath furrowed brows as he realized that he had been lost in his own thoughts once more. It was a phenomenon that had been happening increasingly often lately and it was beginning to get irritating.

"None for me, thanks," he muttered in reply, his chipper tone at odds with the storm that was currently brewing behind his blue eyes as he returned his gaze to the bright, red petals that he had been staring down at while his mind wandered. "No one but me, these days," he continued casually. "No point in buying flowers for myself, now is there?"

He stuffed his fists roughly into his coat pockets to make sure that he didn't accidentally reach out and begin running his fingers distractedly over the merchant's wares once more. The flowers were simply so vivid, and their texture so delicate - the colorful array called to him like a siren's song. The deep, crimson petals reminded him of home and he had to blink hard to see past the memories of bright, dazzling sunsets and bloody, ruinous battlefields.

"Are you certain, sir?" the saleswoman asked, not willing to let a potential customer walk away without spending a few coins first. She narrowed her eyes on the Doctor in a speculative look as she rounded the small booth that she was overseeing on the crowded marketplace street and came to stand at his side. "Seen lots of lovers stop by this booth, you know. I've learned to read people's faces over the years. Seems to me you were thinking of someone just now."

"Nope, not me," the Doctor replied, his smile becoming strained as he dutifully ignored the woman's sharp, assessing gaze and attempted to maintain his cheery tone. "Completely and totally unattached, me. It's better that way. No complications!"

The Doctor knew that he was in trouble when his lies started sounding fake to his own ears. How was he supposed to convince others that he was alright when he couldn't even convince himself? He'd been wandering on his own for a while, now - lifetimes, generations, even! But it seemed that even he couldn't outrun the truth forever.

He hadn't been looking for a new companion (really, he hadn't!) but he had been surprised by the young, enthusiastic Rose Tyler in a way that he had forgotten that he could even be surprised. He was fascinated by her strength, her eagerness, and her vivacity. He had wanted to bring her along - to continue to chase that fire that burned in her and made him hope for the future, but she had turned him down. He had come to this busy marketplace in the heart of Kandover on the back-half of the Indenari System in an attempt to surround himself with noise and distractions and forget that he had been so thoroughly rejected, but it seemed that he couldn't quite shake his dark, gloomy mood.

"The roses are genuine - the seeds came from Earth itself!" the saleswoman continued to boast proudly. "Get her one of those and I'm sure she'll forgive you for whatever you did wrong."

The Doctor wasn't sure if he was more annoyed with the woman's pushy sales tactics, or her keen, perceptive eye, but he decided quickly that it was time to move on when he could feel his jaw tightening in frustration. "Next time," he lied pointedly.

However, the moment that the saleswoman relented and turned to speak with a couple new bystanders, the Doctor snatched one of the bright red blooms from off of her cart and dropped a few coins in its place. He knew he was being a sentimental old idiot, but he simply couldn't force himself to walk away and abandon this tiny little reminder of the beautiful planet that he had left behind and the young, blonde girl who he had met there.

He was twiddling the flower idly between his fingers and glaring once more at its deep crimson petals when a slight tingling in the back of his mind suddenly drew his gaze back up and his eyes instantly landed on the familiar shape of his ship. Time senses were itching at his thoughts and warning him of some impending danger, but the Doctor's TARDIS was positively preening at the other end of their telepathic connection and distracting him from trying to root out the source of the disruption.

What are you up to, Old Girl?

By the time the Doctor broke through the last of the surrounding crowd and stepped closer to his parked ship, he realized with a start what all the fuss was about. Standing there with her right hand gently running up and down the rough wood of the old blue phone box was none other than the pink and yellow human herself.

She looked just as the Doctor remembered her from that dark, London alley where he had left her - but he only needed to pass a cursory glance over her to realize that this was not, in fact, the Rose Tyler who he had met on Earth in the early twenty-first century. She was older, with a weary set to her shoulders and a haunted look to her eyes that her nineteen-year-old self hadn't had.

However, when she blinked and caught sight of him from out of the corner of her eye, the expression of recognition and surprise that overwhelmed her features only further proved his suspicions that she was still somehow the exact same person.

"Oh!" she gasped, blinking hard a few times as she stared at him in open-mouthed shock. "H-hello …"

The Doctor didn't bother to respond, he simply narrowed his eyes on her in suspicion as he continued to take in every detail of the situation before him. There was no reasonable explanation for Rose Tyler being so far away from her own time and place other than if he was the one who brought her here, which led to the conclusion that she was traveling with him, and was from some point in his future. However, when the Doctor attempted to peer closer and examine her timelines, he was frustrated to find that there was nothing there - just a bright, golden blind spot that stunned his time senses and left him clueless.

When the Doctor finally leveled his thoughtful gaze back on hers again, he could see that she was shuffling her weight awkwardly between her two feet and biting down hard on her lip in consternation. He noticed that her hand was still on the TARDIS, though - as though she were afraid that if it was outside of her reach, it would disappear forever.

"Hello, Rose," the Doctor finally greeted her, his tone low and curious as he continued to inspect her. "What are you doing all the way out here?"

Her expression fell slightly and her shoulders slumped as she quietly cursed and murmured under her breath, "I was hoping that maybe you wouldn't know who I was yet …"

"Well, I do," the Doctor replied, taking on that fake, cheery tone again as he stuffed his hands in his pockets once more and stepped up closer to her. "Never forget a face, me. Photographic memory. Just met you in London a couple thousand lightyears from here, which leads me to my second question: How did you get here?"

"Well …" she sighed, continuing to fidget and refusing to meet his gaze, "it's a bit of a long story …"

"I've got time," the Doctor assured her, shifting his weight into a casual, unaffected stance as he continued to watch her every movement.

She was biting her lip again, seeming to struggle with the decision of whether or not to tell him the truth. When she finally forced her eyes to slide up and meet his, the Doctor felt her gaze like a physical touch. No, he still couldn't see her timelines - but her wide, expressive eyes told him all that he really needed to know in that moment. In her gaze, he could see that she knew him in some easy, familiar way that the Doctor hadn't experienced in lifetimes, and the ache that he could see swimming to the forefront of her whiskey-colored irises told him that their relationship with one another went far beyond anything that he had ever had in the past.

He felt all of the air escape from his lungs in one long, deflated sigh as he lost himself in her bright, amber eyes and her honest, open expression. "Rose …?" he asked, his voice little more than a whisper as he gazed down at her in complete and utter awe.

"Doctor …" she replied, her own tone breathless as she finally released her hold on the TARDIS and ran forward to lock her arms around his neck in a tight, desperate hug.

The Doctor stood frozen in time and space for a moment as he simply took in the sensation of her single, human heart pounding against his chest and the welcoming, warm scent that filled his nostrils. He was completely overwhelmed with this one impossible, amazing human girl. Not only did she apparently change her mind and decide to travel with him after all, but it seemed that they somehow got to a point in their relationship where she looked at him as though he hung the very stars in the sky for her. It was a dangerous and heady thing, and the Doctor wasn't sure if he could trust it (or himself) in that moment.

However, the Doctor's unexpected moment of awe and bliss was interrupted when Rose's emotions suddenly began to rush over him in waves. It had been quite some time since he had been around other sentient beings, after all, and the telepathic barriers around his mind had grown a bit lax with disuse. He could feel her sorrow, her joy, her fear, her frustration, and her heartache all as his own as she clung tight to him and refused to let go.

The Doctor screwed his eyes shut tight against the barrage of sharp, vivid human emotions and attempted to regulate his breathing and his heartsbeats as he fought to regain some semblance of control.

"Rose, what's going on?" he asked, his voice still low and quiet, meant only for her as he finally brought his arms up to circle around her and tentatively held her to him. "What's wrong?"

"You said I'd find you here, but I didn't really believe you," she admitted quietly.

"Speaking of that, where is he - this future me?" the Doctor asked, attempting to keep his tone casual as he warily glanced up and eyed their surroundings. He had had run-ins with himself in the past, after all - he knew what an unlikeable bugger he could be. And at the moment, with his arms full of Rose and his mind humming with her thoughts, he wasn't entirely sure if he was willing to just step back and hand her over to her current traveling companion, even if it was just a future version of himself.

"He's … a long way away," Rose muttered hesitantly. "I've been trying to find my way back to him, but I keep getting the wrong point in your timeline. I'm sorry …"

"What's to be sorry about?" the Doctor murmured, his tone light and teasing despite the fact that he could feel his arms tightening around her reflexively in an attempt to keep her close and cherish this moment for as long as he could.

She breathed a small, humorless huff of laughter before she loosened her grip around his neck and the Doctor regretfully allowed her to pull away from him once more. "I know I'm being selfish," she admitted with a small, rueful shrug of her shoulders. She sniffed once before raising her gaze back to him and adding sadly, "But I'm glad to see you again."

"I was just about to say the same thing myself," he replied, flashing her a nonchalant, goofy grin. "I wasn't exactly expecting to run into you again, after you decided to stay behind with that Rickey idiot, but it seems like you and I have quite a future together!"

"You mean … I'm not here with you?" Rose asked slowly, furrowing her brows at him in confusion. "You left me behind back on Earth?"

"Well, that's what you said you wanted," the Doctor reminded her pointedly. "I'm not one to insist, you know. Everyone's free to make their own decisions. I know that running off with an old git in a police box isn't exactly everyone's cup of tea. I offered, and you said no."

"Wait … are you at the autons?" Rose asked in disbelief. "Are we that early on your timestream?"

"Yep," the Doctor replied mildly. "And speaking of timestreams, where are you?"

Rose didn't answer his question, but she let out a short, loud bark of laughter as she threw her head back in amusement and grinned at him with sparkling brown eyes. "And here I was thinking that I was the only selfish one," she murmured with a teasing shake of her head. "You knew I was going to come back to this point. You wanted me here."

"Sorry?" the Doctor asked, flashing her a dubious look.

"I'm sorry, Doctor, I really am," Rose replied, though her knowing, teasing smirk suggested that she was anything but, "but you've already told me that this has to happen, so …"

Before the Doctor could ask her what she was going on about, she stepped forward once more and fisted one hand into the collar of his leather jacket and brought the other around the back of his neck and forced his lips down to meet hers. It wasn't the first time that the Doctor had been forced to endure such affections, and he doubted that it would be his last, but it had been quite a while for him (though he stubbornly refused to admit exactly how long) and the shock of it certainly never got old.

He stumbled slightly as he adjusted to accommodate the woman currently pressing herself against him and their mouths jostled awkwardly, but the Doctor still didn't actively attempt to pull away as he found himself being overcome by the sensation of her lips - ten times as soft as the rose petals he had been admiring earlier and a thousand times more intoxicating.

However, he was still too stunned to even attempt to reciprocate, and he wasn't even sure if that was something that he should do (let alone something that he should want to do). He never got the chance to reach any sort of conclusion on the matter before Rose slowly released him. He was still frozen in a moment of indecision as he felt her breath ghosting across his lips as she gently pulled away.

"Sorry," she repeated, her regretful whisper urging the Doctor out of his stupor and tempting him forward, filling him with the desire to chase after her tantalizing lips. "You're going to have to make yourself forget this …"

"How …?" the Doctor whispered in response, his arms still around her back and his eyes shut tight as he lightly touched his forehead to hers. Oh, he had made himself forget things before - it was a necessary safety measure to have in place when one traveled in time as recklessly as he did - but forget this? The Doctor wasn't even sure if it was entirely possible.

He had known that Rose was different from the moment that he had first taken her hand in that department store basement, but never in a thousand lifetimes could he have predicted this. Who was this girl, who seemed to somehow pull him from his current state of hopelessness and lead him in a future filled with love and acceptance and (apparently) kissing?

Rose breathed another small breath of laughter as she relaxed into his arms and gently placed one of her hands against his chest, directly between his two wildly-beating hearts. "You told me this would happen this way," she whispered solemnly. "It has to. You make yourself forget so that you can go back and visit me again and not mess up the timestreams."

"What about you?" the Doctor asked, his voice catching on the lump in his throat as he finally forced himself to open his eyes and gaze down at her gloomy expression. There was heartbreak in her eyes and a looming sense of goodbye that the Doctor found he was loathe to face at the moment.

"Oh, don't worry about me, I'll be fine," she sighed, her tone wary even as she flashed him a small smile and attempted to reassure him. "I'll find you again, Doctor. I always find you."

"When?" he asked, not even bothering to conceal his urgent, desperate tone. "When will I see you again?"

Rose leaned away from him so that she could fully meet his eye and flashed him a teasing, bemused look. "I'm still back on that London street, you know," she muttered wryly. "You know where to find me."

"But … you said no," the Doctor reminded her, his gaze absolutely entranced by the upturned shape of her mouth.

"Well, you could always ask again," she suggested amusedly. She leaned up onto her toes to press a quick kiss to his cheek and paused to whisper in his ear, "Better hurry - can't leave a girl waiting."

Her breath against his ear sent a shiver racing down his spine and the Doctor found himself mirroring her smile even as she finally stepped back outside of the reach of his arms once more.

"It's a time machine, Rose," he replied pointedly. "I never have to leave anyone waiting."

"Better go back and tell her that, then," she admonished him with a tongue-touched, teasing grin.

She was about to turn her back on him and disappear into the crowds of Kandover once more, leaving him all on his own with a thousand different questions and no time at all to ask them, but the Doctor wasn't about to let her go without a second glance - not again, not after that kiss.

"Rose, wait," he pleaded as he reached forward and grabbed her hand in his once more, his wide grin fading into something softer and more gentle than he had even known that he was capable of. He trained his gaze on hers and didn't even dare to blink as he raised her hand to his mouth and pressed his lips to the backs of her knuckles. Her sharp intake of breath made something flare and come alive inside of him - something that he had thought was long dead and buried.

"Wait for me," he whispered, his fingers tightening around hers as he fought the urge to turn and force her into the TARDIS at his back and spirit her away forever. "I'll find you again."

"Doctor, I'm right where you left me," she reminded him quietly, though he could see that there were tears shining in her soft brown eyes. "Go and get her."

He nodded once in silent promise that he would do what needed to be done - in fact, he would gladly face the future, knowing that at some point his timeline would intersect with hers again. He would make himself forget, he would travel back in time, and he would walk the slow path all because he knew that he would get to do it with her.

Before he dropped her hand and forced himself to turn his back on her for good, the Doctor reached into his pocket and retrieved the small, red flower that he had purchased just a few moments ago. He pressed it eagerly into Rose's hand and then flashed her another wide, goofy grin as he stepped back and linked his hands behind his back so that he wouldn't be tempted to reach for her again.

"I saw it and thought of you," he informed her, raising his head with a look of self-satisfaction as he carefully watched her expression.

Rose's cheeks immediately flushed the most enticing shade of pink and tested his already-crumbling resolve as she cradled the small red rose close to her chest and glanced up at him through her dark lashes.

"I'll hold on to it until we meet again," she promised him quietly, a small, confident grin turning up her lips.

"I'll hold you to it," he agreed eagerly.

He watched her until she was swallowed up by the crowds of the marketplace and he finally felt the last traces of her lingering presence evaporate from around him. His snide time ship was in the back of his mind the entire time, positively radiating the words, I told you so.

He darted back through those familiar blue doors with a wide, excited grin on his face, but by the time he had reached the console, all memories of his recent encounter were already safely locked away where they wouldn't be able to interfere with timelines or alter the turn of established events.

Still, he whistled pleasantly to himself as he set the TARDIS's destinations for early twenty-first century London and felt the first shining beacon of hope that he had felt in years beginning to swell inside of his chest.

"Silly old Doctor," he grumbled quietly to himself. "How could I forget to mention she's a time machine?"

"By the way, did I mention it also travels in time?"