I'm really really sorry this has taken so long! I had already written most of this story when I started posting, and these final chapters are the ones I'm still writing these days, which is why it's taking me so long to update. I'll try and come up with a new one really soon.

Special thanks to my very dear beta, NoPondInTheForest - don't know what I'd do without you, babe!


On their second night together in the court of Queen Elizabeth I, the Doctor took Rose Tyler to a place she had never been to before.

His resolution to visit that particular place with her was made at the break of dawn – more specifically, the moment he realised that, much to his regret, he had never been there with her. Shortly afterwards, upon hearing Rose herself tell Chinny that she was determined to not spend another day shut inside four walls, his resolution became firmer, and his brain secretly scheduled their trip for that very day. When he and Rose came down for breakfast a bit later that morning, a puzzled Captain Jack Harkness informed them that the TARDIS was gone, but ecstatic as he had been for the last couple of days, the Doctor wasn't concerned by his friend's revelation in the slightest. After all, Chinny had told him he would be taking Clara to the Moon to have those cocktails, so he simply assumed they would be coming back soon. Only when the clock struck midnight and the TARDIS was still nowhere to be seen did the Doctor start to conceive the thought that his beloved spaceship might not be coming back any time soon at all.

Fortunately for him, Rose had remained oblivious to his plans all day long. Spending all of the previous night awake had definitely had an impact on her, which meant that, when a solution to the TARDIS-less Doctor's problem finally magicked up in the form of Captain Jack Harkness knocking at their door shortly after dinner time carrying a tray brimming with fresh fruit, she would still be sleeping for a few more hours. Not that the Doctor was especially fond of the solution he had found, but still, if ever an extraordinary situation had called for extraordinary measures, he was certain no other situation would ever get any more extraordinary than the current one.

"Good morning, Miss Tyler," said the Doctor when he saw Rose finally waking up right after the clock struck midnight.

"Hi," she answered, blinking her eyes open to find him sitting on the same armchair as the night before, only that tonight the moonlight was shinning directly on his face and that there was a tray full of fruit sitting on his lap. Sitting up straight, she rubbed her eyes with her forearm, and gave the grinning Doctor what he was sure was the most beautiful smile he had ever seen. "Please tell me I 'aven't woken up when everybody else's sleeping again..."

"I'm afraid I'm going to have to disappoint you there. It's not so bad though, is it? Would you like to have some breakfast?" Before Rose had any time to answer that, the Doctor took an apple from the tray and threw it to her. As he watched her grab it right away and take a hungry bite, he took another one for himself and bit it, then continued to speak with his mouth full. "Still, don't take me wrong! My people always thought sleep to be little else than a pointless state of mind that only the brains of the laziest species in the universe are programmed to experience, and although I personally disagree with most of that, I certainly do believe it's a stupid waste of time."

Rose snorted.

"So ya don't sleep then?" she asked as soon as she swallowed the bite of apple she had been chewing.

"I don't," the Doctor answered before he took another bite.

"What 'ave ya be doing all day then?"

"Oh, nothing in particular… Just the usual stuff I guess."

"And for someone who hardly ever spends more than a few hours in the same place, the usual stuff is…," Rose said teasingly.

"Oh, you know… I've met the Queen and her mother again! As it happens, Elizabeth came to bring us lunch, and then later in the evening Anne came to bring us dinner."

"What did you just say?" Rose asked with a slight frown.

"Yep! They did!" answered the Doctor, beaming at her. "Not only have you had the greatest monarch in the history of England, but also Queen Mother, bring you your meals on a silver platter to your own private chamber, Rose Tyler! That's how important you've become to them."

"Don't be daft!" she said, taking another bite as she watched the Doctor literally devouring his apple. "They didn't do that for me, they did it for you. You're the one that's become really important to them, Doctor, not me. I'm just an accident. You, though… You've changed their lives!"

"Only because of you," he told her, looking pointedly at her as his last mouthful of the sweetest of all apples went down his throat.

'Only because of you,' Rose repeated in her mind. For the truth was that, from the moment she'd properly met him the previous night, the Doctor certainly hadn't tried to conceal what he felt for her in the slightest. He would put those feelings down in words whenever he had a chance, and since he wasn't refraining himself in the slightest, she was finding it very hard to think of a reason why she should be the one to do that.

Therefore, far from attempting to change the current subject, she decided to add a bit more fuel to the fire.

"So when you said you'd been doing the usual stuff, what you actually meant was you've been here with me all day?"

"Of course I have," he told her as he started to shift nervously in his seat. "Someone had to stay and watch over you, don't you think? By the way, did I mention that Jack came after dinner and brought us all this fruit?"

"No you didn't," she said, smiling broadly because of the clumsy manner in which he had changed the subject. "I like Jack very much! Mind you, he's a piece of work, but I thought he was as funny as he was cheeky."

"Cheeky?" asked a very alarmed Tenth Doctor. "Why? Why did you say cheeky? Did he do anything he shouldn't have done?"

"Ya bet he did," Rose answered, nodding repeatedly and raising her eyebrows as she remembered how that really good-looking guy in a long gray trench coat had put one hand on the small of her back and then slid it further down when the Doctor had introduced him that morning.

"Yeah, of course he did… What was I thinking?" said the Doctor, narrowing his eyes. "Well, I guess that's Captain Jack Harkness for you."

"It's okay, it was nothing I couldn't handle," said Rose as she remembered how she had energetically stepped on Jack's toes when his hand squeezed her backside. "I love Edward too, he's really nice! When you said he was Jack's boyfriend, I took it for granted that he came from the future too, so it was a great surprise to see he belongs here! How long have they been tog…?"

"I've spent the whole day planning to take you out somewhere tonight, Rose," the Doctor suddenly interrupted.

"Really? And where are we going?" she asked excitedly as she revelled in how much she loved the way her name sounded in his voice.

"Well, it's meant to be a surprise, so I'm not telling you just yet," he answered, his eyes glowing. "The only thing I can say for the time being is that, although I've needed to make some variations to my original plan, luckily there's been no need to change our destination."

"And can ya tell me what those variations have been?" she asked curiously.

"Yep! That's no secret!" he answered. "Chinny's gone away with my spaceship 'cause there's this place he wanted to take Clara, so I've had to find an alternative means of transport."

"Blimey!" Rose exclaimed after a short pause. "I'd assumed we'd just go for a walk in the park or something, now it turns out we need a spaceship!"

"Well, not so much a spaceship as a time machine. And as luck would have it, I knew where to find one. Provided this stupid thingy can actually be called a time machine, that is," answered the Doctor while lifting his left arm.

"What's that?" Rose asked when she caught a glimpse of the uncommonly big device wrapped around the Doctor's wrist.

"A vortex manipulator," the Doctor answered. "Not my favourite choice when it comes to time travel, but still, it's better than nothing!"

"Okay, so outer space's out of the question then," Rose said, smiling as she pressed the tip of her tongue against her upper teeth. "Where are we going then? The past or the future?"

"I'm still not telling you, Rose Tyler, no matter how many times you matter-of-factly try to make me," said the Doctor, shaking his head. And then, giving her a wild grin, he went on. "But I know you'll know where we are when you see it."

Rose smiled again. She felt happy and excited as she had never felt before, and for more reasons than one. The fact that she was about to experience time travel and not against her will for a change was definitely one of them, but that she should do so in the company of the Doctor was even more thrilling. What she had come to feel for him in the mere twenty-four hours that had passed since she had met him properly would have scared her to death under any other circumstances. Under the present ones, however, she just didn't need a time machine to know what they meant to each other in the future, especially when he was being so very close to her, so lovable, and so undeniably in love with her.

"I reckon I'll need to get some proper clothes," she said.

"Well, you know what? You looked wonderful in that thing Anne brought you this morning. Why don't you put that on? In fact, where we're going, I think that's all you'll need!"

Rose's eyes darted to the foot of the bed, where the garment the Doctor had just mentioned was resting – a large full-length dressing gown made of blue silk on which flowers and diamonds had been embroidered with silver thread. Anne Boleyn herself had given it to her when she visited her chamber that morning, and Rose had been wearing it all morning until she went back to bed.

"Okay," she agreed.

No sooner had she said that word than the Doctor took the tray off his lap and put it on the floor. Immediately afterwards, he jumped out of the armchair and leaned towards the dressing gown. Taking it in his hands, he turned to Rose and held it open for her.

"Thanks," she said, wide-eyed with excitement as she jumped off the bed and walked the three steps that separated her from the Doctor before she slid her arms into the sleeves.

When she turned around to face him, she found the Doctor beaming again. They held each other's gazes in silence for a minute until the Doctor took her hand and placed it around his wrist, squeezing it gently.

"So this is what we're gonna use to get out of here, right?" Rose said.

"Yep," the Doctor answered as he lifted the flap. "Just hold on to it and don't let go."

"I won't," she said reassuringly. "Can we also use that thing to come back right at this moment again?"

"We can, if that's what you want," he told her. "Any particular reason you'd like to do that?"

"No, just asking," she said. "It's great then, isn't it? We could stay wherever it is we're going for as long as we'd like, then we can come back to the moment we left! How cool is that?"

"We could do that, yes," the Doctor answered, smiling softly. "As it happens, when we take you back home, we'll be going to the Powell Estate on the night of 1st January 2005, right after the moment you disappeared."

"What I mean is," Rose cut in, clumsily changing the subject herself this time, "before you take me home, weeks, or months, maybe even years might pass and it still wouldn't make any difference, right?"

"Well, I think if years passed, it'd definitely make a difference to your mother," said the Doctor.

"Okay, so maybe not years, but we can still borrow some time, can't we?"

The Doctor froze momentarily, but only to savour the warmth that had just started to emanate from Rose's words. Many were the things he would have wanted to say to her in that moment, and yet, he didn't think it was necessary to speak at all. If Rose could read into his eyes just as much as he could read into hers, she already knew them all.

"Yes," he said softly. "Yes, we can."

What happened right after he said those three words might just have been wishful thinking on his part, but he would have sworn he had actually seen Rose sigh with relief.

And indeed, sigh with relief she had.

"I guess," she said after a brief silence, "if years passed, I'd notice too, wouldn't I?"

"I'm sorry?" the Doctor asked. "Don't tell anyone I've actually said this, but I didn't quite catch that."

"What I mean is," Rose added, smiling broadly again, "if you age at the same rate humans do, I suppose I'll also notice when you come back."

"When I come back where?" asked the Doctor, sounding a bit puzzled.

"To wherever it is I'm waiting for ya in the future."

As if his brain had reprogrammed itself never to feel anything again after all the pain and loss that this version of him that been through, the Doctor's thoughts took him back to the moment of his interrupted regeneration. At what should have been the end of the life of his tenth incarnation, there had been no Rose Tyler with him, and maybe that was all he should tell her, plain and simple, without going into any details that would assuredly be too painful for her to bear.

His body, however, had taken a very different route. He had felt his cheeks go white and his knees falter, and everything around him had suddenly become hazy and soon afterwards started to spin.

"Doctor, what's wrong?" Rose asked, sounding alarmed.

It was such a simple question, he thought. In his many centuries of existence, he had heard the Daleks and the Cybermen and a great many other enemies pose a great many other uncomfortable questions. Had he actually given them answers, their consequences would have been terribly devastating. Yet it was Rose Tyler's simple question, which would forever linger in his ears, the one that had succeeded in achieving what no Dalek or Cyberman had ever done before – tear his very soul apart.

"Doctor, is everything okay?" Rose insisted.

But the Doctor still couldn't utter a single word. Deep down inside, however, he was finding no lack of them at all, and the words that were hitting his mind were ones he would use to keep cursing himself for not being able to come up with any answers now that Rose seemed to need one the most. The eyes that had lovingly been looking at him that very day were now staring at him in dread, whether of his persistent silence or of what he might say next, he could not tell.

And yet, the fact remained that he had to say something. He needed to say something! All for her own sake. What should it be, though? What on earth could he tell her? Lying was out of the question, but should he tell her the truth? Could he really do that to her? Wouldn't it be better to tell her something simple just not to make matters worse?

"Yes," he finally mumbled. "Everything's fine, Rose… There's nothing wrong, I promise. It's just that…" The Doctor went momentarily silent again, but just for as long as it took him to sit down on the bed and hold Rose's hand so that she would sit down next to him. In his present shock and confusion, the thought that what he was about to say might cast a shadow over her newly-found happiness never even crossed his mind, or else he would never have said it. "It's just that, where I'm going after all this… I'm afraid you're not there."

"What d'ya mean I'm not there?" asked a very puzzled Rose. "Where am I then?"

"Not with me," answered the Doctor, looking down, and as soon as he did, he decided he would say no more. The whole truth, he was sure, would only terrify her.

"Not with you?" Rose asked in astonishment. "How can I not be with you? Doctor, am I dead?"

"What? No!" shouted the Doctor. "No, of course you're not dead, Rose! Believe me when I tell you you've never been so alive!"

"What's the matter then? Where did I go?" she kept asking, and with each new question, the Doctor's hearts sank a little bit deeper.

"Well, it's just that…," the Doctor started, trying to sound as reassuring and convincing as he possibly could. "Things change, that's all. Nothing lasts forever."

"You do," said Rose anxiously, "you last forever."

"No Rose, I don't," he said, trying hard to avoid her gaze. "Y'see, Time Lords… We're not immortal."

'That's not what I meant', Rose was about to say, but she didn't.

What she didn't know was that the Doctor knew exactly what she had meant but had pretended to take the wrong end of the stick.

"So where am I gone? Can you tell me that at least?"

"To defend the Earth, I'd assume. That's what you do these days, Rose. Your shop girl days were over when we met."

"I…," said Rose in disbelief. "I fight aliens for a living?"

"Not really, no," said the Doctor. "I mean, occasionally, yes! But most of the time, you don't fight them. You listen to them. You understand them, and you try to help them. Also, you save lives. Alien and human. All the time."

"But not with you," she whispered, feeling an intense pain building up in her chest.

"No, not with me. Can't see why that should matter, though," the Doctor added, trying to put himself together like he had never done before.

"How could it not matter?" Rose asked as a sudden emptiness took hold of her until then gleaming heart.

"Because I was there when you left," he told her. "And when you said goodbye, you looked splendid, and I can't think of any reason why shouldn't still be looking splendid by now."

And there it was. He had done it in the end. Much as he had tried to avoid it, he had lied to her.

"I…," Rose started, then stopped for a moment, making a great effort to believe what she was going to say. "I left?"

"Yes."

"I left you?" she repeated, wide-eyed.

"You did," the Doctor answered, knowing that those simple words had the potential to make his throat burn – which they did.

"But Doctor, why would I leave you?"

"Oh, 'cause you sort of… You know. Met someone else."

"I met someone else?" Rose asked incredulously.

"You did indeed," answered the Doctor, raising his eyebrows. "Although, if truth be told, I must say I happened to introduce you. Nice chap, by the way, and really very good-looking! Seemed a bit wild to me at first to be honest, but I'm sure you've managed to tame him. Shall we go now?"

The Doctor jumped up while Rose remained sitting on the bed feeling terribly childish and stupid. Could that really be true? Had she really fallen for someone else and abandoned the most fascinating creature she had ever met? Well, everything seemed to indicate that she had, so what was wrong with her?!

"Rose?" she heard the Doctor asking from somewhere outside the turmoil of her thoughts. "Do you want to stay?"

Yes, she thought. Yes, I want to stay, and I don't ever want to leave you... Doctor, I don't want to go!

"No," she said instead. "It's okay, let's go."

Smiling softly at her answer, the Doctor got up from the bed and offered her his hand, which she took soon, although with some hesitation.

Standing up in front of him, Rose kept staring at the Doctor as he took her hand and put it on his wrist, then lifted the flap of the object he had called a vortex manipulator. As she wrapped her hand around it, the story he had just told her kept reverberating in her head. Could it really be true or had someone else been messing with her future the way Elizabeth I had messed with her past, she wondered? Because the truth was that she could not imagine any reason why she would ever leave the Doctor, least of all her meeting someone else! She had been terribly scared of him at first, when she met him at the scaffold, but now, scarcely forty-eight hours later, she knew that she was just as much in love with him as he was in love with her, so how was she supposed to believe she would end up dumping him?

"You might want to close your eyes or else you might get a bit dizzy," he told her, his beautiful brown eyes staring into hers so deeply that she thought she might just lose her senses and faint right there in his arms.

Perhaps if he had hidden his feelings for her she might have restrained herself a bit, but the way he felt for her became really obvious soon enough, and feeling the same way for him, she had done nothing but encourage him. Now, the thought that she would actually be causing him pain at some point in the future was breaking her soul. She had no right to do that! And she certainly didn't know what the future would hold as well as he did, but one thing she knew that he didn't know was that she would never forgive herself for hurting him.

And the thought that she would inevitably hurt him right now seemed to her more alien than any other thing in the world.

"Okay," she answered, shutting her eyelids tightly.

Looking at her in wonderment again, as if nothing had been said to turn their bliss into discomfort, the Doctor smiled and quickly wrapped his hand around hers right after he pressed that one last button, the one that would take them out of sixteenth-century London, and in the blink of an eye, inside a flash of blinding white light, they were gone.

As soon as he felt solid ground under his feet, the Doctor didn't really need to open his eyes to know they were exactly where he had intended them to be. It smelled of fruits and flowers and wet grass, and the fresh air was filled with the sounds of the water tumbling down and splashing on rocks and of a myriad of birds that were chirping and singing.

"Open your eyes, Rose," the Doctor told her.

She did, and curious as the Doctor had expected her to be about their destination, she surprisingly gave him and only him her first glance. He noticed it was a sad one, and he knew he was to blame for that. Soon enough, however, her eyes seemed to recover the spark he had so often seen in them, the spark that made them different to anyone else's eyes, and he secretly thanked the universe for that. This was still his Rose Tyler, and nothing would ever make her sad for too long.

Just because of that, he could have kissed her, but he knew that, deep down inside, Rose was trying to come to terms with the fact that somewhere in time she had broken his heart, so he didn't.

Indeed Rose wasn't feeling so sad any longer. How on earth could she? The way he had said those words, the way he was looking and smiling at her, the way his hands were now resting upon her shoulders…

Oh, she could have kissed him. She wanted to kiss him so badly!

"Take a look around, Rose," he whispered in her ear as he gently turned her around.

The Doctor didn't want to miss a single detail of her reaction to their surroundings, so he took a step forward and stood by her side, from where he would be able to tell which of the wonderful sights in front of her would catch her eye at every moment. First, it was the magnificent and dream-like ivory-white palace at the bottom, then it was the titillating river behind it and the really high palm trees lined along the river banks. After that, she spent a moment gazing at the waterfalls and the bridge that led the way to the palace, and finally at the river, and the plants, the trees, the fruit and the flowers that descended from the domes to the ground.

Of course, she said to herself, taking a deep breath as she thought that so much happiness would kill her.

"Welcome to Ancient Mesopotamia, Rose," he told her.

So he had done it in the end, as he had said he would. She was standing right in front of the Hanging Gardens of Babylon.

Once again, Rose felt the urge to kiss him, and her chest seemed to have decided on its own that it would explode if she didn't, but as the last thing she wanted was to hurt him any further, in the end she resolved that she'd rather did not.