Better Late…
Normal Disclaimers Apply. Don't sue. No price can be put on real beauty.
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She was beautiful. Radiant. In all his long and varied life he had never seen anything so utterly awe-inspiring as what he saw now. Rose Tyler, nineteen year old shop girl, eyes glowing with the fires of the space-time vortex. As he looked at her time ebbed and flowed around them, worlds blossoming and crumbling before her eyes. At that moment she was the most powerful being in the universe. She was the universe. In that instant she was glorious and beautiful and powerful and nothing, nothing, could ever compare to her as she stood there, changing destiny.
She was dying.
He knew it surer than he knew himself and it tore his hearts apart to see it. He had failed. He had sworn to protect her but in truth her had killed her. She had made the ultimate sacrifice to save mankind, to save the universe, to save him.
He knew he loved her then. He had always loved her. Yet he had admitted it himself. He was a coward. Every time.
He should have told her before, should have drawn her to him, held her close and never let her go as he whispered words of love and life to her, promising to keep her safe.
But now it was too late. He could not tell her. She was dying before his eyes and still he could not tell her that he loved her. He tried to say it but his voice stuck in his throat. He could not, must not, it would be a betrayal of everything they had…but without her there was nothing. A great hollow emptiness that not even Gallifrey could fill…and darkness, so much darkness.
He might not be able to tell her, but he could bloody well show her. She had made the sacrifice for him, now it was his turn.
He rose to his feet, smiling at his own demise as he took her hand and, illuminated by the glory of time itself, kissed her.
It spanned all of eternity.
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'Everything must come to dust…All things…'
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This contemn'd of a man,
This marr'd one heedless day,
This heart take thou to scan
Both within and without:
Refine with fire its gold,
Purge Thou its dross away—
Yea, hold it in Thy hold,
Whence none can pluck it out.
I take my heart in my hand—
I shall not die, but live—
Before Thy face I stand;
I, for Thou callest such:
All that I have I bring,
All that I am I give,
Smile Thou and I shall sing,
But shall not question much.
-Twice, by Christina Rossetti