Title: Everlasting

Rating: K+

Summery: Rose and the 10th Doctor stop off in London for Christmas just a few months after the regeneration has taken place. Both still adjust to each other has changed, as well as how they've changed themselves. Regeneration was never a straight line, it has ups and downs just as the rest of life does. (10/Rose)

Story Notes: The story will be ending soon. Ice cream makes for wonders between these two.

Authors Note: Thank you all for your kind comments. I am here to say that sadly there will be at the most only two chapters left before this story is at its end. However in this time the Doctor and Rose's relationship will continue to alter due to the regeneration, how? You will just have to see how it plays out. Thank you for your continual support. And to point out that the TARDIS is a character in this story, a rather crucial one as well.

This was certainly not what he had expected to find when he would wake, but it wasn't hated. Not at all, after all how could it? His closest friend was beside him in his time of need, and no matter what the circumstances that was important, at least to him.

He had awoken sometime after he collapsed to find himself in his room on his bed. He had taken the moment as his mind slowly pulled itself from the darkness to consider how he had arrived in the room and his current position. After his mind fought with itself of waking and coming to a conclusion, it finally found a logical answer: Rose. He was able to recall holding, or was it hugging, her before he felt himself falling and all was dark. What he dreamed of in his unconsciousness was unknown, but he knew there was pain.

That train of thought had made itself known and present, then switched tracks to when his mind had received the information that something else was amidst in his room. With some effort he looked down to find her in his arms, sleeping. He had stared for a long moment as it took his brain to register what he had seen. And this led to his current state of mind.

If his damn brain could make the connection between the rest of his body and itself, he probably would be on the floor breathing heavily in surprise. However his stupid mind was taking its time processing what it should do with his limbs, leaving him a sitting or rather lying duck with the young woman in his arms. He wasn't sure how that had happened, and his mind wasn't in a state to ask the TARDIS either. So, he lay there waiting for his brain to decide what to do next.

It decided that nothing was the best course of action.

He scowled slightly, blowing the hair from his eyes in a disgruntled way. Why his mind decided it was best to just lay there with her in his arms was beyond him at the moment, but he wouldn't deny that it wasn't unwanted. He had no interjection of holding her, but the slight dilemma of her being in his bed added that small variable that could affect an outcome.

He thought then on other odd variables that had been sprouting everywhere around him within the past weeks. His regeneration was changed due to his beloved ship, but it wasn't just positive. The spells of unconsciousness were less frequent than normal, and lasted much longer. Never before had it hurt this much, every cell in his body aching, and his mind becoming numb from the pain. Hence why he couldn't move now, his brain decided it was the right course of action to block any movement, it might upset the cells and cause them to shriek at him again. He sighed and scowled again.

She stirred, and if he had control over his body he probably would have frozen at the movement instead of just lying there like a helpless fish. Her grip around his midsection tightened, pulling her closer to him, resting her head on his chest. He looked up at the ceiling, sighing in frustration. There was no telling when his mind decided it would be alright to let his arms and legs move, and until then he had to lie there in his own bed feeling awkward and out of place. As he mused in frustration his mind made another breaking discovery.

His vest was undone and is tie was loosened.

Well. That was certainly not how it was when he had slipped into unconsciousness.

Rose had done it of course; there was no doubt in his mind of it. He remembered pain, and Rose would have done what she could to make him comfortable. The irrational part of his mind jumped to the conclusion of her trying to take advantage of him, while the more analytical part scorned and knew better. Rose wouldn't; though he wondered if it was more of a desire than an irrational part of his brain. He sighed inwardly, now he was starting to muse himself with how his own brain worked, that wouldn't end well as how it rarely ever did.

His eyes traveled down back to the blond in his arms as she stirred again, slowly waking. Besides the fact that he couldn't move, he forced his breathing to stay the same and his hearts to beat normally. Rose would be unaware she had fallen asleep like this, and he did not want her to think he was going to take advantage of her. He watched as she yawned slowly, moving her head into his exposed shirt as her surroundings became known. She paused, and brought her hand up to where her head lay, poking the skin to make sure of it. He grunted in pain, his brain decided that was a good thing to register as well. She poked again, he grunted again. Her hand rose again to poke.

"Don't."

Rose's head nearly snapped up to his voice, her eyes widening as she realized where she was. He gave her a soft smile, trying to communicate that he wasn't uncomfortable with her presence. Her eyes traveled down his body; attempting to make sure it was real before her eyes snapped back up to his. A red tint came to her cheeks as she smiled sheepishly. He returned the smile, or rather with a playful grin. As a natural reflex her eyes rolled and she hit him in the arm. He grunted lightly, wincing.

She frowned. "I'm sorry." she moved quickly to his arm as she spoke, worried she had actually injured him. He would have waved her off if he could move damn brain. Rose noticed his frustration and incapability to move. Her hands grabbed his arms and pulled him up, allowing him to sit up. He smiled in triumph as she let go, but his back lay down, making his head hit the back of the bed. He groaned as she gasped.

"Well that didn't work out right." He muttered, sighing in frustration and looking at her. "Don't go thinking it's your fault now, it isn't. My damn brain just thinks it's a rather good idea to disconnect the feelings to anythin' below my neck."

"Why?"

He frowned, knowing that if he told her she'd instantly worry and fret, but her expression told him that even if he didn't say it she would react that way. He looked up at the ceiling for a moment, organizing his thoughts before looking at her.

"The regeneration." He said simply, his tone low with almost no expression to inform her that she was to listen closely. She moved so she sat beside his head, looking down at him. His eyes moved up to hers before he continued his explanation. "Regeneration can be triggered when the cells of a previous form are dieing. This means that the cells reform and rebuild themselves, and it is a rather nasty and unpleasant experience, but it is better than death I'd say. Since this regeneration was affected because of the Time Vortex, the normal proceeded is tampered with and the cells are trying to figure out how to reform. This makes the spells less frequent, but longer and much more painful." He gave a sigh, closing his eyes as his head gave a pound. Too much thought for the moment; too much information for it to process at the moment. But he forced his eyes open and looked at her. "Don't think it's your fault, Rose Tyler. I won't let you fret over it."

Rose frowned, knowing there was no point in arguing with the Doctor no matter what his condition was. Her hand came down, her fingers toying with his longer hair with lightly and delicately. His eyes moved up, unable to see what she was doing. His expression showed thought as his mind tried to sort it out, but also some comfort. She smiled, letting her hand do as it wished inside his hair. There was no point in really trying to fight anything at the moment.

As she watched his perplexed expression, her mind pondered on his explanation for his illness. The Time Vortex. Everything returned to that moment, the moment when she had thought she saved him, but like always she was the one that needed saving. He had paid the price by giving up a life and in return gaining a new one, but it appeared to be filled with nothing but mental and physical torment. A frown found its way on her lips, doubting she was so important and worth so much pain. After all, he used to say that she was just a stupid little ape…but that was before. He was really a different person but at the same time, he was still him. It confused her.

"But, you know." His voice broke into her thoughts and she looked up at him. "This could be some lovely time for ice cream."

"Ice cream?" she asked in disbelief.

"Well what else would you eat in bed when you're sick?" he asked, looking up at her with a grin. Her eyes widened, her mouth opened to speak but shut as no coherent thoughts came to mind. He smiled again and forced his brain to move his arms so he could sit up instead of his head being elevated. Rose's arms went to help him, sit him up and he nodded in appreciation. What happened next he wouldn't have expected, and that was Rose Tyler sitting beside him against the headboard, laying her head on his shoulder and taking his hand in hers.

Today was full of surprises.

"So then, what kind of ice cream would you like Doctor?" she asked, looking up at him. He blinked and let out a breath of air to move the hair from his eyes as his eyebrows came together in thought. She smiled, laughing a little as she rested her head against his open jacket.

He mused lightly. "I dunno, how about we just go and see what we have?" he paused as she looked up at him, her eyes a little wider and her mouth a opened slightly. "What is it?"

"Your voice." She said softly.

"What about it?"

"It's…different."

His nodded in understanding, licking his dry lips in attempt to try and explain to her before turning back to her. "That's also part of the process, normally. Why you don't like it?"

"Just not used to hearing my Doctor speak in a Scottish tone is all." She smiled lightly, trying to joke about it. The Doctor nodded in understanding, putting his hand on the back of her head and ruffling her hair. She hit his arm and he winced. Rose lifted herself gracefully off the bed and stood up.

"Well then I'll just go and see what kind of ice cream the Doctor keeps in his fridge." She leaned over and ruffled his hair, turning and leaving with an extra bounce in her step.

He sat there perplexed over her actions, but the phrase 'My Doctor'. He recalled she had said it once, when she was possessed by the Time Vortex. She had explained why she did such a dangerous thing, to save her Doctor. Part of him worried slightly at the repeat of previous companions that had fallen for him, but this was different the other half of his mind argued. Rose wasn't like any other companion he had, although she shared similar traits. He closed his eyes, sighing lightly to himself.

The bed dipped. He opened his eyes to find Rose sitting by his side again, holding a bowl of chocolate ice cream with one spoon. The small amount of logic in his mind related to the fact that Rose had only brought one spoon and that he couldn't move well, but the rest of his mind decided that it was nice to wonder on the fact of Rose and chocolate. The logic sparked into his mind of why he was bothering on dwelling about chocolate and Rose, but the logic died out as he tried to say something and wasn't able to.

"I'm going to have to feed it to you aren't I?" she asked.

"Well, uhm, you don't have to…if you don't want to that is." He said with the feeling of nervousness peaking into his voice. Rose looked at him with a small smile, dipping the silver spoon into the slowly melting ice cream and scooping a small bit onto the spoon. She lifted it up to him where he stared at it and her for a moment, dumbfounded, before his brain registered that he was to eat what was on the spoon.

"I used to do this a lot with Mum and Mickey when they'd get sick." She explained, pulling the spoon out of his mouth slowly and dipping it back into the ice cream, scooping some up for herself. "'Course it wasn't with ice cream, but with soup. Whatever does the trick I suppose." She scooped another spoonful up and offered it to him. The Doctor took another moment to register the action, but was able to retrieve the melting substance before Rose could pull the spoon away. "This chocolate tastes different." She mused.

"Made it myself." The Doctor explained, licking the extra ice cream off the corner of his mouth while she busied herself with the next spoonful. "Just a bit of new ingredients to make it taste different. Bit sweeter is all." She looked up at him through the corner of her eyes, nodding as she brought the spoon out of her mouth.

Rose shifted, so she was sitting beside him cross legged and not with her back against the headboard. The Doctor was going to ask why, but he found that the spoon was once again in his mouth. Rose smiled to herself as he blinked before taking the ice cream into his mouth and keeping it shut. He seemed to be struggling with himself or something that was running through his head. She went to scoop more ice cream onto her spoon but his hand came up, his fingers wrapping around hers. Her eyes went up, seeing that he had leaned in close to her, his eyes were tense.

"What?" she managed to ask.

"You have ice cream on your mouth." He said. Rose noticed his voice was soft but he sounded distant, like his mind was elsewhere than at the present moment. She nodded and set the bowl on the table beside her, raising her arm to wipe the melted cream off with her sleeve. His hand caught her arm before it reached its destination, guiding her close to him. Rose complied, not exactly sure of what he had in mind but trusted him fully. But when his lips met hers, she froze in surprise.

He kissed her softly, however making his presence known. The chocolate taste came to his mouth and he proceeded to break away, but Rose's lips pressed against his, making her presence known to him. Some tiny little part of his mind decided that it would blow logic out the window and drove him to tilt his head down, deepening the kiss. She didn't pull away but tilted her head the opposite way, slowly slipping herself over him. His head tilted backwards, drawing her closer, snaking his arms slowly around her.

The Doctor didn't remember the ice cream being that sweet.

They slowly pulled away from each other, but kept close enough for their noses to touch. Something else in his mind snapped, deciding that it was a good time to realize what had happened. He opened his mouth to say something, anything to explain his uncalled for actions. A finger came up and placed itself against his lips, pressing slightly. His eyebrows drew together in confusion as she slipped backwards, smiling.

"I think that's enough ice cream for now, Doctor." She stood, taking the bowl. "You should sleep some more, we still have a party to go to." With that she turned on her heal and left the room.