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)

Authors Note: Our final chapter, sadly! This was such an awesome story to write, I'm so glad you all enjoyed reading it. This final part takes place at what I think would be the end of The Christmas Invasion. Once again this chapter and whole story have been based off what I've read in interviews about the new season and Ten, along with the pictures that have been released onto the web from fans and officially. With this sad, enjoy! I might do another story with this Ten, but I'll let you decide that.

He seemed to be able to do everything. He was gentle but still mad, but more analytical and much more flirtatious. He still could save the world in some witty unexplained way, but he could also make sweet foods. In the end she kept coming to the same conclusion as they ran hand in hand from the explosions behind them: he was the same with a twist. Somehow she felt deep inside that no matter the incarnation he took, she'd always stay beside him as long as she could.

He grabbed her by the arms and pulled her close as the police drove by towards the fire, fire trucks and other vehicles following. They held on to each other breathing hard, watching as many flocked to and from the fire. No one would suspect it was them, but rather they were two partiers that got caught near the unexplained fire. No doubt they would try and link it to the unexplained fire of Rose's old shop. Suddenly Rose remembered.

It was Christmas Eve.

The two had been so wrapped up in trying to find the Sycorax, and save the world the date had slipped their minds. They were supposed to be at the party, but when they had found the alien technology readings through the TARDIS they blew into action. It was her first adventure with the new him, the tenth him, and it was all so much like his previous self. Except this one liked to taunt more, to play games, and was more devious when it came to enemies. Playful was the way to describe it.

Rose was able to catch her breath. She looked up at him, seeing that his eyes were still on the explosion. However he felt her looking at him and looked back down at her, giving a smirk of triumph. She rolled her eyes at him, and hit him in the arm. He winced and scowled playfully, taking her hand in his. The two walked down the street like the things behind them weren't happening at all.

"Well that was fun." She breathed.

"If you enjoyed that I know exactly where to take you next." He smiled at her. She noticed now that he always spoke in his new acquired Scottish accent, whereas before he would switch between that and a British one. Despite her musing she looked up at him with a question in her eyes. "Nineteen seventeen Russia, Christmas time of course." Her head titled. "Height of the Russian Revolution. They had wonderful parties back then, much more than anythin' you see here."

"You want to take me to the bloodiest time of Russian history?" she gaped.

"Actually the bloodiest time of Russian history was when Stalin was in power, Rose." He looked at her seriously, his jaw clenched tightly. "And even if you begged me to, I'd never take you to that point in time." He looked forward for a moment, gathered his emotions then turned back to her with a smile. "I would have just wanted to see you in one of those large ball gowns they wore!"

Rose scoffed. "Well then you might as well take me to some other time." She eyed him as his eyebrows perked up.

A thoughtful look played on his face as they walked through the snow. "Well there is October fourteen sixty nine where a young woman by the name of Isabel becomes Queen of Spain, and then later sends the famous Christopher Columbus off to explore the new world," she shook her head. "Well, fifteen fifty eight was when another woman became queen, Elizabeth." She shook her head again and he sighed.

"Why are you choosing these ladies?" she dared to ask. He smiled softly at her, stopping and pulling her around to face him.

"They remind me of you, in good ways." He explained as she tilted her head. "You, Rose Tyler, are a very intelligent and fantastic woman just as those ladies where in their days. You have a sense of rule and power when you walk, a stride full of knowledge. You also look very royal," he paused. "To me at least anyways." Rose smiled at how embarrassed he was becoming. "In the end I think that you would make fine friends with any of them."

"Queen Victoria."

"What?" he asked, taken off by the sudden interjection.

"I want to meet Queen Victoria." She smiled. He stared at her for a moment, before grinning and nodding. The two took hands again and began to walk down the street. "You know, it is Christmas Eve."

"That it is." The Doctor agreed and smiled at her. "We out to get you back to the TARDIS then, yeh? You shouldn't keep Father Christmas waiting."

She laughed. "Doctor, I think I'm a bit too old for Santa Clause." He looked at her as if she had said the most horrific thing in all of history. "I mean, I stopped believing in him when I was about nine. I can understand that Mum did it as all the parents do, but…"

"That wasn't your mum, Rose." The Doctor replied softly as they stopped outside the TARDIS. "What makes you think that good ol' Saint Nicholas isn't a real breathing person?"

"Oh no don't start that, next thing you'll be telling me is that he is an alien." Rose waved the conversation off. However she forgot that no matter what incarnation, her Doctor was stubborn.

"Nope, not an alien at all." He agreed. Rose's eyes snapped back up to his as he smiled. "Kris Kringle is from Earth. Course, how he has been alive so long baffles me as well, but my guess is that it has to do with innocence."

"Innocence, Doctor?"

"Aye." He nodded and pulled her close. "You see Rose, as long as something in the world remains innocent than there is an infinite amount of possibilities of what can and cannot exist. Candy land? Completely possible the minds of a child. Noel Father? Well you don't have to be a child to believe in him. Many adults around the world believe in him."

"Why?" she asked, leaning against him slightly as she shivered. "I mean you know from the time you stop being a child that he isn't real, just your parents doing something to make the holiday special."

"Well that varies person to person." He explained softly. "Most tend to believe that he is the embodiment of the Christmas spirit. Others think he is just tied up into the commercial world of the holiday that if you don't keep him, the holiday isn't the same. Some really believe there is a plump jolly man that comes down your chimney and gives the naughty coal and the good what they've asked for all year." He licked his lips to moisten them in the cold, glancing up before looking back down at her.

"All in all, Rose Tyler." He continued. "I would say it is faith. If you stay a child in heart then you can believe in anything. It is possible to be an adult and still believe in things like the Easter Bunny and Sinterklass. It all depends on if you want to grow up or not." He smiled and looked around London, gesturing to it for her. "I personally think that London, no the world, could use a bit more of innocence and believing in what the world things childish. After all what good is any civilization or race without innocents and the wonder of the child imagination?"

Rose was left speechless just as countless other times when he would explain the same thing she had heard all her life but from a different view. He had such a different view on things, one so foreign, but it made so much sense. She watched as he continued to look around the London view, a smile on his lips. She wondered if all Time Lords had been this way, or if it was just his charm that he kept from the regeneration. The small question popped into her mind, why don't you believe in Christmas anymore?

She thought. After her mother had explained to her, as a little child, how her father died the world seemed to stop. Everything she knew as a child, the bliss innocence, the idea that nothing in the world was horrible except when you scrapped your knee, the idea that trees grew chocolate apples, it all shattered in that moment. When that happened she had decided everything prior that was told to her was a lie and didn't exist. The world was cruel and harsh and no one cared about the little ones.

All she could think of was that girl that her father was with, and how lucky she was, and how jealous she had become. To find out then that the girl was actually herself made her feel childish, a feeling she hadn't experienced in years. Rose had grown up all far too young. Maybe that was why she was so attracted to the Doctor. He seemed to flick that small spark in her that allowed her to feel like a child, to believe in aliens and other worlds. He took her time to time and world to world, showing her that everything you could believe in did exist. That you could be a child at heart even if you were an adult. Rose stirred and looked up at him, biting her lip in attempt not to cry.

"Doctor," she said softly.

"Rose, look!" he turned to her and pointed up. Rose tilted her head up to where he gestured, her arms wrapping around his free arm.

A shaded figure stood on the roof of a building across the street. It stopped and turned to the two time travelers on the ground below looking up at him. It raised its hand and waved where the Doctor returned the motion as a giddy school boy. Rose stared in wonder as the figure turned from them and disappeared from view. Within a few minutes it returned and sat down in something, A crack was heard and a sleigh from atop the roof flew into the sky, the faint echo of bells reached the twos ears. Rose felt her jaw drop slightly as the shaded sleigh continued away into the night.

The Doctor turned his attention back to Rose with a smile on his face. He leaned closer against her side as they watched the sleigh continue on, a small airless laugh came from his companion. He looked down at her, smiling as she slowly looked up at him. A slight tingle came up his spine at the happiness of showing her something for the first time. It was the first time, for him, the tenth version of himself, to show Rose Tyler something extraordinary and wonderful. What would have been better than that?

"Doctor…was…"

"Aye." He smiled and glanced up at the sky. "See Rose? You don't have to be a child to believe." She was speechless, amazed and out right dumbfounded. He chuckled and kissed the top of her head, wrapping his arm around her shoulders as they watched the skyline. The slight thought flickered in her mind that the last time she stared at the skyline of London was when it was being bombed by the Germans.

"Doctor." She spoke again and his gaze returned to hers. Rose attempted to grasp the thoughts whirling through her head, but she finally looked back up at him and smiled softly. "Thanks…for, everything."

He gave her an odd look. "What's that all about? Talking like you aren't going to see anything more? Rose Tyler that was just the beginning, you have much more to see." He smiled. "Besides I owe you a visit to Queen Victoria, don't I?" his arm slipped off her shoulders and took her hand, entwining his fingers into hers.

"No, I didn't mean it like that!" she attempted to defend herself. "Just, I needed to say it."

He tilted his head. "What for, if I can ask."

Rose looked back up to the sky but found no trace of the sleigh. "When mum told me about dad….I stopped believing in a lot of things. I thought the world was cruel and didn't care about how I would feel, so I stopped believing. I guess I grew up before my time, but after being told that I didn't see any other way," she looked up at him to see him watching her intently, silently urging her to continue. "Then, when I met you….just, I don't know, I started to believe in things again." She offered a brave smile. "You showed me that I could believe in anything and still be me."

The Doctor was quiet for a long moment, taking everything she said into consideration and letting the words imprinting themselves into their personal timeline. But he found that he was speechless, he hadn't expected nor thought of Rose ever saying such a thing to him. Maybe to his previous incarnation, but not to the new him. All he could muster was a smile and a nod, kissing the top of her head again. He led her to their police box, thinking about the time just a few weeks ago where the burden of time came crashing onto them. He smiled to himself as the thought that maybe they were everlasting. His kind lived on through stories and legends, maybe he and this London shop girl would as well.

Rose took a small step into the TARDIS after her had unlocked it, but poked her head out, standing on her toes to lean up and kiss him on the cheek. The Doctor blinked, his eyebrows raising and frowning together as they always did when he was perplexed by a motion she made. She smiled and pointed up to the doorway of the TARDIS. His eyes followed but there was nothing there.

"I'm surprised," she mused. "That Mickey didn't try and tape mistletoe there. He was always trying to when we were younger.

Ah, yes, mistletoe. He smiled to himself and entered the TARDIS after her, closing the door and walking up the ramp to the console. The thought had crossed his mind that the TARDIS wouldn't be happy with mistletoe hanging from her, after all she hated the cold and most likely anything to do with it. He flipped switches, turned knobs and spun wheels to their next destination. The TARDIS hummed in response, happy to be on her feet and doing what she was made to do.

The Doctor looked over his shoulder as Rose came beside him, looking at the controls. Her eyes met him and she smiled, leaning forward and met his lips with hers. He turned slightly and returned the soft gesture. Rose broke the kiss and smiled up at him as he smiled back. Her hand ruffled his hair, his eyes rolling at the gesture.

"Merry Christmas, Doctor." She said softly.

"Merry Christmas, Rose Tyler."

Rose turned on her heal and strode to the hallway that lead to the kitchen, but she turned on her heal to look at him. "Should I get the hot chocolate and marshmallows?"

He hummed to himself, thinking before nodding. "Bring the new batch of whip cream as well. I think we added a bit too much sugar to it." Rose smiled and bounded off to the kitchen. He leaned against the console, smiling to himself before he pushed himself back into his favorite chair, putting his feet up on the console. The TARDIS creaked as a form of complaint as the snow fell off his worn sneakers onto the console. He shook his head and gave a small laugh.

"Course, how could I have forgotten?" he chuckled. "Merry Christmas to you as well, old girl."