Disclaimer – Not mine (I wish). Though my brother says he's doing work experience at BBC Wales… :D

F/O: Hello! -waves- Nice to see you all again, and thank you for the wonderful reception! This chapter is especially (more so than usual :D ) dedicated to my reviewers, who I adore. If I could meet you in person, I would come bearing double chocolate chip cookies (or if you're on lent, some form of tasty fruity substitute). Especially especially Laseri, whose comment made me grin all day despite double Maths and double Latin. And LilCosette. And all you guys!

Continuing swiftly on then… (beware, nice fluffiness ahead. You are warned.)

Chapter 13

"Doctor!" Rose yelled, squinting through the pouring rain. Her hair was plastered to her head, her clothes were soaked, and rainwater was trickling down her neck. Blinking furiously to try to get the water out of her eyes, she turned, trying desperately to see him. The soft ground underneath her feet was slick and muddy, and the wind whipped around her, cooling the water on her skin. She shivered unconsciously, and raised a hand to her eyes, trying to shelter them from the elements.

"Doctor!"

Her yell seemed to stop several metres away from her, deadened by the rain and trees, and thrown back at her by the wind. Rose suddenly spotted half-filled in tracks leading away from her, and, stumbling, followed them as fast as she could. He could be anywhere - doing anything. Out here, anything could happen to him, and all she could think of was their argument.

There was still no sign of him. She halted and sighed, rubbing her arms, and she suddenly noticed she was shivering. Rose pushed all thought out of her mind except following the Doctor. For some reason, she just needed to be with him right now. And nothing could get in her way.

Suddenly, her mind seemed to calm, and her eyes fluttered shut. The only sound was her breathing, and the oddly comforting sound of her two hearts beating beneath her chest. There was a sense of enormous space, like time itself was stretching out in front of her. She felt more alone, but at peace than she had ever felt in her life.

But wait, she wasn't alone. Something else was here, in this place that fairly rang with the echoes of long lost minds. Rose reached out for it, opened her eyes, and followed its signal, her feet pounding the ground with new energy.

Water trickled down the already-wet leather in a constant stream, dripping onto the shoulders of the old jacket from his ears. Droplets circled the cuffs at his sides, dropping to the ground or sliding along the rest of the jacket to soak into his trousers. Already, the downpour was soaking through the cracked hide, through his thin jumper and onto his skin, but he didn't feel the cold. He didn't feel anything. Besides, Gallifreyans were hardier when faced with extremes of hot and cold. He didn't even feel the heavy raindrops falling onto his head and soaking into his short hair, sliding over his face like tears.

His eyes were open, blue-green-grey, though you might not have thought it. He was staring, just staring into the lake, and seeming mesmerised by the droplets as they splattered into the shallows. He knew he should be moving, heading to the city to get that damned device as soon as possible, but everything held him back.

Maybe those raindrops weren't just rain….

Salt water dripped over his lips, but still he didn't move. His mind was full of Rose.

Her little grin, the tongue slipping between her teeth, her eyes lighting up; dancing with her, feeling like he was on fire, and cherishing this closeness with her; seeing her face again, alive despite the Daleks' warnings… her white face as she fainted, the pain in her eyes as her headaches worsened and she tried to not throw up, the anger in her eyes as they argued…

He couldn't let her do this.

It was stupid. Beyond stupid. He knew what he'd agreed to – what he'd said, but turning into another species, another race - it wasn't natural. And if he let her do this, she would be like him, and, he ashamedly admitted to himself, she would understand more about him than anyone else, even Romana. He would no longer be the last of the Time Lords. But he would irrevocably split her from her family.

Imagine learning that your perfectly human daughter was suddenly now a member of a nearly immortal race, with telepathic and time abilities, among others. And the first regeneration, he could just imagine her, Rose ordering him to take her back, to see her mum, and how that would tear her apart. How it would tear him apart.

It took him a while to register the footsteps, but when he did, he turned, suddenly on his guard. Rose slowed to a walk, her face framed by wet hair, her thin jacket barely covering her arms.

"You should go back to the TARDIS," he said, feeling strange. The argument had left a gap between them, but he felt so close to her despite that, and had to fight strongly with himself to not run over there and kiss her senseless.

…Wait, where had that thought come from?

"I wanted to find you," she replied, stopping a short distance from him. They stood in silence for a few seconds, not sure what to say, or even if they wanted to break the silence at all. Finally, the Doctor snapped out of it, and noticed for the first time that she was shivering quite violently.

Whipping off his jacket, he strode over to her and flung it around her freezing shoulders, water droplets flying off in the quick movement. He pulled it tightly around her, and she grasped the front, holding it shut, relishing the slight lingering body warmth. He briskly rubbed her arms to try to get the blood circulating faster, his eyes never leaving her face.

"You'll catch cold running around out here," he said softly, a hint of reproach in his voice. She grinned weakly, but her brown eyes were serious.

"I'm sorry for shouting."

"Me too," he replied.

"I still mean what I said," she said carefully, studying his features. "But I didn't mean to hurt you."

"You could never really hurt me," he replied tenderly, taking her cold hands in his and stroking them softly, transferring his warmth into her.

"Doctor…" Rose began, then stopped. She licked her lips nervously, then stood up on her tiptoes and pressed her lips gingerly against his in one swift movement.

Taken by surprise, the Doctor barely had time to register the softness of her lips and the ghostly feeling of her breath against his skin, before she had stepped back, looking lost and small in his overlarge coat.

"Sorry. I- sorry."

For a split second, he remembered a moment in his distant past – being told by his father why inter-species relationships weren't allowed. His father's grey eyes fixed forever in his memory, burning into him…

Then he disregarded it (as he had the laws of obeying the Time Lord council not many years later), and closed the gap between them, wrapping his arms around her shoulders as he reached down to kiss her back.

They stood there, in the rain for a long time after they broke off the kiss, the Doctor sheltering Rose's small figure with his own body, his head resting on her shoulder, listening to each other breathe, and the double heartbeats that were characteristic of Gallifreyans. And the rain fell, but they didn't hear it.