The last chapter! Thanks for all your reviews and for reading it at all! Bit of a change of mood in this chapter from the last one, but it needed to link on to my other story "Sad songs say so much". Lyrics from Coldplay's "The Scientist", one of the most beautiful songs I have ever heard.
The Doctor and Rose danced in the basement for many hours. The CD got stuck on the last song and played repeatedly, but they didn't notice.
"Come up to meet you, tell you I'm sorry, you don't know how lovely you are."
Wrapped in their own thoughts and each others arms, they had probably never been closer together. Or further apart.
"I had to find you, tell you I need you, tell you I set you apart."
The Doctor held her tightly in his arms, hardly daring to believe that she was here, his Rose, so close. Not his Rose, though. She could never be his Rose. It was the impossible dream. He loved her too much to risk it, and she could never know how he felt. This was as close as they could ever come together.
"Tell me your secrets and ask me your questions, oh let's go back to the start."
Rose buried her head in his shoulder, noticing the mothball smell again. He was her Doctor. For now. For now he would hold her tight, tell her everything was alright. For now they could dance.
"Running in circles, coming up tails, heads on a silence apart."
As the song played out, they clung to each other, their rocks in the storm outside. This was just a temporary lapse into pleasure. They both knew that come tomorrow, life would resume and dancing would be the last thing on their mind. And one of them knew that one day, his beautiful Rose would dance with someone else, and he would dance alone again. Because it could never be.
"Nobody said it was easy, oh it's such a shame for us to part. Nobody said it was easy, no one ever said it would be this hard. Oh take me back to the start."