Hello again! Well, let's just say I'm not very good at writing romance, it's not my forte AT ALL, but I finally caved and decided to start it - Rose/Ten kinda explodes in this chapter lol. But in a good way, and the rating hasn't gone up so... Ahem. Again, reviews are like presents, like ice cream, like sunsets, like... you know what I mean. Oh and my hit counter has gone above 1000, even though it got restarted a couple of times when I accidentally deleted Chapters 1 and 2 at the beginning. Thank you very much - it's nice to know you guys are actually reading my humble first efforts. Enjoy!

CHAPTER 9

A few minutes later, the blood was still quietly flowing down and up the tube. If the Tardis could have bit her lip, she could. She could feel the Doctor trapped between life and death, as was Rose. She was slowly managing to pull him from the brink of regeneration, while exhausting her body and mind. So far, she had managed to keep the rest of the Vortex at bay, but the Tardis didn't know how much longer she could keep it up - her strength was being stolen away.

Suddenley, golden dust began to accumulate around the pair, lying side by side. The dust grew until the two were in the middle of a sphere of swirling dust. It was the energy produced when their blood was mixed, the Tardis realised. Those two really were destined to save each other. Then, a blinding golden light began to pour from the dust cloud. The Vortex was escaping! Rose was getting weaker by the seond, and soon she would not be able to keep the Vortex at bay any longer. The light was getting stronger. If this carried on it would kill them both...

It was then that she felt a tug - a strong pull. Theta had been cured by the Wolf, who had burned the toxin out of his system, and completely healed, he was powering back towards life, lending Time Lord strength to Rose through his blood, who was using it to continue her block on the Vortex. The golden light gradually receded and the ball of golden dust dissolved, leaving behind a golden hue as the two travellers both made it, firmly alive but exhausted.

Rose awoke first, st up weakly and looked around her. Seeing the Doctor was breathing, she gazed mystified at the gentle golden glow that surrounded them. She called shakily to the Tardis.

"Wh-what happened? Did we do it?"

The Tardis was ecstatic. "My child, you have saved him! You brought the last Time Lord back from the brink of death! Sleep now - the battle is over."

A wave of relief swept through Rose. She wanted to jump up and down - but she was so... so tired. She leaned over to the Doctor, stroked his hair and kissed him gently on the lips.

"My Doctor..." she murmured, before succumbing to the wave of exhaustion, falling back on her stretcher, too tired to remove the tube, and fell into a blissful slumber.

Satisfied that the plan had worked, better than she could have hoped, the Tardis settled to wait for the two to wake. There was a lot that she needed to explain, and even more that she needed to think about, concerning the future of the universe. After all, Earth was being invaded. Billions of lives were at stake. And to beat them, Theta and Rose were gonna have to work together, and get used to the new power they commanded. Theta, for instance, now held access to the most powerful entity in the universe - Bad Wolf, as well as Rose's memories, thoughts and ideas at the moment of the transfusion. He also held all the memories of the Tardis and the Vortex.

Rose, on the other hand, was gonna have to cope with Time Lord memories, thoughts and physiology, and the memories of the Tardis and Vortex, which had activated upon her using her power as Bad Wolf. The Tardis wan't sure to what extent she had changed, but knew for a fact she wasn't human anymore. She smirked as she felt Rose dreaming about a partial soloution to the Stasis Paradime in her head, while the Doctor subconsciously realised this and solved the other half of the Paradime. Both of them were able to perform the logic the other couldn't. Their minds met and both of them realised the complete soloution at the same time. They both smiled happily, in deep sleep.

The Tardis smiled protectively. Those two were like children to her now, both sharing exactly the same thoughts with her and each other, and able to read each other's minds. Joined in the most intimate of ways, through blood - she didn't see how Rose could leave Theta again. What choice did Theta have but to marry her now? Together they would save the universe, together they were practically invincible...

Her musings were interrupted several hours later by Theta, who woke up, stretched and gasped as the memory of his collapse in the Tardis overwhelmed him. And why, he wondered, did he have a tube in his arm? Wincing in pain, he looked down and saw blood, tinged with gold, mixing with his, which was also golden in colour. Following the tube, he noticed Rose lying beside him, and the gentle golden glow that enveloped both of them. Rose? What was she doing here? Unless... Realising what COULD have happened, he felt faint with excitement and was suprised when the Tardis responded to the thoughts in his head.

"Of course you're alive, Theta."

"You can hear my thoughts now?"

"As clearly as you can hear Rose's."

It was true. He could feel that his connection with her was phenominally strong now, as was his connection with Rose. On a whim, he reached into Rose's subconscious. He knew he shouldn't have, but the temptation was too strong. He could feel her wrapping up the soloution to the Stasis Paradime, the one they had solved together in their sleep, he realised in wonder.

"As you can see, you two can work miracles together even in sleep. Imagine what you can both do awake, now you are joined..."

"JOINED?" He couldn't believe it. A dream he had secretly been keeping in the back of his mind had become reality. He couln't believe there was finally a way to keep Rose with him for eternity.

"But how-" Then he looked at the tube running between their arms.

"Yes, that DOES have something to do with it. Let me explain."

"Rose forgave me then? For leaving her?"

"Rose did more than that, she saved your life."

The Tardis proceeded to explain everything that had transpired - she didn't want the Doctor to invade Rose's mind to find out while she was sleeping. Theta listened in astonishment and wonder, his love for Rose growing by the second.

"So, she made history, saved your life, gave a Time Lord the power of Bad Wolf, joined you two for eternity - everything. 19 years in the universe and she's

fulfilled the prophecy, Theta. Amazing."

"And I couldn't love her more..." he muttered.

The Tardis could hear his thoughts. Poor Theta was desperate to know if Rose loved him back. She couldn't deny him that knowledge.

"Why don't you take a look and find out, Theta."

He reached for Roses's thoughts - they came to him easier than the last time. Reaching her emotional centre, he was astonished at the amount she felt for him. Pain, anger, sorrow, they were all there, but washing over them all was a beautiful manifestation of love. Pure, unrefined love. For him! The lonely time traveller, always running across the universe, doomed to be friendless for eternity. For him! The gratitude he felt was immense. He left Rose's mind and broke down in tears.

"Rose! My Rose... how I love you."

The Tardis, fed up with dealing in human emotion for too long, put an end to his outburst, and briskly ordered him to remove both ends of the tube, if he as strong enough to leave the trolley, and wait for his wound to heal. Time Lords heal quickly, and a few seconds after the tube had been removed, the gaping incision vanished, leaving behind a strangely shaped scar that looked like a fireball, or a ten-pointed star. He was about to go to get some nanogenes for Roses's wound when he took the tube out, but the Tardis told him to wait and watch. After a few seconds, Rose's wound healed too, in Time Lord fashion, leaving behind a scar that looked oddly like a wolf. While the Doctor gaped, the Tardis self-congratulated smugly.

"I have a feeling, Theta, that healing minor injuries isn't the only Time Lord quality Rose has acquired. I sense she is nearing the end of her healing process, and as you are so anxious to talk to her, and I have a lot to explain to her, reach for her and tell her to wake up"
emerge into her head.

"Rose... Rose, wake up... Rose..."

The gentle but insitent nudging soon had Rose awake. She stared around her, clearly confused. When she saw the Doctor, she grinned at him, delighted. The Doctor beamed at her like he had never had before. In a flash he had scooped her up off the trolley and into his arms, kissing the top of her head. Rose was bewildered but perfectly happy with the Doctor's unexpected display of affection.

"Hey, you're alive! It worked!" She was stunned when the Doctor answered her telepathically.

"It certainly did!"

"We can talk... like this now?"

"This... and lots more besides. 234 squared?"

"54756... ah. Oh my GOD this is... fantastic!"

The Doctor smiled. "Glad you think so. There's something you gotta know, Rose. I... erm... wanted to tell you ever since I met you..."

"Yeah?"

"Yeah. The thing is... oh hold on I'll show you..."

The truth exploded like a firework in Rose's mind as she heard the doctor profess undying love for her. His visual imprint was of him standing on a rainy clifftop yelling the words out to sea, and she saw it clearly in her head, their minds merging together. The inside of the Doctor's mind, Rose thought, was breathtakingly beautiful.

"ROSE TYLER" He yelled. "I LOVE YOU! I LOVE YOU NOW, I WILL ALWAYS LOVE YOU TILL THE END OF TIME."

Rose giggled - the Doctor had imagined the "New World Symphony" was playing. As the piece reached it's climax, a golden light shone from above, the rain ceased and the Doctor was bathed in a golden mist. Rose recognised it as Bad Wolf, containing the power of the vortex. The Doctor smiled blissfully as the light shone around him, and Rose knew that was his image of heaven.

She broke the connection there and stared at the Doctor, still locked in his dream. She gave him a mental prod and he opened his eyes suddenley. The look she gave him embarassed him so much that his cheeks turned scarlet and she laughed.

"I - you - wow..."

"You saw it, then?"

She looked at him again. "Yeah, I did. What was thoat?"

"An imprint of... well... how you make me feel, Rose. Uh - you did see it all, right?"

Rose didn't answer - she reached up and pulled his head down, kissing him hard and passionately. She pulled away breathing raggedly, leaving him dazed, his eyes glazed over with adoration.

"I hope that means... you feel the same way? You really do love me?"

"Hopelessly..." she confessed, and hearing it from her own lips, Doctor laughed with happiness and kissed her again.

"Right, the Tardis has a lot of explaining to do, and... so have I."

"OK, but you do know about the alien invasion? We've gotta save Earth!"

"Of course, but what the Tardis is about to tell you, Rose, is more important that that. You have to know everything before you can learn to use Time Lord blood and I can learn to use Bad Wolf. We have to be able to work together to stop a whole army. It's essential that we stay united, I've been told. There's an ancient prophecy, all of that. Come on!"

Puzzled, Rose agreed. "Alright, but after that, then what?"

"We go kick some alien butt!" The Doctor laughed. "And then - we need to talk about us, Rose. I don't care how many evil geniuses try and destroy the planet."

He kissed her again, feeling Rose melt in his arms.

"For you, Rose Tyler, saving the universe can wait."

He pulled her to her feet, and hand in hand, the Wolf and the Doctor walked into the Tardis control room, hand in hand, and happier than either of them thought was possible.

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