Things became so ridiculously simple after that that the Doctor really began to wonder why he had spent the last year-and-a-half fighting so hard to run away from the inevitable. Having another being in his head after so long of having nothing but the lonely melody of the TARDIS to accompany his thoughts was strange but exhilarating all the same.

His bond with Rose was still not what it would have been if she were a Gallifreyan, but it was far stronger than it had any right to be, considering the fact that they were two different species. The Doctor quietly suspected the Bad Wolf to be the culprit behind Rose's anomalous telepathic abilities, but he stubbornly refused to dig deeper into that particular hypothesis.

It certainly helped that Rose took to it all surprisingly well, too - she followed his lead in many ways, but she also wasn't afraid to experiment and try her own things. Her favorite trick that she liked to use so far was to wait until he was least expecting it and then randomly blast him with little waves of affection that would make his thoughts turn fuzzy and his knees go weak. However, his personal favorite use of the bond was when she would almost unconsciously reach out and attempt to smooth out his thoughts whenever they got too unfocused or tangled up over some unresolved issue or another. The Doctor had spent so long trying to puzzle things out on his own that having a second consciousness there to help him - even when she didn't realize that she was going it - was a type of comfort that he hadn't even known that he had wanted or needed.

Everything that the Doctor had ever done since he had brought Rose Tyler onboard the TARDIS had been centered specifically around her, but the Doctor found himself planning their next destination with even more specificity than usual. He chose 1950s New York just so that the two of them would have a chance to dress up (something that this new incarnation absolutely adored doing, even if he wouldn't admit it), and he even combed through the old, seldom-used TARDIS garage to find a scooter just so that he would be able to feel her sitting pressed up close to him as they zoomed through the busy city streets.

The TARDIS, however, ended up getting ideas of her own and landed them in a different continent and a few years late - but the rest of the Doctor's plan went off generally without a hitch. He flashed Rose a pleased, comfortable sensation as she slid effortlessly onto the scooter behind him and she squeezed him tightly around the middle as she echoed the thought back almost perfectly.

The simple reassurance of having here there - just right on the edge of his consciousness at all times - was so satisfying that it hurt even more when that new sensation was suddenly ripped away from him. The Doctor knew even before the detective inspector removed the blanket that they had covered her in who the face-eating monster had claimed next, but having to see Rose's face - her perfect, beautiful features, her expressive, tawny-colored eyes, her gorgeous, dazzling smile - erased completely filled him with a dangerous, feral sort of resolve that he hadn't felt since the Time War.

The Doctor didn't pause for even a single moment in his fight against The Wire until he finally rounded the corner to see her standing in the crowd of rescued people at the edge of the yard where they had been kept. She had her back to him as the Doctor reached out and hesitantly searched his silent bond for the mind that he had been missing all day.

Rose turned the instant that she felt his awareness on the edge of her consciousness and immediately locked eyes with him. They didn't have to speak a word as the bond between them blossomed back to life and they both fueled it with their combined sense of overwhelming relief and satisfaction.

Thought I'd lost you, he told her as he wrapped her up in a hug and swung her in a circle so that he could feel her entire length and weight leaning against him like a grounding anchor.

Never gonna happen, she assured him as she chuckled breathlessly into his ear and pressed a quick kiss to his cheek. And the fierce tenacity behind that thought made him almost - almost - believe her. After all, if anyone in the universe had the strength to defy even death itself, then it was certainly Rose Tyler.

By unspoken agreement the two of them met in the library that night after they had returned the TARDIS to the vortex for a rest. The Doctor had spent almost an entire day without Rose's presence in his mind, and even though the connection was still so new to both of them, he had felt completely and utterly lost without it. He was desperate to be alone with her and to reassure himself that she was alive and well and still totally, undeniably his.

The Doctor wasted no time in wrapping her up in his arms and settling them both on the comfortable library couch where he could immerse himself completely in the proximity of her presence. He had one arm wrapped tight around her middle and the other buried in her hair while her head rested against his shoulder. Rose had changed out of her period skirt and into more comfortable sleepwear and was currently laying half on top of him and drawing her fingers over his chest in swirling, nonsense patterns.

"Are you alright, Doctor?" she asked, her voice breaking the tense silence that had fallen over them.

The Doctor hummed thoughtfully as he pressed a series of light kisses to the crown of her head. "More worried about you," he mumbled into her hair as he carefully felt out their renewed bond for the twelfth time in as many minutes.

"I'm fine," Rose assured him, using both her words and her thoughts to prove her sentiment. "I don't really remember much of it, really. One minute I was at Magpie's, then there was a light, and then I came to back in that yard."

The Doctor shifted his hand from her hair to her neck and urged her silently with his fingertips to look up and meet his eye. When she easily complied, he took a moment to simply look at her - his precious, perfect human girl. His hearts swelled with all of his love for her, the sensation overflowing and spilling into her mind in a way that he couldn't have stopped even if he had wanted to.

He pressed his lips solidly to hers, as though he could somehow sear his love and devotion into her warm, human skin. Don't ever leave me, Rose, he begged her silently. Never again. It was unbearable, having you ripped away like that. I don't know if I could survive without you.

He flashed her the barest glimpse of the burning, aching loss that he had felt when their connection had been momentarily severed - just the slightest look into the living hell that he had been forced to endure for the day - but it was enough to make Rose grasp at him with renewed strength, more eager than ever to somehow prove to him that she wasn't going anywhere - not now, or ever again.

I'm right here, Doctor, she assured him resolutely. Forever.

And the Doctor didn't care that forever was an impossible promise for her to keep - it was one that he could and would keep for her, through this life or any other.