The Doctor and Rose never did end up having any sort of formal wedding ceremony (despite Jackie's many protests) - it simply wasn't something that either of them cared much about The Doctor did, however (under threat of incurring Jackie's wrath), make sure to center their next few adventures around planet Earth (plus or minus a few years from the present, depending on the TARDIS's fickle whims).

However, instead of getting front-row seats to the thirtieth Olympiad, as he had planned, they ended up with a bunch of missing children posters and a neighborhood filled with terrified people, where the Doctor suddenly found himself in the unique and dangerous position of both fearing the young, ominous Chloe Webber, and fearing for her.

The sheer, empty loneliness in the young girl's mind cut the Doctor deep and nearly stopped his breath as he gently sorted through the surface of her memories and quickly routed out the truth of what was going on. He watched with broken hearts as the Isolus within Chloe used her to draw its family in bright, vivid red for all to see. He could empathize with the creature's deep sense of loss - the Isolus had lost millions of brothers and sisters, while he, himself, had lost billions. He could only hope that perhaps he would be able to do better for the small, fledgling alien than he had for his own people ...

Much later - after the Doctor had been forced to spend an inordinate amount of time trapped in the strange, imagination realm of a child, only to be pulled back into reality by his brilliant, beautiful bondmate a few hours later - the Doctor happily rejoiced for all of the lost things that had been found. Chloe Webber was back to a normal life with her mum, the Isolus had been reunited with its brothers and sisters, and he, himself, had Rose's mind solidly linked with his own once more, filling all of the empty spaces between his thoughts with love and peace and devotion.

The night was soured, however, by the twisting timelines that the Doctor couldn't seem to blink out of his eyes no matter how hard he tried. Even Rose's ever-present, confident optimism wasn't enough to ease his fears - not this time.

"Doctor, what did you mean by 'there's a storm approaching'?" she asked tentatively as they walked hand-in-hand back to the TARDIS under the colorful lights of the fireworks.

The Doctor sighed as he opened to door to his ship for her and fought to put all that he could see in the timelines into words. When he finally gave up on the endeavor, he settled for sending her an isolated mental snapshot of the great turmoil that he could sense up ahead (though he pointedly decided to leave out the great gap in their own timelines that seemed to loom just before them - he wasn't ready to admit that even to himself).

Rose's brow furrowed as she pondered over the image that he had revealed to her. The Doctor could sense her confused awe as she fought to make sense of the glowing gold threads of time. "Is this what you see all the time?" she finally asked, flashing him a weighted look out of the corner of her eye as he moved forward towards the familiar comfort of the TARDIS controls.

The Doctor shrugged noncommittally and murmured, "More or less, yeah."

"How do you even make sense of it all?" Rose sighed, shaking her head as she moved up to stand at his side. "There's just ... so much there."

The Doctor breathed a small huff of laughter as he shook his head at her in response. If he were still trying to push her away and keep her at arm's length, he might have casually reminded her of his "superior biology" or poked fun at her own species' lack of evolution, but they were both well past that - so instead he filled her mind with a wave of gentle affection and let her knew that he would never get tired of the way that she so easily asked questions and looked at the universe with such a sense of awe and wonder.

However, Rose didn't smile up at him or telepathically answer his mental touch the way that he was expecting her to. Instead, she simply stared down hard at the TARDIS controls and began to reach out and timidly test the bond between them.

"Rose?" the Doctor asked softly, his own brows drawing together as he watched her curiously.

"Doctor, have you ... have you been married before?" she finally asked, her gaze meeting his hesitantly, as though she had to force herself to do it.

The Doctor immediately felt everything inside of him tense the way that it usually did when he was going up against some sort of dangerous alien threat. His first instinct, of course, was to fall back into their old patterns of skirting around the truth and lie to her, but he knew that it was pointless to keep secrets from Rose - not anymore - and it would likely only hurt her even more.

So when he finally settled on the truth, the Doctor attempted to keep it as simple and factual as possible - just like his first marriage had been.

"Yes," he replied tersely as he met her gaze with steely resolve, "back on Gallifrey. It wasn't my choice, but marriages there rarely are. It was political in nature, nothing more than a title, really."

Rose nodded understanding and lowered her eyes, not quite managing to hide her insecure doubts from him in time before they snuck through across the bond.

The Doctor smiled down sadly at his perfect, amazing human girl who never really was very good at judging her own worth. Without hesitation, he pulled her closer with one arm wrapped loosely around her waist as he leaned down and pressed a gentle kiss to her right temple.

None of that matters, though, Rose, he insisted silently as he buried his nose in her hair and revealed to her the well of love that he carried within him - all o fit exclusively and rightfully hers. This is what true marriage is, he reminded her, gently caressing the bond between them. And I've never shared this with anyone else (And never will, his own traitorous hearts added as an afterthought).

Rose sighed as she turned slightly into him, but she only brought one hand up to finger the lapels of his jacket instead of throwing both arms around him the way that he had wanted her to.

What about your kids? she asked silently.

Gone. With everyone else, the Doctor replied ruefully, his old hurt quietly aching like a big lump of scar tissue within his mind.

Rose did hug him, then - her arms finally winding up around his shoulders as she pressed hard kisses against his jaw and neck. Her own thoughts ached to know the depth and pain of his loss and his precious, amazing human girl wished desperately that she could somehow put it all back to rights for him again.

You're all that I need now, Rose, he insisted gratefully as he wrapped his own arms tightly around her middle and allowed himself the satisfaction of sinking deep into his bondmate's mind. And you're more than enough, he added as her thoughts turned towards insecurity once more and she began to doubt her own ability to fill such a giant, gaping wound.

"I'm not letting you go," Rose insisted quietly, her voice coming out muffled against his shoulder as she squeezed her arms tightly around him. "Whatever it was that you saw in those timelines, it doesn't matter. Nothing is going to tear us apart." I won't let it, she thought stubbornly.

The Doctor breathed out a small sigh as he buried his nose in her neck and silently begged, just this once, to be proven wrong.