After everything that had happened, Rose desperately wanted to retreat to the galley for a nice hot cuppa, but the Doctor insisted that they visit the infirmary first, and he led her there despite her protests with her hand in his.
"Really, my hand's fine, now, Doctor," Rose reminded him with a gentle roll of her eyes. "I don't need a check-up."
"'Course not," he agreed blithely. "Everything's back to rights, not a thing to worry about. Just ... have a few things I want to check."
Rose shook her head as she squeezed his hand and obediently followed his lead. She should have guessed, really - she had explained the truth to the Doctor, but now it was his turn to analyze the situation and break the whole thing down to its molecular level. She knew that he couldn't resist dissecting a mystery, so she silently resigned herself to becoming his newest puzzle to solve.
He prattled off some nonsense excuse about checking for anomalies as she perched herself on the edge of the examination table and patiently allowed him to scan her, but they both knew that the Doctor was going deeper - searching for a way to explain her strange new body and sudden reappearance.
"So," he went on conversationally, "how long have you been back, then?"
"Hard to say," Rose murmured, humming as she stared thoughtfully at the infirmary ceiling. "You know, I'd forgotten how hard it is to gauge time, bouncing around in this box. But my first day back was the day that I called you. I was trying to look you up online, but the Wi-Fi wasn't working. What's that about, by the way?" she asked, narrowing her eyes on him. "Do people just ... call you, now?"
"It does tend to happen, yeah?" the Doctor replied distractedly. "it's meant to be a private number, though. How'd you get it, anyway?"
"Don't know," Rose replied honestly. "It was just there - written on a post-it on my desk when I woke up. There was a girl in that house, a teenager - she said that some woman in a shop gave it to me. Probably one of those implanted memories that the Bad Wolf was talking about."
The Doctor hummed thoughtfully as he continued to fiddle with the scanners and their readouts, but he didn't offer any further insight as he worked.
"Just one more mystery to solve, eh?" Rose teased lightly.
"They're starting to pile up, aren't they?" the Doctor replied sardonically.
"Oh, come on. You love it," Rose insisted with a playful smile.
The Doctor flashed her a matching, flirtatious grin out of the corner of his eye, but the smile quickly dissipated as he turned to face her fully with a dark, serious expression. "Rose, I need to know that you're ... safe," he insisted quietly. "I need to know that there won't be any adverse reactions to everything that's happened to you."
Rose offered him a reassuring smile as she nodded in agreement. "Go on, then," she encouraged him gently. "Tell us what you've found."
The Doctor frowned as he skimmed over the readouts on the various screens surrounding the infirmary, but Rose knew that he was satisfied to be in his element once more - solving mysteries, decoding anomalies - even though the circumstances weren't necessarily ideal.
"Everything seems to be in order," he mused out loud. "All systems working normally. Everything functioning as it should. Still definitely human, though the DNA has changed slightly and your cells are degenerating at a significantly slower rate ..."
"My DNA's changed?" Rose interrupted him curiously. "What, seriously?"
The Doctor turned to cock an eyebrow at her in a sarcastic expression as he muttered, "Well, you can't exactly go and get a brand new face without a couple of changes on the genetic level, now, can you?"
The conversation was so ridiculous and their situation was so impossible that Rose couldn't help but laugh out loud as she mused over the many changes that had occurred between the last time that she had actually been with the Doctor and now. Would they ever be able to fully understand the complex intricacies of time that had led them both to his point?
The Doctor smiled seemingly despite himself as he watched Rose's mirthful expression. She was still seated on the examination table, so for once, she was of a similar height to him and it was easy to meet his eye. "I think you're enjoying this a little bit too much," he muttered as Rose kicked her legs playfully through the empty space that stood between them.
"Maybe so," she replied, leaning forward and tilting her head teasingly in his direction. "But I think you probably are, too."
The two of them grinned at each other like fools for a few moments and Rose was amazed yet again at how easily they were able to slip back into their flirtatious back-and-forth as though they had never been parted in the first place.
Rose also didn't miss the way that the Doctor's eyes fell and settled on her lips, not even trying to hide the quiet longing in his deep green eyes as his smile softened and grew wistful.
Rose longed very much to grab for his waistcoat and draw his own tantalizing lips closer to hers, but she had seen far too many other women take advantage of the Doctor in that way before (including the one with the wild curls that she had seen in the hallway earlier, Rose still hadn't forgotten about that), and she stubbornly refused to stoop to that level. so instead, she simply continued to smile at him in a flirtatious, encouraging way - silently urging him to be the one to bridge the gap between them and settle all of her lingering doubts once and for all.
The Doctor's gaze rose slowly to meet hers, nervous apprehension settling into steady purpose as he gently raised one hand to her face and ran his thumb delicately against her left cheekbone. After a moment's pause, he took a hesitant step forward and rested his forehead against hers, simply breathing her in and gathering his courage as he reveled in her nearness.
"Never thought I'd see you again," he admitted quietly, his eyes slipping closed as though he were afraid to believe the proof of his own traitorous senses.
"Me, neither," Rose whispered back in agreement, watching his face carefully as he leaned against her. She raised her own hand to his cheek then, tracing his new features with careful, reverent fingers. "Any other faces I missed?" she asked lightly.
The Doctor chuckled through his nose and finally leaned back slightly and opened his eyes once more to look at her. "Nope. Just this one. Had it for a while, now."
"What happened?" Rose asked gently.
"Blimey, there's a question ..." the Doctor sighed wearily, giving her a small, sad smile. "I suppose it all came down to what it usually does - someone was in trouble, so I helped them."
"By sacrificing yourself," Rose finished for him, knowing that she didn't need to phrase the sentence as a question. It was simply what the Doctor did - he always put himself last.
"It all worked out in the end," he replied with an easy shrug, his fingers ghosting along Rose's skin once more as he began to not-so-subtly change the subject. "What about ... the Doctor?" he asked hesitantly. "Your Doctor? You said his heart gave out ..." His gaze dropped to the imitation wedding ring that the Rose had taken to wearing on a borrowed chain around her neck ever since she had gotten it back from the Doctor after Akhaten. It simply felt wrong to wear a ring that wasn't her husbands on her finger.
Rose nodded sadly in response, gently tracing her fingers along the edge of the Doctor's lips as she suddenly felt the thin chain like a weight against her shoulders.
"He had a good life, Rose," the Doctor reminded her simply, running his hand up through her hair and along her scalp.
"How do you know that?" she asked quietly, staring hard at his features and refusing to meet his eyes.
"Because I know him," the Doctor stated matter-of-factly. "Quite well, actually. You might say that I know him better than anyone else in the universe. And if he had a lifetime with you, then it was more than enough."
Rose could feel tears pricking the backs of her eyes and she went against her better judgement and finally took the initiative to bridge the space between them as she wrapped her hand around the Doctor's neck and pulled his lips into her own. She still made sure not to cage him in, though - she had seen what had happened when Clara and the strange blonde woman had kissed him, and she didn't want to risk sending the Doctor flailing awkwardly about while she forced her affection on him.
The Doctor tensed immediately, but Rose was pleased to note that he didn't try to resist her, and even nervously attempted to reciprocate her warm, willing lips after a few moments. Rose hummed encouragingly against his mouth and he hesitantly brought both hands up to frame her face, drawing her in deeper as though he were afraid that she might disappear before his very eyes if he didn't keep both hands on her at all times.
When Rose's tongue briefly grazed against his bottom lip, the Doctor's mind immediately reached for hers on instinct, his overwhelming, aching need crashing over her in waves. Missed you, missed you, don't go, please stay, his thoughts hummed loudly as he fought to gain control of his emotions.
Rose welcomed his thoughts warmly, her own mind opening up to him like a wilted flower receiving its first rain after a long drought. She felt the Doctor's surprise at her ability and willingness to so easily meet his thoughts, but she didn't get a chance to test their connection any further.
As soon as Rose mentally reached for him, there was an electric shock that ran through her entire body and the old mental bond that she had shared with her husband flared gold inside her mind. She gasped as her entire body reeled with the sensation - everything in her feeling as though it were shorting out as she fought to regain her senses.
The Doctor had gone tense before her, his entire body one long line of tension as Rose blinked dazedly at his wide, shocked eyes. "I'm ... I wasn't ... That wasn't ... Oh, no, Doctor, I didn't mean ..." she stuttered helplessly.
"No, no, it's ... fine," the Doctor muttered haltingly, his own voice going high and uneven with his shocked surprise. "I didn't even think ..."
"I really wasn't trying to do anything, I swear ..." Rose insisted desperately. She knew from long conversations with her husband just how sacred these telepathic bonds were, and she knew that the way that her mind had suddenly attempted to force a connection with his was about as rude and forward as a touch telepath could get.
"No, it wasn't your fault, Rose," the Doctor explained with an air of forced calm. "It's probably not something that you can control. It's just ... your bond is trying to reconnect. It's instinctual - a subconscious force. Like ... like two oppositely charged magnets coming together."
At the Doctor's dejected, downward-cast glance, Rose's heart broke all over again for this confusing, difficult situation that they had suddenly found themselves in. She wanted to tell herself that this was all just a mistake and that it was never meant to happen this way, but she had a hunch from all that she had seen from the Bad Wolf that that wasn't necessarily true. From the rare glimpses that she had caught of all of time and space, Rose thought that maybe this - her being reunited with the Doctor again - was always meant to happen in exactly this way, for better or for worse.
"I'm so sorry," Rose muttered quietly. She was sorry for so many things - sorry that her husband had died, sorry that she had been left all alone, sorry that the Doctor had been abandoned while she was off living her happily ever after in a parallel world. Rose shook her head as she hunched her shoulders up around her ears, completely overcome by embarrassment and frustration.
"Rose." Her name on his lips was becoming an increasingly distracting issue - it drew her entire focus to him and made everything else around her instantly fade away.
"Don't be sorry," the Doctor whispered simply, reaching for one of her hands and bringing it to his lips so that he could brush another gentle kiss across her knuckles. The Doctor then covered her hand with both of his, as though attempting to seal the gift of his kiss into her skin forever.
He cautiously let his thoughts trail against hers one last time before he let her go. He showed her glimpses of memories of all of the time that they had been separated - the hardships that he had gone through, the loneliness, the pain and suffering - but over all of it he layered his current sense of wistful satisfaction. The Doctor silently and wordlessly reminded her that they were together again - at last as they should be.
Never apologize for this, he insisted silently, making it quite clear that he had all that he could ever want and more sitting right here in front of him.
Rose sighed as he let go of her hand and his presence slowly retreated from her mind. She hoped that her teary-eyed smile was answer enough to let him know that she felt the exact same way.