A/N: Hope you don't mind 2,000 words of nothing but fluff and kissing ...
"She told me what happened, you know," Rose informed the Doctor quietly. It hadn't taken him long to realize where she was taking him and why, and Rose had then explained to him the silent conversations that she had had with River throughout their time on Trenzalore. "River told me how she died. She's been waiting for you all this time - 'like a book on a shelf', she said. Why didn't you ever visit her?"
The Doctor gritted his teeth in silence for a moment before he finally shook his head and muttered, "Because I thought it would hurt too much."
"Do you have so little faith in her?" Rose asked, narrowing her eyes on him in disbelief.
"No," the Doctor murmured, finally raising his eyes to meet hers, "I thought it would hurt me."
Rose's heart broke for her sad, ageless alien, but she knew how an eternity of not knowing could sting, and she wouldn't wish it on any woman in any universe. "You still have to say goodbye," Rose reminded him quietly, reaching forth to take his hand in hers as she stepped easily up to his side. "She deserves at least that much, don't you think?"
"Yes, but ..." the Doctor heaved a heavy sigh as he shook his head again and glared in frustration at the floor between her feet, "how?"
"Go to her, Doctor," Rose urged him quickly as the TARDIS came to a quiet halt around them. She didn't need to look at any of the sensors (not that she would have been able to make much sense of them, anyway) to know that they had landed exactly where she had asked the ship to take them.
Rose brought her free hand to the Doctor's cheek and she encouraged him to meet her eyes as she smiled up at him. "River will help you through the rest," she assured him gently. "Just go to her."
The two of them walked out of the TARDIS hand-in-hand, but Rose quickly released her hold on the Doctor and motioned for him to go on without her. He was all nervous, fidgeting energy as he reluctantly followed her instructions. However, he kept looking back at her as though he were waiting for his opportunity to make a run for it, so Rose made sure to keep her eyes on him in a stern, no-nonsense look until he had finally rounded the far corner and was out of her sight.
Rose spent the rest of her time in The Library wandering aimlessly down the long, seemingly-endless hallways of books. It appeared as though the TARDIS had landed them somewhere in biographies, so Rose passed the time by trying to pronounce names from far away times and planets and perusing the life stories of various famous entities throughout history.
She didn't know how much time had passed since they had first landed, but she estimated that only an hour or two had gone by before the Doctor returned to her once more. She didn't know how he seemed to find her so easily - she had wandered a good distance away from the TARDIS, and every aisle of books was immensely long and looked almost identical. Still, he charged right up to her as though he had known where she had been all along, and Rose was pleased to note that he was beaming from ear-to-ear as he did so.
"Did it go well, then?" she asked in amusement as she returned the book that she had been cradling in her hands back to the shelf. The written history in the old tome had been boring and monotonous, but she had been enjoying the colorful, life-like pictures that were scattered throughout its pages.
"I think she was surprised to see me," the Doctor replied casually, his smile never dimming as he leaned one shoulder against the bookshelf next to her.
"I'm glad I forced you to come, then," Rose teased, crossing her arms against her chest as she turned to face him fully.
"Me, too," the Doctor murmured, his tone lowering slightly so that Rose would know that he was being as open and as truthful as he knew how to be in this moment. He lowered his gaze to his boots as he added slowly, "Thank you. Not just for me, but for her, too."
"You should do these kinds of trips more often, you know," Rose reminded him, stepping forward and uncrossing her arms so that she could raise her hands to his bowtie, which she straightened, despite the fact that it was always immaculately symmetrical no matter what. "It doesn't always have to be a final goodbye. You could always go back and visit old companions, just to stop in and say hello."
The Doctor smiled down at her, but his eyes had that deep, haunted sadness to them once more and Rose knew the words that he wouldn't dare admit out loud - not all of them. Not all of the Doctor's past traveling companions made it out of their adventures alive, and not all of them ended up in a place where he could ever reach them again.
Rose was about to attempt to change the subject and steer the conversation back towards lighter waters once more when the Doctor suddenly raised his hands to either side of her face, his eyes watching her expression closely, as though he feared that she might try and push him away. When Rose's only response was to gaze up at him expectantly, he slowly let his eyes fall shut as he leaned his forehead gently against hers.
She could feel him in her mind instantly, though his thoughts were reserved and tentative as he slowly pushed himself deeper into her mind than he had dared yet go.
"Doctor ...?" Rose breathed, her brows furrowing over her own closed eyes as she felt him silently reaching out to her. "What are you ...?"
But her words ended on a soft, surprised gasp as he suddenly brushed up against her severed bond. The touch was gentle, but deliberate, and it made Rose shiver against him as she fought to catch her breath and still her beating heart.
Please, Rose, the Doctor begged silently. Without any further warning, all of his repressed longing and desire flooded through Rose's mind, nearly taking her breath away a second time as her legs wobbled unevenly beneath her.
Rose was in utter disbelief - her first instinct was to ask him if he was sure that he knew what he was asking of her, but she already knew that if anybody understood the depth and importance of a telepathic bond, it was the Doctor. However, the sudden and unexpected request shocked her, and Rose didn't want the Doctor making this important, life-altering decision based off of whatever conversation he had just had with River. She decided to tread lightly as she reached out hesitantly with her thoughts to test the limits of his sincerity.
"But Doctor, you're already married," she teased quietly.
"So are you," he replied without hesitation.
"Well, there you are, then," she murmured, slowly opening her eyes to gaze up at his strained look of concentration. "Can't go around causing scandals, now, can we?"
Can't we? he asked silently as he tilted her face closer to his and gently ran his lips across her cheek in a slow, delicate kiss.
Rose breathed out a small, satisfied sigh as she slowly allowed her mind to open further for the Doctor and he cautiously began to dive deeper into her thoughts. In his head, Rose could see the decades of yearning and pain, the flame of raw desire that he had been holding on to, just for her, all of these years. She was drowning in the depth and power of his feelings, and she suddenly realized that she didn't need to ask the Doctor if he was certain about bonding with her or not. His answer was as plain and as simple as hers had always been - his yes, and always, and forever echoing her own exactly.
Rose's severed bond was already so willing and eager to bridge the space that remained between them that Rose barely managed to raise her hands to either side of his face, her fingers effortlessly sliding into place against his temples as his own hands mirrored hers, before the link began to cement itself within her mind once more.
She whispered his name as a promise, and he whispered hers as a prayer, and then there was no more room for words between them because his lips were on hers and the two of them could do nothing more than groan in satisfaction as the mental bond settled happily between them.
To Rose, it felt like coming home - as though everything that was broken and wrong had suddenly been turned right and all of the pieces that she hadn't even known were missing were swiftly and effortlessly sliding back into place.
For the Doctor, it felt a bit like Pandora's box - everything that he had secretly and silently dreamed about for over a century suddenly being revealed and offered up to him without hesitation. To finally experience the one thing that he had never even allowed himself to dare to hope for was overwhelming. It was so far beyond what he ever could have expected that he was having trouble coping with the many emotions that were swelling up within his chest and spilling over into Rose.
He kissed her as though she were some sort of delicate, priceless treasure that could shatter at any moment from the impact of his wildly beating hearts. Or perhaps, he though, more likely - he would be the one to shatter from all of the years of unspoken words that came forward all at once and threatened to overwhelm the both of them.
Rose, for her part, simply clung tight to the lapels of his jacket and waited patiently for both of their thoughts to settle. She, unlike him, had done this before, and though the intensity of the experience certainly hadn't changed, she was calmed by the fact that she knew what to expect, at least. She counted his heartsbeats against the palms of her hands, but she couldn't have possibly gauged how long they stood there in blissful silence before the Doctor finally tilted his head and deepened their kiss.
His mind was rambling away in his native tongue as he pulled her in closer, and even though Rose couldn't understand the words, she could sense the intent behind them that spoke of, waited so long, and never knew it'd be like this, and my perfect, beautiful, fantastic Rose. To which Rose responded with wordless sentiments of, missed you so much, and needed this for so long, and my one and only Doctor.
Her encouraging thoughts seemed to make him bold and Rose's knees nearly buckled beneath her when his tongue gently caressed her bottom lip. The Doctor made a guttural growling noise in his throat as she immediately opened her mouth to bring him in deeper.
As he leaned further down in an attempt to get as close to her as possible, he grumbled internally, You definitely used to be taller.
Rose let out a small breath of laughter as she pulled away from his lips to tilt her head in the opposite direction and brought a hand up to brush the dark mop of his fringe out of his face. And you definitely used to have less hair, she replied sarcastically.
The Doctor grinned down at her as he finally let his hands fall from her face so that he could wrap one arm tight around her waist while his other hand went to her left thigh. He easily hefted her weight up against him only to settle her onto the wooden library table behind her a moment later, where she could sit comfortably and be at eye-level with him. Rose gave a high-pitched noise of pleased surprise as she settled her weight on the new, solid surface with the help of the Doctor's gentle, guiding hands on her hips.
The Doctor ignored her bemused thought of, Smooth, and rolled his eyes as he breathlessly muttered, "Don't tell me you're missing spiky hair and sideburns now, are you?"
Rose smiled down at him, not even trying to hide from him the fact that she missed her previous Doctors and her husband very, very much indeed. However, she laced her fingers around the back of the Doctor's neck (the current Doctor - her husband, now) and drew him in close as she whispered in reply, "I have everything that I could ever want or need right here."
His answering smile was tinged with sadness, so Rose ran her fingers over the pained shape of his lips until they relaxed and his eyes closed on a peaceful sigh. She let her hands fall to his collar once more as she leaned forward and ghosted her lips across his cheek, flooding their newly-formed bond with as much love as she could possibly give him.
The Doctor's grip on either side of Rose's hips tightened and he pressed his body flush against hers as he let his mouth trail across the sensitive skin of her neck, using his lips, teeth, and tongue in a way that made her shiver.
Missed this, missed you, Rose whispered against his thoughts.
I've waited so long - too long. Eternity would not be enough time to spend with you, he mind in reply.
Rose lost track of time again as she lost herself in her new bondmate (was he new? Blimey, marrying an alien could be complicated), but she was promptly brought back to reality at the sound of a distant cough from one of their fellow library patrons. The small sound was like a shock of cold water being poured out over the flames that had suddenly ignited between the two of them, and Rose forced herself to draw back and take a few deep, calming breaths as she examined the Doctor.
His unruly mop of hair was a sight and his dazed, unfocused expression made Rose giggle helplessly as she looked down on the man who she loved. She ran her fingers fondly through his thick hair until it was in a more organized shape and reveled in the way that his eyes closed and he leaned into her touch as though it were the only thing that mattered in that moment.
"Now we're causing a scandal and a scene," Rose murmured wryly as she smiled down at him.
The Doctor huffed a small breath of laughter as he quickly scooped Rose up and set her gently back on her own two feet again. He kissed her once in what was meant to be a sweet, parting gesture, but his lips seemed to have a mind of their own and he couldn't quite force himself to pull away again. Rose was giggling once more as she pushed lightly at his shoulder and silently reminded him that they had a completely secluded and private time ship waiting for them just a few aisles over.
The Doctor's soft smile instantly spread into a wide, manic grin as he took her hand in his and whispered under his breath, "Run!"
Rose's answering belly laugh couldn't be contained, and she began to wonder if the Doctor had set out with the explicit intent of causing a scene as the library patrons in the aisles that they darted past glared up at them in obvious annoyance. She honestly couldn't have cared less in that moment, though - not with her bondmate's giddy excitement rushing through her veins and making her heart race.
Besides, she expected that the regular library visitors would just have to get used to these kinds of boisterous disturbances. Rose planned to insure that this was not the Doctor's last visit to see River, and - seeing as how she had already spent a lifetime married to a different version of the man once before - she suspected that they would be returning to The Library for years to come as the Doctor created increasingly outlandish and ridiculous ways to celebrate their anniversary.