Fortunately, the Queen of England ended up not being a red alien from space covered in suckers. Unfortunately, that meant that Rose had to sit through a wedding in which the groom happened to be (strangely enough) both her late and current husband.
Rose couldn't decide if she was more angered or depressed by the odd situation that she found herself in, so she settled for staring blankly at the unusual wedding ceremony going on around her while her current Doctor fidgeted awkwardly next to her.
"Is there ... a lot of this in the future?" the youngest Doctor asked curiously.
"It does start to happen, yeah," Rose muttered sardonically.
You love it, Rose's Doctor reminded her, tugging pointedly on the mental connection that linked them together as he flashed her a playful smile out of the corner of his eye.
Alright, fine, it's not all bad, Rose admitted, immediately mirroring his flirtatious grin.
The Doctor in pinstripes pulled away from the deep, passionate kiss that the queen had trapped him in with a roll of his eyes and flashed a distinctly annoyed look in their direction before immediately darting back into the welcome safety of his TARDIS.
As Rose and the other two Doctors moved to follow him, she noticed for the first time that the old ship looked oddly battered and rough around the edges. The TARDIS greeted her with the same warm welcome as always, but there was an odd, minor chord to her usual melody that Rose wasn't used to hearing. She flashed her Doctor a questioning look as they all crossed the threshold onto the old time ship, but he simply shook his head silently in her direction, making it clear that he would explain later.
"You let this place go a bit," the Doctor in leather grumbled as they finally let the TARDIS doors close shut behind them.
"Ah, it's his grunge phase," the Doctor in the bowtie replied blithely, "he grows out of it."
"Don't listen to them," the Doctor in pinstripes cooed as he lightly patted the old, green time rotor.
"I love it," Rose piped up, smiling widely as she danced across the familiar metal grating and ran her hands adoringly across the old control set-up. "I think it's fantastic."
She fell into contemplative silence, then, as she was sharply reminded once more of the one face that was missing in this line-up of Doctors. Rose ached for the man who had first invited her to stay - the one who had opened her eyes to the stars and all of the majesty that the universe held. The one that she had originally fallen in love with.
When the moment of silence reigned for just a moment too long, Rose glanced up to see that all three men were watching her carefully. Her current Doctor's eyes were wide and sad as he silently absorbed Rose's distant longing and attempted to soothe her thoughts with promises of love and devotion that outlasted his many, changing faces. The Doctor in pinstripes was eyeing her with renewed interest, paying particular attention to the way that she ran her hands across his ship's controls with easy familiarity. The youngest Doctor in leather was still watching her as though he were attempting to work out a particularly difficult-to-solve puzzle, his brows furrowed in concentration.
Before Rose could come up with something to say in order to break the awkward tension, there was a bright flash of light as the console sparked. The old TARDIS desktop blinked around them and suddenly they were all standing in a completely different room. When it blinked a second time, Rose was able to make out the sleek, metal surfaces and the blue-green time rotor of her Doctor's current TARDIS.
"Oh, you've redecorated," the Doctor in pinstripes muttered, casting an unamused grimace at their new surroundings. "I don't like it." He met Rose's gaze from across the room and she flashed him an amused smile, which only grew when he answered her with a playful smirk of his own.
Rose wasted no time in directing the three men back to the Black Archive, but Kate and the zygons made sure that it would be impossible to land the TARDIS there as they had planned. Instead, the youngest Doctor reminded them of the spare stasis cube that they had picked up from Queen Elizabeth, and the four of them entered into the secure, underground archives in a blaze of fire and explosions that could only ever come from having three Doctors together in the same place.
After the trio of Time Lords had managed to save the planet (with five seconds to spare) and ensured that peace talks between the zygons and the humans would go ahead as planned, the group finally had a few moments to breathe and reorganize themselves.
Rose found that she immediately felt herself gravitating towards the one Doctor who she still hadn't been properly introduced to yet. He was sitting alone, staring off into space with a gloomy expression that Rose immediately recognized from his future regenerations. She knew that it wouldn't do for him to be by himself when he was in such a state, so she decided to keep him company, just as she always did when he was in these kinds of moods.
"Hello," she greeted him quietly, pulling up a chair as close to him as she thought she could safely get away with.
"Hello," he replied, flashing her a weary smile as he propped his chin up on his free hand.
"I feel like we sort of skipped over introductions today," Rose muttered with a small, apologetic shrug. "I'm ... well, it's complicated ..." She furrowed her brow at the ground as she searched for the right words to say. She didn't want to lie to him - she had done far too much of that already - but she knew that she couldn't tell him the truth, either, and risk causing some sort of disastrous paradox.
However, the Doctor simply sighed and shook his head as he replied, "I find that these sorts of things often are."
"Sorry?" Rose asked in quiet confusion.
"Tell me, my dear," he muttered quietly, "when do we meet? It's clear that you're part of my future. Do I ... really have to wait four hundred years?"
Rose flashed him a small, sad smile as she slowly shook her head. "No, not four hundred years," she replied gently. "But it does take some time."
"You've never met me before," the Doctor sighed, nodding dejectedly as he put together the words that Rose couldn't quite bring herself to say. "Not this face, at least. Could be another century or more until ..." His words trailed off and his brow furrowed as he stared hard at a spot somewhere over Rose's shoulder.
When she turned to follow his gaze, she noticed the invisible woman who was still wearing Rose's own nineteen-year-old face and leaning casually against the wall behind them. "Who is she, then?" Rose asked curiously as she narrowed her eyes on the strange creature.
"I thought you knew her," the Doctor replied dismissively.
"I know the face that she's wearing," Rose admitted, shivering slightly despite herself as the Bad Wolf-woman flashed her a knowing smile.
"She's a weapon," the Doctor admitted quietly, his voice little more than a whisper. The odd, dark tone that entered into his voice immediately captured Rose's full attention, and she turned back to meet his eyes once more, completely ignoring the strange other woman.
"You're still in the Time War," she murmured in disbelief as she scanned over his weary expression.
The Doctor's eyes - brown, this time, though the color had never really mattered to her - were filled with a sadness and fear that she hadn't seen in a very, very long time. "You don't have to do it, you know," she reminded him quietly. "I know what you're planning, but you don't have to do it."
"You're very sure of yourself," he muttered, the hopelessness in his tone telling her that he had absolutely no faith in her words.
"We meet not long after, you know," Rose continued, hoping to stir up some small seed of hope within him. "Well, not long for you, anyway - a lifetime for me. But I remember those early days. I remember them well. I remember how sharp and painful your regret was then, and I know how it still haunts you, even now."
"How many worlds has his regret saved, do you think?" the younger Doctor asked pointedly.
Rose shook her head slightly as she replied, "Hundreds, thousands - who knows?"
"And you think I should change all of that?" the Doctor asked quietly, looking deep into her eyes as though he were begging for her to help release him from this awful, terrible burden. "You think I should put my own people above all of them?"
"No, Doctor," Rose replied, shaking her head sadly as she forced herself to meet his gaze with as much earnestness as she could manage. "But you don't have to do it alone."
"Oh, no, my dear," he sighed, leaning forward and hesitating for just a moment before he allowed himself to bridge the space between them and take her hand in his own. "I would not dare. Out of all of the people in all of the worlds, I suspect that you, most of all, must be kept safe."
He flashed her another small, sad smile, before he turned to look at the young blonde woman behind her once more. "I'm ready," he stated resolutely. And then, in the blink of an eye, they were both gone.
Rose was on her feet immediately, wasting no time in gathering up both of the remaining Doctors and forcing them into their TARDISes in order to chase after the man who was about to make the worst decision of their collective lives.
"We can't stop him, you know," the younger Doctor reminded Rose grimly. "He has to do this - it has to happen this way."
"Doctor, I know that you have no reason to trust me right now," she replied tersely as she watched him hesitate outside of his ship's doors and quietly regard her, "I know that you don't know me, but I know you. I know that, despite what you may wish, you still remember that day that you did it. And I know that, more than anything, you wished that you hadn't had to make that decision alone."
The younger Doctor's jaw tightened as he cast another long, thoughtful look in her direction. She was pleased to note that some of the suspicion had left his brown eyes, but it was clear that he still didn't quite trust her. However, he finally seemed to accept the wisdom of her words and he nodded resolutely as they both stepped into their respective TARDISes and set their destination for Gallifrey.
"Thank you," Rose's current Doctor muttered quietly as their old ship whirled and groaned around them, adding her own heartbroken lament to the Doctor's suffering.
"For what?" Rose asked, eyeing him hesitantly from where she stood across the console from him. His head was hung down between his hunched shoulders and she couldn't quite catch his expression, but she could feel the deep ache in his thoughts through their bond.
"For being there," he replied, finally glancing up to meet her eye so that she could clearly see all of his heartfelt gratitude. "It's coming back in pieces, the memories of this day," he continued thoughtfully. "I didn't give you a single good reason to help me, but you still did - you still are."
Rose flashed the Doctor a small, sad smile as she crossed the space between them and gently pressed her lips to his cheek in a quick kiss. "Always," she vowed quietly as she stepped back and looked deep into his eyes, making sure that he understood the depth and sincerity of her commitment.
The TARDIS had come to a quiet halt around them, as though she were attempting not to shatter the moment as the Doctor and Rose stared warily at the ship's doors, both of them hesitating to be the first one to open them.
Rose could feel the fear and sadness that seemed to fill the atmosphere the small, sunlit barn that they had touched down in the second that she took her first ever steps onto the one planet that she had never expected to visit. She could feel the Doctor's wild, terrified thoughts clambering through their bond, and she knew that the same sensations were echoing through two other versions of himself as well.
Rose bit the inside of her cheek in order to keep herself still and silent as she watched the Doctor with tracks of helpless tears spilling from her eyes. She listened intently as they all quietly regarded one another and her mind desperately reached for any other alternative that wouldn't have to end in this.
Help them, she thought desperately, casting her glance towards the blonde-haired woman who was sitting on a nearby crate and looking down at them all with quiet interest.
"I have," the creature responded cryptically, her eyes flashing gold in another imitation of the Bad Wolf.
Rose gritted her teeth in annoyance as she forced her gaze back to the three men in front of her. Well, if no one else was going to do anything, then she supposed that she would have to ... She forced her limbs into action as she rounded the big, flower-like red button that stood in the center of the room and placed herself firmly in front of the one remaining opening, standing directly across from the Doctor in leather, and in between the two different versions of her husband.
"What are you doing?" her current Doctor asked in concern, but Rose silenced his words as she quickly filled their bond with the overwhelming amount of love and trust that was currently filling up her chest and making it hard for her to breathe. For once, neither of the other Doctors complained about their telepathic communication as all three of them sighed and let the tense lines of their shoulders relax slightly.
However, the small moment of relief was quickly put to an end as the Bad Wolf-woman instantly turned their surroundings into a waking nightmare - showing them the cities of Gallifrey burning and the families screaming in fear as war raged through the skies around them. By the time that her vision had come to an end, all four of them could feel a grim, stubborn determination settling across the tense atmosphere of the barn.
"You're not actually suggesting that we change our own, personal history?" the Doctor in pinstripes asked in disbelief as he furrowed his brow at his future self.
"We change history all the time," the Doctor in the bowtie reminded him flippantly. "I'm suggesting far worse."
As realization slowly began to dawn on each of them one at a time, the Doctor in leather threw up his hands in excitement as he exclaimed cryptically, "She didn't show me any old future, she showed me exactly the future I needed to see!"
"Eh?" the Doctor in the bowtie asked in confusion. "Who did?"
"Oh, Bad Wolf girl, I could kiss you!" the youngest Doctor continued loudly, ignoring the way that the other two Doctors instantly paled and turned to stare at him with wide, shocked eyes.
"Yeah, that's gonna happen," the blonde girl atop the crate replied gleefully.
"Oi!" Rose hissed under her breath, flashing a glare in the other woman's direction. "Spoilers!"
But Rose had to admit that it was worth it, just to see the wide-eyed looks that the two older versions of the Doctor were currently casting at their younger self. Timelines were funny, sometimes, and Rose found that she quite enjoyed being on the right side of them for once.