Chapter Three: And I Love Her

A love like ours will never di

Long as I have you near me

He had come to another realization while watching her in the med lab. He promised himself when she awoke, he wouldn't let himself think if, it was when. When she awoke, he'd strangle her for putting herself at such risk or lock her in the TARDIS for safekeeping, maybe both. He also promised himself he would tell her how he felt. He was a coward and the idea of admitting to those feelings to someone scared him, but the possibility of losing Rose and never having her know her love was returned tenfold scared him more. He had no choice he had to tell her.

"Rose, I ought to strangle you." The Doctor said with a hollow laugh. "What you did was the stupidest I've ever witnessed. You could have been killed. " He could feel Rose about to protest from the way she tensed in his arms.

"However," The Doctor laid a cool finger across her lips to silence her protest and gasped a little as the feel of her skin ignited him. "However, my Rose it was also the bravest thing I've ever seen and for that and for the sheer joy and wonder of having you here I want to kiss you."

He could see from the way her eyes sparkled at his words that she wanted him to kiss her as well. He would kiss her and soon; he had to get this out of the way first. The Doctor took her chin in his hand to keep her eyes level with his own as he spoke next. "I've not done a thing in my lives to deserve you, I know that. I also know I need you. You've brightened my world and healed me in ways you wouldn't understand if I had a hundred years to explain them, mostly because I don't understand them myself. I'm hoping we can learn them together."

He brought his face closer to hers. His breath was warm on her cheek. "I'm hoping you'll give us the chance to learn them because I love you." He would have said more, if he could but instead decided to let his actions speak for him as he kissed her.

Rose was hesitant for a second, surprised by the feeling of his lips on hers. The touch was something she had been hoping and praying for, almost as long as she had known him but it was something she never thought she would get to experience. The reality quickly surpassed all her hopes.

She'd never been kissed like this before. He's kissing her as if he did indeed have a hundred years to learn how her lips felt under his. His kiss is slow but unhesitant and very tender. He wants more, she can feel that in the kiss. He's hungry for her as she is for him but he's taking the slow route to appeasing the hunger. Instead of bruising her lips and his own in hard kisses that were meant to incinerate in seconds. He's building the fire in her blood slowly, letting it spark but not burn. His hands are on her face, holding her to him. Her arms are around his waist pulling him closer. She wonders absently if it would be possible to stay like this in the Doctor's arms for the rest of her life. She wonders if he knows how much she loves him. Love you Doctor, my Doctor. Rose thinks to herself. She's surprised when she hears his voice very clearly in her mind. Theta, and I love you too. We could stay like this, my own, but after a while it would get a bit uncomfortable. I'm not as young as I used to be you know.

Rose felt the Doctor's smile in her mind as she realized she had heard him and he knew it. Theta is that your given name? It's lovely. How can I hear you? Is this like hearing the TARDIS? Rose asked him lips still happily engaged in the act of kissing and being kissed by him. Whatever reaction she expected at her words it was not the one she received. The Doctor abruptly stopped kissing her and pulled away from her. The look in his eyes was as close to panic as she had ever seen.

"You can hear the TARDIS, how does she sound?" The Doctor asked her urgently.

"She speaks to me like you do or Jack does." Rose said feeling confused. Why was he freaking out about this? She'd been surprised when the TARDIS had spoken instead of the usual hum that she used when communicating with Rose. Surprised yes, but pleased.

The Doctor pulled her to him again burying his face in her hair. "Rose, no human can understand the TARDIS speaking." The Doctor said in an anguished voice.

"My Rose what has happened to you?" The answer didn't come from Rose but from behind him.

"The answer is simple, your companion is no longer human." A voice as familiar as his own said coolly.

"What are you doing here?" The Doctor asked icily as he and Rose turned in the direction of the voice. He rose to his feet, pulling Rose with him and placing her behind him.

"What's going on, Theta?" Rose asked from behind him. Her voice was steady but the tight grip she had on his waist told a different story.

"Rose, these are some of my past selves. That was fourth regeneration, " here the Doctor pointed at a man with curly hair and an almost floor length multi-colored scarf. "That was my sixth self." This time he pointed at a man who wore an odd hodge-podge of mismatched clothing. "And that I'm assuming is my tenth self, perhaps?" The Doctor asked gesturing to the man Rose had met in the alleyway in London. The tenth Doctor, and even though he had told her about regeneration this was still weird, nodded.

Rose let go of the Doctor and walked over to Ten. She heard her Doctor protest but ignored him. "You told me how to save him, thank you." Standing on tiptoe she kissed Ten's cheek softly before moving back to stand by her Doctor. She was still scared but she wasn't going to let her Doctor try and keep her out of this, she hadn't saved him to lose him now to fear.

"What do you mean my Rose isn't human?" The Doctor asked emphasizing her name and his possessive adjective when it came to her in retaliation for Six calling her his companion. She was so much more and he wouldn't allow anyone, not even one of his past selves to diminish what she was by calling her a companion. He saw Six back up a bit at his heated words and gave the other him a feral smile. Madness at the edge of his eyes. The Doctor very rarely had conversations with himself, it was too bloody confusing but enough of his former selves had voiced the opinion that he was the maddest, most violent one of them all that the Doctor knew some of his other selves were a little afraid of him. He had no problem using that fear to his advantage now.

Ten was the one that spoke, his voice gentler than Six's had been. His tone was almost loving. "Theta, no one can look into the heart of the TARDIS, no one was meant to, you know that. When Rose looked into the heart of the TARDIS, it looked into her as well. She's not human, not any more but she is still your Rose, you'd do well to remember that."

"What have you done to her?" The Doctor demanded his words an angry shout.

Six and Four cowered back a little at his shouting but Ten looked at him at levelly, and keeping his own tone even answered. "I have done only what I was meant to do. You knew when you met her that she was more than she seemed. You knew she was destined to become the Bad Wolf. Just as she was destined to be your companion." Ten said his stance clearly indicating that he was not frightened by the Doctor's display of temper.

"You told her how to tear into the TARDIS? Were you trying to kill her?" The Doctor asked as Ten's words and Rose's own earlier comment registered in his brain.

"She could have died, what if the legend had been wrong. You could have killed her." The Doctor said still shouting.

Now Ten was angry enough to raise his own voice. "Theta! I never would have hurt her."

"You don't think taking her humanity away from her hurts?" The Doctor asked Ten. He knew the legend Ten was referring to, everyone on Gallifrey had heard the story. Time's Champion would meet his equal. The one in all time that was his match in every way. His match would take the form known as The Bad Wolf, an immortal guardian of the universe. He didn't want Rose to suffer being immortal, losing all that she loved and having no control over it. He had known while she would one day leave him that he would always be for her. He could handle the idea of being alone for the rest of his existence, it was a fitting punishment for himself but he didn't want to see that happen to Rose. If she was truly immortal now, and the signs were very good that she was, she would be alone without him and the thought tore him.

"You can't do that to Rose." The Doctor protested. "You can't, she'll be alone forever. If you are me then you know I cannot allow that."

Ten gave him a sad smile but refrained from answering. This time it was Four's turn to speak. "She won't be alone, she'll have you." T

The Doctor sneered. "Yeah maybe for a hundred years if I get really lucky on the whole regeneration thing. What then?" Next to him he could feel Rose falter and he squeezed her hand reassuringly.

"You aren't going to regenerate again, Theta. Your cycle will begin and end with your ninth regeneration." Four told him.

He wasn't going to regenerate; this nightmare of a conversation was getting worse and worse. Next to him Rose stiffened up and he knew Four's words had hurt her. It added up to one more reason to hate his former and now no longer future selves.

"Explain now!" The Doctor growled at Four. Normally, he'd welcome death but he didn't want life taken from him now that he had Rose. She gave him a reason to live.

"Because of your actions on Satellite Five, you shall be Time's Champion, the last Time Lord for time immortal." Four explained. "Be well." With those words Four, Six and Ten disappeared leaving the Doctor alone with Rose. Not alone, he realized. Never alone again, they would be together until the end of time.

"How long you gonna stay with me?" Nine asked a now smiling Rose.

"Forever." Rose told him launching herself into his arms. She had told him forever before but now she could have the chance to prove it to him.

The End