So here's the next chapter, for your delectation and delight or something like that. Special thanks to DaughterOfTheFifthHouse for pointing out my bad grammar :P Sorry about that everyone, I tend to have a bit of a blind spot for punctuation - it all comes from thinking too fast and being a messy typist.
The Doctor smirked a little at this, and with the slow movements of someone whose feet have gone to sleep from dangling off a balcony for too long, he drew his legs back through the railings and raised himself onto his knees, until they were sitting face to face, the brick wall on one side and the night sky on the other. "Well, if I can help you to take down the shields in your mind, then I'll be able to feel your mind with mine, and I won't feel so alone. It won't mean I can read your thoughts or anything," - it occurred to Rose that in saying that it seemed as though the Doctor was already reading her thoughts, but she didn't alert him to this fact – "I'll just be able to register your presence, and maybe feel when you have a particularly strong emotion, though over time you'll get used to it and it'll be harder to me to feel what you're feeling. It'll be the same for you, of course, you'll just be able to feel that my mind is there, and feel a bit of my emotion, but it won't hurt you or anything, the human mind has a few natural defences anyway but it should be easy enough to do and—"
The Doctor had been speaking faster and faster and Rose, feeling the need to stop him before he became unintelligible, had put her finger over his lips, smiling a little as she remembered their time in 2012 – "Fingers on lips!" The Doctor had shut up and was staring at her in a way that made her feel a little shy, like he was staring into her soul or something – those eyes could be very distracting when he wanted them to be.
"Well then, let's do it," said Rose firmly, wondering what on Earth she needed to do, hoping that the Doctor would be able to lead her through it. It occurred to her that the freezing cold balcony was probably not the best place to be doing this, but it felt as if they were in their own little world, just the two of them, and Rose did not want to break the spell by suggesting they move inside.
The Doctor took a deep breath, and placed a hand on the either side of Rose's face, unconsciously mirroring her movements from just a few minutes ago. His index and middle fingers on both hands were placed against her temples and he had closed his eyes, brow furrowing slightly in concentration. Rose slowly closed her eyes and was shocked by the sudden feeling of someone else's presence inside her head.
It didn't feel like an intrusion on her privacy, as she had thought it might. It just felt as though there was a comforting warmth emanating from the Doctor's mind as he carefully moved and prodded at her mind's defences, just enough to settle himself comfortably inside her head. Rose had never really thought about how her mind might look to someone else from the inside, but she was understanding now that it wasn't about seeing. She could not see the Doctor inside her head, but she could feel him there, feel his emotions as though she were a part of him – she supposed, maybe now, that she was.
"Now you've got to make the bridge with my mind" murmured the Doctor, and Rose was astonished to find that she could hear him inside her head, as well as right in front of her. She felt something shift inside her head, and she knew instinctively that it was the Doctor taking her into his mind.
Rose heard herself gasp, both inside and outside her head. Her own mind had felt comforting and warm, sort of like a room with a roaring fire and a comfy sofa on a cold winter's night. The Doctor's mind felt like a cathedral. Every thought she had seemed to echo and reverberate around her. It was just so empty - Rose could hardly bear it.
"How can you stand this?" she asked, feeling pain and sadness at the Doctor's loneliness, but magnified tenfold as she felt his emotions flowing through his mind and into her own. The Doctor did not answer, instead withdrawing her from his mind and dropping his hands from her face. Rose opened her eyes to see him staring at her, almost apprehensively. She was about to speak when she felt it – that pleasant warmth that she had felt when the Doctor had been inside her mind was still there, just gently sitting in the corner of her mind, like the glowing embers of a campfire. "Did it work? Can you feel that...that warm thing that I can feel?"
The Doctor smiled and nodded, and Rose nearly cried with happiness. It was his own smile, his proper smile with the sparkling eyes and the teeth that she loved, and before she knew what was happening she had leaned forward and kissed him. They had not kissed since that day at the beach, another thing that the Doctor had seemed quite awkward about and that Rose was determined to sort out before the night was over, but this kiss was better than that one by far. Rose leant into the Doctor, both hands finding their way over his shoulders, up the back of his neck and into his insane tangle of hair. The Doctor, for his part, did not show surprise if he had felt it, and wound his arms around her waist, pulling her to him until they were pressed tightly against each other.
The kiss was long and lingering, both of them enjoying the closeness and contentment just as much as the actual kissing (well, maybe not quite as much, thought Rose – the Doctor really was very good at this, though she would never inflate his ego by telling him so). A little voice at the back of Rose's head supposed that staying like this forever seemed like a very agreeable existence, and at that moment she was not inclined to object, simply pulling the Doctor even closer, if that were possible. At last they broke apart, realising that, without air, there was a possibility of the Doctor kissing Rose to death – yet again, Rose wondered whether she in fact would mind a death like that. She was aware that, on top of her own overjoyed feelings, she could detect that the warmth at the back of her mind had a distinctly happy and contented flavour to it now – the Doctor's feelings at that moment were almost as clear to her as her own. Not wanting to break this spell, but knowing that the trials of the night were hardly over, Rose sighed a little and looked the Doctor square in the eyes. "And now for the talking bit," she informed him, and the Doctor's eyes widened just a fraction. Rose smirked – she felt that way too, but there was no way she was going to let him know that.
"But—" started the Doctor.
"No. It's time Doctor, we are doing this now. Inside. Go."
Rose all but dragged him onto his feet and through the doors into the flat. He was not getting off that easily.
It might take a little longer for the next chapter, I'm having a bit of a writer's block with regards to how the next bit's going to go. Thanks for all your reviews! Hope you're enjoying it, it might get a bit more fluffy as it goes on. You have been warned.