About a thousand years later ….

"So? What do you think?" He asked her as she entered the TARDIS, his accent going further and further North as he spoke Rose had just returned from bidding Vastra, Jenny, and Strax a farewell, and thanking them for taking care of Both she and the Doctor when neither could take care of themselves.

"You redecorated." Rose replied as she moved up the ramp and took in the darker but beautiful interior. "I kinda like it."

"Not so sure I do," The new man in front of her said as he got up from a very familiar arm chair on a split level. He moved to the stairs leading down to the main level of the new console room. "I think there should be more round things on the walls. I used to have lots of round things. I wonder where I put them?"

"Never had round things once in the last thousand plus years." She countered with a smirk playing on her lips.

"No, you're right." He ascended, moving his red lined jacket aside and stuffing his hands in his trouser pockets as he came to the bottom of the stairs. "But it's not the only thing that changed." He said, still not meeting her eye.

"No," She shook her head, moving toward him. She placed her hand on his cheek, getting him to look at her. "You alright now?"

He nodded. "You were smart, setting us to a preprogrammed spot before losing consciousness. Old age as a regeneration, not so great on the mind after two thousand." He covered her hand with his. "And with all the running around, solving all those murders, and figuring out the clockwork droids, I never got to ask … what do you think?" He asked, glancing down a himself.

Rose smiled, taking in the blue eyes before her, ancient beyond anything she'd ever seen, yet still twinkling with youth. There were lines on his face, but he still didn't look old by human standards. She loved the gray, though wasn't sure how to tell him when she sensed through their bond the panic he felt at seeing himself so aged.

"Clothes are a bit ridiculous, but I've come to expect that." She teased.

"Not the clothes I'm worried about." The Doctor countered. "I think Jenny telling us she's expecting so close to my regeneration might have had a bit of an effect on me."

She quirked an eyebrow. "Jenny make you go Scottish, too?"

"No, think that's because I really wanted a reason to complain." He said, though they both knew the real reason why. "Still, I look … old. Old by human standards. Older, even, then when we met. Part of me wonders if maybe you're disappointed."

She held his eye in her firm gaze. "Never worry." She stated. "'Cause I don't see anything but the man I love, will always love. Not gonna runaway 'cause of a change. You know that."

And as if she needed to prove it, and because she'd been dying to since coming to consciousness so soon after passing out, Rose kissed him. Meaning it to be simple, it didn't stay that way.

Rose melted against her new, new, new, new husband, and he chuckled in this throat as she moaned in hers.

"All these years, I still don't understand how it came to be that you chose me." He said against her lips. "Of all the destinies you saw, all the things that could have been for you, and you chose this. You chose us."

Rose smiled, pressing her forehead to his. "What other life could I have possibly wanted than one with you? You took my heart from the very first moment you took my hand. Never wanted to let go. So why would I chose any possible fate than the one that keeps me at your side?" And in perfect Gallifreyan, she added, "My love for you is not bound to a body, but a soul. It can not be changed or altered by anything except to grow stronger and more resilient. It is forever, and has existed in me from the moment we met. I love you, my Doctor, my —, and I always will."

He crashed his lips against hers, half dragging her back toward the console. There was a loud flick, then the engines began to grind.

"What are you doing?" She managed to pull her lips away from his long enough to ask.

"Getting us into the Vortex." He replied as he backed her toward the stairs, kissing her neck.

"But what about the advert? The one asking for the Doctor and the Bad Wolf? Never did find out who wanted to meet us there before the whole … thing." She said, finding it harder to think. Turned out he may have forgotten a lot of himself in the first hours post-regeneration, but he certainly didn't forget his knowledge of her.

"Later." He said. Then, he scooped her up bridal style, impressing her still with his ever present strength. "You have a bit more of an assessment to make before you can say for sure you don't want the other me back. And if you say you do, then I have to work on making sure you change your mind."

Rose laughed, joy bursting in her chest as the Doctor smiled warmly at her while carrying her up the stairs.

There would always be a mystery. Someone or something in the universe out to work against them, to try and steal their joy and the joy of their friends. But between them, she knew, there would always be happiness, even in the darkest times. They would always be team, the stuff of legends.

And there would always be love, for years and years to come.

~FIN~

A/N: If you are here, than I must thank you. Because you have quite obviously been through the whole series, and for that, I thank you. 700 000+ words in 10 months has been exhausting but I have loved telling you all this story.

And if it weren't for all of you, the story would never have gone beyond Run With You. Tim would have simply had been a one off character. And the up coming Encore short wouldn't have been written.

So when I say thank you, I mean it. THANK YOU.

As always, post story if there are questions I can answer and you're not a guest, I will answer.

I'm going quite a ways back neck series, but the prequel has been up since Christmas. Never a Silent Night. If you haven't read it and want to see where I'm going next, have a look if you'd like.

Once again, thank you!