Walking through an alien marketplace, the Doctor's hand in hers and his mind hovering at the edges of hers, Rose felt at home for the first time in two years. It didn't matter that she had never seen this cravat-wearing Doctor before today—he was still the Doctor, and they were still the Doctor and Rose.
But somewhere out there, her Doctor was waiting—the one she'd said goodbye to on Bad Wolf Bay. Rose tried to reach for him, but even though the bond had snapped back into place when she'd felt the younger Doctor's presence, there still seemed to be… interference or something blocking her from her pinstriped Doctor.
"Is something wrong, Rose?"
When Rose looked up at the Doctor, her breath caught at the familiar concern in his blue eyes. The same man, always.
Before she could explain that she was worried about her Doctor, she felt another presence in her mind. The TARDIS was singing to her, calling her home.
Rose dropped the Doctor's hand and ran towards the sound, careening around a corner and narrowly avoiding the shoppers coming in the opposite direction. She ignored the annoyed shouts, because she could see it now—the blue box parked at the end of the dead-end street.
She ran the remaining twenty yards, barely skidding to a halt before running into the ship. Her key was out and in her hand, and she slid it into the lock with shaking fingers.
When Rose stepped over the threshold, the console room lights flashed and the song swelled around her. Her eyes widened as she took in the cosy armchair and the bookshelves along the wall. She ran her fingers over the wood panelling, feeling the joyful buzz of the ship as she did.
"Oh, look at you!" she cooed. "You are beautiful."
The door closed behind her, and Rose turned around to look at the Doctor. He was staring at her with little wrinkles around his eyes, and she could feel the confusion in his mind.
"Well that's unusual," he said, looking at the time rotor and then back at Rose. "She's not usually so friendly with my travelling companions."
Rose leaned on the console and looked at him with raised eyebrows. I'm not exactly an ordinary travelling companion, she reminded him.
His cheeks turned pink, and he tugged on his cravat exactly like her pinstriped Doctor would tug on his tie. She bit back her smile, and wondered if this Doctor babbled when he was nervous, or if he kept his smooth demeanour.
The Doctor narrowed his eyes; Rose was entirely too entertained by his perfectly natural bemusement. It wasn't every day one met their future bondmate after all—not even for a Time Lord.
He tilted his head and smirked at her. Obviously not, he agreed, letting the thought wrap around her mind. When Rose shivered and her cheeks turned pink, he felt like he'd evened the score nicely.
Then he cleared his throat and spoke out loud again. "However, we were talking about your relationship with the TARDIS, not your relationship with me. If I didn't know better, I would say she liked you even more than me."
The TARDIS buzzed rudely in his mind, and the Doctor raised an eyebrow when Rose giggled in response. She even seemed to understand the ship's unique way of communicating.
His eyebrow went up even higher when Rose tilted her head as if she were listening to something only she could hear. She turned towards the console and the Doctor's jaw dropped when he realised she was setting coordinates.
The connection between his bondmate and his ship was humming around him. The Doctor narrowed his eyes and focused on it, while Rose continued to adjust their heading. How could she…
"You looked into the TARDIS…" he said, the words coming to him before he realised he was speaking.
Rose looked up at him, an ethereal smile on her face and a glint of gold in her eyes. "And she looked into me."
She moved her hands away from the console, and the TARDIS prodded the Doctor forward. He studied the coordinates she'd set. "Well, it looks like she decided to help you find your Doctor without any help from me. If I'm reading this right, he's in New York City in November of 1930." He wrapped his fingers around a lever and smiled warmly at her. "Time to go home, Rose Tyler."
The TARDIS rocked into motion. The Doctor smiled and shook his head when Rose laughed and grabbed onto the console, keeping her feet with ease. Everything about her seemed to fit perfectly into his life, exactly the way her hand fit perfectly into his.
He felt the same pull to keep her with him that he'd felt in by the fountain, but this time, it was stronger and harder to resist. The thought of letting her go when he'd just found her made his hearts ache.
Remember, if she stays with you now, your future self will suffer longer with a broken bond.
The Doctor cleared his throat and looked at his bondmate. "So, Rose, how long have we been bonded?" He watched in fascination as Rose twisted a diamond and rose gold ring around her finger instead of answering right away.
"That depends," she said finally. She shrugged and looked at him. "D'you mean, how long were we bonded before we were separated? Or how long has it been, in total, for me?"
The Doctor leaned against the console and crossed his arms over his chest. The implication that a different length of time might have passed for his future self intrigued him, but… "Why don't you start with the first?" he suggested.
She sighed and brushed a piece of hair back over her ear. "We were bonded for three months before I was trapped in a parallel universe."
The Doctor narrowed his eyes. Getting to a parallel universe to bring Rose home shouldn't have been a problem.
"The walls between the worlds are sealed," she said when he started to protest. He closed his mouth, and she shrugged. "You tried… I know you did. But both worlds woulda collapsed if you'd come through."
He nodded slowly. Something had apparently happened to destabilise the multiverse, making travel between dimensions incredibly dangerous. He tried to ignore the notion that the building war between the Time Lords and the Daleks could conceivably cause that kind of devastation, and focused his attention on Rose instead.
"And yet you found your way home."
She tilted her head back, and her eyes glinted gold once more. "I promised to stay with you forever. I'm gonna keep that promise."
The determination in her voice made the Doctor's hearts stutter in his chest. "Rose," he breathed, unable to say anything more.
Rose smiled and reached up to press her fingers gently to his temple. With the contact in this sensitive place, their bond opened as wide as it could.
Mind to mind, I bind myself to you, to the ends of space and time.
The Doctor gasped when she repeated the familiar words of the Gallifreyan bonding ceremony. He swayed slightly and reached automatically for Rose to anchor himself. She took a half-step towards him when his hand landed on her waist, and a moment later he felt her hand slide under his green frock coat. Her human heat seared through his waistcoat and his thin cotton shirt, and he shivered at the sensation.
Rose… The Doctor looked for some way of explaining how it felt to be so connected to another person. After a few moments, he gave up and bent down to press his forehead to hers. Their breathing synced automatically, and his eyes fluttered closed at the simple intimacy of it.
But a moment later, the TARDIS hit a patch of temporal turbulence, causing them both to nearly lose their balance. They grabbed each other's coats to stay upright. When their flight evened out, they looked at each other and burst out laughing.
"Oh, I missed this," Rose admitted, shaking her head. "Silly, I know, but the tiny misadventures that are part of life with you were some of the things I missed the most."
The Doctor reluctantly let go of Rose and leaned against the console. "How long were we separated, Rose?"
The loneliness he'd felt from her earlier that afternoon flared again, and her brown eyes turned glassy. "Two years," she said, her voice raspy. "Two years without you in my head, Doctor. I thought… I thought I'd go spare at first, an' then I just buried myself in the dimension cannon project so I could ignore the empty place in my mind."
She brushed her hands down the front of her blue leather jacket, then stuck them in her jeans pockets. The Doctor waited patiently for her to ask the question he could feel at the edge of her mind, and finally, she looked up at him, her lip caught between her teeth and worry lines creasing her forehead.
"There's something I've been wondering," she said quietly. "You told me when we bonded that we'd be able to talk to each other from anywhere in the universe. But I've been tryin' to reach my you ever since I saw you in the courtyard and realised I wasn't quite home yet… and he's not replying. It's like he's not there, even though having you here has taken care of my headache."
The Doctor winced. The answer was immediately clear to him, but he knew it would upset Rose. However, the bond would make it obvious if he told her anything less than the truth—plus, he knew instinctively Rose would be upset if he sugarcoated things for her.
"You've experienced the trauma of a broken bond, Rose," he reminded her gently. "You know how much it hurts. And my future self… he doesn't have the benefit of a younger Rose popping into his life to offer even the facsimile of healing you've experienced." The Doctor sighed and rubbed at his temple, where he could almost feel the phantom pain travelling back to him from the future. "It's likely the wound from the broken bond left me unable to tell you had returned to this universe."
Rose gasped, and a tear trickled down her cheek. The Doctor was prepared to offer her a hug, but to his surprise, she reached instead for the time rotor, pressing her hands to it. "Go faster, old girl, please," she whispered brokenly. "Take me to him."
oOoOo
The Doctor's head pounded as he and Martha crossed New York Harbour to return to the TARDIS. The missing bond always hurt, but today it felt like someone was inside his skull, hammering against his temple from the inside with a pick axe. He lifted his hand and rubbed at the spot, and a second later, he sucked in a breath when pain radiated from his temple like a spider web, going down to his jaw and into his forehead.
Every day, the pain reminded him that Rose was gone. Not that I needed a reminder today, after seeing the Daleks again. Why do they always survive, when I have to go on alone? Why can't they lose, just once?
He knew his anger was exacerbating his migraine, but how could he not be angry when the Daleks were here and Rose was still in the parallel universe?
He jumped when he felt a hand on his elbow, and Martha smiled apologetically when he turned to her. "Sorry." She held up her hands. "But are you all right, Doctor? You're rubbing at your head again. I would have thought with all your futuristic medicine, you wouldn't get headaches."
The Doctor laughed mirthlessly and lowered his hand, reaching automatically for his wedding band instead. "There are some kinds of pain that not even sixty-third century pain reliever can take care of," he said as he twisted the ring around his finger.
Martha's gaze dropped to his hand and she nodded. "I know you miss Rose," she said quietly.
His throat closed up, but thankfully, the ferry docked on the island before he could reply to her implicit question. The ritual of disembarking from the boat kept Martha occupied for a few minutes, and by the time they were standing on terra firma, he could change the subject. With his head pounding and his hearts aching, he had no desire to talk to Martha about Rose.
In fact… He cast her a sidelong glance as they walked down the gangplank. One trip, he'd said. One trip as a thank you. And now he'd taken her on three. Maybe he should take Martha home, so he could be alone.
Martha shook her head as she struggled to keep up with the Doctor's long strides on the way back to the TARDIS. She could almost see the loneliness he was trying to shake off, but it clung to him stubbornly. She sighed; today had obviously stirred up memories of his lost wife.
Maybe I can distract him a bit? she thought as she jogged alongside him. An idea came to her, and she crossed her fingers that it would work.
"Can I make a request?" she asked.
The Doctor cast her a sideways glance, and she could tell he was about to remind her that she'd only been invited along for a few trips. Martha shook her head quickly; there was no way she was letting him travel alone, not when he was still hurting this much.
"Wherever we go next, can it not be another version of New York City?" She raised an eyebrow. "Old New York wasn't any better than New New York in the end."
He stopped and ran a hand through his hair. "You haven't had very good luck so far, have you?"
Martha snorted. "Cursed by witches, kidnapped and then nearly eaten by Macra, and captured by Daleks?" She hated herself for purposely triggering his guilt complex, but if he took her on another trip because he felt like he still owed it to her, then at least she'd achieved her goal of not leaving him alone. She could figure out a better way to stay on the TARDIS later.
His shoulders slumped, and she knew she'd been right in thinking he wanted to be alone.
"Just maybe one more," she wheedled. "Maybe… oh! Going back to see the dodo before they go extinct?" she suggested. "Can't be anything dangerous about that."
The Doctor sighed and started walking again, without answering her question. Martha scowled at his back and was just about ready to bluntly tell him he was too self-destructive to be left alone, when he stopped suddenly, his whole posture stiffened.
"Doctor?"
He waved her off and tilted his head, like he was listening to something only he could hear. His whole body relaxed as he took a deep breath, then tensed, poised to run. His eyes were half closed, but after less than a minute, they snapped open.
"Rose!" he said, his voice strangled. Then he took off running.
The Doctor was vaguely aware that Martha was yelling his name, but he ignored her. Unless this was the worst trick the universe had ever played on him, Rose was here. He'd heard another TARDIS land, and then, impossibly, her warm, pink and gold presence had wrapped itself around his mind.
He reached out for it as he ran. Rose!
Oh God, Doctor, I'm here.
The Doctor's vision went blurry as tears streamed down his face, but he trusted his telepathy and hurtled down the path towards Rose's shining light.
As he turned the corner onto the path that led back to the TARDIS, he caught his first glimpse of her racing towards him, her hair flowing behind her, arms pumping as she ran. His laughter caught in his throat on a sob, and he somehow managed to put on more speed, closing the distance between them.
Then he skidded to a halt and held his arms out, and Rose covered the last few metres with a flying leap, hitting his body hard enough to momentarily knock the wind out of him. He recovered quickly and spun her around in circles, delighting in the sound of her laughter.
My Doctor. Her eyes sparkled with joy, a marked difference from the last time he'd seen her.
The Doctor carefully set her down on her feet. Rose, you're here. Even though he could feel the warmth of her skin as he cupped her jaw, he still couldn't believe she was actually there. Please tell me this is real.
It is. She turned her head to nuzzle into his hand. I'm here, love, I promise.
The Doctor took a shuddering breath to stave off the tears threatening once more. Then he slowly moved his hand to Rose's temple, watching to make sure this was what she wanted.
In answer, she mirrored his motions with her own hand, and in wordless agreement, they made contact simultaneously.
The Doctor gasped when the pain of the broken bond was swept away by the pleasure of having Rose in his mind again. He swayed slightly under the onslaught of her overwhelming love, and he had to wrap an arm around her waist to steady himself.
Rose. He moved his hand slowly from her temple, letting his fingers sift through her hair. She tilted her head back, and he couldn't resist the invitation, finally bending down to kiss her for the first time in six months.
Martha stopped dead in her tracks when she finally caught up with the Doctor—the Doctor, who was currently locked in a rather passionate embrace with a blonde woman. After a week of travelling with him, this was the last thing she'd expected to see, and she wasn't sure how to react.
"That's Rose, his wife," another man said. "They've been separated for… a while."
The surprise of being addressed by a stranger was enough to pull her attention away from the couple snogging in the middle of the park. Martha looked over at the man who'd spoken, then blinked a few times when she took in his green velvet frock coat.
"I thought she was gone," Martha managed to say.
The stranger's blue eyes crinkled up as he smiled. "She was, but she managed to come back to me. I suspect Rose Tyler will always find her way back to me."
"To you?" Martha repeated, the implications making her head spin.
The man had the decency to look a little chagrinned. "Ah. Yes. I'm the Doctor, just a little younger than the one you know."
Martha started to argue, then she considered everything she'd seen in the last week. "You know what?" she said, brushing a piece of hair out of her face. "I just left a pig man in Hooverville with his showgirl girlfriend. If you say you're the Doctor, I suppose I can believe you."
This younger Doctor tipped his head back and laughed in delight. "I take it you travel with me in the future?" he asked a moment later.
Martha crossed her arms over her chest and rested her weight on one foot. "If I don't, you just gave a lot away to a perfect stranger," she pointed out drily.
The Doctor shook his head and smiled at his future companion. Talking to her had been a welcome distraction from the uncomfortable jealousy stirring in his hearts as he watched himself kiss the woman he already felt connected to.
He could still feel Rose's happiness, and as much as he tried to be glad he would one day make her that happy, he couldn't deny the gnawing feeling in the pit of his stomach. He would have to leave her behind—forget her, even, in order to preserve the timelines. And then who knew how long it would be before he found her again?
Just as he was considering sneaking away, Rose eased back from his older self, and a moment later, he found himself wrapped in a fierce hug.
The Doctor sighed and closed his eyes as he held Rose tight. He let himself indulge in one more brush of his mind against hers, knowing it would have to last him until he met Rose and found the courage to ask her to bond with him.
Thank you, Doctor, she whispered in his mind.
I will always be here for you, Rose. He pressed a kiss to her temple, letting his lips linger there until his future self cleared his throat.
The Doctor frowned, but stepped out of Rose's embrace. "I suppose I really ought to be going now," he said reluctantly. "And don't worry, Doctor—I'll conceal my memories of today as soon as I'm gone." He smiled at Rose. "This is one timeline I have no desire to change."
His future self nodded. "Thank you, Doctor. For bringing her home."
The Doctor smiled wryly. "I'm considering it a downpayment on my future happiness. But now I should really go before I decide to be selfish and entice Rose to stay with me."
Rose tilted her head and looked at him. "When you meet me," she said after a long moment, "make sure you remember to tell me that she also travels in time."
The Doctor felt the instruction sink into his subconscious, and he knew that somehow, he would remember that—even if it did take a bit for her words to jog his memory when the time was right.
He smiled and took her hand, brushing a kiss over the back of it. "Until we meet again."
Rose felt her pinstriped Doctor slip an arm around her waist and pull her close as they watched his past self leave. The younger Doctor had been amused by what he had perceived as jealousy on the part of his future self, but standing next to him, feeling his mind in hers, Rose knew better.
Even though she was standing right beside him, the Doctor was terrified something would happen to take her away again.
I'm not going anywhere, love, she promised. Not without you.
Some of his anxiety eased, but he didn't loosen his hold on her. Let's go home, he suggested, turning slightly towards the TARDIS, standing only ten feet away.
Rose pressed her lips into a thin line at the obvious attempt at deflection. Obviously, it would take some time to recover from their separation.
A woman about her age was watching her and the Doctor with a small smile, and Rose poked at him telepathically. You gonna introduce me to your friend?
"Oh!" The Doctor jolted slightly, and Rose realised he had almost forgotten the other woman was there. "Martha Jones, this is Rose Tyler… my wife. Rose, this is Martha. She's a medical student at Royal Hope in 2008."
Rose smiled and held her hand out for Martha. "Thanks for watching out for him for me, Martha," she said.
Martha grinned as she shook her hand. "It was a nice break from my studies, but I think I'm ready to go back now."
Rose smiled, then turned towards the TARDIS to hide her relief. She didn't want to kick anyone out of the ship, but after living apart from her bondmate for two years, they really needed time alone to get used to being together again.
"Come on," the Doctor said, unlocking the TARDIS and opening the door. "Time for a quick trip back to London."
A wave of dizziness washed over Martha as she stepped into the TARDIS. She stumbled as she walked down the ramp after the Doctor and Rose, and he just barely caught her before she hit the grating.
"Martha?" the Doctor asked, his voice sharp. "What's wrong?"
She put her hand to her temple and shook her head. "It's like… I suddenly have two sets of memories. Things that happened before are changing—Harold Saxon doesn't even exist anymore, whereas before I left with you, he was all set to be the next prime minister, assuming the election went like everyone was predicting."
The Doctor sucked in a breath, and Martha looked up at him, hoping he could explain what was happening.
"Timelines are changing," he muttered, almost talking to himself. "Because Rose came back, there's something… something we won't do, and that is changing everything."
"But how can I remember if it never happened?" Martha argued.
"You're a time traveller, Martha," Rose explained. "That… it doesn't quite make you memory proof, like a Time Lord would be, but it means that if something happens to time while you're travelling, you'll be able to remember both the version you lived through, and the new version of reality."
Martha nodded slowly. "I suppose that makes sense," she said. Then she jumped to her feet. "And now I'm even more eager to get home, so I can figure out what else has changed."
The Doctor darted over to the console and twirled around it, moving dials and shifting levers. "Well then! Next stop, London!" he crowed as he threw the dematerialisation lever.
Martha watched him, trying to pinpoint what was different in him. She'd seen the whole routine four times now, but this… Her eyes widened when she realised what it was—the smile on his face was real. The glow in his eyes was happiness, instead of mania.
The Doctor looked up from the controls several times as the TARDIS rocked through the Vortex, and each time, a daft little grin crossed his face when he saw Rose standing there. And Rose—she was holding onto the console, head thrown back in laughter, looking like she'd been born to travel on the TARDIS.
The landing was softer than Martha was used to, and she looked at the door, then back at the Doctor. "We're here?" she double-checked.
"Yep!" He bounced on his toes. "Just twelve hours after we left. No time at all, really."
Rose sauntered over and nudged him with her elbow. "And you're sure it's only been twelve hours this time?" she teased.
Martha looked at the couple—the Doctor with an aggrieved smile, Rose's cheeky grin—and she shook her head. "I'm not going to ask," she decided. Then she walked up the ramp, opened the door, and stepped into her flat.
Rose nudged the Doctor again, and after pouting for a moment, he followed Martha so he could give her a proper goodbye. The moment he left the TARDIS, he could feel the remnant of the abandoned timelines. He looked at the dark television, and a voice echoed back through time.
With the push of a single button, I will change what it means to be human.
Martha raised her eyebrows, and he shook his head quickly. Whatever he was seeing, it wouldn't happen now. Rose's return had changed things, even more than he'd expected.
Ignoring the future-that-wasn't, he focused on the woman standing in front of him. How many times had she saved his life, in just a week? "Martha Jones, you're a star," he said warmly. Martha's eyes lit up, and he opened his arms, offering a hug.
"I'm so glad Rose is back, Doctor," Martha whispered as she squeezed him tight. "You deserve to be happy. Promise me you'll be happy."
The Doctor could feel his bondmate in the TARDIS waiting for him, and a bit more of his tension eased. "Oh, Martha," he murmured. "Happy isn't even the word for it."
She stepped back, a smile on her face. "Good."
The Doctor grinned, then pushed the TARDIS door open. "You have a fantastic life," he ordered, then he stepped inside and closed the door behind him.
Rose was perched on the jump seat, swinging her legs slightly. The familiar sight made the Doctor's hearts clench in his chest. He was afraid to move, lest the perfect image be just a mirage.
You're home.
She hopped off the jump seat and threw the dematerialisation lever, and the Doctor let his weight shift from one leg to the other as they moved into the Vortex. Then he watched as Rose walked up the ramp to him, not stopping until she could put her hands over his hearts.
Her touch was so familiar, exactly like what he remembered, and the Doctor felt a few more of his worries chip away.
"I'm home," she agreed as she slid her hands over his shoulders to link them behind his neck.
The Doctor rested his hands on her hips, pulling her close. "How long are you going to stay with me?"
Her lips curved up in a slow smile and the glow in her eyes was golden. "Forever," she whispered, then she tugged him down for a kiss.