A/N: Wow. 18 chapters, 155 pages, 80000 words and I'm finally done. This story has indeed been something of an all-consuming beast over the past few months, but it's definitely been fun! And I can't thank all you guys enough for all the support you've given me and this story. I never would have finished it if I hadn't had so much wonderful encouragement! So thanks. And now enjoy the last chapter!

The lights and frenzied energy of the carnival erupted in front of them the second they stepped through the door. The sky was pitch black now, and millions of stars were twinkling in the sky. The funfair had been abandoned as the parade that had been preparing earlier was finally taking place. People were dancing around the burning effigy on the bonfire. Soulful blues clashed with the sound of steel drums as a myriad of shows went on all at once.

The Doctor and Rose stood silently for a minute, just watching the scene before them. It was all so normal, so familiar. Hardly anything had changed since they left; relatively speaking, it seemed as though they had only been gone for a couple of hours at the most. They both turned around at the same time, finding the House of Mirrors intact behind them, the way that it should have been in the first place. Its entrance had been cordoned off with a sign saying that the attraction was closed for the night. Nobody took any notice as the Doctor walked over to the door and ran his sonic screwdriver over it quickly, before pocketing the device and turning back to find Rose watching him closely. 'It seems normal,' he said. 'But the TARDIS will be able to detect any abnormalities around the area once we get back.'

She nodded. 'Does that mean we can go back to the TARDIS now?' she asked weakly, visibly sagging now that they were back on Earth once more, now that the horrendous ordeal of the past couple of days was finally done and over with. She gladly leant against the Doctor as he raised his arm to wrap around her shoulders and hold her against his side.

'Of course we can,' he said.

She smiled. 'Does this mean that it's all over now? No more revolutions, no more getting ourselves into trouble that shouldn't even have existed?'

'Yep,' he replied as they began to walk across the large field, leaving the source of all their troubles behind. He looked down and winked at Rose. 'Well, for today at least!'

She giggled at that, calming slightly when her body protested at the sudden jarring. 'Good,' she said.

The Doctor felt his hearts beat harder as he felt Rose's pain radiate through to him. He knew that he'd never forgive himself for what had happened to her whilst he had been off failing to save the life of someone who ultimately died because of him. There was a lot for him to feel guilty for over this. 'I'm sorry everything got so messed up, Rose,' he told her as they started the ascent back up the hill to where the TARDIS rested, ready and waiting for them to return. 'All I wanted was for us to have a nice time at the carnival, have a chance to unwind a bit.'

'I know,' she replied, her arm slipping around his waist as his tightened around her shoulders. 'Maybe we could come back tomorrow?'

He shook his head. 'It's the last night tonight.'

Rose was quiet for a moment before she replied. 'Maybe that's a good thing,' she said.

'And why do you say that?'

'It means that no one else will go into the House of Mirrors and exit out into a whole other world,' she told him. 'Will the gateway disappear once they dismantle it?'

He nodded, proud of her rational logic. It seemed that she was more pragmatic than he was in his current incarnation. 'It should do,' he said. 'But I'll make sure, just to be extra certain.'

'Great.'

They fell into companionable silence once again, their breathing becoming somewhat laboured as they came towards the top of the hill. Tiredness and fatigue and unfortunate injuries were making them weary, and making the short walk back to the TARDIS more challenging than normal.

Eventually they came abreast of the top of the hill, pausing for a moment as the Doctor fumbled for his TARDIS key. He fitted it gratefully into the lock, thinking that he hadn't been so appreciative to see his ship in a good long time. He turned the key and the door swung open. He took Rose's hand and led her inside, the door swinging shut behind them. The TARDIS hummed in recognition as they entered, and a peace settled over them both at long last.

'Does that hurt?'

Rose winced as the Doctor put pressure on the skin above her collarbones. 'A bit, yeah,' she told him.

He nodded, a sad apology in his eyes as he passed a disinfectant wipe over the small wounds in Rose's skin and then healed them carefully with a small dermal regenerator. He touched the previously injured spots gently with his finger. 'Is that all right?'

'Yeah. Thanks.'

He smiled at her. 'You're welcome.'

They had gone straight to the medical room once they were inside the TARDIS, and now Rose was perched on one of the beds in the room whilst the Doctor diligently attended to her injuries, intent on removing all traces of her ordeal on Eustance from her skin. He was adamant that she would not be marred by what had happened to her there.

'Um,' he said, shifting uncomfortably as he came to the last of her injuries. Her wrists and ankles, her split lip and her collarbone, along with other minor scrapes and raw spots had been healed already. 'Can you…'

'What?' she asked, a glint in her eye as she realised what the Doctor was going to ask her.

He scratched his head, telling himself that he could be professional about this; he was a Doctor- he was the Doctor- and he would do what he had to do no matter how many wildly inappropriate thoughts it gave him. 'Can you take your shirt off?' he asked her, feeling his cheeks flush red. 'I need to see your stomach.'

'Sure.' Rose was hoping that he didn't notice the way her heart rate sped up as she began to lift her shirt up over her head, the Doctor moving to help her when her bruised ribs protested and prevented her from being able to raise her arms the whole way.

Together they managed to pull the shirt over her head, and the Doctor dropped it on the floor, concentrating solely on Rose now as he coaxed her to lean back so that he could study the state of her torso. There didn't appear to be any major damage, although a large nasty bruise covered a good proportion of her stomach. He gently rubbed a cream on it that he knew was brilliant at numbing pain and starting the healing process. Then he once again took up the dermal regenerator and held it over a thin scratch that stretched halfway from her hip to her navel. 'Okay,' he said, once he was sure he had healed everything he could. 'That's going to be a bit sore for a while, I'm afraid. But that cream should help, especially if you put some more on when you wake up. Take it easy for a while and everything will be fine.'

'Thank you,' Rose said, reaching out to take the Doctor's hand. She raised it to her lips and kissed his knuckles, waiting to see if he would pull away from her touch now that they were back in the TARDIS and they were away from the dangers of Eustance. She was suddenly very aware that she was dressed only in a bra and a pair of scummy jeans, and she was also aware that the Doctor was doing his very best to keep his gaze away from her chest. He was looking instead at where their hands were joined, and where her lips were pressed against his skin, her mouth moving lightly over his flesh.

'Rose,' he said.

'Mm,' she mumbled, preparing herself for his inevitable kind but distancing comment, the one that put things back as they were before, as though all those kisses they had shared had never even happened.

'Rose, look at me,' he continued.

She lifted her head, trying to keep the tremor out of her movements as she bought their hands away from her lips and held them in her lap instead. She wished she still had her shirt on. She told herself that she wouldn't cry, no matter what the Doctor said or did.

Then his free hand was on her face, brushing strands of hair back behind her ear and then letting his fingers trail down the column of her throat before coming to rest against her shoulder. She shivered. 'Are you cold?' he asked softly.

She shook her head. 'No,' she answered, feeling a gust of warm air swim down from the vents in the ceiling of the medical room.

The Doctor smiled at her and his hand moved down further until it rested over her heart, feeling the life pulsing through her. He moved his head towards hers, his hips bumping against the edge of the bed as he lowered himself down slightly so that he wasn't towering over Rose as she sat staring up at him, nervousness and want warring in her eyes. He bought their joined hands up to his mouth, letting his warm breath wash over her skin and enjoying the resulting shiver she gave.

'Doctor,' she said, and there was a question in her voice.

He kissed the back of her hand before moving his head down further until his lips met hers, damning the fact that he had waited so long to do this. He knew that he should have kissed her months ago. They had a lot of wasted time to make up for. She tensed against him for a moment, her free hand fisting in the bed sheets. He pulled back a few centimetres, catching her eyes with his before moving towards her again and brushing his lips lightly over hers. 'Is this okay?' he asked, hoping that he hadn't read her wrong. He hoped that he hadn't been misinterpreting her gestures and actions simply because he wanted her to want him too. His hearts stopped beating for all the time it took for her to answer him.

'Oh yeah,' she breathed, smiling against his mouth before bringing her hand up to hold his head to hers, her lips moving frantically against his as she pulled him to her.

They kissed for a few minutes, tongues exploring mouths and hands gently exploring each other and learning each other's reactions before the Doctor sensed a slight change in the mood and shifted to lie over Rose. She leant back on the bed and he followed, one hand in her hair as he bought his leg up to slide between hers. A jolt of pain shot through him and he groaned into her mouth, pulling away suddenly and dropping his head to her shoulder as tears of pain unexpectedly sprang to his eyes. 'Ouch,' he said pathetically.

'Doctor?' Rose's hands were on his shoulders, gently coaxing him to sit up. One arm wrapped around his back as she knelt up on the bed, his head hanging down to look at his lap as he pulled in a few deep breaths in an effort to calm himself and the bolts of pain currently shooting through his abdomen.

He sucked in a breath. 'I'm all right, Rose,' he said. 'Just a bit of a bruise. I'll be fine.'

She shook her head, admonishing him. 'No, you're not,' she said. 'Let me fix you up, yeah? Let me help you.'

He lifted his head and regarded her for a moment, seeing the concern in her eyes as she watched him. He saw the trust and affection that she felt for him, and the lust and desire that their kiss had produced still lingered on her skin. He didn't think he'd be able to deny her anything ever again. 'Okay,' he said quietly. 'Thank you.'

'You're welcome.'

A few hours later, when the Doctor and Rose were sleeping in the same bed, limbs wrapped tightly around each other now that their wounds and bruises had been healed, a crew of workmen began to dissemble the carnival outside.

Not one of them took any notice of the blue police box on the top of the hill as they worked through the early hours of the morning, intent of clearing away any evidence of the celebrations that had taken place here before the sun rose in a few hours time.

A pair of men carefully removed the large mirror from the front of the House of Mirrors. Then more men joined them, helping to take down the sign that advertised the attraction before removing the hinges from the entrance door and pulling the wood free.

None of them were aware that, whilst they worked, a disturbance in time and space and the fabric of reality began to heal and right itself, a mysterious room of doors that was literally in the middle of nowhere sealing itself off from the wider universe once again, disappearing from chance of discovery as though it had never even been there at all.

'It was all my fault.'

'No, it wasn't.'

'Yes it was.'

'No.'

The Doctor and Rose were sitting in the kitchen, the day after they had finally found their way home from the hell of Eustance and all the problems of that planet. They had spent the night entwined together in bed, waking occasionally to share soft words and kisses and touches, all senses of hurt and pain and stress ebbing away as they lost themselves in each other and allowed sleep to take them once again.

They had risen this morning as though it was any ordinary day, making tea and toast as they stumbled into the kitchen within a few minutes of each other. It seemed that the food had reawakened the Doctor to his feelings of guilt and responsibility in relation to everything that had happened on Eustance. His gaze was dark and self deprecating, and his chest hurt from the thought that so many had died because of his actions, because of what he had encouraged other people to do.

'Doctor, everything would have been the same if we'd been there or not,' Rose insisted, not knowing what she could say to make him feel better, not realising that her presence was already helping to soothe him but not fix him altogether. 'It just happened a bit earlier than it was going to originally, that's all.'

'No, it's not all,' he said, for once cursing Rose's innocence and naïve optimism. How could she not see that what had happened had been a huge mistake on his part? He stood up from where he had been sitting next to her at the kitchen table and moved to lean against the counter, looking down on her. Sometimes he felt like he needed the height advantage over her, just so he could try and convince himself for a few minutes that he was the bigger person. It seldom worked. 'Rose, if it wasn't for me then Airlia would still be alive. So would Ganjud. They both would have been able to escape with the people they loved most, and probably would have lived long and amazing lives together with them. But instead they're dead, and that life is a pleasure none of them will ever know.'

Rose's gaze dropped and she shook her head, not knowing what to say to that.

'And now Damien and Heather are god-knows-where. They might not even be together any more. They might have escaped from Eustance and gone their separate ways. They're both alone because of me.'

'You don't know that!' Rose exclaimed, standing up abruptly and moving to stand in front of the Doctor, refusing to be intimidated when he straightened and drew himself up to his full height with the intent of trying to gain some sort of pathetic leverage over her. 'You don't know that they're alone! They could be fine, they could be happy! Don't blame yourself for things when you don't even know if they're true.'

His stance softened for a moment and he allowed himself to be pulled into Rose's embrace, loosely wrapping his arms around her back as she pressed herself against him. He found himself drawing warmth and comfort from her touch even though he was doing his very best to hate himself right now. 'You were hurt,' he whispered.

'What?' she mumbled against his chest. 'Doctor, that doesn't matter. It's all right now. None of that was your fault.'

'Yes, it was,' he said. 'It was my idea to go to the carnival and therefore it was my fault we ended up on Eustance. That makes everything that happened between arriving there and getting back to the TARDIS my fault. Don't try and pretend otherwise.' He cringed inwardly as his words came out harsher than he had intended. He felt Rose stiffen against him.

She sighed. 'Fine,' she said. 'You can blame yourself if you want; I can't stop you. But just know that I don't blame you, okay? You can feel guilty and sorry for yourself all you like but it's not going to change anything. The situation on that planet isn't magically going to get better just because you feel bad about it, Doctor. And it doesn't matter how much you talk about it because I'm never going to blame you for what happened. The only thing I'm mad at you about is leaving me with Sadie while you went off to the Liberal Rights Alliance meeting. That woman could talk for the universe!' She pulled back and looked up into his face, seeing an acceptance there as her words sunk in. 'Please don't beat yourself up over this, Doctor,' she pleaded with him. 'It's no fun when you're in a funk.'

He smiled softly at her, nodding. 'Okay,' he said, leaning in to steal one of her kisses that he was fast becoming addicted to. He knew he would eventually get over the guilt of so many dead because of him; he had to, otherwise he'd never be able to carry on living. And Rose would help him, he knew, not that she would realise the huge extent of the effect she had on him. He kissed her again, deciding that he could not be that bad of a man if someone as good and as pure as Rose was choosing to spend her life with him rather than someone more worthy of her affections.

She smiled at him when he pulled away and he grinned back. 'That's more like it,' she murmured, wrapping her arms around his neck and pressing her body against his. 'Hey, Time Lord,' she said suggestively.

'Yes?' He flexed his hips against hers, his mouth moving to feather kisses against her ear and down her throat. He enjoyed her resultant shiver.

'You know what?' She pushed her hips against his and he responded immediately, growling low in his throat and pulling her more firmly against him. He had thought that he would be content with her kisses for ever, but as it turned out, his desire for her was beginning to get the better of him. He wanted to show her just how amazing a Lord of Time could be… If she was willing to let him, of course.

'What?' he answered, more than happy to humour her if it meant that he could keep her body against his for a little while longer. His hands moved lower on her waist, skimming the waistband of her jeans.

'I think…' She trailed off, gasping when he sucked lightly on the pulse point in her neck. Her heart beat quicker as he worried the skin gently between his teeth, marking her as his. Finally. 'I think that someone promised we could go shopping as soon as we got back home…'

Oh yes. He had promised that, hadn't he? He mentally kicked himself for getting so worked up when all she really wanted to do was… go shopping. Maybe he could persuade her to buy some skimpy underwear. He wondered if she would think he was a pervert for that. He growled as she did something wonderful with her hips. 'I did promise you that, didn't I?'

'Yeah you did,' she replied.

He caught her mouth with his and kissed her soundly, wondering when he had last felt desire like this before he realised that he hadn't ever felt lust this strongly before in his life. He tried to put it down to the fact that this body of his was a lot more sensitive to touch than all his previous forms had been, but deep down he knew that it was down to the strength and depth of his feelings for Rose. That scared him a little bit.

Rose returned his kiss with equal fervour, running her tongue against his as his hands slipped up under her shirt and caressed her back, one of his legs slipping in between hers and grinding gently against her. 'Maybe,' she started, speaking into his mouth.

'Yes?' he encouraged as he shifted to lick his way around the shell of her ear. His question turned into a soft moan as Rose's hands found their way to the waistband of his trousers.

'Maybe we could shop later,' she managed to stutter out as the Doctor's hands did wonderful things to her skin.

'That sounds good,' he replied. 'Any particular reason why?' he asked jokingly, hoping that it would be obvious that he was joking.

She giggled against him as her teeth nipped at the corner of his jawbone. He didn't think that anything had ever felt so exquisite in all his lives. 'Well, I've had this ache,' she said playfully. 'I think you missed it when you were fixing me up last night. I think we might need to go back to bed so we can take care of it.'

He thought that his head might explode from premature excitement. Her words made him want to ravish her right there and then. 'I know what you mean,' he said. 'I think I've had the same ache.' He pushed his hips against hers to prove his point.

'Yeah, that's the one,' she said.

They kissed again, and this time it was filled with love and longing and the promise of something more, the atmosphere more serious now they were both aware of where this was heading.

'I suppose,' the Doctor said as they slowly kissed and stumbled their way to the kitchen door. 'That this little adventure could have ended a lot worse.'

Rose smiled at him, biting her bottom lip coyly as she pushed him against the doorframe for a moment and pressed her hand against the front of the Doctor's trousers. He thought he might faint from the pleasure, glad that he had the door frame to hold him up. 'Dunno,' Rose said. 'It doesn't feel that little to me!' She darted away, disappearing off down the corridor in the direction of her bedroom.

The Doctor took a moment to recover from the boldness of her statement, basking in his typically male pride at her (what he hoped was a) compliment. And then he followed her down the corridor, knowing that whatever happened in their future, he would always follow her as far as they both could go. And he knew that it was going to be fantastic. He pushed open the door to her bedroom, finding her already waiting for him on the bed. He smiled, and went to join her, falling into her waiting embrace and settling himself in the one place he felt he truly belonged.

A man walks down the street on the way to meet his lover. He carries a bag in one hand, and he holds the hand of a small child in the other. They are walking through the market place on a planet far away from the one he originally came from, the one where he left part of his heart so many years ago.

He leads the child through the throngs of people; ahead is a small demonstration of people holding placards and calling for equal rights for men and women alike. It reminds him of something that happened to him long ago, on the day his life changed forever.

Damien and the child stop for a moment to study the toys on a stall, the small boy laughing in delight at the wooden objects and immediately begins to play a game with the man minding the stall. Damien watches for a moment before scanning his gaze over the crowd, checking the large clock at the centre of the square to make sure they are not late.

And then he sees her. She is handing out leaflets for the demonstrators, smiling at people and hoping that they will be sympathetic for her cause. Her hair is longer than it used to be, hanging almost down to her waist where it once fell to just below her shoulders. She is wearing a long white dress. It makes her look like an angel. Damien can see the green of her eyes glinting in the sun. She looks tired, and older than she did when he knew her. Time has worn away at her and made her old, just like the rest of the universe.

All too slowly, and yet still all too soon, she turns and sees him watching her. She freezes, the leaflets dropping from her hand to scatter away in the warm breeze. Her mouth opens slightly as she stares at him and he gazes back at her, keeping one hand on the shoulder of the child to make sure he isn't lost in the press of the crowd.

She walks towards him slowly, and he knows that it is definitely her. He waits for his heart to speed up in the way it used to do every time he saw her, but nothing happens even as she comes to a stop a few feet in front of him. Tears are in her eyes. 'It's you!' she says, her voice robbed of some of the innocence he used to love about her.

And now he sees the scars on her arms and across the top of her chest, marks that have not healed with time and probably never will now. It makes him ache to think of all the pain she went through on Eustance a lifetime ago. He takes the hand of the child once more, lowering his gaze and refusing to look at Airlia anymore. 'I'm sorry,' he says. And he walks away, the child practically running to keep up with him.

He sees Heather and the baby just ahead, ready and waiting for them to return. He smiles when he sees her cradling their daughter, her face glowing with new motherhood. He kisses them both when they meet, not looking back, not wanting to see the tears he knows are pouring down Airlia's face.

'Who was that?' Heather asks him as he takes her arm and they walk away together, the little boy's hand still held in his and the baby girl clutched in her arms.

'No one,' he tells her as they leave the crush of the market behind, along with the woman he used to love. 'Just an old friend from long ago.'

THE END