The the second and fourth chapters have been reuploaded due to a mistake in the number of times the Doctor has to die before his final end. The Tenth Doctor, the Metacrisis, the Eleventh Doctor and the Twelfth Doctor are all the lives he needs to get through before his final death. So it is four deaths including the final death he'll have to go through.

Doctor Who will always be the property of the BBC. No copyright infringement is intended.

Previously

"So there is nothing in my body that Bad Wolf changed?"

The Doctor froze at her question.

Rose watched him hesitate and busy himself with something irrelevant. He took a vial of blood her blood and placed it in a centrifuge; she knew it served no purpose to her question. The Doctor mumbled under his breath and pulled out another slide for the microscope. She let him have his moment; he placed another sample on the slide with a syringe, this time the pale yellow liquid from the spun vial. He didn't put the image on screen, instead watching it under the microscope. He was still mumbling something inaudible and pointedly ignoring her.

"Doctor?" Rose inquired gently. The Doctor turned her way but didn't meet her eyes. "Please…" She needed to know. It was her body. It was she who had died and then breathed again. Perhaps she had changed after all and he was trying to protect her by keeping that from her. She mentally laughed at that thought. The Doctor loved her, he respected her. He would not insult her by keeping vital information away from her knowledge. When he did meet her eyes, they were filled with anguish and sorrow.

"Your body is not aging." He ran his hand through his hair, making it stick up even more. "It's not permanent though. I don't know when the aging process will start again but I can't reverse it." He began pacing and muttering again. His anxiety was radiating through his entire body, cracking like static. Rose stayed silent. Bad Wolf wanted her to remain until she was needed for whatever it was that was coming. Perhaps she wanted Rose to remain with the Doctor. Rose wasn't sure. According to the previous Doctor, the future was never set in stone.

"Doctor?" He looked up with his hand halfway through his hair, all frazzled nerves and jumpy muscles. "Come here," Rose called. He swooped into her arms and held her tight. Rose petted his hair and stroked down his back, evening out his breathing.

"I can't make you normal again Rose. I've robbed you of a human life," he whispered into her neck. She shushed him and continued stroking down his back, humming a lullaby her mother sang to her when she was a child. He pressed a kiss to her neck before he moved to sit beside her on the bed. He watched her swing her feet back and forth and then his resting on the floor. Rose grasped his hand and squeezed.

"This was my choice Doctor." She brought his hand to her lips and kissed it.

"I caused yo-" Rose placed her finger on his lips to quiet him. He did, but conveyed all his sorrow and regret in his eyes.

"It was me, Doctor. I looked into the heart of the TARDIS. You didn't force me into it, I did it of my own free will." She pulled her feet on to the bed and moved to sit facing him. The Doctor mirrored her actions, leaving his trainers on. She held his face between her hands and kissed him. He inhaled a ragged breath when she did, but responded gently. She moved back, resting her face on his chest. "Like I said before Doctor." She took his hand and placed it over her heart. His hand twitched before gently laying still. "I would do it again if I have too," she whispered.

He remained silent. His only response was to kiss the top of her head. She shifted onto his lap and breathed in his scent. He wrapped his arms around her, swaddling her into his cocoon. He bent and kissed her cheek, trailing his lips to behind her ear then her neck. She sighed and swung her head back, giving him more places to bestow his affection. He pulled her shirt down at the shoulder and nuzzled her collar bone, then grazing the round of her shoulder with his teeth. She gasped and pulled him up to kiss him, his scruff lightly abrading her skin. Tongues became involved, ruthlessly plunging and retreating. Her hands were running through his hair while one of his snaked down to her waist and the other and the base of her skull.

She was straddling the Doctor she thought. She needed to stop but it felt so good. She called out all of her inner strength and gently pushed him away. "I know what you're trying to do." The Doctor looked at her with bright eyes and swollen glistening lips. She traced his lips with her little finger. He took her finger into his mouth and swirled his tongue on the tip, maintain eye contact. Her insides tightened. "You're trying to distract me." The Doctor pulled her finger out and gave her the most innocent expression.

"I was saying…" The Doctor popped the finger back into his mouth. "I will do what I have to do to save you." He kissed her palm and she gasped when he licked it. "Forever Doctor," she continued. "I promised forever." The Doctor stopped at this. He looked at her with such sorrow and touched her forehead to his.

"Now I've just as well cursed you to live forever." She saw his tears, she gently moved his head back and wiped it off.

"You told me I will age again, Doctor. Then it isn't forever."

"Technicalities," he scoffed. "I might as well make you watch every one you know and love wither and die." He was self-depreciating again.

"Then I would have to watch you wither and die too Doctor." He flinched at this and moved off the bed. Rose watched him move to the sink and wash his face. He dried it with a handkerchief from his jacket that became soaked. He threw it into basket with apparatus to wash up.

"I don't wither Rose. I regenerated." He began cleaning up the microscope, disposing the slides and her blood samples. He packed the microscope back into its proper shelf and took the sanitising spray to disinfect the work-surface.

"I know, but you get the idea." He did not reply. Rose hopped off the bed and walked towards him. She let him finish wiping down the table and organising the Med Bay back to its original state. She watched him flutter around, busy resetting and moving equipment. She took his hand when he had finished and led him out of the room. They ended up in the galley. She was hungry, they had been doing tests for a while. She passed the Doctor a banana from the fruit basket. He just held in his hand, making no move to eat his beloved fruit. Rose arched her eyebrow at him and he grumbled, peeling the banana.

Rose moved to the fridge to find something to eat when the Doctor stopped her. "Hold my banana and sit. I'll get you lunch." Rose did as she was told. The banana was partially peeled so Rose continued until there was no more skin. The Doctor meanwhile made a bread and Nutella sandwich for her, also filling a glass of orange juice. Rose handed him back his banana and together they ate silently.

Rose swallowed her last bite before asking, "Do you know if Mickey ate anything?"

The Doctor stood up and binned the peel. "There's a plate that wasn't here before in the sink and the table's full of crumbs. I'm sure he found something." He took her plate and washed it by hand in the sink, doing the same with her glass. Rose was surprised when he did the same with Mickey's plate instead of whining about it. Perhaps there as an understanding between them. He sonicked them dry and packed them away. Drying his hands on a kitchen towel, he turned to Rose.

"I don't know what to do Rose. How do I fix this?" Rose looked at him, he was distressed and frankly quite agitating to be around. He kept wringing the towel in his hands, burning of excess energy. She stood and removed the towel from him and threw it on the table.

"I won't have chosen the galley for the inevitable conversation of you trying to claim responsibility." The Doctor tried to interject but Rose covered his mouth with her hand. "But, here is as good as any place." She removed her hand from him and smoothed it down his tie.

"I've condemned you to an eternity of hell Rose. You will lose everyone." He placed his hands on her shoulder and gently shook her. "Humans don't see that sort of suffering Rose. There will be so much you cannot change. You will have to watch innocents die cruel and unnecessary deaths. You will see the good that will come from strife but you will also see the shadow that always lingers with the victory of every struggle." He kissed her forehead. "I don't want you to be burdened with that," he whispered.

It coming to an end! Thank you for reading.