A/N: I want to take a min to say a blushing thanks for your comments on my chapter that wasn't really a chapter. My intention really wasn't to get an ego stroke out of it, but you guys made me feel so much better with your kind words and encouragement.

I shouldn't have fed the trolls, I know that ... but I am honestly so sick and tired of the consistent hate that Rose Tyler fans receive from River Song fans that I snapped. For Rassilon's sake, just let whoever ship whoever they want to ship and leave them be with it. Your world ain't gonna end because they sail on another ship, you know. If it is your belief that the Doctor is a better man in the presence of a cheating, stealing, lying, physchotic Mary Sue, then more power to you. I personally think that a man like the Doctor should grow to be a "better" man .. which is what he was when he was with Rose.

But, hey .. that's my opinion... I don't believe that the Doctor should only ever love just the once... Heck, I shipped him hard with Romana, Tegan, Sarah-Jane, Rose, and as much as I wasn't a fan of her at all, I actually might've shipped Eleven and Clara a little... The man can love as often as he can - let's just make the recipient of that love worthy of it, okay? If she cheats, she's not. If she lies, she's not. If she steals from him, she's not ...

/soapbox rant

To the chapter:

Uhm. I'm really not sure about whether or not to put warnings for this chapter. This deals with a dark and flip-flopping crazy man and a fearful wife ... and I'm not quite sure if that might be a trigger point for anyone... It could qualify, I reckon, but I'm not quite sure how to tag that because I don't quite know what to tag it under...

Tentoo is sinceriously messed up, yeah ... he's not in his right head, so he's going to flip and flop and not be right... Sorry if that offends or anything like that.

...Please feel free to tap me on the shoulder with tag ideas if you feel they're needed.

I hope this doesn't disturb you. I hope it doesn't confuse you. I really and honestly hope you enjoy this.

~~oooOOOooo~~

The crackling, static-charged force field that surrounded them hadn't had a chance to completely dissipate into nothingness before her pinstriped Doctor forcibly shoved Rose Tyler inches forward and away from him. His hands gripped firmly at her arms – just below the swell of her shoulder – with such intensity that she knew it would leave bruises.

He held his eyes closed and panted several deep and calming breaths before he finally dared speak.

"My Rose Tyler," he said softly. His eyes opened slowly and the grip he had on her arms softened enough that he could run his hands up and down. He dipped his chin to look into her eyes with a cheeky look through his lashes and smiled. "It seems to me that you've forgotten rule number one."

She hitched in a fast inhale. "Doctor…"

His tongue clicked before she could continue what he knew would be a pathetic attempt to try and make excuses. With a shake of his head he drew the fingertips of his left hand along the sharp line of her jaw. "Rose. That's not my name." His voice held slight condescension in it. "It hasn't been for a very long time now, has it?"

"I'm sorry," she rushed out.

"Have you forgotten that, too?" he asked curiously as he lifted his eyes to the top of her head in an exaggerated display of analysis. His eyes then fell to hers again and he spoke to her as he might a child. "Did you hit your head?"

Rose shook her head with tight movements. After curling the tip of her tongue out of the corner of her mouth and drawing in a shuddering breath, Rose breathed out a multi-syllable string of sound that left her lips in song.

He closed his eyes and inhaled through a smile. "Say it again, Rose."

She repeated the sound, but this time finished by adding a sentiment taught to her long ago, before she had any confidence at all in curling her tongue around the language of the Time Lords; back when a hand grew into an excitable man who wanted nothing more than to embrace life and love and everything else that he couldn't when he was the last child of Gallifrey.

"No matter what," she breathed in English. She let her fingers dance lightly at the waistband of his trousers; at his hip. "Forever."

The desired effect was devastating and immediate as the Doctor crushed his mouth to hers in a ferocious kiss that was able to push her backward and up against the thick edge of a wooden tabletop without him even having to use his hands or body to guide her there.

Rose whimpered into his mouth as the unbridled passion of her husband that fired any time she breathed out that simple three-syllable English word. She shuddered in wait for the feel of his hands to clutch tightly the very apex of her thighs to lift her against him. There was no doubt in her mind that he would. In thirty years of marriage he never faltered in reacting that way when she combined his language and hers to express her commitment to him.

He purred as he plundered the inside of her mouth with a relentless tongue. His purr shifted to a growl as he gripped hard at her backside and lifted her the required few inches to sit her on the tabletop. He slid his hands from her bum to the tops of her thighs, shifting them high enough that his thumbs hooked deeply into the crease that folded in the front of her trousers.

She panted out his name – eleven lyrical syllables – and wriggled against him as he stepped in between the part on her legs.

He smiled into the kiss and then ended it abruptly. He pulled back with a wet sucking sound and licked at his lip before wiping it with his thumb.

"Rule number one," he repeated huskily. "Rose. What is it?"

She whimpered out a sound of bafflement and shifted her hands in an attempt to draw his mouth back to hers.

"Uh-uh-uh," he chided with a chuckle. He pressed the length of his finger down across her lips and drew back far enough to be able to both loom over her and stare into her eyes. "I asked you a question."

Rose swallowed unsurely. Unnerved slightly by his looming stare, she writhed a little and attempted to draw herself backward. "D-don't," she stammered lightly. "Don't…"

"Wander…" he supplied with an encouraging rise in his brows.

"Don't wander off," she answered fully. Her eyes shifted off to one side in shame and she reached up to her shoulder as though to pull up the fallen bra strap underneath the long sleeve of her shirt.

He nodded a short bob of his head. "We've known each other, well, for thirty seven years now – relative time for you of course. Not quite so long for me."

She nodded, but didn't make any comment.

"And when we landed in the Blitz – oh, so long ago now – that rule was established, yeah?" His head tiled to one side. "Of course you immediately defied that rule, which I could quite easily forgive at the time, what, with your impetuous youthful curiosity and excitement and all." He slid his thumb over her jaw and to her chin to lever her face back to his. "But now you've grown up. You've matured…"

"I'm sorry," she breathed out remorsefully.

His mouth dropped open so that he could huff out a pair of sounds of chiding. "Uh-uh. Let me finish."

Rose nodded and then winced in apology, but she didn't say anything.

He smiled a toothy smile and then kissed her forehead with a lingering press of his lips. He released her and then took a single and long stride backward. "Rose," he began in a breathy voice. "You know that my entire universe is inside you, yeah? That everything I do, have done and will do is for your safety and happiness." He stepped forward and lifted his hands to cup her face in a tender hold. His voice softened to urgency. "You understand that, don't you?"

Her face contorted into a wince of apology. "I do," she answered with breathless affirmation. "Doctor, I do."

His face immediately hardened and he snatched his hands from her face with a growl. "I told you not to call me that," he snarled as he took a step back from her. He twisted to the side and snorted out a trio of displeased breaths, and then looked down his shoulder at her. He lifted an arm to point toward where she was seated on the tabletop.

"I am not him," he vowed fiercely. "I am not the self-righteous coward who cast away the most important person to enter his life – any of them – and then locked her behind an impenetrable wall so he could scarper off like a frightened tafelshrew back out into the universe…" his face contorted as his words trailed off and morphed into a string of lyrical syllables that Rose knew beyond all doubt were the filthiest of Gallifreyan profanities.

"I know that you're not…"

"I am not that coward, Rose," he continued harshly. "And every time you use that name…" He spun to face her directly. His hands folded tight across his chest and his chin lowered dramatically to that he could glare through furious brows at her. "It's been thirty two years since Bad Wolf Bay," he stated with a growl. "Thirty two years since he took everything from the both of us and abandoned us to the alternate universe, yet you still pine for him, don't you?"

Rose's eyes widened at the accusation and at the venom in the voice that asked it. She shook her head tightly. "No." She spoke his name with only the slightest of shudders in her voice. "I don't. Not now. Not anymore." She opened her arms to him. "I'm yours. Only yours. Always. Forever." She tipped her head to one side with urging. "Please tell me you believe me."

His stance softened and he released the taut cross of his arms so that he could rub at one eye with a finger. His voice lost its edge. "I really wish I could believe that, Rose. I really do."

"What can I do to make you believe that?" she queried with slight worry in her voice. It fell to a whisper that held fear in the answer. "Tell me."

His head snapped up and his anger fell firmly back in place. "First things first," he growled as he quickly stalked toward her. He roughly snapped open the thigh pocket of her black pants and tore a thin tube from inside with enough force to make her yelp and shrink back from him. "This," he held it up to her. "Has got to go."

Rose's eyes flashed wide and horrified. "No. You can't…"

He hurled it against the wall without taking his eyes off her. He didn't even flinch when it collided hard with the wall and shattered with an explosive electrical pop and zap. "Of everyone who has ever entered my life – and trust me, Rose Tyler, there have been more than a few people – you are supposed to be the one I trust."

"You can," she vowed fiercely. "Vale. Please. You know you can trust me."

He laughed a rueful chuckle. "You stole from me," he said breathlessly as he looked away from her. "Then you ran from me."

She widened her eyes to offer him desperate innocence and shook her head. "No. That's not right. That's not what happened."

His brows lifted, and his eyes widened, but he kept the focus of his stare low and off to the side. "Oh I want to believe you, Rose. I do." His brows fell but his eyes remained wide. "I want to believe that you didn't steal my cross-dimensional beacon, attach its signal to another Gallifreyan time vessel, and navigate yourself across the universal walls to land directly in front of his TARDIS." He lifted his eyes finally to hers. "I'd love to believe that the jump beacon can be activated and executed so easily that it can activate accidentally in the course of your daily routine."

Rose sniffed.

"That said, well," he drawled facetiously. "Destroying it is a necessity, isn't it? Imagine if we have kids, Rose. They'd be toddling around, come across it, and …" He clapped his hands loudly together, which startled Rose enough to yelp. "Whammo! Off to the other side of a dimensional wall." He rubbed at the back of his neck. "Really have to work on my child-proofing, don't I?"

Rose's eyes locked on the shattered piece of technology on the white tiled floor of the room with longing. She winced as it zapped and sparked in a fight for life. "Vale," she said softly without lifting her eyes. "I'm so sorry. I really don't know what I was thinking."

"You want to leave me, don't you?" he asked with no small measure of petulance buried inside his sadness. "Thirty years of devotion and sacrifice, and the first glimmer of hope you have to go back to him, you take it."

"Don't be daft," she ground out through clenched teeth. "I might want to cross back over to my original universe, Vale." She slid off the table and stalked toward him. "But I have no desire at all to ever – ever – see him again." She curled her arms around his neck to coax him into a cuddle. "You are the only child of Gallifrey I want." She breathed out his Gallifreyan name against his ear.

He turned into her and pressed his forehead to hers. "Do you want to leave me, Rose?"

"I want to leave here," she stated firmly. "I need to get y…" she cleared her throat. "I mean me free of this place."

His arms tightened around her to an almost possessive hold. "Why," he practically growled as he drilled his forehead harder against hers. "Haven't I given you everything you want? Marriage, a home, a life where you need for nothing?" He inhaled. "Love, Rose. Haven't I given you all the love you want?" He panted against her face. "I breathe you, Rose. I bleed you…."

His face tightened to a wince and he angled his head just slightly as though in pain. "And yet. You still want the love of the one who doesn't even know the meaning of the word."

"Valeyard," she begged lightly. "Vale, please."

"I stayed," he hissed through his teeth at her, still with his forehead held tightly against hers. "I was the one who loved you, Rose. I could've run, too, you know. But I didn't. I stayed. I stayed here with you and I loved." He panted. "By Rassilon and the Gods themselves, Rose. I've loved you."

"I love you too," she whispered in reply.

"Then why?" he begged softly. "Why did I find you in the market place with him?"

Rose sniffed wetly. "I've never been good at navigation, Vale. I'm almost as rubbish at it as you've always been." She smiled when he chuckled. "I didn't know that it would send me to the TARDIS. Please believe me. After all you've said about him, all that you've told me about who he truly is. Vale. Why would I ever go to him?"

He kept his voice quiet and almost reverent. "You should've asked me, Rose. I would've taken you myself." He smiled. "A vacation. You and me. Wouldn't that be wonderful, Rose? Just you and me, alone, reliving the early days of us. Making love and being in love and travelling the world."

"That'd be so nice," she whispered longingly.

He snapped away from her and gave a single laugh as he stalked toward the quiet little device on the floor and gave it a kick. "Well. Can't do that now, can we? Nope. Not now. Not. Right. Now."

"But you have another one, yeah?"

He slowly cranked his head to look toward her with a stare full of distrust that was heated enough to make her step a stride backward. "Why?"

She swallowed uncomfortably enough that she aspirated part of it, which made her cough.

"Not ready," he murmured to himself. He walked toward her to give her some hits across her shoulder blades to help with her cough. "Not me. Not you. And definitely not the device."

"Then forget about cross dimensional travel," she pleaded as she tentatively took a couple of steps toward him. "Let's just go. You and me. Let's throw a dart at the map of the world, pack up a few things and just go." She made it to his side and curled her hand around his elbow. "Please, Love. Let's get away from here." She looked around the room with disgust. "Get out of this place and just run. Run like we used to, yeah?"

He looked down into her face and offered her a brief smile. He dragged the pad of his thumb along the corner of her lip and across her cheek, and then brushed his mouth softly against hers. "I can't leave. You know that."

"Yes you can," she implored him inside a desperate whine. It wasn't beneath her to beg. "Please, Vale. I need this, and so do you. Come with me. Run."

"What you need," he suggested quietly. "Is to spend some time with Dr. Song."

Immediately rose began to tremble in his hold. "No. Please. No."

He clicked his tongue a couple of times and drew himself away from her. He had to smile when she quickly struggled to cuddle against him again. "My precious girl," he cooed as he allowed her to mould herself against him once more. "I need to make sure that you didn't hurt yourself when you crossed through the void without any form of protection."

She clutched onto him tightly. "I'm fine. I promise you I'm fine."

"Are you a Doctor?"

"I'll go to any other Doctor," she begged him. "Just please, Vale. Not her. No more."

He held tightly at her trembling form and sighed against her hair. "You have such a special physiology, Rose, that I can't risk you seeing any other Doctor." He dropped his nose onto the top of her head and blew against her hair. "Just imagine what they'll so when they discover how special you are. The experiments they'll perform…"

"And you think she's any different," she growled, ending her question with his Gallifreyan name. she shoved herself off him and tried to back off, only to have him grab her back into him. "Do you have any idea what kinds of invasive tests that she puts me through every single time you send me to her?"

"Anything River does, Rose…" He sighed. "Is necessary. For you. For me. For us." He kissed at her head. "To keep you safe, my precious girl." He nuzzled into her hair. "To make sure that for the rest of your lives you have someone with you to protect you." He kissed her hair. "To love you." He lowered his mouth to her cheek. "To worship and honour you."

She stiffened in his hold. "What do you mean?"

"Forever, Rose," he answered with his lips against the side of her mouth. "That word that belongs to you and me."

A husky voice chuckled from the doorway. "Would you like some wine with that chest, Valeyard?"

Rose shrank against her husband and let out a whimper. "No. Please."

A smile broke out onto his face; a toothy grin that stretched almost the full space between his ears. "Doctor Song! What're you doing here?"

She rolled her eyes and shrugged coyly. "Oh. I heard reports of atmospheric disturbances centred around this office with wavelength signatures identical to your dimensional beacon." She shrugged off the doorway and looked at her nails as she approached the pair. "I figured that your beloved wife might've gotten curious and therefore accidentally activated the beacon."

"And how'd you figure that?" he asked with a smirk.

"By the second signature that overrode the first," she answered with a wink and a lick t her lip. "Which means you had to go and find our little adventurer, didn't you?" She dropped her eyes to Rose. "Did you get yourself into any trouble, Rose?" Her eyes widened cheekily. "Or did you meet anyone of any interest?"

The Valeyard's face stoned up. His voice hardened. "Noone that would interest you, River."

"Oh," she sang. "Sweetie, Judging by your sudden switch from fun to irrationally jealous, I'm quite sure she met someone very interesting on the other side."

He snorted a sound of annoyance. "I'll need you to take a look at Rose for me, River. Make sure that she hasn't exposed herself to any unpleasant void particles or Prime Universe viruses."

Rose grunted. "I'm fine."

River hummed with a smile. "It's best that you let me be the judge of that, young lady." She made a sweeping motion in the air. "My office is already prepared for you. So off you go. I'll be along in a minute. I just need to speak to your loving husband for a moment."

"I'm fine," Rose growled, burrowing deeper into the Valeyard's pinstriped chest.

He lightly wriggled to draw her away from him. Holding her at arm's length, he leaned forward deeply in order to press a kiss to her forehead. "For me," he said tenderly. "For my peace of mind. Please Rose."

She winced as she nodded and pulled away from him. Her voice was a mere whisper when she offered him a resigned agreement. "I'll see you later?"

"I'll have a special dinner made for us," he promised. "In front of the fireplace. You'd like that, yeah?" He smiled and traced his finger tip down along the bridge of her nose and over her lips. "Red wine and making love on the sheepskin rug by the fire."

"Yeah," she answered quietly with a fake smile on her lips. "I'd like that."

"Then go," he urged. "The quicker your exam is over, the faster we can come together, yeah?"

He held onto his gentle smile as he watched her nod and then leave the room. The moment the door closed behind her, the smile fell. His entire stature slouched in annoyance. "That was far too close."

River Song nodded slowly. "I take it she came across your counterpart over there?"

"Almost," he snarled. "Of course the old man wasn't as quick as the younger version." He looked to her. "I barely got to her in time."

She hooked her arm around his elbow and led him toward the table. With practiced movements, she lifted herself up onto her toes to move into a seat upon the wooden top. "Come here," she purred as she drew him close to stand in between the part of her legs. "We're almost ready, Valeyard."

He dropped his ear against her breast and closed his eyes as he fell into her hold. "How much longer?"

She stroked at his head and hooked her ankles behind his back. "That depends, Sweetie. Do you want her to live, or to die?"

He stiffened in her hold.

"You can take it all and sacrifice her," she continued. "Or you take what you need, let her survive, and go with your original plan of crossing dimensions to go after him for everything he has left."

He unhooked her ankles from behind his back and stepped away from her. "I'm not losing her," he vowed with a snarl. "She's not a sacrifice. I will die before she does. Rose is all I have in the universe."

"You have me," she offered with a wink.

"Noone has you, River," he shot back hotly. "So don't even pretend to offer what you aren't willing to give."

"We are something magnificent, you and me," she countered with a lick at her lip. "I can give you what you want; what you need. For you…"

"Don't mistake lust for love," he warned darkly. "You are spitfire and rockets. You ignite something in me and sate a hunger that I could never beg of Rose to satisfy." He thrust his hands deep into his trouser pockets. "But Rose. She gives me something that no one else could ever give. She makes me a better person – she makes me want to be someone magnificent."

"And me?"

"You are the worst influence in the entire multiverse, Doctor Song."

"I make you a bad boy, then?" She winked. "Nothing wrong with that."

He exhaled a deep breath. "Please see to my wife. Make sure she hasn't done any damage to herself by crossing the void unprotected."

River Song shrugged. "She did it countless times before you were created, Valeyard. I'm sure she's perfectly fine." She then smirked and licked at her lips around a smile as she openly raked her eyes up and down his body. "But if she has given herself mortal injuries and we're left with no choice but to move to plan B…?"

He stepped in close to her, nose to nose. "The only 'Plan B' we have in place," he threatened darkly. "Is the method I'll use to eviscerate you if Rose comes to any harm during your experiments. Am I clear?"

She let out a disgusted breath of annoyance. "Perfectly."

He straightened up and gave her a beaming and toothy grin. "Well chop chop, then, Doctor Song," he sang as he gave her backside a pair of firm slaps. "I have plans with my beloved this evening, and so the sooner you check her over the better."

She rolled her eyes, but skipped obediently and even giggled at his touch. She wriggled her fingers in a rather facetious manner as she left the room.

He shook his head and walked back over to the table. He pressed his hands into its surface and leaned down with a drop of his head to let it hang below his shoulders. "Well, Doctor," he said quietly to himself. "I've done what you couldn't. I've worked out how to cross the dimensional walls, and in time…" He smirked a one-sided smile and slowly lifted his head. "I'll have the power of regeneration in my hands." He stood straight and slid his hands into his trouser pockets. Slowly he let his head rise to look up at the ceiling as though looking up into the stars themselves. "And when I have that, then I'll come for you…"

"…We have a score to settle, you and I."