~oOo~
The memories he'd made as John Smith were momentarily pushed from the forefront of his mind as nearly a thousand years of memories poured into his head at once. Pain seared his chest as the physiological changes began to take place. He tried to double over in pain, but there was something in front of him. Something, someone warm, soft and kissing him. Rose. Rose was here in his arms. She was real, inexplicably real. He shifted his awareness away from the agony he was going through and instead focused on her. His were lips on hers, needy, hungry, his tongue sliding along hers. His hands roamed her curves, and he felt her fingernails scratch his scalp. How many times had he thought about this, dreamed about it?
Recent memories overwhelmed the Doctor: Rose and the man in his body, John Smith, sleeping in her bed, kissing under the stars, making love in front of the fireplace. All things that he wanted and welcomed both as John and as the Doctor. Her words from just before the watch opened. Love you as the Doctor, If you want, Not if you still want me and for the first time in nearly twenty years, for the first time since she had left, he felt hope.
When the pain finally eased, he pulled back so he could look at her properly. His eyes locked with hers, searching to see if they still held the assurances they had mere minutes before. They did. "Rose," he breathed and pulled her close once more.
"Hello, Doctor," she whispered. "Welcome back."
His arms tightened around her. "I missed you."
"Missed you, too." She pulled away a bit but didn't leave his arms. "How much do you remember of the last few months?"
He paused. This was the moment where he had a decision to make, lie to her and to himself or tell her the truth. During his time as John Smith, Rose had been as honest with him as she could. She told him about her past relationships, told him how much he'd hurt her. She had told him that it was his choice, all of time and space, with her, if that's what he wanted. And oh, how he wanted.
"Everything," he murmured, his fingers now stroking the bare skin of her back.
"You remember what I said about there not being any difference in my mind about this you and that you?" Her eyes held questions that before she had left him he wouldn't have been able to answer. Now, after having been without her and then finding her again, having her grant him forgiveness, all he wanted was to make things right with her. The Doctor loved Rose, and her leaving had hurt him deeply. More than anything, he wished he could love her as openly as he had as John. He wanted to, that was certain, but could he?
"I do," he finally affirmed.
"One step forward not two steps back, yeah?" There was so much loaded into her question that it should have scared him, but it didn't.
"Yes," he answered immediately.
Rose quickly kissed him and then turned around. Before he could truly register that Rose Tyler had just casually kissed him, she was talking again. "Unzip me? Please," she asked over her shoulder.
Immediately, his mind went to when he had undressed her last night, in this very room. She couldn't possibly mean… Could she? Right here, right now. Not that he didn't want to, because he did. But the timing didn't seem to be right, not with everything going on. He tugged at his ear. "You want to do… that now?" His voice was slightly shaky even as he felt his desire for her grow.
"Not that." Rose rolled her eyes, and he knew she could see the disappointment that he felt. "At least not right now. Later maybe, if you're up for it. It's just, I can't help you dispose of the Family and their ship in an evening gown."
Her mention of the Family brought him back to the reality of their situation. They had tried to hurt Rose, believed that she could extend their lives. They would have consumed her too. "Right," he said in a clipped tone; time to get down to business.
Maybe not. The pendant on the hollow of her throat caught his attention. He had given her that. "You kept the necklace," he said as he unzipped her. "I wasn't sure that you would." He tried, unsuccessfully, not to notice that she didn't try and hide herself from him as the dress fell to the floor.
Her fingers automatically flew to the pendant. "I did, and I kept the note too. Thank you." Leaning up she kissed his cheek and then went to gather her clothes.
"You're welcome." His eyes traced her curves as she pulled on a pair of jeans, boots and a jumper. In the course of three minutes she was changed, and he would be lying if he said that he wasn't disappointed that she was now fully dressed.
"Ready?" she asked, holding out her hand to him.
He was ready to reply in the affirmative when he remembered. "Key… the TARDIS key." He patted his same size on the inside pockets, knowing that it wouldn't be in there but not knowing where else to look.
Rose grinned and walked over the jewellery box on her bureau. "Seriously, Doctor, how did you survive without me for ten years?"
"It wasn't just ten years, not for me" he replied, pain evident in his voice even though he'd tried to hide it. "It was over two decades. I've spent the last twenty years without you, and sometimes I don't know how I survived. Drove Martha away, didn't travel with anyone else really. Except for Donna and she yelled the whole time because she thought I was trying to ruin her wedding. I was miserable without you by my side."
"Doctor, I'm sorry." Her voice softened. "I'm here now, and I'm not planning on leaving you again."
"Until the next time I take you for granted." He turned his head, not able to look at her.
"Well, there's a simple solution for that." Rose took his hand in hers and led them from the bedroom. "Don't take me for granted anymore."
If only it were that simple. "I'll try," he promised softly.
There was the slightest hint of her tongue poking out of her mouth as she grinned. "Good. Come on."
He held tightly to her hand as they made their way down to the basement. The sight of his TARDIS was comforting and the touch of her against his mind was a relief. Once inside, Rose ran the fingers of her free hand along the coral strut near the door as she let the Doctor take the lead now.
"So, do you think that you can land us back at the party on time, or are you going to be a little late this time? Hopefully not another ten years late." She was teasing, he knew that, but he also knew that his bad driving had caused both of them a lot of pain. Not to mention what his Ninth self had done to Jackie and Mickey by bringing her home a year late.
The Doctor focused on setting the coordinates, not able meet her eyes. "After you… rightfully left, I was devastated and floated in the Vortex for a while, and I figured I'd give you a few days berth and then come back and see if I could do damage control. But I got it wrong, and I was too late. Seven year too late. You were already…."
"I was already seeing Liam," Rose finished. "Let me wrap my head around this. I just need to get it straight. Right after I left you, you accidentally jumped seven years into my future, and then you kept coming back into Mum's timeline, and sending me flowers but not interfering because either you knew my future, or I was with someone else. And you've spent twenty years, linear time for you, alone while it's only been ten years, relatively, for me."
"Yes," he whispered.
"I'm so sorry." That small initial mistake had cost them both so much. And yet she wasn't sure that she would have changed it if she could. Despite missing him, too many wonderful things had happened to her in that time. "While we're in telling truths, I missed you so much. I still don't think I was wrong for leaving, but I forgave you years back."
Tugging him closer, she moved a hand to his cheek, forcing him to look at her. "I waited five years before I moved on. Before I realized that you weren't coming back."
"I missed you, and I always wanted to see you again," he confessed. Gently she stroked his cheekbone with his thumb. Her words forced him to relax. "I wasted so much time, something I would like to rectify very soon." Leaning down, he pressed his forehead against hers.
"I was never not going to open the watch." She shook her head slightly. "I loved the time we had together when you were John, but I always wanted the Doctor to fully come back."
This time he initiated the kiss. His lips brushed hers, and he ached to deepen it, to just stay here for the rest of eternity. Nonetheless they had things to deal with before that could happen, and it would happen. Reluctantly he pulled back and for the first time since the watch had been opened, he smiled. "Let's go take care of the bad guys."
"You really know what to say to a girl, don't you?" Rose gave him a sly grin. "I really missed this part."
"How did you survive ten years without the adventure?" One corner of his mouth twitched. "Guess I'm not the only one who has lost time to make up for. Just don't go back to your jeopardy friendly ways."
Rose snorted. "You have no reason to talk. Let's recap the last twelve weeks, shall we? You, Mr Smith…" He wrinkled his nose when she called him Smith. He really hoped it didn't become a thing that she did. "You, had a woman threatening to press harassment charges against you, ended up in the hospital, got in a fistfight and spent the night in jail. Now who's the jeopardy friendly one?"
"Well, if you hadn't been all flirty with Liam, three of those things wouldn't have happened." He moved around the console flipping several switches.
"You're blaming this on me?" Rose rolled her eyes.
"No," he affirmed. "That was all me being an arrogant twat. And what happened with Joan was hardly my fault."
"I know. Joan is a self-serving man eater just looking for a meal ticket." Rose's face fell. "Was, Joan was all of those things, but she was still a person who had people that cared about her, and the Family killed her."
The Doctor thought of the people that the Family had consumed, and it enraged him. George and Joan weren't the nicest of people, but they didn't deserve to be murdered. Brock was just a kid, with so much potential that now would never be realized. Mrs Sterns, the librarian, had a husband, children and grandchildren that would now have to live on without her, and Officer Montgomery was just doing his job. Now he was nothing but atoms. Their deaths were on him.
"Doctor, this isn't your fault," Rose maintained. "You didn't kill them."
"If I hadn't come here…" Those people wouldn't have died, but he wouldn't have reconnected with Rose. He hated himself more for thinking that maybe this was all worth it if he got her back. "Right, time to deal with them. Allons-y." He went to flip the switch to start the dematerialization process when Rose's hand stopped him.
"What are you planning to do to them?" Her voice was hard. Almost as if she knew that his plans for the Family's fate would not be pleasant. She was right.
"They wanted to live forever. Now I'll make it so that they can." He wouldn't look at her. He couldn't. "And they will find that it's a lonely existence."
"No."
"What?" This time he turned towards her, still not quite meeting her eyes. "What did you say?"
"I said no." Her tone softened, and she laid a hand on her arm. "Living a long time doesn't have to be lonely. Not for you, not anymore."
Images of the visions of a human life with Rose flashed through his mind. In them he had aged, but she had not. "What do you mean?"
"Jack for one thing, he's well over a hundred years old now," she explained, and he barely suppressed the shudder when he thought back to how wrong Jack felt to him the Game Station. Her grip on his arm tightened before she continued. "Then there's me."
His jaw clenched while he waited for her to continue. This time it was Rose who broke contact. Biting her lip, she walked over to the jump seat and sat down. "I don't know how it happened, but I think it has to do with my time as Bad Wolf. I'm sure you've noticed that I'm barely aging. For years I didn't even think about it, or notice it really. Then there was an accident, just a broken bone, but it healed way too quick. Martha ran all the tests that she could. She didn't find the cause, didn't find much of anything at all. Except that my rate of cellular decay had almost stopped."
A million questions ran through his mind in that moment, and the only thing that mattered was that he had the possibility of spending a very long time with the beautiful, amazing woman in front of him. He took a step towards her. "Oh, Rose…"
"I promise I'm not choosing to be with you because of the aging thing," she interrupted. "And you can run any test that you want as soon as we deal with the Family." Standing, she came over and took his hand. The calming effect it had was immediate. "You said they were like mayflies, yeah?"
He nodded. "I did. What are you thinking, Rose Tyler?"
"Short life span. Can we take them somewhere? Away from anyone that they could hurt, and they could just live out the rest of their lives."
That was such a Rose thing to say. It was nice to see that some things didn't change. "Agreed, but if they try and harm you again, all bets are off."
"Deal," agreed Rose. "Now let's go get Clara before they wake up."
Unenthusiastically, he extricated himself from Rose and started the dematerialization sequence. "Time machine, love. I can get us there ten seconds after we left." Out of the corner of his eye, he caught her small smile when he let the term of endearment slip. It was one that he had used often when he was John. He still liked the way it sounded when he said it. Not that he planned on saying it often, at least not in front of other people. There was a soft thud as the ship landed. Rose was halfway out the door before the Doctor caught up to her.
"Clara," Rose called, running across the room to her friend. For a moment the brunette stiffened before she recognized the pair.
"Blimey, that was fast," Clara replied, looking slightly relieved. "You two have only been gone five minutes."
"Told you I could do it," the Doctor chided Rose and then turned to Clara. "Hello, I'm the Doctor by the way. You're a tricky one, pulling double duty for UNIT. A very good friend of mine worked there, several of them in fact. Anyway, why don't we move these four into the TARDIS? I have the perfect place in mind for them."
Clara stuck her heads through the open door. "It's just like the reports said, bigger on the inside than the outside."
"And she's beautiful. Isn't she?" Rose said softly, coming up behind her. The TARDIS hummed appreciatively, and the time rotor thrummed, just once.
"What was that?" Clara asked in surprise.
Grinning, Rose explained, "She's alive, and she's just expressing her gratitude at the compliment. Aren't you, girl?" The ship hummed again. "I can feel her in my head."
"Alright, ladies, let's stop gabbing and get this over with," the Doctor interjected. Leaning over to Rose he whispered, "We'll talk about that feeling her in your head thing later."
Catching her tongue between her teeth, Rose grinned. "Amongst other things, I'm sure."
Together the Doctor, Rose and Clara managed to lug the four alien-inhabited bodies into the TARDIS. The Doctor dragging two of them easily, Rose was surprised that he didn't taut his superior biology. "Clara, keep an eye on them," he instructed. "If they so much as twitch a muscle you let me know. Alright?"
"Alright," Clara agreed, moving her hand to her sidearm.
"No guns," the Doctor shouted as he programmed in the coordinates.
Clara rolled her eyes. "Saved our arses earlier."
Under his breath, the Doctor mumbled something that even Rose who was standing right next to him couldn't hear. However, she'd bet 10 quid that it was something rude. "Be nice," she warned. "Clara saved my life earlier."
He paused and moved to cup her cheek. "And for that, I am eternally grateful."
Turning her head, she kissed his palm before he went back to the controls. It was only a few minutes before they landed with a thud. Both the Doctor and Rose were able to keep their feet under them. Clara, however, had to grab a nearby strut for support and still nearly fell over.
"Where are we?" Clara asked after the Doctor pushed the door open.
"When are we?" Rose smirked. "God, I missed saying that."
Stepping outside, the Doctor spread his arms wide. "Welcome to Stalnic in the year 75,052. In about six weeks the sun is going to go supernova. All sentient life has already been evacuated. No one left for the family to inhabit. They can live out the rest of their short lives here, together. Never hurting anyone ever again."
Again the three of them quickly moved the four family members. They were laid out side by side on the ground. When they had finished, the Doctor took Rose's hand and led them back inside the TARDIS. Clara followed after.
"We're just going to leave them there?" Clara asked, bewildered.
"Yes," the Doctor replied curtly.
Clara was about to argue, but Rose stopped her. "It's the most humane thing to do. They only have a short time left, and we can't do anything to bring back those people they…killed." She swallowed hard on the last word. "If we killed them, we would be no better than they are. Now they die in peace at the end of their natural lives."
The familiar vworping sound of the Time Rotor filled the air as they made their way back to Earth. There was still work to be done.