Author's Note: This was originally intended to be four chapters but ideas just keep popping into my head and this one actually wrote itself at work today while I was at lunch. I now have no idea how long this story will be and I'm hoping that you're all enjoying it enough that you don't mind too much. :)

Disclaimer: I do not own anything in relation to Dr. Who.

"So this is an Earth wedding?" asks the Master uninterestedly while he scans the area in disdain. "How long do we have to stay?"

"Until the end of the ceremony would be nice!" hisses Rose under her breath as she attempts to listen to the couple as they exchange their vows. "Now will you please be quiet?"

The Master offers her a scowl before settling down in a huff of frustration. To his credit, he does remain silent for all of thirty seconds before turning back to her. "It's simply that I don't understand why we're here. Not only do I barely tolerate these people at work but the mere act of this farce is a complete waste of our time!" He leans back in his chair as he releases a resigned sigh. "What is the point of all of these theatrics anyway?"

In a fruitless effort to calm herself down, she slowly counts to ten before answering him in a harsh whisper. "On Earth, we have ceremonies where we invite our families and friends to share in the joy of vowing our love and commitment to the person that we want to share the rest of our life with. Didn't you have something similar on Gallifrey?"

"Yes, but with a lot less emotional drivel and a lot more paperwork." He squints at the couple standing before the minister and notes, "I hope they haven't unwrapped any of their gifts yet. With the way their timelines are weaving away from each other, I don't know which will last longer, their relationship or the ice sculpture."

Rose shoots him a deadly glare while an elderly woman shushes them from behind. "What?" demands the Master with an annoyed glance at the old woman. "We're not in a movie theater." At her affronted look, he offers a smug smirk and gestures towards the couple who have just been pronounced man and wife. "See? Now you made us miss the big finish."

With a defeated shake of her head and firm rub at her temples, Rose suggests, "Why don't I just give my congratulations to the happy couple and then we can go?"

He watches her weary expression as she rises from her chair to join the throng of well-wishers and inquires curiously, "What's the rush? I thought you wanted to be here for the rest of this mockery so that you could catch the garter and bouquet."

"The men catch the garter, Master, the women catch the bouquet," she responds with a trace of sadness in her tone and a deep sigh. "I'd much rather just go home."

"Are you sure?" he offers gallantly as he withdraws his laser screwdriver from his pocket. "I came prepared," he declares with a cheeky wink. "I didn't want you missing out."

Her only reply is to shake her head as he studies her unusually quiet reaction in response to him threatening to take out an opponent or two on her behalf. His gaze drifts past her to view the bride and her friends and family's dramatic reactions and grimaces with disgust. "Well, I doubt you're missing much besides drunken toasts and two people who are obviously in desperate need for attention," he remarks as he watches a flock of doves take to the sky.

She's still watching him with a somber expression as he hastens to her assure her while he lifts her hand to his mouth for a gentle kiss. "No worries, love, I can promise you that I will never put you through such a humiliating spectacle."

"Yeah, I know," acknowledges Rose with a nod of her head. "I think that I'm beginning to see that now."

As she turns to walk away to join the others, he considers her instantaneous change of attitude and her words, and realizes that if he doesn't rectify this situation soon that he never will have to worry about the possibility of an Earth union with Rose Tyler. Because she will have left him long before they come to that point in their relationship.

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The Master tosses Rose's keys onto the side table while barely catching her muttered, "Thanks for driving," before she strides past him and heads towards their bedroom without another word.

"Rose," he calls her back to him as she watches in confusion while he bears a pained expression of discomfort as he tries to gather his words. "I think we need to talk."

"You want to talk?" she asks suspiciously before her eyes light up with fire. "What have you done?"

"Nothing," he admits blithely, "which is why you're upset with me." She starts to shake her head in immediate denial but he reaches out to lay a hand alongside her face to still the movement. "I've not made my intentions clear to you."

Her expression becomes a bit guilty as she knows how much he hates discussing anything, but especially feelings, and for the fact that he apparently feels the same even though neither of them have ever pressed the other for any type of commitment.

"I'm sorry," she apologizes as she steps forward and nestles into him. "You've nothing to feel bad about; I'm just having one of those days."

"One of those days where you miss him?" he asks a bit coldly. "Is it the man himself or your foolish imaginings that you could promise your forever to him and live a fairy tale happily ever after?"

"And what is that supposed to mean?" she spits as she presses her hands against his chest and shoves him away from her.

"I'm not him, Rose, and I'm never going to be and I need to be sure that you know that before I declare myself to you." He loosens his tie and tugs it free to throw it over the back of the couch before removing his suit jacket. "I need to know that I'm the one that you want."

"What are you talking about?" she cries in confusion. "You're the only one that I want!" She stalks back over to him and jabs her finger in his chest. "I have never been unfaithful to you, never once looked at another man since we started seeing each other and I have never, ever, not even once compared you to him, in any way!"

He rejects her refusal with an unwavering stare. "But you have, Rose, you compare me every day. Maybe not physically or even intellectually, although of course neither would be a very fair comparison, at least for him." She's about to roll her eyes at his stupid alien male pride when he hits the nail right on the head. "However, every day in every way you compare me to him. I may be a telepath, Rose, but I don't need to be one to know what you're thinking. You think I'm like him because you think I'm going to leave you behind."

"No," she whispers with an emphatic shake of her head in desperate denial of both his accusation and the truth in his words. "No…don't, don't say anymore."

"But I have to Rose, don't you see?" he pleads with her to see reason. "There's been too much left unsaid already." He grasps her shoulders and firmly squeezes them to ensure her attention. "I am not going to leave you, Rose Tyler, and I have never given you any reason to doubt that." He steps back and gives her a hard stare. "Now, I need you to believe that."

She swallows harshly before questioning in a broken voice, "How can you be so sure? You're a Time Lord, aren't you? Born to control and master time? How is a man like that supposed to be content to stay in one time and place when there's so much more out there?" Her lower lip trembles as she whispers in a biting tone, the one subject that is never discussed, that has haunted them since they had first came together as friends and then lovers, the Doctor. "He couldn't."

"And yet you still love him. What is it about him, Rose?" he requests callously. "What is it about a man who constantly leaves you behind at the drop of a hat and leaves you to die onboard a spaceship while he's off frolicking with another woman that curries this kind of favor?" He can't understand her right now, can't even fathom what is possibly going through her mind as he asks her this. He feels so confused, and oh, how he loathes that feeling, that he's almost tempted to resort to begging for her answer. Almost, but he doesn't. Because she's right, he's still the Master, a Time Lord after all, and he doesn't beg for anyone.

He watches the tears trail down her face as she steels herself, and truthfully so does he, as she prepares to answer him. "I love him because he showed me the universe and made me feel like the center of his. He made me see how much more than I thought I was capable of and gave me the courage and confidence to prove that to anyone that challenged that. Anybody! Whether it was humans, aliens, himself or even me."

She uses her palms to wipe away her tears and confesses in a scarcely discernible voice, "And I hate him. Because he made me feel that way, made me feel that I was useful and important, not only to a world or to the universe, but to him…sometimes just him." She sniffs away a fresh onset of tears. "But then he left me. As soon as he regenerated he kept leaving me behind, not once looking back until I was in trouble, until I was about to die. And then she came and…," she takes a deep calming breath in order to continue. "And then he didn't look back at all."

"I'm not him, Rose," he reiterates forcefully. "I'm not him and I'm not leaving you. Ever."

"But you don't know that!" she shouts back, unable to hold back her pain and fear any longer. "You can't know that and I can't go through that again!" Her eyes well up and her lower lip trembles as she quiets down. "Don't you see? I can't survive losing you. I died once, you know. The Valiant Child died in battle and I don't think that I can bring myself back to life one more time."

"What more can I do, Rose?" he questions heatedly. "I've loved you, shared my life with you, even my secrets and my shame and I still can't convince you!" He turns away from her to work out his frustration by pacing back and forth. "If nothing I have said or done is going to convince you then maybe I should leave."

Her gaze widens in equal parts shock, horror and fear but her Tyler pride keeps all those feeling at bay as she accepts his decision. "Maybe you should."

"Maybe I will," he retorts without blinking. And for the briefest of moments she believes him and so does he, but in the end neither of them believes in anything but each other.

"Rose," he begins but is cut off as she rushes into his arms. "I'm sorry," they both declare at the same time.

"I am not leaving you, Rose," he presses kisses alongside her temple and holds her tight. "I'm not simply the Time Lord who's stayed with you, I'm the only one who's stayed," he tips her head up so that he can look her in the eyes. "And I always will."

"But how can you be so sure?" she asks fretfully, one last straight to the heart, risk it all question before she allows the last of her defenses to crumble. "How do you know that there's not something out there that you should still be searching for?"

"As a Time Lord, we are trained at the Academy, never to stop searching, whether it be for new scientific advances, new techniques in medicine or merely knowledge in general." He strokes his thumb along the apple of her cheek and finally reveals his greatest secret. "I found everything that I was searching for, Rose Tyler, when I found you."

Grinning madly, she crushes herself against him and holds him to her as if she'll never let him go. And maybe she won't because he's right; he's not the Doctor and neither is she. Neither of them are the type of people who are willing to let a once in a lifetime chance escape them, regardless of what lies in store for them.

"I love you," she proclaims while she clasps his face in between her hands and pelts him with kisses. "I love you so much."

And when she stares up at him, expecting a witty retort or some sort of patronizing banter, she is all at once both surprised and exhilarated to find him gazing back at her with unconditional love as he responds, "I love you too, my Rose, my Ouznyoc."

"And what does that mean when it's at home?" she inquires cheekily, trying to restore their normal pattern of repartee by lightening the mood.

He remains silent as he thinks back on his Gallifreyan heritage, how the women of his world would know without question exactly how fiercely he had just declared his intentions. The declaration being that she was his and his alone, disregarding any male suitor who came before him or might be foolish enough to dare challenge him for her, the protective, possessive and yes, even primitive intent that she was his mate, or in Earth terms, his wife. At least in his hearts.

"I'll tell you one day," he promises her. "When I know that you're ready." And before she can utter a single word of protest, he silences her with a kiss full of passion and promise of everything that is to come.

Because he's not the Doctor, he loves her wholeheartedly and has no problem admitting it either to himself or to her and he intends to remind her of that fact every day of their lives. Whether it be verbally, emotionally, or physically, however she may need the reassurance that he'll stay by her side, because he loves her that much.

Turns out that was the last coherent thought he had on the subject for that evening as they made their way into their bedroom. After all, everything really important had been said.