AN: The last paragraph doesn't hint at a sequel-it's just there to establish firmly where this is in their timeline. And it should be noted, whenever I write or read fanfic, unless it's explicitly stated, I think, "Because this happened, Doomsday didn't."
Five days (in relative time) after their final wedding, Rose and the Doctor were lounging together on a sofa in the media room, watching By the Light of the Asteroid. At least, he was watching it; Rose's mind was on something else entirely.
The hand draped over her waist squeezed gently, and Rose blinked, realising he'd turned the telly off and she hadn't even noticed. "Want to talk about it, love?" the Doctor asked. She sighed and covered his hand with hers. "I've been thinking; we ought to tell Mum we're married."
Rose was still learning to pick up emotions and thoughts over their bond, but the panic he was projecting now was unmistakable. It almost made her laugh, but she kept quiet and waited to see how he'd try to argue his way out of this.
"Rose!" he admonished. "We can't visit your mum—we're on our honeymoon! Do you know that term originated with the idea that the first month of marriage is the sweetest? Surprisingly, the idea and name seem to be almost universal in Earth cultures. Dozens of languages have words that directly translate to honeymoon."
She giggled at his nervous babbling, and his mouth clicked shut. "Honeymoon, huh?" She rolled onto her back and looked up at him. "Isn't that supposed to be a romantic holiday? So where are you going to take me, Doctor?"
The Doctor traced a single finger over Rose's eyebrows. Her breath hitched when he brushed her hair out of the way so he could place an open mouthed kiss on her jaw, right beneath her ear.
Where would you like me to take you, Rose Tyler? Rose wrapped her arms around his waist and tugged him down on top of her, and the conversation was temporarily forgotten.
DWDWDWDW
The Doctor did find places to take her after that, showing her some of the more romantic locations in the universe. On the second planet they visited, they purchased matching laurium wedding rings. The 10 sets of wedding tokens and the ribbon from their two hand-fastings were kept on a shelf in their bedroom, but the rings they wore.
In the midst of all the romance, Rose kept a tally of the passing days. When four weeks had passed, she broached the subject of telling her mum again.
"Where should we go next?" the Doctor asked as they left Malsapan. He flipped through a book sitting on the console. "Oh, what about Deton? I've never been there."
"I was thinking London," Rose said. The Doctor looked at her, and she smiled at the confused little furrow between his brows. "We've been married for a month."
Comprehension and terror crossed his face in the blink of an eye, then he bounced on his toes and shook his head. "Ah, but we had twelve weddings."
Rose arched an eyebrow. "You want to take twelve honeymoons?"
The Doctor moved around the console and she followed, not letting him get out of her line of sight. "Well, we've barely scratched the surface of the 34th century edition of 1001 Places Every Lover Should See," he pointed out, holding the book up.
Rose laughed, and he looked at her with narrowed eyes. "Do you remember what happened the last time you didn't bring me home for a year?"
His eyes widened comically. "You know what? I'm suddenly craving chips from that chippy near the flat. Nothing like London chips, Rose," he said sagely, and Rose bit back a smile as he spun around the console.
The Doctor parked the TARDIS in his usual spot on the corner. "And here we are," he told Rose. "The Powell Estate, only three weeks after our last visit."
"You're sure?" Rose asked.
"When have I ever given you reason to doubt…" Her raised eyebrows dared him to finish that sentence, so he made a show of looking at the monitor. "Yep. Eighteen days, to be exact."
Rose peered over his shoulder, then looked up at him. "You should teach me how to read that." He opened his mouth, eager for any chance of putting off this visit, and she raised a hand. "Later."
"Right. Of course. Later."
She sauntered down the ramp and waited for him expectantly by the door. The Doctor tugged on his ear, then sighed and pulled his coat on. He was sure there were things in the universe farther down on his to-do list than telling Jackie they'd gotten married, but right now, he couldn't think of any of them.
He caught her hand in his as they stepped out of the ship. "So, what's the plan?" he asked while they crossed the courtyard.
Rose swung their hands between them. "Just let me do all the talking."
The Doctor snorted. "You'll get no argument from me. Maybe if she hears it from you, she won't kill me."
"She's not going to kill you."
"You can't know that for sure, Rose." The Doctor stopped walking and Rose turned around to face him. "This could be your last chance to kiss me," he said, letting his lower lip jut out just a little.
His wife rolled her eyes, but he didn't miss how her gaze came back to his lips. He brushed her hair back behind her ear, then left his hand behind her neck. They'd been married for a month, but he still wasn't used to the idea that kissing Rose was allowed—encouraged, even.
Her head tilted back in invitation, and the Doctor leaned down slowly. "Well, if it's my last chance…" Rose breathed out when he bumped her nose with his.
He brushed his lips lightly against hers, then used the hand at the back of her head to adjust the angle to allow for a deeper kiss. Her hands grabbed at his lapels, but just when he put his hand on her waist to pull her closer, she pushed him away.
"No snogging me senseless where all my old friends can see." She grabbed his hand again and headed for the doors.
"What about later on, when we get home?"
Rose looked at him over her shoulder, her eyes sparkling. "I promise, if you survive this encounter with my mother, you can snog me anywhere in the TARDIS you like."
They passed several of Jackie's neighbours in the stairwell, and the Doctor was surprised to realise he recognised most of them, and they him. It gave a visit to London the feeling of stopping back at home, and the domestic thought didn't make him want to run like it might have done in the past.
When they reached the second floor, Rose pulled her key out of her pocket. "Are you ready?"
"No," he told her honestly.
She shook her head at him and pushed the door open. "Mum! We're here!"
Jackie ran out of the kitchen and swept Rose up in a hug. "Two visits in a month?" she said, kissing Rose on the cheek. "What's the occasion?"
"Nothing, just…" Rose looked at the Doctor and back at her mum. "It's been a bit longer for us. I missed you."
The Doctor raised his eyebrows at that evasive answer, but it seemed to satisfy Jackie. "Well, you've got a good sense of timing, I'll give you that. I've just put the kettle on. Will you get the cups out, sweetheart?"
Without anything to do, the Doctor thought the wisest course of action would be to sit down in the lounge and stay as much out of trouble as possible. He tapped his fingers against his leg while he waited for Rose.
His gaze flitted around the room, and he noticed there were several souvenirs from their travels on the shelves, along with a picture of them that had been taken in front of a waterfall that could have been on Earth. (It wasn't though—that was Bonsanca, a planet in a system on the other side of the galaxy.)
Rose sat down with him a moment later, and he took her hand automatically. "Well, so far this has gone better than I expected," he said in a low voice.
"That's because we haven't told her anything yet."
"Ah. Right." The Doctor started tapping his fingers again. He'd been feeling better until she'd reminded him of that.
He was just thinking about getting up and walking around the room when Jackie finally came in with the tea. She fixed everyone's cup, knowing exactly how many sugars he liked and that Rose preferred just milk. Again, that feeling of home crept over him, and he accepted his cup with a smile.
Jackie settled back in her chair, then said, "So, how long have you been married?"
Rose choked on her tea and started coughing hard while the Doctor rubbed her back. Once she could breathe again, she looked at Jackie with watering eyes.
"How did you know?"
Jackie pointed to the window. "You forget how loud that box of yours is. I heard you land and peeked down at the courtyard to make sure I wasn't hearing things. And there was your blue box, and the two of you, snogging in broad daylight."
"That doesn't mean we're married," the Doctor protested.
"Do they wear wedding rings for a different reason on your planet then, Doctor?" she challenged.
He and Rose exchanged chagrinned looks. Neither of them had even considered taking their rings off.
Jackie let out a huff of annoyance. "Obviously you didn't come straight from the wedding, if you've gotten used to the feeling of a ring on your hand. Out with it then—let's have the story."
"It all started when we were accused of indecent smiling…" Rose began. They traded off telling the story of their first ten weddings. Jackie looked at him affectionately when he admitted to keeping all of the tokens in his coat pocket, and he smiled sheepishly.
"A collar, really?" she said when they got to the tenth wedding.
"Why is everyone so fascinated by that bloody collar?" the Doctor muttered.
His mother-in-law ignored him, talking to Rose instead. "I hope you kept that one, sweetheart. It could come in handy with this one."
"Oi!"
"Well, you do tend to wander off," Rose teased.
"Here, does anyone else want more tea? And once we've all got full cups again, I want to hear about your actual wedding."
Rose squeezed his hand. Don't tell her about the trial.
Definitely not.
"There was one more fake wedding," the Doctor said when everyone was sitting back comfortably again. "But it was so similar to the weddings on my planet that I couldn't pretend I didn't mean every word I said."
Rose looked up at him. "And when we got home, he admitted that he'd wanted to be married the whole time, and we had one more wedding, just the two of us."
"Well, I'm going to get supper going," Jackie said abruptly. The Doctor turned around and thought he spotted tears in her eyes. "I won't ask you to stay overnight, but you can eat with me before you go off to some alien moon or something."
DWDWDWDW
It was after dark when the Doctor and Rose went home, with promises to visit again soon. The TARDIS glowed in the streetlight, and there were stars in the sky above them.
"Well, that went better than I anticipated," the Doctor admitted as he unlocked the door.
The time rotor was the only light in the console room, and it cast greenish shadows over Roses' face as she leaned against a strut while he sent them into the Vortex. "I told you she wouldn't be upset."
"Your mother and I have a history," he reminded her. He flipped the dematerialisation lever, and the sound of the TARDIS in flight filled the room. "Granted, things have gotten better since my face changed, but first impressions like that are hard to overcome, Rose."
She walked toward him and tugged gently on his tie. "Ready for bed?"
"In a minute. I just need to do a few things here first."
"A few things as in, you'll be five minutes, or as in, I'll find you under the grating when I wake up in the morning?"
The Doctor pressed a quick kiss to her lips. "I promise I'll be right behind you."
Once she was gone, he stroked the console. "Thank you," he whispered to his ship. She'd known exactly what kind of push it would take to get him to move past his fears, and she'd given it to him.
"Now, where should the next stop on our honeymoon be?" The Doctor pressed his tongue against the back of his teeth. She enjoyed dressing up, so something historical… He grinned when the perfect answer came to him, and he spun the dials. Rose would love seeing Elvis.