The Doctor and Rose were sitting side by side as they had tea and banana biscuits in the kitchen, when Rose turns towards him and asks, "Hey Doctor. You know how you keep tellin' me that I'm jeopardy-friendly?"

The Doctor nodded eagerly. Rose rolled her eyes at his obvious enthusiasm to agree.

"Of course you are, Rose. But more often than not, your involvement leads us directly to the source of trouble, and I end up savin' you anyways so it's a good thing in the end, right?"

Rose scoffed at that.

"Excuse me, you savin' me ALL the time? What about the planet, Garcia?"

"Gracina, Rose."

"Whatever, so as I was saying…you got captured by soldiers simply because you refused to bow to their Empress. You almost walked both of us into that one!"

"Well, somebody had to make a stand. She was a dictator, Rose. The entire planet was suffering from food shortage and instead of helping her subjects, she forced them to give up most of theirs for her own personal storage stock."

"I understand, Doctor, but we could have gone about it another way. What if she had executed you? What if I had arrived too late and I had lost you?"

Rose's vision blurred with tears, thinking of that memory. That day, the Doctor was handcuffed on a metal bed in the prison that he was thrown into after his refusal to cooperate. She had seen what looked like an assortment of torture devices splayed throughout the tables besides that bed, before using the sonic screwdriver to help him escape. She shuddered at what could have happened to her Doctor.

"Rose," the Doctor spoke tenderly as he cupped her face. His blue eyes grazed over her face lovingly as he tucked a strand of her golden hair behind her ear and brushed his lips over her forehead.

"You saved me that day. You've saved me countless times over our travels, over and over again for daft 'ole me. How was I so lucky to deserve someone like you?" Rose smiled through her watery eyes.

"Doctor, you are worth saving. You are the most incredible person that I've met. Traveling with you and the TARDIS and having adventures has always been great, but it's only truly special because it's you that's there with me. It's us together that makes it so…fantastic," she laughed.

The Doctor chuckled at her use of his favorite word.

Then, overcome by her confession, he hugged her tightly to himself… afraid to let her go. Afraid that somehow, somewhen, the universe would find a way to separate the two of them. No, he would never allow that. Ever. Rose was his.

In his nine hundred years, he had never fallen in love before. But from the moment that Rose had run into his life, he knew he was a goner. He would find a way for Rose to be with him forever, one way or another. He had seen the way she looked at him, with such love and devotion. And he understood because he felt the exact same way about her.

What a wonderful way to fall, he thought. And now that she was finally here, he would never let her go. He vowed that he would find the courage to tell her of his feelings soon, to tell her that she was his everything. Till then, this hug they were sharing would do.

Soon, Rose...soon.