A/N: This last chapter ties up loose ends and gives a glimpse of what is to come. I hope you've enjoyed my take on Rose and the part-human Doctor's story!

Chapter Six-So Long, and Thanks for All the Fish

[In which the future is established]

The group of travelers was picked up by an official Torchwood vehicle and was then immediately transported to Torchwood headquarters and Pete's office. The Doctor was disappointed when the office door was already open upon arrival, but perhaps that joke had ended when Pete resorted to wood, anyway. Four seats were present in front of Pete's desk, and the four sat, prepared for their debriefing.

Behind his desk, Pete looked distracted and a bit more disheveled than usual. He looked up and studied each person in turn.

"Well," said Pete after a moment, "First things first. I believe congratulations are in order."

He got up and offered the newly-engaged couple warm hugs. When everyone was settled again, he continued.

"So," he said, his gaze traveling again over those who sat in front of him, "Who wants to tell me what happened?"

The Doctor spoke first.

"Well, I proposed to your daughter, and she said yes," he grinned hugely and continued. "We found the unaging person who kept making such a ruckus," he gestured toward Jack. "Rose got nabbed by a collector with questionable morals, and I rescued her."

The Doctor beamed, and Jack cleared his throat.

"Welll," added the Doctor, "Toshiko may have helped. And Rose. And Jack."

"Right," said Pete, unfazed by the Doctor's method of explanation. "I'll come back to you," he said, looking at Jack, "but do we know why this collector took Rose?"

"Ah, yes, we do, actually," said the Doctor. "We used Jack's vortex manipulator to get into the bunker after we learned where Rose was, but instead of ending up outside her cell, we came out in a control room of sorts. It appears, from reading the instrumentation, that Rose and I were both giving off unusual readings, a combination of void stuff and energy from the parallel world and non-human traces, but Rose was giving off more of this, probably from all of her use of the Dimension Cannon. I only made the trip once and wasn't in the other world all that long, not in this body, anyway, so when their transmat could only handle one person, they chose Rose."

"Non-human?" asked Rose, confused.

"The traces of Bad Wolf. It looks like their presence has shifted some, combining more fully with your DNA. I'd like to conduct further tests before venturing any more guesses," replied the Doctor, watching her carefully for any negative reaction.

"Alright," said Rose.

Pete watched the two for a moment.

"Okay," he said, "So what about Jack here? What do we know?"

"Well," said Rose, deciding it was her turn to speak up, "You've heard all about our Jack over the years. You know Mum can vouch for him, too. This Jack, he's the same man. His life's been a little different since we would have met, but he's the same man. We need a new head of department for Cardiff's new Torchwood branch, and Captain Jack Harkness runs it well."

Pete leaned back in his chair, steepling his hands on his desk as he thought.

"It doesn't pay much," he informed Jack, "but the job's yours if you want it."

"You'd trust me to do that? Just like that? I'm a stranger to you." Jack seemed bewildered.

Pete didn't hesitate.

"Rose and the Doctor trust you," he said, "So I do." He consulted notes on his desk. "Rose, when you called before your flight back, you mentioned something about a Dalek and a dream? I didn't so much follow that part. Of course, your mother was busy yelling about how I'd put you at risk again and how I'd given himself permission to marry you without talking to her first and, well, I may have missed a few things."

"Oh, yes," the Doctor spoke before Rose could answer. "Jack here had gotten from the bunker a recording of a Dalek. Nearly scared the pants of me with that. But it seems to have come from a long time ago. I used the computers to search briefly, and it appears there hasn't been a Dalek sighting in more years than humans have had devices capable of recording that audio. This needs further investigation, of course, but there's no immediate threat. Daleks don't often do subtle well, and we'd know if one were functional and nearby."

"And the dream?" queried Pete.

It was Jack who spoke this time.

"The Doc here managed to make it so I could talk to Rose while I was asleep. He said now, though, that should be gone and so should some weird dreams I was having before, something about stretching the connection until it snapped. Which," he added with a touch of heat in his voice, "happened while I was still dreaming, by the way."

"Is that why you left without telling me?" asked Rose.

"Yeah," said the Doctor. "Sorry about that."

Pete looked a little amused. "Didn't you lot talk about any of this on the flight?" he asked.

Toshiko finally spoke. "I think we wanted to put it off and focus on something lighter, sir," she said.

Pete turned his attention to the quiet woman.

"I hear you're amazing with technology. We need someone like that at the new Torchwood office, too. This offer is pending a background check, of course, but the position is yours if you think you can work with this one," he said, nodding his head at Jack.

"I'd love that, sir," she responded, "Especially if I might have some further training in the process? I'm mostly self-taught, so consulting with some official experts in the field would be excellent."

"Of course. I can arrange for that right away," replied Pete with a hint of a smile.

"Now," he continued, looking at Rose seriously, "First, I want you to go talk to your mother 'cause or else she'll kill all of us. Then, get over to medical and let your future husband figure out what's been going on. You need to still be in one piece for that wedding. Speaking of, when should I expect it so I can pencil in some time off?"

"Well," said the Doctor, looking at Rose, "About a month from now?"

Rose smiled. "It's taken us so long to get to this point, Dad, and now that we're here, we don't want to wait long," she explained without breaking her eye contact with the Doctor.

Pete sighed. "Alright, well, you have to tell your mother."

O~O~O~O~O~O

The Doctor and Rose arrived at the Tyler mansion shortly after, Toshiko and Jack having decided they wanted to settle into their new positions immediately after a good rest; nobody had gotten much sleep on the flight.

A screeching Jackie greeted them at the door, and it took a bit of effort to translate the sounds into actual words.

"I can't believe it! You go and get engaged and don't call me, and then you get kidnapped. Kidnapped! And if you'd called me maybe you wouldn't have been wandering off again, would have been talking to your mum instead. I've only had half a day to gather wedding magazines! Well, on top of those I already had. We need to start planning!"

The Doctor was surprised at the urgency in Jackie's voice. "Did Pete already tell you we were only waiting a month? Blimey, that's a relief. Here I was afraid you were gonna slap me again."

"What!?" Jackie yelled, "A month? You mean I have to prepare a whole wedding in a month?!"

Rose tried to suppress her giggles as her mother continued to lecture the Doctor loudly and in her highest pitch. Finally, after a few minutes, Rose took pity on the man she loved.

"Mum," she said, gently turning her mother so she could look her in the eye. "This is what we want, yeah? We are so grateful for your help, but we only want a few people there, just family and close friends, so the biggest job is just keeping the media out."

Her mother sighed and reached to hug Rose. "I just want you happy, sweetheart," she explained as she ended the embrace. "You're my only daughter. I'll help you with whatever wedding you want, even if it is much too soon. And you," she said, turning towards the Doctor to give him a hug of his own, "You'd better not wait too long to give me grandbabies."

The Doctor gulped.

O~O~O~O~O~O

After a few minutes of talking with Jackie and greeting Tony, the Doctor and Rose headed to the Torchwood medical facilities.

"So, what do you think's going on, Doctor?" asked Rose as he started the initial tests. "I'm pretty sure you've guessed a lot more than you said in Pete's office."

"I think," said the Doctor, rather more hesitantly than usual, "That the Bad Wolf residue, the traces that were allowing the dreams, finally combined fully with your DNA rather than lurking in the background, so to speak. If I'm right, your DNA will have shifted just the tiniest bit closer to mine. Now, without the latent energy being a separate part of you, this means the dreams will likely stop." He paused to gauge her reaction.

Rose thought for a moment. "Alright," she said. "So what's that mean for me, that my DNA is closer to yours?"

"Well," the Doctor replied while transferring a sample from a vial to another machine, "I suspect each of us will live just a bit longer than your average human. Nothing spectacular, but the amounts of Time in each of our systems should be sufficient to give us maybe 50 years extra, a hundred, tops." Again, he stopped to study Rose's reaction.

She smiled. "So I'm stuck with you for longer, eh?"

He grinned widely in return. "And I'm stuck with you. And stuck with you, that's not so bad." He winked.

"Is there anything else? Do I get that thing with seeing timelines or anything?" asked Rose.

"I still need to finish running these tests," he answered, "But I don't think you'll notice any changes other than aging a bit more slowly."

He looked at her before continuing.

"Of course, you might not be stuck with just me."

"What, you mean Jack?" she asked, puzzled by his cautious tone.

"No," he said. "Though, him, too, I suppose. I mean," he continued, "before, when I first ran these test on us, our genetics were just dissimilar enough that, well, making a baby would have been somewhere between difficult and impossible. Now, when we're ready, we shouldn't have any trouble at all."

Rose smiled slowly. "'When we're ready?' You seemed like you didn't want them last time we talked about babies."

"Well, yes," said the Doctor, looking a little embarrassed. "I wasn't sure we'd be compatible at first. And then I was worried; my race is slightly telepathic, and I didn't know whether our offspring would be, and I didn't know whether your mind could cope well enough with your body carrying a telepathic child, so I didn't want to bring it up again until I knew more. When you were able to speak with Jack while conscious, I started to wonder whether I'd been overcautious. You shouldn't have been able to do that, not as a human."

"You were so worried before you sent him to me. I'm so sorry, Doctor," said Rose, reaching for his hand from her perch on the examination table.

"Did he tell you?" the Doctor asked.

"No," replied Rose. "I saw and felt it with you, just like I have in my dreams with the other Doctor."

The Doctor gaped for a moment before pulling her in for a hug.

"Rose, do you know what this means? We can communicate telepathically! I mean, it might take some practice, but it means I can tell you, I can show you how much I feel. It means I won't be alone in my head anymore, Rose!"

He pulled back just far enough to bring his lips to hers in a passionate kiss.

"There are, of course," he added, a deeper note in his voice, "Other useful applications for telepathy between lovers, but because of how those bonds work, that's best saved for after the wedding."

He leaned back in for another kiss before rushing off to read the lab results that confirmed what he'd already guessed.

O~O~O~O~O~O

Though Rose had guessed by the Doctor's willingness to give up their flat that he had gotten them a new place to live, she was still both surprised and pleased when she saw the house he'd bought them. It was TARDIS blue, of course, with large windows and high ceilings, giving the interior a feeling of being much larger than it actually was. The basement made a perfect laboratory, less cramped than the one in their previous spare bedroom and further from their new bedroom, thereby decreasing how frequently Rose should be awakened by early-morning tinkering. Upstairs, next to their room, was a small bedroom, painted yellow.

"This could be the nursery, if we want," said the Doctor, looking a little nervous.

"Doctor," said Rose with a grin, "You can stop looking so scared every time you or someone else mentions kids. I figure we'll need to practice making them for a few years, anyway. Maybe wait until our TARDIS grows up and we've traveled again for a little while, maybe found a few spots that are safe to visit?"

The Doctor smiled at his soon-to-be wife. "Or," he ventured, "We could have them right away so they might be ready for short trips when we are. I mean, we do have this big house now."

"And this big house does already have a nice, soft bed in our room," she said, "And whether we choose to have them now or in a few years, practice can't hurt, yeah?"

"Lead the way, Rose Tyler," he replied happily as she took his hand.

And she did.

O~O~O~O~O~O

The wedding wasn't quite as simple as Rose had planned, but it was much simpler than the Doctor had feared.

Their guest list was limited enough to allow them to exchange vows without using the Doctor's alias, and nobody present found the Doctor's taking of Rose's last name odd.

When they exchanged their own vows, there wasn't a dry eye to be seen.

After the ceremony, there was dancing, Captain Jack Harkness never leaving the dance floor.

The whole event was happy and filled with laughter, smiles, and tears of joy. Afterward, the Doctor and his Rose returned home to be joined completely, body, mind, and soul.

A/N: The end! I hope you've enjoyed this! It was my first real work of fiction, so I am honored you chose to read it :)

I'm saving details about how the telepathy works for any possible future stories, and any later stories might not retain the safer rating in this one.

I'd love to know what you think about this or about any further adventures of this Doctor and Rose Tyler :)

Oh! And special bonus points to anyone who noticed what the first letter of the chapter titles spells out ;)