I'm excited about all of the newer readers I've picked up along the way. But I haven't had a review from some of my earlier readers in awhile. What do you think of the new direction the story is taking? How about some fluff for a little while?

I don't own Doctor Who.

CHAPTER 21

As to be expected, Jack threw one heck of a party that first night back on the TARDIS. Everyone was so relieved and happy that the Doctor was back - everyone that is except for the five Doctors themselves. They were uncharacteristically quiet. They barely cracked a smile even when their sonics and psychic papers were returned to them. The Roses noticed, and stuck themselves like glue to their Doctor's sides, trying to figure out what was wrong. They should be overjoyed to be back! The other companions carried on as if they thought the Doctors were just tired (though the Roses suspected that the more perceptive ones, like Amy, suspected that something was amiss, but what helpless to do anything about it). Finally, Rose 9 got an idea and whispered it into her Doctor's ear. His face lit up as he shouted above the din, "Hey! I know what you all need! A vacation! How does early twenty first century Cancun sound? Is that fantastic or what?"

The companions freaked out. They were going to Cancun! Sun, sand, little drinks with umbrellas in them. This trip is quite literally what the Doctor ordered. They ran off to pack a quick suitcase. The older Doctors and Roses looked at Nine as if he had lost his mind. He grinned. "I said 'you' not 'we'. We'll pick them up, all tanned and fresh after they've been there a week."

"But it may not be a week for us." his Rose continued, grinning conspiratorialy. The others caught on quickly. Yes indeed. A vacation from the domestics of having so many companions on board at once was exactly what the Doctor ordered!

"I thought they'd never leave!" Rose 11 shouted with glee as she shut the TARDIS door and the ship began to dematerialize. The other Roses and Doctors nodded and sighed in agreement. They loved their companions. They really did. But having so many on board for all this time was very exhausting, especially to a certain time lord in quintuplet form who usually hated domestics. The Roses really had to applaud them for putting up with it as long as they had.

But the Doctors were still not happy. The five of them just stood around the console in a circle, staring at nothing at all, with the same gloomy expressions on their faces. The Roses were worried. Did the Doctors want them gone as well?

Absolutely not! Never! Why would you ever think that Rose? The Roses jumped. They didn't realize that they were broadcasting their thoughts. The Doctors' combined minds inside of the Roses' combined minds speaking with such urgency made the Roses realize the true problem. This latest adventure had hit them harder than they had let on. One by one, the Roses reached out and grasped the hands of their Doctors and led them to their new bedrooms, where they could have some privacy from their other selves.

"I just don't understand, Rose" Ten was awkwardly sitting on the bed, waiting for her to finish her evening routine. "Why are you still here?"

She looked up at him from across the room where she was brushing her hair. "Whatever do you mean? Where else would I be?" Then she had a thought. "Do you want me to leave?"

"What? No! It's just... I thought that you'd want to. After everything that has happened."

She abruptly threw down her brush and walked over to him, sat on the bed and grasped both his hands in hers. Looking directly into his eyes, she spoke to him. "How can I make this any clearer. I'm never going to leave you! I. Love. You!"

"Why? How? After everything I've done! I'm not a safe man, Rose Tyler."

"If I wanted safe, I never would have agreed to travel with you! I would have stayed with Mickey and probably married him and lived a boring life with a man I never really loved. But hey, I'd be safe! I don't want safe. I want you!"

"So that's why you're still here. The adventure! You never want it to end! I've spoiled you forever for a quiet life of beans on toast. You need to see the stars! I'm your galactic chauffeur!"

"Doctor" her voice was quiet. She was exasperated with him! But her heart broke because she realized that he couldn't believe that she loved him because he cannot love himself. "Doctor" she started again. "I don't care about the adventure. Really I don't! Would I miss it? Yeah, I would. Would I be unable to sleep without listening to the hum of the TARDIS every night? Probably. But listen to me, you daft alien!" (He smiled at that a little. She was the same species as him now. She technically shouldn't be calling him an alien anymore.) She took his face in her hands. "I love you! There is no one else in the entire universe that I'd rather be with. I don't care what you've done in your past! I don't care that you've killed! I don't care that you're not safe to be with! I would say that I don't care about what happened during the Time War, except that'd be a lie, but only because I hate how much it has destroyed you. You forget that I briefly met your faces from before the Time War. They all had a sparkle and joy in their eyes that is conspicuously absent from you and those who have come after you. What I would give to see these eyes sparkle like that! I love you! I want you to be happy again, Doctor. I want you to love yourself again. If only you could see yourself the way that I see you."

He was stunned into silence. He really had nothing to say to that. Well, almost nothing at least. "Rose Tyler, you really are brilliant. I don't deserve you!"

"You're right, you don't." She smiled, dropping her hands and snuggling under the covers of the bed. "But I guess you're stuck settling for me anyway."

He had meant to lean over and kiss her forehead, but she had other plans. She pulled him down to lie next to her as lips met lips. "Well..." He started as they broke away.

She grinned as she snuggled into him and drifted off to sleep. He waited for her breathing to become heavy and regular before whispering "I love you too."

The other couples had very similar conversations that night. Rose 12 was the most exasperated of them all. "Millennias of time and space together, and you still doubt that I want to be with you? Doctor, is nothing ever going to get through to you?!"

Still, each of the couples spent the night in each other's arms, drawing and giving strength through that bond. The Doctor in the TARDIS with Rose Tyler. As it should be!