**Notes: This will be the last chapter for this story. The series is NOT finished! There will be more stories in this universe. However, I am taking a break from this one while I write another story. There might be one-shots detailing the rest of their week on New Earth. At the very LEAST, I will be rewriting new episodes once they come on tv, but I may also add other adventures as ideas come to me. An ENORMOUS thank you goes to Elensari, my incredible beta. These have been my very first stories and without her help and confidence in me, I would never have posted either The Other Side or Better With Three. Keep an eye out for more of The New Stuff of Legend series (or follow me) and I'd love it if you read my new series too, although I haven't worked out the title just yet. Thank you for reading and please review!**
Chapter Twenty-Eight – How Many Wedding Nights?
After much fussing over clothes, making of secret presents, and retrieval of several guests, the TARDIS materialized on a sunny, apple grass covered hill on New Earth. The doors opened and out bounced Alex, followed by Mickey and Martha, Sarah Jane, Clara, Vastra, Jenny, and Strax.
"What is that smell?" Jenny asked curiously, pulling the gorgeous scent deeply into her lungs.
"Disgusting, isn't it?" Strax replied with his usual scowl.
"I think it's lovely," Martha said and Jenny nodded her enthusiastic agreement.
Alex smiled and leaned down to pluck some of the grass. "Rose's favourite - apple grass!" he exclaimed cheerfully with a bright smile. "This was the first trip we took after I regenerated and defeated the Sycorax in that sword fight. You remember, don't you, Rickey?"
Mickey scowled at him and Alex shot him a wink.
"And what trouble did you get into here? Where are we by the way?" Sarah Jane asked, knowing that the Doctor could never go anywhere without finding some kind of problem to fix.
"We are on New Earth. That city over there is New New York, although technically, it's the fifteenth New York since the original. So, it's really New new new new..." Alex babbled happily.
"New new new... Yeah we know," Martha interrupted. "I'll bet you just came back here to be able to say that again. Although, it looks better from here than where you brought me."
"Well... I always like to be specific. And there really aren't enough 'news' in the official name of the city. But really, I did choose here because Rose loved it. We had a picnic just over there," he said with a dreamy smile. "As far as the trouble we got into, well... the cat nurses at the hospital were growing humans to experiment on so that they could make a cure for every disease and Rose was possessed by a psychotic flap of skin calling herself the last human, but it all turned out well in the end."
"I suppose possessed is a little worse than getting kidnapped by car jackers," Martha cringed.
"Not to worry, we are here in the year five billion two hundred and seventy-eight. That's two hundred and twenty-five years after we rescued everyone from the motorway, Martha. They've long since cleaned up from that mess and I've reserved several rooms in the best hotel for all of us. A nice little vacation," Alex explained happily. There was no shaking his mood today.
Evander exited the TARDIS then, being pushed by Jack. Alex and Evander were wearing matching tuxedos and Jack was wearing a very fetching, dark blue suit. Jack rubbed his hands together excitedly.
"I can't tell all of you how long I have been waiting for this," Jack said excitedly as he moved people around to where he wanted everyone to stand. "The happy trio have asked me to officiate today. An honour that I am only too happy to fulfill. As you may or may not be aware, both Doctors have taken on a new name for the sake of individuality, but also filled with meaning. As well as taking on Rose's surname in respect of her family, who lost their lives approximately eight months ago in Rose's timeline."
Rose emerged from the TARDIS in a lovely, cream dress. The neckline and short sleeves were made entirely of floral lace, which also trimmed the bottom of the knee length skirt. White flowers were woven into her hair and she had a small bouquet of white flowers as well.
Rose moved to stand in front of Jack and between her Doctors with a beaming smile. Alex and Evander took her arm on either side and all of their friends gathered around them, closing the circle.
"We have all gathered here, on this gorgeous hillside of New Earth, to publicly unite Doctor Alex Tyler, Rose Tyler and Doctor Evander Tyler in bonds that none can break. I knew from the moment I met Rose and the Doctor that they were soul mates. They spent years denying it to themselves and each other. They spent years regretting that denial when they were separated, but those days are over. The bonds that are created in the loving marriages of telepathic races are deep and permanent. The three of you will never be alone again and I couldn't be happier for you," Jack said and wiped a tear from his cheek.
Alex pulled a box out of his pocket, handing it to Jack who held it open in front of the trio. On the velvet lining, sat three pendants on gold chains and three wedding bands. Rose picked up one of the orange and gold pendants and placed it around Alex's neck, then took the wedding band for him as well.
As she placed it on his finger, she said, "Doctor Alex Tyler, I gladly give myself to you again today, as your wife. You were/are/ever will be the most precious and beloved person in all my lives, past, present, and future. My hearts always have/do/will yearn for yours to be near me and make me whole." She then repeated the last sentiment in Gallifreyan, as she had when they first exchanged pendants on Gallifrey.
Turning towards Evander, Rose took the other rectangular pendant from the box and placed it around his neck with a soft smile. He smiled back at her as she slid his wedding band onto his finger and said to him, "Doctor Evander Tyler, I gladly give myself to you today as your wife. You were/are/ever will be the most precious and beloved person in all my lives, past, present, and future. My hearts always have/do/will yearn for yours to be near me and make me whole." Once again, she repeated the last statement in Gallifreyan for him.
Knowing that Evander would find the pendant more meaningful, Alex let him put that on Rose's neck as he put the ring on her finger.
Evander cleared his throat nervously as he felt a lump forming there before speaking, "Rose Marion Tyler, I gladly give myself to you today, as your husband. You were/are/ever will be the most precious and beloved person in all my lives, past, present, and future. My hearts always have/do/will yearn for yours to be near me and make me whole." He said the last phrase again in Gallifreyan, as she had and a single tear made its way down his cheek. Rose gently reached up to wipe it away and pulled him to her for a sweet kiss. With her eyes still closed, Rose pressed her forehead against his, silently rejoicing in their union. When finished, she turned to Alex, her happy smile a little damp.
Alex squeezed her hand and said softly, "Rose Marion Tyler, I gladly give myself to you today, as your husband. You were/are/ever will be the most precious and beloved person in all my lives, past, present, and future. My hearts always have/do/will yearn for yours to be near me and make me whole." As he took the final turn in pledging the Gallifreyan statement, he kissed his wife reverently and thoroughly as he dipped her backwards, his hands supportively on her back and in her hair. Their friends all burst into startled applause.
Jack took a shimmering golden ribbon from his pocket and the trio held up their left hands together in front of them. Weaving the ribbon through their wrists in a loose hand fasting, he said, "I am very happy to pronounce the three of you, officially married!" Taking advantage of a once in a lifetime opportunity, Jack grabbed Evander's face in both hands and gave him a solid kiss on the lips before moving to give the same to Alex, and then Rose.
Much to Evander's dismay, there followed a lot more hugging and congratulations. Alex tucked the ribbon safely away in his pocket before embarrassing his husband by hugging him around the waist and picking him up in a spin. Evander protested loudly which only earned him a kiss on the cheek before Alex set him back on his feet. Rose's laughter rang across the hillside at their antics and thought that she could never feel happier.
From the hidden pockets in her wedding dress, Rose pulled out two rectangular gift boxes, each tied with a bright, TARDIS blue ribbon. Handing one to each of her Doctors, they looked at her curiously.
"What's this?" Evander asked.
"It's a wedding present," she said with a satisfied smile. She was very proud of herself for these presents. She had to get some help from the TARDIS, but managed to find all of the parts she needed and made some much needed adjustments as well.
Alex and Evander opened their gifts simultaneously to find that Rose had made each of them a shiny new sonic screwdriver. Alex's was slightly larger than his old one. It was finished in brushed nickel, with crisscrossing grooves filled with navy blue for the grip section, it was completely new yet still had a bright blue light on the end. Evander's was a little smaller than the clawed version he had been using. His was shiny black with a gold handle and a red light on the end, like hers.
They both thanked her with thorough snogs that were clearly an attempt to outdo each other.
After many cheers and congratulations, the group reentered the TARDIS so that Rose and the Doctors could relocate them in the city, near their hotel. Everyone changed clothes to be more appropriate for a night on the town of New New York and met back in the Lobby below.
"So, how many wedding nights have we tallied up now, love?" Alex asked as the large entourage strolled down the busy streets of New New York.
"Ooh, do we count the ones that happened while immersed in a telepathic, multi-consciousness gestalt dreamscape?" Rose asked cheekily.
"God, I love it when you talk like that," Evander leaned in next to her and whispered deeply in her ear as he nuzzled her cheek.
"Are we going to have to watch the three of them making kissy faces all night?" Mickey asked the rest of the group. His face making it plain what he thought about that idea.
"I think it's sweet," Sarah Jane said with a smile, swatting Mickey playfully on the arm.
"It's so weird seeing this Doctor, Evander I mean, acting like that. He's been completely anti-hug since he regenerated. But, he also seems happier than I've ever seen him, even the last him," Clara commented as she eyed some holographic advertisements in a store as they passed.
"How about dinner?" Jack asked the group at large. "I know this great restaurant, not far from here and they even have dancing! Perfect for a little wedding reception."
The Time Lords and humans voiced their agreements with the plan, Vastra gave into her wife's wishes and Strax grumbled something about grenades. Taking the majority vote, Jack led the group to a lovely establishment that was decorated in dazzling gold and ivory.
Seating the eleven people without a reservation was challenging, but with a flash of the psychic paper, management dropped everything to accommodate the Empress' party. Rose was happy to adopt that title for the evening and her husbands made sure that she felt like an Empress as well.
After dinner, Rose danced with Alex, Evander, Jack, Mickey, Alex and Evander at the same time, and even dragged Strax onto the dance floor at one point. They were all having a marvellous time, which meant that the crisis came right on cue.
There were crashes and several people screaming as a large, green blob of slime sloshed across the floor. The members of their group were immediately on their feet and looking to the Doctors for some kind of plan.
"First question is?" Evander prompted.
"What does it want?" Rose supplied.
"Second question is?" Alex asked.
"Where are my grenades?" Strax asked, very seriously.
Everyone turned to glare at him simultaneously. Alex wondered what in the world could have possessed friends of his to team up with a Sontaran of all people.
"How about we establish if it's dangerous first? No sense in blowing up or possibly simply angering the maybe misunderstood, giant slimy thing?" Alex argued as he leaned closer to the baked potato's face.
"Yes, sir," Strax said, reluctantly. "However, I shall prepare my best explosives to be ready when it begins to slowly devour you, sir."
Feeling like she was probably one of the most diplomatic people present, Rose stepped towards the blob and put on the air of the Empress she was pretending to be. She had practiced this quite a bit during the trial where she presided over her husband prosecuting himself.
"My name is Rose, may I ask what it is you are looking for here, ... sir?" she said with all the confidence one can muster while addressing a slime monster.
The large blob of goo, burbled as hundreds of tiny sparks of light flickered inside it. It looked like some kind of communication, so Rose looked back to her husbands for a little assistance. Evander was staring at the lights, trying to find patterns in the chaos, and Alex was scanning the thing with his new sonic.
"Ooh," Alex said as he checked the readings. "Nanobots! There's a swarm of nanobots inside, that are holding it together and controlling it."
"So, is someone else controlling the nanobots remotely?" Sarah Jane asked.
"Now there's a thought. Will we even be able to communicate with it or the person controlling it?" Rose considered.
"Well, it doesn't seem to be answering your question, Rose," came Jenny's response as she continued to watch the thing ooze closer to them.
"But is that because it cannot or because it chooses not to answer?" Vastra questioned as she stood protectively near her wife.
"Can I blow it up now?" Strax interrupted.
"Hold your horses there, Spudman," Mickey said as he leaned his elbow on Strax's shoulder.
The sparkling lights that made the thing look like a blob of glitter glue, stopped and it slid away from their face-off towards the now vacated tables. Suddenly expanding, it engulfed several tables and chairs within itself. Then, it appeared the nanobots were breaking down the solids into more slime and the central blob grew significantly.
"Ok, that's definitely a problem," Alex squeaked and rubbed the back of his neck nervously.
"Can we use the sonic to interrupt the signals between the nanobots? Break it all apart that way?" Rose asked quickly as she retrieved her own from her bigger-on-the-inside pocket.
"That's brilliant, love!" Alex exclaimed.
"But will it stop them? Or will they just keep reforming again, possibly into more than one?" she asked, wanting to be sure that they wouldn't just make it more angry, more dangerous, or possibly more numerous.
"If we use setting three hundred and eighty-six C, we should be able to short them out permanently, so that they can't function as a group again. Let's all three of us do it, to make sure we get them all before it realizes what's happening and attacks us," Evander replied and started flicking through the settings on his new screwdriver. Rose noted that this style seemed to suit him much more than his last one, in her opinion.
As the three of them pointed their sonics together towards the green blob, it seemed to notice their slightly aggressive stance and turned to charge at them. The friends behind them began to back away slowly and the Time Lords all activated their sonics just in time. Despite it losing cohesion before it reached them, the resulting wave of what appeared to be melting, green jell-o, crashed over the group, coating them all in a sticky mess.
Clara, Martha and Sarah Jane looked at each other with disgust written clearly on their faces. Jenny and Vastra rolled their eyes at the inevitability of something like this happening while the Doctor, now Doctors, were around. Strax grumbled about grenades being more effective. Mickey just shook his head as he watched Alex, Evander, Rose and Jack dissolve into hysterical laughter.
When the restaurant manager entered the room and began to survey the damages, Rose simply took the arms of her husbands and with the grace of an Empress, her head held high despite being covered in sticky green slime, marched directly out of the establishment. The rest of them followed carefully as they tried not to slip on the mess that covered the floor and themselves.
"How many more days did you say we'd be here, Doctor?" Mickey asked worriedly.
"Oh, I booked a whole week!" Alex replied happily and grinned back at them over his shoulder.
Martha and Sarah Jane groaned simultaneously. If this was the trouble they managed to find during their first evening here, what would the rest of the week be like? Maybe the girls should find a nice spa to hide themselves in.