Chapter 6 Discussions

Everyone else stayed and discussed what they had seen for about an hour before making their way to their bedrooms. Nine entered his and Rose's room rather nervously. Despite the fact they lived together in the TARDIS they had never been in each others bedroom. Both of them were big on privacy. Now their whole relationship had changed and they were sharing a room. It was all moving really fast and he had no idea what Rose's expectations were. Time Lord relationships were mostly telepathic relations and he knew humans ones were mostly physical.

He glanced around the room. It was simple as were his tastes but there were some aspects that were clearly Rose's. The large bed for one although the blue covers that were the same shade as the TARDIS were his favourite colour. Furniture was sparse, just a bedside table and a walk-in wardrobe. Another door that he assumed led to a bathroom. A desk with a chair were against the far wall. There were some small parts on it that he could tinker with alongside some stuff he assumed belonged to Rose.

"Hi." Rose smiled slightly shyly at him from her spot on the edge of the bed.

"Hello." He replied, grateful his voice came out relatively normal. He shrugged off his leather jacket and put it neatly over the back of the chair. He felt slightly vulnerable without it. Then he sat down next to Rose.

"This is ridiculous. We've spent hours cuddling up together and now we can barely talk." Rose gives a small laugh.

Well things have changed. We should probably talk though."

"What about?"

"Well I've not done this domestic relationship business in a very long time. I know humans relationships are quite physical but Time Lord ones aren't."

"What are they then?"

"Mental."

"Sounds like your kind of thing." She teases to lighten the mood and he grins a little.

"Not what I meant. Time Lords are a telepathic race. Our relationships were almost solely in our minds. We called it bonding."

"Is that possible for a human?" She asked throwing him for a loop. She wanted to bond with him? No, she must just be curious. Nobody would want to be inside his head, hell, he didn't want to be there most of the time.

"Humans aren't telepathic by nature but it's possible for someone who is telepathic to look at your thoughts. I don't know if it's possible for someone who is telepathic to bond with a human though. The TARDIS can get inside your mind to translate so it might be possible. Honestly I've never tried nor have I really thought about it." He confessed.

"You can get inside my mind?" She frowned.

"I have to be touching you and you would very much notice if I did." He assured her. "I don't do it if I can help it as a general rule."

"Would…" She bit her lip as she paused, studying his face. "Would that be something you wanted?" He froze.

"You would do that?" He asked trying to wrap his head around what she was suggesting. He had been alone in his head for so long and as always Rose was trying to take away his pain without even realising it.

"Well, yeah." She made it sound so simple.

"Rose, full bonding is to my people is what marriage is to yours." Twin stripes of red coloured her cheeks and she looked away from him. He felt his hearts sink. He probably should have explained that first before asking if she would mind doing it.

"Sorry. I...I didn't mean to. I didn't realise." She spluttered.

"Please don't apologise. You don't know how much I want that, I was just surprised you do." He put one hand under her chin and tugged so she was facing him again. Her face was still flushed.

"You're saying, you want to be married to me?" She clarified. Yes he had said that hadn't he? And he thought they'd been moving fast earlier. Him and his big mouth.

"I...well...yeah I guess I do."

"You guess?" She raised an eyebrow and grinned.

"What I mean is, I do want that but this is all moving rather fast. We both only realised the other person's feelings a few hours ago. Now me and my big mouth are proposing marriage. We haven't even been a couple for a day yet." He tried to explain what he was feeling. Instead he turned them both so they were sat cross legged on the bed facing each other. He raised his fingertips to her temples. "May I?" He asked. She nodded looking nervous and he pushed towards her mind. "Anything you don't want me to see just imagine a door in front of it and I won't look, I promise."

He tried to pour in his emotions of joy that she returned his feelings and the love he felt for her mixed with the gnawing fear of losing her, the feeling that even knowing the future wouldn't be enough. She saw his terror at screwing up this fledgling relationship and tried to send him her trust and love in return. He basked in the warm feelings Rose was sending and never wanted to leave. He scanned a few of Rose's memories of when she was younger, getting more of a feeling of her. He ran into a few doors that he simply skipped past and then he took a deep breath.

"Rose, I want to try something. Do you mind?"

"No." Her voice was so quiet even he had to strain to hear it. He took a deep, unnecessary, breath to steady himself and then tried to guide Rose's mind towards his. He had seen inside her it was only fair she saw him in return despite his self disgust.

"Just reach out with your mind." He encouraged and for a moment there was nothing but then she was there. In his head. She moved around without his well practised grace but managed to get glimpses into parts of him nobody else had ever seen. Rose looked around her in wonder. The Doctor's mind was so vast she didn't even know where to begin. She could feel his fear and barely under control panic. There was also a lot of self hatred buried just beneath the surface, bubbling away. Acting purely on instinct she tried to soothe the dark mess. She had no idea what she was doing or how she was doing it but she simply tried to cover the darkness in golden light. She heard him sigh deeply as if being relieved of a long lasting pain.

As she floated through the Doctor's mind she got glimpses of his time on Gallifrey. The planet looked just as beautiful as he had described. She saw his past regenerations and a few of his past companions including his granddaughter Susan. Gently she felt the Doctor leading her consciousness out of him and suddenly she was back in her own mind and she was exhausted.

"That was 'mazing Doctor." She yawned. He didn't reply, simply sat frozen staring at her in open mouthed awe. "Doctor?" She asked tentatively.

"Rose." The word was nothing more than a gasp of breath. Then he moved without warning and pulled her into a tight hug, burying his face in her neck. They stayed like that for a few minutes until Rose had to ask.

"Was that a bonding?" He finally sat up slightly and looked at her.

"No. That was just me showing you what telepathy feels like. I honestly didn't expect you to be able to get into my head it was just a whim and I'm so glad you did. That was fantastic! A full bond would be permanent. A tiny piece of my consciousness would remain in your head and possibly part of yours in mine. However, it is incredible you are even able to be in my mind, so I don't know if you will be able to leave part of yourself there no matter how much I want that. A full bond takes a couple of days to complete, it's done bits at a time."

He was trying to keep his mind off the topic but it kept coming back to the feeling of having Rose in his mind. She filled him with warm golden light like he had never felt before. She had even clumsily attempted to heal his very soul without any experience or instruction. It had worked to an extent and he could only attribute it to her compassion and need to help people that she could do it without needing to try. The way she had always done with him. His bitterness and self hatred were still there in large quantities but they were far deeper than before. More manageable. Then Rose yawned again.

"Oh yeah, telepathy is incredibly tiring when you first encounter it. It'll take a while before you get used to it."

"You planning on doing that again then?" She asked.

"If you will let me."

"Course I will. I want this. I love you Doctor." He froze at the words that dropped so carelessly from her lips. Emotions welled up in him again and he was speechless. Rose didn't seem to have realised what she had said as she kicked off her shoes and begrudgingly got up to see if there was anything to change into. He also put his shoes on the floor and then lay on the bed with his hands behind his head wondering what on Earth he had done to deserve Rose Tyler. A few minutes later she emerged from the bathroom in a tank top and shorts. She came over and settled down beside him.

"You sleeping in that?" She asked.

"Why not?" He shrugged.

"There are pajamas for you in there." She pointed at the wardrobe. "Probably more comfortable than jeans to sleep in." He had to admit she had a point so he dragged himself up and went to get changed. He was done much quicker than Rose had been and he slipped back into bed beside her. Unsure of how to proceed, he lay on his back and she leant over to kiss him, her hair framing their faces. The kiss was slow and gentle, promising many more to come and the Doctor tried to convey all his love for her. When they broke apart she settled her head on his chest and flung an arm over his stomach.

"Am I going to be your personal pillow from now on?" He grumbled playfully.

"Yep." She laughed. He rather enjoyed it if he was honest with himself. As he required much less sleep than Rose he lay awake listening to her breathing as it evened out signalling she had fallen asleep. He stared down, marvelling at his own good fortune. It was a good few hours before he himself drifted off to sleep.

The next morning he realised they had changed positions in the night. She was now on her side facing away from him and naturally his body had followed hers so they were now spooning. His arm was cushioning her head and his other was wrapped around her waist holding her tightly against him. Then he realised the tightness in his pajama bottoms and instantly loosened his grip so he could move away from her. She definitely did not need to wake up to that. He spent the next half an hour reciting every equation he could think of in his mind to calm himself back down just in time for Rose to wake up. He closed his eyes and pretended to be asleep wondering what she would do. It took her a few seconds to realise where she was and then she simply pulled his arm tighter around her and settled back down.

"Morning." He whispered in her ear.

"Mornin'." She mumbled, voice thick with sleep.

"Sleep ok?"

"Best night in a while thanks. You?"

"Me too." He agreed. Rose turned so she was facing him and he couldn't resist kissing her. It had only been intended as a quick 'good morning' kiss but then she wrapped her arms around him and pulled him so that his top half was hovering over her. The kiss grew more intense until she had to pull away for air. He was feeling very glad to have respiratory bypass. They both grinned stupidly at each other and then he sat up.

"We should probably get dressed." He suggested.

"Missing your jacket are you? I'm surprised you didn't sleep with it on." Rose teased.

"It was tempting." He laughed Then he got up and headed to the wardrobe to change, leaving Rose to have a shower if she wanted. She asked him to throw some clothes out for her so he threw out a selection and turned to the section with his clothes in. He pulled on the first jumper he could find and a clean pair of jeans. He went back out into the main room and lay on the bed to wait for Rose, reflecting on the night before. It was about half an hour before she emerged and they held hands as they headed outside to the viewing area. Ten was the only one already up.

"Morning." He greeted them from over by the table that had appeared with plenty of food for breakfast. They both nodded to him as Rose dived for the coffee machine. "Some things never change." He laughed as he watched her. He noted that something had changed between the pair but he couldn't place what exactly. His counterpart had certainly never looked so happy. Contentment radiated off him in a way it had never done before.

"Something on my face?" Nine asked as he caught his future self watching him.

"No. You seem different. More relaxed." Ten noted. Nine nodded and quietly filled him in on the events of the night before. Ten's eyes widened with every word he spoke.

"You lucky son of a gun." Ten said.

"I know."

"I wish I had dared take that step."

"Well, I only did because we got here, or clearly I wouldn't have dared." Nine gestured between them.

"Do you know how bizarre it is being jealous of yourself?" Ten asked him.

"It is a whole new level of weird." Nine agreed.

"But now you will never be me. As you obviously know, the timeline I'm from, Rose isn't with me. You will never have the experiences so we are now from differing timelines. Which also means Martha and Donna are in my timeline, as is Mickey. While Rose and Jack remain in yours. Sarah Jane will, I think, still be part of yours."

"I can feel the new timeline. Is Rose dead in your time?"

"No. She got stuck in a parallel universe." Ten admitted. "But even if that still happens you won't turn into me. The loss will be so much greater than mine, especially if you bond." He warned.

"I know." Nine sighed. "I can't not take this chance though."

"Quite right too. Take care of her."

"Of course." Just then a door opened and they turned to see Jack emerging.

"All I can do is wish you both luck and hope you don't mind me spending some time with Rose while we are stuck here."

"I think I can manage to give you a little time with her." Nine agreed. They both then turned to greet Jack and wait for the others.