"Then prove yourself, Doctor. What are you: coward or killer?"

"Coward. Any day."

The Doctor really had been ready to die. He had been entirely prepared to give in and let go. Nine hundred years was a pretty good run, right? He had seen enough, done enough, lost enough - maybe it was time.

He had done all that he could for the people of the Game Station only to watch them be picked off one by one until there was no one left but him and the motley fleet of daleks closing in on all sides. The only one who he had managed to save in the end had been Rose. However, that small, consoling fact - to know that she was safe, that he had fulfilled his promise and gotten her home to her mother and her boyfriend and her normal, human life - was enough for him. It gave the Doctor a sense of peace as he closed his eyes and braced himself for the dalek blast that he knew would be coming at any second ...

Only the shot never came. The horde of daleks were suddenly far too distracted by the wound of wheezing TARDIS engines and the large blue box that was slowly materializing nearby.

The doors of his old time ship opened and the Doctor immediately tripped backwards and stumbled to the ground as he blinked against the blinding golden blaze of light and the overwhelming, eternal song of time that emitted from within.

"Rose ...?" the Doctor breathed. Her name fell from his lips before he could even get a proper look at her. He just somehow knew that it couldn't possibly have been anyone else.

When her head twitched to the side and her glowing golden eyes zeroed-in on the sound of his whispered voice, the Doctor gasped as several memory blocks immediately crumbled to dust and shook themselves loose within his head and his stolen moments with his future Rose all came rushing back at once.

"Rose ..." he stated again, a bit more firmly this time. "What have you done?"

"I looked into the TARDIS," the creature before him explained evenly, "and the TARDIS looked into me."

The Doctor's expression fell as he gazed up at the woman glowing with time energy and began to piece together the puzzle of what must have happened to Rose after he had attempted to send her away. She had taken things into her own hands, as she so often did, and refused to sit down and be quietly rescued. She had completely thrown away life as she knew it, risked everything that she had ever loved, for him.

"I want you safe," she declared resolutely. "My Doctor."

My Rose ... the Doctor lamented silently as he watched her stand up against the fleet of daleks and single-handedly put an end to the Time War once and for all. His immense pride in her was diminished somewhat by the great, terrifying sensation of fear that he could feel threatening to overwhelm him.

"Everything must come to dust. All things. Everything dies. The Time War ends."

There was quiet victory in the cool finality of her words, but the Doctor could see glittering tears running down her cheeks as she struggled to contain all of time and space within her single, human body. The vortex was burning her up from the inside out and there was nothing that he could do to stop it ...

All of those stolen moments that he had had with her future self, all of those precious memories, all of the adventures that they still had before them were slipping through the Doctor's fingers like sand through an hourglass as time ticked steadily by and brought them both closer and closer to the inevitability of death.

"My head ..." Rose whimpered, the pain in her voice shooting through the Doctor's gut like a lance and making his hearts seize with sympathy.

"Come here," he commanded quietly as he steeled himself for the only solution that remained. If they were ever going to get out of here, if he was ever going to be able to be with his Rose again, if he ever wanted his memories of her to come true, then he needed to do what the Doctor did best and save her life - no matter what the cost.

"It's killing me ..." she continued pathetically.

"I think you need a Doctor."

The Doctor couldn't be sure, but as he turned Rose towards him and slowly drew her closer, he could have sworn that the golden light in her eyes flickered, and just for a moment, he could see his companion's young, nineteen-year-old face looking up at him in nervous anticipation.

He was confident but gentle as he leaned forward and pressed his lips to hers in a motion that was nearly habitual at this point. He eagerly accepted her warm and inviting response as she pressed back into him and released a small, delicate sigh against his cheek as she let go of the tenuous hold that she had been keeping on the vortex within her mind and allowed it to pour into the Doctor instead.

The kiss was the briefest that the two of them had shared so far (in the Doctor's experience, at least), but it still somehow managed to outshine all of the rest as bright, golden light blazed between them and energy sparked wherever their skin touched. For the briefest of moments, their timelines were completely in sync, and the Doctor was finally permitted to share his first, true kiss with the woman who he loved more than anything else in all the universe.

Before he even had the chance to completely separate from her, the Doctor's eyes snapped open as all of time suddenly flooded through him and momentarily blinded his senses. The single kiss that they shared, despite its great significance, paled in comparison to the magnitude of images burning through the Doctor's head and threatening to overwhelm him. He felt his breath catch in his throat as he watched timelines flare and glow around him, twisting and tangling into infinity in every possible direction.

And through all of it was Rose - impossibly persistent, ever-lasting Rose. He saw all of the adventures that they had already been through together - the running and planets that they saved and the people who they helped, with her hand always clasped tight in his. And for just a single, shining moment, he saw her future, and the way that it mirrored and danced with his. He saw the times when she would be forced away from him - lost outside of his reach - and the many, sleepless nights where he would pace and brood and wonder if the nightmare would ever possibly end. And then he saw the way that she eventually returned to him, just as she had always promised she would, and the joy that they would experience knowing that they had defeated the odds and written their own happy ending despite what the universe had attempted to give them.

The Doctor was only able to let go of the promise that time was weaving before him and focus on reality when he suddenly became aware of Rose's eyes - still glowing faintly gold with the after effects of the time vortex - rolling up into the back of her head as her body went limp and she lost consciousness. The Doctor caught her without even having to think about it, his arms easily supporting her weight as he laid her on the ground like the precious, treasured gift that she was.

It was her unconscious, prone form lying at his feet that finally gave the Doctor the strength and focus that he needed to channel the vortex back into his ship and let go of the infinity of time and space that he could feel burning within him. The energy ripped and clawed its way through him as it left, as though it were desperate to take a piece of him with it, but he remained as he was - like a tall, proud sentinel standing guard over the human woman who he would not allow time to tear away from him just yet.

It wasn't until the power of time and the promises it held had slowly faded form his mind that the Doctor found himself stumbling under the weight of reality once more. He couldn't suppress the small grin that he felt turning up his lips as he felt his life force slowly draining out of him like blood from a wound. The vortex had been returned to its rightful place, but it had destroyed both him and Rose in the process. Still, he couldn't quite manage to feel even the smallest ounce of regret. The daleks were gone, Rose was alive, and they were at last on the path that they should have been on all along.

When his gaze finally landed once more on the unconscious woman at his feet, the Doctor immediately fell to his knees and let his hands gently ghost over the warm, feverish skin of her face. She was breathing deeply, as though she were in a long, restless sleep. The Doctor had no idea how she managed to survive the effects of the time vortex, but he wasn't about to start questioning the universe now, after it had at last granted him the one gift he had waited so long to receive.

He struggled more than he cared to admit to hook his arms under Rose's shoulders and knees as he fought desperately against his own failing strength and slowly carried her back into the TARDIS. She rolled her head against his shoulder as they went, pressing her cheek tight against his leather jacket as her brows furrowed in sleep and she groaned pitifully.

"Shh, love," he whispered consolingly as he gently squeezed her closer and kissed the top of her head. "I'm here, I've got you."

The Doctor knew that she would need every second of sleep that she could get after such a harrowing experience, but he found himself wishing desperately that she would wake up, anyway. He had so much to tell her, so much to explain, so much to confess, and he could feel time ticking away for them both.

He had no doubt in his mind that this was the regeneration that his future Rose had alluded to, but there was still the question of what lay beyond that. What was it that would separate her form him at some point in their futures? How long would he be able to hold onto her before she would be forced to leave? The short time that the Doctor had had to stare into the eternity of time and space hadn't given him any sort of clues on the matter, though he supposed that the promise of her inevitable return was gift enough.

The Doctor closed his eyes as he buried his nose in Rose's hair and desperately longed for the telepathic bond that he had shared with her future self just a few weeks ago. He needed some way to reach her, to let her know that everything was going to be alright.

"I hope you remember all of this ..." he whispered bemusedly out loud as the idea suddenly struck him that the vortex energy might have left a series of negative effects on her mind. "I always thought that when our timelines finally synched up, everything would just somehow work itself out. Maybe we'd even get a happy ever after and everything would just turn back to normal." He breathed a small laugh into the crown of her head as he muttered wryly, "Silly, old Doctor."

"Normal" had never been something that he was particularly good at, unfortunately, and it seemed that his habit for making things far more complicated than they needed to be extended to his relationship with Rose as well.

"Wait for me, love," he whispered as he gently laid her down on the TARDIS grating near the console and once more let his fingers trail over the soft, delicate features of her face. "I know I'm daft and slow and I'll mess it all up in a million different ways, but I promise that I'll be there in the end, no matter what. Just wait for me ..."

Rose made another soft, murmuring noise in her sleep as she unconsciously nuzzled her face further into his hand.

"If you were awake right now, I'd explain what's about to happen," he informed her quietly as he sat at her side and idly let himself indulge in the luxury of mapping out and memorizing her features. "Or, I'd try, at least. Never been too good at explaining these sorts of things. It's funny, really - you'd think it would get easier with time, but dying is always far more difficult than it looks. I don't think I'm every truly ready to say goodbye."

He reached down and took one of her hands in both of his so that he could bring her fingers to his lips and slowly press a reverent kiss to each of her knuckles.

"But there's a time for everything, Rose," he continued gently. "There's a time to live, and a time to die. Right now, it's my time to become the man who will wait for you for as long as he needs to until you're able to find him again. But that's okay - done a lot of waiting around, me. In my experience, it's all about what you're waiting for. And for you, Rose Tyler, I think I would gladly endure eternity if there was a promise of just a few years with you at the end of it."

Another small, sad smile turned up the edges of his lips as the Doctor felt the burning energy of an impending regeneration begin to expand within him and vibrate deep within his bones.

"I'll try and make it a good one," he promised quietly as he leaned down and pressed one last, lingering kiss to the very edge of Rose's mouth.

Whoever he ended up regenerating into next was a lucky man, indeed. He would not have to concern himself with memory blocks and tangled timelines and wondering if and when his fantastic, beautiful companion might ever return his affections. He would be born into this life already knowing that Rose loved him, that they had the promise of a future together, and that no matter what face he wore, she would always be there for him.

The Doctor sighed as he traced his fingers along Rose's chin and allowed one last moment to relive the shared, precious memories that she had given him that she didn't even know about yet. She had given him hope in his darkest hour, promised him a future when there seemed to be none, and blessed him with her bright, enduring presence.

"I'll see you on the other side, love," he whispered gently. He had to force himself to pull away from her when his hands began glowing with the regeneration energy that was currently coursing through his veins. He wondered if he would be able to hold it off long enough to get to say goodbye.

"We've got much more to do, you and me," he informed her as he heaved a weary sigh and slowly rose back to his feet. "It might be years or even decades from now, but I promise that we'll see each other again."

He stumbled ungracefully towards the TARDIS controls and braced his hands against the console as he fought to remain standing. "Always been a bit sentimental, me," he muttered distractedly. "Never been very good at letting go."

He grinned at her unconscious form from across the console controls as he muttered slyly to himself, "But I don't think I'm quite finished with you yet, Rose Tyler."

"Time Lords have this little trick - it's sort of a way of cheating death. Except ... it means I'm going to change, and I'm not going to see you again. Not like this - not with this daft old face. And before I go ..."

"Don't say that!"

"Rose ... before I go, I just want to tell you - you were fantastic. Absolutely fantastic. And do you know what? So was I."

A/N: Thank you so very much to everyone who has left reviews and/or favorited and followed this fic. I hope you've enjoyed it!

I've been considering continuing this "five times Rose and the Doctor kissed" trope, but I can't seem to decide on which Doctor to do next. If you have a preference or suggestion, you can let me know! I have another multi-chapter DW fic I'm currently working on as well as personal projects, so any future fics will most likely be back-burner projects, but I'm open to suggestions!