Chapter Eighteen: Resolutions

The Soul Eater was gone. It had dissipated into nothing more than its component atoms and the universe was a far safer place because of it. However, evil always leaves a mark. There is always an aftermath. There is always a moment wherein all of the events of life versus death must be acknowledged. There is always a moment where the fact and fiction of events must be disclosed.

That moment was now.

----

Rose Tyler idly ran the spoon around the edge of her tea cup, watching the swirl of the liquid with every appearance of being mesmerized. Her expression was blank as she regarded the steaming tea – as blank as her mind save for thoughts of the Intellivore and of him. If she closed her eyes, as she did every few minutes in an attempt to recapture what she had lost, she could almost hear the Professor's voice proclaiming that her Doctor loved her. She had admitted to the Intellivore that she loved the Doctor, but she was still sitting at the TARDIS' kitchen table alone. Days had passed since their confrontation, and later destruction of the Intellivore and still things remained unsaid between them. Rose rationalized that part of the reason why the Doctor had never completed what he had been about to tell her, just prior to the Soul Eater's taking her, was because of fear.

This was no longer the relative safety of the Doctor's mind – a place where he could, if he desired it, hide from the truth. This was real life. Her lips turned upwards into a bitter smile as she spoke those words out loud, "Real life." She certainly didn't fancy 'real life.' Real life had never known the Doctor, or at least a version of the Doctor, admitting his love for her. Rose took another sip of her tea and sighed. This, she suspected, would be one area where she would have to make the first move. "He's daft," she proclaimed, reaching across the table for a Jelly Baby from the sweets jar.

"I hope you're not talking about me," Jack grinned as he leaned against the doorway.

"Guess," she suggested, and was rather surprised at how bitter the word sounded.

Jack's expression grew serious as he crossed the room. Pulling out one of the chairs, swinging it around and straddling it so his chest was pressed against the back of it, Jack folded his arms across the top and looked at Rose, "Alright, talk."

"What?"

"Rose, I'm not blind. What's going on? You're moping in here and the Doctor's moping in the console room...it's almost as bad as the three months you were gone. So talk."

"The Doctor told me that he loved me," Rose said, but she held up her hand to forestall any exclamations of joy that Jack could utter, "Actually, he wasn't the one who told me. One of his previous incarnations did. However, just before the Doctor could tell me himself I was grabbed by the Soul Eater and..."

"Nothing's happened since then," he finished for her. "You've been going about life like nothing's changed even though everything has." Jack smiled slightly as he looked at her thoughtfully, "You're both idiots, you know."

"What?" she asked, suddenly feeling like a broken record.

"Idiots. Complete idiots. I've half a mind to lock the two of you into a room and keep you there until everything's worked out again. Hell, I might as well just do it since it's obvious the two of you aren't going to do anything."

"Who says I'm not?" Rose asked defensively, taking a sip of tea to hide her nervousness.

"I haven't seen anything change around here, Rose. If you're going to do it, do it. Before I, or the TARDIS, take matters into our own hands," Jack said, and with that parting shot the former Time Agent left the kitchen.

He was right, she realized. She was as much to blame for the current status quo as the Doctor was. Rose was acting like a teenager, something which she had thought she had left behind three years ago. Her expression grew grim as she considered his words. There was only one choice, though it wasn't much of a choice at all. Downing the rest of her tea with a practiced flick of her wrist, Rose stood and headed for her bedroom. There was, to be truthful, only one way of doing this properly – and she had every intention of doing just that.

-----

A voice at the back of his mind, a voice that sounded suspiciously like his Seventh self, interrupted his tinkering, You love her. So tell her. It's as simple as that. He hit the TARDIS' console with a little more force than necessary and he patted it in mute apology. He had been avoiding Rose for the past few days, mostly, he acknowledged, because of fear. They had come far too close to losing one another again – he did not think he could, or would, be strong enough to survive without her.

It is better to have loved and lost than to have never loved at all, the Seventh Doctor's voice snapped.

"Rubbish," the Doctor said out loud.

Piffle! You love her. You need her. And if you don't pull your head out of your... His inner voice was silenced due to the sudden electric change in the feel of the room. Though he did not see her with his eyes, he knew she was there simply by the tantalizing scent that was unmistakably hers that wafted through the air. For a moment, his body thrummed with the knowledge that she was near and he braced his hands against the console reflexively. That she could affect him so strongly, even though she had not said a word, both frightened and excited him. Mentally steeling himself, the Time Lord turned to face her...and felt his entire world drop from underneath him.

In the small part of his brain that could still think rationally, he wondered just where she had found the white men's dress shirt that she was wearing. In that same portion of his mind, he decided at that moment when he next regenerated that shirt was his. He found himself watching her movements like a drowning man reaching for the sun. She must have been aware of his scrutiny on some primal level, he thought, for she began to unbutton the top button of her blouse ever so slowly. The curve of her neck was visible as she leaned slightly backwards to open the button. She had not said a word, nor had he, but it was suddenly very, very warm in the control room.

"Rose?" he questioned in a hoarse whisper, meeting her eyes.

"Doctor," she greeted him with a tender smile, "I wanted to ask you something."

"Anything," the word was spoken without thought, more reaction only. He felt as if he was drowning in her soulful brown eyes and a good portion of him did not seem to care in the least.

"I don't want there to be secrets between us, Doctor. We need to tell each other the truth, the complete truth. Can you do that for me?" Rose's eyes were hooded, shading the naked emotions in her eyes from his questing gaze.

"Wha..." he stopped, licked his lips, and began again, "Yeah, alright."

"No secrets," she repeated her earlier words as she stepped closer to him. "So, Doctor, there is something that you need to know first."

The Doctor's body felt as if it were one single nerve attuned solely to her; her breath, her voice, her touch, her gaze. He nodded silently, encouraging her to continue without words.

Rose steeled herself as she continued, "I love you."

"You...what?" his eyes were wide as he looked at her, not daring to believe her.

"I love you," she repeated, taking another tantalizing step forward. One strand of blond hair brushed against the collar of her shirt and he restrained himself from reaching out to push it away.

"Oh Rose." Her name was a breath upon his lips and she could see within his eyes that a dangerous storm was brewing. Without needing any encouragement, the Doctor smiled, "Rose," he said again. This, he suddenly realized, had been inevitable from the first moment she had taken his hand. He was precisely where he belonged, and now, so was she. "I love you," the Time Lord finally voiced the words that had been interrupted once before and in a language he knew she could understand. While saying them out loud was a relief, he still worried that she might not be certain about this – about them.

She knew what he might ask, just as she knew his fears. Before he could voice them, she continued, "I'm older now, Doctor, and I know exactly what I want."

He swallowed nervously, his Adam's apple bobbing in his throat as he watched her move closer, "Do you?"

"You forget, I'm not the same twenty first century shop girl that first stepped through those doors," she gestured vaguely in their direction.

"What do you want, Rose?" he asked, having a difficult time concentrating on such a frivolous thing as words when she was so near.

"You," her lips curved into a tender smile, her voice low in her throat as she moved even closer than before until they were standing toe to toe, "Just you."

A low moan escaped his throat as he leaned downwards, his hands automatically tangling themselves in her golden hair. "Me?" he asked, and in that one word he asked her if she was certain.

"You," she confirmed, and she reached upwards to pull his head down to hers for their first kiss.

For the Doctor, time suddenly pulled to a standstill. His world, his entire being, had narrowed until all that existed for the Time Lord was Rose Tyler. He was lost in a kiss that was far more passionate, loving, worshipping, and stimulating than anything he had ever felt in 900 years of existence. It felt as if his body were one single nerve as fire spread through him from his lips. He moaned against her, finally finding his release in his hands as they roamed her body.

She pressed even tighter against him, almost as if she were attempting to join further with him until they were one. 'Too late,' he thought fondly as he released her from the kiss, his eyes dark with their mutual passion.

Rose smiled at him, a smile that was so brilliant that a mere camera could not capture its beauty. He ran his fingers through her hair before he pulled her into another embrace, trailing butterfly kisses along her neck. "I love you, Rose Tyler," he breathed the words into her ear and her entire body shuddered in reaction.

"Doctor..." Rose said, shuddering again as the Doctor found a particularly erogenous spot on her neck, "I...oh don't stop...I know where I want to go next."

"Oh?" he asked, not quite comprehending what she was saying in favor of trailing more kisses along her neck, shoulders, and face, "Where's that?"

"Bed."

The Doctor's eyes widened comically as he gaped at her, for a moment ceasing his previous movements, "Bed?" he repeated dumbly.

Rose laughed as she held out her hand, "Yes. Trust me?"

Without hesitation, he placed his hand within hers, "Always."

"Come on then," she said, tugging at his hand, "It's time for a new adventure."

With his customary manic grin, he followed her but not before voicing his opinion of the idea with one poignant word: "Fantastic!"

-----
Somewhere in the Haunted Corridor
Time Unknown

Time bled away. Days, months, years, they meant nothing to the fragments that had been scattered upon the solar winds. Destruction meant nothing to an entity that had been in existence since before the beginning. Indeed, someday it would return more powerful than ever. The mortals that lived in the mere space of a nanosecond as it regarded time would love, live, and die with none the wiser to its existence. But those that dared to venture through space needed to remember its presence. There might not always be man or alien or Time Lord.

But there would always be...

Intellivore.

FIN