Chapter 18 – All the Rules Are Broken Now

He answers her with a passionate kiss. The kind of kiss that neither of them has experienced ever before. The kind of kiss that promises her forever. He gathers her up in his arms, and she grasps for their removed clothing and wraps her legs around his waist tightly as he stands, and then he is carrying her back down the hill, back to the TARDIS, back home. And this time, instead of just holding hands, they are kissing all the way...

He tries to stay focused on where he is walking but it's quite difficult, really. Since he has Rose, in just her bra and a very short skirt, wrapped around him, her tongue doing all sorts of delicious things to his lips and jaw line and neck and ear and oh!...she really needs to stop doing that. Or else certain things may have to be resolved right out here, on the grass in the cool night air. He contemplates this for a second, and then decides against it. He wants this to be perfect. Because she is his Rose, and she deserves nothing less than that.

He rests her against the doors of the TARDIS supporting her with his knee while he tries to get to the pocket of his coat that she is grasping tightly in her left hand. But then, as he's fumbling around, she smiles, amused by his urgency, and gestures towards her chest. Briefly losing focus as he follows the path of her hand, he then notices something on her chest shine in the moonlight. He grins back at her, and takes her key from the chain around her neck instead.

They unlock the doors, bundling in, and he's kissing her again and it's lovely. And she can tell now, that this is going to happen in the TARDIS, and there will be no running away from it, and it won't be awkward, because it is them, him and her, the Doctor and Rose.

His lips move to her neck as his hands sweep across her back, unhooking the clasp of her bra and gently easing the straps down her shoulders. She puts her hands in his hair again, and tugs at it, and her tongue makes tantalising contact with the curve of his jaw; he swiftly pushes against her so that she is between the edge of the console and him. She tightens the grip of her legs around him again and he can barely think. That's never happened before. Not before Rose.

He moves them so that she is on the Captain's chair now, looking up at him hovering above her with shock and hope and lust and love in her eyes. And oh, she truly is the most beautiful thing he has ever laid eyes upon. And he loves her.

She pulls him back down to her and their tongues are clashing against each other once more, exploring each other's mouths; and they are rather thoroughly enjoying themselves, it has to be said. Then, she's pushing him up, so they are standing again, and she takes his hand and gently leads them down the corridor, sliding out of her skirt as she walks, laughing gently as it gets caught around her foot. She kicks it somewhere irrelevant, and looks over her shoulder at his bewildered expression, and suppresses a giggle. This is so surreal, and Rose is sure she must be dreaming.

She continues walking, making her way to her bedroom, when suddenly he stops behind her. She tugs his hand to motion for him to continue walking with her. But he stays still.

Oh god, she thinks. This isn't a dream, because in her dreams he always follows her, and everything's lovely. This is real. Because he is stopping things, again, before they have even begun.

She turns her back to him.

She thinks he's regretting this.

She thinks he is going to stop this.

She thinks he is going to tell her to put her clothes back on and then walk away from her.

She thinks he thinks it's all a mistake.

And she thinks she might cry.

But he doesn't do any of those things. And she doesn't cry.

Instead, she hears his footsteps close the distance between them, and he's standing right behind her, front of his body against the back of hers. She can feel his breath on her neck and she shivers and her heart is beating uncontrollably and after all that silly thinking and now this...she can't think anymore.

He brings his lips down to press a soft kiss on her right shoulder. His hand comes up between their bodies and slowly trails down her back. He kisses her again, this time just behind her ear. And then he whispers, so softly that it's like he is caressing the word...

"Rose..."

"Hhuhmm?" she barely says in return. Her brain seems to have decided to let her deal with this conversation on her own.

"You're going the wrong way."

"A..am I?" she manages to stutter.

"Yeah."

"Oh. Ok," she says, and it's very likely she could fall over in a minute.

So she turns around and grasps his shoulders to keep her knees from giving way...and then they are both very aware that she is mostly naked and he still has his trousers on.

That situation had to be rectified immediately.

"Which way then, Designated Driver?" she says, with a new-found confidence that surprises them both, and she's smiling her teasing smile that he loves so much.

"Weeelll...follow me...." he says mysteriously.

"Always," she breathes quietly.

"And forever," he says, turning slightly to face her, winking.

Whoops. She didn't mean for him to hear that. Oh well. At least it was clear from his reply that he was thinking along the same wavelength. Her heart skips a beat.

He leads her down a different corridor, arm fitting around her waist snugly, and through the door to his room.

Once inside, Rose looks a bit baffled, so the Doctor kisses her frown off of her face and swivels her around, pushing her gently with his body so that they both land on his bed with a bounce. She giggles against his lips and he pulls back to eye her suspiciously. His expression concedes to more Rose-giggling, and his left eyebrow goes up. Oh, she loves it when he does that. She stops laughing and pulls his lips back to hers.

He shifts her onto the bed a bit more, hovering over her.

"You know, I've never actually used this bed before..." he murmurs, strangely coherent for their current situation, Rose feels. We can't have that.

So when she replies, she decides to give him a bit of a shock.

"Oh yeah? Well, it's certainly gonna see a show tonight. Let's christen it," she whispers, in a rather seductive manner, the Doctor thinks, and then she proceeds to undo his trousers, and the Doctor can't think anymore.

He bites his lip and his eyes are wide and dark.

This is different, she thinks. She giggles.

He loves her laugh. He knows what she's thinking.

"Good different or bad different?" he says, smiling at her, and she's startled at his ability to read her that well. She knows he could, quite literally, read her mind if he wanted to, but right now he was just guessing. And he was right.

"Good different. Definitely..." she replies, sweeping her tongue across his lips. She then moves to kiss his neck again, and her hands...well, they travel on a very nice journey back down his torso...

"Ah. Now that...that...is erm...very...nice to erm...hear...um, Rose, you should really, really stop...ah...doing that...that is far too..."

Rose laughs at him. Again.

"Wh...what?" he asks.

She laughs even harder.

"What? Rose, stop it. No...no not that...I meant stop laughing...the other thing,weeelll...you can keep doing that if you like. Please."

"Sorry, sorry...It's just..."she replies, still giggling a bit.

"What is it?" he whispers, tilting his head closer to hers again.

"Well...you know. This is just a very different sort of...adventure...to normal. And I never thought it would happen, not for real," she's stopped laughing now, and her voice quietens in volume to match his.

"For real?" he asks, confused.

"Yeah. As in...oh you know..."

"Huh?" he thinks he does know. He thinks he's had similar thoughts.

"As in...not in my dreams. Ok, there, I said it. Don't say a word..." she declares, embarrassed. He is surely gonna tease her for that, she thinks.

He smiles gently at her, amused by her self-conscious confession.

"Hmmm. So you've dreamt of us -"

"Shut up."

"Sorry," he says, smirking light-heartedly.

He bends his head and kisses her passionately, pressing all of his weight onto her and trailing a hand down her arm.

"Want to know a secret?" he asks, kissing her nose.

"All the time," she smiles at him.

"Well... I did too."

"Did what?" she asks innocently, though she knows. She knows. And she's very bemused and excited by the idea, actually. She didn't think he would ever think of them in that way.

He looks at her incredulously, and she giggles and nods her head. But she can't resist...

"Isn't that a bit...erm, what's the word? Oh yeah. Isn't that a bit un-timelord-y of you, Doctor?"

He chuckles at that.

"Oh yes," he replies, rather huskily, she notes.

"Thought so."

"Mmmm. I'm supposed to have better control than you lot," he explains, and she shoots him a look at his subtle insult to her species, "But then...well, you sort of changed that, didn't you? Being so...so..."

"Lickable?" she interrupts jokingly, and she thinks he'll laugh.

Instead, he looks deep into her eyes, and says softly,

"Exactly," and to prove his point, he swept his tongue over her lips, down her neck and into the hollow of her collarbone.

"Ahhh...oohhh," she replies in surprise at his tongue-movements, rather ineloquently, she knows.

"Exactly," he chuckles.

Rose flings him onto his back with one swift motion, much like she did days ago, on the TARDIS's console room floor.

And the Doctor is quick to appreciate that this time, she is not wearing her purple top or dungaree-skirt-thingy. So looking up at her now straddling him, he does indeed have a very interesting, and extremely pleasing view. And it's nothing short of heavenly.

He sits up to kiss her again, but she pushes him back down, and he looks somewhat bereft.

"Wait. I just wanna say something, Doctor. And it's very important."

He swallows, suddenly nervous.

"Yes, Rose?" he asks shakily.

"You're very lickable too - "

"Ah yes, well that goes without saying..." he interrupts.

"-Doctor! I wasn't finished..."

"Oh. Sorry. Please continue," he says, and chuckles, because this is really quite amusing, practically having a conversation with Rose's breasts. He long ago forgot that he was supposed to be a gentleman, and keep eye contact with her when she was speaking.

Seemingly reading his mind, Rose tilts his head back up to look at her face.

"Doctor..." she says warningly, though she has laughter in her eyes and he suspects she actually quite enjoys this.

"So sorry. I'll erm...I'll gaze into your eyes again. I just thought I'd give you a break from that, and look...elsewhere instead. You know, seeing as you can't seem to structure a coherent thought together when I'm looking into your eyes usually," he laughs as she blushes and raises her eyebrow at him at the same time, "Anyway. Carry on with what you were saying..."

"Oh. Yeah. Erm...where was I...?" and he's gazing into her eyes like she's one of those light shows on Lumen and...then she realises what he means. God, he's good. His eyes are just so...captivating that she can't even –

"Erm...Rose?" he interrupts her internal ramblings, with a smug smirk on his face.

"Right, yes," she forces herself to continue. Then she remembers that it was him who was staring at her breasts in the first place, so why is he making her feel embarrassed? And...she's sitting on him, so really, she has the upper hand here. She shifts her hips and moves around a bit on his lap, while trailing a finger down his chest seductively...and it's his turn to stumble over his words.

"Oh...ah...very funny...clever..ah...little...minx!" he exclaims, and pushes himself up to kiss her laughter away.

But she pushes him back down on the bed before he can.

"Ha. Now I have you right where I want you..." she says beaming down at him, her tongue between her teeth.

He wishes she wouldn't do that. It's so distracting.

"Now, what I was going to say, before I got rudely interrupted about fifteen times, was...something of the utmost importance."

"Yeah?"

"Oh yes," she says, her expression growing very serious and melancholy. The Doctor wonders what on Earth – or rather, at the TARDIS hadn't yet changed location, what on Lumen – could make her demeanour change so dramatically. Actually, he suspects she's trying not to laugh, rather than essentially being very serious. Oh god. What's she going to ask him now? He has a feeling it could be embarrassing.

"Well? What's wrong?"

"You're...well, you're an alien..."

"Yep!" he says, popping the 'p', then adding, "So are you."

"Hmmm. Quite. But....well, I don't know about you, but I generally don't go around...erm...dancing...with aliens...And well, Captain Jack said –"

"Ok, can I just say: it really worries me that you have brought up the wonderful Casanova of this universe Captain Jack in the middle of us - "

"Doctor, relax. Calm that Captain envy of yours, I - "

"I do not, in any way, shape or form, nor have ever, or will ever, have Captain envy of Jack Harkness..."

"Whatever. Oh yeah, cos 'Time Lords don't get jealous, Rose,'" she says, imitating the Doctor's voice perfectly, "Anyway," she continues before he can butt in again, "We...well, we had this little...erm...bet, going..."

"Ah." The Doctor thinks he knows where this is going.

"Just a passing comment out of curiosity, really, you know; not 'cos we were like, discussing it in any great detail or anything..."

"Sure..."

"But...well, the thing is Doctor: I'm human. You're a Time Lord."

"Well done..." he comments encouragingly, subtly sarcastic.

"Doctor! You're making this so difficult. Ok. Basically, is there anything I need to know? Anything...different? Can we - "

The Doctor was growing incredibly impatient. He runs his hands across her back and sits up. He twirls a strand of her hand between her fingers, appearing to contemplate her question. Then, he pulls her head to his and kisses her firmly on the lips, and she lets him.

He pulls back a fraction.

"Why don't you just see for yourself?" he murmurs against her lips, and she smiles the widest smile she's ever smiled.

***

Soon, his trousers are flung somewhere inconsequential, perhaps hanging over a lamp or the bedpost or a chair or something, and then his boxers and her knickers suffer the same fate. And, to be perfectly honest, neither of the people on the bed really cares that they won't be able to find their discarded clothing in the morning. In fact, they are quite ecstatic to be there, together, completely without said clothing.

And as they make love, right there, in the Doctor's never-been-used-before bed; in their moment of peace, their flash of suspended time...Rose feels like she's part of some extraordinary fairytale. She's sure that what they are doing is something that can only be done outside of time and space. It's beautifully brilliant.

He is dancing with Rose Tyler, and the universe isn't imploding. And it is magical.

She hopes for a happy ever after.

***

Much, much later, he watches his beautiful Rose drift off into a satisfied slumber. She's exhausted. And so is he. They'd had quite a night.

He has to tell her.

"Rose Tyler," he whispers, when he is sure she is asleep in his arms, "You're worth breaking the rules for. I... I lo..." he kisses the top of her head, "Stay with me. Forever."

And she dreams sweet dreams that night, as the impossible is conquered, and she smiles in her sleep.

*The End*

A/N: Thankyou so so so much to all who have reviewed on this story. Your comments have meant so much to me, and I can't believe the lovely response I've had for this fic. I feel very proud! Lol I hope you liked the end – sorry if it was a bit erm...dodgy. I've never written anything like that before, and this is Rose and the Doctor, so, you know, I'm a bit apprehensive about how it comes across. I wanted them to have this *ahem* moment, but it not go too far away from their actual characters. Therefore, I'm so imagining it's cannon lol. This definitely happened behind the scenes :P

Love to all doctor/rose shippers out there. The world is a better place with their love story continuing. So, share the love and the happiness. Cos that's the most important thing in the entire universe, for everyone. Especially the Doctor and his Miss Rose Marion Tyler x