Jealousy Is A Passion

Previously:

"This is incredible," he shouted delighted, knowing there was no real danger and no explosions happening outside.

"John, get inside."

"Oh, but Rose. This is incredible. A fantastic dream!"

"John, this isn't..." she started out, but then sighed. "Well, wouldn't it be even more fantastic, if you came onboard your magic carpet. That's what the Doctor would do, right? Preferably before the scarecrows do reach you. Slow as they are, they are progressing."

There was a certain urgency in her voice, and the scarecrows really were quite close now. With a gleeful smile, he ran inside, and she slammed the door shut right after him. Now that there was nothing more to the scarecrows than the harmless, futile scratching of their straw-hands on the TARDIS door, she heaved a sigh of relieve. Too soon it seemed as the whole spaceship suddenly shook, making all three of them tumble to the floor, and their ears ring with a loud 'crash'. Rose shook her head to get the ringing out of it, then sat up. Or tried to. There was something on top of her, giving her a sheepish, guilty smile.

"Listen, Rose...uhm..."

Saved by the knock on the door.

Epilogue: All Good Things...

They struggled to get up for a moment until James helpfully lifted his 'brother' off of his wife. He patted John on the chest, though for some reason the man couldn't look him directly in the eyes and Rose was blushing several shades of red, looking a little embarrassed there. James, naturally, put two and two together getting sex, and the grin that was henceforth plastered on his face would've made Captain Jack proud.

"Right then," he said, cheerfully as he bounded over to the door. "Let's not keep our new neighbour or neighbours waiting!"

"Do you really think that's a good idea?", Rose whispered, unsure.

"Take it from someone who knows: the bad guys don't knock!"

And with that, he quickly opened the door, and pulled the figure standing outside into the TARDIS control room, then slammed the door right into the scarecrows ugly faces, and turned the key in the lock. Shaking his head as if trying to clear some sort of daze away was Timothy Latimer, now standing in front of the central column with wonder in his eyes. As the ship gave a low, lazy hum, he stepped forward to put his hand against the coral as if to prove to himself that this was really real. The TARDIS made another sleepy sound, and Timothy took a couple of steps away to twirl on the spot to see the whole thing.

"This is... exactly as in the images. I thought I was going mad, but this is actually... This is incredible," he breathed to no one in particular.

James came closer, putting his hands on the young boy's shoulders to get him back into the real world.

"I think you have something for my brother."

"Me?", John squeaked.

Timothy nodded, and took something out of his pocket. He held it out for everyone to see. James offered him a knowing smile, Rose gasped in astonishment at finding the fob watch in the child's hand, and John, though not recognizing the watch itself, realized that it was his, and started ranting about how he was so very disappointed in Mr. Latimer for stealing his old watch.

"I didn't steal it. It chose me to take it away... out of danger. It called me. It wanted me to keep it safe for you... until the right moment when you would need it again," Timothy explained calmly to the erratic man.

"Now that is just... preposterous. That's..."

"True," James finished for him, taking the fob watch and pressing it into John's hand before the man could even protest.

"It's asleep," John suddenly whispered, turning the watch over in his hand a couple of times. "It wants to be held. It wants to be opened... He wants out."

"And you've got to let him,"Rose said, making John's head snap into her direction, a desperate look on his face.

"And what about me? I know what I did to you... with you... but surely I don't deserve to die for it! I don't want to die. I don't want to leave you..."

"We know," James replied.

"And you... Are you two always... like that?", John squeaked, referring to the incident in his office, which got a smug smile out of James, a flushing face from Rose and painted nothing but absolute confusion onto Timothy's face.

"Nope. First time. Though I think it's worth investigating further. At least once in a while- to make Rose flush so prettily, don't you agree?", James admitted, smirking. This had John blush bright scarlet, yet no protest came out of his mouth.

"I... I don't..."

Rose gave him a sympathetic look, and walked over to him. She enveloped him in a tight hug. For a few silent seconds neither of them moved, then Rose left his embrace, and put her hand over his. Both of them gasped as the watch showed them their potential. They could have such a life together. A house with a picket fence and a mortgage, a marriage, and children and grandchildren running around. A life full of laughs and smiles, and tears and heartbreak, and everything in between until they had grown old together.

"Did you see that?"

Rose nodded.

"That's what he wants: together forever, a life with me- us," she added in regards to James, "a normal life, everything that humans have, and it scares him half to death! But, for all our adventures, we could never have a life like that. Especially not with two World Wars looming over us."

John smiled sadly.

"I know. Living a life, day after day, the one adventure we can never have." His tone was melancholy as he continued to look down at the watch. "He yearns for your touch, you know? Even now I can feel him shifting inside the watch. Even asleep, he feels your presence, your closeness. Wants to be held by you, wants to slip out of this watch and into your heart and make himself comfy there."

Rose smiled her most brilliant smile yet.

"He already is. As is James." She lifted his head, made him look at her. "As are you. It's like you're three sides of a coin..." She laughed at her faulty comparison. "and I love you, all of you, and I wish I could live this life with you- as much as I always want to live in the TARDIS, paradoxical as that is, but..."

"But this isn't how it's meant to be."

He grabbed her, and hugged her to him fiercely. How he wished he could stay. Stay and make a home with her. A family. A big, happy family, but she, no, they already had that. The Doctors, Rose, and their band of merry men... and women were one big, happy, and possibly slightly dysfunctional family. It's ironic how the memories of his other life seem to come back even before opening the watch. Perhaps it was the Doctor's closeness, the fact that he was right there in John's hand. Whatever the reason, he knew what he must do. He still didn't want to die, and it tore at his heart to leave her, but he had started hearing crashes outside a couple of minutes ago. The Family was trying to lure him out of the TARDIS, and they were laying waste to the entire village for this purpose. All those people. They needed the Doctor. Needed his strength, and his wisdom. Even if he had to die for it.

All good things must come to an end.

And so, before he could come back to his senses and bail, he opened the watch in his hand, and everything went golden. And it was warm.

And then the TARDIS lurched into action.

"And I can't believe you kissed me, James!"

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Alright. So he hadn't been planning to come face to face with a gun on his first step inside the ship, but really, he should've known those scarecrow-thingies weren't just for decoration. Apparently they had reported the departure of the TARDIS.

"We know that you flew your ship. Only the Doctor can fly the TARDIS."

"No, no, please. It was that man, James, who flew that strange machine. I had nothing to do with this," he whimpered as he stumbled through their machine. "Please, I came to bring you this. Just stop. Stop destroying the village, please."

In a heartbeat the Son, putting away his gun, had snatched the fob watch from his hand, and thrown him halfway across the ship. Upon landing, some levers were flipped. The Family, meanwhile, had opened the watch to find nothing, and of course, the charade being moot at that point, he admitted to having already taken back his whole Time Lord spirit. Then, without another word, he ran outside, the Family hot on his heels. The Doctor turned around to face them only as he joined Rose and James at a safe distance away from the exploding ship, his face grim.

The Family huddled together. They knew it was over-and now came his fury...

"What now, Doctor?", Rose asked.

He dared not look at her as he answered.

"You wanted to live forever, now I will make sure that you will."

Rose felt a little queasy at the tone in which he said that. Eerily calm. Furious. Murderous.

"Are you sure? That doesn't sound like you at all. I mean," she amended, " I know you're angry, and, believe me, I understand. I have to put up conscious effort not to claw their eyes out, but... this isn't you. It can't be you. It mustn't."

The Doctor growled at the whole situation, and Rose hugged his arm to her body.

"I'm not feeling very lenient today. I'm partially responsible for the village's destruction, too, because I came here, but... that they used this... to... I was being kind. I wanted them to live out their lives, normally. Happily, if they could, and they threw it all right back at me! I. Am. So. Angry, I wouldn't mind throwing them down the nearest black hole. I might actually."

The Family flinched at this, and cowered before his anger.

"No, " James said, suddenly. "You won't. You wouldn't wish that on anyone."

The Doctor ran a hand through his messy locks.

"Do you have a better idea?", he asked, exasperated.

"As a matter of fact, I do. We'll take them to the Equitus Space Prison. I've already talked to the guys there and send the Family's files and all the proof over while you were on their ship. They can spend the rest of their lives gardening over there."

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(a couple of days later, on Pen Haxico II)

"So,", Rose started of matter-of-factly, as she rubbed the suncream into her skin, "James escaped the Family's clutch, 'cause he's got a Time Lord brain that's hard to overpower, and there are giant space stations that function as space-based prisons in the middle between two galaxies?"

The Doctor got up, and took the bottle from her, silently offering to do her back. He applied a generous amount of the perfume-free lotion onto his right hand, and, once he'd moved her hair out of the way, started to gently spread it onto her shoulders first before going lower, caressing her soft skin. Rose couldn't help the little moan that escaped her lips as his hands passed teasingly under the strap of her bikini top.

"Pretty much", the Doctor whispered huskily into her ear. "It's the perfect prison. Even if you do get out of your cell, and even if you manage to get out of the station, you're still several thousand light-years away from the nearest habitable planet. They have their own oxygen factory- that's a forest, by the way- so nobody needs to refill the oxygen tanks, so nobody can hide in the supply ships. And visitors are only allowed to come in police transporters, and are heavily guarded, and searched several times over. Arriving police officers with prisoners or a transferring order are profusely checked before they so much as get past the entrance hall."

"Except for you," Rose threw in.

"Yes, well... I'm kinda an authority upon myself. Last of the Time Lords, and all," he replied, nibbling on her ear.

"Bit pompous, isn't he?" James asked as he came back with their cones and sat down in front of Rose, close enough for her to feel his breath on her face. Then he looked over at the Time Lord in question. "Aren't you glad you followed my advice?"

The Doctor sighed.

"Maybe. A little." A quirky smile and a kiss later, James was being chased up and down the beach by the Doctor.

End of the Epilogue!

A/N: Well. This is it. I know I changed a quite brilliant ending into something that is probably not nearly as satisfying, considering what the Family did, but I thought this was a bit more like the Doctor. Especially with Rose still around. And his DonnaDoctor.

Please don't hate me!