A/N: Okay! Final chapter, where the Doctor and Rose's fist date (sort of) comes to a close (again, sort of).

BETA'd, as ever, by the awesome Wikkid.X. Read and Review please!

The Doctor held Rose's hand tightly, pulling her across the car park to the entrance of the building, practically bouncing on the balls of his feet with excitement. Rose grinned behind him; his excitement was infectious, as it always had been, and she had missed it so much.

They entered the building, and Rose noted that it was, in fact, a hotel. They walked through the main double doors, into the foyer and beyond, into a very classy looking restaurant. Rose was suddenly very glad she had decided to dress up before they went out.

The Doctor looked down at her, grinning from ear-to-ear, but it wasn't the self-satisfied smile she had been expecting. In fact, his gaze held a hint of expectation, like he had a brilliant secret. A waitress walked past, but he made no attempt to ask for a seat, which piqued Rose's curiosity.

"Doctor," she said, half laughing, "What are we doing here?"

"We're eating," he explained, as if it should be obvious.

"So why don't we go and sit down?"

"Because, we're waiting for – Oh, hello!" A tall, stately looking woman in a black suit had approached them, and was regarding them politely.

"Mr Smith?" The woman shook the Doctor's hand as he nodded, grin still firmly in place.

"That's right, we have reservations?"

"Of course, of course." The woman nodded, and reached into the small concierge desk before them to retrieve a small bundle of cloth. To Rose's mystification, the woman handed the bundle to the Doctor, who thanked her.

"Alright, the garden's right through there," she gestured to the fancy French windows that adorned one side of the room, "A server will be out in a little while to take your order."

"Great, thanks." The Doctor nodded once more, then, with another grin at Rose, he lead them out of the restaurant and onto a large patio, down a small flight of stairs, onto the main lawns and along a pathway, past a dark copse of trees and around a corner, away from the golden lights of the hotel.

It was almost totally dark, and so Rose had to trust her direction solely to the Doctor, whose hand still gripped her own. It was automatic, something she didn't have to think about. She trusted that he would lead her to wherever she needed to be, and that he could never lead her astray.

Finally, they reached the darkest spot yet, and the Doctor let go of Rose's hand. She could hear the rustling of the bundle he carried, and as her eyes adjusted to the dark she could see him lay a large square of cloth out on the ground, and settle himself on it. She followed his lead. Sitting herself down next to him and glancing around, trying in vain to work out what they were doing here.

Finally she turned to him, to see him lying sprawled on the blanket, staring at the sky.

"Alright," she sighed, "I give up. What are we doing here?"

"Look." His eyes stayed fixed skywards, and Rose followed his gaze. The stars seemed exceptionally bright tonight, starkly white against the inky sky.

"What is it?" She asked, half-whispering as she lay down next to him, tucking one arm behind her head. She felt him shift, wrapping an arm under her back and resting her head on his shoulder, in the curve of his neck. She sighed in contentment, curled up closer to him than she had been in a long, long time.

"The stars. You can't see them back in London, the light pollution blocks them out. But up here, you can see them clearly." And she could. Every constellation, every planet in the solar system, every glittering faraway sun, she could see them all. And in a way, it was different from how it was back then, when every light was another adventure, another new horizon to explore. "I can't – " He swallowed, "I can't show them to you, up close, anymore. I can't point to the sky, and ask you where you want to go next. I wish that I could. I know that you do too."

"I…" Rose didn't know how to respond to that. Then she rallied, "No. Not anymore."

"But-" Now he was the one who was confused, "The dimension cannon – I know you didn't mean for it to end like this. On Bad Wolf Bay, you didn't mean to choose me. You wanted to be with him, and it kills me every day that I let him take that choice away from you." *bites lip*

"He didn't. Take away my choices, I mean. I kissed you – I made my choice."

"No, you didn't. You kissed me because I said I loved you and he didn't. Because, out of his twisted sense of nobility, I seemed like the better option, and weighing the odds, he gave me the opportunity. The one thing I could do that he conceivably couldn't."

Rose was stunned. He'd hit the nail right on the head. It was what she had been stumbling towards in the apartment, what she had known all along. Why being close to him, why wanting to be close to him, felt obscurely like a betrayal.

Something that had been true when she woke up that morning, but had changed since then.

So she smiled, and craned her neck up to look him full in the face.

"You're wrong." The words were there, sat between them, and all he could do was watch her and wait for her to continue. She sighed, "I admit it. I wanted to be with him. I wanted the life we had, the adventures and the running and the never having to stop. I wanted the Universe that you had showed to me back in my life."

He nodded, accepting this as some sort of proof, his face sliding into that resigned, regretful, hard mask she'd seen him wear so often. "But not anymore."

"What?" Now he was stunned. He sat up, leaned on one elbow, and she mimicked his posture, so they were face-to-face.

"I- this evening, when you didn't come home, I thought you were gone. Not dead, not in danger, just… gone. I thought you'd run off to be a traveller again, that you'd given up trying for what I kept refusing. And it hurt more than I could have possibly imagined. I realised something tonight. This, what we have, it isn't the same as before. It never will be. I'm human and you're human, and we're stuck in one time period, on one planet, and we can't run from things, not anymore."

"I know." He nodded, "That's why I have to ask you something."

"No, wait," she laughed, a little nervously, "Let me finish. Before you say something you can't take back. I don't want our old life back. I did, I've wanted it everyday since I arrived in this world. But I don't anymore. All I want is you. And if that means we have to live in one place, and have steady jobs, and have a mortgage, and all the other things you've been organising and I've been ignoring, then that's…" She searched for the right word.

"Acceptable?" he offered, looking just a little bit worried.

"No," she beamed, "Fantastic."

His answering grin outshone the stars in the skies above them.

"Now, what did you want to ask me?"

"Oh… It doesn't matter now."

"No," she laughed, "It does. It matters everything."

"Alright. I was going to ask – do you, I mean, do you still feel the way you did three years ago? On the beech, when there was just one of me and I was a hologram. You said –"

"I said 'I love you'. And I still do. I've been in love with you since I first said goodbye to Mickey in that alleyway, and I always will."

"But I thought, since I changed…"

"I didn't. I knew, every time you changed, that you're still you. And I love you."

"I love you too. I always have, I always will. Even holding a massive gun, even making me sit down and drink tea with Jackie," That brought a giggle out of her, "I still love you."

They snuggled back down to their former positions, and lay for what might have been an eternity, just staring at the stars that used to be their home.