Okay, guys, this present tense writing is getting on my nerves and it's difficult to keep track of. I quit.

Also, Mickey bashing. If you like him, I'm sorry. I don't. And I made him worse than he is.

This is the last bit of this. It's a fragment. As much as I love Reinette/Ten (and the fact that he was dating Sophia Myles at the time), I have discovered Martha…and Shakespeare. So, here's what I had written, in case you want to read it. Feel free to take this and do with it what you will. Just drop me a line if you do. :D

Sorry, friends. I know I do this a lot. I think I might have writer's ADD.

Reinette shrugged at him. "I look no older. Is that a problem?"

The Doctor shook his head. "No. Reinette, it's not…" He paused, staring at her. "Jeanne Antoinette, you have not aged a single day for…" He paused again, obviously calculating in his head. "For just over eleven months."

Rose scowled. "So you cured her of mortality? What about me then? I just get to die?"

The Doctor rolled his eyes. "Rose, I didn't cure her of mortality. I can't do that…I don't think. At least, I've never been able to before…" He frowned down at his screwdriver, tapping it against his palm. His gaze traveled back and forth between Reinette and Rose. "Rose…"

The blonde woman's eyebrows rose. "Yeah?"

He stepped forward and pointed the screwdriver at her this time. Passing it across her eyes, he stopped. Repeated his action. Blinked. He seemed to have forgotten that there were other people in the room. "Er…Apparently, you've been cured of mortality as well. It must have been the black hole. Something about the way time moved or…"

Reinette tuned him out and his voice trailed off eventually, when he realized no one was listening anyway. She and Rose stared at one another. Jackie looked confused and Mickey was scowling, as usual.

"Neither of us are going to die? Or age?" Rose asked, not looking in his direction.

He shrugged. "Dunno. It doesn't look that way. I'm not entirely sure though. We know that you both can be hurt, though not whether you can be killed. The effect might be temporary. You both might start aging tomorrow, next month, next decade, next century, or you could both outlive me. I have no…way…" His entire face went slack. None of them had ever seen such a look on the Doctor's face before. He was clearly at a complete loss for words.

Reinette smiled gently at him and slipped a hand around his waist, fitting herself under his arm. He looked down at her, shell-shocked. "You won't be alone anymore, Doctor. You won't lose either of us."

Rose's expression fairly erupted into a smile. "Now, we really can have a 'happily ever after' if we want."

Reinette chew her lip for a moment. "Doctor, does this mean that your body has stopped aging as well? That you won't have to regenerate, unless you're injured too badly? I'm fond of this body of yours and I'd hate to see it go." She snaked her other arm around his waist and turned in to press against his side.

Mickey choked, staring at them. Rose scowled at her ex-boyfriend. The Doctor flushed faintly. Reinette smirked. She'd actually made him blush. He swallowed convulsively and nodded. "I suppose so. I don't see why I'd be that much different. The two hearts thing and the no air thing don't make my physiology that different from yours. I guess we'll see?"

"Bah." Reinette snatched the screwdriver from his loose grip and scanned him herself. "You forget, Doctor. I've been inside your head. I know how the screwdriver works."

Jackie gaped. "That's…that's…What does that even mean!"

The three time-trippers turned to look at her. Rose snorted. "She means it literally, Mum. The Doctor is a telepath and apparently Reinette here beat him at his own game. He was reading her mind, so she read his."

Reinette shrugged, a movement she'd picked up from Rose. "A door, once opened, may be stepped through in either direction."

Rose stuck out her tongue at the Frenchwoman, who laughed. "Yeah, well, I'm still jealous, even if you had to have him in your head for it to work."

The Doctor arched an eyebrow. "You can try it too if you want, sometime. You won't like what you see, I can guarantee you that. I don't even like it, most of the time, and it's my head."

Rose chuckled. "I will take you up on that, Doctor. If only to learn your real name."

The Doctor averted his gaze. "I'm the Doctor. Nothing more, nor less. Not ever again."

Mickey, seething in the background, was caught between anger and a sick kind of satisfaction. "So," he interrupted. "You leave me for 'im and he still won't have you? He wants a French whore instead?"

Reinette flinched. It had been a long time since she'd been called that and she'd grown unaccustomed. Rose looked like she'd been slapped. The Doctor pulled away from her and took two very deliberate steps toward Mickey. "Mickey Smith. Do not forget to whom you're talking. There is a reason that I am known to the Daleks as the Oncoming Storm. Say something like that again and you will find out what that reason is. Am I understood?"

Mickey glared at him silently.

The Doctor took another step. "Am. I. Understood?"

"Yeah." Mickey's voice was sullen and angry.

The Doctor watched him through narrowed eyes for a moment. "Good."