Disclaimer: If I owned Doctor Who Season Two would have never ended. All rights to BBC. (Neither is the picture mine.)

As It Should Be

For exactly 16 minutes the Doctor's companions sit in the TARDIS together. He watches their faces and wonders at his good fortune to have met them all. He sees their smiles and hears their laughter and wonders at how a person as evil as himself managed to have them all be in his life. But then he sees how they all have dark circles under their eyes, how Martha uses military words in everyday conversation, how Donna has no idea what has happened to her family, how Rose barely says a word and instead just slumps against one of the coral in the TARDIS. The Doctor looks that the amazing people in his home and he realizes that though he may be better off because of them, they have gained nothing good from him. It tears at his heart and he wishes more than anything that he could fix them all, that he could make them the people they were before he met them and ruined their lives. He wishes he could send them all home to happiness and chips and boredom. But he can't. They would never leave, they would follow him until their last breathes, never once realizing that they serve and love a monster. And that is the real horror of it all, they can only see the face of an angel, but the Doctor is no angel. He is a monster, a murderer, a destroyer of races, a…

"Doctor? Are you okay?" He feels Rose's gentle hand on his arm, hears the concern in his voice, sees the lines of worry on her face and it takes every ounce of the Doctor's strength to keep from falling into her arms and begging for her forgiveness.

Avoiding her gaze by turning back to fiddle with some piece of the TARDIS, the Doctor muttered, "Yeah. I'm fine. I'm just great."

"You're the King of Okay?"

"Yeah."

"Liar."

And that is the final straw. The Doctor looks at Rose, the woman who has never failed to call his every bluff, to see through all his disguises. Rose, the woman who understands the Doctor, but never runs away, never scorns him, never is afraid of him. The Doctor just stares at her with her blond hair and fatigue written plainly on her face for a few moments before he wraps her in his arms.

They both try so hard to hide the tears that are forming, but neither can quite manage it. Rose's tears smear her mascara and the Doctor's fall on her shoulder, but neither care. Not anymore.

Because this is the Doctor and Rose Tyler. These tears at the end of the world, these hugs snatched in the moments between adventures, these kisses that will never happen, these memories that will last too many lifetimes to count. These things that have survived all of time and space. These two people who have fought across dimensions to find each other.

This is the Doctor and Rose Tyler. In the TARDIS. As it should be. Forever.

Author's Note: Homework procrastination and writer's block at work. I hope you enjoyed this little story (I actually got a little teary writing it, which I never do) and I would be thrilled if you reviewed. Thank you for your time.

Have a fantastic life,

-When In Doubt, Smile