Just like that, the sound of the ocean, of the wind, it all cut out, and the Doctor knew that he had faded away from Rose Tyler. His mouth was still open, words formed there, unable to escape. His cheeks were wet with tears, and she was gone, with only three words. I love you. She'd taken her last chance to say it. She was amazing, never one to leave it too late, like him. She was so amazing, so brilliant. And she was gone.

The Doctor lifted his hands and rubbed his face, wiping it with his palms, circling the control circuits and trying both to remember all the times with her, and forget them. Gone. Oh, how he hated that word. And knowing that he couldn't cross his own personal timeline to see her one more time, that only made it worse. Two minutes to say goodbye, to say things that needed to be said, and he'd wasted time. He'd always told himself that she knew - that she must have known.

But did she? What if she didn't know how much he cared for her? What if she didn't know that he loved her? Could he ever live with that?

"Am I gone yet?" came a voice, causing the Doctor to spin around, eyes wide, his cheeks having been wet again by the saltwater of his eyes, and see something that made him question his own sanity. There she was. Rose Tyler. Standing in the TARDIS, emerging from the back corridors of his ship, here was Rose Tyler. She stared at him, her mouth forming surprise when she saw the tears on his face. "Oh, Doctor," she said quietly.

The Doctor swallowed hard, lifting his hand and wiping his cheeks. "Rose, are you …" he paused, shaking his head. "Are you real?" he questioned.

Rose's surprise lifted into a smile - a brilliant, brilliant smile - and she nodded. "Course I am," she said, drawing closer, ambling, treading carefully. She didn't want to confuse him, or throw him off balance. "I didn't know you were so upset. You're 'always alright', you said once," she thought aloud, looking down.

The Doctor drew nearer to her as well, eyeing her carefully, halfway sure that she was just an image, a figment of his imagination. "If you're real, Rose … if you're really real, how did you get here?" he asked, his wonder beginning to leak into his voice. Rose smiled, stepping close enough for him to touch her, if he wanted to. Part of him didn't want to touch her though - he didn't want to know, if it was fake. He wanted to believe it was real for as long as he could.

Rose laughed again, taking a long blink. "It's a long story," she extended her hand, the unspoken suggestion there. Touch it. Feel me. I'm here.

The Doctor looked at her hand, and drew a breath, before tentatively reaching out for her. His fingers grazed her palm. She was there. She was really, really here. "Oh, Rose, you're here!" he suddenly choked out, and sucked her into his arms. "You … you wonderful, brilliant girl! How did you do it? Please, tell me, Rose! Tell me how you did it!" he was laughing now, but his eyes were still wet. "Oh, you're here," he repeated.

Rose laughed into him, throwing her arms around him as tight as she could and burying her face in his neck. "I'm here!" she agreed, grinning happily. "Oh, god, I've missed hugging you! Temptation was mad, I tell you," she drew back from him, but he didn't let her go.

The Doctor grinned at her in disbelief. "Temptation? What do you mean?" he asked, confused, but his smile didn't falter.

Rose's tongue emerged between her teeth, and he could see how pleased with herself she was. "Dad - Pete - he's the Director at Torchwood in his universe, yeah?" she began, and watched him nod wordlessly for a change. "It took weeks, but they finally found a way for me to travel in time. Not space, but time," she held up a lone finger. "I couldn't cross the Void in July of two-thousand-and-seven, because the rift had closed. But in February of two-thousand-and-seven, there was still a crack, remember?"

The Doctor pulled back and held her at arm's length. "You mean when the TARDIS first entered Pete's world?" he furrowed his brow.

"That's the one," Rose nodded, then went on, "So I went back to February, when the TARDIS was in Pete's London. I still had this," she drew her hand to her chest and held up her TARDIS key to show him, "So I let myself in while you and past-me and Mickey were running around saving the world, and stowed away in the back rooms - the ones you and me didn't go in. Also, hope you don't mind, I kind of made myself at home in the library. Anyway, I couldn't let you know, because then you'd be warned about the future, and I didn't know enough about crossing my own timeline to risk it. So I waited."

The Doctor stared at her for a long while. He raised a hand from her arm to run it through his hair. "That's … that's brilliant," he said slowly, before he very seriously continued, "But … how long has it been for you? How long did you wait? Because February, two-thousand-and-seven, that was almost a year ago for me."

Rose nodded, with a distaste written on her face. "And me too. But it's been even longer, for me. It was nearly three months just to get back from Norway, and then another three months until we had the time-field working at Torchwood. It's been eighteen months. I waited for eighteen months," she said, only seeming to now be coming to that realization. She gave a wan smile. "Anyway, it's not important. What's important is, here I am."

"Yes you are," the Doctor breathed out, "And I love you," he grinned, the words out of his mouth before he had any control over them.

Rose stared at him for a moment, waiting for him to apologize, or take it back, or something, but he just stared back, smiling at her. She grabbed him by the collar and pulled him in close, pressing her lips to his and furrowing her brow in determination. She had waited far too long to do this.

She almost didn't believe it when she felt the smooth pads of his fingers against her shirt at small of her back, when she felt him pushing her hair back from her face as he pulled her in closer. The kiss was far from elegant, nothing like the end of a Disney film, but it was perfect. It was desperate and it was long, and they had both waited far too long for it.

A bright gold glow interrupted their long-awaited reunion, making Rose pull back from him, and making both of them throw their gazes to one side, still enveloped in one another's arms. Glowing golden particles in a free-form cloud appeared beside the TARDIS' control panel, and suddenly began to congeal into a single being. When the particles all came together, they saw the back of a woman in a white gown - a wedding gown - who was facing away from them.

Screwing up his face in confusion, the Doctor exclaimed, "What?"

The bride suddenly spun around to face them, showing them a red-hair woman with panic written on her face. She stared for a moment, then blurted, "Who are you?!"

Rose and the Doctor both stared at the woman, but only the Doctor spoke, though not very deftly. "But-?!" he began, but stopped, confused and a little indignant at being interrupted. Slowly, the two let go of one another.

"Where am I?" the bride continued, shouting.

"What?!"