NOTES: Despite all my work to change this I do not own Doctor Who... yet. Also, while this isn't my first fan-fic, it is my first that I've let anyone read. Go ahead, critic. I could use all the help I can get. It's been what 4 years now so I hope no one will be bothered by the Journey's End spoilers. However, I'm fairly knew to the bandwagon so I never got to write this before. I've spent the last few days reading others and now will create one of my own.

prologue The End and a Beginning

Rose Tyler could tell you the moment she fell in love with the Doctor, an enigmatic man who'd changed her entire reason for existing. They were in a Utah bunker, 8 years in her future, being chased by the most fearsome creature in the Universe-a Dalek. The Doctor had been faced with a choice-close the doors and allow Rose to die or leave them open and allow everyone, Rose included, to perish. The Doctor had made his choice closing the steel doors and as the doors shut and the malicious Dalek come closer Rose knew she loved the Doctor. It wasn't fear for her life or the sadness of never seeing her mother again that broke her heart; it was that she'd never get to hold his hand as they ran for their lives again. Rose loved the Doctor from that moment on, but she never told him.

Oh plenty of times so hinted at her feelings, but she always thought she'd have tomorrow to tell him. When you run with the Doctor, it feels like it will never end. Rose thought she'd have forever with the Doctor, but she didn't. On her last day with him, the day she wished she died, she finally told him.

She'll always remember the wind whipping blonde locks in her face as it tried to steal her last glances at the one she loved. She told him she loved him and he made the move to reciprocate, but he never finished. "Rose Tyler..." Everyone told her again and again that he was going to say "I love you", but Rose couldn't be sure. She thought she'd never be sure. It would be just liker her Doctor to reply "Rose Tyler you're the best friend I ever had." or even something much more obscene. It didn't matter how many times her mother or Mickey said it, Rose wouldn't believe that he loved her until she heard it from his mouth.

When the Darkness started coming, and she realized she needed to get back to the Doctor not just to be with him, but so he can save all of reality, Rose never let herself think about the possibility of seeing him and asking him what he was going to say.

Torchwood eventually invented the time canon and she could go back through. She found the Doctor, and prepared herself to once again spend the rest of her life with him.

However, fate once again got in the way. A part human Doctor was created from Donna just as a part human Dalek was created from Rose. The Meta-Crisis Doctor committed genocide and the Doctor said he wouldn't lose the terror onto his Universe. The Doctor exiled his meta-crisis counterpart to an alternate Universe, Rose's Universe and set Rose as his warden.

Confused and distraught she did the first thing that came to her mind- she asked the forbidden question.

"Last time we were here, on the worst day of my life..." Rose dared to ask because she needed to know, she needed to know if the Doctor loved her.

Rose's Doctor answered with a simple 'does it need to be said?' but the Meta-Crisis Doctor whispered the word in her ear that she'd waited 4 years to hear, "I love you."

Rose wondered if it had been a trick. If the two Doctors had planned their responses knowing that Rose couldn't help but pull the Meta-Crisis Doctor into a fiery kiss that would last long enough for her Doctor and Donna to leave unnoticed.

Standing on that beach Rose did the most natural thing in the world, she grabbed the Doctor's hand.