a/n: And so we come to the end. But not the end. I realized as I wrote the last few chapters I am not ready to let these characters go. I have an idea for another story, but it's unlikely to be ready to post until sometime next year.

Thank you so much for reading this 'verse. I appreciate each and every one of you.

Chapter Eleven

The Doctor sat in the living room of the Tyler mansion with an arm around Rose as Tony tried to vibrate everything in sight with his toy sonic screwdriver and Jackie nattered away about something or other. Pete sat back watching it all as he sipped on a glass of the off-world brandy he and Rose had given him. The Doctor, on the other hand, hardly noticed the normal, overly domestic activity around him. Instead his mind was focused almost entirely on one thing and one thing only, the small velvet ring box buried deep in his pocket.

For a brief moment at the farmhouse he had not known what it was, had forgotten he was planning on giving it to Rose, had even forgotten he had made it. He knew it was as a result of the convergence; he expected to find tiny gaps in his memory as the melding together of their experiences and personalities continued, but he truly had not expected to have forgotten anything as large as his decision to propose to Rose.

So as the chaos continued, as Jackie and Rose talked, as Tony attempted to sonic his wooden train, and as Pete decided to turn on telly in hopes of finding a match, the Doctor became lost in thought.

"Doctor. Doctor!" Jackie's harsh, piercing voice calling him startled him back into the present. It was perhaps the only thing that could have. He looked around in surprise. He had been concentrating so deeply on the problem of the gaps in his memories that he hadn't even realized that Rose had left the room.

"Hmm?"

"I asked you what you got Rose for Christmas," she told him.

Before he could answer, Rose's voice came from the doorway. "He surprised me with the fact that the TARDIS could travel."

"That's it?" Jackie said incredulously.

"No," her daughter answered. "He wrote a piece of music for me. It was beautiful. Gorgeous."

Jackie turned back to him. "I didn't know you were musical."

"He plays the piano. Brilliantly, in fact," Rose told her as she joined him back on the sofa.

He put on a wide grin. "Part of that is Donna. One hundred words a minute," he said brightly. He held up his hands and wiggled his fingers.

"You should play it for her," Rose suggested, bumping his shoulder with hers.

"Yeah," Jackie said. "Got a piano in the music room after all. Why we even have a music room is beyond me. 'S not like anyone plays. Well, Tony will. We'll get him lessons once he's a little older, 'a course. Never had a chance to do anythin' like that with Rose. If they didn't have it at school or at the youth center she couldn't do it. So she did gymnastics. Good thing they had that cos she was good at it. Got the bronze in the under 7's, you know. Anyway, if you can play, you should play it for us. Get some use out of the thing for a change."

As usual, Jackie said it all in a rush, hardly taking a breath, and also as usual, the Doctor found her train of thought dizzying. And all of a sudden it was too much. In the last twenty-four hours he had seen the Time Lords escape the Time Lock and get sent back into it, had both regenerated and died, had saved Rose from dying, had converged with his other self, and now was doing domestic with Jackie. When he really wanted, needed, to be alone with Rose.

"Yes, and we'll do that, but first…" He jumped up and hauled Rose to her feet. "One more thing I've got to show you, Rose. This way!" He yanked on her hand and dragged her from the room, grabbing his new coat on the way. Rose, not expecting it, stumbled before she got her feet under her. Jackie, Pete and Tony followed in their wake.

When she realized he was headed out of the house, she pulled him to a stop just long enough to grab her own coat. He then continued, rushing her out the side door as they both pulled on their coats.

Outside night had already fallen, but motion sensitive lights as well as the light pouring through the windows illuminated the area outside the French doors. In front of them stood the large English oak that was the TARDIS, complete with the heart carved into the trunk that held the invisible doorknob. Rose looked curiously at him.

"I don't understand," she said.

"Wait for it," he told her. He began to pat down his pockets, finally shoving his hand in his left trouser pocket far deeper than it should have been able to go. "Ahh. There it is."

Rose wrinkled her forehead in puzzlement when she saw the object he had pulled from his pocket. "An electronic key for a car?"

"No. Well, yes," he said, immediately correcting himself. "But not for a car. For the TARDIS. We'll still have standard keys, but this one…" He pressed a button, and the door swung open. Another press and the door closed. "And…" He drew out the word as he pressed another button.

The air around the TARDIS began to shimmer. Through the distortion, they could see it shorten and narrow and its color fade to a nondescript medium grey. When it was done, in front of them stood a plain metal cabinet approximately four feet wide and seven feet in height. Rose's jaw dropped, and the Doctor grinned.

He pressed the button again, and in front of them stood a tall, Doric column. Again and the column turned into a statue of an angel, its wings drooping and its hands covering its face.

"Not that one," he said, grimacing, and pressed yet again.

And then in front of them stood a familiar blue box.

"The old TARDIS!" Tony cried from behind them.

"Nope," the Doctor answered. "Still the new TARDIS. She just has a working chameleon circuit now. It lets her blend in with the surroundings."

"I knew she could change, but seeing it with my own eyes is something else," Rose said.

"If the TARDIS is working, does this mean you're taking off?" Pete asked.

"Well," the Doctor began.

"Can I go too?" Tony pleaded, interrupting him. "Please?"

"Absolutely not," Jackie said firmly.

"Sorry, Tony," the Doctor interjected before Tony could begin to whinge. He shoved the key back in his pocket and took Rose's hand. "Maybe some other time. This time it's just going to be the two of us."

Jackie looked from Rose to the Doctor and back again. "So you two really are goin'? Right now? Oh, why do I bother askin'," she said without missing a beat. "'A course you are."

"We won't be long," the Doctor said. And then glanced nervously at Rose. "That is, if you want to go."

Rose stared at him incredulously. "Of course I do. Do you even need to ask? Where are we going?"

"You'll see," he told her.

"But it's Christmas," Jackie protested. "Well, Boxing Day, but still."

"We've got a time machine, Jackie," he said. "We can be back ten seconds after we've left."

Jackie rolled her eyes. "I've heard that one before," she said darkly and then sighed. "Well, 's not as if I could stop you. Just be safe and come home soon."

With hugs all around, just in case ten seconds turned out to be slightly longer than that, they said their goodbyes, and the Doctor and Rose headed into the TARDIS.

~oOo~

Within minutes the TARDIS came to a stop with a screech and a loud thud, but the materialization was so smooth the Doctor and Rose barely swayed when they landed.

"That was a much quieter landing than the old TARDIS used to have," Rose said.

The Doctor ran a hand along the edge of the console. "She's a brilliant girl, isn't she?" he said proudly. "Not that our old TARDIS wasn't, of course. She had just been through so much over the years, particularly during the Time War, and she hadn't had much time to recover when we first met. Plus there was the business of being designed for six pilots. Our beautiful girl has designed herself to only need two."

She met his eyes and slowly smiled. "You and me."

He smiled back. "Yeah. You and me."

After several long seconds of staring at one another, the Doctor cleared his throat and gestured to the door. "Shall we?"

Rose's grin brightened. She nodded, rushed to the door, and went outside.

And stopped.

She stared around herself in shock and horror. Rather than the dark she had somewhat expected, it was twilight and she could see that they had landed on a beach. But not just any beach.

There was a light breeze coming in from the bay; it was nippy, but it wasn't carrying the bite of winter.

She heard the Doctor walk out behind her and pull the TARDIS door closed.

"I don't understand," she said. "This is Dårlig Ulv Stranden. I told you I never wanted to come back here."

He didn't answer so she turned to face him. He was scanning the horizon, hands plunged deep in his trouser pockets. He had evidently known the weather wouldn't be cold, because he had left his new brown overcoat in the TARDIS.

She flashbacked to the recurring dream she had had in recent months about the beach. All the elements were the same: the breeze, the twilight, the blue Police Box shaped TARDIS, him in his blue suit.

He had left her in that dream.

"I told you I never wanted to come back here," she said again.

"Funny thing, memory," he said without looking at her. "You can remember a time or a place, and then when you come back, somehow it doesn't seem the same. Even if you come back to the same time and place you were before.

"In some ways the beach seems exactly as it did the last time we were here; it's about the same temperature, the same light coming in from across the water. It should seem the same, you know. We've traveled almost six months into the past. We were on this beach, right here, only three hours ago. Right now, at this very instant, you and I are aboard a zeppelin somewhere over the North Sea." For a moment he looked up at the sky before returning to look at the horizon. "At the same time, right now I've just left Donna in the care of her mother and grandfather. Two sets of memories. And both mine.

"You know, I've always hated this beach," he continued. "But for one instant, one brief, shining moment I loved it, because you were in my arms and I was kissing you. Yet at the same time, at that same instant I hated it. I felt as if one of my hearts was ripped out of my chest as I saw someone else hold you in his arms and kiss you. Me, but not me."

Finally he turned and faced her. "I want a do over."

"What?" she asked.

"A do over. I want a do over. It's when something goes wrong and you go back and pretend –"

She waved her hand impatiently. "I know what a do over is. What do you want to do over?"

"Rose, when we were last on this beach, I didn't answer your question and then I left without saying goodbye. And leaving you here was one of the hardest things I've ever had to do."

"But… but you did answer and you did stay," she said, confused.

"Oh, yes," he breathed. "Yes, I did. I did stay. And I did answer, but part of me didn't, and neither of us said what we really wanted to say."

"What did you want to say?"

"Ask me again and I'll tell you."

She bit her lip nervously. "I, uh, I don't…"

"You remember," he said.

She took a deep breath. "Okay." She nodded. "Okay. When we were on this beach last time…"

He shook his head. "When I last stood on this beach…"

"When I last stood on this beach…" Her voice trailed off as she tried to remember something that she had tried so hard to forget.

"On the worst…" he prompted.

"On the worst day of my life, what was the last thing you said to me?"

"I said, 'Rose Tyler'."

"And how…" Her voice broke as she relived the hated memory in her mind. "And how was that sentence going to end?"

"Oh, Rose Tyler," he said slowly. He drew out the words, emphasizing each one. "I love you, too."

She smiled at him. "But that's what you said before. You did say that."

"Yeah, I did," he agreed, "but not this part. I offered to spend my life with you if you wanted, but what I really wanted to say was, 'Rose Tyler, I want to spend the rest of my life with you. Please say you will.'"

"Of course I will—" she began, but he interrupted her.

"This probably isn't the best place for this, but..." he said as he began rummaging in his pocket. She gasped as he pulled out a blue, velvet box. Her hands flew to her mouth as he opened the box and withdrew a ring. "Rose Tyler, would you marry me?"

"Yeah, not the best place," she agreed, fighting off tears of happiness. "Oh, you are completely mental, picking this of all places to propose." She laughed, and he laughed with her. "Of course I'll marry you!"

She flew into his arms and he caught her up, lifting her high off the ground and swinging her back and forth. When he finally set her back down, he took her left hand and slipped the ring on her finger.

"To be fair," he said, "I was going to ask you two days ago, on Christmas Eve before all of this started. But now I'm glad I didn't."

"Why?" she asked.

"Because this way you know that all of me is asking, not just part."

While they had been talking it had grown darker and the light breeze had grown stronger and colder. Rose shivered.

"Well, now that you've asked me," she said, "we should probably get back."

The Doctor pulled a face. "Oh, do we have to?" It came out as a whinge. "I thought that since the TARDIS is working, and she is a time machine, and it's been so long since we've traveled together, I thought maybe a short side trip might be in order."

"I entirely concur," she told him, trying to sound serious. "How long are we gonna be gone?"

"Not long," he said. "I don't know if you remember, but before the convergence, when you were still Bad Wolf, you told me that I secretly wanted a normal, human life. And I realized that that's true, as long as it's with you. But I don't want to give up traveling entirely." He looked up at the stars that had begun to come out. "It's an entirely new universe, Rose Tyler, filled with wonders neither of us have ever seen. I think it's time we go see some of it."

"Yeah," she agreed. She slipped her hand in his. "Where do you want to go first?"

He grinned down at her and then looked back up. He pointed at a faint star that was nearly overhead. "Maybe that way. No," he pointed at another. "Maybe that way."

~oOo~

And so I died – only to be reborn into another universe. And through the sacrifice of the Bad Wolf, I was rejoined to my other self. I know I'll die eventually. But until then, I'll be able to live the life I had always dreamed of living: a part human life with a house and throw pillows and jobs with the love of my life at my side.

But I'm still the Doctor. I'm still part Time Lord. A Time Lord with wanderlust and a new TARDIS. And so we'll travel as well, seeing the universe and having adventures and maybe running into bits of trouble along the way.

It's everything I've ever dreamed of.

Whether in the TARDIS or on Earth, it will be the Doctor with Rose Tyler.

Just as it should be.