The entrance to her mind resembled nothing so much as a warzone. What should have been a fairly permeable barrier had been hastily barricaded with the mental equivalent of boarded up windows and blockades made of whatever was lying around. Walls had been hastily if sloppily constructed only to be smashed through, scattering debris far and wide. Rose's mind had obviously realized the attack and tried to defend itself but, being untrained, was almost instantly overwhelmed. The Doctor stood just outside the largest hole, surveying the damage with a heavy heart. He forced himself not to bolt, to face the evidence of his failure. From just beyond the decrepit barricade, he could feel the warmth and vibrancy of Rose radiating into him.

"Rose, the last time I did this, I brought you into my mind; I didn't enter yours. You should know, before we begin, that if there's anything you don't want me to see, you should imagine a door in front of it. I won't look." He said aloud. Rose nodded. He closed his eyes and took a breath, stealing himself against his eagerness to dip into the beckoning vitality. Before he could fully prepare, a hand seized his wrist and tugged him forward across the barrier.

Eyes shooting open, the Doctor found himself captivated by Rose's serene expression. She watched him calmly while he took a moment to bask in her soothing presence. He'd expected to see an array of doors before him, but there were none. Just Rose, smiling shyly up at him.

"No doors? Rose, I know you want to prove you trust me, but you're still entitled to your privacy."

"I know I am. But I see no reason to tempt your curiosity by showing you what I'm keeping hidden. I sent the doors away. Besides, I need to focus on this if I'm going to learn how to protect myself, not just try to hold doors in front of things I'm not interested in thinking about at the moment."

She smiled up at him, clearly proud of herself. She had every reason to be. The Doctor had never known a human capable of that level of control over her own mind. Maybe this was why the TARDIS had been so afraid of her being influenced by the Alii. "Rose, you're fantastic. You shouldn't be able to do that."

Rose looked worried. "Is it because they were in my head?"

The Doctor shook his head, rubbing her arms reassuringly. "No, precious girl. It's all you." Giving into the temptation to touch her, he brushed his hand against her cheek. "You amaze me." Rose blushed and ducked her head. "I should clean up the damage they did here, before doing anything else. You've sustained enough of a psychic trauma, that I shouldn't stay here any longer than necessary." The Doctor told himself that it wasn't disappointment that flickered across her face.

The Doctor's first act was to soothe away the broken walls. He calmed the part of her mind that had panicked and futilely attempted to protect itself, imbuing it with a sense of safety. Rose's breath hitched as he worked.

"Can you feel that?" He hadn't intended his voice to be so husky. He didn't need Rose to know how intimate this act was for his people. He didn't need to think about its intimacy, as it only served to fuel fantasies when his focus should be on helping Rose.

Rose bit her lip and nodded. "Yeah," she murmured breathily. The Doctor swallowed thickly. That voice combined with being in her mind and stroking it gently was driving him to delicious distraction at an embarrassing speed.

"I'll be done soon," he told her and then, because he burned with the need to know if she was being affected the way he was, "I'm sorry if it hurts."

"It doesn't hurt," she hastened to reassure him. "It, umm…" she ducked her head, her face flaming red. "It feels nice."

The Doctor bit back an ecstatic grin. With no small amount of disappointment, the Doctor realized that Rose's defenses had relaxed away, giving him a clean slate to work with. He gave Rose's mind a final caress, unable to keep from letting a bit of desire flavor his touch. Rose shivered. A door appeared behind her. Rose gave a squeak of dismay, before banishing it again.

The Doctor itched with curiosity to know what she could have been thinking at that moment that she didn't want him to know, but he respected her privacy so he simply turned to the perimeter of her mind, now as pliable as it should be. The Doctor started by wrapping her in a protective barrier of his own, careful to keep his hold loose, both so he wouldn't scare her, and because he needed to keep some distance if he was to get through this without throwing her against a wall and having his wicked way with her.

Rose's eyes fluttered shut. "I can feel you. You're completely surrounding me."

The Doctor nodded, his eyes glued to the curve of her neck, which was exposed to him as her head fell back. "That's what we need for you to make. Watch how I make it." The Doctor banished the barrier only to bring it back up, slower. Rose shivered again, but her eyes had locked on what he was doing, drawing it all in. With a frown of concentration, Rose put up her own, just outside of his so that they brushed against each other. The Doctor bit back a groan, but it escaped anyway. It took a moment for his lust-dulled senses to realize that it hadn't come from him, but Rose. The door reappeared behind her, but Rose didn't bother to expel it this time.

The Doctor showed her how to make her barrier rigid enough to protect her and flexible so that it wouldn't shatter. She was a remarkably quick learner. Finally, the Doctor dispelled his own, leaving only Rose's protection.

"The last thing to learn isn't something you need to know." The Doctor told her hesitantly. He brought it up with no small amount of trepidation, knowing he had no right to ask this of her and knowing that even mentioning it, with her curiosity, was the same as asking.

"What is it?"

"How to let someone in," he said quietly.

Rose frowned in confusion. "But you're already in."

"I was in before you built the barrier. When I leave, I won't be able to get back in unless you let me without ripping through your protection, and I would never do that. It would be as bad as anything the Alii did." The Doctor looked everywhere but at her face.

"You could just not leave," Rose said lightly. The Doctor didn't respond. "Teach me," she ordered softly. The Doctor's gaze flew to hers; she was serious.

"Rose, I-"

"You said to ask again when I was myself. I'm myself, now." Her urgency eroded his defenses.

"Rose, you-"

"Doctor, I want you with me." The door behind Rose creaked as it opened a crack. Rose threw herself backwards and leaned against it, holding it closed, but she didn't stop talking. "I feel safe with you here."

"Rose if you'll-" The Doctor seized Rose by her upper arms, forcing her to look him in the eye, desperately endeavoring to get a word in edgewise.

"Doctor, please don't just leave me never to come back! And I swear, Doctor, this isn't a remnant of Tyler, or a reaction to what they did to me," Rose was becoming hysterical.

"Rose, I know, I-" the Doctor tried impatiently to soothe but she rolled over his efforts.

"I've wanted this for ages! Well, maybe not this, exactly, but I don't even know how long I've loved you-" the door behind her burst open like the sun, bathing the Doctor in light and warmth. It threw Rose into the Doctor, whose arms instinctively wrapped around her. Images blazed beyond the door, vivid moments shining from her memories. Rose stiffened nervously in his arms. The Doctor couldn't tear his eyes away from the moments he saw. The first images struck him with the strength of immediacy: them snogging like there's no tomorrow (because there might not be) in the square of the village, her comfort when she felt his mind engulf her protectively when they confronted the Alii, her joy at being held by him through the night on the jump seat of the TARDIS. With the images, the Doctor was bathed with Rose's corresponding emotions, and the next things he saw stole his breath as they gleamed with as much love as anything he'd just seen. He reveled in her mind numbing relief at seeing him after he'd effectively ordered her death in Van Stratten's bunker, the way her heart had constricted when he struggled to choose the Earth over her, the way their hands fit together on a busy London street after she'd seen her planet be destroyed.

The Doctor was awash with Rose's love, love that stretched back nearly as far as he'd known her, love that had kindled as long ago as his own, love that was real. The Doctor turned his awestruck gaze down to the girl who held his now singing hearts.

"Rose, I-" He tried, but still the words couldn't come. He cursed his cowardice while his mouth blurted, "You kept all this behind a door?" Hiding emotions was so much more demanding than hiding memories.

Heart breaking for him to see, Rose nodded dejectedly. "Seemed safer," she mumbled, a touch of bitterness creeping in.

"You amaze me," he breathed, fully aware that he was repeating himself. A touch of hope lit deep in her eyes, and he did his best to fan the flames. "You astonish me. You constantly surprise me in the most delightful ways. You know me so well that you shouldn't be able to love me, yet you do. And I know you so well that I can't help but love you, so I do it with all I have." Rose's eyes now blazed. "I do love you, Rose. Everything I do is for the love of you. It keeps me awake nights on the rare nights I try to sleep. It colors every decision I make. I was broken when I found you, but you're helping to put me back together, and I would do anything you asked of me."

"Anything I asked of you?" Rose asked saucily. The Doctor nodded dumbly, struck mute by her sudden playfulness. "Let's test that, shall we?" The Doctor swallowed thickly. "Kiss me."

The Doctor surrendered his lips to her, giving her sweet, sipping kisses, never delving deeply, taking time to build the confidence that he had shattered. He nibbled on her tempting lower lip before sucking on it. A groan escaped her, and the Doctor chuckled darkly, releasing her.

"What else doth my lady wish of me?" he asked huskily.

Rose's hand snaked down his torso, caressing and teasing on its way down. When her hand rested on his hardening cock, trapped by unforgiving denim, the Doctor's head fell back, breath hissing between his teeth. Rose nipped at his exposed neck. Then she took a step back, denying him her touch.

"Teach me how to build a door into my mind, Doctor," she ordered him calmly, as if unaffected by what she had just done.

The Doctor swallowed thickly, trying to reign in his wayward desire. "It's not a door as much as a portal," he managed to tell her through clenched teeth. "Imagine who you want to let in, and imagine a tunnel that they can walk through."

"Why not a door?"

"Not as safe, is it? A door is always there, a weak point for others to batter down. But a tunnel that only exists between you and the person you want to let in, minimizes your vulnerability to others. And I want you safe." Rose pondered it for a second, before nodding her acceptance.

The Doctor redirected her attention to where his own barriers surrounded hers, letting her see what the portal looked like from within, what it felt like to make it properly.

"What about the TARDIS?" Rose asked suddenly. "Do I need to let her in?"

"She's never been in your head, not really," the Doctor told her, ignoring her incredulous eyebrow. "She works on the surface, translating for you, but never dipping in."

"I'll still be able to talk to her?"

The Doctor felt his jaw hit the ground. "You talk to her? And she talks back?"

Rose ducked her head bashfully. "Kinda. Not like you do. But I can tell the difference between yes and no, and she helps me pick out clothes, or find you when you disappear to brood. Sometimes we watch telly together."

The Doctor was stunned into silence. The most powerful machine in all of time and space watched telly with Rose? "You really are the most incredible person I've ever met," he murmured reverently. "She shouldn't have a problem. And I imagine that she'll let you know if there's anything you need to do," he told her wonderingly.

"Can we talk without being in each other's mind?" She asked suddenly, then bit her lip, glancing away.

"I don't know. I knew you had more latent psychic ability than most humans in your time, but I didn't think it was this strong. We'd have to do some testing."

"Is that as much fun as it sounds?" she asked sarcastically.

"It could be," he murmured, his voice like silk.

Rose's eyes shot to his, rapidly darkening at what she saw there. "Then what are we waiting for?"

Rose whimpered softly at the feeling of the Doctor retreating from her mind, wanting to capture him inside her.

"We should do this somewhere more comfortable," he told her, his voice thick with desire. "This could wear you out."

Rose slid off the medical bed, her tongue peeking cheekily between her teeth. "Promises, promises," she teased and followed him eagerly to his bedroom.

She settled on his bed, lying on her back, completely engulfed in his scent, and she bit her lip to hold in a moan. She was already wet from his kisses and his promises, and she couldn't keep from rubbing her thighs together. The Doctor lay next to her propped on his side, gazing down at her with both a heat and a tenderness that made her ache.

"Relax," he whispered.

"Can't," she whimpered. "Want you."

"You'll have me, precious girl," he soothed, "But I want to see what you can do." His voice turned wicked. "Don't you want to play?"

Rose nodded with a desperate mewl. If he could get her this worked up without actually touching her yet, Rose wasn't sure she would survive him. Something ghosted gently across the edge of her consciousness. Her eyes slammed closed as the sensation rolled through her.

"Can you feel that?" the Doctor whispered against her ear, making her shiver. Rose nodded, her teeth nibbling her bottom lip trying to regain some control. "Can you hear me?" he asked softly.

"Of course, I can, Doctor," she answered irritably, her eyes snapping back open, and clashing with his. "There's no need to patronize me."

The Doctor's mouth crashed over hers, and she surrendered with a happy sigh. "I would never patronize you," he told her without releasing her lips.

Rose, ever quick on the uptake, didn't bother being surprised that his testing was successful so quickly, and instead retorted, "You'd never patronize me?" She pulled a few choice moments from her memory and pushed them towards where she felt his presence just outside her mind.

The Doctor pulled back from her lips, chuckling softly. "Touché," he murmured before latching onto the underside of her jaw, quickly finding a sensitive spot that made her gasp and forget that she was trying to argue.

Rose let her head fall back with a moan. "Do that again," she ordered without bothering to move her lips. She felt rather than heard his dark chuckle.

"As my lady wishes," his mental voice was as dark as sin, just as affected by her as his real voice would be. Knowing she could touch him so deeply made her feel powerful, cherished. She rolled quickly out from beneath him, ignoring his whimper of loss. She stood by the side of the bed and grabbed the hem of her dress and whipped it over her head, standing before him in what was essentially a loincloth and breast band, the proper name of which she was already actively forgetting.

Prowling back over to him, Rose pushed his jumper up and off of him. The Doctor pulled her down to him in a searing kiss running his greedy hands across the skin she had exposed to him. Unwilling to be outdone, Rose let her fingers scout multiple paths across his chest. The Doctor unwound her breast band, the rough fabric scraping against her nipples. Rose drew in a shaky breath, her eyes fluttering closed. His large hands cupped her breasts, kneading them softly.

Rose retaliated by circling his nipples, the spirals getting progressively closer, but never touching them. Her name hissed out from between his teeth and his hands went limp, making her smile triumphantly. While his guard was down, Rose straddled him and ground down against his prominent erection. The Doctor's face slackened, for a moment completely at peace. Rose repeated the action, drawing a groan from him. His hands slid down to grip her hips, helping guide her movements against him.

She leaned down to kiss him languorously, but the Doctor soon took control, his tongue invading her mouth with dark ferocity. His hips came up to meet hers, his straining cock giving her pressure where she needed it most. The unexpected friction against her clit made her elbows buckle. The Doctor seized the advantage and flipped her underneath him, grinding into her one last time before pulling the loincloth from her body.

He pulled away to divest himself of his remaining clothes. The air of the room was chilly against Rose's over-heated skin. She felt the Doctor's presence against her mind, even as he sat at the edge of the bed, struggling with his boots. She drew closer to it and caught a fleeting impression of him disparaging the parentage of the man who invented shoelaces. She giggled aloud, crawling forward to drape herself around him from behind.

"Need a hand?" she asked saucily, sliding a hand down his stomach to the button of his jeans and flicking it open.

"Might need more than one," the Doctor panted, relaxing into her embrace. Rose inched the zip down, reveling in the way the Doctor twitched beneath even this light touch. She encouraged him to lift his hips so she could slide off the denim. The thin cotton of his dark pants proved little barrier to her curious digits. She fingered him through the thin cloth, testing his length and weight in her hand. The Doctor let out a strangled moan and his head fell back on her shoulder. Rose ran a single fingernail up and down his length, scraping lightly across the head at the end of each upstroke.

The Doctor's hands clenched helplessly into fists and his hips jerked, futilely seeking more contact. His breath was shallow and rough in her ears. His presence against her mind was pulsing with heat. "Rose." Her name was whispered against her mind. The blatant need that accompanied her name made her nipples tighten. She slipped her hand beneath the cotton for skin-to-skin contact. The Doctor's breath hissed between his teeth and he began a rolling rhythm against her hand. "Rose," he murmured again in her mind. Then again when she squeezed him lightly. Soon her name became a chant tinged with need and love that she heard on the edges of her consciousness.

"Doctor," she responded aloud, her lips tickling his ear. His eyes flew open.

"Rose," he panted, "Not like this."

Rose placed a kiss on the spot where his neck joined his shoulder, making him shudder and whimper, then she released him and returned to the center of the bed, waiting for him to join her. With extreme haste, the Doctor managed to remove his boots, socks, jeans, and pants. He stood next to the bed, looking down on her as she beckoned lazily.

'"Rose," he choked out, "are you sure?" Rose gave him a look of mingled amusement and resignation.

"I was wondering how far we could get before you would ask that," she commented drily. Lips pursed in concentration, Rose bombarded him with a series of images of what she would like him to do to her and what she would like to do to him. His cock twitched against his belly, and Rose smiled predatorily. "Come here, Doctor," she ordered calmly.

Wordlessly, he obeyed. Crawling over her body, the Doctor dropped kisses sporadically, cataloguing her responses. Just below the kneecap earned him little more than a lazy smile. The inside of the thigh elicited a gasp. Rose held her breath when he parted her folds for a brief taste, taking care to just glance her clit. A moan answered this action, and the Doctor smiled smugly. Rose couldn't find it in her to try to take him down a notch. Continuing forward, the Doctor pressed a brief kiss to her navel before latching onto a breast. He sucked, hard, without any warning, and a breathy scream rewarded his efforts.

Chuckling darkly, the Doctor soothed her throbbing nipple with a gentle finger. Rose latched her hand around the back of his neck and pulled him down in a bruising kiss. She could taste herself on him and whimpered with need.

"Now, Doctor, please," Rose whimpered in her head, knowing he could hear her. The Doctor fumbled a little in his haste to align himself with her. He paused for a moment, before Rose's growled, "Now," spurred him into action. In one long thrust, he entered her. His groan of contentment mingled with Rose's soft sigh. He paused again, letting Rose become accustomed to his girth. Ever impatient, Rose flexed her hands against the Doctor's bum, urging him to action.

The Doctor pulled almost all the way out before plunging back him, adding a little twist at the end to hit Rose just-

"There!" she cried in his mind. "Do that again," she ordered against his lips before stealing them in a messy, glorious kiss. The Doctor did as he was told, and Rose hands clenched against his bum, scratching him. His hips involuntarily jerked against hers, driving him harder against that spot. Rose whimpered, her muscles clenching desperately around him.

He withdrew once more and began a steady rhythm. Rose knew her blood was boiling; it was the only explanation for the tingling heat that suffused her body.

"Rose, let me in," the Doctor begged against her mind. Immediately, Rose sent him that tunnel, connecting their minds. She was in his as much as he was in hers, and every sensations blended together into need and heat and yes and friction and wet all smothered with love you, love you, love you.

"Mine," he whimpered when she raised her hips into his thrusts, clenching around him tighter.

"Yours," Rose breathed. His thumb found her clit, circling it roughly, causing the desperately delicious tension to tighten in Rose, ripping sounds from her throat that the Doctor told her were only for him, now, just like her.

"Yours," she agreed again, "More," she demanded breathlessly. The Doctor swept through her mind, stimulating her ability to feel pleasure, making his every movement light up her mind. Need switched suddenly into satiation, and Rose screamed as the tension fled her body in wracking spasms.

The world went white, almost drowning out the Doctor's shout of completion. Rose forced her eyes open to see the look of complete abandon on his face. It snatched what little breath she had left. His cold seed pulsed into her, not letting her down from her own orgasm. Finally, he collapsed on top of her. Rose wrapped her limbs around him, relishing his weight.

"That's mine," she declared sleepily. "No one else gets to see that. It and you are mine."

"There's never been any doubt about that," the Doctor murmured, pressing a kiss to her forehead. He rolled them so that she was resting sprawled atop him.

"I love you, Rose Tyler," he murmured, clutching her to him tightly.

"That's me," she assured him softly. "And Rose Tyler loves you." She had never been more comfortable than she was in that moment, entirely entangled with the Doctor's limbs. "And I much prefer being wrapped up like this to cotton wool," she informed her, her head resting on his chest, soothed by his double heartsbeat.

The Doctor chuckled. "You shouldn't knock it until you try it. I'm pretty sure I could make it worth your while," he murmured.

"You think you're so impressive," Rose mocked.

"Not impressive, just inspired."

Rose's breath caught in her throat at the raw honesty that pulsed down their still open link.

"Thank you," she breathed.

"For what?"

"For saving me from being Tyler for the rest of my life. I would have missed this. I would have missed you."

"I never would've left you."

"I know. But I wouldn't remember you." She snuggled deeper into his embrace, too content to dwell too fully on such dark thoughts. "But you know what? I'd still love you." She tilted her head up to look into his piercing blue eyes, which seemed to bur with the intensity of his joy every time she said those words. "I'll always love you, Doctor. Even if I'm a runt. Forever."

The Doctor caught her lips with his as if trying to capture her words lest they fly away. "You weren't a runt. You were, you are, so much more than them," he told her, the enormity of his emotions nearly choking him. "And I'll always love you, Rose Tyler. Forever."