…

Epilogue

…

Little did the Doctor realize, dying as he was from radiation poisoning, but when he stopped by Donna Noble's wedding to Shaun Temple and covertly handed her grandfather an envelope to pass on to the bride, he didn't need to make such an effort to stay out of her sight. In fact, not only was she in no danger from the mental overload of reawakened Time Lord memories, she had actually just left a future version of him standing slightly inside the church, making lighthearted quips about the ceremony with the newly returned Rose Tyler.

"See? You made it all the way through the wedding and not a single alien invasion. 'Tuxedo of Doom' theory, debunked." Rose tweaked his bowtie and brushed some lint off a shoulder. The Doctor flinched and looked around.

"Shh! Don't say things like that. The second you say something like that, the universe hears you and decides to bring it all down on your head."

"Since when are you superstitious?"

"I'm not superstitious. I'm a scientist. Science bases theories on evidence, and all the evidence thus far has shown a marked correlation between this particular tuxedo and life and death situations. It's a far higher incidence than coincidence alone can account for. I'll show you the data sometime."

"Correlation doesn't equal causation, though."

"Just because you don't know the reason for something yet doesn't mean there isn't one. Basic rule one of traveling the universe: keep an open mind."

They were interrupted when the bride marched back in to collect them.

"Photos are done!" she announced. "We're heading to the reception. I expect to see you there, not six months down the line, mind."

"Donna, now really!" The Doctor gave her a pained look, and Rose nudged him in the ribs with her elbow.

"We'll be there."

"And don't forget my gift!"

The Doctor raised his eyebrows in surprise. "I already gave it to you."

Donna looked at him blankly.

"It's right there, in, well, you know." He indicated her bosom with a pointed look and a tilt of his head. She gaped, looked at her chest, and then gaped at him again. "I saw you put it there myself," he continued, misconstruing her shock as confusion.

Eyes wide, Donna yanked the already forgotten, crumpled lottery ticket out of her bodice and shakily stared at it.

The Doctor tugged his earlobe awkwardly and rambled on. "Thought I was dying at the time, granted, and that I'd destroyed your life – in retrospect, I may have been overcompensating, should probably take that back, get you a toaster instead—Ow!"

He rubbed his hand where she'd slapped it away from the ticket. "It would have been a sonic toaster!" he whinged.

"Oh, I'm keeping this," she said, smoothing the slip of paper excitedly with both hands. "You traveled in time to get me a winning lotto for my wedding! I bloody love you!" She grabbed his face and messily kissed him on the mouth, at which Rose looked amused, the Doctor looked appalled, and several nearby guests looked scandalized.

Donna released him just as abruptly as she'd grabbed him and ran down the aisle back out the church doors as well as her wedding dress would allow. "Shaun! Shaun, come look at this! Look what the Doctor's got us…"

...And that's the end. A big thank you to everyone who read and/or favorited and/or reviewed! :) Writing and sharing this was a lot of fun. I hope you enjoyed it, too.

Ta!