And finally the happy ending that was requested and that every fairytale AU needs :))

It was a number of minutes before they were able to pull themselves away from each other. Smiling up at him, Rose took his hand and led him towards the palace. They used the same passages that they had in days past to avoid nobility and servants alike until they reached one of the spare bedchambers.

"Nobody should be using or cleaning this room for at least a few days," Rose said, breaking the slightly awkward silence that had fallen.

"Do you want to talk about things tonight or wait until tomorrow?" John asked. "Your letter made it sound like time was running short.

Rose was keyed up on adrenaline from seeing John and finally, finally kissing him like she'd always dreamed about but as she studied his face she saw exhaustion written into the tense lines on his face and the shadows under his eyes. He'd had to travel fast to reach her this quickly and he deserved rest before she burdened him further.

"I can't stall the council for too much longer but it can wait until morning when you've gotten some sleep," she answered.

"I'd probably argue but the prospect of a real bed is too good to resist," he admitted, smiling at her like he was making a joke.

She couldn't help but smile in return, just glad to have him back, incomprehensible jokes and all.

"I'll come get you at seven, okay? I have a council meeting at ten so that should give us enough time to at least cover the basics, yeah?"

"Sounds good. Now go get some sleep yourself, Your Majesty."

"None of that now. You don't get to start being formal now," Rose said with mock sternness. She continued in her most regal tone. "Besides, I'm the one who's supposed to be able to give orders."

He shot her a mischievous grin, "Can only have one or the other. Either I get to be formal or you get to give me orders."

"Fine, informality it is. It's not like you ever listened to me anyways," Rose said, tucking her tongue between her teeth as she smiled.

"I listen!" John tried to protest, but he was interrupted by his own yawn.

"We can argue about that later. Get some sleep," she gently suggested. She turned to leave the room but her name falling quietly from John's lips stopped her in her tracks.

She turned back to face him, only to find him much closer than he had been.

"Goodnight, Rose," he whispered before cupping her cheek and leaning down to softly kiss her once more.

The kiss was soft and sweet and mostly chaste. When he pulled back and leaned his forehead against hers, Rose knew she had to go right then or she would end up curled up next to John for the night. And, oh, she wanted to sleep wrapped in his arms more than anything else but they had to keep his presence quiet for a while longer.

She whispered her own goodnight and swiftly pressed her lips against his once more before backing away and leaving the room. Soon, she promised herself, soon she wouldn't have to hide and this whole threat would be sorted and she would be able to talk to John about if he even wanted there to be a relationship between the two of them.

As she snuck through the corridors back to her chambers she swore that as soon as they sorted the conspiracy, she would make sure no one would be able to forcibly separate her and John again. As long as he wanted to be with her she wasn't going to hide him or their relationship as if she was ashamed of it, of him, and she desperately didn't want to ever lose her best friend again.

Rose fell into bed, thoughts of John and the future and being free of the tangles of the conspiracy filling her head and putting a small smile on her face as she drifted off.

She sat bolt upright a mere four hours later, drenched in sweat as she shook in the aftermath of a nightmare. It was one she'd been dealing with for the past two weeks. Her crown used as a collar as she was led around by a faceless puppet master, her people starving and her country war-torn and her powerless to do anything, John turning his back on her after giving her a cold glare.

Rose brushed her hair out of her face with a shaking hand and swung her legs over the side of her bed. She knew better than to think she could go back to sleep after that.

Bathing quickly in the cold water that wouldn't be heated until later in the morning, Rose began getting ready for the day. She slipped on a fairly simple dress that required no assistance to put on and would still be acceptable for the council meeting later that day and left her hair loose, figuring she could pull it back before the meeting.

It was still only half five in the morning and she wasn't meeting John until seven so she unlocked her desk and started preparing for her tête-à-tête with John about the conspiracy as well as her council meeting. This was something that was within her control and helped her shake off the dregs of her nightmare. John was back, she was ready to figure out who was behind the plot to destabilize her reign and she wasn't going to let a nightmare drag her down.

At quarter to seven, Rose folded up all of the notes she had made and tucked them into the top of her dress before locking her desk back up and slipping out of her room. Her lady's maid was used to finding Rose gone before she arrived in the mornings so it wouldn't cause any alarm when she was missing.

Rose knocked on John's door five minutes before seven. The door swung open before she finished knocking.

She stared bemusedly at her friend with his rumpled clothes and wild hair. "You didn't even check to make sure it was me and not someone else."

"Who else would be knocking on the door of a supposedly empty bedchamber?" He shot back, bouncing on the balls of his feet, apparently reenergized after a night of sleep. "Are you going to keep standing there where anyone might stumble along or are you going to come in?"

Rose rolled her eyes at him but couldn't suppress a smile as she stepped into the room. "You're awfully chipper this morning," she commented as he shut the door.

"Course I am!" He exclaimed. John opened his mouth like he was going to say more but blushed red instead.

Rose watched curiously as a million thoughts seemed to race through his head in the space of a second before his face cleared and he stepped closer to her and cupped her cheek. Rose's breath caught as he looked down at her like the stars he'd always loved were hanging in her eyes. He leaned down and gently pressed his lips to hers.

He pulled back away after only a couple seconds, not attempting to deepen it. Rose stared up at him, tongue darting out to steal traces of his taste off of her lips. The warmth in his gaze and thrumming through her veins was the exact opposite of her nightmare and she could have kissed him again for giving her exactly what she needed without even consciously knowing something was wrong.

His thumb stroked across her cheek once more before he dropped his hand.

"What was that for?" She asked, still wanting to know what he'd been thinking in that moment before he decided to kiss her.

"Because I finally can," he said simply.

He put on one of his manic grins after that proclamation and darted over to the bed, sitting on it with a bounce. "Come on then, princess, oh, sorry, queen. That really doesn't have the same ring to it does it? Doesn't feel quite right on the tongue." He shook his head and smacked his tongue against the back of his teeth. "Anyways, let's get started with whatever it is you want to discuss that's apparently urgent."

Rose followed him and hopped up on the bed to sit as well. "You know exactly what I want to talk about. It's the reason you got run out in the first place. I've had enough of this bloody conspiracy and I need your help to figure out how to dismantle the whole thing."

John's face turned stony. "I told you it wasn't safe to look into that, Rose. It's why I left without a fight!"

Rose snorted. "You think I was just gonna sit around and let someone else make my decisions for me? That I was going to let someone figure in the shadows tell me how to run this country? They've been feeding me bad information, John. Whoever is pulling the strings has gotten to every single one of my council members and I've been avoiding making decisions because if I go against the extremely bad advice they're all giving me, they'll know I know about the conspiracy. I want to have everything read to capture whoever's in charge before they know I know."

John studied her face, taking in her eyes snapping with gold fire and the half formed snarl on her lips as she defended her title and her country and her actions and had to let out a little laugh. "Should've known you wouldn't let it be. Too stubborn."

"Does that mean you're going to stop complaining about me being in danger and help me?"

John ran his hand down his face. "I'm not going to stop worrying about you, Rose. When they figured out they couldn't bribe me to betray you they threatened to kill you if I didn't leave quietly without giving you any indication as to why."

Rose scooted closer to him, reaching out to put her hand on his knee. "I'm always going to be in danger, John. It comes with the territory of being the queen or even the crown princess. There have been attempts on my life and foiled plots to take my crown from me. It's something I've learned to live with."

"I just want you to be safe."

"Then help me get rid of this conspiracy. If I let it go on much longer people will think I'm a weak monarch with only a tenuous grip on the throne and there will be more attempts to dethrone me."

John let out a long sigh. "Okay, catch me up on what's happened since I left so I know what all you already have figured out."

Rose pulled the notes that she'd written that morning out of the bosom of her dress, watching with interest as John's eyes dropped down to watch the motions before shooting back up as his face turned red.

She kept quiet, figuring she could tease him later, and spread the notes pertaining to the conspiracy out on the bit of bed between them. She started outlining how she'd noticed the opinions of her councillors changing over time until everyone was in agreement on every issue and how she figured some of them had been blackmailed like he had instead of bribed. She told him of how she'd found ways of talking to people outside of court influence in order to hear other opinions. and how the opinions of these people always were directly opposite to what her council was telling her to do.

"They're starting to push me for decisions and I can't stall them for any longer. That's why I needed you here as fast as you could come," she finished.

John had listened in silence, a rarity for him, and now seemed to be deep in thought as he looked over the notes she'd made.

"Whoever is doing this has an enormous amount of power and money," he mused. "The sum they offered me was not insubstantial and they probably bribed the nobles with even more."

"That narrows it down to a noble being behind all of this but I'd already figured that," Rose commented. "I'm pretty sure it's not anyone actually on the council, which, again, doesn't narrow it down much."

"It helps though. We're looking for someone who wants power, who is ambitious. Someone who has the money and position to control people who would normally not turn against you. Also someone who probably doesn't like you or Jackie and hasn't done a very good job at hiding it. Probably is barely polite while making it clear they don't want to be." He stopped mid-ramble, looking at Rose. "Ringing any bells yet?"

Rose turned over his description in her head, comparing it to a mental list of the members of the nobility who were often at court. She dismissed a handful of resentful nobles who weren't intelligent enough to pull off a scheme of this size and complexity before hitting upon a name the made her sit bolt upright.

"Got it?" John asked excitedly.

"Think so, yeah. Yvonne Hartman, Duchess of Torchwood."

John sucked in a breath. "Yeah, she's a piece of work, that one."

"She never liked mum and was always one of the most vocal opponents of us being friends when people complained about it way back when. And she's made it very clear that she thinks I'm too young and inexperienced to be in charge of the country. She also tried to get on the council when that spot opened up right before mum stepped down and is probably bitter that the seat was given to Lady Isobel instead," Rose said, working through the logical train of thought as she spoke. "And she's always been ambitious and hasn't worried about anyone she's stepped on as she tries to accumulate as much power as possible."

"And she's clever enough to remain in the shadows while chipping away at your power."

"I'm not going to let her get away with this. I need proof that she has been bribing and blackmailing people and I need to have the trap sprung before she even sees it's a trap."

"Let's figure out a way to make sure that happens then," John said with a smile, reaching out to squeeze her hand.

They spent the next hour and a half designing the trap that Rose could spring in her closed council meeting where most of Yvonne's rats would be trapped in a room with her and unable to communicate with their puppetmaster.

Rose also wrote an official warrant for the Duchess of Torchwood to be arrested on suspicion of treason. She sealed it with the wax in the room and pressed her signet ring into the malleable material to make it official. John would deliver the wolf-marked warrant to the chief guardsman so they could arrest the duchess while Rose was still in chambers with the council.

Too soon it was time for them to put their plan into action. They shared a lingering kiss at the doorway and wished each other luck before parting ways to opposite areas of the palace.

Rose was about to enter the council chambers when Lady Isobel hurried up to her and pulled her aside before Rose could step inside.

"Your majesty, there is something I must tell you before you can make the decisions the council is going to push for today," she whispered urgently, panicked expression on her face.

Rose studied her for a moment before smiling gently and laying a hand on the woman's arm. "Lady Isobel, if you're trying to warn me about the conspiracy that's been affecting this council since before I took the throne, I already know."

Isobel paled and started babbling. "I'm sorry your majesty, I didn't want to do it. I turned down the money but they threatened my family and I couldn't put them at risk."

"I understand and it counts for a lot with me that you were going to warn me even with those threats being present," Rose soothed. "It all ends today though. I need you to go in and pretend like everything is normal, alright?"

Isobel curtsied and hurried away. Rose waited a few seconds before following. As soon as the doors of the chamber closed behind her she let a small smile cross her face. She knew John would make sure his end of things went according to plan so she could concentrate fully on gathering the evidence she needed from the members of her council. Things were about to get very interesting and her councillors were about to discover that their queen was as much as a wolf as the one on her signet.

Two hours later when the council doors opened once more, Rose strode out and told the guards outside to keep everyone inside until she gave orders otherwise. In hand she had multiple confessions of taking bribes and reports of blackmail executed by the Duchess of Torchwood. Not everyone had known who was behind the conspiracy but enough of them did that Rose had solid evidence.

She quickly made her way to the chief guardsman's office, knowing as soon as she was within earshot that he and John had succeeded in their aims. She was surprised she couldn't hear the complaints Yvonne was making all the way on the other side of the palace.

To her credit, the duchess did not pale when Rose entered the room radiating confidence and authority. She didn't waver even when Rose laid out the damning evidence against her, claiming that she had done what she thought was right.

Rose shook her head in barely contained disgust. This woman had almost sent the country into a downward spiral that would have taken decades to recover from and she didn't care at all.

John followed her out of the office after she gave explicit orders to officially arrest and incarcerate Yvonne Hartman, soon to be former Duchess of Torchwood, on the count of treason. As soon as they were out of sight of the guards he stopped her with a hand on her arm and pulled her into a hug.

She was stiff for a fraction of a second before collapsing against him, taking comfort in his solid strength.

"You did it, Rose. Just like you said you would. Brilliant, you are!" John praised softly as he ran his hand up and down her spine.

"It's not over yet," she whispered. "I have to appoint a new council almost from scratch and figure out who else was in her thrall. I have to formally strip her of her title and lands and bestow them on someone else. It's never going to be over, John. Someone's always going to be trying to take my crown and hurt my people."

John pulled back and put a finger under her chin, pressing gently so she was looking him in the face. "Hey, is this the same girl who was snapping at me this morning, telling me that danger and duty came with the territory? You were born for this Rose and no one could handle this as brilliantly as you have. People are going to realize that you're the exact monarch this country deserves and needs and that you may be named after a flower, but you have thorns."

Rose groaned. "You playing at being a poet now, John?"

"Might as well," he said with a bright smile, "don't have a job right now and I've always liked words."

"I've noticed," she retorted, taking his hand as she stepped out of his embrace.

They walked in silence for a minute, vaguely heading in the direction of the council chambers so Rose could finish dealing with the people there waiting for her judgement.

"What are you going to do now?" Rose asked, unable to restrain herself from asking any longer.

"Oh you know, same old life. Probably going to try to sweet talk the butler into giving me my job back," he answered jovially, swinging their joined hands.

"So you're going to stay, yeah?" Rose knew she sounded unsure and vulnerable but she was past caring.

"Of course I am! Nowhere else I'd rather be, Rose Tyler. You're here after all."

Rose pulled him to a stop. "Don't ask for your job back, John." She hurried on when a hurt look appeared on his face. "I need someone by my side, someone to hold my hand, while I sort through all the messes this conspiracy has caused and any other messes that come along. I need you."

Rose watched a smile dawn on his face, more gorgeous than any she'd ever seen paint the sky.

"You sound like you're asking me to marry you, princess."

"Maybe I am," she shot back, completely unopposed to the idea. "I've been in love with you for years and plan on spending forever with you anyways. Might as well scandalize the court early on in my reign by marrying a former footman."

"Well then, I accept your very generous proposal," he said, voice dropping as he leaned in to capture her lips, sealing their promise of forever with a kiss.

They broke away after a few moments and continued their walk down the hall, both grinning.

"Does this mean I get a title?" He asked teasingly.

"Mmm, suppose Prince Consort would work," she answered.

"Ooh, much loftier than a footman."

"You were rubbish as a footman anyways. Always skiving off to come get into trouble with me."

"I never heard you complaining about it," John answered with a laugh, not disputing her other claims.

"Never will," Rose answered, smiling up at him. She already felt less overwhelmed about the current situation facing her and was certain that with his hand in hers she would be able to handle whatever else her reign had to throw at her.