Final. I might have improvised slightly with all the Forest of the Dead and Silence in the Library details, but they're what I think I remember having seen …
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"Donna and I were just there, in the TARDIS; I think we were playing Scrabble or something. We were planning to go to the beach – not your average, Weston-Super-Mare mud pit, but this amazing one on the planet Kondo where you can actually walk on the water … Anyway, I digress. So, I check to see if I've got the good old sonic screwdriver and psychic paper, just in case they've implemented the health and safety restrictions they always said they would when it comes to the electric starfish and we need to get past them, and I see a message on the psychic paper. It told me to get to the Library and was signed off with three kisses, as Donna didn't hesitate to notice. So we get to this Library – it's an entire planet, just known as 'The Library' containing all of the books ever written; my paradise, you might think. It's really quite amazing; I wish I could have taken you there – it houses every single person's biography, so it's pretty dangerous if you're visiting it from the past, but phwoar! – Are there some fascinating reads and spectacular views!
"Any-who, we find that it's completely devoid of humanoid life, but the Library system's computers were claiming that there were a million million life forms present; a little spooky. So, we're looking around for clues as to what the heck is going on, and this Library assistant-thing tells us to 'count the shadows'. It was all very ambiguous ... Soon enough, this group of people turn up in white space suits; a group of explorers, they say they are, led by a woman, an archaeologist in her early forties I'd guess, called Professor River Song. They're there to also find out what's happening.
"So, River Song comes up to me and greets me, saying, 'Hello sweetie!' I was more than a little peeved to be being called 'sweetie', and when she sees I haven't a bloody clue who she is, she gets out this diary that looks, really, like a book form of the TARDIS. She starts checking with me whether we've been to all these places, Ascot and stuff, and then she says I'm the youngest she's ever seen me. I know; I'm not young! But she says that quite a lot, and it becomes apparent that we're rather close at some point; so much so, that she eventually reveals to me that I have given her my sonic screwdriver. She comforts me, saying: 'Don't worry, I didn't pluck it out of your cold, dead hands.' To be honest, that's what I was thinking, but I don't let her know. To cut a long story short, the general spookiness of this Library is revealed in the form of these Vashta Nerada creatures; they create shadows and hide in them, in order to devour flesh – uh, I'll explain another time.
"But, throughout this whole time, River Song is claiming that we're very close in my relative future; and she won't stop berating my supposed 'youth'. I was finding it an impossible thought, but then she does something that makes me realise she's not just playing some elaborate trick on me. Do you remember, the night we married, I finally told you what my name is? I know that there'd been a slight aura of mystery around it, and as you know, I will only tell someone my name, bestowed on me at birth by my parents, if and when I marry them, just as I did you.
"She comes up to me, and whispers it in my ear. Well, I can tell you – that shocked me. So, all I can deduce from this is that at some point in my distant future, we meet and this leads to our marriage."
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Rose lay there, stunned. How could the Doctor marry someone in the future? This River Song was clearly human … the main comfort as to why she'd been left in the alternate universe had been that the Doctor (as in, her Doctor – the human one) had told her that he knew it was too dangerous for her to stay with him, especially after Davros had revealed his soul, showing how those who travel with him are followed by death. So why was this woman worth that threat, when she, Rose, hadn't been?
The Doctor, seeing the marks of anxiety and confusion etched on her face, propped himself up on one of his elbows and, with the other hand, leaned over and stroked her shoulder. "Hey …" he soothed. She jerked away from him, not altogether rudely, but understandably enough with some slight sadness.
"You … you wouldn't have married me, if I'd …" If she'd stayed back on that world, was how she wanted to finish that sentence. The Doctor understood. "It's only because you're – human – that we've …" She trailed off again. "You hardly had any choice, once you were stuck …"
"No, no – Rose, it isn't that at all. If I hadn't turned human, there would have been just one of me; and I can assure you, if I had not had this alternative, you would have been with me forever. And I would have told you my name. She looked at him, dead on, right in the eyes. She was smiling, but it was the smile of a disguise, unnaturally wide and her eyes deceived her; they were abnormally bright with unspilled tears. "And besides, this is the best possible way things could have worked out for me. Sure, sometimes I miss the TARDIS, and travelling was amazing; I'm gutted I never got to say goodbye to Donna, but this –" he held her hand with ferocious tightness, "this is worth so much more than all of that. I would never in a million years have chosen to be the half of me that stayed back there." The tears were still there, only now they had made faint silver tracks down her glowing cheeks. "Besides, knowing how I feel now, do you think the old me is happy not to have you back in that world? It killed the old me to watch you kissing me, knowing it would never be him. I think that I will have learnt from my mistakes, and will know never to let go of love again, inspite of the consequences."
"What do you mean?"
"I mean, I think that if this whole getting-you-back then letting-you-go-again experience taught me anything, it's that human love; real, real, deep love, rooted further than non-platonic attraction, is one of the greatest treasures in the universe and should not, under any circumstances, be let go. As I've explained to you time and time again, the only reason I did let you go, is because there were two of me; one of whom was human. In this form, I'm able to tell you I love you, age at the same time as you, live a real life, which I just wasn't able to in the form in which you last saw me. With River, I will realise that there is no perfect solution; I'll remember how much pain I felt giving you up, even if it was the only, selfless choice, and I'll realise that my pain threshold has reached saturation point; my second heart would break. Yes, I do believe that my first heart, even as a Time Lord, still belongs to you and it always will do. But the point is that in loving and losing you, I'll have experienced so much pain that I won't be able to do it a second time." By this time, their faces had become perilously close to each other. "Not to mention, it doesn't even bother me in the slightest that this me will never meet her; because I've got you! Moreover, it was apparent that we don't end up living together, like we do now - so I really have given it all to you! Besides, you'll be a very tough act to follow; no one could ever compare to you and, moreover, you know how I feel about archaeologists! I won't be falling in love with her easily. And do you know what? I think you'd have liked her. You shouldn't feel any resentment towards her; I reckon she'll have had to deal with a lot of my ghosts where you're concerned when I finally do meet her!"
Rose, taking in what he had said, realised he was right; as always. No matter how much she loved him, she wanted the Doctor to be happy. Sure, she was making one part of him happy right now, but there was still another side to him that needed affection, companionship. And as much as it hurt her to think there was someone who he would be prepared to be vulnerable for, she knew that he'd chosen her first, and nothing could undo that. For, although some events in time and space hung loosely, susceptible to influence from rogue travellers such as they once were, she knew that the love which she shared with the Doctor – both sides of him – was something more powerful and incredible than anything else she had ever witnessed in all her life. It was with this thought that she leaned over and kissed him encompassing in that kiss all of the love she had felt for him in the entire time she had known him.
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The End.
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So … what did you think? Quite cheesy, yes, but tell me anyway!