A/N Those who have reviewed this story, showing your continued interest and encouragement and leaving me amazed by your responses are the ones who kept me going once my schedule took such a hectic turn. This completed story is dedicated to each one of you.

It seems the Ten/Rose Muse is relentless, and there will be a few additional sequels to follow this story just as soon as I have the opportunity to set aside more time for writing. I hope to see you again before too long, and in the meantime, I hope you enjoy this last chapter! :)

Chapter 31

Lingering just outside of the muted ambient glow which softly lit the room beyond, the Doctor stood in the doorway of his bedroom – their bedroom – gazing across at the sleeping form of Rose. She lay on her stomach, dark blue sheet slung low on her hips and the creamy expanse of her back rising and falling lightly with each soft breath in and out. Her fair skin almost took on a soft radiance in this gentle light, faintly reminiscent of the luminous, almighty being she had once become, not to conquer the universe but simply to save him – a man broken by the consuming guilt and loss of war. Oh, how she saved him. This ordinary and extraordinary human woman was not a mystical miracle worker who could erase the Doctor's past, but what she had done and continued to do was make him better.

As he beheld her now, his eyes caressing her skin, the Doctor's empty fingers curled into his palms, already burning to touch her again – a hunger that thrilled and still slightly terrified him. After spending what for him was a rare amount of time sleeping, he had then slipped out of bed upon waking to tend to the matter of piloting the TARDIS to their next destination. He'd then come back to the bedroom, and was stopped in his tracks by the sight of Rose still asleep in his bed.

He was pulled out of his reverie as he noted the telltale signs of the last remnants of sleep fading and Rose beginning to stir. The Doctor pushed off from the doorway and crossed over to the bed, wanting to be sure that this time when she woke, he was there. Even though he had not remained in bed with her the entire time she slept, an exhilarating yet still frightening thought told him there would be more opportunities for that still to come. For now, however, he'd had a destination to reach which had finally beckoned him away from their shared slumber. With the TARDIS' arrival at a necessary place and time, the first step was complete. This now had to be done. They needed to face this final leg of the journey. It was also time to tell Rose what he had come to learn and now suspected to be true about the origins surrounding all this.

Rose inhaled deeply and stretched her legs as she turned over onto her side, dragging the sheet up with her in unconscious covering. The man who was now a part of her in so many immense ways was there to fill her vision the moment her sleepy eyes fluttered open.

The Doctor eased down beside her on the bed, his eyes warm and a smile on his face that was soft but still a little tentative in that way of new lovers. Rose's answering smile mirrored his own, this deepening of their relationship still so new.

For a few silent moments they simply gazed at each other, the communication in their eyes alone enough. The reality was still sinking in for both of them.

A part of Rose just needed to touch him again, to confirm he was real – that this was real. She reached a hand forward to cup his cheek, then gently drew her nails through the light stubble on his jaw. Maybe one morning she could watch him shave, Rose thought, the idea somehow seeming very sexy. She mentally added it to the list of new experiences to explore between them, both small and significant, and all of them exhilarating on a new level.

The Doctor closed his eyes and turned into her tender touch, the deep, relentless ache in his soul soothed just a little more each time they connected and he allowed her to reach that concealed place within him.

"Hello," she spoke to him softly.

His deep brown eyes opened and found hers. "Hello," he echoed back, voice low and intimate.

"You're still here," she noted, mostly in quiet confirmation to herself.

A look of regret flitted across his features, and he opened his mouth to give what both knew was going to be an apology for the past, but they didn't need to go back. Only forward.

Rose moved her fingers to cover his lips. "You're here now. That's all that matters."

He kissed her fingertips before she withdrew them. Almost tentatively, he brought his own fingers to her lips, tracing the supple curving flesh with the pad of his thumb. He gazed at her, his eyes seeking silent permission for what had long since been given, and her answering smile was all he needed.

His head lowered and lips connected with hers in the softest of greetings, the type of greeting from the Doctor that Rose once never thought she would have received. It began gentle, this level of intimacy they shared still so recent and tender. That quiet intensity between them just made each look and each touch all the more electric. Within moments, gentle exploration became driven need to reaffirm what they now had. Warmth and light and power surged and flowed between them, their bond amplifying every sensation. Rose sighed into his mouth as his body draped over hers and his hand slid into her hair, anchoring her to him both outwardly and inwardly. Her left hand came up to his shoulder covered only by light blue cotton as his jacket had not yet been replaced, and the other hand came to rest on the center of his chest. Her fingers slipped between the small buttons of his shirt, teasing the light smattering of hair across his firm chest and connecting with cool flesh as their tongues danced and continued to discover.

It was deep and searing and sensual, testing the limits of even the Doctor's respiratory bypass. By the time they parted for air, the oxygen was delicious to their starved lungs, nothing short of reaching total breathlessness satisfying their hunger.

"I could get used to waking up like this," Rose managed to say, the words catching in her throat as his still-active lips planted a lingering trail of warm kisses along her jaw, down her neck, and pausing to sample the sweet patch of soft skin at the juncture of her neck and shoulder. Now that he was allowed, he knew he could never get enough of her.

With a final nip and then languorous swipe of his tongue, he slowly pulled back and looked into her eyes, his low, rumbling voice causing her stomach to flutter. "I think you might have to."

It had begun as an attempt at a playful comment, but the truth and gravity behind the words hit them both, still coming to terms with the fact that they had reached this point. Rose pulled him to her then, her arms holding him tight as he rolled back to his side, drawing her closer against him as his own strong arms came around her. His hands dipped beneath the sheet covering her and slid slowly up and down the smooth expanse of her back. It was like little sparks were crackling across her skin all along the path where he touched. Rose still marveled at this sensation between them that could be ignited with a single touch. It was like nothing she had ever experienced.

"Is it always going to be this way when we touch?" she whispered, taking no small effort just to form a sentence, rapidly drowning in his encompassing essence as she was.

He pulled back a fraction to look into her face, his dark eyes sparkling like scattered stars against a black sky. One hand slipped around to the front to paint a teasing and tantalizing path across her chest with the tips of two fingers, right at the border where creamy skin met the dark blue sheet, and knowing exactly how it made her shudder. "When you're lying beside me like this, then yes." His husky words then gained more weighted intensity. "And because of the bond, everything is heightened, my feelings intensifying your own. But...but if it's too much and you're not comfortable with it being this way, I can..."

Rose silenced him then with another soft yet consuming kiss. The look in his eyes had been one of uncertainty, and Rose longed for the day when that would fully disappear. In time, she told herself, which, as had recently been pointed out, was something they had in abundance. Nothing in life was ever certain, but she could only hope that was true.

She pulled back just enough to whisper, the movement of her lips brushing across his own. "I don't ever want less for us, only more."

The answering low rumble in his throat just before his mouth returned to its rightful place against hers was both a claim of possession and a noise of surrender that tugged deep in her belly.

Her hands flattened against his chest, the cool cotton beneath her palms becoming more and more of a barrier, and they'd had more than their share of those lately. Rose broke the kiss, her fingers skating along the buttons of his shirt.

"Doctor?" she questioned breathily.

"Hmm?" he answered, tracing a finger down her throat and quite obviously fascinated by its journey lower.

"Why exactly are you dressed?" she asked as her fingers moved up to play with the collar of his shirt.

"Well, technically, I'm not fully dressed. I don't have my jacket on yet," he deflected. He then paused and grew more serious as he admitted, "But I had something that needed to be...attended to when I woke up. But I came right back afterwards because I...well I...wanted you to know I was here."

As incredibly endearing as that statement was, Rose also picked up on its possible roots of insecurity and questioned his motives gently. "Were you...not comfortable about us waking up together with both of us still...well...exposed?" She blushed slightly at the question, which was silly, really, considering their past two nights, but she wanted to get things like this out in the open between them if it was an issue for him.

He shook his head. "No. No, that wasn't it. It's just that I..." The Doctor frowned, then turned back over onto his back as he thought about it. That actually wasn't the reason he'd had for getting dressed, but maybe there was some truth to what she said. He inhaled deeply. "Maybe...maybe partly. Even if I hadn't realized it." He blew out a long breath, contemplating all of the territory they had so recently covered. "It's just...all this...exposure lately on every level. I'm not used to it. And in some ways it still isn't entirely...comfortable for me."

Rose rolled to face him. She reached out and traced a single finger down the center of his chest, following each button until she reached his waistband and let her fingers linger and toy there. "Well, I think I need to get you more comfortable with certain types of...exposure," she said in a sultry tone.

He laughed then, low and rich. He captured her hand and placed a kiss to her palm, the simple openness of the gesture not lost on her.

Rose's voice grew quiet and more serious. "But I told you I'm not gonna try to make you always open up and talk about things you don't want to. Things you might not want to talk about and expose because...they hurt. But you know you can always talk to me about anything, yeah?"

His eyes momentarily had her spellbound, the depths within containing a blending of awe and love and gratitude and desire and...something else – something he was still holding back. He reached out to tuck a lock of hair behind her ear, the motion achingly tender as he simply replied, "Thank you."

Rose bit her lip, holding back a question. She wanted to ask him what was preying on his mind – something she could see he wasn't voicing. But she waited, hoping he would simply tell her as she stayed true to her word of not pressuring him.

She smoothed a finger across the frown lines draw together on his forehead. "Always contemplating the concerns of the universe...," she murmured, half smiling and half fighting the lump in her throat for all he carried.

He took her hand in his and cradled it to his chest. "Someone has to," he admitted with a small upward curve of his lips. He paused. It was time to tell her this. He breathed in deeply. "But Rose, there's...something else I've been contemplating. One of the reasons I was already up and dressed was because...because I've taken us somewhere. Somewhere I think we might need to be."

Rose tried not to let the disappointment show too prominently on her face. Now that they had finally reached this point, she was hoping to stay in bed together for at least a little while, if she were being honest. This was, after all, what could be considered their honeymoon period. She never wanted to change their life of mad adventure and endless running, but right now she wasn't quite ready to dash madly off on the next adventure. Not just yet. But if this was what he wanted then she wasn't going to form objections. They'd had quite enough of confrontation and conflict lately to last them a good long while.

"So, where are we then?" she asked, mustering a smile as she sat up, holding the sheet to her chest.

The Doctor pushed himself off the bed and stood. He looked down at her, rubbing the back of his neck. "Why don't I...show you first. Then I'll explain."

Rose nodded, mentally preparing for a bit of running in her near future if he didn't even want to tell her where they were. Those were the trips that always inevitably involved running for their lives. The wild thought briefly struck her that maybe he'd taken them to visit her mum. Rose quickly reasoned that possibility away. They were going to have to tell Jackie at some point about all this, but the Doctor had only just faced up to it himself. She would have to carefully ease him into the idea of soon facing her mum, otherwise he'd no doubt be off like a shot again.

Mentally putting that next hurtle temporarily aside, Rose glanced down at her sheet-clad self. Wherever he had taken them, if she was going to be running she didn't plan to do it starkers. At least not outside of the TARDIS...

"Okay. I'll be ready in a few minutes. Just um...let me get dressed."

"Oh! That reminds me..." The Doctor turned and went over to the large wooden wardrobe on the wall opposite the bed. "I saw this when I went to dress." He opened the doors, revealing Rose's clothes hanging inside next to his. "Apparently the TARDIS approves of our new...arrangement."

Rose laughed softly in amazement, and also falling rather in love with the sight of their paired clothing. "Apparently she does at that."

He nodded his head, reaching for his pinstriped jacket and slipping it on as he turned back towards the bed, eyes fixing and remaining on her.

Rose fought the blush that crept to her cheeks. He apparently fully intended to watch as his glittering eyes gazed at her in rapt attention, as if waiting for his favorite program to come on telly. She would have to have a word with him about his choice of programs if this was the sort of thing he watched, though. Rose felt a flash of self-consciousness in climbing out of bed stark-naked while he was fully dressed and fully watching, but she had just said that he needed to become more comfortable with exposure, so she figured the same held true for her.

Rose dropped the sheet from her chest, noting how the Doctor's eyes were glued to its path of descent. She then tossed it aside completely and stood. Exposed as she may have been, Rose felt a sense of power in the way she held the Doctor in transfixed attention, his eyes darkening further as they made no attempt to hide their roaming of her body from head to toe.

Feigning nonchalance at the show she was giving him, Rose sashayed to the wardrobe and quickly picked out a denim skirt and light blue jumper. Feeling his eyes still very much on her in the most distracting of ways, Rose tried to focus on finding where the TARDIS had stashed her undergarments.

She then heard the squeak of his trainers and seconds later felt the friction of his suit against her bare skin as he brushed up behind her, arms reaching out on either side around her and into the wardrobe. He pushed some clothes aside and revealed shelving behind them where her intimate items were neatly folded.

"I believe these are what you're looking for," he said in a deliciously-low voice, his breath against the back of her neck and body pressed to hers making her shiver.

"S-so it is," she agreed, unable to hide the breathless quality in her tone.

He started to step back from the very close invasion of her personal space, and in a rush of boldness Rose reached for his arms before they slipped away and brought them back around to the front of her body, settling his hands against her ribcage as she leaned back into him. Both felt the crackling of the electric sensation shared between them as they simultaneously inhaled sharply.

"Doctor...," she murmured, her head turning and lips finding the line of his jaw, "do we really have to be somewhere else right now...?"

His hands inched higher, thumbs skimming right below where they both wanted him to move a fraction higher and spend a little more time exploring. But the Doctor knew if he did it would be his downfall to first taking care of what still needed to be addressed. "I think it's best if what needs to be done is done as soon as possible," he said quietly, his enigmatic reply not hiding the reluctance in his tone of breaking this off so soon.

Rose fought a sigh of protest, noting the gravity of his words. She nodded her head in agreement.

He stepped back to give her room to dress, mentally calculating the exact time it would take to reverse the process for future reference. He then reached his hand out towards her, which she readily took.

"Come with me," he said in that solemn way of his, leading her out of the room, down the corridor and through the console room as they approached the outer doors.

The Doctor opened the doors to the TARDIS, revealing beyond them a meadow of deep green grass, the surrounding hills painted in shades of gold as the rising dawn sun sat lazy and low in the turquoise sky.

"Zobulan," she murmured, taking in the familiar landscape with a puzzled expression. "But...why?"

The Doctor drew a breath. "This is where it began, apparently – the ancient legend. This is the Northern region, and up there," he pointed to the top of a vacant hill to their right, "is where King Zerin's private estate will one day be. Well, I say 'one day.' More like half a dozen centuries from now. And this," he pointed to the opening of a cave that was just to their left, "is where the first writings that foretold the prophecy appeared. Zerin showed me when I came back for them."

Rose slowly shook her head. "I don't understand. Why are we here?"

He paused as he cast a glance toward the cave. "I'll know for sure once we've gone inside. C'mon. Let's take a look."

At his urging Rose followed, hand still in his. They approached the mouth of the cave and ducked inside. The air within was damp and cool as they entered the dark cavern, the blue glow of the sonic lighting their way through several twists and turns that took them deeper in. They reached a widening of the cavern, then approached the rock wall to the left side where the Doctor had previously stood both one day in the past and six hundred years in the future. They both came to a stop.

The Doctor turned to Rose, her eyes still holding a question. "I had scanned the original inscription when Zerin showed it to me, and I pinpointed its origins back to this exact time." He then lifted the light of the sonic and illuminated the wall.

Nothing but smooth stone.

"There's nothing here," Rose noted, puzzled.

He looked at her, the intensity in his eyes visible even in the near-darkness. "Because I haven't written it yet."

"Because you...what?"

He began slowly. "When I scanned the writing Zerin showed me six hundred years from now, the sonic screwdriver indicated that it had been carved with…a sonic device. My sonic device. And to be honest, when I first saw it, I was still so afraid of...everything between us that it was hard for me to imagine actually choosing to initiate all that had happened and be the one to bring all this about."

Rose took several moments to try and make sense of what he seemed to be suggesting. "Are you saying that...that you began Zobulan's legend that led to all this?"

"Well...I did once say it was a self-fulfilling prophecy," he replied, trying for ironic humor but his eyes still carrying a solemn weight.

Rose stuttered as she attempted to form a reply. "S-so you...you're sayin' that what you do here in Zobulan's past effects Zobulan's future, but it's the events of our past that led you to do this in our future, causing everything to play out as it did, but we wouldn't have known this then until now?"

He beamed at her proudly. "Spoken like a Time Lord's wife."

They both stilled, the weight and reality of those words still surreal and so hard to believe.

Rose swallowed. "Well...thanks, but...I don't understand a word of what I just said," she laughed slightly in bemusement.

"A Temporal Causality Loop," he explained. "In other words, event A causes event B, but event B is what caused event A. This is where an event both originates and completes. It's not changing your future before it happens, per se, or altering established events; it's assuring that what took place will take place, after the fact. Past events led up to this, but without this, those past events wouldn't have existed. That's a causality loop."

It wasn't the general phenomenon itself that had Rose gobsmacked. It was the fact that apparently they had been the ones behind it all along. That was proving hard to fathom.

"And so...what we do here makes everything that just happened...happen...?"

He nodded. "Yes."

She realized something else very significant. "Or...not happen."

"Yes," He confirmed, weighing her response.

"So...so if Zobulan's legend doesn't begin here, then none of what we just came through would have happened the way it did?"

"Well, some of it would have still taken place. The TARDIS still would have crashed here, but even if we had been taken in by the King and shown hospitality, it's doubtful everything else would have taken place as it did. Without their belief in the legend, they wouldn't have thought of you as their potential fabled Queen, setting off all the other chain of events. And without being so close to their circumstances, I wouldn't have known of Zerin and Shadarra's situation or tried to change it."

Rose's eyes drifted to the bare stone, then back to him. "And...what happened for us wouldn't have happened either. We wouldn't be bonded now, or..."

"No," he answered solemnly. "What happens here impacts the progression of events stemming from this."

Rose took a moment to ponder this long and hard. In all that had recently happened beginning the moment Rose had been told she must marry King Zerin, there had been an element of forethought, and in some ways of choice, removed. She and the Doctor had essentially been reacting to their circumstances moment by moment, then dealing with the aftermath. This was now giving them that element of pre-choice in all of this. This was their final way out. Everything between them could go back to the way it had been and these past events would be as if they never occurred. This would also significantly affect the future of Zobulan. But who's to say they wouldn't have achieved peace on their own through another means?

Knowing what Rose now knew of the power of their love, if her relationship with the Doctor had not grown in this way while in this place, surely what they now had was inevitable none the less. It might still come. In another time and another place, but surely it would still come into being. This ultimately came down to them now having the choice to take this path here and now, with its good and with its bad, or turn away.

"If we don't do this," Rose questioned slowly, "would time really change? Would all that had just happened actually change?"

"If we get back in the TARDIS without doing anything here," he answered somberly, "then the causality loop will be broken. Time will warp and reform, and our recent past will not be the same as what we know now."

The Doctor moved a step closer to her, his voice carrying a note of awe as he gazed in wonder around the empty cavern, seeming to see things surrounding them that she could not. "This, right here, right now, is a powerful moment of Time. This very place is an active yet fragile piece of Time's fabric. Timelines are converging and diverging from this one point. This moment is in flux, and the possibilities are endless." He stood to face her and took both her hands, bending to touch his forehead to hers. "Can you feel it?" he whispered.

Rose closed her eyes and was suddenly awash in what he was feeling and even seeing. She could sense it and see it and almost reach out and touch it. The pure energy of Time itself was crackling around them and inside of them. Timelines, like dazzling beams of light, were whizzing past like fiery meteors through the night sky, and the raw potential of the moment was fragile, yet soon to be solidified into a single, unchangeable path.

Rose opened her eyes with a gasp, feeling dizzy from the onslaught of it all. This is what he felt. This was how the eyes of a Time Lord beheld the universe. She was again in awe of this ancient being who in some ways she still knew so relatively little about. The thought of learning so much more both thrilled and terrified her, but Rose knew exactly what she wanted. She knew without question which path she wanted their timelines to take.

"You know what I want," Rose told him steadily, her eyes refusing to break contact with his. "I've said it in every way that I can." There was only one question left. "But you could change it all right now if you wanted. So what do you want, Doctor?"

When the Doctor had first seen the inscription and realized the implications of its origins, he questioned how he could have made the choice to ensure that what had taken place between him and Rose would still take place just as it had, because at the time he still feared what had formed between them. A part of him was still frightened of it and maybe a part of him always would be. But he also knew he would not change this now, given the chance. Not for anything in the universe.

His timeless eyes locked on hers. His hands lifted to her face, fingertips lightly brushing down her temples as they both shivered, and his words were spoken with fierce conviction. "What I want is something I don't deserve, but what you've given me even still. What I want is what I have, right here and right now, looking me in the eyes and stopping me from turning away."

Her lower lip quivered and a tear tracked down her face even as a radiant smile managed to form. "Then I think you have some inscribing to do."

Nodding, feeling both the weight of extreme responsibility and the weightlessness of joy, the Doctor lifted the sonic screwdriver and began the inscription which would be carried forth from here and become a part of not only this planet's, but his and Rose's destiny. He had already seen these words and they had been singed into his mind. Now it was just a matter of both re-creating them and creating them for the first time.

The words told of a wise woman, a traveler from a world beyond who would one day marry a favored King. Stemming out from this, such a union would bring forth a joint lineage of harmony and peace for all people and races of Zobulan. Behind the vague words were really two men, two women and two marriages, but this general account and these indistinct clues would more than suffice, he already knew. What was worded in precise terms was the foretelling of sure hope, a beacon and an entreaty to search out its fulfillment. There was a feeling of reverence as each word was inscribed and foretold what would someday be, because each word spoke the truth of the future that would one day come for this world.

The Doctor finished the work, blowing slowly over the stone to clear the dust as his fingers traced the engraved words.

Rose placed her own fingers over his as she spoke softly.

"You said that you were still feeling afraid and still had doubts about everything that had happened between us when you saw this. I wish..." He turned his eyes to her as she hesitated. "I wish there was something more it could say. Just...just for you. Just to let you know for sure when you first saw this that it really was us behind it, and that somehow everything was gonna be okay for you an' me." She smiled wistfully and shook her head. "That would be changing things though, wouldn't it? It has to be just as it was when you saw it."

The Doctor had wondered about this one last thing, but the timeline was still fragile and he couldn't force it. This had to play out on its own however it was meant to be. He took her hand in his, caressing her palm with his thumb.

"What would you have it say if you could?" he asked with a slow-budding smile.

Rose gazed at the wall and bit her lower lip as she thought about it. "Just...something to let you know for sure it was really talking about us, and not just a vague reference to anyone else. Maybe..." She grinned and shook her head, laughing softly at the thought which came to mind.

His smile grew as he leaned in closer. "Would you have it say...," he then whispered four words in her ear, the words he had already seen transcribed in Gallifreyan script.

Her eyes went wide. "I...I thought you said you couldn't just read my thoughts!"

"But I can read your words," he answered, grin still firmly in place. "And I had wondered about how those particular ones had gotten there."

"Then...I really did?"

He nodded.

Rose ducked her eyes, not sure how he would feel about this. But then, apparently he already knew. "And...do you know how I want to do it? In...in your own language?"

He nodded again, this time fighting back the moisture creeping to his eyes from the fact that Rose would think to do this just for him.

"But can I?" she asked hesitantly. "I...I don't even know how. Is there a way you could show me?"

"Come here," the Doctor said softly.

Rose stepped closer and he moved around behind her, his right arm sliding down hers to take her hand in his, placing the sonic screwdriver within it. He then lifted his left hand and brought it to her temple, intensifying the link between them as they both softly gasped.

"Follow what you're seeing from me," he whispered into her mind as whorls and spirals played out behind her eyes.

His hand guided hers as Rose began engraving the Gallifreyan lettering into the stone. The Doctor stood mesmerized as his own language, all but silenced, came to life from Rose's hand. Never had he felt more complete than in this moment. The healing Rose had begun to bring into his life the day she took his hand now reached a level he never would have thought possible. In this moment he realized just how much Rose completed the missing pieces within him and made him whole.

The realization and the intensity of feelings within were nearly overwhelming him on every level. She finished the final circular word and lowered their joined hands, but he kept his wrapped around hers and lifted it to his lips, brushing across her skin in an offering of thanks and declaration of love. His left arm snaked around her waist as his lips then dropped a kiss to the top of her head, then moved lower, seeking and finding the soft flesh at the side of her neck as the electric touch rippled through them both.

"I'm never going to get enough of you, am I?" he whispered low against her skin, his voice sounding very much like wonder and fear and bliss, all fused into one and making her shiver in anticipation of where this newest thrilling journey would lead them.

Rose turned in his arms, his hands coming to rest on her hips as her arms draped around his neck, still in awe that they could hold each other this close – so much closer than in physical terms alone.

"I think I could better answer that question in the TARDIS," she replied across his lips, pulling back just before he could capture them with his own. Her eyes danced in response to the frustrated noise from his throat at her retreat and seeing the desire-glazed look in his eyes. Oh, she could very much get used to that look.

She slid her hands down to both of his and gave a tug. "C'mon. Let's go home."

The Doctor and Rose returned to the TARDIS hand-in-hand, their forward steps, just like their fusing timelines, moving in the same direction.

Two travelers of the cosmos boarded the ship that had started them on this journey and would take them on to the next as they faded into Time. Behind them, the words of a legend one day to be fulfilled stood as a silent testimony of what had been and what would be.

Below the fated words, the spiraling language of Time spoke just four more. To those who had written them, the words lit their eyes with a smile of irony, yet this was much more than a self-proclaimed title known only between the two. These words unveiled the very truth of their identity, known throughout the expanse of Time and vastness of space.

The Stuff of Legends