Adventure and fun, that's what they needed! Christmas! That's where they would go next. He set the coordinates for Victorian London expecting a calm relaxing holiday and instead landed them in an adventure with someone who at first glance appeared to be a future Doctor. Except that he didn't remember Jenny or Rose. That alone convinced the Doctor that this man couldn't be a future him because he would never forget Rose.

Turns out he was right. The man was really named Jackson Lake, and he had temporarily lost his mind when the Cybermen killed his wife. They couldn't bring her back, but the Doctor, Rose and Jenny could stop Miss Hartigan and save his son. Later, when Jackson invited them to stay with him and Rosita for Christmas dinner, the Doctor was about to decline when Rose readily agreed. Nothing wrong with a little celebration, he supposed. Whatever made the women in his life happy.

From there they traveled the cosmos. In downtime, he started tutoring Jenny on subjects that he had learned at the Academy. She learned quickly and was always eager to know more. Rose always stuck around for his lessons on the history of Gallifrey. He was so proud of Jenny and happy to finally be able to share his planet's history with the two people he loved most.

…

There was more travelling, more escapades. Once they had accidentally landed near Bowie Base One right before it was supposed to blow up. It was a fixed point, and there was nothing that they could do. They managed to leave before they interfered with anything, for once.

They made a trip to Earth next. Jenny was visiting Donna while Rose and the Doctor tracked an anomaly. The two of them plus the passengers on a double decker bus ended up on planet full of sand. It was a simple enough rescue mission for Jenny. She was doing very well at her flying lessons. Now he just had to work out when and where they were. The biggest problem with this situation was the wanton Lady Christina.

Every time Rose left his side to attend to the other passengers, Christina was there. She was overtly flirtatious as she tried and failed to attraction his attentions. Frankly, he was uninterested and did his best to ignore her. But Christina was accustomed to getting what she wanted, by force if necessary. The Doctor pushed her away immediately when she attempted to kiss him. He was busy wiping his mouth on the back of sleeve, and he didn't notice Rose take a swing at the brunette, knocking her out cold.

It was absurd how aroused he was by the sight of Rose putting on such a primitive show of defending her territory. But later, after everyone had been returned home, the rip in time and space repaired and Christina was handed over to the authorities, the Doctor showed the woman that he loved just how much he had enjoyed her territorial defensiveness.

...

Trips back to Leadworth slowed down, at least for the inhabitants of the TARDIS. As far as Jackie knew, the three of them were at her house every single week, but it was rarely only a week between visits. It wasn't unheard of for them to go months without making Sunday dinners. But they always came running back when there was a problem. They had helped Jack and his Torchwood team stop the world's government from handing millions of children over to an alien race known as the 456. And they most certainly ran home when something started demanding that the citizens of Earth hand over Prisoner Zero.

The moment he stepped out of the TARDIS, a willowy redhead grabbed him by his tie and drug him towards the town square. He spluttered and tried to free himself from the apparently crazy woman's grip.

"Excuse me," Rose yelled, moving to cut the woman off. "Where do you think you are going with my husband?"

The young woman stopped but didn't let go of the Doctor's tie. "He's the Doctor and you're Rose Tyler." Her accent was distinctly Scottish. "Something alien and weird is going on here, and we need your help."

"You could have just asked," the Doctor retorted, prying her fingers off his favorite swirly blue tie. "What's your name, by the way? And how do you know who we are?"

"I'm Amelia Pond, but you can call me Amy." She pointed at Rose. "Your mum can be a bit chatty at times, and I filled in the details using Google. Now can we get on with it?"

"I like her," Jenny giggled from behind her dad. Rose sent her to check on Pete, Jackie and Tony while Amy reintroduced the Doctor and Rose to her boyfriend, the familiar Rory Williams. As a nurse, Rory had been on a rotation in the long term care ward and observed coma patients apparently up and walking around town. Knowing there was something inherently wrong with that, he had been taking pictures.

"Good on you," the Doctor exclaimed, taking his camera phone from him. It was fairly quick work to uncover the shape shifter and return Prisoner Zero to the Atraxi. Problems solved and the Earth saved all in less than an hour. That might just be a new record.

Jackie insisted that they stay for tea. The Doctor put on a show of protest but happily joined in the family dinner. He would never admit to Jackie how much he enjoyed the time spent with his extended family.

As he, Rose and Jenny went to leave, they found Amy and Rory leaning against the door to the TARDIS. "Are you lot just going to leave without saying goodbye, then?" Amy asked.

"That tends to be our M.O., yeah." The Doctor shrugged.

Rose elbowed him in the ribs. "Thank you both for all your help today."

"No problem," Rory said, ducking his head shyly.

Jenny tugged on her dad's sleeve. "Maybe we could offer them a trip, as a thank you. Might be nice to have someone to talk to when you and Mum get wrapped up in each other. Gets more than a bit annoying, that."

"We're not that bad. Are we?" the Doctor asked, confused.

"Yes," mother and daughter responded together, although Rose looked amused and Jenny annoyed.

Rubbing uncomfortably at the back of his neck, the Doctor invited Amy and Rory on a one-off trip that turned into two years of exploits.

…

Amy proved how clever she was when she made Liz X abdicate and saved the Star Whale. A trip to Venice turned out to be anything but romantic when Jenny had to go undercover in a lair of fish Vampires. Rory proved his bravery when facing the Silurians by saving Rose and Amy even though it almost cost him his life. And everybody learned, after meeting Vincent Van Gogh, that sometimes knowing one's own future didn't always change it. But it could give you peace in knowing how you would be remembered.

In their downtime Amy and Jenny grew to be incredibly close friends, but the Doctor was wary of the two of them discussing boys.

"Let them alone," Rose chastised when he came into the galley complaining. "She needs someone to talk to about these things."

"She's a Time Lady," he countered. "She should be above such things."

From the corner of the room, Rory snorted. The Doctor hadn't even noticed he was there although he shouldn't have been surprised. Rory and Rose got along like long lost siblings. They were very similar and loved to commiserate when the Doctor was in a mood or team up and take the mickey out of him.

"Jenny's part human," Rory pointed out. "I'm sure that she has some sort of humanish hormones and even if she didn't, you're a full Lord of Time and are hardly 'above such things'. The walls in this place can be really thin sometimes."

The Doctor looked aghast, and Rose doubled over laughing. "Rory Williams, you are not one to talk about thin walls, young man," she teased.

Covering his ears in order to avoid hearing any more of their conversation, the Doctor fled the room. He could hear the two of them guffawing all the way back to the console room. It was time for an adventure, one with lots of running and hopefully less of people ganging up on him.

…

In a bubble universe, the Doctor finally got to talk face to face with his beloved TARDIS. While he and Rose were helping to rebuild a console room in order to rescue the other, Idris stopped them and joined their hands. "All my hard work has paid off. My beautiful Idiot and my glorious Wolf together until the end of time itself, just as it should be."

Before they could digest the meaning of the words they were off again tracking down the TARDIS shell and house. And then Idris was gone. Her essence returned to its rightful place, but it was still a little sad. Everyone knew they could talk to the TARDIS; however this had been the time when she could talk back. They mourned the loss of that.

…

Rory proposed to Amy after a daring adventure with swashbuckling pirates. Not surprisingly, they chose to go back to Leadworth soon after that. They had a wedding to plan and lives to get on with.

"Don't think you lot are going to get away with not visiting," Amy threatened as she hugged them all. "I want Jenny as my maid of honor and I wouldn't doubt if Rory asked Rose to stand up as his best man."

"I already asked her," Rory replied, kissing Jenny on the cheek.

"And I readily agreed." Rose smiled.

The Doctor looked insulted. "So my wife and daughter get to be in the wedding, and I'm what? A guest?"

"Pretty much," Rory teased and clapped him on the shoulder. "I'll miss you too, Doctor."

The Doctor swallowed; he would miss them too. He missed all of his companions, but there was a part of him that felt like there were adventures that were never to be with these two. It was almost an echo of another timeline, one that he couldn't see. And that was a little sad yet was so happy that these two were going to get their happy ending together.

"Oh, I have no doubt we'll be popping back into your lives all the time," said the Doctor fondly.

"Probably at the least opportune or the most unwanted of times." Jenny grinned and gave her friends another round of hugs.

"See ya soon." Rose waved before slipping back into the TARDIS and closing the door on yet another chapter of their lives.

…

The memories started moving faster now as the imminent collapse of the Eleventh Doctor's timeline neared. The Doctor gripped his head in his hands at the onslaught of information flooded through his mind.

In between travels, the Doctor and Rose spent a considerable amount of time with their friends and family. There were weddings: Amy and Rory's, Mickey and Martha's, Donna and a man named Lee's. There were babies: Melody Williams and her little brother Andy, twins Gareth and Rita Smith, Elizabeth McAvoy and one small bundle of joy for the Doctor and Rose.

It had been close to 50 years relative Earth time since they had been married when Rose sidled up next to him on the jump seat and broke the news. He was overjoyed. Not that he wasn't happy with their family of three but Jenny had started traveling more on her own lately and had even figured out a way to speed up the growth of her own TARDIS. But another child, any child with Rose, was something he never thought he'd be blessed with.

They visited Earth more frequently during Ian's formative years, not wanting Jackie to miss out on her grandson's life. It severely shortened the time Rose would have with her mum, but some things were worth the sacrifice, she said.

…

Years passed while they traveled amongst the stars and through time. And as Ian got older they began to once again stretch out their time with those left on Earth. Rose cried the day that Tony married Melody Williams and again on the day that Jackie buried Pete again. Pain and loss were a part of their lives just as much as love and laughter. But they had each other and their children to help them through the rough patches.

Over the next two centuries they occasionally had other people travel with them. Some of them were humans, some weren't, but each and every one of them was completely brilliant in their own way. Times had been good, no great, until two months ago.

Jenny and Ian had joined their parents on an adventure, and things had quickly gone wrong. In order to save a group of children from the tyrant of the month, one of them had to enter a chamber flooded with radiation. Of course it had to be him. There was no way he would let anyone else in there.

He didn't want to go, the Doctor thought as he pushed the door open. This may have been one of his longest-lived bodies, but he was worried about what he would get next time. He knew that Rose would still love him no matter who he regenerated into, but there was still a small niggling doubt there.

When the floppy haired, green-eyed, slightly younger looking man emerged from the golden fire, his fears were quickly assuaged. Rose stayed with him through the regeneration sickness, making sure he had tea and snuggling against him as he slept. There were new nuances to his personality, but underneath he was still the Doctor and Rose Tyler loved him.

…

The Eleventh Doctor stood on the planet with the flying dinosaurs exactly where he had been when Rose promised him forever. This was it. Time to fade into nonexistence; the memories had all but caught up with him. He held up his left hand watching expectantly as the last of the memories overtook his old ones. At the very last moment he closed his eyes, unable to face his own destruction.

Familiar arms wrapped around his waist. "What are you doing out here, love?" Rose whispered against his back.

Opening his eyes, he blinked rapidly and felt something slip away. He examined the wedding ring on his hand. It felt brand new yet comfortably familiar at the same time. "Just thinking about how lucky I am that my ring still fits. After three hundred years I would hate to have to replace it. What if I had regenerated to have dainty hands, Rose?" He spun around to face her. "Could you imagine me dainty? That would not be cool."

"I think you are very cool, Doctor. Especially the bow tie." She giggled and he pressed his lips against hers.

"I love you." He moved to nuzzle into her neck.

Running her fingers through his hair, she grinned. "I love you, too."

Unable to resist, he asked her a question. "How long are you going to stay with me?"

Rose let a throaty chuckle. "Oh, I don't know. Until you regenerate into someone without a nice bum and a good smile."

"Rooooose!"

"Oh, love," she sighed, exasperated. "You have my forever. For better or worse, not matter whom you regenerate into. I am never gonna leave you."

"Nor I you." He lifted her hand to his lips and gently kissed her knuckles. "Where to next, my beautiful Rose?"

"I was thinking an afternoon bed." Her hand moved to cup his cheek.

"Well after that, obviously."

"You gonna have the energy to go anywhere after I'm done ravishing you?" Her tongue poked out of her teeth as she smiled.

"Shut up. You love it," he teased, his own manic grin gracing his face. "I did have an idea... Do you fancy another trip to Amazonia Prime? I was thinking that this new body needs a new tattoo."

For a moment Rose acted like she was going to protest. "Fine," she said, not sounding the least bit resigned. "But this time I'm calling ahead for reservations. I hate it when we don't get our normal suite. Race you back to the TARDIS." She took off running with the Doctor hot on her heels. It was time for new adventures.

The TARDIS sighed, the timelines having finally righted themselves completely. She hadn't liked putting her Wolf and her Thief through so much pain, but she knew it had been warranted. First she had needed to bide her time to ensure that the world that her Thief had once sent her Wolf away to was no more, and he needed to almost lose his precious girl in order to see how much he truly needed her. Sometimes the way to true happiness was paved with heartache.

She felt her Thief try to dial in coordinates to one of their favorite destinations. Chuckling to herself, the time and space ship changed the route. Now was not the time for fun and games. It was time to pick up her Impossible Captain Jack and make their appointment at the end of the Universe.