Acceptance

People assume that when they reach the final stages of their grief – acceptance – that they will finally be "alright" and be happy. Unfortunately, this isn't the case for most people suffering. The acceptance stage is much deeper, and much, much darker.

"But…he's not you," Rose said in a broken voice. The Human Doctor tried not to feel his heart break. Rose, his Rose, was staring at the fully Time Lord Doctor, with a look none of them could describe.

If only you knew, Rose, the Human Doctor thought as his throat constricted a bit.

"He needs you," the original Doctor said. "That's very me."

"But it's better than that!" Donna said, stepping forward. Rose looked at her, tears filling her eyes. All she could think of was how he had left her on this beach before. She understood why he couldn't take her then – he was an image. But now he was real, and he wasn't an image…and he expected her to stay in the parallel world and 'fix' the other Doctor. "Don't you see what he's trying to give you? Tell her, go on!"

The Human Doctor felt a wave of relief come over him. He knew that Donna understood. He had tried to explain it to her, and now she finally understood. He was the Doctor – the future Doctor, sent back into the past. He couldn't tell Rose here, not with his present self staring at them. It would cause a paradox, and they were already at a risk. But he could tell Rose that he could spend the rest of his life with her.

She looked back at him, and his expression softened slightly. "I look like him. I think like him. Same memories, same thoughts…same everything." Same feelings. "Except I've only got one heart."

Rose felt a glimmer of hope in her chest. She wished she could repress it, but how could she? This was her Doctor. She was so confused, but looking at him, all she could feel was love and hope. "Which means?" she asked. She didn't dare hope. She was still so confused. They weren't the same man…but a part of her was screaming that they were.

"I'm part human…specifically the aging part," he informed her. He watched as her eyes flashed in disbelief – and a little bit of longing. "I'll grow old and never regenerate. I've only got one life, Rose Tyler." He couldn't help himself from saying her name. It fit so perfectly and fell off his tongue with such ease. "I could spend it with you." She looked speechless, and a little bit afraid, so he added, "If you want."

"You'll gr-grow old at the same time as me?" she asked, as if the words weren't true.

The Human Doctor felt his heart swell, and he could feel her caving in. She wanted it, she wanted him, and once he could explain to her that he was the same person, she wouldn't regret anything. "Together," he promised. She shook her head, still not believing, and stepped forward.

He stood still. He knew she needed confirmation, and so he let her put her hand on his chest. One heartbeat.

The moment was intimate, and Rose could feel herself falling for this Human Doctor. The Time Lord Doctor tried not to say anything as he felt his two hearts shatter. Rose would be happy with his metacrisis incarnation. That incarnation could give her everything that the full alien couldn't.

The TARDIS hummed angrily, informing everyone that the breech was about to close. "We've gotta go," the full Time Lord said. Rose began to cry. "This reality is sealing itself off…forever."

He couldn't say the secret message behind those words. Once I leave, I can never come back and see you…so have a fantastic life with him. Your Doctor.

The original Doctor turned, and he and Donna began towards to TARDIS.

"But – " Rose protested, running towards them. "It's still not right, 'cause… The Doctor's still you."

"And I'm him," the Doctor said.

Rose swallowed as an idea formed in her head. "Alright, then. Both of you. Answer me this. When I last stood on this beach – on the worst day of my life – what was the last thing you said to me?"

She stared at the Time Lord Doctor as he didn't reply, and then prodded, "Go on. Say it."

The full Doctor swallowed, knowing where she was going with her question. "I said 'Rose Tyler'."

"Yeah, and…? How was that sentence gonna end?"

"Does it need saying?"

The Human Doctor felt a surge of anger rush through him quickly. Had he really been that daft? Of course it needed saying. This was Rose, his Rose, his Bad Wolf.

Rose looked at the original Doctor in disbelief. She turned slowly to the Doctor who had offered her his whole life. "And you, Doctor?" He couldn't even describe the feeling of happiness that raced through him at the mention of his name. "What was the end of that sentence?"

He was already leaning it, putting his hand on her arm and leaning to her ear. He whispered the words he knew she longed to hear, the words that his past self would never have the courage to say until he reached this moment. He poured all of his emotions into just a few short words, wanted his Rose to know exactly how he felt, and how he would always feel. When he pulled back, the look in her eyes had changed.

She had accepted him.

The next day, after a long day of tears and emotions and trying to figure out who they were, the Human Doctor sat Rose down and took her hands in his.

"I know you're upset and that you aren't sure what to think of me," the Doctor began. Rose's eyes softened and she opened her mouth to speak. "No, Rose, let me talk for a moment. This is going to be real hard to explain, and I just need to know you'll listen."

"I always listen to you, Doctor," Rose said. She couldn't explain it, but she loved this human version of her Doctor as much as she loved the alien one. She still felt like there was something missing, a connection she hadn't gotten.

"Right now, the real Doctor is saying goodbye to Donna and Wilfred and Sylvia," the Doctor began. Rose opened her mouth again, but the Doctor cut her off. "I know I already told you. But there's more than that…because I can tell you exactly what's going to happen to him in the next few weeks. He'll travel alone, because he can't get over the loss of his best friend, and his fatherly figure, and technically himself and the loss of you. He'll go mad, and he'll lose himself and try to save people that shouldn't be saved. He'll change a fixed point in time because he thinks he can, and because he's going mad. He'll battle an old friend, come face-to-face with Wilfred, and then go to his death."

Tears filled Rose's eyes. "How do you know that?" she asked. He silenced her with a quick kiss.

"Then…he'll regenerate. It'll be his most powerful regeneration, because he is literally splitting into two…" The Doctor took a deep breath. "His tenth incarnation is fully splitting from his eleventh. The tenth incarnation is becoming its own self. That incarnation was still the Doctor, and the eleventh Doctor will still remember everything the tenth did. But the tenth incarnation will be fully separated from the eleventh, two different souls. And the TARDIS will store the tenth soul and send it back through time and space, to the exact moment that Donna Noble placed her hand on the container holding my hand."

Rose furrowed her eyebrows, confused. "I don't understand…"

The Doctor let go of Rose's hands to place his palm gently on her cheek. "I'm the Doctor, Rose," he said softly. "I went through all of those moments and I lived through the final battle, and I regenerated. And when I regenerated, the TARDIS separated my soul into two and sent me back to become this. It's always led up to this. We've always been meant to be together in this world. I'm the Doctor, the future Doctor, send back into the past."

"What d'ya mean?" Rose asked, shocked.

He knew she didn't understand, and that maybe she never would. He opened his arms to her and she fell in them easily. "The Doctor and I are the same person. When we saved those twenty-seven planets not even that long ago, there was the past version and the future version. I'm the future version."

"So you've literally spent weeks in misery before you came back to me, thinking you'd never see me again?" Rose murmured. She began to cry, silently, and the Doctor rocked her back and forth, murmuring sweet nothings to reassure her.

"Rose!" Tosh yelled as Rose ran into the Torchwood facility. "We found a breech, but it's tiny and we can only send your image through."

Rose looked up at her human Doctor, and understanding dwelled on both of their features. He had explained to her how he had seen her while he was dying. This was how. She had sent her image through to him.

"The Doctor's dying, and unless I get in there and tell him to fight, I'll never get my Doctor here," Rose said firmly. The Torchwood team set to work quickly to project Rose's image. It was only a short while later that she could see him, curled up on the ground and shaking as radiation tried to implode his body.

"My Doctor," she whispered gently. She knew he could see her. She quickly set to saving him, snapping at him. "Don't you dare."

She began to cry, desperate, angry tears. If he died here, today, she would never get her human Doctor here. She would be fully alone, maybe even dead. He had to fight. He had to live so he could die later. "Fight, my Doctor. Fight the pain. Don't you dare let it take you over!"

Her voice was growing frantic as she cried, "Come back to me. Don't you dare let it take you over!"

Rose felt the TARDIS intervene, making the image stronger and clearer. Tears streamed more heavily down her face until she was sobbing. Rose sent images to the TARDIS, images of her and her human Doctor holding hands and smiling and being happy. She was desperate. He was dying, and he wasn't even trying to live. "Fight, damn it, Doctor!" she screamed. "Fight for me!"

The image shattered and Rose collapsed to the ground, sobbing. Her Doctor ran to her, and scooped her into his arms, holding her while she cried.

"I'm sorry," she sobbed, trying to draw herself as close as possible to him. "I'm so, so sorry. You shouldn't have had to feel that pain, I should have fought harder to be with you while you died, I'm so sorry."

"Rose," he murmured. "It happened. It's over. I'm here with you now."

Weeks later, maybe even a few months, the Doctor and Rose strolled down the halls of Torchwood hand in hand. The Doctor had been reminiscing, thinking about his final thoughts through his regeneration. How he had finally accepted that Rose was gone because he knew she had to be happy with the Human Doctor. When he thought she would be happy because she would never know he had died. He would always be okay if she was happy.

"Are you happy?" he finally blurted out. Rose stopped walking and smiled at him. She stretched up on her toes.

"Course I am, you plum," she said softly, closing the distance between them with a kiss.

Maybe it was fate, or maybe it was chance. But whatever it was, the acceptance stage was not what they expected it to be. They grew to love each other more and more every day, fully accepting that their past lives were gone. In the end, they never truly got past their final stage of grief. Because – in the end – they never fully lost each other.

Fin.

A/N: GUYS I DID IT AND I'M CRYING I FINALLY SAT DOWN AND MADE MYSELF WRITE THIS CHAPTER.

A lot of me not writing this was a block, but some of it was the fact that I wasn't ready for it to end ): this story has become a part of me, and I really do truly love it. I finally wrote it. I'm very sad! I've enjoyed writing this story a lot, and I am so, so pleased with the feedback I've gotten. This story is now complete ): I'm very sad! I do hope you enjoyed it, and I hope I did the ending justice.

In case you are still confused as to what I did, here is an explanation.

Ten and Tentoo are the same person. Ten is the present Doctor, and Tentoo is the future Doctor. The Doctor's personality or soul or whatever you want to call it split during the regeneration (that's why it was so powerful and why everything started to crash) and the TARDIS sent the soul back to Tentoo as Tentoo was being created out of Ten's hand and Donna's touch. Confused still? Me too o.O

Okay, I've babbled long enough. I'm just sad that it's over ):

Please check out my other stories! Especially Stranger on the Street Corner. That's the one I'm most excited about next (:

I love you all! Thank you, thank you, thank you for reading my story (':

Much love, always

xxxxKat (: