Rose and the Doctor dashed into the chippy. The Doctor wagged his head to shake off the water like he used to do in his last body. He tried not to stare as Rose smoothed the wet hair back from her face. Her cheeks were flushed from running and she still had his hand in hers. He tightened his fingers, afraid she'd let go now that they were inside.

A waitress showed them to a booth and after she took their orders, he let himself revel in the familiarity of sitting across from Rose Tyler, getting chips. He looked down at her hands folded together on the table, trying to make it appear as though he hadn't noticed the silver band on her left ring finger earlier.

"So you and," he paused deciding the appropriate pronoun to use, "….him are married, then?"

She smoothed a finger over her ring and smiled. "Yeah."

He nodded feeling his hearts both swell at the joy on her face and form tiny painful cracks around the edges. He cleared his throat, "I'm-"

"-so that means part of you is married to me then, yeah?" she said. The Doctor dropped the fork he'd been fiddling with and looked up to see her giggling, tongue caught between her teeth. He pointed slightly to himself as if asking "Me me?" He thought he saw the faintest nod before her cell phone buzzed and she picked it up. He felt the cracks around his hearts begin to lessen and smiled to himself.

She rolled her eyes at whatever was on her phone.

"Torchwood?" asked the Doctor. "That is, if you still work there."

She looked up, seeming surprised he remembered. He hoped she knew the way his half-human counterpart felt about her better than she seemed to know the way this him does. Then again, he realized, he's the one that got to tell her how he felt.

"No actually, although I do work there, the Doctor -," she broke off, seeming unsure as to whether she should continue.

The Doctor gave a small smile. Always so much compassion for him. "You can talk about him. I want…I want to hear about….your life," he said but in his mind he said "our life." He knew it would hurt later but for one moment, one selfish moment, he wanted to picture himself in this life of hers.

"What..um –" he stopped, suddenly embarrassed.

"Well go on," she nudged his arm gently with a comforting smile.

"Did we…um..have a wedding?" he finally asked. Oh well, might as well go with the 'we' thing.

"Yep," she said brightly. "A proper, human-y wedding, mum made sure of that."

"How very….domestic," he said teasingly.

Rose laughed, "It was! Except there was a minor alien attack halfway through the reception so we had to run off. It was very us," she said smiling at the memory. "You even wore a bowtie," she added winking at him.

The Doctor sniffed in approval and adjusted his own bowtie. "Bow ties are cool." A question flashed in his mind, a sudden burning question he felt he had to ask. Without thinking, he blurted,

"Are we…are we good together? Being a married couple?" He nearly flinched at how strange that sounded. Still, not a bad flinch.

Rose smiled at him warmly. "Us? Oh, we're the stuff of legend."

The Doctor felt a lump in his throat. "Tell me more," he said softly.

She looked up at him, caution in her eyes.

"Well….we both work for Torchwood. You joined my team. Jake's on it! Remember him?"

The Doctor nodded.

"And guess who one of our consultants is?"

"Who?"

"Sarah Jane Smith!" she replied excitedly.

"Really? There's a parallel Sarah? That's brilliant!"

Rose nodded enthusiastically. "She's just as brilliant as the other one!"

"Anyone else I know on your team?"

"No, there was Mickey but…"

"Oh, right," he said. "I know what happened to him…if you want to know."

Rose's head shot up. "Yes!"

"He joined UNIT and married….ready for this?…..Martha Jones!"

Rose opened her mouth in shock. "Really?!" she cried excitedly.

"Yes."

"Good for him! I liked her. Oh, I'm so glad," she said biting her lip and smiling.

The Doctor almost wished she'd say Mickey deserved better again so he could tell her otherwise like he'd been too afraid to do the first time, but she didn't. Plus, he reminded himself, that's something her Doctor should do…not you.

"How about the TARDIS coral I gave you? Has that grown yet?"

Rose nodded. "The Doctor got it to finish about two years ago. It's a lot like it used to be. Although, we don't travel quite as often now that we've got Jamie. We've got to be more careful though…'can't risk as much. We're really excited to take Jamie when he's old enough."

The Doctor encouraged her to go on and listened to all that she'd done since he last saw her. He could see it so clearly; everything they'd lived, and everything they'd ever do, the way he saw John Smith's whole life in 1913. Just another one he couldn't live. Except this was worse because this life had Rose. The Doctor shook himself and tried to refocus on what Rose was saying but she had stopped talking and was watching him closely. He knew she saw the pain he was trying to conceal in his eyes. New body or not, he could tell it wasn't working. She was still Rose and she could read him like a book.

"So, go on! Tell me about your life!" she said with an encouraging smile. And that's what he did. He told her all about the glorious Ponds. She laughed a lot when he told her stories of how he would get caught in between Amy and Rory's bickering. "You brought the domestics on board, Doctor!" she said giggling.

When he mentioned River Song, she nodded explaining what she knew from when her Doctor met her in the library.

"Do you love her?" Rose asked.

"No, not like-" he paused and only finished in his head with 'you.' "I care about her but I only know about what happened to her because of what she's told me. I haven't…had…felt the things she has because I haven't lived them. Well I mean I have, but I haven't. Maybe I will one day, I don't know," he shrugged looking down at the table.

Rose just nodded, understandingly.

The Doctor again had the urge to blurt what was on his mind, well one of the things that was on his mind, "It's not what –" he broke off again, suddenly looking up at her but stopping himself and she flushed. She was so beautiful. Just the way he remembered. Suddenly he reached across the table and grabbed her hand before thinking better of it. Sure they'd held hands on the way here but they always did. Grabbing it across the table like this…that was what couples did and he hadn't done that since…well…

"Sorry," he said but he didn't pull his hand away, though he was afraid that's what she wanted. She saw the concern in his eyes and smiled comfortingly and squeezed his hand.

"The Doctor and Rose Tyler holding hands, never questioned it before," she said reassuringly. He felt the lump in his throat again and coughed to make it go away and felt his fingers twitch in her hand. He went on to tell her how his adventures with the Ponds ended. The Doctor saw tears in Rose's eyes and she gripped his hand harder and rubbed her thumb over his, the way she had so many times with his other regenerations' hands and he felt a shiver go up his spine.

When he finished telling her, she said, "I'm so sorry, Doctor."

"Oh don't be sorry for me, Rose Tyler," he started to say with false brightness in his voice but he stopped when she looked at him and just let her hold his hand longer.

"I don't want you to be alone, Doctor," Rose said eventually breaking the silence.

"I have another companion, I'm not alone," he said flippantly, waving away her worries with his free hand.

"No, Doctor, I mean," she sighed, "moving on with half-human you from you was really difficult…for both of us. I knew he was you but you were still out there and…anyway, I'm so grateful for what you gave me. I can have this life because of you and I will always love you Doctor –

The Doctor's hearts completely stopped in his chest at her words. She still loved him. She said always.

-but I love him too so much and –"

"- you moved on," he finished for her. "I know. I wanted you to."

"No, but Doctor, I don't want anything we ever had to…keep you alone." The Doctor saw tears in her eyes and he squeezed her hand and nodded.

"Promise me," she urged.

"I promise," he assured her.

Rose wiped away the tears that had fallen from her eyes. "So, tell me about this new companion of yours," she said with a small smile.

The Doctor smiled widely, "Her name is Clara." Rose couldn't help but notice the way his eyes got brighter as he said her name and she felt her own twinge of both hope and sadness.

"What's she like?" Rose asked.

"She's…well she's brave, and sort of…uh…feisty?" He cringed at the word. "I don't like that word," he said decisively. "But you get what I mean. And she's…compassionate…. very compassionate…," he said and a soft smile made its way across his face. "Utterly human," he added with an eye roll and Rose laughed.

Rose listened to all the Doctor's stories of the adventures he had with Clara and while he was talking and she continued eating, she removed her hand from his, thinking he wouldn't notice but of course he did. He saw her hands shake slightly as she slid her hand back to her side of the table and he wanted nothing more than to grab it back and bring it to his chest but of course he didn't. Because he is the Doctor, he let her go and continued on enthusiastically and without pause in his stories.

At one point when the Doctor looked up, the shop was completely empty except for them and the streetlights outside had long since turned on. He sighed. Here Time was again, ticking away his minutes with Rose much too soon.

"Well, I should get back to the TARDIS and let you get back to…well, me," said the Doctor grinning.

Rose smiled and nodded. The Doctor ducked his head embarrassedly as she paid the bill. They both stood up, and walked outside. He grabbed her hand this time and walked with her back towards her home. When they got to her front door again, he didn't make any move to leave. Instead he gazed at her while she shivered and pulled her jacket more tightly around her. He watched the puff of breath from her lips in the cold air. He tried to memorize every second of it. Every chipped fingernail, every stray hair on her head, every whisper of her lashes on her face as she blinked.

The Doctor opened his mouth. And he's about to say it. He is. Rose looked at him expectantly and he wondered if she knew what he wanted to say, needed to say, now that she probably heard it every day from her Doctor. And oh, how he better tell her every single day, he thinks, looking down at this woman. This wonderful woman. This shining light in his life. But then the front door opens and a man steps outside.

A man so hauntingly familiar. It's always a shock to see another version of himself but he almost hated it this time. He hated this him for a moment because the very fact he exists is the reason Rose is not still travelling the universe with him now. He's the reason his nights are empty without Rose striding in to join him for a cuddle on the couch in the library. He's the reason he's telling her goodbye again. Then he saw Rose's face when her Doctor appears and the returning gaze he gave her and he still hates but he loves a lot more. He recognized plainly that look between them and knew, knew without a doubt that Rose was right where she's supposed to be.

Rose's Doctor stood there frozen, mouth open in surprise, eyes flicking from the Doctor to Rose, a trash bag in his hand. The Doctor noted his previous self wearing a T-shirt and jeans and smiled at the sight. The other him quickly recovered from his shock.

"Sorry, just realized I forgot to put the trash out," he said grinning at Rose. Well, he's certainly happy, thought the Doctor.

"That's alright, I was just talking to…." And she looked at the Doctor and now he knew she was aware he hadn't wanted to see his other self earlier. Of course she did. He blinked in confusion because he couldn't very well say John Smith. Maybe just John? 'Lots of John's in the world…

Before he can say anything her Doctor steps forward, free hand outstretched. "Nice, to meet you! I'm the Doctor," he said brightly. He cleared his throat. "Doctor Tyler."

The Doctor nearly laughed at that. So he'd taken her name. Well, really, he considered what better name was there to take? It was just one other way he was tied to Rose. He grabbed his previous hand and shook it.

"Nice to meet you. 'Name's John," he said. He waited for a flicker of knowledge to appear in the man's eyes at the name but saw nothing. He just smiled and walked to put the bag in bin.

"Well, see you inside lo-" he began awkwardly, looking at Rose, but then he cleared his throat, nodded at the Doctor and went inside.

"Sorry about that," Rose said biting her lip.

"That's alright," said the Doctor waving it off.

"So…can you…will you…come back?" she asked timidly. "I'd like to meet Clara," she added smiling.

The Doctor smiled too and said, "Well I'd say I can't come back but I've been wrong about that too many times before."

"Well if you can come back, give the Doctor and Rose Tyler a ring," she said with a smile but her voice caught in her throat.

The Doctor swallowed heavily and tried to smile back. He gave her a small wave and turned to go but she grabbed his arm and pulled him into one more hug which he returned fiercely. Please know I love you, he thought. The Doctor decided he would not be the one to end this hug because it could go on forever as far as he was concerned and so it went on for several minutes until Rose finally released him. She reached up to kiss him on the forehead. His hands clutched her arms tightly and he felt her lips curl up into a smile on his skin. When she leaned back he couldn't speak so he just took a step back and waved. Then he turned around before he had to watch her walk away.

Before he got too far, the Doctor heard Rose call behind him, "Hey, Doctor!" He turned around.

"You were right by the way," she grinned at his puzzled expression, "2005 was a really great year." She grinned that tongue in teeth smile one last time.

"Fantastic, even," the Doctor said his voice catching. "See you, Rose Tyler," he said so softly he wasn't sure she heard but when he looked at her teary eyes he knew she did. He waved and turned around, wiping a tear from his own face as he whispered, "Geronimo!"