Scotland's Mist

Chapter 28

Rose held the Doctor as he held back what seemed to be tears. She wrapped her arms up and around his neck and leaned her cheek on his shoulder. "It's okay, Doctor, it's just us now."

He choked on a sob and fell completely into her, finally allowing himself tears. He held her so tightly around the waist she thought she might burst, but she wasn't about to deny him something so simple and something that he desperately needed. His tears soaked the collar of her shirt and she held back tears of her own as she thought about all that he had just lost.

"You're not alone, Doctor," she whispered, stroking her hand affectionately up and down his upper back. "It's us. It's us, it's alright."

He calmed slowly, but didn't release her, and so she continued to hold onto him. He heaved a heavy sigh. "He used to be my best friend," he said quietly. "We grew up together."

Rose knew this wasn't the sort of thing that she should interrupt, so she nodded against his shoulder, letting him know she was listening.

"We were like you and Shireen, Rose. But everything wrecked when we became full Time Lords. He was doing such things, turning... Evil, there's no other word for it. Swore he heard drums in his head. He's mad."

"He's mad," Rose admitted. "But he was still your friend."

The Doctor pulled back and gazed into Rose's face, his eyes full of wonder. "I don't know how you manage to understand everything I say to you," he said admiringly, smiling softly.

Rose tapped one of her fingers to her temple. "Big brain in here, just like yours, now."

"That's right," the Doctor said, almost reverently. "That's right!" His smile turned into a full beam and he pulled her in to kiss her soundly. Rose giggled at his assault and he pulled back suddenly, causing her to fall into him.

"I think..." the Doctor raised his fingers to her temples and then suddenly dropped them. "Rose, I never asked you properly."

Rose furrowed her brows. "Asked me what, Doctor?"

The Doctor heaved a bit of a sigh, all of a sudden looking incredibly sheepish. "Rose, will you be my life mate? And bond with me?"

Rose's face lit up so much that the Doctor thought she'd spontaneously combust. She threw her arms around his neck again and squeezed him to her. "Yes," she said breathlessly. "Yes, always, yours. Forever."

The Doctor shuddered pleasantly at the word, because this time she could really mean it. They could really have forever. He let his eyes fall closed and listened to her excited double heartbeat against the skin of his own chest through his many layers.

"Right, then!" The Doctor said cheerfully, scooping Rose up and throwing her over his shoulder in a firemen's carry. Rose giggled and scrambled for purchase on his back, ending up fisting the back of his coat.

"Shall we be off?" She asked sarcastically.

"Sure, if you'd like," the Doctor replied, starting off and carrying her down the hallway to his room.

***

The idea of bonding mentally was something Rose had never really considered as a possibility, since she had been human. But during an act that was indeed very human, the Doctor's hands reached to brush Rose's temples, and she closed her eyes, letting him all the way in.

He'd told her to lower her mental barriers, do her best to make herself vulnerable, and he would do the same. They would have no more secrets.

The first thing she saw was the gold of his essence as she had seen it before, but it was less aggressive, now that it wasn't trying to push the Master out of her mind. She heard his light gasp as she tried to follow him back into his mind.

She saw his memories, the Time War, a young Master, a teenager, with the Doctor, laughing and talking. The Doctor 'borrowing the TARDIS' and she flashed through all his adventures, through all his companions. A girl named Susan, a young Sarah Jane, Ace, Jo, and they all led up to her.

She noticed that in his mind, she was a bright, shining thing, every memory of her smile lighting up his entire mind. She nearly stopped crying when she saw that his world was so dark between the War and his meeting her.

She saw him hold back, try to stop himself from loving her, but with every brush of the hands or 'completely innocent' hug she felt his self control slip, and slip, and slip. Until he fell completely, and was born out of love into this incarnation. She almost cried again. He was literally made for her.

The Doctor saw things completely differently. A much shorter life, but none the less exciting or important. He saw from her first memories as a toddler. She was so young and fresh. As he watched her grow up in his mind's eye, he fell more and more in love with her.

A fourteen year old Rose, fancying a young and cocky Jimmy Stone, a sixteen year old Rose moving in with him, getting her heart broken, and wandering the street before finally chucking up the courage to go and move back in with her mother.

A seventeen year old Rose, falling into Mickey's arms, the jealousy closing in on the Doctor and making him clutch at the physical Rose even tighter.

An eighteen year old Rose, getting her first job at Henrik's, Jimmy Stone nearly forgotten, safe and tucked into her mother's flat. A happy Rose, but not a content Rose.

And then he saw how she saw him. Manic grin and big ears making her heart flutter and her stomach turn. She saw him as a real treasure. Oh, she was so mistaken.

He felt her fall in love with him, a rush of human emotions. He felt her try to hold back because he was holding back, saw her wring her hands as she stood behind him, only wanting to love him forever. And now she could. She really could.

They lay together under the sheets the whole evening, holding each other tightly, as if they were afraid the other would let go.

The Doctor was sure that Rose had fallen asleep, her nose pressed into his chest, still seeping regeneration energy. That was, until she sighed deeply and trailed her fingers across his back.

"You know, we've gotta go see my mum tomorrow," she mumbled.

The Doctor groaned and rolled his eyes, but smiled down at the image of her head pillowed on his chest. "Time is relative."

And that was very typical Doctor talk for 'we're not moving.' And Rose Tyler, was not one to say no.