By the time the suns had set completely, everyone had taken the opportunity to pay a brief visit with Rose while she slept in the grove. Martha had dissolved into happy tears at seeing her friend safe and sound and Mickey had been forced to swallow his own tears long enough to help Martha out of the grove before the two of them started sobbing with relief. Sarah Jane had squeezed the Doctor’s shoulder, letting him know that she was happy for him and glad to see that Rose Tyler had not died at Canary Wharf like so many believed. Luke had just stared at her in awe. Donna had whispered something in Galliterran that she said was a warning to Vairë not to faint the next time she saw the Doctor. Jack, for his part, had just squatted down in front of the bench and wept quietly. Jackie had been persuaded, eventually, to go into the house and get something to eat. Jenny had brought bowls of stew out for Jack and the Doctor. She mentioned that she could get some more pillows and some blankets for them if they wanted to spend the night in the grove but the Doctor, once he finished eating, said that he was going to carry her mother back into the house.
“Good idea,” Jenny laughed quietly. “Remember to tell her that you were the one who did it when she wakes up and bolts.”
“If her lungs were damaged as much as you said they were,” the Doctor replied softly, “then she doesn’t need to sleep out here in the chilly night air. And, she probably should have someone to keep an eye on her while she sleeps in case she experiences respiratory distress.”
“I can take a shift,” Jack offered.
“I’m good for the next two days,” the Doctor snorted. “Besides, I think Jackie would slap you if you stayed in Rose’s room overnight.”
“No offense, Doc, but you look like you’re about to fall over on your face.”
“Time Lord, me,” the Doctor muttered as he stood up and dusted off his jacket. He bent over and lifted Rose into his arms. Jack grabbed the blanket before it fell to the ground. The two men walked into the house, the Doctor taking his time so as not to jostle her and to let himself enjoy the feel of her in his arms at last. He breathed in her scent, reveling in it. He had missed the way she smelled, the warmth of her body against his when they hugged, her smaller hand in his own. Jenny walked next to him, smiling happily. He couldn’t help but grin at the young woman. She was so like her mother that the Doctor thought it would be easy for him to come to love her as his own daughter.
Provided, of course, that Rose forgave him.
“I was just about to come out there and suggest you bring her in,” Jackie said, stifling a yawn, when she saw the Doctor carrying Rose into the house. “Her room is this way,” she added, pointing down a hallway that ran to the back of the house. “There’s a guestroom just across from it. I don’t think it was there before,” Jackie muttered.
“It probably wasn’t. I think this house is like a TARDIS and that it can sense what the people inside need and make it for them,” the Doctor whispered.
“Well, I’ll stay in there tonight with the door open. If Rose needs anything, I’ll be able to get to her.”
“Actually, I’m going to stay in her room and make certain she’s all right. I won’t need to sleep for another two days,” the Doctor said quickly.
“And you can’t bear to let her out of your sight,” Jackie added with a grin. “Don’t worry. She’s a grown woman. This is her house so it’s not like I can make the rules here. However he,” she said, pointing to Jack, “better not ever try to sleep in her room. I’ll come sit with her while you take a shower, Doctor. Don’t give me that look. You’ll feel so much better after. Then, you can curl up with her and keep an eye on her. If you need me for anything, I’m just across the hall.”
The Doctor rolled his eyes but said nothing. “Gran,” Jenny said, “can I stay in your room tonight? I’ve been sleeping in Mum’s room when she stayed in the house and out in the grove with her after but I want to be close in case she needs anything and I’d like to talk to you more.”
“Of course you can, sweetheart,” Jackie said brightly. “Your gramps is going to love you and your Uncle Tony isn’t going to know what to make of a niece who’s grown up already.”
“How old is Uncle Tony? He still looks like a baby in your thoughts.”
“Three years old but I do still think of him as being my baby.”
The Doctor laid Rose on the bed and tucked her in before going into her en suite and taking a shower. When he got out, he was surprised to find a pair of pajamas sitting on the counter for him. The en suite had grown larger as well, adding a second sink with a toothbrush – Venusian spearmint, his favorite – a comb, and a razor. Apparently the house had decided that he was staying for a while. Forever, if he had his way. He walked out into the bedroom and grinned when Jackie and Jenny bade him goodnight. Jackie even closed the door behind her, giving him a wink.
Figuring that asking forgiveness would be easier than waiting to ask permission, the Doctor climbed into the bed and under the covers. Rose was still sound asleep. He scooted up behind her, his chest against her back, and draped an arm over her, pulling her into him so that he could breathe in her clean scent as he let himself fall asleep.
~*~*~*~
Vairë’s eyes flew open. She felt something pressing against her back and a weight holding her down. She was surrounded by darkness. She could feel the walls around her pressing in on her. It was like being back on that transport on Midnight again. Without thinking, she bolted for the window, flinging it open and breathing in the cool night air. Her stomach twisted and she began retching, emptying bile into the garden below.
She felt strong, cool arms wrap around her. A gentle hand stroked her back. She heard muffled footsteps and then running water. A warm, damp flannel swiped against the back of her neck. When she was done dry-heaving, strong arms pulled her back into the room and the flannel wiped across her face, washing away the last of her sick-up and the tears that were rolling out of her eyes. Her throat was raw and sore. She gasped for air and leaned her head against a strong chest. She felt someone rest their cheek against the top of her head and wrap his arms around her. Inhaling, she wondered if she were finally going mad. She could have sworn that it was the Doctor holding her in his arms. She opened her eyes and pulled away so she could look up at him. Then she twisted, pulling herself out of his arms. She couldn’t be selfish. Much as she wished she could stay in his arms forever, she had no call to ask him to hold her.
“I’m sorry for your loss, Doctor,” she said quietly. “She was truly a great woman.”
“My loss?” he said, sounding confused.
“Reinette. Truly, the most accomplished woman on Earth.”
“Oh. Her,” the Doctor winced. “Rose…or would you prefer Vairë?” he asked quietly.
“Either is fine,” she said, not looking up from the floor.
“Rose,” he said, his voice curling around her name in a way that made pleasant shivers go up and down her spine. “Rose, look at me, please?” Vairë lifted her eyes, unable to hide the bitter tears in them. “I never loved Reinette. I went after her to save history…and because I was afraid.”
“Afraid?” she asked. “Afraid of what?”
“Of how I felt about you.”
“What are you talking about?” she asked, scarcely daring to hope.
“Rose Tyler,” he said. She shivered at the way he spoke her old name. “I fell in love with you when I told you to forget me. Back when I was all big ears and a daft face. And it terrified me. I was terrified that I would have to watch you wither and die in front of me.”
“Then why did you leave me? Why didn’t you come back?” she asked, tears falling down her cheeks. “Mickey and me…we waited for months on that space ship! But you never came back…”
“Reinette trapped me back there,” the Doctor sighed. “I tried everything I could to get back to you. I knew the minute I went through that mirror that I had made the worst mistake in all my nine hundred years. At first, I tried to laugh it off. After all, I was a Time Lord. I’d figure something out. But then the weeks stretched into months. The months into years. I sensed a connection between her time and our own but I couldn’t find it. She had tried to destroy the last gateway.”
“She loved you…”
“No, she didn’t. She loved the thought of having another feather in her cap. She already had the most powerful man in the world as her lover. If she managed to get me into her bed, then she would have a lover who had all of time and space at his command. But I never slept with her, Rose. She tried and tried and tried but she couldn’t get me to react to her like that. The most she could do was distract me, keep me from making a scene on those occasions when I sensed the Time Window trying to repair itself. In the end, she realized that she had made a mistake. She let me repair the Time Window but, by then, you were gone. The Chief of the Time Agency gave me a Vortex Manipulator but it wouldn’t let me find you until the Earth got moved to the Medusa Cascade. Believe me, Rose, I tried everything I could to get back to you. I’ve spent the past ten years wishing that I had taken you with me when I went through that window to save Reinette. And, in the end, she realized where my hearts truly lay.” He darted back into the en suite and dug through his coat pocket. Finding the bracelet, he walked back into the bedroom. “Here,” he said, holding it out to Rose. “A gift from the so-called ‘most accomplished woman on Earth’ to the ‘most accomplished woman in all of Time and Space.’”
Rose took it and stared at it. “It’s beautiful,” she sighed.
“Reinette asked me to ask you to forgive her. In the end, she knew that it was you I wanted to be with, Rose Tyler, Vairë Carter. If you can ever forgive me, I’ll spend the rest of our lives showing you just how much I love you.”
“What?” she breathed, scarcely daring to hope she’d heard right.
“I love you. I love you and I want to marry you. I want to join myself to you. I want you to have my children. I want to wake up every morning with you in my arms and I want to end each day with you lying next to me.” He took a deep breath and waited for her to respond.
“Doctor…” she sighed softly, staring at the bracelet. “Are you sure about this? You always told me you didn’t do domestic…”
“I was lying. I was afraid. What if I told you how I felt and you didn’t feel the same?”
“But why did you leave me? Leave us?”
“Us?”
“The TARDIS. She missed you, too,” Rose sobbed. “We were all alone. We were so afraid. And then we couldn’t find you! Every time we tried to go to France in the late 1700s, we wound up some place far away! We couldn’t sense you! We couldn’t feel you!”
“Oh Rose,” he sighed, walking across the room and gathering her in his arms. “I don’t know why you couldn’t get back to me. I have my suspicions, though.”
“What are they?” she asked, trembling and weeping in his arms. It felt so good for her to rest against his chest, to listen to the twin heartbeats in her ears. She felt so safe, so secure with his arms around her, his scent in her nose.
The Doctor lowered his head and pressed his lips against her temple before sitting down and pulling her with him into the bed. He scooted them both up and then pulled the covers over them. “Get comfortable, Rose,” he chided gently. “You need to rest. You’ve been through a lot recently.” He waited until she was lying back down before settling himself across from her and covering them both with the blanket. He drew her into his arms once more and let her settle her head on his chest while he stroked her back. “I think it had to do with the Time Agency. The Chief of the Time Agency gave me a Vortex Manipulator that we later learned cloaked me from the TARDIS so that she couldn’t locate me. I have a feeling that he also did something so that anyone trying to time travel to France in the late 18th century would wind up somewhere else. Believe me, Rose, as soon as I’m able to get back to him, I’m going to make him wish he’d never been born.”
Rose sighed and snuggled into his side more closely. “It’s hard to believe that you’re actually here,” she whispered. “Did you get to see all of Galliterra?”
“I saw enough of it. Right now, I just want to see more of this island of yours. Have you really been living out her by yourself for a long time?”
“I stayed with Koschei and Lucy for a bit at first,” she replied. “But, I’m something of a celebrity. He is too but he’s safely married. For me, just walking down to the market resulted in too much attention. And then there were all the marriage proposals. Every family on Galliterra hoped that I would accept courtship from one of their sons. So, I moved out here for good. Besides, I wasn’t alone. The TARDISes are out here. I can…speak with them, in a fashion. And there are always the dead.”
“The dead?”
“Yeah,” she sighed, half-asleep. “Custom is that when a Galliterran dies, their body is placed on a boat and sent past this island. I can always feel when it’s happening and I make it a point to be there, to be the final witness to their life, as they sail into the west.”
“That’s why they call you Mandos’s wife, then?”
“I guess.”
“Go to sleep, Weaver,” the Doctor said gently, brushing his lips across the top of her head again. “I’ll be here when you wake up. I’ll be here forever, if you’ll have me.”
“Forever,” she muttered. “Sounds good.”
~*~*~*~
Jackie woke up the next morning to the smell of something delicious being cooked. She climbed out of the bed, smiling down at her granddaughter who was still sound asleep. Pulling on a dressing gown, she padded towards the kitchen, surprised to see Rose cooking while the Doctor sat on a stool watching her.
“Don’t start in on him, Mum,” Rose said calmly. “I told him that if he got off that stool one more time to help me with something I can do myself, I was going to sonic him to it for the next week.”
“I’m still surprised you haven’t burned the house down,” he muttered.
“You know, four hundred years of traveling and all means that I’ve learned a few things. Cooking is one of them,” Rose muttered.
“Being four hundred still means I have four hundred more years’ experience than you.”
“I’ll rest after breakfast. For the love of God, Doctor, I’ve had enough lying about while everyone else gets to do whatever they want!”
“You also absorbed the Time Vortex. Half-TARDIS or not, that’s a lot of power for someone to take in. You need to rest and take it easy so that you can recover. Besides, you never actually answered my question last night,” he said softly. “You did an excellent job of dodging the question, as a matter of fact.”
“What question is that?” she asked, flipping over some pancakes before she walked to a blender and dropped banana slices into it.
“He wants to know if you’ll marry him, you plum,” Jackie grimaced. “How have you not figured that out yet? I suspected he wanted to marry you back before you two swanned off after that Christmas with the Sycorax things.”
“Thanks, Jackie,” the Doctor said dryly. Rose had frozen completely, her back to both of them. “So, Rose Tyler,” he said, her name rolling off his tongue in a manner that sent pleasant chills up and down her spine, “would you marry me? Or do you need more time for me to prove how I feel about you and how much I regret leaving you like I did?”
“You really want to marry me?” she asked in a small voice.
“More than I’ve ever wanted anything in all of my life,” he said, standing up from his stool and walking to stand in front of her. He put his hands on her shoulders and bent his head so that his forehead rested against hers and his breath mingled with her own.
“Can you accept that Koschei is my brother?”
“Yes.”
“Can you stand being married to the Lady of the Lonely Isle?”
“Yes.”
“Will you stand with me and watch the dead as they pass, singing to them as they make that last journey into the Undying Lands?”
“Yes, I can.”
“Can you live with the knowledge that I have killed, that I have fought, that when I go out in the universe, I bring battle and death in my wake? Can you watch as I hold the dying in my arms and sing them to the next life? Look at me, Doctor,” she said, looking up at him, her face a mask. She pulled back just far enough so that he could look at her upraised palms. “My hands are stained red with the blood of innocent and guilty alike. I do carry weapons. I do fight. But only when it’s needed and only when it’s just. My name and my legend are painted red across the galaxies. Can you live with that?”
“Not only can I live with it, Rose, but I will go with you and be your shield, be your companion, be the one who calls you back,” he said calmly. “My hands are stained with the blood of my own people. I may not carry a weapon but it’s only because, unlike you, I can’t trust myself not to force my will on others. I know I could grow to be a tyrant. I know that I could reach a point where I would see the laws of Time and Space as my own tools to be used and wielded as I wished. Can you accept that from me? Would you bind yourself to me knowing the darkness that lives inside me, knowing the constant fear that I could be a monster? Or would you rather find a mate who isn’t a broken old man? Whatever you decide, Rose, I will always be here with you.”
“Will you let me show you the life I have lived, Doctor? If you can deal with that, then I will marry you,” Rose said softly.
“Show me,” he commanded gently. She moved away only to take the food off the burner and set it under some lights to stay warm before walking over to him and placing her fingers against his temples. He leaned into her touch, craving it, wanting to feel more of it. It took all of his strength to keep from reaching up to touch her face in a like manner and send his own thoughts and emotions to her. When he felt her gentle telepathic touch, he lowered the barriers in his mind and threw open every door he had, wanting her to know that he would hide nothing from her.
He watched as she showed him everything that had happened from the moment he’d ridden through the mirror. He felt her sorrow, her longing, her despair. He felt her die when she came back from the parallel universe and then felt her being called back by the TARDIS. He felt the changes in her as she roamed through time and space. Her sorrow at losing her mother. Her fears. The storms that washed over her again and again and again. He winced, hearing his own voice shouting at her as she was swept up in them. He looked on as she fought, as she roamed, searching for some place to call home. For some people who might understand her. For something larger than herself that she could be part of. He felt her intense loneliness, her isolation, her growing divergence from Earth and humanity. He watched as she traveled with Martha Jones and then with Koschei. The argument with Rassilon himself. The creation of Galliterra. The year of living a primitive existence just to prove to herself that it could be done. The laughter, the tears, and the fear. He rejoiced when he felt her sense the island and know that it would be her home. He smiled when he watched her living among the other TARDISes, finally having a place to call her own. He winced as he watched her lecture on history and temporal mechanics and then had to deal with the men who sought her hand, not for love of her but for love of the power they could wield by having her as a wife.
He saw the universe through her hazel eyes. He opened his own and stared down at this woman, this impossible woman, in awe and amazement. Before she could move, he lifted his own hand and placed it against her temple, showing her every moment of his own life. He focused on the time after he’d left her in that ship. She could feel his sorrow and his longing. She heard every thought and every word he’d said. When he was finally done, his own soul lay bare before her; he let his hand move to stroke her hair. He cupped the back of her head and gently pulled her face up so he could bend over and kiss her. He felt her hands comb through his hair, scraping gently against his scalp before one stroked the back of his neck while the other gripped his shoulder. His free hand ran down her spine to splay across the small of her back, pressing her more firmly against him. He lost himself in the kiss, his tongue darting across her lips to entice her to open her mouth so he could deepen it.
Jackie Tyler cleared her throat, making her daughter and her soon-to-be son-in-law jump in fright. “I believe we were going to have breakfast,” the Tyler matriarch said calmly. “That is, if the two of you can keep your hands off each other long enough to eat. Then, Rose, if you’re feeling up to it, we can sit in the garden for a while but you will take a nap before lunch and another after.”
“Mum, I’m a grown woman. I’ve traveled through time and space and I think that I…”
“The Doctor can join you in those naps,” Jackie continued, speaking over her daughter. Rose glared at her but shut her mouth. “Now, let’s see if you really have managed to learn to cook in all these years.”
“Marry me,” the Doctor whispered in her ear.
“Yes,” she whispered back. “I will marry you.”
~*~*~*~
A week later, they were married. It was a simple ceremony held out on the Tol Eressëa with their friends watching on. Koschei had made a special trip to pick up Pete Tyler and Tony so that they could see their daughter and sister wed. Tony had been amazed at meeting his niece and quickly grew to love being called “Uncle Tony.” He also adored his big sister who, even though she was busy arguing with her mother about the wedding ceremony, still found time to play with him. When he realized that the Doctor, by marrying Rose, would be his big brother, the little boy’s delight grew to a height beyond measuring with current or future technology.
The day of their wedding dawned bright and clear. The Doctor left Rose sleeping peacefully and hurried to get cleaned up and dressed for the ceremony. On Gallifrey, he would have spent the night meditating on the obligations he would be assuming as a husband. The pleasures of marriage would not even be a consideration. After all, marriage on his home planet was little more than a political union. A bare handful might, in time, come to love each other deeply. However, his first marriage was not to be one of those. He’d felt some fondness for his first wife and for the children they Loomed but he had never dreamed of feeling true, pure love until the first time he gazed down at Rose’s face as she let him show her how to feel the planet spinning under their feet. And now, she was walking across the garden to him. He couldn’t stop the wide, silly grin of utter delight that spread across his face.
Rose, Vairë, woman of a thousand names and titles, walked calmly towards him. She was wearing her own armor – a white blouse, black slacks, dark trainers, covered with a black leather trench coat. A TARDIS blue scarf was tied around her neck. Her hair hung simply, sweeping her shoulders. Her make-up was understated, enhancing her natural beauty. Centuries had passed since she felt the need to try to obscure her natural looks behind a mask of make-up. Her shoulder-length blonde hair flowed free. Her hazel eyes were lit with an inner fire as she stared at the Doctor. Part of her could scarcely believe that she was here, that he was here, and that this was really happening. On her wrist, she wore the bracelet from Reinette. She gazed at the man who would soon be her husband and mate, smiling at the familiar pinstripes, the long brown coat, the hair that defied gravity and products, and the eyes that sent chills through her even as they melted her heart.
Drawing up next to him, she smiled at her brother. Behind Rose, her mother stood with tears in her eyes. Pete wrapped an arm around his wife while Jenny, their granddaughter, grinned widely. Jack was standing behind the Doctor, his witness for the day. Donna, Lucy, Martha, and Mickey were sitting with Sarah Jane, Luke, Donna, and her family. Finally, Koschei raised his arms, signaling that the ceremony was about to begin.
“We have gathered here this day to witness the binding of two souls,” Koschei intoned. “For many years, they have been separated. But now, finally, they have come together and never again shall they be parted. Do you, Doctor, Theta Sigma of House Lungbarrow, son of Gallifrey, consent to this union? Do you wish to bind yourself heart, body, soul, and mind to this woman? Will you stand with her for all of time? Will you teach her children and care for her no matter what comes?”
“I will,” the Doctor said calmly, smiling down at the blonde woman in front of him.
“Do you, Rose Marion Tyler, Varië Arkytior Cater, Lady of the Lonely Isle and daughter of House Oakdown, daughter of Terra and Mother of Galliterra, consent to this union? Do you wish to bind yourself heart, body, soul, and mind to this man? Will you stand with him for all of time? Will you teach your children to honor him and will you care for him no matter what comes?”
“I will,” Rose said softly.
“Who consents to give this woman to this man?”
“We consent and gladly give,” Jackie and Pete Tyler said loudly.
Koschei reached down and took the Doctor’s left hand and joined it to his sister’s left hand. He wrapped a red cord around their wrists and then knotted it, binding their hands together. Stepping back, he closed his ears and his mind as the Doctor bent over to whisper his true name in Rose’s ear and as Rose stepped up on her toes to whisper her true name in the Doctor’s ear. Those names would never be spoken again except among the couple and when their children reached the age of maturity and could properly be called full members of their House. The Doctor gripped Rose’s bound hand with his own and bent over again, kissing her and pulling her towards him with his free hand. Her free hand buried itself in his hair. He opened his mind and gently pushed against hers until he felt her mind wrap around his own. They bound their minds and souls to each other even as they kissed, the kiss a promise of the union of bodies that was to come.
Pulling away, the Doctor gazed down in happiness and awe at his wife. He could feel her in the back of his mind, a golden presence that would be with him forever. Rose stared up at him, her face devoid of emotion as she felt him at the back of her mind, a strong, pulsing presence that would never leave her. Moving quickly, they embraced and kissed again knowing that, even if they had to force themselves to stay calm for now, they would never be able to get enough of each other, no matter how long they lived.