Here we are, at the end at last. It's been a wild ride over the last 10 months from that original one shot to a total of almost 22k words. It has definitely been fun and thanks for sticking with me through it all!

The first thing Rose saw was the icy blue of John's eyes staring down at her, filled with worry. She wanted to reach up to soothe the crease between his eyebrows away but her head was fuzzy and everything ached and moving seemed like an impossible proposition.

"Ow," she said after a moment before wincing.

"Shh," John soothed, stroking her cheek once more. "The vest took the bullet but you're still going to be sore and I think you might have a concussion." His hand moved to the back of her head where it had impacted with the concrete floor.

His fingers were coated in blood when he removed them.

"That doesn't seem good," Rose said softly, his fingers swimming in front of her face. She tried to focus on them but concentrating was just out of her grasp.

"It's not, but you'll be fine, Rose."

"Course I will be," she said, words slurring together, "you're here after all."

John's heart twinged. "I thought you were dead, Rose." His voice cracked. "I thought you were dead because I couldn't protect you."

Rose fought through the haze fogging her mind. John shouldn't sound so despondent, not when they had both survived. She forced her hand up to cup his cheek. "Not dead, John. And I'm only not dead because of you. Did a bang-up job of protecting me. Made sure I wore the vest, you did, and made sure I felt safe enough to do this."

His hand came up to cradle hers against his face. "You still got hurt."

"But it's going to be okay. We got him, right?"

John's lips quirked up in half-smile. "We got him. Jack should be with the bastard right now." A scream pierced the air at that moment, startling them both. "Yeah, Jack's definitely with him," he said.

Rose's eyes slipped shut as her mouth tried to produce a smile. "Don't suppose I could talk you into that third kiss now that this is over?"

He chuckled. "Not while you're bleedin' on the floor. We agreed we'd both be sober and mostly calm and I don't think this qualifies."

"Technicalities," Rose said, eyes still closed.

"Rose, I need you to stay awake."

She just made a consenting noise. She was aware of John continuing to talk to her, tone growing more concerned, more urgent but she couldn't quite make out the words. Rose tried to open her eyes, to tell him not to worry but everything faded back into black before she could manage it.

-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.

Rose came to slowly. Wherever she was was quiet and warm and much more comfortable than the warehouse floor had been. It felt safe. Her eyes fluttered open and she took in her surroundings. She was in Jack's guest room.

"You know, I've never seen the Doc that terrified."

Rose jolted, eyes snapping to her right where Jack's voice had come from. He was leaning back in a chair, inscrutable look on his face.

"What?" Her voice was scratchy from disuse.

Jack stayed quiet and handed her a glass of water that she drank greedily.

"Jack, what did you mean?" she asked, setting the glass back down on the nightstand.

"When you passed out in the warehouse, the Doctor walked through with you in his arms and I don't think I'll ever forget the look on his face." he paused. "I've seen him in situations where he was in imminent danger of losing his life and I've never seen him as scared as when he thought he might lose you."

Rose's head was spinning, trying to process the implications of what Jack was saying. "Survived though. I take it Saxon's taken care of?"

A feral smile curled the corners of Jack's mouth for a moment. "He's taken care of. He may be a little roughed up but he was still alive when I dropped him off at a government black site. He's their problem now and won't be causing you any more trouble."

"Good."

They lapsed into silence for a moment.

"John thinks it's his fault you got hurt," Jack said finally, watching his friend closely for her reaction.

"It's not! Told him he did a brilliant job protectin' me," Rose protested.

"He walked right past the Master and left me on my own to take care of him because he refused to leave you for even a second. I'm only here right now because I forced him to go take a break."

"How long have I been out?"

"About four hours. The Doc got you back here, stitched up your head wound, and then sat here worrying himself to death. Finally convinced him that he needed to eat since he couldn't do anything for you if he didn't take care of himself as well."

"Thanks, Jack," Rose said, reaching out a hand to him. He took it and squeezed, giving her a small smile.

"Thank you, Rosie. You're the reason we got the Master off the streets. I'm just glad you're okay and this is all over with."

Rose was opening her mouth to answer him when she was interrupted by a voice in the hallway.

"Do I hear you talking in there, Jack? Any change?" John opened the door to the guest bedroom as he finished his second question and froze as soon as his eyes met Rose's. Her name slipped out of his mouth almost involuntarily.

She smiled up at him. "Hi."

"You're awake."

"Heard you actually played doctor for me and got me all fixed up," Rose said, tucking a strand of hair behind her ear.

John crossed the void between the door and the bed in just a few strides and wrapped his hands around one of hers. "Thought about taking you to hospital but didn't want to risk it. How are you feeling?"

"Head's poundin' and it feels like a lorry ran over my chest a couple of times but I'm alive and that's thanks to you from what Jack's told me."

The Doctor ducked his head, tips of his ears turning pink. "Jack's been exaggerating, as usual."

"Nope, don't think so," she shot back, squeezing his hand. "I think he was telling the truth about you stitching me up and watching over me."

"Sounds like he's been quite talkative."

"I think I'm going to leave the two of you to sort this out. I'll be in the kitchen if anyone needs me," Jack cut in before either of them could continue talking. He slipped out the door after giving them both a meaningful look and closed it behind him. Hopefully his friends would use the alone time to work out whatever was between them.

"Jack said something else," Rose said quietly as John moved to take the chair Jack had vacated.

"I'm sure he did," John groused.

"He said you still think it's your fault that I got hurt."

A pained look crossed John's face. "It is. I'm the one who didn't plan for Saxon to take you out of my line of sight. I couldn't protect you and he shot you, Rose."

"But I'm still here, John. We knew going in that there was danger and that our plan wasn't perfect but everything turned out alright. We're all alive and we got Saxon. You took care of me, made me feel safe and helped me do what needed to be done. Yeah, alright, I got shot. And yes, that is terrifying, but I'm okay and you're here and everything's okay, yeah?" She reached out and cupped his cheek. "We made it through, John."

He raised a hand to cover the one she had on his cheek, cradling it before pulling it down so he could entwine their fingers. "I suppose we did."

"That calls for a celebration, yeah? I think we're both sober and mostly calm and I'm more than ready to claim that third kiss," Rose said with an impish smile emerging on her face.

"Third time's the charm, you said. Didn't think 'mostly calm' would include you in recovery from being shot and hitting your head, but who am I to argue with a lady?"

"Usually first in line," Rose quipped.

He grinned at her. "Cheeky."

Carefully, he leaned forward and braced himself against the bed before reaching out with his other hand to cradle her face. Slowly, making sure she was still okay, he closed the distance between them until their lips met.

It was almost chaste at first, both of them reassuring themselves that the other was alive and okay and safe. It stayed that way until John scraped his teeth across Rose's bottom lip as he pulled away briefly. He barely had time to see the flash of heat in her eyes before she was kissing him again, mouth opening beneath his for a gloriously messy kiss. It was all of the pent up desperation of trying to keep her safe and her worrying that she wasn't going to make it through. It was all of the adrenaline and fear and attraction that had been running through their veins.

It was finally.

John pulled back after a couple minutes and looked down at Rose. Her lips were glistening and swollen, eyes still closed and hair mussed from where his hand was. She looked thoroughly kissed and he couldn't even try to stop the grin from spreading over his face.

"Wow, um, okay," Rose started, opening her eyes to blink up at John. "Third time was definitely the charm."

He leaned down and softly brushed his lips over hers in agreement before settling back in his chair.

"So what happens now?" Rose asked. "Saxon's gone, London is a bit safer, your job is done."

"Do you think I'm going to disappear just because the job's over, Rose?" he questioned, disbelief evident in his tone. "Not gonna happen. You drunkenly stumbled into my life before you were part of my job and I'm not letting go of you just because we caught Saxon."

He paused. Panicked. "I mean, that is, I'm not going anywhere if you want me to stay. It's up to you."

"Daft man, of course I want you to stay. And you're never going to let me forget how we met, are you?"

"Nope," he replied cheerfully, grin at full force.

Rose smiled back just as brightly but it didn't last long.

"What's wrong, Rose?"

"It's just, you and Jack are both going to go back to life as normal, right? I mean, life as normal plus me since I'm keeping both of you,"

"Jack will be thrilled to hear it," John deadpanned.

Rose hit his arm and ignored his exaggerated wince, knowing he was just trying to get her to smile again. "But the thing is, I don't really have a life to go back to. Not anymore. What am I supposed to do?"

He reached out for her hand. "Whatever you want to do. You have a chance to start over and be whoever you want to be, Rose."

She chuckled weakly. "I think that might be more terrifying than being shot."

"Could be, yeah," he agreed. "But you know I'm going to be here if you want help."

"You're probably going to need help too," Rose said after a moment of pondering. "Someone in whatever the hell your mystery Agency is was trying to work to protect Saxon. You and Jack are going to have to tread carefully if you want to find out how high the conspiracy goes."

John made a face. "Was hoping you weren't going to pick up on that so quickly. Didn't want you to worry while you're still recoverin'."

"I'm always going to worry," she said gently, stroking her thumb across his. "But, since I'm probably unknown to most of the people who were working with Saxon…" she trailed off.

"You want to help," he stated flatly.

"Maybe. At least while I try and figure out who I want to be, now."

"It's going to be dangerous, Rose, just as dangerous as this business with the Master, if not more so."

"I know, but it's the right thing to do and I want to help."

John looked at her in awe. It was so rare to find someone who was so passionate about doing the right thing and he just felt so lucky to have found Rose and have her in his life now. He had a feeling that her influence would eventually help him become the good man she seemed to think he was.

"Okay, when we start trying to take down the rest of Saxon's associates you can help if you still want to but let's not make any decisions while you're still nursing a head wound."

"I'll want to," Rose promised through a yawn. "An' I'll have you know that I'm resistin' the urge to make a nurse and doctor joke."

"Get some sleep, Rose. I'll wake you up in an hour or so to check your head." John said with a fond smile.

She hummed, indicating she'd heard him, before curling into her pillow and closing her eyes. John watched her fall asleep, completely content for the first time in a long time. If this was how he felt after only a few insane days of knowing Rose Tyler, he couldn't wait to see what the rest of their future had in store.