Disclaimer: Doctor Who isn't mine. If it was things would be quite different. The BBC owns all and I bow before them.

Written for timepetalsprompts on tumblr and their weekly prompt (provided this week by jeeno2): A riddle wrapped in a mystery, inside an enigma. I played with it a bit but all three are there. :)

Rose Tyler stood before him, a golden goddess in all her glory. To protect him, to keep him safe. There was only one course of action left now. A kiss of life for her, a kiss of death for him, but no regrets. She'd been a riddle from the start, challenging him or supporting him as the situation warranted, knowing which he needed. He had wanted years with her, to figure her out, to love her.

As he laid her down, he cupped her cheek. He hoped she'd stay and the next him would be brave enough to tell her.

The Doctor stared across the torn up street. Rose Tyler stood there, and even from the distance, her magnificent smile warmed his hearts. Donna'd said she was coming, but believing and seeing were two different things.

How she'd gotten back to him was a mystery, but that was so her. She never took no for an answer, and did the impossible, always to get back to him.

He'd wasted the two years they'd had together not admitting what he felt for her but that ended now. He pumped his legs and ran. It was time to say it.

What? No….

The Doctor stared at Rose Tyler, nestled against his single heart. After a year in Pete's World, she was finally his wife, his bondmate. Her presence was a beacon in his mind and he was drawn to that light. He always had been, but it was so much more now.

Rose wasn't just a riddle, and a mystery; she was an enigma. He'd never understand what she'd seen in him, how she'd healed him, but she had. He raised her hand and kissed the ring he'd placed there hours ago.

"I love you."

Her smile was radiant. "Love you too."