Yes, ladies and gentlemen, this is the last part of Salva Nos. Hopefully all loose ends will be wrapped up to your satisfaction, but if you have a question leave it in a review and I'm more than happy to answer it for you. :) If you want to ask anonymously I'll reply in my profile. Speaking of profile, Latin translations can be found in there as well.

Once more, huge amounts of thanks to Paige, who put up with me as I wrote this thing out and was brilliant enough to suggest the Time Lord Biology scene in Chapter Two. And much thanks to good old William Shakespeare, who I - or rather, the Doctor blatantly borrows from for his last line in the story.

Everyone, thanks for reading, and I hope you enjoy the end!

Celeste manna paris
Salva nos, stella maris
Lux cecis, dux ignaris
Solamen angelorum

The mattress and medical supplies had been waiting for them when they got back to the TARDIS, set up on the floor of what the man was calling the console room. He carefully set Mum down, stripped her of her heavy winter coat, and covered her in a thick down blanket. Without stopping for a break, he began to run around the center, setting all sorts of things in motion. Charlie didn't notice this though, he was that worried about his Mum, and all he did was sit by the head of the mattress and watch her slow breathing. To Donna's surprise, Charlie hadn't commented on how the inside was far bigger than the outside appeared. He wasn't going to tell her that he already knew of a ship like that. The man - the Doctor, he mentally corrected himself, wasn't at all surprised by his reaction. He sighed and leaned back against one of the supports, closing his eyes in exhaustion.

"What do you mean I have to go home?" Donna's shrill voice cut into his near-sleep, making him open his eyes blearily.

"It's just temporary," the Doctor insisted, standing on the ramp by the open doors. "Look, hold onto your key; I promise I'll be back for you." His eyes met Charlie's. "This is something I have to handle on my own."

Donna huffed, and only walked out the doors into the yard of her parents' home in London after imparting the threat that if he didn't come back for her, she'd track him down and make him suffer. The Doctor shut the doors behind her, then moved back to the console, setting them in flight again. "We're in the vortex now," he said. "Nothing will be able to find us here."

He moved over to where Mum was lying on her mattress, kneeling down next to her. Again, Charlie watched with a slight bit of awe as he cupped her face in one of his hands, leaning in close just to examine her. "Oh, Rose," he murmured quietly. It should have surprised Charlie by this point that he knew his Mum's first name, but it didn't. There were reasons for everything, he knew, but right now he just wanted to hear them spoken out loud. That way they'd become real, and not just something in his head.

The Doctor slid his glasses on, grabbed something very technical looking from the tray by his side and began to run it over her. Every so often it emitted a low beep. "So, Charlie," he said, never taking his eyes off of Mum, "how old are you?"

"Five. How old are you?"

The Doctor looked up at him, a wide and sudden grin spreading across his face. "A lot older than that. Are you in school yet?"

Charlie shrugged. "I was, but I had to be pulled out. Kept correcting the other kids, got bored a lot, then got in trouble for cutting my hair in the middle of class."

"Eh, that's just the perils of being smarter than them. You'll learn to handle it." Actually, Charlie felt that it wouldn't even matter at this point. He wasn't going to see that group ever again. The Doctor sat upright, snapping the little object shut and placing it back in the box. "Your mum will be fine. A little bit of unconsciousness, but mostly exhaustion. Travelling through time and space – or to a parallel world – without any sort of device will do that to you." This time he looked right at Charlie. "So how did you get here?" he asked, voice calm as he seemed to try to keep control.

Charlie pulled his knees up, hugging them close as the Doctor moved around the mattress to sit next to him. "There were these people who wanted to hurt Mum. 'Cause she'd been into space, she said. And they didn't even know about me. But they were in our flat. So we had to run away."

"That still doesn't explain how you were able to get into a parallel universe," The Doctor said softly, bracing his back against the support as well and sitting cross-legged.

"We were going to the train station, try and get to Munchen. But things started to get…fuzzy." He made a strange motion with his hands, as if he were stacking something. "One group of people, then another, right on top of each other." Charlie looked up at the Doctor. "I just wanted us to be safe. An' when we were stopped by the church, I could feel you there, in my head."

He wrinkled his brow, obviously puzzled. "And you reached out, to try and contact me...?"

Charlie squeezed his eyes shut for a brief moment. It was time. Funnily enough, he could feel the TARDIS in the back of his head, offering quiet encouragement and telling him that all would be fine (and whispering that the Doctor could be a bit of a coward at times, so it was up to him now). "Mum always said that you saved her, thought you could do it again. An' you're Dad, you're supposed to save us. So I tried to reach you." His voice trailed off, and he stared at the glowing column in the centre of the console. The Doctor's hand dropped down on his shoulder and squeezed. "Didn't know it was you I was feeling until I saw you there by the church."

"I could say the same. I'd been feeling this sort of niggling little sensation there in the back of my head, but I couldn't place it until I saw you and Rose-your mum-there tonight," the Doctor said, hand still holding onto Charlie's shoulder.

"She wanted to tell you about me, but she was scared. She couldn't tell anyone else either, 'cause they were after her," Charlie said, finally daring to look up at his face. To his surprise the Doctor wasn't at all mad or angry, but just slightly smiling as he looked down at him.

"When you're a parent, it's never just about you any more. Well, maybe it is for some bad parents out there, a few names come to mind but you're probably too young to know who they are. In any case, when you're a parent, you do what's best for your child. If that meant her keeping you safe and me not knowing about you…I can live with that." The hand slipped down and his arm wrapped itself around Charlie's shoulders. Charlie leaned into his side, taking comfort wherever he could get it.

"Thank you for saving us," he murmured, feeling tired once more. It had been an incredibly long day, and they had traveled far further than they'd ever imagined.

The Doctor shook his head, making Charlie look back up at him as he felt the movement through the Doctor's body. "We save each other. Maybe I didn't tell your mum enough, but she saved me just as many times, maybe more. That's just the way we do it." He winked at Charlie and gave him a quick grin. "Stick around and you'll see."

Charlie had planned to say something in return, but a large yawn overtook him. "Okay, that's it," the Doctor said, uncrossing his legs. "Time for all boys who crossed the void today to get some rest." He grabbed Charlie by the waist and laid him carefully on the mattress next to Mum.

He shook his head, fighting against the tiredness even though the mattress was quite comfy and the blanket that was being placed over him was thick and warm. "Can't go to sleep yet; gotta wait up for Santa."

"Santa? Oh, right, it's Christmas!" the Doctor said as if surprised to hear the date (he hasn't the slightest clue, the TARDIS thought into Charlie's head, making him bite back a giggle). He gave what looked like a desperate glance towards the ceiling. "Uh, well, Charlie, you see—" His ramblings were cut off by the blanket covered pile beside them shifting a bit, making Charlie sit bolt upright and the Doctor scramble over to the other side of the mattress.

As he stared down at his mum's face, she opened her eyes slowly. A few blinks later her vision had cleared, and she took his face between her hands. "Charlie?" she asked. "Where are we?"

"It's okay, Mum, we're safe," he said, yawning at the end of his statement. He pulled back slightly, letting her get a glimpse of their location. When her eyes grew wide as dinner plates he knew she recognized where they were.

"Oh my God," she breathed, pushing herself upright. Then suddenly her breath caught in her throat, and Charlie glanced behind him to see the Doctor sitting there on the mattress, calm as anything but with a gleam in his eyes.

"Hello, Rose," he said, with a smile that could have lit up half of central London.

"Hi," Mum said back, a little bit of a gasp in her voice.

"We've got a lot to talk about, don't we?" The Doctor said to her.

"Yeah, we do," Mum replied. "But it'll be worth it."

"You lied to me," he said, with a pointed glance at Charlie.

Mum pulled Charlie to sit between her legs, rubbing her hands up and down his arms. Charlie leaned back, feeling rather warm and comfortable there. The TARDIS hummed soothingly inside his head, making him feel welcome as well. "I lied to everyone," Mum said. "I did what I had to do to keep our son safe."

"The things we do for the ones we love," the Doctor murmured. "Rip open the heart of my poor ship with a recovery lorry…"

"Dangle from a transmitter tower to save the life of one silly human girl..."

"I've missed you quite a lot, you know."

"Same here. At least I had Charlie to help get me through it."

Charlie wanted to listen to their conversation so badly, but he couldn't fight the exhaustion anymore. He drifted off to sleep, slumping back against Mum's stomach.

His dreams weren't pleasant. He dreamt of the shivering cold of the void they had passed through, of being so terrified, and of what could have followed them through. They were things that no child, not even a half Time Lord child, should even consider thinking about, but they took up residence in his subconscious and it was hard to escape them in sleep.

He awoke with a gasp, eyes darting blindly around the console room, not quite seeing it. But then, then, he felt the Doct – no, his Dad's cool palm on his forehead, brushing back his hair. Charlie could feel his mind reaching out for his own, sending waves of comfort into it and making him breathe a bit easier. And Mum was still at his back, her arms wrapped around him holding him tight, just like she always did. "It's okay, love; it's just a dream," she murmured, rocking him just slightly. She hummed softly, a few bars of a random song, calming him even further and making him snuggle back into her arms once more. Between the two of them he felt safe, like nothing in those dreams could even touch him.

On the edge of consciousness once more, he heard the Doctor say in a low voice, "'I do love nothing in the universes so well as you: is not that strange?'"

Just before he dropped back to sleep, he felt Mum giggle beneath him, and heard her whispered reply. "Quite right too."

Salva nos, stella maris
Et regina celorum

Thus ends Salva Nos. I may revisit this universe at some point in the future, however, so keep an eye out or put me on alert if you're interested. Thanks so much for reading!