I never actually realised until I checked that this is the second-longest story I've ever published! (Slowly Losing You beat this by approx 4,000 words) Cool!

"Doctor, do you care for River? Do you want to see her happy, do you want to protect her against everything bad in this world? Do you want her to have the best life she could possibly have in which she has no pain, no suffering, no grief, no heartache, before you have to say goodbye?" He paused before answering.

"Yes."

"If her death is a fixed point in time, then there's no harm in giving her the time of her life before it happens. You go take care of her. Give her the best life she can. I'll be waiting."

Epilogue – The Start of Something Good

"You never know when you're gonna meet someone
And your whole wide world in a moment comes undone
You're just walking around and suddenly
Everything that you thought that you knew about love is gone

You find out it's all been wrong
And all my scars don't seem to matter anymore
Cause they led me here to you..." ~Daughtry

"Bloody hell!" Rose shouted after waking up inside her unit. That flesh body had lasted her quite a while, nearly two whole years. "Damn those zygons! Nearly made it."

As she had learned a long time ago, whenever her body was shot, stabbed, or (once) poisoned, her flesh body would dissolve into a puddle and she would immediately wake up in here. And after a few or so minutes would pass by...

Right on cue the door slammed open and the Doctor practically hurled himself in.

"I'm fine, I'm fine." Rose spoke from her sitting position. The Doctor's eyes were wide and full of fright. "Hell Doctor, we've gone through this enough times," she said as he came up to the glass. "You think you'd be used to it by now."

"I'll never get used to you dying." He replied, his voice rough and thick. Rose smiled.

"I'm not going anywhere, I promise. Hold that thought." Before he could say anything else, she closed her eyes and recreated a flesh body for herself. She knew this machine inside and out now, and could do practically anything she wanted with it.

The Doctor watched, feeling a bit nostalgic of the first time he watched her do this as first her feet formed, followed by her legs and torso, clad in a brown skirt that fell just above her knees and a white tank top with daisies on it. Her arms and neck formed along with her head and dark blonde hair (she had given up the bleached-blonde look years ago). The Doctor gasped as her face finally came into focus.

"Y-you..." He stuttered as she climbed out of the unit. When she had only a few minutes ago looked like her young, twenty-year old self, as she had for years, she now looked nearly forty. He'd never seen her so aged, so mature...so beautiful.

"Yeah." She replied, even her voice seemed to have aged. "I figured it was time for a change. Just like you." She reached up with a slightly wrinkled hand and ran it through his short gray hair. He closed his eyes, leaning into her touch. "It was time to grow up." she whispered.

"Rose," he muttered, his Scottish accent even more defined. "Rose I...Thank you." Filled with a rush of love for her, he pushed himself forward and kissed her, long and hard. She replied back, her fingers digging into his back. In a swift move he picked her up and placed her rear on the console. The lights of the TARDIS seemed to hum and flicker, as if approving.

"What about Clara?" Rose said as the Doctor kissed her again.

"Clara can bugger off." He muttered. Sure, he didn't know if he would have been able to solve the mystery of Oswin Oswald without dying if Rose hadn't been there (but even she couldn't have prevented his death on Trenzalore that turned him into this aged man now), but at the moment, nothing else mattered except his incredible Rose.

"Oooh, rude." She replied, laughing.

"I know. Haven't been rude in ages." He grinned at her knowingly, which she couldn't help but return. The Doctor looked at his ageless companion with imploring eyes, waiting for her permission, which she immediately gave. He reached out and lifted her tank top up and off her head and threw it aside. He gazed hungrily at her new body, wanting to explore every inch. He didn't bother to hesitate. That was all his last gangly form had been about but now, he was a 'take what he wanted' kind of guy. Took him a while to figure out who he was this time 'round, but Rose had made that discovery a lot easier than it would have been without her.

"I don't make a habit of asking twice."

"No second chances, I'm that sort of a man."

"The man who lies."

The Doctor kissed her chin, making his way down to her neck and collarbone, planting small kisses as he went.

Everything she had ever done for him seemed to collide inside him and fill him with the utmost desire and passion that he could never define, no matter how hard he tried. This woman had changed his life, and now she had done what appeared to be a small thing by merely changing how she looked, but was in fact one of the most fantastic things she had ever done for him.

To age herself, to "grow up", as she had put it, meant more to him at this moment than nearly anything. He had been so worried at first, after his regeneration, but of course, her being Rose and all, had accepted him without a single negative thought. He didn't think he could love her more after that. He was wrong.

Every single second after had made his love stronger and stronger until he thought he would burst from it all, and it just kept coming. Every single thing she did was amazing, every word, every deed. What had he done to deserve such a wondrous thing? He remembered what Donna Noble had said to him so long ago just after Jenny had died.

"Opening your heart up to love will always be a good thing, no matter what happens in the end. It only makes it stronger."

"Rose Tyler I...I love you." He said as he brought his face back up in front of hers. Rose grinned, the joy on her face uncontainable.

"I love you too." The Doctor closed his eyes, which were filling up with emotion. He placed his forehead against hers and breathed in her indefinable scent.

"How long you gonna stay with me?" He muttered, his voice old and Scottish this time, and wanting, no, needing to hear her same reply. He opened his grey eyes to stare into her shining brown, which held more memories and promises than he could ever imagine.

Rose immediately replied, knowing she would be able to tell the truth this time.

"Forever."

"I know that its gonna take some time
I've got to admit that the thought has crossed my mind
This might end up like it should

And I'm gonna say what I need to say
And hope to God that it don't scare you away
Don't wanna be misunderstood

But I'm starting to believe that
this could be the start of something good..."

~Fine~

In case you didn't realise, that was my Twelve/Rose contribution there at the end. I hope that satisfied some of you after what happened in my fic "The Last Time" ;)

Thank you to EVERYBODY who took the time to review! I'm now working on the third and final in the "Companion Project" Series (#1: Companion Project, #2: Starlight in Our Souls), called "We Are Only Shattered Illusions", which is one of the darkest stories I've ever written (I'm even scaring myself at times at how dark it is), and a Nine/Rose shipwrecked AU (wish me luck, never written an AU like this before, but I'm taking tips from writer perfectlyrose, she writes the BEST AUs! ((love ya))

Thanks to you all! (hugs)

~Kathryn Hart