After realising that her new-new-new Doctor's hand, in his clear willingness to give her some space, wasn't gripping hers like she desperately needed it to, Rose tightened and secured the hold. To her, it was as if the lack of firm contact could allow him to vanish along with his other self, once again leaving her alone, with no touch apart from the bite of the frigid sea wind and the wetness of her tears.

The Doctor, moisture on his own cheeks from, among other things, the telepathic bond with his TARDIS being ripped away, was resolute in holding her gaze. Regardless of essentially exchanging one of his two belov d girls for the other and now feeling a glaring emptiness in his consciousness from the one now gone, he would never have traded the outcome; his ship may now be forever out of his reach, but he had his Rose right here.

And she had... a Doctor? But was he the man she had spent every last waking moment in this universe searching for? Ultimately she turned to stare at him, much like she had just done at the now-vacant indentation in the sand where the TARDIS had been, trying to discern without words if he actually was there, if he was who he said he was, and if he really felt about her the way he had voiced earlier. Yes, she had quickly enough accepted with his last incarnation that any Doctor was The Doctor was truly Her Doctor. He knew her and loved her and hadn't really left her. And he was him, just as his other self had said. A smile threatened to warp her previously downturned and gaping mouthline.

His ancient chocolate browns scanned over her sharpened, angular face, and though he appreciated every square millimeter of it because it was hers, he was nonetheless concerned for her mental and physical health during their time apart. He resolved he would make it his job in this universe to ensure she was well cared for every day he lived. "I get to live the one adventure I never thought I could have with you."

Despite so many emotions warring within her, relief and delight began to win out and ease her into that smile. "Blimey."

"Yep.", he agreed, forming a grin to match her own. "A mortgage, carpets, the whole works.", he smirked. He'd obviously had time to mull it all over and come to accept the concept without too much fuss.

She herself was too blown away by everything that just happened to process that statement word for word (or she would've reminded him her dad was the Vitex billionaire in this universe and therefore the mortgage bit would get to remain a joke). She blinked, then quirked an eyebrow, and at last released a decided "You're here." on an exhaled breath, still not quite capable of full sentences yet.

He nodded, only a little more solemn than he had been a moment before. "I am. Here with the one woman in existence who would and could blast through universes to get to back me. There is nowhere I would rather be."

Massaging an icy thumb across her negligibly warmer knuckles must have helped bring her back into the physical aspect of the world because it was then that Rose leaned if not staggered forward to clutch him around the waist in a desperate hug. Not a beat later, arms came over the top of hers to encircle and comfort, and his chin came to rest snugly on her shoulder, right where it had so many times in the past.

He sighed. "Rose Tyler." It was almost as his counterpart had ground out not minutes ago. Everything about the way he could enunciate her name made it sound like an answer to a dying man's prayer. Eyelids clamped shut, he turned his face more into her neck to breathe her in and get as close to her as possible in order to remind himself his Rose was very much here and very much real. "I missed you more than you can imagine."

She gripped him even tighter knowing that, compounded by the guilt and heartache he had tended to carry around with him as a matter of course, those words would well be true. Unable to comfort his other self directly, all she could do was eventually sniffle out a question into his chest. "Will he be okay?"

He sighed again in full understanding of the emotional slaughter his other self would have to endure after leaving Rose behind in this universe and very soon a mind-wiped Donna in their original universe. But at some point, while the pain from those losses would remain etched as cavernous scars into his hearts forever, he would come to terms with them and make an effort to try and move on for both their sakes. "He knows he's left himself here with you. So yes, he will be." But to be honest, this Doctor didn't wish to focus on the tragedy of it all right now; he had his prize in his arms, and he wanted to bask in all the joy he could muster up, joy that represented the beginning of the rest of his new, final life with his amazing pink-and-yellow human.

Ensconced in one another's comfort and acceptance and devotion, seconds turned into minutes. After a short while, after apparently too long, in the mind of the third, practically forgotten wheel on the beach, this quiet and intimate intermission in their lives was abruptly discontinued. "Can't get a signal from 'ere. W'll haveta walk t' town." Seeing they were taking their time pulling apart, Jackie continued with "C'mon, then. 'S bloody freezin' out here!" before making a determined march further onto land, whether they intended to follow her or not.

Jackie's back turned and her form beginning to recede, he took a moment to let the solidity of Rose sink in to his mostly-still-Time-Lord brain. He bent down, eyes asking and receiving permission, before gently claiming her lips in a chaste kiss, lingering lovingly with a nuzzle over her treasured though cold-numbed face. Pulling back, he presented her with wiggling fingers and an encouraging grin. "Another adventure awaits." Giving a squeeze to her willingly given hand, he had her mirroring his grin and agreeing to be led off, away from her past and into the future, in the direction of those most recent tracks in the sand.