(Author's Note) FINALLY, here is the last chapter of Trouble! This one was a bear to write and I could not kick my muse into gear. That plus limited internet and real life have gotten in the way a bit, but don't worry! I'm still working and writing and haven't forgotten about any of my stories. For those of you wondering about Shades of Blue, I am working on Ten's story right now but I've decided to build up a little cushion for myself of a few chapters before I start posting it so you don't have to wait so long between updates as a I write. There are also a lot of fiddly details in the timey-wimey 'verse that I want to make sure I have correct before it's out there. So thank you for sticking with me (and reading this long author's note) and here's the final chapter of this story...even though you may have had to go back and reread it to remember what the heck was happening. Enjoy!

For a long moment, no one in the room moved, spoke or even breathed. The Doctor recovered first, taking a halting, tentative step toward the woman he never thought he would see again. "Rose?" he whispered, his voice cracking even as a hand reached out toward her, shaking.

"Doctor," she replied quietly. her eyes never leaving his face. That was all it took. He surged forward then, crushing her to his chest and the two of them sank to the floor in a tangle of desperate limbs. The Doctor murmured chiming, frantic words into the crook of her neck, burying them there with his tears and Rose responded with soothing sounds of her own, running fingers through his hair and burying quite a few of her own tears.

Jack reached out and pulled Mickey to him, despite his initial noise of protest, the two of them sharing their own relief and Gwen watched it all with wide eyes. Evidently what she had just witnessed was a miracle, a reunion of some sort and she was just happy to watch this odd little quartet in their mutual joy.

Finally, Rose and the Doctor took a shuddering breath together and stood, although the Doctor would not relinquish her hand nor would he take his eyes from her. Rose went first to Mickey, embracing him as tightly as she could one-handed and then she turned to Jack.

Jack's presence was tingling against her mind with a very odd, almost unpleasant sensation but she didn't care. It was JACK. Dear, sweet Jack whom she thought was dead. She'd never believed her Doctor's claim that he was 'rebuilding the Earth'. Nothing would have kept them returning for Jack. Unless he was dead.

Evidently she had been wrong.

It was only when she moved to embrace Jack did the Doctor let go of her, seemingly almost afraid to touch Jack. Which didn't make much sense, but she was too caught up in the sensory overload of everything to contemplate it much. She felt the TARDIS soothing her mind, pushing away some of the overwhelming reactions and sighed slightly, which only served to make the Doctor's eyes widen further. He'd felt the TARDIS reaching out for his Rose just then, felt her soothing touch calm Rose's mind...a mind that seemed now both terrifyingly familiar, utterly foreign and impossibly comfortable.

She pulled back from Jack and the Doctor instantly reattached himself to her again, holding her hand so tightly it was almost painful. "What happened, Rose?" Jack asked, quietly. "We saw you...you...I mean..."

The Doctor opened his mouth to give his opinion on what may have resulted in the miracle he currently had attached to his right hand but before he could answer, the owner of the hand attached to his cut him off.

"Instantaneous biological metacrisis," Rose said, authoritatively and all four other pairs of eyes in the room swung, surprised to her. She seemed not to take notice. "All that pent up regeneration energy trapped in that manly hairy hand of his coupled with the Rift energy omnipresent in this atmosphere, mixed in with a bit of Time Vortex and a smattering of Bad Wolf and meddling TARDIS and WHAM! Here I am. Molto bene!," Rose continued and then clapped a hand over her mouth.

"I sound like you!" she said, eyes wide, turning to face the Doctor as the hand over her mouth fell to the side.

"This is going to be interesting," mumbled Mickey off to the side.

"Still, could be worse," Rose continued, sticking her tongue in her teeth, considering and teasing the still gaping Time Lord. "Hopefully I just picked up a bit of your gob and not your obsession with hair products or bananas or...hold up," she stopped again, eyes widening even further. Her free hand flew to the left side of her chest and then, to the Doctor's surprise, suddenly his own hand, grasped within Rose's came into a very close, rather distracting proximity to her right breast.

And the startling heartbeat beneath it.

"Two hearts. I've got two hearts," she said, wonder flowing out of her and into the Doctor who still hadn't grasped, well, any of this.

"Brilliant," the both whispered, once again a hairsbreadth away from each other. Jack cleared his throat and the Doctor jumped back from Rose, reluctantly letting go of her hand.

"Tests," he muttered at the same time Jack tried to ask, "What's going on?"

"I've got to do some tests," he declared, shooing Jack and the mystified Gwen and shocked Mickey out the door. Sod Mickey, sod Jack, sod Gwyneth - oh! Spatial genetic multiplicity! Anyway, he needs Rose to himself.

"Wait, you can't just -" Jack began but the door was slammed in his face and, when he tried the handle, it was locked.

"That wasn't very nice, Doctor," Rose chastised, pulling herself up to sit on a bed, already resigned to his tests. She knew they were coming because, at the moment at least, she really had picked up on a lot from him. "They've gone through a lot as well. Especially Mickey," she said, quietly.

The Doctor fiddled with the screwdriver a moment, struggling to compose his thoughts before raising his eyes to Rose. "How...how much do you remember?" he asked tentatively, moving closer to her once again as though she were something a bit terrifying. Or perhaps simply like he thought she would disappear into thin air.

Or both.

"Everything," Rose answered and he exhaled suddenly, unsure whether that was the answer he'd wanted to hear or not. "It came back in bits and pieces when I was in the Zero Room but now I remember everything." Her wide hazel eyes looked up at him, still bearing the weight of his betrayal, both the intentional and unintentional. "I thought you had left me."

"I'm sorry, Rose," the Doctor said, coming closer and starting to reach out like he was going to take her hand but then retracting it. He had no right to do that. Not now. Scrambling and frantic to get out the words, he began to ramble, "I'm sorry for the way I acted, I'm sorry for her, for pushing you away, for Bilanisky, for...everything. I'm sorry I made you think that...that I would...I wouldn't..." he trailed off then, looking back at her with tear-filled eyes and her heart (hearts) lurched for him. She could feel the sorrow and pain radiating from him and she didn't fully understand how or why but he hurt and she loved him and she just wanted him to be better. "If I could take it back, I would. I...I even tried," he admitted, softly.

Rose reached out her hand for his and he stared at it a moment, as though it were something foreign he couldn't quite believe existed. "I was afraid, Rose. I was afraid of what we might be if I let you in closer...and of what I might become when you were gone. But then...you were gone, Rose. You," he grabbed her hand then and moved closer so quickly she didn't even see it coming. His hand other hand came up to the side of her face and his dark brown eyes were millimeters from her own, staring back into her with a desperate need and barely contained fear. "You were gone," he whimpered, his hand convulsively tightening on hers.

"That's how I felt, too," she said, quietly, her free hand moving up to cup the side of his face, mirroring his action. "When the TARDIS signal disappeared..."

"I know. I'm sorry, Rose. I'm so sorry," he whispered again, leaning their foreheads together. For a moment, Rose thought he was going to lean in and kiss her and she panicked briefly. She loved him and she had wanted him to do that for so long but she wasn't ready now. Too much had happened/was happening/would happen to them and for them and then suddenly her head was spinning and he was stepping back from her looking concerned.

"Rose?" he queried, moving toward a machine to his left and letting his eyes flicker worriedly to the ceiling. He'd felt Time surge around her that moment, had seen her eyes glimmer golden.

The TARDIS hummed back gently, reassuring both of them. She had chosen this path for them. She would protect them and help them as they needed but this...this intricate web of emotions and choice was one only the animates could traverse. She could only wait for them to decide how to proceed.

"I'm all right," she responded, moving her free hand up to her temple. "Just a bit of presyncope disequilibrium brought on by improperly distributed chrono-feedback." Her eyes grew wide again and the Doctor shifted nervously.

"How are you doing that?" he asked, a bit afraid to know the answer and itching to be doing those tests he'd mentioned. If his Time Lord consciousness had gone pouring into her human mind, it would have burned her from the inside. He would have had to...no. It didn't even bear thinking about. He couldn't have...

But she was different now, somehow. Two hearts and the wondrous, miraculous feeling of another Gallifreyan-like mind so close to his.

"I got bits and pieces of you from the regeneration energy in your hand," Rose responded, passing on the information she'd deduced and the TARDIS had told her. "The TARDIS says it'll start to fade away."

"What?" he asked, springing from her toward a monitor, grabbing his sonic. She couldn't fade away now. Not now. He had her back and he was never, ever letting her go. He would stop it. He would fix this.

"No, no, Doctor," Rose responded quickly, moving to soothe his frantic motions. "Not all...this," she said, motioning at herself, two hearts, expanded mind and...was that a respiratory bypass? "Just the brainiac stuff I picked up from you. And..." she trailed off a moment, looking away from him.

"And what?" he asked, shifting closer once again and letting out a sigh of relief.

She lifted her eyes to meet his again and whispered, "And your memories."

It was the Doctor's turn to stumble back this time and sit heavily on the bed as one form of panic gave way to another. "Not all of them," Rose quickly clarified, able to easily see the multitude of frantic thoughts swirling across his expressive face. "Imagine that...fifteen hundred years of memories - and you lied about that, mister. Just...just some from the end of your last life and the beginning of this one. The ones that had been on the surface when your hand got cut off."

"For example?" he breathed, unsure what to think or ask. What had she seen? What did she know?

"I know you kissed me," Rose said, tentatively, watching his face carefully, standing to move in front of him, reversing their earlier position. When he did not react other than a slight tensing of his posture, she continued. "I...I know you gave up that life for me."

He nodded then, his eyes still on his knees, so she said, "And...I know you were terrified."

His head jerked up to make them eye to eye then, realizing suddenly how close Rose was to him, her thighs pressing lightly against his knees, her eyes searching his own. Taking a deep breath, she continued, "And not of the delta wave or the Daleks or even of dying. You were scared of...of me. You were terrified I was going to die and leave you. And then you saved my life at the cost of your own and you were terrified that if you changed, I'd leave you. And then you did change and I asked you to change back." Then there was a flicker of residual pain across his face as he remembered her questioning him and Rose watched it pass over his face. "I'm sorry. I'm sorry I said that and I'm sorry that you died."

He took her hands and rested them on his knees. "I'd do it again, Rose," he said quietly. "I'd do it in a heartsbeat if if kept you with me one single moment longer.

Rose let more of her tears fall then, tears that she had held back for so long, remembering the man he used to be, their tracks leaving pathways down her cheeks. "I loved you so much and then you changed and I was so scared and then you were unconscious..."

She trailed off and the Doctor took a deep breath. It was his turn now, his turn to step up and convince her that he loved her, that he needed her and that he would never, ever leave her again. "Before, Rose, when we first met, I was a broken man. I didn't think there was any hope for me...any reason for me to keep on living. I was drifting, just throwing myself into any and every dangerous situation I could find. The war destroyed everything I'd ever known and it was just a matter of time before I let it destroy me. And then, suddenly, there you were. Pushing me, irritating me, questioning me. Imagine that, Rose. Twelve hundred years, eleven of them spent saving that same little distant rock and then, in the haze of my self-destruction, there's this human girl. Yelling at me. Following me. Questioning me. You made me remember who I was before. You made me remember having companions. And, bit by bit, you made me remember what it was like to live again. I rebuilt myself around you, Rose, in that incarnation and then this one…" he trailed off a moment, looking down at their clasped hands, drawing strength from that familiar, comforting gesture.

"These hands were made to hold yours, Rose. These eyes were created seeing you as the most beautiful creature in the entire universe. These hearts were born beating for you. Rose, I regenerated out of love for you and in love with you. I still am," he said, quietly, searching her hazel eyes with his, nervous and quiet now.

"Then why…" she began and he fought the urge to let go of one of her hands to run his hand through his hair.

"Why Sarah Jane and Mickey and France?" the Doctor said, willing himself to hold her eye contact and, even as she flinched, she stared straight into him

"Yeah," she said, softly.

"It's like you said before, Rose. I was frightened. Frightened of you," he said, rushing to continue before she interrupted him. "And I thought, somehow, if I kept a little piece of me separate from you, if I didn't let us get any closer than we already were, if we didn't cross the imaginary line I'd drawn...I would somehow be better off when I lose you."

Rose didn't respond a moment, soaking in his words. Everything he'd said was true, she could confirm it with the swirling, hazy memories she had from his earlier self and from the feeling of honesty and desperation emanating from what she could only guess was him now. "What makes you think you're going to lose me?" she finally asked, still stuck on his last phrase.

"I lose everyone, Rose," he responded, closing his eyes and this time she definitely felt of a wave of bitter sadness and regret washing through him into her. "One way or another, I lose everyone."

Rose considered the Time Lord in front of her, well aware that she held his hearts in the palm of her hand. It was her choice now, what to do with them. He had hurt her, pushed her away and they had both paid the consequences for it dearly. Logically, she realized that regardless of how she reacted now, she was going to need him to help her with all the sudden changes in her body and mind, but how exactly they proceeded forward seemed to be up to her. She could almost see the choices branching out in front of her, shimmering golden lines of time all stretching to take different paths, some wrapped up in his like climbing vines, some just weaving in and out occasionally.

Well, she'd made her choice a long time ago, even if it was going to take them awhile to build back their trust, she wasn't going to leave him.

"Not me," she said, softly, and he looked up to meet her eyes with so much wide-eyed hope, it almost hurt. "You're stuck with me."

"Yeah?" he asked, his breathing quick and nervous.

"Yes," she answered, resolutely, moving forward to lean her forehead against his. After a few shaky breaths, she pulled back and gently released his hands.

"Tests?" she asked, looking away from him now, back to the floor.

"Right, tests," he said, jumping off the bed and moving to scurry around the room. The two of them, with some nudges from the TARDIS spent the next hour in the MedBay testing the extent of Rose's new abilities.

After an hour, Rose yawned, a large-jaw cracking expression and the Doctor smiled at her softly. "Blimey," she said. "Even with my newly 'superior biology'," she stuck her tongue in teeth at that and he smiled back at the familiar expression, "I'm knackered. Why's that?"

"Your mind and body are still adjusting," he replied. "You probably need to spend a few more hours in a healing trance to finish regenerating. Do you still have my memories of how to do that?"

"Yeah," she replied. "I'd like to talk to Mickey and Jack first, though."

The Doctor nodded and helped her down off the MedBay table, walking with her to the doorway. Sitting outside the door in the hallway were both men, talking quietly.

Mickey was on his feet first. "Rose!" he exclaimed, moving close to her and gathering her up tightly into a hug. "I thought you were gone, babe. I…" he trailed off and pulled back to look her in the eyes, his soft brown eyes imploring her.

"I know, Mickey," she said, smiling at him. "Me too."

Reluctantly, Mickey let go of her and she turned to Jack. "Hello, Rosie," the former Time Agent grinned, stepping forward to hug Rose. She, like the Doctor could sense that there was something odd, something strange about Jack but it didn't matter to her. Jack was, and always would be, Jack. "I've missed you," he said into her hair, tightening his grip on her.

"I'm sorry for...everything," Rose replied into his neck, enjoying the solid feel of his arms around her, arms she never thought she would be enfolded in again.

"It's ok," he answered, somberly. "I've gotten used to it. Damn useful sometimes," he joked, releasing her to step back.

The four of them stared awkwardly at one another for a moment before Jack cleared his throat. "Well, I'm going back to my team. Gwen headed back over to fill them in, but my guess is that they're just bursting with curiosity." He wrapped Rose up in a quick hug again, shot the Time Lord a dark look and then turned and walked down the hall, disappearing to the console room.

"I'm going to bed," Mickey announced. "S'been a hell of a day," and with that, he disappeared as well.

The Doctor had moved closer to Rose once more, taking her hand, as if he were afraid that she would disappear if he didn't hold on to her. "I've got a healing trance to finish," she said, turning slightly to face him in the hall.

"I could stay with you," the Doctor offered after a long beat of silence. "Not, not like that," he covered quickly when Rose's eyes widened. "I mean, if something with your trance went wrong, then I could help you." He shifted awkwardly and pulled at his ear, finally working up the courage to look at her again. "And, it's just...I'm having a hard time believing that this is real. That you're here and I'm not dreaming. "

"You're not dreaming, Doctor," Rose replied, squeezing his hand. "I'm here. But you can come with me, if you want." They exchanged tentative smiles and set of to Rose's room together. Once there, Rose kicked off her trainers and padded over to her ensuite to change into a pair of pyjamas while the Doctor hovered nervously by her bed. When she came back out, she wordless got beneath the covers and then patted the duvet beside her, a silent welcome for him to join her. Taking a deep breath, the Doctor shucked his suit jacket and trainers, climbing onto the bed beside her and laying on top of the duvet. Rose's hand found his and the TARDIS dimmed the lights as she fell into her healing trance and he counted the beats of her impossible double heartsbeat.

She awoke slowly about four hours (four hours, three minutes, fifty-two seconds, her brain helpfully supplied) later. Keeping her eyes closed, she did an internal scan, just trying to get a handle on what was happening inside her own head. The Doctor's memories had receded and were just fuzzy inclinations now and some of the overwhelming knowledge had disappeared as well. She still knew a large amount of things she hadn't before yesterday evening, but it was all manageable now and her mind (with help from the TARDIS, she suspected) had sorted it all into nice and tidy places where she could find it, if needed. She smiled when she saw that the filing cabinet for 'TARDIS repairs' was quite large and toward the front and felt a caress from the TARDIS in response.

The Doctor was sitting beside her, on top of the duvet with his back against the headboard. "Hello," she said, quietly, sitting up and moving to sit cross-legged beside him, which he quickly mirrored.

"Hello," the Doctor answered, his eyes dark and unreadable as he watched her. "How are you feeling?"

"Brilliant, actually," Rose answered, honestly. Physically, she felt fantastic, like she could run a marathon and climb a mountain, although the dual beating in her chest and the buzzing in her mind were quite odd, she was beginning to get used to it. "Head's a bit fuzzy, still but that'll clear up. Your memories are gone," she added, watching as his face relaxed slightly.

"And the knowledge?" he questioned, his hands moving restlessly on his knees as though he wanted to reach for her.

"Feels like it's still there, just locked away, sort of," Rose answered, tilting her head to the side and contemplating it. "Like a tool I need to be taught how to use. Guess I'm stuck with you for that." she said, smiling at him tentatively. Despite his semi-confession of his feelings, she was still nervous about cornering him, about pushing him too far, too fast. And she, quite rightly, was still having some trouble trusting him.

His mouth didn't move from the grim line. "I'll do my best to teach you everything you need to know, Rose," he answered, solemnly. iStuck/i with him. That's the second time she'd used that phrase to describe their current situation and he'd been brooding about the first time the entire time she'd been in her healing trance. She would need help to understand her new biology and, quite conveniently, he was the only being in the universe capable of providing that assistance. A dark, hidden part of him he tried to ignore rejoiced at that, knowing that it would be hard, almost impossible for her to leave him now. How many times had he wished he could keep her...and for more that the human forever she'd promised? And now he'd managed to do just that. Through no choice of her own.

He took a deep breath, watching her face closely. "This doesn't have to be permanent, Rose. You don't have to take this life, if you don't want it," he blurted out suddenly.

"What d'you mean?" Rose asked, frowning at him.

"I have this...machine," he answered, shifting uncomfortably and running hand through his hair. "It will rewrite your biology. Make you human again. I did the calculations in my head last night and I'm fairly certain it will work on you. The TARDIS can make you a story and you could live anywhere, anywhen you liked. You can have a different life, Rose. If you want." He tried to keep the desperation from his voice, the clawing fear that she would choose this, that she would leave him, but he owed her all the options. He owed her the choice. "You wouldn't...you wouldn't even have to remember me."

Rose reeled back from him and she closed her eyes as his words unlocked something in her mind. Choosing to ignore the implications of his offer, her hurt and fury at what she saw as another attempt to push her away, she instead focused in on the less important details (and wherever had she probably picked up that tactic?) "A chameleon arch?" she breathed and he looked momentarily surprised but then nodded, still avoiding her eyes. "Where did you get one of those?"

"Pocketed it after New Earth," the Doctor said, quietly. "When we traced down that psychological weapons pirate who sold Cassandra the psychograft."

Rose considered him carefully. "Why did you take it?"

"It was far too dangerous to leave laying around," he snapped.

"You could have just destroyed it, like we destroyed everything else," Rose responded, her frown deepening. "Answer the question, Doctor."

He looked down at his clasped hands, sighing heavily. "I thought...I thought one day you'd get tired of all this. Tired of running for you life, tired of always being on the move, tired of the death and destruction and hurt," he answered, shifting his sad, dark eyes up to meet hers briefly before darting back down again. "I know what you said then, Rose, but...I couldn't believe it, not all the way. I thought one day you'd want to settle down, have curtains and doors and carpets and two and a half kids and a dog and...and a white picket fence and I, I just…" he trailed off once again and then his eyes shot up to meet hers, chocolate boring into hazel. "I'm selfish, Rose. I didn't want you to do all those things with anyone but me. I'm a selfish old man and I knew I couldn't have my forever with you so, I thought...maybe...I could just have yours."

"Oh, Doctor," Rose sighed, reaching over to take his twisting hands into hers and moving so their knees were touching. "This is it, don't you see? This is our chance now. And you're trying to push it away."

"I'm not, Rose," he answered, imploring her, willing her to understand his motivations as well as the depth of his need. "I just wanted to give you a choice. It seems I don't do that very often...but I'm going to try to get better."

Rose stared at him for a long moment, her hazel eyes looking so far into his, he felt sure she must be seeing his soul. Finally, she nodded. "I believe you, Doctor. And this is me. Making my choice. I choose this. I choose you. All right?"

"All right," he answered, infusing as much meaning into those two words as he could, squeezing her hands and looking down at his lap, not trusting himself to look up at her.

"So, then. I'm going to shower and change. And then I'm going to go out and talk to Jack and Mickey."

"Ok," the Doctor replied, nodding slowly and moving to get up off the bed. "I'll be in the console room. I'm sure the TARDIS won't let anything harm you, but if you need me, just give a shout. I'll wait for you out there."

A short while later, a quartet of older, darker, sadder companions sat in front of the wide window of a familiar Cardiff restaurant, trading stories. Jack did his best to steer his stories and tried to avoid being angry with the Time Lord. Rose valiantly tried not to apologize to Jack during every story and watched Mickey grow up in front of her eyes. The Doctor fidgeted and shied away from Jack but never let go of Rose's left hand the entire meal. Mickey, now with some stories of his own, watched them all and planned out his future.

Outside the TARDIS doors once again, after the short walk from the restaurant, Mickey tugged on Rose's hand, pulling her away from the Doctor and Jack. He let her go reluctantly and was instantly reminded of a time, oh, so long ago, when they'd all stood in similar positions on this square but this time, he made no secret of watching the two of them interact.

"You'll take care of her, won't you?" Jack asked, his eyes also trained on the petite blonde meters away.

"As best I can, Jack," the Doctor answered, swinging his dark gaze over to meet the Time Agent's. "Jack...I'm," the Doctor paused, swallowing and then turning to face the other man, who had folded his arms over his chest. "I'm sorry."

"I know," Jack answered. "And I forgive you. But if you let her get hurt...if you break her heart again…"

"I know," the Doctor echoed, somberly.

"And make sure to stop in to visit," Jack finished, turning on his heel to disappear into the mid-afternoon Cardiff crowd. The Doctor watched him go before turning his gaze back to Rose, who was walking toward him, alone. Her eyes were slightly red and, without Mickey by her side, he guessed what had happened.

"He's staying here," Rose offered, before he could ask. The Doctor simply nodded. "Jack's offered him a place with Torchwood and he said he knew there's work he could do here. He's right, too. I can feel it. He'll do so much here," she said, quietly.

Reaching over to take her hand once again, the Doctor led her into the TARDIS. He, like Rose (even if she didn't know what exactly she was feeling), could sense the Timelines shifting and settling around Mickey Smith, Defender of the Earth.

Standing in the console room, illuminated by the light of the Time Rotor, the two of them stood still, simply watching one another in the silence. "So what happens now?" Rose asked quietly.

The Doctor reached up to tenderly lay his cool palm along her cheek. "Now, Rose Tyler, we go forward."

"Together," she said, squeezing his hand with hers and looking up into his deep, chocolate eyes.

"Together," he repeated. They had so much to work through, so much to learn, so much to do, but they would manage. No, better than that. They would flourish. They would be completely and utterly fantastic, in the only way they really knew how.

Together.

The Doctor in the TARDIS with Rose Tyler. Just as it should be.

Forever