They sat outside, chatting quietly together until the twin suns began to set, chilling the air around them. Hand in hand, the Doctor and Rose walked back into the console room, pausing as Rose hopped up onto the jumpseat and the Doctor stopped in front of her, still holding her hands. Nudging her legs apart, he moved to stand between them, kissing her softly before happily exhaling . "Always wanted to do that," he said, nuzzling his nose against hers and smiling against her skin.

"Is that all you wanted to do?" Rose queried cheekily, lifting one leg up to pull him against her tighter, which made him squeak into her mouth.

"Weeellll, maybe not all I wanted," he laughed, kissing her gleefully again.

"So, what happens now?" Rose asked, eventually, letting her leg drop from his waist so they could both regain some semblance of equilibrium (and so she could regain her breath).

Coughing slightly, the Doctor looked down at her collarbone, lingering on the marks made by his previous self, before returning his tentative gaze to her eyes. "We get married," he said, joy and trepidation fighting one another for dominance in his dark eyes.

He must have found something comforting in her expression or in her mind, because the joy quickly took over, lighting up his face with all the happiness she remembered from their wild adventures together. Rose threw her arms around him and pulled him into an impromptu embrace, just hugging him to hug him. After a moment, he pulled back, blushing delightfully and shifting his hips against hers slightly, his smile growing wider as her breath sped up again.

"I don't think either of us are going to be able to ignore the bond much longer. Plus, it's about time I made an honest woman out of you, Rose Tyler," he grinned tapping her on the nose.

Rose laughed, thinking of her parallel father. "That's what Pete told me, you know. Before we left the mansion, right after he hugged me? An 'honest woman', those were his exact words."

The Doctor nodded, smiling as he remembered overhearing that small shared joke between father and daughter. He and Rose both sobered at the memory, thinking now about the family Rose would never see again. "I'm sorry your mum won't be there to see us get married, Rose," he said, moving his hand up to her cheek.

Rose sniffed and he felt her head move slightly in his grip. "It's all right," she replied, finally. "I think she had us figured out long before we did. She always said we'd end up 'getting hitched', although she usually had a load of other stuff to say, too...mostly 'bout you having tentacles and being some sort of alien sex-maniac."

The Doctor snorted and he and Rose chuckled together, despite the moment. He knew Jackie had always had very strong opinions based on her (absolutely correct) motherly perceptions of his intentions and feelings toward her daughter. Their mutual irritability at one another had tempered with his new personality and he'd always wondered if Rose had influenced his ability to get along with Jackie during his regeneration or if he had instinctively altered that part of himself too, trying his best to become the man that Rose deserved.

Frowning, he thought through the few marriage ceremonies he had attended on Earth (mostly by accident). It was human tradition, wasn't it, to be surrounded by friends and family in the matrimonial celebration? He wished he could fulfill her every desire for this ceremony but her family couldn't be there and he blamed himself. Jackie and, by extension, Mickey had become family to him when he'd had no one except Rose in the aftermath of the Time War. It'd been laughable to him in his ninth form that a woman nearly a millenium younger than him would ever dream of mothering him, but when he'd regenerated, he found the idea less and less abhorrent and more and more lovely. He would have been honoured to stand in front of Jackie Tyler and marry her daughter...and now none of them would get the chance to do that together. Rose felt his wave of regret and sorrow pass through her and leaned into his hand, her own grief flaring as well.

"Is...is there anyone else you want to be there, Rose? We'll need a witness, at the very least, and -"

"No, Doctor," Rose interrupted, gently, seeing his guilt building once again. "My gran passed on not long before that mess with the Torchwood 'ghosts', remember? And I hadn't really spoken to any of my other mates for a while. None of them would understand all of this, anyway." She paused a moment, smiling sadly as she imagined how she would try to explain her face-changing, thousand-plus year old, alien fiancé and their bigger-on-the-inside Time and space ship to some of her former friends.

Shaking her head, she continued, "'sides, I'm technically dead to them now, right? That's what you said." Peering up at him, she saw him cringe even though there was no judgement in her gaze. "We were on the list?"

The Doctor's hearts clenched, remembering both the numbed haze he'd wandered about in after he'd lost Rose, putting Jackie and her on the list of the dead, and then the hurried, hearts-breaking conversation they had shared on that damned beach after weeks and weeks of searching for a way to get her back. He hadn't had time to tell her then (he hadn't had time to tell her a lot of things), but the Doctor, the man who never stayed for the clean-up, who never waded through the aftermath, who never said goodbye, had done all sorts of things he'd never imagined in the weeks that had followed that wretched day. And he'd done it all for her, even when he'd thought she would never know. "I have your things," he blurted, suddenly.

"What things?" Rose asked, confused at his abrupt shift in topic.

"The...the flat," he quietly confessed. "After…after I put you on the list, I used the psychic paper to alter your mum's will and get into the flat. There wasn't much money, but what there was I donated to that fund you told me about - the one that helps Estate kids go to university, and then I packed up all of your things. Pictures, clothes, that rubbish telly…even Jackie's furniture. It's all here, stored away in the TARDIS. I didn't want...I couldn't bear for some else to…" he trailed off, taking a deep breath, his hand falling from her cheek before continuing. "There was funeral as well. Empty caskets, of course, but no one questioned that. There were a lot funerals like that after...after Canary Wharf, I think. Anyway, I know how much humans value closure and I thought it might be comforting to your family and friends if they... Shireen was there. I recognized her from that time you dragged Jack and me out dancing with you. She didn't recognize me, of course, no one did, but still - Oh! And Howard came, you know. Recognized him because he started to eat an apple in the middle of the service, not a satsuma - maybe he'd had enough of th-"

He felt Rose's soft touch nudging his chin up and he let his gaze drift to hers, trailing off from his babble as he looked into her grateful eyes. "Thank you," she said, simply, gently pressing her lips against his in comfort.

"You're welcome," he whispered.

He was about to move and catch her lips with his once again when Rose spoke again. "I do wish Jack could be here," she said, wistfully. "I think he wanted the two of us together even more than we did." Rose laughed then, thinking of all of the Captain's greeting card speeches about love and longing (and the other conversations that would have been much better suited to bodice-rippers - she had genuinely learned a lot from him). "If I had a tenner for every time he tried to convince me that you were in love with me…"

"You'd probably have an amassed fortune about equal to mine from the same thing," he chuckled, grinning cheekily. Jack had been incessant in his nagging over what he saw as the Doctor's criminal ignorance of Rose's (and the Doctor's own) feelings and 'needs'. The former conman had given him a severe dressing down after a certain incident of gods-as-seasons-impersonation (Well, after they'd finally escaped from the Romans, that is. He never had gotten a chance to thank that one odd fellow...what was his name? Rominus? Ronicas?). Jack had actually almost convinced him to make a move in Japan (until they'd had to run for their lives) but when they'd arrived back at the TARDIS, there had been a bright light and then they'd been fighting for their lives on the Gamestation, a battle from which she had emerged a goddess and he a different man.

"We really were idiots, weren't we?" Rose said abruptly, a bit of sad irony showing through her voice as she interrupted his thoughts. From the look on her face, it seemed that she had probably been reliving some of those memories too.

"Yeah," he replied, nuzzling her nose. "But now we can be idiots together."

"Stuck with you. That's not so bad," she grinned, taking care not to mention 'never ever' again. "Still, just imagine how fetching Jack would have looked in a bridesmaid frock."

Regret flashed through the Doctor and, once again, Rose felt it. She tilted her head to the side and considered him closely, searching his face for the source of his guilt.

She'd assumed, in the end, that Jack had died, despite the Doctor's claim about him 'rebuilding the Earth'. In the aftermath of the Gamestation, everything had been such a confusing whirlwind: him sending her away, Jackie and the borrowed truck, then her (still hazy) return to him, all of it confused in a swirl of gold with the odd tang of Time and the piquancy of power on her tongue.

Then, of course, there had been her panic in the face of the Doctor's...new face and his subsequent illness. Once they had started travelling again, the few times she had tried to bring Jack's name up, the Doctor had quickly changed the subject and eventually, Rose had just accepted the Time Lord's reticence to discuss him as an indicator of Jack's death and so she had taken to mourning their friend in silence.

Taking a deep breath, the Doctor made sure his shields were more firmly up (she seemed to be sensing a lot from him lately and he wasn't quite willing to share everything yet. Someday, Rose would need to hear about the Master and the Valiant, but for now that horror was staying firmly in his own blackened memory) and then he straightened his spine and moved his hand down to clutch Rose's tightly, unable to give up complete contact with her even though she might be very angry with him in a moment. He knew she had assumed that Jack had died on the Gamestation and, back then, he had been shamefully content to not correct her. The moment Rose had sent life rushing back into Jack's lungs, he had felt that disturbing glitch that was the poor man's new existence. Being anywhere near Jack had been difficult then, especially as raw as he had been from his strange regenerative brush with the Vortex and the subsequent sickness into which he'd descended.

And, though he had been loathe to admit it for a long time, he'd been so scared and insecure that Rose wouldn't accept him in his new form, he'd spun them away from the disconcerting anomaly that his frantic mind (and unconscious, uncompleted bond) saw as the one man who could have been a real threat to his relationship with Rose, as fast as he could, as far as he could.

His betrayal of Jack (and in his deliberate deception, of Rose) had been one of things that had haunted him most after he had lost her. The Doctor had carried that guilt on his thin shoulders heavily, never knowing if he would ever get the chance to make it right with the Captain or with their beloved Rose. After their horrendous not-year together on the Valiant, Jack had eventually forgiven him and the two of them had found a mutual, if still a bit uncomfortable, balance.

Surely Rose would forgive him, too. Even if he was still working on forgiving himself.

Anyway, with a bit of tweaking, the TARDIS would be able to block his oddity while inside and he could probably devise a temporal dampener that would mute Jack's twisted Time traces long enough for a handfasting. Besides, Rose deserved to know the truth and Jack deserved to see Rose, much as the Doctor didn't really want to share her at the moment. If the one person in this universe Rose wanted present for their union was Jack, she should get him. Plus, as usual, she was completely correct. Jack had been planning this wedding for far longer than either of them.

Well, actually, that wasn't quite true, was it? He thought back to whispered words on a Coricanan balcony and heartsfelt confessions in the TARDIS library. He was also going to have to come clean to Rose about where and when, precisely, he'd actually proposed to her the first time, wasn't he?

Well, one thing at a time.

"Jack is alive, Rose," the Doctor said, carefully, just wanting to get this secret out in the open.

Rose's eyes widened, her jaw dropped, and she looked properly stunned. He could feel the disbelief and, oh, yes, that small little flare of betrayal he'd been desperately trying to avoid in her silence. "What?" she finally stammered.

"Jack is alive. He didn't die on the Gamestation. Weeeellll, technically he did, but he didn't stay that way. I'm so sorry that I let you think that he was gone and I'm sorry that we didn't go back for him. His temporal signature is very difficult for me to be around, although I've gotten more used to it now, but back then, right after my regeneration, I was so confused and I was in pain and you were so scared and looking at me like I was something terrifying and….and I, I met him again, a few years after I lost you, Martha and I did. We're ok now, Jack and me, not like we were before but we lived through...well, something awful together. I'll tell you about it later, I promise, but it's not something I want to relive now. He's alive and he's living in Cardiff, got his own team of Earth-saving misfits, and a boyfriend, last time I checked. Nice fellow, makes an excellent cuppa. Twenty-first century, actually and -"

"Doctor, slow down," Rose interrupted, shaking her head and clapping a hand over his mouth. She waited until he'd taken a deep breath through his nose and then she slowly brought her hand down. "Jack...Jack's alive?"

"Yes, Rose," he replied, his hearts in his eyes as he watched her.

Rose stared at the Doctor, her hand coming up over her own mouth in shock. Jack. Dear, sweet, playful Jack whom she had loved and mourned like the brother she'd never had (back then, anyway), was ALIVE. "He was alive and we...we just left him on the Gamestation? Alone?" she whispered. Oh, why hadn't she questioned the Doctor more back then? She couldn't imagine what the poor man must have gone through, facing down Daleks and then somehow surviving the end of civilization just to realize that the two people he loved more than anything else in the universe had left him behind.

"Yes," the Doctor answered, hanging his head. "I'm sorry, Rose. I gave you all the reasons I had back then and I know some of them aren't very good, but at the time...I thought it was for the best."

Rose was silent again and the taciturn reticence that fell over the two of them felt suffocating and cloying. He opened his mouth to speak once more, to say something, anything, to fill the rapidly increasing void between the two of them but Rose held up her hand in a plea for his silence. He clicked his jaw shut and waited, clutching her hand desperately.

"What did you mean when you said Jack didn't stay dead?" Rose asked, finally.

Oh, wasn't that always his girl. Finding the important questions buried in the mire of pain even when they were the most masked. "He died, Rose. Exterminated by a Dalek. I felt him go. But then you came back with all the power of Time and Space in your head and…"

"I bring life," breathed Rose, sounding disturbingly like she had that fateful day, glowing slightly and making his hearts clench in fear again, even as the TARDIS purred comfortingly to him. The gold quickly faded and Rose's own hazel eyes looked back at him. "Oh my God. I brought him back to life, didn't I?" she asked, quietly, a tear sliding down her cheek.

"Yeah," he replied, moving his free hand up to chase the tear away. "But you did it a bit too well. He can't die now. Well, he actually can. And he has. He just doesn't...stay that way."

Rose cringed, closing her eyes, and tried to slip her hand from his but he held on resolutely. "That's horrible," she said, shaking her head. "He must...he must hate me so much."

"He doesn't Rose," the Doctor said, fervently. "He really doesn't. We talked about it. He knows you did it because you...cared about him so much. And he was heartbroken, Rose, when he saw you on that list. When I told him you were alive, well, he was very glad."

"Can I see him?" she asked, weakly. "If...if you think he'd want to see me, that is."

"Of course," he answered, although the bond reacted in alarm, a wave of jealousy flashing over him, which he immediately tried to squelch. "And I know he'll want to see you. He said he'd visited you, actually. When you were growing up. He watched over you."

Rose blinked at him and he could see, quite clearly, in her mind's eye as memories slotted into place, a mysterious man from the shadows of her adolescent periphery becoming Jack's protective presence. The Doctor felt a surge of both warmth and envy at that little glimpse into Rose's life that Jack had shared and he hadn't, which Rose noticed. "Are you going to be ok with having him here? If he'll accept, I'd like to have him at the ceremony." The Doctor nodded and she continued, "And don't think this conversation is over, you. We're going to talk more about this later."

"Anything for you, Rose," the Doctor replied seriously, releasing her hands to set the coordinates for 21st century Cardiff. "Anything at all."

The TARDIS took off with her customary jolt and both of them grinned at one another, basking in the familiar feeling of home together, even if emotions were suddenly a little stretched. When they landed, Rose took a deep breath and brushed the remainder of tears from her cheeks. "How do I look?" she stammered, straightening the bottom of her shirt.

"Beautiful, as always," the Doctor replied, kissing her on the nose. He took a quick glance at the monitor and saw the Captain's familiar silhouette racing across the square toward the doors. "Do you want me to stay out here with you?" Being away from Rose's warmth seemed abhorrent to him, but at the same time he recognized that Rose and Jack might need a few moments to themselves. Taking a deep breath and ensuring that the bond was at least mostly under control, he accepted the slight shake of Rose's head. He could give them a few minutes. Five. No, ten. He could handle ten minutes apart from her. He thought.

"I think I'd better speak with him alone at first," she said, squeezing the Doctor's hand as she felt the wave of jealousy he wasn't quite able to hide. "Besides, you've got a task to do yourself, mister."

"That's Doctor Mister to you, fuzzy," he replied, tartly, and she giggled. "Wait, what task?"

"Well, hopefully in a few moments, I am going to have a maid of honour. And I think you've also got an incomparable best mate on board. Time to go get yourself a best man," Rose answered with a tongue-in-teeth grin, raising her eyebrows when he continued to stare at her blankly.

"Who - oh!" he laughed, delightedly. "You're right. She'll love that. Although, if I ask her to be my best man, she'll probably slap me. And she could compete with your mother for the champion slapper of England. Ooo, best not ever say that again."

"Better figure out a new wording then, Doctor," Rose said, shoving him playfully toward the corridor. "Go on, impress me. And make some tea!"

He sauntered away, glancing back only once to see Rose's resolute, steeled expression as the sound of knocking came from the other side of the TARDIS door.

-

Rose took a deep breath and pulled open the TARDIS door, stepping aside as the familiar form of her old friend tumbled in.

"Doctor!" Jack panted, excitedly. "You're never going to guess what we -"

Jack froze as his eyes locked on Rose standing by the door, her teeth in her bottom lip and her hands twisting nervously in front of her. "R-rose?" he stammered, taking an almost involuntary step toward her. "How can you - you're - wait. When am I? Your Doctor...what does he look like?" Jack's demeanor was still calm, but she knew the man well enough to see the underlying tension of the Time Agent within him.

"Big hair, swishy coat, and a killer arse," Rose replied, with a small smile. "Talks too much, eats like a horse, and kisses really, really well."

"Kisses? So you're from...you're...you two...ROSE!" he yelled then, surging forward to wrap her up in a tight embrace and swinging her around just like she remembered. She kept her arms tight around his neck and Jack held her so close that she heard her back crack. When he finally pulled back, there were tears in his eyes and on her cheeks. "How did he find you?"

"It's a long story," Rose answered, her smile growing wider.

"Well, lucky for you, I've got all the time in the world," Jack bantered playfully, not considering his words until Rose blanched.

Even with the colour drained from her face, Rose kept her firm hold on the front of his coat and she began to cry again. "I'm sorry, Jack. I'm so sorry. He...he told me what I did. And I don't know how I could ever apologize enough."

"Rose -" Jack began, reaching up to wipe some of her tears away with his thumb.

"I'm sorry that we left you, I'm sorry that we didn't come back, and I'm sorry that I didn't ask him more questions. I'm sorry I made you immortal. I just...I couldn't bear the thought of the world without you."

"Oh, Rosie," he sighed, pulling her into his embrace again. "I know. And I understand."

"But -" Rose said, her voice muffled in his shoulder as she tried to pull back.

"Nope, my turn," Jack said, squeezing her tightly once more before releasing her. "It's been hard, I'm not going to lie to you. I've seen a lot of things and done a lot of things and lost a lot of people."

"You must hate me," she said softly, looking down at her feet. Jack took her chin and tenderly tilted it up to look him in the eye again.

"Rose, listen. I've lived a long, long time. I've been angry, I've been happy, and I've died in more ways than you could possibly imagine. But in all that time, I never stopped loving you. You were the best friend I ever had. You saved me...and not just from that Dalek. You did something even bigger, all those years ago in the middle of the London Blitz...you saved me from myself."

He took a deep breath and then exhaled before continuing, "I haven't been a saint this whole time...haven't even always even been a good man. But I tried to do good things, I tried to help people, and I tried to make things better. For you, Rose. I tried to be the man you saw inside me, the man you thought was worth saving, even if I didn't deserve it."

"I'm sure you have been, Jack," she answered, sniffling and pulling him in for a hug again. "And I love you, too."

"Good," he answered, playfully kissing her on the nose and spinning her around in a circle. "Now, I believe you said something about a long story. That involves kissing. Which I expect to hear all about."

"Oh, you're going to love it," Rose said, smiling widely, tugging him toward the kitchen. "It involves three Doctors."

"At the same time, I hope," Jack cracked, relishing having her back with him. So many things had changed in the last few hundred years but she was still Rose. And he really would always love her.

Laughing delightedly, Rose answered, "No, just one at a time. Although...that's an idea."

"Glad to hear that he's finally come to his senses, then. And you've reeaallly got to fill me in. All that repression, not to mention the respiratory bypass and the dual cardiovascular system? Hubba, hubba!" Jack teased, swinging their joined hands and waggling his eyebrows. She barely heard Jack as he continued, "Plus, this one is always licking things! Didn't that drive you mad?" because the Doctor had just done something to the odd little string that tied the two of them together and she suddenly wanted very much to be beside him, touching him, wanting him.

But before they walked into the kitchen, where Rose could already hear the Doctor banging about, chattering a million words a minute away at Donna, she tugged on Jack's hand, pulling him up short. "Jack, before we join them, I have a very important question to ask you."

His bright blue eyes smiled at her in the corridor as he said "Anything for you, Rosie."

"Well, then, Jack Harkness...will you be my Maid of Honour?"

She was certain that all those noseless dogs on Barcelona heard his answering squeal of joy.

-

Meanwhile, in another corridor

The Doctor strode through the halls, whistling to himself and experimenting with the bond in relation to his proximal distance from Rose, when he found himself at Donna's door. He knocked on the door loudly (Donna had very, very quickly put an end to his no-knocking policy after an embarrassing encounter with a small purple towel that neither of them had ever mentioned again). As he heard her approach on the other side, he suddenly realized that he hadn't thought at all about what he was actually going to say to her.

"What're you doing here?" Donna asked, pulling her door open and placing one hand on her hip. The telly was blaring in her room and she had a half-eaten sandwich in her other hand.

"I -"

"Because I'd figured you'd be off shagging blondie out there for the next, you know, forever. Unless, hmmm…" she trailed off a moment, speculatively eyeing his slightly rumpled form up and down and then glancing at her watch, contemplatively.

"What - what are you doing?" the Doctor sputtered.

"Just...calculating," Donna answered with an evil grin.

"Well, stop it!" he said, frantically, feeling his blush start.

"Oooo, blushing! That's new! I quite like that," Donna crowed. "But seriously, you were stuck on her like a starfish when I left the console room earlier. You two were so busy getting reaquainted, you didn't even notice I'd left. Oh, you didn't muck it up already, did you? Because I'm willing to bet that whatever it is, it was your fault."

"For you information, we have not yet become 'acquainted' in the way you are, rather obtusely, I might add, referring and if we had, we'd still be at it, thank you very much. Time Lord -"

"Gross," Donna interrupted, pulling a face at him, but pulling her door open further so he could come in.

"Second, I haven't mucked anything up and c, aren't you supposed to be on my side?" he asked, petulantly plopping down in an armchair near the large television in her room.

"I've lived with you long enough to know that if something's wrong, it's your fault," Donna retorted. "Console's on fire - your fault. Village exploded - your fault. No jam - your fault. But if you're not in trouble, then why are you in here with me and why aren't you off with time travel Barbie doing whatever it is your species does to reunite after a long absence?" She gave him a deep look and he smiled at the concern under her sharp words, wondering once again how he'd ever managed to find a friend like her.

"Rose and I went to pick up another friend and I promised to give them a little space," the Doctor said, fiddling with the remote. Ten minutes of space. Which was now 5.3132 remaining minutes of space.

"That doesn't sound like you," Donna said, speculatively, and then, after a long pause, added "She's good for you."

"I know," he said, softly, and the two of them shared a long look. He cleared his throat and looked away, "What are you watching?"

"I had the TARDIS queue up all fifteen seasons of Downton Abbey for me, along with these handy noise-cancelling headphones and my own mini-fridge. I am set until you two finish 'reacquainting' and we go find a spa planet with a wonderful tanning bed," Donna said with a satisfied smirk.

"Donna, you really don't need to -"

"I never want to see your skinny arse in anything less than those ridiculously tight trousers, Spaceman. And I know the two of you aren't going to be able to keep your clothes on in the public spaces, at least not for a while," she lectured. Donna reached over and plucked the remote from his hands before he could pull apart any more pieces and stood in front of his slouched form with her hands on her hips. "Now, why are you really in here?"

"I wanted to invite you to the kitchen to meet Rose," the Doctor said, looking up at her. "It would really…" he coughed. "It'd mean a lot to me."

"Done," she said, pulling him up and shoving him out the door, following close behind. As they neared the kitchen, Donna stopped a moment.

"What was that you said about a friend?"

"Don't," the Doctor said, shaking his head. "Just, don't."

-

The Doctor was flitting around the kitchen, getting down the kettle, setting out mugs and sandwiches, and chattering at Donna about this and that, attempting to ignore the fact that his internal alarm clock had gone off, the ten minutes he'd promised himself he'd give Rose and Jack now passed into twelve, almost thirteen. He felt along the provisional bond and could tell that the two of them were moving toward the kitchen and, although he felt a bit guilty about it, he tugged at the bond slightly. Maybe that would encourage Rose to get in here faster.

His musings were interrupted by an odd, unnaturally high-pitched noise outside the door and then, quite suddenly, Jack Harkness barrelled through the door, charging straight at him. The Doctor held his ground, unsure of Jack's motives, when he found himself in an enormous bear hug. "You did it!" Jack shouted, pulling back and shaking the Doctor's thin shoulders. "You finally did it, you crazy kids did it! Oh, I wish you still had those great big, sexy ears so you could hear me shout 'I told you so' even better. I TOLD YOU SO!" he yelled anyway, grinning from ear to ear. "HA!" Jack turned slightly, grabbing Rose's hand and pulling her into the embrace as well, hopping up and down a bit, all of them laughing.

He stepped away, shoving the two reunited lovers together, Rose stumbling slightly from his exuberant push. "Kiss!" he whooped as the Doctor steadied Rose with his hands on her hips. "Ki-iss! Ki-iss! Kisssss!"

Blushing, Rose leaned in and brushed her lips against the Doctor's, her intended short, chaste quickly becoming something quite a lot more as even their short separation cascaded into need.

Jack leered happily at them a moment before turning his gaze over to the table, realizing that they weren't alone. There was an attractive red-head sitting at the table watching the Doctor and Rose with a sort of puzzled horror yet delighted fascination. "Well, hello there," he said, smoothly sidling over to drop into the chair beside her with his most charming grin.

"Hello, yourself, Captain Tightpants," Donna retorted, pulling her gaze away from the Doctor - the Doctor! - kissing Rose.

"Oh, I like you," Jack laughed, his smile widening. "Jack Harkness, at your service. Whatever service you like."

Donna snorted but accepted his handshake with a raised eyebrow. "Donna Noble, at no one's service.'

"I assume you helped make this happen?" he asked, seriously gesturing at the couple who was now simply standing forehead to forehead whispering to one another with his free hand.

"A bit," Donna admitted, smiling softly in response. "All he needed was a swift kick in the pants, really," she continued, extracting her hand from Jack's to wave it dismissively.

"It was much more than that, Donna," the Doctor interrupted, pulling out a chair to sit down opposite from her with Rose right beside him. "I see you two have introduced yourselves already - and no, Jack. Just...no. But allow me the honour...Donna Noble, meet the fantastic Rose Tyler. And Rose Tyler, meet the brilliant Donna Noble."

Rose reached across the table and shyly took Donna's hand, squeezing it. "Nice to meet you," she said. "And...thanks."

"All right, Rosie, I think you two owe us a story!" Jack exclaimed, helping himself to some of the biscuits the Doctor had placed on the table. "I think you said something about three Doctors - and I can't even tell you what I'm thinking about that. And no leaving out the saucy details! I want to know whose screwdriver is the most impressive and which -"

"Absolutely yes leaving out the saucy details," Donna interrupted, in agreement with the suddenly-sputtering Doctor. Rose simply laughed and blushed, pouring herself and the Doctor some tea and then passing the kettle across to Donna when she was finished.

With a long, shared look, the Doctor and Rose launched into their fantastic tale of chance meetings and flared tempers, of stolen kisses and gifted secrets, and of love struggled for and love won. Donna and Jack interrupted frequently, "Velvet, Doctor, really?", laughed often, "Punched in the face by Mickey Mouse!", and cooed appropriately, "A whole planet of coloured glass?".

Jack had raised an eyebrow at the mention of Coricana but the Doctor had subtly shaken his head, so he hadn't asked any further questions as Rose launched into the next portion of their tale and soon caught him up in fond remembrance of the man the Doctor used to be.

"No! 1967? So that was you two! I thought I'd had some bad mushrooms! Ha! Naughty girl, Rose Tyler!"

Jack teared up as Rose recounted the Doctor's apology in the library and Donna watched all three of them with kind eyes. The Doctor and Rose kept jumping in on top of each other as the tale unwound, finishing one another's sentences and laughing themselves silly at some of their tales. It was so easy to see how they completed each other, how they needed one another and she couldn't help but tear up a little bit herself. Just a moment ago, the Doctor had leaned in and nuzzled Rose's nose, kissing her lightly and Jack reached over and squeezed her hand, the two of them exchanging the same sweet thoughts on the couple.

When the stories had died down and the tea was all gone, Jack was the first to bring up their next action. "So, when is this wedding taking place, anyway? Because, while you two eye shagging across the table is appealing to me, I think you'd be better off doing it behind closed doors with other bits of you."

The Doctor sputtered again and Donna snickered and then her eyes widened. "Wait, what wedding?"

Rose sighed in mock-indignation and turned to the Doctor. "You didn't ask her yet?"

"I didn't have time! She, she was accusing me of mucking things up and then babbling about the fictional lives of the some made-up British aristocracy and...and…calculating while you were out there, alone, with Jack for more than ten minutes and -"

"Spaceman!" Donna interrupted, reaching over to thump his shoulder, to Rose's amusement. "Ask me what?"

The Doctor shifted in his seat and reached up to rub the back of his neck with the hand not connected to Rose. "Well, ah, Rose and I are going to, in a few hours, erm...tie the knot." Donna made a high-pitched, happy sound and it seemed to fluster the Doctor once again. "Interesting, phrase, that. 'Tie the knot'. The etymology of it is often argued over -"

"Doctor," Rose interrupted with a grin.

"Right, yes. Donna," he tried again, smiling nervously. "Would you, as my best mate, ah...stand for me in the ceremony?"

"Are you asking me to be your best man?" Donna asked, her eyebrows moving up to her hairline.

"Ah...yes?" the Doctor replied, uncertainly, as if he was unsure whether or not he was about to get thumped again. "Only if you want. And I know that there is a certain social stigma -"

"Of course I will, you great daft alien!" she cried, springing around the table. She grabbed him by the shoulders and pulled him up from his seat, shaking him slightly and then pulling him into an enormous hug. Jack followed her, pulling Rose up to embrace her as well and then, because he could, merging the hugs into one, with all four of them laughing in delight.

After a moment, Rose's muffled and amused voice said, "That better be the Doctor's hand on my bum, Jack," which caused a minor scuffle on the detanglement amidst the laughter.

"Well, I think it's time to go get ready, what'dyou say?" Jack asked, turning to Rose.

"Sounds good! I think the TARDIS is helping us out with our outfits; she just told us to go the wardrobe room," Rose grinned, patting the table beside her.

"Ooo!" Donna exclaimed, excited. "A new dress! I hope there's a hat!" With that, she went charging off through the door with Rose close behind her, chattering about colours and neck-lines.

The Doctor made to follow them, but Jack placed a hand on his chest. "Nope! Can't see the bride in her dress before the ceremony! Those are the twenty-first century rules! Gwen told me so."

"Jack, that is preposterous, groundless poppycock and I don't think -"

"C'mon, Doc," he said, dropping his hand. "Just let us have this, ok? Go get dressed, take us to Barcelona, and get the wedding of her dreams set up for her. Donna and I will take care of Rose."

The Doctor sighed but felt the TARDIS nudge him in agreement with Jack and nodded. "Good man," Jack smiled, clapping him on the shoulder and then disappearing out the door with a jaunt in his step, whistling something that he was fairly certain came from 'My Fair Lady'.

Letting his own smile bloom at the thought of finally sharing with Rose what he'd always dreamed, he caressed the bond and felt her singing joy radiate back to him. Taking up Jack's tune, he began whistling himself, practically running to the console room.

Barcelona!