[...]

The Doctor looked at Rose, feeling her melancholy at letting go of this younger version of him. Then he spotted the previous Doctor’s hat on the console, and even though he knew his past self could find a new one in the wardrobe room, he flicked a switch that brought the other man back.

“I think Rose wanted a proper goodbye,” he said, putting a hand on her back and nudging her towards his past self.

Rose looked up at her Doctor, then stepped forward to wrap her arms around the previous Doctor. “Please, take care of yourself,” she whispered in his ear. “Things are gonna happen, and you won’t want to, but that’s when you meet me. And Doctor… no matter what we’ve been through, I wouldn’t have missed it for the world.”

The younger Doctor looked down at her, and the older Doctor smirked at the confusion on the other man’s face. Even where he was, before the Time War, he couldn’t comprehend Rose’s devotion to him. Oh, just give it a few centuries, Doctor. It’ll make even less sense to you by the time you actually meet her.

[...]

This time, when his previous self disappeared, the Doctor let him go. As he did, the memory of meeting himself and Rose unlocked, permanently this time.

Rose looked up at him. “How does that work, him knowing me? You didn’t know me when we met, did you?”

“Absolutely not,” the Doctor said adamantly. “That would have been a massive deception—I never would have done that to you, Rose.”

She tilted her head. “Yeah, I guess I didn’t think about it like that. But how does it work, then?”

The Doctor sat down on the jump seat and patted the empty spot. When she sat down beside him, he wrapped an arm around her shoulders and pulled her close.

“We talked about this on Barcelona, remember?” he began. “How bonding with a Time Lord bonds you to every one of their regenerations, past and present?”

“Right…” Rose traced a pattern on his thigh, and a moment later, he recognised it as the circular symbols making up the word forever. “But you didn’t say that if we met younger versions of you, they’d recognise me.”

[...]

The Doctor leaned his head against the seat back and sighed. “Marriage bonds are… trans-temporal,” he said. “Any time I meet you once we have a bond, I will feel your side of the bond call to me.”

Rose shifted beside him, and he looked down at her frowning face. “Then how come you didn’t recognise me in Henrik’s?” The lines on her forehead cleared before he could answer. “Oh! You didn’t know me when I met you the first time, because I hadn’t bonded with you yet.”

“Right! Of course, every time I meet you before I met you…” The Doctor let that sentence trail off, snorting at the absolute ridiculousness of it. “Anyway, if I meet you as my bond mate before I meet you properly in my ninth incarnation, I have to hide the memories so I don’t ruin my own timeline. One thing I’d never want to ruin is the way I met you, Rose.”

Rose looked up at him, a soft smile on her face. “You said just one word.”

The Doctor reached for her hand. “I said, ‘Run.’”

I really loved rewriting Time Crash. the bit about how the bond works when they meet other Doctors is something I’d only mentioned once in the series, in But Being Spent--which means it had never come up in the proper timeline. And since I ship every Doctor x Rose Tyler, I loved having both Doctors be captivated by her when she took care of the TARDIS. 

From chapter 2:

Rose tugged on his tie and smiled at him. “I’m glad you eventually decided to come back for me.”

The Doctor rested his hands on her hips and pulled her close. “That was pretty much a given from the moment we met, love,” he told her, delighting in the way she still blushed when he hinted at how long he’d loved her. “I held out as long as I could—couldn’t blame you for not wanting to be with me. But in the end, everything inside me just screamed to go back and make sure you came with me.”

Rose smiled for a moment, then narrowed her eyes and took a step back. “You’re trying to distract me,” she deduced. “You don’t want to go onto the Titanic, so you’re telling me stories, hoping I’ll forget.”

The Doctor groaned. “And it was so close to working.”

“But why don’t you want to go?”

He turned around and adjusted some controls on the console. “Oh, no reason really,” he said breezily, only realising his mistake when a wave of betrayal hit him seconds before he heard Rose gasp.

The Doctor spun around to look at his bond mate, his eyes wide. “Rose…”

“You… you lied to me,” she whispered. “You haven’t lied to me in almost three years. Why now, Doctor?”

He closed his eyes and slumped against the console. “I spent the last five months on the Valiant lying to the Master every day. He wanted me to break, wanted to see my agony over losing you, and I refused to let him. Not admitting that I’m upset became second nature.” He opened his eyes and looked at Rose again. “That doesn’t excuse lying to you, though. I’m so sorry, Rose.”

She tilted her head and looked at him hard, and eventually nodded once. “It became a habit,” she said. “Self-preservation. I can understand that. But try not to do it again.”

“I will,” he said fervently. “I promise, Rose.”

This is the first (and according to current plans, only) time the Doctor or Rose have broken the “do not lie to your bond mate” rule. Once he explains what happened, it really doe make perfect sense. Still, it leaves him feeling guilty enough that he acquiesces to her desire to go on the Titanic. 

From chapter 2:

The logo peeled away to reveal a bald man with brilliant blue eyes. “Max Capricorn Cruiseliners,” he said, and the Doctor took an immediate dislike to his smarmy voice and smile. “The fastest, the farthest, the best. And I should know because my name is Max.”

In the cheesiest special effect the Doctor had seen in ages, Max smiled right at the camera, and the light reflected off his gold tooth.

“Right,” the Doctor muttered when the screen went back to the company logo. “That told us almost nothing.”

“It told us the company is owned by an arrogant wanker who’s probably the bad guy,” Rose countered.

The Doctor looked down at her. “All right, explain to me how you’ve figured that out, when we don’t even know anything is going to happen.”

“Well, it’s obvious, isn’t it?” A cheeky smile broke through her serious attitude, and he realised she was teasing. “Only villains smile like that.”

“Of course,” the Doctor drawled. “How could I have forgotten?”

[...]

Suspicion rolled off Rose as they watched the Host be carried away. What is it? the Doctor asked.

Remember after our Christmas with Donna, when we decided that any robotic beings wanting to harm us could take the form of something besides Santa?

A shiver of unease ran down the Doctor’s spine. He did remember that, though he hadn’t thought of it until Rose had brought it up. You think they’re the bad guy then? he teased, trying to lighten the mood. Again, all he really wanted to do was beg Rose to let them go home.

Pilot fish, she said darkly. Bein’ controlled by the baddie.

The Doctor stared at her. Obviously they weren’t really pilot fish—that wasn’t her point. She meant that like last year, the robots were proxies, letting the actual villain hide in the shadows.

One of the canon traits I love about Rose Tyler is the way she often put her finger on exactly what the problem was well before they even fully grasped that there was a problem. 

From chapter 2:

The Doctor ground his teeth together, impatience pouring off him. “Never mind that; your shields are down. Check your scanners, Captain. You’ve got meteoroids coming in and no shielding.”

“You have no authorisation. You will clear the comms at once,” the captain ordered.

“Yeah?” the Doctor snapped as he looked out the window again. “Just look starboard!”

The steward grabbed the Doctor by the arm. “Come with me, sir.”

Rose followed as they dragged him away from the party, and the Doctor looked back at her. Rose, you can still get in the TARDIS.

Not a chance, she told him.

Please, love…

No! The last time I let you out of my sight on a ship… She swallowed hard and immediately felt the Doctor’s apology. S’okay. I know you just want me to be safe, but right now, if I have to choose between being safe and being with you, I’m gonna pick you.

You might have picked up on this story’s theme in the summary. This is all about peeling back the layers of denial they’ve covered themselves with since the Valiant to reveal their PTSD. We’ve had a few hints of it here and there as the Doctor really really would rather not be on the ship and has only stayed because Rose asked. But this is the first hint that the events of this story will be similar enough to cause flashbacks.

From chapter 3:

Rose turned back around, wanting to see what had excited the Doctor. When she did, her reaction was the exact opposite of his.

“Leave it alone,” she said, staring down at the inert Host. “Don’t touch it; don’t wake it up.”

“But it’s got the strength of ten,” the Doctor protested. “It could help us shift the rubble.”

Rose glared at him and placed her hands on her hips. “Trombone playing Santas,” she said. “Two years in a row. You couldn’t pay me enough to trust that thing.”

The Doctor sighed somewhat longingly, but he nodded and they kept climbing.

“Hold on,” Rickston said. “Are we really going to ignore a potential resource simply because your blonde trophy wife has a ridiculous phobia of robots?”

Rose bristled, but the Doctor put a hand on her arm and she took a deep breath. Then he turned around and glared at Rickston.

“Rose Tyler is far more than a trophy wife, and I guarantee she’s smarter than you. She’s been my partner for almost five years, and her instincts are hardly ever wrong. They’ve saved our lives more than once. She’s right; we do have a history with robots designed to look like various holiday characters trying to kill us. If she says the Host aren’t to be trusted, I will take her word for it. Now, come on.”

The Doctor felt Rose’s hand take his a moment later, and he squeezed automatically in greeting. Then she brushed a telepathic caress against the bond, and he glanced down at her.

Rose’s eyes glowed. Thank you, Doctor. That was… thanks.

Her gratitude lifted his mood, and he returned her telepathic caress. I won’t let people get away with talking about you like that. You’re brilliant, Rose—worth so much more than Rickston Slade.

Three important things here: Rose’s instincts keeping them safe, the growing animosity between herself and Rickston, and the hint at what her deepest trauma was. Obviously, the Doctor’s lingering fears are all about losing her, and he becomes very over-protective. But Rose never thought he was dead, so how did the Master leave her damaged?

From chapter 3:

“Bring him back!” Foon begged. “Can’t you bring him back? Bring him back, Doctor!”

Rose looked up at the Doctor, trying to understand the wild emotions he was projecting. He stared at the grieving woman, his eyes glassy with tears. His mouth worked a few times, but he couldn’t get any words out, and after a moment, he shook his head helplessly.

His emotions crystallised into grief, anger, and denial, and it only took her a second to realise he was caught in a flashback. When he held his arms out for Rose, begging her to come to him, she ran into her Doctor’s embrace.

She could feel him trembling when she wrapped her arms around him, and she pressed a kiss to his chest. I’m right here, Doctor, she promised. It’s just a memory.

He drew a shuddering breath. I know. But gods, Rose, I said the same things when I thought… when the Master…

Rose heard heavy metal footsteps in the corridor and pulled back to look the Doctor in the eye. You going to be all right?

He sniffed and nodded. I have to be.

And the flashbacks begin...

From chapter 4:

The Doctor took her hand, and she looked up at him. “Ready, Rose Tyler?” She nodded, and he tugged her away from the trio. “Run for your life!”

For the first time in all her years of running with the Doctor, the anxiety tightening in a band around her chest made it impossible for Rose to enjoy the adrenaline rush. Instead, she focused on breathing as they crossed the catwalk again, retraced their steps through the corridor and serving station where they’d rested, and went down the stairs they’d climbed less than an hour before.

At each landmark, she remembered another way she could have lost the Doctor. What if she hadn’t been so insistent on not repairing the Host? Or what would have happened if even one of the flying halos had hit its mark? It was too easy to imagine herself in Foon’s place, staring at the engine core and trying to convince herself that her husband wasn’t gone.

We’re going to be fine, Rose.

Her chest seized up, and Rose stumbled down the last few stairs. The Doctor caught her in his arms and put his hands on her shoulders, holding her at arm’s length and looking into her eyes.

“Breathe, love.”

Rose took a breath, but it caught in her throat on a sob. I can’t!

“You can, Rose.”

The Doctor closed his eyes and a moment later, Rose felt him in her mind, tugging at her anxiety, trying to get her to let go of it—or it to let go of her.

“Take a deep breath for me.”

He pressed his forehead to hers and breathed with her a few times. The gesture calmed her enough to obey his quiet command, taking one breath, and then another, until she was breathing easily.

The Doctor pulled back and brushed his thumbs against the apples of her cheeks. “All right there?” he asked tenderly.

Rose nodded and managed a shaky laugh. “I have to admit, this wasn’t what I had in mind for our evening.”

He shook his head. “Nor I. But, Rose Tyler, my partner in this crazy life we lead, I’m confident we can handle this the same way we do everything else.”

“Together,” Rose finished.

And continue.

From chapter 4:

Doctor, is there a setting on the sonic that would turn it into a remote control?

42b. Point it at the control panel, and it’ll transfer the control of the device to you.

[...]

Rose peered around the forklift and snarled at the sight of two Host dragging the Doctor away from Max Capricorn. She no longer cared if her plan was overkill. Max had used up all the second chances he was going to get.

“Not so clever now, Doctor,” Max taunted. “A shame we couldn’t work together. You’re rather good. All that banter, yet not a word wasted. Time for me to retire. The Titanic is falling. The sky will burn. Let the Christmas inferno commence. Oh. Oh, Host,” he sang out. “Kill him.”

“Oi, Max!” Rose shouted as the Host removed their halos.

Every head swivelled around to look at Rose, and she started the forklift up and drove it directly at Max.

“You look a little stuck,” she told him as the forks caught under his life support system. “Mind if I give you a lift?” Max frowned, and the engines on his little scooter box revved, keeping him in place.

“Rose, duck!” the Doctor yelled, and she dodged just in time to avoid being hit by a halo.

She grunted when she hit the deck and rolled, but held onto her sonic screwdriver. However, her momentary distraction had allowed Max to inch forward, pushing against the forklift.

“Oh, no you don’t.” Rose thumbed the controls, lifting the forks. His eyes, one blue and the other glassy and sightless, widened when he realised he’d lost. Rose pressed her lips into a tight smile. “Mr. Capricorn!” she yelled. “I hope you have a nice trip.”

I couldn’t save hardly anyone in this story. The deaths are all really integral to the plot. But I could save Astrid, because if Rose is with the Doctor, Astrid doesn’t feel as much like he needs someone to help him. 

From chapter 5:

The Doctor stood stock still while Rickston pulled him into a tight hug, and Rose had to put her hand over her mouth to hide her smile at the nonplussed look on his face.

“The funny thing is,” Rickston commented as he released the Doctor and stepped back, “I said Max Capricorn was falling apart. Just before the crash, I sold all my shares, transferred them to his rivals. It’s made me rich. What do you think of that?”

Rose’s anger with the wealthy businessman finally boiled over. “I’ll tell you what I think, Harry,” she snarled. “I think you’re a self-centred, egotistical bastard who needs to learn that other people matter just as much as you do. People died today, and all you can think about is your bank account. What kind of cold, heartless…” She growled incoherently, gesturing in the air.

Rickston narrowed his eyes, and Rose welcomed his attack. She wouldn’t hold back.

“Who’s Harry?” he asked.

“What?” Rose’s knees locked and she swayed dangerously.

The Doctor wrapped an arm around her waist before she could fall. “Rickston, don’t you have a phone call or something to make? Blood money to celebrate?”

The businessman crossed his arms over his chest and shook his head, but his vone went off before he could argue. With one last glare at the Doctor and Rose, he walked a few steps away from them to take the call.

Rose blinked furiously, trying to hold tears back. “I…”

“You called him Harry, love,” the Doctor said quietly. He pulled her close and she rested her head on his chest, letting his double heartbeat soothe her.

The events of the day played back in Rose’s mind, each time Rickston had belittled her or been rude and unpleasant and self-centred. She closed her eyes tightly, but that couldn’t stop the memories, or the tears that seeped out from under her eyelids.

There we go. The Doctor has flashbacks to when he thought she was dead, and Rose struggles with the memory of how the aster constantly belittled her, making her feel like she wasn’t good enough to be the Doctor’s bond mate.

Once they get back on the TARDIS, she has a major panic attack. And the Doctor has a panic attack because he can’t figure out where she is.  

From chapter 5:

“Doctor?” Rose tapped his knee, and he looked down at her.

“I think we need to take some time off from the running,” he told her. “We keep telling people that we’re just travellers; let’s just be travellers. No danger; no running.”

Rose was already shaking her head. “No, we don’t… I can… that’s not…” She sighed, then licked her lips and started over. “I’m okay,” she promised him. “This was only a… a temporary hangup.”

“You’re not okay, love,” the Doctor said softly.

“No no, you can’t do this to me,” she insisted. “I’m not weak.”

The Doctor briefly wished there were a way to bring the Master back to life long enough to curse him for playing so expertly on all of Rose’s insecurities. Then he focused back on the conversation and his bond mate.

“Weakness has nothing to do with it,” he told her. “And I’m not suggesting this only for your sake, Rose. We were traumatised—both of us.”

[...]

“I wish I hadn’t insisted we go on the Titanic,” Rose said as she leaned her head against his shoulder. “We could’ve stayed home, had a perfectly nice evening in.”

The TARDIS was clearly in favour of the new plan to take it easy, and the Doctor had been trying to figure out why she had taken them to the Titanic if she thought they needed a break. Rose’s mumbled words finally gave him a possible answer.

“Yeah,” he agreed as he tilted his head, resting it against hers. “But I think… I think we needed to go through something like this to be convinced that we needed time off.”

[...]

“Doctor?” Rose tugged on the hem of her pyjama top.

“Yeah?”

“We’re going to be okay, aren’t we?”

His smile slipped away, and he wrapped his arms around her. “Oh, Rose. We are going to be more than okay—we are going to be fantastic.” He pressed a kiss to her forehead. “It’s going to take some time, that’s all.”