[ The Doctor has been, more or less, married to a few people in the whole of his life, but that most recent marriage came with such pain that he knows it's not something he would have ever considered quite so easily. It's a strange twist of events, though, that his marriage to River had technically happened in a reality and timeline that didn't actually exist, either. That they'd married to prevent the universe from collapsing.

Marrying Julia hadn't been quite so fraught and they were happy, yet it also wasn't real. Like with River, though, it doesn't just neatly wrap up simply because things have been set to right. The memories linger, the feelings are real. Everything he'd felt for her and everything he'd begun to feel shortly before reality fractured — none of that was false by any measure. ]

It was real enough for me.

[ His hold on her when she tucks her head against him is just as tight and protective as it's ever been. Those words, the way his arms cradle her with such reverence — this is his way of saying that he loves her, too. He's just not doing a good job of actually saying it. He does, however, take both of her hands for a moment when she pulls back and holds onto him, and then he's delicately kissing her palms before pressing both of her hands over his hearts.

In some way he can't begin to explain like she deserves, these old, tattered, worn hearts of his belong to her. He's given his love to many, in ways he's often not conscious of understanding, and he tries so hard to love every beautiful, fragile little life in the universe in a myriad of ways, but there are few he would ever trust to sink into the depths of him. Here and now, it feels important to tell her that even if he struggles with those words. ]

If there are any two I believe in with absolute certainty to get it done, it's the pair of us. We are rather good at this.

[ And oh, how he's missed her. ]