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The Doctor was strange. He was always strange, Ruby had figured that out pretty quickly, but he was stranger than usual. She was pretty sure it had something to do with the blonde girl up ahead.
It had been the sight of her, the woman Ruby didn't know but clearly the Doctor did, that had frozen him to the spot. It had been the sight of the Doctor that had done much the same to the girl.
Ruby looked between them, both the picture of someone who had just seen a ghost. The Doctor's Adam's apple bobbed, as if he were trying to speak but couldn't find the words. The woman's mouth hung open, occasionally moving on words that did not come out.
"Um, hello?" Ruby said. That seemed to break whatever spell the pair were under. Ruby wondered distantly if she should be worried, if this was some sort of alien thing that was going to cause the Doctor harm.
They crashed together.
Or, they almost did. At Ruby's words, they'd started running towards each other But they stopped short, not quite touching. Ruby looked between them again.
The Doctor's mouth moved on silent half-there words, and the woman swallowed down whatever she might've said, had they not been so intent on not saying anything.
This, Ruby decided, was beyond whatever the Doctor's normal weird was. This was beyond the Doctor's ordinary levels of strange. This, Ruby realised, was something she shouldn't be there to witness. Or perhaps it was something she should have been stopping. She wasn't actually all that sure, she just knew the Doctor wasn't quite acting like himself.
He stood, arms twitching lips trying to form words he did not yet have, in front of the stranger. And the stranger stood in front of him, doing much the same.
"Are you two, ok?" Ruby asked. They didn't even look at her, entirely absorbed in each other. Ruby stepped a little closer. She had a side view of the Doctor, and he partially obscured the stranger, but she could see the woman's eyes. Tears threatened to fall, caught in her lower lashes, and her lips trembled on a smile.
The Doctor's hand raised slowly. The woman nodded slowly, and her own hand moved to mirror his own.
Their hands stilled next to each other's cheeks, not yet touching.
Ruby looked between them again. Hope, that's what they were waiting for. It was as if they didn't quite believe their eyes, as if they couldn't trust what was in front of them. Ruby wondered if they were soulmates, forcefully separated because the Doctor had certainly never mentioned a soulmate and Ruby hadn't seen anyone else on the TARDIS.
But, surely if they were they wouldn't be so nervous to touch? Then again, the Doctor wasn't human. She didn't know everything about him, but he wasn't human and there might be something she didn't know that had him (and the woman) so nervous and so hopeful at the same time.
Finally, the Doctor's hand settled on the woman's cheek. The woman's hand mirrored his, settling for barely a beat on the Doctor's cheek before pulling away. Gold bloomed on the Doctor's skin where the stranger's hand had just been.
She made the first sound Ruby had heard from her then, a gasp. The Doctor grabbed her wrist, and turned her palm towards him. Gold splayed there too, the colour almost swirling on her skin.
That, the gold on them both, seemed to fully the break the spell that had them silent, that had them barely touching.
"You've changed," his soulmate said, though she didn't seem sad. No, instead she was grinning up at him.
"You, haven't," the Doctor said, Ruby could hear the light confusion in his voice, clouded over with awe. He was in love, Ruby could tell. It was clear. That was why he'd been acting strange. Well, she supposed she could give him that. People, even time travelling aliens, were allowed to act slightly unusually in the face of their soulmate. Especially one it seemed they'd already met before, and presumably lost.
The Doctor's arms settled around his soulmates waist, and her arms settled around his neck. He laughed as he spun her around, and her laughter joined his after a beat.
Ruby had never noticed before how the Doctor's laugh sounded like only one half of a beautiful melody, but with his soulmate's laughter joining his it was clear that he'd been missing an integral piece of his life. Their laughter made a song in the wind, and it brought a smile to Ruby's face. The pair were just where they were meant to be, she was sure of it.
"Rose," the Doctor said, repeated, chanted like a man clinging to his final hope, once he'd stopped laughing.
"Doctor, my Doctor," Rose said. She too repeated it. Chanted it into him.
The Doctor stopped their spinning, and settled Rose back on her feet. His arms untangled, but he left his hands clutched to her waist, like he didn't want to let her go. Rose moved her hand back to his cheek, the gold print she'd left hidden by her hand once more. Her other hand settled on the Doctor's chest.
Ruby coughed slightly, to grab the Doctor's attention. He hummed, but didn't look her way, too stuck on Rose and Ruby wasn't going to fault him for that. There was a story there she didn't know.
"I'll wait in the TARDIS for you two," Ruby said.
"Thanks Rubes," the Doctor said, leaning towards his soulmate. Ruby shot them a smile, one that went unseen as the pair fell into each other.
Of course, Ruby had a lot of questions. She'd ask all those once the Doctor and his Rose were settled back into each other. They knew each other, that much was clear, had been from the moment they'd crashed together. There was no doubt the Doctor would be coming back with Rose. They belonged together, Ruby was sure of it, even if they weren't soulmates.