Pally for tanking a mageFollow

This may sound a little odd, but ...

I tried tanking this mage with a warrior. The mage is a fiery mage who has excellent DPS, but she has a this odd habit of being a little slow.

We were doing all right, then one day, in the middle of a very difficult quest where we were surrounded by very difficult mobs, she hops off a ledge and gets herself killed. Next thing I know, it takes her half an hour to get back to where she died, and I'm getting myself killed since my tank is unable to dish out enough damage to keep herself alive.

Okay, I didn't die. I hearthed because I was watching the mobs respawn around me.

Anyway, when she finally got back to the place where her corpse was, there were mobs all over and there was like, no way in hell I'd go back in there with a tanking warrior to try to help her out of it. So I ended up having to switch to my main, which was like twice her level and DPS, so my main could kill everything just by looking at it funny.

She did finish that quest, but because she leapt off a cliff in the middle of it, my tank did not, and I'm still really rather sore over that.

I've decided to try making a pally to work with this particular mage, since the pally can heal themselves better during a fight. My pally is still very low level, and she has demonstrated that she can keep healthy where a proper tank can not. And now it's time to start sorting out the talents.

I was wondering what the best choice on spec would be to use so I can tank this mage and heal myself? Would I be okay with a prot spec? People keep talking ret, now, but I'm not so sure. She is run as a tank, and I want to be sure she can keep herself healthy while standing in front of this mage. Also, she should be able to occasionally heal the mage should the need arise.

In this configuration, would tanking be considered the priority? And if so, would prot be best, which is similar to my DPS main?

My DPS Main is a feral druid, which means she can heal, although, not that well. It's been a blessing and a boon to her, since she has been able to survive fights that most DPS fail at. I'm wondering if a tankadin would run similar to a DPS druid and still be able to heal enough to keep the small party alive through most stuff.

Thank you and if you actually got this far, I appreciate it!

Oh, and to the moderators? Why do you have a "Reset Form" button on this page? It's one of the worst interweb user interface design errors anyone can make. It would probably be a very very very good idea to remove this button from your interface.