Stay With Me
Title: Stay With Me
Author:doctor10_crazt
Characters/Pairings: Nine/Rose, Jack
Spoilers: None
Disclaimer: I don't own Doctor Who. Trust me, you'd know it if I did.
A/N: Beta'd by
funniefriend, faithful beta and best friend. Let me just say, this is all Jack's fault. He just showed up the other night and demanded that I write this. Just a one-shot for now, though I could be convinced to continue it if enough people ask me. Enjoy!
Rose Tyler had been asleep for all of two hours, and the Doctor was already restless. He paced around the suite he, Rose, and Jack had been given. Marriage triads and even quadrads were just as common here as couples were, so their hosts had simply assumed that the three of them were together, which Jack loved, Rose laughingly accepted, and the Doctor didn’t mind.
“You’re going to wear a hole in the floor if you don’t stop that,” Jack warned from his seat on a sofa.
The Doctor was about to reply when they heard a scream from the bedroom where Rose was sleeping. Jack jumped up and the two men rushed into the room. Rose was thrashing around in the large double bed. As the men came closer, she let out another piercing scream, and the Doctor dropped next to her immediately, shaking her shoulder.
“Rose, wake up,” he said, giving her another shake when she didn’t respond.
She was very suddenly shot from dreamland, her arms instinctively locking around the Doctor’s waist. She pressed her face into his chest, and the Doctor gently placed his arms around her.
“It’s okay,” he whispered. “It was just a dream. You’re gonna be all right.” He continued to shush her, and didn’t notice when Jack slipped out of the room. As she calmed, he placed a gentle kiss to the top of her head.
When he felt her arms loosen from around him and her face pull back, he looked down. “I’m sorry,” she murmured.
“Not your fault,” he replied. “You’ve had quite a day.” He had lost track of her, and, being the jeopardy friendly girl that she was, she had, somehow, managed to get herself sentenced to death and then thrown into a dungeon to wait. He had saved her shortly before the sentence could be carried out. He had talked them out of the place, managing to get Rose completely exempt from all charges.
He still didn’t know what had happened in the dungeon; she wouldn’t tell him, but, what with her reaction and all, it had to have been something that really merited nightmares. Rose wasn’t prone to them, going without having them in situations that even Jack might get them from.
“What happened in the dungeon?” he asked softly, guiltily remembering how he had asked her earlier that evening. He had demanded to know what had happened, scared and worried at her down-trodden mood and almost complete silence since he had gotten her back.
Rose shook her head. “Nothing,” she whispered.
He knew it wasn’t true, but he shook off the feeling and pretended to believe her. “All right,” he replied. “Are you okay now?”
She nodded, but when he made to get up and leave, she clung desperately to his waist. “Don’t go,” she said, holding him tightly.
He looked down at the girl clinging to him. He didn’t want to go. He told himself that he didn’t want to leave her to the nightmares, because he cares about her, but if he was honest with himself, he knew that he didn’t want to leave her, period, because he lo-.
But he shook off that thought and nodded at her. “I’ll stay,” he said quietly. Relieved, she relaxed her grip on him. He slipped out of her arms, and motioned for her to lie down. He slid off the bed just long enough for him to take off his coat and jeans.
He slipped under the sheets, pulling Rose’s small body close to him, spooning up into her back. She whimpered slightly as he touched her back, and he felt a slight wetness there.
“Rose, what’s that?” he asked.
“It’s nothing,” she whispered, but he could hear the pain in her voice.
“Rose, if you don’t tell me,” he threatened, “I’m going to look.”
Rose didn’t respond, and he could almost imagine her biting her lip. He sighed, and placed one hand on her lower back, right at the edge of the small camisole that she wore. He pushed it upward, and gasped in shock.
Her back was covered in bruises and cuts, some of them still bleeding. “Rose, what happened?” he demanded sharply.
“They…they beat me,” Rose said in a small voice.
“They what?” the Doctor said, enraged. “Why didn’t you tell me?”
“Because I knew you would react like this, and I didn’t want you to,” Rose said, still speaking softly.
“Oh, Rose,” he breathed. “Stay there. I’ll be right back.” He got out of the bed and fished in his jacket for the sonic screwdriver. Pulling it out triumphantly, he turned back to Rose. “This won’t hurt, but it might tickle a bit,” he told her, then got to work healing her abrasions and bruises. When they were gone, he asked her, “Do you have anymore?”
“Some on my stomach,” she said, rolling over and touching the bottom edge of her shirt.
He slid the shirt up gently, stopping when she touched his hand and said, “There’s non above there.” Again he healed her, and when he was done, slid her shirt back down and pressed a kiss to her forehead.
“All better,” he informed her. She smiled and snuggled into him.
“Promise me you won’t leave?” she asked.
“I promise.”
When Jack looked in on them a couple hours later, Rose was fast asleep and the Doctor was dozing. Rose had the covers clutched to her chest, and they were tight about her body, revealing to anyone who looked that the Doctor’s arm was still draped around her, holding her close. Jack smiled to himself. The two of them were never going to get out of this situation separate still. The time had come for them to be together.