Defenders of the Earth, Chapter 11/?
Title: Defenders of the Earth
Author: onabearskinrug
Character/Pairing: Ten/Rose, with Jackie, Pete, Jake, Mickey, and others
Rating: ADULT
Summary: AU "Doomsday." Trapped in Pete's World, Rose and the Doctor attempt to find their way back to the TARDIS while navigating Torchwood, meddling family members, and (as per usual) threats to humanity.
Disclaimer: I do not own Doctor Who. Any recognizable characters belong to the BBC.
Author's Notes: Thank you to kelkat9, timelord1, and who_in_whoville for all of the help with this chapter and pretty much the entire story. I don't know what I'd do without you ladies :-D
Catch up here!
Prologue | Chapter 1 | Chapter 2 | Chapter 3 | Chapter 4 | Chapter 5 | Chapter 6 | Chapter 7 | Chapter 8 | Chapter 9 | Chapter 10
“Mickey, I’m going to have to call you back…”
“Rose, don’t you dare-”
She clicked the phone shut and turned to the Doctor and Martha. “Okay, start from the beginning and don’t leave anything out.”
Martha was gaping at her. “How is your phone working? Mine completely cut out.”
“Never mind that now!” Rose exclaimed. “How are we even breathing?”
“Now there’s the question, Rose Tyler,” the Doctor said, glancing around the small space thoughtfully. “Martha, is there a balcony anywhere?”
“Just off the patient’s lounge.”
The Doctor grinned at Rose. “Well, ladies…fancy going out?”
Rose grinned back. “You’re completely mad.”
“Martha?”
Martha was looking between them as if she had no idea what to make of such a pair. “Oh…kay…”
“We might die…” the Doctor warned in a grave voice.
“We might not,” Martha replied in the same tone.
“Oh, I like you, Martha,” Rose smiled at her and grabbed the Doctor’s hand. “Go on, lead the way!”
Martha hurried along, attempting to calm down the patients and staff on her way. Rose had to admire her, even in this deadly serious, unknown situation, she was keeping her wits and thinking of her patients. A doctor through and through.
They had reached the patient’s lounge. The Doctor and Martha each had a hand on the door, but the Doctor was looking at Rose meaningfully. “No chance I could get you to stay inside, is there?”
“No way!”
“Thought as much,” he squeezed her hand. “Keep close to me.”
“Always.”
“Ready, Martha?” the Doctor turned back to the young woman. “And…”
They pushed open the doors at the same time and Rose couldn’t contain the gasp of amazement. The Doctor had taken her to so many places, so many beautiful worlds that completely took her breath away. But for all the places he took her, and despite how many times she asked, he’d never taken her to Earth’s moon. Now, here she was, gazing at her home planet suspended in space and surrounded by stars.
“’S gorgeous,” Rose breathed. She let go of the Doctor just long enough to loop their arms together and clasp his hand between hers. “You take me to the best places.”
The Doctor looked down at her and smiled warmly. “Just like old times, eh?”
“I can’t believe this,” Martha said, completely awestruck. “We’re on the moon! We’re on the bloody moon!”
“Quick on the uptake, this one,” the Doctor teased. “So, Martha Jones, your hospital is scooped up out of the ground and deposited on the moon, kept breathing by a...hold on…” He picked up a small rock from the balcony and tossed it onto the landscape. It bounced harmlessly off an invisible barrier. “…force field. Discuss.”
Martha was still staring, half in awe and half completely bewildered. “Extraterrestrial. Definitely. I know, a few years ago that would have sounded mad but now…with that Christmas star and those metal men a few years back? Not so far fetched anymore. Hold on,” she broke off, turning to look at the Doctor and Rose. “If this is all the air we’ve got, what happens when it runs out?”
The Doctor’s face turned stony. “How many people in the hospital?”
“I dunno, a thousand?”
“One thousand people, suffocating,” the Doctor added, his voice hard. “One of those people would be Rose. And that just pushed it to a whole new level.”
Almost as if on cue, Rose was nearly deafened by the roaring of ship engines. Three huge, cone-shaped vessels were bearing down on the moon’s surface, opening at the bottom and letting out long lines of dark figures.
“Doctor,” Rose asked, nervous. “What are they?”
“Judoon,” he answered gravely. “Let’s just hope they’re the same in this universe as in ours. Rose, Martha, come on!”
******
The three of them had managed to hide on the second level of the hospital, the Doctor explaining quickly to Martha and Rose about the Judoon being intergalactic police-for-hire and how they had no jurisdiction over the Earth. Hence, they used an H2O scoop and sent the entire hospital to the moon.
“Oh, they’re cataloging the humans,” the Doctor breathed. “They must be looking for some non-human in hiding. Which is bad news for me…”
“Why is that?” Martha asked absently.
Rose had to bite her lip to hide the smile on her face. She couldn’t help it, the Doctor was adorable when he was giving people the “you’re-so-clever-how-could-you-not-figure-this-out-look.” Martha finally realized what he was trying to tell her around the same time Rose did.
“Oh, my God, Doctor, are you safe?” she asked, holding tighter onto his hand.
“Probably not,” he said. “Rose, I need you to buy us some time. Do you have your Torchwood ID?”
“Yeah, ‘course I do. Why?”
“I’m going to try and stay out of the way so I can find out who’s hiding in the hospital. I need you to flash your ID around, be an advocate for the human race. The people will calm down if they see someone taking charge.”
“No way!” Rose protested. “I can’t do that! Number one, I don’t want to leave you! Number two, I can’t confront these…massive…rhinos! Couldn’t even get the Sycorax to back down, remember? And what about you?” She gripped his hand and gave him a meaningful look. “Are you gonna be…okay?”
“Rose,” the Doctor started, cradling her face in his hands. “Don’t worry about me. I should be fine for a few hours. You have more experience with aliens than anyone else in this hospital…well…except for me of course. You are brave and strong and absolutely brilliant! Start using that Torchwood reputation to your advantage. You can do this, Rose. I have complete faith in you.”
Rose smiled and covered his hands with hers. “Yeah?”
“Yes,” the Doctor breathed vehemently, pressing his lips to hers briefly before pulling away. “Sorry, that might cause you some trouble but you should be fine in the end. Come on, Jones, we’ve got to get access to the patient files.”
“Be careful, both of you,” Rose warned.
“I’m always careful,” the Doctor replied, giving her a winning smile and scurrying off with Martha on his heels.
Rose turned her attention back to the events below her. People were terrified. Granted, the Judoon weren’t doing anything particularly harmful, but still, she knew better than anyone how humans could react when they were scared for their lives. She didn’t want to see anyone get hurt.
She reached into her pocket and found the small leather case holding her Torchwood ID. Steeling her nerve, she stood up, channeled every bit of the Doctor that she could. If she concentrated, she could almost feel his faith and support pulsing gently in the back of her mind. She took a deep breath and began to talk.
“Oi, Judoon!”
If the giant rhino’s faces could register any expression, she was sure it would be shock.
“You will be catalogued,” one immediately grunted out.
“Well, let me save you some trouble. My name is Rose Tyler,” she held up her identification. “I represent the Torchwood Institute. We are the foremost authority on extraterrestrials on planet Earth and you have just violated about a hundred protocols.”
“We were not made aware of any protocols.”
“You should have done your research. May I approach? Then I promise, you can catalogue me…or whatever it is you‘re doing.”
The Judoon leader seemed to consider her for a moment, before grunting, “Approach.”
“Thank you.” Rose started down a set of stairs, and the Judoon were immediately upon her. She tried not to let her nerves show as they shined a blue light on her head.
“Human,” the leader confirmed before the device squeaked once more. “Wait, non-human element suspected. Authorize full scan.”
The leader practically pressed Rose against the wall. Though her heart was pounding in fear, she did not break her gaze. The scanner pinged once again, before the leader pronounced her human, marking her hand with a black X and offering her a paper covered in odd black symbols.
“Compensation,” he explained. “Now, explain these protocols.”
Rose gulped. She had no idea if they had broken anything at all, but she knew it was customary for any aliens to coordinate with Torchwood if they needed planet Earth for any reason. Just scooping a hospital to the moon to find one fugitive? It seemed a bit excessive.
She recalled a bit of what the Doctor said about galactic law and began talking in the most authoritative voice she could muster up. “The Torchwood Institute is the planet’s ambassadors and the sole defense to any non-human affairs. If you were looking for a fugitive on Earth, we would have provided you with any resources we could and coordinated a capture and rescue. Instead, you decided to lift a hospital containing a thousand humans, encase it in a force field, and terrify these poor people half to death. There is a reason these protocols are in place, sir. We do not want the population to foster a negative image of all visitors to our planet.”
Rose stopped to take a breath, proud that she had managed to keep her voice steady throughout her entire speech. In fact, she thought she managed to sound pretty convincing.
“We do not wish to have an adverse relationship with your Institute,” the Judoon leader stated. “You are the representative. We will coordinate with you.”
“Oh,” Rose stated, surprised. What did she do now? “Well, before you go barreling through the hospital, let me warn them, yeah? Just so there’s no panic. You do what you have to do down here, wait for me to make an announcement, and then come on up. I’ll find the intercom system and try to keep it in order.”
The leader looked at her for a moment before answering. “Confirmed. Judoon, catalogue this floor and then we move.”
“Thank you,” Rose said, turning to the group of humans who had gathered to listen to their proceedings. “Don’t worry, everyone. They’re not here to hurt you. They just want to make sure everyone’s human. So long as you’re not from Mars or anything, you don’t have anything to worry about. Just cooperate and make things go as smoothly as possible, yeah?”
“Er…Miss Tyler?” an older woman raised her hand. “Will we ever get home?”
Rose tried to muster up her most confident smile. “Yes, we will do our best to make sure we get back. I can communicate with agents who were outside of the hospital and see what they can do from their end. All right?”
The woman smiled gratefully at her. Rose returned the expression, before turning on her heel to the reception desk and making a quick and authoritative announcement over the loudspeaker. Once that was done, she headed for the stairwell to try and find the Doctor and reassure people along the way that all was under control. She pulled out her mobile as she moved and winced at the seventeen missed calls from Mickey, Torchood, and her father.
She dialed Mickey and quickly gave him an update on the situation, letting him know that they ought to start trying to find a way to get them home, just in case. She explained about the oxygen, reassured the team that she and the Doctor had everything under control, and asked them to please let her mum and Pete know that they were all fine.
She hung up quickly and headed up the stairs, determined to find the Doctor and Martha so they could find this fugitive and get the hospital back home as soon as possible.
******
It was getting harder and harder to breathe, and Rose knew the oxygen would run out soon. The staff were doing all they could, offering breathing tanks to as many patients as possible, but she knew there weren’t enough for everyone. She had to find the Doctor and fast, before all of these people suffocated.
Almost immediately, Rose crashed into Martha, who looked panicked. “Rose, hurry, I know who you’re looking for! Get the Judoon, she’s in the MRI room!”
“Oi, Judoon!” Rose called. The group that was on this floor, including the leader all turned to look at her. “Come on, Martha knows where we can find your fugitive!”
The large group moved to the MRI room. The first thing she noticed was the machine sparking and crackling with power.
The second thing she noticed was those horrible, black-leather creatures drop a deathly pale Doctor to the floor.
“No!” Rose cried out, pushing past the group of Judoon to kneel by the Doctor. “What did you to do him? Tell me!”
“Oh, this poor man just collapsed from fright!” a woman Rose vaguely knew was called Mrs. Finnegan told them.
“No, that’s not possible!” Rose exclaimed, moving to cradle the Doctor’s head in her lap. He was limp as a rag doll and his face was completely ashen. The only time she’d ever seen him like this was immediately after regenerating, and even then he at least had some color in his cheeks.
She didn’t realize that the Judoon were shining their scanner on the Doctor until the leader called out, “Confirmed: deceased.”
“No!” Rose cried out. “No, he’s not! Ask her, Mrs. Finnegan! She did something to him! He’s not dead, he’s not!”
“She drank his blood!” Martha suddenly piped up. “Scan her!”
Rose was vaguely aware of Martha grabbing a scanner off of a Judoon and aiming it at Mrs. Finnegan, but she only had eyes for the unconscious man in her lap, his beloved face blurring as she fought to hold back the tears. “You stupid, stupid man!” she scolded affectionately. “You gave your life so that this woman would be caught. You better not regenerate from this. Not now, not after all this…”
“Rose, move, I have to perform CPR,” Martha nudged her away and began pumping the Doctor’s chest and blowing air into his mouth. “It’s okay, he’s going to be fine.”
Rose collapsed against the wall. She was dizzy. Was it getting warmer in here? Blimey, she was exhausted. Surely no one would begrudge her a small kip here on the floor.
The last thing she saw before succumbing to the darkness was the Doctor, pale and drawn, hoisting himself with great effort off the floor and crawling towards the crackling MRI machine.
******
Later on that evening, the Doctor stood in the doorway of their bedroom, watching Rose with his usual great interest. She was curled up on the sofa, a blanket partially obscuring her lap, surfing absently through the eight hundred channels. It occurred to the Doctor that this was the first bit of down time they’d had since they arrived in Pete’s World. Rose certainly looked comfy, hair combed out and still damp from the shower, face scrubbed clean of makeup, clad only in one of his striped pajama shirts and a pair of knickers.
She finally noticed him standing in the doorway and smiled softly, scooting over in silent invitation for him to join her on the sofa. Not one to resist her (Well…at least not lately), he took his space next to Rose, covering his lap with a bit of the blanket and pulling her tightly against his side.
“Hello,” she murmured, pressing a kiss onto his chest. “I’m still mad at you, you know.”
“I know,” he replied. “But it all turned out okay in the end, right?”
“I suppose.”
They sat there silently for a few minutes, the Doctor absently tracing his fingers up and down Rose’s arm, trying to decide how to breach this incredibly difficult conversation. The direct route was probably best, but he’d never had to discuss anything like this before. He had no idea where to begin.
“Doctor?” Rose asked. “What’s on your mind?”
He looked down at her, some of his amusement reflected in his tone. “And how do you know there’s something on my mind, Rose Tyler?”
“You’re too quiet,” she answered him. “Come on, out with it. After the day we’ve had, I’m ready for anything.”
The Doctor squeezed her tightly before taking a deep breath and launching into his partially-rehearsed speech. “Well, Rose…do you know how sometimes I can be a bit…well…daft when it comes to human things? Especially…you know…relationshippy…things?”
“Yes,” Rose answered a bit too quickly for his liking.
“Well, as long as we’re on the same page…” he sniffed before adjusting their positions so that they were facing one another. “Rose…do you remember how in the hospital, I told you that the kiss might cause you problems later?”
“Yeah, the Judoon said that I had non-human traces. I expect they were reacting to the fact that your DNA is basically all over me.”
The Doctor chuckled nervously. “That it is. Anyway, though it was absolutely a lovely kiss with you and me…well, later, with Martha…I needed her to buy me some time. Judoon were coming up the stairs and if they scanned me, it would basically mean instant execution. I figured what I was about to do would be preferable, to you especially..”
“Doctor, I’m really tired,” Rose interrupted, yawning. “Can you please come out with it.”
“I kissed Martha,” he blurted. “Well, when I say kiss…it was a kiss with you. With her it was a genetic transfer. Just to buy me a few extra seconds. Just to hold up the Judoon. I swear, it meant nothing, and I told her that beforehand…why are you smiling at me?”
“What, you expect me to be mad?”
“Well…yes, actually. Don’t human females generally get mad when their…significant others kiss other women?”
“You said it wasn’t a kiss. It was a genetic transfer.”
“It was!”
“Doctor, really, it’s fine. I know you’d never cheat on me. If you did, I’d never let you shag me again and I know you’re not that stupid.” Rose grinned and took his hand. “If you say it meant nothing, then it meant nothing. I’m not mad, I promise.”
The Doctor gaped at her, completely awestruck for the umpteenth time by this wonderful creature in front of him. He immediately pulled her close and kissed her, slowly and sweetly, practically worshipping her lips with his.
“Now that,” he breathed out when they finally broke apart. “That was a particularly lovely genetic transfer.”
“Mmmm,” Rose murmured, stroking her fingers gently over his face. “It was. You know, I might be coming around to this whole genetic transfer business. And I’m sure they can be mighty useful.”
“Oh, yes they can, Rose Tyler.”
“I think we ought to share some genetic transfers more often…in as many places as possible,” she teased, grinning flirtatiously at him.
“Starting with the sofa?” he asked, waggling his eyebrows suggestively.
Rose giggled and was about to answer until the Doctor silenced her with one heated, intense genetic transfer.
Next Chapter
Author: onabearskinrug
Character/Pairing: Ten/Rose, with Jackie, Pete, Jake, Mickey, and others
Rating: ADULT
Summary: AU "Doomsday." Trapped in Pete's World, Rose and the Doctor attempt to find their way back to the TARDIS while navigating Torchwood, meddling family members, and (as per usual) threats to humanity.
Disclaimer: I do not own Doctor Who. Any recognizable characters belong to the BBC.
Author's Notes: Thank you to kelkat9, timelord1, and who_in_whoville for all of the help with this chapter and pretty much the entire story. I don't know what I'd do without you ladies :-D
Catch up here!
Prologue | Chapter 1 | Chapter 2 | Chapter 3 | Chapter 4 | Chapter 5 | Chapter 6 | Chapter 7 | Chapter 8 | Chapter 9 | Chapter 10
“Mickey, I’m going to have to call you back…”
“Rose, don’t you dare-”
She clicked the phone shut and turned to the Doctor and Martha. “Okay, start from the beginning and don’t leave anything out.”
Martha was gaping at her. “How is your phone working? Mine completely cut out.”
“Never mind that now!” Rose exclaimed. “How are we even breathing?”
“Now there’s the question, Rose Tyler,” the Doctor said, glancing around the small space thoughtfully. “Martha, is there a balcony anywhere?”
“Just off the patient’s lounge.”
The Doctor grinned at Rose. “Well, ladies…fancy going out?”
Rose grinned back. “You’re completely mad.”
“Martha?”
Martha was looking between them as if she had no idea what to make of such a pair. “Oh…kay…”
“We might die…” the Doctor warned in a grave voice.
“We might not,” Martha replied in the same tone.
“Oh, I like you, Martha,” Rose smiled at her and grabbed the Doctor’s hand. “Go on, lead the way!”
Martha hurried along, attempting to calm down the patients and staff on her way. Rose had to admire her, even in this deadly serious, unknown situation, she was keeping her wits and thinking of her patients. A doctor through and through.
They had reached the patient’s lounge. The Doctor and Martha each had a hand on the door, but the Doctor was looking at Rose meaningfully. “No chance I could get you to stay inside, is there?”
“No way!”
“Thought as much,” he squeezed her hand. “Keep close to me.”
“Always.”
“Ready, Martha?” the Doctor turned back to the young woman. “And…”
They pushed open the doors at the same time and Rose couldn’t contain the gasp of amazement. The Doctor had taken her to so many places, so many beautiful worlds that completely took her breath away. But for all the places he took her, and despite how many times she asked, he’d never taken her to Earth’s moon. Now, here she was, gazing at her home planet suspended in space and surrounded by stars.
“’S gorgeous,” Rose breathed. She let go of the Doctor just long enough to loop their arms together and clasp his hand between hers. “You take me to the best places.”
The Doctor looked down at her and smiled warmly. “Just like old times, eh?”
“I can’t believe this,” Martha said, completely awestruck. “We’re on the moon! We’re on the bloody moon!”
“Quick on the uptake, this one,” the Doctor teased. “So, Martha Jones, your hospital is scooped up out of the ground and deposited on the moon, kept breathing by a...hold on…” He picked up a small rock from the balcony and tossed it onto the landscape. It bounced harmlessly off an invisible barrier. “…force field. Discuss.”
Martha was still staring, half in awe and half completely bewildered. “Extraterrestrial. Definitely. I know, a few years ago that would have sounded mad but now…with that Christmas star and those metal men a few years back? Not so far fetched anymore. Hold on,” she broke off, turning to look at the Doctor and Rose. “If this is all the air we’ve got, what happens when it runs out?”
The Doctor’s face turned stony. “How many people in the hospital?”
“I dunno, a thousand?”
“One thousand people, suffocating,” the Doctor added, his voice hard. “One of those people would be Rose. And that just pushed it to a whole new level.”
Almost as if on cue, Rose was nearly deafened by the roaring of ship engines. Three huge, cone-shaped vessels were bearing down on the moon’s surface, opening at the bottom and letting out long lines of dark figures.
“Doctor,” Rose asked, nervous. “What are they?”
“Judoon,” he answered gravely. “Let’s just hope they’re the same in this universe as in ours. Rose, Martha, come on!”
******
The three of them had managed to hide on the second level of the hospital, the Doctor explaining quickly to Martha and Rose about the Judoon being intergalactic police-for-hire and how they had no jurisdiction over the Earth. Hence, they used an H2O scoop and sent the entire hospital to the moon.
“Oh, they’re cataloging the humans,” the Doctor breathed. “They must be looking for some non-human in hiding. Which is bad news for me…”
“Why is that?” Martha asked absently.
Rose had to bite her lip to hide the smile on her face. She couldn’t help it, the Doctor was adorable when he was giving people the “you’re-so-clever-how-could-you-not-figure-this-out-look.” Martha finally realized what he was trying to tell her around the same time Rose did.
“Oh, my God, Doctor, are you safe?” she asked, holding tighter onto his hand.
“Probably not,” he said. “Rose, I need you to buy us some time. Do you have your Torchwood ID?”
“Yeah, ‘course I do. Why?”
“I’m going to try and stay out of the way so I can find out who’s hiding in the hospital. I need you to flash your ID around, be an advocate for the human race. The people will calm down if they see someone taking charge.”
“No way!” Rose protested. “I can’t do that! Number one, I don’t want to leave you! Number two, I can’t confront these…massive…rhinos! Couldn’t even get the Sycorax to back down, remember? And what about you?” She gripped his hand and gave him a meaningful look. “Are you gonna be…okay?”
“Rose,” the Doctor started, cradling her face in his hands. “Don’t worry about me. I should be fine for a few hours. You have more experience with aliens than anyone else in this hospital…well…except for me of course. You are brave and strong and absolutely brilliant! Start using that Torchwood reputation to your advantage. You can do this, Rose. I have complete faith in you.”
Rose smiled and covered his hands with hers. “Yeah?”
“Yes,” the Doctor breathed vehemently, pressing his lips to hers briefly before pulling away. “Sorry, that might cause you some trouble but you should be fine in the end. Come on, Jones, we’ve got to get access to the patient files.”
“Be careful, both of you,” Rose warned.
“I’m always careful,” the Doctor replied, giving her a winning smile and scurrying off with Martha on his heels.
Rose turned her attention back to the events below her. People were terrified. Granted, the Judoon weren’t doing anything particularly harmful, but still, she knew better than anyone how humans could react when they were scared for their lives. She didn’t want to see anyone get hurt.
She reached into her pocket and found the small leather case holding her Torchwood ID. Steeling her nerve, she stood up, channeled every bit of the Doctor that she could. If she concentrated, she could almost feel his faith and support pulsing gently in the back of her mind. She took a deep breath and began to talk.
“Oi, Judoon!”
If the giant rhino’s faces could register any expression, she was sure it would be shock.
“You will be catalogued,” one immediately grunted out.
“Well, let me save you some trouble. My name is Rose Tyler,” she held up her identification. “I represent the Torchwood Institute. We are the foremost authority on extraterrestrials on planet Earth and you have just violated about a hundred protocols.”
“We were not made aware of any protocols.”
“You should have done your research. May I approach? Then I promise, you can catalogue me…or whatever it is you‘re doing.”
The Judoon leader seemed to consider her for a moment, before grunting, “Approach.”
“Thank you.” Rose started down a set of stairs, and the Judoon were immediately upon her. She tried not to let her nerves show as they shined a blue light on her head.
“Human,” the leader confirmed before the device squeaked once more. “Wait, non-human element suspected. Authorize full scan.”
The leader practically pressed Rose against the wall. Though her heart was pounding in fear, she did not break her gaze. The scanner pinged once again, before the leader pronounced her human, marking her hand with a black X and offering her a paper covered in odd black symbols.
“Compensation,” he explained. “Now, explain these protocols.”
Rose gulped. She had no idea if they had broken anything at all, but she knew it was customary for any aliens to coordinate with Torchwood if they needed planet Earth for any reason. Just scooping a hospital to the moon to find one fugitive? It seemed a bit excessive.
She recalled a bit of what the Doctor said about galactic law and began talking in the most authoritative voice she could muster up. “The Torchwood Institute is the planet’s ambassadors and the sole defense to any non-human affairs. If you were looking for a fugitive on Earth, we would have provided you with any resources we could and coordinated a capture and rescue. Instead, you decided to lift a hospital containing a thousand humans, encase it in a force field, and terrify these poor people half to death. There is a reason these protocols are in place, sir. We do not want the population to foster a negative image of all visitors to our planet.”
Rose stopped to take a breath, proud that she had managed to keep her voice steady throughout her entire speech. In fact, she thought she managed to sound pretty convincing.
“We do not wish to have an adverse relationship with your Institute,” the Judoon leader stated. “You are the representative. We will coordinate with you.”
“Oh,” Rose stated, surprised. What did she do now? “Well, before you go barreling through the hospital, let me warn them, yeah? Just so there’s no panic. You do what you have to do down here, wait for me to make an announcement, and then come on up. I’ll find the intercom system and try to keep it in order.”
The leader looked at her for a moment before answering. “Confirmed. Judoon, catalogue this floor and then we move.”
“Thank you,” Rose said, turning to the group of humans who had gathered to listen to their proceedings. “Don’t worry, everyone. They’re not here to hurt you. They just want to make sure everyone’s human. So long as you’re not from Mars or anything, you don’t have anything to worry about. Just cooperate and make things go as smoothly as possible, yeah?”
“Er…Miss Tyler?” an older woman raised her hand. “Will we ever get home?”
Rose tried to muster up her most confident smile. “Yes, we will do our best to make sure we get back. I can communicate with agents who were outside of the hospital and see what they can do from their end. All right?”
The woman smiled gratefully at her. Rose returned the expression, before turning on her heel to the reception desk and making a quick and authoritative announcement over the loudspeaker. Once that was done, she headed for the stairwell to try and find the Doctor and reassure people along the way that all was under control. She pulled out her mobile as she moved and winced at the seventeen missed calls from Mickey, Torchood, and her father.
She dialed Mickey and quickly gave him an update on the situation, letting him know that they ought to start trying to find a way to get them home, just in case. She explained about the oxygen, reassured the team that she and the Doctor had everything under control, and asked them to please let her mum and Pete know that they were all fine.
She hung up quickly and headed up the stairs, determined to find the Doctor and Martha so they could find this fugitive and get the hospital back home as soon as possible.
******
It was getting harder and harder to breathe, and Rose knew the oxygen would run out soon. The staff were doing all they could, offering breathing tanks to as many patients as possible, but she knew there weren’t enough for everyone. She had to find the Doctor and fast, before all of these people suffocated.
Almost immediately, Rose crashed into Martha, who looked panicked. “Rose, hurry, I know who you’re looking for! Get the Judoon, she’s in the MRI room!”
“Oi, Judoon!” Rose called. The group that was on this floor, including the leader all turned to look at her. “Come on, Martha knows where we can find your fugitive!”
The large group moved to the MRI room. The first thing she noticed was the machine sparking and crackling with power.
The second thing she noticed was those horrible, black-leather creatures drop a deathly pale Doctor to the floor.
“No!” Rose cried out, pushing past the group of Judoon to kneel by the Doctor. “What did you to do him? Tell me!”
“Oh, this poor man just collapsed from fright!” a woman Rose vaguely knew was called Mrs. Finnegan told them.
“No, that’s not possible!” Rose exclaimed, moving to cradle the Doctor’s head in her lap. He was limp as a rag doll and his face was completely ashen. The only time she’d ever seen him like this was immediately after regenerating, and even then he at least had some color in his cheeks.
She didn’t realize that the Judoon were shining their scanner on the Doctor until the leader called out, “Confirmed: deceased.”
“No!” Rose cried out. “No, he’s not! Ask her, Mrs. Finnegan! She did something to him! He’s not dead, he’s not!”
“She drank his blood!” Martha suddenly piped up. “Scan her!”
Rose was vaguely aware of Martha grabbing a scanner off of a Judoon and aiming it at Mrs. Finnegan, but she only had eyes for the unconscious man in her lap, his beloved face blurring as she fought to hold back the tears. “You stupid, stupid man!” she scolded affectionately. “You gave your life so that this woman would be caught. You better not regenerate from this. Not now, not after all this…”
“Rose, move, I have to perform CPR,” Martha nudged her away and began pumping the Doctor’s chest and blowing air into his mouth. “It’s okay, he’s going to be fine.”
Rose collapsed against the wall. She was dizzy. Was it getting warmer in here? Blimey, she was exhausted. Surely no one would begrudge her a small kip here on the floor.
The last thing she saw before succumbing to the darkness was the Doctor, pale and drawn, hoisting himself with great effort off the floor and crawling towards the crackling MRI machine.
******
Later on that evening, the Doctor stood in the doorway of their bedroom, watching Rose with his usual great interest. She was curled up on the sofa, a blanket partially obscuring her lap, surfing absently through the eight hundred channels. It occurred to the Doctor that this was the first bit of down time they’d had since they arrived in Pete’s World. Rose certainly looked comfy, hair combed out and still damp from the shower, face scrubbed clean of makeup, clad only in one of his striped pajama shirts and a pair of knickers.
She finally noticed him standing in the doorway and smiled softly, scooting over in silent invitation for him to join her on the sofa. Not one to resist her (Well…at least not lately), he took his space next to Rose, covering his lap with a bit of the blanket and pulling her tightly against his side.
“Hello,” she murmured, pressing a kiss onto his chest. “I’m still mad at you, you know.”
“I know,” he replied. “But it all turned out okay in the end, right?”
“I suppose.”
They sat there silently for a few minutes, the Doctor absently tracing his fingers up and down Rose’s arm, trying to decide how to breach this incredibly difficult conversation. The direct route was probably best, but he’d never had to discuss anything like this before. He had no idea where to begin.
“Doctor?” Rose asked. “What’s on your mind?”
He looked down at her, some of his amusement reflected in his tone. “And how do you know there’s something on my mind, Rose Tyler?”
“You’re too quiet,” she answered him. “Come on, out with it. After the day we’ve had, I’m ready for anything.”
The Doctor squeezed her tightly before taking a deep breath and launching into his partially-rehearsed speech. “Well, Rose…do you know how sometimes I can be a bit…well…daft when it comes to human things? Especially…you know…relationshippy…things?”
“Yes,” Rose answered a bit too quickly for his liking.
“Well, as long as we’re on the same page…” he sniffed before adjusting their positions so that they were facing one another. “Rose…do you remember how in the hospital, I told you that the kiss might cause you problems later?”
“Yeah, the Judoon said that I had non-human traces. I expect they were reacting to the fact that your DNA is basically all over me.”
The Doctor chuckled nervously. “That it is. Anyway, though it was absolutely a lovely kiss with you and me…well, later, with Martha…I needed her to buy me some time. Judoon were coming up the stairs and if they scanned me, it would basically mean instant execution. I figured what I was about to do would be preferable, to you especially..”
“Doctor, I’m really tired,” Rose interrupted, yawning. “Can you please come out with it.”
“I kissed Martha,” he blurted. “Well, when I say kiss…it was a kiss with you. With her it was a genetic transfer. Just to buy me a few extra seconds. Just to hold up the Judoon. I swear, it meant nothing, and I told her that beforehand…why are you smiling at me?”
“What, you expect me to be mad?”
“Well…yes, actually. Don’t human females generally get mad when their…significant others kiss other women?”
“You said it wasn’t a kiss. It was a genetic transfer.”
“It was!”
“Doctor, really, it’s fine. I know you’d never cheat on me. If you did, I’d never let you shag me again and I know you’re not that stupid.” Rose grinned and took his hand. “If you say it meant nothing, then it meant nothing. I’m not mad, I promise.”
The Doctor gaped at her, completely awestruck for the umpteenth time by this wonderful creature in front of him. He immediately pulled her close and kissed her, slowly and sweetly, practically worshipping her lips with his.
“Now that,” he breathed out when they finally broke apart. “That was a particularly lovely genetic transfer.”
“Mmmm,” Rose murmured, stroking her fingers gently over his face. “It was. You know, I might be coming around to this whole genetic transfer business. And I’m sure they can be mighty useful.”
“Oh, yes they can, Rose Tyler.”
“I think we ought to share some genetic transfers more often…in as many places as possible,” she teased, grinning flirtatiously at him.
“Starting with the sofa?” he asked, waggling his eyebrows suggestively.
Rose giggled and was about to answer until the Doctor silenced her with one heated, intense genetic transfer.
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