Come Back To Me 13/15
Pairing: 10/Rose, (with a little 9 in later chapters)
Rating: Teen
Spoilers: This is an AU, Post-Doomsday Reunion Fic. Spoilers include any and all episodes in Series 1-2 of Doctor Who.
Disclaimer: I don't own anything, If I did you'd be watching this story on TV
Synopsis: Rose gets a strange visitor who may hold the answers to all she seeks. A romantic Doctor/Rose reunion story, with some action thrown in for good measure.
Chapter 13
Awakening
Life rushed back into the Doctor as the body beneath him arched her back and took huge gasping breaths. The air he’d been gently forcing into Rose’s lungs caught in his own throat as she bucked beneath him.
“Rose!” he cried desperately, kneeling beside her. H palmed her face in both hands and smoothed back her hair. “Look at me sweetheart, come on.”
She coughed a few times, a deep ragged sound as her lungs struggled to fill after having been empty for too long. “Doctor?” she asked roughly, finally turning her head towards him and opening her eyes.
“I’m here,” he answered her, his voice sounding just as strained as he continued petting Rose’s cheeks. He could feel the warmth slowly returning as her heart raced to force blood back into the starving cells. “I’m here.”
“Hello,” she answered him with a wan smile, her complexion gradually growing peachy again. “So I’m back then?”
“Yeah,” he answered her, his voice catching on the single syllable. “Where did you go, Rose?”
She reached up to gently caress his face, running her fingers over the distinct features as if seeing them for the first time. “I took a little walk down memory lane.”
The Doctor leaned into her touch, basking in the miracle that was this woman. “And where did it lead you?”
“Back to you,” she said, the accompanying grin illuminating her cheeks with enough joy to spill out of her eyes. “All roads lead me back to you.”
Overcome, the Doctor hauled Rose into his arms, holding her to him in desperation as he gently rocked them back and forth. “I thought I’d lost you,” he panted, his whole body shaking in unreleased sobs. “I felt you slip away.” Rose clutched him more tightly, burying her face against his neck. “I felt you slip away from me.”
“Never,” she whispered firmly against his skin. “I’m never gonna leave you, never again.”
The Doctor just clasped her tighter, breathing in her scent and cupping the back of her head. The blood there had partially dried and the crusty flakes dug into his palm. Pulling back slightly he examined his hand, and despite the gory mess he’d felt earlier it was obvious that no new blood had rubbed off onto his skin. Suddenly The Doctor was all business as he pulled his lover’s head forward and slightly to the side to examine the injury.
“Hey,” she exclaimed as the world tilted sideways, “whatcha looking at?”
“You hit your head against the wall just behind you Rose,” he said, squinting in order to see her wound more clearly. “There’s a blood smear marking where you fell.”
“Wait,” she cautioned, brushing his hand away from her scalp to feel the site for herself. “I think I remember that.” Rose felt the area and grimaced at the unmanageable tangle of hair she encountered. Probing gently beneath the mess Rose expected to find a painful chasm of broken and badly bruised skin, but what she found was even more startling. “It doesn’t hurt.” She exclaimed in disbelief, palpating the area more firmly. “It doesn’t feel like it’s been cut at all.”
“Alright,” her lover exclaimed petulantly, pushing her hand away with a flick of his wrist, “why don’t you let the Doctor take a look at it?” He pulled her head back down to its former position, ignoring the scowl she threw him from opposite the wound and attempted to see beyond the sticky mass of blond strands and dried blood. “I can’t see anything,” he whined a little, raising his gaze to glance around the room.
“Where’d you put your glasses?” She asked him, her voice distorted by the unnatural angle his heavy palm kept her in.
The Doctor patted up and down his shirt with his free hand for a moment, scowling when he came no closer to locating his specs and then looked around from his place on the floor. “They’ve got to be here somewhere?”
Rose rolled her eyes and blindly felt around herself, patting the metal floor until she hit something plastic. “Oh,” she said reaching for the object, “I think I found them.”
“And Rose Tyler to the rescue,” He said playfully, taking the offered glasses and placing them gently on his nose. “Now where were we?” The Doctor examined her wound carefully and grimaced at the amount of blood caked into her hair. “How did you do this?”
“I was trying to get away from the ghosts,” she explained, pointing to the toppled boxes in the corner “trying to follow Tyler up into the air vent.” Rose took a startled breath and jerked her head sideways, finally seeing the small crumpled figure lying on the floor a few feet away. “Tyler!” she cried, desperately trying to break away from the Doctor, “What happened? I told him to run! He was supposed to be safe!" She looked back at the Doctor, her hazel eyes round with fear. "I don’t remember much after I fell.”
“Shh, Rose,” he said soothingly, reaching for her shoulders with both hands, “he’s fine.” A cheeky grin stretched across his tired face as he spoke to Rose with unhindered pride. “He saved us both, that son of mine.” The Doctor shook his head, “It was brilliant, and brave, and completely,” he raised his voice a notch, “completely foolish.”
Rose laughed a little, once more moving to caress his beloved cheek. “You love him for it though, don’t you?”
He kissed her fingers as they roamed over his lips. “I love you both for it.”
Rose nodded, pursing her lips in agreement, and then laid her forehead against his chest. The Doctor took advantage of this position and felt around the base of her skull with expert fingers. “I don’t understand it.” He exclaimed, completely baffled with his diagnosis. “It’s completely healed.”
Rose brought her head back up to look him in the eye. “What?”
“No bruising, no scaring, no bleeding,” he told her, his voice laced in disbelief. “With the amount of blood on the back of your head and on the wall panel over there you shouldn’t be able to sit up let alone carry on a conversation with me, and yet here you are perfectly healed.” The Doctor’s brow wrinkled up in confusion. “This is impossible!”
Rose frowned, trying to take in this new information. “I thought we liked impossible?”
“Oh I like impossible.” He agreed wholeheartedly, “I love impossible if it’s what’s keeping you here with me. I just don’t understand it,” he pointed at her confidently, “yet.”
Rose swayed a little, her face suddenly going a bit pale. “Whoa,” the Doctor exclaimed, holding her upright, “What just happened.”
She shook her head, placing a palm to her brow, “I just got a little lightheaded, that’s all” Rose gave him an encouraging smile. “I’m all right now.”
“That’s it,” he said, hauling them both to their feet. “I’m taking you to the infirmary.” Whatever the time vortex had done to her, whatever those ghosts had done, The Doctor needed to get to the bottom of it.
“Really Doctor,” Rose protested, laying a palm against his chest. “I feel fine, I just want a shower and I want to go to bed.”
“Now, Rose Tyler, is probably not the best time to argue with me.” He held up a hand and counted out his woes one finger at a time. “My ship was taken over by emotional demons, my son saved the day with a terrifying display of psychic strength, my sonic screwdriver is in pieces all over the floor, and my love,” he cupped her cheeks again, leaning in to barely an inch away and passionately lowered his voice, “my love died in my arms.” He took a deep, shuddering breath and closed his eyes, as if suddenly reliving those terrible moments. “Ten minutes ago you were dead, Rose.”
She laid her forehead against his, bringing her hands up to claps his forearms. “I’m here,” she insisted soothingly, “I’m alive.”
“You’re right,” he agreed, pulling back a little to regain his composure. “But you weren’t a few minutes ago and I need to know what is happening inside your body.” He sighed, moving to take off his glasses and pinch the bridge of his nose. “I need to know what it was the entity really wanted. I need to know that you are alright,” he placed a finger over her mouth before she could protest, “and I need you to stay that way.”
“I love you,” she told him, abandoning all attempts to get out of a medical exam. If he needed this, than so did she.
The Doctor looked down at Rose as she grinned at him in reassurance. She was so beautiful and so trusting; always ready to follow wherever the wind blew him, but too strong to be dominated. She and that little man on the floor next to them were everything, his whole universe. It was an awesome responsibility and for once it didn’t feel so heavy. Rose was alive! She was alive, and smiling, and loving him. The Doctor leaned in to embrace her, needing to express everything he was feeling, needing to reaffirm that she was in fact whole, and standing before him.
“Doctor?” Rose asked, leaning her weight against his whole body, letting him enfold her in his embrace.
“Yes, Rose?” he rubbed little circles on her back, telling himself they needed to get to the infirmary, but not quite ready to spoil the moment.
“I think I’m gonna be sick.”
“What?” The Doctor jerked back just in time to catch her as she doubled over, and then watched in horror as his beautiful Rose vomited all over the both of them.
Chapter 14