This fic is based off of fogsblue's fantastic story Chase the Dark (located at the Archive of Our Own) and kicks off in the middle of chapter 9. The part written in italics at the beginning of this chapter came directly from there and was not written by me.

Obviously I do not own Doctor Who and I am not super familiar with the lore so if I make any mistakes in regard to canon that's probably why. Feel free to let me know what I'm doing wrong!

This fic can also be read on my AO3 account under the username lethargy.

Warning: this story contains dark!Doctor, non-graphic violence, and dubiously consensual drug use (not between Rose and the Doctor). This chapter also contains a bit of very mild non-con near the end.

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Fan the Flames

"UNIT might work have worked with you in the past, but do not assume they've left themselves completely vulnerable to Time Lords. And you should remember, Torchwood, they spent over a century learning what they could about you, even if the organisation is now run by a friend."

Narrowing his eyes, he focused on Sarah Jane, unable to really believe the woman who was once his treasured companion and friend would threaten him. Because everything she said was just that. A threat, a warning, and one the Doctor didn't doubt.

"Do you understand, Doctor?" Sarah Jane asked.

The Doctor hesitated, his mind whirling with conflicting thoughts. He didn't truly think that Torchwood would be able to keep Rose away from him, despite the advanced technology at their disposal in comparison to other humans on this planet. And yet ... Sarah Jane was right; it was very likely that they'd been searching for a way to combat Time Lords since suffering under the tyranny of the Master. If they decided to interfere between he and Rose, it could be ... problematic. And waging a war against the entire organization, with Rose caught in the middle, wasn't something he wanted to do.

And it could come to that, he knew, if Rose wasn't willing to see sense.

Sarah Jane waited, staring him down with steel in her eyes. His body thrummed with tension as he looked back at the house. He couldn't let her stay there, hidden away from him; he needed her at his side where he could watch over her, always and forever. Everything he'd done had been for her. But she wanted some space, she'd said; she needed to think. She needed to think about leaving him. What if he continued waiting and she decided to go to Jack for help anyway? What if she decided she didn't want forever with him, after all?

The Doctor's eyes hardened; his hands clenched into fists. What the hell was he doing, standing around arguing while Rose was in there thinking up ways to get away from him? If she didn't trust him right now, then he would just have to show her that he could be trusted. And he couldn't do that if she wasn't even with him. She still loved him, he knew she did, and so long he kept her safe they would have forever to work out the little things. But he couldn't do that if she decided she'd rather hide from him than face their problems head on.

The Doctor's shoulders squared and he started stalking back toward the house. Fine, then. If she couldn't make up her mind, he would just have to do it for her. After everything he'd gone through to get her back, he wasn't willing to risk having her run from him. She had promised him forever, and he fully intended to make her keep that promise.

"Doctor!" he heard Sarah Jane call after him, but he paid her no mind. He would have to be quick about this, he thought; he had little doubt that his old friend would make good on her threat the second he stepped through the door.

Even so, he paused in the hall just before the entrance to Rose's room and took a deep breath, steeling himself against the pained expression Rose was sure to make when she realized he wasn't going to do as she'd asked. He had never really thought it would come to this, but he couldn't continue to live with this painful separation between them. Rose was going to be very upset, but everything would be so much better once he got her back into the TARDIS.

He stepped into the room and Rose looked up from the overstuffed chair where she sat sipping a mug of tea. She was still crying softly, and when she saw him she drew in a breath before spitting, "What the hell are you doing back?"

"I'm sorry Rose," he told her seriously, "I understand you think you need some space right now, but I can't let you stay here anymore. Come on, we're going back to the TARDIS." He grabbed her wrist just hard enough that she wouldn't be able to twist from his grasp and pulled her up to her feet.

Rose's eyes widened and the mug slipped from her hand and smashed on the floor. "Let go of me!" she demanded shrilly, trying to yank her arm back. She grabbed at the chair with her free hand, attempting to anchor herself. Growing impatient, he bent down and forcibly threw her over his shoulder in a fireman's carry. Rose's limbs beat against him as he briskly strode away from the room and her shouts were loud enough that the human police would probably be called. But that was alright, because the two of them wouldn't be there anymore by the time they arrived. As he walked out the front door he saw Sarah Jane standing on the porch, a phone to her ear and condemnation in her eyes as she glared at him furiously.

"As fast as you can, he just left the house and he's got her slung over his shoulder like a sack of potatoes," she was saying, much to his irritation. The Doctor's right hand was occupied with holding Rose's struggling body to his shoulder; with his left, he reached out and snatched the phone out of Sarah Jane's hand. He dashed it against the sidewalk and it broke into pieces with a satisfying crack. He moved a little faster, almost jogging now, and felt a deep sense of relief when they reached the TARDIS and he was able to slip inside and throw the doors shut. He put Rose down but didn't release his arm from around her waist, concerned that she would run straight out the doors the second he let her go. Instead, he pulled her over to the console and contained her flailing limbs as best he could while he quickly sent the TARDIS back into the vortex.

For the first time in two days, the knot of anxiety in his chest finally loosened. He had his Rose back and they were in the TARDIS together, safe and sound. Everything was going to be okay.

Pain shot through his core as Rose sent an elbow into his gut, forcing the air from his lungs.

"What the hell are you thinking?" she was screaming, as he was dimly aware she had been doing all along. "Take me back right now, right now, do you hear me? I'm so done with this! If you're going to act like a, like, like this then I want no part in it, for god's sake, what the hell happened to you? This isn't you!" Her eyes welled up with fresh tears, and a knot of guilt twisted in his already aching stomach. Rose pushed against his chest with her free hand while simultaneously attempting to yank her other arm out of his grasp, desperately trying to pry herself away from him. "And for god's sake let go of me or I swear, I will never trust you again, do you understand? How could you?"

"Okay," the Doctor gasped through the pain. "Okay. I get it. I screwed up and I'm sorry, Rose, you don't know how much. But I can't stand being apart from you after I only just got you back, and I know I hurt you but I'm going to spend the rest of our lives making it up to you. And guess what, thanks to me, that's going to be a long fucking time, so you're going to have to forgive me eventually."

Rose's body stilled but her eyes narrowed dangerously. "Let me make myself very clear, Doctor," she said in a low, frigid tone that he didn't believe he'd ever heard from her before. "If you keep disregarding my wishes and trying to control me, I will never forgive you. Look at yourself. You just dragged me back into the TARDIS, against my will, and now you're threatening to keep me here, again against my will. You're out of your bloody mind and you need to take me back to Sarah Jane's house right now or I am never going to trust you again, and then I really will have to leave you. And I don't want to do that, I really don't, and I know that you don't want that either." Her expression softened just a little at her last words, quietly pleading for him to do as she'd asked.

The Doctor wavered. All he wanted in the universe was to be with Rose and to make her happy. He had never considered that he might not be able to do both. He wanted so badly to put an end to her pain, to do what she wished ... but what she wished was to be apart from him, and he couldn't let that happen. He had already let go of her once; he wasn't going to do it again, not even for her.

He looked away for a moment, finding it difficult to hold her gaze as he gave her the answer she didn't want to hear. "You can trust me, Rose, and I'm going to prove it to you. But you have to give me a chance, and you can't do that if you're not with me. I'm so sorry, love," he said regretfully, "but I can't bring you back to Sarah Jane's if it means that you're just going to keep trying to run from me. Maybe in a few weeks when you've cooled down we can go back and visit her, but right now-"

Rose's face went blank as he spoke, and she suddenly let out a scream of deep frustration. She shoved against him hard and he finally allowed her to slip from his grasp. Rose's mouth opened and she looked like she was going to start shouting, but then she closed it again and shook her head as though she were so upset that she was at a loss for words. Letting out a final growl of fury, she turned on her heel and all but ran out of the control room.

The Doctor let her go. As painful as it was to watch her walk away from him again, at least he knew she wouldn't get very far.

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Rose stalked through the corridors of the TARDIS, almost shaking from the force of her emotions. Rage, because the Doctor had sunk to a new low in dragging her kicking and screaming back into the TARDIS. Grief, because what he had just done had been unforgivable and she wasn't sure their relationship could ever recover from it. And under that, fear, because something fundamental must have changed in the Doctor for him to act this way and she had no idea what to expect from this strange man who had replaced him. He had basically just kidnapped her, after all. Kidnapped! By the Doctor of all people! And now he was holding her captive! Something inside him must have gone very wrong at some point, and she had no idea how to fix it.

Sighing deeply, Rose slowed and focused her attention back on her surroundings. As usual, she was nowhere near her old room which was where she really wanted to go, but she did spy the door to the kitchen. She went inside and poured herself a glass of water, then sat down at the table. The water kept stirring in her glass, and she realized she was shaking. She sniffed, her eyes burning with fresh tears. A sob tore itself from her chest and suddenly she was crying harder than she ever had in her life. She had been so happy only a few days earlier. But now...

The Doctor had gone crazy. Her home had become her prison. She didn't feel safe anymore and she had no one to turn to. She didn't even know where she was going to go after she finished her cup of water.

The walls of the TARDIS echoed with Rose's sobs.

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The Doctor could only wait so long before he had to go after her. He had waited for her for two days already, after all, and he just couldn't find it in himself to wait any longer. However, as he grew nearer to her location he could hear her crying almost hysterically and his chest ached with the knowledge that he had done that to her. He wanted to go to her, to hold her close and kiss away her tears, but he knew that he was the last person she wanted to see right now. He stood there for a while listening to her cry, but in the end he turned around and went back the way he'd come. He'd try again later, once she'd cooled down a bit.

He hung around the console room for a while, making a few small repairs that he'd been neglecting over the past few weeks while he'd been putting all his efforts into preventing Rose from pressing for answers. He had attempted to work on some of them during the two days she'd stayed with Sarah Jane, but he had been much too distracted to get anything done. Right now seemed like a good time for it, though; right now he needed to be distracted or else he would spend all his time dwelling on the look in Rose's eyes when he told her he wouldn't fly the TARDIS back to Earth.

The work was occupying enough that it kept him busy for several hours until he absolutely couldn't stand not knowing how Rose was doing and he had to go find her again. He wiped his hands off with a rag and strode purposefully into the corridor. Ever since he had used the regeneration energy to change her DNA he had been able to feel Rose in his mind the way he could any other Time Lord, which made her much easier to find. It was comforting too, feeling her there, like a warm blanket that wrapped around his mind whenever she was near.

He followed the gentle tug of her presence and found her curled up on a lounge chair by the side of the pool. She was asleep, her expression gone soft and relaxed though her cheeks were still splotchy from tears. She must have been exhausted after crying so hard, he thought. Slowly and carefully, he slid his arms under her and lifted her against his chest. She shifted as he picked her up, her sleep disturbed despite his best efforts.

She blinked at him sleepily for a moment, but awareness soon entered her gaze and she glared at him resentfully. "Let me go," she whispered hoarsely, and he felt the knot of guilt in his stomach give another throb.

"Never again, love," he said quietly, then added, "Let's get to bed. You look exhausted."

Rose struggled slightly in his arms, though he didn't think she'd be too happy if he actually dropped her. "I don't want to go to bed with you. If you must insist on being crazy and keeping me here, at least let me go back to my old room."

The Doctor sighed tiredly. "You don't have to - if it would make you feel better I'll go do something else while you sleep, alright?"

Rose didn't reply, but he could feel her glare boring a hole into his skull as he walked resolutely forward. It didn't take long to reach their room, and once there he put her down on the bed as gently as he could. "Just stay here for now, alright?" he said awkwardly, breaking the silence. "We'll talk more when you wake up."

Rose's answering glare could have frozen glaciers. "Get out."

"Right," he said, holding his hands up placatingly and carefully backing out of the room. He shut the door behind himself but only went as far as the other side of the corridor before he stopped and leaned against the wall. He waited there for long minutes, listening to her shuffle about their room getting ready for bed until finally the room went silent and he knew she'd gone to sleep. Even then he waited a long while, needing her to be truly asleep before he could risk going back into the room. At last, he walked back across the hall and quietly pushed the door open.

She had curled up into a ball at the edge of the bed, and he could see the path that fresh tears had taken before she'd fallen asleep. He stood before her and gazed down at her regretfully. Everything he did to try to keep her close only seemed to hurt her, to push her farther away. And he couldn't stand being apart from her.

Slowly and carefully, the Doctor brushed his fingertips over her temples and dived into her mind. He sought out the place that controlled her sleep cycle as he'd done several times in the past, and implanted in her mind a suggestion to deepen her sleep. Then he took off his suit and slid into the other side of the bed before pulling her back against him.

He worked one arm underneath her as he pulled her back against his chest; the other arm he wrapped around her waist before sliding his hand under the nightshirt she was wearing. (Not one of his, he noted with disappointment.) He allowed that hand to journey upward to brush the bottoms of her breasts, and then, since he suspected that when she was awake she wasn't going to let him do this for a very long time, he moved it higher still to cup one in his hand. Rose really did have the most fantastic breasts. His cock stirred a bit at the feeling of her nipple pressed against his palm, but he forced himself to take a deep breath and relax. He wouldn't take advantage of her, not like that.

He was reminded of the first day he had laid there next to her after getting her back. That time, she had woken at his touch and reciprocated most enthusiastically. But now...

Rose didn't trust him, she wasn't sure she wanted to be with him anymore; his world was basically falling to pieces around him. Maybe this was his punishment for daring to break the rules. There would be a certain irony, he supposed, for him to risk everything getting her back only to lose her as a consequence of the things he'd done to keep her.

Even so, for the moment, he felt like maybe everything would be alright. Rose was there with him, her back pressed to his chest, warm and there and alive. Even more so than the TARDIS, she felt like home to him. And it felt so good to be home.

Everything was going to work out for the best. He had to believe that, because there was simply no other option.