"You want me to WHAT?"

"Rose. He fancies human women. Young, blonde human women."

"Yeah…sounds like someone else I know."

The Doctor huffed and shook his head at her. "It's for the sake of a planet. You can throw on an outfit to save a world."

Rose looked up at him, her brow furrowed and her arms crossed tight across her chest. "Is it really just an outfit? Is that all I have to do?"

He nodded. "I've managed to get you on the list of concubines-"

"CONCUBINE?! Doctor, that is more than just an outfit!"

"Okay, so you may have to suck up to him a bit."

"That is a TERRIBLE choice of words." She frowned and glared up at him. "You won't even touch me but you want me to run off and be someone else's concubine for a day? A CONCUBINE, Doctor."

He placed his hands on her elbows and gave her the smallest of smiles. "I'll owe you. Alright? And I won't actually let anything happen to you. I wouldn't be able to live with myself."

Pink. Of course the Doctor would put her in pink. And of course it would be something to remind her of a cheap science fiction movie she'd watched with Mickey years ago. Just what she needed. A pink bikini top and some sort of flowing skirt. He'd even managed to get her hair tossed up on top of her head in some sort of updo that reminded her more of prom night than whore.

"I'm sorry about this, Rose. It won't be the most comfortable thing, but I have to." The Doctor gave her an apologetic smile as he wrapped a black leather collar around her throat, a rope attached.

"Is this really necessary? I'm not going anywhere." Rose wrinkled her nose and fingered the rope. He was lucky she loved him.

He averted his eyes, focusing on the length of rope and the tightness of the collar. "Well, you're my gift and it's the only way to get in. You've got to have a pretty wrapping…"

She sighed and looked up at him. "Gift? You neglected that detail before-"

"We need to get going. You can forgive me later."

Apparently gifting a concubine to whatever king this happened to be wasn't rare occurance by any sort of the word. There were no fewer than thirty girls standing around, many dressed even worse than she was and others not dressed at all. Though, she seemed to be the only human.

That was slightly disconcerting.

Rose gave the Doctor one glance over her shoulder before she was ushered into a room with the rest of the presents. With any luck, she'd be able to stay hidden behind the other girls…Maybe the one human wouldn't get any attention. It was worth a thought.

"You!"

A gloved hand pointed at her from the doorway and she moved forwards, a frown on her lips. "His Majesty requests your presence. He requires an escort."

An escort…that wouldn't be too bad, right?

Rose's eyes moved up towards the man's face and found nothing but a mask. She couldn't so much as see his eyes…even his voice was muffled. She nodded at the man as he offered her his arm and slipped hers into it.

An escort. That was it.

He led her down a series of hallways, almost as if he were lost, before another voice drifted from one of the rooms, angry. "The hell is taking so long? How hard is it get one girl down the hallways?"

The man maneuvered her into the room and bowed to the man standing there. Rose had never seen anything like him. Large, several feet taller than she and at least a couple of feet rounder near the middle. "Apologies. Took a moment to find a human one."

Rose swallowed hard as the large man stepped forward and grabbed the rope dangling from her collar. "Good choice. She'll do nicely."

The man with the mask quickly reached forward and unsnapped the collar from around her neck and tossed his mask to the side. Rose looked up at him, a grin crossing her lips at the sight of the Doctor.

"She. Is. Mine. I own her." The large man took a quick step forward, much quicker than his girth should have allowed.

The Doctor's hand slid down to grab Rose's and he shook his head. "Nobody owns Rose Tyler." Without so much as a warning, he turned and dashed for the door, Rose trailing along behind him as best she could. He looked at her over his shoulder, a grin playing on his lips. "Run!"