A/N: Just me, crawling out of the woodwork with a Tenrose fic. Enjoy 3
Life Is Fleeting
In that moment, that harrowing split-second, all he could see was red.
The scarlet of his anger, the fury of a Time Lord in all his rage. The magma hue of the sunset sky as the day came to a close, and the vermillion tint of her lips. The crimson of her life-blood as it streaked her shirt and trickled through her trembling fingers. It was the colour of the fear in her eyes as she watched her mortality slip through her fingers.
A bullet. A single bullet to the stomach. That was all it had taken to bring Bad Wolf to her knees.
Not Bad Wolf. Rose Tyler. Precious, human Rose Tyler.
No.
They were one in the same, in the end.
The Doctor staggered, collapsing beside her, his trembling hands skimming her tangled hair and smearing the specks of blood that had settled on her face. "No. No, no, no, no. Don't. Don't you dare. Don't you do this to me, Rose. Stay with me. Stay."
A moan escaped her lips and in that instant, he wanted nothing more than to seize the universe in his bare hands and tear it to pieces for what it had let happen to her. "Doctor," she whimpered, and the sound of her voice, however weak, made his heart soar if only for a moment.
"Oh, Sweetheart, I'm here. I'm here."
He stripped his jacket, pressed it against her abdomen with enough force to make her cry out. The sound tore at his hearts, and he couldn't help the sob that erupted from his lips. Pressure, pressure. Stop the blood flow. Get her back to the TARDIS.
"I've lost you enough," he whispered, leaning down to kiss her as softly as he could on her grazed forehead. "I won't lose you. Not again. Not this time, and certainly not like this."
Chewing against his lower lip to stop himself from crying aloud for her pain, he lifted her bloodied form into his shaking arms. He pleaded with her to hold his jacket where he had left it against her bullet-wound, lest she bleed out before he so much as got the chance to save her. She let out a guttural groan, followed by a sequence of coughs, and he took off at a faster pace towards the TARDIS, trying to avoid seeing the way that the stain was spreading. They had left it just outside of the factory compound, the soon-to-be graveyard if he continued to stumble.
Don't think like that. Don't you ever think like that.
"We're almost there, sweetheart, I promise. Keep yourself awake, okay? For me? And keep holding the jacket there."
The Doctor held back the temptation to sigh in relief as they came within two feet of the TARDIS, shifting to support her against it and lying her in one arm to fumble in his pocket for the key. The second it was open, he was reeling towards the Medical bay, tears streaking down his own muddied face.
He could feel the concern of the TARDIS radiating through its hum, mirroring his own as he lay his charge on the bed, praying that the type 40's environment would at the very least keep her conscious for the time being. He could take her to the Zero-Room, but that was almost at the heart of the TARDIS, and she was bleeding so very heavily that, if he dared to try, he feared she wouldn't make it.
Her once-white button-down shirt was unrecognisable as its original colour, and it was only adding to the Doctor's anxieties. Stroking her hair and praying to a dozen Gods he didn't believe in, he removed the soaked top and cast it aside, assessing the damage. The bullet had left both an entry and exit, and he thanked Rassilon for small mercies; at least shrapnel removal was one less thing to worry about. The way he would treat her bullet-wound would give her a couple hours to heal, until it was almost untraceable.
Rose stirred as he sterilised and wrapped her wound, her hand lifting to grasp at his sleeve with fragile fingers, and he let out an audible gasp of relief at her awareness.
"Rose," the Doctor whispered as tears flowed once again, raising a hand to grasp the hand of hers that lay on his arm. "Oh, Rose."
"Careful, Doctor," she murmured back, her voice hoarse. "You're getting blood everywhere."
He laughed in spite of the tears, and kissed her forehead as he had done mere minutes ago. "Don't care, really. You're still here. You're alive."
"I promised forever. Gonna..." She paused for a moment, wincing as she shifted her position incrementally to be slightly more comfortable. "Gonna be with you. Forever."
It was in that second that he found himself believing her, and it was the most glorious, most rewarding feeling in the world. "You just sleep for now, okay?"
She smiled at him in that way that made his hearts skip a beat, and he smiled softly back. Rose raised her hand further up to card her fingers through his tangled hair, and he leant into her touch. "Stay with me? At least 'til I go to sleep?"
"Long as you want me to," he promised. The Doctor, ever careful not to disturb her bandaged wound, slid up onto the bed next to her, allowing himself to relish the way that she lifted her head to rest on the arm that he offered to her.
Rose reached over her stomach in a lazy motion to find the Doctor's free arm, pulling it over her chest to hold it to her. "Then stay 'til I'm healed. Won't be long, right? You told me once that the TARDIS can heal you pretty fast."
"So, you do pay attention sometimes."
"Oi. Careful, you - I'm not injured too bad to slug ya," Rose replied sleepily, raising the Doctor's hand to her lips to press a kiss to his fingers. He tried hard not to spontaneously combust.
"Slug? Was that a verb?"
"Was," Rose said sleepily. "It felt appropriate."
"Hm. Alright."
They lapsed into a comfortable and companionable silence, which, in spite of its abnormality (since the two never usually stopped rambling to one another), felt rather pleasant. The TARDIS raised the Medical-bay temperature to a warm but not stifling one, so that the Doctor didn't miss the warmth of his suit-jacket and Rose didn't miss her shirt. Rose, of course, was the first to succumb to sleep, but the Doctor followed soon behind.