Rose tossed her book down next to her on the console chair and huffed, blowing a strand of fringe out of her face.
She had been waiting for the Doctor for two hours - two hours - without a single trace of him and was beginning to get worried - she'd never known him to go so long without either tinkering with his time machine or having a laugh with her.
Ever since the events that happened on the Krop Tor base, since the beast's foreboding words that the Doctor swore on his hearts weren't true, he had been disappearing on the ship more often and for longer periods of time.
Rose was beginning to wonder if the beast's warning was true, that she would soon die in battle; it's not like the Doctor would tell it to her straight, even if that were the case.
"Yep, your days are numbered Rose - let's have some fun while it lasts!" was not something her Doctor would simply come out with. But comforting her with tight, swaying bear hugs while subtly distancing himself from her as he prepared for the worst, that was definitely more his style.
The funny thing was, the most frightening thought that crossed Rose's mind as she contemplated her potential demise was not regarding her own fate, but that the Doctor would be left to travel alone. She remembered how broken he had been when she first met him, how evident his pain was despite his efforts to hide it.
When he changed from leather to pinstripes it was as if he had begun to heal, another layer of skin forming over the old wound. Rose knew that her relationship with the Doctor, confusing as it often was, played a large part in that process, acting as a balm over his battered soul. She worried about what he would become if she were torn from him, if the scar tissue dissolved, the scab ripped clean off.
What might he do to try to keep her with him? What might he do if she wasn't there to stop him?
Rose jumped down from the console chair and set off down the sleek TARDIS hallways determined to locate the Doctor and find out the truth, however crushing it may be. If she was going to die, she wanted to tell him that she still meant those words she had uttered in that lonely corridor miles beneath the surface of the Nevada desert.
And if it was her last chance to say it, she wanted she had to make sure he knew how she truly felt about him. How she'd always felt, since the moment he first took her hand.
Rose swiped at the tears forming in the corners of her eyes and pulled herself from her reminiscence - that wouldn't help anything now. She had to know what she was working with, her true fate, and then she and the Doctor could move forward together, for as little or as long as they had.
After checking the Doctor's usual haunts - the library, the physics lab, his study, the banana grove, the anti-gravity yoga studio, and the primary, secondary, and tertiary kitchens - Rose's feet were beginning to ache.
She was about to turn back and curl up in bed with her book when she noticed a smudge of what looked like apricot jam - the Doctor's current favorite - on the doorknob of a room she'd never been in before. The door itself was plain and looked like any other of the TARDIS' utility rooms, but this one was simply marked as 'Storage.'
Rose slowly pushed the door open, trying and failing to avoid the sticky fingerprints on the doorknob, and waited for her eyes to adjust to the dim light. She closed them for a bit, helping her pupils to dilate, and when she opened them several seconds later she gasped at what she saw.
A long, seemingly endless corridor stretched out before her lined with door after door after door. These doors, however, were not plain like the Storage Room door - they were each unique and likely gave a hint of what could be found inside, as did the other doors Rose was familiar with throughout the TARDIS.
The door nearest her had what looked like a top hat etched into the colorful wood, housing the Doctor's much-lauded hat collection, perhaps, and Rose didn't want to guess what lay behind the door with a large black spider painted just above its handle.
Rose laughed, silently admonishing herself for expecting to find a room of boxes and old furniture behind a door marked 'Storage' on a time-traveling spaceship. Still, as she peered down the long walkway, there was no sign of the Doctor.
Keeping the door to the hallway ajar in order to let in more light, Rose slowly began to creep further into the room looking for any door that might be open or have a similar smudge of jam.
"Doctor?" she called, her voice reverberating down the empty corridor.
Nothing. She walked a few more paces, feeling increasingly uneasy without being able to put her finger on why. If she didn't find him in a few more minutes, she was turning back.
"Doctor?" she called again, surprised at the desperate tone in her voice.
Rose was about to turn on her heel and walk briskly back to the TARDIS hallway when a door to her right swung open.
"Rose!" the Doctor beamed, as if he had expected to find her here.
"Oh thank god," she sighed, rushing up to him and stepping into his outstretched arms, inhaling his comforting and familiar scent. "What are you doing in here? I've been looking for you for ages!"
The Doctor smiled down at Rose as she playfully swatted at his arm.
"Oh, just tidying up," he said happily, keeping his arm tightly around her shoulder as he turned them both back toward the hallway. "I'm in the mood for a cuppa, what do you say? There's this brilliant Altrutian brew made from orangewood leaves in the tertiary kitchen that you would just love."
"Wait a minute," Rose said, stopping in her tracks as the uneasiness she felt about this room dissipated now that the Doctor was here. "What is this place? It's not any sort of storage room I'm used to."
"Ah," the Doctor replied, tugging on his ear. "Well, when there's a room that I haven't had a need for in a while the TARDIS automatically moves it in here for safekeeping and to clear up space in the other hallways. There's a room full of DOS computers just down this way - they're just adorable with their black and green screens. Come on - I'll show you!"
Rose allowed the Doctor to continue to steer her toward the door back to the hallway, and in the direction of the DOS computer lab, apparently, when she realized he was leading her away from something. She reluctantly stepped to the side and out of the Doctor's grasp.
"What room were you in just now, Doctor?" she asked, voice trembling a bit as that uneasy feeling began to seep back into her pores. Something about this room wasn't right, she could feel it; the air was thicker, the shadows a bit off.
"Just an old library I don't use much anymore," the Doctor said quickly, smile faltering in one corner. "Now, these old computers have a game called 'Pong' and…"
Rose didn't have a clue what the Doctor might be concealing - it could be his hidden secret jam canning room for all she knew - but something about the way he was acting made her hair stand on end. He had hidden things from her before, resulting in a few brief, largely one-sided discussions on the importance of communication and honesty, and Rose thought they had been moving forward.
But the Doctor's distraction tactics, combined with his increasing distance ever since they had visited the doomed sanctuary base, made Rose particularly wary.
"Please," Rose said quietly, running her hand through her hair. "What are you hiding from me?"
The Doctor faltered and Rose took off in the direction they had come from, trying to locate the exact door he had stepped out of.
"Rose, don't!" he called after her, and he might have said something about timelines, but Rose wasn't listening because what she saw made her breath catch in her throat and her stomach flip.
The next thing Rose knew the Doctor was beside her, wrapping his arm around her shoulders, but she couldn't take her eyes of the white door with the beautiful pink rose the Doctor had painted her very first day aboard the TARDIS.
"Doctor," she breathed. "That's the door to my bedroom."