Hi guys! Been away for a while, but I've been working on this fic and I thought I'd start posting because I haven't put up anything Doctor Who in a while :) Basically, this'll probably be four or five parts... maybe six, and I'll be posting every week. This is my first attempt at a real adventure/horror Who fic, so criticism and reviews are greatly appreciated!

Disclaimer: I don't own Doctor Who.

DREAM'S PROLOGUE

The TARDIS hurled through space at warped speed, tumbling towards the atmosphere like a rocket.

Command station, orbiting at an altitude of 400 km:

"Captain, we've got an object set to enter the atmosphere in three, two-"

"Get an ID on it."

"It's… A blue box. No other readings available, but looks to be a spacecraft. I swear, it's a blue box." A pause. "Should we send dispatch?"

"No." Silence. "God help them."

Poundingpoundingpounding. Fumbling with the sonic, Rose Tyler tried to fix it on the correct setting. She just needed to get it to One, but the blonde's fingers had never been so clumsy.

Poundingpoundingpouding.

"Please please please please," she breathed, shaking the thing and pointing it at the door again. If she could only open that door, if she could just get to the other side and to the Doctor—

BANG.

She jumped, turning to look at the iron slab facing her back. It was opening.

Rose didn't know what was on the other side of the door. She'd caught only the briefest of glimpses; a shadow thing moving along in the dark… and in this place, there were many shadows to move around in. What ever it was, it was bad, and it wanted her. "Work! Come on, please, work!"

She was desperate. Finally managing to get the sonic to the correct setting, the blonde pressed the little silver button on its side, immediately slipping through the door and sonicking it shut. She needed to deadlock it, but she couldn't remember which setting. "Doc-"

He wasn't there.

But he had to be. She knew he was here, that was why she'd come. He needed to be saved. She needed to save him. "DOCTOR?!"

There was no one to call. Rose Tyler had locked herself in a closet-sized concrete room with no windows and a steel door.

Bangbangbangbangbangbangbang.

The creature was pounding on the door behind her, and Rose broke. She couldn't get out. She couldn't save him. She didn't know where he was. Had she missed something? What did she miss?

And then a whisper. A cold voice slithering under the door and into her eardrums:

The Doctor imparts to his friends, tales of woe and war and blood

Warriors do they become, and fight until the night has come

And in the day they fade away, like humans all must turns to dust

The Doctor fades, the Doctor dies, all at the hands of whom he loves

Dead. She remembered now; how could she forget? He was dead. How could she forget that?! He'd died trying to save her from those things… he'd been swallowed up by the dark. How could she not remember something like that?!

He'd screamed as they changed him; hurt him. She'd been powerless to stop it. She'd tried, but he'd yelled at her, telling her to run and save herself, to get back to the TARDIS. She did, thinking that his ship would be the one thing to save him.

But she'd heard him die: screams of pain and anguish and then nothing. Then dragging feet. Then silence. Then poundingpoundingpounding.

Swallowing thickly, Rose Tyler put on a brave face and took the sonic screwdriver out, opening the door. If she couldn't save him, she would die trying to end the thing that had killed him.

But it wasn't a thing at all. It was him. In a ripped suit and tie, with black pointed teeth and blood red eyes he stared blankly at her before wheezing and reaching forward. His hands were bloodied, the skin on his face was torn like tissue paper and clumps of his hair were missing. He took hold of her neck and she screamed-

Rose Tyler awoke drenched in sweat and twisted in her bed sheets. She whimpered as she ripped them off and almost ran out of her room, feeling nauseas. She needed water. She needed to cry. She needed to scream.

"Rose?"

She needed the Doctor.

The blonde launched herself at the unsuspecting alien, hugging him tightly as she whispered her thanks in any and every way she knew how. He hugged back just as enthusiastically, frowning when he felt his companion shaking like a leaf. She was cold and drenched in sweat, and her breathing was unusually elevated. "Rose, are you alright?"

She looked up at him, tears brimming in her eyes as she took in his wonderfully coloured face and beautiful eyes and intact skin. She touched him just to be sure; his hair was all there, his eyes were alert and bright. He wasn't dead; he was okay. Raggedly, the young woman breathed out, shaking her head as she dissolved into tears, burying her head in his chest as her left hand gripped his shirt, her right arm encircling his waist.

Rose pulled herself together roughly two minutes later, though still held to him fast. "Nightmare?" he asked gently, stroking her hair.

The blonde nodded. "You were dead," she rasped out, shivering at the thought. "And not just dead… Y-you changed. You came after me. And I watched it all happen. I let you die. I heard you scream and then you just- you told me to get to the TARDIS and I went. And then I forgot. Doctor, I let you die and I forgot!" Her voice was practically hysterical.

"Rose, listen," he said, taking her face in his hands. "You did not let me die. It was just a dream."

"But how could I forget something like that?" she whispered, "and how could I just leave you?"

He thought it best not to comment that leaving him was probably the right decision in any given situation, dream or otherwise. Instead, he held her more tightly, cooing reassurances in her ear: "It was just a dream," he repeated softly, fingers running through her hair. "You're safe now."

She hadn't been safe all day. In fact, neither of them had been. After a particularly close call on Petra Nine, the pair had stumbled into the TARDIS beyond exhausted, clutching at each other for support and covered in soot and shallow cuts and sweat. They patched up before getting some food in their stomachs and staggering off in different directions: Rose towards her bed, and the Doctor towards the console room.

He found a nice, quiet piece of space and suspended his ship, doing some necessary maintenance before heading off to bed himself. It was then that he'd run into Rose.

The blonde was only slightly quivering now and looked to her Time Lord companion, exhausted. He gave her a smile and a hug and helped her back into bed, insisting that sleep was exactly what she needed despite the fact that it was the last thing the blonde wanted to do. The alien whispered goodnight as he pressed his lips to his companion's forehead, the weight of the day hitting him hard. He was more tired than he'd been in eons. The Doctor was pulling away to get to his own bed when she grabbed his sleeve. "Would you… stay? Please."

Of course he would. In fact, curling up with Rose seemed an even better idea than laying by himself.

Kicking off his shoes, the Time Lord crawled under the covers, tensing for only a moment as his companion cuddled up to him, sighing. "I'll never hurt you, Doctor," she murmured sleepily, "you know that, yeah?"

"'Course, Rose. 'Course I do."

The Doctor noted that Rose, despite her exhausted state, did not seem to be able to stop touching him. Tracing him… Reminding herself that he was there. Under normal circumstances, the Time Lord knew he would be obligated to pull away, but with his companion so shaken, he joyfully allowed himself the indulgence. The excessive touching was for a good reason. A logical reason.

The Doctor fell asleep with that thought.