A one-shot about an angsty Ten and a comforting Rose. Yes, I will go down with this ship. And I don't own Doctor Who or any of it's characters, if i did then the episode Doomsday would not exist.
Children were heard screaming in a distance, the excited cheerful kind that can only come when playing a particularly excellent game of tag. The sun shone down brightly and the Doctor lay next to Rose on the grass of the park. Each of them were lying on their backs, holding hands, just enjoying each other's presence. It has been two months since the other Doctor had left Rose and 10.5 on the beach, but really it seemed as though he had never left.
It only took Rose a bit to realize that this 10.5 was in fact the Doctor, just human. He smiled whenever she said his name, filled with joy knowing that she had truly accepted that he was still him, just half human. Half- human. All day it has seemed something had been eating away at the Doctor, but Rose said nothing about it. But when she turned to him in the grass and saw his face she was concerned.
Doctor, you alright?"
His eyes broke away from the sky and went to hers, he grinned, "Yeah, just soaking up the sun." He squeezed her hand.
Rose wasn't convinced, "Come on," she squeezed back tighter.
"It's nothing," the Doctor got himself into a sitting position and suddenly started to stare intently at the game of tag going on a distance away.
This wasn't the response she was expecting, maybe a joke, but not this. She too shifted in the grass, sitting up next to him but then noticed he had his other hand on his chest.
"Miss being a Timelord, eh?"
"What?"
"How different does it feel with one heart…instead of two?"
"Different, that's for sure."
Rose looked harder at the Doctor, he had faint black circles beneath his eyes and an overall look of tiredness, and suddenly she remembered the faint cries she thought she heard that night. She had just assumed that it was a part of one of her dreams.
"You could have woken me, you know."
"Nah, you looked so peaceful I didn't want to bother you."
"What was it about?"
"Hmm?" The Doctor was now examining a small beetle crawling next to him.
Rose nudged into him, " Now that I think about it did you say…it's over? Yeah you said that a lot."
The Doctor went pale white, "It, um, had something to do with this thing that happened back a while."
"With Martha or Donna."
"Donna, good old Donna."
The Doctor knew she wouldn't be able to handle a Timelord mind, he knew what had happened, but he couldn't dwell on that now.
"But she wasn't with me, she stayed at the hotel. We were on a planet named Midnight and I went on what was supposed to be a train ride and well…"
"Aliens?"
"There was only one, never even saw it."
"What happened?"
"We had such a great time, were joking. It was a long ride….The cabin was separated, two men were killed, and it started knocking all over the cabin."
Rose leaned into him, and linked her arm into his.
"There was this woman on board, her name was Sky. Well, it got her. There was a crash and when we got to her she was just frozen."
"It froze her?"
"Not into ice, just staying still, I managed to get her to look at us. Then someone would say something and she would repeat it. They were petrified, I was too. Next, she started to talk at the same time we did, no pause."
"How?"
"I don't know. THEN, they had wanted to throw her off, throw her off! I kept telling them we could help her!"
"Oh God, they threw her out didn't they."
"No. I was trying to stop them and they turned on me, suddenly," he took a deep shaky breath, "She started only to say the words I said."
"She was trying to take your words, wasn't she."
"She did."
Rose's eyes widened, she shivered at the thought of a silent Doctor.
"Suddenly, I started repeating everything she was saying and was frozen, she was telling them I was the monster, I was to be thrown out. I couldn't move, couldn't speak for myself, and then they agree to do it. Dee Dee, another passenger, argued against it but she was out numbered."
He closed his eyes and took a deep breathe, trying not to relive that awful moment, not again.
"They hoisted me up," his voice slightly broke, but he recovered, "And started bringing me to the door, I was able to get my foot stuck but that only worked for a while. I wanted to scream, to shout my head off, but I was only saying her words."
Rose started rubbing his arm, encouraging him to go on.
"She said allons-y. I said that earlier to the hostess and she caught on. She grabbed Sky, or it, and opened up the other airlock and both went out."
He pulled himself away from her and put both of his hands over his face, "I didn't even know her name," he said taking them away, "Neither did they."
He jumped up in one swift motion, "We never even bothered to ask! And then those humans, they got scared and they just turned on Sky and then on me! Can't they just think for one second, can't they just understand. Humans! You are so brilliant, so caring, but then you turn in an instant and you show your true colors."
The Doctor pressed his hand into his chest again, "And now I'm half a human, I don't want to become that! Some frightened animal, irrational, practically foaming at the mouth!"
Rose was up now too, trying to control the man, "Doctor, please!"
"All the while, someone shouting, 'do it, do it, throw him out, get him out, do it, do it , do it-"
The Doctor's words are cut short as Rose tightly embraces him, she can feel him shaking and grasps him better.
"I'm sorry, I'm so, so, sorry," he murmurs into her hair.
She slowly pulled him down into a warm kiss but he breaks it off, "You must be disgusted with me. I'm disgusted in me. "
She simply hugs him again, that's all he needs, "She died for me, and I didn't even know her name."
"But you care, that's something."
"So many have died for me…what have I don't to deserve that?"
"It's not your fault, please Doctor, it's not. You've done so much good."
"Have I? They are all going to die eventually aren't they? All the people I've saved."
She slapped his lightly on the arm, "Oi, don't you think like that. We're going to die someday too…"
"Don't you dare."
Rose grinned, "But I don't care, not as long as I have these years with you. Think of all the time you've given them with their loved ones. Think of all you've sacrificed."
"Hmm," his eyes were dark as he gazed off to nothing.
"Just because you're half- human does not make you ignorant or stupid, it just makes you able to be with me."
His eyes snapped back to hers, "I don't regret it, you know. You're the best thing that has ever happened to me and I'm over 900 years old. That's quite the accomplishment, Rose Tyler."
"I'll be expecting some sorta medal then."
He kissed her passionately on the lips.
"You call that a medal," she questioned after they had reluctantly pulled apart.
"I love you, for everything you are, for putting up with me. Remember that."
"And I love you, for everything you are. I mean all 900 years of the good and the bad, even if you did once wear a vegetable as an accessory. "
"It was the 80's," he moaned.
"Excuses," she pressed a warm kiss to his lips, "You gonna be alright?"
"I'm always alright."
She furrowed her eyebrows.
"I didn't use to be alright but I am now. I mean it still hurts but you being here for me makes it…better."
Rose laced her fingers with his, "Come on."
"Where are we going?"
"How 'bout we take that trip to Barcelona? I'm sure the TARDIS will make sure we won't run into any trouble if we ask nicely."
He chuckled, "We could try."
The Doctor gripped her hand tighter and puller her along with him knowing that he still had a life time to spend with his Rose, a proper lifetime. He also realized, suddenly, that he would have gone through all 900 years all over again if he knew that he was going to end up with Rose Tyler.