Summary: The Doctor and Rose are running (what else is new?) and the Doctor gets trapped.

Setting: Anytime during s1 or s2 really. It's not specific. But I wrote it for Nine.

Disclaimer: Do I look like the BBC? I don't own Doctor Who.

Author's Notes: This is actually based on a dream I had once. Kind of a weird dream, actually, but there was this one part that I thought would make a good story. So here you go.

People who review are good. Like bananas.

Spoilers: None whatsoever.

Behind Closed Doors

"Hurry, Doctor!" Rose cried. The Doctor ran the sonic screwdriver frantically over the interface.

"Right, the blast doors are set to close in one minute," he said. "We should hurry."

Just then the first of the aliens came around the corner. It spotted them and let out a yell.

"Um, run?" Rose suggested.

"That might be a good idea," the Doctor agreed. He took her hand and they ran.

"How far is it to the doors?" Rose asked.

"From here? About a minute if we keep running."

"But they're…"

"Going to close in a minute. Less, now. So we'd better hurry."

Soon, they spotted the doors, which had already started closing slowly. They put on a last burst of speed, but as they had almost reached the doors, the Doctor tripped. He let go of Rose's hand and fell to the ground, but she didn't notice until she'd ducked under the doors. She looked at him to laugh giddily at their escape – but he wasn't there. She looked back at the door just in time to catch a last glimpse of him gazing out at her before the doors slammed shut with a terrifying finality.

She couldn't believe it at first. He couldn't be gone… And then it sunk in and she was screaming and pounding on the doors, trying to get them to open again, even though she knew he'd closed them for good with the sonic screwdriver.

"No!" she screamed. "NO! DOCTOR! No! Let him out, open the doors! OPEN THE DOORS!"

But the doors stayed closed, just as she'd known they would, and she knew there was no way the aliens would leave him alive after he'd shut them in.

"No…" she sobbed. "Doctor…"

She couldn't stay here. The alien police would arrive soon and she couldn't let them know that a human had ever been here. So she went to the TARDIS, unlocked it with her key, went inside, and collapsed on the floor.

What would she do now? She was stuck here. She had no idea how to operate the TARDIS, so she could never go home.

But even more… even if she could get home somehow…

She didn't know what she'd do without him. Somehow, without her even noticing, he'd become her entire world. He was her best friend, the only one she could tell anything to, the only one she trusted anymore.

And now he was gone.

The pain hit her like a wave, over and over again, and she cried until there were no tears left.

And then, lying on the floor, soundless sobs wracking her body, she heard the TARDIS doors shut.

She'd forgotten to shut them herself, she realized, and someone must have wandered in. She should probably get rid of them, tell them they were imagining things, or something…

She lay there still.

But then she heard the voice she'd thought she'd never hear again say, "Looking for someone?"

She raised her head slowly, not daring to let herself hope… and then, there he was, standing in front of her, leaning on the railing with a smile on his face. She let out a strangled cry and leaped up, running to him and throwing her arms around him, squeezing him as tight as she could because she was afraid he would disappear if she let him go. He seemed taken aback at first, but then his arms were around her too, and even though she thought she'd cried all the tears she had to cry, somehow she still managed to find a few tears of joy.

"You're alive," she whispered into his jacket.

"Of course I am," he said. "I'll always come for you. Don't you trust me?"

"Of course, but I… I thought you were trapped."

"So? I'm the Doctor. Of course I figured a way out. Enormously clever, me."

She laughed giddily at his boasting. Normally she'd have said something about how he wasn't as clever as he thought he was, but right now she was too relieved that he was alive.

Nothing else mattered.