The dark woods on Teruro wouldn't make Rose's list of places to visit again. A cold wind whistled through the trees, cutting through the light jacket she wore, and she dropped the Doctor's hand to wrap her arms around herself.

The Doctor held the sonic screwdriver up and took a quick reading. "This way," he said, taking the path on the right. "Not far now."

Rose stared at the road ahead of them. Perhaps the dense forest wouldn't have seemed foreboding if the area weren't blanketed in a layer of fog. She knew the Doctor had better vision than she did—maybe he could see more than fifteen feet ahead of him, and that was why this planet hadn't put him on edge the way it had her.

She looked back, but the TARDIS had disappeared in the mist. Well, of course it has, she reminded herself. We've been walking here for at least ten minutes.

When she turned back around, she realised the fog had thickened. She could just barely make out the Doctor's figure, fading into the gloom. The vague awareness of a nebulous threat that had niggled at her from the moment they'd stepped out of the TARDIS blossomed into sharp fear. They were not alone in these woods, and the Doctor was leaving her behind.

"Doctor!" she shouted, running down the path. When she tripped over a root, she jumped back up and kept running, heedless of the stinging pain in her hands and knees.

Then the Doctor was in front of her, and he caught her, his hands on her elbows. "Whoa! Rose, what's wrong?" When he cupped her face in his hands, worry shone in his eyes. "You're terrified, love. What happened?"

"Something's—" Rose gasped for breath. "We're not alone. Something else is here, an' I don't think they're friendly."

His eyes narrowed and he scanned the forest. "What did you see? What did it look like?"

Rose shook her head. "I didn't see it." She would have felt coolish, but the pervasive sense that they were being watched—being followed—still pressed down on her. "I can just feel it."

Anyone else would have discounted such a claim, but she knew the Doctor believed her. "I wonder if…" he closed his eyes for a few moments, and when they snapped open a few moments later, she could see the cold power of the Oncoming Storm gathering behind them.

"Right. We need to go back to the TARDIS, now."

He grabbed her hand and started walking, but fear clawed inside Rose at the thought of walking toward it. "But… they're back that way," she said, hating the tremor in her voice.

The Doctor looked down at her, and the muscle in his jaw twitched. He held his hands just an inch away from her temples. "May I?" he asked.

Rose loved that he never took her permission for granted, even though she'd never refused him. She nodded, and his fingers touched her temples. A moment later, he was in her mind, his warm, comforting presence banishing the fear, leaving behind nothing but an urgent desire to get home. She grabbed onto him when he started to pull back, terrified to feel the oppressive fear again.

Trust me, he told her, and she let him go. His fingers left her temples, and she blinked up at him.

"Better?" he asked.

Yeah," she said, surprised. "How did—"

"I'll explain later. Right now, we really need to run."

They reached the TARDIS in less than half the time it had taken them to get that far away. The console room felt warm and cheery after the gloomy forest, and Rose almost hugged one of the struts in relief.

The Doctor could feel Rose's eyes on him, but forced himself not to look at her. He needed to get them into the Vortex without punching a hole in reality, and if he saw the fear on her face again, he might not succeed.

But once they'd left the planet, he raised his eyes, and the way she was hugging the TARDIS brought a smile to his face. "Tea?" he asked, holding his hand out.

Rose took it, and they walked toward the galley. "I was thinking wine."

The Doctor shook his head. "Tea first, to take care of any lingering effects. Then, wine after I've explained."

When he pushed open the door, they both stopped for a second. This was the library, not the galley, though he did spot two mugs of tea and a plate of biscuits waiting for them on the coffee table.

He scratched at the back of his neck. "I suppose the couch is a little more comfortable than the kitchen chairs."

"Just a bit," Rose agreed, a hint of her cheeky smile on her face.

The Doctor sat down in the corner of the couch with his mug in one hand, and the other arm wrapped around Rose's shoulders.

"What was that back there, Doctor?" she asked. "How come I could feel it, and you couldn't?"

Rose took his mug, and he reached over to the table for a biscuit. "They were… Well, I suppose you could call them psychic vampires." He dunked the biscuit and took a bite. "They drain their victims of mental energy."

"What?" Rose jerked, and a little tea sloshed over the edge of his mug onto his trousers. "Oops. Sorry, Doctor."

"It's fine, love." He popped the rest of his biscuit into his mouth, then set both their mugs down on the table and rubbed his hands up and down her arms soothingly. "They hadn't done anything yet. That fear you picked up on is what they use to drive victims to the colony so everyone can feed."

Rose's nose wrinkled, and her brow furrowed. "Your barriers kept you from feeling it, didn't they?"

The Doctor nodded. "I'd have walked right into their trap if you hadn't warned me." Her fear spiked again, and he quickly added, "Mind, they'd have had a time getting past those barriers to feed, and I probably could have gotten away, but it wouldn't have been pleasant."

"How do you know so much about what they were planning?"

"When you told me it was something you felt, I suspected our pursuer was telepathic, and I lowered my barriers, just for a moment. They aren't used to a trained telepath landing on their planet, and I caught quite a bit more than just the vague sense of dread they were projecting."

"I'm glad I couldn't get any of that, then," Rose muttered. "I was terrified enough as it was." She looked up at him. "Speaking of, you promised to explain why that went away."

The Doctor tugged at his ear. He didn't think Rose would be upset with what he'd done, and he would never regret helping her, but explaining the intimacy of it after the fact still made him a little nervous. The few times he'd connected with her telepathically before had just been to communicate.

"You needed to be able to block them out of your mind so you could run back to the TARDIS. I just… created a light link between us that allowed me to protect you with my own."

Rose picked up her mug and sipped at her tea. The Doctor watched her—she was obviously considering her next words carefully.

"Is that why I can still feel you in my head?"