"Rose! Rose, please wake up!"
The voice sounds scared, desperate, and so far away everything feels like a thick fog and his voice echoes through my mind. Maybe I'm dreaming? Something is telling me to hang on to that voice, to follow it.
"Come on Rose, you're safe now." The voice said closer now, but still just a whisper against my ear. I can feel his warm breath on my face as I try hard to focus my attention. My head is throbbing, but it feels so muddled, everything is confusing. That voice, it grounds me. If I can just reach it. Something as simple as thinking is much harder than it should be, I try and talk but can't, and the only thing I can muster is a garbled moan. The pain is so intense, it hurts to think.
The stranger's voice is back now, louder this time. His voice is excited, frantic. "Hey, there you are, come on now Rose. Open your eyes for me". Cool fingers caress my forehead, then slide along my cheek. It feels so right, even if it doesn't relieve the pain. And I try and open my eyes. All I want is to see this man with the kind voice, he sounds so sweet yet so frightened. I have a need to alleviate that fear, but my eyes feel too heavy.
When I try to reach out and touch him, my fingers twitch. Frustrated I try again, this time I am able to raise my arm, and cold fingers thread themselves through mine. His hands are so chilled, yet it's not cold in here. In fact, it's a bit on the warm side.
"I'm right here Rose. I'm not going to leave you again, we're safe in the TARDIS. You're going to be alright. Open your eyes. Please." His voice cracks as he speaks. And I wonder if he has been crying, but not because of me? I can't remember what happened, and why I am here. This voice, this man he speaks as if I should know him, but I don't. I can't…
"It hurts." I groan. My voice sounds strange, alien. I can feel his lips on my palm, his breathing shallow. I must have been injured pretty badly.
"Where does it hurt?" He asks as he gives my hand a slight squeeze.
"Head," I croak. My mouth dry, it's as if I swallowed a razor.
"Okay, I'll give you something for the pain." But when he tries to let go of my hand panic sets in, I don't want him to let go, I don't want to be alone. I squeeze his hand as tight as I'm able, to keep it close with what little strength I have. All of this is so intensely frightening. I don't want him to go, not even for a moment, if I do I'll be lost again.
"It's alright. I won't go far, just across the room. Everything I want to help you is right here, I'm not going to leave Rose. I just want to give you something for the pain."
"Please don't." Tears sting my eyes and my words come out in more of a sob than I meant it to but it couldn't be helped.
"Okay. It's alright, I'm right here. I'll wait," he says with a soothing tone, his cold fingers linking with mine again.
I try again to open my eyes, they are swollen and gritty. A tear rolls down my cheek as I make my eyes open. A bright blinding light shines into my eyes, a sharp pain shooting through my head, causing me to squeeze them shut again. I whimper.
"Oh, sorry. I'm so sorry," he babbles. There is a soft click from above, "I forgot, I'm sorry. It's off now."
"Mph," was all the sound I can manage. Slowly I try to open my eyes again, the room is dim, dark splotches pulsing from where the light had blinded me. I squint, trying to look around, my head falling to one side. I can almost see him there, just the edges first. He leans towards me, but his face and most of his body are eclipsed by the black round sphere caused from the light. I blink, the dark shape before my eyes quickly coming into focus. I see him now, my heart skips a beat. This was not what I expected. He is quite attractive, but looks as if he has been through hell. He is wearing a dark brown pinstripe suit that is shredded and charred. A wild thatch of dark brown hair sticks up all over, but seems to suit him well enough. Small cuts, bits of dirt and dried blood cake his face, but the way he looks at me with such intense emotion, makes my stomach tighten.
"Welcome back," he grins, bringing my hand to his mouth, pressing his lips to the palm of my hand again. "You gave me quite the scare."
"What happened?" My voice cracks. Still my voice sounds so funny to me, almost like it's not my own.
He frowns, his brow knitted together. "You don't remember?"
I try to think, but everything is so confusing nothing made sense. There is something at the edge of my mind, but I can barely hang onto the memory before it slips away again.
"No, I-I don't… I."
"Shh. It's okay Rose. You hit your head hard," he said and brushes a bit hair from my face, his fingers linger against my cheek. "It's not uncommon to have memory loss of sorts." He was still frowning, and he's trying to sound reassuring, but I don't even think he believes it.
"Where?" I try and look around the room, but nothing in this place appears familiar. It reminds me of a hospital, but even that feels wrong.
"We're in the TARDIS. I had to take her into the vortex after the attack. She's been damaged. We'll need to stay put while I do some repairs."
Something changed at that moment. I don't know if it's because everything this man has been saying to me sounds like utter nonsense, or if it had to do with my expression, but his whole body tensed, and his eyes, they bore into mine.
"Rose, what is the last thing you remember?" It was a momentous question, as if everything in the world depended on my answer.
I stare back at him trying to remember something, anything at all that happened before I woke up here. Everything is jumbled. I realize I have no idea who this man is, and from the moment I woke up I've been staring at a complete stranger. Nothing at all about him is familiar. What I do know is that I'm drawn to him. Fear begins to bubble up, but I try to hold it back. It won't help anyone if I lose it now. I shake my head slightly.
"I don't…" He releases his grip on my hand and sits up stiffly, his gaze never leaving mine. It seems as if he's searching for something.
"Do you know who I am?" He asks with an edge of apprehension in his tone.
"I don't, I'm sorry…" He flinches. I know it isn't the answer he was hoping, and feel horrible for even speaking.
"It's alright, don't be sorry," he swallows hard and stands. The sounds of the chair scraping loudly across the floor rattles through my head. "I'll fix this," he splutters, "don't worry Rose, I will fix this."
He turns away and walks swiftly to the other side of the room forcefully pulling open drawers and rattling about, until he found what he was searching for and slams the door shut. I flinch, it's as if every little noise around me has been amplified by a million. So much is happening at once and all I want to do is go to sleep. I close my eyes and take a deep shaky breath. I want this day to be over, and with exhaustion taking over I start to drift off to sleep.
"ROSE, wake up, you can't sleep."
I groan, opening my eyes. He's standing over me now, fear and concern written clear all over his face. This man can't seem to hide his emotions. He holds out a small plastic cup.
"Drink this, I don't have Aspirin on the TARDIS anymore, but it's safe for humans, and it works better." His voice is warm again and I can tell he is trying not to upset me, but I think we're beyond that now. Carefully I take the cup as he helps me sit up, my whole body protesting and aching everywhere. Whatever happened to me must have been pretty awful to cause this much pain everywhere. I look into the cup to see a brownish sludge that smelled of strawberries. I look up at him with uncertainty, but he smiled and nods.
"Bottoms-up." I try to sound cheerful but fail. I hold my breath swallowing it down in one giant gulp. I coughed, the strong taste of oranges was not what I was expecting. He rubs my back in an attempt to soothe me. "That was unexpected." I choke, causing him to chuckle. The man pulls the stool over to me, sitting as close as possible. He carefully takes the cup and sits it on the small table beside him.
"Rose, I want to try something. Normally I would wait, it's dangerous enough, but I think it will help."
"Ah, Okay." I'm not sure where he is going with this, but if this means I would remember everything. I wasn't about to back down from him.
He thumbs at the blanket that covers my knees. He seems so nervous so I lay my hand carefully over his which causes him to look up at me and smile. "I want to create a mental connection with you, a small one. I want to check to see how much damage, and if I can fix it without risk to you I will. I'll only know the extent of the memory loss once I'm there."
All I am able to do is sit and stare as his words sink in, I'm having a stroke. I must be because in no way did I just understand what he just said. He sounded like a loon, and I'm starting to regret saying yes to this madman. I think he picked up on the direction of my thoughts. His eyes widen and he takes hold of my hand again, squeezing it tight.
"Rose, ah, I went the wrong way of asking, I'm telepathic," he blurts out as if telling me this would make it all better. "Don't worry, I won't look at anything I shouldn't, I promise. I just want to make sure you're okay."
Even though I know he's trying to sound reassuring, I'm pretty much ready to get the hell out of here at this point. If it wasn't for the painful throbbing in my head, and the fact he's holding my hands pretty tight now, I would be gone.
What do I say? 'I'm sorry strange man, but you're crazy, and I want to go home,' I doubt he'd take that exceedingly well. I don't know where home is through, do I even have a home? Who is he to me, my boyfriend, husband, brother? Eh, let's not think about that one right now. I think at this point I should just go along with this. What's the worst that could happen? Okay, not thinking about that either.
I nodded. "Alright." My heart hammers as if it's going to rip its way out of my chest. When all of this is over I am so running for the hills. His whole body relaxed once I agree, his thumb rubbing smooth soft circles on the back of my hand.
"This won't hurt, I'll just be in and out, ten minutes tops. I won't go rummaging around if you don't want me to see something just imagine a door and I won't look okay."
I sigh. And yet something inside of me still says to trust this man, no matter how much crazy seems to be spewing out of his mouth right now. I nod again, and he reaches up fingers gently caressing my face, sliding up to my temples. My heart is racing wildly, and my stomach tightened.
"Stop with the dirty thoughts." I scold myself. "I can't find Mister sexy gorgeous, he's a nutter. Unless of course I'm into that sort of thing. I don't think I am. Oh god, he's smirking at me, and he's in my head, did he hear that? Now I sound foolish."
"Relax Rose, you're not crazy. I need you to calm down so I can do this."
"Relax he says, right, okay." I take a deep breath, letting it out slow. I can already feel the tension as it leaving my body.
"There we go, that's it," his voice is soft and so sweet, there's a slight pressure in my mind. It doesn't hurt, if anything it feels quite comforting. His smile widens and his thumbs brush lightly against my cheek. My eyes slide closed. A small burst of intense pleasure ran through my whole body causing me to gasp and shudder, I've never felt anything like it.
"Sorry," he murmurs. That's the moment when I realized he is inside my head. Like really, inside of my mind. It was a lot to take in right now. I can sense him, I can sense his thoughts, his emotions. Pictures flash through my mind, so fast that I can't take hold of just one. Small moments of time, and with every moment there is a powerful emotion attached.
"Just breath," he whispers. His warm breath against my cheek. I realize at some point through all of this, he had stood up. His face was so close now. His lips almost against mine. I want to kiss him, so badly. This time it was his breath that hitched and moved closer, his lips brushing light against mine, there was a spark. And it is like forever and yet no time at all. Like I had lost something I never knew was missing and I just now found it, within him. As if I had always been empty, but now I'm complete.
He groaned, his forehead resting against mine, and it's like a flood of intense pleasure, desire and need. What is this man doing to me? Was it always like this? Does he do this to everyone or am I just lucky?
"Ros…" He moans as his whole body goes rigid and it's as if someone had dumped ice water into my head. I cry out as the pain overwhelms me. Jerking back, I press my hands against my head. I hear him fall back into the chair, gasping for air. Then, just quickly as it came, the pain is gone. Hot tears stream down my cheeks and a sob escapes my throat. I feel so empty now, so alone, like something so powerful has been ripped away from me.
I look up at him, and what I see shakes me to my core. He is wide-eyed, glaring at me with severity, as if he could burn my soul with just his gaze. I lean away from him, fear taking me over me like a tidal wave, the loss and longing for him still lingering and making me more confused. He steps closer, bearing down upon me.
"Who are you?" He hisses, my whole body trembling with the accusation. My words are lost within his intense glare. "WHO. ARE. YOU?" He growls, slamming his hands on either side of my legs. I cringe but he seemed to notice nor care. "What have you done to Rose?" He spits. His face inches away from mine. "ANSWER ME!" Anger, fear, loathing rolled off him in a rush. His emotions rolled off of him consuming him and me. All I want is to run away, to save myself, but I can't, my body refuses to move. I sob, unable to hold back the tide of tears.
"I don't know," I cry, fear and pain taking over my entire body.
"If you've hurt her in anyway, I will destroy you. Now you tell me who are you, and WHERE IS ROSE?"