"See, good as new!" The Doctor called out happily, slapping a hand on his upper right arm where he had just healed a minor wound.
"Good." Rose smiled warmly, placing her hand over the place where the cut had been. The TARDIS sickbay was so much better than a normal hospital. No need for bandages when you could simply close the skin back up.
"Although…" The Doctor continued as he shouldered his shirt back on fully, moving Rose's hand out of the way and re-adjusting his sleeve. There was a small hole in the white fabric surrounded by minimal traces of blood. He picked up his brown suit jacket and found a similar hole and stains. "Hmph. I quite liked that suit." He said. Rose took it from him and looked over the sleeve.
"We can mend it." She said. "I'm just glad you're alright."
The Doctor smiled at her, glad to have someone that cared for him. He stood up from his seat on the table and pulled Rose into a hug. "I'm always alright." He told her, wrapping his arms about her shoulders protectively as she smiled into his shoulder and hugged him back. He was alright because he had her. Nothing that a tiny cut like this could ever take away.
He was not quite sure what he had run into, but it was probably one of those evil-looking spikey plants in the dark blue rainforest they had just escaped. It had been quite an adventure, and neither he nor Rose were completely dry from their time in the deluge of rain. Neither of them cared how wet they were as they embraced each other.
"So what now?" He pulled away with a grin, slipping his hand into her own and leading them out into the hall. Rose hung his jacket over her shoulder.
"Let's go somewhere sunny." She said, running her free hand through her wet hair.
"How about Hawaii!" The Doctor said "The state or the planet! Oh! Or Arasand – that's a star ship. The whole thing is one big swimming pool, orbiting a white dwarf so that it's perfectly sunny all day long!" The Doctor grinned, but Rose grinned wider. She loved watching him like this. He was such a child. "Or we could go to – oh! The shining city of Aethra. It's a city on the sun! Not earth's sun but a sun. You can stand on the sun itself! Isn't that crazy?"
"You pick." She stopped him at last, tossing his damp jacket into his hands. "I'm gonna go change. You should too." She poked him playfully and then turned back towards the TARDIS wardrobe. The Doctor smiled and started off towards his own room. The city of Aethra sounded like a great idea. He absent mindedly rubbed his arm. His scratch was starting to sting. He paid it little heed as he went and changed quickly then met Rose back in the console room.
She laughed as he came in. He looked exactly the same as he did before, only dryer and without a hole in his sleeve. Sometimes she wondered how many of the exact same suit the man could possibly own. "I see you've changed?" She said.
"And you." The Doctor nodded. Rose now wore a dry short-sleeved light purple t-shirt and a pair of denim shorts along with her white trainers. She smiled as she turned to him and slipped on a pair of dark sunglasses.
"Here comes the sun!" She said happily, humming the Beatles tune. She knew that the Doctor would have picked the city on the sun – if for nothing else than because it was clearly the 'coolest' of the three. She completely agreed.
The Doctor laughed and pulled out his own glasses. He next reached for his sonic screwdriver. He pointed the tool as his glasses to darken them, but right as he was about to push the button the sonic fell from his hand.
"Doctor?" Rose questioned as the screwdriver clanked to the floor. It was not like the Doctor to drop his favorite tool. His brow furrowed as he looked at his right hand. He opened and closed it several times, examining it. It all seemed fine. He did not know what made him drop the sonic. He bent down to pick it up, but just as he reached it his hand rebelled again. His fingers would not close around the tool. Tightening his brow even further in dismay, the Doctor looked at his hand again. This time he could not make it close.
"What?" He whispered in dismay. He did not want to frighten Rose, but this was not good. He picked up the sonic with his left hand without any trouble.
"Doctor? You alright?" Rose asked as he straightened back up, still staring at his right hand.
"I dunno…" He said absent mindedly. His hand was numb. He couldn't feel it. He tried again to close his fingers into a fist. Nothing happened. He pocketed his sonic and glasses and pressed his left hand to where the cut had been. It had stopped stinging, but he could feel the numbness now creeping up his arm. This was bad.
Rose took her glasses off as she watched the Doctor in concern. She did not like the look in his eye: That look like he did not know what was going on. It never meant anything good. She gently placed her hand on his where it rested on his arm. He looked up at her seriously as she looked down at his troubled right hand. He followed her gaze down to it and found it closed in a tight fist.
The Doctor inhaled sharply, his eyes widening, and he grabbed his wrist quickly, knocking Rose's hand off of his own. "I didn't do that." He told her, gripping his own wrist in a vice-like hold and staring at his hand as if it were a monster.
"What?" Rose recoiled slightly from the look of fear in his eyes. His rogue hand sprang open and the Doctor's eyes widened with it. Then it closed back into a tight fist once more.
"I'm not doing that!" He told her emphatically as his hand opened and closed a few more times, his wrist still trapped in the tightening grip of his left hand. "Rose get the sonic out of my pocket." He instructed. He felt as if letting go for even a moment might set whatever it was free. Rose carefully reached around his arm and pulled his screwdriver out of his chest pocket. "Scan my hand." He told her. Rose held the buzzing tool over his hand for a moment and then extended the shaft. "Let me see." She held the glowing blue read out – if it was a read out, she thought it was mostly telepathic – up for him to see.
The Doctors eyes widened in sheer and utter panic.
"What is it?" Rose asked in sudden fear.
"Handcuffs." The Doctor told her quickly. "I need handcuffs!" He demanded, gripping his hand even tighter, he held it away from the rest of his body as if it carried some type of disease.
"Doctor what did-"
"Please!" The Doctor stopped her with a desperate cry. "I need handcuffs. Now!"
Rose was taken aback by the fear in his voice. She nodded and ran out of the room. She did not know where she might find any handcuffs in the TARDIS, but she set off nonetheless.
"Look in the storage drawers!" The Doctor shouted after her as she sprinted down the hall. "First door on the left on the second hall down!"
Rose burst through the door he had indicated into a room simply full of drawers. She would have cursed, but instead found herself mentally asking for the TARDIS's help as she frantically pulled the first drawer open. A hundred different knick-knacks and thing-a-ma-bobs rolled forward with the drawer as she threw it open, but handcuffs were not among them. She pulled open another and found the same. Just as she slammed a third drawer shut another drawer opened as if in reaction. She rifled through its contents and finally found what she had come for. She grabbed the police-looking cuffs and ran back down the hall, shouting a mental 'Thanks!' to the TARDIS as she ran.
She came back to find the Doctor on his knees. His right hand had found a vice-like grip around his own throat and was slowly strangling him into unconsciousness. His left hand gripped and clawed at it until his knuckles were white, but it was in vain. His face was flush and his ears pounded, his vision wavering. Even with his respiratory bypass system, his hand's grip might kill him soon.
"Doctor!" Rose cried out as she ran to him and grabbed his wrist, trying to pull it away. His eyes gestured quickly down to the cuffs in her hand and she at once locked one of them onto his rebel arm, yanking the chain sharply away. She at last broke its grasp and the Doctor gasped for air. Rose screamed as the Doctor's hand reached out to grab her own wrist.
"Chain me down." The Doctor coughed. Rose quickly yanked his chained arm towards the base of the console and clasped the other cuff there, then scrambled out his reach. The Doctor lay down on the TARDIS floor, still gasping for breath. His arm tugged against its chains.
"Rose." He desperately called her over with his free hand. She took it in both of her own and knelt beside him, her eyes full of deep-seated fear. "I haven't got much time." He told her, gripping her hand as tightly as he ever had. Rose bit her lip and held her breath. Those were words she never wanted to hear. "This thing, it's a Vionyfir." He said quickly, as if every moment might be his last. "It's a living being made of ionic particles. They're parasites, but more than that they take control. It must have been on whatever scratched me. It's in my arm, but it's spreading." The Doctor swallowed and tried to take a deep breath, but panic was obvious in his voice. Rose bit her lip and could not say a word as he continued. "It's physically manipulating my nervous system – controlling my muscles. I can feel it. It's spreading through my nerves up into my shoulder now. If it gets to my spinal cord…"
"What do I do?" Rose stopped him. She gripped his free hand tightly and placed her other hand gently upon his face, stoking his cheek with her thumb, trying to offer whatever comfort she could. He trembled beneath her touch and his eyes caught her own.
"Run." He ordered. Pure terror filled his eyes. "AAH!" He cried out, his entire body convulsing at once. Blinding pain shot up from his back, trailing all the way down into his legs. For a moment every nerve in his back and lower body cried out in piercing agony. Then the pain faded, only to be replaced by an even more frightening sensation. His body went numb. He could not feel his legs. He could not move them.
"Rose." He gripped her hand desperately. "Whatever happens, I'm sorry." He whispered, fighting back tears from much more than physical pain. "I'm so sorry…"
"You're gonna be alright." She told him, hot tears filling her own eyes, but he shook his head.
"It's taking hold." He told her ominously. "I can try to fight it off, but once it gets to my brain…"
"How do I stop it?" Rose asked determinedly. She knew she did not have much time.
"I don't know." He said bluntly. "Please, Rose, find out." He begged "And I'm sorry… Don't… Don't let me hurt you." His voice trembled in fear. He timidly yet desperately raised their conjoined hands to his lips and pressed a firm kiss against her knuckles, just in case it was the last time that he ever could. More than anything else in the world, he never wanted to hurt her. But he could feel it now, fighting for control. "Take the sonic, don't let me have it whatever you do. Quick, get the psychic paper out of my jacket pocket."
Rose pressed her hand into his inner pocket, farther down that normal sized pockets would allow, and pulled out the small black wallet. One of the Doctor's legs moved into a bent position against his own volition.
"Take that and run. I can't stop it." He released her hand at last.
"Doctor-" Rose took his face in her hands.
"Run!" The Doctor ordered desperately, shoving her away with his free hand before it, too, was claimed by the Vionyfir. "Find out… how to stop it… Don't let me…" He panted. He grit his teeth as sharp, paralyzing pain pierced straight through his temple. It felt as if his brain was about to explode. "I'm sorr-AH!" The Doctor's voice stopped with a choked out scream. Suddenly, he went silent. His eyes closed. His head fell limp to the ground. His body was motionless.
"D-Doctor?" Rose bent carefully over him.
The Doctor's eyes flew open. Rose screamed and jumped back as his free hand grabbed her own. She wrenched herself from his grasp and scrambled to her feet. The Doctor – or the beast inside of him - tried to follow her up but was stopped by its chained hand. It looked back to the weak handcuffs and at once set about breaking them. Rose looked down to the psychic paper in her hands. It displayed in large letters its message: 'RUN!'
Rose ran. Behind her an animal shout of effort was ripped from the Doctor's throat as the Vionyfir pulled with inhuman strength against its bonds. It did not care if the Doctor was injured during his struggle, it did not feel the pain but only transferred it. The Doctor mentally screamed as his mind struggled against the invading force that took over his body and brain. It did not need to possess all of him, just the parts that controlled his movements. It commandeered his senses but let the messages pass. The Doctor was completely aware the entire time; it did not seek to press him out. But he could do nothing to stop it.
His wrist began to bleed as the monster yanked against its bonds, and with one last shout he was free. No. The Doctor's mind screamed. He did not want to be free. His body shakily stood to its feet. He could feel it testing out his muscles, figuring out how to best move. He took a careful step, moving like a robot, nearly one muscle at a time. But soon he was moving normally, and then he began to pick up speed. The Vionyfir had figured out his controls. The Doctor could only watch from behind his own eyes as the beast set out in pursuit of Rose.
(This story is 4 chapters in length, the next is to be posted on Sunday evening. Thank you so much for reading!)
