"Doctor, are you sure about this?" Jackie Tyler questions from the crack in the door. "She'll be awfully upset."
The thin man rustles his trench coat, flapping the left lapel with an index finger. He looks concerned, but set in his decision.
"This one's too dangerous; I can't risk her getting hurt. Rose'll understand."
Jackie raises her eyebrows.
"Will she?"
The Doctor laughs nervously, then salutes briskly in a 'goodbye'.
"I'll be back soon. I'm brilliant, I'll be fine."
He backs away from the chipped-paint door.
"Make sure to tell her that," the alien says, and then disappears into his blue box.
Jackie Tyler shuts the door softly, as if any more noise would wake her slumbering daughter three rooms away.
Jackie feels a rush of bitter relief for Rose being left behind. She'll be upset, yes, but at least she'd be safe.
The woman pushes away the guiltier thoughts and sets about making tea, bustling 'round the kitchen until Rose stumbles in, rubbing her eyes and effectively smearing her mascara.
"You look like a raccoon with that," Jackie says, instead of "he's gone".
Rose snorts, coming up and helping prepare lunch.
"Thanks, Mum."
••••••••••••••
This was so not very good.
Thank Rassilon I didn't bring Rose along, the Doctor thinks, before his Tardis smashes into a planet he'd been aiming to avoid.
Smacking his head against the console edge, the Doctor fades out before the Tardis consciousness is able to alert him of his predicament.
••••••••••••••••
"Hey, Mum?" Rose asks. A question burns behind her eyes so fiercely she's surprised they aren't watering.
"Hmm?" Jackie replies absent-mindedly, fishing through the cupboard for the sugar cubes.
"Aha! Found-"
"Where's the Doctor?"
Jackie Tyler stiffens. She turns, sugar cube box in hand.
"He's fine, Rose," her mum says, which does nothing to reassure her.
"Where is he?" Rose demands, setting the teakettle down with a jarring rattle.
"He...um..." Jackie stutters, not sure how to say it.
"Spit it out!" Rose snaps, instantly regretting her fearsome decision.
"Don't take that tone with me, young lady," her mum retorts, "Anyway, as I was sayin', the Doctor is away in his Tardis."
Rose's eyebrows shoot up. The companion peers out the window, thrown by the absence of the Police Box.
"Where is it?"
"No, I meant to say he's gone to another planet in his box, Rose," Jackie says gently.
Naturally, Rose flips out.
••••••••••••••
The Doctor comes to with a miniature horse named Mince Pie from belowdecks snuffling his hair and the Tardis telepathic circuits shouting distress into his brain.
Lurching up, the Time Lord pats the horse and checks over the console, praying to anyone who would listen that she wasn't wrecked beyond repair.
Tubing and wires hang limply from the vast ceiling, and the Tardis herself sits empty and dead, feeling much too like a corpse for the Doctor's liking. He strokes the console.
"We need to get home, old gal. Got a blonde waitin' on me. Fiery one, too."
Nothing so much as twitches.
The alien immediately descends down into her hull, checking over the wiring there.
It hangs in tatters and sparked, burning the Time Lord more than once. The flashes of electricity are his only light source. Cursing in Gallifreyan, he hauls himself back up and assesses the mental list for what he needs to repair his ship.
"Got it. Now to just check where we are..." Says the Doctor to himself, bounding over to the door and yanking it open with force after it refused to simply slide open.
His hearts sink.
"Skaro. How did we reach the Seventh Galaxy, old girl? Meant to go for a quick dash to Gamma-8 for picnic supplies, not visit the ol' Daleks."
The Tardis stays unnervingly silent.
•••••••••••••••
Rose flips between two main reactions over the next four and a half weeks. The first is a combination of tears, anxiety over his health, frustration over being left behind, and determination to hold it together and be the tough girl she knows she is.
The second was much worse. She says the minimal, eats little, and feels even less. Frequently Rose finds herself doubting whether the Doctor would ever come back, but nevertheless she is determined to stay strong. Rose amazingly tracks down UNIT's number and demands to know everything they know about his location.
They say they know nothing.
Rose continues searching. Jackie feels she'll never stop.
••••••••••••••
"Look, there's Flidor," the Doctor proclaims one night, sitting back from tinkering endlessly with the console to stare up at the moon circling Skaro.
It has been about four weeks he'd been gone, from his best guess. More than half a year has gone by on Skaro.
The Doctor sniffs, laying on the cold metal to cool his sweltering skin. He drags his hand across his brow.
I'm not meant for this planet, he thinks despairingly. This is no flu.
The Doctor had immediately felt the effects of Skaro upon himself when he'd first stepped out onto the planet's surface. The Doctor knows he's only still alive because he's practically locked himself into the Tardis, circulating the air inside and only leaving for salvage trips. Still, the planet manages to affect him. It definitely isn't good, but he needs all the scarce pieces he could salvage to rebuild most of the Tardis, and that requires going outside.
The last piece clinks into place on the left side of the console, and the Doctor feels a wave of utter relief. He laughs harshly, wincing when his scapula grates against the floor.
"I'm comin', Rose," he murmurs, mustering up the energy to drag himself to the handle and start up the ship.
She rumbles to life, coughing and spitting. Lights flash and machinery whirrs alarmingly, but she's up and running.
"Oh, you sexy thing!" The Doctor cries, adrenaline pumping through his veins as he punches in the coordinates and set off home.
••••••••••••••••
Rose is contemplating two blouses when she hears the wheeze.
Soft at first, almost hesitant, then loud and happy like Rose's drastically lifted mood.
"Mum!" She screams, throwing on the white shirt and running outside to the materializing Tardis. Jackie Tyler joins her as they excitedly await his arrival.
What they don't expect is the toxic smoke wafting out of the box, or the broken sound to her motor. Least of all for the Doctor to stumble out and collapse at their feet.
•••••••••••••
Theta can't feel his fingertips, but he tries to move them anyway to signal his awakening.
"Doctor?" A voice asks hesitantly.
Theta reaches out to probe his mind for the familiar psychic connection that comes with a fellow Time Lord nearby. He tries to convey how he feels much better and for the medic not to worry. The feeling of his fingertips will come back, he is sure.
There, it's back. Theta grins, opening his eyes. What he sees throws him back into reality so roughly he can't breathe. He is Theta no longer. He is the Doctor. The voice is Rose Tyler. He is in the Tyler apartment. The Time Lords are all dead.
The Doctor heaves a breath, and opens his eyes again. He's alright. Above him hovers the love of his lives, Rose Tyler. He brings a hand up to touch her face, and she lets him do so for a few seconds before sitting back down.
"How long was I out?" He asks, worried.
"Three days," Rose finally replies.
He sits bolt upright, expecting headrush and nausea but receiving none. In fact, he feels great, and he tells Rose this.
"But...it seemed you'd never wake up, Doctor," she says softy.
"Healing coma, my dear," the Doctor replies happily.
He darkly wonders what it would be like if he didn't wake up, but quickly scrubbed the thought from his mind.
He sits up off the bed to capture Rose's lips with his, and she hooks an arm behind his neck.
"I love you, you git," she murmurs, smoothing her hands down his back.
"Quite right, too," the Doctor says. Rose stiffens above him, an echo of those painful words reverberating around her skull.
Before she can dwell on that any longer, the Doctor carefully takes hold of her jaw, drawing her attention back to himself.
"'Quite right too', I said before. But now I'll finish it. Rose Tyler, I love you."
Rose and the Doctor are later found cuddling on the bed, Rose's head tucked into his chest and his arms wrapped around her protectively.
Jackie snaps a picture, simply because she knows it will be bittersweet to look back on in further years.