It was the sound of silence that woke Rose up. She was laying in bed, her purple doona wrapped around her legs like she had been thrashing about in her sleep.

It had taken a while for her sleep muddled brain to realise that it was the silence that was odd. Rose smiled at the memory of when she first joined the Doctor and the week of sleepless nights she had spent as the sound of the TARDIS moving through the vortex had kept her awake. As usual, the Doctor had no sympathy for her predicament and responded with a sarcastic, "Well you humans sleep too much anyway," Still that was how he was then, with his northern accent that grew on you and leather jacket with that smell that always made her feel safe.

Now she had gotten used to the constant, comforting hum that the TARDIS made and for the first time all she could hear in her room was silence. It was the type of silence that wasn't comforting; it was giving her the feeling she used to get as a small child looking at the half closed closet, expecting the monsters to jump out.

Rubbing at her eyes, she stumbled out of bed, belting her pink flannelette dressing gown tightly around her waist. The lack of sound in her ears was, if possible, getting louder. If anything, her experiences with the Doctor had taught her that trusting your instincts could save you life and right now, her instincts were at red alert. The feeling of foreboding only increased and she hummed 'Whose afraid of the big bad wolf' to help keep her fear at bay. While the memories were still extremely vague, the thought that at one time she was one with the time vortex only helped her self confidence and feeling of invincibility.

Rose walked out to the walkway that usually lead to the main control room, half hoping and expecting to hear the Doctor tinkering, cursing, ranting to himself about how clever he is or making some type of racket, causing the TARDIS to be offline or working on fixing it. Instead, all she got was more silence.

The fear that she had been damming back came crashing back into her veins, making her whole body feel like it was running on molten lava. The sound of her footsteps echoed loudly down the corridor and it was all she could do to keep walking calmly instead of running wild in a blind panic with arms flapping or going into sprint to find the Doctor ASAP.

She walked briskly into the control room (and thought she deserved a BAFTA for acting so calm), noticed only the emergency lighting was on and looked for the Doctor. It took two quick, desperate glances around the room before she saw him lying under the console in the shadows, tools spread out around him.

Instantly, the tenseness in her shoulders relaxed and the fear instantly dissolved. A silly, goofy grin formed on her face before she could stop it but she got hold of her self and replaced it with a concerned, thoughtful look. She noticed that he was still wearing the torn, brown pinstripe suit that he had on after they had to run for their lives this morning after a very unintentionally insult in the markets of Veelida'furd left all the butchers running after them with their knives. As it turns out they were quite exceptional at throwing them as well.

As Rose walked over to see what he was doing she stumbled over a carelessly placed coffee mug and cold tea spilt all over the floor and her foot. Cursing to herself she picked up the cup and placed it on the console (one advantage of travelling with the Doctor was picking up some really fantastic swear words, but heaven help her if her mum ever found out what they meant. Especially if she found out the word Rose used to describe her marmalade cake didn't mean delicious, but instead meant something along the lines of: worse than an eternal stench of fetid armpits that had been covered in a musty mould covering)

"Doctor, what's going on and why the hell are you leaving cold tea around where anyone can trip up on it?" she asked.

He didn't answer, didn't move, or even make an annoyed sigh. She knelt down to where he was lying on the floor and tried to get his attention

"Well don't think you don't think you get out of being in trouble by pretending that you didn't know I was here. Remember how well that worked for you last time? If I recall, that bruise on your shins was a lovely green colour for quite some time"

When that didn't elicit a response, Rose changed tactics and got straight to what was bothering her. As annoying as he was, if Rose truly worried, he always had something to say, whether it was to confirm their impending doom or to make her laugh and forget what was worrying her in the first place.

"Doctor, what the hell is up with this place!? I've never heard it so quiet in the TARDIS before" His lack of response this time was making Rose terrified and that awful feeling that something horribly wrong was occurring was making the hair on the back of her neck stand up.

Frantically she grabbed at the Doctor, managing to pull him from underneath the console. Her heart stopped for a moment when she saw his eyes closed, and his face was a horrible pale waxy colour. She heard someone calling out, "DOCTOR!! Doctor, please, please wake up," before she realised that it was her. She winced when she realised she sounded just like her Mum did when she was getting angry and scared. Rose touched his hand and it was icy cold to the touch. She drew her hand away in horror.

Full panic welled up within her as she grabbed the Doctor by the shoulders and shook him, vigorously. She slapped him, pinched his cheek, scratched his arms, even kissed him as hard as she could (any excuse would have done for Rose but the panic that was eating her alive made her wish that she never had those wild daydreams. In fact she would give them all back if it would get the Doctor back. She would even promise not to think that way about him again, if everything would just sort itself out).

She screamed at him to respond, begged, pleaded him to do anything but he stayed as the same icy cold statue. Rose even grabbed the sonic screwdriver lying on the floor and pressed buttons wildly, hoping something miraculous would happen. After sending sparks flying all around the console she quickly put it back down. She tried to remember CPR lessons from high school but nothing could come to mind other than something about calling for help first. But who would she call here? She laid her head against his chest first on the left and then to the right and couldn't hear any heart beats. She tried to do compressions but then remembered he has two hearts and got confused about where to compress and then worried if it would make things worse. Rose placed her cheek against his mouth and couldn't feel any air movement. She tried mouth to mouth but after a minute had no idea if that was doing any good either.

She got back on her feet and wildly looked for anything on the TARDIS console with an emergency or medical type button symbol. When she couldn't see anything she just stabbed at random buttons but the TARDIS stayed unresponsive. Tears coursing down her cheeks, Rose went and sat back down next to the still form of the Doctor. She rocked back on her knees, numb with disbelief but unable to deny the facts.

He was cold. Unmoving. Her Doctor was gone.