Rose walked into the gleaming console room of the TARDIS to a deafening silence. She had just gotten out of bed, she couldn't sleep, she kept having nightmares. She thought a chat with the doctor might calm her down a bit. Where was the doctor? Usually, at this time of night, he was down here, tinkering with this, recalibrating that. But he wasn't here.
"Rose!" screeched a voice. Rose felt her stomach plummet to her knees. "...Doctor? Are you alright?" No answer. She was confused. He always answered her. Unless... She darted up and down the halls, screaming for the doctor. He was nowhere to be found. This only scared rose even more. Was he hurt? Rose found nothing.
She found only one other option. One terrifying, life threatening option. She had to leave the TARDIS and see if he was outside. The only problem was, they were in the middle of space. If she opened that door, she might choke to death, or get burnt to death by a nearby star, or even get poisoned by toxic alien gases! She was very frightened, what if the doctor came back to find her body? or what if she died before she could get to him? At that moment, she didn't care. She was doing this for the doctor, her doctor. She rested her hand on the cool metal surface of the handle of the door. With a reassuring squeak, she opened the door.
What she saw could never be put into words. The TARDIS had landed. She was safe. She saw a beautiful planet, with a bright pink sky with what looked like elephants with wings flying around in it, without a care in the world. There were trees the color of the doctor's warm, brown, inviting eyes. the grass around the area was a dark and gloomy purple. It was rather warm, almost like summer back home.
"Beautiful," she murmured, in awe. She looked across a silver pond, and met the gaze of the man who had shown her the universe, and made her realize just how beautiful life, and the universe was.
"Hello," he said, with a heart-melting smile.
"Hi..." Rose whispered, completely love struck. He was okay. And if he was okay, she was too.
"What is this place?" She inquired.
"This is Viscerilla."
"Viscerilla?" she repeated, wrinkling her nose.
"Yes. This is July 19, 3749. The day before this planet burnt to dust, by an underground volcano nobody knew existed."
Rose couldn't wrap her head around it. How could a world so breathtakingly beautiful be gone... just like that... "But... Why... Doctor?" she whimpered, a single tear rolling down her cheek. The doctor strode over to her, and embraced her in the biggest, warmest hug of her life. She sobbed into his shoulder, wondering why a world this perfect had to be destroyed. They both stayed there, in each other's arms, watching the bright purple moon in the pink, cloudless sky. "Come on!" The doctor yelled, startling Rose and entwining his fingers in hers. They both ran, because that's what they do. They run.
About half an hour later they reached a village. They knocked on the door of a bigger house, and a very short pink man with a tail and and green antlers answered the door.
"Hello," The doctor said, with another trademark smile of his.
"Hello," the alien hissed, with an answering smile.
"We are looking for somewhere to stay... do you know where any hotels might be?" The doctor asked, with a twinkle in his eyes. The alien kindly gave him directions to the nearest hotel. Rose and the doctor caught a ride in the nearest flying taxi, chatting about nothing in particular with the taxi pilot, and ended up at a quaint little place off the side of a mountain. They sauntered in and the doctor flashed his psychic paper at the concierge.
"Oh... Yes... The penthouse for you and your... wife." the concierge stated.
The doctor opened his mouth to correct him, but halted and ended with a grin. Rose felt her face go bright pink as the doctor casually said, "Come along my dear wife, the penthouse awaits!" he joked. He looped his arm through hers and yanked her toward the direction of the elevator.
"Have a nice stay," the concierge called out, right before the elevator doors opened and the stepped inside.
The doors closed and Rose let more tears fall.
"Oh- Oh no, Rose, are you okay?" the doctor frantically asked, scanning her with his sonic screwdriver.
"Yes," she whispered, with a soft smile, " But, the concierge, he'll die too? Everyone dies? Even the nice man who gave us directions?" The doctor signed and wrapped his arms around her trembling body, whispering calming words to her, and rubbing his hand along the small of her back.
They stayed like that until the elevator door opened to reveal a cute little room with huge windows outlining the walls. The carpet was a deep red. There were two doors on either side leading towards bathrooms. There were a couple black couches and there was one huge bed in the middle of the floor, sprinkled with rose petals. That was it. One bed... Rose started to blush again, realizing the mistake the concierge had made. The doctor realized this too, and laughed to lighten the mood. "Don't worry," he purred," Ill sleep on the couch." Rose giggled, flinging herself down on the bed. She glanced outside the window, at the beauty outside, and once again began to cry.
The doctor felt terrible, if there was anything, anything he could do to make his Rose feel better, he would do it. Rose's mind was clouded with pictures of dying civilians of this planet, and the thought of fire.
"Do you want to let me see?" The doctor asked, walking over to her and stroking her hair.
"What?" she whispered, pain in her voice. "Your mind, Timelords can see inside your brain, see all your thoughts, memories, remember?"
"Youre going to look in my mind? okay...?" she said, rather confused. The doctor just smiled and rested his hands on her temples, and closed his eyes. What he saw in her mind disturbed him. And nothing disturbs the doctor, nothing. He just pulled away from her and held her in his arms until she cried herself to sleep. The doctor looked down at her, her golden hair falling around her peaceful face in an angelic halo. She parted her lips and let out a small wince. She was having nightmares, he guessed. He just hugged her tighter, until her periodic wincing ceased. The doctor was conflicted. He was in a bed... with Rose... asleep... in his arms. He just sighed and pushed all his worries away, drifting off to sleep listening to the steady sound of Rose's breathing.
The doctor woke up a couple hours later, Rose still asleep at his side. It was morning. He shook Rose awake, and she gave him her biggest smile. "Hello," she murmured, sleep still clouding her vision. "Hello Rose," he said, never having loved life as much as he did in that moment. Rose buried her face into his shoulder and murmured," so this is the day... huh? they all... they all die today...?" The doctor met her eyes with a pained smile and cupped her cheek with his hand.
"My dearest Rose, when will you ever understand, there are some things not even I can change, and this is one of them. It's a fixed point in time. I'm sorry. I'm so sorry."
Rose just nodded and turned the other direction. Before she could start to walk away, a hand grabbed her wrist.
"Wait," the doctor instructed. "If there's anything I can do to help you through this, let me know. I'm sorry I have to bring you here, this must be terrible. We just had to come here... I received a message of distress on my psychic paper... someone saw it coming. I now realize I can't help. We should just go back to the TARDIS, there's no point in staying here."
The pair freshened up, checked out of the hotel, said their goodbyes to the concierge, and strolled back to the TARDIS. Right when they were about to leave, there was a sound of an explosion behind them.
"It's begun." The doctor said, tears glistening in his eyes.
Rose stared at the death and destruction before her. She saw the lava and fire from the volcano approaching, miles away. She looked up at the doctor and whimpered. He simply looked down, ran his hand along her waist, and pressed his smooth, warm lips to hers. In that moment, rose didn't care if an entire civilization was burning to ashes behind her, all she needed was that kiss. The doctor pulled away, fire in his eyes, and walked rose into the TARDIS, his arm across her shoulders. Rose had never felt so terrible and amazing as she did in that moment. She loved him, and she knew, deep down inside, he loved her. and that was all that mattered to her.