I do not own Doctor Who or its characters.
His Rose, his Rose was staring at him, not with fear or disgust. He could feel his heart, beginning to beat again. Perhaps she didn't hate him? Perhaps she still wanted him. He came out of the TARDIS, eyes taking in everything around him; Harriet Jones, Mickey the Idiot, three dead, and Rose, his Rose.
She wasn't going to end up like those dead bodies on the floor. He'd make sure of it. But first he needed a plan. And when in need of a plan, the Doctor talked.
First, his hair. He picked a random color, one that came to his mind simply because he'd never had it before.
"Am I… ginger?" he asked. His heart did flips as she looked at his hair and actually looked like she was considering it.
"No, you're just sort of brown." She said. He groaned and walked away a little, mentally counting the number of aliens on the ship. A lot.
"Aww, I wanted to be ginger, I've never been ginger. And fat lot of good you were Rose Tyler, you gave up on me!" the Doctor frowned. Where had that come from? "Oh, that's rude. Is that what I am now? Rude and not ginger." He said. Rude. No, he didn't think that was quite it. He probably just needed a good cuppa of strong tea. Really strong tea.
He moved on to the others, truly delighted to hear of Harriet's promotion and glad that Mickey was still breathing (since he had yet to do anything of actual importance besides that) before turning to the leader.
Then he saw it. A big red button that should never ever be pressed under any circumstances. He saw Rose too. And to be honest, while seeing a big red button that should never ever be pressed under any circumstances was tempting enough, also wanting to impress Rose by saving the day?
He never had any other choice than to press that button, really.
And then the sword fight. The sword fight, he wanted to stop the leader, but more than that more than anything, he wanted Rose, his Rose, to love him. Had she loved him before? She'd called him 'my Doctor' but that could have been the Time Vortex running through her head. Maybe if he could impress her some other way she'd love him, want to come with him. So he'd fight with a sword, like a knight, a hero of old, if it would make him Rose's hero.
Then he lost his hand. He couldn't even imagine what Rose thought about that, let alone the fact that he regrew it. But it was a fighting hand! And he saw her smile when he said that, so it was okay, at least the joke made her smile, even if his hand scared her.
And then he won.
Sometimes winning was no fun at all, he thought, as ash from a race rained down on his head. The humans thought it was snow, not the leftovers of a dead army that had picked the wrong planet to try and invade. The Sicorax had been destroyed and there was nothing he could do that he hadn't already done about that.
His Rose came up beside him. She thought it was snow too, until he told her the truth. He could tell it bothered her, but most of her attention was focused on him. And that set of lightning butterflies in his stomach. He swallowed as she asked him if he would travel alone. He took a deep breath and tried to quell his nerves.
"Why, don't you want to come?" he asked before he could rethink it. her answer came with her next breath.
"Yeah." She said, and her smile lite up the Doctor's heart. Because she wasn't scared and neither was he. They were holding hands, they were together and they were going that way, no… that way. And that way was going to be absolutely fantastic.