A Rose and an Amaranth

by Hakura0

A simple attempt for dinner goes astray when the Tardis lands the Doctor and Rose into the middle of the Dark Ages. Part Three Added: The trio are faced with a problem of Titanic proportions. Written with Ryuu.

1. Plague

It wasn't that the Tyler flat was boring, really -- oh, who was he kidding? It was excruciating. For someone very used to traveling all the time - and after nine hundred years, he had grown very used to it - staying in one place for any longer than he felt like wasn't the easiest thing in the world.

He'd read every book in the apartment already, some twice - but then, he did sort of have a thing for fast reading. And there was only so much television he could watch without feeling like his head was going to explode ("I can't believe people watch this," he'd said once, and Jackie had gotten a bit offended at him - not like that was new, or anything).

The benefit was that it gave him time to get more or less used to his new form. It wouldn't do to have little surprises creeping up when they were in danger, after all. Being in contemporary - well, for Rose, anyway - London kept Rose busy, too; too busy to keep looking at him like he'd killed her dog. That was a definite plus.

But he couldn't stay there forever, and he knew it. It got to be too much, and anyway people were starting to ask questions - "who's that man staying with Jackie and Rose?" For now, though, a temporary escape was all he could get - up the fire escape and onto the roof, where there were no people, television, or tea. No burnt cooking or telephones.

He had always hated domestics.

As much as the idea of normalcy had haunted Rose just a week or two ago, she had thrown herself head first back into. She took every chance she could to get out of the flat, spending time with Mickey, and other friends. People she realized she hadn't given a single thought to during her travels.

Rose ate chips and watched the telly and sometimes even managed to forget about the Time Lord currently staying in her house. The image of the Doctor, her Doctor exploding with golden light and being replaced by this strange rambling man always lurked just on the edge of her conscious though.

She didn't avoid him on purpose, or so she told herself, she was busy. But Rose knew it wouldn't stay this way. Going about her day to day while this new Doctor sat at the flat where she didn't need to worry. In her dreams she could hear the way he'd said 'Barcelona', and knew he'd be off again. She just didn't know if that was a good thing.

So when Rose Tyler came home one day from shopping with Mickey, to find just her Mum and some friends, she didn't know what to think. Her brain quickly told her though, that she'd walked past the Tardis on her way in. After searching the flat she went in the only direction she had left to look, up. She saw him on the roof, just out of the corner of her eyes. Knowing if she looked right at him she'd have to say something, instead she looked up at the flat gray sky.

"You're home early." It was an offhand comment, and he very nearly made a face as soon as it was out of his mouth. He'd clearly been here too long, he was beginning to sound like he lived there. And it wasn't as if she had 'set' hours anyway - he just meant that she was home earlier than she had been the day before.

Leaning on the bit of stone rail at the edge of the roof, he squinted at the horizon past other buildings. Lucky thing about roofs - they tended to be a bit higher up than anything else, and made for a pretty good view.

He wasn't sure what to think about Rose being gone so long. So he made a joke out of it instead. "You left me alone with your mother all day." His tone was light, whatever he might have been thinking.

"There was a sale on." It sounded like an excuse even to her. For some reason even this little bit higher up did something to her. Made her remember the eagerness to get back out there.

Rose looked at him, her head filled with things she couldn't say. 'I thought you'd left' 'I didn't think you'd have stayed this long' Things that swayed to much to one side. Out of the middle ground she was desperate to hold.

"It looks like it might rain." Was what she actually said, leaning back against the rail. "It was on the news to, at the store." Was this really the point she was at, talking about the weather?

He raised an eyebrow at that, though he didn't look at her, keeping his eyes on the horizon. It was cloudy, but he wasn't concerned - weather didn't bother him. Well, unless it was a hurricane or something; hurricanes bothered him. Rain, not so much.

"It rains a lot here." He was briefly surprised that he had been there long enough to pick up on it beyond the universal stereotype of rainy London. Truth told, he hadn't expected to stay so long. But he was waiting. He wasn't sure what, exactly, for, but he was. "I guess that means I can't stand here forever."

He wasn't totally sure he was just referring to the afternoon anymore.

"Mums friend'll probably be heading home soon. I think she might be going to see that friend of her, with the fruit?" She couldn't remember what his name was. "So it'll probably be quieter in there."

Rose hoped that's what he had meant. It was selfish, sure, not wanting to make any decisions but... She thought of the fact that she'd really been forcing him to stay here.

Even if she still didn't believe that he was really her Doctor, he'd still saved everyone on Christmas. "Or if you'd like a change of scenery we could go somewhere." A few seconds passed after she'd said it, before she quickly added "You know, for dinner or something."

He was almost excited for a second - go somewhere - but her addendum brought him back down to Earth. Metaphorically speaking. He couldn't help a sort of half-frown, stepping back from the edge and glancing at her, then back to the sky.

Cloudy. The light clouds that had populated the space all day were turning to varying shades of gray. There was a charge in the air; it would be lightning.

"Sure you want to be seen in public with me?" A quick, mercurial grin. Half-teasing, partly serious - he knew she didn't trust him. He wanted her to trust him. Now that was unfamiliar territory. He had taken it for granted that she trusted him, went with him. Now she wasn't ready to leave again. What if she didn't get ready? What if she didn't trust him?

"I figure once won't hurt." Rose said, "Besides, it's that or cook." The addition was teasing. She watched the sky for a moment, before talking again, her voice quiet.

"I realized I've been leaving you here to fend for yourself with Mum, while I caught up with everyone here." She didn't add that she'd realized it the first day, and had kept realizing it. That maybe now she needed to catch up with him.

She had a feeling he knew she wasn't sure of him. But a public place, somewhere still at home, maybe she could give him a chance. At the least she'd have to talk to him.

The Doctor smiled a little, though he was still looking at the sky - watching clouds collect. "It's not easy, you know." Okay, that sounded too serious. Follow it up. "Your mother thinks I like her cooking. I'm... Not sure why." This time he actually did make a face.

Not that he was much better, with the cooking thing, but he didn't really have to be. And anyway, he didn't do domestics. Jackie, evidently, didn't either.

"It's because you haven't told her you didn't, have you?" Rose asked, grinning at a familiar subject to pay attention to, "Look at how hard Mickey tries, and she still pushed it on him."

She almost laughed at the face, but just managed not to. "It's an acquired taste though, really." Rose emphasized the last word. Acquired meaning 'sooner or later the tastebuds go' of course.

"I.. Haven't got round to it." He was really joking, this time, smiling. It was good, at least, to talk to her. Maybe it wouldn't convince her that he was still the Doctor, but it helped. Made him feel better, anyway. "And I'd rather not acquire that taste, I think."

He grinned, then, looking over at her. "You know, I have had worse food. There was this little planet, and.. I have to wonder: Where'd they learn to cook that badly?" Probably a bad joke. But it was worth a shot.

Rose looked over, catching his eyes just in time to laugh. She looked away as she did, putting a hand over her mouth. But then she grinned, then in a sort of fake shock, looked back over.

"If you are suggesting-" Rose stopped train of thought lost and hung her head, but looked back over, sheepish to admit she'd actually forgotten what she was going to say. "Maybe she's got a cookbook from them?" It was a bad coverup, but it was the best she could think of.

"Well, either that or we're not the only ones who've been visiting other planets.. Now, how d'you think they found a publisher for that?" He raised an eyebrow, still grinning. This was more than they'd spoken since Christmas, and it was nice.

It would be easy to say he hadn't realized how much he missed having someone to talk to, but he had. Even if it was just pointless conversation, it was better than... Well, standing on a roof alone. He'd gotten too used to her being around him. Bad luck, that.

"Shopping network." Rose said immediately, in a knowing tone. "Prob'ly bundled it with a lot of pans, or some spices or something." She shook her head at the thought.

The sky had continued to darken as they spoke and it began to drizzle. Rose ignored it for the moment, still not sure how well they'd be able to get conversation back up if they stopped now. Well, if she stopped now, anyhow.

"Ah, that must be it. Aliens taking over the shopping networks... Explains more than it doesn't," he said, shrugging. He noticed the rain and glanced up, but he didn't move to go inside, either.

"How else d'you think they've got all that weird stuff?" Rose asked, she was leaning sideways against the ledge now, facing him. "I don't mean the jewelry, or any of that. Trust me, home sick, Soaps and shopping channels all day. Plenty of strange stuff."

"I s'pose.. I've never really watched them. But the soaps, I'll give you - those are either alien, or I've been overestimating you lot." He was joking. Really.

"The rest of the universe's telly is like Soaps? You'd better not tell my Mum or she'll have you fixing it up so she can get them." Rose warned him jokingly.

He thought about that for a minute. "Well, with a bit of tweaking... But no, your soaps are bad enough. You don't need the ones from other planets." The fleeting thought of a Dalek soap opera crossed his mind - well, there went any semblance of seriousness he had going for him.

She was enjoying herself, and it surprised her. If she concentrated just on who he was now, didn't think about the rest of it. "Oh alright then." She thought of something, it wouldn't be taking back words and, she thought it might be okay...

"You mentioned the little planet with worse food then Mum's. Who's got the best?" she asked.

"Well... That is a good question," he said, grinning. He shrugged, thinking about it for a second. "There was this little border planet, right in the Andromeda system - that's not so far, really - that makes the most amazing.. I don't even know how to describe it, but it was good."

He wanted to add, 'we should go there,' but he didn't want to ruin the moment.

She sat there for a moment, thinking as best she could. She knew what she'd been leading to with the question, what she wanted to say now. Admitted that she still wanted the wandering. Rose looked into the sky, felt the rain on her breathed in and looked at him.

"And if we went there, d'you think you could manage to get us back here now?"

It was really very hard not to show how thrilled that question made him. The dark sky meant nothing to the light that brought. Hope.

"Well..." He grinned and shrugged, waving a hand dismissively. "I can do my best. I'm getting pretty good at landing in London.."

"Can't say much for your last landing though." She pointed out to him. "I'll leave a note in-" Pausing, she reached into a pocket, pulling out a phone. Pressing buttons for a moment she finally sent off a message saying 'Going out 4 dinner.' Pocketing it again, she moved a bit back from the ledge. "It'll be your ears this time." She warned him with a pointing finger.

He held up both hands - a surrender. "Understood," he said, his tone halfway to laughter. Lowering his hands, he smiled. "I promise I won't crash land in the Thames."

"You'd better not." She teased, then started towards the fire escape. "C'mon before we look like we swam in." She said as it started to rain harder.

"I guess that wouldn't look good.." A grin, and he followed her to the fire escape. "To the TARDIS," he said after a moment; he couldn't help sounding a little triumphant, there.

"To the Tardis." She agreed, making her way down and to the familiar blue box. It'd managed to stay graffiti free so far, Rose noted absently.

The Doctor was very glad for the lack of graffiti. He figured the boy who'd tried that the last time had stopped after being made to wash it off. "Here we are," he said, unlocking the door and pushing it open. It felt like coming home - it was coming home.

Rose was somewhat quiet as she entered the Tardis, looking for a moment where a hologram had stood, before carefully looking at the Doctor out of the corner of her eye. "So this planet, what're the locals like?" Rose asked.

The Doctor had gone straight to the controls, running a hand over a few of the buttons lightly, fondly. He had missed the TARDIS. "Ah, that's right. Much better." He was talking to himself, softly, and it took a moment for him to respond to Rose's question, glancing up. "..they're Not bad. Sort of.. Blue-green." A smile. "Some have horns. But not that different from humans."

"Alright then." She said, moving closer to the console herself. "Wouldn't want to get to many odd looks at dinner." Her voice was half joking, half serious. Part of her thought, that if somehow instead of border planet they were heading for, they landed in the middle of something as usual... She wouldn't mind so much. She'd be hungry, but other then that it might be okay.

"Well, it wouldn't be so bad. Your shirt's sort of.. Blue-greenish." He grinned, turning the necessary dials and pushing buttons to get them started. "'Course, I can't promise they won't take that as an offense..."

"Well it can't be as bad as hanging from a barrage balloon in a german air raid with the union jack one, can it?" She asked as he spun the dials. "I mean, people wear peach all the time."

"Fair enough - that wasn't really.. Could you hold that?" He pointed to one of the various levers, interrupting his own thought. He was still smiling. This was nearly like before; different, of course, because he was different, but not so bad. "I don't think they have barrage balloons on this planet."

Rose held the switch he'd asked her to. "So no rope-burn at least then." She said with a smile, then thought of something. "You do have some sort of way to pay for whatever the food is, don't you?"

"'Course I do!" A pause, then, "I'm almost sure... Well, somewhere around here, there's got to be something..."

"Doctor!" She said, before she'd even realized it. Quick to add something, Rose continued "Maybe in a coat pocket?"

He shrugged. "Maybe.. Oh." There was that familiar sound - the TARDIS was leaving. Well, going and coming, as it were. He smiled. "I'll see if I can find anything. Definitely don't want to get stuck doing the dishes there. Water'll boil your skin right off." He was half-talking to himself, in the usual way, walking off to.. Well, someplace in the TARDIS. It was awfully big on the inside, and he was trying to remember where he might have left currency from that planet.

She let go of the lever, figuring she could and followed him to whoever he was going. There'd be no point in standing there watching the column move, and she'd never really seen more of the Tardis, she realized.

It didn't take long for the TARDIS to lurch to a stop. Actually, it took entirely too little time, and made the Doctor pause as he was going through the pockets of some old coat he'd found. He blinked at the handful of paper money he'd found there, a few crumpled bills from a planet he'd never visit again.

"Now that's strange.." And he took off for the controls. Something had to be wrong. The TARDIS wasn't exactly known for its accuracy, but he had felt reasonably safe this time. He wasn't sure what had inspired that bit of confidence. "Where are we..? Still on Earth?" He prodded a couple of buttons, eyes narrowed slightly and focused on the small screen's display. Trying to get a read.

Rose had raced after him as he went off. Something gone wrong, if that wasn't proof that he was the same man, she wasn't sure what would be.

"Maybe leaving it to itself wasn't such a good idea?" Rose asked him, standing a bit back from the console to try not to get in the way. "Earth... Well that's good I guess, isn't it? Besides that we didn't mean to be here?"

"Not sure yet, not sure... Should've told me." Not that the TARDIS had ever shown a propensity towards such communication in the past, but still. "Can't get a read on where we are, exactly. Or what time." He was very tempted to make a joke about the year five billion, but decided it would probably be in bad taste, since if it was, they would die instantly when they stepped out.

He grinned a little anyway, glancing up. "Only one way to find out, I s'pose." This was a bit more like it.

"Into the unknown." Rose said, looking at the door. The same old, she supposed. "What about the cameras, look outside, make sure we're not at the bottom of the ocean or something?" She suggested.

Doubted it of course, but it wouldn't hurt to look.

"Well, we could do that.. But where's the fun?" A pause, and he added, "I'm sure there's oxygen. Absolutely sure. Mostly." It was mostly a joke.

She grinned at him, "Let's go then. But isn't there oxygen in water too?" Rose was joking, mostly. She'd moved towards the door though.

"That's true, that's true.." He smiled, going to the door and opening it to step outside. And stopped, abruptly. "..oh, That's not good."

The street sort of looked like London, or at least one of those dirty British cities in the age before running water and sewage systems. Rows of houses, and the TARDIS tucked away between two of them. White circles around the doorknobs on two, three, four of the houses in view.

"What is it?" Rose asked, in the doorway and peering outside. It looked old, but beyond that, she couldn't place it. There was a smell, and the white circles around the doorknobs she felt she should know something about, but couldn't for the life of her figure it out.

"We're in the Dark Ages." His voice faltered slightly, as if he weren't quite sure if he should be laughing or not, but he wasn't smiling. "Not sure where in Europe, but.. Dark Ages, definitely."

"Oh..." Rose wasn't sure what to say, and stayed in the entryway of the Tardis. "The Dark ages, but isn't that like, with the plague?"

The Doctor nodded, glancing around briefly. His eyes kept being drawn back to those white circles. "..the Rings around the doorknobs mean that the house has had a plague victim. One in three people in some places die of it." Not that there was anything they could really do for it, but he didn't like the idea of exposing Rose to plague.

"Shouldn't we go then? There's not really anything we can stop." Rose looked around, remembering everything she'd heard about the plague. "I mean, it's fleas on rats right?" She asked.

"Exactly. But the TARDIS brought us here.. I wonder if it's for a reason?" A pause, and he continued, "I mean, why here? Other than maybe she's mad at me or something.."

"You did send her off too. Told me to just 'let her die'." Rose didn't look at him as she said it, leaning on the doorframe.

He frowned slightly, nodding. "..I Did. This isn't exactly the best way to get me back.." He was considering it, when there was a sound of movement from just around their corner - men walking by, in white cloaks and wearing what looked like metal 'helmets', but with a long beak on the front, where the nose might be. Only their chins were visible.

"...oh, Well then."

"So... What do we do?" She asked, watching the figures. Rose was hovering just outside the doorway now. "Who're they?" She wondered, deciding that she definitely hadn't paid much attention in history.

"Doctors, ironically." He smiled slightly, shaking his head. "They thought those masks would protect them from the plague." A pause, and he looked at her. "What d'you want to do?"

She stayed quiet for a moment, turning slightly to eye the Tardis. "If the Tardis wants us to be here... We'd probably just end up right back. We should... Look around a bit at least, I guess." Rose said finally as she looked at the Doctor.

"There's a plan." He grinned. "Don't worry. I'm not going to let anything happen." Not bad, anyway, not to her. Not this time. Definitely not.

"Alright." She said, "Then shall we go?" Rose asked, not exactly sure where, but chances were if there was something strange afoot, they'd run into it. Probably head first.

The Doctor nodded, holding out his hand to her. "Let's." Waiting to see her reaction, sort of.

She took his hand, after a moment's hesitation. Rose smiled at him, if nothing else, this much she could do.

He smiled in return, leading her out to the street. It was midafternoon, but there weren't many people about. Given the circumstances, that wasn't hard to believe. But those doctors in the helmets and white sheets were pacing about, occasionally disappearing into a white-painted door.

"Right, or left?" He asked, gesturing to the street.

"Left." Rose decided, without thinking about it. She watched the doctors pacing and pulled hers lightly in that direction. She didn't want to stand still for some reason.

A nod, and he stepped in that direction, keeping an eye on the white-cloaked physicians. "This street's quiet. Even for now," he remarked, quietly so as not to be overheard.

"Yeah..." Rose said softly back, even without something to compare it to it felt odd. She realized something, "Wouldn't this really be a good time for something to happen, if something was going to, I don't know, attack or something. Lots of people dead, or sick, just, really weakened in general. If they knew they didn't have to worry about the plague..." She trailed off, realizing that she must've been traveling awhile, to be thinking like this.

The Doctor nodded. He hadn't let go of her hand. "You're right. Absolutely - that's brilliant. Because everyone important in this age is locking themselves in a room to save themselves, and there's no one to stop them! That is.. Well, that's pretty advanced. Imagine they don't know all that much, but they'll have figured it out.."

"What wouldn't have to worry?" She pondered outloud, mostly to herself. Rose couldn't resist the little rush at his confirmation of at least the idea. She couldn't help but eye the well covered doctors with a bit of suspicion.

"Not sure yet. But we'll figure it out." He grinned, aware that one of the clusters of doctors had paused and were watching him. It made sense - anyone who smiled in this age was obviously deranged, but... "Maybe we should ask them. Don't seem to be doing much, do that?"

"Okay." Rose said, "Why not?" She grinned a bit nervously, he'd do the talking, hopefully. Still holding his hand, she raised an eyebrow. "You would think they'd have something to do besides stare."

"Well, they're doctors. 'Course they've got nothing to do during a plague!" Pause. "Oh, that was mean." He smiled, leading Rose over to the doctors, though he kept a relative distance. "Hello!" That was a bit too cheerful. Ah, well.

"Who are you?" one of the doctors asked, his voice muffled by the metal of his mask, clearly perplexed. Then again, near-medieval doctors meeting a rather more contemporary Doctor and significantly more contemporary Rose would cause some confusion.

"I'm the Doctor." He thought about that for a moment. "That's with a capital 'D'. I know you lot are doctors, too. This is Rose."

"Who are you?" it repeated. Well, that was going well.

Rose thought quickly for some sort of reply to try to get something useful. "We're lost. We've got a message, something, for whoever's in charge of you lot. Took a wrong turn, What way should we go?" Rose spoke before she ran the words through her head. Stupid she thought.The holiday at home hadn't done much for her brain it seemed. Just because he'd repeated himself... She shot an apologetic look towards the Doctor.

The Doctor glanced at Rose, but didn't comment - he wouldn't say anything one way or the other in front of this man.

"In charge? No one is in charge of us." The doctor (lowercase D) sounded almost dazed, but that could have been the muffling from the mask, or any number of things. "We are merely doctors."

"In uniform?" The Doctor (uppercase D, this time) raised an eyebrow, quickly adding, "No, no, don't answer that. Nevermind. We'll figure it out on our own. Up by Tyneside, yeah?" Alright, that was a total guess.

"Not Tyneside."

"You're talkative, aren't you? Mind telling me where we've ended up? Lost, and all that." Glancing at Rose as he confirmed her story.

"Cardiff."

The sheer number of curses running through the Doctor's head - though he thankfully didn't voice them - was dizzying. "Oh, of course."

"Is there some sort of magnet or something?" Rose couldn't help but ask, in an amazed whisper. "Well, thanks." She told the doctor. "You know, I think I recognize this place now." Talking quickly, she looked up the road, and turned to a section of road. "Your friend's house is just up there, isn't it?" Rose turned to the Doctor as she questioned. She was getting a bad feeling.

"A magnet... Something like that." The Doctor smiled faintly, but he looked worried, nodding. He glanced at the doctor briefly, then back at Rose, thinking a moment before saying, "You know, I think you're right. Thanks for the help, then!" Cheerfully, and he stepped back before turning to the side, still holding on to Rose's hand maybe a little more tightly than he had to.

Turning with him, she waved idly to the doctor, before starting down the street, forcing herself to move slowly. If she noticed the Doctor's grip she didn't say anything. "Maybe we should find some normal people to ask?" She questioned quietly once they were a bit away. Her eyes glanced around anxiously. "Something doesn't feel right." she said, barely more then a breath.

"Nothing feels right," the Doctor confided, looking up at one of the houses. "There should be people here. The Black Death killed less than sixty percent of the population... So where is the other forty percent?" He frowned. "All we've seen are those doctors."

"Inside?" Rose guessed, looking at the houses herself. She didn't want to know whether to feel better, or worse that it wasn't just her with the feeling. "Or, wasn't there a lot of fleeing to the countryside and such?" She didn't really believe what she was saying.

"Probably. Let's try..." He thought for a moment, then pointed at random to one of the buildings. White circle round the doorknob. "That one. Looks quiet enough, hm? No worry about noisy neighbors, anyway." He wasn't sure if the joke was meant to comfort her or himself. Could go either way.

"Right." She gave a small smile at the joke. "Let's see what's going on then." She started, more confidently then she felt, towards the door. Rose knocked first, but tried the door when there was no answer. It opened, and she peered into the dark room.

"Stay close," he muttered, looking inside over her shoulder. The hall was dark - there were no candles burning, or lanterns; no windows, for that matter. "I don't think anyone's here..." Unless they were dead. That wasn't out of the question, either.

"We should check, just in case." She said, moving in. Rose watched the floor carefully as she walked in. There was little of interest in the hall so she moved on. In the next room though, a table caught her interest. "Doctor" She whispered, not sure why, and pointed to the table. It was set, as much as it could be, food of various origins sitting on plates, bread and cheese in various stages of mold, and the rest looking as if it had been sitting there quite a while.

He followed to the next room, raising an eyebrow when he saw the table setting. "..now That doesn't usually happen with plague, does it?" he asked no one in particular, glancing about the room. Kitchen and dining room both looked as if people had been there and left very suddenly. "No sign of anything else out of the ordinary, except that they left very quickly."

"Yeah." She agreed. No sign of a struggle, just chairs pulled out and dusty glasses half full of something odd smelling. Rose wondered what could've happened. Out of the corner of her eye she saw something disappear into a hole, and took a quick step in the other direction. "Do you think, the rest of the houses are probably..." Rose let the question fade.

"The same as this, I'm guessing." He had one hand in his coat pocket, holding on to the sonic screwdriver. Nothing to use it on, yet. "I'm sure some are actual plague victims, 'course, but this.. This is something else entirely."

Something else entirely...that More or less summed up most of their encounters. "What about the houses without the circles? Maybe there'll be someone in one of those?" The doctors hadn't entered any of those that she could see. Wouldn't have a reason, come to think of it. A thought was on the edge of her mind, but she couldn't quite grasp it.

"Could be. If they are, though.. Why aren't they coming out?" He frowned. "They'd starve stuck in their houses, but there's no one on the streets." He shifted uneasily. Of all places in the universe, they had to end up in the year 1351 in the one place that genuinely creeped him out.

Rose focused on a random bit of wall, gathering her thoughts. "What if they're avoiding those doctors?" She started slowly, "They've been on every street. Maybe they're only out at certain times, and then when they're not... The people come out?" She couldn't figure why, and it didn't really make sense to her. "But that doesn't seem right either..." She picked at the end of her sleeve.

"I think there's more to this than we're seeing. A lot more." The Doctor was thinking it over, pacing now over a bit of empty space between the stove and the table. "I think-" He was cut off abruptly by the sound of something falling above them. "--we should check upstairs," he finished weakly.

"Definitely." Rose agreed, quickly, moving towards where she'd seen the stairs. They'd faced the door, but she hadn't heard that again. Without thinking she was jogging up them, eyes squinting.

The Doctor followed quickly - he didn't want to let her out of sight, not here. He could usually trust her to more or less take care of herself, but... Plague and disappearing people didn't make for good tests of that.

The upstairs was just as barren as the downstairs, it seemed. One of the doors at the top of the stairs, though, was closed tight, a chair propped against it. The door was shaking. On the other side of the narrow hall from that door was an open door to what looked like a bedroom, sparsely decorated and empty.

"Rose, get away from the door." His voice was flat - dead serious.

Hearing the tone of his voice, Rose obeyed. She sidled back down the narrow hallway, eyes still locked onto the door. " 'S all yours." She told him as she past him, resting her hand on his arm for a moment as she did. His seriousness gave the place a whole 'nother edge for her. There was a heavy candlestick sitting on a ledge and she grasped it out of instinct.

He nodded, pressing a hand to the door and pushing against it as he reached with the other hand to remove the chair. He had evidently miscalculated, because the door came open so fast it nearly hit him, and he stepped back against the wall.

And there was nothing there, except.. "What is this?" He wasn't talking to anyone but himself. One of those strange bird-like helmets was in the doorway, but no accompanying doctor could be seen. The room past the door was in disarray, the bed tipped on its side and a table hanging halfway out a broken window. There were long furrows in the door where something had scratched into it.

Rose moved up behind him, looking into the room herself. She watched the helmet carefully, her grip on the candle tightening a little. Her eyes wouldn't leave the mask. "Whys it in the doorway?" Her voice wavered, she'd seen living plastic, why not metal? She had a sudden urge to kick it across the room.

"There's no one else in there." She thought out loud, accusation in her voice. Rose noticed the scratched in the door, and once more focused on the mask.

The Doctor knelt beside the mask, taking out the sonic screwdriver. At least it could give him light to work by, and some idea what this was. "...there's Nothing inside it, but it sounded like there was something in here. Typical Cardiff." He was still a little bitter over having ended up here, evidently.

"..I'm Not picking up anything abnormal. Except.. hm. Now that's not normal." He reached out with the hand that wasn't holding the sonic screwdriver, snatching something out of the mask with a care and precision that was not his usual MO.

Looking up at Rose, he asked, "Why would a healer's mask have a sprig of amaranth in it?" Pinched between two fingers was a small stem - two green leaves and a clutter of tiny pink flowers.

She looked at the stem and shrugged slightly. "I dunno, it's an herb or something, isn't it?" Rose asked. "I take it that it's not medicinal then? I don't think I've heard of it before..." She eyed the stem once more.

"It couldn't have been what was making all that noise." Rose said incredulously. She moved into the room now, peering down over the other side of the tipped over bed.

"An herb, yes. Or a weed, or.. You know, some people eat it." He shrugged, looking at it curiously. "Chinese used to use it as a medicine, but.. Something tells me this doesn't have anything to do with medicine." He stood, still holding the little sprig of flower in his hand. "'Immortal amaranth, a flower which once in Paradise, fast by the tree of life, began to bloom...' It means never-fading. Guessing that's supposed to be significant, or they wouldn't have left it for us.."

"Who says it was left for us? Maybe for once something just happens to have been somewhere, and we came across it." But once again she didn't believe a word she said. "It still doesn't explain what was making all the noise." She pointed out, as she turned back to the Doctor.

"It does and it doesn't." He didn't look away from the flower yet. Amaranth: pigweed, quinoa de castilla, Joseph's coat, love-lies-bleeding. What did it mean? "A flower that's supposed to be immortal. In Paradise Lost it was in Eden, in Greece it was sacred to Artemis.. Think, what is significant about it? And how did they use it to animate that helmet?"

"Is the helmet made of all normal things? Rose asked, as she moved over and crouched near it, picking it up. Turning it over, she examined the inside. Putting down her candlestick now, she brushed some hair behind her ear. A spot in the helmet caught her eye, but when she scratched it, it came off. Dirt.

"Careful with that." He frowned, looking at its outside while Rose looked on the inside. "I'm reasonably sure it's iron, actually. Interesting that they got it in that shape. But they're not plague doctors. Plague doctors wear black, these... I'm not entirely sure they're human." That was an understatement.

Rose put the helmet back down, and stood back up, idly wiping her hands off on her pants. "We should keep looking then." She said easily, then remembered something. They'd seen them in white before he'd asked what she wanted to do. He'd known there was something up already then.

A nod. "We should try the houses without the white marks... If there are real people here, that ought to be where they are." A pause, and he added, "If not, well. Don't let your guard down." He certainly wouldn't be.

"Right." Rose said with a nod, she debated grabbing the candlestick again for a second, but decided it'd just draw attention. "There's a cluster without the marks across the way. They'd be a good place to check, right?"

"As long as the men in white don't get to them first," he replied, smiling slightly at her. "Don't worry about it. If they were going to hurt us outright, they would've done it before, in the street."

But that was what bothered him; that they had no idea what those men were waiting for.

"Especially with my great show of tact." She agreed, her attention on the ground for a moment. "What if the helmets just maybe, control them somehow? Like drones or something?" She was starting down the stairs now.

"Could be. But there's nothing unusual about those helmets. 'Course, we didn't get a look until after whatever was in it vanished..." He followed to the stairs, taking one last look around. He tucked the amaranth sprig in his pocket with the sonic screwdriver.

She glanced back towards the kitchen and dining room when she got downstairs, but nothing had changed. Her hand hovering over the doorknob, Rose had the sudden image of opening the door to see one of the 'doctors' standing there. Shaking her head to clear it, she pushed the door open. "I'm sure you'll get a look in one." Rose told him, looking over her shoulder at the Doctor.

He raised an eyebrow when she paused, but didn't mention it, nodding to her remark. "I'm not sure if I should be hoping for that or not, yet." Following her onto the street, where those clustered groups of men in white were still haunting about.

"I wasn't 'hoping'," Rose told him as she fell back next to him. "Given what the usual is with you, it might as well be fact." A little bit of her tone was joking, but for the most part, she wouldn't disagree.

"Mm... You have a point," he smiled a little. "I don't try to, you know, but I have a sneaking suspicion we won't get anywhere if we don't find out who they are."

"D'you really think I'd be here if I thought you were trying?" She asked him, head tilted slightly. "Then it's time to meet the neighbors." Rose told him with a grin.

"Looks like. Hope they don't mind we didn't bring anything... we're the ones new to the neighborhood, after all." He grinned back, going to one of the doors near the center of the small cluster of unmarked houses and knocking.

There was the sound rushed movement from inside of the house, and Rose thought she saw something in one of the windows. Before she could point it out though, it had vanished, but a moment later the door was open a crack.

"I guess we're allowed in then." Rose said mostly to herself.

The Doctor peered at the crack for a moment before he pushed the door open slowly. "Looks like it..." He frowned. He wasn't sure what he expected here, but he stepped inside anyway.

The room was lit, but barely. There were a place settings out, but only one person sitting there, eyeing them. A few soft noises, and a whisper could barely be heard from upstairs.

Rose stayed close behind the Doctor. The woman seemed normal enough. "Hello?" She asked experimentally, but the woman didn't respond.

The Doctor looked around cautiously before stepping forward, enough to allow Rose in and for her to shut the door. Before those white things saw it open. "...Miss?" He asked, raising an eyebrow at the lack of response.

Once there was space, Rose closed the door, and once the door was closed, the woman seemed to relax some. "What do you want?" she asked, not entirely unfriendly, but businesslike.

"We want to know what's going on here," the Doctor replied - businesslike himself, but not unkindly. His tone couldn't be called gentle, but it was something close to that. "Who are those men with the masks on?"

"There's nothing going on." The reply was practiced. "They're the new doctors. They replaced the others last month. They are specialists in plague." Once again the response reeked of memorization.

"Why is there no one in the streets?" Rose asked her.

"So that the plague does not spread." Her answer was simple once again.

"There aren't any people in the other houses. The ones with white around the doorknobs. I know they can't all have died." He crossed his arms over his chest, and now he sounded a bit more stressed. Probably so that this woman would understand how important it was that he know what was going on. "They're not men, are they?"

"They're different." Was the woman's reply, and she rose to her feet, moving over to look out the window once more. "There's a plant they're growing, everywhere that it will take," Her voice was a conspirational whisper now, and she turned towards them. "They bring food around, in the mornings."

"It's amaranth, isn't it? The plant?" He reached into his pocket, taking out the small flower - slightly crushed from being in his pocket now. "It looks like this?" He was beginning to draw conclusions.

"Amaranth?" She saw flower and nodded. "Yes, that's it." She looked at them, at their strange clothes and finally asked. "Who are you?"

"I'm the Doctor." He smiled very slightly. "This is Rose. We're here to help." The smile faded, and he slipped the flower back into his pocket. "Can you tell me what's happening to the people here?"

"Once the plague takes one no one sees the family again. That's all I know." Her voice was quiet again, and when there was a noise from upstairs, she couldn't help but glance upwards for a moment.

The Doctor looked up at the ceiling as well, and when he looked again at the woman, his expression had darkened somewhat. "Is there someone up there?" he asked. "Something?"

She motioned towards the table setting. "What do you think?" Her eyes fell to the floor, and she stayed silent for a few minutes. "When there's a death, they block the room t'keep the ghosts from escaping. They always know."

"The ghosts? What d'you mean, ghosts?" He frowned. Okay, well, it was the fourteenth century. But still. "How do they know there's been a death?"

"They just do." Was her response. "The ghosts of them that died. They make rackets in the room, eager to get out." A thought crossed her mind, "You said you're here to help. D'you mean to stop this plague?"

"I'm going to try," he replied softly. He knew he couldn't stop it, not the real thing, but he had a sneaking suspicion that those white-coated things weren't as innocent as they seemed. "I'll do my best. I promise."

"The new ones came from the south." There was accusation in her voice, "The ghosts didn't start till they came, up till then they stayed where they should." With that she moved towards the stairs, paying them no more mind, and having said all that she was going to.

The Doctor nodded, stepping back to allow her through. "..thank You," he said softly, thinking. Ghosts, and strange 'doctors' from the south... "I'm going to need another talk with those white doctors."

"At least that shouldn't be much trouble." Rose said as she peered out a window. "The ghosts... She probably means the helmet and such, but..." She drifted off in thought.

"Maybe... or maybe whatever's under the helmets." He frowned. "Let's go. Maybe I can get one of these things to tell me what they are." He had, notably, stopped referring to the white-clothed 'doctors' as if they were people.

"Right." Rose said, opening the door a crack and, when making sure none of the things were paying attention, walking out of it. Two or three were converged around the house they had been in earlier, but there was one alone down the road a bit.

The Doctor raised an eyebrow, smiling a little. It was a fairly humorless smile, though. "Looks like somebody forget not to wander off."

He approached the lone one, hands in his pockets almost innocently. In reality, it was for quick access to the sonic screwdriver - just in case, it was practically his only weapon. Well, besides his mind.

"What are you?" He asked, point-blank.

"Who are you?" The figure asked him, much the same as the one had earlier. Rose eyed it. "Come on, you've got to be able to say somethin' other then that."

"You know," the Doctor said to Rose, "I can't even tell if this is a different one than before." Turning to address the 'doctor' again, he said, in an all-too good humored tone, "I asked first."

"We are doctors. We have come to make sure that the plague does not spread further. You should be in your house and not out here so that you do not risk infection." The voice sounded bemused when the thing spoke. Rose noted the use of 'we'.

"You're not doctors. Plague doctors wear black. What are you really?" A pause, and he added, "Why amaranth?"

"We are the new doctors." It ignored the mention of the amaranth as it spoke, repeating what it had said just a moment ago.

"New doctors.. fine, great. What are you doing to the people here?" He was beginning to get a mite irritated.

"We are doing nothing but monitering those with the plague and maintaining that it does not spread further." It remained silent and Rose looked over her shoulder at the others, who were dispersing back along the road.

"I don't believe you," the Doctor replied, shaking his head. Keeping his voice low so the other 'doctors' wouldn't come over. "What are the 'ghosts'?"

"The spirits of those who have been killed of the plague. We maintain that they stay in the room where they left the body so that they cannot cause duress to those who have survived them."

"But why are they there? How do you make them stay?" This was a puzzle. And, evidently, the Doctor was determined to berate, question, and force the answers out of this other doctor.

"That is to no concern to any other then us doctors." The monotone voice continued to sound bemused at itself. "Its basis is need to know."

"Well, I'm the Doctor and I need to know," he insisted, scowling at the doctor-thing.

It looked at him, and if it could grin it would have. "You are not a doctor, those who need to know, know." It made to turn away and finish its walk along the street.

The Doctor frowned, glaring at its back. "I'll find out what you're up to," he promised. If he were the sort of man who swore a lot, he probably could have come up with a lot of creative invectives for those things, but as it was, he remained very quiet. Thinking. Very still.

Rose watched it's back as it left, before turning to the Doctor. After a few moments of watching him stand and think, the house with the mark that they had been in caught her eye. She realized they must have somehow known what happened, and her curiousity got the best of her to see if anything had been done in there. With a final look at the Doctor, she slipped a few feet away experimentally, then continued towards the house.

The Doctor didn't seem to notice her leave, thinking hard on what was happening. He was wracking his brain for something, anything that operated like this. Even using Earth plants in some fashion... But why? What for?

She took one last glance at him before slipping through the door and up the stairs. The room seemed to be how they'd left it, and she went in casually. Lifting the mask up, she was sure there was something to it. She sliced a finger on it somewhere, but didn't think anything of it, continuing to examine it. There had to be something, her mind refused to believe the bit of plantlife had made it move.

It took him several moments to realize that Rose had gone, looking around, startled. "Rose?" he called, turning to try and see where she had gone. "Rose?" Oh, no. Not again. Not here.

As she kept looking over the mask, she got an idea. 'You're not a doctor' the thing had said. Rose looked at the tipped over bed, and grinned at the white sheets. Holding the mask under the crook her arm, she managed to free a sheet from the bed. It seemed clean enough. Wrapping the mask in it to avoid suspicious from the doctors, she started back out of the room and downstairs.

The Doctor was still looking for her - he hadn't considered that she might go back to that house. It worried him, and then it confused him how much it worried him. "Rose?" Where did she go?

Almost at the doorway, Rose paused, looking at the bundle. They didn't seem to have done anything in here this time but, maybe if they saw her leave again... Unwrapping the blanket she put it around her shoulders, covering her clothes before putting the mask on. After a moment's thought she adjust to the blanket so it laid over her hair, then satisfied walk out of the house, and after a quick survey of the street, towards the Doctor.

The Doctor didn't notice her at first - he was looking around, and until she got closer, he thought she was just another one of those faux plague doctors. When he did notice, he snapped, "What now?" He didn't realize it wasn't a plague doctor, and he was not in the mood for more pretentious, heavy-handed mystery.

When the Doctor snapped she froze in her tracks, feeling odd at being on the recieving end of his anger, even just that little bit. Rose'd thought he'd recognize her, or even if he didn't that maybe she would play along a bit. For some reason her throat was tight, so she reached out a hand towards him.

He took a step back when it - he didn't realize it wasn't one of those things - reached out to him. He wouldn't risk that sort of thing. He'd been around diseases that took just a touch to transfer.

"What do you--" He broke off mid-sentence, realizing abruptly that the sheet she was wearing wasn't the same stuff as the others. "Who are you?" Well, it was a slight change, though the stress in his voice didn't fade.

When he backed away from her she let her hand fall. Was it really that good of a disguise? She couldn't work her arm back up to raise the mask and show him, but managed in a small voice, to say "It's me..."

"Rose?" A pause. "What.. what are you doing in that thing?" He sounded concerned. More worried than angry, now.

"I went back in to see if the ones milling about had done anything. It was all the same, I looked at the mask again, and then remembered what the one had said, and there was a white blanket in the room, so I thought we might be able to use it as a disguise, then I was at the door and thought if I put it on now I wouldn't draw attention and you said the helmet was just iron so..." She rambled on, the beak of the helmet pointing at the ground.

He glanced down the street for a moment, thinking. "..I thought you were one of them." It was as close as he was likely to come to admitting he'd been worried when she wandered off. "I keep telling you that rule number on is not to wander off."

"You were thinking, and standing too still and I didn't want to disturb you." She made her excuses, clutching the sheets from the inside. She'd just been trying to help, to not be in the way. "I'm sorry." Rose told the Doctor finally, face averted and fingers crossed behind the cloth. 'That I put it on before I left the house.' Is what she added silently.

He wanted to tell her that if she was sorry, she wouldn't keep wandering off... But that would be petulant. And he was not petulant. Most of the time. Anyway.

"Just lucky none of those things saw you... speaking of, d'you think they'll talk to you?" He seemed curious. And at least not mad anymore. It was a good thing.

"I don't know." She thought for a minute, "That was the idea I guess. The disguise seems to work well enough." Rose added, then looked over to one of the nearby doctors. "I guess I can try."

"..be careful. Don't go anywhere with them," he warned, frowning. He wasn't sure how much he liked this plan.

"I won't." Rose told him, "I'm not stupid." She moved towards the nearest thing, and doing her best to keep her tone similar to the ones she had heard, said simply, "Report."

The Doctor watched from a safe distance, ready to interfere if something went wrong. He had a bad feeling about all of this. A very bad feeling.

The thing that Rose approached merely tilted its head to her slightly, as if in askance. "Homes one through thirty-nine are secured," it said, in a flat monotone.

Rose was bit amazed that it seemed to be working, but managed to stay focused. She nodded, and once again in her monotone ordered, "Very good. Return to base for a two hour relief shift." It was pushing it, she thought, but if she could get it go to some sort of central hub, she and the Doctor could follow from a distance.

The thing hardly seemed to be looking at her. "Base..." A pause, and it resumed the monotone. "Base is too far. We all know. Base is too far."

She faltered for a minute, mind blank of what else to say. Finally, noting its seeming lack of attention, she thought of something, but couldn't bring herself to do it. "Correct. Base is to far, Carry one." Rose told it, before moving quickly away and back towards the Doctor.

"You are not connected to the Universal." The flat tone from the 'doctor' was raised in volume slightly. "We cannot feel you there." Now it was the real 'doctor' thing that reached out to her.

Rose stopped. For a moment she looked at him, trying to send a message she knew she had no way to, then she turned ubruptly. "There was an Encounter. Reconnection is needed, Lead?" Rose knew she should have run, was ready to, if 'lead' was not an option. It was the first bit of advice she'd gotten, 'Run'. She stayed just out of it's reach.

"Rose.." The Doctor was weighing whether or not to step in, wondering why Rose was still standing there. He didn't like this. Not at all.

"Come." That was all it said, turning to lead her away.

When it turned she shot a quick glance at the Doctor, urging him to follow, before turning to fall behind the fake doctor.

The Doctor nodded, stepping to the side of the street to follow where he was less likely to be seen. He was very, very glad that the thing didn't seem to be paying attention.

They walked for some time - at least ten or fifteen minutes - before they came to what appeared to be the destination. It was, startlingly, a grove of amaranth plants. They were all very large - in excess of six feet, they dwarfed both Doctor and doctors, along with Rose. Their bright color was a riot against the gray flagstones that they had pushed through in order to grow, the rubble of which lay around the roughly circular garden. The doctor that had led Rose there merely looked at her, as if expectant.

She moved slowly towards the center of the garden. She'd expected a building, had planned to take off the disguise and slip away once she'd gotten close. "So much for that" Rose muttered under her breath. Before she reached the center though, a wave of dizzyness hit her, and moving to lean on something to steady herself she collapsed at the edge.

The Doctor had been following behind, discrete, unwilling to show himself. Until she collapsed. Then he bolted forward, ignoring the doctor creature that was still standing there as he reached her. "Rose?"

He knelt beside her, pulling the mask off of her head as gently as he could. "Rose, can you hear me?"

Rose blinked, nodding. "Yeah..." Her head swam for a minute, but then cleared. As it did, she remembered where they were. She sat up, letting the sheet fall. Looking around, she tried to see where the thing she'd followed was.

The thing stood a few feet away, watching them. It didn't seem to be doing anything, though, merely... watching.

"You alright?" The Doctor asked, frowning. In this place, in this time... it worried him.

"Yeah, 'M fine." She told him, pushing her hair aside with the hand she'd cut earlier. Rose glanced over her shoulder at it for a moment as it watched. "We should probably get out of here before it decides to do something." She suggested slowly.

"Yeah." He was clearly distracted, though, looking at her. "...Rose, when did you cut your hand?" He asked the question very slowly, as if he didn't want to rush getting an answer.

She glanced at the cut for a moment, before waving her hand absently. "Prob'ly earlier, maybe when I was getting the mask." She started to get up, glancing at the creature again. "C'mon."

"When you were... right." He stood, though his voice didn't quite lose that tone, and he didn't seem as concerned about the doctors for the moment.

She led him away, looking over her shoulder to make sure it wasn't following. Reaching behind her she grabbed the Doctor's sleeve to hurry him along. "I'm fine, really. Probably just got a little hot under the helmet. That's all." She tried to reassure him.

The Doctor followed her - let her lead him, really. He was thinking over things again. "Okay. You say so." He smiled faintly, utterly forced.

"I do." She told him firmly, sighing afterwards as she realized he'd gone back inside his head. Rose led him along until they were about two crossroads away, and the doctor wasn't in sight and then turned the corner to wait there.

"..those doctors. I wonder what they really are," he muttered after a moment or two. "They insisted they're quarantining the infected dead, but we didn't see any bodies. For Dark Ages Europe, we're seeing a shortage of corpses." Morbid humor. Well, it kept him from worrying about Rose, anyway. Sort of.

"They said 'Base is to far'." Rose pointed out to him. "And something about, houses 1-30 being secured, or something like that." She pointed up after a minute, and something about me not being connected to the universal. That they couldn't feel me." She hoped something would sound familiar to him.

"The 'universal'? ..so they're all connected somehow. That explains why they were saying 'we' instead of 'I', anyway. And somehow the plants have something to do with it?" He was musing out loud... Not that it was abnormal, or anything. He tended to ramble a little.

"The plants are connected somehow. I think maybe they connect you to it somehow?" She did her best to brainstorm. Rose drew a blank beyond that, wondering how long they'd been there. It felt like hours.

"Could be, could be." The Doctor frowned, then nodded. "That's probably it. Something about that plant. We should try.." He looked at one of the clusters of things down the street. "Something else."

"Something else?" Rose asked, running through what they'd done so far. She leaned against the building. "So, not talking then?" She finally asked.

"Not talking. Wait here, dunno how they'll react." He flashed her a quick grin, sprinting towards the group of white-robed 'doctor's, skidding to a stop behind one of them.

"Oh, I'm going to regret this," he muttered to himself, reaching out and grabbing the helmet... and pulling up.

Rose had waited, and now stared open mouthed as the Doctor moved casually up to one of the things and pulled up the helmet.

When the helmet was lifted, a human head appeared below, some sort of electronics embedded into the back of the head, and face oddly contorted. A moment later hands shot up to pull the helmet back down, and the rest had turned towards him in one swift movement.

"Oh! Well, that explains some things. Hi!" He smiled and gave a little wave to the ones that turned towards him, taking a couple of quick steps back. "Are you cyborgs, or just having the electrical impulses of the brain altered and fiddled with?"

The moved to surround him, more quickly then they had been as they surveyed the streets. As if following a fresh order. The one who's helmet he'd taken off started towards where the amaranth had been.

Rose had started towards them, stopped halfway between where she'd been and where they were.

"Stay back!" He wasn't talking to them - he was talking to Rose, glancing at her over the shoulder of one of those things. "What do you want?" This he asked of one of those things. There was no clear leader.

"You have caused an interruptance." The thing told him, as they closed the circle. "You have caused an allowance to contamination. You will be withheld." One of them put a hand onto his shoulder.

"Withheld?" He asked, taking a step back, as if to dislodge the hand, though he couldn't get far enough back to do so without knocking into another one of them. "Really? No, what're you really up to?"

"You will cease." It told him flatly, and another took took hold of his other shoulder. Rose was still standing where she had been, about to consider throwing rocks at them to do /something/.

"I will? Really?" He sounded all too cheerful, and reached into his pocket, taking out the sonic screwdriver and pointing it at the one directly in front of him. The smile he'd maintaned through this faded, and his voice was much more serious. "I don't think so."

The movement of the doctors stopped, and the one in front of looked at the screwdriver. It hesitated. "You will come with us." It said in a different voice, demanding, that almost echoed. The others kept their hold.

"Will I? Alright, then." He grinned, but didn't let go of the sonic screwdriver. Evidently they were intimidated by it. He wasn't going to let go his advantage.

They moved into two rows, one each infront, and behind of the two holding his shoulders, and began moving forward. Rose followed after them.

The Doctor didn't resist, letting them lead him. Sometimes the only way to get to the bottom of something was, after all, to jump right in.

They walked for almost 10 minutes, through a twisted path, almost losing Rose as they turned finally into a small alley. They stopped just within the mouth, one stepping forward, standing for a moment, then vanishing. The rest moved to block the Doctor from the alley's entrance, before pushing him forward.

He raised an eyebrow at that, watching carefully. "What's in there, then?" He asked, standing his ground for the moment.

"There are no contaminants located within. GO." The last word had the same demanding tone that the other had used earlier, but this time it was coming from the one at his right shoulder.

"'Cept for me, right?" He grinned cheerfully and shrugged, stepping further into the narrow passage. He kept the sonic screwdriver in his grasp, ready in case he needed it.

As he stepped forward, a door became visible in the alley that had not been before. A hologram, hiding it. The doctor that had walked through was standing next to it, holding it open. Rose stayed nearby, just resisting calling out as he disapeared, waiting for the others to disperse.

"Oh, that's clever," he remarked, looking at the door before stepping inside, examining the edges of the hologram as he went. Perfectly blended. Well, then.

The room inside was rounded, white, and very clinical. There were a number of doors at various points, and a large, round platform in the center. One read 'Quarantine', the doctor who'd held the door led him towards one which was unlabeled, down a hall and finally left him at another door.

He looked at the door, then at the doctor. He'd kept an eye on the others, and the other doors, as he was led alone. "..what's in here?" He asked.

"You will be questioned." It told him in the usual, bemused monotone. Outside the others had left to their usual posts, and Rose was in the alley, looking into it curiously.

"Questioned. Really, now." He frowned, then sighed a bit dramatically. "What about? I really haven't got all day for this nonsense..."

"You will go into the room so that we may continue. NOW" Once again there was the demanding echo. It pulled the door open with a sudden force, the arm at an odd angle. Outside Rose had just gone through the hologram, looking at the door then stepping back and looking again.

"Yeah, yeah, okay," he said, glancing at the thing's arm before stepping in and remarking, "Might want to have that looked at. Arms don't bend like that." He was being rude again, but this time it was entirely on purpose.

The door closed behind him, and lights in the room went on. There was a simple chair in the center of the room, but walls were dark screens, a vague figure was visible on the screen in front of the chair. "SIT." It said.

"Oh, look. It's like an interrogation room! Am I under arrest?" He didn't sit down, though. "Who are you, then? HR?"

"IDENTIFY YOURSELF" The voice said again, the figure ignoring him as it now paced along the screens. Outside Rose ducked against the far wall as the doctor exited the door, she looked at it hesitantly.

He watched the figure carefully, leaning against the back wall. He was unwilling to sit where they told him to, at least for now. "I'm the Doctor. Who are you?"

"I am the controller, you are not one of my doctors." The volume of the voice had fallen. "What reason do you have for interfering in the wellbeing of this planet?" It asked, the figure on the screen as close as it could be to him.

"Not a doctor, the Doctor," he reiterated, shrugging at the next question. "I'm not interfering. You are. This technology is well beyond anything humans have even conceived of by now! What are you?"

"Meranon." The figure paced the screen again. "When we came across this planet it was plagued. We mean only to help. What are you doing here? We have seen you walk idly about, as if there were nothing wrong and going so far as to endanger one of the doctors."

"Meranon. How did you come here? Why?" He frowned, considering this. "What are you doing to the people here?"

"You are in our ship now. The Meranon are more then advanced in holographic implementation. There was life." The figure stops where it is, and stares at him. "We keep them safe, contained from the plague. Those who may be infected we quarantine. Their Doctors were ineffective, we helped them. We do no harm." Outside, Rose finally gets up the nerve to go through the door, and hesitates in the center of the room.

"I don't believe you," he replied flatly. "The woman in that house said that you're keeping ghosts in the house. What does that mean?"

"They are a superstitious people. We keep them out of rooms where the sick have died." Suddenly, the figure seemed to turn away, looking at something. Then it moved towards him, and the voice was loud again. "SO." was all it said.

"What?" He raised an eyebrow, looking at it and then the door briefly.

"YOU DO NOT WORK ALONE... DOCTOR." It was said as fact, and for a moment the figures concentration was elsewhere, it mimed typing something on a keyboard.

"No, I don't.." A pause, and he went to the door, glancing at the screen. "Where is she? Tell me where she is."

A portion of the screen flickered, showing the main room, Rose was trying one of the unmarked doors. Somewhere else on the screen, the meranon was looking at him again. "Tresspassing." The voice was quiet once more.

"Rose! If you do anything to her.." He pulled at the door, trying to force it open.

"She has come to us." Rose opened the door she'd been pulling on, going down the hall, the camera image flickered out. "That door leads to examination. If she is clean she will be released. You have yet to answer my questions."

"Let her go," he demanded, turning to the screen. "I'll answer your questions when she's safe."

"She will be let go when we are sure she is safe." The meranon retorted. "You, when you listen. Why are you here? You also have technology beyond this planet, but you used it to /threaten/."

"I used it to threaten because I don't know what you are," the Doctor said, glaring at the screen. "My ship brought me here because of the alien technology." Something like that.

"Why did you endanger our doctor?" It seemed indifferent to his stares, part of its attention on something in the room it was in.

"I wanted to know what it was, and it wouldn't tell me." He shrugged slightly. "I'm sorry, but I needed to know. Still do, really."

"We took in the doctors that were here before. They were foolish so we give them orders. When there is no more sickness we will show ourselves and release them. We will show the humans where they were wrong."

"You control them. Those chips in their heads, those are controlling them, aren't they?" He scowled, crossing his arms over his chest and taking a step towards the screen. "Do you mean to continue controlling them when this is over?"

"I am the controller." It reminded him, "If the humans realize their mistakes we will let them go. Would you interfere?"

"What if they don't realize their mistakes? Will you keep puppeting them? If you mean to, then I'll interfere. I'll go further - I'll stop you."

The screen flickered. "We mean only to help, to have them realize the dangers. Our planet was ravaged by plague, and it is why we wander. We will be to them what we had no one to be to us." The screen went completely blank, the figure clearing, and the door clicked. "You may go on your way, 'Doctor'."

"You can't force them to learn. Humans... they learn through experience. You can't make it happen," he said, frowning, looking at the door. "You can't save them all. It's ignorance to try."

"We will see." the voice came a final time. "But there are matters to attend to now, I have no more time to speak with you. There has been a contamination breech."

"Contamination..." He pulled the door open jerkily, stepping into the hall and running to the central area where the doors were. "Rose!?" He had a bad feeling about this, in his gut.

In the central area, Rose was being held by two of the doctors, just leaving the hallway she had went in. She just heard him, looking around she called back "Doctor?!" as they moved towards the marked door.

"Hold on!" He ran down the hall to the area where she was, grabbing one of the doctors by the shoulder and pulling them back. "Let her go," he ordered.

"She must be placed under quarantine." It allowed itself to be pulled back, but the other kept its hold. Rose attempted to struggle out of its grip. "They just keep saying the same thing" She told him, continuing to try pulling away.

"No she hasn't," he replied, his voice dangerous. He was still holding the sonic screwdriver, and now held it up. "Let her go, or I will make you."

The one he'd pulled off looked blankly at him, and Rose pulled away as the one still holding her displayed the same hesitation. She moved behind her Doctor. "She must be placed under quarantine" The nearest doctor insisted, though it stayed still.

"No. She musn't. I'll take care of her." He reached back, offering his hand to Rose. "You're going to let us leave now."

Rose took his hand as the doctors seemed to hesitate, and then nod. "You will leave." They told him. She nodded, "Yeah, bye." Her voice was quiet, and she was trying to fit thing together in her head.

The Doctor stepped back, turning to go to the door, leading Rose out to the alleyway. He didn't speak again, his expression drawn - serious.

Nothing stopped them as they left, and Rose clung to his hand. She didn't want to break the silence, acknoweledge the fact that somehow, once again, she'd done something stupid to need rescuing.

He didn't speak again until they reached the street, out of reach or hearing of those doctors. "When did you cut your hand?" He asked softly.

It was the second time he'd asked, she looked up at him. "Earlier. I told you, remember?" Her voice was almost casual, but something about his tone worried her. "In the house."

"On what?" He didn't look at her; he knew he couldn't hide his worry if he did, that dire concern, that memory that he'd told her they would be back soon, had promised Jackie to always bring her home, had sworn to keep her safe, and now... what could he do about this?

She turned her head to try to see his face. "The mask. When I went back in." Rose was trying to be coaxing now, something didn't feel right.

"..I'm sorry," he said, glancing at her only briefly. "Rose. I didn't... you're infected. That's what they meant." He kept his voice soft and flat, forcing down his concern.

She didn't know exactly what to say to that. Part of her wanted to hang onto his hand and another to snatch it away quickly. Rose looked at the ground. " 'S my fault then isn't it?" She didn't feel any different. "Rule 1?" Something in her refused to believe, and part of her said 'Never just tourists'.

"I keep telling you not to wander off.." His cheer was utterly false, and it failed all too quickly. He was silent for a long moment before adding, "I won't let anything happen. I won't allow it." And he meant it.

He could talk all he wanted about there being a time for people to die, a time for everything, and he was used to it, but... Not when it was Rose. He couldn't accept it when it was her.

Rose nodded, looking up at him. "I... know." Around them the sun was setting and the 'doctors' continued their wanderings. They carefully avoided the pair. She held his hand tighter.

He didn't let go of her hand, either. "There will be a way out of this." He refused to believe that there wasn't some way to stop this. "People survive plague. Always have."

"It's getting dark." Rose commented, nodding along vaguely as he spoke. For a moment she almost laughed then looked up at him. "Dinner." She muttered under her breath, looking back down as she shook her head at the ridiculousness of this.

It took him a moment to respond. "We forgot about it, huh?" He smiled very thinly. "..got a little side-tracked."

"Yeah..." Rose tried a half smile, "I figure the Tardis owes me a meal." It was easier to blame a ship for something to admit then to think about her diagnosis. It was somehow more alien an "We'll have to see about that when we get out of here." He didn't say 'if'. That would be admitting defeat.

"Yeah." She looked up with realization. "So, what did you find out? About the doctors, and those flowers?" Rose asked.

"I don't know about the flowers. The doctors are human, being controlled by alien technology." He shook his head. "They say they're trying to help." He tried not to sound as scornful as he felt of their methods, but couldn't help it.

"So, what're we going to do?" Rose asked him, "I mean, if they're controlling people..." She mused over what they knew, "Wait. There was, some sort of holo-thing or something over the door, right? What if there's one in those plants?"

"There could be. You're right! There could be." He smiled brightly, though it didn't last, looking around. "...shall we?"

"Of course." She told him, before glancing around their surroundings a bit. "But I hope you remember where it was."

"Oh, well, you know.. my memory." He smiled thinly, tapping his temple with the hand that wasn't holding hers. "I've got it."

"Alright then." Rose smiled at him as they continued walking. When they reached a corner she took a wild guess, point up one of the streets at random.

The Doctor nodded, walking down the street she indicated. "This is the one. Sort of like one of those old-timey preserved villages in your time, isn't it? Well, without the actors.." Keeping things light. No reason not to, since they were going to make it out fine. They had to.

"A bit more authentic then I'd prefer." Rose said, scrunching her nose as they passed a window. "Speaking of... Can't help but wonder, and it's always been giant leaps about but... Do they have 'preserved cities' of my time?"

"Well, they did.. before everybody got moved off of Earth, they had this great big city they were trying to preserve, kept.. propping it up with whatever they could." He smiled a little. "They even tried to rebuild London on one planet, billions of years later. And- oh, yeah, there's some planet out there with a great Hollywood sign up on a hill."

Rose looked at him a little disbelieving, "Planet Hollywood?" She asked, raising an eyebrow. "And those couple dozen New Yorks." She remembered.

"Oh yes. Sixteen New Yorks! Well, at last check. They keep making new ones, it's hard to keep up.. couple of New Londons, too, they're pretty industrious. And can't seem to come up with original names..."

"Well I'd imagine you'd run out eventually anyway." Rose said, "Or start nameing places 'Fred and Mike and Barbara." She thought she could maybe make out the greenery in the distance.

"You know, you'd be surprised. I think there actually is a Fred out there somewhere. Sort of hick-ish though. Middle of nowhere bit, not much of a surprise with a name like Fred. Can you imagine, I think there was someone named Fred there, too.." He was keeping an eye out for those doctors, but they hadn't come close again.

"Probably didn't have trouble remembering where he lived." Rose said, "Or spelling it anyway. Sounds sort of like a bad joke though..."

"Sort of was a bad joke.. really happened, though. You humans are strange." He made a face a bit. "Fred from Fred. Weird guy. Owned a shop."

"Lemme guess, called 'Fred's'?" Rose's voice had a knowing tone. "You can't tell me no one else in the universe is bad at naming things."

"Well... yeah, alright, you have a point." He smiled a little. "There's a planet in.. oh, I think they just called it Sector something-or-other. Anyway, completely covered with water, except for this little tiny island. Just the one. And it's named for their word for, I kid you not, water."

"Well they can't have much else to name it with then, can they?" For a moment Rose hadn't quite gotten what he'd said, and almost responded with 'earth?', never good to fall behind in a conversation. They were almost to the amaranths now.

"You know, you'd be surprised. By the time I got off of that world, I thought they named everything backwards.. oh, we're here." He nodded to the bushes. There didn't seem to be any of those doctors around, so he stepped forward, right up to the plants.

"Can you notice anything?" She asked, staying beside him. Rose held out her free hand, waving it around a bit. "I guess I wasn't paying much attention when I was in there..."

"..I don't know. Hang on.." He walked into the bushes, pushing aside some branches to get further in.

Rose kept close behind him as he moved in. She wondered at how the plants were supposed to help them with... whatever it was they were doing.

"Oh, hold on. This... Well, then. What're you?" He was talking to a small, round metal divice in the center of the stand of amaranth. It looked like a small, rounded done, barely higher than one's ankles.

She pushed back some branches and looked down at it from behind him. " It must have something to do with, that Universal they mentioned." Rose said as she blinked at the small dome..

"That is what it looks like," he said, taking out the sonic screwdriver and tapping the metal dome with it. "This must be what's controlling those doctors.."

Her head swam for a moment, and Rose sat down, trying not to let him notice. "But, why leave it here, in the middle of these plants?" She asked him.

"Maybe to hide it. Maybe... the controller said that their planet was decimated by a plague. Maybe the plants remind them of home." He frowned slightly, looking around the featureless dome for seams, handles, or bolts.

Rose played idly with a leaf that was within her reach as she sat. "Maybe... Doesn't explain the 'ghosts' though..." She thought for a minute, and unsure asked, "Does it?"

"The controller said they used the 'ghosts' as a way to keep people out of rooms where people had died," he replied, shaking his head. "I'm not sure I believe them, though."

"We're going to have to go back there again at some point, aren't we?" Roses voice was casual, "You need more answers."

"Probably. I need to know if these things need to be stopped." A pause, and he added, "I don't like what they're doing." As if that wasn't obvious.

"Your judgement hasn't been wrong yet." Rose told him, silently adding, 'when it wasn't something I was bullying you into like Adam and my Dad...'.

"Not often." He grinned briefly. He was still looking at the thing. "..there's no way to get into this. Hm."

Rose thought for a moment. "If we hatted another of those things, when they came back over we could look and see what they do with it." She suggested.

"Good idea! Don't think the controller will like that... But he should have just told me." He smiled faintly.

She gave him a small smile as she stood back up. "Some things just don't know when it's the time to rattle off their whole plan I guess." Rose joked.

He chuckled, standing up himself. "They really should know better. I did warn them..." And once he'd warned them, he had little reason to consider their feelings in the matter.

"How d'we want to work this then? Should I go get one so you can stay here and see what they do?" Rose asked him.

"That could work. You're up to it?" That was a double question, wasn't it?

"Yeah." Rose nodded to him. "Course." She turned to leave the plants and find the nearest doctor, there were a few on the street.

He waited, stepping back into the bush so that he wouldn't be easily seen. Trusting Rose to get one of those things to come here.

There was one close, and facing away from her, so she moved quickly. She had to jump one she had hold of the helmet to get it off his head, but then tossed it towards the amaranth. It went to retrieve it's helmet almost frantically, moving towards the dome after it had been replaced on his head.

The Doctor heard it in the bushes and waited, very still, for it to come. Good work, he thought but obviously didn't say.

Once it reached the dome it crouched, kneeling on the ground ant tilting it's head so the helmet's beak touched the top of the dome. There was a brief crackle of electricity and it stood, turning to leave the bushes once more. Rose had moved to one side of the grove, waiting until it left.

"So that's what it is!" The Doctor exclaimed, once the lowercase-d doctor had gone. "It.. it recharges them or something. I wonder if it's controlling them, too..?"

Rose moved back through the amaranth to the capital-D Doctor. "Didn't get enough information?" She asked once she'd arrived.

"I think I've got the handle of it... the computer chips in their heads control them and give them a connection to this thing. And to the controller." He paused, then added, "The helmet's a conduit, as well as protecting them from infection. Probably the electrical charge powers the chip and zaps any sign of infection... Something to that effect."

"Which'd explain why they come right over after the helmet gets knocked off!" Rose said, feeling a bit triumphant. She was still curious about the plants though.

"Exactly. And I think, knowing that, we might want to go have a talk with the controller again. He'll answer my questions." There was an unspoken 'I'll make him' implied by his tone.

Rose nodded, "Yeah." She was suddenly tired, but she knew it would be quicker to go now and have this finished.

He smiled briefly, grabbing her hand to lead her out of the grove, ignoring the clingy branches. They had to go back to the controller, to stop this.. So he could help Rose properly, not deal with these issues.

The walk there seemed quicker, and Rose was glad that the Doctor seemed to know where he was going in the dark streets.

He was getting used to the place - something he didn't particularly like, but it was useful. They reached the hologrammed-over door, and he pushed it open with perhaps more force than was strictly required. "This way," he muttered, leading the way down the hall to the door wherein he had first met the controller.

Rose stayed close to him as they moved, half expecting one of the doctors to come and interfere. When they finally reached the door it was unlocked, and before it had even opened a voice said, "YOU"

"Yeah, me again! Been a while, hasn't it? How've you been?" His tone was cheerful, and he spoke quickly, opening the door and stepping inside. He wasn't smiling, though.

"YOU WERE ALLOWED LEAVE AND EVEN LET TO TAKE HER, WHY DO YOU RETURN?" There was annoyance in the voice and the vague figure was a bright red on the screen. Rose moved to follow him inside.

"Allowed? Let? What made you think you could stop me if you tried?" He asked, raising an eyebrow. "I came back because you didn't answer my questions. You will now."

The voice calmed, though the figure still blazed red. "Ask your questions. We have nothing to hide from you, and the sooner to be rid of you once you are satisfied."

"What is your aim here? What are you trying to do?" He doubted very much that it was merely to help... since when had his luck turned that way?

"The primary mission is to help them to end their plague, then we intend to show ourselves and offer guidance for their other ventures, so they may learn from our mistakes instead of ours, through any means neccessary." The figure looked at them both carefully.

"You mean by force. You mean to force the human race to follow you." He didn't phrase it as a question, his tone flat.

"For their own good." The figure said emphatically. Rose was leaning against the wall, watching. She listened to the two speak, but in her mind, 'But you don't.' repeated over and over.

"Taking away free will isn't in anyone's best interests. You just want a new world of your own." It was an accusation.

"If we wanted the planet for ourselves, why try to stop it's plague? Why not them die here and come after they have rotted away?" The figure had a hand up on the screen.

"You're smarter than that. Plague doesn't kill everyone! It only kills about thirty percent of the population. And that's where you come in. Ready to lead, when the people's rulers are dead or in disgrace. Ready to take over... right?"

"Why not?" It asked, pacing along the screen once more. "I suppose you would tell us to leave now, to pack up our things and go back to the stars. That's it right? Appearing out of nowhere and causing trouble."

"That's me. I come in and get you to stop changing things around, you do, everybody's happy. You don't, and things get complicated." His small smile wasn't at all pleasant.

"A question for you then, Doctor." It eyed him from the screen, "If we do, what do you do to stop the plague? Parade it through the streets a time or two more?"

"The plague stops. It ends on its own. They do that." A pause, and he added, "I've been to the future. This ends. Humanity survives. It doesn't need help." This, at least, he didn't say unkindly.

The figure nodded, as if suddenly the universe had unfolded all of its secrets to it. "A time traveler. This makes sense now. You always see the bigger picture." The last line it spoke with distaste.

"It helps, yeah. Gives good perspective." He smiled, but it fell quickly. "Don't like that?"

"Our experiences have not been the best." The figure said icily. "But there are none of us here that you can harm, only the humans we control that you are so eager to have us leave be. You have your own problems, traveler."

"Yeah, I do. But I'm taking care of this now." He paused, then asked, "Why the amaranthus, anyway? Just curious."

The figure looked away from him, and down a bit. "The plants?" It looked up partially, "We called then superstitious but... there was some writing we found..." It stopped, turning away from them.

"What writing?" He asked, raising an eyebrow. "From here?"

"From here." It agreed. "A... story of sorts. 'Rose and an Amaranth'." It looked ashamed at itself, either for the plant or for talking about them with someone who had more or less said 'I'm bringing you down, but in the meantime...'.

"'Rose and an Amaranth'?" A slight frown at that, wondering. "What is it? I mean, what does it say?"

"Why should it matter to you?" There was a bit in its voice. "It stands for immortality, a message that we would help them to live, keep them from fading now. You would stop us, so do it." The screen stayed on but figure retreated to a seat in the room, or so it's next stance would suggest.

"I'm curious." He shrugged. "And you're right. I would stop you. Because if you control them, take their free will, then they won't last. They won't build all the great things they're going to build. They're innovative. Don't ruin that. I don't want to harm you."

The figure turned in their direction, and stood, a paper in its hand. "Then make a deal with us traveler. Let us stay until the plague has gone and we will leave then, and give you the writing now."

A pause. He looked at the figure as if peering at something new and unknown. "..you want to make sure they survive, don't you?"

Suddenly the bright red that had been the figure faded, and what was left was creature with elongated limbs and dark, overlarge eyes. "Yes." It said, after what seemed like a considerable period of time. Rose had sat down, leaning against the wall, forehead pressed against the screen.

The Doctor nodded. "...alright. You leave once the plague is over. See for yourself that they survive." He glanced at Rose briefly, wanting to be sure she was alright.

"The paper will be in the entryway." it promised, making a sort of elegant bow. Rose didn't seem to notice him, her mind focused on the fact that suddenly the room seemed pretty hot and the screen wasn't very cool.

He nodded again. "Alright. Thank you." He made a short, perfunctory bow before turning away, kneeling next to Rose. "..are You alright?"

Brought back to the current situation, Rose blinked for a minute. "It's hot." She told him, then glanced around the room. "You done already?" She gave a half smile. "That was quick." Rose made an attempt to get up.

"Yeah... didn't go badly at all. Now we can get out of here!" He forced himself to sound a bit more cheerful than he felt, going to help her up.

By use of his arm she managed to get herself up fairly easily. She gave a little wave to the figure once she was standing before focusing her attention on the door. "I can't tell if it feels like we've been here for a few minutes, or hours." Rose confided in the Doctor.

"Not too long," he said by way of reply, smiling slightly. "Can't keep you from home too late, you know. Jackie would murder me." He pushed the door open, glad that it didn't give any resistance. This deal had been genuine - that was satisfying, at least.

Rose leaned on him a little as they made their way along. She thought some sort of joke was neccessary but couldn't find the right words. "I think she'll be suspicious when I get home from 'dinner' starving." Was what she finally came up with.

"I'll tell her we got chased off... happens often enough." He wasn't smiling now, leading her out and to the main area, then to the door. Wondering where the 'writing' would be.

Rose nodded in agreement. The writing was on a piece of paper in the middle of the room. It was slightly crumpled, and the paper yellowed. She looked at it quizzically.

The Doctor picked up the paper, reading over it quickly. "So that's why. The flowers." He folded it and put it in his pocket, frowning. His expression when he did was the very careful blank that meant that he was very upset.

She looked up at him, wanting to ask if there was something wrong but realizing the obvious. "You don't usually get notes after." Rose tried to joke, but she ended up sounding worried.

"..they like poetry. Maybe they think I do, too." He couldn't quite summon a smile. He did like poetry. But not when it was like that.

"Oh." Was all she managed to say in response to that. Rose couldn't help but notice that everything looked the same as they had on the streets, she guessed she should've paid more attention in the room.

"..don't worry about it. We should get back to the TARDIS." He was worried, and the TARDIS was always his sanctuary when something was wrong.

"Okay." Rose told him as the made their way through the dark streets. It seemed like almost no time at all before there was a familiar shape right before them.

The Doctor unlocked and opened the door, stepping back to let Rose in before following and closing the door behind him. "..and we're through there." Not entirely. But the first crisis had passed; in his mind, rather the lesser one.

Once she was in Rose shot the console an accusing look, before moving over a nearby column. It proved to be rather cold and she closed her eyes for a moment.

"How d'you feel?" he asked, looking at her. He wasn't entirely sure what to do - illness like this he wasn't used to, and he didn't know if the hospitals at her home would know how to handle this.

"Still hot..." Rose trailed off before yawning. As an afterthought she added, "A little tired." She wasn't quite sure home was the best place to go right now either.

"You should lie down. I'll see if I can find something to help... You know, I never looked into this much. This time period." He meant 'plague', but he wasn't quite willing to say it. "Is that weird? I think it sort of is..." He was rambling again. Defense mechanism?

She nodded, "That sounds like a good idea." Starting for the doorway she turned back. "The whole thing seems weirder then normal..." Rose trailed off.

"..it's just because you've got a fever. They mess with your mind, you know." He smiled briefly, hardly felt. "You'll be fine." He had to tell himself that, too.

Rose nodded in agreement as she trailed off, the first door she opened had a bed in it, and she collapsed into it thankfully, staying awake just long enough to pull the blankets over herself.

The Doctor went looking for something to help. The TARDIS was, after all, very big and very old - there had to be something on here. Hadn't he had enough humans inside that he would have at least some... painkillers or something?

Well, he wasn't quite sure. Which was why he was looking.

It took him a couple of hours, periodically checking in on Rose, to find anything that looked like a fever reducer. It would help. He didn't have anything for plague, of course - he wouldn't have put it past himself or his previous companions, but it was doubtful from the start - but he could at least treat some of it.

They said that the Black Death had contributed to a greater incidence of a mutated gene that prevented and got rid of plague in people from Britain. Hopefully that would hold true for Rose.

As the time passed Rose had grown more restless in her sleep. The blankets were askew, somehow equally wrapped around her and tossed off to the side. She was drenched in sweat, and had started dreaming.

"Doctor!" she called out as she tossed, almost a moan at first, but then again, louder "Doctor!" She was almost thrashing in her sleep as she called out.

He heard her, bolting to the room and going to the bed. "Rose? I'm here," he told her, though he knew, more objectively, that she had no way of knowing he was there. She was asleep, wasn't she? "I'm right here."

When he spoke her eyes opened, though she almost looking through a haze, still dreaming. "No!" Rose shouted as she him, shaking her head. "Doctor!" she called again, in her haze begging for the past two weeks to have been a dream.

He took a step back - knowing she was dreaming, feverish, but it stung. "..it's me, Rose. It's the Doctor." But not her Doctor, and that was all too clear.

She called out one more time before falling back into sleep, her eyes tearing. But it was only to stir again a minute later, eyes still closed but muttering. " 'S allmyfault..."

"No, Rose..." He wanted to reach out to her, let her know he was there, but he didn't know if he should or not. If it would be help or hurt. "It's not your fault," he said anyway.

Rose continued muttering as she turned in the bed, but most of it was nonsensical, the only words that could be made out were 'sorry' and 'gone' both repeated a number of times. At one point she stopped flat on her back, holding her hand out as she had when the vortex was in her.

"Rose..." He settled not far from the bed, sitting on the floor and leaning against the wall. When she held out her hand like that, he leaned over, touching her shoulder lightly. It hurt in a way that he didn't entirely understand.

When he touched her shoulder the arm fell, crossing her chest and ending with her hand on his. "Sorry" Came again, in another strain of gibberish, her head turned to the other side of the bed as she said it.

He watched her, listening to her. Sitting by the wall, he kept a careful eye on her. He refused to leave - even if she didn't seem to want him there, he couldn't go. Something could happen.

After awhile, she settled some, when she finally managed to move from her fevered sleep she was on her side facing him, an arm hanging over the edge of the bed.

The Doctor watched, waiting for her to wake. So afraid that she wouldn't. When she seemed close to wakefulness, he asked, tentatively, "Rose..?"

Her eyes opened slowly, blinking every few seconds to try to accustom them to the light. A few moments later they were drawn to him. "Doctor." Rose said smiling slowly.

"..welcome back," he said, smiling very slightly. It was a worn sort of smile, but sincere. He was glad to see her awake. "Feeling better?"

"A little..." Rose trailed off, searching the Doctor's face as if there was something she was trying to remember.

"Good! That's good." His smile faltered slightly under her state. "..what?" Blink.

Rose turned her body, trying to manuever her legs off the side of the bed. Her eyes remained fixed on his face, and she stayed silent in concentration.

He watched her, unsmiling now. "...what? Did I do something wrong?" That sort of a look concerned him.

She shook her head a little, eyes still fixed. Rose managed to stand up, albeit a bit shakily, and took a tentative step towards him.

"Somethin' on my face, then?" Looking up at her from where he was sitting. "..probably shouldn't be standing up just yet.." That was a bit of a weak protest, as he wasn't sure what she was doing.

In a way that was half walk and half fall she managed to reach him. Once she was close enough she hugged him tightly, resting her head on his shoulder.

He blinked, surprised and, for a moment, confused. Once he realized what she was going, he put his arms around her gently. "..hey. You're all right," he muttered. Unsure what had brought this on, but he didn't comment on that.

Rose didn't know how exactly she could explain it. She had just suddenly felt that hugging the time lord was what needed to be done.

The Doctor didn't protest - the comfort was, really, welcome, though he was still worried about her. In the wake of her dreaming words, this less-alone feeling was a change for the better. "..are You that glad I found a fever reducer?" He asked. A bit of a light joke, there.

"Needed it." Rose said softly, meaning the hug, but not saying which of them. She didn't seem in much of a hurry to pull away. On one hand, she'd used up a bit of energy to get there, and it probably didn't help much that she was pretty comfortable now.

He wasn't going to push her away, either. She was sick, after all. Nevermind that he quite liked the comfort, weren't you supposed to mollycoddle the ill and injured? He'd never caught on to that before, really. "..lucky I'm here, then," he muttered, in his usual joking tone, though a bit more gentle than it normally was.

After a few more moments one of Rose's pockets broke into a rather loud, and not very catchy song. Begrudgingly pulling back to take the phone out of her pocket, she looked at it blurrily.

"..I Think your mum's wondering where exactly we went to dinner," he said, smiling slightly and looking at the phone.

Rose sat back, debating for a moment or two whether or not to open it. Finally she pushed it towards him. "I'll sound sick." She argued.

"So you want me to answer it? And talk to your mum?" He sounded incredulous, but took the phone - mostly because she had a point. And because Jackie would probably keep calling if they didn't answer. "I can't believe I'm doing this..." But he flipped open the phone anyway, and just to be safe - and perhaps for the comic relief - held it a couple of inches away from his ear.

"Rose!" Jackie's voice came out of the speakers rather loudly, "What do you mean, 'out for dinner'? Mickey's left about a dozen messages, it's past midnight, and I just know you've got something to do with your Doctor and his box being gone! There're restraunts here, you don't need to go galivanting off across the universe for food, there's nothing wrong with the chip shop down the street-" Jackie paused to take a breath, and Rose gave him a look that said it was probably now or never.

The Doctor stared at the phone for a moment before he dared to speak up. "Jackie? Hi!" His tone was cheerful, probably because he was afraid of death-by-poisoning if he let on that something was off. Not that death-by-poisoning wasn't a valid concern.. anyway. "It's the Doctor." Like he needed to clarify. It could've been worse, of course; well, it could've been Jack. There was a terrifying thought.

Jackie's paranoia had grown somewhat since her daughter had started traveling. It was for this reason that the cheerful tone probably backfired. "What's happened to Rose?" Her voice was flat, and there was a statement in the question. After she asked it she seemed to be readying herself for another onslaught.

The Doctor winced. Well, a little exaggeratedly, for effect. "Nothing's happened, just a... slight miscalculation, and we'll be on our way back in no time!" He really was trying. Well, sort of. "We got held up a bit. Nothing out of the ordinary..." Except the plague business. But like hell he was going to tell Jackie about that.

"If it's nothing out of the ordinary, why can't she answer her own phone?" Jackie's tone was accusing, and she was currently pacing the kitchen as she spoke. Rose gave an apologetic look to the Doctor.

He was trying to think fast - something he was ordinarily very good at, but he was not adept at, well... he made a bit of a face, mouthing the word 'domestics' at Rose and rolling his eyes. At least he was better at it than his, er, previous incarnation. "She's resting, it was... Well, when I say nothing out of the ordinary, I mean for us, which means there was a lot of running about involved, and some very complicated jumping and whatnot. Also trees and things." He was making it up as he went along.

Jackie didn't bother to hide her skepticism. "Complicated jumping, and trees." She gave in though, and finally sighed. "She trusts you." She said with a hint of distaste, "But I want her back before morning, do you hear?"

He smiled a bit. "I trust her, too. Absolutely. Morning, then." He nodded, even though obviously Jackie couldn't see that. "Don't wait up," he added, as a joke, even though he had a distinct feeling Jackie wouldn't care for it.

Jackies response was to promptly hang up the phone on her end. "Went that well?" Rose couldn't help but ask, she had a sheepish grin. She knew she should've been the one getting chewed out.

"Umm. Depends on your definition of 'well'," he replied, though he was still smiling. He liked Jackie, honestly, but sometimes it was difficult to resist messing with her. And by 'difficult' he meant 'impossible'. "We'll know it didn't if she tries to lock you in the flat when we get back."

He was still looking at the phone, pressing a few buttons. Usually the thing was a little silly, but right now? Helpful!

"What're you doing?" Rose asked as she watched him pressing the buttons. A bit of her brain far in the back was working on how to get out of the locked flat if that did arise.

"Looking something up.. lucky I can still access the internet from here. Do sort of wish I hadn't come up with that bit to let your mum call..." He was joking, of course, half his attention on the conversation and the other half on the phone.

"I'd think they'd go together." Rose said as she leaned against the wall. She noticed with interest that the blankets still seemed to be attached to her.

"They would.. which makes it hard to be thankful for the internet bit," he replied, grinning and glancing at her. Something almost camp-ish about them sitting next to one another, leaning on the wall, her still with blankets on.

She leaned against him a bit, trying to make out what was on the screen of the phone. When she didn't manage, Rose stayed where she way anyway.

"..didn't know WebMD had an article about plague," he muttered, with a sort of little half-smile. He didn't mind her closeness - it made him feel a little better.

"Huh..." Rose said simply. "What does it say?" She asked a couple seconds later. Mentally she was a bit amused by the fact that even he sometimes resorted to looking things up online.

"Well, it's not a friendly disease," he remarked, smiling slightly. Relieved, a bit, reading the article. There were treatments, then. He knew there must be, but... "Treated with antibiotics, though, apparently. So it can't be that bad." He made light of it because it had scared the hell out of him. He was just glad she was conscious.

Rose bit her lip, looking over to him slightly guiltily. "I think I knew that." She said very softly, probably a mention in history when they'd covered it. A bit of human braggery that 'we're ready now'.

He would have shrugged, but he didn't want to dislodge her from her spot, looking at her briefly. "Well, you're sick. Makes it hard to think sometimes."

"Yeah...'Guess." She still felt that if she'd remembered before, it would've saved some grief. "So... When would be the best place to go?"

"Well.. they'd have it in your time, but I don't want to dodge Jackie," he smiled a bit. "So I think maybe... 1950? That sounds about right. Good time for antibiotics; they were just starting to figure them out."

"Wouldn't it be a better idea to go later, when they know what they're doing?" Rose asked hesitantly. She tried to remember if she'd heard anything in particular about medicine in the 50s.

"Nah - streptomycin was invented in '47, and that's what they use to treat plague... Well, and tuberculosis, but we haven't got that problem.."

"Alright then." Rose said, "I trust you." She was staring at a leg of the bed as she spoke. It reminded her of something, but she couldn't figure out what.

He smiled. "Good. I'm glad." He meant that, too.

She stayed there, silent for a few moments. "Shouldn't we..." Rose motioned to the door. She didn't make a move to get up though.

"..yeah, probably." But he wasn't moving, either.

"Okay... Jus' checking." She told him as she turned back to the bed leg.

"Yeah.. seem to be having a motivation problem." He smiled a little. Amused, maybe. Much more cheerful now that he was reasonably sure she would be alright.

She looked down at her side for a minute, before locating her hand, and a few moments later his. Taking it, Rose put her other hand onto the ground for leverage.

He glanced at her, then at her hand holding his, still smiling. Odd but comfortable, he figured. "You want your phone back?" He asked, breaking the soft silence.

"Kay." She said, taking it, and then putting a bit more effort into the whole standing up thing.

He blinked, then realized what she was, well, trying to do, and stood up himself, helping her up gently.

With something higher to pull herself up, Rose was soon standing next to him. She took a step towards the door.

"You alright to be walking around?" He asked, raising an eywbrow and going to open the door.

"Yeah." She stayed behind him, a bit further then usual as she wasn't quite up to speed though of course. Once she reached the door there'd be walls to lean on.

He didn't let go her hand, not wanting to leave her in the hall and end up finding her still there hours later or something. That would probably be bad.

She managed to catch up, and between his hand and the wall to keep an okay pace. Rose gave him a small smile.

He smiled briefly in return, leading her to the main 'room' of the TARDIS before going to the controls. Levers and dials were used, as he tried to get the TARDIS moving in a more-or-less accurate way.

Once they reached the main room Rose sat down on the single seat. She wasn't quite sure how rocky it would be, and didn't quite want to try working her way back up from the floor.

"I'll try and keep us in one piece this time," he told her, as the TARDIS made the characteristic 'we're traveling now' sound and the whole thing shook a bit. Time and space travel did have some turbulance, after all.

Rose nodded, holding onto the seat and managing to stay upright. There'd definitely been bumpier trips, and she managed by force of will to keep her lunch off the console.

The Doctor was very, very grateful for that. So, one might imagine, was the TARDIS. "I'll go have a look around... it's probably best if I get the medicine and come back.." He was thinking, frowning slightly.

Rose thought it over. On one hand, he'd be much quicker without her along. On the other...well, she figured there was as good a chance of something happening either way. She spotted a phone on the console, and fishing hers from her pocket, held it towards him again. "Here." Rose wasn't quite sure what it would do, but it was something anyway.

He blinked at the phone for a moment before taking it. "..what, d'you want me to call your mother if there's an emergency?" It was a joke, honestly.

Rose shrugged, not quite sure herself. She grinned though, "You don't think she'd be useful if you called, 'I'm in the 50s to pick up strep-amawatsit 'cause your daughter has the plague, but the medical supply's being held by a martian'?" She realized, with a sad thought, the seeming likeliness of such an event.

"Well, you never know," he replied, glancing at the console briefly to make sure they had, in fact, gotten to the right time. "She could scare them off. She does yell a lot over the phone. At me, anyway."

Rose nodded. "Come to think of it... that'd probably work." She smiled at the mental image of it.

"So in a pinch, that's my backup. Call up your mum and get her to yell at anyone who tries to get in my way." He smiled, pausing before adding, "Come to think of it, the cell phone might scare them off. 1950, remember."

"Not if it's aliens." Rose pointed out to him. "They'd just be surer that something was up. Then you need the yelling."

"Good point. I'll keep my finger on the speed dial." Hang on. "Which button is your mum's, again? If I get Mickey on the line by mistake, I'm hanging up."

"One." She told him, "Put her number in it before I even got to look at it. Mickey's three." Rose added with a grin, "But yeah, he wouldn't be as much help."

He smiled. "No, but it might be worth the amusement..." He thought about that for a second, then added, "So if we get back and he keeps calling, you know, don't be surprised." Ah, there was the Doctor's mean streak.

"Nah, our luck he'd call next planet we get to, ducked behind somethin' or another." Rose told him, leaning on a bit of the console without any switches or buttons to hit.

"Oh, probably. Should remember to turn off the ringer next time we go somewhere dangerous." He shrugged, glancing at the phone in his hand. "Anyway, I should go get your medicine. Be safe, right?"

"Promise." She told him with a nod. "You too." Rose added under her breath. I'll sit here and guess what stuff does."

"Don't press any buttons," he warned, giving her a quick wave and going to the door, disappearing into the 1950s outside.

She rolled her eyes as he walked out, looking around console. Rose resisted the urge to flip a switch instead, just because he hadn't specified, but knew, her luck she'd somehow get stuck somewhere.

It wasn't exactly unlikely - knowing the TARDIS, it wouldn't be all that nice about it. And then the Doctor would be stranded.

Speaking of, it took him a bit to get back - he wasn't sure himself how long it had been, but eventually he re-entered the TARDIS, a bit snowy but no worse for the wear, bearing a paper bag. "No aliens!" He reported.

"Real snow this time then?" Rose asked him casually. She was still awake, and had given up on figuring out actual uses for the levers. She pointed to small, greenish button near the top of the console. "That's Bob." Rose told him informationally.

"Yeah! It's December out there! Didn't know I'd landed in December. Bit too much snow for my taste, but Alaska was worse.." He smiled brightly, blinking when she announced the name for the button. "...you named the button?" He asked, puzzled.

Rose nodded easily, and pointed to a nearby switch. "And that's Pearl." The switch was a rather worn brown shade. She shrugged, "I was bored."

"Bob and Pearl," he repeated, a bit bemused. "I hope you don't expect me to remember that." Even though he probably would, now. "Unless you make them nametags or something."

"I found a pen," Rose held it up, "But you didn't have any post-its or anything." She told him. "I got through the whole top row actually."

"The whole... oh dear." He looked at the various buttons and switches. "..are You sure you're even going to remember them all?"

Rose glanced at them herself for a moment. "...Most of them." She said finally. She'd turned to people she'd met about halfways through, in the order she'd met them, so they'd be easy enough.

"Alright." He smiled a little. He had a sneaking suspicion that those names were going to stick. He made a mental note to inform the TARDIS of its new compatriots. "I got your medicine, you know. Needles and everything, just to make it easy. Can't be taken orally, unfortunately."

"Least it won't taste bad then." Rose said, trying to find the bright side. She didn't mind needles much, and, she remembered, were usually more one-or-two time things.

"No taste at all, which is good... antibiotics are mold, so you'd think they'd taste sort of like that.." He made a bit of a face.

"Yeah. Most medicine stuff isn't much on the side of taste." Rose wondered for a minute on how quick it would work.

"Nope. Never has been, never will be - sort of unfortunate, that. You'd think in the process of building a couple of dozen New York Cities, they'd figure out how to make the cherry cough syrup really taste like cherry..."

"Or some chocolate or something. Orange usually isn't bad." Rose added thoughtfully. "Grape's a bit off. Wonder how apple'd taste?"

"Hm. Dunno, I don't think they've ever really made apple-flavored medicine... I always liked the orange, though. Strawberry was too sweet." Now this was an interesting conversation to be having with an alien.

"Should I be wondering why you seem to have been taste-testing our cough syrups?" Rose asked him with a raised eyebrow. "On second thought, not sure I want to know."

"Definitely don't want to know. It's a really long story." He grinned. "Sort of traumatizing."

"Well, we've probably got some time." Rose motioned her head towards the bag he was still holding. "Doubt that's instant, and I probably don't want to start spreading the plague about back home right? Even if it's treatable now." She gave him a pleading look.

He started -

Fade to black