Sanctuary

Good Morning, Miss Nightingale

"Doctor! Doctor, you in here?"

Rose wandered into the console room dressed in an incredibly elaborate dress. It had taken almost an hour to get into and another to follow the instructions for tying together the layers, bows and laces. The Doctor, however, had promised that the effort would be worth it, and by the time Rose had finished she knew that if this world that the Doctor was so keen for her to visit wasn't up to scratch then she was going to be really, really irritated.

"Doctor?" She stopped short at the inner door. The console room was empty. She caught sight of his tool box lying on the grill by the console and rolled her eyes. He's probably misplaced one of the shinier spanners and was off wandering the corridors.

And he'd probably be hours if he found something interesting. Even in his own ship, the Doctor was an explorer.

She took a step towards the tool box, deciding that since the Doctor wasn't about he wouldn't mind her having a poke around in there. What he didn't know wouldn't hurt him, and he always seemed suspiciously protective of his toolbox, and the console in general especially when he was tinkering with it.

Rose caught sight of the hand first, his fingers slightly curled, his flesh pale. She hitched up her skirts and dashed to his side.

"Doctor! Doctor, can you hear me!"

She put her ear to his mouth, listening for his breath. Soft and shallow, but it was there. Her fingers found his pulse and for a moment she marvelled at the double heart beat before her mind turned to the question of what was wrong with him.

She shook his shoulders gently, but there was no response, and his breathing did seem very slow. That might be normal for his species, she considered, laying a hand on his forehead.

"This had better not be some stupid joke, Doctor," she muttered.

After a moment she realised that his skin was hot, far too hot, though there was no sign of sweat. She'd taken his hand often enough to know that this was the wrong temperature. So he was ill, though he had said nothing to her earlier. It must have come on very suddenly. She glanced around the console room, vaguely hoping for an obvious solution to present itself.

"Alright, Rose, nothing to worry about. Just a fever. Should be a first aid kit around here somewhere."

She gave the inner door a long look, willing the TARDIS to present her with a room beyond that would be of some use. The Doctor's ship seemed to have a strange sense of humour that delighted in confusing her by constantly rearranging the internal architecture. The Doctor said she was just being friendly; Rose suspected that the TARDIS was jealous.

"Okay, Doctor, now I know that you probably can't hear me, but I'm going to see if I can find something to help you. I'll be right back, I promise."

She paused at the door, once again willing the TARDIS to help her out. When she went through, the corridor ahead was the same as she remembered. "Could have been worse," she murmured.

She ran to the kitchen and grabbed a cup of water and a couple of towels and took them back to the console room. A wet towel on his forehead was better than nothing.

Time passed, and there was no sign of the Doctor recovering. Rose began to feel afraid, wondering what she would do if he did not wake up. Certainly there was plenty of food and water on board the TARDIS but the idea of living out her life alone in this alien ship scarcely bore thinking about. Mentally, she shook herself. Thinking worse case scenario wasn't going to help anyone.

The Doctor seemed to be getting warmer, but Rose couldn't be sure. It could mean he was fighting some infection, could mean he was getting worse, and GCSE Biology wasn't helping her much more than that. Kneeling by him, holding his hand, and watching his chest slowly rise and fall occupied an hour, two hours, three. She didn't know, and didn't want to check her watch to find out. The fact that she wasn't panicking she took as a good sign.

"This is so silly," she told him finally. "I bet you just hit your head crawling out from under that bloody console. So just hurry up and wake up, cause I'm tired and bored and going to get pretty cranky soon." Naturally, there was no response. "Fine, you be like that." She gave a wicked grin. "I quite like you like this actually, no daft interruptions makes a nice change.

There was a distinct beep from the console. Rose scrambled to her feet and tried to guess which particular control had caused the welcome interruption. "Was that you?" she asked, talking to the central rotor, talking to the TARDIS. "You trying to tell me something?"

There was another beep from the console, and this time she spotted the control.

"I'm going to assume that's a yes."

Her hand moved to the control, hesitant, unsure. She glanced at the Doctor. "Well, I've seen you operate this thing more than once, and we both know how useless you can be, so it really can't be that difficult, can it?"

She flicked the switch and then clung to the console, fully expecting something dreadful to happen.

The ship was still, the time rotor was unmoving. Whatever she had done, it hadn't had any effect on their location. They were still parked in the Time Vortex which, as far as the Doctor had told her, seemed to be some sort of not really existing place that you used to get from one time to another very quickly.

She chewed her bottom lip and risked another switch, then another, and another. In the end she lost track of the buttons she had pressed, the dials she had moved, and none of it seemed to be having any effect. In frustration she thumped the console, but even that age-old technique made no difference to her situation.

"This isn't for me!" she shouted. "Look at him! He's ill. He needs help. There's nothing else I can do, and I don't know how to work this damn thing." She paused, taking a deep breath, as she realised that she may just have offended whatever intelligence the TARDIS possessed. "Please, please…look at him."

She half closed her eyes, letting them drift over the console, vaguely hoping for some sort of divine inspiration. Or something.

Her hand clasped a lever and mentally she crossed her fingers. Then something flashed white bright in front of her eyes. There was a crackle and a sharp bang and she instinctively flung her arms up to cover her face and lunged to the floor. She glanced out from behind her fingers to see that one panel on the console had exploded.

But the time rotor was moving; the TARDIS was moving.

"Yes!" She jumped to her feet and grinned. "Fantastic!"

So she wasn't entirely sure what she had done, but the ship was in flight and that was the important thing. Wherever they landed, it had to be better than floating around in some infinite void.

She quickly checked on the Doctor, but there was no discernible change in his condition, and then ran to her room to grab some pillows and blankets, and change into some more practical clothes. Sleeping on the console room floor wouldn't be comfy, but there was no way she was going to leave the Doctor for more than a few minutes when he was like this.

"Good night, Doctor," Rose said, snuggling under her duvet. The Doctor had been carefully tucked under two blankets and his head gently placed on a pillow. "And, please, no jokes about sleepover parties if you wake up," she added.

Rose slept badly, tossing and turning and waking for what seemed like hours. Every time her eyes opened they drifted first to the Doctor and then to the time rotor. Each time she would hope for it to be still, and each time she was disappointed.

Dreams were half-remembered and half-expected, filled with the Doctor's voice and scent. She clung onto them for as long as she could, not exactly afraid of waking, but she did not want to be alone. She moved closer to him during the night, until finally she found herself curled against him, as much for warmth as for wanting some tangible feeling of companionship.

Rose opened her eyes. Something had changed. The Doctor's breathing was still steady, and he was still too warm. Her eyes flew to the console. The rotor had stopped. The TARDIS had landed.

She gave the Doctor's hand a squeeze., before jumping to her feet. "Here's hoping."

The control for the doors was about the only one on the console that she was certain of. Rose flicked the switch and stepped outside.

For a few moments, she was blinded by the light. The ground under her feet was soft, fine sand and she could feel the heat of the sun on her shoulders. In the distance she could hear the sea, lapping at the shore.

But it was the figure standing it front of her that drew Rose's attention. A young, black woman, neatly dressed in a business suit and her hands clasped behind her back. She regarded Rose calmly.

Rose raised a hand to her forehead, shading her eyes from the sun. "Hi there," she said.

"You must be Rose Tyler," said the woman. "Welcome to Sanctuary."