The Doctor looked up from where he had been fiddling with the console at the sound of footsteps on metal grating. Upon doing so, he was faced with a weapon of mass destruction so powerful, he had no chance. No sentient being could stand against it. The pout of one Rose Tyler.
"You have to take me shopping."
He scraped deep for resistance.
"Oh?"
"You said that if we couldn't make it through ten planets without running, hopping, or otherwise moving for our lives, you'd take me shopping. We made it through two, and one of those was uninhabited."
He sighed, already reaching for his sonic.
"Well, you see Rose, I would take you shopping, but I have to finish recalibrating the temporal alignment probes, otherwise we might accidently end up not when we wanted to be—"
"Oh, like normal then," she asked sweetly "Plus, that's what you said you were doing yesterday when I asked about going to visit Mum."
"Very sensitive job like this could take a while."
She grabbed his tie and pulled his face down to hers.
"We. Are. Going. Shopping. Unless you particularly want to see me with no clean clothes. And seeing as you won't take me home to do my laundry…."
He grimaced and reached for the controls, slowly as possible, fixing her with a pout of his own.
"I know where you keep your food, and I know where to get pears."
He meeped and scuttled to do what she demanded. As they stepped out into semi-blinding sun, he perked up again, as he always did at the prospect of showing her something new.
"Arelius was originally a colony of—believe it or not—the Raxicoricans. Now it's mostly human, and one of the most esteemed shopping worlds in the universe. It's…oooh, around 2..6. That's the year four billion, three thousand for you human calendar types."
He placed a hand on her back and led her into the center of town.
"Welcome to—"
He stopped short, his hand slowly slipping down to grab her hand.
"Rose, when I say, run," he whispered furiously "I may have gotten the time period slightly…off."
In front of them were a large group of Raxicoricans. With bows strung and at the ready. The one in front suddenly let out an almost-howl.
"RUN!"
All normal then, running hand in hand, full tilt towards the TARDIS. Suddenly Rose let out a scream, the high, keening sound of an animal in pain. The Doctor turned to see her pitching forward, white faced, with the fletching of an arrow sticking out of her back. No time to think, he gathered her up into his arms and sprinted the remaining few feet in the TARDIS, thanking Rassilon and every other god he could think of when it swung open in front of him.
Rose woke to an irregular beeping and the feel of a harder mattress than her own bed. She barely noticed these things however, because it was freezing. Why had the TARDIS made it so cold? Why was the Doctor letting her, for that matter? As if conjured by her thoughts, his troubled face swam into view.
"Rose? Rose!"
She tried to answer him, but it came out sounding like a half strangled moan. She wasn't surprised; her teeth were knocking together, so cold, so cold.
It was killing him to see her like this. Rose Tyler, the stuff of legends, brought down by a measly poisoned arrow on Arelius—no. She'd be fine. She had to be. Her own immune system would fight off the poison, she'd be fine.
He gently stroked her cheek, shuddering at how hot it was. She was burning up. The TARDIS sung a query at him, but he refused to answer. Golden tendrils curled around his mind, soothing and stroking, trying to reassure him. It didn't work.
The beeping stopped, becoming a steady drone. A shuddering breath past bruised lips.
"Time of death—" a broken sob "12:17 AM local time."
