He stands up and starts pacing the room. "What just happened?"
"I was Bad Wolf again, wasn't I? I could feel it. I…" She slumps forward.
"Rose!" He rushes over to her, but she lifts up, like a puppet on a wire, fully emerged in gold.
With hair extended fully from the roots, energy shooting from her fingers, toes, eyes, hair, and just about everything else, she speaks.
"The Moment is coming. Soon you will have to decide, Doctor. Very soon. Choose carefully." Her back arches and she lowers gently to the floor.
The Doctor looks scared. "Rose…" he says slowly.
Her mouth opens and closes.
"What were you talking about?"
Her eyebrows scrunch together. "Do you ever count them?" she asks, then her eyes widen.
"…how do you know about that?" he asks quietly.
"I…I don't know. It just came out."
"Something is definitely wrong…" he hesitates, "…and I'm not sure if I can fix it."
She sits down on the floor. "But you'll try?"
He crouches next to her. "I'll try, I promise."
Rose scrunches her eyes and presses her hand to her forehead.
"Do you feel okay? Maybe we should get you to bed."
"Yeah. Yeah, that'd probably be a good idea."
The Doctor reaches his arm around her waist. His long, thin fingers span her rib cage and gentle pressure prods her to stand up with his assistance. Once she's standing, he has to bend over to keep his arm in place, which leaves his mouth and nose in the neck region. They take a few steps like this, but whether it be from concentrating on anything other than the Doctor's breath on her neck or from lack of strength, she stumbles and would've fallen over for sure if it hadn't been for him.
Without hesitation, he bends over even more and lifts her up, legs draped over his other arm. She fidgets with her hands, letting them first rest in her lap and then wrapping them around his neck. He takes an unnecessarily deep breath. The Tardis gratefully moves Rose's bedroom closer to the library so the Doctor would have less distance to travel, but truth be told, he would carry her up a mountain and down the other side if it meant she'd be safe in his arms.
She tries to stay as still as possible, but she's shaking. It's not like they haven't been in a situation where the Doctor needs to carry her; they have, but it's just so much for her right now. Everything feels heightened. Every touch, sound, smell, and thought, all amplified. She can hear his clipped breathing from carrying her and feel the tiny adjustments of his fingers against her body. She can smell the banana he ate on his breath, and the familiar scent of the Doctor - like books dipped in chocolate - threatens to overwhelm her. That's just it though: it all does. It's shrouded in foreboding and fear. She can't focus on one particular thing and it's causing her to shake.
He notices. Of course he notices.
He manages to open her door without putting her down, and walks over to her bed. He sets her feet down first by lowering her so that he ends up kneeling beside her while she uses his shoulder to steady herself. Her hand is shaking still, but at least when standing she has more control over her legs.
"Do you need me to help you change into your jim jams?" His eyes dart up to meet hers, only for a second, before lowering them shyly and looking nervously around the room.
Near death situations he can handle, but having to help Rose Tyler change clothes has him quaking in his shoes.
"I think I'll be fine in this for tonight. Let me just…" She reaches back with her free hand and tries to unclasp her bra. However, she is unable to do it with a single trembling hand. She sighs loudly with frustration. "Would you… um… help me with this?" She gestures to her back.
The Doctor gulps and nods his head. He helps her over to the bed and she braces herself with the bed post. His fingers slide beneath her shirt, the coolness of them making her flinch away. He whispers sorry before undoing the clasp. She carefully pulls the straps down and slides it off without falling over and then he helps her into bed.
"I'll see you in the morning." He shuts the door and the Tardis shuts the lights off.
It's one and a half hours of tinkering with things he fixed weeks ago, pacing around, and rereading books he's read 1,000 times already before he goes and checks in on Rose.
He slowly walks up to her bed, the Tardis bringing the lights up enough so he can see well. Careful to not wake her up, he brushes her hair away from her face. As he does, his fingers skim her forehead. All human skin feels warm to him, but even he can tell that this is abnormally hot for anyone. He runs to the infirmary and gets all the temperature lowering treatments and cream he can find and stuffs it all into his pockets.
Back in Rose's room, he sits down on the bed by her feet and sorts through all the medicine, making a pile of human acceptable drugs, Time Lord acceptable drugs, and drugs for both human and Time Lord. The pile for both is inadequately small. He picks up a cooling cream. It works best when applied to the wrists, forehead, and chest. He obviously isn't going to chance the chest application; what if she wakes up and freaks out? No, he won't do it. She doesn't wake up when he rubs it onto her wrists, and doesn't wake up when he puts some on her head either.
He nudges her softly on the arm. "Rose?" he whispers. "Rose, wake up."
She doesn't respond.
He puts his hands on her shoulders. He's shocked from the change in temperature in his hands. To go from cold to burning in a matter of seconds is quite a change. This can't be good.
"Rose!" He shakes her gently.
Still no response.
While being an exceptionally heavy sleeper, the Doctor doesn't recall her being this hard to wake up. He puts his face next to hers to see if he can feel her breathing, and he can.
He releases a breath he didn't know he'd been holding.
Next he moves his ear down by her chest to hear her heart beat. It's very slow and very quiet, maybe 40 or 50 beats per minute. He counts to be sure. 45 beats.
"This is not good. This is very not good," he says out loud to himself.
He stands up and runs his fingers through his hair, ruffling it even more. It wouldn't be a good idea to move her to a hospital. Besides, what could they do for her? He has an idea of what to do, and he does know what might have to happen, but he couldn't do it. No, he takes that back. He could do it, he'll have to do it. Just wait a little longer to see if the cream works.