Chapter Three
Damn it!
I waited too long. The Sarkesians are gone. They must have figured out what happened while I was off tending to Rose. The cowards! I grit my teeth, as I glance around the empty field. All the women are gone. Those poor innocent women. The Sarkesians will hide them away on some remote planet now. Especially if they worked out my identity. It might be a long time before I locate them, if I ever do, and the knowledge of what might happen to those women in the meantime burns me up inside. Knowing that there is nothing further I can do here, I turn and make my way back to the TARDIS. On my way there, I run into one of the locals. Seething inside, I grab him by his shirt and grit my teeth demanding to know where the Sarkesians have gone. The man, seeing the anger in my eyes trembles and stammers out that he has no idea where they went. He tells me he doesn't get involved in the Sarkesians' business. With that response, I push him out of the way and quickly hurry off before I do something I'll regret. I understand his fear at not wanting to interfere with the Sarkesians, but at the same time I can't fathom how someone can sit by and let women and children be beaten, and enslaved, and made to starve, and rot in tiny cages. How can someone do that and be able to live with himself? It's something I'll never understand, and I thank Rassilon that I have the strength to stand up to the evildoers in this universe and fight them when no one else will.
As I near the TARDIS, I quickly let the anger go. Rose has just been through Hell, and the last thing she needs is to see me enraged. I know how worried she gets when I get this way and how frightened it makes her even though she tries to hide it. I don't blame her. Sometimes I even scare myself especially considering I used to be a lot calmer when I was younger. It's at times like this that I think of the Valeyard, and a chill runs down my spine. I've never told Rose about him. I don't know how she'd react, but it scares me to think that she would leave me forever because of him. The thought that he might be my future scares me more than any Dalek ever could, and I find myself thinking of him every time I lose my temper. Maybe Rose has a right to be scared. Maybe I should tell her. But, if I do, it won't be today. Rose is traumatized as it is. I need to concentrate on the here and now and not dwell on the future. Rose is the only thing that matters right now. I take a deep breath, as I put the TARDIS key in the lock.
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I raise my head when I hear the bedroom door open. I frown when I see the Doctor standing there and glance over at the clock. Only twenty minutes have passed. He's defeated the Sarkesians already? I look back over and see him standing beside my bed smiling down at me. He kneels beside the bed, takes the covers, and pulls them up a bit more. I ask him what happened, and he tells me that the Sarkesians have fled. I breathe a sigh of relief inwardly for a moment knowing that my Doctor wasn't involved in any bloodshed. Then, a pang of guilt seizes me, as I think of the other women and children. I ask him if he freed any of them, and my worst fears are confirmed when he shakes his head no. A tear falls down my cheek, as I think of them. I got to know some of them during my captivity, and it breaks my heart knowing that they are still the Sarkesians' prisoners. The Doctor runs his hand down my cheek wiping the tear away. He strokes my cheek telling me in a soft voice that he will find the others. I smile and take comfort in that, knowing that the Doctor will not give up until they are found. He smiles at me and lays his head down beside mine. He whispers my name and intertwines his hand with mine, as he gives me a tender kiss on the top of my head. I sigh knowing he is nearby, and as I feel his soft breath on my head, I slip back into a peaceful sleep.