Lesson Three
"In here!"
Rose ran into the narrow alleyway between the impossibly close buildings, her lungs burning and her head swimming at the lack of oxygen. They hit a turn in the alley, and he pulled her in behind him, effectively hiding them from the mob of people running by in the street.
Rose doubled over, gripping her knees as she sucked in air. With a sudden lurch, she stumbled forward and leaned over a rotten wood crate and threw up. Her legs buckled, but the Doctor caught her before she hit the filthy ground.
"Easy. Draw deep breaths, don't rush them."
She sat on something, what she didn't know. Didn't care. The muscles in her thighs twitched and pulsed and her arms felt like dead weights. They had done a lot of running in two years... an exorbitant amount of running... but never had she run so far for so long. They had to have covered at least three kilometers, and how they'd managed to lose the angry mob, she hadn't a clue.
The Doctor crouched in front of her, and pressed his fingers to her wrist. "Heart is still pounding too hard. Take deep, slow breaths, Rose."
"I'm trying," she ground out. "Oh, god. I feel sick again."
He fished around in one of his coat pockets and produced a bottle of water. It wasn't cold, but Rose didn't care. It was wet. He had to open it because her arms lacked the strength to twist the cap. Right then, she wasn't sure she'd be able to lift the bottle to her lips.
"Sip it. Sip it."
She swished the first sip through her mouth, spitting it out. Once she'd gotten some of the water into her, and she didn't feel like she was breathing through wet cheesecloth, Rose nodded so he knew she was doing better. Some of the tight lines of worry around his eyes eased, but not by much.
"You could have the courtesy to at least breathe hard," she snarled, annoyed, as she took another sip.
"Respiratory Bypass System," he said, motioning back and forth in front of his chest. "It kicks in when I'm not getting enough oxygen. In the case of long distance running, it supplements my lungs. Put that with two hearts, and I can go a bit."
Rose sat back, putting her shoulders against the wall behind her. Damn, she was tired.
"Just rest a bit. We'll wait until dark and sneak out of here."
Rose rolled her head against the wall. "You know, you blame me for being jeopardy friendly... I think you're a jeopardy magnet."
"Me? The people of this primitive planet have no problem with people who have 'sort of brown' hair... it's blondes they don't like. You she-devil, you."
"Yeah, but who landed here?"
He hissed through his teeth. "Got me there, I suppose." The Doctor patted her knee. "It'll be a few hours until dark."
Rose closed her eyes.
She woke up with a jerk, immediately regretting the attempt to move. Her limbs ached and her head pounded. The Doctor stood at the corner, glancing down the narrow alley they had escaped down. It was times like this that she really saw the differences between them, well that and the whole changing bodies thing, but since that didn't happen on every other landing... it was the physical differences that made her think.
"So, the super lungs and double hearts..." Her voice snapped his attention back, and he immediately walked back to her, producing another bottle of water. Dang those magical pockets. "S'at a Gallifrey thing or a Time Lord thing?"
He handed her the open bottle, and didn't say anything when she took several deep swallows. "Little of both. All people of Gallifrey have two hearts and the bypass system, but Time Lords are kind of like version 2.0."
He'd gotten used to her random questions, and barely blinked at them most of the time. Rose handed the bottle to him, and he took a sip himself. "How else are you different than the run of the mill Gallifreyan?"
The Doctor stood beside her, leaning back against the wall with one foot resting on the toe of his now-dirty trainers. This planet was muddy. Very, very muddy. "Well, there's the obvious. Regeneration. Requires an recessive gene that is activated upon selection."
"Selection," she mumbled. She was tired, but wanted to stay awake in case they needed to move soon. "So, how are you selected? I thought you were bred to be Time Lords, right?"
"Well, it's like you said before, Rose. Not all Gallifreyans are Time Lords. Not all Gallifreyans bred to be Time Lords become Time Lords, and on the rare occasion, an un-bred Gallifreyan actually becomes a Time Lord. Fluke of genetics."
"So, what gets you selected and what gets you unselected?"
"Tests." He closed his eyes and shudders, shaking his entire body. "Lessons. Exams. Studies." He puffed his cheeks and looked up to the slowly darkening sky. "And failing those… you are effectively unselected." He said the last with a click of his teeth together.
"And the exception?"
The Doctor looked down at her. "What do you mean?"
"There's always been an exception. No one is ever punished – except one Time Lord. Time Lords are bred, except when they're not. If they fail, they're not allowed to be a Time Lord…." She watched his face. "Except when they are. Has a potential Time Lord ever failed and still become a Time Lord?"
He pushed away from the wall, and began fishing around in his pockets. "There are always exceptions to the rules, Rose. Depends on how badly one wants the exception, I suppose. Aha!" He pulled from his pocket a large silk scarf in a deep blue with gold and black swirls. "Just the trick. Not the greatest fashion statement, but we can't always look good when running for our lives."
The sun had disappeared behind the tops of the buildings, and darkness settled quickly over the city. Rose groaned when the Doctor held his hand out to her, and whined when he pulled her to her feet.
"I promise to avoid running as much as possible. If I'm not mistaken, the TARDIS is about four blocks east and three blocks north. If we're not stopped, and if we're not chased, we should be there in about an hour."
She pouted, she screwed her eyes shut, she whimpered… but he still wrapped the blue scarf around her hair, tucking it in to hide every bit of her hair. When they reached the TARDIS, she was going to soak in the tub for no less than three hours until all the aches and pains were gone.
"Whining is not attractive."
"I don't care," she huffed, and practically stomped as he let her from the alley. Or, she would have practically stomped if it didn't hurt so much.
