The sun was almost directly overhead when the trio left "Shamus Burgers & Chili." Rose had never been to a place, or rather, a place on Earth, that had such a bizarre menu. It was a restaurant that specialized in exotic meats and dishes. They had all kind of burgers from traditional beef and vegetable to unusual shark and ostrich, along with chili possessing ingredients just as strange and all coming with chips. Jackie hadn't been very adventurous, taking the safe route with a veggie burger. Rose had been a little more daring, trying a venison burger which actually tasted a lot like a normal beef one, save the aftertaste. The Doctor had simply had a small helping of mild bear chili, which he reported, tasted hauntingly familiar. Along with their meals, both Jackie and Rose had chilled drinks, Jackie with tea and Rose with a cola, whereas the Doctor had warm coffee, which raised a few eyebrows.

"That was great!" Rose grinned as they walked down the street.

"Certainly was different," Jackie nodded. "Didn't know you could make a patty out of seal. That was a shock to me."

"I know!" Rose laughed.

The Doctor walked along beside them, absently listening to the two females chatter away about their new favorite food place. Too bad it was so far away from the flat; otherwise, the Doctor was sure they would've become regulars.

When they reached the beach, they did have to choose a new spot, but it was actually a nicer spot than before. This new spot was closer to the water and far enough away from the toilet houses to avoid the awful stench that they emanated.

"So, Doctor," Rose finally looked over to the Doctor as they ventured across the sand to their new spot, "are you going to swim with us?"

"Me?" the Doctor replied, his white tennis shoes, which has once again been made to hold his socks, in hand. "Nah, I don't think I will. Besides, you're supposed to wait half an hour before you swim again."

"No one does that at the beach," Jackie stated.

"I do. Of course, I'd rather wait a few hours, you know? To make sure I've digested it all."

"But then it'll be time to head home," Rose noted.

"Yeah, exactly."

"Doctor! You need to swim with us."

"But I don't really like swimming."

"Oh come on then!" Jackie looked up at him from the beach towel she was waving across the sand. "You're sweating."

"What? It's hot. You two are wearing swimsuits, so I'm sure you both are just fine, but it's hot in these jeans and this t-shirt."

"All the more reason to come and swim with us!" Rose chimed back in. "The water's really cool, I'm sure you'll feel better if you got in."

"Nah, thanks for the offer, but I'd rather just…sweat."

"You won't swim?"

"Right."

"Not even," Rose got a mischievous grin on her face, "for this?" She produced the sonic screwdriver from her pocket and held it just out of reach of the Doctor.

The Doctor's eyes widened and his hand flew to his own pockets, quickly and frantically patting the outsides of his jeans. "How did you-?"

"While you were sleeping. You never even stirred."

"Oh, you're good," the Doctor's shoulders sagged.

"Well, you did pick me for a good reason, right?" Rose grinned wider.

The Doctor sighed. "Yes, because you were—are—a clever girl."

"That I am. So, you're going to swim, yeah?"

"I really don't want to Rose. I really don't like the salt water."

"Oh come now!" Jackie hit the back of his shoulder, causing him to tense noticeably. "Stop being a stick-in-the-mud. Five minutes won't hurt you."

"What is this?" he hissed. "'Abuse the Doctor Day?'"

"She right though, Doctor," Rose nodded. "Five minutes couldn't hurt."

"Rose, look, if were any other day, I-"

"Or would you rather let your sonic screwdriver swim for you," she held up his prized possession at eye level. "It's your choice."

The Doctor's eyes went from Rose's face to the screwdriver and stayed there. His tensed face was contorted with worry, as though he were someone facing a ticking bomb and trying to decide which wire to cut, the red one or the blue one.

Finally, he heaved a great sigh. "Fine, I'll swim five minutes," a stern finger pointed at Rose. "But only five minutes. After that, you let me leave."

"Fair enough," Rose smiled, slipping the sonic screwdriver back into her pocket.

The Doctor's jaw dropped. "What? Aren't I going to get it back?"

"After you swim," Rose shook her head.

"Why?"

"Where would you put it when you swim?"

"It's the principle of it."

"Well, besides that, I also know that if I gave it back, you wouldn't swim. It's the principle of it."

"But-"

"After. I promise."

The Doctor gave her a glare and a few choice words that the TARDIS mysteriously didn't translate for her (although she was sure she really didn't want to know) but he conceded.

"Oh, come now," Jackie wrapped an arm around his shoulders, "it won't be as bad as all that now. You're acting as if we were going to cut your arm off."

The Doctor grumbled a few more distasteful words under his breath.

After they had finished setting up again, Jackie and Rose removed their outer clothing, in preparation to go swimming. She shot the Doctor a warning glare when she saw him eyeing the sonic screwdriver in her pocket.

Rose looked over to the Doctor when she had pulled off her shirt, cocking her head. "Aren't you going to get ready?"

"Hm?" his head came back around from the life guard stand. "Oh, no. I'm good."

"You're not going to take off your shirt or jeans?"

"No, no. I'm good. I don't have swim trunks, for one thing, and for another, I can swim with my shirt on and I plan to. Unless that's a crime now. There was that one space colony that actually wouldn't let you leave your room without removing your shirt. They said that it was against their religion to wear shirts in public. I never really found out exactly where that ludicrous belief came from, but I digress. I'm just a little too…modest, to go shirtless."

Rose raised an eyebrow.

"What?" the Doctor challenged her.

"I just never thought I'd hear you describe yourself as modest. In fact, I never thought I would hear anything describe you as modest."

"Oi, oi! That's not nice."

"Just saying, it doesn't seem like you, you know?"

"But I am! Can you name a time that I wasn't fully clothed? If that's not modest, I don't know what is."

"Whatever," Rose laughed. "Come on!"

She grabbed his arm and dragged him to the sea as he gave one last, forlorn look back at where he knew his screwdriver was.

"Backstabber," he whispered very quietly to it, and then laughed at himself a little. It was one thing to talk to the TARDIS, something with a consciousness. It was another to talk to something he knew had no soul.

Jackie had already gotten in the water and was enjoying herself, soaking from head to toe. Rose splashed into the water towards her mother, the Doctor following. He came in until the water was level with the top of his jeans at his waist before he pulled his arm away, letting Rose go on alone. He felt the soupy sand ooze between his toes and over the tops of his feet. Cool saltwater soaked quickly through his submerged jeans, and he had to admit, the water felt pretty good.

Rose looked back to him as she came up beside her mother.

"Aren't you coming any further?" Jackie called to him.

"Nah, this is as far as I want to go," the Doctor smiled. "I'm still not a big fan of the ocean."

"No, sweetheart. That's barely swimming. That's barely wet even."

The Doctor's eyes shifted around. Rose had disappeared from her mom's side. "Quite right. But I don't really think—Ack!"

The Doctor pitched forward as Rose jumped onto his back, her weight taking him by surprise and causing him to lose his balance. He swayed a little before he tumbled to the side, plunging into the water and taking Rose with him. Rose was the first to surface, her eyes and smile wide. The Doctor burst up a moment later, gasping and surprised. His hair fell over his face, but it couldn't hide his shocked expression. However, it quickly turned to one of mirth and he began to even laugh a little. He flipped his hand to splash Rose with water, causing her to turn away and protect her face, but laughing the whole time.

The Doctor couldn't deny that it was much cooler in the water and he really did feel better drenched and soaked. That was probably the reason he spent an hour and a half in the water instead of the five minutes he had originally planned.

His body had been stinging and tingling for over an hour, but he had taken no notice. He had chalked it up to the salt in the water and left it at that, continuing to romp and play in the water, splashing Rose, and occasionally Jackie, riding waves, and participating in the age old game of dunking. However, a sudden wave of pain flooded over his body as he resurfaced from another dunking from Rose. His body was telling him that it had been in the saltine water long enough and had endured enough.

The Doctor shot out of the water as fast as the water resistance would let him, catching Rose's attention.

"Doctor, is something wrong?" Rose made to follow him. She could see the pain plainly in his face. Of course, he was also bent over a little with his arms around his body.

"Ah…uh…my stomach…it hurts…something I ate, I think," he spoke quickly and then rushed off for the bathroom sheds.

He never realized that Rose was following. She saw him duck behind the back of the sheds, rather than going inside. As soon as her feet hit the sand, she was running, rushing up the beach and around the side of the bathroom sheds where she had seen the Doctor disappear.

She rounded the corner just as the Doctor's shirt was coming up over his eyes, blocking his sight. She gasped, putting her hands over her mouth to keep from crying out in shock and startling the Doctor, her eyes jumping back to the Doctor's face as it came out of the t-shirt.

"Rose!" the Doctor exclaimed.

"What is that?" Rose pointed at his torso.

"Oh…uh, this? It's a rash."

The rash was unlike any other rash Rose had ever seen before, although that wasn't too surprising since she was dealing with the Doctor. It was thick, blotted over his skin with little tendrils jutting off here and there, looking almost like someone had splattered paint onto him, albeit not as rounded. It extended from his waist, right where his pants started, all the way up his body, barely stopping before it touched his neck, save on small arm that extended halfway up his neck. Rose realized now that arm is what he had scratched at earlier, meaning she had been right and the mark wasn't left by him. Weird shape aside, the color was the strangest element of all. Down at the bottom, near his waist, the rash was a solid, dark black. It kind of reminded Rose of the shows with frostbite victims where their fingers got too cold and died, turning black; she really hoped that wasn't what was happening here. As if he had been Photoshopped with a gradient, the rash slowly faded from black to an angry red at the top, including the tip on his neck, appearing only slightly irritated, pink skin still visible inside the obscure boundaries of the rash.

"What kind of rash is that? I've never seen one like that. What caused it?" she looked at him.

The Doctor diverted his eyes and sighed. "It's a disease."

"No, really?"

"A time disease. But don't worry!" he looked back quickly at Rose before she could say anything. "You're safe. It only affects Time Lords."

"Are you sure of that?"

"Perfectly. It was a fairly common occurrence on my home planet. Of course, back then they could cure it easy. Just like that," he snapped his fingers for emphasis. "Now…well, I'd say it's next to impossible considering I'm the last of the Time Lords, and I never knew how to make the cure in the first place."

"What's it going to do to you?"

The Doctor thought about making a joke, trying to lighten the mood. He thought about attempting to make Rose laugh, like he usually did, but not this time. The look on her face told him that she would eternally hate him if he tried such a thing on such a serious manner. His sad eyes met hers. "Kill me. Eventually, anyhow."

"How's it going to do that?!"

"It slowly drains the life force, the sort of strength from the batteries you might say. I've been getting weaker. I'm sure you've noticed. It won't be long before I'll be too weak to travel in the TARDIS."

"How long?"

"Oh…I'd guess I have one more trip in it."

"What?!"

"I was going to bring you home! Really, I was. But that's why I didn't want to come here yet. I wasn't ready."

"You should've said something."

"I tried, but you didn't listen. I told you I didn't want to come here."

"I thought you were just being difficult, as usual."

The Doctor sighed. "Yeah, well. Not this time."

There was a pause.

"How did you catch it?" Rose quietly asked. "I mean, if you're the last Time Lord and all, and you didn't have it before, how'd you catch it?"

The Doctor sucked in air through his teeth and spoke very fast, as he usually did when he didn't really want to explain something to Rose but knew he had to. "From another Time Lord, a while ago. But he's dead now. Died, real fast. Soon after I saw him actually. Or rather, if I recall correctly, he died right in front of me, but that's not the point."

Rose inched towards him a little. "When was this? How long have you been sick then?"

"Since before I met you. It was right after I regenerated into the form that met you."

"Tell me. Tell me everything."

"What? Why?"

"'Cause I need to know."

"There's nothing you can do. That's why I never told you before. What would the point be?"

"It's not so I can help you! I just need to know. Me, not for any other reason other than I just need to know, okay?"

The Doctor sighed. "Okay, fine. If you want to know that bad, I suppose I can tell you."