His eyes open.
He sees blonde curly hair, a mouth. The mouth is shouting his name and the hair is bouncing up and down and up and down. She looks funny. There's something cold on his forehead. Really cold. Freezing. The funny lady is saying something.
"Doctor? Doctor, focus on me, okay? Why are you laughing?" She says, looking deeply concerned.
"Funny hair," He manages to say, and right after he says it his vision focuses.
It's River. Of course it's River. Blimey, having someone else in your head really does make things harder. Who knew?
She smiled a bit and took the ice pack off of his head. "You need to get Rose out of there. If you were unconscious just then, then all your doors opened. Who knows what she saw."
The Doctor nodded and felt his head gently. It was obvious that Rose was stuck in there, wandering around and searching for an exit. The guilt he suddenly felt after he took in River's words hit him. His doors had been opened, and Rose had looked around? What if she didn't want to travel with him after she got out? The things she could've seen... The Time-War. If she had seen the Time-War he would most definitely need to wipe her memory.
"I'll need... Some special herbs," The Doctor stated quietly, staring up into River's eyes.
"Say it and I'll find it," She assured him, gently stroking his thumb with hers.
"Glisereen, Pondew, and some roses," He smiled, shutting his eyes and trying to see if Rose was listening.
"Alright... Will you be okay waiting here?" River asked, scribbling down the plants on a pad of paper.
"I'll be fine."
Some of the doors were tempting her.
It wasn't that they looked pretty or interesting, they were mentally tempting her. Certain doors seemed to drag her towards them, practically begging to be opened, entered, and explored. But she knew she shouldn't look, because she had traveled with the Doctor long enough to know certain things in his mind were terrible.
Sometimes she could hear things from the doors, memories of his. And the voices were always different. Even though Rose knew he regenerated many times, it was still a shock to hear an old man's voice and know it was the Doctor speaking.
"Jelly Baby? Adric! Physic paper." The mutters said, and Rose listened with intent, careful not to give into the temptation and actually open the doors.
But suddenly, a loud familiar voice echoed down the hall from far away. "and some roses..."
"Doctor?!" She called, looking around frantically and running down the hallway.
"Rose? Are you in there? Don't open anything," His voice warned, and it sounded as though it was coming from all around her.
"I won't... Please get me out of here Doctor. It's dark," Rose's voice broke at his name and she sat down, holding her knees. It was getting colder.
"River is getting some plants so I can get you out... But listen, you need to get somewhere," He told her, still sitting on his bed with his eyes shut, trying to find where in his mind she was.
"Where?"
"I guess... You humans would call it a 'happy place,'" The Doctor muttered, the embarrassment clear in his voice.
"I need to find your... Happy place?" Rose replied, containing her stale laughter.
"Trust me, you'll want to... So, where are you?" The Time-Lord asked her, concentrating even harder, curious as to why it was so hard to find her in his mind.
"A dark hallway," Rose opened her eyes and glanced around at the doors.
"Open a door very quickly and tell me where you are," He commanded and instantly regretted it. Hopefully she would be in one of the very scarce happy parts. "Be careful," The Doctor added quickly.
Rose swallowed nervously and walked up to the door on her left. She placed her hand on the white wood carefully then snapped her hand away shocked by how cold it felt. "It's really cold," She muttered, putting her hand back on it and adjusting to the temperature.
"Cold?" He mumbled to himself, wanting to tell her to back away now but knowing she would have to open a door sooner or later anyways.
Placing both hands on the door, she quickly shoved it open, as there was no doorknob. She walked out into a very strange sight. The ground was a beautiful orange and the trees had silver leaves. It was the most breathtaking sight Rose had ever seen, until she saw the rest. Orange mountains rose up in the distance and a large glass citadel with cracks in it could be seen.
She already knew it was Gallifrey, his short pained descriptions of his home planet had been enough for her to identify it. But in the air were thousands of ships, throwing what looked like torpedoes at the familiar aliens she knew as Daleks. The two armies were both definitely going for blood, ruthlessly screaming and blowing each other up. Rose could see blood and bodies flying everywhere, and the beautiful orange grass was covered with countless bodies from both armies. It turned from the most beautiful sight to the most horrifying sight in the universe. Just this little glimpse of the war made all Earth wars look like children playing with toy swords.
And it terrified her.
It wasn't the Daleks that were scary, nor was it the machines she figured were battle TARDISes, but the fact that the man inside one of them seemed familiar. He wasnt her Doctor, this one had curly hair and a completely different face. But it was him, all right. Rose could tell.
"Rose? Get out of there, NOW," Her Doctor's voice commanded, but Rose couldn't move. Her eyes were fixed on the past regeneration of the Doctor, who was mercilessly and coldly battling the Daleks. "Rose, GO!" The tenth Doctor screamed, terrified of what may happen to her if she was exposed any longer.
Rose dumbly walked backwards back into the hallway and the white door shut in front of her. She couldn't wrap her mind around what she had just seen. "What was that?"
He sighed deeply and reluctantly replied after a minute, "That was Gallifrey, a few days before I went to Arcadia."
"You..." She began, leaning against the wall and lowering herself to a crouching position. "Fought."
"Listen, Rose, I'll remove the memory of you seeing that later, but for now, it's absolutely urgent that y-"
"I don't want to forget."
Author's Notes: Sorry I haven't been updating a whole lot of stuff lately! Been super busy. :( I plan on updating a few other stories tonight too, hopefully. P.S. Sorry if my knowledge of the Time War isn't great! I tried my best and looked some stuff up. Hope you enjoyed!
