Disclaimer: See first chapter
News: School and homework sucks, I do believe it's a waste of my life.
IMPORTANT: I don't really have a good reason for not updating. I decided to just finish the story before posting anymore so that you guys aren't left waiting anymore, but I just wasn't in a writing mood for a while.
Only You
Chapter 7 – A Red Dawn
Seconds, minutes, hours trickled by the Time Lord's mind as he literally opened every door he came across in the Tardis. He had lost count of the number of doors he had opened, how many rooms he had passed that didn't hold what he was looking for. How was this happening that the Tardis couldn't find the room? He felt her consciousness searching through the spaceship with him, but the room could not be found.
"Why do I have so many bloody rooms on here?" He cursed to himself and slammed the next door closed. If he wasn't careful, he'd get lost in this maze of doors. Some corridors had ten doors, some had two, and some had none. It was like someone or something was playing with him, wanting him to waste his time until Rose perished in the hospital, far away from the home he had dragged her from.
Why did he keep doing this? Why did it have to be Rose? He always brought people from Earth to show them the universe, all to ease his own loneliness. Blinding them with false promises of safety and adventure, and he always got them into trouble. The others had survived though, though he missed them all. Being a Time Lord was nothing but a curse, outliving anyone he got attached to.
And now he had done it to Rose, and she was going to die all because of his selfishness. Why couldn't he just go on and leave the humans in peace? Oh they said they enjoyed the adventures. Sure, of course they liked them, until they nearly got killed. That usually changed their perspectives pretty quickly. The Doctor slammed his fist into a wall, sending sparks of pain through his hand and arm, momentarily quieting his mind.
He had to stay calm. Losing his head now would only result in Rose's death. But at the same time, this random wandering through echoing halls wasn't doing any good either. It must have been about 3 hours now since he had left Rose. He'd go check on her and come up with a plan before he got himself lost in this ship.
He turned back towards the nearest corridor out. There must have been something that had spurred the dream to begin. Something that shaped his dreams to lead him to that amulet letting off light, but what? As he tried to make connections, he realized that he was back in the hospital and his feet were subconsciously leading him back towards Rose's room. So the Tardis was having no trouble shifting except to that mysterious room.
A moment after he entered the room, he heard the door open and close softly behind him again and he turned to find the doctor standing by the door, watching him with a strange expression. He couldn't quite place what emotion was dancing slowly in his eyes but it looked like a dance of mourning and he stiffened as he inclined his head.
Nurse Obviam was still watching over Rose while Doctor Aevum walked up to the Doctor with hesitating steps. For a moment, he stared at Rose lying motionless in the bed before lifting his eyes to meet the timeless eyes of the Doctor. The man opened his mouth as if to speak, but instead let out a soft sigh and closed his mouth again.
The Doctor was about ready to shake the man but before he got a chance, the doctor opened his mouth and let out a soft, "I'm so sorry." That stilled the Doctor. Stilled him so strongly that he found he couldn't open his mouth. Seeing this, Doctor Aevum continued, "While you were out getting your ship fixed up, Rose began to bleed from the fingertips. The bleeding wasn't heavy so we weren't that worried, but soon her toe tips began bleeding too and we have no choice but to admit it…she's entered the final stage of the illness."
The Doctor began playing that speech over and over in his head, looking for some other meaning it could hold, he must have misheard. But when he couldn't think of anything, he moved towards the bed in what he hoped was a stalking manner, but it turned out more as a desperate run. He would prove these two wrong.
He slowed by the bed, ready to point and shove it in their faces, but instead the colour drained from his as he saw the small pools of blood that had been soaked up by the sheets of the bed. The final stage of the illness really had fallen on Rose; if the patient survived all the other symptoms of the illness, they would start bleeding from any opening, toes, fingers, eyes, nose, cuts, everywhere and they would eventually bleed to death as it would never stop bleeding until there was no blood left.
He let out a quiet sob; there was nothing he could do to help her now. Doctor A came up beside him, "We can slow the bleeding and contain it, but our estimate is that she will have…passed over by tomorrow morning." He put a hand on the Doctor's trembling shoulder, "I truly am sorry."
The Doctor didn't hear him; his Rose was going to be dead by tomorrow, there were only a few hours left, 8 if his guess was right. She wouldn't even get to see another sunrise. He wouldn't even get to say goodbye, to tell her how much he loved her and how sorry he was.
The nurse and doctor had given Rose a pill that would slow the bleeding as much as possible and then moved to the other side of the room to give him some privacy. Tears fell down his face, his wilting Rose. There was a tiny trickle of blood coming from her nose and he wiped it away with his sleeve as he thought of a rose with red bleeding out along the edges of the petals. He moved her blonde hair out of the way so that no blood would stain it and as he touched her temple he got another flash of the necklace.
He blinked confusedly for a moment before realization dawned on him, the dream had been following Rose's memory that he had been reading while asleep with his hand on her temple. Rose had been to those rooms in that order and eventually found the room with the pendent.
He kissed her forehead before running towards the doctor and nurse, "I know something that just might be able to save her, but it's lost somewhere in my ship. I don't know how long it'll take me to find it but please take care of her until I'm back," he said in a rush, only waiting for a nod from them before bolting out of the room at top speed.
The Tardis door slammed behind him and the ship gave an angry hum but he was already rushing down the corridors. Now, what was the order that Rose had gone in? He forced himself to stop for a moment before he got lost so he could think straight. The library was first.
Thinking of the warm, dusty room, the corridor shifted and he opened the door to the library, walking aimlessly as he had in the dream. Next had been the greenhouse, but thinking of it didn't transport him this time. Rushing out of the room, he felt the presence of the Tardis as if it was frozen in time. Growling in frustration, he bolted down the hallway to where he knew the greenhouse was.
He burst through the door with enough power to knock the wood off his hinges but he ignored the splintered wood as he looked frantically around the room. What flower had Rose been looking at? His eyes rested on an orange flower with 10 fanned out petals and was about to touch it but drew his hand back at the last second. No, that flower wasn't right. His blue eyes scanned the array and eventually rested on a pink and purple flower, he nearly knocked over some plants as he made his way over.
Standing in front of it, he put is hand out but remembered he wasn't supposed to touch it. He kept his hand in place, trembling slightly, as he thought of the next room. Something with mirrors…As he stood there thinking, his hand began to tremble more, but finally he remembered the bathroom and dashed off. Nearly the second after he had made it into the sparkling room, he was transported by force to the control room, panting with exertion.
This continued on and on as he followed the dream he had stolen from Rose's mind, painfully aware as the seconds passed by. He entered room after room until he didn't even know how far into the Tardis he stood, but eventually he found himself at the end of a long hallway with a single door at the opposite end.
Trying to catch his breath, he walked in a deathly calm towards the worn wood of the door. It seemed to be jammed so he put more weight against it until finally he tumbled inwards, tripped over an unseen box and landed in a heap on the floor. The door swung closed behind him and a second later he was suffocating in silence and darkness. He picked himself up but was surprised to find out that there was no emanating light from the amulet he was looking for. It was as if he was in a cave underground; there was literally no light for his eyes to pick up on, he didn't even know where the door was. He got up and tried to walk backwards but he never met a wall.
Well that was ridiculous, there were big rooms but there had to eventually be a wall, so he continued on in what he hoped was a straight line and quickly became agitated. He stopped, annoyed by the fact that he was wasting time, that Rose was dying and it was his fault, even at the fact that he didn't even have something to punch. He sat down on the floor and rested his forehead against his knees as the darkness and feeling of helplessness pressed in around him.
At this rate, he wouldn't even be able to get out to say goodbye to Rose at all; he couldn't even feel the Tardis' presence here, it was as if this room was isolated from time itself. In the darkness he thought of her, all the memories flashing around in his mind. He wanted her to be okay; he wanted to spend the rest of his life with her.
Just as he thought that, it was as if a sun had erupted in the room and he shut his eyes for a few moments while the adjusted to the brightness. When he opened them again, he saw that he was actually in a very small room, maybe twice the size of the bathroom filled with mirrors. There was the table with the shining pendent glowing like a burning star, and there were the 4 walls surrounding him, silently mocking him. But what was written on the walls sent a shiver up his spine.
Mistakes.
Chances.
Change.
Wrongly born.
For the soul worthy of a Time Lord.
Messages danced around him in blood, long dried, on the walls, but he didn't understand them at all. To be honest, he didn't really care. He got up and snatched the pendent off the table and dashed out of the door he had been sitting in front of before the room could play another trick on him.
He had no idea how long he had been gone but he felt the Tardis' presence around him again and it transported him to the control room once more. He rushed out of the ship and down the echoing corridor of the hospital and burst through into Rose's room. Doctor Aevum and Nurse Obviam looked up, startled, but he paid them little mind.
He looked down at the blood-soaked sheets and Rose's form, bathed in the pale light of the sunrise through the window beside the bed. The nurse must have opened the cover of it, for he could see a field of green as the pale sun began to raise itself above the horizon. "If she is woken, will she feel pain?"
The doctor looked at him, "it is unlikely; it's the blood that's the danger at this stage, not pain. But I don't think she'd really be able to…accept what was happening to her," he said in a hesitant tone.
"I need to ask her something, to at least say goodbye, please," The Doctor said and the other two could only nod before setting to work doing what they were best at. The Doctor waited impatiently, as far as he could tell, it was around 6 in the morning and Rose only had an hour or so left.
After a few moments, Rose began to stir, and finally her bleary eyes fluttered open. By now there was blood escaping from everywhere but the eyes she turned towards him. "Rose, don't move, it'll just make things worse," the nurse said in a kind voice before leaving with the doctor to the other side of the room.
Rose turned her eyes to the Doctor, fear and confusion flashing through them. He took a deep breath before brushing hair out of her face, "Rose, you caught an alien illness called Nex ut Vicis, which translates into 'Death when time' but that doesn't quite make sense, so most call it the 'Death of Time'. You've been unconscious for a few days but you're bleeding to death and you only have about an hour or so left."
Her eyes widened and he felt tears making tracks down his cheeks. She opened her mouth to speak but all that came out was a thin track of blood from the corner of her mouth, rivaling the red of her lips. "Rose, there might be something that can save you," the Doctor held up the pendent and her eyes widened further. "You recognize it?" She nodded.
He helped her sit up slightly and slipped the thin chain around her check, fixing her hair and letting her lie down again, the pendent resting on her chest, rising and falling with her breath. They both sat there for a few minutes, hoping for something to happen, but nothing did. The Doctor made a sound of desperate frustration and Rose gripped his hand in her blood-stained one. "Thank you for trying," her head fell to the side so that she was looking at the other doctor and nurse, who came forward. "You took care of me?" She asked and they nodded, "Thank you."
"We're so sorry," they both said. The nurse gave her a hug, the doctor squeezed her shoulder and they wished her peace before they left the room.
Her eyes returned to the Doctor, who was now crying freely, her hand still around his. "Doctor, I just wanted you to know that I love you. I would have stayed with you forever if I could have. You made my life worth living," she looked like she wanted to say more but she choked on the blood in her mouth.
"I love you too, Rose. I was going to keep you with me even if you didn't want to, I couldn't let you go," he said with seriousness in his eyes.
Rose smiled, "I've always wanted to hear that," was all she said before the Doctor closed her mouth with his. The bitter metallic taste didn't bother either of them as they passed their love between each other through their final kiss. After he pulled away, she tilted her head to the left so that she could see the sun. "Look Doctor, the sun is bleeding with me."
He looked out of the window quickly but saw it was still the same. Looking down, he saw that Rose was crying tears of blood, tinting everything red to her. He smiled, "Yes Rose, it is. It can't stand to see something so amazing and beautiful die so it wants to die with you."
He kissed her forehead and she smiled, "Doctor, do you go to Heaven after you die?"
"I don't really know, Rose."
"…I'll wait for you." With that, her eyes slowly closed, opened one more time, staring at him with love shining there, and then closed for the final time.
A/N: Read the next chapter, this isn't the end!
