A/N: Well I was in such a good mood after all of the nice reviews from yesterday that I couldn't wait to write the next chapter. Unfortunately real life has a habit of getting in the way. I completely zoned out in math class to write an outline for this chapter. Really math is so easy for me now anyway. I dunno why. I always struggled with it in high school but college math is soooooo easy. Which brings me to a little side note. What on earth are A-levels? I live in Canada so when I read about them in Fan Fiction I'm like completely lost. Maybe someone can help me out with that.

Disclaimer: I own Doctor Who. Not. Just wishful thinking on my part.

Blackness. Floating. Nothing.

Rose dwelled in utter peace. The pain of the world slowly slipped away into the inky, depths of infinity. Sorrow, desire, regret, suffering, all gone. She left them behind in her frail dying body. That body, her life seemed so insignificant. It would be so easy to ease into oblivion and just…drift. But something tugged her back. She was reluctant to leave something behind. Him, she couldn't leave him…not yet.

Rose opened her eyes. She was in the TARDIS' med bay. Dim memories of small hands flooded her mind, causing panic to swell in her throat. Calm down, she said to herself, it was just a dream. I'm in the TARDIS. Everything is fine. The pressure on her legs made her look towards her feet. The Doctor had fallen asleep in a chair next to her bed and his head and upper body sprawled over her legs. Even in sleep, the Doctor looked exhausted. One of his hands clutched her white fingers. Was she really that pale?

A sound emitted from down by her feet. "Rose."

Rose glanced at him, his eyes still closed in sleep. "Rose, please…" he continued.

For a moment she considered rousing him from his slumber but curiosity got the better of her and she waited. Silent seconds ticked by and then the Doctor whined, "Please Rose, show me. I wanna make daisy chains too."

Rose immediately erupted into a fit of giggles. Instantly alert, the Doctor bolted to his feet, nearly knocking the chair over in the process. 'He looks like a little boy who has been up to mischief with that face,' she noted.

"What?" he asked.

Rose, who had just barely got her giggles under control, resumed laughing hysterically. Happiness soon turned to fear as the excess stress on her weakened lungs turned laughter into a deep hacking cough. She struggled to inhale oxygen as the Doctor rubbed her back and whispered calmly in her ear.

"Shhh," he soothed, "Don't panic and it will pass."

Slowly her breathing returned to normal. The Doctor rummaged through a couple drawers, finally pulling out a stethoscope.

"You still use one of those," Rose asked, staring at the instrument in his hand.

"Of course," he replied, a bemused smile creeping over his face. "Every doctor has one of these. Now sit up for a minute."

Rose flinched as the freezing metal touched her back. "I figured you aliens would at least be able to invent a stethy thing that wasn't so cold."

He grinned. "I'll have to work on that. Now inhale….good and breathe out slowly." He moved the stethoscope around on her back several times before putting it away.

"So?" Rose asked.

He frowned. "How do you feel? Are you sore or achy?"

Rose pondered the question before answering. "Maybe a bit." She shifted to dangle her feet over the edge of the gurney and wrap the blanket around her shivering shoulders.

"Are you chilled?" he asked as he placed the back of his hand to her forehead. "You're a bit clammy and you have a fever. I would guess that you're around 100.3 degrees. (A/N: That's in Fahrenheit. I dunno if you brits even use the same scale. Sorry to interrupt.)

"Ya I'm a bit cold."

"Hmmm," he murmured, brow knit in concentration.

Rose raised her eyebrows. "Hmmm…what?"

"You, missy," he answered, "on top of whatever else is wrong, have pneumonia."

"Are you sure?"

"You doubt my excellent doctoring skills?" he mocked.

"Well, don't you have to run tests and things to know for sure?"

He sighed, pulled out his sonic screwdriver and did a brief scan. After a few seconds he said, "Yep pneumonia."

Rose stared at him. "You went through all those questions and the stethoscope when you could have just scanned me?"

He grinned manically. "Oh the sonic screwdriver takes all the fun out of it. I never get to use the stethoscope. Stethoscope…I like that that word. It kinda rolls off the tongue. Stethoscope, stethoscope…" He stopped at Rose's look of irritation. "Uhh ya," he said in his best 'I'm a professional voice', "Pneumonia is a bacterial infection that causes inflammation of the lungs. You likely picked it up from some humans in the mall on Alphus Primion and the bacteria got a hold when your immune system was weakened from our little midnight swim. There you have scientific proof that shopping is hazardous to your health." He smirked, clearly very pleased with himself.

"So is your driving but that hasn't stopped," countered Rose.

"Hey, my driving is perfect."

"Try saying that the next time we crash."

"Flying through time and space is infinitely more difficult than driving a car," he grumbled. "You better be nice to the doctor that's treating you, or else!"

"Do your worst, Doctor," she challenged.

"Alright," he answered. Suddenly Rose realized just how close his face was to hers. She found herself staring at his mouth, wondering what he tasted like. They both stood there, suspended, before the Doctor broke the invisible connection. "I prescribe..." An evil grin broke over his face. "Buckley's cough syrup."

"No, you wouldn't," responded a horrified Rose. "That is just too cruel. Besides you said I have pneumonia, not a cold."

The Doctor looked thoughtful for a moment. "It couldn't hurt."

"Ok I'll be nice. No more insults. But same goes for you. Deal." She reached out her hand to shake his.

He stared at it for a moment. "Your arm isn't shaking."

Rose looked down at her outstretched hand. "You're right. Well that's a good thing right?"

"No," he murmured while pulling out the sonic screwdriver, "that is odd."

Rose submitted to yet another scan. "And odd is bad," she asked.

"Odd is unexplained, and unexplained can be dangerous."

"Doctor, do you think that maybe you are getting just a little carried away? Maybe it was pneumonia all along. You must have some miracle cure that will fix me up in a jiff, eh?" (A/N: Ahhh there I go with the eh? Again. Curse my Canadian accent. I can't stop myself. I'm sure chatty today, eh? Urggg Sorry. Back to story. Right.)

"Pneumonia shneumonia… Oh I hope to never use that word again. Well actually normally I would give you a shot of…" he then drifted into some impossibly hard to follow explanation of a weird formula that cured most lung problems. Rose was lost shortly after 'hen's teeth and bezoar'.

"But," prompted Rose, cutting him off mid-sentence,

"But," he answered, "When mixed with an unknown entity, the active ingredients may act as a catalyst and cause any number of adverse reactions, resulting in discomfort, arrhythmia or complete neural shutdown."

Rose blinked. "Uh huh."

The Doctor sighed, "In other words I had to sedate you last night and my 'miracle cure' might not mix well with the tranquilizer. So I am forced to use a more primitive method: antibiotics."

"Oh. Well why didn't you just say so then?"

"I did. Here," he said passing her a bottle of pink pills. "Take two capsules, every 12 hours until they're all gone."

"Ok whatever," she muttered. Standing up, Rose made her way to the door.

The Doctor caught her hand. "Hey, where do you think you're going?"

"To get dresses and ready for my day," she replied.

"Uh…no. You are going straight back to bed." Rose opened her mouth to protest but he cut her off. "No complaints. I did not spend the last nine hours in here with you to let you go and wear yourself out. You need to rest and stay out of trouble so I can find out what is wrong with you before it kills you."

"Doctor, people my age don't usually die of pneumonia."

"Well people your age that have pneumonia aren't usually battling another alien ailment," he countered. His voice dropped and his eyes grew intense. "Rose, I don't have a diagnosis, no plan of action. I travel the universe calling myself 'The Doctor' and I can't even heal the one person I…" He couldn't continue.

"What, Doctor?"

"I told your mother I'd protect you. I made a promise to her."

Rose suddenly recalled the dream she had while she was sleepwalking. "He protects you out of honor," said the strange girl child. "You are only an obligation, nothing more."

"Is that all?" Rose demanded.

"What do you mean?"

Angry tears sprang to her eyes. "I'm just a 'promise' to you. That's it. Well if I'm such a burden to you why don't you just leave me behind at the next pit stop?" Wrenching her hand out of his grip and ignoring his blank stare, she ran off down the hallway.

A/N: I actually had a lot more action and stuff planned for this chapter but that seemed like such a good place to end it. Poor Doctor. I know there hasn't been much going on in this story but its supposed to be more about the characters rather than saving the world and stuff.

Oh and I apologize for all my little interruptions. I'm just in such a good mood that I couldn't help but commentate. Sorry. Now you can commentate and tell me what you thought about it.