Disclaimer: Not mine. It's sad, I agree.
Chapter Summary: In which nothing is answered but everything is fixed.
Chapter Nine: Repairs
Rose sat on the cot in the medical bay, watching the Doctor and Captain Jack hunched over the beaker and the flask, both of which glowed with nanogenes. They were speaking low enough that she couldn't hear them, but she knew perfectly well that they were discussing the safest and best method of unleashing them on her.
Also, Jack was wondering if they would be at all useful in helping him resolve – well, Rose didn't particularly want to know, and pretended not to hear it.
She swung her legs, wondering idly when they would finish and just let the pretty golden globes out, and what would happen when they were done doing whatever it was they would do to her. Would they slide themselves into the crevices of the Tardis's med bay, ready to pop out when a new patient came in? Was it safe to use them in the Tardis at all, for that matter?
There was a niggling little tickle at the back of her head, a sort of low hummy chuckle, and Rose half wondered if it wasn't the Tardis. Which was truly ridiculous, and she laid down on the cot, her head suddenly aching.
The Doctor glanced up at her. "Rose?"
"I'm fine, just tired."
He nodded and turned back to Jack. The Doctor and Captain Jack – Rose mused that it sounded like the title of a really horrible 1970s action show. Two men, racing through time, getting into scrapes, falling into love, leaving the women behind because neither would ever settle down. It sounded awfully familiar. A girl in every century – except Rose couldn't see the Doctor with a girl in every century. Jack, he'd have at least two, and a few men besides.
Rose closed her eyes. She was tired. Her head hurt, and her chest hurt, and it had been a very long day. Seeing her first Doctor again had been odd, to say the least. She'd fallen in love with him, but it wasn't the same sort of love. He'd been more like a father-figure to her, she knew that now. She'd saved him, just like she'd tried to save Peter Tyler, and just like with Peter Tyler, she couldn't keep him.
Her Doctor, her now Doctor, that was different. He was a chum, a friend, a brother. Well, not a brother. He was her second half, at the end of the day, and she couldn't imagine life without him. She hadn't felt complete, in that other world. Her mum was right – she didn't belong there, not without him.
"Rose?"
She opened her eyes. Her men were looking at her, the Doctor just a bit more anxiously, and she smiled.
"Is it ready?"
"I think so. We – we don't have to do this, Rose. We can just wait a little while, keep monitoring your vitals, see what happens."
"No, I—" Rose pushed herself up, and gasped a little as her heart gave a peculiar thud. "I don't feel well. If releasing the nanogenes means I'll feel better sooner, I'd rather just jump right in."
The Doctor reached over and touched her cheek, running his thumb along her skin. "Rose," he said softly. "I don't know what will happen to you."
She smiled. "I do. I'm going to be better." She reached up and laid her hand over his. "Stay next to me, please?"
He eased himself onto the cot beside her. "Anything you want."
"If you don't mind," said Jack patiently. "Rose? Last words?"
"Not funny, Jack," said the Doctor, without taking his eyes off Rose.
But Rose smiled. "Did you seduce Martha yet?"
"Oh, give me time," said Jack airily, and opened the flask and the beaker in the same motion.
The nanogenes flew up into the air, commingling into a large golden cloud, sparking like small fireworks. They hovered for a moment, before zinging straight to Rose and surrounding her, save for two or three who lingered behind. Rose clutched at the Doctor's hand, almost afraid to keep her eyes open, but she desperately wanted to see what happened next. The nanogenes didn't touch her – didn't come within a few inches of her, really. They seemed to be waiting for some sort of instructions.
Then the few nanogenes which hadn't kept to the cloud flew over, but they didn't join the globes encircling Rose – instead, they flew to the Doctor, and orbited around his head like a halo before whisking into the main fray, and pulling the circle wider to encompass both of them.
Rose watched, fascinated, as the nanogenes spread themselves out, somehow expanding their few numbers into a complete golden web around the two of them. The Doctor's hand grew tighter in hers, and she knew he was equally fascinated – and not a little worried about why he was suddenly being included as well.
The web pulsed for a moment, as if it was assessing them, determining its next move – and then contracted on them both, descending upon their skin, almost absorbing into their bodies. Rose cried out, and heard the Doctor gasp in shock. It wasn't that it hurt, but it felt like every piece of her had suddenly stopped, as if frozen in time. She could feel pieces inside of herself rearranging, twisting, shaking themselves loose. Her muscles, which really had never stopped aching, suddenly grew relaxed and languid, and the blood that had been quicksilver in her veins was no longer burning as it went from fingers to heart to toes. Her lungs didn't strain any longer, and her head didn't hurt. Her mind flowed, one thought to the next, without falling into potholes or having to jump over cracks. And her heart, which had been thumping so curiously for the last few hours – it thumped curiously now, too, but in an easy, comfortable way, like it had been doing so all its life.
Life began again, time continued onwards, and Rose saw the web of nanogenes lift off of them both, expanding around them, and flying to the corners of the medical bay before disappearing into the walls.
"My God," breathed Jack.
Rose took a breath, feeling more relaxed and quiet than she'd felt in weeks. It took her a moment to realize the Doctor's hand was still in hers. She squeezed it, gently, surprised that it no longer felt cold.
"You didn't tell me it was both of you," said Jack, and Rose frowned.
"Both of us?"
"The nanogenes – whatever it did, it did to both of you," repeated Jack, and Rose looked at the Doctor, who was staring in shock at their hands in between them.
"You aren't warm."
She frowned. "You aren't cold. Does that mean – it didn't work? I'm not fixed?"
"You're fixed, or the nanogenes wouldn't have stopped," said Jack, and he pulled two thermometers off the medical cart, and popped them both into their mouths. "Sit there."
Rose squeezed the Doctor's hand for a moment, and felt him squeeze it back. She watched as Jack took first the Doctor's pulse, and then her own. He frowned when he tested hers, and seemed to have trouble finding it.
"Stethoscope?" he asked the Doctor, who pointed to the cabinets on the far end of the room. Jack came back a few minutes later, and listened to the Doctor's hearts, first the right, then the left.
He moved to Rose. She sat up a bit straighter, and was puzzled when he rested the cool metal two inches to the right of where her heart ought to be.
Then he moved it two inches to the left. His eyes widened in disbelief, and he pulled the stethoscope from his ears, letting it rest around his neck. Quickly, he pulled their thermometers out of their mouths at the same time and compared them.
Rose couldn't wait. "Jack, what's—"
"Be quiet a minute," he snapped, his eyes taking in one thermometer and then the other. "Doctor, remind me, because I'm not clear on Time Lord physiology. Internal body temperature?"
"Fifteen degrees Celsius."
"Heart rate?"
"170 beats per minute."
"Number of hearts?"
Normally, the Doctor or Rose would have rolled their eyes, or made a quick retort, but the Doctor's voice was perfectly calm. "Two."
Jack took a breath. "Well, that's the same, at least."
"Jack," warned the Doctor.
Jack looked at him, careful to avoid Rose's gaze. "Temperature, 20 degrees Celsius. Heart rate, 160 beats per minute. Hearts, two."
He glanced at Rose.
"Both of you."
