A/N. Thank you, thank you so very much! TheBadWolf93, MirrorFlower and DarkWind, d0ct0rwh0-vian and the amazing Loca8892 (three reviews don't just come out of nowhere! :3) It's your support that keeps my muse going! :) On with the show…
Previously…
But he seemed to have forgotten a thing or two about kissing someone with telepathic abilities, again.
Our forever, you'd said?
The next thing Rose got to know made her gasp in pleasure.
No Time Like the Present: Chapter Ten
She exhaled. "We… we can't-"
"We can, and we should," the Doctor run his fingers across the unmistakable signs of arousal on her pale body, erect nipples being the least evident part of it. You want this, Rose.
"I- I-" Oh, how she wanted this! Wanted him touching her, wanted him inside of her… "Yes," she admitted honestly. "I want you. I need you." In more ways than one, but we can't. Not now.
The Doctor could sense something else within her. Fear.
His dark eyes were now locked to hers, worry filling them. "What is it, Rose? Anything I could fix?"
Oh… It was too late. This was beyond anyone's control now. "The Bad Wolf, she- she-" Rose trembled in his arms.
He knew it without her saying. "It will be fine, Rose. I assure you with my life."
The girl's dread was coloured with mocking incredulity for one moment. "You don't- won't risk it again, I hope? Because this would only be-" Pointless. Useless. Heart-shattering, if she were about to witness him regenerating because of her again-
"I will try to avoid it," he assured her softly, feeling her body stiffen beside his. Not unless it endangers your life. The Doctor did not say as much out loud, pretty assured she could sense as much from him anyway.
"We could even find Jack and Martha after what is to happen passes, to help you relax a bit, right, darling?"
"Suppose," she breathed out with audible unwillingness, suddenly forcing herself out of the pleasant sensation of his cooling embrace and moving away. It was strange the Bad Wolf attacks could reach her everywhere, even in a safe place like the TARDIS… Whatever her connection to both the TARDIS and the Bad Wolf was, it was all bound somehow...
Rose could feel it coming. In seconds, she was her. The much feared and adored invincible, irresistible, incredible Bad Wolf.
Think, Doctor, it – she said to the Time Lord. Think harder.
"What?" He was stunned.
My Doctor. Her Doctor. Our Doctor.
"What?"
Do something. Make Rose stronger. Make her better.
"She has made me better,"The Doctor stared at the Rose-like entity. The glowing woman shook her head, visibly pitying him.
If I stay within Rose any longer, she will suffer. Hopefully, you'll have come up with an answer the next time I visit her again. We wouldn't want anything bad to happen to her, yes?
With that, she left Rose's mind, allowing her body to fall down on the sand. At least there's this, the Time Lord thought before getting his Tyler girl to lie down properly. She was barely breathing, and the Doctor could not think clearly, his eyes fixed on her bare chest, rising and falling, rising and falling...
The silence from her was almost deafening, the seaside sounds much too loud all of a sudden. Why? How? His oh-so-superior Time Lord brain has refused to cooperate entirely. At least every last trace of lust for this perfect woman was gone from his system. Temporarily, the TARDIS sent him. The Doctor cursed. Why did his ship need to be so bloody annoying at times? Besides, it was not her business what- or how-
The TARDIS let out a cheeky sound of amusement. He was too stressed and worried about Rose to try and see properly through their telepathic communication – one he's usually happened to make out with no difficulty. Not on times like these, though. His mind was seemingly persistently blank to anything but the blonde he kept his eyes on at all times. One of those nagging thoughts was still there, though.
"You have made Rose- Rose- she has passed out twice in this brief time we are together. Twice!
The TARDIS objected loudly.
He wasn't finished. "Not counting that one time back when I was- The point is, Rose has never fainted before. What have you done to her? With her? And don't give me the crap about the Bad Wolf not having anything to do with this-"
The old girl bleeped guiltily.
"Actually… I don't bloody care what you did! Bring me my Rose back! For good!"
He has only understood what he'd said when the ship sent him another of her amused sounds, very likely aware anything more complicated was beyond him now.
"D-Doctor," Rose stammered in a rough voice after what felt like ages, although he could not say – not at once – how much time has passed. "Is she gone?" The Londoner was feeling uncommonly... excited. Nowhere as fatigued as usual whenever that happened.
"Yes, Rose!" Gone for the time being, at least. "You've been out for so long! I have panicked," he admitted, earning a sincere loving look from her. "Is this what usually happens whenever-?"
The Time Lord still looked shaken to Rose. She could not help but smiled at him assuringly. I'm fine.
Her lips curled into a smirk the next moment. "So long? Meaning?"
"I don't know! You were out for… fifteen minutes, an hour? Five hours?"
"You do not know something as simple as that? That's new," she grinned at him.
"Well-" he scratched his head in trying to remember. Naturally, it came to him easily. "Forty-seven minutes, but that's beside the point!"
Rose stared at him. "That's shorter than usual." Perhaps her having stayed inside me for longer would have meant the end of me.
The Time Lord did not dare to ask her what the usual amount of time of her lying helpless like this was.
"What was it she has told you?" She wondered, unable to stop her curiosity.
He exhaled, tense. "She's only told me to think."
"Think about what?" Rose eyed him searchingly, a dark foreboding threatening to settle in her mind. She shook it away.
"Not the tiniest," the Gallifreyan admitted, uncomfortable, Bad Wolf's words still ringing in his ears. Think harder. Make her stronger. Make her better.
Maybe she meant he was supposed to make it easier for Rose to get through whenever the Bad Wolf arrived? To somehow grant her some additional strength to support the devastating experience? He could do that, he supposed. Activate some dormant parts in her brain temporarily- it should not cause any harm? At least not something irreparable?
The TARDIS almost growled in annoyance. Rose sighed heavily at the Doctor's frustration.
Not that, then. Then what? Assuming it's you causing all the Bad Wolf mess in her mind? The Gallifreyan was getting more and more irritated with his ship by the second. Knowing just how easy it has been for the Doctor to lose himself, the girl got up from the spread he had placed her unconscious body on earlier and grabbed his hand. It's going to be okay, my Doctor. It hasn't even been so devastating this time! I feel almost as strong as I used to be. The telepathic communication seemed to have helped him to calm down.
Thank you, Rose.
The Doctor nearly jumped in excitement then, an idea entering his mind. "Rose! Can't believe I've been so unbelievably thick! The Bad Wolf has always meant to get you in there! Back to where you belong! In the TARDIS, with me!" He smirked at her gleefully.
The girl's response was dry, if a bit covered in sarcasm. "Genius, that you are, my Doctor. But even if it is so-" I am going to die soon, likely after one of these times.
The Doctor shuddered. She was not permitted to even think it! "You don't understand, Rose!" The Bad Wolf is you. You must accept her. The TARDIS helps, sure…
The old girl gave out a sound of frustration.
"I think you don't understand what she's been trying to tell you all this time."
The Time Lord met the resigned look in her eyes, seemingly having remembered their lack of clothes only then and paying it no mind. You say?
"M-hm," she smirked at the alien knowingly, which has only puzzled him further.
"This is going to be the most unbelievable thing I am going to tell you, Rose Tyler… I know I'd said your abilities to communicate with my TARDIS are extraordinary…"
"You'd like to know if I understand what is it the old girl keeps suggesting?"
"Not exactly how I'd have worded it, but-" The Time Lord looked uneasy.
Rose exhaled, closed her eyes, inhaled, looked at the Doctor. "Yes, I do."
A/N. Try and remember to review :)