Chapter Ten
Everything Dies
Ashley stared in horror as the Doctor's eyes slowly rolled back. He suddenly felt very heavy against her. She couldn't hold his weight and her knees buckled. He fell with her, but she managed to keep hold of him to prevent him from hitting the floor too hard. She forced her eyes to look down to his stomach where his black jumper was slowly turning wet and glittery. She put her hand on it and gasped at the red blood on her fingers.
'Oh god… oh no…' She lay him down gently and put her hands on his face, leaving a bloody smear on his cheek. 'Doctor! Doctor can you hear me? Oh god I'm so sorry! I didn't…' A bout of tears escaped her and she moaned loudly. 'Doctor wake up!'
His eyelids were half closed, but they flickered open and he glanced around in bewilderment. 'What…' He felt the pain and let out a cry, trying to put his hands to his stomach. 'Oh… oh that hurts!'
'Just keep still!' Ashley told him, her words barely understandable through her sobs. 'Don't move, okay? I'll…' She glanced around and remembered the first aid kit beneath the console. She scrambled to her feet and went to fetch it, stumbling twice. 'We still have the first aid kit!' she cried, rummaging frantically around under the console. 'I can stop the bleeding! I can and… and you'll be okay, okay? We can fix it, okay? You'll be fine…' Her hands landed on the green zip-up bag and she pulled it out with too much force, sending herself back on her bottom. She crawled back to the Doctor.
'Just… just leave me…' he told her, grimacing with the pain. 'God I forgot how much it hurts to get shot…'
Ashley fumbled with the zip, tears hindering her vision. 'I… I need to put pressure on it, don't I? And then bandage it up… But… but if the bullet is still in…' She gave a short frustrated scream. 'I don't know what to do! I can't-'
The Doctor's hand grabbed hers and she looked to him in alarm. His face was white apart from the bloody smear on his cheek. 'Leave me.' He told her, sternly. 'It'll be okay…' He trailed off and grunted, turning his head and gritting his teeth. 'This is why I hate guns!'
Ashley held his hands with both of hers. 'You're going to regenerate, right? Back into you… I mean… the old you. You'll change, right? And then everything will be back to normal and-' She finished with a shriek as something thudded against the doors of the TARDIS.
The Doctor turned his head back to her. 'Ashley… I'm sorry. I'm so sorry. I couldn't… this is all my fault, I-'
'No, you shut up.' She snapped. 'Don't say anything. It doesn't matter. It's over now, everything is going to be fine. It's all-'
There was another thud on the door, louder this time. The TARDIS jerked suddenly.
'Just sod off!' Ashley roared at the doors, and then turned back to the Doctor with a broken smile. 'It's all okay now.'
He shook his head. 'It's not I…' He winced. 'Something's wrong.'
'What? What's wrong?'
'I… I should be…' He gasped and looked up at the ceiling. 'I don't think it's going to happen… I can't feel anything…'
'It might just be taking a while,' Ashley told him desperately, more for herself than to console him. 'The poison might just be delaying it. You said it would work!'
He shook his head, eyelids drooping again. 'I just can't feel…'
'What? Can't feel what?'
'Anything…' His voice was barely audible. His rigid body weakened and he went limp. A long, slow breath escaped his lips, and his eyes closed.
Ashley stared at him, clutching his hand. She looked down at his stomach and saw how much blood he had lost. It soaked the right leg of her jeans and was dripping down the gaps in the floor. 'Doctor?' she said, unable to summon a strong voice. She gripped his hand and squeezed. 'Doctor?' When he didn't move, she grabbed his shoulders and shook him. 'Doctor! Regenerate! You can do it! Please, you have to do it!' She cried out in anguish and thumped her fist down on his chest. 'Don't leave me! Please!'
He didn't move. The thudding resumed on the TARDIS doors. Ashley sat back, running her hands through her hair and looking at the motionless Doctor, panic-stricken. She grasped for his neck, feeling for a pulse.
Nothing.
'Doctor!' she wailed. 'Doctor, please!'
Behind her the TARDIS hummed, louder than usual. She turned and looked at it, and then scrambled to her feet and ran to the console. She began to thump buttons and pull levers, but nothing was happening.
'Do something!' she screamed at it. 'Help him!'
It continued to hum, doing nothing. She sobbed loudly, her panic no longer able to fuel her violence towards the console. She dropped to her knees, clutching onto the side of it, and thumped her head against the edge.
The Doctor was gone. The TARDIS couldn't help her.
She was alone.
A/N: :o
My computer is going craaazy, so I'm going to try and get this story finished today before it claps out on me completely, so if I vanish completely at some point it means my computer is broken. Again. Which is just bloody fantastic. Hopefully it'll stay alive if I don't turn it off. Like, ever. Anyway... yes... Doktor iz ded :o