The Doctor's blue suit jacket rubbed against his wound causing it to sting as they ran through the corridors of the Solonian ship. He tightened his grip on Rose, and with his other hand put pressure on his bleeding injury. He, Rose and Rob needed to tend to their shoulders and that meant they needed to find a safe place to rest. He could hear the the rowdy Solonians behind them, getting closer as the group ran slower with their injuries.

Taking a deep breath, he pushed on, trying to run faster but unable to match Jen and Rob's speed. With no sleep and hardly any food, plus the deep wound on his shoulder, he felt a growing weight slowing him down. His new body simply couldn't keep up with the demands he placed on it.

Ahead of him a door came into view and he glanced up to see where the room led. The label over the door had mostly faded with time, but a number was still visible. Fifty.

He skidded to a halt, let go of Rose, and took out his sonic.

"Over here, over here, over here," yelled the Doctor, trying to sonic the door open.

"Rob! Jen! Come back!" yelled Rose.

"They'll be on us at any minute!" said Jen as she ran up to them.

"We can hide in this room," said the Doctor, keeping his focus on the door.

"How is this room any different from all the others?" asked Rose.

"I'll tell you once we're inside," said the Doctor. He didn't actually know what was in there, but his gut told him that this was where they should be. A second later the door hissed open. "There!" He gestured for Rose to go through the door first. "Everyone get in!"

Once Jen and Rob followed Rose into the room, he stepped inside and began working on closing and locking the door. It spluttered once then stopped halfway.

"It won't shut!" yelled Rob, rather unhelpfully.

"Really? I thought that's how it worked," quipped the Doctor, irritated by the remark. "Either help me or shut up."

The Doctor and Rose tried to pull the door closed, yet with nowhere to grip, the door didn't budge. His limbs felt too weak to move it. Then Rob and Jen joined in their efforts. The door whined, quivered, and slammed shut with a sudden hiss. Everyone jumped back in time and watched another door close over the first one.

"Nearly lost my fingers with that," said Rose.

The Doctor glanced around, studying the room, and sighed with relief when he understood where they were. "We should be safe here, by the looks of it," he nodded to the heavy second door, "it's a sub-positron storage room. The walls and doors are reinforced with graphene metal so that nothing interferes with the sub-positrons."

"You didn't know what this room was?" asked Rose incredulously.

"Why would it need to be reinforced with graphene metal?" asked Jen, saving him from answering Rose right away.

"Certain types of neutrinos that pass through solids would damage the circuitry of the containers, which is why they need to use a special type of graphene metal, which keeps those neutrinos out," he said, happy to supply her with the information. "The Solonians won't be able to even smell us from the outside."

"Good, I could use a breather," said Jen, closing her eyes and sagging against a wall.

"I'm sorry," whispered Rob, barely audible. He stood near Jen, staring at the floor.

"What?" asked Jen, obviously startled.

"I'm sorry about Mumu," said Rob, a little louder. He looked at Jen, his face still red from crying over Ricket. "About," Rob frowned, "all these deaths."

The Doctor knew that tone of voice. Rob blamed himself.

"What about Ulreigh?" asked Rose, a sharp tone lacing her voice. She stepped closer to Rob, glaring at him. "Are you sorry about him too?"

He knew Rose had been upset about Ulreigh. He'd seen it on her face when he mentioned it to her the first time. She hated it, just as much as he did, when innocent people were killed.

Rob looked back at the floor, staying silent for a moment. "Ricket, he...he didn't want to kill him," Rob confessed finally, his voice hoarse. "We both didn't want to, we had to make ourselves do it. I told the Captain to leave Ulreigh alone when he left us." He raised his head and looked at everyone with a pleading expression. "He was one of us, he made us all laugh, gave everything nicknames, like the knock out juice. We can't call it anything else now." He swallowed, knitting his brows together. "But she ordered us."

Anger rose quickly in the Doctor. He'd heard that phrase one too many times. "You can't hide behind the excuse of following orders!" shouted the Doctor. "If you're really sorry, then you should do something about it next time and not after you've lost someone who actually matters to you!"

A stunned, guilty expression flashed across Rob's face. He swallowed again, his tears drying from his eyes. He looked away from the Doctor, then sulked to a corner of the room, his injured shoulder drooping, without saying anything else. Jen went after him.

Rose looked at the Doctor, and he turned to face her. Her eyes were glued to his wound and his blooded jacket.

"We should do something about your shoulder," said Rose, softly.

"And yours." He touched her upper arm, careful of any hidden injuries. He nodded to the space farthest away from Rob and Jen. "Let's go over there."

They made their way to where he nodded and the Doctor resisted the urge to crumble to the floor. He would need more than sleep after they got back, but he doubted he'd get what he needed until they were back on Earth. They eased to the floor instead, sitting to face each other.

The Doctor started to remove his jacket, but he clenched his teeth at the pain. He decided to remove one sleeve at a time. "I didn't mention this before because I wanted to keep it between the two of us."

"What is it?" asked Rose as she assisted him with peeling off the fabric of his jacket from his wound.

"Remember our luck?"

"Yeah, thought we used it all up when the Solonians almost ate us," commented Rose. Together they got off his jacket and she started to remove hers.

"No, we still have it," said the Doctor, glancing at the stains and holes on his suit. "I haven't told you yet, but the number fifty has been cropping up a bit too much to be a coincidence."

"I've seen that too, the number, even before I came back." Rose tossed her jacket on the floor and the Doctor threw his on top of hers. "I kept seeing it around Donna in that parallel universe."

The Doctor looked at her with raised eyebrows, stunned at her admission. "How many times?"

She shrugged, then winced. "I dunno, maybe about ten?"

"Then I don't think I'll have to tell you which number was above the door to this room."

Rose glanced down for only a moment, seemingly contemplative. "I wonder what it means."

The Doctor leaned against the wall with his good shoulder. "Right now, after we both almost bit the dust, we can't do much about it except survive long enough to figure it later, like before."

Rose stayed silent after that, tending to his wound, trying to apply pressure with her hands. She gave up after a moment and rummaged through Ricket's utility belt. She pulled out a damaged box with a crescent moon and a star, but it was empty.

"I don't think I can stop the bleeding," said Rose, looking worried.

He suddenly remembered something "Oh, that's right, I have something for it in my pockets," he searched his trousers, "Hold on, let me," he grabbed on to varying bottles, then felt his fingers curl around the right one, "there it is!" He pulled out a small spray bottle he got from a seventy-seventh century hospital. It could patch up most external injuries. He glanced at Rose. "You first."

Rose didn't argue. In the past when they traveled, if they got hurt, he would always tend to her first, no matter how much she protested, unless his injuries could turn fatal. He sprayed her shoulder with the bottle and a thick foam came out the nozzle, sealing her wound. Her t-shirt, like his, had been ripped enough that he hadn't needed to move it. Once finished, Rose sighed, sounding relieved, and slumped forward. The foam's pain reliever must have kicked in.

She looked at him with a tired smirk. "You just happened to be carrying medical supplies in your trousers?" Rose took the spray from his hand.

"Martha made me keep a spare in all of my suits after a rather nasty run-in with a Raggorian beast," he said as he stretched his neck away from his wound. Rose sprayed his shoulder with the foam. Immediately the pain subsided.

Rose continued to fuss over his injury. "I wish I could have known her better. I bet she was brilliant."

He smiled. "She would have liked you," said the Doctor, then remembered one of the reasons why Martha left. "Erm, well, maybe not."

"Why's that?"

"She, um," he rubbed the back of his neck, "she fancied me."

Rose rolled her eyes then grinned, not looking at all bothered or jealous as he had expected her to. "Of course she did, anyone who knows you fancies the pants off you."

He beamed at her, feeling his pride swell at the compliment. Then his grin vanished. "Donna didn't. Apparently I'm not her type."

"That's because she's special," said Rose, her smile turning soft.

He hummed in agreement, thinking about Donna. "That she was."

Rose stopped fussing over his wound and looked down to put away the medicine. She frowned and fiddled with her hands. "I'm gonna believe Donna's with him," said Rose, her voice low. She looked up at him. "I have to believe they're together, still traveling and happy."

He took a deep breath. He wanted to believe that too. "Who knows, maybe the two of them put their heads together, though in a way you could say they already did, quite literally, and found a way to save her."

The Doctor caught Rose's eyes and there was something in them, something soft and warm that he hadn't seen in years. She came closer and ran her hand through his hair, leaving a pleasant tingle running down his spine. Her hand came to rest on his forehead, as if she was checking his temperature. "You're all clammy, should we just head back to the transport ship?" She shook her head and leaned back. "Maybe we can try again later, just the two of us?"

"I think this is the only chance we'll get," said the Doctor, thinking back to their conversation with the Captain. Traveling to Gallifrey was vital, and not just for him. "I need to get those items." He stared at her, willing for her to understand how important it was that he deal with the echo. "Rose, I need to -"

"I know, Doctor, you don't have to say," said Rose, cutting him off, "we'll get them, you and me, yeah?" She gave him a small smile.

He cupped her face, grateful that she knew, that she did understand. She had been everything to him after the Time War. She eased the pain of having to do the unthinkable and here she was, ready to help him again regarding Gallifrey, without needing a word from him. "I love you." Her eyes widened and turned glossy. Her mouth dropped slightly and her breath hitched. He held her face with both hands. "Back there, when we were almost on the menu for the Solonians, I hated the thought of dying and not saying it again."

"That's the second time you've told me," said Rose in a dreamy tone.

"Third, but you didn't hear it the first time," corrected the Doctor.

She smiled, a gentle, sweet smile that seemed to chase all of his pain away. She bit her bottom lip and her expression transformed, her eyes shining mischievously. "Then I have some catching up to do."

He beamed at her again, feeling the distance between them evaporate. That gave him the strength to keep going.

"I think we should go. The longer we stay here, the harder it will be for us to keep going," said Jen loudly enough that they could hear her from the other side of the room.

The Doctor looked over to her and saw she had finished patching up Rob. "Right, the sooner we get what we need, the sooner we can get back to the transport ship." He stood with Rose. She picked up their jackets and handed him his. They put them on as they made their way to the door.

"What about the Solonians outside?" asked Rob, who seemed to have sobered up.

"I've got a plan," said the Doctor, glancing around to everyone.

"Tell us," said Rose softly.

"Remember those sleeping bombs we used on Pyoo?" he asked. "I still have enough ingredients to make another one. They won't work on the Solonians but it should confuse them enough for us to get away. We can detonate it to cover our tracks and then head to the cargo hold. It should be close. And I can guarantee the items we need will be there." The items should have been in engineering. He scratched the back of his head. "Well, almost, can't be sure with the ship this out of sorts." He glanced to Jen and Rob. "After I've gotten the items, unfortunately we'll have to leg it back to the transport ship."

"You know the way?" asked Rob.

"I've got a vague idea of where to go, that should be good enough," said the Doctor, feeling hopeful that this would soon be over.

"Let's get to it," said Rose, her voice now taking on a commanding tone he'd only heard a few times before. "I don't think either of us will hold out much longer."

"All I'll need is a minute and I'll have the bomb ready," said the Doctor, kneeling while he searched his pockets, pulling out a variety of things and dumping them on the floor. He swiftly made the sleep bomb, using the last bit of the poor plant he'd plucked from that forest on Pyoo. He stood, holding the bomb in his hand, and nodded. He took out his sonic, opening the door with a press of a button on his screwdriver.

Jen carefully stuck her head out into the corridor, looking both ways for signs of the Solonians. "It's clear," she said, standing back.

The Doctor pocketed his sonic and held out his hand to Rose. She took it and then he looked to Jen and Rob. "As soon as the bomb goes off, hold your breath and follow me."

Throwing the bomb right outside the room, the Doctor dashed through the ensuing smoke that took up most of the corridor. He turned right, back towards engineering. An odd, high-pitched shrieking came from behind them and he knew his plan had worked. The Solonians weren't following them and the farther they ran, the less they could hear them shriek. He heard no pursuing footsteps either.

Before entering engineering, the Doctor led them down a corridor to their left. The cargo hold should be close. He hadn't been able to tell Rob to go down this path before. He had been too injured and wary to think clearly. He understood the severity of his limitations now, after almost losing his life to a Solonian. His mortality was no longer a niggle, but a fact set in stone. It had been since he had woken up in the TARDIS. He had been reminded that he couldn't fear a fact. Now he only feared losing Rose. Everything else would sort itself out.

Before going forward with his new life though, he'd first have to deal with Gallifrey once again.

The corridor twisted, curving to their right and opened up into a large corridor with many double doors. A few howls sounded in the distance, followed by the sound of drums. It died out and the Doctor slowed, studying the double doors. He picked the one he thought would most likely hold what he needed and took out his sonic. Everyone stood around him, watching him work.

"I'd give up chips for the items to be in there," said Rose.

"You won't have to," said the Doctor. "I'd bet you twenty quid that they will be if I had any money."

"Alright cheapskate, if the items are in there I'll give you twenty quid," said Rose, her voice playful.

He smirked at her and tilted his head towards the door. "There's only one way to tell."

With one last press of his sonic, the double doors slid open. Inside, containers cluttered the floor and most of the shelves lay on their side or flat on the ground. In one corner, the pipes running across the ceiling had burst open and live wires rained down, leaving them looking like a black forest of kelp above water. Below a flickering light, a small group of Solonians huddled together, eating something from one of the fallen containers. These Solonians looked different than the others. They still wore their tattered uniforms, hanging from their waists, and were thin enough that their ribs were visible under their skin.

But what caught the Doctor's eyes the most was the items he needed sitting on one of the only upright shelves.

"They're here," said the Doctor, staring at the items.

"Where?" asked Rose, scanning the room.

"But what about the Solonians?" pondered Jen. The shelf with the items stood closest to the Solonians.

"I can sneak behind them and grab the items from the shelf before they realise I was even in the room," said the Doctor, confident he could do so.

Rose leaned closer to him. "Doctor," she said, worry coating her voice.

The Doctor looked at her. "I'll be fine, Rose."

She stared at him, searching his face. "If they see you, I'm coming in after you," said Rose, sounding reluctant to even let him go at all.

"Rose," he said, ready to argue.

"No, you can't stop me," said Rose determinedly. "I'm not going to lose you."

"You won't," he assured her.

"Can you two stop flirting?" said Rob, clearly irritated, but with no venom in his voice. "We don't have the time and it's too dangerous standing about."

The Doctor and Rose studied each other, then hugged. He squeezed her once and let go.

"Good luck," said Rose, brushing the hair out of her face.

He smirked and entered the cargo hold. He bent down low and slowly made his way to the shelf with the items. He kept his eyes on the Solonians, but they were too preoccupied to notice him. It took two point five seconds to reach the shelf and go around to the other side of it, away from the busy Solonians. Then he kneeled down and reached for the first item, the rotor. He took it and put it in his pocket.

While he no longer feared his mortality, and while he tried to think positive about it, like being able to spend his life with Rose, his fragile body annoyed him. Utterly tired, he tried to concentrate on remembering the techniques he'd learned over the years to keep himself awake. His hand trembled as he reached for the second item. His mind wandered to the thought of curling up to Rose and sleeping for days. He shook himself out of it and pocketed the drive.

There was only one item left. The piston sat on the shelf a few feet closer to the Solonians and he scooted to his left to bridge the gap. Remaining cautious, he reached for it, only to find his fingers barely touching the piston. Kneeling on his tiptoes, he tried again to reach it. Stretching his arm, he inadvertently pushed a box on the shelf, causing a metal spanner to fall to the floor with a loud clang, alerting the Solonians. They stood and faced the Doctor, pausing to exchange odd looks before dashing forward towards the shelf and him.

The Doctor stood and stared as the Solonians came after him. He looked around frantically to find an escape route, but came up empty. Frozen in place, he wouldn't dare to run back to the group. The Solonians had only seen him. He looked at the shelf and thought of climbing it when Rose appeared in front of him, arms spread wide, facing the Solonians.

"Solonians!" screamed Rose, causing the small group to stop and stare at her. "That's your name, yeah? That's who you are. I'm a human." The Solonians exchanged another odd look, but remained rooted in place. "My name's Rose, Rose Tyler. You've all got individual names." Rose nodded to one of the Solonians. "I see on your name tag, on your uniform, that you're Belan?" said Rose tenderly.

Using the distraction, the Doctor slowly reached for the piston and pocketed it.

"S' a good name, I like it," said Rose, who lowered her arms.

The Solonians started to speak, though too low for the Doctor to hear. Instead he looked at the woman protecting him in awe. Even after they killed Mumu and Ricket, and almost killed the both of them, there was still room in her heart to treat them with compassion. He whispered, "Rose…"

"You all've got to remember who you were, who you are. You're not supposed to be like this. That's why we're here, to help. If you eat us, you lose the best chance you've got to be who you were meant to be, to evolve."

Movement out of the corner of his eye caught his attention and the Doctor saw Jen waving to them, signaling that they should come their way. He turned and saw Jen and Rob standing in front of the forest of dangling wires. They were close enough that he and Rose could make it in a dead run. The wires would slow down the Solonians once they resumed their attack. The only way they'd escape alive was if there was another way out of the cargo hold past the wires.

"I promise we'll fix this, and you'll be better for it. We -"

The Doctor grabbed Rose around the waist, cutting off her speech, and urged her to run. The Solonians remained standing in place, stunned by Rose's words. He loved small miracles.

"Head to the wires!" yelled the Doctor as he ran behind her.

"I was getting through to them, why'd you stop me?" said Rose, picking up her speed and running towards the wires.

"Besides the obvious?" he said. "Even if you got through to those handful of Solonians, we're still up against the rest of the ship."

Jen and Rob entered the forest of hanging wires just as the Doctor heard the Solonians stir from their hypnosis and give chase. Rose entered after their companions and the wires quickly hid her from view. He rushed in after, pushing aside the dead wires and hopping away from the dancing live ones. The trek through the wires took only thirty-two seconds. He burst through them to see Jen, Rob, and Rose standing around a closed door that looked rusted to the wall.

He grabbed his sonic from his pocket and went straight to the door, working frantically.

"Have any idea where this leads?" asked Rob.

"Your guess is as good as mine," said the Doctor, barely paying his question any attention.

"Better out there than in here," said Jen as she stared back at the way they came. The Solonians howled and shrieked through the wires, their voices close.

"Doctor, they're coming!" warned Rose.

"Just another second," said the Doctor, hearing the Solonians break through the last bit of wires.

The door opened and he urged everyone through, looking back at the hungry oncoming group. Another two more seconds and they would be on top of him. The Doctor zipped through the door and closed it, turning to sonic it locked.

"Doctor," whispered Rose, her voice strange.

"What is it?" He turned and found himself staring down a large corridor at two dozen Solonians staring right back at him.

"We've made it out of the frying pan, only to end up in the fire," commented Rose, panicked.

The Solonians cried with cheer and triumph. They rushed forward, towards the four of them. In one point three minutes, him, Rose, Jen, and Rob would be dead meat filling the guts of the Solonians. Even if he told Jen and Rob to use their laser guns, there were too many of them, and they'd be overrun within seconds.

"Doctor!" yelled Rose.

Jen backed away, pressing her back to the door and squeezing her eyes shut. "I guess we'll be joining Ricket and Mumu after all," said Jen, her voice shaking.

"We just need to think!" said the Doctor forcefully. "Give up now and you're as good as dead." The Doctor watched as the Solonians charged at them, thinking hard. "Come on, come on you big old brain." He looked over to Rose and glanced down at Ricket's belt. "The knock out juice! Take out your cans of knock out juice!" cried the Doctor gleefully. "I knew there was a reason I got to keep my magnificent noggin!"

"The knock out juice won't work on Solonians," said Rob.

"But it'll sting. Get it into their eyes and they'll be too preoccupied with the pain to notice us slipping past them," proclaimed the Doctor.

"I've got Ricket's," said Rose as she grabbed the can from the back of her utility belt.

"That makes three," said Jen, joining Rose in presenting her can of knock out juice.

Rob took out his can of the juice. "We'll go first and stun them, then you open any doors we'll need to pass through," commanded Rob, sounding hopeful for the first time since Ricket's death.

The Doctor nodded, impressed. "Good plan."

"Right, to arms!" rallied Rose, sounding just as hopeful.

Rose held up her arm to her face, covering her nose and mouth, while Jen and Rob put on their gas masks. Then the three of them stood ahead of the Doctor, spray cans held out in front of them, waiting. The moment the first wave of Solonians were within spraying distance, they used the juice and ran forward, spraying the next wave, and the next.

The Solonians that were sprayed with the juice stopped their attack and held their face, crying out in pain as the four of them ran past. They continued going forward, rushing willy-nilly through the ship, probably alerting every surviving Solonian on board. It didn't matter. They simply needed to get to the transport ship and they'd be scot-free.

They zipped through corridor after corridor, twisting and turning. If any Solonians blocked their way, they would spray them with knock out juice and continue on. Eventually they made it to a familiar, though grungy, corridor.

"This looks familiar!" yelled Jen.

"I think this is the way back to the transport ship!" said Rose.

"Run faster!" warned Rob, desperation in his voice. Too many Solonians to count chased after the four of them.

Turning a corner, the Doctor saw a familiar bloody handprint on a door, the same door that led to the transport ship.

"Run, run, run!" yelled the Doctor.

"Captain, open the doors!" yelled Rob, speaking into the communicator on his wrist.

The door with the bloody handprint slid open, then another door, and then the transport ship's door, revealing the Captain standing with her arms crossed, waiting for them. Jen and Rob made it through first, then Rose and the Doctor careened into them, pushing them to the floor of the transport ship.

"Shut the door!" urged the Doctor, glancing up at the Captain. "Shut it!"

"Ugh, make up your mind," said the Captain, rolling her eyes and lazily pressing a button, even though she must have seen the oncoming horde of Solonians.

The doors closed and a second later something banged on the door, then something else banged on the door, louder this time. The Doctor held his breath. Finally, after fifty seconds, everything went silent.

The Doctor stood with Rose and he hugged her tightly, not wanting to let her go. Anger built up inside him as he thought about the reckless stunt she pulled in the cargo hold. But the anger fizzled out just as fast it came. He would have done the same if their roles had been reversed. Perhaps, since no one had ever tried to reason with the Solonians before, it would somehow do some good on that ship.

"Where's Ricket?" asked the Captain, her contemptuous voice breaking the silence that had taken over since the doors had been shut.

"It's just us," said Rob, standing close to the Doctor.

A deep scowl lined the Captain face, her mouth curled down in fury.

"Aren't you going to ask about Mumu?" added Jen, sounding insolent.

"Who cares about her?" said the Captain, raising her chin to look down at Jen.

Both Jen and Rob wore identical expressions of pure loathing, aimed at the Captain. They didn't back down. Instead, they looked ready to rebel.

The Captain turned to the Doctor. "Did you get what you need?"

"Yes," he said flatly.

"I suppose it was worth it then," said the Captain in mild disappointment. She eyed Rob and sat down in one of the pilot seats, still wearing a scowl. "Rob, take us back to the Fancy."

The expression of loathing on Rob's face turned to pure hatred. Narrowing his eyes, he silently did as she ordered. Jen sat down in the back and put her face in her hands.

The Doctor, with the items needed to get to Gallifrey in his pockets, held onto Rose as he watched the Solonian ship leave his view. The transport ship flew away, heading back towards the pirate ship. He didn't count that as safety. Still under the Captain's mercy, they wouldn't be safe until he destroyed whatever was left of Gallifrey and they were free of her clutches.

To Be Continued


Beta'd by the lovely Sporehead!