I know I keep saying this but apologies again for the wait! I'm getting all angsty again so be warned. Thanks for all the amazing reviews so far, you've broken the 100 review mark! Congratulations to all of you so this chapter is dedicated to reviewers; the people who make us writers want to write on! Hope you enjoy!


Human Dying

Rose looked up at him hovering above her sore and bloodied head. Maybe. Just maybe she loved him for him, not for who he used to be. As she looked at his smiling face, her vision swam suddenly and she tried to focus. The brown-blurred form of the Doctor was balancing on the edge between sharp and hazy with every forced blink. She heard a faint voice somewhere in the distance above her head and realised it was him, yelling at her to stay awake, screaming at her to stay with him. Rose wished he'd be quiet for once; her head hurt, didn't he know that? She felt his hands on her shoulders and he jerked her sharply, sending her head into another round of throbs.

Rose began to worry. These felt familiar. It'd been happening on and off since he'd regenerated. Her head-aches. This wasn't the knock-on-the-head kind of throb that she'd felt at the back of her skull. This pain was burning her from the inside out, making her skin glow from the force of the heat. She felt his cold hand touch her forehead and screamed when it made contact. The sudden wash of cold had burnt her skin raw, making it blister under the harsh fluorescent blue light. Rose felt the tears leak out from her eyes and track their way down her reddened cheeks, the skin burned hard and blinding pain swam over her consciousness. She breathed heavily through the sting and forced it deep underneath her being, to the darkness and forced it to stay there.

Her eyes focused slower than dripping misty water. The first thing she saw was his face, stricken with panic and darkened, hollow eyes. She felt like retching but dared not move for fear of renewed aches. His voice sounded broken, dark and wavering as he spoke to her carefully and quietly, "Rose? How d'you feel?"

She swallowed the bile backed up in her throat, "I… better… I think." She swallowed again and breathed deeply. "What's going on? What happened?"

"I was hoping you could tell me, actually." He fixed her with a piercing stare, fired and hot enough to melt ice, "What is it that you haven't been telling me? How long has this been going on, Rose?"

She looked away, shamed, "I… it's…" the familiar wave of pain swept over her mind and drew her in for a second before throwing her back out. "I… they keep coming. I don't know what it is, Doctor…" she gritted her teeth and slammed her eyes shut as another wave hit her. "Ever since you… changed… I kept having these pains in my head… in my mind…" She breathed heavily and looked him in the eye, "Didn't think anything of it at first, but they kept getting worse with every one that hit." She felt the next one build up and faced it head on. It crashed over her with magnitude, tears leaking and a small pained gasp escaping from her lips. "What's happening? Please tell me what's happening…"

He looked down on her. So fragile, so young, so precious. He knew what was happening. Had worked it out, eventually. Her head-aches weren't really head-aches. They were worse than that. He'd never felt angrier. He gritted his teeth hard and electric blue sparks shot out of his eyes at the anger. "They're psychic spasms, Rose. They get worse and worse the longer you leave them. It's like a tsunami. It builds and builds and builds until…" He swallowed the sickness back into his body. She had a right to know. He couldn't lie. He wouldn't lie. "It builds up until it destroys everything."

He winced at the frightened look on her face. "What's causing it?"

"The time lines." He said simply, dropping down into the seat beside her. "The anomalies in the time lines are building up and making your mind spasm out of control. Your body just can't handle the strain anymore. It's… it's shutting down slowly, starting with your mind."

Rose whispered as her head turned towards him, eyes screwed shut. "Did I make it worse?" He didn't answer. Just stared at a space above her head, teeth gritted. "Doctor!" She yelled and he snapped his eyes back to hers. She recoiled at the sight of his blackened orbs. The fiery anger she saw there made her pain scream at her.

He exploded, "Yes!" The Doctor's breaths came hard and fast, his hearts pumping his blood harder than ever. "Why didn't you say anything, Rose?! I could've helped you! I could've saved you…" his voice went deathly quiet, "I should've saved you."

She was stunned. "When is it… how long… this had to happen…"

"But it doesn't! He snapped, "It doesn't have to happen! I could stop it! I want to stop it! I have to stop it!"

"You can't, though." No longer a question. A statement. She knew. "You said so yourself."

He stared at her. "You're just giving up?! No! No, I won't let you give up on yourself, Rose! You're too good for this!"

"But you can't do anything about it! It's going to happen!"

"Stop it! Stop saying that! I can't lose you! It's too soon, there's so much I haven't said!"

"Then say it!" She stood before him, inches in front of his face, eyes browner than chocolate and twice as sweet. He didn't want to lose that.

"Rose… I can't. I can't."

She looked at him sadly, hurting more from his denial than any pain in the world. "Because you don't. That's right, isn't it that? You just… don't." She looked down dejectedly, her hands gripping the blood-stained sheets that covered the med bay bed, her knuckles turning white and her knees weakening from the onslaught. They buckled beneath her and she collapsed face-first onto the cold tiled floor. Rose smelt him next to her, kneeling next to her as he called her name, not daring to touch her. Rose smelt the engine oil, the citrus twang and shaving foam from his face so close to hers as she breathed through the stabbing sensation. "Make it stop… please!"

"Rose? Rose? Come on, Rose, don't give up on me. Remember, remember that I need you. Come on, Rose!" She turned on the floor and he saw the burn on her forehead, the perfect shape of his palm. His bent finger scraped the side of her cheek and she yelled out in pain, the skin beneath his touch blistering once more.

Rose screamed at the top of her voice, shying away from his touch. "Please! Stop it! Please! It hurts!"

His eyes sprang tears and he realised what was happening, it filled him with fear.

'How can I do this? How can I save her when I can't even touch her?'


A/N: Now, if any of you have read 'You Don't Know', the sequel will be out tomorrow, maybe Monday.

A/N 2: Don't hate me, I love angst and it's what I do best. Review and I'll throw in some fluff next few chapters, I promise!