Title: Into the Woods (19/21)
Pairing: TenII/Rose
Rating: PG
Genre: Action/adventure, romance, drama (just a smidge)
Spoilers: Just to be safe let's say everything up to JE.
Disclaimer: I don't own them and I make no money off of them (if anything it's the other way around)
Summary: After being left on the beach the Doctor, Rose and Jackie are forced to stay overnight in a small Norway village until they can get home, but something strange is happening in the quiet town.
Authors Note: Well this is frighteningly close to being finished. Two more chapters and I'll disappear for who knows how long. Also note that you should not post links to your story in communities when you are tired (you end up linking to the wrong chapter.)

Thank you to my amazing beta lj user="mik109" I hope you're feeling better.

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"What, exactly, is going on here?" Rose asked as soon as they had made it out of the castle, pulling the Doctor to a stop in the middle of the road.

The Doctor stared down at her for a short moment, hand still wrapped around hers.

"They're fairytales, just like I said, but they aren't real. None of this is real," he said plainly. "It's a virtual reality being formed by the imagination of a little girl. A specific little girl," he clarified needlessly. "Freya's daughter. Her brain has been hooked into a stasis pod from a crashed ship near the edge of town. With it she's creating all of this," he said with a glance around them.

"If she's making all of this because of a stasis pod then…if we turn it off she'll wake up and everything will go back to normal, right?" she asked helpfully, working at Torchwood these last few years had definitely trained her to stay on mission, especially in situations where people could get hurt.

He shook his head mutely. "The ships systems are all down except for the pod, it's drawing its energy from a natural power source. Which means I can't turn it off and wake her up," he told her gravely.

"And?" Rose prompted as she watched him carefully. "What does that mean?" She knew he was holding something back, he only ever gave her that sullen stiffed jaw look when he wasn't telling her the whole story.

"And…" he started with a deep breath, "it's killing her."

Rose nodded slowly. "How do we save her?"

"All virtual reality programs are built with a backdoor in them, a failsafe, a way for the individual inside of the program to exit it. If I can get to her, I might be able to lead her out of the program on her own."

Rose nodded again. "Right, so we'll do that then," she told him firmly with a warm smile and a squeeze of her hand.

He began to shake his head slowly. "It's too dangerous."

Rose's eyebrows shot up as she stared at him in shock. She never imagined she'd ever hear him say those three words. Okay, there were another three she had never imagined she'd hear him say and he'd proven her wrong earlier that day, but that didn't change anything. He was always finding trouble wherever he went, and he gladly strolled into it no matter how dangerous it was.

"I mean it," he said quickly. "Creating all of this is weakening her mind. This virtual reality is breaking down around us. It wasn't meant to pull an entire town into it so it's treating anything that isn't that little girl like a virus on a computer. It's searching them out and destroying them. The things we encounter out here are slow and weak compared to the defenses surrounding that little girl. It'll be like waltzing into the lion's den."

"Oh, and you never do that, do you?" she asked accusingly, dropping his hand so she could cross her arms over her chest.

"I didn't say I wasn't going," he answered her sternly.

"What? And I'm just supposed to stay here, then, am I?"

"Yes," he said turning away and beginning to walk towards the middle of town. He had saved Rose. Now, he could save the little girl.

"You can't just decide that for me," Rose said angrily as she stared openmouthed after him. "You don't get to leave me behind and go face danger all on your own. That's not how this works."

The Doctor continued to walk, ignoring her as he did so. Frustrated, Rose gathered up her skirt and stomped after him. Jackie, who had decided to stay out of the argument altogether, followed a good ways behind them.

"Doctor, stop," Rose called after him.

"I can't," he said back to her, his back stiffening and his voice taking on a dangerous tone.

"What do you mean, you can't?"

"I just…I can't."

"You can't stop?"

"I can't lose you!" he spun around and shouted back at her. "I can't do that. I lost you on that beach two years ago and I thought I lost you on that street with the Dalek and again tonight and I can't do it. Not again."

She stared at him solemnly as he rubbed a hand on the back of his neck, both completely oblivious to Jackie, who stood several meters behind them intently studying the doorframe of a nearby house.

"You keep me fighting, Rose, and I need you to be safe. I saved you first because I had to know you were okay. You are all I have, and I am not going to lose you to a piece of broken alien technology."

"What about you? I'm not the only one that can get hurt."

"I'll be -"

"Don't you dare say you'll be fine," she shouted at him angrily. "What am I supposed to do if something happens to you? You're not indestructible you know. You can't regenerate anymore," she said placing her hand over his heart and staring up at him. "One heart. one life. Remember?"

"Rose…" he pleaded with her weakly.

"We've got to do this together," she pushed on, ignoring his protests. "Just like when we were traveling 'round. We save the universe, together." She punctuated the sentence by grabbing his hand tightly in her own.

She refused to move, one hand spread out across his chest while the other was wrapped around his own. She stared down at where her hand rested against his chest, the steady thumping of his one heart fast under her palm. She could be just as stubborn as he was and this was definitely a fight she wasn't going to lose.

"It's not the same," he whispered, using his free hand to tilt her face up towards his. "Rose, you are all I have here."

"What makes you think it's any different for me? I told you before I'm never gonna leave you."

They stared at each other for a long time. Rose's shoulders set in determination while the Doctor's slumped dejectedly downward. He took a deep breath and squeezed her hand as tightly as he could before nodding his head. The movement was so small Rose barely registered it before he had turned and begun walking towards the center of town again, never dropping her hand. If she refused to stay behind, then he wasn't going to let her out of his sight for a second.

Rose followed the Doctor closely, her eyes shooting up to the sky above them. The sun grew steadily weaker as they made their way towards the house. It was now almost completely out, giving the deserted town an even more eerily dead feeling.

Hand in hand the two of them, followed by Jackie, started to pick their way through the small alleyways and roads of the town.

He was becoming an expert at stealthily sneaking around this town, the Doctor thought wryly as he avoided a particularly nasty pot hole that was camouflaged by a tuft of tall grass. Unfortunately, Rose was not an expert and tripped on her dress as it caught on the edge of the pot hole.

"Ugh, bloody dress," Rose groaned as she dropped the Doctor's hand in frustration and leaned over to gather the skirt of the dress in her hands.

"You look beautiful in it though," the Doctor said seriously as he looked down at her.

Rose glanced up at him. "It's impractical. Why do you think I stopped wearing 'em after you took me to Cardiff in 1869?"

"Is that why you stopped wearing them?"

"Yeah. Why? What did you think the reason was?"

"You were distracting," he said like it was the most obvious thing in the world. "I could hardly keep my eyes off of you and that was back when I was standoffish, no telling what I would have done after I regenerated," he answered her simply. "I might have mauled you," he realized suddenly, slightly shocked by the idea.

A sly grin began to work its way across Rose's face at his worried look. "Well I'm in a dress now and you haven't mauled me yet."

His eyes snapped back to her face. "No, but I haven't been able to keep my hands off of you either," he pointed out, noting how his voice dipped down as he said the words and noticed the light blush working its way across her cheeks.

Jackie shook her head and moved past the stationary pair. "Quit flirting, you two," she muttered as she continued down the side of the house, throwing over her shoulder. "Only two more blocks and we'll be at the house."

Flushing slightly, Rose quirked a small smile at the Doctor before following her mother. He returned her smile and, once she looked forward again, grimaced at her mother's back over dramatically. He couldn't wait for this to all be done with. Of all of the people he'd teamed up with to save the day Jackie was certainly the most tiresome of them all.

The Doctor jogged to catch up with Rose, linking his arm with hers instead of grabbing for her hand so she could continue carrying the unwieldy skirt. They briefly exchanged smiles before he noticed her mother was about to step out of their sight around the last corner to Freya's house. "Jackie, I wouldn't do that if I were you. Not unless you want to be the target of whatever remains of the pod's defenses," he observed blithely.

Jackie stopped immediately, placed her hands on her hips and waited with obvious impatience for them to reach her.

"Allow me," the Doctor suggested when they pulled abreast of Jackie. He squeezed Rose's arm briefly before releasing her to step up to the edge of the building.

The Doctor leaned around the corner of the house and stiffened as his eyes fixed on the small house across the road. A dozen Cybermen stood between them and the building, shoulder to shoulder in two even and unmoving rows. A solid metal wall.

He quirked an eyebrow after a moment of studying them. Their eyes were all glossy black and glinted in the near dark of the night. "My fight with the dragon must have worn her out."

"What do you mean?" Rose asked from just behind him, her voice close to his ear as she peeked around his shoulder to study the Cybermen.

"They're all off. Look at their eyes," he said, turning to look at her profile as it hovered next to his face. "They could be conserving energy. Which means they won't turn on until something moves in front of them and wakes them up, or-"

"Or that little girl has less time than we thought she did," Rose said gravely. "So, any bright ideas?" she asked hopefully as she turned to look him in the eye.

"If they're conserving power and they're that close to her, that means they'll be sluggish even if they do turn on. If not, then we barge in and they don't move."

"So we're just going to make a mad dash for it?" Jackie asked from behind the two, reminding them she was still there.

"Nothing wrong with a bit of a duck and run," he said with a noncommittal shrug.

"Yeah, and I know how much you love running," Rose said with a grin towards the Doctor.

The Doctor smirked at her and pushed away from the wall of the house. Rose held onto her skirts even tighter, readying herself. Jackie just rolled her eyes and sighed before leaning forward next to Rose.

"On three?" suggested Rose. The Doctor nodded sharply and she began to count, "One."

As the number left her mouth the Doctor burst out from behind the wall before they could react. With a frustrated groan Rose followed after him, Jackie hot on her heels.

The Doctor skid to a halt in the middle of the road and Rose slowed to a brisk jog until she came to his side.

The Cybermen hadn't moved. The Doctor walked towards them cautiously, Rose and Jackie just behind him. The Cybermen didn't turn towards the trio or lift their arms up to fire upon them. There wasn't even a flicker of light in their dead eyes. All of them stood stalk still.

He frowned at the nearest Cyberman, regarding it with a puzzled kind of loathing. "C'mon, they're all off," he said quietly, never looking away from them as he gestured for Rose and Jackie to join him.

Together they slipped around the end of the row of still unmoving Cybermen. The Doctor shoved open the gate and leapt up the stairs with his trusty sonic screwdriver already in his hand. Quickly unlocking the front door, he threw it open and ushered the Tyler women inside before stepping across the threshold himself.

The door slammed shut behind him and the lock slid into place easily. He turned towards the two woman that stood before him at the end of a short staircase. To his left was a small living room that gave way to a kitchen and to his right was what he assumed was a loo and a closed door, possibly a study or a spare bedroom given the house had two stories.

"We have to find that little girl," the Doctor breathed urgently from his spot in front of the heavy front door.

"Freya?" Rose shouted up the stairway though she didn't move to go up them. Together they waited in silence for a reply. A frown began to work its way across the Doctors face as none came.

"You don't think she…I mean, the program wouldn't've…" Rose's question trailed off as she turned back to look at him.

When he refused to meet her eyes, Rose knew he wasn't very hopeful. He had said the program would treat everyone who wasn't the little girl like a computer virus, and if Freya wasn't answering, the odds were it was because she couldn't.

The Doctor pushed away from the front door, his mind made up. He had dealt with enough death over the last day, Daleks and murderous fairytales gone wrong, fake Cyberman haunting a little girls troubled mind. He wasn't going to let that happen to this little girl, not if he could help it.

He moved towards the closed door to his right and pulled it open. He was met with the cold metal body of a Cyberman. The Doctor slammed the door shut once again and backed away from it quickly. The door burst back open, smashing against the wall, as the Cyberman marched towards them silently. The Doctor continued to back up pushing Rose behind him as they moved away from the Cyberman, Jackie falling in behind her.

The metal figure loomed before them, its red eyes glowing in the dark of the house. Together, the three of them continued to back up until they had made their way into the living room, the whole while the Cyberman moved towards them silent and menacing.

"Shouldn't it be saying something?" Jackie asked nervously as the back of her leg bashed into the edge of a chair behind her. She almost fell backwards, only just barely catching herself on the wall.

"Yes," the Doctor spat out uneasily as they continued to back up.

"Then, why isn't it?" Jackie demanded.

"And why doesn't it just shoot us?" Rose asked as the Cyberman suddenly stopped moving forwards as soon as it reached the foot of the stairs.

The Doctor stopped moving as well and stared at the Cyberman in front of him like it was some kind of math equation he was trying to solve. "Because it can't," he said as he stared at the Cyberman, "it'd take too much power." The Doctor frowned at the lone Cyberman as it loomed before them.

"There's only one of you left working now. Isn't there?" the Doctor asked as he took a step towards it. "And you can't shoot us. You can't even speak," he leaned to his side to look around the Cyberman's body towards the closed off room it had come from. "The little girl's in there, then."

"Freya?" Rose shouted as she continued to watch the Cyberman. "Freya, you in there?"

A quiet scuffling noise came from the room before Freya appeared in the doorway. "Rose?" she called worriedly. "These things just showed up out of nowhere an-and my daughter…" she began to explain frantically her sentence breaking up with a choked sob. "I-I think she's…"

"It's okay. We're gonna help."

"How're we gonna do that?" Jackie asked her daughter quietly enough so Freya couldn't hear her.

"He isn't going to just let us walk past him like the others outside," the Doctor said firmly drawing everyone's attention back towards him and the Cyberman.

"What do we do?"

"You go, get to the girl, and try to wake her up," he said, his eyes never once moving away from the Cyberman.

"Don't you think her mother would have tried that already?" Jackie asked indignantly as she stared at the approaching Cyberman.

"Oh, just go, Jackie," he said through gritted teeth as he pulled the sword he had picked up earlier out of his pocket. "I'll distract him."

Rose moved towards him, ignoring how odd it was to see anyone pull a sword out of their trouser pocket, and grabbed his head. She turned his face towards her and pulled him down into a fierce, if all too short, kiss. She leaned back slightly, hands still tangled in his hair, and gasped in a shaky lung full of air. "Be careful," she whispered out.

Her breath puffed out against his lips making them tingle even more than they already were. "Right," he said dumbly, the word coming out as more of a squeak than anything. He cleared his voice embarrassedly as Rose moved away from him. "On three," he said as he turned back to the Cyberman in front of him and fixed his grip on the hilt of the sword.

"One…" he said as he began to shift his body so he could swing the sword at the Cyberman easily.

"Two…" Rose again wrapped the long skirt of her dress in her hands so she could run as she and Jackie focused on the door just past the Cyberman's shoulder.

"NOW!" he shouted.

Rose and Jackie took off towards the door and the Cyberman began to move again. As it turned towards them, arm rising up to grab onto Rose, the Doctor's sword smashed into the side of his head causing it to tilt at an odd angle. The Cyberman stopped moving forward and straightened its head before slowly turning towards the Doctor.

The Doctor raised his sword ready for another attack and checked to make sure that Rose and Jackie had safely made it into the room.

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(((Authors Note: I would like to point out that I began writing this before the Christmas special aired and that I pay no attention to spoilers (I wish I didn't know that DT was leaving because its so much better to not have any clue as to what's going to happen. I think that might be part of the reasons Doomsday and PiC worked so well for me, I had no idea Rose was going to die or that she was going to come back (and I am in the US and watch the show when it airs on SciFi so the whole Rose thing in PiC was old news by the time I had seen it and I still had no idea she was going to show up)).

Unfortunately that, on very rare occasions (read as once ever), leads to me writing things that end up happening in the actual show. For instance I had the Doctor sword fighting a Cyberman written up before I saw the Christmas episode in which…well the Doctor sword fights a Cyberman (C'MON! How likely was that to happen really?) I briefly played with the idea of having the Doctor think something along the lines of 'I hope the other me isn't doing anything as daft as this.' In the end I decided against it because, well, I couldn't think of a way to say it without it sticking out as a way of me saying 'Yeah, I know it looks like I'm copying the show but I'm not' so instead you get a long authors note about it.

P.S. How cool was it that he sword fought a Cyberman in the show? I loved it.