Disclaimer: Doctor Who is not mine.
Features Rose with the 10th Doctor.
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Vacuum
How long can one survive in space without oxygen? The Doctor reckoned he might live about ten minutes or so, taking advantage of his superior Time Lord physiology. Rose, on the other hand, might survive a minute and a half, before suffocating.
This was about to be put to the test, as Rose was trapped in an airlock, about to be ejected out of the spaceship they were in. The Doctor, standing on the other side of the sealed door, was powerless to stop the automated procedure, no matter how he had tried to override the system. He could see Rose pounding her fists against the lock and she was desperately shouting, but the reinforced metal blocked out all sound. Reading her lips, he could see she was repeating his name over and over. Her eyes were wide with terror and the Doctor saw that she was on the verge of crying.
When the final countdown for the airlock release began, Rose gave up hammering the door. Instead, she pressed her palm against the small window and allowed the tears to fall. The Doctor mirrored her by place his palm on the glass and wished he could somehow touch her. He felt his eyes burn and had to blink back his own tears. He whispered her name, hearing the terror in his own voice. Far too soon the mechanism was activated and the air lock opened. Rose was hurled to her death and all the Doctor could do was to avert his eyes.
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Rose was overwhelmed by crippling fear. This is it, she thought, I am actually going to die. She was stranded in the sealed airlock with the Doctor watching her in mute horror from the safety of the spaceship. His inactivity alone was enough to tell Rose that there was nothing he could do to save her. She hammered her fists against the metal until they ached and called his name in desperate plea to be saved. This was not fair, she screamed inside her head. There was so much more for her to see, so many things to experience with the Doctor. If she was to die now, who would stand by his side and hold his hand when he needed it most?
When the countdown to her death started, Rose stopped fighting. She pressed her palm against the glass, wishing that she would have been able to touch the Doctor one last time. Him doing the same only made her tears run faster and he also seemed to be in the verge of crying. There were so many things she wanted to tell him, but could no convey any of them through the barrier separating them. She saw him speak, just making out her name on his lips. As the countdown drew to an end, she instinctively drew a deep breath, regardless of how futile that was. Then, accompanied by the whoosh of the air escaping, she was pulled back out of the ship. Last thing she saw through the small window was the Doctor looking away, as if unable to watch her die.
Once she was floating in the freezing vacuum, she expected her entire life to flash before her eyes. Instead, all she saw was the Doctor. She saw flashes of the Doctor she had first met as well as the regenerated one with whom she had been travelling until the end. He was laughing, crying, grinning, scowling, angry, sad, happy and utterly insane. She felt them holding hands, him pulling her to a hug as well as the ghost of his gentle kiss on her lips. As her lungs screamed for breath, a lone tear floated away as a sign of her love for the Time Lord.
Suddenly she felt a strong arm wrap around her waist and the shock made her let of the breath she had been holding. As she desperately attempted to breathe in the vacuum, she felt herself being pulled backwards. Soon gravity took hold of her once more and both she and the Doctor collapsed in the TARDIS doorway. She was gasping for breath, still reeling from her last minute rescue. The Doctor and Rose lay on the floor in a heap, holding onto one another all the while both laughing and crying. As the adrenaline began to wear off, Rose realised why the Doctor had looked away as the airlock had been released. The Doctor had crossed his own timeline for her once before and clearly he was willing to do so again.