"Martha! Martha!" The Doctor clutched his side, trying to muffle the searing pain in his lungs, but to no avail. "MARTHA!" he shouted again.
The indifferent Martha paid no heed to his cries, and kept up her furiously fast pace down the sidewalk.
"Martha, please! Be reasonable!"
At this she whirled around, livid eyes brimming in withheld tears. "Reasonable? You're joking, right? I don't think I'm the one that needs to be reasonable, Doctor!" She broke into an almost-run, trying to put as much distance between him and her.
He made one last attempt to stop her. "Martha! Martha, I'm sorry. I'm sorry I can't feel the same thing for you…that you do for me. I'm so sorry. D'you hear me? I'm sorry!"
Hearing this, Martha stopped short, fists clenched tightly at her sides. He thought for a second that she was going to dash away again, but then her body began to wobble slightly, and her head, bent down, was suddenly hidden from him
The Doctor immediately sprinted to her side, gazing in horror as she began to sob. He stood there, forlornly watching the brokenhearted girl. These things seemed to happen to him an awful lot, he thought fleetingly, but the notion passed soon.
He patted her awkwardly on the back, and when she did not recoil, put a long arm around her shoulders.
"I'm sorry, too, Doctor," she sniveled soggily. "I should've…I didn't think…you love her. And I was jealous, and I overreacted. I…wish things could've turned out…y'know…different. But they won't, will they?" She searched his face for contradiction, but was disappointed.
"No," she said softly. "No, they won't. It's not your fault, it's not my fault, it's just…the universe, I s'pose."
She gave a hiccupy chuckle and said, "So you, Doctor. Blaming everything on 'the universe' and 'time' and 'fate.' I don't know who or what to blame…but I'm definitely not gonna risk scapegoating the universe."
He also laughed and ruffled her hair playfully, to which she cried, "Oi! Let it alone!"
"Sorry."
"It's OK."
They stood there uncomfortably, until Martha giggled eerily and said, "Gay baby."
"Oh, no no no no no," exclaimed the Doctor, shaking his head in scorn. "Not that again."
She laughed loudly, still a bit teary-eyed, and pushed him teasingly. "Thanks a lot, insulting my habits, now, are we?"
"C'mon, we'd better start heading back," he said, avoiding the question. His hands went deep into his pockets, and he turned to proceed to the huge white hospital. "What's up?" he asked, seeing her hesitation.
"Back to Rose," she sighed, shutting her eyes to confine the sadness desperate to be freed. "I s'pose I'll just have to accept it, won't I?"
"Yes," he said simply, holding out a hand for her and grinning that mischievous grin.
She smiled sadly and took it, wishing with all her might that he would never, ever let it go.
OoOoOoOoOoOoOoO
"How's everything going?" the Doctor asked when they returned to the MRI room a few minutes later.
"Um…great," replied Mickey distractedly, looking intently at some monitor. "Everything's fine."
"Good," said the Doctor, scanning the area without much interest. "So then, where's Faye?"
"She's…she's in the loo," he answered uncomfortably, still not looking in their direction. "Had a bit of an emergency, I think."
"What kind of emergency?" interrogated the Doctor daftly, causing Martha to give him a "duh" look.
"Erm…something about Mexican food, I believe…left in quite a hurry…you know…" Mickey wasn't used to lying, and consequently was not very convincing at it.
"Is that so?" The Doctor raised and eyebrow disbelievingly
"…yeah."
"Hm."
"Yes," he said, slightly more confidently. "She should be back any minute."
"OK," the Doctor said cheerfully, settling into a nearby swivel chair. "How long until the scan's finished?"
Mickey examined a screen and said, "Twenty-one. Minutes, that is."
He groaned and spun moodily around in his rolling chair. "Damn, that's too long. Those nanomicrobes, they're eating at her brain. We need all the time we can get." He jumped up and made for the door to the scam room. "With a bit more jiggery - pokery, I could probably speed up the process…"
"You can't go in there, Doctor!" exclaimed Mickey, leaping after him. "The radiation…!"
"He absorbs that stuff," said Martha frankly, patting him lightly on the shoulder. "You get to learning these things when you're with him for a bit.
"Well I can't exactly say I'm surprised," he muttered, heading back to his post. Martha smiled broadly, knowing exactly what he meant, and followed close behind.
From the large glass window, they once again witnessed the Doctor madly fiddling at various points with his screwdriver, on occasion frowning and cursing under his breath. An instant later, he popped back up from behind a panel and gave them a double thumbs-up, and Mickey immediately turned the machine off. He scooped Rose up into his arms and kicked the door to the room wide open, Martha hurrying to get the gurney.
"No, it's OK," he told her gently. "I'll carry her back." She nodded, tight-lipped, and pushed the gurney along the hall together with Mickey, both of them flushing slightly at his obvious, lovesick behavior.
Once back at room 705, the Doctor laid Rose tenderly on the hard bed, fixing her hair so that it didn't cover her face. "Can you access the results from here, Mickey?"
"Yeah," he said, nodding confidently.
"Do it." The Doctor turned back to Rose, stroking her dry cheek lovingly. "Don't you worry, Rose Tyler," he whispered, smiling at her. "I'm coming to save you."
Huzzah!!!! Huzzah!!! He's-gonna-save-her-he's-gonna-save-her oh so happpyyyyyyyyy!!!! well duh this is MY story... whatever please review if you like! or if you don't, but hopefully you do... shutupshutupshutup...