Okay, not gonna lie…I took way too much pleasure in watching your all twitch after yesterday's chapter. I need to do crazy cliffhangers more often.

oOoOo

"What the hell?"

Rose looked around. This was definitely the TARDIS, but something was...wrong. The corridor that ran off the console room into the rest of the ship was gone. The lights were dim, the glow from the time rotor completely extinguished.

I did say you'd be able to protect yourself better from psychic attacks, came the song of the TARDIS.

"This isn't protection!" she yelled. "This is...I don't know what this is!"

This is your mind, protecting itself from Cassandra's invasion.

Suddenly, the monitor blinked on. Rose could hear her own voice saying, "Moisturize me." The view swung to take in her arms and fingers as her voice named off the parts.

"Oh, my god," she breathed as she realized what she was seeing. The monitor was showing what her eyes were seeing. She hadn't blacked out, she'd hidden away, constructing a mental TARDIS around herself. "This is going to get really weird, isn't it?" She heard the TARDIS buzz around her. "Yeah, thought so. Anyway to get out?"

I'm sorry, my Wolf.

"Yeah, didn't think so." She sighed and moved to the captain's chair to watch Cassandra parade around in front of a mirror. She almost wished she had popcorn.

"But what of the Rose child's mind?" Chip asked out of sight.

"Oh, tucked away," Cassandra said. "Strange mind, though. She's managed to lock most of it away. I can hardly access even the most recent memories. Let's see, she—"

The whole room began to shake rattle. Rose clung to a rail for support.

"What the hell?"

Cassandra is trying to access your thoughts and memories, the TARDIS sang. Your mind is fighting back.

"You're the Doctor," Rose heard her own voice say, looped and reverberating.

"Oh, she is a stubborn one," Cassandra spat impatiently. "But, oh—gosh, she's with the Doctor. That man. He's the Doctor. The same Doctor with a new face. That hypocrite! I must get the name of his surgeon. I could do with a little work. Although...nice rear bumper. Hmm."

"Put a knife anywhere near that body and die, Cassandra," Rose spat out at the monitor as the phone started ringing. "I do not talk like that," she added as she heard Cassandra attempt to mimic her.

"You'll never guess," the Doctor said on the phone. "I'm with the Face of Boe! Remember him?"

"Better than you," Rose muttered, realizing that the Doctor had no idea who Boe really was. "Oh come on," she burst out when she saw the way Cassandra was altering her appearance. "He knows I'd never dress like that!"

She sat back, miffed, as Cassandra made her way up to the Doctor. He rushed up to her when she appeared, explaining the strange recoveries that were happening around them. It wasn't until they went looking for a terminal that Rose completely saw red.

"SHE KISSED HIM!" she yelled, jumping to her feet. "Cassandra actually KISSED the Doctor!"

And he liked it, added the TARDIS.

"Oh, ew, that's just...hold on, what?"

He didn't know it wasn't you. Not for sure. He liked it.

"That's...interesting." Rose chewed a nail. "Did she do that last time?"

Yes.

"He didn't tell me about that!"

He didn't kiss you on New Year's last time either.

Rose flushed guiltily. "You know about that?"

I'm nosy.

"Clearly."

Rose saw the moment he realized something was off, even if Cassandra didn't. Rose knew nothing about computers back home, much less the space age ones here. She snickered a little at Cassandra's obliviousness.

All humor went away when she saw the intensive care unit. She understood now why the Doctor had been so furious with the cats. Thousands of pods, all with people inside, born to suffer and die without even recognition that they were alive...Rose's eyes burned with tears even as her gut burned with anger. She cheered the Doctor on as his rage broke over the cat nun.

"I wonder if Machiavelli was required reading where they studied," Rose mused.

She froze when the Doctor's anger took on a calmer, darker quality as he asked what had happened to her.

Harm to people makes him angry, the TARDIS said. Harm to you makes him dangerous.

"No!" she yelled when Cassandra sprayed him with the perfume and manhandled him into one of the pods. She ran to the doors and pulled on them, but to no avail. She hadn't really expected success, but it still drove her mad to just sit there and watch it all happen. "If anything happens to him, Cassandra..."

It won't, the TARDIS said. You know it won't.

"Oh, will you just shut up and let me issue empty threats in peace?"

Rose's fists clenched while Cassandra attempted to blackmail the Sisterhood. As if that was the most important thing right now. And then they were running. Always running. Trying to keep ahead of the plague carriers that could kill them with a touch.

The Doctor turned on her when they hit a dead end, arguing with her to leave Rose's body.

"Give her back to me," he ordered darkly, facing Cassandra with sonic raised, and Rose filled with warmth.

And then she was back. The room spun for a moment as she acclimated to being in control of her body again, but she turned to the Doctor as soon as the dizziness stopped.

"Get out of him, Cassandra!"

"Goodness me, I'm a man," Cassandra giggled. "Yum. So many parts. And hardly used. Oh, oh, two hearts! Oh, baby, I'm beating out a samba!"

"I told you, get out!"

"Oo, he's slim, and a little bit foxy," Cassandra said, the Doctor's face twisting into a weird smile. "You think so too, don't you? Oh, but you've been keeping secrets from the good Doctor, haven't you? There's more to you than meets the eye..."

Rose was saved from responding when the diseased people broke through the door.

"What do we do? What would he do?" Cassandra asked, slapping at her arm. "The Doctor, what the hell would he do?"

"Ladder," Rose said quickly. "We've got to get up."

"Out of the way, blondie!" Cassandra yelled as she pushed Rose out of the way.

"Please, help us," a woman said behind Rose. "Help."

"We will," Rose said softly. "We'll find a way. I promise." Then she took off up the ladder.

"If you get out of the Doctor's body, he can think of something," Rose told Cassandra as they climbed.

"And go back to being chavtastic? I think not. How did you manage to lock yourself away from me?"

"Really not the issue, Cassandra," Rose yelled. "We're gonna die if—Get off!" This last was yelled to Matron Casp as she grabbed her ankle.

"All our good work. All that healing," the Matron rasped. "The good name of the Sisterhood. You have destroyed everything.

"Go and play with a ball of string," Cassandra said derisively.

"Everywhere, disease," the Matron continued. "This is the human world. Sickness!" Rose saw the diseased people getting closer, and had to choke back the bile in her throat when she saw the Matron change as one of them touched her.

"Move!" she ordered to Cassandra.

They continued climbing to the next door, but were stopped when it wouldn't open. The quarantine kept everything from budging.

"Now what do we do?" Cassandra asked desperately.

"Can you use the sonic screwdriver?" Rose asked with a sinking feeling.

"You mean this thing?" she asked, pulling it out of the Doctor's jacket pocket.

"Yes, I mean that thing."

"No," she said with a scowl. "That Doctor's hidden away all his thoughts. A bit like you..."

"Not now, Cassandra!" Rose said quickly. "Go back into me. The Doctor can open it. Do it!"

"Hold on tight," she warned, and then Rose was back in the console room while the Doctor yelled at Cassandra, only to return to her body a moment later.

"No matter how difficult the situation, there is no need to shout," Cassandra whined.

"Cassandra, get out of him!" Rose yelled.

"But I can't go into you, he simply refuses," Cassandra pouted. "He's so rude."

"Wonder why," Rose said. "Do something. Now."

"Oh, I am so going to regret this," she said before Rose saw the energy fly out of the Doctor and down past her to the people below.

The Doctor immediately opened the lift doors, reaching out to help Rose out. "Nice to have you back," he said warmly.

Before she could answer, she was knocked forward and back into the console room.

"Oh, this is REALLY getting old," she yelled at no one while the Doctor yelled at Cassandra. She softened only slightly when she heard what Cassandra said to the Doctor. It had taken her invading a diseased mind to gain any kind of sympathy for the people, but at least she had.

Rose paced as they ran back to the ward and the Doctor finally managed to come up with a plan. She smiled when he started strapping IV bags to himself. Every disease, every solution. The Doctor was going to cure them all.

"If you're so desperate to stay alive, why don't you live a little?" he asked Cassandra with a manic grin after he jumped onto the lift cable, and Rose clapped with delight.

She couldn't see what was happening in the lift while Cassandra held the lever, but she heard him yelling to the carriers to join him, then pass it on. His shouting got more and more excited as it started working.

"What did they pass on?" Cassandra asked him when he helped her down, now completely drenched. "Did you kill them? All of them?"

"No. That's your way of doing things," he told her. "I'm the Doctor, and I cured them."

Rose smiled proudly as she watched her Doctor walk among the now healthy people milling around reception. Cassandra really had it backwards. He was called the Doctor for a reason. He didn't destroy anything if there was a way around it.

Not now, the TARDIS put in gently. Rose saw an image of the Doctor in leather holding a gun to a creature who wasn't fighting, followed by an image of Gwyneth in the archway. It wasn't so long ago that saving them may not have been his first plan.

When they got back to the ward, Rose suddenly became aware that there were two completely different conversations going on involving the Face of Boe. In one, the Doctor was talking to him, noting that he no longer appeared to be dying. In the other...

"You have done well, Rose Tyler," he said to her.

"Thanks, Jack," she said fondly. "Two telepathic conversations at once...that's impressive, that is."

"The Doctor isn't the only one with tricks," Boe said. "But you must be careful. You did not respond to Cassandra's attack the way a human should have. The Doctor has safe guards in place to keep himself from thinking too hard on any…oddness you exhibit, but don't let him dig too hard, or those safeties will fall apart, and you may once again be facing the Oncoming Storm."

"Alright," she said hesitantly.

"Until we meet again, Rose Tyler," he said.

"'Bye, Jack," she said softly as Boe teleported out. It wasn't until after he was gone that she realized that she hadn't met the Face of Boe or Jack again before she'd fallen.

Things are changing, the TARDIS sang to her. She felt an encouraging buzz, and part of her soared. Maybe she could succeed after all.

Rose was so absorbed in her thoughts that she had stopped paying attention to what was happening outside of the control room, and was caught off guard when she suddenly found herself in the ward.

"You all right?" the Doctor asked as she collapsed in his arms. "Rose? You okay?"

"Yeah," she said, shaking her head a little to clear it before looking up at him. "Hello!"

"Hello!" he said, grinning widely. "Welcome back."

"Oh, sweet Lord. I'm a walking doodle," Cassandra said in Chip's voice, making them both turn.

"You can't stay in there," the Doctor said, releasing Rose and turning to her. "I'm sorry, Cassandra, but that's not fair. I can take you to the city. They can build you a skin tank and you can stand trial for what you've done."

"Well, that would be rather dramatic," Cassandra admitted. "Possibly my finest hour, and certainly my finest hat, but I'm afraid we don't have time. Poor little Chip is only a half-life, and he's been through so much. His heart is racing so. He's failing. I don't think he's going to last—" she was cut off as she collapsed to her knees.

"Are you all right?" the Doctor asked, rushing to her side.

"I'm fine," Cassandra assured him. "I'm dying, but that's fine."

"I can take you to the city," the Doctor suggested again.

"No, you won't," Cassandra told him gently. "Everything's new on this planet. There's no place for Chip and me anymore. You're right, Doctor. It's time to die, and that's good."

And there it was. It took her until the very end of her grossly extended lifespan, but Cassandra finally became human. Rose smiled at her, and tears burned in her eyes when Cassandra offered a small smile in return.

"Come on," the Doctor said after a moment. "There's one last thing I can do."

They brought Cassandra to the party for the Ambassador of Thrace, and watched her die in her own arms. Strangely fitting for one such as her. After they returned to the TARDIS, Rose waited until they were back in the Vortex to speak. She had a plan brewing.

"Doctor?"

"Hmm?" He turned to her, eyebrows raised.

She walked up to him slowly, and his expression turned wary. She stopped directly in front of him, and watched him carefully as she put a hand on his chest, just over his jacket lapel. He didn't pull away, and she decided to take this as a sign of encouragement. She put her other hand behind his neck and pulled down gently as she leaned up to press her lips to his. He froze in front of her. She could have left it at that. She probably should have. She knew he would have, had he been the one to initiate the kiss. But then he melted into it, and she decided that she'd wanted this for far too long to leave it at that. She flicked her tongue over his lips, and, after a startled moment, he groaned and pulled her tight against him as she plunged her tongue into his open mouth. They kissed greedily, each fighting for dominance as they tasted and explored each other.

Rose finally pulled away when her lungs started burning. She was pleased to note that he also seemed to be a little breathless. She carefully extracted herself from his arms, which fell limply to his sides as he watched her, looking rather dazed.

"That's how I kiss," she said after a moment. "Just so you don't get confused again."

He nodded mutely, and she smiled as she walked out of the room, the TARDIS buzzing with amusement.