A small explosion went off nearby and sent an icicle crashing to the ground near them, showering them with ice shards. The Doctor covered Rose's unconscious body as best as he could, then straightened, lifting her fully into his arms.

"We can't do anything here, this whole floor's about to go up! We need to grab Cathica and get out of here!" he shouted. "Get to the elevator!"

"Not without Cathica!" Lyssa shouted back, shrieking as a large blob that she was unfortunately able to identify as Jagrafess flesh fell by her foot. "You get Rose, I'll get Cathica!" Not waiting for an answer, she took off towards the elevator, praying that Cathica would be nearby, ducking falling snow and icicles as she went. "Cathica! Cathica! Where are - There!" She shouted in triumph as she spotted a beam of light coming from an open door on the left.

Inside was an abandoned spike room, the corpses of several frozen bodies laying where they had fallen on the floor. Cathica lay on the chair in the center with her eyes closed, information still streaming into her brain. Lyssa tried to snap her fingers several times before succeeding, the door in Cathica's head closing and the stream stopping. Cathica opened her eyes slowly, sitting up in confusion before her eyes met Lyssa's.

"No time to talk now. We've got to get out of here!" Lyssa said hurriedly, extending her hand to help her up. She pulled the older woman to her feet and yanked her out of the room, both of them falling to the floor as a huge explosion rocked the area.

"Lyssa! Cathica! Over here!" The Doctor's shouts drew their attention, where he was standing in the middle of the elevator holding the door open with his foot. Rose still hung limply in his arms, her face pale and still.

"Come on!" Lyssa hauled the other woman to her feet and into the elevator.

"Wait! What about Suki?" Cathica protested, bracing herself against the wall as the Doctor let the doors shut, and used his sonic to send the elevator dropping back down through the levels.

"She's dead, we can't help her now; I'm sorry," the Doctor said briefly, lowering Rose to the ground and checking her pulse once more. "I've got to focus on Rose. She's still not breathing."

Tilting her head back, he pinched her nose shut and lowered his mouth to hers, exhaling for two seconds before sitting back on his heels. He waited another six seconds before continuing to breathe for Rose.

Lyssa sank to her knees beside him, taking Rose's hand in hers and praying for her to start breathing again. Silently cursing herself for never learning CPR, she unconsciously held her own breath each time the Doctor sat back, only breathing herself when she saw Rose's chest rise.

"Oh my gosh!" Cathica cried, finally noticing that Rose wasn't breathing. "What's wrong with her? And what about the man back there, and that, that thing on the ceiling? And Suki's dead? Did they kill her? Are they going to come after us, too?"

"The Editor shocked us while we were in the manacles," Lyssa answered briefly, eyes fixed on Rose's chest. It rose briefly every time the Doctor breathed for her, then sank back down again. "He killed Suki, and hurt Rose, but the Editor is dead now. Died in the explosion. But Rose got hurt from the shocks. She still has a pulse, but she's not breathing."

"We've got breathing!" the Doctor shouted triumphantly, sitting back as Rose's body jerked, coughing before falling back down to the floor, still unconscious, but breathing. The Doctor pulled out his sonic and quickly scanned her, noting the uneven rise and fall of her chest.

"She's breathing adequately for now, but we need to get her back to the TARDIS. She needs treatment I can't give her here, and," his face darkened, "we need to take Mr. 'genius' Mitchell back home."

"Your friend?" Cathica asked, wrinkling her brow. "He doesn't seem very smart."

"He's not my friend, and he's not smart either," the Doctor snapped. "He's an idiot who could have killed people for greed. Sound familiar?"

"Then why'd you bring him with you?" she frowned.

The Doctor sighed, looking down at Rose. "Because I was giving him a chance. And he wasted it." The elevator dinged as the door slid open on Floor 139, and he gathered up Rose into his arms again, followed by Lyssa and Cathica. "You'll have to manage things on your own from now on, Cathica," he informed her.

"What?" she cried. "You have to stay! We have medical on Floor 16 for your friend, and that aside, no one's going to believe me anyways!"

"Oh, they might start believing a lot of things now," the Doctor assured her, heading back through the gate to the TARDIS. "The human race should accelerate. All back to normal." He caught sight of Adam loitering by the TARDIS, Rose's phone in hand, and his expression darkened once more. "You'll be fine, Cathica. You've started to think for yourself. Just keep doing that, and encouraging others to do the same. Now if you'll excuse me, I have to take out the trash."

Lyssa offered Cathica a brief smile goodbye that didn't reach her eyes, then took off after the Doctor as he strode towards Adam. He practically radiated menace, and she could see Adam start to sweat as soon as he caught sight of them.

"You're not going to tell me to stop, are you?" the Doctor asked quietly, shifting his hold on Rose so that she lay more comfortably against him.

Lyssa tried to crack her knuckles menacingly, but forgot that they were already bruised from punching Van Statten earlier, and winced, rubbing them to try and soothe the pain. Regardless, her voice was steady as she glared at Adam. "You might have to be the one to hold me back."

Adam's eyes shifted to Rose as they stalked up to him, then back up to the Doctor as he stammered nervously. "I'm all right now. Much better. I've got the key." He held up the TARDIS key, sweat trailing down his face. "Well it's, I know..." He laughed nervously. "Well, it all worked out for the best, didn't it?" He cringed at the look on the Doctor's face.

"Lyssa?" His voice was calm. Very calm. "Please remove the key from Adam, before I remove Adam from the key."

Lyssa snatched the key from Adam's hand and used it to unlock the TARDIS.

"You know, it's not actually my fault, because you were in charge," Adam continued weakly.

The Doctor gave him a black look. "Move," he snarled in a low voice.

Adam moved.

The Doctor followed him into the TARDIS and kicked the door shut with his foot. "Lyssa, take the phone from him and put it in the jack by the time rotor, then pull the red lever below it. It'll take us to the last place called on the phone. I'm going to put Rose in the Infirmary." With one last, angry look at Adam, he disappeared into the hallways of the TARDIS.

Lyssa marched up to Adam, still hovering nervously by the doors, and held her hand out impatiently. "Phone."

He wouldn't meet her eyes. "I don't... what are you talking about?"

She curled her fingers into a fist, smirking when his eyes fixed on that. "We can do this the easy way, or the hard way. The hard way may or may not involve you get shoved out an airlock, but either way, you will give me that phone. I know you have Rose's phone. Now give it." She scoffed when he dug into his pocket and handed it to her, still not meeting her eyes.

She didn't bother warning him to hold on as she found the jack and inserted it, then pulled the red lever. The TARDIS began to dematerialize and shook a whole lot more than usual as she flew through the Time Vortex, although it seemed to be centered around the area where Adam was standing - or used to be standing.

And she couldn't help but notice that all the railings by the door had conveniently disappeared. She smirked. It seemed that the TARDIS disliked Adam as much as she did.

The Doctor came back into the console room once they had landed, and quietly assured her that Rose was fine, and sleeping peacefully in the Infirmary. He smirked briefly at the sight of Adam picking himself up off the floor, then stepped forward and placed his hand on Adam's shoulder, shoving him out the door, followed by Lyssa.

They were in the living room of a small house, with the TARDIS back up against the wall and a couch by the other end next to an older-style telephone on a table. Adam spun around, letting out a hysterical laugh. "It's my house! I'm home! Oh my gosh, I'm home!" Lyssa crossed her arms and leaned against the TARDIS, glaring at him along with the Doctor. "Blimey, I thought you were going to chuck me out of an airlock or something," Adam exclaimed.

"Don't get my hopes up," Lyssa muttered. "It's still on the table."

The Doctor nudged her with his elbow, but stayed focused on Adam. "Is there something else you want to tell me?"

The self-proclaimed genius shifted uncomfortably. "Um... no. What do you mean?"

The Doctor walked calmly over to the telephone and picked it up, visibly restraining himself. "The archive of Satellite Five. One second of that message could've changed the world."

If there was a picture of guilty in the dictionary, Lyssa rather thought that Adam would have been it, the way he flushed red and averted his eyes. The Doctor replaced the phone and pulled out his sonic screwdriver, raising an eyebrow at Adam in challenge when he tried to protest. Adam subsided, and settled for scowling in a meek show of defiance as the Doctor blew up his telephone with a simple press of the button.

"That's it then, see ya," the Doctor remarked casually, striding back to the TARDIS.

"How do you mean, 'see ya'?" Adam asked nervously, following him and stopping about a foot away.

The Doctor raised an eyebrow at him. "You're the 'genius', aren't you? As in, goodbye."

"But... what about me?" Adam protested. "You can't just go, I've got my head, I've got a chip type two, my head opens."

"What, like this?" the Doctor asked, clicking his fingers and smirking as the door in Adam's head opened.

"Don't!" Adam said angrily, closing it again.

"Don't what?" the Doctor asked innocently. "I'm just snapping my fingers. It's a free country, isn't it?" He snapped his fingers again.

"Stop it!" Adam snapped, closing his head again.

The Doctor's smirk suddenly dropped from his face, and he leaned forward into Adam's space menacingly, making Adam draw back. "Stop what? Reminding you of what a selfish idiot you were? The whole of history could've changed because of you!"

"I just wanted to help," Adam protested weakly.

The Doctor scoffed angrily. "You were helping yourself! And you nearly got yourself and hundreds of others killed doing it! If they'd gotten their hands on the TARDIS, all life could've been wiped out thanks to your stupidity!"

"And, I'm sorry. I've said I'm sorry, and I am, I really am, but you can't just leave me like this," Adam tried again, nearly begging.

The Doctor curled his lip at him. "Yes I can. 'Cause if you show your head to anyone, they'll dissect you in seconds. You'll have to live a very quiet life. Keep out of trouble. Be average. Unseen. Good luck."

He had just put his hand on the door when Adam spoke up again, unwilling to give up just yet. "But I wanna come with you!"

"I only take the best," the Doctor scorned him. "I've got Lyssa and Rose. They're my closest friends right now, and you know what?" He lowered his voice and leaned towards Adam again. "Rose was barely breathing when we came up, and all you could think about was yourself. You never even spared her a glance. The universe has enough self-centered people in it. I'm not spreading it around."

"I had two rules for you, Adam," Lyssa snapped when he glanced her way, as if he was really going to try and get her on his side. "Don't try and change history, and don't do anything stupid, especially something like putting a hole in your head. What did you do? You tried to change history, and in the process, put a hole in your head!"

Adam stared at her in sudden realization. "You knew, didn't you?" he accused. "The phrasing is too similar to be a coincidence. You knew exactly what was going to happen, and you did nothing! You let all that happen! This is all your fault! It's all your fault Rose is in there, unconscious!"

He swung a hand wildly at the TARDIS, and she groaned once in warning. "I knew nothing about the rules of time travel, but you're experienced! You knew better, and you knew what was going to happen! This is all your fault!"

Lyssa shrank back from his accusations, guilt and fear that he was right suddenly warring with her righteous anger. Adam, sensing that he was gaining ground, stood a little bit taller. "You stand there all high and mighty, judging me, when you knew that I was going to do it, when you knew that Rose was going to get hurt, and you did nothing! You're just as guilty as I am!"

Lyssa had no answer for him, couldn't even speak. Was it all her fault? She had known about Adam, and the Editor, and she could have done more to stop them. And Suki - Adam didn't even know about Suki, but she had died too, and Lyssa hadn't saved her. If she had been alone, she might have cried, overwhelmed by the sudden surge of emotions.

But she wasn't alone, and the Doctor stepped forward to remind her - and Adam - of that.

"You're even stupider than I thought if you believe that," he spat, seeming to gain height as he towered over Adam. "One of the first rules of time travel is that we can't spoil future events for people in the past. Even an idiot like you ought to know that. Lyssa may have known that putting a hole in your head was a practice they did there, but she couldn't outright tell you what was going to happen, considering you were the one stupid enough to do it, even after she warned you about it."

He pushed open the door of the TARDIS and gestured for Lyssa to step inside. She did, waiting by the doorway for him, her face torn. "You were the one who chose to come with us, you were the one who chose to try and profit by changing history, and you were the one who chose to put a door in your head. Do you know what the common denominator is there? You chose to do something, and now you're facing the consequences. Don't you dare try and pin that off on anyone else. That was all you. And this, is goodbye. See you never," he called, strolling into the TARDIS and ignoring Adam's sputtered protests. "Do you have anything you want to add?" He asked Lyssa.

She considered, then nodded. Placing a hand on the doorway, she leaned outside the TARDIS briefly, catching Adam's attention. "Hey, Adam?" She waited until he was looking at her, then smiled coldly, covering up the turmoil she was experiencing inside. "Next time someone more experienced than you tells you not to do something, don't do it. Good luck explaining this to your mom. I think she'll be pulling in soon." Snapping her fingers at him, she grinned at his outraged expression and shut the TARDIS door behind her, blocking him out. "We can leave now."

"Good," the Doctor declared, sending them into the Time Vortex with a flourish. "I couldn't stand that man. I only brought him along because Rose wanted him. Don't know why," he grumbled. "The man's an idiot. And selfish. He didn't once ask after Rose, or you, or anyone else."

"Speaking of Rose," Lyssa mentioned hesitantly. "How is she? Is she... all right?"

The Doctor's face softened, and he held out his hand for her to take. She took it gratefully, smiling up at him shyly as he led the way out of the console room. The TARDIS had moved the Infirmary to just outside, so it was only a minute before they were in the room, where two beds were set up. Rose lay on one under a thin sheet, a transparent gold film covering the bed. A monitor hung above her bed, with her vitals displayed on it, and an IV stand stood nearby, ready, but not yet attached to her arm.

"The film you see above her is more like a field," the Doctor explained, putting on sanitary gloves and threading a needle into her arm under the gold field, then placing an IV line into it. He hung a bag on the IV and turned it on, flicking the line a few times to get it started. "Keeps the bad things out, and the good things in, so to speak. She also needs a bit more oxygen than room air would give her at this time, so there's a higher concentration in there, blowing in her face to help her breathe it in."

"Will she be all right?" Lyssa asked again, peering down at her friend. The steady rise and fall of her chest reassured her, even though she would have preferred to see her sit up and open her eyes.

The Doctor hummed noncommitally. "Her heartbeat's strong and steady, and her breathing has regularized. I'm about to use a dermal regenerator on her wrists, which should take care of any burns there, and the IV's just to help replenish her system after the literal and metaphorical shocks it's taken." He disposed of the gloves in a bin, and rummaged in a drawer until he pulled out the same device he had used on Lyssa when her throat had been bruised by the Slitheen back in London.

Flicking the switch, he carefully picked up Rose's arm above her burned wrist and ran it lightly over the skin. Lyssa watched in slight amazement as the skin began to lighten, and the burns began to fade, until her wrist was the same color as the rest of her skin. The Doctor repeated the process on her other wrist, then motioned for Lyssa to take a seat on the other bed.

"What? I'm fine," Lyssa protested. "Rose is the one who's unconscious!"

"But she's been treated as much as I can at this time. I've set a few tests running, and I've got my eye on a few things, but she wasn't the only one shocked. I want to make sure you're all right, too," the Doctor informed her.

Lyssa shook her head, looking down at Rose guiltily. "I'm fine. Suki and Rose were the ones who got hurt." Because of me, she finished in her mind. She didn't need to be treated, when Rose was the one who had gotten hurt.

The Doctor seemed to have heard the rest of her sentence though, and frowned at her. "Them being hurt doesn't negate the possibility that you could've been harmed, too," he reminded her, then softened his tone. "Please. I just want to make sure you're all right."

Lyssa made the mistake of looking over at him, and made contact with his pleading blue eyes. She couldn't really resist after that, and in short order she was perched on the other bed while the Doctor ran a scanner over her. He eventually announced that after some rest she would be fine, but used the dermal regenerator to heal her bruised knuckles - although she still caught him smirking as he ran the machine over them.

"What about you?" she grumbled, crossing her arms once he was done. She may have given in and let him scan her - again - but that didn't mean she had to be happy about it. "You were shocked right along with us." Her eyes widened. "And that was after whatever it was that Van Statten did to you. You could be worse off than me!"

"Not human, remember?" the Doctor scolded her mildly, tapping her on the forehead. "The shocks were mildly unpleasant, but did no lasting damage. And Van Statten's machine was just a scanner. I'll admit it hurt, but it shouldn't have done any damage either. Was more like an X-ray from the inside. But I'm more worried about you. You're still mostly human, which meant you have a much higher chance of getting hurt from it."

"And I'm more worried about you!" Lyssa retorted, raising her head and meeting his worried gaze with her own. "You don't know what all that scanner did to you, just that it hurt, which meant that there was damage being done!" She lost her spirit and dropped her gaze. "That was my fault, too. I knew it was going to happen, and I didn't do anything. Adam was right. This was all my fault."

She felt more than saw the Doctor step away from her, and hung her head, her heart hurting to think that he must have realized just what she had done, and was stepping away before she could hurt him like she had the others.

And then she was swept up into a tight hug, her head buried in a jumper that smelled like safety, and she unconsciously clung to him tighter.

"Oh, Lyssa. Is that what you were thinking this whole time? That this was all your fault?" he asked sympathetically. "That you were to blame for the actions of selfish, greedy men?"

She stiffened in his arms, then nodded shamefully. "How could it be anything else?" she whispered, tears filling her eyes as she finally let them fall. "Adam saw it, I just didn't want to recognize it. I knew the Dalek would be there in Utah, and I knew that Adam would get a hole in his head, and I knew that Suki was going to die, and I knew that you and Rose were gonna get shocked, and I didn't do anything to stop that! This is all my fault! It's all my fault that Rose is lying there unconscious, and it's all my fault that you got hurt, and you should just leave me alone before I get you hurt worse!"

The Doctor pushed her away from his chest, and she closed her eyes, unwilling to see him walk away from her. Then she felt his hands on her cheeks, and her eyes flew open. His thumbs stroked her cheeks, wiping away the tear stains even as fresh ones fell.

"If you think I'm going to leave you alone just because of some misplaced guilt, you've got a lot to learn about me," he informed her quietly. "You wouldn't leave me alone when I was hurtin', and I'm not about to leave you. You might not believe me when I tell you it's not your fault, but that's all right. I've got all the time in the world to convince you."

"Why?" she whispered, swiping at her nose. "Why does it matter so much to you that I don't blame myself for this? Is this to make up for me helping you back before you found Rose?" For some reason, the thought of that - of him just putting up with her as some way of paying back a debt to her - made her heart twist unpleasantly.

But the Doctor just smiled at her and tapped her on the nose. "Because, fairy-girl. We look out for each other, yes, but it's more than that. You may not have realized it yet, but you're the most important person to me in the world." He smirked. "More than that. In all the worlds."


A/N: Things are finally starting to look up, which hopefully means longer chapters again! (I can't make any promises yet, but I'm hoping!)

And the Doctor is not putting up with any of her Adam-induced guilt (hypocritical much?), which is always a good thing. :)

Special thanks to everyone who's favorited and followed, and shout-out to afionna262, abbynormal315, Fakira, and Snafflefang for reviewing! Your support has honestly been one of the biggest motivators in helping me to continue writing this story this summer, when it seemed like everything was going insane. :D

afionna262: Right? This episode has been insanely long for me, but - we have finally finished it! (Unless Adam makes another appearance at a later date... ;D) Lyssa's not quite ready to admit her feelings for the Doctor quite yet - be ready for some "friend-zoning" - but she's also starting to make the uncomfortable realization of just how big a part of her life he is.(and his words at the end of the chapter aren't helping the butterflies in her stomach go away either) And thank you for your encouraging words! They really have helped so much, and honestly, there were so many times during this summer that reviews like yours were the reason I kept writing. And we finally got a longer chapter! Thanks for reviewing, and I hope you enjoyed! :)

abbynormal315: Hello! You have come amazingly close to the truth - how close, and which one I won't say here just yet- but I can PM you and tell you which one is (most) accurate, and let you choose a sneak peek, if you would like. Great guess. :D (if you prefer not to PM, just comment which sneak peek you would like, and we can work something out from there. Among the options are: the end of this first book, Day of the Doctor, and one of the penultimate plot points. Or you could suggest another thing you'd prefer to see instead, whether as a sneak peek, or in a future chapter. I'm flexible. :D)

Fakira: I'd say it's a mix. Most of this story is coming from the episode, but I'm changing a lot of things around too. No worries. The Doctor himself just hinted pretty heavily at how much he cared for her this chapter, too. :D And Rose is here! (mostly) all right, too! And here's too hoping your knight in shining armor arrives to help you before school starts again! Thank you for your encouraging words, they seriously mean a lot to me. Hope you have an awesome week, and I hope you liked it! :)

Snafflefang: (Can I just say that for some reason, I really like your username? I feel like I recognize it from somewhere, but I don't know where.) Yay! I'm glad you liked it! I'm always thrilled each time I get a message from a new (or old) reader telling me how much they liked my story. It's made me so happy to hear that. Thank you for reviewing, and I hope you liked it! :D

Thanks for reading, and I hope you enjoyed! :)

General Disclaimer: I don't own Doctor Who, just Lyssa.