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Chapter Five
"Rose, whatever they tell you is a lie. Don't trust them. I'll come back to you as soon as I find you."
The hologram of the Doctor fizzled out, and he was gone.
Rose was confused.
For a multitude of reasons.
What was going on? If the Doctor was here, even if it was a hologram, then why was he telling her that where she was wasn't real? If that was the case, then why was Doctor Sanchez insistent that the Doctor didn't exist?
Her head started to ache, and she covered her face in her hands.
"Rose?"
An unfamiliar voice called her name, causing Rose to look up. It was one of the orderlies in blue scrubs, her light brown hair was tied up into an elegant knot and she had a kindly face.
"Are you alright?"
"Um, yes, I think so. I don't know."
"Would you like to go back to your room?" The woman suggested, clearly concerned about the younger woman's behaviour. Unsure as to what else to do, Rose nodded. "My name is Joan by the way, Joan Redfern."
"Nice to meet you. You obviously know who I am."
"Oh yes, it's just nice to see you up and about rather than lying in a bed. We were so worried about you when we learnt that you'd been brought back in a coma." Joan glanced behind them at the table where Rose had previously been sitting. "Don't forget your picture." She waited for Rose to collect it, and for her to start following. "The man in your picture, is he a friend?"
"Yea', he's my best friend." As nice as Joan was being, Rose decided to be careful with her choice of words. For all she knew, Joan could converse with her colleagues about what Rose had been telling her. "We travel together."
"How lovely! My husband and I always dreamed of travelling together, but he passed away several years ago before we got the chance too."
"I'm sorry."
"Don't be, I've learnt to live without him. I'll miss him terribly, but this job gives me a purpose to help others in need."
The two fell into a comfortable silence as they walked down several corridors, occasionally turning left and right. The corridors were bare, and were painted an off, dull white. Some of the walls had pinboards on with self-help leaflets and advertisements for groups that the residents could attend during the week.
Everything felt so real, but why was the Doctor telling her otherwise. Rose didn't know who to believe. The two women continued further down the corridors, and when Joan turned left, there appeared to be commotion. In the room two doors down on the right, there was shouting and arguing.
"Wait there a moment." Joan instructed Rose, indicating the wall as she went to inspect the situation.
"Get off me! Stay away! I'm not coming with you, NO!"
Rose stayed back against the wall, alarmed as Joan scurried out from the room, holding a protective arm against the younger woman. They stepped back just in time, as two orderlies carried another patient out of the room in a strait jacket and tied to a gurney.
"Please don't take me to the lab! I promise I'll be good! I don't need more medication! No, no, PLEASE!" The young man's cries and pleas echoed down the corridor until he disappeared out of sight.
Rose was visibly shaking after witnessing the eerie sight and wasn't quite ready to leave her safety from the side of the wall.
"Rose, he'll be alright." Joan reassured her, placing a comforting hand on her arm. "He's gone to get some medical attention; Samuel hasn't been well for quite a while."
Rose nodded, and continued to follow Joan to her room, occasionally looking over her shoulder.
Joan eventually stopped along a corridor and opened one of the doors and encouraged Rose to follow her. "Here we go."
Rose stepped into the room and studied her new surroundings. To her left there was what looked like a fairly comfortable bed, with a blue and white striped duvet. There was a window that overlooked the courtyard below, where there were some patients going for a walk or exercising with the orderlies. On her right there was a door in the corner, presumably leading to an ensuite, and along the same wall there was a desk and a chair, and a bookshelf lined with a few books. Next to the bed itself was a bedside table and a lamp resting on top.
"Is there anything I can get you?" Joan asked, having observed Rose's actions from the doorway.
"It could do with a bit more colour in here." Rose murmured to herself. "Could you maybe get some paper, plain and a notebook, some colouring pencils or any art supplies you can find?"
"I can't promise anything, but I'll see what I can do." Joan responded with a smile. "Why don't you have a nap? I'll be back soon with your medication anyhow."
Rose nodded in agreement, the emotions and adrenaline of the day mentally and physically draining her. A nap did sound good right now, and so she settled down on the bed and tried to get comfortable on her side, trying to ignore her ID name tag on her wrist.
This world she was in wasn't real, she had to remember that it wasn't real. Rose could feel her eyelids beginning to droop. It wasn't real. It wasn't real.
It wasn't …
Rose and the Doctor were running hand in hand, laughing from pure adrenaline as they made their escape from a horde of angry prison guards that looked like a cross between a rhino and elephants. And they were carrying spears that shot out laser bolts aimed to stun its victims.
Oh, and it was pouring down with rain, occasionally crashes of thunder and lightning could be heard getting frighteningly closer. But this was the life with the Doctor. Unpredictable and mad. For one moment they are arrested for a crime that they didn't commit, and then after a bizarre prison escape, it usually ended in a scenario much like what was occurring.
"Come on!" The Doctor yelled at her above all of the noise. "We're nearly there!"
Rose considered herself to be fairly fit and healthy, especially with all of the running they did, but right now she was experiencing quite the painful stitch in her side.
But she couldn't stop, otherwise she'd be tortured or killed. And she didn't particularly want to experience either of those. A sense of relief overwhelmed her when the TARDIS loomed ever closer into their line of vision, and through adrenaline, Rose urged her body to push itself forwards.
The Doctor fumbled in his coat pocket for his key and yelled with delight when he plucked it out. He slammed himself against the wooden door and shoved the key into the lock and turning it, ushering them both in as the shouts and cries from the army behind them got closer.
"Get in, get in, get in!"
Rose quickly shut the door behind her, narrowly missing a laser bolt as it impacted on the other side of the door. She held onto the ramp for a moment, pressing a hand to her aching side as she doubled over, exhausted, sweating and soaking wet.
"Must every … place we go to … end in us running … for our lives?" Rose gasped, too tired to move as the Doctor danced around the console, taking them back into the time vortex.
"But that's part of the fun, isn't it?" The Doctor said, slightly perturbed by Rose's lack of enthusiasm. "You know, we go somewhere to find adventure, we find it, get captured and run for our lives at the end. The good old team, Shiver and Shake, Mutt and Jeff. The stuff of legends."
"All I'm saying is, is tha' it'd be nice to have a relaxing day for once. Perhaps a spa day or even a day on a beach with topless butlers who have a really good arse."
The Doctor chose – probably wise - not to respond to her choice of words to describe the imaginary butler. They were both distracted however, when the cloister bell started to toll. "Oh no, oh no, oh no, no, no. Not good, not good, not good!" He started dashing around the console room, pressing buttons here and there.
Rose shrieked as the console sparked angry fiery sparks throughout the room. To her knowledge, this had never happened whilst she'd been on board. "Wha' is it? Wha's happenin'?"
"Just stay there for a moment, I need to work out what's going on!" The Doctor shouted, angrily bashing the console screen.
Thick black smoke started to envelope the console room, and it became so thick it started to obscure Rose's view. She got down low, remembering what she was taught in school, and covered her mouth with her arm as she started to cough.
"Doctor, where are you?" Rose called fearfully, unable to see the Doctor at all. She could hear him, but her line of vision had gone as black as the smoke. "I can't see you!"
"Rose, whatever happens, I'll find you!" The Doctor's voice called above the smoke, although it sounded static and fuzzy. "Wherever they take you, I'll find you! I need you to be strong, and brave. You need to remember the truth! Whatever they tell you, it's a lie! Everything is a lie!"
Rose jolted awake, and she was back in her room in the hospital, laying on the bed. Her head was really beginning to hurt. She tilted her head and nearly jumped out of her skin.
She wasn't alone in the room.
There was a woman sat on the chair by the desk, watching Rose curiously. Her hair was dark, wild and curly. She wore a dark, blue and black Victorian style dress and knee-high leather boots.
"Hello, Rose Tyler."
"Who are you?" Rose slowly sat up, pressing her back against the wall. "How do you know my name?"
"Do not fear me, child. I have been sent here to protect you. The world you are currently experiencing is not real."
"Wha' does tha' even mean? Who sent you here?"
"Surely you must know who I am?" The woman was upset at not being recognised. "I believe he told you that I am a sentient being, did he not?"
Rose gasped, the realisation hitting her. It couldn't be … "You're the TARDIS?! But - how?"
"It does not matter how; time is of the essence." The woman - the TARDIS - proclaimed. "The Doctor is on his way to find you, but he has sent me as a form of protection until he arrives. Nobody in this world can see me, apart from you, so be cautious. Do not alert these people to my presence, otherwise I can no longer protect you."
Rose nodded, trying to convince herself that what she was seeing was real. This was getting crazier. "Righ', so now I can see the TARDIS, but only I can see it. The Doctor is real, an' this world I'm in is not." She then shook her head. "Maybe I really am halluncinating."