The creatures that had lassoed him like he was common cattle were small, and fury, and fidgety looking things, nothing to be scared of, until you noticed the nasty great canines hanging over their bottom lips and the 4 inch claws that could only be described as Freddy Crueger like in appearance, and they had the obvious advantage of having a very thick, strong looking piece of rope attached to his throat.

It took them what seemed like an eternity to speak, and when they did its was in clipped and hushed tones, whispering to each other, what little he caught he couldn't make much sense of just the one line caught his attention,

"She said he could help fix her, doesn't look like anything special to me"

Fix her? FIX HER, whats wrong with her, they better not be talkin about Rose, what have they done to her, where is she.

"Fix who, who do I need to fix, you wouldn't happen to be talkin bout a blonde girl, five foot nothing, cute as a button always getting into trouble?"

"Listen here Time Lord"

"How do ya know Im a Time Lord, look mate, Im sure we can work this out, just whatever your gonna do, get on with it already, I've got a damsel in distress to rescue"

"We have your friend, and she's hurt, we found her in one of the back alleys, she was bleeding..

The Dr's face went stark white, as if all the blood had drained from it, bleeding, she's bleeding, what has that stupid little twit gotten herself into now, his anger wasn't directed at her, just he felt helpless, he'd brought her here, to this place, and she'd gone and gotten herself hurt, and now he might lose her and it was all his fault, he'd already killed her once, he couldn't take it if he did it again, he needed to find her and quick.

"Im the Doctor, will you take me to her, please, I wont struggle, just I..I need to get to her"

"All right Doctor, we'll take you to her, she was fading when we left her, we don't have the technology to fix your little human friend, we only know how to help our kind, that's why she sent us to find you, she said you had a , oh what was it, sonic screwdriver thingy, and that your smart as hell, but we apparently weren't supposed to tell you that, something about being to full of it already"

That made him smile at least, if she was awake enough to be cracking jokes about his ego then surely she was going to be okay.

"We are the Lotharians, follow us"

They untied the noose from around his throat and led him off behind one of the buildings to what looked like a drain cover they jumped down into the narrow entrance way and he followed suit, they'd been walking for what seemed like hours when finally they came to a door in the side of the tunnel, one of them tapped on a metal panel next to the door and what looked like an eye-dent scan ran across his face, the door swung inwards and inside was a vast room, barely furnished with a few bits of old machinery and tech stuff strewn about the place. He followed them into another hallway and down to a kind of makeshift infirmary, the scent of disinfectant and surgical spirit assaulted his nostrils, made his eyes water slightly, but he wasn't paying any attention to that, the sight of his travelling companion curled up in the fetal position on a gurney in the corner of the room took his breath away. She looked so small, so helpless and she was in pain, he could see her shaking, her arms were covered in gooseflesh and she was in a cold sweat.

He broke away from his captors and ran to her side, he sank down next to her on the bed, he could feel tears start to prick at the corners of his eyes, she looked so small, so scared and so alone, but she wasn't alone anymore, he was here and he was going to help her, save her, after all that's what he did, swooped in and saved her at the last minute. He brushed a strand of hair out of her eyes and stroked her cheek, the tears were falling now, quietly, and with no fuss, but falling none the less, every second he looked into her pale sweat covered face he could feel himself becoming more and more frantic, his hearts were beating so fast he thought he might pass out, all he wanted to do was wrap her up and love her.

Love her, where the hell did that come from

He didn't have time to think about that now, he had to do something, but her innert form was paralysing him from taking any action, Love her, love? maybe, he knew how much he cared for her, but love, was it love that he felt, love that made him take her hand in his, love that got him into trouble every time she asked to do something and he knew he should say no, love that made him sit at her bedside and weep.

A single tear fell from the end of his nose and landed on here lips, she started to stir, open her eyes, they lit on his face and recognition flooded her senses, the Dr, he was here, he'd come for her, she knew he would, didn't make the pain in her gut any less though, as if by thought alone she doubled up in pain and tried to curl into an even tighter ball on the small gurney, maybe if she made herself too small to see the pain would go away, whatever this was would leave her in peace, she'd be able to sleep properly at last.

"Doctor"

"Im here Rose, stay with me, Im so sorry, I didn't mean for this to happen, I was sposed to keep you safe"

"S'not your fault, should have called to you when they took me"

"Who was it, Rose, I need to know who it was, what happened"

The light was fading from her eyes, she was even paler now, and she couldn't stop shaking, he had to do something, in the words of the Dalek the woman he loved was dieing and he felt powerless to stop it, loved, yes loved, with that realization hitting him full in the chest he shot into action.

"Stay with me Rose, Im going to help you just let me look at you, please Rose let me help"

"But it hurts Doctor, it really hurts"

She was covering her stomach with her hands, blood seeping through staining the sheet around her, the doctor prized her hands away and took in an involuntary breath, where her belly should have been was a gaping wound, her flesh was singed around the opening and he could see her intestines. He could fix this, fix her if only he had the right equipment, he shot off the bed and started banging around in all the old tech stuff, there had to be something here, anything he could use.

"AHHA"