Author Note: AARGH! I'm late posting...so sorry guys! I've been so busy job hunting I forgot all about Rose, who's life has been hanging in the balance all this time...and the thing is, I still don't know if I'm going to save her yet...after all, I have two endings for this story...and I still can't decide which one to use...but anyway, for the time being...

Enjoy!

"How?" Jack cried as he ran over to Rose.

"I don't know. All I did was remove the chip from her trainer!" the Doctor exclaimed as he gently inserted a tube down Rose's throat and attached it to a rather ancient looking ventilator. With a soft click and a little hiss, the machine started working, and Rose's chest began to rise and fall rhythmically again, even though it was the machine breathing for her.

"Oh, poor Rose!" Jack muttered as he grasped Rose's hand in his own. The Doctor couldn't stand it anymore and marched swiftly from the room. As he closed the door, Jack thought he heard a slight sob.

oOo

The Doctor locked himself in his room, and sat at the end of his bed, his head buried in his hands. What had he done? It was all his fault! He felt something in his pocket, and after wiping away his tears, he pulled out the chip. And then it dawned on him.

He was a part of the TARDIS. If he was hurt, the TARDIS wouldn't work. He guessed the same must have happened with Rose and the trainers. They had tried to mend her when she was hurt, but they weren't powerful enough. However, they had become a part of her, and now that they were broken, so was Rose. He had destroyed the trainer, so it had broken the circuit and caused Rose to slide rapidly downhill. What could he do?

A slight smell distracted him for a moment and he looked up to find the source. It was only a faint smell, and obviously came from another part of the ship, but he knew that smell now.

"BLON!" he realised. She must know an antidote to the poison. She must be able to save Rose, and if it meant that she gained her freedom in the process, so be it. The Doctor was prepared to make that sacrifice. He took the cell key out of his pocket, hesitated as he debated about whether it was the right thing to do, then he set off, leaving the chip on his bed.

oOo

Blon the Slitheen looked up as the Doctor approached her cell. As he opened the door and walked in, closing it behind him, she scooted along on the single bed that the cell provided, making room for him to sit. Up until his arrival, the cell had been dark and full of shadows, but now that he had arrived, it had strangely lit up, light stretching into every corner and shadowed area.

"You're upset," she stated as he went to sit beside her.

"How can you tell?" he asked, although he wasn't really surprised.

"I can smell the fear in you Doctor, just like I could smell the fear in Rose as she slept. That was why I didn't attack her. I was curious to know what could be frightening her so much, even when she slept."

"She's dying. She's dying and it's all my fault. I can't do a thing to help her," The Doctor whispered, once again burying his head in his hands.

"She's been poisoned, hasn't she. By one of my darts?" Blon asked equally as quietly, and her soft tone startled the Doctor.

"Aren't you pleased that you've managed to destroy yet another human life?" he blurted out. He hadn't meant it to sound accusing, and this wasn't the way he had planned to ask for her help, but it had just slipped out.

"Of course I'm not Doctor! She's just a child. I never meant to hurt her. Alright in the past I have wanted to kill her, thats true. But I've changed."

"I know," The Doctor sighed.

There was a long silence, but not an awkward one. Just a silence like two friends wondering what to say next. It was the Doctor who finally broke the silence.

"I shouldn't have put her through it. It was a stupid risk and now its killing her."

"Have you tried any antidotes?" Blon asked thoughtfully.

"I wouldn't know where to begin," the Doctor admitted. 900 years of travel had never taught him how to deal with a situation like this. A tear came to his eye, but he didn't even attempt to hide it as it rolled down his cheek.

"I can help her, Doctor," Blon replied, and the Doctor looked up at her as he wiped the tear from his cheek.

"You would do that?"

"For a price," Blon said with some of her old confidence and slyness.

But this time the Doctor smiled. "I might've known. Alright, name your terms."

"I'll help save Rose if you take me to my family, not my death."

"A life for a life. Is that what you're asking?"

"Yes. Do we have a deal?"

There was another long silence and Blon waited patiently, knowing how difficult it must be for the Doctor to just turn loose a villain he most probably despised more than any other.

"Alright." The Doctor replied at last, after a lot of debating and thinking. "Swear on the blood of your species that you'll help Rose Tyler, and I'll swear on...on Rose's life that if you help her, I will set you free." He didn't want to swear on Rose's life, because aside from the TARDIS, she was the most valuable thing in the world to him, but it gave Blon an incentive to save her. After all, if Rose died, then his promise would become void and wouldn't count.

"Deal," Blon said almost immediately, and she held out her hand with only two claws, the third now just a mess of splinters and green goo.

The Doctor hesitantly put his hand in hers and shook it. Then he looked into her eyes.

"Blon, I might choke before I finish this sentence, but I need you. Help me."

And with that, he got to his feet, strode over, opened the door of her cell and allowed her to follow him back up into the main part of the TARDIS.

oOo

Jack woke in the early hours of the morning to a deathly silence. He squinted in the bright light, stretched and looked around.

There was the Doctor, with Blon Fel Fotch Passamere-Day Slitheen, working together at the table, crushing, chopping and grinding several different ingredients.

He couldn't believe it at first, so he looked over at Rose. She was like an angel, lying there in her pure white silken gown. Any traces of her earlier pain had gone and she now lay perfectly still. Jack noticed the blood purifier unit now sat over to one side, and guessed that it had done it's job. Now Rose was relying on the TARDIS's life support unit to keep her alive.

Her wounds had been dressed with bandages and padding, and Jack couldn't help but feel a little hope as he looked at her. She was a fighter. She always had been...and always would be. She wouldn't let a little thing like this stop her.

He stood up, stretched his aching muscles again and wandered over to the table where Blon and the Doctor were quietly discussing the antidotes.

"There's something missing..." Blon was saying as the Doctor stirred a bowl full of thick green paste. "We need some tree sap...Have you got any?"

"Um...I don't think so," the Doctor thought for a moment.

"Does it matter what kinda tree?" Jack asked and both Blon and the Doctor jumped. Neither had noticed he had joined them.

"Well, not really," Blon replied after she'd recovered.

"Coz Rose has a tree in her room. I seen it the other day," Jack replied and the Doctor's face lit up. "Jabe's cutting that she gave to us in the year 5 billion! I didn't know Rose had kept it! Probably one of the only gifts she did keep!"

"How much do you need?" Jack asked Blon.

"Enough to fill this," she answered, handing him a tiny glass test tube.

"Right, be right back," Jack said as he took the tube and a scalpel and set off for Rose's room. Finally, he was doing something to help Rose. He was so pleased with this thought that he completely forgot to ask why Blon was even out of her cell in the first place.