Chapter 15

Jack and Rose left the station and got a taxi to Gordan Road where the TARDIS was. Jack set the sports bag down gently with his good arm and winced as he moved the bad one. Rose opened her mouth, about to speak but he cut her off. "No." he said firmly.

"Well, if you won't go to the hospital at least let me have a go with the Screwdriver."

He sighed. "If I let you, you'll stop nagging me, right?"

"Yep." She nodded.

"Okay then." He rolled up his sleeve and looked away.

"Aw, be a brave boy, Jack." She teased.

"Rose, you're sounding like my mother." That shut her up. She ran the screwdriver up and down the wound, holding the button down. Slowly the blood cleared and the wound mended. "All done," she said. "We should try to go now, shouldn't we? Go save the Doctor from the reached of the Time Lords."

"Yeah. Let's just hope, he in his mysterious ways didn't program the TARDIS so it couldn't go back for him." He set the year on the panel to 200,101. Rose's anxiousness suddenly turned to excitement when the engines started. But then they started struggling and making a cranking noise. "Oh no!" Jack cried. "No, no, no!"

"What's happening?" Rose asked quickly.

"The TARDIS is only half-way through dematerialising. If we stop only half done, we're in trouble." He ran to his tool box, still out from earlier and grabbed some tools at random and worked with amazing speed.

They waited with bated breath when he finished as the TARDIS engines continued smoothly once more. "Lucky," Jack breathed. Suddenly the TARDIS jerked and he and Rose were thrown to the floor into the railing. "What the hell?"

The engines stopped. "I think… are we here?" Rose asked.

"I don't know," he replied. Something's wrong and I've no idea how to fix it. Maybe the Doc will know. In the meantime…" he got up and opened the doors. He nodded and looked back to her. "Floor 495."

Rose followed him and they stepped out. 495 was stamped on the wall in huge figures. The place was deserted. "I'm pretty sure I've been here already. He must have been transported after I left which wasn't long ago. A few days maybe." Jack said.

They shut the door behind them and moved over to the lift. Rose got the screwdriver out and moved it over the lift controls. It beeped showing them it had reactivated. She smiled as the doors opened. "After you." She said to Jack.

The lift doors shut and Rose pressed the up arrow to five times to get to floor 500 where the Doctor was.

The Doctor came to, slowly to the sound of lift doors opening. He raised his head from the floor and sat up slowly. "Doctor!" came Rose's voice. He must be imagining it. Being transported then using telepathy across Time and Space, that's enough to scramble anyone's head. But no, he couldn't be imagining it; he was being pulled to his feet by Rose and Jack. He swayed, and Rose rapped her arms around him in a hug. "I thought we'd never see you again!" she said. He smiled and took her arms off of him. "We have to go," Jack said. "If the Time Lords are coming here."

The Doctor shook his head. "I've broken too many laws already. I have to pay the consequences."

"But you can't -" Rose said. He saw tears starting to fall.

"I have to. We can never be."

"This isn't you talking, Doctor. The Doctor I know wouldn't talk like this. He'd fight."

"But I'm not him! He's gone now. I'm back, the old Doctor, the one you fell in love with. And do you know what else? You're the first and only person I've ever loved. But things change."

"How?"

"You have to go back to earth. Forget me. The other Time Lords are coming, they'll have detected the TARDISs arrival, I don't want you hurt because of me -"

"I won't! But please come with us!" she looked at Jack for support.

"We need you. The entire planet needs you, we can't do this alone!"

There was a cough from behind them and the trio turned towards the lift. Nine Time Lords semi circled around them. "He comes with us." One of them said.

"NO!" Rose yelled as the Doctor moved slowly towards them, head bowed, avoiding his friends' eyes. He held his wrists out to one of them and the Time Lord summoned strange red glowing handcuffs which bound around them. "Doctor, don't go! Don't leave us. Please." She whispered the last word. Tears were rolling fast down her cheeks. "It's not fair." She choked.

"It's got to be done." The Doctor said. "I'm sorry. Forgive me."

"I love you." Rose told him. The Doctor looked up into her eyes at last and smiled. "I love you too. Since the day I met you." He turned to the what seemed to be Head Time Lord of the group. "Make me human." He said to him.

"What?" the Chief exclaimed. "That's not impossible. You are a Time Lord. You have been sentenced. However, I can see you care very much about the humans. Therefore, it's my decision that you will remain in the service of us, but continue your travels alone, forbidding you to make contact again with the humans. We will tolerate you one last journey."

"Why?" The Doctor asked.

"There is a battle to be fought in the year 2006."

The Doctor paused before replying and then said, "Ok." The Chief got rid of the handcuffs and the Doctor held out his hand to Rose. She took it and he led her back to the TARDIS.

When Jack had locked the door behind them, Rose said, "What are you gonna do? What's the situation with us? Will we ever be together?"

"I want to show you something," the Doctor said, looking into her eyes. "Something important."

"What?" she asked.