Thank you for the follows and favourites, and especially those who took the time to review, it really means a lot to me. I'm actually quite nervous about this chapter because it's the first rewrite! Enjoy:
"Rose I'm bored."
"Yes, Doctor, so you've told me. Multiple times."
"Hospitals are boring aren't they? With the white walls and the sick masses. It's a wonder no one ever dies of sheer boredom in this place."
"Need I remind you that this was your idea?" Rose pointed out as he pouted.
"Yeah, but, you know. Plasma coils. I thought something interesting would've happened by now."
Before she could respond the curtain was swept aside.
"Now then, Mrs Tyler, a very good morning to you. How are you today?" An older man greeted, surrounded by a gaggle of doctors who Rose assumed were students.
"Pretty good, thanks." She answered automatically, not bothering to correct his assumption that she was married to the man beside her. At the Doctor's meaningful look Rose quickly added, "Not the best I've ever been though, being sick and all."
She was certain the Doctor was struggling very hard not to sigh at her terrible cover-up.
"Rose Tyler, admitted yesterday with severe abdominal pains." The man began, and the students hurried to write down his every word. "Jones, why don't you see what you can find? Amaze me."
He turned to the closest student to him, a pretty woman roughly Rose's age, who stepped around the bed and pulled a stethoscope from around her neck. The Doctor got up from his chair and moved back to let the young student examine Rose, but she noticed he kept a careful eye on her.
"That wasn't very clever running around outside was it, you two?"
Unsure what she meant, Rose frowned slightly. "Pardon?"
"In Chancellor Street this morning? You came up to me and told me you liked my jacket." She nodded at the Doctor. "He took his tie off."
Rose said, "Seriously?" at the same time the Doctor asked, "What did I do that for?"
"I don't know," the girl answered, slightly confused. "You just did."
"Can't have been us," Rose told her. "We've been here since yesterday, ask the nurses."
"Well, that's weird," the young doctor frowned. "'Cause it looked like you two. Have you got any siblings?"
Rose stiffened instantly, her thoughts flying to her little brother worlds away. She knew that the best bet to avoid suspicion was to tell the woman she didn't have any siblings, but somehow that felt like a betrayal to Tony.
"I don't," the Doctor quickly interjected to save her from having to grind out an answer through gritted teeth. She gave him a grateful look and he rambled on, "Not anymore. Just me and Rose."
Rose felt her breath catch in her throat at the reminder that she was just as much his family as he was hers. The Doctor was smiling at her, eyes alight with something akin to love. Was it love? Rose told herself to snap out of it – the Doctor didn't love her. At least, not the way she loved him.
"As time passes and I grow evermore infirm and weary, Miss Jones," the elder man reprimanded the trainee doctor.
"Sorry," the girl responded sheepishly. She took out her stethoscope again and muttered a determined, "Right."
Rose almost felt bad knowing that because she wasn't actually sick the student could never get a correct diagnosis.
When the young woman was still silent after the examination, the teacher sighed. "I weep for future generations. Feel free to diagnose the patient anytime before Christmas, Miss Jones."
"Um, I don't know," she admitted with a self-depreciating chuckle before checking with Rose, "There's no chance you're pregnant?"
Rose's cheeks burnt red. She heard the Doctor splutter comically behind doctor Jones and avoided meeting his eye.
"No. I'm really not."
The older man interceded once more. "You rather failed basic techniques by not consulting first with the patient's chart."
As he picked up the document in question, a spark jumped from the metal clip to his hand, and he dropped the chart smartly on the bed.
"That happened to me this morning," doctor Jones said, as Rose and the Doctor exchanged a look.
"I had the same thing on the door handle," a student piped up.
"And me, in the lift," added another.
"Well it's only to be expected," the teacher claimed, and Rose found his know-it-all attitude increasingly annoying. "There's a thunderstorm moving in, and lightning is a form of static electricity as was first proven by – anyone?"
"Benjamin Franklin!" The Doctor called out, smiling over at Rose and looking incredibly pleased with himself. Rose nearly laughed. Of course, the Doctor was more of a know-it-all than this guy would ever be.
"Correct," the man said, almost as though he were impressed, and started to move away.
"My mate Ben. That was a day and a half – I got rope burns of that kite, and then I got soaked."
"Quite." The teacher huffed out a chuckle, clearly unsure what to make of it. Rose could see his growing unease but the Doctor continued, oblivious.
"And then I got electrocuted!"
"Ignore him," Rose directed to the head doctor. "Thinks he's funny."
"You think I'm funny too, admit it."
"You're an embarrassment, that's what you are," she teased. She saw with relief that the older man had dropped his suspicions and was leading the group of students on to the next patient.
The Doctor strolled back to her side and grinned. They both burst into giggles when the group had passed.
"He thinks you're insane!" Rose laughed.
"Who doesn't?" He joked.
The student doctor who had checked Rose glanced back to them curiously and they beamed at her.
The Doctor wandered around the corridors, on the lookout for anything unusual. The plasma coils were getting worse, and the spark they'd seen earlier coupled with the responses it had received were causing him to wonder what exactly was going on.
He passed a window and could see the coils so clearly he was certain that even the humans must be able to see them now, but as he left to find someone to ask the hospital was bathed in a harsh, white light. The entire place shook and he slammed against a wall before tumbling across the corridor floor.
As soon as it stopped he was on his feet.
"ROSE!"
He sprinted down the hall and slammed the elevator button. Hopping from foot to foot impatiently, he rapidly decided the lift wasn't quick enough and forwent it in favour of the stairs.
"ROSE!"
He was almost to her ward when the screaming started. All around him, people were crying and losing their composure.
He nearly had a hearts attack when he rounded the corner and saw Rose's empty bed. Panicking now himself, his hand flew to his hair reflexively as he wondered what he should do.
"Hey now, you're alright."
He'd know Rose's voice anywhere and that was definitely her speaking. He zoned in on where it was coming from to see his best friend crouched by a man who was curled in the corner wailing.
"Rose!" He called rushing over. "Are you okay? Are you hurt?"
"I'm fine, Doctor," Rose said, but the relief her words should have provided was marred by the gash, which was pouring blood, running along her temple.
He cradled her face in his hands and inspected the cut. "Looks nasty," he murmured sympathetically and pulled out his sonic screwdriver, buzzing it over the slash so that it stopped bleeding.
"That's not a permanent fix," he warned her, "We'll have to get it checked as soon as possible." He stood up and peered out the window, trying to determine what had happened. "Oh, now that's interesting. Guess what, Rose Tyler: we're astronauts!"
"Yeah, thanks Doctor, I sort of figured that out a while back."
"No, I mean we're astronauts by 2008 human standards; we're on the moon!"
"I can't believe we left the TARDIS on the street," she groaned as the pair of them helped the distressed man (who was by now presumably doubting his sanity) back to his bed.
"I saw plasma coils, I got excited," the Doctor defended.
"I shouldn't have made you stay the night though, you could've gone back to get her."
"Rose, it's fine. I'll get us out. I promise you."
She gave him a smile that caused his hearts to pound double-time. "I never doubt that, Doctor. I trust you. It just would've made things a whole lot simpler to have the TARDIS here."
"Well I hate to be the one to break this to you, but I'm not so good at simple solutions," he joked, hoping to get her laughing again.
It worked, and she added in fake shock. "You're not? I must've missed the memo."
"Alright now everyone, back to bed. We've had an emergency but we'll sort it out. Don't worry." The young doctor who had seen to Rose earlier walked into the room, sounding confident and in control as she gave orders. Not an easy thing to manage when you've just been transported to the moon with hundreds of other people and no explanation. The Doctor quickly pulled Rose back to their section, drawing the curtains and turning his back so she could get dressed into her normal clothes.
The student doctor was talking again, this time in disbelief. "It's real. It's really real! Hold on – "
Presumably, she moved towards the window because the Doctor heard her friend cry out in near hysterics, "Don't! We'll lose all the air."
"But… they're not exactly air-tight. If the air was going to get sucked out it would've happened straight away, but it didn't. So how come?"
Impressed by her logic, the Doctor gave Rose a cursory glance to see if she was dressed and when she gave him the thumbs up he swept the curtain aside.
"Very good point. Brilliant, in fact. What was your name?"
"Martha."
"And it was…"
"Jones," Rose supplied, and Martha nodded before doing a double take.
"Whoa, that cut on your forehead looks bad. Do you need me to take a look at it?"
"Thank you, that'd be great. Later though, once this mess is sorted," Rose said gratefully.
Now the Doctor really needed to know what was happening. The sooner they figured out what was going on the sooner they could save everyone and fix Rose up.
"Well then, Martha Jones, the question is, how are we still breathing?"
"But we can't be!" The medical student beside Martha sobbed.
"But obviously we are, so don't waste my time," he dismissed her.
"Doctor!" Rose admonished immediately, moving to put an arm around the girl. "My name's Rose. What's yours?" She asked the woman in a soft voice.
"Julia Swales," she sniffed.
"You'll be alright, Julia." Rose promised her. "My friend can be pretty insensitive but he knows what he's doing, okay? We'll get you out. You concentrate on helping your patients, and we'll help you."
Realising he'd been a bit harsh with the girl, the Doctor repented, although he soon moved on to the more pressing matter. "I'm sorry I snapped, Julia. Martha what have we got? Is there a balcony on this floor, or a veranda, or –?"
"By the patient's lounge, yeah," she replied.
He turned, indicating to Rose with a jerk of his head that they should go. He liked Martha Jones though, she seemed smart and good in a crisis, so he made a spur-of-the-moment decision to see if she could keep up with them.
"Fancy going out?"
"Okay," she breathed.
"We might die," he warned, ignoring Rose's teasing grin at his dramatic declaration.
"We might not."
He paused, pleasantly surprised. "Good. Come on."
On seeing the girl still next to Rose he added as kindly as he could, "I think it's best if you stay here, Julia."
He grabbed Rose's hand as he passed, and the three of them made their way to the patient's lounge. Martha was the one to push the doors open and they all stepped out slowly.
"We've got air," she whispered, awestruck. "How does that work?"
"Extended air space like outside the TARDIS?" Rose asked him quietly, and he lifted his chin to scratch his neck as he thought it through.
"Could be, yeah. Let's just be glad whatever it is, is working."
They all walked up to the edge of the balcony, and stared out in awed silence.
"I've got a party tonight," Martha whispered, sounding as if she couldn't believe this was happening. "It's my brother's 21st. My mother's going to be really… really…"
"You okay?" The Doctor asked, worried that it might all be a bit much. Rose moved over to stand on her other side, ready to offer comfort if Martha needed.
"Yeah," the junior doctor said, a little too fast.
"Sure?"
"Yeah," she repeated, but she was shaking her head slightly.
"Want to go back in?" He offered, and got a much more definite answer.
"No way! I mean, we could die any minute, but all the same… it's beautiful."
He looked over at Rose, who was staring out at the surface of the moon, absolutely enraptured.
"Yeah, really is." He swallowed, knowing full well he was no longer talking about the location.
"How many people want to go to the moon? And here we are!"
He watched Rose's face light up at Martha's words and felt his own smile spread across his lips at her joy.
"Standing in the Earthlight, yeah Doctor?" Rose asked, finally glancing his way and blushing slightly when she realised he was already looking at her.
A little embarrassed that she'd caught him staring, but not enough to regret doing it and making her blush, his eyes darted away.
"What do you two think happened?" Martha asked seriously, snapping the Doctor's attention back to the situation at hand.
He decided to test her once again. "What do you think?"
"Extraterrestrial," she said with an air of confidentiality. "It's got to be. I dunno, a few years ago that would have sounded mad, but these days? That spaceship flying into Big Ben, Christmas, those Cybermen things… I had a cousin, Adeola. She worked at Canary Wharf. She never came home."
"I'm sorry," he said sincerely. He noticed that Rose's jaw was clenched tight at the mention and wished she were next to him so he could comfort her.
"We were there, in the battle it was… I lost my family," the Doctor whispered.
Rose jerked her head up to meet his gaze and he hoped he was conveying how he felt. She was his family, and she had been even before they'd only had each other. He'd been lost without her. With a sad smile, Rose moved back to his side and he immediately reached for her hand.
Martha took a deep breath. "I promise you, Mr and Mrs Tyler, we will find a way out. If we can travel to the moon then we can travel back. There's got to be a way."
"It's not Tyler. That's not my real name." He dragged Rose across the balcony as he talked, looking for anything unusual.
"Who are you both, then?"
"Well, I really am Rose Tyler," Rose reassured the medical student.
"And I'm the Doctor."
Martha snorted a laugh. "Me too if I ever pass my exams. What is then, Doctor Tyler?"
"We're not married," Rose corrected, a little too quickly for the Doctor's liking.
Did she not want to marry him? Why not? He was being ridiculous. They weren't even together, for goodness sake!
"You're kidding me? The two of you aren't married?"
Ignoring the urge to figure out exactly what that was supposed to mean and trying to derail the conversation as soon as possibly, he confirmed, "It's just 'the Doctor'."
"How do you mean 'just the Doctor'?"
"Just… the Doctor."
"Honestly, that's what he's called," Rose put in. "Everyone just goes with it."
"Well, I won't. As far as I'm concerned you've got to earn that title."
Rose paused then gave a small nod, and the Doctor knew her well enough to see that she respected the girl.
"Right, I'd better make a start then," he announced. "Let's have a look."
He bent down to pick up a small rock and threw it as far as he could. It flew a few metres before hitting something and causing a silver ripple to spread out through the air from the impact.
"You were right, Rose. A sort of force field keeping the air in."
"But if that's like a bubble sealing us in… that means this is the only air we've got," Martha realised. "What happens when it runs out?"
"How many people in this hospital?" He asked.
"Dunno. A thousand?" She guessed.
"One thousand people," he muttered quietly. "Suffocating."
"That's horrible!" Rose cried, and he squeezed her hand.
"Why would anyone do that?" Martha wondered indignantly.
There was a far off boom and a rumble as three large spaceships appeared above them.
"Heads up! Ask them yourself."
A line of dark figures emerged from the ships, heading for the hospital.
"Aliens. That's aliens! Real, proper aliens!" Martha exclaimed.
"She's in for a bit of shock when she finds out about you," Rose muttered under her breath, nudging the Doctor with her arm. But he'd seen who had just landed and was in no mood for jokes – hyper-aware as he was of how much danger they were in. Especially Rose, who'd already lost a fair bit of blood.
"Judoon," he revealed ominously. "Come on."
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