With chaos whirling all around her, Rose held Calbhach's head, cradled in her lap. The room had become a circus of disarray, and from her vantage point on the floor behind the table, only Rose had seen the shots find a mark in the older man, one in his shoulder, and another in his chest. He had been standing beside her, about to refill her glass with the sweet spicy wine the Dann had found a way to make from the prickly bushes that grew above. A second earlier, the Doctor had been standing between them both, addressing the assembled Dann as he paced around the dais.
Rose looked down at the older man now. Husband to Aisling. His breathing was ragged, but steady. His eyes closed. Recalling her first aid training from summer camp a lifetime ago, Rose pulled her headscarf away, folded it into a tight square. Pressing it firmly to the older man's chest, in hope of staunching the flow of blood that was spreading out from the tiny wound with every laboured breath she forced herself to focus on the task at hand. Unaware of the blood soaking into her own tunic from the wound in his shoulder, she held the pressure steady. In spite of trembling hands, she tried to keep the dying man very still, and did her best not to recall the face of the last man who had died, cradled in her lap in a similar manner.
She had no idea how long she sat like that.
Aisling was crouched beside her now, stroking her husband's cheek with one hand. With the other, she gently lifted Rose's hands away from the wound on his chest. Her face was soft, but her eyes were dry. Another low pitched sound recalled Rose to the here and now. Looking up, she saw the Doctor crouched over the man in front of her. His eyes were focused on his hands, as he held the sonic screwdriver steady. At last, he snapped it off, and lifted his eyes to meet Aisling's.
"He'll live." He said softly, gently cupping the older woman's face. "Keep him out of trouble for a while, though."
"Thank you." She whispered, and then nodded to the two men standing nearby. Gently, they lifted Calbhach onto a coarse, dirt coloured blanket, then carried him out, escorted by Aisling and several of the older women.
Finally, the Doctor turned his attention to Rose. She continued to kneel silently on the floor. Except for the bruising, all the colour had drained out of her face, which remained fixed on the spot where the injured man had been. With all the stresses of the past two days, the injuries from the fall, the lack of sleep and now this, he was less than surprised when the vital signs reading from the sonic screwdriver told him she was on the verge of going into shock. He breathed a small sigh of relief, however, when it also confirmed that the blood that was soaking the front of her garment wasn't her own. He took off his jacket and helped her into it, noting as he did that she was beginning to shiver, likely a combination of shock, and her sunburn from the day traveling in the rifts.
"All right then, Rose?" He said softly, crouching in front of her.
"That man, Calbhach. Aisling's husband…" Rose began.
"Will be fine." The Doctor finished, fiddling with the sonic screwdriver before holding it up in front of her.
"Oh. Good." Rose said, her eyes rolling back as she fell the rest of the way to the floor.
The Doctor snapped the sonic screwdriver off, then pocketed it before anyone else could realize what he'd done. She'd kill him herself if she ever found out. Rose would sleep now, until it was time for them to leave. She would need the rest, he knew for the pace he intended to set for the trip ahead. As if she weighed nothing, he gently gathered her up in his arms, and turned to Broccan to ask where they could go for a few hours, her to rest, and him to plan.
"Doctor!"
Aigon, Lorcan and a handful of other Riftrunners stormed back into the room. Aigon stood before them, hands on his knees, gasping for breath as Bruccan handed him a cup of water and waited for him to report.
"He's gone!" Aigon gasped. "So are the others. About a dozen in all. They had ropes in place and went right up and onto the surface, then cut them before we could follow. Oh Daigh!" He stared in horror at Rose's limp, bloody form in the Doctor's arms.
"I'm sorry." Lorcan said, softly, placing a gentle hand on Rose's face before meeting the Doctor's eyes. "We tried."
"It's alright." The Doctor kept his voice even, not wanting to wake Rose. "She's only sleeping. The blood isn't hers."
"They shot Calbhach." Broccan explained flatly, clearly still stunned that any of the Dann could turn so completely on another. "Thanks to the Doctor and young Rose, he will live. Aisling is with him."
Aigon spoke up. "Even if we ran straight for the nearest stair, by the time we reached this spot on the surface, it would be daylight. We can't afford to send men to their deaths. Wherever he's going, odds are, Tristan will get there before we can stop him now."
"It was me he was shooting at." The Doctor said, stonily.
"It will be light soon, and they can't travel on the surface in daylight." The Doctor turned to Broccan. "I'm sorry, but the time for a vote has passed. We have to assume that Tristan and his followers are up to no good. I'm betting they're heading for the Citadel. Whatever's going on up there, I'll reckon Tristan knows more about it than you thought." He directed his gaze over the crowd. "And that means that whoever's running that Citadel knows plenty about you as well, which will mean that no one is safe here anymore."
Broccan set his jaw, and then turned to speak to the Riftrunners who had assembled around them. "Take all of the women and children home. They must pack, rest while they can, and be ready to travel in the rifts in four hours time. Make for the cliff wall. The rifts are deep near the caves. Get everyone as close to the caverns as you can."
He turned to meet the eyes of the big red haired man who stood closest to him.
"Divide them into three groups. Assign a detail of Riftrunners to each. That way even if one group is discovered before you reach the caverns, all is not lost. Break up the families. We can't afford to lose an entire bloodline in the event that one group is attacked"
Lorcan nodded, then spoke to the other Riftrunners for a moment. At once they began to disperse, herding the confused Dann into family groups, and then dividing them again for travel, ensuring that no one family would be all in the same group, before sending them home to pack what little they would carry.
"I would guess you will want to travel with the advance party, Doctor." Bruccan could see that the Doctor was eager to reach the caverns. "They'll travel very light, and leave sooner, but they should reach the caverns well in advance of the others. The most direct route takes them close to the surface, though. If you like, I can arrange for Rose to travel with Aisling and Calbhach. She'll be well taken care of."
The Doctor shifted her weight in his arms, and looked down at her, exhausted, and finally asleep in his arms. His hearts lurched for a moment, seeing how fragile and how very young she looked, now that there was none of the trademark "Rose" bravado holding her up. He swallowed hard, and pushed all such thoughts aside for now, except to say firmly.
"Rose stays with me."
Broccan knew better than to argue with that look.
"Very well, Doctor. You may as well use Tristan's quarters for what time we have left here. Lorcan will show you the way." The Rift runner stepped forward with a brisk nod to Broccan and gestured for the Doctor to follow before turning on his heel and leaving the hall.
Settled in Tristan's room, having made Rose as comfortable as possible on Tristan's bunk after sending Lorcan on his way, the Doctor made himself busy examining the room. If she asked, later, who had bathed and changed her, trading her blood-soaked summer garment for her own travel worn jeans and tank once more, he would tell her it had been the women. Their current situation left little time for "domestics", but the truth was he had no intention of letting her out of his sight again until they were back in the TARDIS. The image of her on a viewscreen, seconds before he'd believed her murdered by a Dalek was forever etched in his mind. Rushing back to the dais to see her crouching over Calbach and soaked in blood, he felt as though he'd been turned to stone. He'd lost companions before, true, and mourned each of them, but somehow, now, with his entire planet gone, somehow his relationship with Rose was different. He'd never NEEDED a companion before.
He shook his head and set about examining Tristan's room. He was both angered and impressed by the array of technological "bits" found all over the room, though he doubted Tristan had understood the purpose of all of the pieces. Clearly someone else had been guiding him as to what pieces to collect. He hummed quietly to himself as he worked with the sonic screwdriver, fusing beyond repair the weapon that Tristan had almost finished constructing before focusing his energy on the search for the communication device that he knew must be present somewhere.
The communicator was no bigger than the sonic screwdriver, and after ensuring that it was not currently active, he pocketed it, knowing it might come in handy later. He was merely amusing himself, waiting for Rose to wake up when he found the beacon.
This he crushed under his heel immediately, even knowing that it would be too late. Whoever had been hunting the Dann would already know exactly where to find them. He ran out into the hallway and alerted the Riftrunner guarding the corridor to get a message to Broccan and all the other Riftrunners.
Ready or not, they had to leave this place.
Now.
He looked at his watch.
Tristan had been gone for over two hours now, and had been at the gathering for at least two as well. That meant that the beacon had been broadcasting for at least four hours. Plenty of time for an enemy to nail down their location.
"Rose." He spoke gently, not wanting to startle her. He was relieved when her eyes fluttered open even as her hand scrabbled for something to hit him with. He grinned even as he scanned her vital signs using the hand she wasn't watching.
"Up you get then!" He said cheerfully, snapping the sonic screwdriver off again before she could focus enough to notice it, and helping her to sit up, watching for signs of dizziness or shock.
"Sleep all day you would, if I let you." He handed her a canteen.
She frowned and met his eyes, her head still spinning a bit. He reached out to pat her cheek, noting that her colour was returning. Remarkably resilient, these little apes. This one, in particular, always amazed him with her ability to bounce back from seemingly anything.
"Drink up now, and eat this, you'll need your strength" He said softly, handing her the packet of dried fruit and bread he had sent for earlier.
"Savin' the world again then, are we?" She drank quickly, and downed two of the soft sticky morsels from the packet, frowning as she noted that someone had changed her clothes. She arched an eyebrow at the Doctor, who said nothing, but reached around her reclaiming his own jacket as he did so, to fasten a belt around her waist. He picked the knife up off the table and handed it to her, handle first.
"Wossat?" She asked with her mouth full. Feeling almost herself again, she stashed the rest of the little packet into the backpack the Doctor was assembling, then reached out to examine the blade he held.
"Fits the sheath on your belt." He hated weapons. Abhorred them. But even he had to admit that he didn't know for certain that he would be able to protect her from everything. He held her shoulders and forced her to meet his eyes for a second.
"Be ready for anything." His intensity made her frown.
Whatever passed between them in that moment, it was dispelled by the din in the corridor outside their room. The Dann were moving.
"Time to go." He said grimly, shouldering the pack and taking her hand before turning toward the door.
Immediately they were swept up in the tide of moving bodies. The Dann all tolled, numbered only a few hundred. Nevertheless, all of them moving in the same direction through this narrow crevice, they created a current of bodies was a force to be reckoned with. Gradually each group separated itself from the mass as rifts began to branch off in all directions. At last, only a handful of Riftrunners, the Doctor and Rose remained.
Lorcan called a halt and began to assign positions to each runner, setting them up as an escort for The Doctor and Rose, as well as reconnaissance.
"This is it." Aigon came to stand next to them. "The path ahead is almost a straight line to the caverns. It's shallow though. Even the 'Runners don't usually use it during daylight hours." He turned to Rose. "It's going to be a hard and dangerous hike, Rose, and there won't be much time for rest. There are places where the rift will offer very little protection from the surface and the sky. I could send an escort with you to join one of the other parties."
Rose was beginning to discover just how much she resented being treated like a child.
"No thanks." Her chin jutted out just slightly as she picked up one of the discarded packs, and tried not to stumble under its weight as she stormed away.
Aigon eyed the Doctor stonily. "I suppose you think you can take better care of her this time?"
"Oi! It's me looks after him for the record!" The voice like ice from the front of the line let them know that she wasn't yet beyond earshot as the party began to move once more. The Doctor grinned and hurried to join Rose before the young Riftrunner could voice any further objection. Their path continued almost straight ahead, and the slope upward was noticeably steep, bringing them to within only a few metres of the surface in a short time. Already the heat reflecting down from the desert above was beginning to make itself known. Without seeming to look, the Doctor noticed Rose was beginning to struggle under the weight of a pack intended for someone twice her size.
Once Aigon had moved to his position, the Doctor, without breaking stride, he lifted the heavy pack off her back with one hand, and shouldered it, along with his own. Not being from Earth had its advantages. Among said advantages were solid bones as opposed to hollow ones, and considerably greater strength. Both were the result of much time spent on larger worlds with stronger gravity than hers.
"Better?" He asked, not daring to look at her.
"Yep." She kept walking.
.
