Jackie tried desperately to stem her daughter's bleeding, despite Mickey's pleading that they return to the TARDIS and do as the Doctor said. Jackie's arms were stained to her elbows, desperately trying to hold Rose's wounded flesh together but failing, the cuts deep and penetrating. Blood pumped out rhythmically onto the cold stone floor and as Jackie stemmed one flow another would break loose. Rose's eyes stared skywards, tears streaking her face but she uttered no sound, showed no recognition but still she breathed, each breath ragged but comforting. The streets surrounding the house were deserted and no-one came to their aide. Mickey began helping Jackie as best he could, swallowing down the vomit in the back of his throat at the mutilation before him.
He heard a door open and turned, prepared to pick up Rose and run for all he was worth but he soon found himself running towards the sound, catching the Doctor before he fell, his body and face bearing claw marks and his body shaking with exhaustion.
"Why are you still here?" growled the Doctor, recovering himself and dragging himself to his feet, "I told you to get back to the TARDIS."
"She's too badly hurt," said Mickey helping him over to Rose, "Can you help her?"
The Doctor turned his face away from the body before him, "Not here, we need to get to the TARDIS, I can help her there," he said before laying a hand on Rose's forehead, muttering in some unknown language, "Susan?"
Rose's eyes fluttered but both Jackie and Mickey knew it was not Rose glancing up at them. Her lips moved but no sound came out. She let out a sob, reaching her hand up to the Doctor's cheek.
"She doesn't have long," said Rose softly, her voice much softer and without her normal accent, "I can't keep her alive for long. A few hours if that. The things they have done to her Grandfather, how she bore it I do not know. I was useless to her, put her in danger."
"Hush, my dear, don't speak. You tried," said the Doctor, turning his face into the delicate touch, "Oh my Susan I don't know how you did it but you are so brave. Help me now, give her all the strength you can. Talk to her. I will take her home."
"The Hatrevic?"
"They have fled for now but I will deal with them soon. Save your strength, pull the connection back and just keep her alive," said the Doctor, lifting Rose's body into his arms and then placing her on the back of one of the horses Jackie had released, climbing up behind her to steady her. Mickey and Jackie did the same, silent and frightened, onto the other horse. The Doctor took both sets of reigns and clicked them onwards as fast as he could safely go. Clutching to the form in front of him with his free hand. The time for answers would come later, as would the time for vengeance.
Susan had taken on a proper form in Rose's mind and Rose herself found she had physical form as she sat down in a small grassy field, looking out over one of Gallifrey's great cities. She regarded her companion, the girl was slight, short black hair and entrancing eyes. She poured a strange purple liquid into a glass and handed it to Rose who took it and drank it gratefully, feeling her numb muscles begin to warm.
"How are you doing this?" asked Rose, taking another sip from the concoction, "Where are we?"
"Inside a memory from the TARDIS," said Susan, "Your body is badly injured, my Grandfather will heal you as best he can but for now I will keep you safe here."
"On Gallifrey?"
"What was Gallifrey, it doesn't exist anymore. I don't know exactly what happened, I don't remember dying. Just the other day this feeling and then I could see you. Something to do with the necklace. When you were in trouble I tried to help but I caused more trouble than I was worth."
"Don't say that," said Rose taking her hand and feeling a familiar cool touch. She smiled down at their entwined fingers, "So like the Doctor."
"He has changed a lot since I knew him," said Susan, "He is different than anything I have known before but he is still good, still a rebel."
"He is that," said Rose, "Will you tell me about him Susan? He is so quiet when it comes to himself, all I know is what he shows me."
Susan smiled and glanced into the distance, "Where to begin in a life such as his," she said to the breeze, "It would take so long."
"Well I don't think I'm going anywhere," said Rose laying back in the grass, "So why don't you start at the beginning.?"
Susan lay down beside her, staring at the clouds moving above them. Rose felt herself drifting as the story began, taken on a whirlwind adventure that made her's seem a walk in the park.
The Doctor ran the dermo-regenerator over Rose's cheek, re-fusing the broken bone and reducing as much of the swelling as possible. Most of her injuries had been stitched and healed but it was the blood loss that still threatened her life. A match from Jackie had allowed him enough to stabilise Rose's condition for her treatment but she was still critical. The TARDIS hummed around them, struggling now and then due to her lack of power but sustaining for the sake of her passengers. They could not succeed in a time jump so the Doctor had reverted most of the main power to the med-suite, rendering the TARDIS useless for travel for at least another fortnight. For once though the prospect was not met by protest from Mickey and Jackie, but grateful silence as the Doctor tried to save Rose.
Jackie stroked back her daughter's hair as the Doctor fixed a couple of butterfly stitches to the cut on her brow, before pulling back and sitting down in the chair opposite. Mickey had disappeared to wash blood from himself, but the Doctor knew that the boy was afraid to be in the room at the time. He didn't blame him, given the choice the Doctor would have run screaming as well but Rose's welfare came above his own.
"Will she make it Doctor?" asked Jackie softly, not taking her eyes from Rose's face.
"I don't know. Susan will keep her safe for a while, allow Rose's body to recover but she won't be able to give her long," said the Doctor.
"How is she doing it? How can there be two people in Rose's head?"
"I honestly don't know. All I know is that Susan must have got through the vortex somehow, latched on to Rose and tried to help her. Only problem is the Hatrevic picked up on the Gallifreyan energies in Rose and sought to take her for their own means. I have seen that ritual only once before, many hundreds of years ago. To the Hatrevic a Time Lord's blood is like the key to immortality, it took my people all their strength to defeat them and push them back to their own realm this first time it happened," said the Doctor getting up and standing over Rose before pressing a kiss to her forehead, "You have to wake up for me angel."
"She will," said Jackie, "She loves you too much to give up."
The Doctor opened his mouth to speak but Jackie cut him off.
"You don't have to deny it Doctor. I'm her mother, I knew from the second I saw you both yesterday morning. A change in her face and in yours. She has never smiled like that before," said Jackie, "I can't believe it was only twenty four hours ago."
"It feels like a life time even to me," said the Doctor, sitting back down, not quite able to meet Jackie's gaze, "Are you sure you're ok with this?"
"You saved her life Doctor," said Jackie, "And you make her happy. I miss her when you're away but I know she's looked after, especially now. Thank you."
The Doctor took the hand she offered and gave it a quick squeeze before turning back to his patient, "I'll call Susan forward, check how Rose is. I will have to let her leave soon, pray Rose can survive on her own."
A voice echoed over the breeze like a long forgotten memory. Susan sat up and glanced down at the sleeping form next to her. Rose had fallen asleep half way through Susan's story and she had not wished to wake her. Her mind was healing as much as her body and it had allowed Susan to relax the fantasy she had created. She felt herself fading fast and wanted to give Rose as long as possible, despite the cost. Pushing through the mental sanctuary she had created she found herself staring once again through Rose's eyes up into those of her Grandfather's. The TARDIS hummed softly around her and she already felt the healing of Rose's body.
"You called for me?" she said through Rose's lips, watching the concealed horror on Rose's mother's face, "I'm sorry I must shock you."
"No, no," said Jackie, her voice strained, "I'm Jackie."
"I know," said Susan softly, "Rose told me. What do you need Grandfather?"
"How long can you give me?" said the Doctor, "How are you doing this?"
"I don't know is the answer to both. I'm failing, I can feel it but I will try for as long as you need. Her body is healing well though, not as much pain but…"
"But what Susan?"
"You've missed something. They hurt her, on the bridge. They were seeking her blood, ravenous creatures. I couldn't stop them," wept Susan.
"Hush, child, its alright, tell me where," said the Doctor.
Susan turned her gaze away and ran a hand across Rose's hips, "They wanted her very essence," she murmured.
The Doctor paled and moved down Rose's body, pulling up her light covering to reveal the deep gash marks that he had missed on her thighs, leading up to her centre. He closed his eyes and stepped away from the table, "Not there."
Jackie looked fit to faint but instead moved beside the Doctor, "They're claw marks, claw marks inside her. They…oh good God! My baby girl. Can you fix it Doctor?"
The Doctor nodded unable to find any words, he glanced back to Rose's face, "Go back to her Susan. If she remembers what happened, you know what to ask her."
Susan nodded and Rose's eyes once again became blank and staring.
"They wanted her blood, her purest, fullest blood and they violated her," said the Doctor, "I can heal the physical scars but there is only one way to heal the mental scars."
"What's that?" said Jackie, "If there is any way then you have to do it. I don't want her to remember that."
"Rose has to forget," said the Doctor, "I have sent Susan to allow her to choose. Susan can turn back time if you will, make Rose forget, completely wipe her memory of the whole event, she'll never know but…"
"But what?"
"Susan will have to go further than our landing in Whitechapel. She will have to make Rose forget everything since we entered the chain of events. Including the wedding," said the Doctor choking on a sob, "Including our night."