Rose found she couldn't breathe. If the Doctor were badly hurt what would she do? She couldn't take him to a hospital; they'd have the government after them. Kneeling beside him she stretched a hand out to touch him.
He stirred, groaning and Rose sighed with relief. She checked him over and despite his bad injuries; he didn't seem to be bleeding anymore. Or course she'd have to move him, people would start to get suspicious when they saw his blood was blue.
"Doctor?" She said gently, taking his hand. "Can you stand up?"
The Doctor opened his eyes and stared weakly at her.
"Probably," he said, sitting up gingerly.
"This is all my fault," Rose said, helping him up as he clutched his side.
"How can it be your fault?" The Doctor asked his voice hoarse.
"No one on this planet comes after you unless they know that you're with me," Rose said, realising how ironic that was. Practically every planet in the universe was after the Doctor. The only planet where he was safe (most of the time) was Earth. Until he'd met Rose. Then the slaps and verbal abuse had started, mostly from her family, but she couldn't believe that her mum would do this. One of her mates might though…
"Who did it?" Rose asked. "Did you see them?"
The Doctor paused wondering if he should tell Rose who attacked him. As they hobbled along together towards Jackie's flat he knew it would be no use.
"Rose, I was hit over the head by a floating baseball bat," the Doctor said quietly. Rose frowned confused.
"A floating baseball bat?" She repeated. The Doctor nodded and she suddenly realised what that meant. "You mean I- the nanite…"
She trailed off and almost dropped the Doctor as they reached the balcony. If he was attacked by an invisible force then that meant only one thing.
"You mean that was one of my…" Rose didn't know what to call them. "One of my creations?"
The Doctor nodded gravely.
"I don't know what else it could be," he said quietly as Jackie opened the door for him.
"But… why would I even subconsciously try to hurt you?" Rose asked on the verge of tears at the thought that she'd done this to her Doctor.
"Well you've not exactly been pleased with me recently," the Doctor shrugged as he practically collapsed onto the spare bed.
"But I didn't want to hurt you!" Rose said, the tears spilling down her cheeks.
"No?" The Doctor asked and Rose felt a surge of anger towards him. How could he doubt her?
"No." She said firmly.
"You haven't even maybe half wished something and regretted it later, knowing that you didn't mean it?" The Doctor said, closing his eyes.
"Well…" Rose thought. "Nothing this bad. I wished that you could feel my pain so you'd understand but I never wanted you hurt."
"Ah," the Doctor said in a hushed tone as Jackie bustled about in the kitchen getting water and cloths to wipe the blood off him. "I think those nanites are stronger than we anticipated."
"What do you mean?" Rose frowned.
"Well the nanites can't cause emotion for another person so they must've decided that it would have to be physical pain that balanced things out," the Doctor said, quietly.
"So you mean every time I have even the tiniest bad thought against you I'm going to attack you in my sleep?" Rose asked looking at him wide eyed. The Doctor nodded.
"Most probably," he said, coughing slightly.
Jackie burst in then halting any further conversation. Rose looked on in horror as her mum cleaned the worst of the wounds and she contemplated what she was going to do. She couldn't stay here if it meant she was putting the Doctor in danger.
Later that morning when her mum had gone to get a cup of tea for them all and the Doctor had had most of the blood cleaned off him (Jackie had even leant him Howard's pyjama's, which weirdly she still had despite not having seen him in months) Rose took his hand and sat beside him, thinking about the last time the Doctor had been here. It'd been her fault then too, he'd had to regenerate in order to save her life.
"I'm sorry," she said. The Doctor opened his eyes and glanced at her, looking slightly brighter than he had done that morning.
"S'not your fault," he said. "You didn't do it on purpose."
"But we can't go on like this," Rose whispered sadly "If I'm going to attack you then I'm gonna have to stay here."
"Nah you won't," the Doctor replied seriously. "We'll have to get rid of the nanites. I'm a Time Lord, it takes more than a baseball bat to kill me, but imagine if you have a fight with your mum. You might end up…"
He didn't finish his sentence and Rose suddenly found that she no longer hated the Doctor, but hated herself. She was turning into someone who hurt all her loved ones. She was turning into her own worst enemy.
"How can we get rid of them?" She asked.
"We'll have to go back to that planet," the Doctor said. "When I recover."
"But what're we gonna do until then?" Rose said, sure that she wouldn't be able to sleep for fear of hurting someone.
"You'll have to sleep in the TARDIS with me," the Doctor said avoiding her gaze. "If we slept in the same bed you wouldn't be able to attack me because you'd hurt yourself and you won't hurt yourself."
Rose ordinarily would've killed to be bale to sleep in the same room as the Doctor, let alone bed, but right then she wasn't sure she could trust herself.
"Look I don't want to pressurize you into it," the Doctor said, looking her straight in the eye. "I can put you in the TARDIS and send you a few days into the future to when I'm fully healed if you'd prefer. But it's best you don't sleep where you can hurt anyone."
Rose nodded.
"S'fine," she said. "I'll stay with you."
The Doctor grinned.
"We'll forget to mention it to your mother shall we?" He said some of his old demeanour returning.
"Yeah," Rose said, laughing despite her tears.