I've got a feeling that some of you have had a sneaking suspicion about what happens in this chapter the whole time. For those of you who have no idea what I'm talking about, you're in for a surprise, to say the least.
I'll just let the chapter do the talking for me!
Rose was silent after Cameron left, mulling over exactly what she had gotten herself into. She wondered whether Cameron was trustworthy- or, trustworthy enough to tell something that had been plaguing Rose for a while now. She felt guilty, sure, but her need to talk was more overwhelming than the guilt. The need itself was worse at certain times than others- much worse- but Rose figured that was because of hormones…or some scientific alterations her body had gone through since being around the Doctor. She told herself it had to be one of those.
She watched as Jack ate every animal cracker, carefully biting off the head, then all it's legs, and then it's body. She decided it must be a routine he had acquired over a long time as it seemed like he became lost in thought, but still ate the cracker in the same order, every time.
"Why do you do that?" she finally asked.
Jack came out of his apparent trance. "Do what?"
"Bite off all of their little heads and legs…"
He looked confused. "I do what?"
Rose shook her head. "Never mind." She glanced at the clock- they had been in the cafeteria for an hour. "Oh, damn it.Jack, we should get back."
Rose discarded her bowl and plastic spoon, along with the crumpled bag of animal crackers Jack threw on her tray as soon as Rose stood up. They exited the cafeteria with Rose sipping her tea out of a Styrofoam cup, and Jack still drinking Pepsi.
"You seem really distracted," he told her casually.
"Do I?" Rose asked. "Can't imagine why." She didn't know quite why she had said that; she knew it had only roused Jack's suspicions.
He didn't even wait to respond- instead, he pounced. "What were you and Dr. Cameron talking about while I was gone?"
"Nothing," she said quickly. She did her best to seem puzzled. "None of your business." Damn, she thought. Did it again!
He stopped her, an odd expression, close to sorrow, on his face. "I'm really…disappointed, I guess, to know that you don't trust me enough to tell me."
Rose was taken aback, although, the more she thought about it, she had expected him to confront her eventually. "Jack! No, no, no. God, no. I trust you so much," she said, and looked him in the eyes. He appeared to be genuinely hurt. "I trusted you the moment I met you. You can ask the Doctor; he'll vouch for me."
Jack was not so easily persuaded. He crossed his arms. "If you trust me so much, why won't you tell me?"
Rose decided it was safe to continue walking at this point. "It's…um, a little embarrassing, actually."
Jack scowled. "Did Cameron hit on you? I knew it!" he blurted, without waiting for a response. "Well, I guess I can cross her off the list…"
Rose couldn't hide her grin. "No, no! Ha. She didn't, trust me. But, it does have to do with how the Doctor got the way he is. I think you only know half the story."
"…You mean besides the hill thing?"
Rose nodded. "You'll find out, though. Soon. Probably today."
Jack looked pleased.
"...But not now," she continued, chewing her lip. "Later."
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When the pair finally reached the Doctor's hospital room, the Doctors were still bickering. Wilson stood apart from the group, but still listened intently.
"Any developments?" Jack asked, in an attempt to sound professional.
"If you call 'near-death' a development," House snapped.
Rose felt a swooping sensation. "What?"
"He's not dead," Chase said, throwing House a menacing glance, which was rare. "His body is slowing down, though, and that's, uh, odd, to say the least."
"Explain," Jack requested.
"Well, you know that he went to sleep eventually," Wilson interjected, speaking slowly. "Which isn't that strange, I know, but it's how he's sleeping. His breathing is sporadic, his heart- yes, singular- is only beating once every 11 seconds, and his body temperature is below zero. If he were a human, he'd be…well, dead. Which proves once and for all that he's not."
Foreman smiled. "You weren't convinced by the hearts?"
Wilson uttered a very forced "ha."
"So…what now?" Said Rose, who did not look humorous. "Are you just going to leave him?"
Wilson decided to be perfectly honest. "We're not sure what to do," he said. "But the Doctor is healing up quickly, and we think that this 'sleep' he's in might be his body's way of helping itself recover."
Rose didn't react for a second. Slowly, she nodded. "Okay. Alright, I trust you." She turned to look at the man with the cane standing behind Wilson. "Dr. House, do you have anything to add?"
House raised his eyebrows and shook his head. "For the first time in my life, I am rendered speechless. But don't get used to it, cuz this is the first and last time."
"Well, what should we do now?" Jack said.
"Sit. Wait," House replied glumly. "Nothing you can do. Actually, there's nothing any of us can do, so I need to see The Ducklings," he motioned to Foreman, Chase and Cameron, "in my office, ASAP."
The Ducklings obliged and followed House. Wilson said he had work to get to and went off in the opposite direction. Rose and Jack sat down in the squishy chairs in a waiting area just down the hall from the Doctor's room. Jack had nearly fallen asleep by the time the Ducklings found them again.
"Rose," Cameron said urgently. Rose stood. "Listen, I'm sorry," Cameron said. "House said we have to do his Clinic duty hours or he'll fire us, so that means I'll have to delay our talk. He won't actually fire us, but…"
Rose shook her head. "What? No- I mean, I can't-"
"I know," Cameron said. "I'm as pissed as you, but I've got to. Just till five o'clock, all right? Can you wait till then?"
Rose looked annoyed and disappointed, but nodded. Cameron patted her on the back and hurried off to join Foreman and Chase, who had already practically run down the hallway.
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There was a gigantic clap of thunder and the hospital shuddered. Rose woke up with a start. "Oh, for god's sake," she muttered, realising that she had fallen asleep waiting. She jabbed Jack, also asleep, in the shoulder.
"What time is it?" she asked.
Jack rubbed his eyes, then looked at his wristwatch. "Um…five o'one."
"Seriously?" she asked. "We've been asleep all day! Wait, the Doctor…" Without warning, Rose grabbed Jack's wrist. They took off down the hallway.
"Nope," Jack said once they reached the room. "Still there. Still sleeping."
"Wait," said Rose. "Did you say it was past five o'clock?" Rose asked.
"Yep," Jack said, lifting his arm with his watch on it. "Why?"
But Rose had already taken off down the hallway, running.
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"Am I late?" Rose asked. She was breathing heavily as she closed the door behind her.
"Just a bit," Cameron said, who was playing with a blue bouncy- ball. "I'll apologize again for having to take a rain check, but when House says do his Clinic hours, then…"
"You have to do the hours," Rose finished. "It's fine. I've known people like that." She inhaled through her nose and exhaled through her mouth, deeply. "Is this bloody rain ever gonna let up?"
"That's why I said 'rain check', actually," Cameron said, cracking a smile. Rose returned it. "You're breathing like you jogged here," Cameron continued, "but your eyes tell me you've been sleeping."
Rose's smile widened slightly. "You can read minds, too, then?"
Cameron almost laughed. "Well, no, but, I'm observant. I'm afraid I got that from House." She became suddenly very serious. "Sit down," she said, and pulled up a chair next to the one she was sitting in.
Rose did so, ready to take further directions.
"Now…do you think you can tell me what happened?"
Rose, never in a million years, thought that the most relieved she'd ever feel was at the mention of those words.
"Yes," she replied. "I am."
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The TARDIS, three Days Earlier…"Jack, 'ow man of those have you 'ad?" Rose asked, in a very giddy tone. She turned to face Jack, who was downing another shot of vanilla- coloured liquor.
"What?" he said. "Sorry, you're going to have to pronounce the first consonants in the words you say, Rose."
Rose glared at him playfully. "You know damn well what I just said," she told him, purposefully over-enunciating.
"Four, then," he replied. "And yourself?"
"Seven!" she practically screamed, and then dissolved into giggles. The Doctor watched all this, a little disgusted.
He shook his head. "You should have never opened that bottle, Jack," he said reproachfully. "Rose is gonna have one hell of a hang over tomorrow. You are, too, actually."
"I feel great, come to think of it," Jack said, pouring some more of the liquid into a glass. "I guess I can hold my liquor better than she can."
"That stuff won't hit you until at least the sixth shot."
Jack shrugged and drank nearly the whole glass. "Aaaah," he sighed, squirming in his chair. "Yeah, that shit'll loosen you up, won't it?"
The Doctor got up. "I'll take that back, thank you," he said, snatching the bottle away. "This has been around for nearly a century."
"Tastes like it. Has aged very well."
"Well that makes one of us," the Doctor said. "I feel old," he said, watching Rose drink another glass and skip around the TARDIS, humming loudly.
"Oh, come on now," Jack said. "Drink up! Ya just saved the freakin' planet from those heinous monster-alien things. You know, the ones with the tusks and the... well, you know what they are, you just kicked their asses."
The Doctor grimaced. "Eh," he said. "Can't get drunk anyway, what's the point?"
"You only feel old if you look old," Jack continued, "and you don't look a day over…100," he said.
This seemed to cheer up the Doctor slightly. "Right," he said. He reached up to get a wine glass out of the cupboard and poured a little of the liquid into the glass. "Cheers," the Doctor said, and raised his glass.
Later…The Doctor held Rose's hand as she spun under his arm. He stopped her mid-spin and grabbed her other hand aggressively.
"Watch it now," she said. "I'm gonna need to use that later."
"You asked me to teach you how to tango," the Doctor replied. "Part of that is learning to be aggressive." They took a few steps forward. "Other foot," he said. The Doctor wasn't quite sure how the previous conversation had turned to tangoing, but it had, and Rose asked him if he knew how. He said of course he did, to which she replied, "Oh, really? Teach me then." He was proceeding to do just that.
"I'm no good at this," Rose said, and the Doctor spun her into him. Rose, however, tripped over her own foot and fell against him. She started laughing.
"Oh, now you're not even trying," he said, his arm wrapped around Rose's body awkwardly. The force of her body hitting his had knocked him and into a chair.
"No I'm not," she said honestly. "'S'what happens when your drunk like I am."
"You're not that drunk," he replied. Rose was sitting sideways on his lap now, and that, for some reason, made him uneasy. She, of course, was completely oblivious to this.
"Oi," she said, and let go of the hand the Doctor was holding. "I'm just not a tango-er. Ha. That's a funny word."
"Well, I haven't taught you the three rules of tangoing yet."
"Oh, the basics," Rose said, pretending to sound interested. She shifted around so that she could see him- something the Doctor wished she hadn't have done. "I bet I can guess what they are!"
"Really?" he asked.
"Yeah," she said, playing with her hair. "The fist one is: it takes two people."
"Takes two to tango?"
"That'd be it, yeah," she said, laughing.
"Very good. That is, indeed, the first rule. The second one is that one person needs to lead and the other person needs to follow…"
"Oh, I'm very good at that rule," she said.
"Now, you didn't let me finish. I was going to say that, even though there's a leader, the follower needs to know the steps, too."
Rose sighed. "You're the leader, then?"
The Doctor looked her in the eyes, but felt compelled to look away. "Yes- that is, until you learn the steps."
Rose stood up and pulled on the Doctor's hand, until they were standing very close together. "Can we try again?"
"Of course," the Doctor said. He leaned right, and she mirrored him. "The third thing," he said. "Is realising that what the tango is, is telling a story. It has to portray emotions."
"Oh, like, 'Wow, I'm so happy, I'm tangoing!'?"
The Doctor actually laughed at that one. "No, Rose," he said, becoming serious. He took three steps to the left- Rose was keeping up with him well. "It's about, you know…"
"Love?"
"No, actually, not if you ask me. Romance," the Doctor said. "Passion…"
Rose was becoming more and more aware of her body against his.
"…Infatuation …"
She was feeling the slightest bit fait…
"… And lust…"
He spun her, once again, so his arm was wrapped around her body.
"And seduction."
Slowly, he dropped his hand and bowed to her. "And those," he said, "are the three rules of tangoing."
Rose studied him for a minute, not sure what to say. She was very dizzy after the spinning, but she was trying not to let her throbbing head muss her thoughts. "Where's Jack?" she finally asked.
The Doctor was caught completely off-guard. "Jack?" he asked. He walked over to the door that led out into the hallway. "Jack!" he called, but to no answer. "I think he left."
Rose scurried after him. "Left the TARDIS? To go where?"
"Out," the Doctor said. "And 'out' is the last place we want a drunk Jack Harkness."
"Captain Jack Harnkness," Rose corrected. The Doctor gave her a withering look.
He opened the door to the TARDIS and stepped out into the night. It was pitch black- Rose could see nothing. The TARDIS cast a familiar blue glow over the grass near to where she was parked, but other than that, nothing. It was cloudy, so the moon wasn't visible; the nearest lights were from houses and shops in the nearby town.
"Jack?" she shouted into the night. She listened… nothing.
"Captain Harkness!" the Doctor shouted. He wandered off away from her. "Jack!" Suddenly, Rose heard a strangled yelp. She wheeled around just in time to see the Doctor slip down the hill. Without a second though, she ran after him.
Not entirely sure how to go about it, she gingerly, but quickly, made her way down the hill. It was a wonder she didn't loose her footing and fall herself, but eventually she reached the bottom. Rose squinted into the darkness and saw the outline of the Doctor in a crumpled heap a couple of metres from her.
"Doctor!" she exclaimed, rushing to him. He was lying on his back with his arm twisted underneath him. "Oh, god. Please answer!" She took the liberty to pull his arm out from under him- the Doctor groaned.
"Oh, thank god," she said, kneeling down next to him. "I thought you might've blacked out." Rose put a hand to his forehead; she could feel blood. "We need to get you to a doctor."
"I am a doctor," he said angrily.
Rose frowned. "You know what I meant. A medical doctor."
The Doctor said nothing. He felt Rose's warm body near him, which was enough, despite the fact that he was in massive amounts of pain.
Rose, on the other hand, started laughing. It was just giggling, at first, but soon it heightened into guffawing.
"And what, may I ask, is so funny?" the Doctor asked indignantly.
"Nothing," Rose said in a whisper. She couldn't even breathe. "It's just…you just rolled down a hill," she said, and started laughing again.
"Oh, haha," the Doctor said. "There's nothing funny about that."
"Yes, there is," she said, wiping a tear away from her eye. "I'm not sure what, but it's very funny."
Rose still couldn't see the Doctor very well, but she was sure he was frowning. She kept laughing- she couldn't stop, and eventually he started laughing, too.
"You think it's funny, too!" she said. Rose put her hands on the Doctor's shoulders, and they sat there for about five minutes, holding each other and laughing their heads off.
Finally, Rose stood up. "Can you stand?" she asked. Her face was crimson and her hands were still shaking with laughter.
"I think so," he said. She took his hand and pulled him up.
"Ouch," he whispered, but Rose heard it.
"We should go back to the TARDIS," she said, slinging an arm around his shoulder.
"No," he said firmly. "We're going into town- I'm making my trip worth it."
"Trip," Rose said, as the Doctor started limping in the direction of the small town. "Like, you tripped. Hehehe."
Thirty minutes later, Rose and the Doctor entered a small, smoke-filled pub. Rose found an open table and sat down at it.
"We still need to get you to a clinic," she said, handing him napkins, which he placed on his forehead, mopping up the blood. The cut itself wasn't so bad, and most of the blood had dried, but he was having trouble walking and breathing.
"We can't go anywhere until we find Jack," he mumbled. "Wherever he is."
"Be right back," Rose said. She went up to the man standing behind the bar and asked him something- the Doctor didn't hear what. The man pointed up and said something, and Rose returned to the table.
"He says he saw a man with dark hair come in about an hour ago. He went upstairs."
"There's an upstairs?"
"Suppose so."
"Well, help me up, we'll go get him."
Rose did so. It took them a good 10 minutes to go 'up stairs'- they had to go to the back room and then up about a million stairs. They finally reached the landing, where there was a dirty, battered couch. The hallway was narrow, with two doors on either side.
"This is a tad eerie," Rose said, and the Doctor dropped onto the couch. The hallway looked completely neglected; in addition to the dilapidated couch, there were cobwebs in the corners and the framings of many of the doors looked the worse for wear.
"Too many stairs," the Doctor panted. "How many? 50?"
"More like 20," Rose said. "But what door should I go in? I'm afraid if I open one, somehting'll jump out at me."
"It's that one," the Doctor said, pointing to the second door on the right side.
"How do you…never mind," Rose said. She gingerly tried the handle, which turned easily. She took a breath and went in the room, closing the door behind her. The Doctor listened fixedly, and he thought he could pick up on a few voices- Rose's, and possibly Jacks, and possibly another man's. It made the Doctor nervous that Rose was in the room (in a strange pub, no less) by herself, but soon Rose emerged from the room, rolling her eyes.
"He's…uhg! Playing poker. Strip poker, too, and there were strange men in there and it was kind of scary," she sat down on the sofa next to him. "Jack's still fully clothed, though, which was a little disappointing." She laughed lightly.
"Is he planning on coming out any time soon?"
"He told me to give him 10 minutes to finish the game."
The Doctor shook his head. "I should've gone in there with you."
"Oh, I can take care of myself," Rose looked at the cut above the Doctor's left eyebrow. "S'you who can't. Look at you! Falling down hills an' everything."
"That was on accident," the Doctor said. He looked cross, but something in his eyes told Rose he was faking it. "You'd never know how to tango if it wasn't for me."
Rose laughed. "I still don't know how to tango. You should teach me when I'm sober."
"You're sober enough," he said. "That alcohol that I gave you isn't like Earth alcohol. It's got it's ups and downs. You were up, now you're down. You'll be up soon again."
Rose didn't say anything. "Still, I think you should re-teach me."
"Well, let's see what you remember. What's the first rule of tangoing?"
"Um… oh, I know! It takes two to tango!"
"Yes. Now, the second?"
Rose pursed her lips, thinking. "There has to be a leader- you- and a follower- me."
"But…"
"But both need to know the steps."
"Yes. And the third...?"
Rose sat up a little straighter. "The third is that the tango is supposed to tell a story, right? Portray emotion?"
"Exactly."
She was silent for a moment. "Like romance," she said, standing up.
"Rose, I don't think I can tango now," the Doctor said.
"I'm not asking you to tango," Rose said, very softly. She held out her hand and the Doctor took it, not liking where this was going.
"…And passion?" she cocked her head over to the side.
"…Right," the Doctor said. He swallowed, and Rose pulled him up so that they were standing front-to-front. "Rose listen, I really can't dance now."
"Infatuation, yeah?"
"Uh, sometimes."
"Sometimes," she echoed. "Like…when?"
She was looking at him strangely- differently- than she had ever looked at him before. Not with eyes that were laughing, or remorseful or even intrigued, as they usually were. He was sure Rose had never looked at him the way she was now.
"Like now?" And with that, she pulled him into a very soft kiss.
The Doctor was surprised, but not put-out. And although he didn't want to, he felt himself surrender to the kiss. He felt every ache and pain the fall had caused him take a backseat to the rush of adrenaline Rose was giving him. He also found himself pulling away abruptly.
"Rose, no," he said. "We can't. Not now. Not here, certainly." He wished he believed himself, but he knew he didn't, and neither did Rose.
She ran her hands up and down his arms, which had somehow found their way to Rose's waist.
"You said I was supposed to take the lead, Doctor," she whispered, her face inches away from his. Her hands roamed onto his shoulders. "And now I am. Right?" She kissed him again, but stronger this time. And this time, he pushed back.
Rose would have none of it, though, and they ended up shifting half way around. "Oh, I see," she said, her breath heavy and low. "There can't be two leaders when you tango, Doctor." And for a third time, their lips meant, even more urgently than they had the first two times.
That's when the Doctor realised what had been in Rose's eyes when she looked at him. In her eyes, in her face, body, in everything about her- it was a sense of control. She was now completely in control. Of himself, of her, and of the situation.
"Rose," the Doctor warned. Rose's hands moved to the collar of his jacket, where she began sliding it off his shoulders. "Rose," he said urgently. "You don't want to do this."
"Oh, yes I do," she said, smiling very sultrily. "I think you do, too."
The Doctor studied her for a moment. "You're drunk," he said simply, hoping to discourage her.
That comment, however, seemed to provide more motive for Rose. She kissed him again aggressively, her lips parted eagerly, and pushed the Doctor up against the wall. The Doctor wasn't sure how to feel about what was happening- he knew that a normal Rose wouldn't approve of what was happening.
"Rose," he said. Rose was kissing him repeatedly, trying desperately to get his jacket off of his shoulders. "Rose, dammit, listen."
"No," she said. "No, now you listen. You said I should be the leader, right? Know all of the moves better than the follower. And now I'm doing it."
"But you're not…if you were all here, you wouldn't want this."
"I know very well what I want," she said, and traced kisses down his jawbone and onto his neck, using all of her mouth as device. Finally, with a soft thud, the Doctor's jacket had at last been removed from his body. She smiled at the sound. "Easier access," she explained.
She had pinned him up against the wall at this point, but the Doctor no longer cared. She was doing what she had been told to do, he told himself. Leadership. Direction. She's just more creative in demonstrating it.
Rose was looking at him with expectant eyes, and the Doctor delivered, kicking his jacket out of the way and kissing her, his hands roaming around Rose's torso knowingly. There was something about the smell in the pub…the smoke and the dust…but both Rose and the Doctor felt claustrophobic, which might explain his next action. Rose led the Doctor from the wall and started walking forward with him, just like in a tango, unzipping her own jacket as she went.
Suddenly, and before Rose knew what was happening, the Doctor had lost his footing and fell backwards, down, down, and with another sickening thud, the flight of stairs.
A/N: This is actually a revised chapter; the first time, the section dividers didn't pick up when I uploaded it…don't know why… but here it is, new and slightly improved. Thanks!