I turn around and hug him, squeezing tightly. The Doctor laughs lightly, "What's all this about?"

"I'm just glad to see you." I tell him. Reaching up, I ruffle his hair trying to make it stand up like I remember it doing before. He also seems to have a different suit on. Brown pinstripes this time, instead of blue.

He grimaces at me, "I just got my hair the way I like it."

"I like it like that." I say to him, smirking. His face turns considering as he reaches up to lightly touch the spiky ends.

Unexpectedly, he grabs me by the waist and spins me around pinning me against the console. The Doctor leans his face closer to mine, an intense look on his face. "So what do you think?" He asks me.

Shifting uncomfortably, I clear my throat. "Wha-What do you mean?"

He leans back, and gestures to his body. "Brand new me, brand new Doctor. What do you think?"

"Ohh," I laugh nervously. "Honestly, I've only seen this you once before. I like the hair! You seem to have a bit of a mouth in this one, love to talk, but that isn't anything different from any other body I've seen you have." I scratch the side of my head, thinking. "I guess I'll just have to get to know this you."

The Doctor smiles gently, cupping my face with one hand. He leans in and places a kiss to the corner of my mouth.

The door opens and a girl runs in, large bag on her back. "So where are we going?" She asks before looking up and seeing the position we are in. "Eugh, haven't I asked you guys to not do that in the console room?" She states rhetorically, face turning grumpy.

The Doctor doesn't look repentant, just smirks as he moves away and starts to press buttons on the console. I, on the other hand, am busy flushing bright red. The Doctor kissed me. The Doctor. Just kissed me. I cover my face with my hands.

"Young one, yeah?" The girl asks, from right beside me.

I lower my hands and glare at her balefully. "What are you talking about?"

"Nothing." Her amusement is thick in her voice as she responds. She looks over at the Doctor, who still has a smug smirk on his face. "He just loves doing it to throw you off, especially to a young you."

I continue to glare at both of them, my face falling into a pout. So it was just to mess with me huh. Funny joke.

"To answer your question Rose, we are going further than we've ever gone before." The Doctor pipes up, just before he presses the button that sends us off into space.

I reach out and grab onto Rose, and she reaches out to grab the railing. The both of us just managing to stay on our feet. The Tardis makes the noise it does when it lands, and we grin at each other in excitement. I drop her hand and straighten my glasses, they had gotten knocked askew with all the shaking.

The Doctor grabs a tan hero coat off of one of the coral struts and puts it on. Hurrying towards the doors he pulls them open, revealing blue skies and green grass. "It's the year five billion and twenty three. We're in the galaxy M87, and this? This is New Earth."

Rose's face lights up with delight. "That's just. That's just-"

"That's just amazing." I breath out, stunned. This is an alien planet. Not the moon, or even the past. An alien planet.

"I'll never get used to this," Rose exclaims. "Never. Different ground beneath my feet, different sky." She pauses, sniffing. "What's that smell?"

The Doctor bends over, grabbing some grass and bringing it up to show us. "Apple grass!"

Laughing in disbelief, I look over at the Doctor. "This is an alien planet? A real live alien planet?" Grabbing his arm, I share my feelings of excitement with the idea.

Over the week with the previous Doctor, we had been practicing with my emerging telepathy. I could now send short bursts of emotion, or thoughts, without the blinding pain I had first experienced. As long as the Doctor was gentle, I could also receive the same in return. The Doctor explained to me that sending and receiving these snapshots into their psyches was common place for his people. He looked sad after that, and I got the feeling that he wasn't able to do that as much as he wanted to. Resolving to take that loneliness off his face, I doubled my efforts to communicate with him in this way.

The Doctor looked down at me and nodded. I could feel his bemusement at my question before it turned to understanding, and the look in his eyes sharpened. "This is your first planet!" His mouth dropped open in surprise.

"Yeah," I confirm, looking around distractedly. There were flying cars coming from the city on the other side of the bay.

I grab Rose's arm too, and she smiles at me. "Let's get a little closer?" I direct to both of them. They laugh at my excitement, but we all wander with linked arms down closer to the bay.

The Doctor disengages my arm from his and takes his coat off, laying it on the ground. He gestures for us to sit. "So, the year five billion, the sun expands, the Earth gets roasted. The planet gone, all rocks and dust, but the human race lives on, spread out across the stars. Soon as the Earth burns up, oh yeah they get all nostalgic, big revival movement, but then they find this place." He nods out to the planet. "Same size as the Earth, same air, same orbit. Lovely. Call goes out, the humans move in."

Intrigued, I ask. "So what's the city called?"

"New New York." The Doctor responds.

"Oh, come on." Rose says to him, clearly thinking he is joking.

"It is!" He responds. "Strictly speaking, it's the fifteenth Now York since the original, so that makes it New New New New New New New New New New New New New New York." The Doctor pauses, noticing the look Rose is giving him. "What?"

"You're so different." She tells him. Must be referring to his new face. She doesn't seem unhappy about it.

The Doctor just smiles. "New New Doctor."

"Are we going to go visit it?" I ask, tilting my head to the side. My orange hair obscures my vision for a second, and I frown at it. As much as I loved the color, I had a feeling that I would probably be changing it soon. Maybe I'll ask if we can go pick up some hair dye when I get back to the Tardis. The Doctor waves his hand in front of my face, getting my attention.

"Huh?" Startled, I jerk back. Rose laughs over at me.

"You spaced out there, must have been thinking about something serious." She informs me.

I can feel my face heat up in embarrassment. Ducking my head, I mutter. "Sorry, I was just thinking about my hair. The wind blew it in my face and I was thinking about changing the color."

The Doctor grabs a lock of orange hair and tugs on it. The look on his face is fond. "What color?"

"Hmm," I think about it. "I'm not sure yet."

"Anyways," He says, dropping my hair. "I thought we might go there first." The Doctor points at a pair of curved skyscrapers with green moons on the side.

"Why," Rose asks. "What is it?"

"Some sort of hospital. Green moon on the side. That's the universal symbol for hospitals." He pulls the psychic paper from his pocket, showing it to us. Writing appears, 'Ward 26, Please Come'. "I got this. Looks like someone wants to see us."

"Hmm. And I thought we were just sight-seeing." Rose teases him. "Come on, then. Let's go and buy some grapes."

I wrinkle my nose. "Grapes?"

Rose looks over at me and nods, "Yeah. That's what you take when you go visit someone at the hospital."

"But, why grapes?" I'm so confused.

She's starting to look confused now too. "You just do?"

I look over to the Doctor. He is turned away from us, hand over his mouth to muffle his laughter, but his shaking shoulders give him away. "I'm really confused right now." I confess to both of them.

Rose shakes her head. "I am too."

The Doctors shaking increases. I roll my eyes in exasperation. Linking arms with Rose, I say to her. "C'mon, let's blow this popsicle stand. There seems to be grapes in our future, and a mysterious patient to visit." We walk off, leaving the Doctor to his hysterics.

"Oi!" I hear his voice from behind us. "Wait for me!"

Entering the building, Rose comments. "Bit rich coming from you." I nod in agreement.

The Doctor rubs the back of his head uncomfortably. "I can't help it. I don't like hospitals. They give me the creeps." Pouting around at the lobby of the hospital, he comments. "No shop. I like a little shop."

"I thought this far into the future, they'd have cured everything?" Rose asks.

The Doctor tilts his head to the side. "Nah. The human race moves on, but so do the viruses. It's an ongoing war."

I shivered a bit. Ugh. I didn't like hospitals either.

Rose stops suddenly, a look of shock on her face. "They're cats."

"Now don't stare," The Doctor scolds lightly. "Think what you look like to them, all pink and yellow." Pointing at a random piece of wall, he continues. "That's where I'd put the shop. Right there."

We both walk into the elevator, but Rose is still out in the lobby. "Rose!" I call to her, getting her attention and causing her to hurry over to us.

Unfortunately, the doors close before she gets there. "Hold on! Hold on!" She calls out to us.

"Oh, too late. We're going up." The Doctor calls back to her.

"It's all right, there's another lift." Rose answers back.

"Ward 26," The Doctor directs to the ceiling, before raising his voice so Rose can hear. "And watch out for the disinfectant."

"Watch out for what?" She asks him.

The Doctor reaches out and grabs my glasses, folding them and tucking them into his pocket. "The disinfectant!" He says again. I narrow my eyes at him.

"The what?" I can hear her say faintly.

"The disin-. Oh you'll find out." He finishes.

"Why did you do that for?" I ask him.

Looking amused the Doctor doesn't say anything. Water comes out of nowhere, drenching us. I sputter in surprise, flailing. Disinfectant huh. Glaring up at the Doctor, I shake my head in his direction hoping to get some of the liquid in my hair on him. His hand comes down on my head, pushing me away. "Oi!, That's your disinfectant! Keep it on your side!" He teases, laughter in his voice.

The elevator spits out white powder onto us, and this time I direct my dirty look up to the ceiling. Warm air blows, trying to dry us off. I can feel my face fall into grumpy lines. I never blow dry my hair, it always looks like a floofball if I try. The Doctor flaps his coat, letting the air blow onto his suit. He looks perfectly happy with the situation.

Seeing a chance to mess with him, I grab the collar of his jacket with one hand. Leaning up, I press a kiss to the side of his mouth like he did to me earlier. While I'm doing this, my other hand comes up and spikes his hair. The Doctor must get a hint of my mischief from the contact because I can feel his amusement in response.

He pulls back and smirks at me. "You don't have to think up an excuse to kiss me."

My face heats up, and I gape at him. "That's not why I did it! I just wanted to spike your hair."

The Doctor reaches down and ruffles my hair, parting it so that there is more on one side then the other. His face is fond as he says. "I don't believe you."

Batting his hand away, I insist. "It's true!"

"Mh hm." The Doctor hums, smug smirk still on his face as he reaches into his pocket to retrieve my glasses. He hands them to me, and I mutter a thanks. My face feels like it is on fire, I can only imagine how red I must be.

The doors click open, and the Doctor swaggers out the open doors into the ward.

I wipe my face roughly, cursing myself. That backfired on me spectacularly. I drop my hands, sighing. Time to see what's going on here. I catch up to the Doctor in time to hear him say, "I doubt it. Petrifold Regression? He's turning to stone. There won't be a cure for oh, a thousand years? He might be about, but only as a statue."

A cat nurse assures him. "Have faith in the Sisterhood. But is there no one here you recognize? It's unusual to visit without knowing the patient."

The Doctor take a second to respond, eyes focused on a tank in next to the window. "No, I think I've found him."

The closer we get to the tank, the more I comprehend what I'm seeing. There is a giant face in the tank. It has tentacles coming off of it. This might be the weirdest thing I've ever seen.

"Novice Hame, if I can leave these gentlebeings in your care." The cat nurse that escorted us directs her statement to the cat nurse sitting next to the head in the tank.

Novice Hame nods to the nurse. As she turns to leave, the Doctor calls out to her. "Oh I think our friend got lost. Rose Tyler. Could you ask at reception?"

"Certainly sir." She responds to him.

Novice Hame speaks up softly. "I'm afraid the Face of Boe is asleep. That's all he tends to do these days. Are you two friends or-"

"We met him just the once on Platform One." The Doctor interjects. "What's wrong with him?"

Novice Hame's face scrunches in confusion. "I'm so sorry sir, I thought you knew. The Face of Boe is dying."

"Of what?" The Doctor asks.

"Old age." Novice Hame states. "The one thing we can't cure. He's thousands of years old. Some people say millions, although that's impossible."

"Oh, I don't know. I like impossible." The Doctor says softly, kneeling down and touching the glass of the Face's of Boe's tank. "I'm here. I look a bit different, but it's me. It's the Doctor."

I leave them to their moment, moving instead to look out of the window. It really is beautiful here. Makes it even more sad that someone the Doctor knows is dying.

Tilting my head to the side, I purse my lips in confusion. There is someone knocking on the doors to my mind. Glancing around, I don't see the Doctor anywhere close so I doubt it's him. I eye the Face of Boe in speculation. I send a tendril of thought out. 'Is this you?'

Amusement, affirmation. 'Yes.' The Face of Boe's voice drifts into my mind, though they still appear to be sleeping.

'I don't think we've met, I'm Mabel.' I tell him, or her.

'Mabel Falkov. We've met before. At least for me. Though that's still to come for you in the future.' He informs me.

I feel a surge of annoyance at that. 'Y'know, I'm really getting sick of people saying those words to me.'

'I know.' The Face of Boe states. 'I also know that this next part is going to make you angry as well.'

Narrowing my eyes at him, I ask slowly. 'What part?'

'I have a message for you, from yourself.' He tells me. 'It goes, don't be afraid.'

'What kind of message is that?' I say to him incredulously. 'Don't be afraid of what?'

The Face of Boe's metal voice turns serious. 'That is something that you need to figure out for yourself.' They twitch, and I get a hint of melancholy from them. 'It is good to see you so close to the end, old friend. I have missed you.'

The Doctor walks up, interrupting the conversation. He has a phone in his hand, and he doesn't look happy. "What's wrong?" I ask him.

He frowns at me. "I'm not sure, something is off." Rose walks into the ward and the Doctor heads over to speak with her.

I look to the Face of Boe. 'I look forward to meeting you in the future.' He opens his eyes, and winks at me.

Shaking my head, I laugh to myself as I walk over to join the Doctor and Rose.

"I can't Adam and Eve it." Rose is saying to the Doctor. Uh, what?

"What's, what's, what's with the voice?" The Doctor asks, his voice highly confused.

"Oh, I don't know." Rose states. Her voice is high and grating. "Just larking about. New Earth, new me."

The Doctor laughs, but it doesn't sound genuine. "Well, I can't talk. New New Doctor."

"Mmm," Rose breaths out. "Aren't you just." Then she reaches up and grabs his face, bringing it down and kissing him hard.

My mouth drops open in shock. I wasn't expecting that. No wonder the Doctor had been laughing at me earlier. It seems kissing is something he does with most of the people he travels with. Well, I thought to myself, not that there is going to be much kissing from my end anymore.

The Doctor finally seems to clue in to the fact that she is kissing him. Jerking back and away from her, face blank.

"Terminal's this way, Phew." Rose states, walking back the way she came from in the first place.

The Doctor swallows hard, running a hand through his hair. His hand hits the spikes I put in it earlier, and he winces.

"Yeah." I comment. "I think you are right, there is something weird going on here."

The Doctor turns and looks at me, face guilty. I wave the look away, it's not like he owes me anything.

He opens his mouth to say something, but I interrupt him. "We should probably follow her, and find out what's going on."

The Doctor's face falls into frustrated lines. He grabs my arm gently, and twists me back towards him. His other hand comes up to cradle my head. He leans down and brings his lips to mine and I gasp in surprise. The Doctor takes this as an invitation to deepen the kiss. His hand tilts my head back, the pressure of his fingers pressing in causing me to shiver.

He pulls back to rest his forehead against mine. From the touch of his fingers resting on my neck I can feel how serious he is. "I know this is early for you, but I need you to listen. This here, This is the only kiss that matters."

Flabbergasted, I open my mouth to argue. "I-" The Doctor cuts me off with another kiss. "Wha-" Kiss. "O-" Kiss.

Incensed, I cover his face with my hand and push him back. "Oi!" I bark at him. "I've barely known you two weeks, you can't just say things like that! And kissing. You can't just kiss me like that!" Looking over towards the area Rose went, I deflated. "We really don't have time for this right now, but you better believe that we will be having more words about inappropriate kissing later!"

The Doctor pulls my hand from his face, expression still serious. "Just so long as we actually have that conversation."

"Ugh!" I growled, moving down the hallway away from him.

"What took you so long?" Rose's unnaturally high voice grated in my ears.

"There was a thing!" The Doctor's cheery voice comes from behind us. He stops in front of the terminal and starts bringing up different specs. "Nope, nothing odd. Surgery, post-op, nano-denistry." He shakes his head. "No sign of a shop. They should really have a shop."

Rose brings herself closer to the terminal. "No, it's missing something else. When I was downstairs, those Nurse Cat Nuns were talking about Intensive Care. Where is it?"

The Doctor's face turns serious. "You're right, well done."

Rose continues, "Why would they hide a whole department? It's got to be there somewhere. Search the subframe." She demands.

The Doctor looks at her suspiciously, while taking the sonic screwdriver from his jacket pocket. "What if the subframes locked?"

Rolling her eyes, sounding impatient, Rose says. "Try the installation protocol!"

The Doctor nods, "Yeah. Of course." He turns the screwdriver on and presses it to the screen. "Sorry. Hold on." The whole wall slides down to reveal a passageway.

"Jeeze," I say, mostly to myself. "They really have the spooky corridors trick down, I wonder what's going to be next." Rose ignores that and walks into the hallway confidently. Something is definitely wrong here.

"Intensive care. Certainly looks intensive." The Doctor comments. Watching Rose walk into the corridor, he waits until she is almost out of sight before grabbing my hand and following her.

"Hey, now." I say, trying to get my hand back. "I don't particularly want to be holding hands with you right now, especially after what happened earlier."

The Doctor tightens his grip, and murmurs lowly. "I know." He sends me his impressions of earlier. How patients are miraculously recovering from deadly diseases. The fact that Rose had been gone for so long, and was now acting strange. She now had knowledge that she hadn't had before. I could feel his anger at the thought of his companion being hurt in any way.

My fingers twitched against his, but I sent back confirmation. I had noticed something odd too. Also, there was the fact that the Face of Boe called us here. They could communicate telepathically. Maybe someone was controlling Rose that way? They hadn't seemed to be threatening, but then again I might not have been their target.

The Doctor looks over at me sharply, I get a burst of annoyance. "Words." He mouths to me, before dropping my hand.

We walk down a staircase, and I gape up at the huge room we've found ourselves in. The whole place is lined with cells, ceiling to floor. There are thousands of them. I have a bad feeling about this.

The Doctor walks over to a cell and opens it up. There is a man who looks very sick inside.

"Oh my god." I breath out.

Rose's nose wrinkles, and she insensitively states. "That's disgusting. What's wrong with him?"

The Doctor shakes his head. "I'm sorry. I'm so sorry." He tells the man, as he closes his cell. He moves over to the next cell and opens that one. There is a sick looking woman in this one.

"What disease is that?" Rose asks.

"All of them," He responds gravely. "Every single disease in the galaxy. They've been infected with everything."

"What about us?" She asks. "Are we safe?"

"The air is sterile, just don't touch them." The Doctor states, as he closes the door on the woman too.

Rose furrowed her brow. "How many patients are there?"

The Doctor's jaw twitches. "They're not patients."

My stomach clenches with nausea. I can't believe it. These poor people. Despite the fact that I wasn't exactly the happiest with the Doctor right now, I reach out and grab his hand. Squeezing it hard, I bite my lip and blink rapidly to clear the tears from my eyes. His hand grips mine with the same intensity.

Rose doesn't seem to understand. "But they're sick."

"They were born sick. They're meant to be sick. They exist to be sick. Lab rats." He shakes his head. "No wonder the Sisters have got a cure for everything. They've built the ultimate research laboratory. A human farm!"

Rose lowers her voice. "Why don't they just die?"

"Plague carriers. The last to go." He states.

"It's for the greater cause." Novice Hame's voice comes out of nowhere.

"When you took your vows, did you agree to this?" He asks her, voice hard.

"The Sisters have sworn to help." Novice Hame explains.

"What? By killing?" The Doctor's eyes are cold and intent on her.

Novice Hame seems confused. "But they're not real people. They're specially grown. They have no proper existence."

Now that, that is enough of that. Stepping forward, I open my mouth to yell at her. Before I can though, the Doctor yanks me back with our clasped hands. He sends patience, that he has a plan. I bite my lip hard enough for the taste of iron to fill my mouth, but I am able to step back even though I am eyeing her with contempt.

The Doctor steps forward instead, dropping my hand. "What's the turnover, hmm? Thousand a day? Thousand the next? Thousand the next? How many thousands? For how many years? How many!" He finishes by yelling at Novice Hame. The gull of that man, telling me not to yell at her and then ending up doing it himself.

"Mankind needed us. They came to this planet with so many illnesses. We couldn't cope. We did try. We tried everything. We tried using clone-meat and bio-cattle, but the results were too slow, so the Sisterhood grew its own flesh. That's all they are. Flesh." Novice Hame tries to get us to understand.

"These people are alive!" The Doctor spits out.

Novice Hame attempts to justify herself. "But think of those Humans out there, healthy and happy, because of us."

"That's not okay." I shake my head at her. "Do you really think that if those people out there knew what you were doing they would thank you? You are torturing people, experimenting on them. The amount of people who you saved are not worth the countless lives that you have thrown away because you deemed them not people!" I jerk my head to the side, clenching my teeth. I can feel my eyes widen, forehead scrunching as I get angrier.

"Who are you to decide that?" Novice Hame asks me.

Voice cold, the Doctor answers. "I'm the Doctor, and she is Mabel Falkov. And if you don't like it, if you want to take it to a higher authority, then there isn't one. It stops with us."

Rose leans forward and breaks the tension. "Just to confirm. None of the humans in the city actually know about this?"

Novice Hame nods. "We thought it best to not-"

The Doctor interjects. "Hold on. I can understand the bodies. I can understand your vows. One thing I can't understand. What have you done to Rose?"

Blinking in surprise, Novice Hame looks confused. "I don't know what you mean."

"And I'm being very, very calm. You want to be aware of that." The Doctor warns her, voice taut with restraint. "Very, very calm. And the only reason I'm being so very, very calm is that the brain is a delicate thing. Whatever you've done to Rose's head, I want it reversed."

"We haven't done anything!" Novice Hame insists.

Rose chimes in. "Yes, I'm perfectly fine."

The Doctor isn't convinced. "These people are dying, and Rose would care."

Rose rolls her eyes. "Oh, all right, clever clogs." She reaches out and walks her fingers up his chest. "Smarty pants. Lady-killer."

He turns concerned eyes to Rose. "What's happened to you?" He asks her.

"I knew something was going on in this hospital, but I needed this body and your mind to find it out." Rose explains.

"Who are you?" I ask her.

"The last human." She breaths out.

Incredulous the Doctor asks, "Cassandra?"

Pulling a bottle of something from her cleavage she sprays him in the face with it, causing him to fall to the ground. "Wake up and smell the perfume!"

Lunging for her, I grab her hand with the bottle still in it. We both struggle back and forth, before she manages to kick my leg out from under me. Unstable, I start falling to the ground. Cassandra takes the opportunity and sprays me in the face with the perfume as well. And, for what seems the hundredth time since I've started this whole crazy jumping thing, I pass out.

I wake up to muffled voices. I shift, confused to find that I seem to be standing up. "Mabel, Mabel!" I hear the Doctor's voice in my ear. Something shifts next to my face and then suddenly I am wide awake and aware of the situation. I jerk back, but my hands seem to be tied behind the Doctors back, bringing us front to front.

Suddenly the door opens, and the restraints are released. I dart out of the cell with the Doctor to see every diseased cell in the row opening as well. "What've you done?" The Doctor questions Cassandra. She had a man with her who had squiggles all over his face.

She turns and looks at him. "Gave the system a shot of adrenaline, just to wake them up. See you!" Then she turns and runs down the hallway.

He goes to run after her, but stops and looks back at the cat nuns. "Don't touch them! Whatever you do, don't touch!" The Doctor orders, before dragging me down the hallway after Rose.

We manage to catch up to her just as an electrical charge flows through the whole place. Every cell door I can see starts to open.

"Oh my god." Cassandra murmurs.

"What the hell have you done?" The Doctor demands.

Cassandra shakes her head. "It wasn't me." The diseased people start to surround us.

Growling at her, his voice dark, The Doctor says. "One touch and you get every disease in the world, and I want that body safe, Cassandra. We've got to go down." He nods to the only viable escape route.

"But there's thousands of them!" Cassandra whines.

"Run!" He shouts at her. "Down! Go down!"

She listens, and we are off, running again. We go down and down, round in a staircase. Eventually we come to basement area. Cassandra runs over to a lift, but the Doctor stops her. "No, the lifts have closed down. That's the quarantine. Nothing's moving."

Cassandra tilts her head, thinking, before she runs off in another direction. "This way!" She calls back to us.

But we had made a mistake. No one had closed the door to the basement when we came in, and there were diseased people coming into the room. I skid to a stop, throwing out an arm and grabbing the guy with the squiggles before he can run into them.

"Mabel!" The Doctor calls out in concern. "Hold on, we'll find a way over."

"Leave them," Cassandra dismisses.

Her companion, the one trapped on my side, calls out. "Mistress!"

The Doctor turns fierce eyes to Cassandra. "We are not leaving them!" He spits.

More people shuffle into the corridor. My heart pounds in fear, but I try to smile. "Nah! You guys find a way out over there and we will find one over here."

The Doctor runs a hand over his face harshly. He shakes his head sharply, then looks at me. "You and I have a conversation to finish, so I better see you later Falkov."

I nod at him, then grab my new companion and pull him away from the press of people coming in.

"So what's your name?" I ask him.

"Chip." He answers, breathless.

"Well, you have any ideas Chip? Cause I have no idea where I'm going." I tell him, matter of factly.

He uses the grip I have on his arm and directs us over to a chute labeled waste.

"Ughh," I whine. "Is this really the only way?"

He nods at me, and jumps into the chute. Hesitating, I look around but there doesn't seem to be any other convenient escape avenues opening up to me. Grimacing the whole time, I lever myself up and jump into the chute.

Then I'm falling. The sensation steals the breath from my chest, I don't even have enough to scream. I am pleasantly surprised when, instead of landing in a vat of questionable substances, I land in what seems to be laundry instead.

"Oh thank god." I murmur as Chip comes over to help me up. "Alright, let's go find a way out of here." I say to Chip. 'Here' seems to be a sub-basement room. There are chutes coming in from several different points of the ceiling. I can faintly see a staircase in the distance, and start heading towards it.

I notice that Chip isn't following after me, and I look back at him in question. He shakes his head at me.

"I'm saving this body for my Mistress." He informs me.

"Understood." I respond. "Keep yourself safe Chip."

I start jogging for the stairs, thinking. There has to be something that I can do somewhere.

I make it up 10 floors before I find an exit door. I'm no longer jogging, I don't know many people that could keep that pace up so many floors. I take the exit door and find myself in a service corridor, at least that's what it looks like.

I travel through the corridor, keeping an eye out for any movement. Hitting the end of the corridor, I'm confused to find a wall, and no exit door. "C'mon, there can't be nothing here." I mutter to myself. I spread my hands along the wall, feeling for an indentations or latches. My right hand hits something, and I press in. The wall slides up, revealing a ward.

Walking into the room, I turn and look at the open corridor. Now just how am I supposed to close this now that the latch has scrolled into the ceiling with the rest of the wall? Frustrated, I kick the wall next to the corridor. A noise sounds out, and the wall scrolls back down.

I look at the wall, and then down at my foot. Shrugging I head into the next room over where all the patients are.

A woman notices me. "Hey you! Do you know what's going on?"

"Yes," I say, directing my attention to everyone in the room. "Long story short, there are diseased people walking around. They all look very sick, boils and things on their skin. Don't let them touch you."

Several people start to talk at once, voices raising.

"Oi!" I interrupt, waiting for everyone to quiet down before continuing. "Getting freaked out isn't going to help anything right now. I locked the entrance behind me, but I don't know if there are any other entrances to this floor. If someone knows, can they check them and make sure they are closed?" Two people nod and run off. "Okay, is there anything I can help with here?"

A man nods, and gestures for me to come forward. I follow him, and proceed to start handing out the supplies that he has gathered. I let my mind wander as I hand out water packages, and blankets. I hope the Doctor and Cassandra/Rose managed to get out okay.

I finish handing out the last water package in my pile, squeezing a woman's shoulder in comfort as I walk by. I look up and notice the Doctor. He's leaning up against a wall and smiling fondly at me. "You're okay!" I exclaim. Deciding what the heck, I throw my arms around his neck. He laughs, high pitched and breathless, while wrapping his arms around me as well. His hold tightens and he picks me up, spinning me around. I shriek in surprise, struggling to put space between us. "Why are you wet?!" I yelp.

Putting me down, he beams at me. "I mixed together intravenous solutions for every single disease. Using that, I was able to cure everyone!"

My eyes widen in disbelief. "Everybody?"

"Yep." He says, popping the p.

"What about Rose and Cassandra?" I ask, concerned.

His face flickers, some of the cheer leaving. "Rose is okay now, Cassandra left her body. The person who was taking care of her here, he offered his body for her to use."

I nod. "Yeah, Chip said he was saving it for her to use. I figured that was his choice."

The Doctor presses his lip into a line. "Chip is just a half-life, with all this running around his heart is giving out. Cassandra has a last request."

I smack him lightly on the arm, startling him. "Oi!" He turns his puppy dog eyes to me.

"What are we waiting for?" I say to him. "If her heart is giving out then we need to move fast. What are you doing wasting time coming to get me for?"

"Mabel!" The Doctor whines, directing me to the lift. "Coming to find you isn't wasting time at all. Plus, I was going to grab the Tardis and bring it back to when I just left them up there. Making it so that Cassandra has more time for her last request."

"Okay." I'll give him that one. "That was pretty thoughtful." We reach the lift and the Doctor pulls out his sonic. He presses the button and does something to the lift. As we walk into it, I raise an eyebrow at him.

The Doctor shrugs. "I figured you didn't want to go through the disinfectant shower again." He leans down and ruffles his hair, getting the liquid in it all over me. Then leans out of the way of my retaliating swat. "Plus, you're now inoculated to most diseases." He says, grinning at me cheekily.

I try to frown, but my lips twitch up into a smile instead. "You sir, are being very charming today."

"I'm always charming." He assures me.

I sigh. Biting my lip in hesitation, I contemplate between bringing up what happened earlier and not mentioning anything. Knowing the Doctor, he probably won't let me forget it though. That's probably the reason he came to get me before he went to get the Tardis, so we would have time to talk alone.

I look up at the Doctor from under my eyelashes, to find him looking at me with a serious expression.

"You would be right." He confirms, as the lift doors open and we head across the lobby. "I'm not going to let it go." I frown up at him. No fair, reading my mind. "I can't help it when you are projecting everywhere."

I try to look at him in the face, but my eyes skitter off to somewhere over his left ear. My cheeks and ears feel tight and hot. This is really rather embarrassing.

"Look, I'm not entirely sure what to think." I say, words coming out slow.

The Doctor focuses his full attention on me. "About what?"

"I haven't been traveling with you for very long, but I'm not that oblivious. I know you care for me. You always look to me first in a situation, you listen when I speak, which I've noticed you don't always do to others. And the kissing." I stop trying to look at the Doctor and look out towards the bay instead.

He hums encouragingly, and I feel his hand bump up against mine.

Looking down, I stare at his hand. He wiggles his fingers invitingly. "Like that, I want to take your hand. But then I feel bad, because you have expectations behind the action."

The Doctor stops abruptly, hand coming around my arm to stop me as well. His face is serious. "Expectations? What do you mean?"

I sigh again. "No matter where I jump, you always know more about me than I do about you. You aren't exactly subtle, and you act like we've been together for a long time. And maybe we have, but I feel bad because I don't have those feelings. At least not yet. Every time you hold my hand, or kiss me, I feel like I'm taking advantage because you are doing it for different reasons then I am."

Chancing a look up at the Doctor, I am surprised to find a rueful look on his face. He runs his hand through his hair, and laughs a little.

"I wanted to do a better job at this." He tells me. "But it really is difficult." He reaches out to grab my hand. "This doesn't have to have any other connotations than you want it to have." He looks down at me, face tender. "I can't say a lot about my past concerning you, it has to be lived. I can, however, say this. Nothing is set in stone. Time can be rewritten. Never think that you don't have a choice."

My mouth flaps open. I'm not entirely sure what to say. The Doctor laughs at my expression. "This body is turning out to be more flirty than some of my other ones. If I'm making you uncomfortable just tell me and I'll stop."

The Doctor is still holding my hand. "I-I don't know." I can feel the heat travel across my face, as my blush reemerges. I try to pull my hand out of his, but he tightens his grip, leaning closer to me.

"Hmm, I think you might like it." He teases me.

"Shut up!" I cry, embarrassed. I bring up my other hand and cover my face with it hoping that the ground will come up and eat me.

The Doctor laughs, deep from his chest. The sound is as happy as I've ever heard him. My face is still on fire, and I can feel my body temperature rising everywhere. Is it possible to blush with your whole body? Deciding to face my embarrassment head on, I take my hand from my face and open my eyes.

The first thing I notice is the orange flames. The hand the Doctor is holding is on fire. Oh. I guess it's not embarrassment making my body warm, but my weird orange flames that make me jump around.

I tug on my hand. "Doctor."

He nods, face still showing signs of his previous humor. "Leaving then?"

"Yeah." I say, kinda sad. "I don't want to go yet."

"It'll be okay, wherever you go I'll be there." He says to me. My vision starts to white out, and the feeling of his hand disappears from mine.