"Rose! Rose, what's wrong?!" The Doctor grabbed Rose's wrist and felt her pulse, which was weak and sluggish. He propped her up on the bed, and she watched him dash out of the room and return with a tall glass of water. Her heartbeat pounded a tattoo into her skull, and she gratefully gulped the water when he handed it to her.
"Thanks. I dunno what happened, I guess I'm coming down with something. Spring fever, eh? Good thing I took a sick day tomorrow."
Rose finished her water and the Doctor tucked her into the sheets. He brought her some aspirin and she drifted off into sleep, the Doctor watching her concernedly from his side of the bed.
The next morning, Rose awoke revitalised from her much-needed sleep. She glanced at the clock on her nightstand. Eleven? Wow, I suppose I did need a rest. All that staring at computer screens has put me off. She wandered into the kitchen of the silent house, thankful to have a moment of peace, a respite from her usual hectic mornings. When she returned to the bedroom to get dressed, she noticed the folder of printouts the Doctor had abandoned. One of the sheets had fallen to the floor, and Rose picked it up to return it to it's place. The page was upside-down, but she noticed a diagram of the Serenhardd system. Right-side-up, the system was just a scattering of planets around a star. But upside-down, Rose noticed that each planet seemed to have a mate, as if they were really paired planets. Feeling intrigued, though sure that it had nothing to do with the disappearance of Serenhardd itself, Rose decided she would pop into the office after hours and do a quick search on binary planets. The Doctor may have given up on adventures, but I'm not ready to. Not yet.
Rose spent the day lounging around the house, waiting for Torchwood to close for the evening so she could go in and do a quick computer search without having to face her colleagues. When 5:00 rolled around, she grabbed her keys and drove into the city to the Institute's main building. On the way, she got a text from the Doctor saying he had to stay late to grade papers, but he felt bad about arguing the night before. However, he still wanted her to see the house he was talking about, even if she wasn't ready to change things just yet. Would she meet him there at 8:00? Rose tucked her phone into pocket, not wanting the added distraction of texting as she entered the city, and decided that she'd humour him.
Her computer search turned up nothing. Binary planets were as common as grass across the universe, nothing special about them. With that lead dead, Rose spent a little time doing randomised searches of the database, hoping to stumble upon anything of interest related to Serenhardd. Finding nothing but some old files on a potential mining colony that had been abandoned in the planning stages, she gave up and switched off her computer. Her watch read 7:20. She sighed as she remembered the Doctor's request, and pulled out her phone to check the address. It was not far from their house, but it would take her at least 30 minutes to get over there from the Torchwood building. Confident that it would a pointless visit, Rose left the building and got into her car, turning on the radio for something to listen to during the long drive.
About fifteen minutes in, the ride was proving as uneventful as Rose had anticipated. Nothing was interesting about the particular section of town she was driving towards, and she was considering simply texting the Doctor to say that she didn't care to see this house, however many trees it had in its yard, when she started to feel strange. Her head was swimming again, and her mood turned fouler with every mile she drove. The radio was emitting a high-pitched noise but she was too distracted by her sudden pounding headache to risk taking her eyes off the road to adjust the station. Afraid that she was going to pass out in the middle of the road, Rose pulled her car over and was about to turn it off when she felt her body jerk, as though somebody had pushed her over from behind. Instinctively, she closed her eyes and put her hands out to stop herself from falling on her face, and was surprised when she felt them touch cold metal. What? No, that's not right. What's happening?
Rose was on the verge of panicking when she heard a familiar buzzing sound behind her. She quickly stood up and took in her surroundings. She was standing on a large, silver platform and there, in front of her, was a large window, black except for the occasional smattering of white stars, as one might see looking up at the night sky. Fearing that she had passed out and was dreaming, she at first didn't hear the sound of shrill voices coming from the room behind her.
"WE HAVE TAKEN THE HUMAN CAPTIVE. SHE IS IN THE TELEPORT CHAMBER."
She froze. Rose recognised those voices, but it couldn't be possible. No, she simply couldn't be here. Not without the Doctor. She turned to face the doorway, and as she did, something hovered into view. She gasped, unable to believe what was happening. As the monster moved towards her, she felt her heart speed up, now pounding in her chest.
"No. You can't be here. You're dead, I watched you die! No!" The creature came to a halt in front of her, raising it's eyestalk to look her in the face.
"WE DO NOT DIE. WE ARE ETERNAL. WE ARE THE DAAAAAAAAAAAAAAALEKS!"