The Doctor sat down on the edge of his bed and pressed the heels of his hands into his eyelids. He stilled his body as stars burst before him. With a few shaking breaths he straightened up and tried to think it through. He had run into a burning building to save someone that he had only met a day ago. Wait, scratch that. He looked at his watch and saw that it was three in the morning. Two days ago is when he met Ruby and took her onto the TARDIS. It seemed like so long ago, as if he'd been with her for months. He rolled his eyes and massaged his temples.

He only knew her for one day and he felt an odd connection to her. Before he had burst into that room he knew that something besides the fire was keeping her there. He recognized that there was someone that managed to trap her into a room. The surge of emotions that had gone through him was unmistakable. Somehow Ruby's thoughts had transpired to him as if she had been calling out for help. For his help.

Not to mention that just as he opened that door he witnessed Thomas Seymour's body fall to the ground and Ruby's fist retracting back. For that brief moment the doctor swelled with enormous pride. That was until he felt this huge pain surge through his head.

Ruby was thrown to the floor and her legs and arms were so tired, but it was old news. She's been exhausted for hours. With as much strength as she could muster, Ruby lifted her self off of the floor so that she could look at her attacker. His face was blurred, but she could feel the hatred that pulsed through her veins. Though his face was obscure, Ruby could clearly see the dagger that he had in his grip. He had her cornered against a blue wall and she had no means of escaping, but he stopped for a moment and Ruby could feel a drop of water fall onto her leg. Although her anger seethed she could feel no hatred or contempt from her attacker. Ruby, with no more energy welcomed the strike with her lack of resistance. When the blade struck her chest there was no pain. Her vision only faded away and all her senses ceased to function. No longer could she touch, see, taste, or smell, but just as her hearing left her she heard a whisper. "Ruby, I'll be with you again. I promise."

Ruby's eyes snapped open and began to hyperventilate. The Doctor watched her wince and instinctively placed her hand at the base of her skull. He was by her side in an instant helping her to sit upright. Amazed at his own speed he hesitated a moment before he put his hand on her thigh to stabilize her body as he slid his other hand under her back and hoisted her upright.

"I could've done it myself, you know." Her voice was raspy from the large amount of smoke that she had inhaled.

"Right, I'll just let go then." The Doctor took his hand away but he could feel her body's lack of function and she began to fall back onto her bed, but he was right there to prevent that from happening. How had one little dream have incapacitated her to this point? "Ruby, what's wrong?"

He watched her chest slowly rise and fall as she took a deep breath. "I really don't know, but this dream was the third one that I had of me dying. Its starting to really eat away at me."

"What do you mean, "third one?" I didn't know that you had another dream."

"That's it though. It wasn't a dream, because it happened while I was awake. It happened right before I had run into the castle." The Doctor made no sound, only looked down and waited for Ruby to continue recapitulating what had occurred the night before. "I was running up the stairs and I went somewhere else. I was in what looked to be a bathroom and I was trapped. And I was dying because the entire place was filled with smoke." There was something I that brief explanation that Ruby had left out, but the Doctor didn't press the matter any further.

He was curious though. He watched Ruby apply pressure to the sides of her and slowly moved her fingers in a circular motion. At that moment the pain in his head started to ease. What was happening? Without another word he got up to leave her to get some rest, and partially because being around her made him feel things that he didn't even understand. But he felt a soft hand tug on his jacket. "Don't go. Please, I need someone here with me."

The look on her face never wavered beneath the beautiful exterior he saw the lonely feelings that had shifted at the thought of him leaving the room. She was pleading. He gave in and instead of sitting down on the chair he crossed his legs on the bed. He looked at her and couldn't help but notice how her hair rolled across her shoulders. He let his eyes drift down to the curve of her waist and couldn't help but recall his hand lying there just several hours earlier.

How could Ruby have let him walk away. She couldn't come to terms with what she was feeling, but she knew that she wanted to feel the warmth of his hand again. She knew that she could let herself fall for hours into those deep brown eyes. Ruby knew that without him by her side, she would feel empty again only because when she met him everything seemed to fall in place. But at the same time everything can be rather chaotic.

"Ruby?"

"What?" Her voice was rather breathy and it made him react so strangely, but he had to do this.

"This may sound odd, but I need to look through your memories. I have to see if these dreams you're having are even dreams."

"But I'm perfectly healthy and alive. In all of my dreams I died."

"That's why I have to do this." Then he lightly placed his fingers on her temples and she instinctively closed her eyes. He walked down the hallways of her mind and saw the doors that opened to different memories. He opened them and saw only very recent memories. And the emotions attached to the memories were so strong. Everyday that she was working there seemed to be an emptiness that never went away when she went home to her apartment. But where were her memories of America. It was as if her childhood didn't exist. Farther down the hallway there were more doors but they were actually boarded up.

"Ruby? Do you see the doors that I'm looking at?"

"Yeah." Suddenly Ruby was in front of him in her torn and charred dress. They ran their fingers over the wood and Ruby realized that some of the nails were missing. Without thinking, she gripped her hands around the wood. The Doctor went to stop her, but it was too late. She gave one large tug, and although the board didn't release itself, she yelled out in pain.

Ruby was back in her room with the Doctor holding her. Her hands gripped the sides of her head and she let out another yell. She only sat there and he rocked back and forth. The pain was almost unbearable. If it wasn't for the Doctor being there she would surely had been on the floor twisted in pain.

He could feel the terrible pain in his own mind and when she had pulled on that door something happened to him. An image of him and a woman, a timelady, sitting in a field together. Just smiling and laughing. Her hair was a dark brown with cascading curls, they were having such a good time, until the explosion came.

The memory went away as quickly as it had come and he sat there on the bed holding Ruby, not only for her sake but also for his.