Chapter Fifteen:

A/N: I apologise in advance for this chapter if it's not up to my usual standard this is one of the episodes of season three I really hated above all the others.

Chapter Fifteen: Teamwork

Rose, Theta and Martha ended up having a good laugh at the expense of Jack. Eventually they calmed down, although it took a couple of days. At the moment Martha had convinced the Doctor to take them to a nice warm planet after the little 'mishap' a few days before. Of course Rose had absolutely nothing to so with it.

"Please…" Martha begged.

"No!" The Doctor told her firmly.

"Please, Rose thinks it's a brilliant idea." Unfortunately for the Doctor, Martha had learned that if she used the words 'Rose thinks' he'd more likely do it.

"I'll just check with her." Martha watched as the Doctor sighed and concentrated. "Rose did you agree with Martha?"

"Agree with Martha about what?"

"About going somewhere warm."

"I thought it'd be a nice change." He sighed. Abruptly the TARDIS shook violently.

"Distress signal! Locking on!" The Doctor kicked a lever on the consol. "Might be a bit of... Turbulence. Sorry!" The jolting stopped just as Rose and Jack made it into the room.

"Where are we?" Jack asked. Rose quickly placed Tala into her pram.

"Let's take a look!" The Doctor took the pram from Rose; she stared at him slightly. Jack and Martha ran out, they shook their head.

"What'd happen if a hoard of Daleks were in front of that door?" Rose asked.

"Then we'd have to save them." He leant down and pressed a gentle kiss to her lips. "Whoa! Now that is hot!" He cried as they stepped out of the TARDIS into a red corridor, steam billowing around them. Rose bent down and pressed a button on the pram, immediately a shield went around Tala protecting her from the heat, cooling her down.

"Whoa! It's like a sauna in here!" Martha moaned, Rose wafted her t-shirt lightly to try and cool herself down.

"You got to go somewhere warm didn't you?" The Doctor asked dodging the glares that were sent his way. He chose to look at the equipment. "Venting systems. Working at full pelt. Trying to cool down…Uh, where ever it is we are. Well! If you can't stand the heat…" Theta opened a heavy-duty door and walked through into another corridor. "Well, that's better…"

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Rose paced around the corridor, Martha stood against what she deemed to be the coolest consol, Jack had long since lost his jacket. The Doctor however still was fully dressed not looking the least uncomfortable.

"So we're next to a sun, with 42 minutes left to live, it's boiling hot…" Rose sighed and sat down on the floor. "And the TARDIS is in there." She gestured to the room. "And we can't get to it, brilliant." The Doctor sat next to her and pulled her close.

"At least this time we know where it is." He comforted. She nodded; he helped her take her jacket off. She smiled gratefully at him.

"The temperature's going mad in there! Up 3000 degrees in ten seconds, and still rising." Erina informed the people.

"Channelling the air. The closer we get to the sun, the hotter that room's gonna get." Riley replied. The Doctor stood up before the doom and gloom got any worse, he pulled Rose up.

"So? We fix the engines, we steer the ship away from the Sun! Simple! Engineering down here, is it?!" He began to run, Rose changed the settings on the pram so it hovered. Jack glanced at the computer readout.

"Guys we've got 40 minutes." The group ran down stairs.

"Who'd have thought, stairs in a space ship!" Martha cried gasping, still not used to running. "I would've though they'd have a lift or something."

"You'd be surprised." Jack replied skidding to a halt as he realised the Doctor had stopped, in a completely unidentifiable room.

"Blimey! Do you always leave things in such a mess?" Rose gave the Doctor a dirty look.

"You're one to talk!" Jack muttered.

"What? The TARDIS is always tidy."

"Only after Tala was born." The Doctor grumbled.

"It looks like someone's been through here with a sledgehammer." Rose commented wanting to change the subject quickly.

"Someone knew what they were doing." He told them, Rose gingerly picked up what she assumed to be a terminal screen.

"Where's Korwin? Has anyone heard from him or Ashton?" McDonnell asked.

"No." A voice replied. The Doctor decided to ignore this woman, Rose and Jack followed suit. The three looked at the controls trying to make heads and tails out of the mess. Rose had some knowledge from their travels, but being connected to the Doctor meant that he could share knowledge with her in a split second.

"Oh! We're in the Torajji system!" The Doctor exclaimed. Martha smiled and bent down to check on Tala. "And, you're still using energy scoops for fusion? Hasn't that been outlawed yet?"

"We're due to upgrade next docking. Scannell, engine report."

"Can't you see for yourself it's destroyed?" Jack part shouted. "Its burnt out, I don't think you need anyone to tell you that."

"Why do people always ask for the main engines when they know they're fried. Auxiliary engines! Every craft's got auxiliaries!"

"We don't have access from here. The auxiliary controls are in the front of the ship."

"Yeah, with 29 password sealed doors between us and them. You'll never get there in time."

"Who's idea was that?" Rose asked, making them shrink with her gaze.

"Please tell us they're not dead lock sealed." Jack moaned, the crew looked at each other guiltily.

"Nothing's any use. We've got no engines, no time, and no chance."

"Oh listen to you! Defeated before you've even started! Where's your Dunkirk spirit?! Who's got the door passwords?"

"They're randomly generated. Reckon I know most of 'em. Sorry. Riley Vashti."

"Then what're you waiting for Riley Vashti, get on it."

"Well, it's a two-person job One, it takes to answer the questions, and the other to carry this." He showed them a large backpack. "The oldest and cheapest security system around, eh captain?"

"Well you'll have three. Martha, Jack, you go with him and try to sort it out." He gave them a small grin. "I'll stay here with Rose and see if we can sort out this mess."

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As they reached the med centre Rose stopped dead in the doorway with Tala, as soon as she saw the man she assumed to be Korwin thrashing around on the bed, she turned the pram around so that Tala was facing out of the med bay.

"He's burning up." Theta told her more than anyone else. "How long has he been like this?"

"Ashton just brought him in." A young coloured woman asked. The Doctor searched his pockets looking for his screwdriver he cast a worried look to Rose, she came across to him.

"I can't find it." He panicked. Rose sent him a wave of calm through their link.

"Don't panic." She pulled his hands away from his pockets. "Put your hands by your sides." Rose placed a hand on his chest feeling his hearts slowly beginning to calm. She knew he was worried because nothing had ever been this severe before, no contact with the TARDIS and only half an hour to save everyone.

"Rose…" She silenced him with a small smile. She gently opened his jacket and searched through his inside pocket – nothing, she searched through his right jacket pocket then his left – nothing, she searched through both of his trouser pockets then his back pockets, she smiled when she found it. She lifted it up and watched his face fill with relief.

"See no need to panic." He pressed a grateful kiss to her lips. He began to scan Korwin.

"What are you doing?" McDonnell asked; the Doctor just shook his head, not wanting to answer the stupid question.

"Sonic impulse?" He asked, the only viable option, McDonnell pushed past Ashton to get to the head of the bed.

"Don't be so stupid, that's my husband!"

"And I'm just guessing he sabotaged your ship!" Rose yelled at her. McDonnell turned to face someone for confirmation.

"He went mad. He set the ship to secure closure, then he set the heat pulse to melt the controls."

"No way! He wouldn't do that!" She protested, Rose knew that anyone was capable of anything, especially her husband.

"I saw it happen, Captain." The Doctor groaned, and decided to take the momentary silence to speak to his 'patient'.

"Korwin? Korwin, open your eyes for me a second."

"I can't!" Rose moved up next to him, speaking in a soothing voice.

"Of course you can, you can do it."

"Don't make me look at you! Please!!" The Doctor raised an eyebrow and looked at Rose who seemed just as confused as he was. Korwin thrashed some more. He gestured for Rose to calm him down.

"Just stay calm, nothing is going to hurt you." Rose stepped back as her husband pressed a device to Korwin's neck that she assumed was a sedative as he immediately calmed. The Doctor leaned against the bed and went into full medical mode.

"Rising body temperature, unusual energy readings…Stasis chamber. I do love a good stasis chamber. Keep him sedated in there. Regulate the body temperature.And, just for fun, run a bio-scan and tissue profile on a metabolic detail." He smirked at Rose slightly; enjoying the fact that no one was questioning him for the first time in a long while.

"Just doing them now."

"Oh, you're good. Anyone else presenting these symptoms?"

"Not so far."

"Well, that's something."

"Will someone tell me what is the matter with him?!"

"Some sort of infection. We'll know more after the test results. Now, Allons-y, back downstairs." Rose gave him a funny look. "You know I've always wanted to say that." He said lowly for her ears only. "Ay! See about those engines. Go. Ay! Go.Call us if there's news! Any questions?" He ran out of the med bay, Rose following closely.

"Yeah. Who are you?" The woman scoffed. Rose stopped just as she almost hit her husband with Tala's pram. He dodged backwards through the door.

"I'm the Doctor!" He smiled poking his head round the door. "And this is Rose."

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Jack, Martha and Riley stopped at the door. Before Riley had even told Jack what to do the clamp was on the door. Jack's face almost split into a smug smile as he saw the disbelief on Riley's face and the wind partly leave his sails.

Riley turned to a keyboard, beginning to type.

"Each door's trip code is the answer to a random question set by the crew. Nine tours back, we got drunk, thought 'em up. Reckoning was if we're hijacked, we're the only ones who know all the answers."

"What happens if a newcomer comes on board, like, oh I don't know…us?!" Jack asked, annoyed at the idea. "That has got to be the worst idea I've ever heard!" Riley decided to ignore Jack completely.

"This, sends an unlock pulse to the clamp. But we only get one chance per door. Get it wrong, the whole system freezes.

"Better not get it wrong then."

"OK. Date of SS Pentallian's first flight? That's alright!" The door unlocked "Go!"

"Yes!"

"Only twenty-eight more to go!" Jack sighed and followed the pair through the door suddenly wishing he was with the Doctor and Rose. As if they knew what they were thinking, the Doctor checked in with them.

"Martha? Jack and…?" Jack could picture him turning round to look at Rose for the answer.

"Riley." A muffled cry answered.

"How're you doing?"

"Area twenty-nine, at the door to twenty-eight!"

"You've gotta move faster!"

"I think they're going as fast as they can Theta." The muffled voice came again. Martha thanked Rose silently as she held back something that would've been much ruder.

"Find the next number in the sequence: 313, 331, 367…what?"

"You said the crew knew all the answers."

"See my point exactly!" Jack butted in. Martha turned to face him showing agreement in her eyes.

"The crew's changed since we set the questions." Riley admitted sheepishly. A triumphant cry came from behind them, Jack gallantly resisted the urge to sing 'I told you so!'.

"379!" Rose cut in.

"What?!"

"It's a sequence of happy primes. 379."

"Happy what?"

"Just enter it!"

"Are you sure? We only get one chance!" Jack pushed past him and entered the number into the keyboard immediately the door slid open.

"What do you know he was right." Martha muttered trying not to smile.

"Usually anything the Doctor or Rose says is the right thing to do!"

"Keep moving. Fast as you can. Be careful. There may be something else on board this ship." Martha turned and followed Jack and Riley as they ran down the corridor to the next door.

"I can't believe our lives depend on some stupid pub quiz! Is that the next one?"

"Oh, this is a nightmare! Classical music. Who had the most pre-download number ones, Elvis Presley or The Beatles? How're we supposed to know that?"

"Elvis." Jack cut in. Martha looked at him curiously. "When Rose first did a quiz on the TARDIS she tried everything to trip the Doctor up. That one stuck."

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"Doctor, these readings are starting to scare me." Abi told the Doctor through the intercom.

"What d'you mean?"

"Well, Korwin's body's changing! His whole biological make-up, it… it's impossible." A bang filtered through the system. "This is med-centre. Urgent assistance requested. Urgent assistance!

"Stay here! Keep working!" The Doctor yelled taking off, being followed by Rose and McDonnell.

"His DNA's changing? Is it similar to what happened to me when I became…" She cast a glance back to McDonnell. "You know."

"Your DNA changed who you were but just your species not your thought patterns, whatever's happening to Korwin is taking him over."

"Captain?!" The group turned to see Scannell with them.

"I told you to stay in engineering!"

"I only take orders form one person round here." Theta and Rose shared a look.

"Oh you're a bundle of joy aren't you?" Rose snapped, turning but not before she saw the Doctor's small lopsided grin.

"Korwin's gone…"

"Oh my God…" The group turned to see a charred, black shape on the wall. "Tell me that's not Lerner."

"Endothermic vaporisation. I've never seen one this ferocious. Burn with me." He muttered, Rose took his hand, he squeezed it tightly.

"That's what we heard Korwin say."

"What?! D'you think… no way! Scannell, tell him! Korwin is not a killer! He can't vaporise people! He's human!"

"His bio scan results… internal temperature, one hundred degrees! Body oxygen replaced by hydrogen! Your husband hasn't been infected, he's been overwhelmed!"

"The test results are wrong!"

"What will it take for you to accept your husband is different?" Rose asked.

"But what is it though? Parasite? Mutagenic virus? Something that needs a host body. But how did it get inside him?!"

"Stop talking like he's some kind of experiment!"

"Where's the ship been? Have you made planet-fall recently? Docked with any other vessels? Any kind of external contact at all?"

"What is this? An interrogation?!"

"We've got to stop him before he kills again."

"We're just… a cargo ship." She looked at him as if she was afraid to ask a question. "Is the infection permanent? Can you cure him?"

"I dunno." He looked at Rose, conveying worry.

"Don't lie to me, Doctor. Eleven years we've been married. We chose this ship together. He keeps me honest. So I don't want false hope. You're married you know what it's like, what would you do if it was your wife?"

"The parasite's too aggressive. Your husband's gone. There's no way back. Sorry."

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"I need a spacesuit!" The Doctor snapped.

"I'll do it." Jack told him sternly.

"Jack, you've not worked on the outside of ships before, I know what I'm doing."

"Rose…" Jack looked to her for support.

"He's right Jack. Although he'd better look after himself." Rose ordered.

"You open that airlock, it's suicide. This close to the sun, the shields will barely protect you."

"If I can breach the magnetic lock on the ship's exterior, it should remagnetise the pod. Now, while I'm out there, you have got to get the rest of those doors open. We need those auxiliary engines." He told them all, daring them to challenge him.

"Doctor, will you listen! They're too far away, it's too late!"

"It's never too late." He replied, he bent down to Rose's level and kissed her sweetly. "Love you."

"Be safe." She told him.

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"Doc, the airlock!" Jack yelled as loud as he could to his friend. the Doctor took off his helmet.

"THETA!" Rose screamed, seeing the pain he appeared to be in.

"Airlock recompression completed." Martha and Riley climbed out of the pod. As the Doctor collapsed. Rose immediately cradled his head in her hands.

"What's wrong, love?" She asked softly. He opened his eyes before quickly closing them, Rose gasped as she saw what had infected him.

"Stay away from me! It's your fault, Captain McDonnell!" Rose stroked his hair, holding him close to her. He seemed to be gathering strength from her actions. Their connection felt cold and empty. "You mined that sun! Stripped its surface for cheap fuel! You should have scanned for life!"

"I don't understand." McDonnell asked.

"The sun's alive." Rose gasped, grasping what he'd said.

"That sun is alive! A living organism! They scooped out its heart, used it for fuel, and now it's screaming!"

"What do you mean? How can a sun be alive? Why's he saying that?!"

"Because it's living in me." He screamed towards Rose, she held closer as he shook. "Freeze me, quickly! Stasis chamber! You gotta keep me…below minus 200. Freeze it out of me!! It'll use me to kill you if you don't! The closer we get to the sun, the stronger it gets! Med-centre! Quickly! Quickly!"

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"Rose? Jack? Martha?" He cried, panicking. Rose grabbed his hand.

"I'm here, we all are."

"No, you don't know how this equipment works! You'll kill him! Nobody can survive those temperatures!" McDonnell cried.

"If my husband says he can survive he can."

"Let me help you then!" Rose looked at McDonnell, her eyes glowed as the Bad Wolf ebbed forward.

"Stay away from my husband." Rose's voice became slightly tinny. "This is all your fault."

"Ten seconds. That's all I'll be able to take. No more! It's burning me up. I can't control it. If you don't get rid of it,I could kill you. I could kill you all. I'm scared! I'm so scared!" Rose bent down and pressed a kiss to his forehead, he'd never admitted he as scared to anyone but her before.

"I love you, I swear we'll sort this out." She muttered. "We need to see who wins the bet."

"It's bloody killing me! Then what'll happen?!"

"Then we'll make it through a regeneration." Martha looked at Jack confused. "We all will. I won't stop loving you because you change you know that."

"Are you ready?" Martha asked; Rose nodded. Martha kissed his cheek softly as Jack squeezed the Doctors arm. Rose stroked his hair.

"NO!" He screamed – he didn't stop.

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Rose turned to face Jack and Martha, worry across her face. Jack suddenly jumped slightly.

"We'll empty all of the particles stored on the ship. That hopefully make the creature realise we're sorry."

"Do it." Rose told him, he began to run out but stopped when he realised Martha wasn't with him.

"Will you be okay?" Martha asked.

"He'd never hurt me." Rose told her softly. Martha shared her gaze before running out after Jack. Rose sighed and turned back to the stasis chamber. She pulled him out grabbing his hand as she waited for the chamber to defrost.

The chamber wouldn't defrost. She looked scared as her husband began to scramble off the bed.

"Theta, stay there."

"I can't fight it Rose." She saw tears coursing down his face from the strain of keeping his eyes closed "BURN WITH ME. BURN WITH ME, ROSE!" He cried. Rose grabbed his hand again; she noticed the presence ebb away slightly.

Rose closed her eyes and connected their minds together. She shared their experiences with him.

She gave him her first memory of him in the basement, every thought she had when she saw him, how much she loved him, she showed him all of her treasured images of him and Tala whether it as playing or sleeping. Rose showed him their first kiss, what she felt when they married.

Rose felt him growing stronger and stronger; slowly defeating what was in him. Suddenly he was screaming, he fell down and he pulled her with him. She held him as he screamed, not wanting to part from him.

Suddenly his screaming stopped, he pulled himself from her embrace and stood up. Rose watched him unsure of whether or not it was him. She breathed a sigh of relief when he opened his eyes to reveal hazel brown eyes. He lifted his right hand and pressed her right palm to his, Rose nearly cried at the loving gesture. She threw herself at him, knowing he was weak but unable to do anything else. He buried his nose in her hair. She pulled back slightly seeing his smile. He leant down and kissed her tenderly, Rose smiled into the kiss and opened her mouth to him.

TBC