A/N: Don't blame me for the chapter title. Really. Honestly.

Chapter 12 – Fifteen Breasts And A Man's Desires

The night drifted quickly by.

With a jolt, Rose awoke from a rather detailed dream to find the Doctor awake infront of her. She was still lying on his bed – she'd fallen asleep right next to him. She gave him a crooked grin, before she started messing with his hair fondly.

"Hello tiger," she growled with a grin, and he looked a little dazed.

"Hello…umm…err…woodchuck," he answered weakly, enjoying how Rose was playing with his hair.

"How you feeling?" she asked, and he groaned.

"I could run…" he paused, taking a breath. "A marathon," he assured her in a tired voice, closing his eyes again.

"I can see why you hate public transport," Rose joked, and he smiled slightly. Maybe now was the time to tell him. While they were alone, while they were hidden; while he couldn't run away.

As she pulled herself up to sitting position on the bed, she glanced over his content face again.

"Doctor?" she asked mildly, and she smiled when she realised he'd fallen asleep once more. Fair enough. If he wanted to take a nap every five seconds, it was fine by her.

Then something growled. A deep, low rumbling sound from just behind her. Her heartbeat suddenly increased as she felt a sudden fear crescendo from deep in her chest. Not now…anytime but now…not while the Doctor was like this…

She didn't even dare to turn. Her breath caught in her throat, her mind flicking possible images of gory monsters that lay in wait behind her. Three heads? Six eyes? Fifteen breasts, she finally decided. Pity the Doctor wasn't awake now. He could distract the alien while she smashed the thing over the head with a fire extinguisher. He'd probably enjoy distracting it to be honest; after all, he was a man. And a man has his urges, his desires. Even if he was a nine hundred year old alien from outer space.

She was suddenly aware of the vulnerable child sitting helplessly inside her, the child with only half-human genes. This child couldn't protect itself. Rose had to protect it. Rose wasn't just a human anymore – she was a mother. A mother with a pounding rage for anything and everything daring to try and take her baby away from her.

She span around, coming face to face with…

Pure nothingness.

As she heard another growl, she realised with complete embarrassment, that it was her stomach. Hunger. She'd been so wrapped up in the world of monsters and villains that she hadn't even noticed the aching sensation in her stomach. She hadn't eaten since the stew for dinner last night, and now she was starving. Pregnancy symptoms? She had heard you got unnaturally hungry.

Glancing back at the sleeping Doctor, she decided she would quickly go get something extremely fattening and filling to eat and be back before he woke. Bending over him, she planted a kiss on his cheek before climbing over the siderail and disappearing out the doorway to the lift.

As Rose arrived down in reception, the sight she saw was not one she'd expect in a hospital. There were millions of people with notebooks and cameras, all milling around the front desk, causing a hullabaloo.

She walked over to a random person sitting relaxed on a waiting chair, giving him a quick nudge to grab his attention.

"What's going on?" she asked, gesturing at the gathered journalists.

"Bloody press," the man muttered bitterly, "after some guy who was in a bus crash last night. I wish they'd just get some snaps and bloody go."

"The D…John?" Rose asked, stunned. The man suddenly bolted up in his chair, interested.

"You know him?"

"My friend…he was in a bus crash last night."

"Problem solved!" He grinned manically, suddenly bolting onto his feet, yelling and pointing towards Rose.

"Hey! Over here! She knows him!"

The sudden onslaught of journalists was terrifying to Rose – before she knew what was happening several thousand microphones, cassette recorders and cameras were shoved into her face, more than a million questions being asked at once.

Whatever happened to patient confidentiality?

She ducked down out of the crowd, immediately sprinting towards the hospital entrance. If these people were after the Doctor, she'd take them as fast and as far as she could in the opposite direction.

The Doctor was bored. Really bored. Bored totally out of his skull.

A few nurses had been round to bring him some food and top up some of his IV solutions, but apart from that, he been laying there doing absolutely bugger all for what seemed like days. He wished Rose was here. Having to listen to nothing but your own heartbeat for hours on end was annoying, if not slightly daunting. Do people hear their own heart stop beating? Can they hear the flat tone nanoseconds before they slipped into death? Do they know when they're going to die?

If both his hearts picked up anytime soon, he'd go into surgery for heart palpitations. And that would be very hard to talk out of.

'Yes, I do have two hearts. No, I'm not a genetic experiment. Yes, my family doctor does know about it. No, the government do not need to be informed…'

Where was Rose when you needed her?

He'd been flitting in and out of consciousness for a while now – his mind was bursting with energy but his body had other ideas. He wished he bought a book…

Hearing the door to the room open quietly, he was dragged back to reality and he opened his eyes slightly. A blackened figure of a hospital nurse walked up to him, and he saw her mouth break into a reassuring smile at the sight of his half opened eyes.

"Hold on a moment." He suddenly felt a dull pain in the top of his left arm, but didn't have the energy to turn his head.

"Mr Smith, I'm just going to take you down to MRI so we can do a scan and check the emergency surgery performed is holding. It's nothing to worry about," the nurse said to him, and the pressure on his arm stopped.

He worried.

No. If they did an MRI they'd get some extremely clear and detailed pictures of the organs which humans generally didn't have two of. He tried to protest, but his horribly painful body had other ideas. It only came out as a squeak, totally void of any sort of meaning. He tried again, but it was even worse than before. What was happening? He could speak earlier…

Then he realised he was starting to lose consciousness.

His eyes closed as he felt his head loll, but he tried desperately to cling onto the last tiny morsels of life. He had to stop this…now.

He was only vaguely aware of being lifted from the bed he considered his home for a while, and being layed onto a new surface. No…he couldn't let this happen…he had to stop it…his anxiousity must have given him energy, because he felt the smallest of small sounds vibrate in his voicebox – a groan of some kind.

But whatever it was, it wasn't enough. He could feel himself moving along - most likely on a gurney – moving progressively closer towards his death.

"Doctor!"

It was the most beautiful sound in the world. Rose – calling his name.

He tried to call out, but nothing came. He was totally and utterly helpless. A conscious man trapped inside an unconscious body is not a good prospect.

He was now determined. He had to get Rose to stop them. He tried to yell. He tried to scream. He concentrated every bit of his consciousness into screaming out one single word, 'scan'.

Had something come out of his mouth? It was hard to tell. He hoped to Rassilon it had, because otherwise, to put it in it's most basic form – he was screwed. Big time.

All energies totally spent, the last remaining oozes of consciousness were ripped carnivorously from him, making him slip deep, deep down, into the blackness.

Rose watched in the ultimate horror as the Doctor was wheeled away from her, bundled onto a gurney unconscious.

'Scan'.

Had he just said that? Oh God. Oh God.

"Stop!" Rose screamed, pelting down the corridor after them, her arms waving about in the air. "Stop!"

The crowd of doctor stopped pushing the gurney, turning to face her as she screamed.

"You can't do that!" she panted, skidding to a halt at the head of the gurney. "You…you just can't!"

"Why not ma'am?" the nurse holding the Doctor's head asked her politely, examining the Doctor's eyes to make sure he was well and truly passed out.

"Because…because…" Rose stumbled over her words; actually wondering slightly about what she could invent as an excuse. "He's…he's…ALLERGIC TO SCANS!"

The gurney started wheeling away as the doctors and nurses shook their heads, slightly bemused.

"Scan ME! I'm so much more interesting!" she bounded down the corridor after them, trying to get their attention for a second time. "I've got a baby in here! Scan it!" They didn't answer. "Speaking of babies, how about labour? Oh my god! I think I've just gone into labour!"

But obviously even a woman in labour wasn't going to throw them off the mission, and as Rose started to beg heartily they only got further and further away. Soon they were just a pinprick in the distance, and Rose sank to her knees, tears pouring down her cheeks.

She'd lost him.

Oh God.

He was gone.

Oh God.

Forever.

Oh God.