Rose struggled and kicked, trying to wiggle her way out of the crushing loop of tentacle. Her chest ached with the effort of hyperventilating. The smooth flow of muck rushing past her was interrupted as she felt the tentacle collide with something. She looked up to see the Doctor, the concern for her on his face clearly evident. The two tentacles had pulled them together. What was this?

The Doctor reached out a hand in a gesture she was beginning to associate with his desire to communicate. When his fingers touched her face, she gripped onto his hand with both of hers.

'Rose, slow down. I don't think she means us harm.'

'How can you think that! What else would it want but to eat us?'

'She's speaking to me.'

Rose stopped fighting.

'Wha'?'

'The Broodmother's eggs won't lay. I'm going to try to find out why.'

The Doctor wanted to help this monster? Rose looked down the long tentacle through the fuzzy haze. She had seen the Doctor like this before. He was determined to fix something he decided needed fixing, and she'd be along for the ride. She had to trust him. Rose turned to meet his eyes again. He had apparently gotten the message, as his mouth stretched warmly.

'Just go with what happens, but don't let her separate us.'

Rose nodded in full agreement. His fingers brushed at her ear before he pulled away. They then began to move, being steadily drawn toward the huge creature and its encasing shell.

The creature kept growing bigger as they drew closer and closer. By the time the tentacles slackened and sloughed away, it was an impossibly huge presence. Rose could see it just about every direction she faced. She wondered how the lagoon itself could even hold it.

The Doctor bent, pulling his leg up and began fiddling with the knot of weed around his ankle. After a moment, he looked over to her, then down at her own bandaging job with an insistent nod. Rose copied him and began untying the slippery plant from around her leg. What was he up to, now?

The tips of two heavy tentacles lingered nearby in the thick, transparent muck. As soon as she had removed her bandage, they began to suddenly move towards them. Rose pulled herself to the Doctor's side, alarmed. The Doctor put an arm around her, rubbing her bare back as if to reassure her. She looked at his face, and while he looked wary, he didn't seem to be afraid.

It was then Rose discovered these tentacles were specialised. Along one side of each, a sprouting of thin, wispy filaments waved together through the mucky pink currents like fragile hairs. It was these filaments that were carefully brought to them. Rose marveled at the beautiful sight.

The Doctor put his palm against the spongy hide of the tentacle, a look of concentration on his face. He suddenly grinned, and as Rose watched, the delicate filaments migrated towards him, tangling around his foot and enveloping his leg.

Rose swallowed a mouthful of muck in nervous anticipation. The filaments of the other tentacle were drawing towards her, and she looked to the Doctor for help. He had that ageless, assured look in his eyes she'd seen countless times before. He nodded to her, giving her a squeeze.

The bundle of filaments felt like soft, silky hair sweeping over her leg, except they seemed to move slightly of their own accord, tickling her skin. Rose tried to keep still as the ends began to stick to the wounds that ringed her thigh. The contact stung a bit, but not unbearably so.

The strands were winding into a mess around both of them, and Rose wondered how this creature would finally untangle them. A few stray strands wrapped upwards, tightening around her bikini, and Rose hastily pushed at them, incensed. She looked up to find the Doctor was laughing silently at her. Curious as to how he had managed to cope with it, she saw that because his injury was much lower, he didn't have any problem.

It was all strangeness and wickedly alien, and Rose just wanted to be held. So, in favour of her sudden impulse, Rose decided to forgive him and hugged the Doctor close as the filaments prickled against her wounds.

Rose felt the Doctor's fingers touch her face.

'You all right?'

'Yeah. Is it--I mean, she, healing us?'

'Yes. Well, probably not healing as such. More like sealing the wounds. Sealing, not healing!'

A smirk grew on Rose's face as the Doctor amused himself.

'So, what next?'

'Well...'

The Doctor twisted, making Rose loosen her grip a bit. He extended an arm, pointing to a dark crevice between the Broodmother's cavernous shell and her pale grey body.

'I'm going in there. Wait right outside for me, on the rim of the shell, okay?'

Rose panicked.

'What? You said we'd stay together!'

'I won't be gone long. Besides, you don't want to go in there, do you?'

Of course she didn't. Rose eyed the crevice, or rather chasm, warily. She met the Doctor's eyes, pleading to them with her own.

'What if you don't come out?'

'I will.'

His gaze was full of confidence, and Rose found herself sighing in resignation. He would do what he felt he had to do.

Before long, the mess of strands began to thread away to float freely, and Rose could again clearly see the angry crocodile bite around her leg. Much to her relief, there was no more bleeding, and it wasn't painful to move. She looked up to see the Doctor grinning at her. He cocked his head indicating their next goal and began to swim towards the dark chasm in the distance. Rose took in a deep breath of the muck and began to follow.

Finally reaching the encrusted rim of the shell, Rose turned and fixed the Doctor with her most worried expression, hoping he'd change his mind. Unfortunately, he only returned it with a reassuring smile and disappeared into the blackness. Rose searched blankly with her eyes, hoping to catch bits of his movement, but he was gone.

Rose was surprised to find a cluster of nautili drifting nearby, watching. They must be curious as to what the Doctor was doing inside the shell of their Broodmother. After all, people like them were normally lunch, no doubt. She wondered how the Doctor could be so trusting of them to leave her out here at their mercy. What if one of them misbehaved and ate her anyway?

Not that they were in much better position to defend themselves together against such overwhelming creatures.

The nautili sat and watched her, and she sat and watched them, waiting. She thought about how the Doctor talked to her in her head and marveled at how such a thing could be possible. Yes, she'd seen him do it to other people, and she could only guess what it was all about. Now, she was actually experiencing it, and it was like nothing else. While it wasn't done so much in words, she found that since the Doctor seemed to speak his mind so effectively anyway, it felt quite familiar, like his mind thought in the same pattern as how he normally spoke. He might as well just be speaking to her.

There was a sudden rumbling. Not only did Rose feel it through the shell as her hand rested on it, but it vibrated through the pinkness of the muck as well. Had the Doctor done something? The nautili scattered, and Rose looked into the dark space and waited. Where was he?

When Rose felt like she would go mad from uneasiness and was about to go in looking, the Doctor popped into the dimness, a victorious look on his face. Rose just about tackled him, relieved he was alive and annoyed he had worried her so. She was also very curious as to what he had done.

The Doctor took her hand as the shadow of a tentacle loomed into view. It wound around them both, and Rose found herself suddenly squished up against the Doctor. Oh what, the Broodmother was getting lazy, now, and couldn't spare another tentacle? Still, at least now they couldn't be separated. Rose looked at the Doctor apologetically, but he didn't seem to mind and turned it into a hug.

Their ride began to move, and soon they were streaking through the muck. The Doctor touched her face.

'That wasn't so bad, was it?'

'Doctor, what did you do?'

'Oh, you know. Just a bit of sonicing. She's all better now!'

Rose blinked as he grinned.

'Sonicing? You brought your sonic screwdriver?'

'Yep! In my pocket. You know I don't go anywhere without it.'

'But... it's waterproof? Um, muck-proof?'

''Course it is! Mind you, I wasn't sure at first if it was up to the job. The Broodmother's just massive!'

'So, you soniced... what, exactly?'

'Well, the egg chamber's enclosed in this great stretch of membrane. That's how it's supposed to be, except when it's time for her to lay the eggs. Well, the membrane wouldn't pull away. I just gave it a jump start, of sorts. Simple solution, massive results! Poor girl, she's getting old. Been alive a long, long time, she has. What a life, eh?'

Something didn't sit right with Rose. The Doctor was continuing on.

'Of course, when I told her this clutch had a queen in it, she was completely ecstatic--'

'Aren't they our enemies? They eat people! Why would we want them to live, all these eggs to hatch?'

The Doctor quickly pulled his hand up off the flesh of the tentacle. Rose thought this curious, and wondered if he had been communicating with the creature. She supposed he didn't want to leak any ill thoughts towards the Broodmother. The Doctor gazed at her with a serious expression, his light mood squelched.

'I know, Rose. I've put a lot of thought into this. Trust me when I say it's the right thing to do.'

'How can you know that, though? Aren't we changing history, allowing so much more death to happen?'

'I'll explain it later. Right now, we have an opportunity to get out of here.'

Interest peaked, Rose's eyebrows went up.

'Oh?'