The little alien falls to the floor and then all hell breaks loose. Beams and lasers are flying everywhere and people are falling; dying. The Doctor isn't focused on anything other than Rose right now though and he picks her up. Her head rolls back and her arm swings lifelessly. He rushes to get out, trekking back up the small hill to the cars. Laying her down in the soft grass, he checks for a pulse. He finds one, even if it erratic. He takes out his mobile and calls Pete.
"Pete? We need and ambulance here now, Torchwood ambulance." He glances over to the spaceship. "Make that three, and a backup team." He ends the call without telling Pete that one of the ambulances is for Rose, he deserves to hear it in person.
While the Doctor waits for Pete to arrive her cradles Rose in his lap. He can feel her chest moving slightly with her shallow breathing and can feel her breath flit lightly across his neck. His eyes fill with tears but he holds them back for her. It will do no good to cry over her right now. He has to hold it together for her. He brushes some stray hairs away from her closed eyes and she shudders. She takes a breath which could be considered 'more normal' and opens her eyes, but just barely.
She struggles to get the world into focus but can't and gives up. She can feel the presence of someone else but is unsure as to whom. "Doctor?" she questions faintly.
He whips his head down and looks at her, shock clearly showing on his face. Taking her hand in his, he answers, "Yes love, yes it's me. I'm here." He kisses her forehead, afraid that if he kisses her lips he'll block her breathing.
She grips his hand weakly and whispers almost too quietly to hear, "Help… me…" before drifting off again.
At her statement the Doctor chokes back a sob. It's so hard for him to sit there, not being able to do anything while his Rose is hurting and possibly dying. Then the ambulance is there, the paramedics rushing around them. The second team heads into the ship. Everything is going by in slow motion and all he can hear is the blood pounding in his ears. The Doctor faintly realizes the paramedics are trying to take Rose off his lap. Dazed, he holds Rose closer. He's not letting anyone take her from him.
Pete steps out of his car and sees that the paramedics are having a hard time getting someone away from the Doctor. He sees that the 'someone' is Rose and he gets over to them as fast as he can. He places a hand on the Doctor's shoulder and the Doctor turns his head to look at Pete. His eyes are glassy and faraway. Pete bends down and places his arms underneath Rose. The Doctor registers that this is Pete and he won't hurt Rose, so he lets him take her. Pete gives her to the medical personnel. As soon as Rose is off his lap he mentally tunes back in. People all around him are shouting.
"Get her hooked up now!"
"How's her heart rate? Will she be ok?"
"Get that IV going!"
The Doctor spins slowly on the spot and finds Jake sitting in a nearby ambulance, conscious, but with an oxygen mask held up to his face. There are a few team 1 members in a group but he counts four people missing. The backup team is huddled around Pete, presumably telling him what happened.
"Doctor you need to either move out of the way or get in the ambulance with her."
He stumbles over to the ambulance occupied by Rose and climbs unsteadily in. He sits down to the side of her and vaguely realizes someone has placed a blanked around him. He takes Rose's hand in his own, mostly to keep his own hands from shaking.
~o~
At the hospital the Doctor paces nervously around Rose's room, waiting for the doctor to tell him what's going on with her. He hears the door swing open and he whirls around, hope in his eyes.
"Looks like the laser only did some short turn damage. Only a few broken ribs and some swelling in the brain. The good news is that she won't be in a coma for long, two days max. When she wakes up we'll have to run a few tests but other than that I think she'll be ok."
The Doctor looks over at Rose. Lying on her back, she has oxygen tubes coming out of her nose, an IV slowly dripping, and a heart rate monitor hooked up to her chest. Her heart rate is back to normal, but her breathing is still pretty shallow. He sits down on the bed next to her and half listens to Jackie ask the doctor some questions about Rose's health. The Doctor runs a hand down Rose's arm without the IV, stopping when he reaches her hand and takes it in his. He sits in her room for hours, occasionally shifting from the bed to a chair across from her. Jackie stayed for a while but left a few hours ago. Pete came in after her but couldn't stay for very long, only a half an hour.
"Sir, it's almost 11. You should go home and get some rest. You'll do no good for her sitting there like that," a nurse tells him.
He doesn't reply, he just sits there silently until the nurse leaves them. Once he's sure they are alone he murmurs quietly to Rose.
"Please come back to me." He shuffles from the chair to the bed and leans over her, brushing his hand across her forehead. "I love you and I don't know what I'd do without you." He slides down next to her and carefully maneuvers her onto his lap, and then he pulls a blanket at the base of the bed over them both.
He doesn't sleep all night and in the morning he has dark circles under his eyes. When Rose's nurse comes back to check on her, she gets mad at the Doctor for moving her but doesn't say anything to him other than to ask him to move. He stands up and paces around the room until he can sit down at Rose's side again. The silence in the room is unnerving so the Doctor decides to tell her about Gallifrey.
"It's extraordinary Rose! You'd love it there. I wish I could take you. We could've had a life there, a beautiful life. Maybe start a family. We can do that here though. I'll be happy wherever I have you. Wouldn't you like that?" he pauses, as if somehow she'll answer him, but she doesn't so he continues, "I think before we have a baby we should move to a house. Our small flat wouldn't be big enough." His thumb strokes small circles, Gallifreyan, over the back of her hand.
"I love you," he spells out over and over.
He looks at her heart rate monitor, her heart has picked up pace. Then he hears a feeble voice call to him.
"Doctor?" her voice is barely audible.
"Rose. I'm here. It's me Rose." He brushes soft kisses over her hand and trails them up her arm.
"Hello." She smiles warms at him.
He can see the fatigue in her eyes and he wishes he could take it all away, absorb it into himself.
"You scared me. For a while I thought you…" he doesn't finish the sentence and instead chooses to study the floor tiles.
She squeezes his hand gently. "I didn't though, I'm not. So let's not think about that, yeah?"
He meets her eyes and sees that they are filled with tears. One slips down her face and the Doctor wipes it off. She closes her eyes at his touch and when he pulls his hand away she is asleep.
After several more hours of Rose drifting in and out of sleep, she is finally awake enough to sit up. She grimaces in pain as the Doctor eases her back onto the pillow.
"That would be the broken ribs," the Torchwood doctor tells Rose, "You're going to have to go easy for a while, no strenuous activity like lifting heavy things, no field missions for at least a month, and no sex until your ribs heal up, you wouldn't want to reinjure them."
The Doctor pulls a face in protest and the Torchwood doctor glares at him.
"I'll be back after your meal for a proper examination." The doctor briskly turns and leaves.
The Doctor scoots Rose's food closer to him so he can help her with it. It's only applesauce, a roll, and some oatmeal. Rose wrinkles her nose at the sight of it.
"The nurse said you might not be able to keep anything down so I figured I should order something easier," the Doctor explains.
"I'm in the mood for chips." She grins at him, sticking her tongue out of the corner of her mouth.
"When aren't you?" He kisses her forehead and then scoops some applesauce onto a spoon for her, holding it up to her mouth.
Once the applesauce and the roll are gone they wait to see if she can keep it down. When she does, he slowly feeds her the oatmeal. That stays down too and the Torchwood doctor comes to check on her.
"I'm going to have to ask you to leave now, Doctor. I have to do a complete physical and you should go home and get some rest, or at least go out and get some food."
The Doctor sighs, and slightly slumped over, exits the room. He doesn't go far though, only to the little shop across from the hospital where they sell chips. He purchases one for himself and then one for Rose. After sitting down and eating his, he goes back to her room almost an hour later. He knocks hesitantly on the door, cringing when only knocked twice and adding a third one for good luck. He receives no answer so the Doctor opens the door a crack. He sticks his head into the room and sees Rose sitting up on the edge of the hospital bed, hands folded in her lap, a vacant look in her eyes.