Finally the Doctor felt the beautiful, gentle beat of life beneath his questing fingertips. Rose took a shallow breath then exhaled on her own. He spread his hand over her chest, relishing the steady thump of her heart beneath his palm.

He noted that her skin felt marginally warmer. The blue tinge had left her mouth and fingernails, though her complexion remained waxen. Assured that her heart was beating normally, he sank back upon his heels and pulled her into his arms so that she rested against his chest.

She coughed feebly and opened her eyes, squinting in the brightness. He held his hand over her brow to shield her from the glare.

"Welcome back," he said with gentle smile.

"Where'd… I go?" she croaked.

"Nowhere, Rose," he replied, forcing the somber tone from his voice.

Her eyes moved slowly from his face out to the sparkling ocean. "Beach?" she queried. "But we were… in the snow. With… fondue."

"Yep. But we needed to make a little side trip."

She frowned in confusion. "Isn't this… weren't we here before?" Her gaze found the broken remains of the stone arch.

He brushed several strands of wet hair from her face. "Same place, just a few days later."

"Why'd we return?" Her voice was a little stronger now.

"We needed to get something back."

Rose's eyes moved away from the water then down. "Hey, why'm I amost naked?" She lifted her hand to run it over his flank. "You're starkers, too!"

He coughed lightly. "Not quite."

She repeated the question. "Why?"

"They needed direct contact with our skin," he replied.

"Who did?"

"More of a what, actually."

He shifted around, releasing her tentatively until he was certain that she could sit up on her own. He gathered his clothes and hers, offering Rose her coat and tucking the rest of her garments under his arm as soon as he'd donned his shirt.

She struggled into the coat, clearly still weak. As she pulled it closed over her chest, she noticed the marks from her sternum down to her belly. Gently she ran her fingers over them. "These're from the contact?"

He nodded. "Sorry, couldn't be helped."

"Doctor, what the hell happened here?"

"I sent you into danger," he replied soberly.

"Not on purpose."

"Still."

He offered her his hand, pulling her slowly to her feet. She appeared relatively steady with his arm around her back. The actions gave him a few moments to gather his thoughts and emotions.

"So?" Rose pressed as they shuffled along the path.

"Remember how you noticed the effervescence in the water?" he asked.

She nodded.

"It's there because the plants continually discharge low levels of energy, pretty much the way a motor produces the bubbles in a spa. But that power has to come from somewhere; the plants can't generate it spontaneously."

"Comes from the suns, right? Some sorta photosynthesis, isn't it?"

"Only in part. And I had no idea—" He swallowed. "I let you go out there, right into the midst of it."

"You didn't know," she reminded him.

"But I should've."

"You can't know everything."

"Yes, I can."

Her hand found his, squeezing weakly. "No, even you aren't capable of that."

He squeezed back. He wouldn't argue the point with her, at least not now. "Well, if I had, I've have realized that these plants are a type of parasite. They remove energy from any source they come into contact with. They absorb it through pore-like structures on their leaves, forcibly removing it from the host."

"That's why I felt so tired an' weak?"

"Yes. I should've figured it out sooner—"

"'S all right. You figured it out when it counted."

"Barely."

Rose did not acknowledge the comment. "So these seaweed things basically drained me, right? But why didn't I feel that tired after it first happened?"

"You'd been injured. The adrenaline produced by your body counteracted the effects temporarily, allowing your cells to produce energy for a while. But once that had passed, you quickly used up your energy reserves. Same thing happened to me, too."

"To you? Really?" Her eyes widened in surprise. "I didn't know. Were you in pain?"

"No, Rose, I was just tired."

"But you got me back here, back into the water. An' then what? Wait, you said we needed to get somethin' back. You were talkin' about the energy, right?"

"Yes. The plants discharge some of it on a regular basis; it corresponds with the positions of the suns. They'd absorbed an excess amount, though, when you had your swim. I'll have to do some calculations to prove this, but I think that the little bit of additional energy from you somehow fueled an exponentially larger amount to generate down in the roots, which I believe are the structure responsible for the primary power. They were processing more energy than usual, which caused some sort of significant upset in the system, leading to the tremor that made the arch crumble."

"All that from me?" Rose asked incredulously.

"Yep. You're a real powerhouse," he replied with a grin.

She thought for a moment. "But nothin' happened when they took your energy. I mean, there was no big power surge or earthquake."

"No. The system must've adjusted or recalibrated by then."

She nodded. "Okay. An' when we were back in the water, we were able to take back the energy they'd stolen from us when they discharged it, right?"

He nodded in approbation. "Exactly."

She shook her head in vague awe. "Wow. Talk about a complicated food chain."

"I should've known," he began again, still feeling the raw scrape of guilt.

"Everything's all right now," she replied quickly. "You sorted it in time, an' that's all that matters."

They were near the TARDIS now, and he increased his pace a little. He was anxious to leave the planet, to get away from the place where Rose had nearly died. He urged her forward, aware that she remained fatigued and was winded from their short journey.

Once inside the ship, he escorted her up the ramp, where she sank down in the jump seat. He set the coordinates and felt a satisfying jolt as the TARDIS returned to the vortex.


To be concluded in the epilogue…