A shorter one this time, but I may update in a few hours if I'm lucky.
That night Rose tossed and turned in bed. If only she could get some answers for what had happened. If only…
As if an answer to her wishes, suddenly she was back in space again, and the Doctor was once again with her.
"Hi Rose," he said. "I'm just going to keep talking, even if you can't hear me."
"You do that all the time anyway," said Rose. "Doctor, the others say you're not real, that you're just a dream."
"Oh yeah?" said the Doctor. "Could a dream take you dancing in a Venusian garden?" Around them the scenery changed, and soon they were holding hands and jumping across rock platforms in a highly vegetated land under a purple sky.
"Well … yes, technically," admitted Rose. "But it's still very sweet."
"Then how about a place more familiar?" suggested the Doctor. The scene changed again, and Rose found herself looking at the frozen ocean of Woman Wept. Starlight glittered on the ice, and the silver moonlight reflected onto Rose's face.
"It's even more beautiful than I remember," she whispered.
"As are you," said the Doctor. "Here, take my coat, you look a little cold." He shrugged off his coat and wrapped it around Rose. He then stood behind her and held her around her waist. The closeness of their bodies generated more heat for Rose than about 10 of the Doctor's coats ever could.
"Oh Doctor, this must be real," decided Rose. "I've never been treated so romantically by my own imagination before. If only I could convince the others you were real."
"You can!" said the Doctor optimistically. "All you have to do is wake up." A feeling of dread came over Rose.
"No no, don't say that, this is real!" she exclaimed.
Rose woke up in bed.
"Not another dream!" she moaned. She then noticed an itchy feeling on her shoulders. Something was draped over them. She pulled it off, and to her shock discovered that it was …
"The Doctor's coat, the one he was buried in," she said to herself. "My dream was real. He's alive!"
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
The next morning Rose ran into the lounge room with the Doctor's coat, which was wrapped in plastic to protect it. Jackie, Mickey, Jack, Sarah Jane and Shireen were all standing around drinking coffee.
"I have proof that the Doctor's alive!" she announced. They looked uninterested.
"I have his coat!" This attracted a few glances, so Rose pulled the plastic wrapping off and looked at them triumphantly. All eyes glanced down.
"What's wrong?" asked Rose.
"Sweetheart," said Jackie. "That's not the Doctor's coat. It's your red hoodie."
"What? No …" began Rose, but as she looked at the item of clothing she realised that it was indeed her red hoodie.
"But…" she said, confused, "the Doctor's coat … and when I woke up it was on me…"
"Don't worry about it Rose," said Sarah Jane. "You're just a little stressed."
"No I'm not!" Rose cried, her tone and volume of her voice suggesting otherwise. Shireen approached her. She told her, "Everything's going to be all right Rose," but to Rose's ears it sounded like Mickey was talking.
"W-what did you say?" she spluttered
"I said everything's going to be all right," repeated Shireen, this time in her normal voice. Rose put her head in her hands.
"Maybe I am freaking out a little," she admitted. "I'd better take some more of that space honey." Jack spat out his coffee.
"You've been taking space honey?!" he exclaimed.
"Myspace honey?" added Jackie. Jack continued to look at Rose, deadly serious.
"Rose, be extremely careful," he said. "One spoonful calms you down, two spoonful help you sleep, but three spoonfuls, and you'll go into a sleep so deep you'll never wake up."
"Never?" asked Jackie.
"Never," confirmed Jack, but in Sarah Jane's voice. Rose gulped.
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
What's happening to Rose?