The sides of the cave were widening now, leading to the main chamber. Rose felt herself walking faster, anticipation giving way to the desire to run. And the second she saw the tip of an All Star sneaker, she gripped the Doctor's hand tightly, jerking him forward as she broke into a dead run.

There he was. It was strange, staring down at his prone form sprawled across the dirty cave floor, lip bloodied, a cut on his forehead, blue suit tarnished beyond a visit to the laundry. The Doctor's eyes darted over all of this information, compiling it, filing it away, calculating the implications, coming up with a blank. Had he been running from the Savoh? They'd said they'd been frightened of him. Had they lied?

His eyes scanned for a dart, a small twig sticking out of any of his clothing or skin. The Doctor didn't see anything. They were within reach now. Rose dropped his hand, skidding on her bare knees to the side of her Doctor, covering her legs in a layer of dirt and scrapping up her bare skin as she did so. He wanted to scold her, tell her he wasn't worth her getting hurt, but the words wouldn't come.

Nothing would come. Because he was looking at everything he had lost. Rose running her hands protectively, lovingly over him, checking his wounds, kissing his filthy skin, hugging him tightly, reassuring him with confident words that didn't tremble. She would leave with him, there wasn't a doubt. This was who she belonged with now.

The knowledge, the visual confirmation physically winded him, left him gasping for breath, hearts beating an unsteady tempo against his chest. His hand clutched at the cave for support to remain upright. His world was ending. Not on a beach in Norway. Not in the Ghost Lever room. In a cave on Savoh.

Rose could sense the Doctor's pain behind her, it was there, bristling against her thoughts, her heart. Bad Wolf was zeroing in on it, figuring out what was causing him such agony, turning her golden eyes to him with burning affection.

Her eyes were gold again. He'd almost gotten used to it, really, that shift between brown and gold seeming almost natural now. Had he broken her the way he had broken others? The Doctor knew what Rose would say. Rose would tell him that he hadn't, that this is what she had chosen. In fact, she had told him that.

Rose pressed her cheek against her husband's bloodied forehead. "Alright you," she cajoled, her voice hovering somewhere between Bad Wolf and Rose Tyler. Her hand settled between where his hearts should be but there was only one. "I'm here now, chased you to another universe, something you assured me wasn't possible. So it's time to wake up, because it's gross in here, I don't have pants on, and I'm wearing someone else's shoes."

The Doctor watched on in amazement as the outline of Rose's hand began to glow the same golden as her eyes. It wasn't the way his hand glowed when he was regenerating, it was something much much softer, gentler, just the edges of her skin illuminating, the glittering gold sinking down through the blue suit.

The Doctor on the ground groaned, the air hitching in his lungs uncomfortably turning into a cough. Rose gasped, elated surprise released in the sound, golden tears shimmering on her cheeks. "You daft alien." Her hand slid up to cup his cheek, the gold receding both from her eyes and from the edges of her skin. "I've half a mind to divorce you and run off with this one." She jerked her head back at the other Doctor.

This earned a rusty laugh from both Doctors, the one before her coughing again as he struggled to sit up. Rose looped her arm behind his back, helping ease him up. He leaned heavily against her, head falling listlessly onto her shoulder.

"Nah, you like my hair too much."

Rose's laughter matched her wet smile. "Don't be too sure of that, this one's got some great hair too." She looked up at the other Doctor, relief shining bright on her face.

It made it worth it, the way his hearts were twisting in his chest like broken glass, to see her smiling at him like that. Her smile said she couldn't have done this without him, that he'd made her abundantly happy, that he'd saved her. And he'd only ever wanted to save her, even if he knew she could have done all of this without him. Rose Tyler had always been fantastic and she didn't need him to save her, she was quite capable of managing that on her own, but he appreciated the sentiment all the same.

"Right then," he straightened up, ignoring the way he didn't seem quite able to breathe properly. "Shall we leave the cave? I know there are two beautiful blue TARDISes waiting for us along with a gaggle of inquisitive companions who are more than likely to strike out on their own if we don't get back to carrel them."

"Do you think you can stand?" Rose asked gently, brushing back the fringe of her husband's hair with her hand.

The Half Doctor gave an almighty groan, shoving to his feet with Rose bearing half his weight. "If he can do it, so can I." The words came from tightly clenched teeth and he wobbled when he stood fully.

Crossing to the couple, the Doctor handed Rose his light stick. "You lead the way, Rose Tyler. I'll handle the baggage."

This earned him a cheeky grin from Rose and a grumble of distain from the Doctor. "Off we go troops!" Rose brandished the light before her, heart soaring. He was alive. He was safe.

The Savoh were waiting for them when the trio exited the cave. Upon seeing the Doctor, the one with spikey hair, they burst into excited chatter. Rose hung back, trying to offer her husband bodily protection from the strange aliens.

"Friendly sort, aren't they?" he managed gruffly, one hand clutching painfully at his side.

"Ah, yes, you bumped into them too?" The Doctor glanced from his counterpart to their reception party.

"Something like that." He tried to straighten out, stand without the other Doctor's help, but his knees wouldn't support him. Rose rushed to his side, scoop his arm around her back and lending him her support.

"They weren't that keen on me either," she whispered.

"I thought we got along just fine," the Doctor said with a grin in Rose's direction which she couldn't help but return.

"Right then, you ask them to lead us back out of the jungle," she directed.

"Please, Rose. I'm a captain, I can navigate us back to the TARDIS perfectly well on my own."

"Captain envy," Rose and her Doctor chorused. She beamed up at him, squeezing close to his side affectionately.

The Doctor found he had to look hastily away. "But asking might get us there sooner." Addressing the nearest Savoh, the Doctor hissed and clicked his way into bartering for safe passage through the jungle in exchange for a frozen chicken he had aboard the TARDIS.

"Not as good as a turkey," he explained to Rose as they carried the other Doctor's near dead weight between them, "but still has the frozen aspect."

"And you don't feel any qualms about introducing something that can't possibly exist here to these people?" Rose asked skeptically, readjusting the weight of her Doctor's arm about her shoulders.

Her Doctor was stumbling his way through the jungle underbrush, not exactly able to get his feet working properly. That concerned Rose, it concerned her to the point of her eyes glowing gold in the lightening dark of night, the sun just starting to rise. Bad Wolf paced beneath her breast, wishing to aid her Doctor, but unable to do anything. It left Rose with a restless feeling.

The Doctor was worried about his half-self's lack of coordination as well. He hadn't seen any poison darts, so that didn't seem the reason for his current condition. And crashing the TARDIS . . . well that happened far more often than he would ever admit to Rose, so that certainly didn't explain what had happened to his half-self either.

Leaning around himself, he watched Rose, reading her own concern in the lack of warmth in her eyes. Yes, this was not good.

"Rose," he said, belatedly picking up their conversational thread. "The Savoh are aware of visitor's from other planets. I don't think a frozen turkey or two is really going to reshape their world view."

"Mhm, just like giving a kid a scooter before they've been invented isn't sketchy."

"Rose!" both her Doctors chided.

"I know what I'm doing," her Doctor said, forcing the words past his gasped breath.

At Rose's skeptical look, the Doctor amended, "Most of the time."