A/N: Thank you for all the lovely reviews and comments! Only two chapters to go after this one… I think I'm gonna be pretty sad when this ends :( Oh well, enjoy the chapter! xx

'Where is she?'

Nobody answered Damien as he paced the small empty room, stalking back and forth like a tiger in a cage. They stood near the doorway and watched him, nobody knowing what they could say to make it better. The man swung back round to face them.

'Where has she gone? Where's Airlia?!'

The Doctor shook his head. 'I don't know.'

'She could be alive!'

He stepped forwards. 'No. She couldn't be. She was as good as dead when we left her. I'm sorry Damien, but you know it's true.'

Damien fixed the Doctor with a wild-eyed look, holding his hands out as if inviting judgement and contradiction. 'Then where is she? Where is her body?'

'Oscar probably came and moved her away from here,' he replied, doing his best to keep the confusion out of his voice. He didn't think that Oscar would move Airlia's body without making at least a vague attempt at clearing up some of the blood, but then he was positive that Airlia would be dead. She wouldn't have had the strength to save herself and escape Hansley Bridge, and there were no blood trails or giveaway tracks to suggest that she'd been outside. 'Someone must have moved her,' he said firmly, more sure of himself now.

'To where?' the panicked man demanded, clutching his head in his hands and slumping back to lean against one of the walls. 'Why would they take her?' He sucked in a breath that turned into a sob and his shoulders slackened.

The Doctor sighed. 'To protect themselves,' he said. He moved backwards slightly as he felt Rose reach out to slide her hand into his and move to press herself into his side. He restrained himself from turning and folding her into his arms; he didn't think that this was the best time to flaunt the fact that he still had the person who meant the most to him, not when Damien and Heather had both just lost the people they had loved.

'She's alive,' Damien murmured. 'She must be alive.'

'No,' the Doctor repeated. 'She can't be, Damien. She's dead.' He instantly regretted that his words came out harsher than he had intended, but he had to get the message across. Airlia was dead, and that was a non-negotiable fact.

The other man turned away, his hands covering his face and his torso shaking as silent sobs coursed through him. 'But…' he stuttered. 'She can't… She's mine.' He was starting to break apart now, the nightmare of the day crushing down on him and destroying him from the inside out. 'She can't be dead,' he whispered.

Heather slipped past the Doctor and walked over to Damien putting her hand on his shoulder to turn him around to face her. There were tears on her face too; no doubt she was thinking about her fiancé's dead body in a cold room beneath his bar. She was probably scared she would return to find him gone as well. She stretched up and bought her head close to Damien's, whispering something in his ear that made him relax and his head dropped. He nodded and then they turned together to walk back towards the door.

'We'll be outside,' Damien said.

The Doctor nodded as the two broken people shuffled out the door and disappeared from view. He turned to Rose. 'Did you hear what she said to him?'

She shook her head. 'No.' She shifted round to stand in front of him, looking up at him with eyes big and wide. 'Can…' She hesitated.

'Rose?' He smiled at her gently, leaning down slightly so she didn't have to stare up at him. 'What is it?'

She sniffed and shook her head, before smiling at him and looking away embarrassed. 'I know…' she started. 'I know it's not really appropriate right now, but could I have a hug?'

He grinned despite the seriousness of the current situation, immediately reaching out and wrapping his arms around her. He pulled her tightly against him, squeezing her slightly before simply holding her against his body so that he didn't put pressure on any of her bruises. She bought her arms up around his waist and hugged him hard, burying her face in his chest. The Doctor was glad that she was still happy to be intimate with him like this; the fact that she was actually requesting a hug off him suggested that she was going to be just fine once this whole hellish incident was over. Acting on impulse, he lifted her head with one hand and bent down to press a kiss into her lips, smiling against her as she gasped in shock before melting into him. He pulled away gently, wanting more than anything to lose himself in her but knowing that he couldn't right now, taking a moment to study her and decide that he loved the look of her wearing his coat. He made a mental note to get her to wear it more often. Some sordid and inappropriate part of his brain suggested to him that perhaps he could ask her to wear the coat with nothing underneath… but that was definitely a thought for another day.

Rose stepped back out of his arms and studied the room around them, her eyes locking on the blood that stained the floor and a good proportion of the walls as well. 'She must be dead,' she said quietly, her voice strained. 'Doctor, what did they do to her?'

He shook his head and moved to stand by her once more. 'I don't know,' he said, although he could have a pretty good guess as to what Oscar and Hugo had done to Airlia based on the wounds he'd seen on her body. 'But there's no way she could have survived.'

'Are you sure?' she asked, her gaze flitting around the room. 'She might've…'

'No, Rose,' he told her firmly. 'She's dead. Look.' He pointed towards the door, watching her until he was sure she was looking at where he was showing her. 'Look at the floor,' he said.

She shuffled over to the door, and the Doctor could see a bit of colour returning to her cheeks. He knew he had to act as normally as possible so that there was minimal chance of Rose faltering and collapsing on him before all of the trouble was dealt with. Giving her things to work out on her own always bought out the best in her, he knew.

'There's no blood by the door,' she said.

He nodded. 'That's right.'

She frowned. 'And if she was alive… She would have had to drag herself out, right?'

'Right.' His chest tightened at the sad tone of Rose's voice, and he knew that she was imagining a woman struggling, fighting to save her life and pull herself to safety… Only she didn't quite make it. His eyes slipped shut momentarily as he battled with a renewed onslaught of emotion.

'There'd be tracks going out of the door,' Rose said. 'She would have had to pull herself out and down the corridor… There'd be blood there.' Her voice dropped. 'But the blood doesn't go over there. Most of it's on the other side of the room.'

'And that's how I know she's dead,' the Doctor said. 'Someone must have carried her out after she died and the bleeding had stopped.'

They stood in silence for a moment, not staring at anything in particular as they stood in the room painted with blood. The Doctor cursed the fact that the situation had only gotten worse instead of better by coming here, but he knew that there was nothing he could do about it now. He couldn't rewrite history when he was the one who helped create it. His ribs protested as he remembered Damien's rage at discovering that the timing of the revolution had been his fault. He winced.

He was just about to tell Rose that they should leave and find Damien and Heather to make sure they were safe before they disappeared off back to Earth, when Oscar ran into the room, seemingly appearing out of nowhere.

'You're still here!' Oscar said, stopping just inside the doorway and staring at the Doctor with a shocked expression. There were multiple layers of blood on his clothes and he looked scared and weary.

'Sort of,' the Doctor replied. 'What's happening?'

Oscar looked around furtively, moving further into the room as Rose stepped back to stand at the Doctor's side, her hand slipping instinctively into his. 'We won,' he said, but the tone of his voice was dead. 'The government has fallen. The cabinet and most of their advisors are either dead or dying. There are parties in the streets.' His stature slumped. 'You should go,' he said. 'Go and join in the celebrations. The people are free because of you.'

His eyes slipped shut and the Doctor frowned. 'You don't sound too excited that you won,' he said curiously.

Oscar smiled tiredly. 'Oh, believe me, I am,' he told him. 'This is what I always wanted.' His expression dropped. 'But I have to leave now.'

'Why?'

'The guards are hunting me. I'm top of their most wanted list. They know that I led the Alliance.' He shook his head. 'All of the leaders are fleeing.'

Something clicked inside the Doctor's head. He knew enough about the situation on Eustance to understand that the Liberal Rights Alliance had been very secretive, that no one had known the identities of the leaders or its members. And now he knew that Ganjud must have been listening outside his and Rose's room last night. He must have heard what was said about the plans for the revolution and then repeated them to Maurice, who would have informed the government and their guards. Oscar was wrong; nobody had won this fight. Everyone had fallen, and it was all his fault. 'Where will you go?' he asked futilely, knowing full well that Oscar would probably be stopped by the remaining guards before he even made it outside Valtallahan. It would be too soon for a new military regime to have installed itself and taken over. Everything had happened too fast.

Oscar shrugged. 'Even if I knew I wouldn't tell you.'

The Doctor nodded. 'Tell me one thing though,' he requested. 'Where is Airlia's body?'

The other man shrugged again. 'No idea, mate,' he said. 'I thought that you must have moved her.'

He shook his head. 'No.'

'Then I don't know.' He laughed sardonically. 'Maybe her daddy came and picked her up.'

The frown in the Doctor's forehead deepened. 'What?'

Oscar sighed. 'Did you not hear? The president disappeared once the Alliance started to gain some ground. Nobody knows where he is. He's dead, or he's on the run.'

'Just like you,' the Doctor said pointedly. 'You're not so different from him,' he continued, all the anger of the day bubbling up inside him.

'And how did you figure that one out?'

'You're both murderers,' he replied bluntly before taking a step back and sucking in a calming breath.

Oscar's face fell before he nodded and turned to leave. 'Thanks for the help,' he said quietly, pausing in the door frame. 'But you should know,' he continued. 'That you're a murderer too.'

The Doctor nodded. 'I know that,' he said, feeling Rose stiffen at his side. He knew that she would try and protest his innocence later, and he would probably let himself be comforted by her words, but for now he needed the guilt to keep him going. 'Have a nice life.'

The man tilted his head in recognition and then disappeared from sight, heading down the corridor in the direction of the outskirts of Valtallahan.

Rose stepped around to face the Doctor, her hand slipping from his as she moved. He instantly felt the loss of her warm skin against his. 'You're not a murderer,' she said defiantly.

'Rose,' he whispered, his anger draining away to be replaced by sorrow instead. 'Please, let's have this conversation later okay? We can't do this now.' He swallowed and shut his eyes, tears stinging his eyelids as the weight of the universe came crashing down around him. In a situation that he should have been able to fix, everyone had suffered and he was having trouble coming to terms with the thought of that. A rogue tear slipped out from the corner of his eye. He shuddered as he felt Rose's thumb connect with his cheekbone to wipe the droplet of water away, her palm cupping his cheek for a few moments until he opened his eyes to look at her.

'It will be all right,' she told him, her face set in determination and her usual strength and understanding evident in her voice. 'Everything will be okay, yeah?' She smiled at him and the expression was reflected in her eyes. It made the Doctor feel better. They would get through this. They always got through. But right now, in this moment, he couldn't stop the tears from falling.

He stumbled forwards into Rose's arms, wrapping himself around her and burying his face in her shoulder so she couldn't see him crumble. 'So many people are dead,' he choked out. 'Because of something I wanted, because of what I told them to do! I made it happen too fast.' His voice dropped. 'I always make things happen too fast.'

He felt Rose frown against him as she rested her head on his and tightened her arms around him. 'What do you mean?' she asked.

'I mean I always keep on moving,' he said self-deprecatingly. 'I do what has to be done regardless of the consequences and then I move on. I keep on running no matter what. Maybe that's wrong. Maybe I should slow down.'

'I can't see you slowing down,' Rose told him, rubbing his back and stroking his hair. He shivered beneath her touch. 'Don't worry Doctor,' she whispered. 'Everything will sort itself out, you'll see. You did nothing wrong.'

It occurred to him that he should be the one comforting her; after all, she was so much younger than he was, so much more innocent. She was too precious to be wasting herself on him. The strength of her faith in him awed him. He was torn between thinking he was a bad man for leading her on so much, and thinking that maybe he wasn't a complete dead loss because Rose still stayed with him no matter what he did. It steeled his resolve to keep her with him for as long as was possible. The affects of one little human girl on the last Time Lord in the universe were staggering.

He stiffened and groaned in pain as Rose shifted and accidentally caught one of the places where Damien had hit him earlier. She pulled away instantly, concern flooding her face. 'What is it?' she demanded, worry evident in her voice. 'Doctor, what's wrong? Does something hurt?'

He nodded, knowing that it would be stupid to lie to her. Not only would she be able to tell that he was lying, but she would be hurt if she found out he'd been injured and he hadn't thought to tell her about it. 'Damien was a bit angry that Airlia was killed,' he said hoarsely, taking a shaky breath and shutting his eyes in an effort to block out the pain that shot through his torso. 'He used me as a stress reliever.'

'Doctor,' Rose said, but he found that he couldn't read her tone. Did she mean "Doctor" in a sympathetic, upset kind of way? Or did she mean "Doctor", I don't blame him for beating you up because it was all your fault? He suspected that it was the first one, but he thought it should be the second option. Because it was his fault. There were no other options.

'He hit you!' Rose continued, anger flashing in her eyes.

He nodded. 'Yes. Hugo did as well, actually. I'm a bit angry about that one, but I completely understand why Damien lost it.' He felt calmer now, less exposed now that he had managed to stop himself crying uncontrollably.

Rose mumbled something he couldn't quite make out, her eyes fixed on his chest. He watched her face carefully, his hands flexing at his sides as he ached to reach out to her. She surprised him then, placing her hands on his hips and leaning down to press a kiss into the centre of his chest. He felt the heat of her lips through his jacket and shirt, their softness burning through to take the edge off the pain in his ribs. She straightened and looked him in the eye. 'When we get back to the TARDIS I'll kiss it better for you properly,' she said, a cheeky glint in her expression. 'Bit awkward through all these clothes.'

He felt an involuntary smile spreading across his face at her words and found himself very much looking forward to getting back to the TARDIS so that she could make good on her promise. And, he thought, he would be more than happy to kiss her better as well. As much as she needed for as long as she wanted. That sounded good. He felt that moment couldn't come fast enough. 'Rose Tyler,' he started, before pausing as something occurred to him. He'd forgotten all about Damien and Heather, and he wondered where they were. 'Come on,' he said, his smile dropping as he held his hand out to Rose. 'We need to go and find our grieving lovers, make sure they're okay. Make sure that they haven't killed each other, or tried to start a revolution of their own.' He grinned again as they walked towards the door. 'And then we can go home… and kiss it all better.'

They found Damien and Heather sitting on a bench in the rose garden, both of them sitting in reflective silence as they stared off at some point in the distance. Both of them looked broken.

The Doctor led Rose to a bench perpendicular to the one they were sitting on, discreetly slipping his arm around her waist as they sat down. 'We need to talk,' he said to the people on the other bench.

Damien's head dropped. 'What else can there be to say?' he asked. It was clear that he was deep in the grasp of grief, and probably would be for some time. Heather seemed to be somewhat more together, and it made the Doctor wonder how she was managing to keep herself together. Perhaps she was simply more stoical about death. Or maybe…

His thought trailed off as he realised he had to reply to Damien's question. 'You have to decide what you're going to do next.'

There was silence after that. A light breeze blew as the sun lowered in the sky and one hundred thousand revolutionisers partied in the streets less than a mile away. Their celebrations seemed a world away from the situation in the rose garden. The Doctor wondered momentarily if he and Rose should just leave now and leave Eustance and its people to sort out their own problems. But he knew that he had an obligation to at least the two people sitting across from him now. He was responsible for their misery, but with a bit of luck he might just be able to help them on the way to healing. He might be able to fix a small section of this colossal disaster, right just one of so many wrongs.

'I think you should leave Eustance,' the Doctor continued when an answer failed to materialise.

Damien snorted. 'I think that much was a given,' he said.

'And I think you should go soon. Tonight, if possible.'

'But the curfew,' Heather protested.

'I don't think that will be much trouble any more,' the Doctor said. 'Not now the regime has been overthrown. But you need to leave fast; it won't be long until the other provinces force a lockdown on Valtallahan until all the violence has been dispelled.'

He let them both mull that over for a few moments as Rose took his hand from her waist and held it, interlocking her fingers with his. He gave her hand a small squeeze and she smiled back at him, clearly sensing that this adventure was nearly at an end. Once they got Damien and Heather off safely, and they had found the gateway back through to Earth… It would all be over. And then they could deal with the mess and the scars and the anguish they had picked up over the past couple of days… Hopefully together. And hopefully it would involve a bed. And lots of sleep. And then maybe… Once again the Doctor resolved to have a good think about his feelings and the developments in his relationship with Rose. He hoped that her feelings were starting to lean in the same direction as his were, that she was also happy with the way things were progressing between them. The whole kissing thing, for instance. That was something he definitely liked.

Heather coughed. 'How can we escape though? How can we get away?'

The Doctor turned to Damien. 'Do you still have the tickets you were going to use to take Airlia away?'

The man nodded. 'Yes.'

'Then I suggest you use those. It will be less suspicious than if you bought new tickets or if you tried to stowaway somehow.'

'No.' Damien shook his head, his expression defiant. 'We're not using them.'

Rose frowned. 'Why not?'

Damien's head fell forwards and tears dripped from his eyes, falling in a straight line down to the floor. 'Airlia should be with me,' he said. 'I can't go through with those plans without her there.'

'We have to leave,' Heather said to him. 'We need to get out of here; we don't know what's going to happen. It's not safe to stay here.'

'We'd have to leave quickly,' he said, his voice sad and thick from too much grief. 'I'm guessing you don't have your passport on you?'

'Actually, I do,' he was told as Heather reached into a pocket and pulled out a small booklet that bore an official inscription. 'Ganjud and I were getting ready to flee when…' She looked at Rose and her face fell at the memories of her dead fiancé. 'When you showed up,' she finished.

'We're not using the tickets,' Damien said stubbornly.

'Why were you leaving?' the Doctor asked Heather. He thought that Ganjud would have been at Maurice's mercy when it came to where he could and couldn't go, and he highly doubted that he would have let the man leave when the situation was so tense and volatile.

Heather swallowed, her gaze swinging down to the ground and tears welling up in her eyes. Her voice broke when she spoke again. 'I'm pregnant,' she said quietly.