The Doctor paced. There seemed nothing else to do. He paced back and forth till he was sure that his black converses had worn a hole in the linoleum. But he couldn't sit still. He'd tried sitting in a chair, and he had only fidgeted. It seemed best to keep walking. He couldn't sit still if he tried. Not while his Rose was in surgery, and he didn't know whether she was going to live or die.
How could she leave him like this? How could she, when she promised that she would stay with him forever?
He turned sharply and began to walk the other way, twisting his wedding ring round and round his finger absently.
"Doctor! We got here as soon as we could!" Jackie threw her arms around him. The Doctor started. He hadn't heard her walk up to him. Behind her, Pete stood, nervously twisting his hands together.
"Have they said anything?" he asked.
The Doctor shook his head, Suddenly feeling his energy drained. He sank down into one of the uncomfortable, plastic seats.
"Nothing," he said, his head in his hands. "Nothing except that she's in surgery. They won't tell me anything more What if she dies? How shall I bear it?"
Jackie sat down beside him, and put an arm around his hunched shoulders.
"She's not going to die, Doctor."
"But what if she does?" he asked, not lifting his head. "She can't leave me alone like that. Not after everything we've gone through to be together. Not after I literally changed my genetic makeup so that I could be with her. She can't leave me alone like this. "
"She's not going to die, Doctor!" said Jackie fiercely. "You can't think like that!"
Pete sat down on the other side of the Doctor.
"Jacks is right. You have to stay positive," he said.
The Doctor took a shuddering breath.
He played the image over and over in his mind, wondering if there was some way he could have stopped that bullet from hitting her, if there was some way he could have saved her. What irony! He could save the whole world but not his wife.
All he could see was Rose falling to the ground, a blood spot growing larger on her side. All he could see was the shock in her eyes as they found his. All he could see was the thud as she hit the ground, and the physical blow it had inflicted on him.
------
"Oh," Rose said softly. Her eyes sought the Doctor's, and held them for a moment. Then, she crumpled to the ground.
"No!" yelled the Doctor. He rushed towards her, kneeling beside her. He looked up at the bald man, his eyes shooting sparks. "Wrong move," he said.
The bald man laughed contemptuously.
"And what are you going to do?" he asked.
The Doctor straightened up.
"Heaven help you if she dies," he said, his voice hard and cold as steel. "Because no one else will. Not for nothing did the daleks call me the Oncoming Storm. If anything happens to Rose, there is nothing, nothing, that will stop me from making sure that you never live in safety again. Wherever you go, whatever you do, I will haunt you."
The Doctor fairly crackled with energy. At that moment, he was indeed the Oncoming Storm, the one the daleks had nightmares about, the last Time Lord in existence.
The bald man drew back a little.
"You don't scare me," he said, but his voice was uncertain.
"I should," the Doctor answered. "Because I just let the police in."
The police had been pounding at the inner door. Now they had it open. They began swarming into the room, their guns trained on the four terrorists, but the Doctor hardly heard them. All of his attention was focused on Rose, on cradling her in his arms. He was vaguely aware of Jackie beside him, ripping up the bottom of her skirt to stem the tide of blood.
"Rose?" the Doctor said softly. "Rose, you have to hold on. You can't leave me. You have to promise you won't leave me."
But Rose didn't answer. She had already lost consciousness.
"Sir?" a paramedic was tugging at the Doctor's sleeve. "Sir? We have to get her to an ambulance."
The Doctor nodded numbly, following as her body was lifted on a gurney.
"You can't come," the paramedic said, holding his hand out to stop the Doctor from following her into the ambulance that waited outside.
"I'm her husband!" he protested.
The paramedic gave the Doctor a scrutinizing look.
"Get in," he said with a sigh. "But just you. No one else." He gave the hovering Jackie a glare.
The Doctor got in the ambulance beside the prostrate Rose. He absently tugged on his bowtie, his eyes never leaving her face. It came apart in his hands.
"I knew it was bad luck," he said.
-------
"We just heard! What's the latest?" a redheaded whirlwind interrupted the Doctor's thoughts. Lily flung her arms around him and gave him a tight hug.
"John I'm so sorry!" she said.
The Doctor awkwardly patted her back.
Andy, pajama-clad toddler sleeping on his shoulder, gave the Doctor an apologetic look.
"We got here as fast as we could," he said. "Have you heard anything?"
The Doctor shook his head.
"Not since the ambulance brought her here. All they'll tell me is that she's in surgery." He slumped back down into the waiting room chair.
Marks sprinted in. He was dressed in a track suit, his normally tidy hair windblown. His eyes sought out the Doctor.
"Is she…?"
"We don't know," Andy said.
The Doctor got up and began to pace again.
"We'll just have to wait. I hate waiting. That's the trouble with time travel; you never have to wait for anything. Now I'm on the slow path, and I have to wait, wait, wait."
"Stop it," Jackie snapped. "You're making me nervous just watching you. Sit down."
"I can't," said the Doctor wretchedly. "I should have been expecting something like this. Every Christmas. Every bloody Christmas something happens. I told her, and she wouldn't listen, she just wouldn't…"
"Dr. Smith?" said a nurse, carrying a clipboard in one hand
The Doctor froze mid-pace.
"Yes?"
"Your wife is out of surgery. She's in critical, but stable condition right now, if you want to see her."
The Doctor sagged with relief. Lily clapped her hands together, and Pete hugged Jackie. Marks' eyes glowed with an inner fire, and he allowed himself a small smile.
"Follow me," the nurse said.
The Doctor followed.
"She's in ICU. If she lives through the night, she has a fighting chance of making it out of this. But I have to warn you, Dr. Smith, that there's a high chance she'll just lapse into a coma."
The Doctor nodded.
The nurse pushed the door open, and walked into the white, sterile room.
When the Doctor said Rose, so small and pale next to the huge machines that she was hooked up to, his heart broke. He rushed to her side, and kneeling down beside the bed he took her limp hand and kissed it. There were so many tubes and wires sticking out of her that there was hardly any Rose left.
"Dear heart," he murmured.
With a sympathetic, the nurse drew up a chair for him. He sat in it without turning his eyes away from Rose.
"How long have you been married?" she asked kindly.
"Six months. Such a short time!" the Doctor said, almost to himself. "Such a short time after having been the Lord of time. Can she hear me if I speak to her?"
"I don't know," said the nurse. "It's been known to happen."
"Yes. Speaking to people in comas can sometimes help them come out of it, right?" the Doctor clung to that fact.
The nurse smiled sadly.
"So they say."
The Doctor turned to her.
"Do you think she'll be alright?"
The nurse shook her head regretfully.
"I don't know. I hope so. You seem so much in love."
"We are," the Doctor said, turning back to the still figure on the bed. "We are."
-------
After a quick visit to Rose's room, Lily and Andy left to take a sleepy Isabella back to bed. Pete finally convinced an exhausted Jackie to come back first thing in the morning, as long as the Doctor promised to call if anything happened.
The Doctor sat beside Rose's bed, holding her hand. It was past midnight. He was deep in thought. So deep, in fact, that when Marks shook his shoulder, he lifted his head off of Rose's bed with a start.
"I wasn't asleep!" he insisted.
Marks allowed himself a small smirk.
"No one was accusing you of it. But if you want to sleep, you can go take the armchair over on the other side of the room. I'll sit with her. I promise to wake you if anything happens."
"Stupid human body," the Doctor muttered. "I used to be able to go without sleep for days, and now it's only been a few hours and I'm getting sleepy."
"That's what they call growing older. I used to be able to pull all-nighters in uni too," Marks said.
The Doctor sighed, and ran a hand through his unruly hair.
"You'll be sure to wake me up, if…?"
"I will," Marks promised.
The Doctor gave up his seat beside Rose, and sat down in the comfortable armchair by the window. Within minutes he was sprawled across it, his head at an odd angle as he slept.
Marks shook his head, taking the hand that the Doctor had carefully placed back on the coverlet.
"You've got some husband there, Tyler. Refused to leave you, even when he was at the point of exhaustion. Bet this isn't how you saw your Christmas Eve turned out, was it?"
Marks smile was bitter. He sighed, and was quiet for a few moments. Then, he shook his head.
"Best to just have it out, I think. I wish I had the courage to tell you when you were awake.
"I know you probably can't hear me, but I've got to say it all the same. Sometimes I feel like I would burst if I didn't tell you. Dear Rose," he kissed her hand tenderly, and held it up to his cheek. "Please, Rose. I know I can never have you, that your heart belongs to someone else. But please, don't leave me. A life without you is… blank. I know, I tried it. When you shot yourself into another universe, to go find him I tried to forget you. To pretend that I never loved you. But I couldn't do it. I couldn't bear not seeing you every day. Something inside me withered.
"I've always loved you. Since the minute you stepped through the office door and spouted off about aliens. And every time you came up with an odd and genius solution to one of our problems I fell in love with you a little more.
"I tried to cover it up with sarcasm and bury it deep, because I knew you would never love me back. Even then you belonged to him. I used to hate him, you know." Marks jerked his head towards the sleeping figure of the Doctor. "I used to hate him for taking you away from me.
"But to me, you are perfect. And my withered heart will love you till the day I die. So you see, you can't leave me. If only to torment me more, to break my heart even further, please, Rose, don't go."
The man's face crumpled, and he hid it in the folds of the blankets. He was still for a long moment. Then, he straightened up, and tenderly placed Rose's hand back at her side. Then, he left the room without once looking back.
The Doctor watched his retreating figure through half-open eyes.
-------
When the nurse walked in, the Doctor was at his old post, beside Rose's bed. He smiled to her wanly as she came in.
"Good morning," the Doctor said.
She smiled.
"Good morning, Dr. Smith. How was the night?"
"Well she's still breathing," the Doctor said with a sigh. "And as far as I can tell, the antibacterials you have her on are fighting off infection admirably."
The nurse raised her eyebrow.
"You know something about medicine?"
The Doctor smiled wanly.
"Astrophysics, mostly. But I've seen enough injuries to know when one is healing or not."
The nurse checked the machines, and scribbled down numbers onto a chart.
"Well, Mrs. Smith is looking a little better today. She's got some colour. How are you doing, sir?"
"Lousy way to spend Christmas Eve," the Doctor said, running his hand through his hair.
The nurse put a comforting hand on his arm.
"She managed to pull through the night. That means that she has a much better chance of a full recovery."
"And will she wake up?" the Doctor asked.
The nurse looked over at Rose.
"That's up to her. She's a fighter, I can tell."
"Yeah," the Doctor said, looking at Rose's still face. "Yeah she is."
------
Pete watched the snow drift by the window. This was not how he had expected to spend Christmas Eve. They should be all home decorating and eating shortbread and singing carols. Tony should be hanging his stocking up by the chimney, and Rose reading him "Twas the Night Before Christmas", and Jackie arguing with the Doctor about the validity of telling Tony there was a Santa Claus, while they all sipped on eggnog and apple cider. A hospital room was no place for Christmas.
The door opened. It was the Doctor, a coffee in one hand and a tea in the other. He gave the coffee to Pete. Pete took a sip of the hot, dark liquid, and sighed.
"I'd give my right leg for some good coffee."
The Doctor smiled, and sipped his tea.
"I wish I had some tea made by Jackie. If there's one thing that woman can do, it's make a nice cup of tea."
Pete nodded his agreement. Holding the coffee in his hands, he looked down at Rose.
"It's funny. I never really saw myself as a family man. Jackie – the other Jackie – never wanted kids. So we never had 'em. Guess we just got too busy for that sort of thing anyways. And then lot you came, and suddenly I've got a grown daughter, and then I get my wife back, and then Tony… and suddenly I'm a father."
The Doctor smiled.
"Did I ever tell you about the time we visited you in the 80s?"
Pete shook his head, slightly confused.
"Well, it wasn't really you. It was Rose's actual father. We went back to the day he died. I didn't know Rose was going to try to stop him from dying. You can't change things like that, set things. But I was so in love with her that I would have done almost anything she asked."
"What happened?" Pete asked.
"She tried to save you. Almost tore a hole in the universe. That's how much she wanted to know her dad. You don't know how much it means to her that you were here."
Pete leaned forward, and brushed a stray hair away from Rose's face.
"She's not my real daughter, but I love her as if she was," he said softly.
The Doctor nodded.
"She has that effect, doesn't she? She worms her way into your heard and takes up residence there. I ought to know."
Pete sighed again, and got up.
"I'm off to the loo. You want to sit here?"
The Doctor nodded, and took Pete's place, again taking Rose's hand. He was absently tracing the pattern of the sheets when he felt something. Was that a squeeze?
All of the Doctor's attention was suddenly on Rose once more. He searched her face for any sign that she was waking up.
The second time she squeezed his hand there was no mistaking it.
The Doctor watched in breathless anticipation. Was she waking up? Was it possible that she was going to be alright?
Then, the Doctor saw the most beautiful sight he had ever seen, and thought perhaps he would never see again:
Rose opened her eyes, and smiled at him.
Author's Note: OH. MY. GOODNESS. He's leaving. David Tennant is leaving Doctor Who. Isn't that the most tragic thing you've ever heard? I mean, I know that he can't be the Doctor forever, and it's the nature of Doctor Who to switch leading actors, and that he has to leave sometime and get on with his career, but I don't want him to! You always remember your first, and Ten was MY Doctor.
But I guess he needed to go. I mean, Ten belongs to Rose, and without her he will always be miserable. If he regenerates, he has the option to move on from her. But in his current regeneration, he will always belong to her. Good thing there's a 10.5 (Teen!Ten, as my friend calls him) who will always be Ten, albeit a human version of him.
I forget who it was that predicted that Marks was in love with Rose, but congratulations, you were right! I hope I've given subtle hints about it since the beginning, so it's not a weird bolt out of the blue for anyone. Also, I'm pleased that I got to fit in a conversation with Pete. I feel like I've been neglecting him, probably b/c he's hardly in the show so his personality is hard to gauge.