Through the gasps of air the Doctor was gratefully taking in, he heard Rose whisper his name. He turned towards her at the sound just in time to see her head loll back into the mud as she lost consciousness. Panic gripped his hearts. No! Scrambling closer to her he checked her pulse and breathing. He only took another breath himself when both vital signs were present. The Doctor collapsed back down towards her and rested his forehead on hers briefly as he waited for his strength to return. He brushed her wet and tangled hair back from her face and palmed her cheek, wincing when he felt how cold it was. He checked her over for injuries and sucked in a breath through his teeth when he saw a long, deep gash that spanned across her right arm. He'd need to see to that…just as soon as he caught his breath. A respiratory bypass could only do so much, after all. He took a few more deep breaths and used the pause in action to check their surroundings for danger. The Xythiers were long gone, stuck up on a cliff far upstream. If he remembered correctly, they were unable to swim and would have sunk right down to the bottom with their density. That meant they could only pursue him and Rose by land. With the help of the fast current, the Doctor and Rose had a large head start. Unfortunately, it was in the opposite direction of the TARDIS. He grimaced as he heard the rumble of thunder of the approaching storm and wasn't sure their situation had actually improved all that much from when they were being marched up the sandy path towards the mountains.
He was shaken from his musings when Rose started coughing violently. He eased her up until she was leaning heavily against his chest. He murmured calming words as he brushed back the hair that had again once again fallen in her face and ran his hand over the soggy back of her coat in slow, soothing circles. After a few minutes her hacking coughs calmed until she was finally breathing closer to normal. She shivered violently against him and murmured a simple, "Blimey."
The Doctor chuckled softly. She had a way of summarization that baffled and deeply impressed him. "I'll say. You were brilliant, Rose Tyler."
"Not so bad yourself," she countered back through chattering teeth. "Reckon you saved my life…again."
"Only because you saved mine first. That arrow would have stopped one of my hearts if it weren't for you," he smiled into her damp hair.
She turned so she could look up at him, her faced scrunched up in concern, "did it hit you? I thought I felt…"
"Just a scrape," he eased back so she was sitting independently and showed her the graze the arrow left along his left bicep, "No biggie."
"No biggie?" she laughed tiredly with raised eyebrows.
"Yeah, don't think that particular phrase works for me, does it?" In response Rose wrinkled her nose and shook her head. She looked so adorable when she did that, he had to remind himself that snogging Rose Tyler was not something that he did. Especially not in life or death situations. Although, now that he thought of it, that's when the prospect often seemed particularly attractive.
"Does it hurt?" she asked, now serious. She traced her fingers lightly around the shallow cut with her uninjured hand and the Doctor shivered at her delicate touch. Oh blimey, now is really not the time for that! he chastised himself.
"Naw, just stung a little at first but it'll be healed up so quick it's not even worth running it over with the sonic. On the other hand," he gingerly reached for Rose's injured arm.
"Oh, where'd that come from?" Rose furrowed her brow as she looked at the slowly seeping wound.
"Probably one of the rocks," he guessed.
He inspected the cut more thoroughly and pressed his lips to her palm before he realized what he was doing. Her breath hitched and he looked up finding their faces were much closer than he had realized.
"What, Jackie never kissed your boo-boos better?" he tried to make it into a joke but his voice came out too soft and much too low to match his intended meaning.
His sovely, amazing companion laughed anyway, "Guess she did. Yeah. But that's probably because she didn't have a sonic." She smiled at him with that tongue touched smile and suddenly their situation didn't seem quite so horrible. They were together, after all.
"Right you are, Rose Tyler. Let me just…" he plunged the hand not cradling Rose's into his jacket pocket. He had sworn he had put it in there, but he must have switched it to the other pocked at some point. Nope. Maybe an inside pocket?
"Er…" he said lamely.
Rose groaned and teased him, "Don't tell me the very impressive Time Lord forgot his favorite toy!"
"Of course not," he scoffed in feigned indignation to hide his growing unease, "Must have fallen out in the river. Come to think of it, I seem to be missing quite a bit," he continued to rummage through his bigger on the inside pockets, cataloging the the missing items.
He let out a bark of frustration, "And that was my favorite yo-yo! Got is signed by Houdini, I did!" Then more seriously to Rose, "I'm so sorry Rose. I'll see if I can find something to make a bandage and then I'll fix you back up in the TARDIS."
"S'fine Doctor. If it get's much colder I'm not going to be feeling it anyway." The Doctor knew she was joking but he also knew there was a large amount of truth in that statement. And if the rolling thunder was any indication, it was going to start raining any minute. Not that either of them could really get much wetter...
He hurriedly cobbled together a bandage using some moss samples he had from a horticulturalist friend and a hair ribbon of Rose's from when they went to a 1920's State Fair in Kansas. "How's that feel then?" He asked her as he tenderly lowered the injured arm.
Rose shrugged, "Bout the same, but I have to say I am rather impressed with your creativity in the bandage." The Doctor took a moment to bask in her praise before helping her up to her feet.
"Alright Rose Tyler, we have a TARDIS to get home to. You up for a leisurely jaunt through this lovely rock garden? Sunset should be brilliant." He twined his fingers in with her uninjured arm and they set off.
"Well when you put it like that…" they both chuckled but were so tired it was only with a fraction of the energy of their usual shared laughter.