Sadness Seen 6/8

A/N: Warning – this chapter contains pain of the physical variety.

'What was that?' The Doctor asked, fear creeping into his voice. 'What was that?!' He yelled that one and ran around the TARDIS console to where Rose was uncomfortably shifting from one foot to the other.
'It wasn't anything.' She wouldn't look at him in case he read the truth in her eyes.
'Rose.' She remained silent looking at the TARDIS column. 'Rose.' He warned again. More silence. 'Rose Tyler tell me what is happening!' The anger in his voice made her head snap round. She took a tiny step back from the emotion in his eyes.
'I can't.' Her voice cracked as tears filled her eyes. 'You can't know.'
'Why not?' The Doctor's voice was soft and gentle again.
Jack and Martha looked from each other to the Doctor, trying to figure out what was happening from the only side of the conversation they could hear.
Rose bit her lip. 'I…' She choked on her words, the war inside her to speak or remain silent was fierce. She knew she couldn't tell him. It was impossible, he couldn't do anything and it would just add to the sorrow in his eyes. But she was desperate for him to know, for him to save her, to feel his arms around her again. Slowly her mind gave in to the inevitable.

'You're real,' he said softly. 'I'm not imagining you. You're real.' The realisation was amazing, freeing and terrible all at once. Rose nodded, smiling a little.
'Rose, can you show me?' The focus of his gaze was intense as he willed her to show him.
Rose hung her head and let reality flood into his mind.
The Doctor let his eyes drift closed and swallowed hard. He'd known that anything Rose was keeping from him must be bad, but this.
'Oh Rose.'

Rose was strapped to a steel contraption that ensured she was permanently half standing, half sitting. There was barely an inch of skin that was not marred by angry bruises or welts. A large gash ran down the side of her face from above her hairline to her chin. Her right hand was swollen and it appeared that if he touched her two middle fingers he'd find them not to contain strong bone but something more resembling porridge. Her left leg was badly twisted and had at least two breaks in it. Her t-shirt had ridden up a little and the skin beneath showed that her stomach had received many blows, as though someone had used her as a punching bag. She was breathing very shallowly in an attempt not to move her lungs and cause herself even more pain. She tried to open her eyes, which had swollen shut, and to smile at him as though to say 'It's not that bad.'

The Doctor looked at her in horror. Then he said in a very low and dangerous tone. 'Who did this?'
Rose showed him an image of her captor. A spindly old man, half bent over. He had a long curved nose, very little hair and long fingers that curled around his cane. His tiny eyes were deep violet.
'Oh Rose.'
The images melted away from him and he stood once more in the TARDIS with Rose healthy and whole before him. The Doctor clenched his teeth together and took half a calming breath.
'I'm coming for you.' Nothing in any universe would stop him now. The Doctor was rage and fire and ice.

Everyone began to talk at once.
'But you can't. You said it was impossible.' Rose wrapped her arms around herself trying not to let even the tiniest glimmer of hope enter her mind, but he was her Doctor.
'What? What's going on?' Martha ran over to the Doctor, Jack on her heels.
'Doctor? What's happening?' Jack put a hand on his shoulder.

'A wraitreth has Rose.' The Doctor's voice was deadly and quiet.
'A what?' Asked Martha
'No.' Jack's mouth fell open in horror.
Seeing the Doctor was thinking too deeply to answer her properly Martha turned on Jack.
'What's a wraitrees…wrai… whatever?'
'Wraitreth.' Jack corrected her without taking his gaze from the Doctor, anger, horror and disbelief lacing his voice. 'It's a psychopathic, sadistic…' He trailed off and then turned to her to finish. 'This alien race that tortures people. Not for any other reason than that it's fun.'

Jack turned back to the Doctor whose eyes were glued to Rose but whose mind was silently racing.
'Doctor?' There was no reply so Jack tried again. 'Doctor?'
'Hmm?'
'You said we could get her back? How? I though there was no way of reaching her without the universes imploding or something.'
'Oh no.' The Doctor let his eyes slide from Rose to Jack for a second. 'There's always been a way.'

Three voices chorused 'What?!'
'Oh yeah. Didn't I tell you?' The Doctor was grinning and looking genuinely shocked that they didn't know. Then he got serious again. 'It's just that it's incredibly difficult and very dangerous, could cause the end of all existence. And that's when you have five Time Lords at least doing it. But there's only me now.'
'You can do it Doctor.' Jack said firmly.
'You think so? You don't even know what it is.' The Doctor looked at each of them. Jack's jaw was set in determination and confidence. Martha smiled and nodded reassuringly. Rose looked certain that he could do it, but also torn that she didn't think she was worth even the slightest possibility of the end of all existence.

'Right.' The Doctor grinned. 'This will be fun.'
He turned to Rose. 'Now do you know where you are?'
She shook her head, afraid that at any moment the whole plan would fall apart.
'That's okay.' The Doctor reassured her. 'Do you have your TARDIS key?'
She brightened and nodded. 'Yes. It's in my pocket. He didn't even go through my clothes. Wasn't looking for anything. Just started…' She shut her mouth hurriedly.
'I know.' The Doctor nodded. 'And good. That'll make it easy to find you. This has to be very quick. No time to dilly dally or shilly shally.' The Doctor frowned over his words and made a mental note not to use them again, hopefully ever. Then he grew serious again.

'Rose, you have to decide now. I can rescue you and take you back to Jackie… or… or you could… come back… with me.' The Doctor looked hopeful but very unsure.
Rose smiled. 'There is no decision Doctor. I've already made it. I told you, I'm not leaving you.' A swift and uncertain thought entered her mind. 'Un… unless you don't want me… to…'
The Doctor shook his head a little and smiled shyly. 'Oh no. I'd love you… here… I mean…' He held his hand out palm up. Rose nodded.
'Good. That's it then.' She placed her hand above his. The Doctor swore that if he stretched his mind a little more he could feel the warmth of her skin. He smiled softly at the sensation.

The Doctor turned back to Jack and Martha who had been watching the one-side conversation with different feelings. Jack was smiling in memory and thinking how much he loved these two people. Martha had a slight frown as she saw and realised for the first time what the Doctor was like when he loved someone. She couldn't help but draw comparisons to John Smith and how he'd been with Joan. She was pulled away from her thoughts by the Doctor's voice.
'Right, well I'll need you both to do this. You'll have to learn exactly what I tell you and do it perfectly, otherwise … well never mind otherwise.' The Doctor was racing around the console now, pushing seemingly random buttons and pulling levers. He stopped abruptly next to Rose.
'Not you Rose, you have to leave.' She opened her mouth to protest. 'No. no. I don't think the universe would like it if you were on board. But also I need to concentrate, very hard and you… you're a distraction.' She raised an eyebrow playfully at him. He grinned back. 'So off you go.'
She nodded and began to fade.
'Oh and Rose.' He called after her and she stopped. He held out his hands to almost cup her face but not break the illusion. 'I'm coming for you.'
Her eyes lit up and she whispered 'I love you.' And faded away completely.
The Doctor grinned at the empty space for a second before spinning back to his two companions.
'Right, Jack. Martha.' He nodded to each of them. 'Here's what I need you to do.'

The next few hours were spent preparing the TARDIS and with the Doctor teaching them each the intricate sequences they'd have to carry out. Neither of them wanted to ask the Doctor what he would be doing while they were manning the console, nor why the TARDIS seemed to be directing concerned hums and beeps at him. Jack picked it up more easily than Martha due to his previous experience and knowledge, but eventually they were both ready and could perform their jobs perfectly.

With Martha and Jack in place around the console the Doctor turned his back on them and faced the wall. 'Come on.' He told it firmly.
The TARDIS beeped a resolute 'no' at him.
'We have to. You know it's the only way.' The TARDIS hummed her displeasure.
'You want her back to don't you?' There was a small beep of affirmative.
'Well then. Come on! We can do it. You and me.' The Doctor held his hands out imploringly to the wall. There was a hum very much like a resigned sigh and the wall opened a little.
'Thankyou.' The Doctor dropped his hands and turned around to face Martha and Jack as a contraption like an arm extended out of the wall.

'Oh and did I also mention it's going to hurt… a lot.'
They both began to protest and ask just how much pain.
'Oh not you. Just me.'
They didn't look all that greatly relieved by this, especially Martha who remembered the chameleon arch. The Doctor smiled reassuringly at them.
'What's a little pain? Soon over.'
The arm reached out and wrapped around his waist and hips, lifting him half a metre from the grating. The Doctor moved around a bit, finding the most comfortable position.
'Ready?' He asked his companions who weren't sure if they were but were cautiously curious to see what was going to happen. 'Right.' He nodded and held his arms out wide. Six thin wires descended from somewhere above the ceiling. They separated into two groups, three on either side. They hovered there almost uncertainly.
'Come on.' The Doctor nodded. When the TARDIS still held back he said it again. Then yelled in almost desperation. 'Do it!'

Two of the wires descended a little further and after a pause launched towards him, burying themselves in either side of his chest, pushing through flesh deep into his hearts. The Doctor screamed and then gasped, drawing in deep settling gulps of air. Martha and Jack, their eyes wide in horror, ran to stop it.
'No, no, no. It's okay. Meant to happen. Has to be this way.' He waved them away.
The second set of wires moved, these to either side of his head and buried themselves through his temples. The Doctor gasped and screamed in turn, his eyes squeezed shut against the pain of the thin wires boring through his head. Then his eyes flew open and remained wide and staring as he heaved for air. The third set settled themselves before his eyes.
Martha screamed. 'No!' As they flew into his eyes.

If the sound of the TARDIS's engines was the most beautiful sound in the world, the sound of the Doctor screaming was the most terrible. Jack watched on in terror — not sure if he should intervene or not, he couldn't move or take his eyes of the convulsing Doctor. Martha stood at his side and cried huge loud sobs into her hands, her eyes also glued to the Doctor. Jack reached out and put a hand firmly on her shoulder, perhaps in reassurance that he didn't feel himself. He didn't really have a motivation. His mind wasn't even taking anything in other than the Doctor.

After what seemed like forever the Doctor's screams subsided and he hung limp and silent in the mechanical arm. The screaming and shaking had been bad enough but the terrible silence that seemed to stretch on and on worried Jack and Martha more as they looked from the Doctor to each other and back again, their eyes asking 'What do we do?'