I couldn't sleep last night so I worked on this instead. Had quite a bit of fun with it, too :P
Only one more chapter if I don't have a change of mind again... maybe two if I write an epilogue. And don't worry, poor Rose will get her payback pretty soon ;)

~*~

When Rose returned to the meadow, Jack was nowhere to see.

"Go figures," she muttered under her breath and began to search the surrounding area for a trace of the vanished ex-Time Agent.

The Doctor arrived mere seconds later and seemed quite amused by Jack's absence. "Hah! The prat broke your rules and wandered off... someone is in for a good beating." He rubbed his hands together in pure anticipation of Jack's scolding.

"I don't think, he left voluntarily..." Rose said from somewhere behind the bushes. "There are... scratches on the ground here. I think he was dragged off and bored his nails into the ground." She frowned. "Not the smartest thing to do, when he could have grabbed a tree or something instead..."

The Doctor coughed a weirdly, which sounded a lot like 'loser' to Rose.

She rolled her eyes at his childish behaviour and searched for other traces, that helped to find out where their friend was dragged off to.

"He left quite a lot of damage in the woods... it should be easy to follow him," she said after a while, eyeing broken sticks on the ground and scratches on a few trunks.

The Doctor took a pear out of his jacket and eyed Rose's discovery quite bored, while eating it. "Why should we try to find him in the first place? He is just a whiny little piece of-"

Rose looked in disbelief at him. "To make sure he is safe and make him to the person, he was. Jack is our friend... or did you forget that?"

"Who cares? I can think of much more enjoyable things, one can do in the woods instead of chasing after a stupid little monk..." The Doctor threw the rest of the devoured fruit away, licked his lips and leered at her. "In fact, it's the most unmonkish thing, I can think of..."

Knowing full well, she wouldn't get anywhere without motivating him a little, Rose stepped forward and lay a hand on his chest, right between his wild thumping hearts. Leaning toward him, she whispered mere inches away from his face, "If you help me rescue Jack and get those herbs, I would be really grateful."

That sure got his attention. "Grateful? How grateful exactly?" he breathed back, his voice suddenly several octaves deeper.

"Oh, so grateful that..." She shot him a brilliant smile. "We go visiting my mum and I convince her to make Shepherd's Pie!"

The Doctor's mouth dropped open in shock. "Shepherd's..." he began and then beamed suddenly at her. "That's lovely! Let's go find him!"

The Time Lord was in the woods in under a second and Rose gaped after him like fish. "That... that worked? Damn... I'm beginning to get get a hang of this." Shaking her head, she turned to follow him.

~*~

When they finally reached the end of their search which seemed to Rose like taking hours, although it really was just a few minutes, the couple broke through the woods and stood right at the edge of a small cliff. On the right of them, a narrow way led down to something, Rose had only one thing to say about: "What the bloody hell is that thing?!"

She gaped at a creepy, black-ish building in front of her. It looked like a mix of factory, castle and dungeon... feeling suddenly reminded of bad horror films, where the victims just had to enter a vacated, creepy building although knowing better, Rose half inspected to hear a roll of thunder from above it.

But in her travels, she had seen much worse things like this... as long as the Doctor was by her side, nothing could ever-...

Rose's thoughts drifted off and a sudden fear clenched at her heart, when she looked around and no Doctor was to be seen anywhere.

"Doctor? Doctor, where are you?"

Her head turned back to the woods, when she suddenly heard a stifled yawn from behind one of the bushes. "Doctor?"

Going to the place, where she heard the noise from, Rose spotted the Doctor leaning against one of the trees. "Be a sweetheart and go on without me, yeah? I'm in dire need of a nap."

Her blood began to boil at his words and only the mantra inside her head ("He isn't in his right mind. He isn't in his right mind. He isn't in his right mind."), kept her from giving him a good Tyler slap.

"And why," she said through clenched teeth after taking a deep breath. "do you want to let a girl, you wanted to shag and marry only minutes ago, go to a dangerous rescue mission completely on her own?"

The Doctor frowned at her as if that question wouldn't have been a justified one. "Obviously because I'm tired, Rose. There are only so many things I do for Shepherd's Pie and entering a creepy looking building, where we probably will be in danger and have to run, God forbid, I prefer a good kip."

Taking the hint, Rose knew she had to raise the stakes in order to get him to come with her. "Alright... alright. What do I have to do, so you come with me and help?"

The Doctor suddenly grinned widely at her and even had an evil glint inside his eyes. "Well, Rose Tyler... you are entirely too... evading for my taste. First you are responding to my advances and then, when I'm all hot and bothered, you reject me again. I'm getting quite a lot of mixed signals, here."

Rose bit her lip and tried to avoid meeting his eyes. "It's complicated... I told you it is."

"Not for me. I want you, Rose." His look hold so much honesty that Rose cursed the damn insect that stung him, once again. How much of what he did and said was really true?

"You might want me now, but not when you are normal again... Look, I don't want to do anything you will hate me later for..."

"I could never hate you."

"But you will!" Rose sighed and kneed down to cup his cheek. He leant at once into her touch. "When we got Jack back as well as those herbs which make you both normal again and you two took them to cure your... illness, then... if you still want me, then I'm willing to give it a try... more than a try, actually." She blushed at her words and the Doctor started to grin broadly at her.

"Alright then! Let's rescue that useless, little interfering monk!"

~*~

Entering the building was surprisingly easy, albeit... different from their usual approach. The Doctor, taking out his psychic paper and grinning cheekily at the startled guard, introduced himself as Dr. John Dorian (he was definitely watching too much TV these days...) and pointing at Rose, he added, "And this is my lovely assistant and concubine, Rose Tyler." Said person's eyes widened at the denotation and she resisted the urge with all her might to kick him against the shin for the remark.

The guard looked at her scrutinising, his gaze staying on different parts of her body too long, and turned his head back to the Doctor. "Concubine, eh? She any good?"

When the Doctor's face broke into a huge grin, Rose knew she wouldn't like his answer. "Good? Oh, you should see what she can do with her tongue... Not to mention her gymnastic abilities... Ouch!" This time she really did kick him.

Frowning, the guard said, "Not very well-educated, is she? She should know to respect her master..."

"Ah, I like them a bit feisty, you see? It makes things quite... interesting in the bedroom."

They both shared an evil laugh and the guard let them enter the building without even asking from which organisation, they were from. Frankly, he had to be the worst guard in the whole universe... Well, at least something worked out.

When they were alone inside the big entrance hall, Rose used the time to hit the Doctor on the back of his head with her flat hand. "Ouch! What the hell was that for?!" he exclaimed, rubbing his throbbing scalp.

"Does concubine, gymnastics and feisty ring a bell?" Her eye was twitching again. She could feel it.

"Rose, I only acted! And it worked, didn't it?" The Doctor gave it his all to look innocent but the mirth inside his eyes betrayed him.

"At my expense... How would you feel, if I claimed ownership over you?" Rose regretted her words as soon as she saw a dreamy expression crossing the Doctor's face.

"Depends. Do I get a collar and you call me 'bad boy'? I look really great in leather..."

Turning her head away and muttering something about finding Jack, Rose prayed to God he wouldn't notice the blush that graced her cheeks. Stupid 21th century view... Jack, the normal, proper, perverted one, always said she was too uptight and needed to loosen up in regards of extravagant sexual practices. But the images crossing her mind right now, were entirely too much for her little, human heart.

"Ro-ose... I can smell you..."

Rose jumped when the Doctor suddenly stood only inches behind her. Shivering from the Time Lord's ragged breathing against her neck, she knew they had to find Jack... and fast! There was only so much a London girl could take, after all...

~*~

It soon became clear that the building was really more a creepy, dark castle than a factory. There were countless shady corridors, lit only by the shine of single candles, and without signs leading to any direction. Whoever worked or lived here obviously knew his way around.

The Doctor stayed, like in the last few days, rather passive and therefore Rose had to take the lead again. After walking through similar looking, deserted corridors and not finding even a trace of Jack, Rose turned frustrated to the Time Lord. "Don't you have any idea, where Jack could be?"

Tearing his gaze from her heaving breasts, the Doctor's eyes stayed on her lips instead. " You know me, I'm not really good in finding my way through unknown buildings... and I'm also quite rubbish at saving people..."

"Riiight... how could I ever forget that..." she answered with rolling eyes, her voice nearly dripping with sarcasm. "Okay, Rose. Think, think!" she continued to talk to herself. "Where would you keep a crazy hostage like Jack in a creepy castle that looks like arisen from a horror film?"

Rose slapped her hand against her forehead when it suddenly hit her. "A dungeon! Jack has to be inside the dungeon! We have to go downstairs... come on!"

Dragging the Doctor along, she soon reached a flight of stairs. Rose swallowed when she looked down. It looked even darker down there. "A-Alright... off we go then."

"Do you really think the idiot is worth all this trouble? If you have to have a prude as a friend then we could just find you a new one," the Doctor muttered, also looking with dismay at the darkness below them.

"I am planning to... 'deprude' him. Thank you very much." Catching his surprised, frowning look, she added hastily, "Mind out of the gutter, will you? I didn't mean it in that way!"

"Good," he growled in return. "You are mine and that won't ever change, Rose Tyler."

Rose shivered again... and it had nothing to do with the breath of wind coursing through the castle.

"Okay, then... then let's do this."

And trying to ignore the sense of dread overcoming their minds, they descended the flight of stairs.