Chapter Twelve

John slept deeply. His body felt as if it had been battered and his mind needed the peace that only sleep can afford.

Rose woke just an hour later and watched him sleep. They had moved as they slept and now he was lying on his back with one arm across his chest and the other thrown above his head, a hand brushed his cheek. He looked peaceful but Rose was only too aware how quickly that state of affairs could change.

Her own hand was resting on her flat and toned stomach and she imagined the life growing within her. A boy or a girl to love, care for and teach. A playmate for her own little brother. Who would it look like? She imagined a face with John's beautiful chocolate brown eyes and her own fair colouring and smiled silently. Surely fortune couldn't be so cruel as to deny her a life with the Father of her baby.

She slipped off the bed and covered John with the comforter before going downstairs to make some more tea; she left the bedroom door wide open so that she would hear if John called to her. When she arrived in the kitchen she smiled to herself and chided herself for being so like her Mother she always turned to the tea pot in times of worry and stress as well.

Upstairs John moaned in his sleep and threw back the cover Rose had put on him. His hair was wet with perspiration as if he was in the middle of a night sweat he was still asleep but he was becoming more and more distressed.

*He* was in pain. *His* body was wracked with wave upon wave of heat and light and then as suddenly as it had started it stopped. John stilled and relaxed back in to sleep.

When Rose returned to him she was alarmed to see him looking sweaty and with the comforter kicked off, but when she touched his forehead he felt normally warm. She went to the bathroom and ran a wash cloth in cool water which she dabbed on him gently. He didn't stir and she moved to her side of the bed and sat up and watched him as she drank.

She was just beginning to think she could maybe go and do something else when he moved and groaned as if in pain. *He* was back but something was wrong. *He* looked too perfect, *his* body had been battered, bruised and tormented but now *he* looked immaculate.

John gasped as he saw through *his* eyes. Mickey Smith! And Martha! They were together, very together and in terrible danger. A Sontaran!

"NOOOO!" The word tore from John's lips but just as suddenly the danger passed. The Sontaran dropped to the ground and there *he* was again. *He* looked at Mickey and Martha and she knew. So did John.

He was struggling to wake up; he didn't want to see this. Rose where was Rose? Rose had long since put down her mug of tea and was trying to soothe John as he thrashed and called for her.

"I'm here, John wake up! John!"

There was Luke Smith, he'd help him but what was the silly boy doing? Crossing the road, a car! *He* ran and threw himself at Luke and pushed him across and to the pavement. Sarah! *He* walked back to the TARDIS and turned to look at her.

John was calmer and he even seemed to smile in his sleep. He was breathing deeply and evenly but if he wouldn't wake up how could she tell him she loved him?

*He* was in a bar and there was the Captain and Alonso was seated alongside him. *He* watched as the barmen gave Jack the slip of paper *he* had written on. "His name is Alonso" was all it said… When Jack looked up *he* tilted his head almost imperceptibly to indicate the young man with big ears sat on Jack's left. Jack saluted and *he* left.

Back in the Smith's bedroom Rose was just left to watch. She brushed a tear away. He was still and calm again now but his body seemed to go from intense pain to peace in a matter of moments. How much more could a simple human body take before it succumbed?

He stiffened again and gasped aloud, that woman knew *him* as John as him. No wait it wasn't her, it wasn't Joan. He crept closer to listen he had to know who was she? Granddaughter? Susan? No no not *his* Granddaughter, hers… Joan's she had married again and been happy. Exhaling deeply John sank back in to his pillows.

"John please wake up!" She was shaking his shoulders now; she was very afraid and had even thought of calling their doctor but what could she say? "Please come quickly my husband is dreaming and I think the dreams will kill him?" The receptionist would laugh at her and hang up.

John watched as *he* bought a lottery ticket. *He* joked with a man who he thought he should know and when *he* bade him farewell and named him Geoffrey… John remembered; Geoffrey Noble. Then *he* was at a wedding; Donna and Sean's. Wilf saw *him* and *he* told him and Sylvia about borrowing a pound from a man named Geoffrey Noble but then it was time to leave; there was but just one more piece of the reward to receive… "Rose."