Recovery
10/Rose
Hurt/Comfort
Summary: When Rose falls ill on an alien planet it's up to the Doctor to help her recover.
Disclaimer: I do not own Doctor Who or its characters. Last night I watched David Tennant in Recovery (if you haven't seen it, I highly recommend it. It's on youtube. It's a great story, and DT does a fantastic job. All of them do.) So this story shares its name with that, because I'm lousy with titles, and the idea behind it follows along those lines as well, though of course with a DW twist.
Previously:
"Doctor, is everything ok?"
"Everything is more than ok, Rose! Everything is perfect. Just as it should be. C'mon, come with me."
"Where are we going?"
"Off to the infirmary, I just need to do a scan, then we can be off to wherever you'd like to go."
Epilogue
Rose sat in quiet confusion while the Doctor ran the scan over her.
"What's the last thing you remember, Rose?"
"Besides the console room? Being on Ledonia and wandering around the marketplace. You had said you wanted some zeus plugs and we had agreed to meet before dark back at the TARDIS. That's it."
The Doctor nodded. "This is going to be a shock, Rose, but that was a month ago."
"A month?!"
He nodded again. "You had an allergic reaction to a salak. It's kind of a cross between a pineapple and an apple. And for you it causes severe intestinal pain. You collapsed in the marketplace and they took you to their local hospital. Lovely people, very helpful. But they'd never met a human before. Their treatments were worse than the disease, as the saying goes. Instead of easing your pain and helping you get rid of the allergen they wiped out your immune system and you immediately picked up a Ledonian bug. It settled into your brain and put you into a coma for two weeks. For the last two weeks I've been working with you, psychically, to get your brain back in normal working order. To be honest I didn't know if you were ever going to come completely out of it, or if you'd end up simply being better than yesterday, but never as good as before. When you walk around the TARDIS now you'll see evidence of it. The kitchen is labeled to help you cope, your bedroom has lists all over it to make sure you've gotten the basics done. There are a few things that are broken. You'd get angry and throw things. You'd get sullen, you'd get weepy. It was very much like being a toddler again, Rose. You had little control over your emotions, both the good and the bad ones. But for some reason today in the console room everything just snapped back into place and you remembered."
"So that's why you ... checked me. Psychically, I mean. You wanted to make sure everything was working?"
"That's right! And instead of ghosts from the past and absolute chaos I met with Rose Tyler!" His manic grin was back. Rose couldn't help but smile back.
"So, I'm good now?"
"You're good! Scans show nothing but twenty year old healthy human in front of me. You've lost a little weight, you spent two weeks being fed via an IV, but other than that you're absolutely perfect. So, where do you want to go?"
Rose thought about it for a few minutes. "I want to hear about this past month, but I'd like to get out. And if we've been here a month without leaving then I'm going to guess you desperately need to get out. How about someplace with nice restaurants, not too crowded, pleasant environment, and no salaks." She grinned at that.
"It's a deal. C'mon then, back to the console room!"
He grabbed Rose's hand in his and practically dragged her all the way back. After just a few minutes they materialized, the Doctor grabbed his overcoat, and bounded over to the door.
"This, Rose, is Prakal. Imagine it as the perfect little seaside resort town in the offseason. Everything is here except the throngs of people. So, out we go!"
In his enthusiasm he ran down the hillside and nearly halfway to town before Rose started out of the TARDIS. She easily caught up with him, and they walked hand in hand toward the town. The Doctor told Rose about the past month. It took well past dinner and into a late evening walk before he was done with his tale.
Rose couldn't believe all that he had done for her. She was embarrassed about parts of it, both the physical and emotional aspects of what he's seen her through, but deep down it didn't really bother her. After all, the Doctor was the most important person in her life, and if you can't trust your entirety to the most important person in your life, than who could you?
Deciding to stay in town for the night rather than go back to the TARDIS Rose and the Doctor got a room at one of the cozier inns closer to the beach. The Doctor didn't need to sleep, but Rose was exhausted.
"Feeling perfect or not, Rose, you've still been nearly off your feet for a month. Take it easy. We'll still be here tomorrow."
Rose smiled sleepily at the Doctor. "Yes we will. And the day after that, and the tomorrow after that, and the tomorrow after that..." She drifted off in the middle of her thought.
"As many tomorrows as we can give each other, Rose."
The Doctor leaned down and gave his companion's brow a gentle kiss, then shoved her over so he could lay next to her on the bed. He stayed that way until she was done sleeping, just laying there next to her, basking in the glory of a healthy Rose.
The end.
A/N: I know, a sappy ending. But it's 8:15 am and I've been up all night writing this. So if it seems awful after about the fourth chapter or so, that's just fatigue trying to write. I hope you liked it, though! Definitely watch David Tennant in Recovery. It's so poignant.