For all those who review this story after this publishing of this chapter, extra hugs and love from the Doctor to you! Plus, if you also leave your name, you can be a nice Torchwood agent... (seriously, i need characters! i don't care if Tosh, Owen and Ianto are dead, for this, I'm bringing them back as well! *goes and raids the Torchwood gadget section").
Disclaimer: No, I still don't own Doctor Who (Damn). However, I am gonna play with them for a while. Promise. You can have them back afterwards, all shiny and new again. But seeing as you didn't want Owen, Tosh and Ianto, I am keeping them *hugs tight* And maybe I'll give back David at a later date. *Hugs tenth Doctor close, pets him on the head* Love my Bambi Doctor ^_^
"You okay?"
Rose started at John's voice, rolling over to face him. His warm brown eyes implored hers, and she smiled softly at him.
"Yeah. Why?"
He shrugged slightly, brushing a loose strand of dark blonde hair out of her face and tucking it behind her ear.
"Well, you haven't slept, and I couldn't help but hear you shouting through a door earlier."
"Yeah." She murmured, burying her head in his shoulder. "It's just…"
"What, sweetheart?" John asked, concern evident in his voice as he softly stroked her hair, and Rose couldn't help but smile at his affection. Bless, it was a habit he'd picked up not long after coming to terms with his humanity, and she found it rather endearing. When she'd first questioned him about it, he'd kept repeating "What?" until she explained, and even then he hadn't even realised what he'd been doing. That had been one of the first 'Bambi' incidents.
"What? C'mon, you know you can tell me…"
"I dunno…"
"Please? Pretty pretty please? With a cherry on top?"
Rose pulled back from his embrace to see him giving her the Bambi-eye look. Come to think of it, he was like Bambi in every single way - large, brown innocent eyes, long, gangly yet elegant limbs, cute, and when he got into trouble or an awkward situation, the whole deer-in-the-headlights thing…
"…Mind you, when I say a cherry on top, of course I mean an actual cherry, not one of those horrible glace ones - not that there's anything wrong with glace cherries, but do you have any idea just how much sugar there is in those things? And I'm not even going to start on the list of preservatives…" He rambled on, oblivious to fact that he'd have been better off talking to a brick wall.
"Huh?" Rose asked, and John simply rolled his eyes.
"If you didn't want to listen, then just say so!"
"Mmmm, shut up." She laughed, kissing him softly.
"So, about before?" He queried, and Rose giggled lightly.
"No getting away from it with you, is there?" She teased, and John shook his head in pretence seriousness.
"No way Jose!" As soon as the words had left his mouth, he went cross-eyed, trying to look at his mouth, and Rose suppressed the urge to laugh. He looked at her in disgust and offence, before asking her seriously "Did I really just say that?"
"Yeah!" She snorted, unable to contain her laughter anymore.
"Now, seriously, if I ever say that again, then slap me. Seriously, slap me. I never ever ever want to say that again!" He waved his hand in front of his face, before adding on "With emphasis on the never ever ever."
She rolled her eyes. "Didn't figure."
Rose looked at him a few moments later, all traces of joking around and happiness gone.
"John, it's just that before… Before, Belle told me to get everyone out of the TARDIS."
"Why?" He asked, cupping a cheek softly with his left hand in comfort. She shrugged softly.
"I dunno. All she said was to get everyone out so she couldn't hurt anyone, and then she just… Lost it."
John's eyes widened significantly. "Lost it? Hurt anyone?" He grasped her gently by the shoulders.
"Rose, is there anything else she said? Anything? Anything at all that could help?" He shook her slightly. "Tell me!"
"No!" She said loudly, and he relaxed his grip on her.
"Sorry," he murmured, "It's just that… I can't help but feel we might be at risk."
Rose shuddered at his words. "How can we be at risk? John? Unless…"
"The darkness awakening…" John trailed off, and suddenly, a scream ripped through the air.
John bolted upright from the bed, grasping a torch and grabbing Rose's hand. "C'mon!"
They raced down the corridor, hand in hand, as they searched for the victim of that scream. John shivered as the sound replayed in his mind, it seemed so familiar, yet he couldn't quite place it…
Rose couldn't help but notice that a look of panic and fear had settled across her partner's face, and that his grip on her hand had tightened significantly. They both nearly fell over each other as a door in the corridor opened suddenly, and Rose quickly placed a hand over John's mouth as it opened to scream. A muffled cry escaped his lips as both him and Rose were greeted with the sight of Pete in his pyjamas, and in John's mind a much more scary-looking Jackie in pyjamas and face mask.
"Next time, warn us?" Rose said, smiling sweetly as she slowly brought her hand away from John's mouth, who simply stared at Jackie as if she was a darker nightmare than the Daleks and Davros himself.
"Never mind that, who's screaming at this time of night, or rather, morning?" Jackie retorted, before glaring at John. "What you looking at?"
"No idea," He muttered under his breath, ignoring the sharp poke in the ribs that Rose kindly gave him. "Anyway? Screaming? I think that may be my Time Lord counterpart…"
He took off down the corridor, Rose setting off after him, followed by a confused Pete and a disgruntled Jackie.
"Charming," She called after them, "Whenever he wants to scream, he doesn't even have the decency to do it in daylight hours!"
A few minutes later after chasing corridors and back-pedalling, John paused outside a door.
"Finally here?" Rose panted, trying to catch her breath.
"Yeah. Couldn't help but notice, you know I have a human body? I think his respiratory bypass system may have somehow been incorporated."
"Never mind that, the screaming?" Rose shot back, and John nodded slowly.
"Yeah. Everyone ready?" He turned, yelping slightly as he was faced with a frying-pan-wielding-Jackie Tyler.
"For the attacker, not for you, you plum!" She said, rolling her eyes.
"You know what? I actually feel sorry for the culprit." John replied, before letting out anther whimper and holding his hands up in surrender as Jackie lifted the pan slightly in his direction.
"Thought as much." Jackie muttered.
"Anyway, here goes!" John pushed open the door, only to see a figure crouched over the Doctor, holding his head back slightly, throat bare and exposed.
"Stop!" John cried out, and the figure turned it's head to face him. The Doctor raised his head weakly, his eyes barely focusing.
"J-J-John?" He whimpered, before lolling backwards onto the bed, unmoving.
Jackie stepped into the room, wielding the pan viciously as John flicked the beam of torchlight onto the attacker. The light contrasted to the attacker's wide, black pupils, no colour evident, nothing human about it's stance. John ventured closer, before stepping backwards as the sight before him set out fully.
The Doctor lay splayed out on the bed, the white sheets surrounding him stained red with his own blood. His eyes were wide open in shock, and John felt sick both mentally and physically at the wounds that the Doctor had sustained. Blood poured relentlessly from a significant tear down the side of his neck, and John simply stared at the creature sat above him.
"What are you?" He asked in horror.
"D-D-Doctor?" A fragile yet distant voice came from the creature, and he rested the ray of light on the creature.
"John? Rose? Oh god, Doctor?" She whimpered, crawling back and sliding off the bed, dragging herself into the nearest corner of the room, her knees drawn up to her chest.
"What have I done? What have I done? Oh god, Doctor, I'm sorry, I'm so sorry! I didn't mean to! Help me, please, please help me…" She trailed off, whimpering to herself.
"What the hell is she? I don't care what you say, she's no human, look at her! She's a monster! How long before she kills one of us?!" Jackie said, and John couldn't help but agree, as he watched the Doctor's blood trickle from her lips.
"Rose, go set the co-ordinates. There's only one person who'll know how to deal with this. We're going to Torchwood."
Despite John's horror towards Belle, her cries of despair cut through to his heart.
"Help me, please!"