Chapter 10

Inside the office, the side door was open onto a room out of nightmares. The small circular chamber was spattered with fluids that didn't bear analyzing, and the standing rack at the center was holding a painfully thin body, clothed in ragged shorts that hung off his hips. Rose choked on a sob as she rushed forward, ignoring sound of gunfire as Mal and Zoe dealt with Niska's guards in the room outside.

There was nothing in her universe but she and the Doctor at the moment. His freckled skin was stretched taut over his skeletal frame, pale and fragile. This Doctor had always been thin, but this... his body was emaciated. A dark beard shadowed his sharp jaw, and his hair nearly brushed his shoulders. Tears filled Rose's eyes as she checked his pulses, fingers braced on either side of his neck. The reassuring double-time of his dual hearts beat against her fingers, and even if his second heart stuttered oddly, Rose still closed her eyes and leaned against his body in relief. She had found him. She had finally found him, after decades of looking.

"Huh. So, I suppose it's time for me to start hallucinating again." Rose jerked herself up in surprise, wide eyes meeting slightly disoriented brown ones. The Doctor frowned slightly at her in confusion. "Normally you show up a lot sooner than this, though." He looked down at her clothing and wrinkled his nose in distaste. "And you're wearing a lot less angry clothing. Weeelllllll... wearing a lot less clothing in general." Rose gasped out a laugh, and leaned carefully against him again. "This time I've even remembered what you feel like—well done, me!" He paused in consideration. "Not that I've ever forgotten, actually."

A forgotten breath rushed itself out of Rose's lungs at that, and she gulped in air inelegantly. "Doctor, 's me. I've really come back."

"Well, of course you'd say that, wouldn't you? After all, what else would I want you to say?" He gave her an odd smile, as if he'd forgotten how. Remembering his mad, joyous grin, Rose felt her heart break again. "But no, you're gone. I looked, Rose. I looked for every way that I could possibly think of to find you again. Then the Master found out about you, and I'd never been so happy that you were gone."

Rose felt like she'd been punched. Her hands, which had been trying to find the right setting on her sonic screwdriver to release the Doctor, froze. "What?"

"He couldn't get to you, Rose. After what he did to the Earth just because I happened to like it, I've never felt so lucky that he couldn't get to the woman I loved."

She should say something to that, shouldn't she? "What?"

"All right, I know I do that a lot, but really, my subconscious doesn't need to be this lazy." He sniffed haughtily. "After all, big Time Lord brain, I should be able to imagine something much better than this. Especially if I'm imagining you, Rose." He licked his lips carefully, though they were cracked and bleeding.

Rose nibbled on her lip as she aimed the screwdriver at his restraints. "Lord, have they fed you anything?"

The Doctor blinked. "Oh, now that sounds like Jackie. I was hoping for a kiss, but apparently my subconscious disagrees with me."

Rose bit back a worried groan. "What do I have to say to make you believe it's really me? I'm here, Doctor." She rested her hand gently against his cheek. He turned into her palm and nuzzled her hand contentedly.

"Oh, I've seen you far too many times for this to be real. The Master liked to trick me into thinking you'd come back, you see." One side of his mouth curled into a bitter smile as Rose finally got his cuffs open. He didn't seem to notice. "It didn't take me long to figure out that you weren't real, but it was still good to see you." His eyes took on a haunted expression that she thought had been burned away with his regeneration. "Sometimes you were the only thing keeping me going, that year." He snorted weakly. "Well, that wasn't exactly a new feeling for me."

A loud shout drew both of their attention to the outer office, where the endless gunfire of the past long minutes had finally stopped. Mal and Zoe charged into the room, and stopped with a start at the view of the Doctor. Mal's eyes were huge as he looked over the Doctor's battered and bleeding body.

"Daxiang baozhashi de laduzi, how long has that xiongmeng de kuangren had you?"

The Doctor frowned at them in confusion. "Oh, now this is new. I haven't imagined people I've never met before yet."

Rose groaned and stood up, the Doctor's feet now free from the rack. She turned to the others with a worried frown, tucking her sonic screwdriver back in her pocket. "I don't know how long that soul-rotted bastard has had 'im, but it's too long. He thinks he's hallucinating. Is the path back to Serenity open? I'll need help with 'im. We've got to get him back safely." She turned back to the Doctor, pulling a long arm around her shoulders as Zoe braced him on his other side. "Doctor, where's the TARDIS? Does Niska have it, or what?"

The Doctor looked forward thoughtfully, either ignoring or not noticing the skin that stayed attached to the rusted-over rack as they pulled him away from it and down the hallway. "Y'know, Rose, Niska asked a lot about how I got on the planet, but he didn't know the TARDIS' name. She's on Ariel, actually. Niska's men grabbed me there after I asked too many questions, but the perception filter kept them from noticing her." He leaned towards her conspiratorially, making her grunt as she braced herself against his added body weight. "I don't think they like me."

The Captain swore behind her, and she heard his footsteps speed up until he was walking next to her. "Listen, I hate to break up the reunion chat, but we've really got to hurry it up. Book and Jayne can only keep the corridors clear for so long."

"Sir, we're only a few corridors away," Zoe said, rolling her eyes as Mal muttered more expletives under his breath.

"HELL YEAH!" An explosion rocked the space station as two forms pelted around the corner towards their group. Mal's stream of expletives grew in volume and color, and Rose's eyes widened as she listened and dragged the Doctor along.

He snickered as Mal continued swearing and mumbled in her ear, "Oh, now that's just not anatomically possible. For the Cloradians of South Psyhlos, perhaps, but not humans."

Mal groaned. "Gorram it, Jayne, give me some warning next time you decide to sneak up on us on a rescue mission!"

The Shepherd was eying Jayne as if he were as volatile as the explosives that had just gone off. Jayne, meanwhile, was grinning as if Christmas had come early.

"Sorry, Cap'n… but not really. It's been too damn long since I got to use them grenades." His smile turned disturbingly lecherous. "Forgot how it makes me feel."

Rose paused for a second, her mind going places she really didn't want it to go. Her mouth twisted into an involuntary grimace.

Zoe seemed to echo her thoughts, quickly adding, "Please, no one ask how it makes him feel."

"Let's get a gorram move on, people! This ain't a social!" The group moved on, the Captain scouting out ahead while the Shepherd and Jayne watched their backs. The docking bay opened up in front of them as River continued to pick away Niska's men, and with one last dash, they were once again in Serenity's hold. Mal slammed the button to close the doors as Jayne tossed a last few grenades down the corridors, whooping with delight when they shook the ship.

The Doctor craned his neck to study the hold around them. "Ooh, a Firefly class. I've always liked these." He took his own weight suddenly, leaving Zoe and Rose stumbling. "Well now, this is new. I've never hallucinated that I was in another place before." He stood, considering, before collapsing.

Rose yelped and leapt forward, barely catching his weight as he slumped. The Captain swore again and bellowed, "DOC!"

A loud clang came from the door in the back of the hold, and a few moments later Simon came running up the stairs, his arm catching on the doorframe as he skidded around the corner.

"Oh." His eyes were huge. "You found him!"

"Yes, we found him, now let's get the poor bastard to the infirmary so you can do your doctorin' thing instead of standing around like a moron with your eyes popping out of your head!"

The next few hours were a blur to Rose. The exhaustion from shielding Serenity earlier was finally catching up to her, but she refused to leave the Doctor's side. She remembered sitting in the infirmary, her eyes glued to the Doctor as Simon did his best to heal him. Other than telling him to keep any aspirin far away, she hadn't warned him about the physiological differences, and she noted in a detached way his start as he found the two hearts. She was vaguely aware of the rest of the crew coming and going as they came to see the man that she'd spent so long looking for, but all of her awareness was focused on the emaciated figure on the medical bed, his gangly limbs hanging off the end.

"Rose?"

She blinked, her mind coming back to the present as Simon spoke to her.

"Yeah?" The worried look in his eyes faded a bit as she spoke to him. Huh. Wonder how long he was trying to get my attention.

He spoke quietly, his gaze worried. "I've done the best I can for him, but his body seems to be shutting down naturally."

Despite Simon's obvious nervousness, Rose sighed in relief. "Yeah. 'S a healing coma, I think. He wasn't hurt badly enough to need it often when I was with 'im, but he warned me about it after Christmas one year." One corner of her mouth curled up involuntarily, remembering how nervous he'd been after the change, how determined not to leave her helpless again.

Simon turned back to her, raising an eyebrow quizzically. "Christmas? That hasn't been celebrated in centuries."

Rose grinned faintly. "What can I say, I like bein' retro."

The young doctor kept a curious eye on her as he checked over the Doctor once again, but the readings from the thin figure on the bed were stable. Including the heartbeats...

Simon spoke again, his voice kept low as he set his tools next to Rose. "He's not human, is he?"

She blinked, her mind coming back to the infirmary from wherever it had been for the last several hours. "No, but please don't tell anyone. The Captain's got enough on his mind since he didn't get Niska like he wanted, an' I don't really trust Jayne around someone who'd be worth millions on the black market." Her eyes went back to the Doctor like they were drawn by a magnet. "'Specially since he's helpless right now." Her eyes darkened. "I've been looking for him for so long, I couldn't stand to lose him now, not after I've finally found 'im again."

Simon glanced out the infirmary's windows to where River waited, head cocked as if to listen to unheard voices. He sighed. "I know what you mean." He looked at Rose again and rested a hand on her shoulder. "Just... be prepared. Sometimes things don't turn out like you think they will."

A bitter smile touched the edges of her lips. "Oh, trust me. I've had plenty of experience with that."

(Daxiang baozhashi de laduzi- the explosive diarrhea of an elephant)

(xiongmeng de kuangren- violent lunatic)