Author's Note: This chapter takes place shortly after The Impossible Planet/The Satan Pit. Thank you for your kind reviews! They are what motivate me to keep postíng :)

Chapter 4

The fourth time Rose had a bad dream onboard the TARDIS, it didn't stop at the fourth, they kept going.

The Doctor said that technically they were night terrors, which is why they were so much worse than all the other bad dreams she had ever had. Something about her body being in REM instead of NREM so it wasn't prepared for a nightmare, or was it the other way around? At this point she could barely keep herself upright on her feet, let alone wrap her mind around the science behind her dreams.

She hadn't had a proper night sleep in almost a full week now. Ever since Krop Tor, the same dream every time she tried to get some rest. The first night she had been woken up by the Doctor shaking her fiercely and calling her name. After that, it hadn't been so easy.

The second night he had tried and failed to wake her up for half an hour. And when she finally did wake up, it was with one last heart-rending scream that sent her flying up and into his arms as she descended into hysterics that lasted another ten minutes. He couldn't get her to stop no matter what he said, so he just held her tight against his chest and did everything he could to be as comforting and calming as possible until she finally wore herself out of it.

The third night Rose was too scared to go to sleep alone but too tired to stay awake, so she fell asleep in his arms. Unfortunately, that hadn't stopped the dream from reoccurring. He felt her stiffen against his side barely an hour after she had fallen asleep. He tried waking her up before the dream got worse but his efforts were pointless. It was practically impossible to wake someone up when they were in their NREM sleep cycle, so when he saw her worsening and heading towards the screams and thrashing he gave up on waking her up and just pulled her into his body as tightly as he could and held on as if her life depended on it while she cried out his name and sobbed her heart out. He screwed his eyes shut and tried to keep from cringing every time she called his name and he couldn't help her.

The fourth night Rose refused to go to sleep.

"Rose, you have to sleep! You've had less than ten hours of actual sleep in the past three days. You can't keep going like this."

"No. I won't, I'm fine. Let's just go somewhere else," she forced a smile. "Save another planet, yeah?" she danced away from him, but it was a clear move of fear trying to be disguised as playfulness.

"Rose, stop it. You're being ridiculous. You need sleep." He followed her and gently grabbed her shoulders, begging her to listen to him.

"Doctor I can't," she replied, her smile faltering.

"Rose – "

"No! I CAN'T! Don't you understand?" He reeled at the distress in her eyes. "I would love to get some rest," the word spilled out of her mouth like a prayer but it seemed to spark something inside of her and she spiraled out of control quickly. "I would LOVE to be able to close my eyes without seeing that THING, but I CAN'T." There were lines of desperation across her face now, and he pulled her into a hug.

"I'm sorry, Rose. I'm so sorry."

"No, it's not your fault," she said, pulling back with a deep breath that was very forceful and wiped her face. "I'm sorry. I'm just so tired." The Doctor studied her carefully as she lowered herself down onto the console chair wearily. "You're right. I can't keep going on like this. But Doctor," and when she lifted up her eyes to look at him her fear nearly broke his heart. "I'm so scared," she said, her voice breaking. He sat down next to her and pulled her into his side.

"It's alright Rose. I'm right here." He stroked her hair as her breath shuddered beneath his arms.

"That's just it though. You're not there," she started softly. The Doctor started rubbing her gently, trying to soothe her. "In my dream," she went on. "You're gone, down in that stupid pit with that horrible Beast and I'm stuck on that ship, and you're dying and I… I can't... Do. Anything." Rose's shoulders crumpled with those last words with a barely restrained sob and she inhaled sharply several times, trying not to cry. The Doctor just pulled her closer and shushed into her hair while he processed her words. She hadn't told him anything about her dream until now, and though he had figured it was somehow related to the Beast he hadn't known until now that her true distress came from worrying about him.

Despite his best efforts, Rose didn't sleep much again that night.

The next day they were in the process of running away from some very upset half-lizard, half-snake mothers when the Doctor reached back to grab her hand and grabbed air instead. He turned to see her running behind him, struggling to keep up and tripping over her own feet. The mums were right on her tail. He ran back to her and managed to delay the creatures long enough for her to regain her footing and get a head start, but it was still a close race back to the TARDIS. He practically had to drag her behind him and she tripped so often that he almost resorted to carrying her over his shoulder. When they reached the TARDIS she collapsed on the floor, breathing much too heavily.

"Rose?"

"'S ok," she managed between breaths. "I'm alright." She tried to push herself up but as soon as she stood up she swayed forward and began blinking heavily. The Doctor caught her right as she was about to collapse onto the hard floor.

"Rose," he repeated, and gently guided her to the floor.

"Oough," she groaned, blinking slowly and heavily. "That didn't go too good. I think I sat up too fast, I think. Sorry…" her eyes finally focused on him correctly.

"We have to do something about this. That was too close, you could have been killed," he helped her stand up again as he talked, but she leaned heavily on him

"Yeah," she nodded slowly.

"I need to do some scans to make sure nothing else is wrong and then we can figure out where to go from there."

After a moment of composing herself, Rose nodded slowly before adding, "Can I just call my mum first?"

"Of course," he led her over to the chairs, not trusting her body to carry her on its own. "You do that and I'll be right back. Gotta go get some things."

"Kay," she smiled and took out her mobile, dialing her mum's number as the Doctor headed towards the infirmary.

"Hello?" she heard her mum pick up.

"Mum? It's me."

"Rose? Oh my God, Rose. Are you ok? Where are you? When are you coming back?"

"Mum, mum! I'm fine, I'm alright. We're in the TARDIS."

"Oh Rose, I miss you sweetheart."

"I miss you too mum," a slow smile spread over her lips.

"When are you coming back, darling?" This time it was an honest question instead of a mindless barrage of speech. Rose slumped when she heard it. She did miss her mum, now more than ever, but she couldn't go visit her looking like this. She'd never hear the end of it. But she couldn't leave her mum like that, she promised herself to make the Doctor take her for a visit as soon as they had cleared this mess up.

"Soon, mum. Soon. I'll make the Doctor take me home for a visit quick as I can. But I've got to go now, just called to say hello" she added noticing the Doctor come back into the console room, his hands full of strange looking devices.

"Oh, alright sweetheart, you take care, you hear?"

"Yeah mum, I will."

"I'll see you soon."

"Yeah."

"Alright, be careful."

"I will, bye Mum."

"Bye."

She hung up and put her mobile back in her pocket as the Doctor walked over to her and gave her a smile.

"How is Jackie?"

"Same as ever, worried, crazy, worried crazy," she smiled.

The Doctor was relieved to see her looking slightly normal, but he didn't sway from his purpose. He set his things down on the floor and picked a scanner up before raising it along with his eyebrows, silently asking permission to proceed. Rose nodded. "Hold still."

She did as she was told, fidgeting between scans but cooperating with every order from the Doctor. Though the absence of her usual playful banter worried him far more than the results from all of his scans.

"Right then! All done," he grinned widely at her and she grinned back, albeit weakly.

"So?"

"SO! You are going to have a great night's sleep tonight. I can't find anything wrong with you other than a simple lack of energy, or rest. So, simple solution. All you need is sleep and you should be perfectly alright." When he saw the dubious look on her face he raised his hands and continued. "I know, I know. I'm not stupid. Just take… these…," he mumbled while digging through his pockets. "AH! Here they are." His gaze turned serious again. "Just one should knock you out for the night, give you a well needed night of peaceful sleep."

"So it's a sleeping pill?"

"Weell… not really, it's far more complicated than that. More like a…um, mixture of certain stimulating and relaxing hormones that-" he trailed off at the blank look on her face. "Yeah, a sleeping pill."

"Ok," she smiled at his techno-babble. "So, can I take it now?"

"Yeah," he smiled and whirled around to grab a glass of water from where he had set it on the ground earlier and handed it to her.

Two hours later, he was cursing himself violently for his stupidity and muttering pained apologies to Rose as she screamed and thrashed in his arms. How could he have been so stupid? Rose didn't wake up for another six hours. She dreamed the whole time.

The sixth night he couldn't even get her to go to her room, and he knew from the look in her eyes that any efforts to change her mind were pointless. So, he gave in and took her to a small planet, across the universe from Earth where they spent the night and most of the next day watching a traditional play that played out in real time. But eventually, she insisted on leaving, he suspected because she had started nodding off in the dark theater.

Once they were back in the TARDIS and safely inside the vortex he turned to her with his emotions written plainly on his face. He didn't even try to hide his guilt.

"Rose, I'm so sorry."

"It's ok, Doctor," she smiled gently at him. "How many times are you going to apologize for something that's not your fault?"

"At least once more, because the last time it was my fault. I'm sorry, Rose."

Rose just shook her head. "I just want to get some sleep," she said looking him in the eye gently. The Doctor looked at her. The way her shoulders sagged ever so slightly, he could tell she was trying to be tough, but the dark circles under her eyes gave away just how exhausted she was. He stuffed his hands in his pockets and stared at her.

"There is one more thing we could try," he said slowly.

"What is it?" Rose's voice rose with hope.

"I can do this…thing," he hesitated.

"What kind of thing? A Time Lord thing?" she said tilting her head to the side like she did whenever she was thinking hard. The Doctor smiled proudly. Even running on ridiculously low levels of sleep, his Rose was still brilliant.

"Yeeah, a Time Lord thing. I can… get inside your head, in a way. God, that makes it sound so awful," he grimaced in frustration and rubbed his neck.

"And it'll make my nightmares go away?" He looked up at her again, searching her eyes. They were asking him to tell the truth.

"Yes. I can take your nightmares away, put up barriers around that part of your brain and put you to sleep."

"Well, why haven't you done it already?" she asked, not accusingly, just genuinely curious. He smiled internally. Rose. She always trusted him, no matter what. He stuffed his hands into his pockets.

"Because… it involves getting inside your head. I didn't want to just… barge in like that without asking your permission. I seem to recall you being quite upset about that kind of thing, you know. When I told you about the TARDIS." To his surprise, Rose started laughing. "What?" he asked, very confused. "What!?" he repeated again when her giggles only grew. He was beginning to worry about her sanity when she suddenly reigned herself in with a deep breath and took slow steps towards him, until she was standing very close to him.

"Do it," she said softly. "I give you my permission," she smiled up at him and he smiled back. There was complete and utter trust in her eyes.

"Just relax, and if there's anything you don't want me to see imagine a door and close it. I won't peek."

"Promise?" she asked cheekily and stuck out her tongue.

"I promise," he responded seriously. She laughed softly and then closed her eyes as he removed his hands from his pockets and raised them to place them on her temples gently.

The Doctor began searching through her mind slowly, trying to find his way to wherever it was that her dream was stored. Rose stiffened slightly at first, but relaxed almost instantly when she recognized the familiar presence of the Doctor. It surprised her just how comfortable she was with him being inside her head, she knew it shouldn't seem that normal, but somehow it did. It just felt right. She relaxed and focused on him. She noticed a strange sensation spreading from the bottom of her spine until it reached the very back of her head. It wasn't uncomfortable, just interesting, and barely noticeable above the even stranger sensation of the Doctor inside her mind.

With her eyes closed she focused all her attention on it. It felt like tiny little tendrils spreading out through and across her from where his hands met her temples, at first. And then she would feel one in particular become defined and suddenly she would be reliving a memory she never even knew she had. And always, the Doctor was there. Not in the sense that she could see or hear him, but she just knew he was there. She gasped slightly several times, but no words were spoken between them, there was no need.

The Doctor found what he was looking for and quickly began creating a barrier around that part of her mind, sealing it away for good. Once that was done, he put her to sleep, but just as he was about to drop his hands away to catch her when her body went limp, he squinted at something he felt in her head. It was bright and vicious and it startled him by doing something that felt suspiciously like it was trying to fight him off. He opened his eyes in surprise and fear and caught Rose just in time.

He carried her to her room and laid her gently on her bed. He would have smiled at seeing her look so peaceful in her sleep for the first time in a week but he was too busy worrying about what he had just felt in her head. He pulled up a chair and sat next to her bed. He stayed there the whole night, keeping a watchful eye on her as she slept, his mind racing fiercely with thoughts of Bad Wolf.