Half-Human, Half-Time Lord, Hundredth-Vortex

The Doctor laid Rose's body down on the infirmary bed just as gently as he had picked it up. Her entire torso was stained crimson with blood, her touch cold, her face taking on a greyish tinge.

The Doctor slid down the wall, tears running freely down his face. He made no move to wipe them away. Leaning his head back against the wall the guilt ate away at him, having his insides for breakfast. He bumped off the corner of the wall and winced; apparently the TARDIS had taken it upon herself to transport them into the Vortex, out of further harm's way.

Even though it was hard to tell how much more harm they could do. It was harder to comprehend that Rose was dead. Each time he thought it might be a dream, a wonderful nightmare, his eyes were drawn to the body on the bed and the all too real pain that was coursing through his body reminded him that it wasn't a nightmare, it was reality. Brutal, harsh, unfair reality.

The Doctor screamed through his tears, kicking out at the wall in frustration. All the came out of it was a sore foot, and as he rubbed it, remembered the last time he had done that against the console, when Mickey was around.

"Did that help?"

"No."

"Did that hurt?"

"Yes. Ow."

It seemed like a lifetime ago, in a gingerbread house land … where Jackie was killed and her father alive …

Jackie. What was Jackie going to do? He'd killed her daughter, her one and only child … right now, however, he was too busy grieving for her said daughter to be bothered too much as to what she would do to him when he returned her daughter's body to her. The Doctor sat with his head in his head for what seemed like eons but was only actually a few minutes.

"Doctor."

The Time Lord swatted the air around him as if chasing off an irksome fly.

"Doctor. For god sake, listen to me."

"TARDIS," The Doctor ground out, "Now is not the time."

"You can bring Rose back."

"What?" The Doctor said, sitting up a little straighter.

"I know a way you can bring Rose back to life."

The Doctor jumped to his feet, all signs of depression gone. His face was alight with hope and love, and he looked nine hundred years younger. "How?"

The TARDIS proceeded to explain to him the procedure that he would have to do in order to bring Rose back to life. It was highly complicated, but he could do it – would do it.

"There's just one problem …" The TARDIS said.

"What? She would be alive and immortal. She would never die; she would never leave my side again. What would be the problem?" The Doctor was ecstatic and was bounding around the room, getting everything ready.

"What about Jackie?"

Those three words stopped the Doctor dead. Or, at least, the name did. What would Jackie say when she found out he'd made her daughter alien? Or, more drastically, what would she say when she found out he'd taken his daughter to an alien planet which lead to her death? He made his mind up in three seconds flat.

"She'd rather she was alive and half-alien than dead," The Doctor reasoned, and got everything together for this long and complicated resurrection. He calmed himself down; he was shaking with excitement, hope and love, his need for this to work.

The Doctor took one last deep breath, and began the procedure.

There was someone drilling inside her head.

Rose was sure of it. That was the only explanation for the pain. Her eyes fluttered open then winced at the brightness of the lights. She recognised where she was. TARDIS Infirmary.

How was she here? Last thing she remembered was someone laughing evilly after a bullet was lodged in her chest. The last thing she remembered was seeing an agonised Doctor running towards her, each breath she was taking more difficult than the last. Then the blackness, the never ending black …

A small stab of pain in her arm brought her attention to the drip that was currently lodged in her vein. Rose frowned, and looked upwards; it was connected to a bag of blood hanging slightly to the left of her head, but it wasn't like any other blood Rose had seen before. It almost seemed to shimmer, slightly, even though Rose knew that was impossible.

"Rose," a voice called out, softly, as if it wasn't sure of itself.

"Hey, Doctor," Rose called, trying to sit up. The Doctor rushed towards her and gently pushed her shoulder, forcing her to remain laid down. She looked up into his face and almost gasped – it was completely ashen.

"How are you?" He asked, still using that soft voice Rose had never really heard him use before.

"Fine, I think. My chest is a bit stiff, though – oh my god, didn't I get shot?" Rose exclaimed, her voice turning from slightly whiny to disbelief as she registered what had happened.

The Doctor closed his eyes, took a deep breath, and turned to Rose. "You were shot. You died, Rose."

"Very funny. Just unconscious, was I? I never really d-died, did I?" Roe stuttered, paling to white when she realised the Doctor wasn't joking.

"Yes, you did die. For about fifteen minutes. But, I managed to … well … bring you back," The Doctor said, scratching behind his ear in self-doubt. "Only … you aren't exactly … you, anymore."

"What do you mean, I'm not exactly me? Did you give me a personality transplant or somethin', 'cause I feel like me …"

The Doctor laughed softly. "Nah, not quite," He said. "Do you remember what happened on the Gamestation, Rose?" His voice was getting less soft. Not that it was getting harsh, just that he was reading bits of paper while talking to her. Obviously he was satisfied with what he was reading as colour was appearing back in his face.

"No, but you told me. I opened the heart of the TARDIS and looked into it, absorbing the Vortex, and brought Jack back to life permanently."

"Yeah. Well, because of that absorbing the Vortex you did, you still had a fragment of the Vortex floating around in your bloodstream. I didn't detect it because was so small, but the TARDIS did. So, to save myself – as any respecting man would do – from a imminent Jackie Tyler slapathon, I injected some of my DNA into your heart, permanently. This little bit of Vortex recognised the Time Lord DNA in your body and attached then manifested itself, making you become half Time Lord."

"So … I'm half human, half Time Lord?"

"Yeah. Your body had to recover to make itself run as a Time Lady, so it healed your bullet wound. Oh, and your cold will be gone, as well," The Doctor grinned at her, his face falling as he realised that Rose wasn't smiling.

A heavy silence fell over them for a couple of moments as Rose's mind processed this information.

"So … will I be able to, like, calculate things in one second flat and know everything about everything then?" Rose's voice broke the silence.

The Doctor let himself grin slightly. "That's the fantastic thing, Rose. No, you won't. That's the half-human part of you. The only thing that'll change is that … erm … you kinda, well, can't die."

"Can't die? Like Jack?"

"No, not like Jack, no no no!" The Doctor responded, frowning. You'll die, eventually … when I die. Because you have my DNA inside you for life, you're now tied to me. I'm not able to regenerate anymore, for example. Because we have the Vortex running through our veins we'll just patch ourselves up as we go. We'll live for … oh, another few centuries. At the very least."

"I'm … tied to you? I won't be able to die unless you die?"

"Yeah. Sorry about that," The Doctor said sheepishly, under the impression that Rose wasn't too happy with this new predicament. "I thought that Jackie would rather her daughter be half-alien than dead."

Rose fell silent, before sitting up, the Doctor keeping a watchful eye on her. "Can this thing come out?" Rose asked, pointing to the drip.

"I think so, yeah," The Doctor replied, busying himself as he gently extracted the needle from Rose's arm, and gave her a plaster to stop the bleeding. "Unless you want me to put it on?" The Doctor asked after Rose stared at it like it was a spare part of the TARDIS. "What are you, five years old?" He grumbled fondly, putting away equipment as Rose stuck the plaster on her arm.

"How are you feeling?" He asked as he stood in front of her, a worried expression on his face. She was sitting with her hand hanging down, her fingers twisted in her lap.

Rose looked up at his face, tears swimming in her eyes as she launched herself at him as best she could do.

"Whoa!" The Doctor gasped, trying to balance himself as Rose wrapped her legs around his waist. "Not that I don't appreciate the random hugging and all, but, why?"

"I can never die? Really?" Rose mumbled, her face pressed into the Doctor's shoulder.

"Really."

Rose pulled back, grinned widely. "They keep trying to split us up, but they never ever will," She said, repeating the words she had said just days ago.

The Doctor laughed. "They sure can't now!"

"So, I can really be here forever, now, can't I?" Rose said, releasing herself from the Doctor's embrace and sitting, once again, on the Infirmary Bed.

"Yep! You can never, ever leave! Mwah-ha-ha-ha!" The Doctor said, laughing evilly.

Rose stuck out her tongue. "So what am I? Half-Time Lord?"

"We're half-human, half-Time Lord, hundredth-Vortex."

"Whoa," Rose said, shaking her head.

The Doctor laughed. "Whoa, is right." He smiled as he brought Rose into a tight hug. "I'm so glad you're alive, Rose," He said, savouring the feel of her against him even though she would still be there for many, many years to come.

"I'm glad I'm alive to," Rose said, pulling out of his hug, kissing his cheek, and returning the hug. "Better with two, isn't it?"