A/N: I know it's been forever and a day since my last chapter. However I haven't had a break in school and have been writing this chapter on and off for a couple months in my free time. Thank you to all of you who still favorite and follow and Review every day even with my long absence! Again, I have no idea when the next chapter will come out, but I believe it'll be an original adventure! You deserve knowing that much at least.

Again, please read and review!

Aftermath

"What the hell were you thinking, Rose?"

Closing the doors behind me, I cringed, feeling guilty even though none of that anger and hurt had been directed towards me. I could feel the TARDIS rumble beneath my fingertips. The lights darkened a few levels. We both knew that it would get ugly if I left them alone. Hopefully having a third person around would keep the uproar to a minimum.

A little taken aback, Rose froze and took a few seconds before saying anything in reply. "I said I was sorry …."

"Do you realize what that boyfriend of yours could have done?" The Doctor snapped, gripping onto the console as if it had become the only thing holding him back. A confused, dumbfounded, hurt grimace crashed over his face. "The only TARDIS left in existence—all this energy, all this knowledge—and you gave him the key without even thinking about the consequences."

"For one, he wasn't my boyfriend! How was I to know that he'd wander off and do something stupid?"

The Doctor snorted and shook his head, a bitter smirk twisting his lips. "Think about it: his last job was taking alien knowledge, alien technology, and selling it to the highest bidder. Taken to the year two-hundred thousand? It's a playground for people like him. You should've known better."

"I trusted him …."

"Well that was the biggest mistake of your life."

"At least I tried to give him a chance since you'd clearly made your mind up about him!" Rose's voice reached an all new octave of ticked off. Hands on her hips, she stalked forward, but a look from the Doctor brought her to a dead stop. "Besides he didn't give away anything…."

"Only because the two people who knew about us got blown up. Next time you do something stupid like that we might not be so lucky." The darkness rolling off of him yanked at my warning bells. If he continued to lash out at her, he'd do something horrible and their bond and friendship would be forever ruined.

I clenched my jaw. Even though I agreed that Rose had been incredibly stupid to trust Adam that much, I had to be the mediator. I shut out their feelings, letting only my disapproval come over me. Rose wouldn't be able to notice it besides the obvious, but hopefully it would make the Doctor pause long enough to pound some sense into that thick skull of his.

Stretching my legs so I could put myself between the two of them, I endured the heat of both their glares with a patient one of my own. In truth, I wanted to yell at them that they were both idiots, but no. If I'd learned anything from the Doctor about my abilities, it was to trust what I felt would and wouldn't work. Yelling would only make things even worse. "Look, it's been a long day. Yes, Rose made a mistake…."

The smug grin made its notorious and irritating reappearance on his face. "There, you see? At least someone else…."

"…but," I added with my best scolding look, which I doubted threatened the Doctor very much. "She said she's sorry, so you both should drop it for today. You're starting to sound like spoiled brats." Well, there went my councilor mode, but I couldn't help it. They were acting like kids who who'd listen to the other person but not hear them.

"What did …."

"But he…."

I snapped my fingers, cutting both of them off. "Go cool off until you can talk like adults. Please." I let my barriers down a little more. Even if it was to make the Doctor leave Rose alone for a few minutes. Or hours. I didn't care.

A minute passed and the two still didn't seem willing to move. Before I could march over to either of them and drag them away, the TARDIS herself grumbled so loud, I winced. The lights darkened for a few moments before everything quieted down again.

Now I couldn't be sure if the annoyance I felt came from me or the TARDIS. "There, you see? Now you've gone and upset the TARDIS," I sighed. "Personally, I don't want to get stranded when she gets mad, so can you just please let it go for tonight?"

Though the Doctor's face had set into that rock-solid stubbornness I'd come to expect from him, I noticed his eyes flickering between me and the TARDIS console and back. Not at Rose, though, so at least he hadn't stayed in arguing mode. Very reluctantly, and with a motion like a stork, he nodded. Just one brisk movement.

"Fine," Rose grumbled. She took off at once down a hallway. Who knew where the TARDIS would lead her. Hopefully to her room.

In the dead silence that all but exploded in the room once she'd disappeared. I sighed, massaging my head, only a little grateful that everything had grown more manageable again. Not calm by any means, though. Glancing over at the Doctor sent a whirlwind of chaos at me. Almost enough to make me stagger if I hadn't braced myself. Did the Doctor know he was bleeding so much raw emotions? Probably not, I realized as he paced around and around the console hitting things with more force than necessary.

Nope. Not hanging around him until he cooled off. "I'm going to bed, Doctor," I murmured. I couldn't tell if he heard me or not, but at that point, I didn't care. As long as I kept enough calm for the two of them combined. "Don't break anything when I'm gone, okay?"

Walking past him, I let my hand rest on his arm. Just for a moment since I didn't need to be an empath to know he wouldn't appreciate anything longer. Even so, I opened my barriers almost completely, letting him feel my reassurance. Perhaps that would calm him.

All I got was a guttural half-grunt as I walked away.

I thought it best that I left the two alone, though I wanted to go to Rose and defend the Doctor's actions. If my trust had been broken in such a way, I would be furious, too. However, I didn't want to mess something up and end up having the both of them hate me or even worse, ruin their friendship for good. No, I wouldn't forgive myself if that happened. Instead, I let my feet and the TARDIS send me to my warm and very, very comfy bed.

What felt like seconds later, I got jolted awake by a shout. Very much like the one not a few nights ago. The lights had turned on in my room and the door stood wide open. I didn't even curse the TARDIS for waking me up so early. The Doctor needed me.

Once again, I found that our rooms had been moved next to each other's. With the cool floor curling my toes, I slipped into his room, not allowing my eyes to wander. Not when he thrashed and kicked in the throes of a nightmare. Seeing the strong and confident Time Lord so…terrified should have scared me. Crossing the room, I felt nothing but worry and … some other warm fuzzy things that I didn't have time to analyze.

I winced when I reached his side of the bed. The raw emotion seething around him battered at my barriers like a mallet being wielded by a blind man. Sometimes the emotions grazed off of my mind, others they slammed into them with a force I could barely hold back. All sour and rotten like a road-kill I'd passed on the highway once. I knew with an eerie certainty that the incident back on that space station had opened a whole TARDIS full of worms inside his mind.

Remembering how he reacted the last time, I avoided the worst of his flailing and rested the tips of my fingers on his head, which, in the light of that candle-ball-thing glistened with sweat. Though my heart felt ready to explode at any moment, I shoved that worry aside as I opened myself fully. "It's okay, Doctor. You're safe on the TARDIS. Nothing's going to happen. You're safe." I didn't know what caused me to start murmuring to him, but they felt right.

As I started running my hand over the worry lines on his forehead, it seemed to calm him somewhat. At least, I no longer had to worry about him hitting me, though he had a long ways to go until he became fully calm. I didn't notice the time passing. I just ran my hand over his head like my Mom used to do and rested my other one on his arm. Anything to get him out of whatever hell had taken over his mind. Slowly, much more so than the last time, his thrashing died down, but the frown still worried his face. I placed on hand in his own, bracing myself for any amount of pain. I'd let him squeeze until he could relax.

Nothing happened. Worried just a little, I glanced down to find that the Doctor's fingers had curled gently around my own. For a moment I thought my heart had stopped beating. Even in his worst nightmare, the Doctor still tried not to hurt me. Before I could second guess my actions, I brought his hand to my lips and placed a gentle kiss on it. At once, I had a furious blush unlike any other and I lowered our hands again. His breathing had calmed, but I could barely get my own to work properly.

Stupid emotions will get the better of me.

That didn't mean I regretted it. Not one bit. No matter what happened, I'd never regret staying with the Doctor.