A/N: *points* Emo chapters! Emo chapters!
(AKA The next few chapters are rather emo-like. Innit.)
Chapter 26 – I Need A Hero
They kept him sedated for fourteen hours, until he finally went into a healing coma, which he had been in for two days so far. It was hard to believe that the last time he'd been like this – lying in the infirmary unconscious for days on end – had only been a week and a half ago.
Rose was sat next to him as always, staring at his content, even-faced expression as he healed his damaged brain. She was trying to figure out in her head what she was going to say to him when he woke up. She felt guilty. She had been the one to convince him to accept the woman was his mother, and in turn he had let Penelope into his hearts, accepting that she was alive. Now he had to accept her death again.
Not only that, but Rose had ended up completely trusting Ulysses too. She'd let him take the Doctor on his own to tie him up and force-feed him aspirin. How could she have let that happen? She and the Doctor had always been so in tune, always knowing each other's thoughts and feelings and playing to each other's strengths and weaknesses even before they had bonded. She should have known there was something wrong with him.
But no. He'd had an insect in his brain for a month, chewing its way happily through and she hadn't known. Those headaches. It had never been the TARDIS – the TARDIS was never sick, Ulysses had made it seem that way. Manipulating the situation. Manipulating the Doctor. For a month. And she hadn't even batted an eyelid at it. She had ignored his reservations about his parents and told him to accept them.
Frankly, alarm bells should have rung the minute the Doctor stumbled out of the living room telling her he'd tried to hit Ulysses. He'd never hit anyone, no matter how angry he was. He wasn't like that, never had been and never would be. She knew that.
But she'd knowingly agreed to have him secured down in the psychiatric unit. She believed for a flicker of a moment that he was insane. She had doubted him. Doubted his mental stability, doubted his capabilities as her husband and the father of her children, doubted their relationship.
He had every right to blame her for everything. He was the only victim in this. And it was going to be devastating.
Suddenly she realised that she was a complete hypocrite. She shouldn't be sitting here. She'd been the one to guide him to this utter mess of an ending and he was going to be angry with her when he woke up. She couldn't face that. She didn't like arguing with him.
She suddenly got up, and went to the door. She went to their room, got out a bag, packed a few clothes and sealed it up. Then she ran out of the TARDIS into Torchwood, got some money from Jack's desk, then left.
"Rose..." the Doctor muttered as he slowly began to wake up. His head was in a bit of a fog. He felt someone take his hand, but he knew by instinct it wasn't Rose's hand. He frowned and opened his eyes... and saw it was Jack sitting next to him.
"Jack?" he asked tiredly, looking around to find Rose but she wasn't there.
"Good morning," Jack said, but he wasn't smiling.
"How long have I been out?" he asked quietly.
"Three days," Jack replied.
The Doctor thought about this for a moment. Then he realised... "She's gone, isn't she? My Mum?"
Jack nodded sombrely. "I'm sorry. She was nice."
The Doctor just nodded at that, then looked around again for Rose. He needed her, needed to hold her. "Where's Rose?"
Jack suddenly looked incredibly uncomfortable. "Umm... Look, Doctor, I've got some bad news."
"What? Where's Rose? Has something happened?" he asked anxiously.
"Well..." Jack paused, swallowing. "She's gone."
"Gone?" the Doctor repeated, confused.
"I'm really sorry, she just packed a bag and left. I saw her leave on the cameras, I tried to stop her, I followed her to the bus stop but it pulled away before I reached it."
"Where? Where did she go?"
Jack sighed. "We don't know, Doc. I tried phoning Jackie, made it seem like I was just asking casually, but she hasn't seen her. I even tried Sarah Jane. Mickey got me a couple of numbers of some people in London she knew but they haven't seen her for years. I checked around and she's packed up some clothes, plus £345 from my desk is gone."
"... She's left me?"
"Look, Doctor, I don't know, but when I saw her run out she looked like she'd been crying. And don't worry, Leah and Alex are still here. They don't know, I told them I sent her on a mission."
"Oh god," the Doctor croaked. Had she just left him? Just run away from him, Leah and Alex? Why would she do that?
"That isn't the last of the bad news either, Doc..." Jack said quietly. "You know those aliens you couldn't take home? I got UNIT to pick them up, but... Well... The van got intercepted by that Alex Grimshaw and his political group. They've taken them, the public are calling for interrogation and execution... It's all over the news."
The Doctor just stared at him. Jack could see the Time Lord's soul slowly withering just from the way his eyes seemed to die.
"I... don't know what to do anymore," he finally croaked.
"You'll figure it out," Jack said gently. "I'll take care of Leah and Alex so don't worry about that, you just focus on what you need to do, okay? I'll help you all I can. Whatever you need."
Only a day passed, but it was already apparent the Doctor had become extremely depressed in a way no one had ever seen him before. After he'd been examined and given the all clear he'd hobbled to his bedroom, confined himself inside and wasn't eating what food they brought him. Meanwhile Rose was out god knows where, the entire country was in an outcry and to top it all off Leah kept asking why she hadn't seen her parents for days.
"Nope, didn't want it," Jack told Martha and Mickey, walking back into the TARDIS kitchen holding a plate of untouched food.
"This is so awful," Martha murmured, taking the plate and scraping it into the bin.
"It's a complete and utter mess," Jack agreed. "I've never seen him this depressed. He's just lying there with all the lights off staring at the wall, he's been doing that since yesterday afternoon. When I try and talk to him he tells me to go away."
"We've got to do something," Martha muttered. "Can't we find Rose? Bring her back?"
"I've gone over everything. Ianto scanned the CCTV around Cardiff for yesterday, I've checked hotel bookings in Wales, trains and buses and... Well, she's nowhere. God, she's good."
"She learnt from the best," Martha supposed. "We just need to find a way to talk some sense into the Doctor."
"Well, he won't listen to any of us," Jack muttered.
Mickey suddenly looked up from deep thought, finger in the air. "I've got an idea..."
"How you doin', sweetheart?" Jackie Tyler asked the Doctor, walking into the bedroom. All the lights were off, and he was lying in bed curled up in the foetal position, hugging a pillow.
The Doctor looked at her through watery eyes in the darkness of the bedroom, then turned over and closed his eyes. "Please, Jackie. I don't want to talk."
"Then I'll talk," Jackie insisted, taking a seat on the bed next to him. "Look, you might be an alien from the planet Gallibean or whatever it was, your parents might've been aliens, but I think for every person, alien or 'uman, it all works out the same in the end. My parents are dead too, Doctor. I know just 'ow you're feelin'."
"You don't understand," the Doctor muttered into the pillow, still not looking up.
"Oh, I think I do," Jackie replied seriously. "So we yell at each other all the time, we slag each other off, but we are talkin' right now for only one reason – Rose."
"She's gone, she's left me," the Doctor replied shortly.
"So why the 'ell aren't you out there right now tryin' to find her, eh?"
"Leave me alone."
"No, I'm not gonna," Jackie said sharply. "You need to wake up and realise that you're not the only bloody person in the universe who's feelin' a little sad right now, and like it or not you're the only one who can save your relationship and these aliens Jack's told me about. So why the 'ell don't you man up, get up, get dressed and go and do it?"
Suddenly the Doctor was angry, eyes snapping open to look at her. "What, you think I'm some kind of universal superhero? That I fly around with my cape turning up just in time for every single bad thing that ever happens anywhere and saving the day?"
"Leah thinks you are."
"Don't use her against me," he spat, sitting up straight. "I am a person, Jackie, I have feelings, and maybe this time I can't do anything. Maybe I'm the one that needs the superhero to come and save me."
Jackie gazed at him, her expression serious. "Why do you think Rose left?"
"Because..." All the anger had gone now, disappeared into thin air as suddenly he was only at a whisper, staring at the cover. "Because she doesn't love me anymore."
Jackie stared at him in disbelief. "You complete and utter..." she began, but then stopped herself before the inevitable swear word. "She's gone because she thinks you don't love her anymore!"
"... What?"
"She's completely guiltin' 'erself over all of this, thinkin' it's all her fault."
"But that's stupid," the Doctor muttered.
"Exactly! Bloody 'ell, you two are as stupid as each other! She's run away thinkin' you don't love her for some mangled reason I don't get, and at the thought that she doesn't love you you've turned into this pathetic cryin' idiot who can't even get out of bed!"
The Doctor looked at her, but he didn't say anything.
"Oh, I'm sorry sweetheart," she said quietly, moving forward to take his hand. "I know the thing about your Mum and Dad is wreckin' you, but honestly? You need Rose to get through this. So first you're gonna 'ave to swallow those tears, find her, tell her you love 'er, then she can 'elp you."
He looked at her some more, wiping at his eyes.
"And if you don't, then I'm gonna slap ya," Jackie told him seriously. "You promised you'd take care of 'er. You told me you only live for your family, and I'm 'olding you to that. God knows I 'ated you at first but seein' you two together... Rose is happy, you're happy, you two are bloody perfect for each other, so much so I'm jealous I never got that. You're both being so bloody ridiculous right now because you love each other so much you're both just completely blind, aren't ya? You need to be together, Doctor. So please. Find her. Tell her you love 'er. Then you can deal with all that other stuff, sweetheart."
After another pause, he finally nodded. She smiled, and leant forward to hug him tightly, kissing his forehead.
"You can call me Mum, if you like," she told him gently.
The Doctor suddenly drew back, staring at her with a raised eyebrow. "You are joking, aren't you?"
Jackie smiled at that. "Just testin'. Thank God, you're back to normal. Now go!"