Three Years After
It was six o'clock on a quiet morning when they returned. Jackie had just gone out in her dressing gown to water the petunias, when quite abruptly the TARDIS (resembling once more a Police box; the chameleon circuit had broken again. The Doctor insisted it was likely due to its genetic relationship to the old TARDIS but Rose was sure he had done it on purpose) materialized on the deck and skidded several feet, knocking over the chairs in its wake.
Jackie leapt back with a scream and dropped the watering can. The TARDIS door flew open and the Doctor stumbled out, shouting frantically at the top of his voice. It took Jackie a moment to distinguish what he was saying, but when she did she only heard one word.
Ambulance.
In a trance, Jackie moved inside and dialed 999 on the house line.
When the emergency workers had been dispatched, she left the phone dangling off the hook and ran to the garden to see her own worst nightmare unfolding before her: the Doctor emerging from the TARDIS with Rose hanging limply in his arms.
"Oh my god, Doctor, what's happened —"
"Keep back!" snapped the Doctor. He lay Rose on the grass and tore off her jacket, rolled back the sleeve of her shirt so Jackie could see two tiny puncture wounds at the top of her arm, just beneath her shoulder.
"Are those bites? Doctor — Doctor, talk to me, is Rose going to be okay?"
"It's a nebulous viper, I didn't see it coming and I wasn't quick enough to stop it…" The Doctor's face was twisted in a snarl of concentration. "All the people there are dead now, I left them, I took the TARDIS and left them to come here."
"She's dying, isn't she? I told you, I knew this would happen! She's dying because of that — that travel machine!"
"Shut up, Jackie, I said shut up!" The Doctor let out a cry of frustration. "There isn't enough time! I'll have to do it myself!"
"I told you though, didn't I? I told you and you didn't listen and now you've gone and killed her!"
The Doctor didn't respond to this; he had fastened his mouth around the wounds on Rose's arm to suck the venom from the wound, and Jackie, at a loss as to what to do, watched in horrified silence until the ambulance arrived.
Perhaps Jackie's words had been heard, however, because it was not the Doctor that rode in the ambulance with Rose but her mother, and it was Rose's mother who went first into the hospital room when Rose was pronounced stable that evening, a cold and murky evening.
The entire Tyler family — and the Doctor, for he was feeling a bit distanced from them at that moment — stood in the abominably-air-conditioned hallway outside Rose's room, not saying a word to each other. Pete had an arm around Jackie's shoulders, which were still covered by her dressing gown from that morning. But the worst bit, perhaps, was Tony's tear-streaked face. He stood close to the Doctor, who rested one hand on his shoulder but could not bring himself to look at the boy.
The nurse emerged from Rose's room and announced that yes, she was stable, and would they like to see her?
Tony threw off the Doctor's hand at once and streaked through the doors; Jackie and Pete followed more slowly, leaving the Doctor alone in the corridor.
The nurse paused as she passed him.
"Aren't you going to go and see her, sir?"
"Yeah," said the Doctor, with a tight-lipped nod. "Yeah, just in a… I need a minute."
The nurse eyed him sympathetically.
"Now, I know how rough it is to get a scare like that, mister. I had a sister got in a car crash years back. She was in a coma for three days. Worst days of my life, I'll tell you. But if you don't mind me saying — they told me how you knew just what to do for her. Saved her life, you did! You're a hero, you know — I'm sure she'll be grateful to you." With a nod and a smile she slipped away down the hall.
The Doctor slid his hands into his trouser pockets and drew a long, trembling breath, which he released to the silence of the hospital hall.