A/N: Wow this is a fast update (for me, anyways...)! Also, I'd like to note that the Doctor thinks a bit more clearly in this chapter than in previous ones. This is on purpose because I feel he should be much more clear-headed when Rose's life is threatened.

Previously:

The Doctor's eyes widened in recognition. "The doctor... He said... Tyribon. I need to go."

"Doctor?!" Jackie exclaimed. "What's on Tyribon?"

Her last question was spoken to empty space, since the Doctor had closed his eyes and whooshed away like something out of a Star Trek movie. She groaned and sat down at the kitchen table, nursing her cup of tea. Those two were bloody ridiculous, they were.

As soon as the Doctor materialized in the TARDIS, he ran outside upon seeing Rose was not in the console room like he hoped. The mud on Tyribon was a bit like quicksand on Earth, but more dangerous in some ways. It worked rather simply. The victim would waddle through the mud, seeing and feeling absolutely nothing wrong with it. It slowly got thicker and thicker, so slowly that it was almost impossible to notice that it was slowing you down unless you were paying a lot of attention. Then, as soon as your face hit the mud, it would bring you all the way down and suck you in.

Therefore, he kept his head high above the mud and searched around desperately for Rose.

Eventually, in the distance, he saw a foot sticking out of the mud. With his screwdriver in hand he waddled as quickly as he could through the thickening mud, trying to make it to her before she... Oh god. What if she had already suffocated? What if he was too late? There was no way of telling how quickly the mud killed someone. It depended on how much they struggled, how they struggled, their height, weight... No, he didn't have time to make those calculations.

When he was only a meter or two away from her, he aimed the screwdriver at the mud and held it down on the right setting. The mud was a conscious being, but it wasn't technically alive. The screwdriver sent a specific resonation through it that made it shake and eventually give up Rose, allowing her to be released. He grabbed her under her arms and began dragging her towards the TARDIS, his hearts beating faster when he saw that she was definitely unconscious. Her face, hair, and clothes were drenched in the brown mud and he couldn't tell whether or not she was breathing.

The moment they were in the TARDIS, he put her on the med bay bed. First, he checked for breaths, terrified as he did so. She was breathing. That was definitely promising. If she was breathing, he could save her. There was no doubt in his mind about that.

The Doctor hooked her up to every machine in the medical bay that could do her even the tiniest bit of good. After he was sure she was completely stabilized, he collapsed into the chair next to the bed. He ran a hand over his face before noticing his hand had been covered in mud, and groaned. God, why did she have to go and do this?

"Mmm," she hummed, her mouth opening and closing as if she was testing out her jaw. Her eyes fluttered open and she saw the Doctor next to her with his eyebrows furrowed in concern, holding her hand and giving her a small smile that didn't quite reach his eyes. "Doctor?" she asked, giving him a small smile.

"Rose," he breathed, letting out a shaky laugh. "You scared me there... You were..." He tugged at his ear nervously, darting his eyes to the medical bay floor. "You almost died."

"I'd hug you if I wasn't covered in mud," Rose stuck her tongue out of her teeth in a smile. He immediately realized her face still had mud splotches on it, so he stood up to wet a paper towel.

As he dabbed at her face, cleaning her up, she frowned. "Are you cured? But how..."

The Doctor blinked. "Cured of what?"

Rose's expression turned to one of pity and sadness and he wanted to do anything in his power to get rid of that. He leaned down and kissed her lips gently, chastely, then grinned brightly at her. "I'm fine, Rose. Perfectly healthy, me. It's you who had the scare."

She sighed. There was definitely something different in that kiss, it wasn't completely horny or desperate. It was more like a reassuring kiss, it could have even been platonic. Therefore, she figured it wasn't bad to regret kissing him back in that moment. But the way he talked about himself being healthy, that honestly broke her heart. How was she ever going to get the frog's blood now? Now that he was with her? How did he even get here, anyways?

"How'd you get here?" she asked, taking the paper towel from him and beginning to dab mud off of her arms and hands.

"Huon particles," he stated simply, and she gave a quizzical expression in response. He laughed a little at that. "When you were talking to Jackie, er, alone, I infused myself with some particles that let me transport myself to the TARDIS."

Rose hit him on the arm and he yelped. "What was that for?!" he asked, rubbing at his arm.

"Infusing yourself with Bluon particles," Rose answered, folding her arms across her chest and staring up at him with her chin tilted defiantly. As if asking him to question her further.

"They're, er, actually called Huon particles," the Doctor winced, expecting to be hit again.

She rolled her eyes. "Whatever."

"It saved your life, didn't it?!" he defended himself.

Rose seemed to contemplate this for a moment, her eyes darting to the fluorescent lights on the ceiling. "I suppose. But we wouldn't be in this situation at all if you would just do what I asked."

"Anything," he pleaded, his eyes so desperate and his voice so genuine that it made her heart flutter. Even if it didn't mean anything, since, well, he was infected by a bloody Cupid Fly.

"Go get blood from the Tyribonian frog." Her mouth set in a firm line and she sniffed.

The Doctor blinked several times like he was unable to process what she had just asked. His eyebrows drew together and he stared at her, obviously confused. "I can't."

"Why not?" Rose challenged.

"I don't know," he answered honestly, blinking some more. "Blimey, my head hurts."

There was an awkward silence for a moment until his eyes shut tight, his face contorting in agony. "Doctor?" Rose gasped, scrambling to get off of the medical bed. She didn't care about the mud on her body, she held his head in both of her hands and stared desperately at him. "Doctor, what's wrong?"

"My head," the Doctor groaned, as if that explained absolutely everything. "My head... Something's..."

"Okay just calm down," Rose pleaded. "Calm down. Get down on the medical bed."

He nodded, lying down on the bed and bringing his hands to his temples, rubbing desperately. "Get the... Blue pills..." he said without opening his eyes.

Flares of light exploded behind his eyes and his mind was collapsing in on itself. He was in much more pain than he was letting on to Rose, and all of his telepathic senses were screeching at him to do something, anything. He wasn't sure what. After he asked her for the blue pill, the one that he used whenever the pain from his lack of telepathic connections got too strong. He had started having to use it after the destruction of Gallifrey, but the dosage had decreased incredibly over time.

The feeling of a bottle entering his hand spurred him into action. He unscrewed the cap, not caring that a few of the little pills were flying out of it and onto the floor due to his shaky hands. "Doctor, how many do you take?" he heard Rose ask.

With all of the force he could muster, he opened his eyes, taking in her appearance. Oh, there was ten of her. Ten Roses. That was a dream come true. Just imagine all the things he could do with ten Roses. Ten Roses was better than nine Roses, which was better than eight Roses, which was better than... Oh, blimey, his thoughts were starting to get all jumbled. "Rose," he said, though as soon as her name left his mouth he couldn't explain why he said it.

"How many pills do you take?" she repeated, concern evident in her eyes.

Rose being concerned just wouldn't do. Rose being concerned was possibly one of the worst things in the universe. Possibly worse than Daleks and the Valeyard and the Nightmare Child and so much more. He would definitely have to stop her being concerned as soon as possible. And, oh, she had asked him a question. How many pills did he take? In his ninth form, he usually took around seven. Then, around the end of that form, it had gone down to five. In this form, he usually took four once ever three or four months. Or three. It depended on how he was feeling.

"Five," he said quickly. "Five pills."

Rose took the pill bottle from him again and he heard the pouring of pills. Wait, were his eyes open? Could he see her, or was he imagining her? Was his mouth open as well? He figured that if he was going to take pills, his mouth had better be open. So he tried to open his mouth. Five pills were plopped into it, and then his neck was craned upwards by her hand and some water entered his mouth as well. Surprisingly, he swallowed them with ease.

The comfort of the pills ran over him almost immediately. But her hand was still on the back of his neck and, when he leaned his head back onto the pillow, it moved to run through his hair and scrape her nails lightly on his scalp. It felt so, so good, and he wondered how he could have possibly been uncomfortable just moments ago. He hummed at the pleasure and heard a small laugh from her. Now that was more like it. Rose was laughing instead of being concerned. If she would always laugh when he hummed, he would never stop humming. He would find a way to hum while he talked and breathed and ran with her hand in his. Maybe he would have to work on that. Or, better yet, he could just record himself humming and constantly play it.

Then, he had an epiphany. It wasn't his humming that made her laugh, it was that he did it while she was caressing his head. Which meant she would have to do that more often. Well, he couldn't necessarily complain there.

A/N: What's wrong with the Doctor? :o Tell me in a review! (p.s. do you think I can get up to three hundred reviews with this chapter? That would be absolutely insane.) Get it right and I'll give you a shoutout later. ;) Hope you enjoyed this chapter! :D