Doctor Who Fan Fiction ❯ Dr Who - What If ❯ Forty Two ( Chapter 9 )

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Rose slowly drifted back to reality after a refreshing night's sleep in her room. She yawned, stretched, and swept her hair back off her face. The last few days had been quite eventful, and not because of the adventures they'd had; that was fairly normal.

She'd had quite a few snogs with the Doctor. Okay, the first one he claimed was a genetic transfer, although it seemed a bit more enthusiastic than that. Then the next couple were mouth-to-mouth resuscitation, not quite as romantic as the first.

But the one two days ago and the one yesterday, she was sure were just kisses, with no other reason than that they just wanted to show their affection for each other. He'd even said it was becoming a habit, and she wanted it to be a hard habit to break.

Then there was Queen Elizabeth the First. She had called her Mistress Rose, the Doctor's wife. The Doctor had been dismissive of the significance of that, but she couldn't believe that the Queen would have said it if she didn't believe it was true. She suspected that the Doctor had been dismissive because of what he called spoilers, and she knew from first hand experience how dangerous those could be.

She wondered if it was because she had given up everything to be with him, her mum, her home, her friends, and shown him that she was committed to being with him for the rest of her life, that he was slowly showing her that he was also committed to being with her.

“Right, time to give him a treat then” she thought to herself as she headed for the shower. She always got appreciative looks from him when she showed off her legs, so she would wear her denim mini skirt and a vest top.

After getting dressed and putting her hair into pigtails, she went to the kitchen to have some breakfast and a cup of tea. That done, she finally headed for the console room.

`Mornin',' she said with a smile.

He glanced over at her and raised his eyebrows as he gave her his boyish smile. `Looking good,' he told her.

She looked down at herself as though she hadn't noticed how she looked. `Wha'? this get up? It's just somethin' I threw on,' she lied. “Yep, still got it” she thought to herself with her tongue between her teeth smile.

The TARDIS suddenly jerked sideways, throwing Rose to the floor. The Doctor managed to hold on to the console, and studied the monitor.

'Distress signal! Locking on!' His red converse flicked a lever on the console. 'Might be a bit of . . .' he started to say, as the TARDIS gave another jolt, throwing them around again. ' . . . Turbulence.' He popped his head above the console to see if she was alright. 'Sorry!'

`S'okay, I'm used to it.'

They both climbed to their feet. 'Come on Rose! Let's take a look!'

They stepped out into lots of steam and the place was glowing red.

[`Distress signal transmitted,'] a computerised voice announced.

`Whoa, now that is hot,' the Doctor said.

[`Automated distress signal transmitted,'] the computer repeated.

`Whuff, it's like a sauna in here,' Rose said, glad that she had decided to wear her denim mini skirt and a vest top.

`Venting systems. Working at full pelt, trying to cool down. Wherever it is we are. Well, if you can't stand the heat . . .' He opened a bulkhead door and went through. On the other side, they saw a label telling them they had left Area 30. Two men and a woman were running towards them.

`Oi, you two!' a young man shouted.

`Get out of there!' the young woman demanded.

`Seal that door, now!' the man ordered.

`Who are you? What are you doing on my ship?' the woman asked them.

`Are you police?' the man asked.

The Doctor frowned. `Why would we be police?'

`We got your distress signal,' Rose told them.

`If this is a ship, why can't I hear any engines?' asked the Doctor.

`It went dead four minutes ago,' the woman captain said.

`So maybe we should stop chatting and get to Engineering, Captain,' the other man suggested.

[`Secure closure active,'] the computer told them

`What?' the captain said.

`The ship's gone mad,' the second man said.

Another woman came running towards them through the compartments, bulkheads slamming shut behind her. `Who activated secure closure? I nearly got locked into area twenty seven.'

The last bulkhead slammed shut, and she looked at the Doctor and Rose in surprise. `Who are you?'

`He's the Doctor and I'm Rose . . . Hello.'

[`Impact projection forty two minutes twenty seven seconds,'] the computer reported.

`We'll get out of this. I promise,' the captain said.

Rose was unperturbed. They had the TARDIS, they could get everyone out in no time at all. She wandered over to a porthole and looked out. What she saw, took her breath away.

`Doctor.'

`Forty two minutes until what?' the Doctor asked.

`DOCTOR! Look,' Rose called out urgently, and he rushed over to see what had got her all riled up.

`Forty two minutes until we crash into the sun,' the captain said as they looked out at a broiling sphere of superheated hydrogen plasma.

`How many crew members on board?' the Doctor asked.

`Seven, including us,' the captain told him.

`We transport cargo across the galaxy. Everything's automated. We just keep the ship space worthy,' said the second man.

The Doctor moved away from the porthole towards the bulkhead door. `Call the others, I'll get you out.'

`What's he doing?' the first man said with alarm, as the Doctor started to open the door.

`No, don't!' The captain shouted.

When the door opened, the Doctor was knocked down by the blast of heat. Rose ran over and helped him to his feet. The second woman put on a welder's mask and shut the door again.

`But my ship's in there!' the Doctor complained.

`In the vent chamber?' the first man asked.

`It's our lifeboat,' the Doctor said.

`It's lava,' the second man told him.

The second woman looked at the gauge on the wall. `The temperature's going mad in there. Up three thousand degrees in ten seconds, and still rising.'

`Channelling the air. The closer we get to the sun, the hotter that room's going to get,' said the first man.

`We're stuck here,' Rose complained.

`So, we fix the engines, we steer the ship away from the sun. Simple,' the Doctor explained as he set off through the compartment. `Engineering down here, is it?'

The captain set off after him. `Yes.'

Everyone else followed them out of the compartment. [`Impact in forty twenty six,'] the computer said to the empty room.

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Simple it was not!

It was so far from simple that it was Rose's new description of their relationship. It was complicated. One of the crew, a man named Korwin McDonnell, who happened to be the husband of Captain Kath McDonnell, had sabotaged the engine controls. He seemed to be suffering from an alien infection. and the medical officer, Abi Lerner had put him into a stasis chamber to keep him stable.

Rose and crewman Riley Vashtee were trying to get to the Auxiliary Control Room, where the engines could be restarted. But, once again, that was SO not simple. The secure closure command meant that each bulkhead door had a security question locking it. They had already got through the first door, and Riley attached the laptop to the second door.

`Rose? Riley? How're you doing?' the Doctor asked over the intercom from Engineering.

`Oh, hiya. We're in Area 29, at the door to 28.'

`Yeah, you've got to move faster.'

She pulled a face at the intercom. `We're doin' our best.'

Riley had accessed the door 28 interface. `Find the next number in the sequence three one three three three one, three six seven . . . What?'

`You said the crew knew all the answers,' Rose said in accusation.

`The crew's changed since we set the questions.'

`You're jokin'?!'

Oh that was easy; the Doctor was doing recreational mathematics in kindergarten. `Three seven nine!' he told them.

`What? Rose asked.

`It's a sequence of happy primes . . . Three seven nine.'

`Happy what?'

Oh come on, they didn't have time to discuss it. `Just enter it.'

Riley paused. `Are you sure? We only get one chance.'

That explains why they want to discuss it, the Doctor realised. `Any number that reduces to one when you take the sum of the square of its digits and you continue iterating until it yields one is a happy number. Any number that doesn't, isn't. A happy prime is a number that is both happy and prime. Now type it in! I don't know, talk about dumbing down! Don't they teach recreational mathematics any more?'

`We're through!' Rose exclaimed.

`Keep moving, fast as you can,' the Doctor said, and went back to working on the engines. `And, Rose, be careful. There may be something else on board this ship.'

Oh great. `Any time you want to freak me out, feel free.'

`Will do, thanks,' he said cheerfully.

[`Impact in thirty fifty,'] the computer updated them.

“No pressure then” Rose thought `I can't believe our lives depend on some stupid pub quiz,' she said in an annoyed tone. `Is that the next one?'

`Oh, this is a nightmare,' Riley said, reading the next question. `Classical music. Who had the most pre-download number ones, Elvis Presley or The Beatles? How are we supposed to know that?'

Meanwhile, down in engineering, the Doctor was working on a contingency plan. `We need a backup in case they don't reach the auxiliary engines in time. Come on, think. Resources. What have we got?' he asked Kath McDonnell and Orin Scannell.

Rose's voice came over the intercom. `Doctor?'

`What is it now?'

`Who had the most number ones, Elvis or the Beatles. That's pre-download.'

`Elvis. No! The Beatles! No! Wait! Er, er. Oh, what was that remix? Er, I don't know. I am a bit busy.'

`Fine. I'll ask someone else,' she said sarcastically.

`Now, where was I?' he asked. `Here comes the sun. No, resources. So, the power's still working, the generator's going. If we can harness that. Ah!'

`Use the generator to jump-start the ship,' McDonnell reasoned.

`Exactly. At the very least, it'll buy us some more time.'

McDonnell looked at him in amazement. `That is brilliant.'

`I know. See? Tiny glimmer of hope,' he said with a smile.

`If it works,' Scannell said.

`Oh, believe me. You're going to make it work,' McDonnell told him.

`That told him,' the Doctor said to her.

[`Impact in twenty nine forty six,'] the computer said. It was starting to get annoying.

In Area 28, Rose took out her mobile phone and looked at her speed dial list. She had been about to phone Mickey, who would have got the answer in seconds off the internet, when she had a reality check. She realised just how much she had given up in this universe.

It was time she tidied up her contacts list and deleted her mum's and Mickey's numbers, but that was just something she couldn't bring herself to do. She saw her best friend Shareen's number, but she wasn't that savvy with computers. And then she saw Keisha's number. Keisha was her other best friend who went out clubbing with her and Shareen, and she was good with computers.

`Rose? Is that really you?' Keisha asked. She'd seen the caller display on her phone.

`Yeah, hiya Keish, howya doin'?'

`Oh my God it is you. Where have you been? We thought you were dead.' Rose could hear her friend getting upset. `Your mum's disappeared, your old flat is empty, and your mobile is unobtainable! We all thought you'd been killed by all those robots.'

`Oh Keish, I'm sorry. I should have called ya to let ya know we were all right. Things are a bit hectic at the moment; I'll talk to you later and explain. Right at this moment, I need some information off the internet, and although it doesn't sound like it, believe me, its life or death.'

`Oh my God, what have you gotten yourself mixed up with . . . hang on, I'm just opening the browser. Okay, what do you need?'

`Who had the most pre-download number ones, Elvis Presley or The Beatles?' Rose asked sheepishly. It didn't sound like a life or death question.

`Are you havin' a laugh? We don't hear from you for months `cos you're travellin' the world with that fit bloke in the suit. A load of robots attack London, your mum goes missin', the flats empty, makin' it look like you're both dead, and you think a pub quiz is life or death,' she said angrily.

`I know how it sounds Keish, an' I'm really sorry, but trust me, if I don't get the answer right . . . I'm gonna die,' Rose said with the emotion creeping into her voice.

`Jesus! Er, Elvis. It's Elvis!'

`What? Really? Elvis?'

`Yeah, accordin' to the BBC website they were equal on 17 until they found a lost recording of “A Little Less Conversation” and released it in 2002.'

`Keish, you are a life saver . . . literally.'

There was a scream over the intercom, which was picked up by Rose's phone. `What was that?' Keisha asked.

`I've gotta go. Talk to you later, promise.' Rose ended the call while Riley opened the door. `Doctor, what were those screams?'

He didn't answer her question, he didn't want her distracted. `Concentrate on those doors. You've got to keep moving forward.'

[`Impact in twenty seven oh six.']

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`Doctor, we're through to area seventeen,' Rose told him over the intercom.

`Keep going, you've got to get to area one and reboot those engines.'

In Engineering, Dev Ashton was working underneath the engine when someone entered. `You got those tools, Erina? Because I . . .' He was suddenly pulled out from underneath the engine by his ankles. `Whoa!'

It was Korwin McDonnell, and he pulled Ashton to his feet with his gauntleted hands.

`Korwin, it's me. We're mates.'

`They are getting too far. We must share the light.' Korwin held Ashton's head and it started to burn as Ashton screamed.

[`Heat shields failing. At twenty percent,'] the computer announced.

`Come on!' Riley said, hitting his portable computer to try and get it to work faster. `Everything on this ship is so cheap.'

They heard the bulkhead to area 18 behind them clang open. `Who's there?' he called at the steam and smoke.

A figure appeared ominously through the steam. `Is that Korwin?' Rose asked.

`No, wait a minute,' Riley said, as the helmeted figure approached. `Oh, Ashton, what're you doing?'

`Burn with me,' Ashton said.

`Well, if you want to help,' Riley said.

`Burn with me,' Ashton repeated. `Burn with me.' Ashton moved his hands up to the helmet to raise the Polaroid filter.

Somehow, Rose knew that would be bad . . . very bad. `Move! Come on!' She opened the door to a small adjacent area, and then shut it when they were both inside. Ashton appeared at the window in the door, so Riley opened a small hatch and they climb through.

Ashton touched some controls and a second door slid closed over the hatch.

`What is happening on this ship?' Riley asked.

`Never mind that,' Rose said. `Where are we?'

The computer answered her question. [`Airlock sealed. Jettison escape pod.']

`That doesn't mean us?' Rose asked Riley in disbelief. `DOCTOR!'

[`Pod jettison initiated.']

`Doctor! We're stuck in an escape pod off the area seventeen airlock. One of the crew's tryin' to jettison us! You've got to help us! Tell me you can stop it.'

In Engineering, they could all hear the fear in Rose's voice. `Why is this happening?' McDonnell asked.

`Stay here,' he told them. `I mean it this time! Jump start those engines!'

[`Jettison held,'] the computer said in the escape pod.

Riley rested his weary head on the control panel. `Thank you.'

The relief was short lived though, as Ashton started punching buttons on the keypad outside.

[`Jettison reactivated.']

Rose screamed and banged on the window. She didn't want to die like this.

`Come on,' Riley encouraged the controls. They were like a couple of game geeks doing battle on a networked game.

`Tsilpinski sequence. This'll get him,' Riley said with confidence.

[`Jettison held. Escape pod stabilised.']

Rose breathed a sigh of relief. `You're pretty good.'

The Doctor ran into the airlock bay, and saw Ashton typing something else into his keypad. The battle of the keypads had started again.

`THAT'S ENOUGH!' he shouted with his usual authority. `What do you want? Why this ship? Tell me.'

Ashton punched his fist through the keypad.

[`Jettison activated.']

Riley looked at the keypad in a panic. `He's smashed the circuit. I can't stop it. I can't stop it!'

The Doctor was standing toe-to-toe with Ashton `Come on. Let's see you. I want to know what you really are.'

Ashton raised his hand to the visor, when he suddenly doubled over in pain. Down in Engineering, Scannell had opened a refrigeration valve on Korwin and he'd collapsed. It appeared Korwin and Ashton were somehow linked.

[`Airlock sealed.']

Ashton ignored the Doctor and walked past him, back down the ship. The Doctor used the intercom to contact Engineering.

`McDonnell? Ashton's heading in your direction, He's been infected, just like Korwin!' he warned her.

`Korwin's dead, Doctor,' Scannell informed him.

Rose was at the door to the escape pod, looking for a manual override lever or something. `This thing's locked!'

[`Airlock decompression completed. Jettisoning pod.']

She looked up and saw the Doctor looking through the airlock door window. `Doctor!' she called out, banging on the window of the pod.

She saw the anguish on his face. She saw him mouth the words, “I'll save you!”

`Rose, it's too late,' Riley said in resignation. He knew the launch sequence. Their fate was sealed.

`Doctor!'

“I'll save you!”

`I can't hear you!' There was a loud “clunk” as the holding clamps disengaged. She slowly started to drift away from her love.

“I'll save you!”

The pod slowly left the side of the ship and floated towards the sun.

“I'll save you!”

`I'm sorry . . . I love you.'

[`Impact in seventeen oh five.']

`The wonderful world of space travel. The prettier it looks, the more likely it is to kill you,' Riley said as he looked over her shoulder.

`He'll come for us,' Rose said quietly, her voice full of emotion.

`No, it's too late. Our heat shields will pack in any minute, and then we go into free fall. We'll fall into the sun way before he has a chance to do anything.'

`You don't know the Doctor. I believe in him, and he won't stop until I'm back in his arms.'

`Then you're lucky. I've never found anyone worth believing in.'

`No girlfriend?' she asked, and then thought about Jack Harkness. `Boyfriend?' she added for political correctness.

`The job doesn't lend itself to stable relationships.'

`Family, then?'

`My dad's dead, and I haven't seen my mum in six years. She didn't want me to sign up for cargo tours. Things were said, and since then, all silent. She wanted to hold on to me, I know that. Oh, she's so stubborn.'

`Yeah, well, that's families.'

`What about you?'

`I recently lost my mum. Dad died when I was just a baby. The Doctor's all I've got left.'

`Who was that who gave you the Elvis answer?'

`That was Keisha, one of my best mates.'

`You should call her.'

`Yeah.' If she was going to die, she should tell someone she wasn't coming back. And she'd promised to tell her about her mum. She took her phone out of the pocket of her skirt and speed dialled Keisha.

`Rose?'

`Yeah, it's me again. Sorry about earlier.'

`Is everything all right?'

`Yeah, fine. Can you let everyone know that Mum's alive and well.'

`Yeah, of course. Where is she then?'

`She's met someone new . . . well an old flame from way back actually. She's livin' abroad now, oh an' Mickey's there as well, workin' for her new chap.'

`Are you all right Rose? You sound kinda weird.'

`Yeah, it's this mad life I lead . . . Keish, I don't know if I'll ever be back again, so I just wanted to say that I miss you and Shar, and I love you both.'

`Where are you?'

`Just travellin', y'know back packin' and stuff like that.'

`What, with that foxy bloke of yours?'

Rose laughed. `Yeah, we're still together,' she said, looking out of the porthole at the long, spindly space ship.

She had a flashback to an asteroid where they watched ray-like creatures flying through the air. “How long are you going to stay with me?” the Doctor had asked her a lifetime ago.

`I'm gonna stay with him forever,' she told Keisha. `Look. I'd better go. Love you Keish.'

`Yeah, see ya Rose. Look after yerself.'

Rose ended the call, and then she and Riley hugged each other, crying.

[`Impact in eleven fifteen. Heat shield failing. At ten percent,'] the computer announced in the airlock bay.

The Doctor clambered into a spacesuit, and was preparing to go outside to boost the magnetic lock that held the pod in place.

`I can't let you do this,' Scannell told him.

`You're wasting your breath, Scannell. You're not going to stop me.'

`You want to open an airlock in flight on a ship spinning into the sun. No one can survive that.'

Oh, just you watch.'

`You open that airlock, its suicide. This close to the sun, the shields will barely protect you.'

`If I can boost the magnetic lock on the ship's exterior, it should remagnetise the pod. Now, while I'm out there, you have got to get the rest of those doors open. We need those auxiliary engines.'

`Doctor, will you listen! They're too far away. It's too late.'

He looked Scannell in the eye, and even in the heat of the melting ship, Scannell felt a chill run down his spine. For the briefest of moments he'd seen the turn of the universe, and the whole of time and space in those ancient eyes.

`I'm not going to lose her.' The Doctor put on the helmet and went into the airlock.

[`Decompression initiated. Impact in twelve fifty five.']

In the escape pod, there was a big jolt which threw Rose and Riley across the pod. The computer screen displayed the word “remagnetising”.

`We're being pulled back!' Riley said in amazement.

Rose started laughing. `I told you! It's the Doctor!'

The Doctor crawled back into the airlock as the escape pod returned to its dock. He looked out at the sun and felt something emanating from it, a presence; a consciousness that was calling out to him.

`It's alive . . . It's alive . . . It's alive!'

The escape pod docked with the ship and the clamps locked it in place once more.

[`Airlock recompression completed.']

The Doctor was on his hands and knees as he took off his helmet and crawled out of the airlock, his eyes screwed shut.

Rose climbed out of the hatch and ran to him `Doctor! Doctor! Are you okay?'

He opened his eyes briefly, and a white light shined from them. `Stay away from me!' an alien voice said.

`What's happened?' McDonnell asked.

`It's your fault, Captain McDonnell!' the Doctor said, gasping for breath as he tried to retain control.

`Riley, get down to area ten and help Scannell with the doors. Go!' McDonnell ordered.

`You mined that sun. Stripped its surface for cheap fuel. You should have scanned for life!'

I don't understand.'

`Doctor, what are you talkin' about?' Rose asked.

`That sun is alive. A living organism. They scooped out its heart, used it for fuel, and now it's screaming!'

`What do you mean? How can a sun be alive? Why is he saying that?' McDonnell asked Rose.

`Because it's living in me.'

McDonnell put her hands to her mouth in horror. `Oh, my God.'

`Humans! You grab whatever's nearest and bleed it dry! You should have scanned!'

`It takes too long. We'd be caught. Fusion scoops are illegal.'

Rose rushed to him and held his arm, trying to help him to his feet.

`You've got to freeze me, quickly.'

`What?' Rose said in surprise.

`Stasis chamber. You've got to take it below minus two hundred. Freeze it out of me! It'll use me to kill you if you don't. The closer we get to the sun, the stronger it gets! Med-centre, quickly! Quickly!' He was doubled over in pain.

`HELP ME!' Rose shouted at McDonnell.

[`Impact in seven thirty.']

In the Med-centre, Rose grabbed the instruction manual for the stasis chamber. `I can do it!'

`Rose, where are you?' he called, reaching out for her.

`It's all right, I'm here. Just help me get him up,' she said to McDonnell. `Stasis chamber, minus two hundred, yeah?'

`No, you don't know how this equipment works. You'll kill him. Nobody can survive those temperatures.'

`He's not human. If he says he can survive, then he can.'

`Let me help you, then.'

Rose gave her a stern look. `You've done enough damage.'

The Doctor lay in the stasis chamber. `Ten seconds. That's all I'll be able to take. No more . . . Rose!'

`Yeah?'

`It's burning me up. I can't control it. If you don't get rid of it, I could kill you. I could kill you all. I'm scared! I'm so scared!' He didn't want to be responsible for killing the woman he loved.

It shocked her to hear him tell her he was scared. He was always so brave. `Just stay calm. You saved me, now I return the favour. Just believe in me.'

`It's burning through me. Then what'll happen?' he asked her, hinting at something she'd seen before.

`That's enough! I've got you.'

`Rose, you know that thing that happens if I'm about to die . . .'

`Shush. Quiet now. Because that is SO not gonna happen. Are you ready?'

`No.'

Rose used the joystick to roll the Doctor completely into the chamber. `I love you,' she whispered as she typed 200 into the keypad and pressed the green button. The Doctor's screams went through her, cutting her to her core, as his body temperature fell.

[`Heat shields failing. At five percent.']

Rose watched the numbers count down rapidly, flinching each time the Doctor screamed. At minus 70 degrees the chamber went dead.

`No! Rose, you can't stop it. Not yet,' he called from inside the chamber, where he was covered in a layer of frost.

`What happened?' Rose asked McDonnell.

`Power's been cut in Engineering.'

`But who's down there?'

`Leave it to me,' McDonnell said and left.

[`Impact in four forty seven.']

`Come on. You're defrostin',' Rose said, noticing that the ice had melted off his body.

`Rose, listen! I've only got a moment. You've got to go!'

`No way.'

`Get to the front. Vent the engines. Sun particles in the fuel, get rid of them.'

`I am not leavin' you.'

`You've got to give back what they took.'

`Doctor!' she protested.

`Please go!' he pleaded.

`Okay, but I'll be back for you . . . `cos . . .' she hesitated.

`I know.'

[`Impact in four oh eight.']

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'This is never your ship!' Orin Scannell said, as he walked up to the blue wooden box.

'Compact! Eh!' he said as he walked around from behind the TARDIS. 'And another good word, robust . . . ! Barely a scorch mark on her,' he said with pride.

'We can't just leave them driftin' with no fuel,' Rose said with concern. They'd had to dump the fuel that they had scooped from Torajii, so that the Doctor could live, and the ship would be allowed to leave.

'We've sent out an official mayday. The authorities will pick us up soon enough,' Riley told them.

'Though how we explain what happened . . .' Scannell started to say.

'Just tell them,' The Doctor interrupted. 'That sun needs care and protection, just like any other living thing.' Scannell nodded in agreement, five of their crewmates had died learning that lesson.

The Doctor stepped inside the TARDIS, and Rose started to follow, when Riley rushed forwards, and gently held her elbow. 'So . . . uh, you're off then,' he said, and Rose nodded. They had shared a tender moment when they had been trapped inside that escape pod.

'No chance I'll see you again?' he asked hopefully.

'Not really,' she replied, and saw the disappointment on his face. 'It was nice . . . not dyin' with you.' They both gave an unenthusiastic laugh. 'I reckon you'll find someone worth believin' in.'

He looked her in the eyes. 'I think I already did.'

Rose returned the look, and something passed between them. `You know that me an' him . . .' she said, nodding at the TARDIS.

`Yeah, it was sort of obvious the way he risked everything to save you.'

`Oh, come here.' She grabbed him into a passionate, post adrenalin kiss. 'Well done,' she said, backing into the TARDIS. 'Very hot.'

She stepped inside, and walked up the ramp towards the Doctor. 'So! Didn't really need you in the end, did we?!' she said jokingly, but when she saw his face, he was deep in thought, his face an impassive mask.

It was a cheap wisecrack and now she felt awful for saying it. Without him, she would have burned up in the escape pod along with crewman Riley. She reached out and held his hand. 'Sorry . . . how're you doin'?'

He looked at her for a long while, before suddenly snapping out of his reflective mood, in that mercurial way of his. 'Now! What do you say? Ice skating on the mineral lakes of Cuhlhan, fancy it?'

'Whatever you like,' she said in a quiet, subdued voice. She thought he was going to open up to her, but he'd completely deflected the question of how he was feeling . . . again.

He gave a concerned glance in her direction, and saw that she was upset by his reluctance to discuss their near demise. 'Thank you,' he said solemnly, opening his arms for a hug.

She willingly fell into the embrace and held him tight as he rubbed her back comfortingly. 'Don't mention it,' she replied quietly. He pulled back slightly so that he could look into her eyes.

They stood there for a while, just gazing silently into each others eyes. Hesitantly, Rose moved her head forward slightly, tilting it to the side, an invitation to a kiss. The Doctor saw the movement, and accepted the invitation. Their lips met and both of them were grateful of the opportunity to say thank you in this intimate fashion.

They had often said “thank you”, and “you're welcome” to each other in the past when they had saved each other's lives, but actions really did speak louder than words. Their lips parted, and they rested their foreheads together.

`Oh, no. Keish,' Rose said, as she remembered her previous call. She reached her phone out of her skirt pocket and selected Keisha's number.

`Rose, is that you again?'

'Yeah, me again!' she said in a light hearted tone.

`Three calls in one day,' Keisha said sarcastically. Rose used to call most days for a gossip, until she started travelling.

`I'm sorry about earlier. Over emotional. Mad day.'

`Had a bit of a lovers tiff have ya? Never mind, you've got the makin' up to look forward to.'

`Yeah, you're right,' Rose agreed with a laugh. It was as good an explanation as any for her emotional phone call.

`Look, I know you said you might not be back, and to be fair, who'd blame you. I wish I'd got some bloke who'd whisk me away from the estate, but if you did want to come back, what about a Friday night out with Shareen?'

`Yeah. Friday night. Do my best. Er, just remind me. What day is it again?'

`Election day.'

`Right. Of course. I'll be round for Friday night . . . Roughly. Anyway, I've got to go! See you later. Love you.'