What It Is And Isn't

Chapter 19

Final chapter :)

     She couldn't tell how long they were there, the time blurring in and out with her vision. She had a feeling that the Doctor was struggling too, just because he couldn't remember if he had seen their captors or not. He seemed to lose his sense of time, and that scared Rose more than anything else. She was wringing her hands and trying to stretch her legs but not having enough room to do so.

"I'm feeling a little antsy," she said, smiling weakly, "Sorry."

He shook his head. "No, it's alright," he said, "The human body was made to move. Then again, so was a Time Lord's." He lifted a shoulder from where he sat against the wall, his bum growing numb. "I think it might be almost time for them to knock us out.'

"You think?"

He grimaced, and her fears were realized. He didn't know what time it was.

"Are they dulling your senses in here?" She asked.

He nodded. "I wanted to lie to you about it.. But yes, they are. I can't do anything about it, not really. I should be able to, with all my strong Time Lord-y powers, but they've taken most of my senses. I can feel the TARDIS and I can feel you, but that's about it."

"You can feel me?"

"Yes. I'm in there holding your barriers up, remember?"

"Oh, yeah, that's right," she smiled sheepishly. "Sort of forgot."

"Good. That means I'm not disturbing your mind at all."

She cocked her head at him and sat in front of him. "Should it?"

He shook his head. "Well, no, not necessarily, but... It's a good sign, that you aren't bothered by my presence there."

"And why's that?"

She could tell that all her questions were bothering him, as he shifted awkwardly in his seat. "Yeah, it's just... The Time Lord connection, doesn't always come naturally, to humans, but it seems to for you.... And that just means with our... Relationship. We would-"

She laughed and reached forward to squeeze his hand. "Sorry, didn't mean to make you uncomfortable there."

"I'm not uncomfortable, it just took me by surprise. You don't make me uncomfortable, I should say. Quite the opposite, really, I just-"

"Doctor?"

"Yes?"

"You're rambling."

He blushed and looked away from her. "Ah. Yes. I'm good at that, aren't I?"

"Quite," she agreed happily, reaching out and taking his hand. "You know, we don't have to talk about this right now, but all your babbling has me really interested."

"It does?"
"Yeah. I'd like to know more, when you're willing to talk about it."

Her statement made such a sweet smile light his face that she wasn't sure she'd ever seen anything so beautiful. She smiled back at him and crawled forward so they were sitting side by side against the wall, defending each other from something that neither of them knew would actually come or not.

Regardless, it seemed the Doctor was right about one thing: tehy were knocked out shortly thereafter.

When she woke up, she was in the forest. She saw up straight as a pin and looked around her. How was this-? Was she dreaming? Looking to her left she saw the Doctor, thrown there, or appearing to be. Suddenly, a creature stood before her, wearing a black suit and looking quite like a stereotypical alien, with no mouth. She opened her own mouth to cry out when it spoke, in her mind.