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It was supposed to be a holiday on a world that specialized in talking purple fish. The Doctor had been so excited to introduce Rose to a particular talking fish by the name of Theo. Unfortunately, when they arrived there were no purple fish and they soon found themselves in involved in a resistance movement fighting off an invasion of by a tyrant from the future who had come upon a vortex manipulator. Things had not gone well.
There was a fight in a castle. The Doctor had saved her by pushing her out a window where she landed into a slime filled moat. She escaped while the Doctor was dragged away and experimented on by the evil tyrant’s head scientist.
Rose had found the resistance who knew where the Doctor was being held but refused to go with her to free him. They handed her a few explosive devices and wished her luck. She accepted the bombs even though she knew the Doctor wouldn’t be happy with her carrying weapons. It took her hours of walking barefoot, dirty, and bedraggled through the war torn city. When she reached the building he was being held in, she felt a strangely focused calm envelop her.
Rose scanned the building and walked up to one of the walls. Before a guard could approach her, she slapped one of the bombs on the wall, activated it and walked away with the guard shouting after her. She felt the bomb explode as a rush of heat buffeted her back and debris rained around her. Smoke and dust filled the air along with shouts and the pounding of footsteps as people rushed by her.
Rose wasn’t the least bit afraid. She was focused on getting her Doctor back and with purpose marched through the gaping and jagged hole in the building. Inside, was chaos. Rose walked along the blackened and burning interior, casually picking up a stun gun from one of the injured guards and walked further into the facility. For the most part, the fleeing scientists ignored her. When she arrived at a reinforced door to the lab she knew the Doctor was being held at, she affixed her remaining explosive device on it and ran around the corner to take shelter. This explosion was more deafening as it echoed about the inside for the building. A few more people ran out of this door and Rose passed by them silently.
Inside the lab, she found the scientist barking orders at his underlings. He turned and looked at Rose with cold, unfeeling eyes as he apprised her. A slight smile lit his birdlike face. The species on this world had evolved from birds, although they appeared humanoid, they had some bird-like features although no wings or feathers other than a slight down on their bodies. They still had the eyes of a raptor and were bird-like in their movements.
“I take it, you are my subject’s companion?” the scientist asked as he stared at her with his beady black eyes.
“Let the Doctor go now,” Rose responded in a steely voice. “I’m not gonna ask you a second time.” She stared at him, her honey colored eyes gazing at him almost like a wolf stalking it’s prey.
He didn’t flinch. He laughed and that was one of his many mistakes. “Subject 234ADelta is far too important for me to accommodate the pathetic demands of a would be terrorist. Really, do you think I’m going to be intimidated by some inferior little ape girl? You should run while you still have the chance. Not that you‘ll get far,” he said dismissively.
At that point, Rose felt something odd overcome her, almost an out of body experience. It was like a door opening and a part of herself she kept locked away unfurled itself, stretching and popping as it flexed it’s muscles. She cocked her head to the side and senses she didn’t’ realize she had stretched out filtering information back to her mind as she analyzed the scientist and the room. “No,” she said. She lifted up the stun gun. The scientist ducked to one side. She aimed it at a vial of clear liquid near him and zapped it. The scientist stared in horror as the vial exploded, shattering glass and spatters of the liquid covered him.
“Noooo!” he shouted. “You stupid girl! That was stalycite solution! It will crystallize anything it touches!” he shouted as he grunted in pain and fell to his knees panting.
Rose walked over to him, still holding the stun gun loosely at her side. She leaned over him. “Never taunt a wolf,” she said. “Now, where’s the Doctor?” she demanded.
He winced and curled up on the floor. He cursed at her and began convulsing. “Fine,” she said. “I’ll find ‘im myself.” She paused as she walked further into the lab and looked back at him. “Ya know, if you woulda helped me, you might’ve lived.” She turned and left the scientist to his fate. She walked with purpose and a cold determination, although, nothing prepared her for what she found deep in the lab. Row upon row of people in cages with tags on them. Any regrets she had leaving the scientist to suffer a gruesome fate were gone. He had been experimenting on his own people. They were mangled, bloodied, gasping and shouting in pain. Compassion flooded her as she looked at these poor souls soon followed by a new determination. She would leave here with the Doctor but not without doing something for these poor people.
Soon, she reached the back of the lab where she found the Doctor strapped upright in a tank with a clear mask over his face. The tank was filled with some kind of freezing gel. There were notes nearby showing how they were testing his endurance. For the first time, she faltered as she realized what they had done to him. She looked at him through the glass and for a moment his eyes opened wide enough that she could see him through the mask on his face. She felt him in her mind shouting at her to run. She shook her head “no.”
As she examined the controls, one of the scientists assistance crawled out from under a table. Rose turned and aimed the stun gun at the pale, slight girl covered in fine white down. She looked at Rose and cowered. “Help me,” Rose asked her. The girl looked at the Doctor and back at Rose. She didn’t look predatory like the scientist but more terrified. “Please,” Rose asked again.
The girl began pressing buttons and soon the gel drained. The girl turned to Rose. “I’m so sorry for your mate,” she said in a soft trembling tone. “Many of us didn’t want to be here or help these atrocities but we had no choice.”
“There’s always a choice. You have to stand up for what’s right. The Doctor taught me that,” Rose told her and looked at the Doctor hanging limply in the metal tank. Rose turned back to the girl. “We’ll do what we can to help you, but you have to help yourselves and you can start by helping to free all those people out there from the cages,” Rose told her, indicating the cages she had passed on her way to the Doctor.
The girl nodded. “But, the guards and the scientist?”
“You don’t have to worry ‘bout the scientist. I sorted him. You lot have to pull together and face the guards. Maybe some of ‘em will even join you. They might be tired of killin‘ their own people,” Rose said while staring at the Doctor’s drooping form.
The tank opened and the girl unlocked the Doctor from his bonds and he slumped to the floor. Rose rushed in and pulled the limp Doctor out until he was laying on the floor outside the tank, his suit soaked with the cold goo.
“Doctor,” Rose called out to him and laid her ear by his mouth. He wasn’t breathing. She placed her hands on his freezing chest. There was a faint beat of one heart. “No,” she whispered as panic began setting in. His lips were blue, his skin pale and he was ice cold. “We have to warm him up.”
The girl looked at Rose and the Doctor. “The basement. There is a heating unit and you can hide there,” she said. They heard some shouting, gun fire and pounding footsteps. “You must hurry. If the guards find you, I can’t help you,” she said nervously.
Rose nodded. “Help me move him,” she ordered the girl. They quickly dragged him down to the basement where the girl left them near a meager heating unit and pulled some extra linens that were stored there. Rose looked up at her. “This isn’t warm enough!”
“It will have to be. I have to go. I’m sorry but I have to,” the girl pleaded as she fled.
Rose quickly set up a makeshift bed near the heater and began rubbing the Doctor to try and warm him up. His pulse was still faint, but he was breathing and some of the color was returning to his face. Soon, he was warm enough for his body to start shivering and shuddering as it worked to warm him.
Rose knew he wasn’t warming fast enough. She quickly made the decision to peel off most of his clothing including his chucks and then removed her own clothing so she could use her own body warmth to try warm him faster. Although was still cold from her dip in the moat, she was still warmer than him. She curled her body around his, shivering a bit as her warm flesh met his frigid skin and pulling linens around them like a cocoon.
She continued to rub his limbs as she laid on top of him and pressed her face into his neck. “Please Doctor, please wake up. I’m here and I’m not gonna leave you. You’ve got to warm up,” she murmured to him as she continued to cling to him. After a while, his shivering and shuddering eased up, his breathing seemed better and she could feel the double pulse of both is hearts now beating in a more normal rhythm.
Exhaustion overcame her and she fell asleep laying atop of him. She dreamed she was standing in nothing but a bra and her knickers on an alien planet with snow falling all around her. The sky glowed a mixture of amber and lavender. She was cold but not freezing. She slowly walked across a snow filled field until she came across the Doctor in nothing but his Tardis blue pants making snow angels. He looked up at her and grinned. “Doctor, what are you doin’ rollin’ around in the snow? Are you tryin’ to catch your death?” Rose chastised him, arms crossed and cocking a hip out in her displeasure.
“Oh, I won’t freeze,” he explained still playing in the snow. “Superior biology! Now you on the other hand, well you look like you could use some warming up.” He jumped up and walked over to her. His finger traced her bra strap. “Lilac is definitely your color. Did you buy this in that market on Voot?” Rose blushed in response. He grinned brighter before pulling her into his arms. She rested her head on his shoulder as he wrapped himself around her.
Rose felt something furry rub against her leg. She looked down and there was a wolf with thick golden brown fur looking up at her. “I think it’s time to put the wolf away,” the Doctor murmured to her. Rose looked up at him. “Whadda you mean?”
He smiled at her. “It’s all right now,” he said softly, gazing into her eyes.”
“But, I have to keep you safe, my Doctor,” she responded softly.
He gently bumped his forehead against hers. “You already have.”
Rose looked into his eyes as he leaned down to kiss her. She was immersed in this kiss as she felt him firmly press himself against her, his lips massaging and nipping at hers, their tongues dancing together. She felt safe, warm and happy. She moaned as she wound her fingers through his hair and felt him respond to her. There was no doubt in her mind that he wanted this as much as she did. Just as hands were wandering, she heard the wolf let out a loud howl. She gasped and sat up awake. When she looked down, two sparkling brown eyes were looking at her. “Comfy?” he asked with a cocked eyebrow.
“Doctor!” she gasped and wrapped herself around him. The Doctor embraced her back
“Hello!” he said brightly.
“Are you all right? How do you feel?” Rose asked, concerned and searching his eyes for any indication of discomfort.
“Oh I’m fine! Better than fine really. So evil scientist?” he asked
“Oh, I sort of…That is to say, I might have accidentally splashed him with some crystallizing stuff. He’s a bit sorted really,” she explained hesitantly.
“Splashed with stuff?” he asked with raised eyebrows and a twinkle in his eyes. “Right. So, I suppose I should be saying…Rose Tyler, my hero then?”
Rose blushed. “You’d have done the same for me. Speaking of which. When you shoved me out that window did you know there was a slimy moat down there?”
“Of course! Uh maybe. But, it worked! You got away and then came back which was not exactly the plan.”
“And this plan included you bein’ captured, and turned into the evil scientists favorite popsicle did it?” she retorted.
The Doctor winced. “Yes welll…”
Rose smirked at him, her head laying on his chest. She began to casually play with the hair on his chest. “You sure you’re all right?”
He looked around the room trying to ignore the lingerie clad Rose snuggling him. “Yep!” he answered popping his “p.”
“Good,” Rose answered as she snuggled into him again.
“How’d we get down here?” he asked.
“Oh, well not all the evils scientists assistants were, well, evil. Some are just forced to help ‘im so when I sort of crystallized him, his assistant helped me get you out and down here so I could warm you up.”
He looked back at her and grinned. “And you did a brilliant job at warming me up. Didn’t you?” he said, waggling his eyebrows at her.
Rose blushed and shyly looked away before looking back at him with flirty eyes. “I dunno. Think maybe you still need a bit more warming,” she said as she laid gentle kisses on his chest.
The Doctor’s eyes widened a bit. “Here?” he practically squeaked.
“I’d be a bit remiss if I didn’t make sure you were all warmed up and examine you for… I um, frost bite. Nasty thing frost bite.” she said as she pulled his hand over and laid a kiss on his palm and each of his fingers. He may have stopped breathing as she did this.
“Mmmm, fingers on this hand look all right. Maybe I should check elsewhere?” she asked with her flirty smile that temptingly showed just a hint of tongue.
A loud bang sounded above them. “As lovely as that sounds, I think maybe we should continue your examination when we get back to the Tardis,” the Doctor said, sitting up.
Although frustrated that she wouldn’t get to finish what was most assuredly looking like a promising start to new and delightful change in their relationship, she was still pleased he wanted to finish what was started here when they returned to the Tardis. After quickly dressing, they made their way upstairs. They found the local insurgents had commandeered the building and were freeing the people the scientist had been experimenting on. The Doctor and Rose went to work helping them tend to injured, located his sonic and his beloved brown coat. After a few more days working with the insurgents, making a few suggestions and encouraging them to stay strong, they left.
As they walked back to the Tardis hand in hand, Rose was pondering the dream she had while tending to the Doctor. “You’re awfully quiet,” he said.
“Oh, was just thinkin’ about this dream I had while I was warmin’ you up. It was you and me in the snow and there was this wolf. You told me the wolf had to go home and then…” she trailed off.
He smiled and looked a little smug. “And then what?” he asked.
She looked off to the side smiling. “Oh nothin.”
“Doesn’t sound like nothing and you, Rose Tyler, are as pink as a Laquitro jelly fish,” he teased.
“Am not,” Rose said, smiling and blushing even more.
The Doctor squeezed her hand. “Oh it’s all right. I like it when you blush.” They walked a bit further and could see the Tardis in the distance.
Rose began smiling and looking at him. “Ya know, you did say I should examine you when we get back to the Tardis. Just to be sure you didn’t suffer any frost bite or anything.”
“I did say that didn’t I,” he acknowledged. “Can’t be too careful about those types of things. In fact, might be a good idea to make it a priority,” the Doctor said. He looked at her and she looked at him and with a giggle both took off running toward the Tardis. Needless to say, the Tardis did not dematerialize for at least a day.