Winter Rose, Book 1

Relief in Strong Arms

Win and the Dalek had made it to level one, right under the surface. She'd been silent the whole trip, unsure or what was going on or what would happen next. The Doctor, Rose, and Adam hadn't been in the office where she'd thought they would be. So Win didn't know what had happened to them after the Dalek forced the Doctor to open the bulkhead. Win just hoped he hadn't up and left her behind, she didn't think she'd be able to handle that.

The blast of a laser knocked her out of her thoughts. Win's head snapped up to the hole the Dalek had shot in the ceiling and gave a small smile as sunlight beamed down on them. "You did it, you out." She let out a breathy laugh. "Never thought I'd see the sky again, almost as bad as Scotland down here."

"How... does... it... feel?" The Dalek asked her slowly, making Win look down at it in surprise.

"Why don't you find out." Win told it softly, unsure of herself. The metal casing of the Dalek's midsection let out a hiss before opening up. The horribly mutated form of the Dalek blinking it's single eye at the light streaming down on it.

Win had never seen what Dalek's looked like on the inside and couldn't help but feel a bit sick looking at it. There was only one large eye and a brain buried in a mass of tendrils and fused together purpled red-grey flesh. The Dalek extended one of these tendrils shakily to the light, as though the movement were unnatural for it.

"Get out of the way!" The Doctor's yell caused Win to jump and spin around in surprise. Eyes landing on the Doctor who held a very large futuristic gun to his shoulder, pointed at her as she stood between him and his enemy.

"Wintriah, get out of the way now!" He yelled again, but Win just shook her head in shock. Her Doctor, who hated weapons, was pointing a gun at her, intending to destroy the changed creature behind her.

"No, I can't let you do this Doctor." Win told him firmly, shoving her nightmares forcefully to the back of her head.

"That thing killed hundreds of people! It put you through a living nightmare!" The Doctor argued, his aim not wavering though tears were glittering in the corners of his eyes.

"It's not the one pointing a gun at me." Win spoke softly, her tone wavering a bit.

"I've got to do this, I've got to end it! The Daleks destroyed my home, my people! Triah you saw all of that, you know I've got nothing left!" The Doctor cried out, gripping the gun harder as Win sagged slightly, looking at him with such sad eyes it nearly broke his hearts.

"Have you forgotten, Goose? You've got the TARDIS, and you've got me and Rose. Have you even looked at it?" Win gestured to the Dalek behind her, cautiously stepping to the side. The Doctor blinked in confusion as he looked at his mortal enemy and the gun lowered just a small bit.

"What, what's it doing?" He asked, frowning as Win sighed.

"It's the sunlight, that's all it wants." She explained lightly, looking back at it too.

"But it can't.." The Doctor trailed off, trying to deny what he was seeing.

"It couldn't kill Van Statten, it couldn't even kill me. It's changing Doctor." Win turned back to him with a pained look on her face. "What about you, Doctor? You're pointing a gun at me even though you hate weapons. What are you changing into?" She asked him and the Doctor took a step back as his eyes widened in realization.

"I couldn't, I wasn't-" His voice breaks as he drops the gun to the ground, staring at his Triah as the tears slid down his cheeks once again. "Oh Triah, they're all dead." He whispers tearfully, bringing Win to walk over to him and wrap her arms around him. Hearing his breath hitch as he hugs her back and buries his head in her shoulder.