Until We Burn | Dr Who

Chapter Fourteen: Intensive Care

"Will you stop poking around?" I snap. It has been ten minutes and all the Doctor has done is walk around the ward, asking questions and peering at things through a pair of rectangular glasses that I'm certain he doesn't even need. He ignores me. Relieved to see Rose in the doorway, I rush over to her. "Rose, tell him to stop poking around. He's going to upset the patients! Please. He won't listen to me."

She only offers a bored hum in response, her eyes fixed on something behind me. Frowning, I glance over my shoulder to find her examining her own reflection in the glass doors, particularly her lower half. I try to ask but she interrupts before I can, "Are pockets always so small?"

"I don't— I— What?"

Heaving a disappointed sigh, she drops her phone into the hand that had been outstretched in greeting. "Be a dear..." she looks me up and down as if trying to remember something and then adds, "Dear. That thing is doing me no favours."

"There you are!" the Doctor exclaims, rushing in before she can say a word, guiding her away. "Come and look at this patient. Marconi's disease, should take years to recover. Two days. I've never seen anything like it."

Huffing, I try once again to pull him away. "And, of course, that means that it isn't realistic! Are you even a proper doctor?"

He ignores me, continuing to talk as if I had never spoken, "They've invented a cell-washing cascade, it's amazing. Their medical science is way advanced. And this one: pallidome pancrosis. Kills you in ten minutes, and he's fine. I need to find a terminal. Gotta see how they do this."

"Doctor are you serious?" They start to leave. I have to run to keep up with them. "Hey! What is your problem?"

"Come off it, Inara. Something's off and you know it! Think. If they've got the best medicine in the world, why's it such a secret?"

Rose sighs, "I can't Adam and Eve it."

We pause. Confused, he looks to me, as if to check if I can hear Rose's oddly posh-sounding accent. I shrug, just as clueless. "What's— What's with the voice?"

"I don't know, just... larking about. New Earth, new me."

He laughs, still sending sideways glances my way. Although I am certain I notice his eyes linger on the skin now peeking out where the top buttons of her blouse have been undone. "Well, I can talk — new new Doctor."

"Hmm, aren't you just?"

Without warning, they are kissing. I am certain that she leant in first, and her fingers grip onto his hair a little too tight. He offers no resistance. He just stands there.

And then she is walking away and he still stands, staring dazedly after her.

"Terminal's this way," she stammers, cheeks flushed.

I find that heat has risen into my own face, most likely out of embarrassment that I had to witness that. I hurry after her without daring to spare him a single look.

"Yup," he squeaks, "still got it."

—

By the time we get to the terminal, it's like the kiss never happened. I can still remember it, though. It replays over and over in my mind until I'm certain I might actually be sick. Still, I try not to let it show. Maybe if we don't talk about it, it will just be forgotten.

"Nope," the Doctor's voice brings me back out of my wonderings, "nothing odd. Surgery, post-op, nanodentistry. No sign of a shop. They should have a shop."

"No, it's missing something else," Rose mutters. She moves over to where I stand, elbowing me out of the way. I am too startled to say anything. It is so unlike her. Perhaps she is still caught up on the kiss. Immediately, my mind works to erase that image again. She must not have realised — that's it — too caught up in this little mystery that she and the Doctor have become obsessed with. "When I was downstairs, those nurse-cat-nuns were talking about intensive care, but where is it?"