TenRose FanFic: A Compilation

Nightmares - NineRose

Before I start, I want to mention that this one is NineRose, as requested by rosecoveredtardis.tumblr.com. This particular one shot is similar to my chapter "Dreams," but this is more PG-rated.

It was Rose's first night on the TARDIS. After just a couple trips with the Doctor, it was still all new and unfamiliar to her. Her room, the spare bedroom, was empty and plain with a generic bedspread and empty closets and blank walls. As she lied in the full-sized bed, she noticed how scratchy the sheets were and made a mental note to tell the Doctor that he had to find new ones. Unable to sleep, she decided to take a walk around the TARDIS to find some way to entertain herself.

Wandering down endless corridors and exploring the rooms, Rose wasted her night away. She dipped her toes into the pool, noting that she would have to come back to that another time. Rose found herself in the TV room next, where she found the Netflix channel. Odd, she thought. He doesn't have to order the DVDs. It's all right there, ready to watch. The room across the hall was a lab. There were all types of bottled up chemicals, labeled with crossbones and biohazard warnings. Leaving that room rather quickly, Rose next found the library. She browsed for quite some time as she looked at the various titles he owned. The novels and textbooks spanned across the centuries and universe. There was one from the year 1395, published on a planet called Hite. Another, titled "Delirium," was published on Earth in the near future. Rose sat down on a comfy little red chair and began reading.

On the other side of the TARDIS, the Doctor was asleep. His room was cluttered with books and useless gadgets and piles of clothing he just hadn't gotten around to washing. Since the war, he hadn't gotten around to almost anything. He travelled nonstop since it seemed to be the only distraction from the memories of what he had done. Rose turning him down at first had sent him into a reckless phase, heading into some of the most dangerous fixed-points in time. When he came back for her, things got better, but he was far from okay.

Inside the Doctor's head, he saw visions of fire and destruction. Images of the past taunted him, eating him alive. For hours, he tossed and turned falling in and out of unconsciousness. When he wasn't jolted awake by the thought of something awful, his mind conjured up the worst memories to torture him through the night. It was getting to the point where he would rather stay up for days at a time than catch just five minutes of sleep.

A few chapters in, Rose was in love with the storyline and the characters. Hours had probably gone by, yet the passing of time was unnoticeable and irrelevant to her. Not even the annoying sound of the dripping faucet could tear her attention from the page-turner. Looking at a clock on the wall, she realized it was nearly three in the morning. She looked back at the book with her eyes burning. Her eyelids were drooping and it wasn't until then when she realized how exhausted she was. Rose was flipping through the rest of the book to find that she still had quite a few chapters to go when she heard an awful scream from another corridor.

It was the Doctor.

Rose dropped the book and sprung to her feet, losing her place. Without thinking for even a second, she sprinted down the halls. Suddenly, she wasn't tired anymore. Her body was overflowing with energy. She let her heart guide her down the hallways as her mind was racing with thoughts of terrible things, ranging from serpents on the loose to a black hole threatening their existence. She turned left, then right, and left again, passing all the facilities along the way. Rose wasn't sure how she did it, but she found his room in under a minute.

She opened the door, which crashed against the wall with a bang. Still, the Doctor was asleep. Rose stopped for a second, confused. Looking around the room, there was nothing even slightly threatening in sight. The mess was a bit frightening and probably hazardous to anyone who tried maneuvering their way through the room, but there were no serpents or black holes or other nightmares she was concerned about.