Before You Fade From Me || A Doctor Who Fanfic

Chapter 18: Worry

Chapter 18: Worry

“Rose you have to eat something!” Handy was pouting on Rose’s couch in the small flat, his hands folded in a defiant, ‘We aren’t discussing this’ expression.

Rose was busy fiddling on her laptop through the TORCHWOOD website looking at Jacks field report on the explosion. A tray of uneaten breakfast sits lonely and cold on the side table. Rose had been living off of coffee for the past 3 days and He was just about going to throw a full on Doctor tantrum complete with a few spurts of gallifreyan swearing. The past three days for Rose had included; research, coffee, her computer, TORCHWOOD calls form Jack, coffee, a lot of tantrums on Handy’s behalf and more coffee.

“I’ll eat once I'm done reading this.” She mumbles lifting her mug to her lips.

With a flash he’s grabbing the cup out of her fingers and closing her laptop lid.

“Hey!”

He takes a sip of the coffee teasingly and jumps out of reach as she makes a dive for it.

She rises and begins to chase him for it, leaping over the couch and eventually meeting an in pass on either side of the Kitchen counter.

“Truce?” He asks.

“Never!” She replies and runs around to chase him again.

Suddenly Rose’s phone rings and she flicks it out of her pocket.

The voice on the other end sounds grave, and she recognizes it as Jacks.

“Isac and lilly are dead.”

The playfulness falls from her face.

“Jack I-”

“They both got cut from shrapnel. Little cuts, but they got badly infected and it...killed them.”

“Cuts?”

“Ya. I don’t think it was from shrapnel personally. Shrapnel doesn’t send poison into the body, and they looked a bit like claw marks.”

Her stomach drops.

She turns her head to the blue suit in her peripheral vision. The scratches on his nose are still red, and the tape holding them together looks clean.

She is about to say something soothing to Jack, when suddenly Handy’s body drops to the ground

“JACK! Jack The Doctor got scratched, he’s passed out what do I do?!”

“I’m on my way.”

The phone clicks off and Rose falls to his side, turning his chin to face her. She sucks in a breath of air. His cuts are oozing a purpleish liquid down his thin face. She turns his head to his side in case he vomits, and to divert the liquid from entering his mouth. It might be poison.

For the next few minutes his lips turn dry with fever, and he begins to shiver violently.

She shakes her head to herself in denial. He’ll be fine. He had to be.

Rose had never done anything “Doctor” like in her life. All she knew about first-aid was from films. She wasn’t sure what to do.

Rapid knocking on the door startles her. 

She runs up to the door, and flings it open. “Jack that was qu-” Rose drops her words like a hot coal. She hadn’t checked the peephole. And that was her first mistake of the night.