The Assassin of Madness

Chapter 10

Thank you for the kind comments on the last chapter.  I haven't decided what I'm going to do yet.  If you want a specific full length thing, let me know, because that might be the determining factor.

Enjoy the chap! 

The Doctor sighed heavily once he was sure that both his companions were asleep.  The best cure for being knocked out was for them to sleep.  He, on the other hand, had healed himself while he'd been unconscious.

It was unfair, he knew, that he was doing this to Rose on every trip they took.  She was always getting hurt, and although some would call her a 'damsel in distress' because of it, he knew that she was anything but.  She was strong and kind and independent and it wasn't her fault that things kept happening to her.  It was his and he knew it.  Every scar on her body was his fault, and he hated himself for it. 

He put his head in his hand and sighed again.  He had to take he home.  He knew he did.  She was unsafe with him.  As much as he loved her, he couldn't allow her to stay at his side, in the TARDIS.  Where she belonged. 

He blinked.  How had that thought crept into his head?  It wasn't allowed for many different reasons, and he tried to keep it away since the moment he'd met her.  He'd tried not to let her eyes enchant him or her smile entrap him, but it seemed that both things were equally impossible.  He found himself staring at her when she wasn't looking, when she was biting her lip and concentrating on something.  He looked over at her, laying on the bed, her hands curled up under and her knees pulled close to her chest.  Her mouth was slightly opened and her eyebrows furrowed prettily.

She was beautiful.  It'd been hard enough to control himself last night, when all he'd wanted to do was kiss her and turn over her, laying her on her back and pressing her into their borrowed bed.  He loved every bit of her, and as the last of his species, as well as being a man, made it very difficult for him to repress the other urges that came with a Time Lord falling in love.

Human blokes lusted, Time Lords did not.  That was mostly why the Doctor wanted to explain to Rose why he didn't love Reinette, why he hadn't wanted to stay with her.  He was a one woman man, really, and he wanted to be her man.  Mickey was out of the picture (In the most extreme way to be out of the picture) and she was free.  All that was left was how she felt.

And his Time Lord rules.

Those stupid things, keeping him from holding Rose and kissing her and- 

He blew out his cheeks and tore his gaze from her.  She was hard to look at when she was really just so irresistible.  Her head was almost against the bars of his cell, with the way she was laying and the way the beds were set up.  He set his bed with his pillow on the other side of the bed so he could feel her warmth coming onto him.  He didn't have to sleep, but he felt oddly safer when he was close to her. 

Rose huffed heavily in her sleep and shifted in the bed.  The Doctor squeezed his eyes shut.  Did she have to do that?  Was it really necessary?  She was everything, and he didn't know what to do about it.  Not that there was anything to be done, of course, because he was not allowed, under any circumstances, to touch Rose Tyler.

Although, every pretty boy she'd ever come across had been allowed.  Jack was allowed.  He was allowed, but he was going to blow over that so he could be angry some more.  He needed to do something while they were sleeping.  

It was an odd moment.  He wanted to talk to Jack.  Of course, if he talked to Jack, he knew that something about it would leak back to Rose and she would be either embarrassed, flattered, or...  Something else entirely.  He had to admit that he wished it would be the something else.  But that wasn't something he could ever, ever risk.  

He looked up to see Rose's beautiful blonde head and the curve of her side, the only thing he could see of her.  Breathing out a sigh, he flung himself onto his back.  He was going to have to put himself in a coma for twenty minutes to get his mind off of all of this.

Jack looked up from his bed and rolled his eyes at the Doctor.  He could sort of tell why the Doctor was restless, and it had nothing to do with the fact that they'd been captured.  It had everything to do with his proximity to Rose Tyler.

Of course, Jack wasn't going to say no if Rose had ever come to him, but he knew that Rose loved the Doctor and was very willing to step back to allow that romance to take place. That was, if the Doctor would allow that romance to take place.  Maybe he'd have a talk with the Doctor about the birds and bees.  Surely, the Doctor didn't know about it himself, because if he did he'd be shacking up with Rose by now.

Rose made another sound in the back of her throat and flipped over on the bed.  She was curled into a little ball, and the Doctor had sat up to stare down at her, his brows furrowed in worry.  Jack watched as the Doctor's hand slipped between the bars to stroke Rose's hair gently as he soothed her.  She stilled under the Doctor's touch, but before he could pull his hand off of her, she grappled for his hand in her sleep, grabbing it and pulling it down to her mouth.  She held it there, and the shock was evident in the Doctor's face.  His face was pretty much pressed against the bars with the way she'd pulled him.  His gaze rose slowly to Jack and he gave him a stern look.  "Not a word," he mouthed. 

Jack threw him a grin and he held up his hands in surrender.  The Doctor continued to glare.  Jack winked.  The Doctor gaped and blinked before looking down at Rose and then back to Jack. 

He felt as though he were going to explode.  "She loves you," Jack mouthed over to the Doctor, putting his hands in a heart sign just to prove his words.  

The Doctor's brow furrowed even further, and he shook his head firmly.  Jack had a feeling that the Doctor's face would implode if he tried to draw his eyebrows together any more than he already have.  The Doctor clenched his jaw and stared at Jack, looking angry.

Rose shifted again before settling down entirely.  The shift caused the Doctor's hand to rub against her lips.  Jack had to pretend not to notice how the Doctor's eyes rolled back in his head.  The affect that one woman had over him was astounding.  Jack though smugly that that was the reaction he got from most people he tried to flirt with.  Never the Doctor and Rose, though.

They were far too obsessed with each other to think about anyone else.

Rolling his eyes (though not quite in the way the Doctor's had) Jack shifted to lay down on his bed, closing his eyes and trying to go back to sleep.  Hopefully his two crazy kids would sort all of their nonsense out in the morning.  

Or... Whatever time of day it was.  As long as it ended with his two best friends snogging, it really would be worth it.

Oh.  And they really needed to escape and stop the dictator that was trying to take over the entire planet.