Doctor Who Fan Fiction ❯ Dr Who - What If ❯ Smith, Tyler, and Jones ( Chapter 3 )

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Donna declines an offer to travel with the Doctor and Rose, and they end up on the Moon. Rose realises what she has given up for the Doctor, and has the potential to lose everything.
I've given Martha the credit for being a final year medical student that I think was glossed over in the episodes.

Non Anime: Doctor Who Fan Fiction | Genre(s): Sci-fi | Type: Continuation | Uploaded On: 03.16.2016 | Pages: 39 | Words: 16.1K | Visits: 425 | Status: Completed

The Doctor parked the TARDIS in the street opposite Donna's parent's house. Rose led Donna out of the TARDIS.

`Shame about the dress,' Rose said, looking at the bedraggled gown and its wearer.

`Well, it doesn't look like I'll be needin' it anytime soon.'

`There we go,' the Doctor said, closing the door and inspecting the woodwork. `Told you she'd be all right. She can survive anything.'

`More than I've done,' Donna said quietly.

`Hey, you'll be all right,' Rose said, rubbing her arm to try and console her.

The Doctor took out his sonic screwdriver and gave her a quick scan. `No, all the Huon particles have gone. No damage, you're fine.'

`Yeah, but apart from that, I missed my wedding, lost my job and became a widow on the same day. Sort of.'

`I couldn't save him,' he said sadly.

`He deserved it,' she said, and both Rose and the Doctor looked at her as though they didn't believe her. `No, he didn't . . . I'd better get inside. They'll be worried.'

They looked past her to her home and saw Sylvia and Geoff hug each other.

`Best Christmas present they could have,' Rose said with a smile.

`Oh, no. I forgot you hate Christmas. She hates Christmas,' the Doctor reminded Rose.

`Yes, I do.'

`I love it,' Rose said, hugging the Doctor's arm. `Especially last Christmas . . .' but then came the realisation that last Christmas really was her last Christmas. Her mum, Mickey, and the flat had gone now, forever.

`What about if it snows?' he asked her, reaching inside the TARDIS and pulling a lever. The TARDIS lamp turned yellow and fired off a bolt of energy into the sky. There was an instant snow shower.

`I can't believe you did that!' said Donna, open mouthed.

`Hah! I didn't know you could do that,' Rose laughed.

`Oh, basic atmospheric excitation. You'd have me doing it all the time if I'd have told you.'

`Too right I would, I love snow.'

`Merry Christmas,' Donna wished them with a lopsided smile.

`Merry Christmas,' Rose beamed back at her.

`And you,' he said to Donna. `So, what will you do with yourself now?'

`Not getting married, for starters. And I'm not going to temp anymore. I don't know. Travel. See a bit more of planet Earth. Walk in the dust. Just go out there and do something.'

`That's what I wanted to do before I met HIM,' Rose told her. She looked up at him and nodded towards Donna. `Doctor?'

He caught her meaning. `Well, you could always . . .'

`What?'

`Come with us, there's plenty of room.'

Donna shook her head. `No.'

`Okay,' he said disappointedly.

`Oh go on,' Rose pleaded.

`I can't.'

The Doctor looked down at Rose. `No, that's fine.'

`No, but really. Everything we did today. Do you live your lives like that?'

`Not all the time,' he said.

`Most of the time we're havin' fun,' Rose told her. `Days like this are just the bits in between.'

Donna wasn't swallowing that. `I think you do. And I couldn't.'

`But you've seen it out there. It's beautiful,' Rose said.

`And it's terrible. That place was flooding and burning and they were dying, and you were stood there like, I don't know, a stranger. And then you made it snow. I mean, you scare me to death.'

`I know what you mean,' Rose said. `He goes over the top sometimes, and I have to reel him in, keep him grounded.'

He looked at Rose with raised eyebrows. `Right.'

`Tell you what I will do, though. Christmas dinner . . . Oh, come on.'

He looked down at Rose, who was remembering last Christmas, with her mum, and Mickey. The last Christmas she would ever have with her family. It would all be too much for her; she shook her head.

`We don't do that sort of thing,' he told her

`You did it last year. You said so. And you might as well, because Mum always cooks enough for twenty.'

`Yeah, but that was last year. A lot can happen in a year,' he said.

`I'm sorry Donna. Now is not a good time for Christmas for us,' Rose told her.

Donna sighed and shrugged. `Am I ever going to see you again?'

`If we're lucky,' he said.

Rose hugged her before turning away and joining the Doctor in the TARDIS. The wheezing and grating noise of the engines began and then the TARDIS shot straight up into the night sky before vanishing.

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Martha Jones walked along Chancellor Street from the bus stop towards the hospital, answering a number of calls from her family about her younger brother's 21st birthday party that evening. As usual, everybody was getting stressed about her father bringing his latest girlfriend, and expected her to have all the answers.

Without warning, a cute blonde wearing a purple hoodie and blue jeans jumped out in front of her and said, `Taa-Daa', doing “jazz hands”. A tall, thin man with sticky up hair, wearing a brown pin striped suit and long brown coat stood beside her.

`Oh this is SO cool,' the blonde said with a mischievous laugh.

'Like so,' the man said, looking at her as though he knew her, and was making some kind of point as he removed his tie. 'See?'

`Oh now look, your collar's all up,' the blonde said. She took the tie off him and put it over her head and around her own neck, before turning down his shirt collar and smoothing down the lapels on his jacket. `There, that's better.' She gave him a kiss on the cheek.

The couple left as suddenly as they had arrived, and Martha gave them a puzzled look. Obviously they must have been heading for the Mental Health Outpatients Department.

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Rose pushed the empty wheelchair down the hospital corridor, heading for the ward where the Doctor was pretending to be a patient. She was pretending to be a porter, and the Doctor told her if she walked around with a wheelchair, no one would pay any attention to her.

Suddenly, the corridor lurched from side to side, throwing patients and staff around. Rose abandoned the chair and leant against the wall to steady herself. `Here we go again,' she said with a big grin.

`All right now, everyone back to bed, we've got an emergency but we'll sort it out. Don't worry,' Martha told the patients as she entered the ward.

The Doctor drew the curtain around his bed as Rose entered the ward, whilst Martha and another medical student named Swales went to the window.

Martha looked out over a dark, desolate, cratered plain that stretched to the brightly illuminated mountains in the distance. The Earth was hanging in the black sky like a bauble. `It's real. It's really real.' She reached to open the window. `Hold on.'

The young medical student Swales grabbed her arm to stop her. `Don't! We'll lose all the air.'

`But they're not exactly air tight. If the air was going to get sucked out it would have happened straight away, but it didn't. So how come?' Martha asked.

`Very good point,' the Doctor said as he stepped from behind the curtain where he'd got dressed. `Brilliant, in fact.'

`Oh, wotcha,' Rose said. `Feelin' better are we?' She gave him a cheeky smile.

`I am now,' he said, nodding at the view outside the window. They walked over to the window.

`What was your name?' he asked the medical student who had shown some intelligence.

`Martha.'

`And it was Jones, wasn't it?' he recalled from the ward round. `Well then, Martha Jones, the question is, how are we still breathing?'

`We can't be,' Swales said.

`Obviously we are, so don't waste my time,' he said sharply.

`Doctor. Rude!' Rose reprimanded him.

He gave her a withering look. Stuff was happening and time was short. `Martha, what have we got? Is there a balcony on this floor, or a veranda, or . . .'

`By the patients' lounge, yeah.'

`Brilliant! Come on Rose; let's see if we can find out who's behind all this.'

`But Mister. Smith, who exactly are you, and what's going on?' Martha asked as they headed for the door.

He turned to look at her. `I'm not Mister Smith, I'm the Doctor. This is Rose, and we're going to find out and sort it. So if you can just keep everyone calm and out of our way I'd appreciate it.'

He turned to Rose. `Was that rude?'

`Nah, I don't think so. Authoritative and a bit abrupt, but not rude.'

`Oh, getting better then,' he said with a cheeky grin.

They set off for the patient lounge, and Rose bumped shoulders with the Doctor. `I like her,' she said, nodding back at the ward.

`What, medical student Jones? Yeah, she's not bad is she.'

`Pretty as well,' Rose teased.

`Really? I hadn't noticed,' he said, pulling his innocent face. `Not with you standing there anyway.'

`Ahh, that's lovely.' She held his hand and hugged his arm. `Thank you.'

They opened the glass doors and stepped out onto the balcony that would normally have overlooked the Thames. Both of them took a deep breath.

`We've got air. Is that like the TARDIS then?' Rose reasoned, and he gave her a proud grin with a waggle of his eyebrows.

`Let's have a look. There must be some sort of . . .' He threw a coin over the balcony. `. . . Force field keeping the air in.'

`But if that's like a bubble sealin' us in, that means this is the only air we've got. What happens when it runs out?'

`How many people do you reckon are in this hospital?'

`I don't know. A thousand maybe?'

`One thousand people suffocating.'

`Why would anyone do that?'

`Head's up!' he said, looking up to the black sky. `Ask them yourself.'

They watched as three massive columnar spaceships passed overhead, and then landed on the plain nearby. Columns of marching beings came stomping out.

`Who are those guys then?'

`Judoon.'

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The Doctor and Rose watched from the first floor of the Mezzanine, as the Rhinoceros soldiers entered the hospital and started cataloguing the people in the reception area below.

`Oh, look down there; they've got a little shop. I like a little shop,' he said.

`I know, you said back at the Sisters of Plenitude hospital, but never mind that. What are Judoon?'

`They're like police. Well, police for hire. They're more like interplanetary thugs.'

`And they brought the hospital to the moon?'

`Neutral territory. According to galactic law, they've got no jurisdiction over the Earth, and they isolated it. That rain, lightning? That was them, using an H2O scoop.'

`If they're police, are we under arrest? Are we trespassin' on the moon or somethin'?'

`No, but I like that. Good thinking. No, I wish it were that simple. They're making a catalogue. That means they're after something non human, which is very bad news for me.'

They made their way to an administration office where the Doctor used his sonic screwdriver on a computer.

`Oh, this computer! The Judoon must have locked it down. Judoon platoon upon the moon.'

`But what are they lookin' for?'

`Something that looks human, but isn't.'

`Like Slitheen, or you, you mean.'

`Well, might be Slitheen, or a shape-changer.'

`Whatever it is, can't we just leave the Judoon to find it?'

`If they declare the hospital guilty of harbouring a fugitive, they'll sentence it to execution.'

`All of us?!'

`Oh yes. If I can find this thing first.' He slapped the screen in frustration. `Ohhh . . . ! You see, they're thick! Judoon are thick! They are completely thick! They wiped the records . . . Oh, that's clever.'

`What are we looking for?'

`I don't know. Say, any patient admitted in the past week with unusual symptoms. Maybe there's a back-up.'

`Well then, it's handy being a porter. You get to go everywhere, find out who's who and what's what. Stoker's the consultant on take this week. Good doctor, but apparently a bit of a knob. Just keep working. I'll go see if I can find him, he might know.'

The Doctor looked up from the computer with a look of surprised admiration. `Rose Tyler, you just keep getting better and better.'

Rose didn't know where Stoker's office was, so she went to the ward where Martha was working to ask her.

`It's on this floor. Come on, I'll show you.' She set off along a corridor. `Do you know anything about these rhinoceros creatures that people are talking about?'

`Oh don't worry, you'll meet `em soon enough. They're called Judoon, a sort of mercenary police force. They're looking for someone,' Rose explained.

`Who?'

`Dunno. That's why I need to speak to Mister Stoker, see if he knows of any patients that were admitted with unusual symptoms.'

They stopped outside a wooden door with a thin glass panel on one side.

`This is his office,' Martha said as she knocked on the door. `Mister Stoker?' she called out as she stepped inside with Rose close behind.

On the floor, they saw a pair of feet sticking out from behind the desk, with two black helmeted motorcycle men standing still in the corner of the office. An elderly woman patient kneeling behind the desk straightened up, sucking on a drinking straw. Both Martha and Rose had seen the woman on the ward earlier.

From her previous experience of these sorts of things, Rose knew that this was one of those “not good” sorts of thing. She grabbed Martha's hand. `Run!'

`Kill them!' the woman ordered, and the two motorcyclists set off after the retreating women.

Rose and Martha ran down the corridor and bumped into the Doctor.

`I've restored the back-up,' he told Rose.

`We've found her,' Rose told him.

`You did what?'

`The shape-changer, it's an old woman.'

At that moment, the motorcycle men broke down Stoker's office door.

`Run!' the Doctor shouted.

`We know,' Rose shouted back.

They ran down the stairs, but met Judoon coming up, so diverted onto another floor, followed by a motorcycle man. They ran into an x-ray room and the Doctor sonicked the door lock. They hid behind the radiation screen.

The Doctor took out his sonic screwdriver in preparation. `When I say now, press the button,' he told them, nodding at the console.

`Okay. What are you gonna do?' Rose said.

`Something clever to stop them.' He started messing with the x-ray machine while Martha got the Operator's Manual from the shelf and started reading.

`I don't think that'll help,' said Rose. `He's never seemed the kinda bloke that would read the instructions. Y'know, he just seems to wing it most of the time.

`We need to find the button that activates the x-rays,' said Martha.

Rose looked at the console. `Wouldn't be that one with the radiation symbol on it, would it?'

The motorcyclist outside was battering the door off its hinges. Eventually, the door gave way, and he got in. The Doctor pointed the x-ray machine at him.

`NOW!'

Rose put her thumb on the button and held it down. The leather-clad man fell face down, having received a massive dose of radiation. Rose took her thumb off the button.

`What did you do?' asked Martha.

`Increased the radiation by five thousand per cent. Killed him dead.'

`But isn't that going to kill you?' Martha said worriedly.

Rose rushed forwards in concern. `Doctor, are you all right . . . you're not goin' to regenerate or anythin' are you?'

`Regenerate?' asked Martha.

He held her hand to reassure her. `Nah, it's only roentgen radiation. We used to play with roentgen bricks in the nursery. I've absorbed it all. All I need to do is expel it. If I concentrate I can shake the radiation out of my body and into one spot. It's in my left shoe. Here we go, here we go. Easy does it. Out, out, out, out, out. Out, out. Ah, ah, ah, ah! It is, it is, it is, it is, it is hot. Hold on.'

After a lot of jigging about, the Doctor threw his converse into the bin. `Done.'

`You're completely mad,' Martha told him.

`Tell me about it,' Rose said.

`You're right. I look daft with one shoe,' he grinned, and took the other converse off as well. `Barefoot on the moon.

`So what is that thing?' Rose asked.

`And where's it from, the planet Zovirax?' Martha added, referring to an advert she'd seen for a cold sore treatment.

`It's just a Slab. They're called Slabs. Basic slave drones. See? Solid leather, all the way through. Someone has got one hell of a fetish.'

`But it was that woman, Miss Finnegan. It was working for her, just like a servant, Martha explained.

The Doctor went to retrieve his sonic screwdriver from the x-ray machine, but it had been totally fried.

`My sonic screwdriver!' he exclaimed in surprise.

Martha was still trying to explain. `She was one of the patients, but . . .'

`Oh, no. My sonic screwdriver,' he moaned.

`She had a straw like some kind of vampire,' Rose added.

`I loved my sonic screwdriver.'

`I hope you're not gonna need it,' said Rose.

`Doctor?' Martha said, trying to get him to listen to her.

`Sorry.' He threw the screwdriver into the bin. `You called me Doctor,' he suddenly realised. He must have gone up in her estimation.

`Anyway? Miss Finnegan is the alien. She was drinking Mister Stoker's blood.'

`Funny time to take a snack. You'd think she'd be hiding. Unless. No. Yes, that's it. Wait a minute. Yes! Shape-changer. Internal shape-changer. She wasn't drinking blood, she was assimilating it. If she can assimilate Mister Stoker's blood, mimic the biology, she'll register as human. We've got to find her and show the Judoon. Come on!'

The Doctor, Rose and Martha were crouching by the water dispenser as the other Slab walked down the corridor. `That's the thing about Slabs. They always travel in pairs.'

`A bit like you and Rose then,' Martha observed.

`Oh. Humans. We're stuck on the moon running out of air with Judoon and a bloodsucking criminal, you're making personal observations? Come on.'

`What do you mean, Humans? Are you trying to tell me you're aliens?' Martha asked him.

`Oi! Not me. I'm a London girl, born and bred,' announced Rose.

They stood up and stepped into the corridor, straight into a Judoon with it's scanner in it's hand.

`Non-human.'

`Oh my God, you really are,' Martha realised.

`Here we go again,' said Rose.

They ran down the corridor, and managed to get around the corner before the Judoon fired their weapons and three red beams narrowly missed them. The chase was on. They ran up the stairs and into another corridor where people started to slump to the floor.

`They've done this floor. Come on. The Judoon are logical and just a little bit thick. They won't go back to check a floor they've checked already. If we're lucky.'

`She's gone,' Martha said as they entered Stoker's office.

`She was here,' Rose confirmed, as she followed the Doctor over to Stoker's pale faced body.

The Doctor examined the body. `Drained him dry. Every last drop. I was right. She's a plasmavore.'

`What's she doing on Earth?' Rose asked, looking over his shoulder.

`Hiding . . . On the run. Like Ronald Biggs in Rio de Janeiro. What's she doing now? She's still not safe. The Judoon could execute us all. Come on.'

Martha stooped down by Stoker's body. `Wait a minute.' She closed Stoker's eyes.

`Think, think, think. If I was a plasmavore surrounded by police, what would I do?' he asked himself as they walked along the corridor. And then he saw the sign for the MRI department.

`Ah. She's as clever as me . . . Almost.'

Suddenly, the doors of the corridor crashed open, and the Judoon marched through, causing people to shout and scream. `Find the non-human. Execute.'

The Doctor grabbed Rose's shoulders. `Rose, stay here. I need time. You've got to hold them up.'

`I'll do my best, but I'll need some kind of distraction.'

`Right,' he said and gently held her cheeks. He kissed her full on the lips, not a quick peck, but a full on snog. It was supposed to be a genetic transfer, something that would delay the Judoon while they did a full scan. It quickly turned into something else, something wonderful.

Rose felt it . . . felt him; the thrill she felt when he held her hand, but magnified a hundredfold. She wrapped an arm around his waist and his shoulders and pulled him closer. He didn't resist, instead he increased the pressure of his lips on hers, their tongues seeking out each others.

Martha looked on in open mouthed amazement, as their lips finally separated and they gazed into each others eyes.

`When I said a distraction,' Rose said dreamily, `I meant for the Judoon, not me.'

The Doctor grinned at her. `Rose Tyler, you are a continual distraction to me. The Judoon are going to find you irresistible.'

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A troop of Judoon entered the MRI suite to find Florence Finnegan sucking away on the Doctor's neck. The Slab dropped him on the floor as Florence hid her straw in her handbag.

`Now see what you've done. This poor man just died of fright,' Florence said.

`Scan him . . . Confirmation . . . Deceased,' the Judoon announced.

Rose and Martha rushed in, and Rose's breath caught in her chest as she saw the unmoving Doctor on the floor. She tried to push past the Judoon troops, but they held her and Martha firmly by their shoulders.

`No, he can't be. Let me through. Let me see him,' Rose cried out.

`Stop. Case closed,' the Judoon said without emotion.

`But it was her. She killed him. She did it. She murdered him,' Martha shouted in frustration.

`Judoon have no authority over human crime,' the dispassionate alien said.

`But she's not human,' Rose cried, tears running down her cheeks.

`Oh, but I am. I've been catalogued.' Florence held up her hand to show them the cross drawn on her hand.

Martha struggled against the Judoon. `But she's not! She assimi . . . Wait a minute. You drank his blood? The Doctor's blood?' Martha remembered what he'd said about plasmavores. She grabbed a Judoon scanner and pointed it at Florence.

`Oh, I don't mind. Scan all you like,' Florence said, unconcerned.

`Non-human,' the Judoon declared.

`But . . . what?'

`Confirm analysis.'

`Oh, but it's a mistake, surely. I'm human. I'm as human as they come.'

Rose realised what the Doctor had done. `He gave his life so they'd find you.'

`Confirm. Plasmavore, charged with the crime of murdering the child princess of Patrival Regency Nine.'

`Well, she deserved it! Those pink cheeks and those blonde curls and that simpering voice. She was begging for the bite of a plasmavore.'

`Then you confess?'

`Confess? I'm proud of it! Slab, stop them!' Florence ducked behind the slab and ran behind the control panel. The slab moved forward, and the Judoon reduced it to ash with their weapons.

`Verdict, guilty. Sentence, execution.'

Florence plugged in a cable to the MRI scanner and the Magnetic Overload sign came on. `Enjoy your victory, Judoon, because you're going to burn with me. Burn in hell!'

The four Judoon all fired and incinerated Florence.

`Case closed.'

Rose rushed forward and knelt beside the Doctor, shaking his shoulders. `Doctor? Doctor. Come on, talk to me. Wake up.'

`But what did she mean, burn with me? The scanner shouldn't be doing that. She's done something,' Martha said to the Judoon commander.

The Judoon scanned the MRI machine. `Scans detect lethal acceleration of monomagnetic pulse.'

`Doctor, please. Don't do this to me. We need you . . . I need you,' Rose pleaded, tears stinging her eyes. `Don't you dare pull that regeneration trick again, d'ya hear me? You're fine just the way you are.'

Martha was momentarily distracted by what Rose said. What the hell was she on about? `Well, do something! Stop it!' Martha shouted at the commander.

`Our jurisdiction has ended. Judoon will evacuate.'

Rose grabbed the lapels of the Doctor's blue jacket and shook him in desperation. `DOCTOR! You can't leave me like this, you're all I've got left. I . . .' did she dare tell him how she really felt? Of course she did, it might be her last chance. `I love you.'

Martha was dumbfounded at the Judoon. `What? You can't just leave it. What's it going to do?

`All units withdraw.' The Judoon troops turned about face as one and started to march out of the MRI suite.

Martha followed them into the corridor. `You can't go! That thing's going to explode and it's your fault!'

`MARTHA?! Please, Help him. I don't know what to do,' Rose cried out. Tears dripping from her cheeks onto the Doctor's jacket.

Martha turned her attention from the retreating Judoon, and realised that there was a corpse and a grieving partner. She walked over and knelt down beside Rose, putting a comforting hand on her shoulder.

`I'm sorry Rose, it's too late. The blood loss was too great, he didn't have enough to maintain his blood pressure and his heart stopped . . . I'm afraid he's dead.'

`No he's not! He's an alien. You'd know if he was dead, 'cos there'd be this golden mist . . . this light.

`Really? That must mean that the Judoon scans were wrong.' Martha was suddenly galvanised into action.

`Do you know how to do CPR?' she asked Rose.

Rose nodded hesitantly. `We were shown in first aid trainin' when I started at Henrick's, but I've never had to do it.'

`Well now's your chance. Tilt his head back, pinch his nose, and blow two gentle breaths into his mouth.'

Rose did as she was instructed, and saw the Doctor's chest rise and fall twice.

`One, two, three, four, five . . .' Martha started to count to thirty as she compressed the Doctor's chest. When she reached thirty, she had Rose do two more breaths. `Here, do the chest compressions. Thirty to the tune “Staying Alive”.'

Rose looked at her in disbelief. This was not the time for bad jokes.

`I know! Ironic. But the rhythm is perfect.' Rose started pushing on his chest as Martha got up and ran over to the resuscitation trolley. She started explaining; to herself mainly so that she worked through her diagnosis and came up with the correct treatment.

`Florence . . . The plasmavore,' she corrected herself, `was interrupted, so she didn't drain him completely like she did Mister Stoker. That means he's in hypovolaemic shock.'

She opened draws and took out cannulas, adhesive dressings, an intravenous giving set, and a bag of Hartmann's solution. She noticed a bottle of portable oxygen in the large bottom drawer, and grabbed that as well.

She ran back over and knelt down again, pushing up the Doctor's sleeve. `So anyway, I doubt if I'll get a cross-match for his alien blood, so I'll have to bulk up what blood he's got left with Hartmann's.' She pulled a tourniquet tight around his elbow and opened a cannula packet. `His biochemistry is probably different to ours, but I'm guessing that his physiology is like any other animal.'

She took a deep breath to calm her shaking hand, and hit the vein first go. `Yes!' She fixed the cannula with the dressing, and opened the giving set. She forced the spike into the connector on the bag of fluid and connected the other end to the cannula.

`I reckon the plasmavore had time to drink a couple of litres, so a couple of litres of this should give him a fighting chance.' She stood up and started squeezing the bag of fluid into his veins.

`Live, live, live, live, stayin' alive, stayin' alive,' Rose muttered like a mantra as she pounded on his chest. `Oh please let this work.' She looked up at Martha. `I can't lose him . . . I've lost everythin' else. Please don't let me lose him as well.'

Martha squeezed the last of the fluid into the tubing and staggered back to get another bag. She connected the new bag and squeezed again, her vision started to blur. She was becoming hypoxic. She reached the oxygen bottle, set the flow rate to four litres a minute, and took a big lungful from the mask before handing it to Rose.

`Here, take a lungful of this before you do the breaths, it'll help him. Rose breathed in the oxygen and then sealed her lips against his and blew. She took another lungful of oxygen and sealed her lips around his again, and . . . he kissed her.

`Mmmmph,' she mumbled as the kiss of life from her, became the kiss of gratitude from him. The hand that was holding his chin drifted up and stroked his cheek. The fingers that were pinching his nose ran through his unruly hair.

The Doctor's hand reached up and caressed the back of her neck. There was a wet “smack” of lips as he ended the kiss and flopped back onto the floor. His eyes flickered open and he smiled at her.

`It worked then,' Martha said breathlessly, with a wry smile. She sank to her knees and keeled over.

`Hi,' he breathed at Rose.

`Hi yerself,' she sobbed with relief, swaying on the edge of consciousness.

He ran his tongue around his lips. `Mmmm. Twice in one day. Rose Tyler, this is becoming a habit.'

`Here,' Martha gasped, crawling over to him and putting the mask over his mouth. `Don't talk, just breath . . . deep,' she wheezed, short of breath herself.

He breathed in . . . and in . . . and in . . . “How big are this guys lungs?” was the last thing Martha could remember thinking to herself, before passing out.

`Badaboom!' he shouted and looked around. `What's that noise?'

`The scanner . . . She did something,' Rose breathed before passing out herself.

St Elmo's fire was playing all over the hospital as the Doctor crawled to the scanner controls. He checked his pockets before realising he didn't have his sonic screwdriver any more. `Soddit.'

He reached up and pulled apart the cables that Florence had plugged together and the scanner turned off. His respiratory bypass was working overtime as he picked up Rose and carried her down the corridor to the window in the ward where they had first looked out over the lunar landscape.

`Come on, come on, come on, come on, please. Come on, Judoon, reverse it, he said to the departing ships. And then, it started to rain.

`It's raining, Rose,' he said with a big grin. `It's raining on the moon.