An Awful Lot of Running.
"Run for your life!"
They were running; they had always been running, ever since that day in the shop when he had grabbed her hand. And they had been running ever since then, pausing only to briefly catch their breath and grin.
They raced against Daleks and Slitheen, always finding a safe place to hide. It was a hard life, a dangerous life, but it was easier with two. Always better with two.
She thought they would run forever, but he knew that it would have to end eventually. How the knowledge pained him, but he knew it nonetheless. He knew that they couldn't run forever, knew that her lungs would give out long before his.
He knew that their time would be up, that they would one day be forced to stop in their tracks, but it all happened too soon.
He thought she would be safe.
It broke his hearts to do it, to send her back. But he had to, would have even if he hadn't promised to protect her. He had already endangered her too many times. It didn't matter if he died, but if she did... well, that wasn't worth thinking about. And he would never let it happen.
But he had forgotten how stubborn she could be, how resourceful. So here she was, risking her life in order to save him. Burning up for the sake of one cowardly Time Lord.
But it was still her underneath. The same old Rose Tyler, trapped inside the vortex. Buried beneath the Bad Wolf. And he did the only thing he could; he absorbed that energy into himself. Happy enough to let his own cells die in order to save hers.
He hoped that afterwards, they could both find the energy to continue running.
They raced against Daleks and Slitheen, always finding a safe place to hide. It was a hard life, a dangerous life, but it was easier with two. Always better with two.
She thought they would run forever, but he knew that it would have to end eventually. How the knowledge pained him, but he knew it nonetheless. He knew that they couldn't run forever, knew that her lungs would give out long before his.
He knew that their time would be up, that they would one day be forced to stop in their tracks, but it all happened too soon.
He thought she would be safe.
It broke his hearts to do it, to send her back. But he had to, would have even if he hadn't promised to protect her. He had already endangered her too many times. It didn't matter if he died, but if she did... well, that wasn't worth thinking about. And he would never let it happen.
But he had forgotten how stubborn she could be, how resourceful. So here she was, risking her life in order to save him. Burning up for the sake of one cowardly Time Lord.
But it was still her underneath. The same old Rose Tyler, trapped inside the vortex. Buried beneath the Bad Wolf. And he did the only thing he could; he absorbed that energy into himself. Happy enough to let his own cells die in order to save hers.
He hoped that afterwards, they could both find the energy to continue running.