The Green Soul

Chapter 11

By the time Rose and the Doctor had been lead down to the main dining room, Rose seemed to be back to her normal self, but the Doctor had seen her guard start to go back up as they walked there.  

"Mrs. Smith!" Marie cried, standing from her place at the table to run to Rose and embrace her.  "How are you faring?"  

Rose blinked, a little surprised at the woman's language, momentarily forgetting where they were.  She locked onto the correct response and smiled.  "I'm well, Mrs. Glasser, thank you for your concern."

She missed the Doctor's glance of approval at her words.  Before she could catch anything from him, they were all seated around the table, all eyes on her, watching her and making sure she didn't pass out before she sat down.

"I don't wish to sound insensitive," Ben asked, "But did you find out what it was that had a hold on your wife, Doctor James?"

"Sort of," the Doctor said slowly, making a non-commital gesture with his hand.  "We found out that it wants to be helped, which, in itself, is a very large step forward."

Matthew came around the table, setting plates of deviled eggs and small glass dishes of fruit in front of every person at the table.  Rose tried to pretend that her stomach wasn't turning at the sight and smell of all of it.  She pushed it all down and spoke up where the Doctor had left off.

"It also cannot be touched," she added, choosing her words carefully, "Or it leaves whatever it's... Inhabiting at the time."

"Inhabiting?" Marie frowned.  "It remained, possessing you?"

The Doctor fidgeted nervously in his seat, knowing the wrong answer would get them kicked out of the Glasser's home, and then they wouldn't be saved.  He sighed and tried to wave it off.  "No, not exactly, more like it was speaking through her.  But it can't do that for too long, because it will hurt whoever it's speaking through."

"It could have killed your wife!" Ben gasped, and the Doctor almost rolled his eyes at the drama in the man's voice.

Rose didn't appreciate being spoken about as if she weren't even in the room, so she chimed in again.  "Yes, well, it didn't.  Once... My husband touched my arm, the entity was gone.  It had no intention of hurting me, but it can't stop itself from what it, well, does."  She colored deeply, realizing she hadn't explained that as well as she'd hoped.  

"And the point is, now we know more," the Doctor added, "We run into dangerous beings all the time, Mr. Glasser.  We came to help you, not to be safe."  

"We appreciate everything that you have done for us," Marie cut in as her husband was opening his mouth, "But we could not live with ourselves if either of you got hurt, I'm sure you can understand that."

"I do," the Doctor said softly, and Rose could only hope that he wasn't thinking about the Time War.  Usually she would've reached over to take his hand, but right now, she didn't think that was an intimacy she should be indulging in after things had been made crystal clear to her the night before.

"How long to you think it will take to vanquish this beast?" Ben asked, a casual tone in his voice.

"If we don't need to, we'll try not to kill it," The Doctor said firmly.  "It just wants help, it's scared."

The other couple was quiet for a few long moments, as if not knowing whether to believe the Doctor and Rose or not.  Of course, they didn't have much of a choice, because they made something so odd make sense.  And how was it that they did that, anyways?

"Even after what has happened to your wife, you're willing to stay?" Marie asked slowly, as if trying to clarify the whole thing.

The Doctor nodded slowly, his fingers twitching to reach for Rose's, but instead clenching together in his lap, as though he weren't aching to touch her.  "Yes.  And she would have done the same if the entity had chosen me to possess.  What it won't have is either of you."

"You can't know that," Ben objected.

"No, but we can do our very best to prevent it," Rose said confidently. 

Ben nodded thoughtfully, taking all of this into consideration.  "And what do you propose we do, to help you in your endeavors?" He asked.

"Stay in the house," the Doctor said, almost too quickly.  "We can't have it running amok in town, and that's what it'll do if it gets curious.  Then we'll never be able to catch it, it'll inhabit person after person until..." He paused, realizing how frightened the Glassers looked.  "We keep it here.  No one leaves.  Should have enough resources for that, shouldn't we?"

Marie nodded.  "Yes, our kitchen is always completely prepared for any sort of event that may occur, but I must confess I never imagined one as odd as this."

Rose smiled warmly at her.  "There was a time when I would've said the same."

Marie returned the smile, obviously comforted by it and the words that sat behind it.  The Doctor chanced a proud glance in Rose's direction at the ability to calm the other woman, and found that she was not even trying to make eye contact with him.

Oh, he'd really botched this up, hadn't he?  Ruined his friendship with her, along with anything else that could've come with him saying "yes," instead of "not tonight, Rose."  He didn't think he'd ever regretted words more than he did those three, and he had said a good many words over the centuries. 

Defeated, he returned to the conversation, promising himself he wouldn't push Rose, but he would try to get things back to the way they were.  He didn't think he could bear it if they didn't, if she wanted to be taken home when the whole crisis was averted.  None of that would do, he needed her, and he wasn't as afraid to admit it now. 

And Rose was feeling very defeated herself, and rejected, and unwanted.  What the Doctor didn't know was that she had no intention on going home.  An awkward fixings-up of a friendship with the Doctor was better than being a shop girl, and she was sure that somewhere in that great, thick head of his he knew that. 

"Well, what do we do?"  Ben persisted, snapping Rose out of her reverie and bringing the Doctor a step closer to reality.  "Is it not a servant of the devil?"

"No, it's something else entirely," the Doctor promised them quickly, "The devil does not reside within your home."

Both Marie and Ben seemed to give out a great sigh of relief at that, leaning back slightly in their chairs. 

"Well then," Rose grinned, "I say we formulate a plan to catch it."