All Too Human {Doctor Who}

Chapter 1- Beginning and End

All Too Human

The flat was quiet, apart from the piercing wails of a newborn human. A human born on a night of a blizzard, one of the worst that this London had ever seen. A blizzard that shut down shops and restaurants and most importantly, roads. With roads blocked and the birth happening all too fast, this child had to be born at home, with no one to help her mother but her father.

Rose Tyler laid still on the double bed, her face flushed red as her namesake. Sweat glistened on her forehead. Her chest rose and fell slowly, her breaths laboured and her eyelids drooped as if they were being weighed down by something of great mass. Along with every leaden breath, her heart beat at a dangerously slow pace.

On the other side of the room, her half-timelord husband wrapped their newborn daughter in a light pink blanket, one knit by her grandmother. He held the baby in the crook of his arm and stared down at her with tears twinkling in his eyes.

"Hello" he murmured, smiling at his child. The baby squirmed and lifted her arms. Soon, her cries died down and she calmed in her daddy's arms.

It'd been horrible for him to watch Rose in so much pain, with no means to help her, other than holding her hand and telling her he loved her. But she'd been so brave, so strong. Even in the moments when she slipped out of consciousness, she never gave up. Now, holding their daughter in his arms, the Doctor felt relieved. It'd been rough but Rose and the baby were going to be okay. They were together and that was all that mattered.

He turned to his wife, oblivious of the danger of her condition, and sat on the edge of the bed. He showed her the newborn in his arms, skin pink and wrinkled and adjusting to the world outside her mother.

"Rose, look" he said gently, and her eyelids lifted "It's our baby, our daughter. D'ya want to hold her?"

"Uh-huh" she managed to mumble. It took her a moment to lift her arms above the covers and she shivered at the cold.

He placed the baby in her waiting arms and smiled tearily at the sight.

"I knew you could do it, Rose" he said, grinning at her.

Rose's mouth lifted into a weak smile.

"She's cute"

"Isn't she?" he agreed, staring in awe at the baby.

"She-" Rose's hoarse whisper was suddenly interrupted by a bout of throaty coughs that she caught with her palm "-looks like you"

Crimson droplets stained her palm and the Doctor noticed immediately. Swiftly, he took the baby from her and laid the child in a cot they'd set up earlier.

Rose coughed again, an awful, deep hacking noise that sounded like death. The Doctor was by her side in an instant. He helped her sit up and rubbed a soothing hand over her back.

"It's going to be okay, Rose, I promise" he told her, but as he spoke, his guts churned at the obvious uncertainty in his tone and the true terror he felt "I called Pete not too long ago, he should be sending a helicopter over soon"

"He doesn't haveta do that" she choked out between coughs "I'm okay"

She wiped the blood from her lips with the back of her hand.

"I'm sorry" she whimpered "I'm really tired, can I sleep now?"

"No, just stay awake a little longer, okay?" he urged "Talk to me"

Her weight pushed against his hand and he had no choice but to lay her back down again.

"How 'bout you just listen then?" he said, beginning to ramble "Hey, look at me love, stay awake, okay? Soon the roads will get cleared and we can see your mum, does that sound good? Then we can get the baby settled into the nursery. Oh she's gonna grow up so fast. Before we know it, she'll be in school. I bet she'll be just as clever as her mum"

"Uh-huh" Rose lifted her weary eyes and smiled drowsily at him.

Another cough shook her fragile form, making her gasp for breath and quiver. The Doctor pulled her into his arms and placed a hand on her sweaty forehead.

"You're burning up, Rose!" he gasped.

"It's cold" she whispered pitifully.

He stood up abruptly.

"Be back in just a moment, Rose" he promised before dashing to the kitchen.

He returned moments later, a bowl of lukewarm water and a cloth in his hand. He pulled up a chair beside the bed and began gently dabbing at Rose's forehead and face, internally cursing himself for letting this happen to his Rose.

"Doctor" she said, her weak, scratchy voice barely above a whisper.

"Yes?"

She stared at him vacantly.

"Why's it so dark all 'o the sudden?"

The plastic bowl slipped from his hands and hit the floor with a splash. He knelt beside her and gripped her hand in two of his.

"Are we on the TARDIS?" she asked deliriously. Her eyelids fluttered shut.

"Yeah" he replied as calmly as he could, though his voice cracked and throat clenched "We just got back from, from an adventure. It was fantastic. We, uh, we saved a whole planet. It was mostly you though, you were brilliant"

Rose's pink lips formed a tiny smile. It wasn't like her normal smile, the one that consumed her, the one where you could see the tip of her tongue between her teeth and her beautiful brown eyes squinted from the pressure in her cheeks. No, this smile was minute, barely there, yet impossible to miss. It was the small upward curl of the corners of her mouth in a gesture that said 'I love you'.

"I'm glad" she whispered breathlessly.

She coughed again, quieter this time. A little splutter of desperation before her grip on his hand loosened.

His human heart nearly stopped beating.

"Rose?"

He shook her slightly and took her wrist between his forefinger and his thumb. He waited and waited for a pulse, even just a little one. Any sign of life from his pink and yellow human, but there was none.

"Rose!" he shouted, loud enough to make the baby start to cry again.

He ignored his daughter and climbed on the bed next to Rose. He scooped her limp body into his arms as hot, wet tears streamed down his cheeks. Her silky blonde hair splayed over his arm and he pressed a kiss to the top of her head. His arms held her so tightly yet so gently, a firm featherlight touch. He rocked back and forth slightly and combed his long fingers through her hair.

"Rose" he pleaded "Rose please wake up"

Her lack of response made him sob harder, uncontrollably until he was gasping for breath.

"Rose!" he howled like an injured dog.

His world, his fragile human life was crashing down around him and leaving him trapped in a prison of grief. Rose was gone. She'd survived dalek attacks, the end of the world, yet the Bad Wolf had been defeated by the birth of their daughter, and it was his fault. He clutched her lifeless body to his chest and kissed her still-warm forehead.

He was alone apart from the piercing wails of his newborn daughter.