Once Rory and Amy had deposited Rose on one of the medical beds, she swiftly sank into unconsciousness, and Rory had Amy lay a warm blanket over the woman's thin frame. She'd been starved, and there was no way her body would be able to retain the heat she needed just yet. As Amy wrapped the blondes sleeping form in warmth, Rory moved through the medical supplies and dug out some IV bags of fluid and nutrients that he recognised that would help to keep Rose stable while she slept and until the Doctor could treat her with the futuristic medical bay in the Tardis.

"How is she still...?" Amy's question was halted by a choked half sob as she started crying while watching the abused body before her.

"I don't know," Rory answered gently. He finished connecting the IV before he moved to stand beside Amy, letting his arms curl around her and gently pulling her into a comforting embrace.

He couldn't even imagine what the Doctor was feeling, if Rory had found Amy in the condition Rose was in... He shuddered and pressed his face into Amy's beautiful red hair as she let her own arms slip around his waist, returning the comfort his embrace had been offering.

Rory knew they should be guarding the door, making sure they weren't found, but couldn't bring himself to pull away from Amy. Minutes slipped by as they waited for the Doctor, their light breathing the only sound until Amy suddenly gasped and lifted her head from Rory's shoulder.

"Amy? What's- Oh my god!"

Stepping back to make sure his fiancee was alright, it was impossible to miss what had made her gasp. Eyes wide and frozen in place with surprise, Rory watched as a wisp of glimmering yellow smoke seemed to shimmer over Roses body before sinking into her skin, and leaving a light shimmer behind, like a sparse layer of gold dust that was barely discernable.

Rory moved towards her, his medical training taking over as he checked her pulse. Nothing. He checked her breathing, and again found nothing and began panicking.

"Amy, go and get the Doctor, quickly!" His worried eyes met hers for a moment before she nodded and ran. He didn't know what to do to help the blonde, he didn't even understand what the golden glow might have been, but regardless he began CPR in a futile attempt to restart the woman's heart, to bring breath into her body until the Doctor could arrive and fix it.

It felt like years before the Doctor crashed through the doors, Amy on his heels and Rory stepped back from Rose as the Doctor launched himself across the room, hands moving over her frame and checking for signs of life in the same way Rory had.

"I'm sorry, Doctor, there's... there's nothing... No heartbeat..."

The Time Lords eyes were scanning over her body almost frantically, but Rory's apologies dried up in his throat when the man seemed to collapse over the blonde, pressing his cheek against Roses deathly still chest.

The Doctor watched Amy wrap Rory in a hug, tears on both their faces as they waited for him to say something, anything. He waited ten seconds, and then froze, not daring to take another breath until he was sure. Ten seconds later, he gasped and jerked back from Rose to stare down at her, fumbling for the Sonic Screwdriver to scan over her still form, before a manic grin overtook his features.

"What? What's going on?" Amy asked him, both of them surprised at his reaction to the woman's apparent death, and he turned green eyes to them, glittering with tears.

"She's not dead! We need to get her back to the Tardis!" he announced, and Rory was frowning in confusion, even as Amy shot him a look full of sympathy. Why did his companions never listen to him?

"Doctor... There's no pulse, she's not breathing..."

"That's because, Mr Pond, Rose has managed to slip herself into a Gallifreyan Healing Coma, no idea how she's managed that of course, but I'll consider it a good thing until proven otherwise," he explained, the bubbling excitement in his voice couldn't be contained, "Her heart rate is down to one beat every ten seconds, but she'll wake up faster if she's inside the Tardis, the old girl can help her stabilise."

The Doctor glanced around the room before picking up what looked like a lab coat and carefully pulling Roses limp arms through the sleeves, covering the paper thin pyjamas with the slightly thicker coat and wrapping one arm around her shoulders, tenderly tucking the small woman against his body. Carefully he let his other arm slip beneath her knees and gently lifted her from the bed.

Her skin glowed with golden energy and Amy gasped, "That... that's what happened when I came to get you!" the girl spluttered, and the Doctor's brows drew together as he gazed down at the blonde human in his arms.

"Is that part of the healing coma thing, Doctor?" Rory asked, and the Doctor raised his now frowning features to the nurse and shook his head.

"No"

Neither Amy nor Rory asked him anymore questions as he turned and moved through the catacombs. With Rose in his arms he could feel how thin she was, how light. The torture she'd endured relit his anger now that she seemed to be out of direct danger, and the further up towards the surface he moved with his most precious cargo curled in his arms, the darker his face became.

Anger flooded him, but despite the growls he shot at every Unit officer he passed, his arms continued to cradle Rose against him like she was the most fragile piece of Elluvian crystal this side of the Medusa Cascade, and no one tried to stop him leaving.

He'd not parked the Tardis far from the Unit facility, but he couldn't help but feel he should have moved it closer. While Rose didn't shiver, he could feel her skin rapidly cooling. The beautiful Timeship opened her doors for him as soon as he was within sight of her and he sent a mental wave of gratitude towards her.

"Close the doors," he called over his shoulder at his two companions, and he realised it was the only words he'd spoken since lifting Rose into his arms.

"Infirmary please, dear one," he murmured to his ship, and found the room he'd requested through the first doorway past the console room, moving swiftly to place Rose gently onto the soft bed the Tardis had provided.

The Doctor took a moment to stroke her filthy blonde hair away from her face, slackened by unconsciousness, before Rory's voice drew his attention to the doorway of the infirmary.

"Can we help?" the young man asked and the Doctor offered a small smile before nodding.

"Yes, the more we can heal from here, the less work her body has to do, so..." he paused to glance round the room before coming to a decision, "Amy, you know how to work the dermal regenerator, so use that to heal up any surface injuries, Rory if you can connect these two machines, and fit a IV line, I'll run some scans and see what else we can do to help her recover," he told them, and all three started moving fluidly around the Tardis infirmary like they'd done so a thousand times.

The three of them spent just over half an hour healing what they could, but eventually the Doctor had said that the rest was up to the small blonde, and asked the two of them to head back to Unit and make sure that Martha had everything under control, with a warning to be careful. The Doctor didn't trust that the Colonel's men were just going to lay down arms and surrender.

He waited, perched on a stool beside Roses bed, until the Tardis told him that Amy and Rory had left, and then the Time Lord was a blur of motion again, drawing a small sample of blood and taking a saliva swab from the unconscious woman. A single strand of her hair was also plucked from her gently and added to his collection before he began placing the samples on slides and into vials.

The occasional sweeps of golden energy that crept across her body, in a slow wave from her head to her ankles before dissipating, was worrying him, and he still didn't understand how the very human Rose Tyler had put herself into a Gallifreyan healing coma. It should have been impossible. Beyond impossible, but then so was that fact that she was there at all. She'd been on the other side of the void, with his ex-doppleganger, living a happy human life with a mortgage and a job and kids and-

He forced his thoughts to stop; There was no use speculating, he decided, focussing on placing the samples he'd taken into some of the Tardis' machines, and setting them cooking.

He might not be able to question Rose right now, but with any luck the Tardis would be able to give him at least some answers to the multitude of questions buzzing around his brain.

He settled himself onto a chair beside the comatose blonde with a soft sigh, and let his fingers tangle with her unresponsive hand while he waited for the Tardis, or Rose, to start making sense.

The first thing to come back to Rose was the sensation of warmth and safety and with the reassuring hum of the Tardis in the back of her mind, the Bad Wolf allowed sleep to reclaim her once more.

The second time she drifted close to consciousness, Rose could smell honey sweetened tea, the futuristic disinfectant used in the Tardis Infirmary, and the hot scent of lightning that she had always associated with her Time Lord. She forced herself to stay aware for longer this time, but couldn't quite fight her way free of the all encompassing darkness.

"Doctor, it's been almost a week, she's not moved, only you can see her breathing... I mean, are you sure... sure she's not-"

"She's not dead, Amy, it's an extreme version of the whole 'play dead' thing you humans are so fond of," the Time Lord seemed to reassure the woman, his voice quiet but firm and determined, only a small tinge of frustration suggested that it wasn't the first time he'd had this conversation.

Their voices were distant and almost muffled but Rose could read the emotions in the Doctor's tone as easily as if she'd been staring at his face.

"I just... don't want you to get your hopes up for no reason, Doctor... Right? Just be careful, yeah?"

Rose didn't know if she slipped back into unconsciousness, or if the Doctor simply refused to answer.

The third time she rose from the dark oblivion, she felt herself take a deep breath. The pillow beneath her head was soft, and the covers laying across her body were fluffy and warm and she could feel the Doctor's fingers tangled with her own, the firm weight of his head resting on the mattress beside her hip. His steady puffs of breath ghosting across their linked hands.

Rose made herself concentrate, and after a long moment where nothing happened, she was able to force her fingers to move, twitch and tighten her grip around the Time Lords hand, feeling him jerk up from the bed in what she could only guess was surprise.

"Rose?"

The slight slur his voice put on her name told her that he'd not just been laying on the bed, but had fallen asleep there, pressed against her side, hands linked together and she felt her lips twitch into the shadow of a smile and made herself squeeze his hand a second time in response to his soft query.

"Oh, Rose..." The relief in his voice this time all but broke her heart, and if she hadn't been so exhausted she might have started crying when the warm soft lips pressed gently to her forehead.

"Don't push, don't force yourself to wake too soon, I'll still be here when you wake, my precious girl," he whispered, and with his promise ringing in her mind Rose once again surrendered to the tug of sleep, and sank into the darkness all over again.

Rose forced her eyes open despite still feeling tired and the Doctor beamed down at her, drawing out her smile.

"Hello," she croaked, throat sore from disuse.

"Hi there," he answered softly, holding a cup of water with a straw to her lips and letting her have a few sips before setting it aside and refocusing his attention on her.

"How long...?"

"You've been out for twelve days... I didn't expect you to wake up for a couple more days, actually, but you surprised me. You keep doing that, Rose Tyler," the Doctor teased gently, feeling warmth spread through his chest at the tongue touched grin she offered him before trying to lift herself into a sitting position.

"Careful," the Doctor warned, arms sliding around her swiftly to help her sit up, "You were weak before you slipped into a coma, and since then we've only been able to give you basic nutrients and fluids through the IV so it'll be a few more months before you'll be strong enough to run for your life again".

Rose made a soft sound of complaint, but seemed to reluctantly accept that there would be no quick fix for the results of the torture she'd endured.

"What I would like to find out, Rose Tyler, is how you're a genetic match to Gallifreyan biology when the last time I checked you were 100% human," the Doctor asked her gently. Any chance that she might not know the answer to his question vanished when Rose ducked her head for a moment seeming to brace herself before raising her eyes to meet with his.

"I wanted to find and tell you, not have you discover it like this," she rasped, "I hope you believe that at least..." Her throat was still dry and the Doctor passed the small plastic cup and straw back to her.

"Small sips," he instructed gently, and Rose nodded.

"The short answer is Bad Wolf," Rose continued, and the Doctor released a breath as though he'd already guessed and he ran his hands over his face wearily at her confirmation.

"On the beach, with your duplicate... John Noble he called himself... you weren't willing to accept me as human, when you thought I'd die I wasn't worth the pain to you, so I chose him," Rose explained and forced herself to ignore the agony blooming in the Doctors now sea green eyes at her words.

"That wasn't-"

"I knew he and I could have a happy life together, he knew I might die before him, even with both of us having normal human lives, and he was willing to risk the pain anyway... He deserved some happiness Doctor, the same way you did... do... the only difference between you was that I knew I could have that life with him, give him that happiness for the rest of his life, and then come and find you after he died," Rose explained softly, "I couldn't do that the other way round."

The Doctor stared at her as though someone had slapped him. Shock, pain, fear and what Rose hoped was a dash of love radiating out from those ancient eyes and the moment seemed to last hours before the Doctor finally drew in a slow unsteady breath.

"So you spent his forever together, the single thing I couldn't make myself give you," he all but gasped, tears choking his voice and Rose lifted a thin hand, trembling from muscle fatigue, to his face and brushed aside a single tear as she nodded.

"Yes".

"Then you just... hopped dimensions to find me?" he asked, voice weak and feeling completely helpless in the face of her devotion and the understanding smile that graced her face as she nodded again.

"Yes".

Rose swallowed another sip of water before setting the cup aside, her arm fully shaking now from the exertion of keeping it raised to the Doctor's face, but he didn't seem to notice, his attention held entirely by her words and her eyes and her smile.

"There's no way to cross the void from this side, but there is from that side; Parallel universe and all that," she offered as explanation and loosed a single sad tear at the Doctor's whispered response, the pure confusion tearing her heart asunder.

"But... why?"

"I love you, Doctor," she told him simply, her voice firm, as though those four words explained everything and, the Doctor thought to himself, for her they probably did.

There was a single moment of peaceful silence before the Doctor's lips brushed warmly against Roses and she released a soft sound of contentment when he moved back, his forehead pressed against hers, and giving them just enough space so that he could whisper his response against her skin.

"Rose Tyler, I love you".