A/N- A response to one of Jessa L'Rynn's June Challenges, though I may have taken some liberties with the criteria... For those of you waiting for updates on my other stories; I am sorry. My laptop is/was out of commission again, but it is being repaired even as I type this. Updates on other stories will be forthcoming upon its return. Thanks for your patience with me, and thanks for reading this story.

Challenge: The Doctor has been called a god on more than one occasion. Which god, god of what? Write a story in which the Doctor of your choice is forced/compelled/honored with the duties of any deity, also of your choice, for a specific period of time.

DEITY

Rose's bottom hit the bottom of the pit with a soft squelch. "Oh," she cursed indignantly, shaking her fist up at her retreating captors, "And you can tell Sharkey that next time I won't be so nice!"

"That's right," said a cheerful voice behind her as her companion gently hoisted her to her feet. "Empty threats—that'll show 'em."

But Rose was in no mood to be placated by sarcasm, and she turned her fury on the grinning Time Lord. "That's enough from you!" She pulled herself away from him, putting as much space between them as their shared pit would allow, and crossed her arms in front of her chest, eyes blazing. "We've been in this mud-hole for four days now. Four days! Four days of rain and cold and…and…and no privacy. But do you care? No, it doesn't bother you. Couldn't you just," she waved her hands impatiently, "Give them a little something? Anything? Would a little flash kill ya?"

The Doctor's smile which had been firmly fixed during her diatribe left his face at the last, but he answered patiently as if repeating a lesson to a very slow child. "Rose, we've been over this. It would be unethical." His eyes seemed to burn at her across the fading darkness as he spoke, "I don't pander, and I don't play god." Then his tone softened and the grin was back in place, "Besides, these people have got the intellectual aptitude of sheep—I do something that could be misconstrued as a miracle now, and their whole cultural development could suffer for millennia."

"Don't you think it's a little bit late for that? After all, the TARDIS materialized in the middle of their temple smack bang in the middle of their holiest feast day—everybody was there waving those branch things and chanting. And then you had to go barging out of the doors and stopping their high priest right in the middle of his sacrifice…"

The Doctor interrupted, "How was I to know that the figure was made out of wood? It looked near enough to a real goat on the screen. Honest mistake…"

"We should have high-tailed it off this backwards rock the minute that the bowing started, but, oh no, you just had to listen to Sharkey prattle on about the ominous and unusual storm and the glowing stones inside the cave…"

"We had interrupted their party, Rose, and gotten in the way of their ceremonial offering." He looked both guilty and sheepish as he thought of the crudely-hewn goat-figure that he'd saved from the fire. "Listening was the least I could do…"

Rose slid down the pit's wet wall and rested her already mud-encrusted head back against its uneven surface, all the fight gone from her eyes with this act of exhaustion. "We could have been safe and warm in the TARDIS right now, but, no. We're stuck down here: muddy, smelly, and tired."

The Doctor crossed to her and gracefully folded his long form up to sit beside her, wrapping a leather-clad arm around her shoulders. "So," he asked gently, "What'd Sharkey have to say this time?"

Rose eyed the Doctor askance, "Thought you didn't like me callin' him Sharkey."

"I don't, but as I'm trying to cheer you up, I thought that I'd go with it just this once." That got a smile from her, a small one anyway, and she snuggled a little closer into his side, leaning her head on his shoulder.

"Well, he was feeling right peevish today. After all, it's been four days since the gods sent a big blue box to his temple from the sky, but its inhabitants continue to deny their divinity and refuse to perform any signs and wonders for his confused and slightly sheep-like supplicants… He's moved onto bargaining."

"Bargaining," the Doctor quipped cheerfully, "What'd he offer?"

"Marriage."

"Marriage?" The Doctor stiffened.

"Yeah, marriage. Seems like he's willing to overlook the fact that I am decidedly not gray and offer me the honor of becoming Mrs. Tribal Priestess of the far end of the galaxy…"

The Doctor's voice was flippant. "Really? That's quite an honor."

"Could be, I suppose… Turned him down of course. I could probably deal with the gray skin, but those funny gill things on his face…" Rose trailed off, yawning wearily and nestling in even closer to the Doctor who wrapped his other arm about her as well to shield her from the increasingly cool air and the light rain that was beginning to fall.

And to the Doctor came the unbidden thought that she, Rose Tyler, shopgirl of London, Earth, was made to fit exactly there at his side just so. It was a sensation not unlike when he'd first taken her hand—a perfect fit—though the Doctor would never admit it nor would he allow himself such idle and ridiculous thoughts when her safety was in jeopardy and her future in the uncertain hands of a religious warlord like Sharkey. Rose had no idea how adept her nickname for the tribal priest was, but the Doctor realized that they were both in danger. Still, his voice revealed none of his anxiety. "And how'd he take that?"

"Hmmm?" she responded sleepily. So he nudged her a little and repeated his question. "Oh, not well." Her eyes opened and focused, and she grimaced in remembering, "Apparently, he's used to having his way with the ladies and isn't familiar with the concept that 'no' means 'no'." The Doctor's whole body was starting to simmer in anger, but Rose continued naively, " I'm guessing the reason that he refrained from trying anything until today was the belief or the fear, rather, that one or the other of us might be a god and be able to turn him into a tadpole. But, I think that he's finally decided to believe us; he no longer thinks that we're gods."

The Doctor's tone was menacing but under control, "So he tried to… to…"

"Yeah," Rose grinned cheekily, "But he's clearly never tried putting the moves on a girl from the Powell Estates." The Doctor raised a quizzical eyebrow. "He had to order his henchmen to bring me back to the pit in soprano."

Rose had expected the Doctor to laugh at this or at least smile, but he did neither. Instead he muttered a curse under his breath in some language that the TARDIS apparently didn't translate for her and then said, "Stupid ape! You're lucky that worked."

Rose pulled back from him, angry now. "Stupid ape again, am I? Well, I had to try something. It was just me alone up there 'cause you were down here in the pit. 'Cause you don't, what was it, pander or play god?...If that hadn't worked, I'd have tried something else. It's not like I was going to let him get his tentacles anywhere near me—no matter what." She stood up and paced the two steps that the pit allowed. "If you'd only waved your sonic screwdriver at them that first day, we wouldn't even be in this situation…"

The Doctor stood up as well and held his hands out to her. "Rose, you're right." She looked at him startled. "You're absolutely right." She felt her anger melt out of her at his words. "I shouldn't have called you a stupid ape, and I shouldn't have scolded you."

"No. You shouldn't."

"Now will you come back over here and sit and get some sleep? You need to rest up for when we make our big escape tomorrow."

Now it was Rose's turn to raise an eyebrow, "Tomorrow?"

"Of course tomorrow." The Doctor gently crossed to her and wrapping his arms around her brought them both to a sitting position again, as much out of the rain as possible. "I imagine that your friend, Sharkey may be a bit unhappy with you if you're right about his lack of experience with rejection, and he'll probably be out for some sort of public retribution since you embarrassed him in front of his guards."

"So?"

"So, it seems that the time has come for us to leave."

"And just how are we going to manage that?"

"Just rest, Rose." He whispered soothingly, "Go to sleep if you can. We'll manage tomorrow tomorrow."

And the Doctor held her protectively throughout that night, his mind at war: one part fuming at Sharkey and plotting their escape and one part watching the delicate moisture of the rain rest upon Rose's face and hair in peaceful fascination.

0o0o0o0o0

Sharkey sent his goons to fetch them from the pit at sunrise. The Doctor insisted that he be brought up out of the pit first. And though the guards had been told to bring the girl alone, they were wary of the strange man's grim face and bright eyes, and, unlike their leader, the guards still believed that this man must somehow be a god since he came to them from the sky. So they complied with his demand. Then, they brought up the girl with the pale skin and golden hair, the girl who had shamed their leader rather than be shamed by him—and they were as amazed by her boldness as they were compelled by his.

Seeing their quick submission and the wary respect in their eyes, the Doctor realized that their escape might be easily managed. Easily managed, that is, if he was willing to break some of his own rules. Then, his eyes turned to his companion. She was brave and strong, but she was still tired from their last ill-fated mission to Justicea. And four days of exposure in the pit had taken their toll. When they got out of this, he thought to himself, they would take a nice quiet trip somewhere…

The guards brought them to the temple wherein both Sharkey and the TARDIS were waiting. What the Doctor didn't expect was that the rest of the inhabitants of the village would be there as well. That's okay, he decided, he always enjoyed a good audience…

Sharkey stared disapproval at the guards for bringing the Doctor into the temple as well as the girl, but they did little more than drop their eyes. Sharkey chose to ignore the Doctor completely, but raised his voice to his congregants. "Five days ago, the gods interrupted the Great Sacrifice. I have spent the last five days interviewing their gifts to us and interpreting the signs—the gods have decided that instead of the goat we should upon this holy year feed them the flesh that they have provided to us in their generosity. Either the man or the girl will be placed upon the fires this day."

Sharkey had the trust of his people and a persuasive turn of phrase. Both the men and the women seemed to consider the weight of his words mesmerized and they cheered when he called upon them for human sacrifice. Ok, the Doctor concluded, not a very nice village after all.

Sharkey approached Rose, and the Doctor had to use all of his effort to maintain his composure. Sharkey grabbed Rose's jaw so that she would look him in the eye, "Your choice, Rose-girl. Will you feed the fire this day or will your friend?"

Rose neither quailed nor faltered, she responded almost nonchalantly, "Neither of us, thanks."

"Oh, no. I may have been able to save both of you yesterday, but the offer is no longer good today." The priest's anger from the previous day's humiliation was palpable, and his voice simmered with menace. "Perhaps when you are burning, you will regret your hastiness."

Rose just smirked and winked at the Doctor. "I don't think so, Sharkey. I think that you'll be the only one to experience real regret today." She darkened her voice, "Regret that you failed to honor the gods."

Hearing the cold confidence in her voice and seeing the fearsome glint in her eyes, Sharkey visibly flinched. And turning to the Doctor he said, "But you insisted that you were not gods. You said you were travelers, explorers. You've done nothing to suggest…"

The Doctor interrupted, his voice resounding with the weight of Time (even Rose, who'd had forewarning, had to fight her instinct to bend before that voice), "Who are you to question the ways of the gods? Who are you to determine in which ways they should make themselves know?"

The Doctor addressed the crowd. "We came to you as strangers and explorers to your world seeking your hospitality and your friendship. And what did your leader do? He asked us to perform magic tricks." At this, the Doctor pressed a button on his sonic screwdriver from within his coat pocket and the fire behind him flared up. The supplicants in the temple gasped in unison, wide-eyed and afraid. "He asked and then insisted, and you waited for us to show you miracles. And when we refused to perform petty signs and wonders, your leader had us thrown down into a pit for four days, with little food and full exposure to the elements. And still we waited, hoping that one of you might see our plight and challenge the authority of so cruel a leader." His eyes bore into the trembling crowd, "But none of you did."

A woman in the crowd began to moan, and it was all Rose could do not to join her. She had asked the Doctor to do this; she had asked him to play god. But as he stood before her and laid before these humble people an account of their sins, she saw only a stranger. This Doctor, this being of infinite power, was a being that she felt she could hardly know and who, if she was going to be fully honest with herself, she couldn't ever possibly hope to equal. Her glib 'better with two' seemed perfectly audacious to her now, seeing him like this…

"Then, your High Priest, feeling himself at an advantage, attempted to assault, to defile," His voice rose and his eyes seemed to burn with the power of infinite suns, "To dare to humble a being whose very existence keeps the universe in balance," the Doctor turned his fierce eyes to Rose's face as she tried not to feel the weight of his words nor to balance them with her own fears of her inadequacy. "And you did nothing… You did nothing!" Several of the guards who had been standing behind Rose and the Doctor fell to their knees.

"You have been tested by the gods, and you have failed."

Silence filled the temple. Sharkey still stood near Rose, his face, which had been confident just moments before, was covered with shame and horror. The Doctor looked past him to Rose and held out his hand, "Come." He offered gently, his voice softer though still ringing with the music of the stars.

She reached out a trembling hand and placed it in his, glad to find it still familiar. As though knowing that she could hardly walk, the Doctor led her into the TARDIS and closed the door firmly behind them.

He turned to her warily, as though afraid to look her in the eye. He had frightened her, and Rose realized that he knew it. And that small glimmer of humanity was enough. He wasn't human, her Doctor, but he was still her Doctor. "So," she quipped cheekily up at him, "You don't pander and you don't play god… Got it."

And the Doctor grinned as he replied, "Nope. It would be absolutely unethical. Not to mention culturally irresponsible…" And laughing about the probable implications of what had just occurred in the future of that planet's culture the Doctor slipped the TARDIS into the Vortex, and the two weary travelers went off into the myriad passageways of the TARDIS to de-mud.

The End

0o0o0o0o0

A/N- I considered writing a little bit in which 10, Rose, and Mickey land on the same planet later on to find out what did happen to the culture there… Maybe a project for later? Or for someone else?