A/N: First off let me tell you guys how awesome you are. Like awesomesauce level of awesome. Second I am going to let you guys know that I am having some computer issues with my battery, and lets just say that I was reading through this on here for my final read through, and edit, and I moved to adjust my laptop and knocked my power cord out which killed the computer. I think I have caught everything, but I have no beta, and I'm tired so if you notice something that looks wrong or off just go with it. Hopefully it makes sense enough for you to figure it out. Also, I've got the outline for the rest of the story finished, and I am super excited. I kind of feel like I have gone on a long hike and there is this river between me and the finish line, but there are these stepping stones now to get to the other side, its just crossing that river that is going to be a little, lets say interesting. So read on my friends and enjoy! Your reviews brighten up my day!

The Void

Chapter 20

The Doctor held Rose like a lifeline. What was the next step? What happens if there isn't a next step? No. No room for negative thoughts, that wasn't going to help Rose. He was. He was going to save the day this time. He had to save the day just this one more time, because there would be no day to save, not if there wasn't a Rose Tyler apart of it.

He sprung up off the floor at that thought bringing Rose with him. Once she was stable, he began frantically pacing around the glowing cavern that had become more like a prison.

Rose watched the Doctor work himself into a flurry of animation as he walked around their enclosed space. She felt Jack move to stand next to her, and could feel his shoulder touch hers when he chucked because the Doctor began talking to himself.

"He is gonna find a way Rose. Just you watch."

"If he doesn't, Jack-"

"Lets not talk like that ok. Don't give up yet."

"I don't want to give up yet. It's not that. I just want you to keep an eye on him in case this doesn't work out. You know, just to make sure he doesn't turn any more nutters." She told him lightly.

"You know I will." Jack told her honestly, and then pulled her in to his side as they watched their friend arguing with himself across from them.

Rose didn't get it at first. Why use up all of this power, and cosmic energy to only bring her back for a short period of time? She thought back to the day she fell into the void, what she had been referring to herself as 'Doomsday', and while she had made amends with the fact that she could have died, she still wasn't prepared for it to actually happen.

Now though? Now she has seen that even after she dies he will be able to move on. Now she has been able to openly not only tell, but also show the Doctor how much she loved him, and he was able to show her in return just as freely. They were granted that one beautiful night together, before it all came crashing down. And this time, they will actually get a goodbye. They will actually be able to close a chapter out. And really who hasn't ever looked back, and asked for a redo, or a second chance? Now she was able to look back, and truly realize that she was the luckiest girl in the world.

She left Jack's embrace to walk over to the Doctor. He had finally stopped for a moment, and appeared to be counting with his fingers while he was pondering something silently for a change. When she was standing right in front of him, and he still had yet to acknowledge her presence, she gave him a firm kiss on the lips that seemed to draw him out of his inner turmoil for the moment.

"Doctor, I love you."

"Don't, Rose." He told her angrily before stalking away.

Not missing a beat she went after him. "Don't what? Love you? Because I think that you are a little late for that, Doctor." She told him frustrated.

"No. Don't give up." He explained with a sigh. "Please do not give up on me now."

She gave him a smirk. "Never give up on you, Doctor."

He grabbed her by the waist, and slammed their lips together in a heated kiss. And taking just a moment to cherish how soft, and pliant her lips were under his command.

"I love you too, Rose Tyler." He said with a smile, and a voice that sounded as if it had been freed of all chains. "Now the real question is how do you not get rid of a virus?"

"You don't treat it?" Rose asked excitedly. Things were beginning to feel like they were getting back to normal. Even if it was only going to be for a short time.

"Ah, but you don't even need to treat some virus strains with conventional medicine, your body does that all on it's own. And your body has already started fighting the virus, so what is the next plan of attack- Jack!"

"If her body is already 'fighting' this virus why don't we just keep infecting her?" He asked the Doctor slowly starting to catch on.

"But if her body is already adapting to this one we?" He asked seeing the metaphorical light bulb turn on.

"We infect her with a different strand of the same virus!" Jack exclaimed.

"Exactly! I don't know why it took me so long to come up with this. It is basically, well not basically, but kind of, weeellllllllll I wouldn't even really say kind of, but more of a distant relative of the principle of regeneration." He tried to explain to his two friends.

"Whoa, Doctor. Regeneration? I'm not sure what I think about that." Rose told him uncertainly.

"Just think about it as Regeneration with a little jiggery-pokery then." He responded nonchalantly.

The Doctor's attitude towards the whole thing wasn't really helping her anxiety on the matter. How could he not get how troubling this whole thing was to her? Well he had done this a few times before. I wonder how many times exactly he has gone through this, she thinks to herself.

Suddenly the Doctor is grabbing her hand and began pulling back towards the TARDIS, at a rapid rate. Not giving her much time to consider her questions or options.

"Wait, Doctor. Slow down." Rose gets out with a slight panic before yanking her hand back from the Doctor's grasp. "Are you sure this is the only option?"

"Yeah Doc. I mean we have all the resources of the TARDIS. Maybe we should take a bit to see if there is something else that we can do." Was Jack's suggestion, and he hoped that if he could get the Doctor out of his frantic state for just a couple of minutes, he could see how terrified Rose was of this whole ordeal. After his and Rose's talk last night he knew that the possibility of regeneration terrified her, and the Doctor needed to see that.

"We don't have time." The Doctor demanded immediately back.

"How do you know? She is fine now. Lets just take a step back, and look at this from another angle, and make sure that this is the only option. That's all I'm saying." Jack tried again.

"No, Jack. This is the only option. And I know that for a fact because-"

The Doctor's rant was interrupted by Rose collapsing to the ground between the two of them, and appeared to be struggling to breath.

"As I was saying I KNOW because I'm linked with her. I know what is coming Jack, and we have to do something now!" He seethed to Jack over Rose's collapsed body.

The Doctor redirected his focus back to Rose before continuing. "Rose, look at me. You need to calm down, and try to take deep breaths." He told her reassuringly.

"Doctor, what is going on?" Jack asked panicked at his friend's obvious distress.

"It was almost so small I didn't notice it at first, but she has been losing neurons, and pathways in her brain for the last several hours. I had just been ignoring our connection, that when I reopened it, when Rose explained what was going on I realized that it is the truth. It is her Time Lord pathways that are being demolished at a rapid rate." He told him quickly before putting his attention back on Rose again. "Rose, that was your respiratory bypass system that just went out. You are going to have to get used to breathing like a normal human again, and that means trying to take slow deep breaths." He encouraged her again.

Rose squeezed her eyes shut, and tried to focus on the task at hand. She had no idea it would be like this. All she had pictured was just to disappear with a poof; she didn't think that she would slowly disappear piece by piece. Eventually though, after several long drawn out minutes she was able to get her breathing back under control. Even though it was still hard to breath, she was able to function better than when she surely looked like a fish out of water just moments ago. But with the Doctor, and Jacks help she was able to stand up again, albeit a little unsteady, and looked to the Doctor for help.

"Doctor, what is going on?"

"Well what appears to be happening is your Time Lord improvements, are degrading. It started with some of the improved brain functions, and neurons and has been erasing them one by one. The Time Lord respiratory bypass group was apparently the next to go, but you had your human lungs that are still functioning, and working normally, your body just needs to readjust to them."

"Okay so what will happen next?" She asked afraid for what was to come. When he didn't answer she pushed him again. "Please tell me. At the very least I need to be prepared."

The Doctor flicked his eyes between Rose, and Jack who had taken his place next to her side, obviously trying to support her. They were wasting time, but what was it he was always saying about Humans? Something about them always seeking for the truth.

"I assume what is happening now is that the virus is working on the telepathic parts of your brain. The further it eats is way into that you will develop a headache that will steadily increase in pain. Depending on how fast the Time Lord part of your brain is removed, and the condition of your human brain I have a theory, that this could lead to a stroke. After that the only piece left to go after is your extra heart, and any additional Time Lord circuitry that remains, which the virus is also currently working on as we speak. Once that is gone it will lead your body to arrest, because it has become accustom to needing it. This leads me to believe that while your human body will remain, it was the Time Lord part that brought it back to life, and your physical body will return to how it was as you entered the void." He finished on a note so quiet that if you had not been close you wouldn't have been able to hear him. The Doctor realized that during this speech he wasn't even able to look at Rose, because he found himself staring at his shoes with his hands shoved in his pockets. When he brought his gaze back up to Rose, he didn't even care that Jack was the one to bring her into a tight embrace. She needed a friend during that. But now she needs a Doctor to make things right.

He brought a hand out from his coat pocket to cup her chin so that he could move her face to stare at him. "That is what will happen if we do nothing. And it could take hours, it could take a day, I don't know. But I won't sit back and watch you die again Rose. I have a plan, and we have to try it, because I won't go down without a fight."

Rose smiled at the gruffness that had over taken his voice. Her Doctor. Always so passionate, and filled with emotion. She pulled herself from Jack's hold, and grabbed the Doctor's hand with her right, and reached back to grab Jack's with the left.

"Well what are we waiting for then?" She asked with a smile looking between her two best friends before the Doctor pulled them all towards the TARDIS.

They ran through the halls of the TARDIS to the med bay, where the Doctor dug around in a drawer before coming back to Rose with two small chrome looking devices. One he attached to the left side of her forehead, while the other was placed in the middle of her chest. They almost pinched the skin, which caused it to itch, but she refrained. Soon though both of the devices seemed to come to life with blue and red lights, and quiet chirping.

"These will monitor your vital signs for the next process, follow me." He told her eagerly leading the way through more corridors before continuing. "The one on your head is to monitor your brain activity, while the one on your chest will monitor the rest of your body's vitals." He told her before stopping in front of a large heavy looking door.

He stood in front of it for a brief moment entering what looked like a code, but the door opened soon enough letting them spill in to the large sterile white room. It had a single recliner type chair that looked modern, and uncomfortable, but that was the only thing in the room. No decorations, no nothing. Boring was the first word that came to mind.

"Rose," The Doctor started pulling her towards the chair, and making her relax back into it. "The simplest way to explain this is that you are in my regeneration room. This is where I am supposed to be when that takes place. Not that I have to be, but when a Time Lord regenerates all of that energy is expelled, what this room does is absorbs it, and store it. It also helps the recovering process. However, instead of expelling energy I'm going to infuse you with it. It is going to be a complicated process, and no one will be able to be in the room with you. Jack will be waiting just outside in the hall, and as soon as it is over he is going to come to check on you." He paused to look over to make sure that Jack was paying attention to the plan as well.

"You got it Doc."

"But where will you be?" Rose asked him nervously.

"I'm going to monitoring your vitals from the control room, because I will have to control the operation from there. Once your cortical monitor goes off that will be my signal to start. It is going to be scary, and it is going to hurt, but we are all here with you, Rose." He told her sincerely as he picked up her hand. "Rose, I'm giving you a part of myself. Well previous selves. It is still Time Lord, but different enough that it should still work."

Rose nodded up at him, and could feel tears start to well in her eyes at his admission. The Doctor was giving her a precious gift. She squeezed his hand before dropping it, and resting fully back in the chair, and looking up in the ceiling.

"Well, chop chop boys! Seems like I'm the one doing all the hard work around her." She joked throwing the Doctor a wink. "Let's get this show on the road!"

As the Doctor, and Jack headed towards the door, Rose's voice stopped them one more time.

"Thanks, Jack. And Doctor, I love you."

Jack nodded back, before heading out the door. "See ya on the other side Rosie!" He yelled over his shoulder as he crossed the threshold into the hall.

"Quite right too." The Doctor told her with a smirk before following Jack.

Once outside he sealed the door, and turned his back to lean against it.

"You alright Doc?" Jack asked him, resting a hand on his shoulder.

"I don't know." He told him simply. "Look, Jack, I'm serious now. Once this process starts you cannot do anything to stop it, understand?" He demanded.

"Yeah, I get it. I have a question for you though."

"No time, I have to get up to the control room. The white button next to the door will allow you and Rose to communicate once you press it. You will only have to press it once. Just be sure that if you decide to talk her through it, no matter how much she thinks she is in pain, you cannot open this door got it?"

"Doctor, I already told you I got it. What is your deal? You know I can handle this."

"This is Rose, Jack!"

"I know damn well who this is! My worry is about you now, Doctor!"

The Doctor turned and left the conversation leaving a very disgruntled Jack in his wake.

"Fine, you don't want to talk to me, but I'm going to talk to you. And I want you to know that I have every bit of faith in you, and that's why I didn't bring this up in front of Rose." Jack started, and once they entered to console room he could tell by the Doctor's panicked look on his face he knew what he was getting ready to ask. "Doctor, Rose said that the TARDIS got the virus because you had connected with her mind, and the TARDIS got it from you. But you are good. Right, Doctor?" He asked hopefully. Wishing, and praying to whatever God out there that the Doctor was able to avoid the Bad Wolf Virus.

"Jack, I've got her vitals up. I'm going to speed up the degenerative process so we can get this over with. You need to go back to Rose." He choked out.

"Doctor, you didn't answer my question."

The Doctor sighed, and paused his tinkering on the computer to turn, to answer Jack over his shoulder.

"Like I said Jack, your priority is to Rose. You are to stay exactly where you are to help her no matter what you hear. No matter what room you happen to hear it come from." He answered quietly before going back to the computer screen. "Go now, Jack. I'm getting ready to start."

Jack paused to look at him stunned. Not really sure if he was able to comprehend what the Doctor was tell him. Was he infected? If the virus went after Time Lord physiology, and the Doctor was all Time Lord there was going to be nothing left. Unless he regenerated.

No matter what room you hear it come from.

Oh crap. The Doctor knew this all along. Rose was going to be devastated if she made it. The least he could do was respect the Doctor's wishes, and be there for Rose.

So he turned on his heel to walk down the hall back to Rose. Not able to stop his mind from spinning the whole trip back. What if something happened, and the Doctor had to regenerate before whatever he was doing to Rose was finished? What happens if he isn't in control enough to take care of it. And he knew that the Doctor had given him very strict instructions, he still had to ask the question- if both of his best friends were dyeing at the same time-

How was he supposed to choose?