A/N: This is the first work of fan fiction I have written in a very long time. I don't own Doctor Who or anything associated with it. I'm just writing what would not leave my head. Hope you guys like it. If you see any mistakes, send me a PM to let me know where they are. Thank you.

The Doctor was loathed to admit when he was wrong, not that there was anything wrong with being wrong, but it was bloody inconvenient to be so on basic things. How was he supposed to know all of the emotional needs of his companions, what with him being an alien? This was why he allowed Jack Harkness to travel with Rose and him aboard the TARDIS, the man was human and could sort out these pesky problems the Doctor seemed to be able to run into. He loved humans for their potential, but their emotional needs were as alien to him as his are to them.

Right now, Jack was going to earn his keep aboard the TARDIS if the Doctor could just find the damn ex-Time Agent in this hellhole. He had put a biosignature in the irritating captain's favorite coat (figuring the man may loose his clothes but he was too sentimental about his coat if stumbling back to the TARDIS in just that was any clue to go by), and had followed its signature with his sonic screwdriver to the local glamorous club on the planet he had dropped Jack off of before departing on an adventure with Rose. There were too many bodies packed into the small place and even with his darkest Oncoming Storm look, the muffled lights seemed to keep him invisible, and if he was jostled one more time, he was not going to be responsible for him blowing the damn building sky high just for existing.

"Doctor?" the Doctor heard his name being called off to the side. The Doctor slipped his sonic screwdriver into his leather pocket before turning towards the ex-Time Agent. Jack waved him over towards the large round booth he was currently lounging across, a small group of both genders of the local population swamping him on either side. The locals of Komos were drawn to Jack's solid coloring of skin, their own iridescent and changing with the shifting lights. Knowing the novelty of having only one skin color had assured the Doctor that Jack would stay too busy, hopefully, to get too far into trouble.

"Time to be off," the Doctor grumbled at Jack, making a point to look Jack dead in the eyes with his icy stare. He noticed some of the locals shift in a bid for attention, but the Doctor was in no mood to even bother with niceties.

"Oh come on Doc," Jack slurred a little as he leaned over to kiss one of the females snuggled up to his side. "Live a little."

The Doctor was once a man of great patience, or well at least some patience, at one point in his life. After the Time War, he could not remember having any patience with anyone but Rose, and most certainly not with Jack Harkness who flirted with anything that was sentient. And with the dark mood Rose seemed to be in, the Doctor really could not be blamed for grabbing ahold of Jack's lapels and jerking him to his feet, nor the screams of outrage as he proceeded to drag Jack behind him against his drunk will.

Their adventure on Mootranp, a planet of human hybrids in the future, had gone horribly pear shaped to the point it left a very foul taste in his mouth. Rose had been captured by Xyrok, a man (term loosely used since he was only human in appearance) who was bent on world enslavement, and had used Rose as a negotiation piece with the Doctor. It had taken the Doctor almost a week (six days, thirteen hours, forty-two minutes and twelve seconds, but who was counting?) to rescue Rose, to incite the people into a civil war and break into the fortress of Xyrok.

Rose had been happy to see him, had cried into his shoulder when he had opened up the shock collar around her throat and freed her from the prison of her room. Her room had been very pleasant accommodations, the remains of a comfortable dinner, and he had not seen a mark on her, so he had thought nothing about it as he swept her towards the TARDIS. She was adamant about her being fine, really he should have recognized that tactic, it was his signature bit after all.

When she had started screaming in her sleep, the Doctor had realized she hadn't divulged something. She was adamant about nothing being wrong the next morning, even with the heavy layer of concealer under her eyes. When she was screaming and sobbing the next night, the Doctor had made a mistake. He had pushed her the next morning, threatening her to tell him what was wrong. His hearts could not handle her keeping something from him, and in his desperation to know what was wrong, he had done something he wasn't proud of; he had threatened to enter her mind and find out himself if she wasn't willing to share.

It was a tactical move, one he had thought would yield the desired result of her telling him. He had expected rage, expected her human emotions to boil over and her to shout at him and give him a clue as to what was wrong. Instead she had grown calm, the kind that comes before a storm, and stepped towards him. The left side of his face still stung from where she had slapped him, and she had not held back any bit of her strength before fleeing. He was ashamed to admit it, but he was certain he preferred to be slapped by Jackie than Rose.

His big ol' brain had quit working, and it had taken him a minute to check and see if she had damaged any of his synapsis to try and explain the momentary inability to process what had just transpired. His hearts had stuttered and his temper flared, and he started down the hall to track her down and have this little spat over and done with. The TARDIS, on the other hand, had shifted Rose's room and no matter how much he raged at his ship, she was hiding the pink and yellow human's room from him. When he walked back into the console room and slammed his fists on the heavy metal of the console, trying to vent some of the rage building up in him, the TARDIS had had enough.

Nine hundred years and there had been very few moments that had actually made his hearts stop beating and tears well up in his eyes. The TARDIS flooding his mind with the image of Rose Tyler curled up on her bed, crying so hard her whole body shook as she tried to gasp in air between sobs, was added to the top of that list. He was not aware he had stumbled, not aware of his back finding the railing and sliding down to sit on the floor. The Doctor wasn't aware he was crying until the TARDIS receded to the back of his mind and released him from the image of Rose. His only thought had been: what had he done?

"Slow down Doc," Jack complained as he tried to dig his heels into the sidewalk. "What's the big rush?" When the Doctor made a point of ignoring him, Jack twisted until the Doctor was left holding his coat. "What's the matter?" Jack crossed his arms over his check, giving a pointed look at the Doctor, the hypervodka effects seeming to have left him.

The Doctor huffed, giving in to the need of help before panic start to set in, and he was going to slip into panic if he could not figure out how to fix what he had done. He did not want Rose to leave him, and he was sure she would if he couldn't fix this mess. "Rose is screaming and crying in her sleep," the Doctor admitted in a low voice, his eyes dropped to study Jack's coat intently, "and I may have made it worse."

Jack seemed pale for a moment before his features became tight with anger. "Just what did you do?" Jack bit out.

"Oi!" The Doctor's head whipped up, his eyes growing dark, before his memory caught up with him. His head dropped in shame and his voice grew quiet. "I said I'd get into her head if she wouldn't tell me."

"Please tell me you didn't really say that," Jack snarled. The Doctor's attention snapped to Jack, Jack's features darkening and for a moment, the Doctor wondered if he was going to need to reset his nose if Jack swung at him. He was certain he did deserve the possibility of a punch from Jack. "Please tell me you did not just threaten to mentally rape your companion, to a woman who has suffered enough abuse already. Tell me you would not sink so low."

"I had no intention of following through, not with being held hostage for a week!" The Doctor yelled, his temper flaring as well. He threw the brown coat at Jack, before turning and stomping back to the TARDIS. He couldn't have taken more than a few steps before what Jack said caught up to him. He had to triple check what was just said, trying to wrap his mind around what Jack, who had not been on the ship for the entirety of the pear shaped adventure, had just revealed. "What are you talking about?" the Doctor asked softly, not daring to turn around.

Synapsis fired in rapid succession, little notes he had made about Rose started to click into place. The low opinion she had of herself, the relationship she had had with Rickey the Idiot and not looking back after leaving him behind, the constant need for validation, how she seemed to be able to brush off the harshness of his words… oh bloody hell. The Doctor's repertory bypass had to kick in when he stopped breathing in realization.

The Oncoming Storm had just become the scum of the universe by threatening an abuse victim.

Bile rose in his throat and the Doctor ducked down an alley just a few strides away, leaning against the wall to throw up. Superior biology be damned, the Doctor didn't care how undignified it was to toss out everything in his stomachs, to see it splatter on his boots or to taste the acids of his stomach. He had not felt this wretched since he had to end the Time War, and even then this was a very close second. He had done lots of horrible things in his life, with a lifespan of nine hundred years, it's impossible to avoid, but he had never felt this low.

When the worst of the spasms passed, and the Doctor decided anything banana flavored should not be thrown up ever, he slowly straightened, wiping his mouth on the back of his leather sleeve. He didn't look at Jack as he passed the Doctor a flask, which the Doctor took a long swig from without caring about the burn of the hypervodka. It took him a moment to make sure his stomachs would not revolt again before turning back to Jack's malevolent glare.

"Who was he?"