A Good Day Until It Wasn't

By Sonic Jules

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A/N: A special thanks to Catharticone, who not only gave me this idea with a prompt, but beta'd it as well. Her suggestions helped make it what it is, and here's the result.

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Chapter One:

But It Looked So Charming...

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It had been a beautiful outing, and the Doctor and Rose had enjoyed the flora and fauna alike as they walked along the landscape, seeing the tranquil planet of Viola at its summer peak. But then the vines - those silly, simple vines - had started reaching for them, needy and wanting for anything new with brainwaves and functioning thoughts for them to soak up. And they'd grown, fast and furiously as they chased Rose and him for several miles, wanting to touch their minds and consume their emotions and memories and anything else they could take telepathically.

Funny how he'd forgotten about those. Well, not funny in the "ha-ha" fashion, but funny in a strange, thought-provoking sort of way. He wondered if perhaps they'd touched his mind and made him forget. He had been thinking something warily about the planet as they stepped out and recognition had begun to strike, but then that thought had flitted away, and he and Rose had wandered long and far before the little poison ivy-looking vines had crept up after them. They had been sneaky, too. Practically surrounding the duo before they had even noticed the green lines of foliage nearing.

When they did notice, both Rose and the Time Lord inched slowly away, hoping to thwart the squirming worm-like growths from capturing them. However, in the end they had run the equivalent of a marathon; the speed of the green menace's chase was worthy of any animal cornering its prey.

The Doctor recalled that when they'd finally reached the TARDIS, one of the vines had grabbed his hand much like Rose did on a regular basis. He'd wiggled and jiggled a bit while pushing Rose through the doors, gaining her safety and his release from the plant all at once. They'd cheered, they'd hugged, and then they'd parted; he moving to the center console, taking them to the safety of the vortex, and she heading off to take a shower, plucking leaves from her clothes and hair as she headed down the corridor.

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He stepped softly as he walked down the hallway, not wanting to disturb Rose in case she'd fallen asleep, but needing to check on her. He knew she was near exhaustion by the time they'd finally gotten back to the ship, but the Time Lord was quite the opposite; he was wound as tightly as a tick on a noseless Barcelonan dog. He needed to see her though, realizing that as easily as the vine had grabbed him, it could have touched her as well. He remembered her pulling leaves from her clothing and hair. What if the vine had touched Rose? If so, she could easily have a reaction of some sort. And asleep or not, he could still check her over. Maybe he'd wind down once he had knowledge of her well-being.

With that thought clouding his mind, the Doctor knocked lightly on Rose's door. It was partially open, though the lights were lowered for slumber.

"Wose? You awake?"

"Yeah, but the name's Rose, not Wose."

Hmm, she sounded a bit cranky. But of course she did, being exhausted and human and all. Regardless, she was awake, and that was an open invitation to enter her room as far as he was concerned.

As he walked into her room, the lights became brighter. The Doctor could definitely see the scowl still etched on Rose's face. But when her eyes met his, the scowl suddenly dissolved into a look which was a cross between fear and instant worry.

"Oh my God! What's happened to you? Doctor? Are you all right?"

He focused closely upon his companion, mildly worried about her sudden concern. "Course I'm all wight. Why would you ask that?"

"Have you had a look at yourself in a mirror?" she asked, her right finger pointing towards his face. She sat up straight, staring at him as if he'd grown a third eyeball. And here he'd thought he was more handsome with this tenth regeneration. Obligingly, he turned toward her dresser and looked at his reflection.

Oh. Perhaps a third lip, instead.

Bringing his hand to his upper lip, the Doctor stared at himself with much fascination, seeing his upper lip at least twice its normal size. His eyes then caught Rose as she stood up, bringing herself behind him.

"Can't believe you couldn't feel that," she commented, staring quite blatantly at the deformity.

"S'pose I'm still not used to these new teeth. Didn't feel all that stwange."

"Allergic reaction?" Rose guessed, watching as he touched the protrusion by poking it here and there with his left index finger.

"Mmm hmm," he replied distractedly, then turned himself around suddenly to face her. "Bwilliant, Wose! You awe simply so smawt, you awe!"

"Yeah, um, could you save the praisin' until after you've fixed that? Sounds kind of weird," she suggested.

The Doctor nodded. "Wight."

Taking her hand, he led Rose out into the corridor and straight down to the in Infirmary. As she watched, the Time Lord began looking through a few cupboards, pulling different items from each and pouring a little of each of those ingredients into a large stainless steel bowl - the first thing he'd removed.

She sat on the couch as he stirred the concoction quickly, then turned to her and smiled. At least she hoped that face he made was a happy one. The Doctor tilted the bowl toward Rose, letting her see the mixture as it turned white and fluffy, reminding her of whipped cream.

"All done. Now all that's left is applying it," he said almost jovially as he hefted a handful of the mixture towards his face, then began smearing it all over as if preparing for a shave. When he was finished, Rose tried unsuccessfully to quiet her giggles.

"You look like Santa Claus," she offered in between snorts.

"Weally?" he asked too innocently, gathering another handful of the goo as Rose burst into laughter. She closed her eyes, wiping beneath them with gentle fingertips.

When she looked up at him again, his aim was dead-on.

"Oi! What'd ya do that for?" she asked, using her fingers like windshield wiper blades across her eyelids to remove the goop.

"So that I wasn't the only one looking like Santa Claus. I'd say the look suits you. Whipped cream Rose. Has a nice ring to it, don't you think?"

She looked at the Doctor, frozen for a couple of seconds, then smiled. "Hey! Your lip's gone down. That stuff works really quick, yeah?"

The Time Lord was beaming as he set the metal bowl down on the counter, then grabbed a couple of towels from nearby. "When you've got it - which I do, of course - you should flaunt it," he spoke through the cloth he used to wipe his face clean, throwing the other terry to Rose. She immediately began wiping away the smears on her skin as the Doctor turned away to throw his towel on the counter.

"And to think I was worried about you having a reaction to the vines, not even knowing if they had touched you or not. I suppose I'm not as immune to such things as I thought," the Doctor said as he put the silver bowl in a sink to the left of the counter top. When he turned back, his gaze fell on Rose with instant concern. Her skin had suddenly lost all color and her eyes were blinking rapidly, as if she were trying to force them to focus. The towel she'd used to wipe her face fell from her hand.

"Rose?"

She looked all around the room, her expression bewildered. Finally, her eyes met his. "I don' feel so good." Her body slumped sideways quite suddenly, luckily falling across the couch she sat upon rather than pitching toward the floor. The Doctor was beside her instantly.

"Rose!"

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