A/N: I apologize for the loooonggg wait. My life is definitely not taking the turns I had hoped and I'm afraid my updates won't be frequent at all. I'm sorry :/

Disclaimer: I don't own Doctor Who

Chapter Sixteen

Erina sat in the middle of the aisle, her fingers clutching the carpet until they turned white. Her head ached, her eyes stung, her limbs were stiff and she felt sick. She was slowly fading and she knew it. Eventually she'd disappear, since her connection with the Doctor had been severed. Her wings had wrapped around her in a protective sheath, leaving her in a world of her own to vanish in silence.

"Doctor," she mumbled quietly, in her comfortable little world staring at the sterile white of her feathers. "I'm coming. I'm coming for you, I promise. I haven't abandoned you, I'll still save you. I'll still save you."

Rose reached out and softly stroked one of her wings. Tears of her own were sliding down her cheeks but she knew she couldn't have been in as much pain as Erina was. She could hear murmuring on the other side of the protective shell that the guardian's wings seemed to have formed. The appendages were droopy, almost sad looking, and had an undeniable blue tint to the tips.

"Still going to safe you," the voice said hysterically. "I haven't left you."

Pete approached Rose, a frown etched onto his features. "What is she?" he asked.

"I thought it would be pretty obvious?" Rose replied. "What, with the wings and all. No?" She sighed at her father's blank expression. "She's a guardian angel. The Doctor's guardian angel. Now that he's . . . gone, she has nothing to live for. I don't know what happens now though. If she dies or disappears or . . . something."

Peeta laughed, somewhat nervously. "An angel?" he asked in disbelief.

"Yeah, and he was an alien," Rose answered. "Now he's gone and Erina's slowly being dragged down too." She sat down on one of the pews and shrugged. "I don't even know what to do now. Without him I'm nothing, I'm useless. At one point, those things are going to get in. The Doctor's not here and Erina's so weak, we're all going to die."

"Unless I get hit by that car," Pete stated.

Rose looked up at him sharply, her heart skipping a beat. "Don't be ridiculous," she said. "I saved you, it's nothing to do with the car." She didn't want her attempts to have been wasted, even if everything was ending. There was a chance that if she got through all this, her dad would be alive.

"Come on love, we need to be realistic," Pete replied. "The reason those things are here, the wound that needs to be stitched is the fact that you saved me from getting hit by that car. I can see it outside, looping around, disappearing, only to re-appear later. I have go outside and throw myself in front of that car."

"No, that's not the answer," Rose insisted, desperate to convince her father that he didn't have to do it, that his dying was not the cause of all this. Even if it was. The Doctor had never clarified on it but Rose know knew that he hadn't told her this because he was trying to protect her from the truth. The only way the wound could be healed was if her father jumped out in front of the car. When she refused to answer, Pete sighed and tapped Erina's wings.

A sudder fluttered through the wings, a wave of some sort shrivering through the feathers. Two blue eyes peered out from between them, ladened with exhaustion and sadness. "What?" a hoarse voice croaked.

"Do I, or do I not, have to go out and get hit by the car?" Pete asked her.

Erina shrugged, almost helplessly. "What does it matter?" she wailed. "He's gone." She turned to glare at Rose. "And it's your fault," she hissed. "It's your fault he's dead. You saved Pete's goddamn life and now he's gone! Was it worth it Rose, huh? Was it worth it?!"

Pete nodded. "That does it then," he said.

Rose stood up and grabbed her father's arm. "No, you can't do this," she pleaded. "We'll find another way out of this. Erina, we have to figure something else out!" But the angel had already retreated back behind her wings, softly mumbling to herself again. Rose turned back to her father desperately, tears welling up in her eyes again. "Please dad, you can't do this."

Pete smiled. "It's okay dear, I'll be okay. What's one life if it's going to save the world?" he asked. Rose opened her mouth to protest but was interuppted when Erina groaned loudly, her wings pulling back to reveal her face, which had gone as white as a sheet. Her lips parted in one last silent scream before she fell backwards, landing flat on her back in the middle of her the aisle, lifeless.

"Erina?" Rose asked, flying to her side. She dropped to her knees and pressed her hand against the guardian's forehad. Stone cold. Her eyes were welded open, staring up at the top of the church, seeing but unseeing. "Oh god Erina!" She pressed her fingers against her juglar-did angels have juglars?-and noted with horror that she had no pulse. Her hearts weren't beating either. She was dead. "Oh god, no, this can't be happening."

"I'm sorry love, enough people have died," Pete said. He looked around the nearly empty church. Everyone else had retreated to the back, accepting their fate and just waiting to die. Rose couldn't let her father die, not when she had just gotten him back. She lightly slapped Erina's cheeks, as if she could get her to come back to life just by smacking her a couple of times.

Pete took her arms and pulled her up off the ground. "I can fix this," Rose said. "I'll come up with something. I can bring them back. You don't have to die." Pete hugged her, holding her head in the crook of his neck and shushing her. She went limp in his hold, bursting into tears. This was hopeless, it was all hopeless.

"Sssh, it's okay baby girl," Pete comforted her. "Everything's going to be alright. Even if I never took you on picnics, or read you stories at night, but I can do this one thing for you. I'll save you and your friends. I promise." Rose sobbed, taking a deep breath and shaking her head into his shoulder.

"You can't," she insisted.

"I have to," Pete replied. He pulled back and kissed her tear stained cheek. He looked down at Erina, looking perplexed. Rose looked too. She had never seen the angel so lifeless. She lay sprawled on the floor, the feathers of her wings slowly shrivelling up, her eyes still open and unblinking.

He turned and ran.

"Dad!" Rose screamed after him. Grabbing the vase along the way, Pete threw the doors of the church open and ran out, jumping down the steps and running up the road. Rose stumbled after him, realizing that it was a fruitless attempt once she'd reached the entrance. Throwing her arms over her face, she squeezed her eyes shut as she heard tires screeching and a loud bang that made her heart stop.

A deafening silence followed. Rose could hear nothing but her own panting, slowly lowering her arms to stare out at the streets. It looked as if nothing had changed but the reapers seemed to have vanished, no longer screeching or screaming. She sensed a presence beside her and she turned to find the Doctor standing beside her. Her heart skipped a beat and she couldn't help feeling relieved. Rose couldn't help it, she looked behind herself, just to see if Erina was alive.

Standing where she had fallen, chin tilted up and blue eyes sparkling, Erina was very much alive. She wasn't smiling, this wasn't a time for smiling, her mouth was set into a stubborn line of indifference instead. Her wings were healthy again, standing out proudly with a brilliant glow with full, silky feathers.

"Go to him," the Doctor instructed. Rose knew immediately what he meant; go to Pete, go to her father. Her dad had died alone on the street before the ambulance even arrived. Now she had a chance, a chance to go to him and hold his hand. She would never have this chance again.

So she went.

The Doctor watched her run to her father, a faint smile on his face, before he braced himself and turned around to face Erina.

As soon as he turned around, he was met by a scowl. Erina grinded her teeth together and pointed at him threateningly. "I am going to kill you," she said angrily.

"Bit late for that, don't you think?" he asked, sauntering towards her without a care in the world. As soon as she reached him, Erina smacked him. "Ow!" Erina unleashed her rage on him, beating him with her hands, slapping at him mercilessly. She didn't care that she felt every single blow, she hated him for doing what he did.

"You threw me to the floor, you idiot!" Erina screamed at him. "What if Pete hadn't figured it out? What if we died, that would have been it! Both of us! Kaput! No second chances!"

"But Pete did figure it out," the Doctor replied. "It's all good."

Erina was baffled. "It's all good? Do you know what you put me through? I'd thought you'd left me! I thought it was my fault, you absoloute moron!" The Doctor pulled her into a hug, half to shut her up and the other half for comfort. Erina was never one for being dramatic but when it came to him dying, she always got emotional. "Never, ever do that again, do you hear me?!"

"Did you die?" The Doctor asked quietly.

"What do you think?" Erina replied.

He sighed. "I'm sorry," he mumbled.

Erina pulled back and smacked him again. "You should be!" she hissed. "You scared me to death! And Rose too! You need to stop being so noble, it's my job to sacrifice myself for you! It's what I'm supposed to do!"

"You've known for years now that I can't just stand and let you take the fall. The timelords must have screwed it up or something because I can't let you do it, even if it's what you're supposed to do," The Doctor explained. "If there's something I can do to stop you from getting hurt then . . . well . . . I'll do it."

Erina shook her head. "I'm sorry, that's not how it's supposed to work," she said. "As I said, never do that again." She hugged him back, burying her head into his shoulder and folding her wings away. The idiot, she was never letting him go again. If he ever tried anything like that again, never mind him dying on his own, she was going to kill him herself.

Except, of course, she couldn't.

She never could.

A/N: I'm sorry again for the long wait. Please review with your thoughts? (: