A/N: A one-shot between the 10th Doctor and Rose that I wrote to perk myself up from winter blues. It's a short one and I am not sure if I will add a more 'M-Rating' second chapter or not. Please review and let me know if you want me to continue.

"I tried! It's not working!" Cried Rose over the noise of the ship they had landed on. He had relinquished his precious sonic to her so that she could find a way to seal the doors of the pod, two levels below - which was slowly filling with an infectious space virus from a broken lab chamber. The Doctor, meanwhile, had raced to the engine room to fix some doo-dad space part so the ship's systems stayed online long enough for them to contain the virus, and protect the people on the ship.

She removed her finger from the intercom button and awaited his response.

"Well keep trying!" He shouted back over the speakers. Well, duh. She thought. She was hoping for a little more expertise than that. She sighed and continued trying various settings on the sonic and pointing it at the security interface in the wall. The lights suddenly flickered and then shut down entirely. She pursed her lips together in consternation…

Whoops…

"Rooose…" She heard the Doctor's scolding voice over the speakers, "what did you do?"

"Umm… I'm not sure" She replied sweetly – smiling though he couldn't see her.

"Well turn them back on!" He cried, and she heard an echoing bang emit through the speakers and a faint grunt from the Doctor himself – obviously having bumped into something. Rose immediately resumed her work with the sonic and several moments later the lights flashed to life with a low electrical hum that buzzed above her head.

"Doctor – I think I've found it." She said, pressing the black button to her right. "I've got a screen showing Pod Five and I'm not entirely sure what the symbols are on the screen, but I am pretty sure the one in red should do it, yeah?" She asked, looking at the speaker as if she could see his voice come out of it.

"Nooo! Not the red command. Is there a … uhhh…" She heard the distinct sound of paper being shuffled as she waited for him to continue. "Riiiight… look for a long squiggly kinda line with some twirls and slashes in it, apparently that means 'to seal' in Jorbanii." He explained, sounding not the least bit sure this would work.

"You've got to be joking." She muttered to herself and she searched the panel for indistinct squiggles. She came across a command box with some kind of writing that sort of fit the description the Doctor had told her. She squeezed her eyes tightly shut as she brought her index finger to the screen. She made a squeaking, hopeful noise and pressed the screen on the command line and really, really hoped she wasn't about to flood the ship with a deadly space virus.

A red box immediately appeared around Pod Five on the interface map and she sighed, hoping that was a good sign.

"Ok! Got it! Let's get out of here." She turned away from the wall and leaned against a flat portion of the corridor, waiting for her Doctor to return so they could leave. Blimey, she was tired all of a sudden. Well… she reasoned, they had been racing around this bloody ship for hours now.

The Doctor, in a light jog, rounded the corner to her left and appeared smiling and triumphant. "Saved the world once again Rose!" He threw an arm around her shoulders as they made their way back towards the Tardis.

There were few people on the ship, but they had indeed saved them. The thought made her just as happy as it always did at the end of their adventures. She was important.

As they found themselves, once again, inside the Tardis, Rose collapsed on the jump seat. She was completely knackered. She felt her body become heavy and sluggish and allowed herself to nod off to sleep. Before her lids sealed shut, she saw the panicked expression of the Doctor flash over to her, his mouth dropping in shock. She could tell something was horribly wrong but, for the life of her, she could not stay awake.

The Doctor knew something was severely wrong with Rose when he saw her dissolve into unconsciousness. He immediately checked her pulse and was alarmed by the heat of her skin and the quickened rate of her heartbeat.

Nooo…. nononononono… he thought frantically. She was infected! He didn't know how it was possible. In that moment, he didn't care. He gathered her in his arms and rushed to the infirmary on his ship. His throat was tight with emotion as he laid her lifeless body on the examination table. He, chaotically, floundered around the room opening drawers after drawers, and cupboard after cupboard. He pulled out as many otherworldly vaccines and drugs as he thought might work. The Jorbanii virus that had been on that ship was deadly to their own kind and the Doctor hadn't a clue how a human would fair against it. He was terrified to find out.

He stopped abruptly, his arms tight at his sides, his fingers flexing into fists as he forced himself to think. The virus affected the white blood cells in a similar way that the Ebola virus did in Africa, he thought to himself. He had a counteragent from comparable solar system to earth that he thought might work, but it was more than a shot in the dark and he blistered at his uselessness. He looked over at Rose, her skin was glistening with moisture and had become sickly pale. Her head had listed to the side and faced in his direction in an almost accusing manner. If she died, it would be because of him, he thought morbidly.

The Doctor, finally steeled his resolve – having no better options – and plunged the needle containing the counteragent into the meat of her shoulder. His breath sawed in and out of mouth in a panic as he watched for any measure of change. He began pacing around the bed that sat in the center of the room.

Twenty agonizing, and terribly long, minutes later, he rechecked her pulse for the hundredth time and noted a small decrease in pace. The first good sign. He breathed a sigh of relief and hoped it wasn't premature.

He stayed by her side for hours, measuring the small changes in her breathing, her heartbeat, and the colour of her skin. As the pale skin slowly gave way to the pinkish hue that he loved so much, he brought a hand to her forehead and stroked his long fingers through her damp blonde hair.

After an unmeasurable amount of time, her body twitched in places. A finger lifting in a flash of movement; a shoulder muscle flickering as it came to life; and finally, her eyelids trembled with the searching movement from her eyes beneath. He held the air in his lungs as her lids slowly raised, and she saw him perched beside her – eager and anxious.

"Oh thank the Lords and Ladies of Gallifrey!" He lauded. His smile was warm as he continued stroking her hair and she observed him – her brows pulled together in bewilderment.

"Wha—" She began, and then cleared her throat before continuing, "what happened, Doctor?" She looked around at her surroundings with suspicion.

"You were…infected" His breath hitched on the words as he spoke and her eyes flared at the emotion she saw in his.

"Doctor, I'm alright though aren't I?" Her eyes were wide as she waited for his response.

"Yes, yes… yeah." He blabbered.

"Are you alright?" She added uncertainly.

"Uhh… sure. You just gave me quite the scare, there." The Doctor tried his best to reclaim his carefree attitude but as he looked down at Rose, his heart filled with the pain of what had almost happened. So many times he'd come close to losing her and if he had.. Oh God.. If he'd had, the regrets he would have felt would have been as immense and unshakeable as the expanding universe.

He'd never said it. They'd been travelling for almost two years now, and there had been so many times when the words had almost come spilling out of his mouth. He had always forced them back down his throat, terrified of what would happen when he'd said them. If what he felt became something real and if she died then, he knew it would probably destroy him. But as he'd spent the last few hours watching the life fight for existence inside her, he realized that if he'd missed his chance to tell her he loved her, he would regret it with such hatred of himself that he would become the man he'd always feared he might be. Brazen, unforgiving, and a terror to the universe. He couldn't have that.

She watched the emotions play across his features with hopeful interest. His hand was still resting on the crown of her head and he moved it to cradle the side of her face and he tilted his head to meet her stare. Her eyes locked onto his and widened at how openly he displayed his feelings for her. He breathed in a tenuous breath and leaned forward, he held her eyes as his lips met hers. He trembled with excitement. He had never kissed her before, and if she was shocked by it, she didn't show it. She breathed in through her nose and moved her lips against his, taking control of the kiss he'd initiated. He felt her palm caress his cheek and he stilled at the contact. Her lips moved in a way so as to part his own and he felt her tongue slide into his mouth. The sensation was exquisite. Her taste, her smell… everything about her set fire to his body. He skin was warm and prickly, and his stomach tightened in arousal. The kiss morphed from sweet and slow, to passionately urgent with the speed of a train.

The feeling in his heart was triumphant as their hands grabbed for each other. If he had saved a thousand worlds and a thousand species, he would not have felt as good as he did in this moment. His love for her had reached its breaking point, spilling over the vestiges of his control, and he rejoiced in giving himself to the most important thing in the whole of the universe.

A/N: Well that was a fun little one to write. I may add more to this if anyone wants. Reviews are very welcome. Thanks!