SURVIVAL OF THE FITTEST
Chapter Twenty Four After two hours, both Doctors finished their work. "Finally," Ten said, resting in the sling that held him up under the console floor. "I think we fixed all of it." "I hope so," Eleven said, raising the goggles to his forehead while he sat in a sling a few feet from him. "Damn him and his meddling." "What should we do with him?" Ten said, swinging slightly in his sling. "Well, we can't send him to prison, too risky," Eleven said. "For the sake of the universe, we need to put him to death." "Send him on a fight to the death competition and watch it?" Ten quipped. "Don't tempt me. No, I'm thinking vaporization. That way we can be sure no one can resurrect his body in some way. I'll handle it though, no worries." Ten nodded. "Doctor," Eleven said. "Without going into details, I just want to ask you to cherish Rose every second of every day." "I already do," Ten said. "And take care of River and your friends." "You know I will," Eleven said. "I wish you didn't have to erase all this from your mind and Rose's mind." "For the sake of the timeline," Ten said. Eleven nodded. "Can I ask your permission to do something though before you erase Rose's memories?" he said to Ten. XOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOX "So anyway, Rose and I were on the run from spear chucking natives on a distant planet and we came to this swamp," Jack said to everyone while the humans sat at the kitchen table and the raptors stood beside it. "And she's all like, "Ew, I don't wanna go in there, it's gross!" Jack said in a high-pitched voice. "And I was all like, "I'll carry you then," he said in a deep voice. "Don't believe him," Rose said while everyone laughed. "And so I picked her up and carried her across the ucky mucky swamp and her clothes and body were spared," Jack said while Rose and Rory glanced at each other. "And then I threw her down on a blanket and we made sweet love…" The others laughed when Rose turned and swatted his head with her tail. "Firing squad ready yet?" Jack said while Rose nuzzled the top of his head playfully. "TEN HUT!" Ten barked as he and Eleven came into the kitchen. "At ease, companions! We have finished with the repairs and we are now in the vortex." The humans clapped while Rose and Rory barked happily. "As you might have guessed, we can also turn the tauntuans back to normal," Ten added. "Good," Rory said. "Rose, my esteemed colleague wishes to see you in private for a moment," Ten said, gesturing to Eleven. Rose glanced at Rory and followed Eleven out the door. "Now, as for the rest of us, let's head back to the lab and sort Rory out," Ten said. XOXOXOXOXOXOXOXO Eleven led Rose down a couple of corridors until he was sure they had privacy. "I asked my other self if I could do this," he said to her when she gave him a questioning look. "I hate that you have to forget me eventually. I don't want that to happen." Rose nodded and nuzzled his arm while he smiled. "But I can leave you a gift," Eleven said, rubbing her snout. "I asked my other self if I could implant a message deep in your subconscious so you will always know me and remember what I have to say to you and he agreed. You won't remember it consciously but it'll always be there in the back of your mind and what I want to say is, you are loved by me and always will be." He smiled when Rose rubbed his chest with her head and nuzzled his cheek. "I would kiss you but you're hairy in all places…except for your eyes and nostrils and claws and I really don't want to kiss those. But I'm waiting till you become human again before I do this so I can be sure it's your mind. I don't know if your brain was altered by this transformation and I want to be sure you have it in your subconscious before you go. I just wanted to tell you my plan so after you're human, we'll go someplace again and finish this. Okay?" Rose nodded. The Doctor hugged her and she did her best to hug him back. When they broke apart, Eleven rubbed her snout and the two of them headed for the laboratory. XOXOXOXOXOXOX When they entered the laboratory, everyone was waiting for them. "I decided to sedate them during this," Ten said to his counterpart. "At least momentarily. They were sedated the first time so I don't know if the mutation is painful but I don't want to risk it." "Good idea," Eleven said. "I have chloroform for them and the TARDIS provided them with underwear and dressing gowns until they can get some kit on," the Doctor said, pointing to a table near the machine. "I also took Rory's translator off and put it there." Eleven unsnapped Rose's translator and put it on the table while Ten opened the door of the machine and asked for Rose and Rory and to step inside. The two raptors glanced at each other and walked in while Ten went to get a small brown bottle of chloroform and a handkerchief from the counter near the lab door. Eleven followed Rose and Rory inside and helped them to lie down on their sides while Ten stood at the machine's door and watched. Once they were both lying on the floor side by side, Ten poured a bit of chloroform inside the folded handkerchief and walked over to Rory. He put it over his nostrils and asked Rory to breathe deeply. Eleven rubbed Rory's side, watching while the nictitating membrane slid over his eyes and his eyelids dropped. When he was asleep, they moved over to Rose. "Damn, no tauntaun for me," Ten said, pouring a bit more chloroform into the handkerchief. Shut up, Rose chittered to him. Ten smiled and put the handkerchief to her nostrils. Eleven stroked her neck and the watched while she slowly succumbed to sleep. When both of them were unconscious, the Doctors got up and left the interior, closing the door behind them. XOXOXOXOXOXOXO "Rose?" Rose's eyelids fluttered and she slowly opened them. She saw Ten smiling down at her while he stroked her cheek. "Welcome back, to the land of the living and the land of humans," he said. Rose lifted her arms and a grin spread across her face when she saw they were back to normal. Ten helped her sit up and she noticed she was on the floor. She looked down and saw the blue dressing gown on her. "We took the liberty of dressing you while you were inside the machine," Ten said. "My other self and me, that is. And we did it for Rory as well." Rose looked around and saw Eleven, Amy and River kneeling by Rory while he slowly woke up. Jack was standing by them, grinning at Rose. "Welcome back, Blondie, good to see you as a human again," he said. Ten helped Rose up and helped steady her when she wobbled a bit. "The effects of the chloroform need to wear off a bit more," Ten said, putting his hand on her back while he led her to the chair. "How are you feeling?" "Groggy but at least I'm back to normal," Rose said, holding on to him while she walked to the chair. Ten sat her down and put his arms around her while she tried to shake off the groggy feeling. "Hey, partner," she said to Rory while Amy and River helped walk him over to the chair beside her. "Hey, good to see you as a human again," Rory said. "And I get to see you for the first time, you're very pretty," River said as she and Amy helped Rory sit down. "Thanks," Rose said. "Damn, there goes my dreams of being a tauntaun jockey at Ascot," Ten muttered. "Will you shut up?" Rose said while everyone laughed. "Hey! You're right! We coulda entered them in the races! Damn, why didn't we think of that!" Eleven said, slapping his forehead. "They coulda been called Time Lord Tauntaun and Mangy Manky Rory. We coulda made millions on our two race…raptors," he added while Rose flipped him the vees. "Listen, there's still time," Ten said to Eleven. "We know the machine works. We'll just change them back and enter them in the derby." "You two are strange," Rory said. "Belt up, Mangy Manky Rory, we're plotting your future as a race raptor now!" Eleven said to him. Rory gave him a peeved look while the two Doctors giggled hysterically.
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