If Tomorrow Never Comes

[country_who]

Title: If Tomorrow Never Comes
Rating: PG 
Genre: Hurt/Comfort
Characters: Rose/TenII, plus their twins Donna and Jack. 
Summary: The Doctor is in the hospital after not waking up for three days from an explosion. 
Author's Note:  Another addition to the Country Music series on My Teaspoon Account HERE. This one was inspired by Garth Brooks' song "If Tomorrow Never Comes." It started as being a lot closer to the progression of the real song, where it takes place in two lover's bedroom, but I thought the human Doctor should be hurt for this to work, so it moved from him limping Rose's bedroom, to him waking up in a hospital room from a coma. My mind is a scary place sometimes.

 

The Doctor furrowed his brow in confusion. The last thing the Doctor remembered was being out in the field with Jake and the rest of the squad, Chris and Sam. There was this thing, alien thing. It was trying to take people for experiments. What about the rest of the team? Where they alright? He had scouted ahead to investigate…the explosion.    

 

When the shock of waking up in the hospital wore off, the Doctor realized how much he hurt. There was a tightness around his chest. He lifted the thin sheets of the bed and glanced at his chest to see that it was covered with bandages, which went from his lower abdomen and up and around his left shoulder. The Doctor found that even breathing hurt, so he tried to make his breaths as small as possible. Even the side of his face seemed to be a light with burning pain. He reached up and felt thick bandages covering his face. 

 

He tried to ignore the pain, while he glanced at the clock. 

 

“3:45 in the afternoon,” the Doctor muttered to himself, Rose had probably picked up the twins from school by now. 

 

He glanced over at the bedside table, and spotted a framed picture. The Doctor reached his hand out and picked it up. He carefully slid the picture out of its simple wooden frame and looked at the picture. 

 

It was of Rose and the twins, Donna and Jack. Donna’s curly dark brown hair fell messily over her shoulders, while her eyes seemed to be looking everywhere but the camera. Jack stood more quietly leaning into his mother’s side. His sandy blonde hair covered his right eye, but the Doctor could see a hazel one peeking shyly at the camera. Rose was beautiful. Having twins had taken a lot out of her figure, but the Doctor traced her curves happily. 

 

He had taken this picture a month before he started going into the field again. That had been three months ago. Rose had agreed to be a stay-at-home mother, since the Doctor was making enough for them to be comfortable. They couldn’t bring themselves to risk both their necks when they had children.  He had lain off the field work until the twins were old enough to start school. 

 

The Doctor flipped over the picture and read the note that Rose left him in her swooping handwriting. 

 

<i>Dear Doctor,

If you wake up and we’re not here, know that we love you.

With all the love in the stars and moons,

Rose, Donna, and Jack.</i>

 

The Doctor smiled at his six year olds’ crude handwriting in multiple colors of crayon. 

 

“Daddy?” a girl’s voice called out to him. 

 

The Doctor looked up to see Donna still in her school clothes standing in the doorway. Her hair was tied back in an impossible ponytail that bobbed up and down as she ran to him excitedly. 

 

“Hey, Sweetie,” the Doctor greeted, his voice grated tiredly. 

 

The Doctor opened up his arms and she flew into them. The Doctor winced as she hit areas of his chest that were obviously bruised and burned, but he couldn’t care less. He was too occupied holding onto Donna.  

 

“You’re awake,” Donna mumbled into his chest. 

 

“Well, no one can sleep forever,” the Doctor told her, as Rose and Jack appeared in the doorway. 

 

Both were clearly enthralled by him being awake, and they too walked quickly to him. 

 

“The last few times we were here you were asleep,” Donna told him, pointing a small finger at him. 

 

The Doctor looked at her quizzically and shot Rose a gaze to see what was going on. 

 

“You’ve been asleep for three days,” Rose told him gently, while she led Jack over to the Doctor’s bed. “And before you ask everyone else is fine. They were behind cover…when the aliens set off that bomb…you were…right next to it.”

 

“I missed you, Daddy,” Jack blurted quietly out of nowhere. 

 

“I missed you too, buddy,” the Doctor told him. “Come on up here.” 

 

The Doctor patted the bed, and Jack scrambled up it with the help of Rose. Donna and Jack held onto him tightly, while he rubbed Jack’s back and smoothed his hand over Donna’s hair. 

 

‘Three days?’ he mouthed to Rose. 

 

She nodded slowly and crossed over to him. Donna and Jack slid back onto the floor and stood quietly with their hands clasped behind their backs, watching their parents. Rose cupped the side of his face that wasn’t covered by a bandage and brought his face gently to hers. The Doctor leaned into her touch and closed his eyes as their lips met. They softly caressed one another’s mouths before pulling apart. 

 

Rose wrapped her arms around his neck and whispered to him. 

 

“We were so worried,” Rose told him in a shaky voice. 

 

“I’m sorry,” the Doctor apologized.

 

Rose pulled herself off of him, not letting him or the children see the tears she shed. 

 

The Doctor hadn’t realized how much pain he had caused them. How could he? He only had one life now; he couldn’t waste it. 

 

The twins took a step closer, mirroring one another’s motions. 

 

“I love you,” the Doctor told them. 

 

“We know you do,” Donna said pointedly. 

 

Jack nodded mutedly, while Rose wrapped her arm around his shoulders. 

 

“I have to be sure,” the Doctor whispered for only himself and Rose. 

 

Rose nodded her head happily and finally let tears fall onto the Doctor’s neck and the twins pressed themselves into the Doctor’s side. All while the Doctor whispered his love to each of them.