"Hi, Captain Jack Harkness."

-LI century lingo for 'how you doin gurl'

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Word count: 2110 (*-*)

Nina pulled Martha away and kept holding the Doctor's hand tightly as she pushed on the lever that slided the Doctor into the Chamber. She pushed the buttons to write 200, and then pushed the button to activate the chamber.

She felt the Doctor's grip on her hand tighten as he started to yell continuously, the machine freezing his body to negative temperatures. Nina watched with teary eyes as the screen showed the temperature going down rapidly until it stopped and the whole machine went off.

"No, no!" The Doctor yelled. A small layer of ice was now covering his hair and his suit, along with Nina's hand that was still inside the machine. "You can't stop it, not yet!" He let out another pained scream.

"Powers been cut in engineering," Nina told the two women. "Go!" McDonnell left immediately, but Martha hesitated. "Martha, go! And keep her from dying," she added. Martha nodded gravely and ran away, off the room.

Nina muttered to herself as she went to the power generators. Usually, a med-center would be the one place that had them, but apparently, theirs wasn't working. Nina had an idea pop into her head and ran to the intercom.

"Martha, help them get to Area 1, then dump the fuel!" she yelled. "Give it back what they took from it, give it what it wants!"

"Nina," she heard her name being called. The Doctor had fallen from the Statis Chamber, and his body and suit were now completely defrosted. She kneeled down in front of him, grabbing his face in her hands. His hands immediately flew to her waist to keep himself stable, depending entirely on her.

"I've got you," she whispered to him, resting her forehead against his.

"You have to go," he managed to get out through his teeth. "I can't - I don't want to hurt you," he whimpered.

"You're not, I promise you're not going to," she promised.

"I'm sorry, I can't-- I can't help it," he stuttered, pretty much hyperventilating at this point. Nina sensed how relaxed he was becoming in her arms. He was starting to give up. He was giving in. She took his arms in her hands and shook him ever so slightly.

"No, no!" She practically yelled at him. "You're not giving up, don't you dare!" Nina started to panic as she thought about how terrible he would feel when he woke up and found out the creature had used his body to kill every living being in this spaceship. She couldn't let that happen, not again. Nina grabbed the sides of his face again, sending a big wave of regeneration energy into his body, not even caring if she needed it or not anymore.

Without thinking twice, she pulled his face towards hers and caught his lips into a kiss. Nina had no idea how extremely right it would feel, and she was definitely not prepared for it. The action seemed to pull the Doctor back from his trance as his hands jolted up from her waist to her neck, deepening the kiss. Nina felt like her brain was on fire, but it could also be from the gigantic fever she had. She felt so weak, not sure if it was from the kiss or from the fact that she was using a lot of regeneration energy on him.

The ship suddenly shook. Nina guessed it was probably from the fuel being dumped. The Doctor suddenly doubled forward, gasping for air. Nina watched as his eyes glowed again for a moment before he let a pained scream and his eyes stopped shinning, becoming completely white before going back to their usual hazel colour.

Nina was quick to get back to him and wrap her arms around his neck, both of them breathing heavily. Nina felt how his body temperature was now back to normal.

"Thank goodness," she whispered in the crook of his neck. The Doctor soon wrapped his arms around her waist.

"Impact averted, impact averted," the alarm sound repeated.

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The two of them walked back through the Areas, and they met back with Martha. She was glad to see the two of them alive and well. Nina soon found out that McDonnell had sacrificed herself to save the rest of them.

9.

Nina couldn't help but feel responsible. She was the one who had told them to go and take care of the power cut. McDonnell went back because of her.

The three of them had gotten back into the TARDIS, leaving Scannell and Ashton behind. The authorities were on their way, so it was safe to leave them alone in the cargo ship. The Doctor comforted Martha and walked her to her room, before walking Nina to the infirmary like he had told her he would do.

Nina sat on a hospital bed, rubbing a hand on her face as she finally felt the impact of having lost so much regeneration energy.

"You shouldn't have done that," the Doctor said, referring to her healing him. He took her head in his hand and used his sonic to scan her once more.

"You were in pain, and I was right there. I couldn't just watch you," she explained herself.  "Besides, you did it for me not too long ago."

"I gave you barely anything," he countered, stepping away from her to place his screwdriver into a computer that started to read the info. "And my body wasn't struggling to stabilize in this dimension when I did so," he suddenly raised his voice, making her flinch. He froze, realizing he had frightened her, a look of remorse immediately appearing on his face. "I'm sorry. I'm so, sorry."

"That's alright," she told him. She definitely was not alright.

"No, it's not," he denied, looking down and shaking his head. "It's not alright, you're not alright. Why do you keep saying you are?" He asked her. Nina tilted her head and frowned as s memory resurfaced.

She thought back on the days she had been a soldier for Hydra. She had been their prisoner for more than fifty years, during which they had trained her very well. Rule number one: do not speak unless you are spoken to. That was probably why she still waited for her turn to talk, even today. Rule number two: do now show any signs of pain. She had been trained -- well, tortured, really -- to not feel pain, or at least to not let anyone know. Even during fights, while she was the soldier, the other her, she was not allowed to grunt when she received a blow, or to yell out. God forbid it if she ever cried. It happened once. She learned quickly.

"I'm fine," Nina lied again. Except this time, the Doctor already knew it was a lie. He wrapped his arms around her shoulders, keeping her in his embrace.

"No, you're not," he told her, shaking his head. "But I see that you don't want to talk about. Maybe you don't trust me enough, maybe you're just not ready. But when you are, please, Nina, I am begging you, talk to me."

Nina didn't know what to say, and even if she did, she wouldn't have gotten the chance to say it, because she suddenly started to cry. She hated herself for it because for so long she wasn't allowed to, but with the Doctor, she felt safe.

He held her tightly as she sobbed, not even caring if she was creating a pool of tears on his suit. The Doctor reached for her head with his hand and caressed her hair, never letting her go.

Suddenly, Nina doubled in two, a sharp pain rearing through her whole body. The Doctor retreated ever so slightly, only to see her face.

"What? What is it?" He asked hysterically. He placed his hands on her shoulders.

"It hurts," she managed to get out through gritted teeth. She let out a grunt of pain as she doubled over again. "It hurts, why does it hurt?" She whimpered.

The Doctor went to the scanner, try and understand what was going on. When he left her, Nina's muscles contracted so violently that she fell off the bed, crying out when her knees hit the ground. He rushed towards her, but froze when he noticed something.

"What...?" he stuttered.

Nina doubled over once more. The burning sensation all over her body was being replaced by a numbness that felt way too familiar, but at the same time, it didn't.

The Doctor extended one hand to her, and when she reached for it, her hand phased right through his. Nina looked at her hands in despair. She didn't understand what was happening. She was... disappearing.

"I'll find you," The Doctor told her, looking directly into her eyes. "I promise you, I'll do whatever it takes to find you." His voice was becoming distant, and Nina could barely even hear him when she closed her eyes and grabbed her head, which felt quite solid to her. She heard indistinct voices, calling out to her, and she couldn't even make out what they were saying.

Suddenly, in a matter of seconds, the pain and numbness were completely gone from her body. She slowly opened her eyes and realized the Doctor was no longer in front of her. Actually, once she looked around, she found out that she was the one who as gone, she had moved, because she was still in the infirmary, but it looked completely different from the one she was. Was this still the same TARDIS? Of course, it was, this was the only TARDIS left in the universe.

"Nina!" A cheery voice called out. Her head snapped towards the door and she saw a young man. He was wearing a grey suit and a bowtie. His longish hair was fallen over his face, and he used a hand to throw it backward. "What are you doing on the ground?" He finally took a good look at her, noticing her red, puffy eyes and the tear streams on her face. "Nina, what -- are you crying?"

The man took a few steps towards her, but that made Nina flinch away backwards until her back hit the hospital bed behind her. He noticed how frightened she actually was, and halted.

"Nina," he called out to her, obviously hurt that she was scared of him. Nina locked her eyes with his for a second, and then she understood who the man was. It was the Doctor. Nina felt a wave of relief wash over her.

Nina looked around, realizing she was still in the TARDIS. It must have changed, regenerated with her Doctor. But... how? How could she have traveled again? Why was this happening to her?

"Nina?" He called out again, seeing she had zoned out. Nina's head spun towards him, and he saw recognition on her face. He walked towards her, and she didn't move. "What's going on? Talk to me," he begged, helping her up and onto the bed.

"I d-don't.." Nina trailed off. Nina felt like crying again, and she hated it. The Doctor noticed it and wrapped his arms around her shoulders, pulling her close. "What just happened?" She stuttered. The Doctor frowned.

"Was this your first time?" He asked. He sounded troubled, but hurt at the same time. Nina looked up at him.

"I don't even know what happened," she whispered. There was a look of sadness on his face.

"You've time-jumped," he explained, releasing her from his embrace to sit down beside her. "You do that a lot."

"I just... jump?" Nina asked him, her brows furrowed. That's... that's not supposed to be possible.

"Yes," he told her. "Your body doesn't actually stabilize," he started to explain. "It is always vibrating at a different frequency, so it is attracted to the time-energy from the TARDIS. Except time in here is different, so it just makes you jump to a different point in time. That's why you feel all numb and fading when you're jumping. It's the TARDIS overwhelming you with time-energy to get you somewhere she thinks she can help you keep you safe. The more you jump, the more your body is stabilized. You have to keep jumping."

Nina didn't even move. She wasn't even sure she understood. It was like her brain was in resting mode, and all of the information given to her just kind of flowed in and out of her head.

"I'm... I'm not even going to question that."

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