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"Rogue?"
Rogue hummed in acknowledgment of the Doctor saying his name.
"Are you okay? You're not looking great, honey."
Rogue glanced over to them, his eyes tracing over their concerned face. His heart thudded loudly in his ears.
"Yeah. Just...tired, I guess."
His eyes focused on the blue structure they were heading towards. Not far now. He couldn't wait to be out from under the blazing suns he'd been exposed to for the last however long he'd been there. The heat was oppressive, crawling under his skin and wrapping around his bones until his entire body felt like it was on fire. How the Doctor could be so unaffected was beyond him.
As soon as he was within a few feet of the TARDIS, he ran the rest of the distance despite his shaking legs. He stumbled on the way and lost his balance but he only ended up slumping against the side of the TARDIS. The wood thrummed with warm electricity under his hands and he almost recoiled from the heat.
"Oh, I've never been so happy to see a shed in my life."
"Oi! Less of the shed, she's the most advanced ship in the universe, thank you very much!" the Doctor grinned at him as they slipped the key in the lock. Rogue happily followed him inside, ready to bask in the cool air inside the ship.
The interior of the ship was a lower temperature than out under the suns but it certainly wasn't cold. Nausea rolled through his stomach but he did his best to ignore it as he followed the Doctor down to the console.
The Doctor was already flipping switches and pressing buttons. The jukebox roared to life seemingly of its own accord and Rogue flinched at the noise. His head was spinning.
"Rogue?"
He couldn't answer them, could barely think. The heat under his skin was overwhelming, he felt weak. His knees buckled.
-
"Rogue!"
The Doctor dived forward and caught him, gently lowering him to the ground. Shit.
"Oh, why didn't I think about this, I should've seen this coming!" They could barely hide the panic in their voice (it's not like they needed to. Rogue seemed practically unconscious).
The Doctor mumbled frantically to themself, trying to remember what to do. They took a stabilising breath and got to pulling Rogue's waistcoat off. Any unnecessary layers were tossed to the side because Rogue had been stuck in a desert for days on end and the Doctor hadn't even stopped to consider the possibility of him suffering from heat exhaustion because they were a fucking idiot.
They left Rogue in his shirt and pants, trying to leave him with some semblance of dignity while still trying to cool him down. The jukebox finally seemed to get the message and click off and the temperature took a sharp drop, much to their relief.
"Thank you, dear." They murmured into the air as they bundled Rogue into their arms. They hooked their arms around his torso and under his knees. They lifted him up and held him close to their chest, the movement eliciting a half-awake whimper from Rogue. He was trembling in the Doctor's arms.
They made their way across the walkways of the TARDIS and through a door, shouldering their way into the first room he found. Rogue's room...
They'd imagined Rogue seeing this room for the first time a lot differently. They had imagined him finding the various dice sitting on the nightstand, the wardrobe filled with clothes that seemed to fit his exact tastes (becuase the TARDIS always knew), the large comfy bed and the hammock hanging in the corner.
They had pictured the delight on Rogue's face. The image of Rogue curled up in the hammock, peacefully asleep. They had thought about the pair of them tumbling into the bed, kisses landing all over eachother's faces and hands pulling at shirt buttons and belts.
Instead, they were laying a barely conscious Rogue onto the bed and searching for first aid equipment and ice packs. The TARDIS seemed to have prepared for this, leaving the items out on the nightstand for them.
They didn't say anything, merely sending a thankful look up to the ceiling as they got to work.
Ice packs wrapped in towels were tucked under Rogue's arms and under his neck, trying to cool him down. A bottle of ice cold water waited for when Rogue was awake enough to drink it. The temperature of the room was equally cool, the Doctor had to suppress a shiver. Their cold blooded body wasn't built for this climate. They'd be fine. Their priority was Rogue.
They grabbed a cloth, soaked in cold water, gently placing it across Rogue's forehead and wiping the sweat from his pale skin. Rogue whimpered and his head tipped to the side slightly, a half-hearted flinch.
"You're okay, honey." The Doctor whispered. Rogue didn't react, unsurprisingly. He gave no indication he even knew the Doctor was here.
-
"Doctor..."
Rogue's call came when the Doctor had briefly left his side to wrap themself in a jacket. The cold was getting to them.
They returned to him, gently grasping his hand.
"I'm here, I'm here." they soothed, but the stressed expression on Rogue's face didn't abate.
"Doctor." he repeated, voice rough and scared. "Doctor!"
Their hearts broke a little knowing they wouldn't be able to calm him down if he couldn't even register the Doctor's presence.
Rogue sobbed softly, a few tears rolling down his face. The Doctor wiped away the tears but Rogue didn't even react. They stroked his hair and kept murmuring reassurances that he couldn't comprehend. Rogue continued to repeat the Doctor's name between cries, calling out for them while they sat by his side.
They desperately wanted to comfort him. Tell him they're here, that he's safe. But all they could do was hold his hand and be there.
He kept murmuring "Doctor", slurred pleas filling the silence. The fear in his voice was devastating. It felt like hours that he lay there in fear, though the Doctor knew it was only minutes.
Then a new name entered the mix.
"Art..."
The Doctor could only listen as Rogue strung together vague sentences consisting of "Art", "please", "I can't..." and "alone".
And then a day came along and at the end of that day...I lost them
Oh...
The Doctor thought briefly about the roles being reversed. Who would they call out for? They thought of Jamie, Rose, Sarah-Jane, Clara, Amy, Yaz, Koschei, so many they lost, so so many names. Too many.
They shook it from their brain, returning to their aimless comforting of Rogue as he deliriously begged over and over for someone long gone. They might ask about Art when Rogue was better. Probably not.
Rogue eventually stopped talking altogether, just devolving into crying quietly. The Doctor, still trying to get through to Rogue, tried something else to soothe him.
They sang.
"Speed, bonnie boat, like a bird on the wing."
An old reliable tune, one that they had cherished and sung and played and hummed for centuries. Memories of the words filling a battlefield while their hearts raced in their chest flashed through their mind, vague recollections of hands that weren't theirs playing the tune on a recorder, waiting and waiting.
"Onward, the sailors cry."
Rogue stirred slightly, eyelids flickering open. His gaze zeroed in on the Doctor for a brief moment before unfocusing again. He was still crying, hiccuping and sniffing, but the sound was less distressing, less scared.
"Carry the lad that's born to be king."
The hand that had previously sat limp in the Doctor's hand twitched and gripped weakly. Only for a second. But still. It was something.
"Over the sea to Skye."
-
Many, many songs later, Rogue was awake. He was weak and a little confused but he was drinking water and speaking coherently which was all good in the Doctor's book.
They were sitting against the headboard of the bed, Rogue leaning on their chest as they ran their fingers through his hair
"Doc..." he mumbled, hand winding loosely into the Doctor's shirt.
"Yeah?"
"Were you...singing earlier?"
The Doctor chuckled. "Yeah, I was. Why? Did you like it."
They grinned as Rogue blushed pink and nodded.
"Yeah. It was nice. Could- could you maybe...sing some more?" He seemed embarrassed to ask but the Doctor's expression just went soft.
"Of course, baby."
"Can you sing the first one you did? Something about a boat?"
The Skye Boat Song. Of course.
The Doctor nodded and Rogue settled against the Doctor with a content mumble.
Speed, bonnie boat, like a bird on the wing
Onward, the sailors cry
Carry the lad that's born to be king
Over the sea to Skye