ten x rose, "I'm sick of being USELESS."
The Doctor was absolutely fed up. He'd been relegated to bed for the past week with an illness he'd caught on one of their outings. It was something that humans were actually immune to so Rose had been taking care of him, nursing him back to help.
He hated the whole situation. He was not supposed to be helpless, it went against everything he knew about himself.
Rose had left the room to go get them both a cuppa and he decided that he'd been in bed much too long. Slowly, he swung his legs over the side of the bed and gripped the bed post. Gingerly, he tried to stand, putting weight on his legs for the first time in seven days. His knees buckled immediately, leaving him on the floor with no way of making it back to bed before Rose came back.
When she came in and found the Doctor on the floor, Rose set the mugs of tea on the floor with a clatter, tea sloshing over the rims.
"Are you okay?" she asked, running her hands over his face and arms, trying to figure out what happened.
"I tried to get up, I've been in bed too long," the Doctor clipped out. He didn't want to explain himself, did not want to have to.explain himself.
"Doctor, you told me that this illness would take ten days to get out of your system," she started slowly, "why would you try to get up now when you're still sick?"
"Because I'm sick of being USELESS!" he exclaimed. "I've just been laying here and you've been forced to take care of me and I can't do anything."
"You're not a burden! You've taken care of me so many times, why can't I do the same for you?"
"Because it's not the same way it's supposed to be!"
"What, is being cared for by a lowly human degrading to you or something?"
"No. that's not what I meant," he sighed, slumping back against the side of the bed, suddenly tired again. "I'm supposed to be taking care of you, I'm not supposed to be this still for this long."
"Well if you'd stop jeopardizing your recovery then you could go back to doing that. I'll be sure to get in trouble as soon as you're well so you can save me. That make you feel better?" She levered him back to his feet as she talked, maneuvering him back into bed.
He smiled dopily up at her, "You're brilliant, Rose, you know that right?"
She stroked his hair as he fell asleep and hoped he would be better soon.