Disclaimer: I do not own any of Doctor Who.
Season Notes: In honor of the new season coming out soon.
This was originally a really long project I was never going to post until I had it all written, but oh well. There are seven "episodes". Each chapter is an episode (originally, each scene was a chapter, but that changed). Episodes 1 and 2 are two-parters, they go together, and episodes 6 and 7 are the same-two parters, for those four episodes the scene numbering goes well. So, episode 1 has scenes 1-16 (not really) while episode 2 has scenes 17 to 25 (not really) while the counting starts over in episode 2, 3, 4, and 5, and 6, but 7 has the continuation of 6
Takes place after the christmas special. In my head, the Doctor picks up the Ponds at that time (after dinner of course)
And I'm not sure if River's going to show up.
Warnings: A lot of overlap, I'm sorry. And probably plot holes. Also, a lot of continuity of classic and nuwho.
This whole thing is un-beta. Anyone who sees anything out of the ordinary, let me know and I'll fix it.
And one last word (For those who haven't seen Torchwood or some of any Doctor Who)...
Spoilers!
I Can Run Forever
Mikkal
Episode 1: Excalibur (1)
Episode Notes: Special guests: Torchwood (if you can't tell by the title for those who have seen the first episode of Torchwood's second season (John Hart, anyone?) or for those who haven't seen it and still don't know the trivia behind it.
Scene I
He tripped and would have fallen if Scott hadn't caught him by the arm. Danny groaned and shoved him away, leaning against the brick wall as he dry heaved painfully.
His older brother chuckled. 'Jeez, Dan, you had one beer. When did you turn into such a lightweight?'
'Not. A. Lightweight,' he managed to growl out despite feeling like hell twice warmed over. His back hit the wall and he slid down, legs folding less-than-gracefully under him.
'Damn, mate.' Scott crouched down to peer into his little brother's face carefully. Much to his alarm Danny's eyes started to close and he listed to the side. He hauled him up and gripped his shoulders firmly. 'Danny, what's wrong?'
Danny shuddered and forced his eyes opened. '...I don't feel so good,' he said softly, child-like.
Scott smiled comfortingly. 'You don't look so good either.' He pulled Danny up and wrapped one of his arms around his shoulders. 'Let's get you home. I'm sure Jo would love to look after you,' he teased.
He received no answer.
'Danny?'
'Hmm?' His brother hummed half-conscious. 'Can...Can we go home, please?'
'Where do you think we're going?' Scott couldn't help but tease again. He grinned when Danny chuckled a little; maybe this was just his little flu hitting him hard.
Nothing to worry about…right?
Scott held his brother's hand tightly, eyes fixated on the almost too fast movement of his chest as he willed Danny to keep breathing.
That didn't stop him from half-hearing the three people behind the hospital curtain talk in harsh faux-whispers. They hadn't introduced themselves, but the stories of Torchwood were so familiar to the residents of Cardiff they didn't need such a silly thing like an introduction.
The curtain swished open and reflex made him look up while big brother instinct made him look back at Danny a second later. There was no change in his brother's condition.
'Scott Foster,' an American voice said.
His curiosity of why an American was in Wales and saying his name made him look up again. He came face to face with an ordinary looking man if you took away the World War II great coat and if you ignored his impossibly blue, impossibly old eyes.
The sheer age that showed in his eyes made Scott gulp. He felt insignificant and tiny compared to this ancient man. For the first time in his life his name burned with power on the tongue of another.
'Yes? That's me.' At that moment he realised Danny's fingers were turning blue and released his hand as if it had bitten him. 'What do you want?'
The woman behind the ancient man smiled at him comfortingly, revealing a charming gap between her two front teeth. 'Hello, I'm Gwen,' she said, obviously from Wales. So they weren't all foreigners. 'This is Jack,' the American, 'And Doctor Owen,' some pale bloke.
'That doesn't tell me what you want.' Scott glared at the 'doctor' as he came closer. The man wasn't wearing scrubs or a white coat. 'Doctor of what?'
'A lot of things,' he answered, a bit cryptic. He leaned over his brother and checked a few things, using a hand-sized flat machine that had way too many lights and buttons for his liking.
Scott took his brother's hand again. 'What's wrong with him?'
The doctor glanced at him and went to talk to the ancient man. Their backs turned away and Gwen took the seat Jo normally occupied next to him.
'He's your brother, isn't he?'
He snorted. 'Shouldn't you already know that?' He pushed a lock of sweat soaked hair from Danny's forehead, features softening the longer he looked at his brother. '…Yeah, he is. My little brother by four years.'
Gwen smiled gently. 'You care a lot about him.'
'Of course I do. But why does it matter?' He snapped. 'Why do you keep asking stupid questions?'
Her smile didn't change. 'Tell me about him, Scott. Tell me about Danny.'
Scott stared at her for what it seemed like hours before he started talking. He talked about everything and he couldn't seem to stop. He talked about Danny's favorite books and least favorite foods. How he would rather read than party or watch the telly. He talked about Danny's job and his plan to propose to Jo, his girlfriend of four years.
But then he found himself talking about their less-than-brilliant childhood. About how Scott was lucky to be older and more into sports, but Danny was younger and didn't make friends easily back then. That left him in the care of their bipolar father and drunken mother, both who liked to raise their hands against their sons on more than a daily occasion. And then, at eighteen and when Scott was sure he could handle it, he took Danny away from their home and moved to Wales.
And they had been here ever since.
Scott was all but gasping when he finished, mind reeling with all the information he just spilled out to complete strangers. He wasn't afraid of those memories, not like Danny was, but they weren't pleasant and they always left a bad taste on his tongue.
'Danny's going to be fine,' the ancient man announced. 'He's just got a nasty complication of the flu. Give him a few weeks and he'll be good as new.'
'"Complication?"' Scott repeated. 'Haven't people been in the hospital for months because of that? Is he going to be okay?' Panic surge up his throat.
'Trust us,' the ancient man, Jack, assured. 'Doctor Harper here is the best in the business. A few weeks and he'll be right as rain.'
Scott swallowed and looked down at his unresponsive brother. He forced himself to trust these people even if he didn't really. They were the first people to give him hope; the doctors in this hospital just shook their heads and gave him sad looks. Hope was what he needed right now.
'Alright.'
And then they just left.
'Anything?' Jack asked.
Owen nodded. 'Something. Symptoms of the flu but his brain waves are going haywire while his motor functions are completely shot. He's having nightmares, but no one can tell.'
'He's screaming, but no one can hear him,' Gwen comment sadly. 'Jack, the first coma-flu victim came in months ago. There's been six cases so far, all with some sort of trauma in their lifetimes. What the bloody hell is going on?'
Jack frowned and rubbed the back of his neck. 'I don't know.' And that bothered him. He may not know everything, but he knew a lot about anything. He knew nothing about this. 'Let's get back to the Hub and see if Tosh's come up with something.'
'You think this is Rift related?' Owen asked.
He shrugged. 'Won't hurt to check it out.'
'Don't bother.' Tosh said over theircomm.-units. 'I already checked. No Rift activity since your buddy John Hart decided to mess with it.'
Jack frowned at that reminder but shook it off. 'You sure?'
'Yes, I'm sure. But Ianto's found something in some obscure alien book that fell through a year ago. He wants you here soon. Said it might be what we're looking for.'
Jack nodded even if she couldn't see him. 'Gotcha, we're on our way.' He pulled the truck into gear and attempted to screech out of the hospital parking lot in a cool way.
His attempt in coolness failed, much to the relief to Gwen. She absolutely hated that noise.
'Tosh said this book fell through the Rift?' Owen asked. 'Where'd it come from?'
Jack sniffed and turned right. 'It's a 50th century book from the Jyduion System. I never got a chance it look though it, but the cover said it was a psychological medical book.'
'It would make sense that this something would be in an alien med book,' Owen said, rolling his eyes. 'This is just getting better and better every minute.'
Gwen shook her head. 'You thought this was an Earth thing? Really?'
'I was hoping.'
'We were all hoping,' Jack said. 'These alien things are some much harder to solve.'
Suddenly he slammed to a stop right outside the Roald Dahl Plass, right between it and the Wales Millennium Centre. His eyes widened and his jaw dropped, his knuckles turned white.
'You've got to be bloody kidding me,' he said, almost in awe. Joy sparking in his eyes.
Scene II
Rory woke with a scream catching in his throat. He choked and spluttered, glancing at the side his wife was normally sprawled out on only to find it empty and relatively cold. A peak at the clock told him it was eleven o'clock by Great Britain standards.
Why would she let him sleep in this late? She hated waiting for him to wake up.
Then he remembered. Rory didn't get to bed until four in the morning, too afraid of the nightmares he might see. She didn't know about them so she let him sleep. He wished she hadn't.
The nightmares were usually the same thing over and over again: Amy dying by his plastic hand, living 2,000 years on the slow path through wars and genocide, the House tormenting all three (four) of them, and the Doctor getting shot in the middle of his regeneration and dying for real.
Only this time there was an odd, disturbing scene entwined with those usual ones. The Doctor at the bottom of a sea, thrashing around helplessly with his mouth open in a silent scream. His eyes stared into Rory's soul, begging and pleading for him to save him. But Rory was frozen against his will and couldn't do anything.
Rory shook his head and put on some clothes before making his way to the kitchens. He was not in the mood to dwell on things he couldn't even begin to understand; he was not the psychic of the group. The TARDIS seemed to sense his less-than-pleasant mood. She made a straight line of corridors from his room to the kitchens.
Amy wasn't there like he had hoped, but the Doctor was. He was rummaging through the fridge, muttering under his breath in a language he couldn't understand.
'Rory!' The Doctor whirled around. 'You're awake. Brilliant.' He clapped his hands together. 'You can help me.'
'Where's Amy?' He wasn't going to help him with anything if it involved jammy dodgers. He shuddered, bad things happened when jammy dodgers were involved.
The Doctor just pouted. 'She went to the wardrobe. She wouldn't help me look for bananas.'
He sighed in relief. Bananas were better than jammy dodgers, but not by much. 'What do you need bananas for?' Rory asked as he began looking.
'Banana milkshakes,' the Doctor said gleefully. He threw out a jar of pickles he found in the fridge door, Rory just barely managed to catch it. 'You've gotten faster,' he commented thoughtfully, without looking.
Rory sat the jar on the table and leaned against the counter. 'I've gotten a few sports squeezed in here and there. It has been two years, after all.'
The Time Lord paused, but didn't turn around. 'Yeah, I guess it has.'
His voice was pitched weirdly, low and gruff. Rory frowned and moved a little closer. 'Doctor, you okay?'
'Of course I am!' He said brightly. 'I'm always okay. Remember? King of Okays?...ignore that, I forgot how rubbish of a title that was. And I found the bananas. Would you like a delicious banana milkshake?'
Rory chuckled at the much missed ramblings and sudden change of topics and accepted the offer. He would prefer eggs and toast, but who could deny that puppy dog look? It seemed as if the Doctor's been working on it since they last saw him.
Three minutes and two delicious milkshakes later Amy walked in, decked out for a day at the beach.
The Doctor quirked an eyebrow at her. 'You plan on going somewhere?'
She plopped down between them, folding her hands together seriously and leveling the Doctor with an even look. 'Doctor, it's been four months since we started travelling with you again.'
'Uh-huh.' He took a giant slurp of his too milk-y milkshake, totally nonchalant.
Amy leaned in close. 'I want to go to the beach.'
'Really?'
'Really.'
'Are you sure?'
'I'm sure.'
The Doctor was silent for one long moment before he grinned. 'Off to the beach we go! Different planet or Earth?'
'Different planet!' Amy chirped.
Rory smiled at her excitement and followed the two slowly as they practically skipped to the main room. He hurriedly chugged his milkshake before the Doctor flipped any switches. No doubt the TARDIS would be mighty pissed if she got banana stains all over her pretty glass floor.
A flush of warmth spread from his ears to the rest of his head, indicating she heard the jist of it and appreciated the thought. She sure did love being called 'pretty,' and 'gorgeous,' and 'sexy.'
'Rory the Roman!' How long had it been since he heard that nickname leave the Doctor's lips? 'Flip the green doo-hickey and pull that thing-a-ma-bob!'
He blinked. 'What?'
'Never mind!' The alien danced around the console, humming a song to match his footsteps instead of the other way around. He faltered for a second, a flash of pain flickered across his face. Just as quick it was gone. Rory narrowed his eyes and exchanged meaningfully glances with his wife. 'I know the perfect place,' he informed them, the flickering pain gone. 'No danger except we have to be out of the water and away from the planet before the moon rises.'
'Why?' Amy all but whined.
'Because when the moon rises all the faeries come out and play.' The Doctor wiggled his fingers in a goofy way. 'Okay, not really. They're actually a lot of pretty little lights that look like Earth's sometimes version of little supernatural, mythical creatures.' he admitted. 'In reality, there's a sort of chemical reaction that happens. The moon isn't really a moon and emits helionistic radiation, in the form of pretty lights, which reacts almost violently with water. It explodes any living organism that is coated with the water.'
Amy winced. 'That doesn't sound good.'
'It's not.'
Rory's eyebrows furrowed. '"Helionistic?" I've never heard of that. And, what about the water in the living things?"
The Doctor smiled like a proud Oxford professor who finally had a student who finally asked an intelligent question. 'Those are both really good questions…I'll answer the second one first. The reason why is because all the organisms have a protective layering that keeps the radiation from entering them, which is why we would explode. We're so soft it's ridiculous.' He pinched his own cheek and made a face. 'Besides, I said coating. That's much different than containing. And first question, you wouldn't have heard of it because it's alien. You can't even find helionistic radiation within 432,838.13764, no wait…433,838.13875 light years of your solar system. It's very rare and only good for species that want to have a defense system that really, really, really works.'
Amy's eyes got bigger and bigger though out his little lecture. 'Then what are we doing, going there?'
'Oh relax,' the Doctor said posh-ly. 'The moon is only out for three hours in a 42 hour day. I'm hopping us to a hour after the moon sets and we'll leave a hour before it rises. Plenty of time to get in some nice rays.'
The TARDIS suddenly rocked forward, sending Rory to the floor and Amy landing on top of him. The Doctor grabbed onto some things he really shouldn't grab so he wouldn't end up knocking himself out.
'And…' He turned a knob. 'We are…' He cranked a lever. 'Here!' He flipped a light switch. 'Ponds, welcome to Pisinca VI!'
Amy squealed and ran to the doors, throwing them open to reveal the Roald Dahl Plass in all its glory. 'Uh, Doctor…this is not a beach. This is Cardiff.'
The Doctor pushed her out of the way and peered outside. 'Huh, I guess it is.' He frowned and went back to the console. 'I think I made a wrong turn at the asteroid field of Fazeal.' He froze and whirled back around, pushing her aside once again. 'We're in Cardiff! Brilliant!'
'Um, yeah,' Rory said, confused. 'I thought we already established that?'
'We did,' the Doctor said excitedly. He bounced out of the TARDIS like a child in a candy shop. 'But, we're in Cardiff, Wales. Late May 2008, by the looks of things. Oh, this is brilliant!'
Amy glanced at her husband, pulling on a thick jumper and some fingerless gloves. There was chill in the air and what looked like rain. 'Wanna tell us why this is so brilliant?'
At that moment a truck came to a sudden halt a few feet away. TORCHWOOD carved in on the side of the hood.
'This is why,' the Doctor said proudly just as the driver's side of the car quickly flew open and an attractive man came flying out just as fast. 'Amy, Rory, I think it's time for you to meet Captain Jack Harkness.'
Captain Jack Harkness was taller than the Doctor and, yet, younger. There was something about his eyes that made him seem ancient in both experience and age, but he wasn't really a match for the alien. He wore braces like the Doctor, and a WWII great coat that looked very good on him. He had an easy smile and ruffled black hair that blew in the wind as he came closer to the trio.
'Doctor!' Jack slid to a stop, his face splitting with a smile. 'You've changed your face again.'
'Captain,' he greeted. The Doctor grinned and shrugged. 'I did.' He then frowned. 'How long has it been?'
Jack counted on his fingers, mouthing the numbers and making Amy giggle. '3 weeks? I only got back from the Valiant a few weeks ago. So, not long.'
That meant…right. 2008, which means he's yet to regenerate in Jack's semi-linear timeline, there hasn't been Donna, and the stars haven't started going out yet, he hasn't said good-bye to him in that bar and Earth's children have yet to start chanting.
He ran a hand through his hair. If anyone ever asked him which fixed-point he would ever break time for (again) it would be the point happening in only a year or so. Anything Captain Jack Harkness played a major role in automatically became an unfixable fixed point in time. He gave Jack a dark look that the Never-Die-Man didn't catch, his friend was in for a world of pain and he could do nothing about it. It broke his hearts.
'And who is this?' Jack flirtatious voice interrupted his depressing thoughts.
The Doctor rolled his eyes. 'Oh don't start.'
'Hey,' he countered. 'If you can wear a bowties then I can say hello.'
'Bowties are cool!'
'I don't mind,' Amy said, grinning. 'I'm Amy Pond.'
Rory scowled. 'And I'm her husband, Rory.'
'Rory Pond?' A pale bloke scoffed, walking up behind Jack. 'A bit of a girl's name, isn't it?'
He didn't bother dignifying that with a response. Amy smiled and entwined their fingers together, giving his hand a little squeeze.
A black haired woman pushed the bloke out of the way. 'Ignore him, I like it.' She shook his hand. 'I'm Gwen Cooper. This sullen fellow is Owen Harper.'
'I'm the Doctor,' he said knowingly. 'It's very nice to meet you.' Again wasn't said, but it was implied.
She frowned, but didn't say anything while Owen gave him a startled look, having heard so many stories about this man. The origin of Torchwood dedicated to taking down this man right in front of him…but that was a long time ago.
'So what's this visit for?' Jack asked.
The Doctor scratched his head. 'That is a very good question. 'Cause, you see, we meant to go to Pisinca VI for a little bit of sun and dangerous things that don't happen until dark. I have absolutely no idea why the TARDIS would bring us here.'
Jack exchanged looks with his team and his expression became grim. 'I think I do. We have a slight problem, and I think you're just the person to help.'
The Doctor smiled. 'A problem that the great Captain Jack Harkness can't solve?' He clapped his hands together. 'Count me in!'
'Thank you so much for your confidence in me, Doctor,' the Captain said wryly.
'Oh, I have plenty of confidence in you,' he assured. 'But, if you can't solve this then this means that this is extra complicated. I'm in the mood for something extra complicated.'
Owen shook his head. 'This sorta complicated you won't like, no matter who you are.'
'Really?' He asked doubtfully.
'Gwen, Owen, take the standard entrance,' Jack ordered. 'I'll take them through our guest entrance.'
They left without another word, already formulating a conversation in their head to have with Tosh and Ianto when they finally got to the Hub. Jack gestured the trio to stand on a slab of concrete just near the Roald Dahl Plass, it shuddered and began moving down.
'No one can see us,' he informed them with a huge grin when he saw Amy and Rory give passersby concerned looks. 'There's a perception field around this very area due to a machine with a very strong one standing in this exact spot during a huge surge of time and space energy.'
The Doctor chuckled along with the other man. 'Good times.'
Rory shook his head. 'Just what we need,' he muttered. 'More mad men.'
Scene III
The introduction of Toshiko 'Tosh' Sato and Ianto Jones would've gone by pretty much quickly and unremarkably. That is, if the Doctor hadn't frozen at Tosh's name and stared at her like she was a really interesting alien specimen.
'I know you!' He exclaimed.
Torchwood's computer expert blinked. 'You do?'
The Doctor squinted at her and wiggled his fingers around, as if that would make the memory come faster. 'Yes…yes I do.' He snapped his fingers. 'You're that woman from Albion Hospital! Remember, that time with the humanoid pig? P.T. Barnum's monkey/fish mermaid?'
Tosh's eyes widened, she glanced at Jack worriedly. 'But…that wasn't you. That was the Doctor…someone different, right?'
'But I am the Doctor,' he pointed out. 'That was just a different me. A younger me.' He waved a hand. 'I can change my face, it's a long story. Tell me, though.' He moved in a little closer. 'If you're the computer expert and Owen Harper is the doctor around here…why were you at the hospital doing that autopsy?'
This time she glanced at Owen, a little annoyed. 'Because that idiotic prat decided to get a hangover and shove the job on me.' She smiled then. 'It wasn't so bad,' Tosh admitted.
Owen smirked at her. 'Told ya you'd like it.'
The Doctor shook his head. 'I should've known you worked for Torchwood. Wait, you knew me,' he said to Jack. 'You knew I was coming.'
'Of course I did,' Jack said. 'I'm pretty sure I was companion at one point with both you and Rose. Neither of you could keep your mouth shut about adventures. I couldn't see you, though. So I sent in Tosh...well, I gave the orders for Owen to go in.'
'So, if you had been there yourself that would be a paradox, right?' Amy asked.
Ianto nodded. 'For the most part, yes. In fact, for all we know, this right now is one giant paradox.'
The Doctor winced. 'And perhaps you're right.' He glanced at Jack, eyes shadowed.
Rory didn't like that look on his face so he turned to Tosh, noticing she saw the same thing and looked worried herself. 'So…the reason we're probably here. The extra complicated thing that the Doctor's looking forward to?'
'Right.' The Doctor shook his head and whirled around, eyes a bit bright. 'What do we've got?'
Tosh pulled up six profiles on her monitor. 'In the past three months six people have gotten sick with the flu then fallen into a coma soon after. Their brain waves are going crazy on a level that current Earth technology can't detect and their motor functions, for the most part, are completely shot. Their heart rate is slightly increased and their respiratory system is working overtime.'
'Like they're terrified.' Rory stared at the screen that held a record of a victim's brain waves. 'Like they're having nightmares,' he murmured. Working as a coma nurse for a while taught him thing or two.
Jack nodded. 'Exactly. We haven't been able to figure out what it is or why it's doing this.'
'Actually,' Ianto intoned. 'The book, Jack.'
Jack smacked his head. 'Right, the book!'
'What book?' The Doctor asked.
The Welshman pulled out a thick, shiny book. 'This one. Copyright 50th century from the Royal Library of the Cha'yliane Family in the Jyduion System.' When everyone gave him strange looks he rolled his eyes and flipped to the page after the title page, revealing all that information. 'It's research the old fashion way.'
The Doctor pulled the book from him and started looking through the pages. 'Extinct,' he muttered. 'Faked. Faked. Cured. Faked. Cured…by me. Actually real. Real. Cured. Extinct. Real. Faked. Real. Real. Real. Reworked. Ah-ha!' He pointed at a passage about 45 pages in. 'Found it.'
'I forgot how fast he could read,' Jack commented. 'Good to know that hasn't changed.'
He chuckled, but then his eyebrows furrowed. 'I found it, but there isn't a name. Actually, there's nothing much about it. It just tells me what you just told me. And this says it's a parasite that feeds on that fear the nightmares cause. No species, no quadrant, no time.'
'That's super useful,' Amy said sarcastically.
'Actually, it is. Who's the most recent victim?' The Doctor asked. 'No, wait. Scratch that. Are you sure the coma victims are the only victims?'
'What do you mean?'
He wrote something in the air with his finger. 'Okay. I'm assuming all of these victims have had a traumatic childhood, super traumatic. Unbelievably traumatic. Maybe not even a childhood, more like years at one point in their life that keeps haunting them and never leaving. Let's assume that.'
Rory raised an eyebrow. 'Okay.'
'Okay,' the Doctor repeated, nodding. 'So this thing. It likes those nightmares and traumas, but it can't just feed on them. Sure that's a lot of fear, but only six victims isn't enough to keep it alive. What if there are more people out there with the flu, more people who have been having nightmares or seeing their fears as hallucinations? Their lives weren't traumatic enough for a coma, but they're still suffering.'
'There could be more out there,' Gwen breathed; eyes wide.
'And who knows what this thing is doing with this fear,' Jack said. 'It could just be feeding on it, but what if it's getting stronger? No one's died, but what if they will?'
The Doctor frowned. He didn't like the thought of that. 'Who's the latest coma victim?'
Owen snorted. This guy was as random and back-track-y as Jack. 'Danny Foster. 26. He has an older brother who's Scott Foster, 28. They had abusive parents, but Danny got the worse of it for about thirteen years until Scott turned 18 and got both of them out.'
Amy looked like she was about to be sick. 'Since he was three,' she murmured. 'How could anyone do that to a three year old?'
'I think that counts as a traumatic childhood,' Owen said dryly.
That earned him a glare from Gwen, Amy, Jack, Tosh, Rory, and the Doctor. So, pretty much everyone gave him a dirty look.
'Can we see him?' The Doctor asked.
Jack nodded. 'Yeah, I think so. I'll call the hospital, see how soon.' He walked into his office to make a call while the Doctor took this time to explain to Tosh why a pig with a warped brain ran around Albion Hospital years ago.
He rubbed his head and cracked his neck as the other line rang over and over again. Jack sighed, massaging his shoulder. Could this day get any more stressful?
'Jack…'
Jack whirled around, phone falling to his side. He searched the room wildly. No. No, it couldn't be possible.
'…Jack!'
'Gray?' He whispered. 'Gray, is that you?'
'Jack, help me. Please, help me.'
Jack spun around in a circle, still searching, but this time frantically. 'Gary, where are you?'
'Please. They're coming!'
'Jack?'
He jumped almost a foot in the air. Amy gave him a sympathetic look, leaning against the doorframe nonchalantly.
'I know that look,' she said. 'That's the look the Doctor gets when he's remember something unpleasant. Are you okay?'
Jack shook himself, ridding his mind of the traces of Gray. 'Yeah, I'm fine.' He ran a hand down his face. 'What's up?'
She jerked a thumb to point downstairs. 'The Doctor wants to know if he can see Danny Foster. Rory's trying to keep him from just barging down there.'
'Oh, right.' He put the phone back to his ear, the woman on the other end asking him if he was there. The conversation took the total time of two minutes once he explained he was Torchwood.
Sometimes being a famous secret organization helped with the technicalities.
He snapped his phone shut and headed downstairs, Amy not far behind. 'The hospital says we can see him whenever we want, along with all the other patients too.'
'Brilliant!' The Doctor exclaimed. 'Let's stop wasting time and see if we can fix this thing before it's too late!'
And if it was too late…Jack didn't even want to think about that. If the Doctor was right, if there were more victims out there just not in a coma then who knew what was going to happen next.
Scene IV
Tosh and Owen offered to stay behind in the Hub and research what the hell was going on now that they knew a little bit more information. And Jack offered to drive, he didn't get a chance to drive nearly as often as he'd like since he got back from the Valiant.
'So, Amy, Rory, how long have you and the Doctor been traveling together?'
'Oh,' Amy said nonchalantly. 'Only a few months.' She smirked.
Rory rolled his eyes. 'Yeah, that's too much of an understatement. And that's only recently.' He turned to the Doctor. 'How long has it actually been?' He could never track time well even without all of the time-travelling.
The Doctor shook his head. '3, 2 years?...ish. But we've know each other longer. Amy and I almost 16 years. You and me….about 1837, 8…years. If you add the Auton timeline.'
'I usually don't, no offence.'
Jack was silent for a moment. 'That's a long time.'
Ianto put a hand on his shoulder, invisible to everyone else.
He shrugged. 'Just a bit. But not really, a lot of that time wasn't actually travelling. Like I said, it's only been about 3 or 2 years. Everything else was just…wibbly-wobbly, timey-wimey. Plus, we've known each other almost as long,' the Doctor pointed out. 'And I bet that's not a fixed number.'
Jack smiled sheepishly. 'That's a good point.'
They pulled up to the hospital quickly, getting out without much fanfare. Rory stuffed his hands in his pockets and followed Ianto closely. Amy ran ahead to be up with Jack and the Doctor, her Scottish-ness shining through.
'What's wrong?' Rory asked. Ianto didn't look too happy. Then again, the Welshman hadn't look happy since they met, but there was a certain smothering look that indicated more than unhappiness.
Ianto didn't even look at him. 'Nothing.' He continued staring at Jack's back.
'…Okay.'
Danny Foster was in room 302. Scott Foster apparently had been forced to the café down the street by Jo, the soon to be younger brother's fiancée, so he wouldn't end up hurting himself with his worry. The room was the standard and filled with equipment to deal with a man in an uncommon coma that also had the flu.
Something itched at the back of Rory's mind. He glanced at the corner and looked away, rubbing his neck. He took a deep breath, calming his racing heart.
Suddenly a shot rang out, making everyone jump. He looked at the ending trajectory of the bullet.
Rory whirled around and glared at Jack. 'What'd you do that for?' He demanded. He blinked and shook his head, anger fading as fast as it came. Why was he angry? He forgot. Was something wrong with the medical equipment? Wait…wasn't he just scared?
Jack stared at his gun then at Rory. 'I don't know. Why do I have my gun out?'
'Rory.' The Doctor grabbed his shoulders and forced him to look at him. 'What did you see?'
Rory looked at him, confused. 'I didn't see anything? What are you talking about?' He glanced at the Captain's skinny gun. 'Why does Jack have his gun out? Doctor?'
The Doctor glanced at him then looked at the corner. He sighed in relief, still staring at the corner somewhere near the ground. 'There's only one. It's not a Silence thing.'
'What?' Amy demanded.
He nodded towards Rory. 'Rory's got one tally mark. Jack only shot once. If there were more there would be more.'
Rory glanced at his arm and saw the marker on his wrist. He pulled out the uncapped black marker from his pocket. 'Are you sure?'
The Doctor gave his shoulders a light squeeze before letting go. 'I'm sure. There'd be more. That Silent was probably just a watcher. Making sure we don't figure things out too quickly about their stupid plan.'
'Plan?' Amy asked. 'What plan?'
'…Oh,' the Doctor said slowly. 'I…I didn't tell you?'
Rory stood next to his wife. 'No, you didn't. What plan does the Silence have?'
'What the hell is going on?' Jack demanded.
'Nothing!'
Jack glared at him. 'That's not nothing. What's the Silence? Why can't I remember why I shot my gun?'
And the Doctor began to speak. He explained everything…well, almost everything. He only explained the Silence, he left out his death. And he left out the plan that even Amy and Rory didn't know about. The Question. The stupid Question.
Rory moved, instead, towards Danny Foster. Reading his vitals and checking the chart. There was no new information. None at all. He leaned over, hesitating, before pulling back Danny's eye lid. Green-blue pupils darted restlessly around. A sort of REM sleep.
'What are you doing?' Ianto asked harshly. 'Owen didn't want anyone touching the victims. Even the doctors. They could be infectious.'
'What about the victims that aren't in a coma? They're surrounded by people.' He took his hands away anyway. Don't want to anger the super secret organization.
'Why didn't you tell me this before?' Jack yelled. 'I could've helped!'
The Doctor scowled. 'Now is not the time to talk about this. Can you at least wait? You've developed a little patience by now, haven't you?'
Jack spluttered at the little insult as the Doctor turned his back on his friend and pulled out his sonic screwdriver. He turned to the right setting and clicked the button to turn it on. It buzzed, taking a reading from the poor human.
He flipped it open, the four claw prongs sliding out, and did a quick scan of the readings, frowning. 'Well, Danny isn't totally infected now. It isn't as strong as it would be for a thing like this. He's got traces of the parasite so he'll still be in the coma and his fear will still be fed on, but it won't kill him. I have a feeling that's the same with everyone else too.'
'Are you sure?' Jack asked, still a little grumpy.
'Yes I'm sure,' the Doctor said tersely.
He cupped the back of Rory's neck and tangled his fingers with Amy—blocked by her long jumper sleeves and gloves—trying to find something sturdy to ground himself on his emotions. They were always a bit wild, his emotions. Skin contact helped with it, with being a telepath and such. He could 'sync' up with a more stable emotion. It helped that he had the permission.
Jack sighed. 'Let's head back to the Hub. We've got to figure this out.'
'There's not much to do,' Ianto said. 'We can only gather so much before there's nothing to gather anymore.'
'That's no way to think!' The Doctor exclaimed, letting go of his companions and rubbing his hands together. He coughed a little before putting on knowing smile. 'There's always an answer. You've just got to think about it. It's kinda like Einstein's Intelligence Quiz. You've got all the clues, now you've just gotta figure who's got the fish.'
'That's the question, though,' Amy said. 'What's the fish? And who has it?
'Uh, That's two questions.'
'Shut up.'
Scene V
The Doctor sat in the TARDIS after moving her to inside the Hub, running a few things by her. She seemed to be as perplexed as him. That was never a good sign.
It also wasn't a good sign when your time machine seemed to be more worried about you instead of trying to figure out what wrong with these people.
'I'm fine, old girl.'
He pushed his fringe out of his face and cracked his sore back, sighing. Long fingers tapped the console idly. This really wasn't how he wanted to spend a 'beach day'. Honestly, he just wanted to go to the beach. Have some free time with his friends; for once not have them in immediate danger.
'Charlie Chaplin.'
'No,' he moaned, head falling to his hands.
'Mountains that move, can you imagine?'
He shook his head. 'No, no, please. Not now.'
'You know, Doctor, you can fix that chameleon circuit if you just try hotwiring the fragment links and superseding the binary binary binary binary bi—Doctor! Help me!'
'Shut up,' he snapped. 'You're not real.'
'Doctor, please. I can feel it. It's burning. Please!'
He squeezed his eyes shut. 'Stop it. You're not real. You're not even calling me Spaceman. You can't be real.'
'Please! Please, why aren't you helping me? Doctor…Doctor, I'm going to die!'
'NONE OF THIS HAPPENED!'
He shot up from his seat and slammed his hands on the console. The Doctor gritted his teeth and stared determinedly at the flashing white knob beneath some wires. 'Donna was saved,' he told himself firmly. 'You fixed her head. She didn't die. She was saved.'
The Doctor pushed himself away and stalked out of the TARDIS. There was a brush of comforting warmth at the edges of his mind, making him smile. She was always looking out for him.
He nodded towards Tosh and Amy as they discussed something…womanly and waved at Rory, who was trying to get Owen to show him a few things about Torchwood's medical file. He smiled fondly, two years and they changed so much…but, at the same time, not so much.
Jack was at the top of the stairs, looking down at them like an all-seeing father. He fixed his bowtie nervously and cleared his throat.
Now or never, it was time to make sure Jack understood what it meant for the Doctor to be showing up so soon in the timeline. Not really a conversation he wanted to have, but if it meant getting away from the haunting of Doctor-Donna then it was fine.
'Jack, I need to talk to you.'
Jack frowned. 'Sure.' He led his old friend into his office and shut the door. 'What about?'
The Doctor leaned against a low shelf, a hand running through his fringe almost nervously. 'I'm going to see you again, soon, but with the face I had before.'
His eyes lit up at that information. Sure he loved the Doctor in every form and face, but there was nothing more comforting than seeing a familiar one. 'Can you tell me what for?'
'Sorry, but no.' He waved a hand. 'Timelines and all that jazz.' He grinned. 'Spoilers….but I can tell you not to mention this little adventure to me.'
'Why not?'
The Doctor looked sad with fear mixed with pain. He looked far older than he should. Perhaps he actually looked his age. 'I really liked, or like, my tenth face. I loved—love—the life I had with all of you. You, Rose, Martha, Donna…you don't know her yet, do you?...Mickey.' He glanced away. 'I shouldn't tell you this, but not long after I see you again…not long at all, I'm going to regenerate.'
Jack gripped the edge of his desk tightly. 'What?' There was proof he would live through that, right in front of him, but didn't stop him from worrying.
He began pacing a short track. 'But I'm not regenerating. I'm dying. I'm going to die. He is dead. He died. I died…' He trailed off, as if he forgot where he was going with this. 'I grew so attached to that face that I was, for the first time in a long time. Or for the first time ever, it's hard to remember. For the first time, I…I was afraid to change.' He whirled around and faced Jack, staring at him intently. 'You can't tell me—him—that you saw me. You can't tell him, or even give him the slightest hint, that he's going to regenerate.'
Jack didn't like how the pronouns switched from first person to third. When will they switch back? 'Am I there? In the end?'
He shook his head. 'No. No one's there.' Jack's heart tightened. 'But that doesn't matter. You just have to promise me, promise me you won't tell him about this. I don't want him freaking out more than he already is. When you meet him he doesn't know how close he is to the end, but when he does find out…when he does…it's not going to be pretty.'
'Doctor,' he said quietly. 'What happened?
'Nothing happened. Absolutely nothing at all, but that's the thing.' The Doctor sighed and stared down, out the windows, at Amy and Rory as the Torchwood team showed them a few harmless artefacts. 'He…I,' he corrected, realizing it bothered Jack more than he was letting on. 'I was so scared. I couldn't let anyone see me. How would anyone see me anyway? Rose was with…someone else in another dimension.
'The one you haven't met yet was…indispose…mentally. Still alive, though,' he assured. 'You were with Torchwood; you had your own life. And I ruined Martha so much already I couldn't…I just couldn't.' He choked on a breath. 'Nothing happened, because I forced it not to happen. The only constant since I regenerated, the only thing that keeps showing up is River. Other than that, there's nothing. No memories to haunt me, no people to guilt me. No companions, except once. I became a new person.'
'You forgot about us,' Jack breathed.
The Doctor looked at him sharply, eyes narrowed. 'No, never forget,' he said. 'I became too close to you all. I compromised myself, that's what made it so much harder to change. I have to fix that.'
Jack smirked. 'You're not doing a very good job of that.'
He glanced out the window again then back at him, sighing. 'No, I guess I'm not.' He rubbed his face. 'That was load. It's been awhile since I could talk like that to anyone.' He smiled at him, a ghost on a usually jovial face. 'I'm sorry.'
'No need to be.'
And he really had no reason to be sorry. Jack was willing to listen; he had some sort of the same experience as him…in a way, so he could understand. There was no one else in the universe that could even being to understand him. Not anymore. Some weight was lifted from the Doctor's shoulders as he talked; his pale eyes were a bit lighter than before. His smile wasn't back—his smile was always the same no matter what he looked like—but Jack had a feeling it was getting there.
'Seriously, though. Don't mention any of this to me later. At all,' he said firmly. 'I don't want to spend all of that time completely terrified of my own demise. Regeneration shouldn't end with that kind of feeling hanging over your head, but, hey, who said I ever did anything half-way?'
Jack nodded. 'Considered my lips completely sealed. You can trust me.'
The Doctor gave him a fond look. 'I know.'
'And I'm sorry for yelling at you earlier, at the hospital,' Jack said quickly, suddenly. 'I just…' He struggled to find the words.
'You felt left behind,' the Doctor said quietly. 'It's okay. I understand. I tend to do that to a lot of people.'
'Doctor—.'
He held up a hand to stop him. 'Don't bother trying to justify it. You know I'm right. Why don't we see what Tosh and Ianto's got?'
Scene VI
'It's definitely alien,' Owen said. He turned on the projector to show the blood work of the first three victims lined up with the readings he took with his hand-held flat machine that had a lot of buttons and lights. 'I put a sample of the blood work to line up with these readings. The parasite shows itself as a red blood cell with five points. It's in the blood stream but concentrates in the brain.'
'That's extremely not very good,' the Doctor muttered.
'You think?' Gwen snarked.
He rubbed his shoulders. 'Yes, I think.' He looked up at the screen. 'I also think this may be a very bad thing.'
'Why is this a bad thing?' Amy asked. 'We could figure out a cure. That is, if Owen keeps breaking it down.'
'The bad thing is that this could either mean two things. One…it could mean there's more than one of these things and I was wrong about it leaving Danny. Or two…B…zwei…whatever. Or two, it could mean this thing is sentient and purposely leaving behind traces of itself for nefarious deeds…Wonderful word, nefarious.'
'Doctor...Doctor, there's no air!'
He flinched and pushed back Martha's voice. The Doctor ignored the pain and fear laced in her not-really-there voice. It was all fake, something made up by his mind. He was just being paranoid. Psychosomatic or hypochondrias. Worried about having nightmares so he was envisioning himself having nightmares.
If that made any sense.
'Doctor, you okay?' Rory asked, cracking his knuckles.
The Doctor gave a disarming smile. 'Of course I am! Anyway, back to the bad thing.'
Jack frowned. 'Neither of those sound really good. Tosh, put in the parameters and search for any cluster of the waves this thing is giving off. It'll either tell us where it is or where its latest victim is.'
'And why didn't we do that before?' Owen asked.
The Impossible Man just ignored him. 'And then do a search for the traces. I want to know where the not-coma victims are.'
Tosh nodded and went to computer, typing furiously.
'Now,' Gwen said, picking up a phone. 'Who's ready for dinner?'
'I am,' Rory said instantly. 'I'm starving!'
The Doctor sniffed and pulled out his sonic. 'I'm fine. I think I'll just go back in the TARDIS.'
Jack headed up stairs. 'I'm good too.'
Amy watched them both go and then glanced at her husband. He was talking to Gwen about different pizza toppings. She frowned; something wasn't sitting right with her.
'Tosh,' she said quietly. 'How often does Jack turn down a meal?'
The slightly older woman looked at her. 'No very often. He knows if he misses a meal that'll make him a bit slower on the uptake. Why?'
'When you start the second scan, can you check specifically here first? See if any of that parasite is here?'
Tosh frowned. 'Amy—.'
'And don't mention this to anyone,' she interrupted. 'Please.'
She nodded. 'Okay. But I can' tell you anything until tomorrow. Maybe tomorrow afternoon.'
'Thank you,' Amy said gratefully.
The pizza came quickly. And she vaguely wondered who the hell ordered pizza under the name of Torchwood. Rory ate his slices like a man who was starved for several days. He didn't normally eat like that; it made Amy worry even more. Usually the Doctor would enjoy spending time with old friends and usually Rory would be more inclined to be polite even while eating pizza and hunting a parasitic alien.
Neither of her boys were acting the way they should. But they couldn't be sick, could they? They hadn't shown any signs of the flu…yet. She hoped they never would. Didn't seem likely, though. Whenever something bad happened someone in their little travelling group had something similarly bad happen to them.
'Amy, ready for bed?' Rory asked, wiping his mouth.
She nodded. 'Goodnight, everyone.'
Owen and Tosh were the only ones to say goodnight. Ianto was too busy staring up at Jack's office to notice anything (there was definitely something going on between those two.) and Jack was still hunched over his desk upstairs.
The console was empty, which was weird. It was still pretty decent time to be awake and the Doctor never slept at a time where she'd notice. When they went to bed he was still awake and when they woke up in the morning he was ready for an adventure. So where was he?
'I'm sure he's fine,' Rory said when she voiced her thoughts out loud. 'Probably in the library or the pool. He's been trying to figure out a way to fill it with gelatin.'
'…And why is he trying to do that?'
'Cause he's the Doctor? At this point I just smile and nod.'
They walked past a door they don't normally walk past, but considering it was the TARDIS it wasn't that surprising, and heard a little whimper.
Amy froze and cracked open the door despite Rory's protests. She peeked in, finding the Doctor curled in the middle of the bed with the covers pulled up to under his chin.
She grinned. 'Aw, he's so cute. Like a little kid.'
Rory looked over her shoulder and nodded. 'I think…this might be the first time we've seen him sleep. Voluntarily, at least.'
That earned a breathless, almost silent laugh. Last time they saw him sleep…well, let's just say it had to do with the Doctor's bowtie and a paranoid race of aliens.
The Doctor whimpered (again) and curled up a bit tighter, eyebrows furrowing together. His face was flushed a little pink and his breathing was erratic.
'He's having a nightmare,' Amy whispered and moved to go in, but Rory stopped her with a hand on her shoulder.
He shook his head. 'I don't think that's a good idea. He's a Time Lord; theirs might be different than ours. We might make something worse if we do.'
She didn't like it but Rory had a fairly good point so Amy sighed and nodded before they resumed heading to their bedrooms.
She'll ask the Doctor about it tomorrow. If she did end up making something worse then she'd just fix it. Simple.
…Hopefully.
Scene VII
Amy woke up alone the next morning and the door to her room led directly to the console's stairs. Neither of her boys were in there, but the door was wide open and waiting for her.
She went out into the Hub, yawning and eating a doughnut she snagged from an open box. A few more hours of sleep would've been brilliant, but no. There was a stupid parasite ruining any chance of relaxing. Honestly, did the Doctor do this on purpose?
'Amy, you're awake!' Gwen yelled. 'Good. I need your help with a few things.'
And that's how Amy found herself helping Gwen and Owen put together some surgical equipment that may or may not actually be a torture device. It was supposedly suppose to disintegrate something within something without hurting the outside something. Like, put a crumpled paper in a cup and you can 'kill' the paper without scorching the cup.
That's the theory at least.
Every five minutes she would glance at Tosh, who would shake her head and go back to her computer. Still no news on the parasite search. Great.
The Doctor dropped off a piece that went in the conjunction of the doo-hickey and the thing-a-ma-jig before going back to his own research. He was too distracted and too quiet. Yet, no one seemed to notice.
'Doctor, I found something interesting,' Rory called from his place under a lot of books. 'It mentions your psychic pollen and several different psychic things. Maybe the parasite's in here.'
Jack came down stairs, reading something, and talking to Ianto. Well, more like arguing. 'Ianto, I'm fine.'
The Welshman wouldn't budge. 'You didn't eat last night or this morning.'
'So? Sometimes I skip a meal. Big deal.'
'No you don't.' Ianto stood in front of him, failing to realise their spat gained the attention of everyone, even the distracted Doctor. 'The only time you do is when you've...' He looked around at the staring faces and lowered his voice. 'When you've recently died. And you haven't…have you?'
Jack shook his head. 'No, Yan. I haven't. You'd know if I had. I'd tell you.'
Ianto's shoulders sagged. 'Jack,' he said quietly.
'Ianto,' he said equally as quiet. 'Thank you for your concern.' He put his free hand on his shoulder and pulled him in for a hug. 'But I'm fine.'
He yanked back, eyes wide. 'Doctor!' He shouted. 'Jack's sick!'
Jack pulled a sour face. 'Damn it,' he muttered.
Owen was the fastest to get to the Captain's side, Rory with his nursing skills kicking in wasn't too far behind, and the Doctor was just a step behind him. Owen took in Jack's paler than normal face and held a hand to his boss's forehead for a quick, rudimentary check. And then he swore violently when he felt his temperature to be way higher than it should.
'You're burning up, you idiot,' Owen scolded. 'You've been sore? Ache-y? Coughing? Nausea ...nightmares?'
Jack scowled and refused to meet his eyes. 'Yes, yes, yes, sometimes….no.' That earned him glares making him wilt. 'Fine, yes. But only little ones!'
The Doctor leaned over Owen to peer into Jack's blue eyes. 'You've been hearing voices,' he said matter-of-factly.
He glared at him. 'That's none of your business.'
Rory glared back. 'Actually, it is. If you're sick with the parasite, how much longer until you're really sick? And what if you've got all of it?' He grabbed the Captain's arm forcefully. 'Jack.'
The Doctor pulled the former-Roman away, eyes wide. 'Jack, we're only worried about you. It's amazing you haven't gone into a coma already.' He glanced back at Rory, concerned.
Jack started coughing, shoulders shaking as his body tried to hack out a lung. Ianto caught him when he threatened to go tumbling down the stairs.
'How long have you been sick?' Owen asked.
He didn't answer.
'Jack, how long have you been sick?'
'Since Danny,' he mumbled. 'Since we visited Danny Foster in the hospital the first time.
Owen swore again. 'You're going to be the death of me,' he told the immortal man. 'Ianto, help me take him down the hatch.'
Jack shook his head and pushed them away. 'Guys, I'm fine. I'm not out for the count yet.'
'No, you're not,' the Doctor said slowly. 'And why is that? Why aren't Owen and Gwen sick as well? And why haven't the five of them gotten sick either?'
Blue eyes gave him the thousand yard stare. 'I don't know, Doc. Why don't you tell me?'
The alien grimaced and turned away, scratching his head. 'I dunno. It's all a bit odd, actually. I can only think of a few reasons, but none of them are good…why am I coming up with all the answers?' He asked mildly. 'You're Torchwood, you're brilliant. And now you're desperate because your boss is sick, what's going on in those brains of yours? 'Cause I know something is.'
'Maybe it sentient,' Tosh said, somewhat distractedly. 'Maybe it's purposely moving and leaving traces from person to person. It infects one person who has strong enough nightmares long enough to plant a little bit of itself in their minds and then it hops to the next trumatised person. It probably senses Jack life and doesn't see the point in moving to anyone else…but then…' She clicked her mouse and read something, not finishing her thought.
'That would make sense,' Gwen said. 'But, like Rory said, does Jack have all of it? Or did it hop to someone else?'
'And who'd it hop to?' Amy asked.
'Amy,' Tosh whispered. 'Come here for a moment.'
The Scot did just that, keeping an eye on her boys as she shuffled to the computer expert. 'Yeah, what is it?'
Tosh titled the screen towards her a bit. 'That test you wanted. It's showing if the parasite is in the Hub or not.'
Amy stared at it, almost disbelieving. There was a red blob right where the Captain was standing, but the blob was too big to represent him.
'What is it, Pond?' The Doctor asked, coming down to them.
To the two women's horror a piece of the blob broke off, leaving it a reasonable size now, and came closer to them. The red head looked at the Doctor, really looked at him, and blanched white from her own thickness. How did she not see this before? It was obvious! It was like she was back staring at statues with one head when the natives had two and she wasn't seeing the connection.
'How long?' She demanded. 'How long, Doctor? And don't you dare lie to me.'
The Doctor grinned a ghost grin and tried to make it charming. 'Oh lookie, a whole bunch of reveals. This could be a television show…or the novelisation.' His face suddenly washed of color and he put a hand to his mouth.
Gwen was the fastest to react and yanked the Doctor to the nearest bathroom. Back as a PC she was use to the newbies not handling things very well, be it a dead body or a surprise at the worst moment (don't ask her about the Christmas of '06, that was a bloody nightmare).
'I got him,' she yelled behind her. 'Start discussin' and plannin'!'
'How can he be sick?' Amy asked, staring in the direction her raggedy man went. 'How is that possible?'
Jack walked down, a little wobbly but pretty steady. 'The same way I am. He came in contact with the parasite…I'm thinking of a theory and it's not a very good theory.'
Ianto stood close behind him, silent support. 'If it's the same one I'm thinking, the yeah, it's not a very good theory.' He glanced back at Rory.
The Captain followed the Welshman's look and decided they weren't thinking the same thing. He was thinking he and the Doctor were probably going to get the parasite easier given their less than human biology (granted he was human, but 51st century biology and 21st century biology weren't the same thing, just look at his pheromones!). If something was alien compared to the current victims then it was easier to get to it.
Don't ask him how that was possible. It didn't make any sense to him though, but he's seen it happen. So, in some way he had yet to understand, it did make sense.
Owen poked a few things on his chart, though it did nothing. 'Okay, the Doctor's sick. We've got that. But so are you. Why is he getting sick faster than you? He only saw Danny yesterday night, you saw him yesterday morning. And, not to mention, you've seen all the coma patients. You should've gotten sicker sooner.'
'Jeez, thanks.'
He checked his temperature again and frowned. 'And your fever's gone down. Do you ever do anything right?'
'Seriously,' Tosh said. 'I think this proves my sentient theory. It purposely chose the Doctor. Maybe it senses he's not human and thinks he can give it a better meal.'
'That makes too much sense.'
'Jack!' Gwen yelled, interrupting their conversation. 'Jack, it's the Doctor!'
The sheer panic in her voice made him break instantly into a run, dreading whatever he might find. When they got to an almost empty storage room that was next to the closest bathroom Jack, unfortunately, learned his dread was not misplaced.
'I have to,' the Doctor was muttering. 'I have to save—I have to.' He banged his bloody fists on the blank wall, leaving behind streaks of bright red. 'Please!' He pleaded, his nails scratching until they left gouge marks.
'Stop!' Jack shouted. He grabbed the Doctor's bloody hands in hopes of bringing him back to earth, and looked at him straight in the eye, not liking how he couldn't focus on his face. 'You've got to stop before you hurt yourself. Do you understand? You've done enough. You have done enough,' he repeated firmly. 'You've got to know when to stop.'
'I've got to keep going,' the Doctor whispered brokenly. 'I must not stop for anything.' He weakly tried to pull away. 'She's still there. I can save her. I know I can.' He closed his eyes tightly. 'If I don't…If I don't she'll be stuck in the void forever. Jack, she'll be stuck.'
Jack's heart broke. 'Doctor,' he said softly. 'Rose is fine. She's in the alternate world, with her mom and Peter, and Mickey. Remember? You told me that yourself. She's fine.'
The Doctor's legs gave out and he brought Jack down with him. He stared at the wall behind the immortal man dazedly, searching for something only he could see. 'But I saw her,' he mumbled. 'She slipped. She fell into the void.'
Jack put a hand on the alien's cheek, flinching at the fever that raged under his skin, and forced him to look at him again. 'Peter saved her,' he reminded him softly. 'At the last minute. He kept her from going into the void. You saw that happen, you told me about it…Doctor, this is a nightmare.' He squeezed one of the Doctor's hands, relief flooding him when he saw a spark of focus. Jack hated to do this, but he squeezed again and dug his nails in a little. The pain brought the Doctor more into the present.
'J-Jack?' The Doctor blinked and met his eyes almost fearfully.
'Yeah, Doctor, it's me.'
He gripped the other man's shirt tightly. 'Are…Are you sure? Are you sure she's safe?'
'Yes,' he said firmly. 'I'm sure.' He gestured for Amy and Rory who were standing a little ways away worriedly. 'How 'bout you go in the TARDIS and get some rest, have Rory look at your hands?'
Rory kneeled next to him, grabbing the Doctor's elbow gently. 'Come on, Doctor,' he murmured. He helped the alien stand and gave Jack a grateful nod before Amy and him helped the Doctor stumble to the blue police box.
Normally Jack would have Owen check out anyone injured in the Hub, but the Doctor was so frazzled he probably needed a familiar face taking care of him.
Jack followed the trio into the TARDIS a few minutes later, blinking at the sheer shining-ness of the new 'desktop theme'. It looked a whole lot futuristic than the other one and a lot like a rich kid's play toy, but it seemed a bit more detached, less welcoming than the coral one. He ran a hand on the railing as he headed up to the balcony and to the only opened door. But there was still something comforting about the old girl.
The open door led to the Doctor's room, full of knickknacks and old (new, depending on the perspective) historical things with a lot of science stuff thrown in for fun. The ceiling was an optical mirage of stars and galaxies and a round window showed him a view of the stars that technically couldn't be there since the machine was parked in the Hub and not floating in space.
Amy shushed him silently when she caught sight of him, and with good reason. The Doctor sat next to her on the bed, using her shoulder as a pillow while Rory kneeled in front of him and wrapped up his bloody hands. Old green eyes were half lidded and he was half out of it, seemingly staring at nothing, but really staring at whatever nightmares were in his head.
Rory moved out of the way and sat on the Doctor's other side, close enough to touch.
Jack took the companion's previous place, his hands on the Doctor's knees, and peered into his face. 'How ya feeling, Doc?'
'My hands hurt,' he mumbled, sounding like a child. He blinked lethargically. 'How are you? Guess you're feeling a bit better?'
'How'd you know?'
He smiled, lips cracking as the fever burned. 'Psychic parasite verses psychic Time Lord, you glimpse a few things.' His eyes slid close. 'It likes me.'
Rory slid an arm around him comfortingly.
The Doctor sighed. 'Danny…and the others… should be… waking up...soon.' His head rolled forward.
Panic set in. 'Hey, hey!' He grabbed the alien's shoulder. 'Doctor!'
The door slammed shut.
The Doctor collapsed against the immortal man, unresponsive and dead weight. Jack swore under his breath.
'Damnit, Damnit. Bloody fu—Damnit!'
Amy yanked open the door only to find the medical bay instead of the console room. She growled under her breath. 'This is not the time for games!'
'No, it's fine,' Rory said. 'The Hub isn't equipped for actual patients and we can't take him to the hospital.'
'He's right.' Jack maneuvered the Doctor so he was holding the alien bridle style, his head limp and legs dangling, and carried him to place him on one of the three beds. 'She'll let us leave once she knows we're not taking him out of here.'
Sure enough, when they turned around, the console room was back and Jack went flying out of it.
'Owen!' Jack barked. 'The Doctor's in a coma. Get whatever the hell you need and get in here. Tosh, Ianto, I want a cure. Anything. Find it. Gwen…you're with Owen.'
Scene VIII
He honestly wasn't expecting the darkness. Really. He was more expecting a world on fire and screams of the dying. Those he couldn't save and twisted versions of moments when did save them…only it was too late. Anything could go wrong and did.
The darkness, though. That wasn't on the list.
He ran a hand through his hair and looked around, but that did no good. The only thing he could see was his hand in front of his face.
'LISTEN TO ME!'
He whirled around, eyes wide. No. No, it couldn't be. That couldn't be his fear. He didn't fear anything happening to him. He feared for his friends and for strangers. Never for himself.
'No! No! No, not me! The TARDIS! And I'm not in the TARDIS, am I?'
His breath caught in his throat, making him choke and fall to the ground. He coughed and coughed until he could barely breathe.
' Please! Listen to me! Total event collapse! Every sun will supernova! Every moment in history! The whole universe will never have existed! Please! Listen to me! No! Please listen to me!'
He couldn't move, he couldn't breathe. He could only watch at nothing happened all around him. Darkness seeped into his mind, twisting around until it could find his weakness, all his nightmares.
'The TARDIS is exploding right now and I'm the only one who can stop it. LISTEN TO ME!'
The most recent moment when he was at his weakness. A time when he couldn't move, couldn't see the strands of time. Cut off from the universe. What better way to dive into the protected mind of a Time Lord?
And then the pain came. Burning from front to back. He screamed, loud and clear, but no one heard him. No one was coming for him.
'No one ever does, Doctor. Why should they now?'
'…Rory?'
'Oh no, Doctor. Not Rory. Never Rory.'
