Chapter 1
The Doctor chuckled as he watched Rose try to unsuccessfully blow her mud-caked bangs out of her face.
"Wouldn't it be easier to just move it with your hand?"
She glared at him, eyes narrowing more as he beamed down at her, and held up her hands.
"Oh, you mean with my equally mud-caked hands? Yes, because that would be productive."
Shaking his head, he reached a hand up and brushed her hair out of her face, tucking it behind her ear.
"There. Better?"
"Yes, much, ta."
Taking Rose's hand, he shot a glance over his shoulder at his other companion, smirking when he noticed she'd finally given up on her shoes.
"How're you doing back there?"
Kari's voice dripped with sarcasm as she tried to break the many layers of mud off her arms.
"Oh, I'm doing just great! First time out of the TARDIS in a week and I'm sunburned, covered in bug bites, and have mud in places it shouldn't be."
"Then you shouldn't have gone down that embankment."
Kari stopped and gave him a look that generally meant she thought he was the thickest alien in the universe.
"The embankment wasn't the problem, nor was my precarious balance, just in case you were thinking of blaming that next. The problem, Doctor, was that piss-poor excuse of a rope you threw us!"
He stopped and turned, walking backwards a few steps. "That rope was just fine! Made of the strongest Xelaxes hemp, it was." His eyes darted away, hands shoved in his pockets as he rocked back on his heels. "The tree it was tied to, on the other hand…"
She smirked. "Of course it was." Laughing she shook her head and turned her arms over. "Mud is apparently good for the skin and might help this burn a bit, so it's not all bad."
Returning her smile, he was just spinning back to face the TARDIS in the distance when something caught his awareness. Something wrong. He felt it before he saw it – the blue beam appeared around Kari. But he hardly had a chance to react as her eyes went wide in fear. "Doctor!"
"It's okay," he said tensely, one hand up to calm her as the other reached quickly for his screwdriver. "It's okay; just stay calm."
Teleportation beam? Where was it coming from? Taking his eyes off of hers for just a second to more closely inspect the glowing energy of the beam, he tried to identify it as she pressed on the wall that suddenly separated them.
"What's going on? What is this?"
He shook his head slightly as his screwdriver whirred loudly, but told him nothing. "Some kind of…"
But then she was gone. Before he could finish his thought – before he even knew how to finish it – she had disappeared into thin air. Eyes still wide, he lowered his screwdriver and ran a hand through his hair.
"Doctor?" Rose sounded anxious. And she was gripping the sleeve of his coat. "What just happened? Where'd she go?"
He shook his head. He could think of a few possibilities – some worse than others but none of them good.
Rose took a deep breath before smacking her tongue. "Blech! Do you taste that? It's kind of a… metal."
"Transmat," he finally concluded, noticing the clues at the same time she did. "Gives off that metallic taste."
"Transmat to where?"
"No idea." Turning, he absently took Rose's hand as he set a quick pace toward the TARDIS. "Good news is that it also gives off a traceable energy signal we should be able to easily follow."
Fumbling for his key, he cursed as he dropped it before finally getting it in the lock. He strode up the ramp, throwing his coat over a strut with one hand as he reached for the scanner with the other. Inputting the information he'd gleaned with his screwdriver, he was able to find the energy signal. Standing up straight, he cocked an eyebrow.
"Oh, well, now that's interesting."
Rose came up beside him and peered at the scanner.
"What is?"
"This energy signature. It matches the one from when we were knocked out of the Vortex a few weeks ago, trapping us on that refugee planet."
She frowned up at him. "You think it's the same people?"
He nodded. "It's likely. Same primitive technology; probably don't even know how to properly use it. Shouldn't take too much to trace it and find Kari."
The Doctor immediately set coordinates for the origin of the signal. Then he threw the hand brake, lurching them into flight. Rose looked up at him as she hung on to the console, her nose crinkled in confusion.
"What I don't get is why someone would take Kari. Not like she's made any enemies. None that I'm aware of, anyway."
The Doctor shrugged as he simultaneously pushed the air pump and hammered on an abstinent switch.
"My guess is that they were after me and missed. Another sign they don't know how to use their equipment." Reaching around the console, he held down a button with one hand, pointed to another for Rose to press, and held a gauge in place with his foot. "In fact, I wouldn't be surprised if they took her out of the wrong time stream."
Rose held the button down while carefully moving a lever up. The Doctor grinned; he hadn't told her to do it; she just knew.
"What does that mean?"
"That means, Rose Tyler," he said as he threw the final lever, barely catching himself on the console as the TARDIS slammed down, causing him to frown up at the rotor slightly. "That whatever caused someone to come after me hasn't happened yet."
Kari fell to the floor, breath knocked out of her, as the blue force field released her. Fighting the urge to vomit, she slowly opened her eyes, coming face-to-face with a murky reflection of herself in the floor. Carefully moving her muddy hair out of her face, she chanced a glance up and was met by several sets of boot-clad feet.
"Get up!" a voice barked behind her as she was kicked in the ass.
Slowly, she got to her feet, surveying her surroundings as she did. Fifteen guards, all with guns trained on her, formed a semi-circle in front of her, making what otherwise appeared to be a decent sized room rather cramped. The hum of some sort of electronics sent a slight vibration through the cold, metal floor to her bare feet and up her body.
A throat cleared, bringing Kari's attention to a tall, imposing man with a slight purple tint to his skin. It didn't take much to realize he'd been the one to kick her and bark the order. She watched him carefully as he circled her.
"Who are you?"
"Kari. You?"
"Kalan."
She glanced around the room, trying very much to hide her fear. "Where am I?"
"You don't know?"
Sensing mild amusement from Kalan, Kari made her eyes meet his, following him as he continued a circuit around her, hands clasped behind his back.
"Should I?"
"Are you an associate of the Doctor?"
She gasped, almost inaudibly, but not enough for Kalan to have missed it. Her entire body tensed as he stopped in front of her, towering. A slow, terrifying smile started to creep across his face, revealing what appeared to be incredibly sharp teeth.
"You are, aren't you?"
Swallowing, Kari clenched her fists to try to keep from trembling, although she knew her panic was written all over her face.
"Wh…why do you want to know?"
Kalan reached a hand up, gently stroking the backs of his fingers down her mud-caked face, causing her to flinch.
"That, my dear Kari, would be telling."
Rose looked up at the hospital and frowned. "Why would she be in a hospital in my time?"
The Doctor shrugged and took her hand as he started walking toward the front door.
"Only one way to find out. Come on."
As soon as they entered the building, the Doctor clutched his side and doubled over in apparent pain. Surprised by this sudden turn, Rose grabbed his arm and tried to get him to look at her.
"Doctor, what's wrong? Are you okay?"
He glanced up at her, smiled and winked, before continuing with his little show. Panic turned into curiosity as she stepped out of the way of the orderlies. One of them approached her, clipboard in hand.
"Is this your husband, ma'am?"
Her eyes darted toward him, trying not to laugh as he howled and writhed in pain. She had no idea he was such a good actor. Nodding, she looked back at the waiting nurse.
"Yeah, he's my husband."
"Name?"
"Mine or his?"
"His, ma'am."
She nodded again, her brain going over his various aliases. "Right. John Tyler. Doctor John Tyler."
The nurse's eyes flicked up from the clipboard. "He's a doctor?"
"Yes, that's right."
"What kind of doctor?"
Rose swallowed. "What kind? Oh, um, a sciency one, I suppose."
The nurse's eyebrow quirked before going back to the clipboard. "Right. Age?"
"Thirty-five?"
"You don't know how old your husband is?"
Rose shrugged. Well, he says he's 903, she thought. "We don't really keep track."
"Alright. How long has he been complaining of pain?"
Oh, about a minute or two. "Hour or so."
"History of illness, any major surgeries, allergies to medications?"
Does regeneration count as major surgery? Rose shook her head. "No, not that I'm aware of. Oh! He's allergic to aspirin."
The nurse looked up and smiled as she slid her pen in her pocket. "No aspirin. Got it. We'll get any other information we need once we get him stabilized. Now if you'll just follow me, Mrs. Tyler, I'll take you back to A&E where you can wait with your husband."
"Please, call me Rose."
