Thanx to everyone who reviewed. And a special thanx to Reichenbach again for all her input. Hope everyone likes it.
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"I'm fine, Mum. I just got a little lightheaded and stood up to fast is all. I just need to go home and have a good night's sleep. I'll be good as new in the morning, you'll see," Rose tried to reassure her frantic mother.
Jackie was having none of it. "You passed out, Rose, that's not nothin'," Jackie argued. "The doctors want you to stay overnight for observation and I think that is a good idea."
Rose was already getting out of the hospital bed and reaching for the blouse that the nursing staff removed from her when they put on the tacky blue paper dressing gown. "I'm not staying here tonight, and that is final. Now you can either help me or get out of the way so I can get dressed."
Jackie frowned and handed her the trousers that were hanging on the back of the chair she was sitting it. "Fine, but you're not drivin'. You're likely to run straight into a wall or somethin'."
"I'll take her home for ya," Mickey volunteered. He had been quiet for most of the evening in the hospital. "My car is waiting outside." Rose smiled her thanks to him.
"Fine, if you're gonna be ganging up on my like that, I guess I don't have choice but to let her come home tonight, but I still the doctors are right about you staying here tonight."
"Your objection is noted, Mum. Now, let's just go home."
Mickey and Pete helped Rose get up and walk to the exit after she had changed and Jackie waited while Mickey brought his car around.
When Mickey and Rose were alone in his car she sighed, "Thanks Mickey. I don't think I could have ridden home with her tonight."
Mickey smiled and patted her hand. "No problem. I wanted you to have a look at something from work anyway. In the glove box is a folder. Take a look at the picture."
Rose opened the compartment and opened the file. It was dark so she had to flip the overhead light on to see. What starred back at her stunned her and sent her back to that time oh so long ago, when she had met Captain Jack and danced with the Doctor for the first time. "It's the Chula Ambulance. But it was blown up 65 years ago I think."
"Apparently not. And since we're not all wearing gas masks right now the nannites are all still inside. I was thinking that maybe, if we can get it open, we could use them to fix whatever is wrong with you. The doctors aren't helpin' and you're getting' worse." Mickey glanced at her from the drive's seat.
"I don't know, Mickey. It could self-destruct or something if we're not careful, and there are so many better uses for them than me. Besides, I don't even know if there is something actually wrong with me other than that anemia and the headaches." Mickey frowned at her. "OK, we can try it."
"That's my girl," Mickey said in his best Doctor voice.
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Rose sat at Mickey's desk early the next morning fiddling with the TARDIS controls in front of her and smiled sadly. This TARDIS was dead, probably killed in the Time War. It took Mickey two months of fiddling to get the functions of the console to interface with his own computer. There was very little memory in left in the old machinery. Most of it had probably been lost when the Time Vortex died. It could still translate language, which came in handy when he needed to talk to the alien computers, and could broadcast, but little more than that.
There was no one else in the lab this early in the morning. They had planned it that way. Rose didn't want nosy lab techs milling about around them, mucking things up.
"Alright, here we go," Mickey had the capsule moved near his workstation the night before for easy access. It was laying on it's side and he was standing over it with a blow torch.
"Wait. There's a key pad on it, right?" Rose asked from the desk.
"Yeah," he answered.
"Don't you think that maybe you should try to interface it with your computer before you start hacking bits off?" Good old Rose.
A grin spread across his face, "That could work I suppose, but I was really looking forward to cuttin' this baby open."
Rose rolled her eyes. "Boys and their toys."
Mickey pulled some cables out of a box and attached them to the security pad, then stretched them to his work console. Rose scooted her chair out of his way as he rolled a stool in front of the screens. "It probably won't be very hard to open. It's designed for emergencies, right?"
In seconds the pod door popped open and little tiny golden specks hovered over it. "It's waiting for a command. My computer can speak directly to them. Now to give them a task."
"Wait, before we do this, these things have never seen a human before, so you'd better tell them." Mickey logged on to the Internet and downloaded the Torchwood Emergency Response medical info and fed it to the little nannites.
Mickey designated a place for Rose to stand, then ordered the nanogenes to scan her. The strange, but familiar sensation of the nanogenes scanning her passed over her body. At first it tickled, then it itched, then the sensation changed. It was no longer pleasantly warm, it burned and it scared her. "Mickey, something's wrong."
"Just a second," Mickey said as readings flashed across his computer screen.
"Now, Mickey, shut it off NOW. It's not working and it hurts." The nanogenes retreated immediately.
Rose fought to take in a shaky breath, then stumbled to a waste bin and retched what little she ate for breakfast. "Sorry about that," Mickey said as he rounded the desk and helped her up. He wiped her damp brow with his sleeve. "You alright?"
"I'll be fine, just, lets not do that again, OK." Mickey nodded and helped her back to her chair.
The nanogenes' information was fed through the TARDIS translator before the Mickey's computer began processing it. The medical program Mickey had downloaded analyzed the information, which was taking way too long as far as they were concerned. As they went over the readings the nanogenes sent back to his computer they both realized how serious the situation really was.
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