chapter two: The Remaining
"Doctor!"
The Time Lord reached out to catch himself, but it was too late. He fell down in a faint just across the motel's office doorway.
Still, by the time Jack and the -creepy old woman- motel manager reached him, he was already stirring.
"Oh my. I don't remember this place being so active when I was here last. Don't anybody freak, I'm perfectly fine. Just got a bit dizzy, for a mo."
He sounded uncharacteristically winded in the quiet of the morning. Jack could feel concern welling over his face, but he stilled it instantly. Besides, the Time Lord knew his body better than anyone. If he said he was fine, well… yeah right.
Jack reached over and pulled the Time Lord up gingerly by the scruff with a hand, avoiding an easy -arm around the midsection- carry for purely hopeful reasons.
"Why dizzy? See something?"
See? He could be careful and subtle when he wanted.
The Doctor groaned; clearly this was a sore topic. But Jack could have laughed at that face.
The Creepy Old Woman, -an Asian-, however, merely scowled, then looked over to share a sour plum with her young maid, who was cleaning behind one of the room doors. Ah wait. That wasn't a plum, Jack reasoned, staring at her behind her back. That was her face.
shiver
"Don't be rude, Jack Harkness," said the Doctor with a little breathless gasp as he accepted the help, which left Jack wondering along earlier lines, "…it isn't like you haven't seen worse."
"Bah!" screeched the Old Woman, who had finished the jar of plums and was now tapping her fingers on the front desk. 厄介者! 歓迎されなかった失礼なoff-worldersここに!
Then the maid appeared from behind the door with a clean white duster and said simply, "Mayu-Kun, do not hassle these honoured guests. The one who fell, he is Kusabi…"
But the Doctor cut the young woman off, his eyes pale and bright and wide as robin's eggs whilst he spoke, his entire nature recoiling as though she were a viper after his nest.
"What?"
The maid smiled at him then, blocking Jack out entirely as their eyes met.
"You are the Kusabi, the Sacrifice. It seemed apt, for you. Your eyes tell of much suffering."
Time Agent or no, with his hand still on the Doctor' arm, Jack could have sworn he felt the man actively withdraw from her presence.
"Doctor, you're trembling. I think we should get you back to bed. Come on…" Jack said, taking a firmer hold on the Time Lord's arm as he tried not to notice how the alien he fancied was cradling his midsection like a dicky teenager.
Then the maid turned to the Old Woman and said softly after them, "Perhaps some breakfast in bed for these gentlemen, Mayu-kun? The Kusabi is in need of food."
Jack led the Doctor away back to their room with trepidation alight on his shoulder. What had it all been about? The Japanese version of Norman Bates?
----
The Time Lord fell unconscious almost as soon as his scruffy hair hit the pillow, but he did not sleep well. Jack sat with him through the dreams of angry faces, of fires and rages, until, at the last, he screamed of a naked madwoman with a countenance hard and white, a fallen angel whose crimson wings and wet, glistening black eyes seemed to swallow… everything.