"I still can't believe how much of a baby he's being about this." Amy said as they sat on uncomfortable plastic chairs in the empty cafeteria, drinking non-descript caffeine supplement beverages. Some things just never changed about hospitals, even if they were weird and spacey, or old fashioned and damn near archaic. There was always a place to get a cup of tea. Or coffee, whatever your poison was.
"I still can't believe how empty this hospital is." Rory said, feeling his words waft away on the wind unnoticed by the other two. He couldn't help it. He got tingles when he walked around this place. The silence, the way everything seemed to be running, but no one was around, as if the entire place had been vacated in a matter of seconds. Even the drinks had been hot... not that that really mean anything with the automating of everything.
"Well it's in his nature by now..." River said with a sigh, pursing her lips and blowing softly at the hot liquid inside her cup, "If you've been out there exploring for a thousand years, getting an entirely new body every time you damage the old one, you'd probably not like someone telling you you're not looking after yourself."
"His teeth certainly need it..." Amy said thoughtfully, sighing at the ceiling as she thought about the state the Doctor was in "I'm pretty sure I've only seen him eat sweets in the entire time I've been travelling with him." She frowned, stirred her cup of tea, then looked a little disgusted at the fact she'd barely seen him eat anything but sugary treats.
"She why now?" Rory asked, turning to River "Why bring him here if he's had almost a thousand years of looking after himself by now?" He didn't want to diminish River's efforts, but surely after a thousand years the Doctor would know what he was doing.
"He's playing fast and loose with this body of his." River said with a soft tut, frowning into her cup as if trying to read the future "And I don't know if he's ever gone for such a long time just looking after himself." She sipped her tea, then sighed heavily, much more heavily than her usual confident manner would allow "And I really want him to stick around. The Doctor may not really die... but... he changes... And this one is mine." That smile was back, that confident, innuendo filled smile. There was just a hint of sadness there however.
The Doctor was, for all extents and purposes, not enjoying his time at the dentist's. After an extended waiting time where he and the four walls stared it out, a door at the back of the room opened with a cheery "The dentist will see you now." There hadn't even been a receptionist in here to pass the time. Something was up, Rory was right, but the problem was that no one really understood what he was right about. The Doctor was just going to have to figure out what was wrong, and until he did, he might as well play along with this whole Facade River was forcing him through.
The Doctor stepped into the dentist's office proper, taking in the well concealed drawers filled with teeth scrapers and cotton balls, the reclining padded chair with arm rests, and the overhead lamp, which was designed more to blind the patient than actually aid the dentist. It took less than a second for the Doctor to see everything that was in the room, but what really caught his attention was the shiny new robot standing beside the chair. It was... much less friendly looking than the receptionist they'd talked to earlier.
This mess of metal and wires was meant for one thing and one thing only, the rather disgusting business of cutting, slicing and removing parts from a diseased or injured body. It was like an upright hand, a hand with a few too many fingers and tank treads. It wasn't as tall as the Doctor, barely five foot, but there was no face, nothing to focus on but the array of drills, saws and scalpels at the end of each finger. The fact it spoke with that same calm voice as the receptionist earlier made the Doctor's skin crawl.
"Please, take a seat." It said, waving those long fingers towards the chair, managing to stare expectantly at the Doctor without eyes.
"Where's... what's his name? The one with his name on the plaque?" the Doctor said, waving a hand backwards out of the room. He almost lost that same hand as the door slammed behind him, rather rudely smacking against his outstretched fingers, and cutting off the only escape route. Still, the Doctor stood his ground, refusing to move away from the door, even if it was definitely locked.
"Please, take a seat." It replied in that same soothing tone, the effect marred as the overhead light caught one of the vicious looking saw blades.
"The doctor. Dentist. Whatever. Where is he?" the Doctor said, bringing his injured fingers to his lips and sticking them between his teeth, as if biting them would stop the pain.
"Please, take a seat." It repeated, pausing, waiting... then finally seeming to relent some information. "You will be with the dentist soon." it decided on. Carefully chosen words. Not a lie, but not comforting, "Please, take a seat, or your lack of cooperation will be noted and we shall be forced to restrain you."
"A bit of a leap don't you think?" the Doctor said with a grin at the machine, trying to laugh in the face of danger "From politely asking to full on cuffs and manacles?" He still hadn't moved, but the hand he'd been nibbling on had moved downwards, only slightly, towards the inside pocket of his jacket.
"Resistance recorded, patient will be restrained." the cheery voice called out before the fingers of that mechanical hand sprung to life, all twisting to face the Doctor. No matter how unwilling a patient was, surely they did not deserve THAT man blades and drills pointed at them. For the first time the little tracks sprung to life beneath that swathe of metal arms, practically skidding on the well maintained floor as the machine shot straight towards the Doctor.
With practised ease the Doctor drew his sonic screwdriver, his hands moving faster than half the gunslingers he knew, flicking, fiddling, twisting the mysterious tool as the air filled with the sharp squeal of sonic resonance. Back against the closed door, the Doctor almost sucked in his stomach as the robot rolled towards him, the cheery voice letting out a calm "Threat detected." Seconds passed like decades, saw blades whirred, sparks flew, and with a soft hiss, the assaulting robot slid to a stop.
"Cutting it a bit closer there I think..." the Doctor said, the sonic still softly whirring in his hand as he ducked beneath the dissecting tool that had been trying to give him a haircut. "Now... what exactly has happened around here, hmm? Time for your check-up!" he said, leaning in and carefully prodding at the mess of wires that was the heart of the metal beast. "Medical robots don't just up and attack people for no reason... and there should be at least one person around this place, even if it's to mind the teleporters..." the Doctor's brow was furrowed as he pressed the sonic deeper into the heart of the machine, then he flicked his eyes up towards one of the sleek drills that was still dangling above him "Not exactly in a talking mood? Don't worry... all you need to do is open up... and say Ah!"
As the Doctor poked and prodded like a troublesome child with a live insect, he failed to notice the faint stirring of the fingers above him, a slow twist of a drill, a shift of a joint. He noticed however, when the speaker that was practically right in his ear said in a calm down "Sonic interference detected. Applying dampeners and synchronising."
"Right!" the Doctor said, taking a hurried step back and finding he was still unfortunately pinned between the machine and the door "Very good, very well done. I see you have been a good murder bot and flossing regularly." He turned his sonic around, pressing it into the doorframe, talking quicker the more the machine began to retain its ability to move.
"Relaying sonic dampener information via intranet." It said in return, barely recognising that the Doctor was there.
"Oh no no no, no need for that." the Doctor said with a shake of his head, desperately running his sonic up and down the edge of the doorframe. He swallowed as one of the drills whirred menacingly, the single finger it was on pushing forward, edging onwards with the inevitability of a planet's orbit. "Well, it's been a wonderful appointment," the Doctor said, his body flat against the door as he tried to get as far away from the machine as possible, "but I'm afraid our time is up!"
With that, the door slid open, and the Doctor flopped without grace onto the floor the other side. He didn't waste time trying to regain his breath, flipping over and pointing his sonic at the door again, slamming it shut after him. The drill had lunged forward just as he'd fallen, missing his head by inches and snagging a few hairs in the process. It had also lunged straight into the path of the slamming door, and the broken finger of the robot was crushed between the door and its frame.
"Now then..." the Doctor said, standing up slowly, taking deep breaths, trying to recover from that rather stressful ordeal "I should go find the others..." He moved a bit closer to the door he'd just fallen through, talking louder so the machine on the other side could hear "And then we're going to get to the bottom of this. Believe you me." The door shuddered, the drill gave a threatening whirr, but nothing else moved... apart from the Doctor, who had flinched back at least three feet.
"Well I see your point." the Doctor said to the drill, after managing to compose himself again.
