I split this day up into three parts because of the length. Enjoy =)
Day 4
"No, I don't understand. That's not possible."
"A single Time Lord will find the Lost Scrolls of Rassilon and lead Gallifrey from darkness."
"Please… Penelope! Penelope…"
###
The Doctor woke abruptly, pushing back the memories that threatened to come flooding back. He was in an unfamiliar room, but judging by the medical equipment he assumed it was the medbay. He turned his head awkwardly to the left to get a glimpse of the rest of the room and saw Rose curled up in an uncomfortable-looking chair next to the bed, sound asleep. The light coming in from outside told him it was early morning. He laid back against the mountain of pillows piled behind his head and closed his eyes. The last thing he remembered was talking to a woman in the pub. A Vinvocci whose name he couldn't recall. He had a brief memory after that of pain. The most intense pain he'd felt in a long, long time. Memories soon started flooding back. He and Rose were investigating a string of poisonings on the train, and he'd been talking to the passengers when he'd collapsed.
So the murderer decided to get rid of me. Why didn't I die? Or at least regenerate…
A horrible thought occurred to him then, and he frantically moved his hands up to feel his face and hair. Reassured that he had not regenerated, he sighed and leaned back again, feeling exhausted.
###
The next time he woke up he felt noticeably better. Judging by the light filtering through the small window above his head, and the fact that Rose had not moved, he estimated he'd been asleep for only maybe an hour or two. Quite suddenly he was seized by the need to relieve himself, which was unsurprising when he recalled how many glasses of water he had drunk the previous day. He stood slowly, and moved unsteadily towards the small restroom, doing his best not to wake Rose. He managed to make it to the bathroom and back without incident. Thankfully he was still wearing all of his clothing, bar his jacket, which he soon spotted draped over the end of the bed. He was moving towards it when Dr. Lee entered the room, studying her clipboard. She looked surprised to see the Doctor up and about.
"Feeling better, I presume?"
"Oh yes. Good as new!" he grinned cheekily
Rose woke with a start at his voice, and when she spotted him her face broke out into a wide grin.
"Morning sleepyhead. Welcome back," she stood.
"Good to be back!" he took a step forward and swept her into a hug.
"I thought I was gonna lose you again," Rose spoke into his shoulder.
"Ah, not yet. I'm quite fond of this face," he set her back down.
"Me too," Rose smiled up at him, eyes slightly moist.
The Doctor stepped back and turned towards Dr. Lee, "So, what's the prognosis, Doc?"
The female medic removed her glasses and leaned against the bedside table, "By all means you should be dead, but you're not. Your liver began failing just a few minutes after we found you, and for a little while there it was touch and go. However, your body began to recover quickly. The poison we found in your stomach when we pumped it matches the toxin found in both of the other victims. In your case, however, the poison never moved to the next stage; it didn't move into your heart…. well, hearts."
The Doctor nodded thoughtfully, "Hmm, yes, that's probably due to physiological differences.. The other two, they were human?" he addressed Dr. Lee.
She nodded in affirmation.
"That'll be it, then. The poisoner didn't account for my faster metabolism. The poison was rendered impotent as my body started to digest it. Didn't give it a chance to start towards my hearts."
"And you are a…."
"Timelord," the Doctor finished for her, not expecting the medic to have heard of the ancient race.
Lee simply nodded and consulted her clipboard again, "Well, I'd estimate by now the poison has almost completely left your system. While I would normally recommend at least a day of bedrest after a physical trauma such as this, in your case I think I can make an exception. You're free to leave, just try to refrain from engaging in any strenuous activity and notify me immediately if you start to feel any difference in your condition whatsoever."
The Doctor nodded his compliance and moved to put his coat on.
###
10 minutes later, the Doctor and Rose were back in the privacy of their room. The Doctor sat down heavily on his bed, feeling considerably drained just from the walk over. Rose sat next to him, eyeing him worriedly.
"You okay?"
He grinned at her reassuringly, "Oh yeah, I'll be fine. You know me, I'm always fine."
Rose wasn't convinced, but she let it drop, "So, did you find anything out from the passengers?"
The Doctor shook his head morosely, "Not a thing. You?"
"Zip."
The Doctor frowned briefly, then grimaced suddenly and clutched his stomach. Alarmed, Rose quickly moved to help him- although not sure exactly how- but he put a hand up to stop her.
"It's ok, just a pang. That's to be expected," he stood up, breathing heavily and looking slightly more pale. Rose lifted his arm over her shoulder, and was relieved when he accepted the help.
"I think we should head to the TARDIS, there are some Time Lord-safe painkillers on board." Rose nodded and together the two made for the back of the train.
###
After a few minutes of laborious walking, they finally reached the door to the luggage car at the end of the train. The Doctor leaned against the wall while Rose tugged on the door. She was surprised to find it stuck shut.
She turned towards the Doctor, "I think it's locked."
"That's odd, it shouldn't be…." he pulled the sonic screwdriver out of his jacket and waved it in front of the door. The metal door unlocked with a click. Rose pulled again and this time the door slid into the wall with ease. As she looked prepared to step out onto the causeway, Rose was dismayed to find that the causeway ended halfway through. The part of the metal grating that was attached to the train car they were in dropped off after a few feet, and looking past it all she could see was miles of countryside below them, rushing by at impossible speeds. The end of the train was gone, and with it, the TARDIS.
###
The Doctor was taking it about as well as could be expected, considering the last time they had lost the TARDIS they'd nearly been sucked into a black hole. He paced back and forth in the small room as Rose sat on the ground by the door, studying her hands.
"Ohhh stupid, stupid, stupid!" he smacked himself on the forehead a few times.
"What? What is it?" Rose looked up at him.
He stopped walking and looked grimly at her, "This whole thing has been a trap. No one could know the TARDIS was in that room unless they knew who I was. No staff go back there, no passengers are allowed, what possible reason could there be to detach it from the train? Unless this all has been a cleverly orchestrated plot to trap me in a confined location, and what better place to do that than a train moving 200 kilometers per hours!"
"So you're saying whoever this murderer is, they're doing this all to get to you? But why?"
"Must be someone that has something against me… 900 years of time and space travel, you make a few enemies. Ok, we need to get to the engine room pronto, we have to tell the operator to stop this train!"
The Doctor set off towards the front of the train, ignoring the fatigue that clouded the edges of his mind. Rose followed closely behind, keeping a close eye on the Time Lord for any sign of a falter. Reaching the door to the engine, the Doctor pulled on it, but it wouldn't open. He used the sonic screwdriver to unlock it, and checked again, but the door was stuck tight.
"Just what I was afraid of," he said, "It's been deliberately locked with a deadlock seal. It can only be opened by the device that sealed it."
"What do we do?" Rose asked. A wave of pain rolled through the Doctor, and he automatically began to move his hand towards his stomach before he stopped himself. Knowing Rose would have him confined to the medbay if she had substantial evidence, he assumed a neutral expression.
"We'll just have to catch the killer ourselves."
###
"Dr. Lee? Dr. Rogers?" the Doctor pushed open the door to the medbay and peered inside.
"Yes?" Dr. Lee appeared from around the corner. Seeing the Doctor and Rose, she beckoned them in.
"Back already? Are you having pain?"'
"No, nothing like that. We wanted to talk to you a little about these killings. From what I know of the toxin, it doesn't cause heart failure. Is it possible the poisoner is choosing victims based upon internal conditions that would cause the poison to have a certain effect?"
Dr Lee looked thoughtful, "I suppose that's possible, although not much is known about the substance… How do you know so much?"
"Rose and I are.. ehm.."
"Botanists," Rose supplied.
"Yes, botanists."
Lee looked sceptical, but didn't press, "By the way, have you seen Dr. Rogers recently?"
"No can't say I have, why?"
"I haven't seen him since we brought you in yesterday. No matter, I'm sure he's just catching up on his rest. He has seemed a little on edge recently."
"So, about the victims," the Doctor said.
"Yes, well I've gone over the files of both of the deceased," Dr. Lee walked over to the refrigerated closet, "There don't seem to be any medical similarities that could cause the different reactions... Oh my God, Hiram!" Dr. Lee jumped away from the closet, hands clasped over her mouth in horror.
The Doctor moved to get a better look. Inside the closet, propped up against the far wall was the unmoving body of Dr. Hiram Rogers. The Doctor quickly knelt next to the man and checked his pulse. He looked back towards Lee and Rose who were standing in shocked silence and shook his head grimly.
"He's dead. And by the looks of it he's been dead for quite a while… at least a week."
"But I don't understand, how is that possible?"
"Oh… I've seen this before somewhere… Think, think!"
The Doctor was up and pacing again. Rose sat Dr. Lee down on a chair and the two watched the Doctor. After a few minutes he stopped walking.
"Oh! Of course!" he dashed back over to Rogers' body and whipped out his sonic, pressing a few buttons and scanning the body. Rose stood up and joined the Doctor in the closet.
"Quite a while ago," he lowered his voice so Dr. Lee couldn't hear, "I ran into a being called a 'Maker'. Makers are a parasitic race with the ability to possess the bodies of others. This particular Maker, name of Reo, was up to no good. My companions and I foiled his plan, casting him out of his host body in the process. Now, if my theory holds, he's the one behind these murders, and he's been using of Dr. Rogers as a sort of puppet," he held the sonic up, analyzing the results.
"But that doesn't explain why Dr. Rogers looks like he's been dead for so long."
"When a Maker inhabits a body, it destroys the mind of the host over time. Only the energy from the Maker prevents decomposition. That is, until the Maker leaves, then the body begins to decay all at once."
"That's horrible," Rose shuddered, "Since Reo has left Dr. Rogers, does that mean he's inside someone else now?"
"It's very likely," the Doctor nodded, "Now, we have to figure out who he's moved into before he gets the chance to strike again."
He raised his voice to address Lee who was still where Rose had left her, "Dr. Lee, I'd understand if you don't want anything to do with this-"
Lee cut him off, "No, I want to help. I'll do whatever it takes to catch this bastard," she stood and wiped the wetness from her face, setting her jaw.
The Doctor grinned at her, "Brilliant! Now, I'm going to need you to put everything you have towards figuring out how the toxin killed those two people."
The medic nodded determinedly.
The Doctor turned back to Rose, "Rose, it's time to catch a killer."
###
"Chief Briggs report, repeat Chief Briggs report, 10-54, repeat 10-54," a voice buzzing over the intercom caused Rose and the Doctor to look up from the map of the train they had been engrossed in for the past hour.
"10-54… that's the code for a dead body," the Doctor said, exchanging looks with Rose.
Rose jumped up and grabbed her jacket, "Well, let's go then."
###
The two time-travellers had no trouble finding the location of the body. Silver crime scene tape cordoned off a section of the hallway outside of Room 11, and two train security officers loitered outside holding cups of coffee and talking in low voices.
The Doctor approached them confidently, holding the psychic paper up, "Excuse us, blokes, Crime Scene Security Team."
The larger of the two officers scrutinized the Doctor's fake credentials for a moment then shrugged and lifted the tape, beckoning them in. The Doctor leaned against the door frame and grilled the officers for information while Rose went inside. Rose was pleased to see that the officer in charge had not arrived yet, so she was free to peruse the crime scene undisturbed. She crouched down next to the body which was in the bathroom, lying inside the free-standing bathtub. The flesh on the face had begun to decay, and Rose had to resist the urge to gag. Examining the face closer, she found she recognized the deceased.
"Doctor, you're goin' to want to see this," she called.
The Doctor appeared in the doorway and quickly pinched his nose with two fingers, giving his voice a nasal sound when he talked.
"I got some info from the security guard out there. He says this room is booked under the name Gale Minh, she was traveling alone. Train security was notified when a passenger complained about the smell."
"Look familiar?" Rose nodded towards the body in the tub.
The Doctor leaned in to get a closer look, then his eyebrows shot up in surprise, "Well, we've found our fake Edith Peters. And by the looks of it, Host number 1."
###
The Doctor and Rose got out of the room as quickly as they could, trusting the security officers to handle the body. The two returned to the medbay to check in with Dr. Lee, and found her crouched over a microscope, scribbling furiously on a pad of paper.
"Knock knock," the Doctor rapped on the doorframe as they entered.
Dr. Lee looked up, startled, and adjusted her tortoiseshell glasses, "Doctor, I've developed a theory about how the poison works," She said excitedly, "I was reviewing the circumstances around each poisoning when I realized there was one major external difference between yours and the other two. The anesthesia. We administered a general anesthesia to both of the deceased, but when we began to dose you up, Rose told us you're allergic to Aspirin. My theory is that it wasn't the poison that caused the cardiac arrest, but the reaction of the poison with the anesthetic mutated it into something far more lethal."
The Doctor nodded thoughtfully, "Yes.. that's clever, very clever. Brilliant job, Dr. Lee!" he grinned at her, "But we still don't know how the poison is introduced… How long did you say the toxin took to have an effect after the initial poisoning?"
"By my calculations, if ingested it should have taken about two days for the poison to hit full effect after entering your system."
"Ok, so it hit you late last night, that would mean you were poisoned sometime on the first day we arrived on the train, yeah?" Rose mused.
The Doctor nodded. If Lee had noticed that they had boarded the train three days into its journey, she didn't let on. The Doctor pushed away from the wall he'd been leaning against and walked to the window. He stared outside, mentally listing out everything he'd done on that first day.
"Assuming the only host before Dr. Rogers was Gale Minh, Reo was in her the day we arrived on the train," he said, thinking aloud, "So, the poisoning happened during what brief contact I had with her… Oh! That's it!" the Doctor spun around to face Dr. Lee and Rose, "That's how he's doing it, through hands!" he held his own hands up and waggled his fingers excitedly.
"Wait, Doctor slow down. What do you mean?" Rose said, looking lost.
"It's genius, really. What's one thing we do every day subconsciously, with people we're just meeting and old friends alike. We shake hands. Put a little bit of poison on your gloves, you can spread it around to whomever you choose and no one will suspect a thing!"
"That would explain Dr. Rogers' weird behavior!" Rose exclaimed suddenly, "He tried to shake my hand earlier, but I couldn't because of the toothpaste," noticing the questioning looks from the Doctor and Lee, she waved her hand, "Don't ask. Anyways, when I couldn't shake he seemed really angry for a second."
The Doctor clapped his hands together enthusiastically, and beckoned Rose towards the door, "Alright, Dr. Lee, now you know if there are any more poisonings that you should not administer an anesthetic. Rose and I are going to head back to our room. It's time for us to implement Phase 1."