The Bleeding
Chapter Four;
Ryan's POV;
The Doctor paced in front of us, looking like a caged animal. Her breaths were much too fast, even for two hearts, and her hands were shaking. She muttered to herself here and there, trying to assess the current situation. On one of the beds lay something that definitely didn't belong to this time zone.
Finally the Doctor stopped pacing, her breaths much calmer after some kind of mental conversation with herself.
"Right, so what've we got?" She asked us. I turned to the other two, wondering if they'd speak first. I didn't trust myself to say anything unless it involved the Doctor's current condition and state of mind.
"James Blake is takin' the day off," Graham spoke up, noticing my worried looks. He knew the we needed to sort Krasko out, and to do that we needed the Doctor's help which meant she needed to be distracted from whatever had gone on in the warehouse.
Yaz turned away from the papers in he hands to look at Graham. "What?" She asked. "But he can't!"
"That's what I said," Graham shook his head. "Strangely, he didn't listen. This Krasko bloke is interfering. He's reassigned Blake's route to a driver called... Elias Griffin Jr," he continued, taking a moment to remember the other bus driver's name.
The Doctor looked down, hand flying to her face and sighing. "Tiny actions," she said, looking up at them, "that's what he's doing."
I once again noticed the aversion to Krasko's name. The Doctor still refused to let the word get passed her lips and out into the air.
"He's clever, I'll give him that," the Doctor said, resuming her pacing. "He's not planning on killing, or destroying or breaking history," she continued, her hands gesturing in front of her but without her usual manic energy, "he's planning to nudge it just enough so that it doesn't happen. Enough of a stick in the spokes to throw everything off the rails- and now I'm really mixing my transport metaphors," she rambled, some of her child-like personality coming back now that her mind was distracted from whatever had happened, "but he didn't reckon with us keepin' it in place!"
"And how do we do that, then?" Yaz asked the Doctor.
The Doctor looked at all three of us, "now we know what our task is," she said as Graham sat down on the edge of one of the beds. "Keep history in order," she explained. "No changing it, just guarding it against someone who wants to disrupt it. Tomorrow, we have to make sure Rosa Parks gets on the bus driven by James Blake. And that the bus is full, so that Rosa sits when she's asked to stand for white passangers-"
I touched a button on the supposed weapon the Doctor has stolen from Krasko, making it beep.
"-Ryan, don't mess with that!" She warned me and stepped a little closer.
"How does even work?" I asked.
She pointed to a few features as she was allowed the opportunity to explain, "charges here, this setting dials the temporal destination. Pretty simple, pretty deadly." She snatched the device from my hands and tossed it on he bed behind me. "Now, can we concentrate?" It was a rhetorical question used to distract her mind, disguised as concern for getting Krasko out of the way. The concern she had was real- I knew that- but her want to ramble on and on, and not stop for fear of letting her mind wander was even clearer.
"How are we supposd to keep history in order if James Blake is gonna go fishing at Mill Creek and another driver is lined up to do his route?" Graham spoke up.
An idea quickly came to my head and I lookes at the Doctor, "I've got an idea."
"I've got an idea," Yaz said at the same time as me.
"Same idea?" The Doctor asked us.
"Raffle winner," Yaz suggested.
"Fishing takedown," I said and looked at Yaz when I realised what she'd said. She looked at me.
"Oh, I think both could work!" The Doctor told us brightly, making us smile. "Yaz, you and I will go see Elias Griffin Jr about a raffle prize, and Graham and Ryan, you two will go to Mill Creek and get James Blake to change his mind about havin' the day off. It doesn't matter how you do it, just so long as you do."
"What raffle prize are we goin' to offer Elias Griffin Jr?" Yaz questioned the Doctor.
"I know just the thing!"
Yaz's POV;
The Doctor had the brilliant idea of offering the bus driver Elias Griffin Jr front row tickets to see Frank Sinatra. The man was overjoyed and jumped on the opportunity to go and see the singer live. If I'm being honest, I would have too. I don't know how the Doctor has all these connections to famous people, but it does come in handy when you're in dire situations suh as the one we were in.
We both walked down Elias' path, heading away from the house as the Doctor spoke about Elvis Presley lending Frank Sinatra the phone she'd given him. It was a good job he did, apparently.
We stopped on the pathway leading to Elias' house. "We need to stick tight to Rosa," the Doctor said seriously. Then, she reached down and grabbed the bottom of her coat. With a mighty tug, she made a large tear in the light blue coat. I gawped, startled by her determination. She shrugged the coat off, staring at the rip she'd made.
Whilst she stared at the rip, I found my eyes drifing back to the friction burns on her wrists. Without the coat to mostly cover them up, they were now in plain sight with how short her undershirt sleeves are. The sunlight shone on us both, illuminating the injuries.
I took a deep breath and prepared to get blocked out again like before, "those look painful, Doctor," I noted, looking pointedly at her wrists. She started walking down the path, presumably heading to Rosa's store.
"Not really," she denied, but I noticed she absentmindedly brought her left hand to nurse her right wrist.
"How did you get them?" I asked, playing dumb. "Looks like rope burn to me."
"Uh, yeah," she nodded, "it is."
I nodded my own head and looked down. It seemed I was getting somewhere, but the feeling that she would soon shut me out still lingered.
"You know you can tell me anything right?" I suddenly asked, changing tactics. Something I'd learned during police training. Make sure the person you're dealing with knows it wasn't their fault. "I know we haven't known each other all that long, but we've been through a lot together- us, Ryan, and Graham. We'd try and understand as best we could."
The Doctor stared at me curiously for what seemed like the longest time, scrutinising me with her eyes, but not unkindly. After a long moment, she turned back to the path in front of her and determinedly examined the coat in her hands as if it were the first time she was seeing it.
"Yeah, I do," she said, answering my question.
"So," I started, putting my hands in my back pockets, "do you wanna tell me what happened in the warehouse? Like I said, I'm not here to judge you. I'm here to listen and try and understanf as best I can."
Beside me, the Doctor moved her gaze from the pale blue coat and focused on the ground. Then she looked up and her eyes caught something in the distance. "We need to get this coat to Rosa Parks. Come on, I can see her shop," she said, picking up the pace and ultimately ignoring my question. I sighed worriedly and tried to keep up with her.