A/N - Sorry for the long gap in uploads! Well it feels like a long time for me anyway... I started school this week and haven't had the time to write. I felt bad so I wrote this in my sixth period. I'm in an off season sport so we just sit around and I put it to good use! Go water polo! xD
Jack was the first to break the silence after they swept the two unconscious figures into the TARDIS, the infirmary their target.
"So, what are we going to do to find them?" Jack asked while they sped through the various corridors of the ship. "It's not like we could've gotten anything I was otherwise indisposed and I'm sure that you were too focused on Flora to-"
"Rose." the Doctor interjected, not trying to hide the anger that laced his voice.
"What?"
"Her name is Rose. Not Flora. She'd die of embarrassment if she ever knew her name was Flora and not Rose." They had arrived at the infirmary doors and the Doctor stopped and half turned his head to Jack, his eyes pointed at the floor. "This is not Flora. She is Rose." the TARDIS opened the doors and the Doctor and Jack shuffled inside.
"Alright," Jack sighed, wanting to move on, "as I was saying, with our attentions elsewhere, we didn't get many clues as to who or what they are." Once they had laid Rose and the boy in the anti-gravity beds, the Doctor began doing what his namesake entailed.
"24th century humaan by the smell of it." the Doctor sniffed.
"Humaan? Don't you mean human?" Jack asked, wondering if the doctor had finally lost his marbles.
"Yea, humaan. The 24th century is when the human race suddenly became super pompous and changed the name of the whole race."
"What happened in the 24th century that caused the...humaans?"
"Was the 23rd century, near the end of it actually." the Doctor murmured, checking the boy's scans.
"Alright then. What happened in the 23rd century?"
"Oh, we don't talk about the 23rd century..." the Doctor said with the slight shake of his head. "Or rather I don't."
"Why?" Jack was beginning to get annoyed.
"Ran out of bananas. Banana famine of 2284. Lasted for 60 years. Could you imagine? 60 years without a banana. It's like not having the sun for 60 years. A delicious peel-able sun, with an excellent source of potassium." the Doctor sighed, shaking his head again. Jack fought the urge to laugh at him. 'I really doubt that what it really was about...' he thought, and shrugged off that last conversation.
"So, how are they?" Jack asked, wanting to get away from bananas, knowing that the Doctor could, and would, talk about them for hours.
"Nothing really bad on the child." the Doctor said, double checking his scans."And Rose?" Jack pressed. The Doctor took of his glasses and pinched the bridge of his nose.
'Oh god, this cannot be good.'
"Well," he said, putting his glasses back on. He opened his mouth only to close it again. Unable to find the words to describe how poor of a condition she was in. He sighed and read off the scans. "She is extremely malnourished and dehydrated. A side effect of that is that she is deficient in vitamins and minerals. Even such simple ones, ones that you get just from going outside." the Doctor's hands clenched and he felt his rage rising.
They never even took her outside. They fed and gave her water as minimally as possible. She was kept like a caged animal that no one wanted. Put out of sight and only fed and cared for out of pity. Her arm and leg muscles were in such a state of atrophy that the Doctor wondered when the last time was that she walked, or even moved. Remembering to the not-to-distant future, Rose looked as she always had. Strong, beautiful, and healthy. How could she have gotten so far in just eight months. How could she have done it with the current development of medicine. The closest they had gotten to regeneration is with slicing flatworm's heads in half and making a two-headed monster.
"Ohhhh!" the Doctor gasped when he realized how incredibly thick he was being. He ran to the far wall of the infirmary to an extraordinary amount of technology crammed onto one wall.
"What are you doing?" Jack yelled. Running after him.
"I'm just saving Rose's life. Or at least her muscles." The Doctor said, elated.
"Whaddya mean? Wouldn't this be meddling with the future or something?"
"Good guess but no. I think that think the this is a circular paradox. Gah it finally makes sense!" The Doctor barked a laugh as he spun in a circle and flipped some switches on the wall of switches and levers. The TARDIS' coral design had even spread to them.
"Doctor? What exactly are you doing?" Jack watched in quiet amusement as the Doctor continued to flip random switches multiple times.
"I can hope to reverse the atrophy by using the TARDIS' life support systems."
"Will that really work?" Jack asked finally beginning to feel hopeful.
The Doctor found the lever he was looking for and flipped it. Turning to Jack with a huge grin on his face he said, "Oh yea, it just might."
"Fantastic!" Jack cried as he followed the Doctor back to Rose and the boy. Their anti-grav chambers now had a green sheen to them. Although, Rose's chamber looked like it had a gray tint to it.
"I'll keep them sedated until they show progress, then we go along as planned."
"Are you sure? I mean you just got Rose back. You'll be letting her go again..."
"Yes. This is a circular paradox. Why else would they bring her to a place so near Torchwood? They wanted you to find her and contact me. That leaves only one question. Why?" The Doctor trailed off, lost in thought.
"I have a few act-" A small groan interrupted Jack's train on thought.
"Rose?!" The Doctor cried, rushing over to her side. Rose's eyes were still shut and her head was shaking slightly. "Rose you're okay. Please wake up!" Rose's eyes opened slowly and she took in the room around her. Her eyes grew wide when she took in the Doctor and Jack. She suddenly grew frantic, hitting the walls of her chamber and trying to get into the smallest space possible. She wasn't screaming but her eyes were full of fear.
"Rose, you're okay, don't worry just calm down." He looked at the Doctor, who had turned from her. He turned his face from Jack as well, not wanting him to see what was on his face. Jack looked back at Rose, who was now curled into a ball in the furthest part of the chamber, eyes wide with fear.
The Doctor stared at the floor. He had looked away for he knew that if Rose saw him he knew that she would be even more scared of him. He WOULD find whoever did this, and he WOULD make them pay for what they did to Rose, his Rose.
Sorry for the short chapter...I had to write this primarily on my phone. Over a thousand words written on a phone? I think that's pretty good. Anyway...please review, good or bad it lets me know if I'm going in the right direction with this or if anything is confusing. Thanks NicNack4U for letting me know that at least one person like my River hate. I appreciate any and all criticism that I may get. Thanks for reading!