Disclaimer/Author's Note: I don't own Dr Who. I am just someone who keeps getting hit by plot bunnies. This is dedicated to my wonderful theatrical friends who keep inspiring me with wonderful ideas and situations. This is set about 11 years after Bad wolf Bay.
They had spent the past couple hours at the warehouse going over it with a fine tooth comb. The constables there didn't see someone matching the description of the plasmavore, but that didn't mean he couldn't have mixed in with the crowd that was outside the tape. At least for now it was gone.
Rose had managed to get copies of the constable's preliminary reports. Currently all of them were sitting around the Harker's dinning table going over the findings.
"What have the labs come back with?" Rose asked as she pulled out a folder.
"The blood that thing threw up was Mr. Gray's. They are going to run some bio screens on it. I courier to London a set of the samples for our people to run tests on, just to make sure; they won't be ready for another couple hours."
One of the servants brought in 2 pots of tea and some sandwiches for them. "Here you go. The Missus sent two pots of tea for you. The red pattern has the lemon ginger that Ms Rose preferred this morning. The other is another herbal tea but it should be more to the Doctor's likes. And before ya ask, Mrs. Harker doesn't keep much of the normal black tea here, but I have the grocery boy bringing some for you. In the mean time, please make do." The servant smirked as she set the tea tray down. "If you need anything else just ring." She then excused herself.
"This stuff is heavenly." Rose sipped the tea with a smile.
This time the Doctor sniffed the tea before he drank it, "Not bad, not enough tannin for my taste but it's better than some of the 'tea' I have drank in my travels."
"You were the one that picked it," Rose quirked an eyebrow at the Doctor, "It's not my fault that for once, it was truth in advertising."
The Doctor gave Rose a glare as he turned with his own tea cup and began to read.
Whispering Arthur leaned over to Rose, "What kind of tea was it?"
"It roughly translated to Flying Purple Lion guano grass. It was supposed to give you the strength of a lion, and make you feel like you were flying."
Arthur nearly choked on his own tea, "So what was it?"
"Just what it said it was. It was tea made from a plant that grows in piles of alien flying quasi lion dung." The Doctor gave Rose his 'I'm not amused look', then turned to Arthur. "Supposedly the best is one's that still have some of the dung on it."
"And since we always got the best…" Rose cut in with a smirk. Arthur tried to quell his laugh, while Jake who had just caught the last part of the conversation just looked disgusted.
"Boss, the last of the reports arrived," Jake handed the reports to the Doctor.
"Excellent!" He spread them out on the table before them.
Setting her tea down Rose stood next to him, "What are we looking for exactly?"
"Something to tie all these things together." The Doctor slipped his glasses on.
"Each victim seems isolated." Rose laid out photographs of each of the victims. "The first non-death victim was Nicolas Fowler. He works for one of the local banks as a teller. He the first to be attacked, but was the 2nd victim to be located. His wife found him walking down a country road 10 miles from their house, still asleep." She pointed to the next one, "Amy Fitzpatrick, she is a late night clerk at a pharmacy. He co-workers found her passed out on the floor of the pharmacy. The pharmacy had been trashed. There was so much damage they are not sure if or how much medication was taken."
The Doctor picked up the next picture, "Next was Kelsie Ryans, she is a bar tender and waitress at a local pub. A constable found her unconscious at a bus stop. He initially thought she was just another drunk, but after examining her found her burning up with fever and very pale. It was after the discovery of her that the constables started to notice."
"Didn't do much good for the other victims," Rose pointed to the next picture, "Doctor David Parker, a well known country vet. He was coming back from a late night call to a farm when he saw something in the road and stopped to check on what it was. He remembers getting out of his truck and then nothing until he woke up in hospital. He was found some hours later by a farm hand that was inspecting the fences. Several of their cows had gone missing."
"And the last is our hostess Mrs. Joesphine Harker." The Doctor tossed the file they had on her onto the table. "What is so special about these people? " The Doctor ran his hands through his hair in frustration.
"Nick's medical history isn't anything out of the ordinary. He is just your average guy working at a bank; pretty boring really." Arthur looked up over his lap top. "It is the same for Amy, to be honest. She plays online games and has 4 cats. The most notable thing in her profile is that she won a local theater award for playing a living china doll in a play."
"And the other's?" Rose took sips of her tea as she sat down. The Doctor moved to stand behind Arthur at the computer, his glasses on his nose.
"Ms. Ryan has been married 4 times, to 3 different men. A few run in's with the law, but nothing serious. She spends her nights tending bar, and waiting tables. The pub she works at is just down the street from where she was found, and that is about it." Arthur switched to the next file, "Dr. Parker has worked in the area for the past thirty years as a small and large animal vet. Every one likes him, and he does well for himself."
"What is that?" The Doctor pointed to something on the screen.
"His veterinarian office recently received a couple grants to begin testing on new vaccines, and medications." Arthur clicked a couple things, "Heh, one of the grants was from the Torchwood Foundation."
"From us?" Rose walked over to the both of them. "What for?"
Arthur logged into something, "Actually yes. He was testing some agriculture products for us."
The Doctor nudged Arthur out of the chair, "And what has Torchwood unleashed now?" The Doctor started doing something to the computer that even Rose couldn't follow. "That's odd."
"What's odd?" Rose looked over his shoulder.
He sneezed really loudly. "Sorry..."
With a smirk Rose handed him a hanky, "As you were saying?"
He glared up at her, "As I was saying, it's odd that the shipment of supplies were never delivered."
"Where are they then?" Arthur asked.
"Good question." The Doctor swiveled to face them. "Jake… Jake…?"
"He was escorting Mrs. Harker around the grounds. He wanted her to show him where her attack occurred." Arthur supplied.
"When he get's back I want him to…" The Doctor stopped mid sentence when he heard the sound of shouting from out side, and the call for a doctor. All of them ran out of the room, to see Jake carrying in Mrs. Harker.
"Lay her on the sofa." Arthur grabbed his bag and began examining her.
"What happened?" The Doctor spun on Jake.
"She wanted to ride her horses. I didn't want her out there alone, so I went with her. I didn't leave her alone for a second." He looked to each of them, "I swear."
"We believe you, but what happened?" Rose asked from the Doctor's left.
"I didn't want her to go far, so she just rode in the ring. Everything was going fine, but I noticed her balance was off when she went over the jumps. She said she was alright."
The Doctor gave Rose a significant look, and then motioned for Jake to continue.
"She seemed fine at first, but the horse started to act odd. Within a moment she started to fall out of the saddle. I got to her in time and helped her to the ground. When I touched her she felt like she was burning up. Despite her protests I brought her back up here. Half way here she started to shake."
"Febrile seizures." Arthur stood up from where he hand been kneeling to examine Mrs. Harker. "She is running a 103.1 temperature."
It was then that Mathew ran in. "Josey…" He knelt next to her, "What happened?"
"We think she had a relapse, Mr. Harker. I would like to take her to the hospital." Arthur spoke up rather forcefully.
"No," Mathew said stubbornly, "I will not have her in a hospital." He clutched his wife's hand.
"What ever this illness is, it is killing her. I can only do so much here. I need her in a hospital where I can monitor her better."
"She could die there." Mathew clutched his wife hand, near tears.
"She WILL die here if she isn't treated," The Doctor took hold of Mathew's jacket and made him look at him.
"Trust me, I do understand," He looked from Mathew to Rose, and back again to Mathew's eyes, "but your wife needs medical help that we can't give her."
Rose laid a hand on Mathew's shoulder, "We will put her in a secure ward, and only Artie will look after her."
Arthur looked up from where he was settling Mrs. Harker, "Artie?" Rose silenced him with a look.
"Let us help you," The Doctor encouraged him. Finally Mathew nodded. "Alright, Artie package her up, and we will take her to St. John's Hospital."
"I'll call ahead and get a private ward set up." Rose already had her mobile out.
Taking hold of Mathew's arm the Doctor led him away so that Arthur could do his job. "Mathew, I promise you we will do all we can for her."
Arthur and Mathew went with the ambulance. He was able to report back that she had regained consciousness, but was not out of the woods yet. She still had a high temp, and was still 'twitchy'. At least at the hospital Arthur could run more tests.
That is why several hours later, a much more sober Rose, Jake and the Doctor were again hunched over the papers at the dinning room table, pots of tea everywhere.
"None of this follows anything we know about plasmavores." Rose pushed a lock of hair out of her face in frustration.
"Mathew was thinking that the wreck of the cargo ship was the cause of this." The Doctor looked over a file. "I wish we knew what they were carrying."
Rose picked up another file, "All of the goods in the cargo hold of the ship were catalog and stored in a local warehouse until the proper owner could be found."
"Which warehouse?" The Doctor swiveled in his chair as he reviewed the document in his hands.
Rose turned a couple pages, "Grey & Holtz Limited." Rose sat up straight as the Doctor pulled the papers from her hands. "That's the place we were this morning."
"What was on that ship that was so important?" Jake asked as he pulled up something on the laptop.
"That is what I hope to find out." The Doctor pushed Jake aside as he sat down at the computer.
"You said earlier that the smashed cabinet contained what?"
"Vaccines for cattle," The Doctor pulled up a listing of cattle vaccines and began comparing them against the inventory list from the cargo ship."
"Any of interest?" Rose looked over his shoulder.
"Well", he looked closely at the data, "its pretty much standard. The only odd thing was there was a lot of antiviral but nothing that shouldn't be there. To be honest the cargo was almost all agricultural goods and implements, import grain and herb goods. I mean come on why would some one an old tractor for?" He gestured at the screen.
"A collector of odd things?" Jake tried to joke but it fell flat.
"What about the woman; the girl that washed up?" Rose pulled another file from the stack.
"They got back a genetic match to a search they did before she died. Her name was Julia Dorvan. She was biological engineer specializing in blood born diseases."
"Any idea why she was on the ship?" Jake asked, pouring a cup of tea for each of them.
"The company she worked for said that had been assigned to escort some new development to a lab here in Brittan. She was terrified of heights so it wasn't unusual for her to take a boat." The Doctor read from her profile.
"What did the company say the new development was?" Rose asked as she took her tea from Jake.
"Nope." The Doctor popped the P. "But…" The Doctor entered a few key strokes which brought up a Torchwood program, "Her name sounds familiar and I think I know where I heard it at." He entered a few things, when another profile came up.
"That is Julia?" Jake pointed out when he looked at the screen. "But I know her."
"She works in our biochem lab." The Doctor brought up a list of her projects. "I knew I remembered her from Torchwood. Aha! She researches blood born diseases for Torchwood, and the other company is her cover job."
"What was her last assignment?" Rose asked.
The Doctor entered his access codes, but it was denied. "That's strange. Pete has given me full access to any Torchwood records."
"Does it give a reason why you are locked out?" Rose asked as she looked at the screen.
"It says the file is blocked from outside the main frame access. If we want to see it, some back home is going to have to access it for us."
"Which means it is going to have to be Pete." Rose walked over to the corner with her mobile. "I just hope I don't wake the children."
"It is early enough, they will be just heading to bed." The thought of his children back home brought a smile to the Doctor's face.
The Doctor's thoughts were broken when there was a knock on the door frame. He turned to see a haggard Mathew standing there. "How is she?"
"Arthur has her stable. He sent me home for a little while. He said he would call if there was any change." Mathew took a seat at the table his face in his hands.
"We will do all we can for her." The Doctor put a hand on his shoulder.
"Thanks" Mathew looked up at him.
"Pst… Doctor." Rose stuck her head into the room. "Catch..." She tossed him her mobile.
He caught it and put it to his ear, "Daddy…" the squeal of Verity carried through the phone.
"Hey sweet heart..." With a wide smile the Doctor walked into the other room so he could talk to his family in peace.
"I envy him." Mathew sighed as he stood up.
"Why?" Jake asked as he packed up all of their papers for the night.
"It has been a long time since I have seen that kind of happiness," Hands in his pockets Mathew walked away sadly.
Author's note: Ok, I lied. I got hit by inspiration and just couldn't stop. Hope you are enjoying it so far.