After an hour Martha took another blood sample from the Doctor. The Time Lord grumbled a bit as she drew the blood which indicated that he wasn't as deeply unconscious as he had been. Martha gave the blood to the TARDIS to analyse. She showed that the amount of toxin that remained in his blood stream was greatly reduced. Martha wasn't entirely sure how, but his body temperature was good, his breathing was good, his pulse and his blood pressure were good, and he was doing much better. He had done as he'd said and metabolised the toxins. There wasn't anything she had done to help him do that, she'd just given him drugs to make it more comfortable.

"I don't think it will be long until he wakes up," Martha advised Donna. "And, when he does he's going to be feeling much better. I'm not entirely sure where all the toxin has gone, but it is no longer in his blood stream or tissues."

Donna didn't think she was going to be feeling tired. She'd had a couple of days relaxing on the beach and a good night's sleep and they'd only been out for the morning. Despite the difficulties of the time she didn't think it was too much past lunchtime over on the beach. Yet, as she sat talking to Martha she felt fatigue creep over her.

"You should go to bed if you need to sleep, even if it is only for a couple of hours," Martha commented.

"I shouldn't feel so tired," Donna sighed. "I had a really good night's sleep and it's probably only early afternoon back on the jungle planet."

"How far into the jungle were you when the Doctor got spiked by the spine weasel?" Martha asked her.

"Just over half a mile," Donna advised.

"So, you had to get all the spines out of his back. Then get him half a mile through the jungle? You said that he was starting to throw up and collapse by the end of it and you also did at least some of that after falling down some rocks and breaking your wrist and two fingers?" Martha summarised the morning Donna had experienced. "And, you're wondering why you're feeling worn out? Go to bed for a couple of hours," Martha suggested. "It will do you good. Get some sleep. Even if the Doctor does wake up he's not going to be going much further than his own bed for the rest of the day, and I am sure he's going to be feeling pretty upset that you've been hurt. He will be even more upset if you're all worn out and struggling to stay awake when there is no need. Go and get some rest. I tell you what, I've got the stuff to do a cooked breakfast. You can both come and have breakfast at mine, considering I've got the TARDIS parked in the middle of my bedroom and I don't see it going anywhere far for a few days, you may as well," Martha offered. "I'll make sure I wake you up before then."

"Okay," Donna agreed. She still wasn't sure that she was going to be able to get to sleep, until she was lying in her bed. It was a bit awkward trying to get comfortable, but she took the sling off and rested her cast arm on a spare pillow over her chest and it felt easier. She slipped off to sleep quite easily then.

Martha studied the Doctor's scans. She mentally asked the TARDIS where the toxin had gone. It was no longer in his systems, but he had not excreted it. He'd not urinated and he'd not defecated and he'd not been sick since she'd done the first blood test when his body had been close to overwhelmed with the amount of toxin. The TARDIS showed that he had a small gland in a position where his appendix would be if he was human. The toxins were all collecting there. They would remain there until all it was out of his systems and then it would be expelled from his body usually through the urinary system. It was definitely efficient and it was better than a human would have done. It had probably saved his life. His systems were more robust than a human's. Martha was fairly sure that he had saved Donna's life by taking the majority of the spines. She'd seen what it had done to Donna's shoulder, the big angry red swelling was bound to be quite painful.

Martha peeled back some of the bandage from the Doctor's back. The skin under it was not as inflamed as it had been. Some of the less dense blotches were showing as individual stings again rather than all of them being merged together. It still looked incredibly painful though. She peeled the rest of the bandages off and applied fresh ones with a new layer of cooling salve to make sure that he was as comfortable as possible when he started to wake up. She'd have to change them over every few hours until it was better and he'd probably not be able to lie on his back for a day or so. A couple of the dark blotches looked like they had started to blister. She hoped there wasn't going to be any kind of secondary infection setting in. She'd have to keep an eye on them.

As she smoothed the last of the creamy bandages down over the tip of his shoulder so that his stings were covered she saw that the Doctor's eyes were open. He blinked a couple of times to regain his focus and took a deep sighing breath. He gingerly moved his hand up to remove the oxygen mask from his nose and mouth. Martha let him do it.

"Hello Doctor," Martha crouched down so he didn't have to move in order to see her. "Been in the wars again, haven't you?" she reminded him.

"Martha?" the Doctor puzzled slightly. He'd been with Donna, not with Martha, and, he winced.

"Hello," Martha caressed his head. "How are you feeling?"

"I think…" he tried to think about how he was feeling. "A bit ropey," he acknowledged. "Head still aches a little and my back is really hot and sore."

"Do you remember what happened?" Martha asked him.

"Spine weasel got me," he acknowledged.

"It most certainly did."

"I'm not entirely sure I remember everything that happened after that."

"No, you were in a pretty bad way by all accounts. I know that you would have metabolised the toxins without much intervention, but, Donna got you back to the TARDIS and called me, and, your TARDIS is in my bedroom," Martha advised him.

"Sorry," the Doctor commented.

"You don't have to be sorry," Martha assured him. "Happy to be able to help. Not that I've really done much for you, you seem to have done it for yourself. The toxin has almost gone for your systems, the TARDIS has shown me how you have a separate organ that is filtering it out ready for excretion."

"The effects of the toxins are almost gone," the Doctor commented. He went to rub his face and saw that he had a bandage covering his finger. It was where the spine weasel had bitten him for the final insult.

"You're probably going to have some pain in your back for some time. I just changed the bandages over. They are soaked in an ointment that the TARDIS recommended so are keeping the skin as cool as possible. The inflammation has gone a little, but it is still significant. I've given you some analgesia and some antihistamine that the TARDIS provided and you can have some more of that in an hour or so, but I'm afraid there isn't much else we can do for a while. Donna showed me all the spines she pulled out of your back. There were 84 of them and 37 of them had released the secondary toxins."

"84 is a lot."

"You're not kidding," Martha commented. "How many would have killed Donna?"

"I'd have to examine the actual toxin to be sure. 20 or so spines maybe or 5 that released the secondary toxin."

"So, if she'd been hit with all of them by the weasel then she'd be dead?"

"Yeah, more than likely," the Doctor agreed quietly. "She still took one to her shoulder. Have you sorted that out for her? It's going to be sore too."

"I've put some antiseptic on it and some ointment," Martha commented. "What do you remember about the trip back through the forest to the TARDIS?" Martha asked him.

"Not much," the Doctor tried to decipher the flashes of memory. "She was helping me. I think she shouted at me. She told me she was going to leave me if I didn't get up?"

"I'm sure she didn't mean that," Martha commented knowing better than to think Donna would ever have left him. "Do you remember falling down some rocks?" she asked him.

"No, I, there were the boulders at the edge of the jungle. They were pretty steep to get up. I'm not sure how Donna could have got me down them? I know I was pretty bad. I had to be pretty bad, I don't remember it. I know I was hurting and I was sick a few times. I don't remember getting back down the rocks."

"By all accounts you both fell down them," Martha told him.

"They were quite high," the Doctor suggested. Then he pushed himself up onto his arms, grimacing as his back stung as the movement seemed to set every single one of the 84 stings going again. "Where is Donna?"

"She's in bed. She's sleeping comfortably, I went and popped my head in on her a moment ago," Martha assured him.

"Is she alright?"

"She will be, but, when she fell over the boulders she must have landed awkwardly. She's broken two fingers and the scaphoid. Both of them to the right side. I've set her wrist and fingers and cast and splint her up. She is almost as stubborn as you are, didn't want any morphine to begin with, but we've got it done. She's now resting."

"She's broken her wrist and fingers?" the Doctor fretted feeling sick all over again. "I must have dragged her down or something?" He felt horrible that Donna had been hurt.

"Now, I don't know what happened and you're certainly not going to know what happened. Only Donna does and she's not said how it happened, just that you both took a tumble down the rocks. She'll heal okay. The scaphoid was displaced so it's a reasonable full bodied fracture rather than just a crack through it, but it's holding so I don't think it's going to need a screw through it. I've put a temporary cast on. I will have to split it this evening to accommodate the swelling, but when the swelling is reduced we can look at the positioning and see if she does just need a little screw in to hold it. It looked good on the last scans, but we will have to see."

"Poor Donna." The Doctor sighed miserably and then grimaced as his back razed.

"You're both going to be sore for a while, but you're both going to be fine," Martha assured him. "Now, is there anything else that we can do in order to ease your back?"

"It feels so hot," the Doctor complained. "Can I have some ice packs on it?"

"We can try that, but it's a large area to be treated with ice, we don't want you to end up with hypothermia."

"I can maintain my body temperature quite well," the Doctor assured her, though they both had an unwelcome flash of memory to him being inside a status chamber being rapidly frozen. Ice packs were thankfully not going to be that extreme. Martha went and got a load of gel ice packs from the sickbay store. She activated them one at a time and placed them across his back and shoulders over the top of the bandages. The coldness seeped into the bandages extinguishing the flame beneath them.

"How is that feeling?" Martha asked him when she had placed all the ice packs on though his boneless slump and relieved sigh were a good indication that it was helping him.

"Better," the Doctor acknowledged. "Almost nice."

"Good," Martha caressed the back of his head. "Now, how about a cup of tea?" She knew that he'd not want to resist a hot sweet tea. For an alien he had certainly taken that human tradition to heart.

"I don't want to have to sit up yet," the Doctor sighed. "It's almost stopped hurting."

"Well, just this once, I will get you a cup of tea and a straw, and I'll hold it for you," Martha suggested. The Doctor made a non-committal sound that was either a disgruntled no or a reluctant yes at the thought of being fed a cup of tea in that manner. Martha wasn't entirely sure which it was. "Was that a yes please I'd love a cup of tea, or a no thank you, not just now?"

"Yes please."

"Okay, well, you stay there and relax and I'll be back in a moment. I'll leave the doors open so if you want anything shout and I'll hear you," Martha assured her. She went out into the galley and flicked the kettle on. She got two mugs out of the cupboard and started another coffee in one of them for her and put a teabag in the other for the Doctor. She was just about to spoon the sugar in when she heard a 'Martha' get called through from the sickbay. She dropped the spoon on the counter and rushed back through to the sickbay where the Doctor remained lying face down on the bed. "What is it?" she worried.

"Can I have some biscuits as well?" he asked her.

"Course you can." Martha resisted the urge to scold him for shouting for biscuits. She'd not told him only to shout in an emergency but if he wanted anything. She was glad that he wanted to eat even if it was just a couple of biscuits. After throwing up as Donna had advised he was probably still feeling a bit tender and acidic, some dry biscuits might be a good idea for him, though she was sure he was expecting elaborate creams and chocolate she picked up a pack of plain digestives.

The Doctor nibbled at the biscuits while still lying on his front. He was a bit tenderer than he anticipated when he started to eat them. He didn't feel sick as such, just reluctant to fill his stomach. He slowly sipped the tea through a straw. Tea was always a relief and once he'd drained the cup he rested on his front and allowed his eyes just to drift closed again. Martha didn't mind that at all.

He dosed on and off for a further hour, but then sleep eluded him. The ice on his back was feeling rather cold now rather than a relief which suggested that the inflammation had gone down a fair bit again. It wouldn't last long. The ointment and drugs from the TARDIS were powerful and no match for a measly spine weasel. He was feeling generally stiff and sore from the effects of the muscle cramps from the toxins, but he was now bored of lying on his front and he wanted to go and check that Donna was alright.

It didn't take Martha long to see that the Doctor was waking properly again. "Do you want another cup of tea?" she asked him. "I've got to see about changing the bandages and renewing the ointment and you're due some more drugs again, so you can have a cup of tea before or after I do that?"

"Can I have it after?" he asked. "Do you think I could sit up now?"

"Let me change the bandages on your back first," Martha suggested. She took the ice packs off and then carefully peeled the bandages back. A couple of the worst stings through the back of his shoulders had blistered and were weeping slightly, but the isolated ones that had not triggered had reduced to penny sized red disks that no longer looked as angry. "That is much, much better," Martha commented. "You really do heal up quickly," she advised. She used some gauze to clean some of the blistered areas and he flinched a little when she passed the saline over raw skin. That was still sore. She then spread the ointment over his back. "Are you sure you're going to want to get up this time?" she checked with him.

"Yeah, I'm fine now."

"Okay, then instead of the bandages we'll cover you over with a T-shirt," Martha suggested. She went to the store at the side of the sickbay and got a small T-shirt. He'd normally wear a medium so the small would be tighter on him. She wanted the soft fabric of the T-shirt to cover the ointment at the back. She helped him to sit up on the side of the bed. He was stiff and sore and he felt decidedly fragile but with nothing that was beyond him and he wasn't going to complain when Donna had broken her wrist and two fingers.

Martha got him a pair of pyjama bottoms to put on rather than his shorts. She remained with him as he changed in case he lost his balance. He then sat on the edge of the bed again as Martha gave him the drugs. He checked what the TARDIS was having her give him. A mild analgesia to assist with the pain he was in but not to block it totally so he'd not go running about too soon, an anti-histamine to assist with the stings and a booster of vitamins and minerals that he was supposed to take quite regularly to ensure he got the things a Time Lord needed that weren't readily available through the human diet he tended to eat.

"Thank you," the Doctor offered once Martha had finished giving him the drugs.

"You're welcome," Martha assured him. "One day are you going to turn up for a cuppa without being half dead?" she checked with him.

"I would have been alright," the Doctor commented. "Donna didn't really need to call this time."

"Well, considering she has a broken wrist and broken fingers she probably did, though she didn't realise that at the time," Martha reminded him.

"Has she had plenty of pain relief?"

"She's had morphine and lignocaine while I was setting her wrist and finger, but she's gone off and is having a sleep. We'll see how she manages with codeine, ibuprofen, or tramadol depending on how sore she is when she wakes up," Martha advised. "As I told her, I'm off work this week on leave that I've got to use up. I've only got plans tomorrow evening with Tish, so you need to stick around until you're fully recovered and until we can put a better cast on her wrist. She was reluctant to go to sleep, so, I promised that I'd do a decent breakfast. How is your tummy feeling?"

"It's not too bad," the Doctor admitted. "I'm not sure if I'm starving hungry or feeling a little sick."

"A good cooked breakfast may well sort it out for you," Martha commented. "If it doesn't it will certainly let you know which one it is," she teased slightly.

"What is the local time?" the Doctor asked curiously as Martha was wearing her bed clothes still and was talking about breakfast.

"It's coming up to half seven," Martha commented.

"Half seven in the morning and you've sorted me out and sorted Donna out? What time did we arrive?"

"Ten past three in the morning." Martha narrowed her eyes at him, but then smiled. "I am assuming that the TARDIS always comes in the middle of the night because she knows I've got no life and am going to be tucked up in bed alone," Martha chuckled.

"Probably," the Doctor agreed but pouted when Martha tapped him on the thigh for agreeing with her. "How long has Donna been asleep?" he asked quietly.

"About two hours now," Martha commented.

"Is it okay if I go and see her?" the Doctor asked.

"If you're alright to get up then you can. You're not to go running around though. No leaving, no doing anything strenuous, and no TARDIS maintenance. Some of the stings on your back have blistered so I need to keep an eye on them and until you've totally metabolised all the toxin and have excreted it properly we need to be cautious."

"I'll be fine now."

"I am sure that you will be," Martha advised. "But, we need to be safe, okay? The state you were in when you arrived here was enough to worry me. I am sure that you worried Donna a lot, so, I just want you to be safe and careful for a few days. She's going to be feeling sore herself you need to behave so she doesn't have to worry about you too much and you're not feeling 100% yet at all are you?" she checked with him as he carefully got down off the edge of the bed.

"No, not yet," the Doctor admitted. "I will behave," he assured her. "I'll take some codeine through for Donna in case she is awake and in pain?"

"Okay, go on then. If you don't mind and you're feeling up to it, then I will nip back into mine and get dressed and stuff and then be right back?" The Doctor nodded that it was fine. He was steady enough on his feet now. He didn't feel well, but he didn't feel horrible. There was only the slightest amount of toxin remaining in his blood stream now. His body had seen him through it as he knew it would, though he'd not expected it to be as bad as it had been. Though 84 spines? That was a lot of spines to end up with. Stupid spine weasel. He almost hoped it got eaten while it was stuck on that tree all defenceless.

The Doctor padded barefoot through the TARDIS toward Donna's bedroom. Her door was open a crack so that Martha had been able to pop her head in if needed without risking it waking her. The room was dimly lit but enough that he could see that she was tucked up on bed. She was lying on her back and her cast arm was resting on a pillow.

"Oh, I'm sorry," the Doctor whispered as he stepped into the room. He went into the bathroom and poured a glass of water and then eased a chair to the side of her bed. He sat in it, but quickly realised that he couldn't rest back against it yet without his back complaining. He was sure that he actually felt a couple of blisters popping and spilling gunk down his skin as he rested back. He leant forward and ran his fingers lightly over the cast on Donna's arm. Martha had done a good job, but he could see the deep bruising coming out across her little finger where it was bleeding into the tissues from her broken fingers.

Donna moaned softly in her sleep. "Shhhh," the Doctor whispered. He tried to reach to caress her head as she slept, but his back screamed as he extended. He wasn't quite ready to be moving around too much. He must have lost another couple of blisters because he was sure he could feel fluid run down his back. He ignored it and eased himself off the chair so that he was kneeling on the floor and he could reach to caress Donna's head without stretching too far forward.

"Doctor…" Donna groaned though it was unclear if she was still asleep and dreaming or if she was acknowledging him.

"I'm here," he assured her.

"I'd never… I'd never leave you…" she mumbled.

"I know that." He caressed her head. "Shhh," he tried to soothe her, but she wriggled and squirmed on the bed. She lifted her cast arm up off the pillow slightly but then winced and her brow furrowed. It was clear the pain was reaching her in her dreams and making her rest difficult. He could give her the painkillers and then she could either go back to sleep more easily, or, she could stay awake.

"Donna?" the Doctor rubbed her shoulder lightly. "It's okay, you need to wake up, you're okay," he told her. "Wake up."

"Spaceman?" Donna blinked and looked at him with bleary eyes.

"Hello."

"You look like Hell," she commented quietly.

"Well, thank you very much," the Doctor complained and then chuckled. "I feel much better, thanks to you," he offered. "But this?" he indicated toward her cast.

"I'm sorry," Donna mumbled quietly.

"You're sorry, why on Earth are you sorry?" the Doctor asked. "You shouldn't be sorry. You never have to be sorry, Donna. And I'm so sorry you got hurt."

"I didn't think it did…" Donna commented weakly. "I thought it was okay, but it's not, it's killing me," she admitted and exhausted tears sprung to her eyes.

"Hey, it's okay, it's going to hurt, but it's going to get better, and I've got some painkillers for you here all ready for you." He offered. He decanted two of the codeine into his palm. "Sit yourself up a little and you can take these."

"What is it?"

"Codeine. We can start with this. It's a good drug, but you can take other things with it as well if you need to. We can give you ibuprofen with it to help with the swelling and if it's still sore we can give you another painkiller on top."

Donna moved to sit up a little and the Doctor stretched, ignoring his back, to adjust her pillow so she could rest back against the bed. He gave her the two painkillers into her hand and she put them in her mouth and then swallowed them with a glug of the water the Doctor handed her. "They are going to take ten to fifteen minutes to kick in, but then we can keep on top of it," the Doctor explained. "How?" he squeaked slightly as he took in the cast again. "Martha said we fell down some rocks? Was it the boulders? Did I? Donna, I'm so sorry?"

"It wasn't your fault," Donna assured him. "It was mine," she assured him. "It was my fault, I stopped us too close to the edge. You were barely conscious and you started to slide down. It was my fault," Donna advised him plainly. "I thought I was going to have bloody killed you, so this?" She indicated to her cast. "Is my fault and not yours and I'm just glad neither of us smashed our heads in on those rocks."

"Thank you for looking after me," the Doctor offered. He leant over and kissed her on the cheek. It surprised her somewhat and she looked at him. "What?"

"I hardly looked after you," Donna argued. "If you'd not have got yourself up I was just going to leave you there and go sunbathing," she told him trying to sound serious.

"Donna," the Doctor rubbed her cast lightly. "I know you'd never leave me."

"I thought you were going to die!" Donna exclaimed suddenly as fresh tears sprung to her eyes. "You were throwing up and blacking out and shaking and… we were in the jungle… and it was my fault! And…"

"Hey?" the Doctor pulled her into a gentle hug. She sobbed against him for a few minutes, the drugs, pain, and the shock of it all getting the better of her for a moment. He allowed her to. It was better for her to release it all than to hold it all in and try to continue being alright. It was alright for Donna to admit that she wasn't okay.

"Sorry," Donna whispered. "You're the one who was so sick and I'm the one in a state?"

"You've broken your wrist Donna," the Doctor reminded her. "That's not nothing to worry about, okay? I'll be fine in a day or so, it's going to take you a few weeks."

"Martha said six to eight weeks?"

"Well, we can certainly do something about that once the swelling has gone down, but it's still going to be three or four," the Doctor advised her. "We're going to stay here until your cast is done so Martha and I can look after you together, and then?" He kissed her on top of her head. "We're going to go back to that beach and we're going to relax there until you're completely healed. I've got some waterproofing gel that we can put on so that you can still go swimming and…"

"Then I'll have one white arm and one brown one?" Donna grumbled.

"Brown?" the Doctor raised his eyebrows. "Don't you mean lobster red?" he teased slightly as Donna's colouring tended against brown.

"I have you know that I tan," Donna commented slightly. "A little," she offered. "And you? You're only brown because the freckles joined up," she advised and rubbed his nose cheekily. She sighed and rested her head on his shoulder for a moment, but then she remembered that he'd had spines sticking out of his shoulders near the top as well. She lifted her head off him and carefully eased her uninjured arm around him. She went low down so not to touch his back. She went into the small of his back where he had not been stung and rubbed it slightly. He felt damp and a little sticky. She hoped he wasn't still sweating out the toxins and trying to look after her. She brought her hand back round, but when she looked at her palm it was smeared with bright red. "Doctor?"

"You're alright, Donna," he assured her.

"You're not," Donna advised. She showed him the palm of her hand. "You're bleeding."

"Oh," the Doctor looked at it. She'd only touched the bottom of his back and for it to be that red he had to be bleeding a fair bit.

"Stand up and turn around?" Donna suggested. He did as he was told. "Oh, Christ?" The whole of the back of his T-shirt was wet and red. It was clinging to him and shining where the cloth was saturated across his shoulders and it had seeped down into the back of his pyjama bottoms as well. Donna turned and sat on the bed. She didn't bother with the sling. "Where is Martha?"

"She just went into her flat to get dressed. You don't need to panic. It's just a bit of blood."

"You're bleeding quite a lot, Doctor," Donna told him. "We need to get you back into sickbay so Martha can sort you out." She got up off the bed, making sure she held her cast wrist up, the throbbing got worse if she let it down. She took him back through to the sickbay. Martha was back in there and fully dressed now. She was packing away all the materials she'd used to cast Donna's arm and to make sure that the place was left tidy and that the trollies were stocked. She knew if she didn't do it then the Doctor would never think of it and the next time it was needed then they'd not be ready and if it was an emergency then it would be difficult.

"What happened to your sling?" Martha asked Donna as she came out. "You need to make sure that you wear it."

"He's bleeding," Donna announced. "Turn round and show Martha." The Doctor did as he was told.

"What did I tell you about going running around?" Martha sighed.

"I've not been running around?" the Doctor frowned.

"Come and lie back down on here," Martha instructed. "I've got him, Donna, you go back and get your sling on please."