"Rose River" AU:
'Athenaeum'
Chapter Six

Kuri had to lead John through the corridors, as he was nearly blind from impotent fury. Like so long ago, the TARDIS led Kuri to where they needed to be by turning off all the lights except the path they needed to take. A father himself, Kuri fully understood what this twin of the Doctor had to be going through. Aiding the Doctor and this brother he never knew about seemed more than fair payment, for what the Doctor did for him.

They had met some fifteen years previous. Of course, the Doctor didn't look like he does now. Back then he was much shorter, favored wearing a hat, and had a tendency to roll his R's a lot when he was being purposely overdramatic. At least with this Doctor, either of them in fact, they didn't decorate their clothing or rain protection equipment with question marks. Well, he hoped they didn't. He hadn't seen an umbrella yet.

The crux of that first meeting was a 'minor' skirmish during a border dispute on his home planet. The Doctor had negotiated peace between the combatants. The names and places no longer mattered to Kuri. He had spent so many years trying to erase the memory of the place from his consciousness, mostly because that was where his wife and son had died. He was upset by the other lives lost of course, but their deaths devastated him.

The Doctor had spent three weeks at the negotiation table, and had developed a friendship with him. After the bombing that claimed twenty three lives at the peace conference, including his wife and son, the Doctor helped him recover by taking him aboard his ship for three months of his life. Over that time, he helped the Doctor with various adventures. That alone helped him with his career in ways that couldn't be counted, up to and including his swearing in as the Shadow Architect.

John was more than blind with rage. He was quite literally sightless at the moment. He had unconsciously volunteered to be the emotional outlet for Rose and the Doctor, both. They couldn't express themselves for fear of disturbing Jenny, so their outrage and fury combined with his - rendering him incapable of anything except babbling and shouting obscenities that the TARDIS wouldn't translate. He couldn't register Kuri's grip on his shoulders, nor the many times that he had to be forced forward.

When they entered the kitchen, abrupt silence startled Kuri. He turned to look at the brother of his friend, and was unnerved to find that he appeared to be still swearing and shouting loudly. There simply wasn't any sound coming out of his mouth now. Not wanting to let go of him for fear of him falling or otherwise hurting himself, he instead locked his arms around John's chest. "What the hell am I supposed to do now?" he muttered.

The lights dimmed slightly, and a hologram appeared in the centre of the room. "Hello Kuribasta Milyechet," she said. "It is good to have you here again. I have missed your dry wit. Please try to remain calm. I have countered John's voice through an audio filter to rest your ears."

He was about to reply when the hologram held her left arm out to the side. The dining table and chairs slid to the wall, and a rather large couch appeared. "Please sit him down before I help him, lest he fall over."

Kuri force walked him again, and then pushed hard to move John's hand from the side of his head to the back of the couch. John nearly fell into it when he felt it, curling into a ball and rocking himself. Kuri didn't know what to do with himself. The man was acting like the girl had died.

The lights dimmed to near darkness as the TARDIS solidified her avatar. She moved behind the couch where John sat, then placed her hands on either side of his head. Kuri watched in morbid fascination, as her face twisted up in obvious pain. The audio filter fell away, and the twin started violently shouting in another language unknown him. It sounded like a combination of bells, tones, and breaking glass of all things. He wasn't sure he wanted to know what he was saying, mainly because of how violent it sounded.

Her face became even more pained as she took their agonized wrath into herself. While she had done similar things for the Doctor over the centuries when he needed it, the combined near mental breakdown of her three Beloveds was almost too much for her to bear. John's ranting slowed to nothing, and he could only sit there and quietly sob into his knees.

Kuri had sat down next to him to offer simple companionable support, and he looked up when the woman took her hands away. Standing stiffly, she tried to explain. "The three of them have just personally witnessed what Jenny's been through, and it's ripping them apart. The Doctor and Rose are unable to express their outrage at the moment for her sake, and John took both of theirs into himself. I've done all I can to relieve the emotional pressure, but I can take no more and navigate hyperspace at the same time. Please assist him, Kuri." She pointed to the cupboard over the counter. "There is some medicinal tea in the green box. It should help." There was a sparking crackle and she vanished.

When the lights came up, John raised his head and apologized. "Kuri, I'm so so sorry. Please forgive me for putting you through all that. You don't deserve it."

Kuri waved his apology away with a hand. "There's no need. If that had been Diago or Naesha, I would've been the same way. They were my son and wife. Did the Doctor ever tell you about them?"

John gave a halfhearted chuckle. "Up until four months ago, we were the same person. So yes, I know."

Kuri's head went back. "Now that's a story I need to hear." He stood up with a pat on John's shoulder, and went to the cupboard. "Tell me about that while I put the kettle on."

Jenny murmured when the Doctor helped Rose out from under her. "No, no," he soothed. "We're right here. Go back to sleep, my daughter. We'll still be here when you wake up."

"Promise?" she asked quietly through heavily lidded eyes.

"I swear," he said with a pained smile. Rose was up now, and had gathered some more pillows and blankets. While she was tucking them around her, Jenny turned on her side to get more comfortable. The small gasp Rose made when she saw her back made the Doctor look up at her. "What is it?" he whispered.

Rose had a hand covering her mouth, and she waved him to her side of the bio bed. Coming around, he froze next to Rose when he saw the multiple scars on Jenny's back. Most were fully healed, but a lot of them were red and swollen. There were several that were still scabbed over though. All down her spine was a large tattoo which read 'ABNORMAL' vertically. There were several dots and dashes above the translated 'A', which was her prisoner number.

The Doctor wrapped Rose in his arms when she flung herself into him. She buried her face in the left side of his chest and finally allowed herself to sob openly. He felt a lock go over his mind. 'I want them to die,' she said. 'I want them all to DIE! KILL THEM!' He flinched from the raw emotions she was broadcasting.

While they knew she was interrogated weekly for information, from what Rose could see in her mind, actually looking at how that was done caused the Doctor to explode. He pulled John's mind into their lock and shouted, 'THEY BEAT HER! EVERY WEEK!' He sent a mental image of what he was seeing, and felt him come unglued.

Just as suddenly as their rage appeared, it lessened to almost nothing. Startled, they broke their hug and looked at each other with confusion. They turned their heads to the door when it closed, and then felt John's scream. Looking back to each other, the Doctor said quietly. "I think he took everything we're feeling."

"Why would he do that?" Rose asked. When her husband indicated Jenny with an inclined head and a glance, she turned to look at her and understood. "Oh we owe him, big time," she whispered.

"Let's not waste this gift," the Doctor said. "Fetch the dermal mender for me, please. I'm going to see what I can do about that damned tattoo."

While Rose was on the other side of the room, the Doctor scanned the tattoo. He found that the ink they used had mercury in it. His alarm over that caused Rose to drop the mender and search for some device he sent a picture of. She couldn't hope to pronounce its name, but retrieved it and brought it to him. Back at his side, she saw that he was giving Jenny an injection through her drip tube. Their minds were constantly locked together now, more for expediency than anything else, so she knew that the injection was more sedatives so that Jenny would sleep through what they needed to do.

Since the ink had mercury in it, the Doctor had to burn off several layers of skin to remove it. He hated having to do that to her, but it was the only way to get rid of the toxic ink without it leeching into her system any more than was necessary. For those that don't know, mercury poisoning damages the brain.

That's where the phrase 'Mad as a Hatter' comes from, because hat makers used mercury to help shape their wares back in the day. Using their own heads to shape them caused the mercury to be absorbed directly into the skin. Of course, this form of brain damage happened over time. So, the relation between mercury and madness wasn't immediately picked up on back then. However, that was a factor in their favor at the moment. While still toxic, the amount of mercury in the ink wouldn't cause that level of insanity.

Once the Doctor finished burning the tattoo off, he used the dermal mender to heal Jenny's back. It was an excruciatingly slow process, and the Doctor made a mental note to fabricate a larger version of it for more involved injuries. Every now and again, Rose patted down his forehead with a cool cloth. He didn't question it at the time, but later found that he'd been concentrating so hard that he was sweating from the effort.

They spent the better part of an hour visually going over Jenny's body, looking for anything else that needed to be done. Other than some scraped skin, he found that the four main metacarpals of Jenny's right hand had been hairline fractured at some point. Apparently, she'd been punching something on a regular basis. Rose told him that it must've been the cell door. From what she'd seen, Jenny did that every night when they fed her. That was easily remedied with a quick sweep of a bone mender.

After they did everything they could for her, they gave Jenny a sponge bath, washed her short cropped hair, and dressed her in some loose pajamas that the TARDIS provided from the wardrobe. Rose didn't want to leave her alone, so they pushed another of the bio beds flush against Jenny's, so that she could lie next to her. She was mentally exhausted, and fell asleep almost as soon as she was down.

Even though the Doctor didn't want to leave either, he had to check up on his brother. The strain of funneling their outrage had to be taking a toll on him.

A/N: Comment/Review so I can get better. Pretty please?