Q and A!
Q: Is Jack not immortal anymore? A: Yes, he's still immortal. The energy is still going through him. They didn't take the energy from Jack, they took it from time itself, using Jack's connection with that time energy as a channel of sorts. River had no idea what she was doing- she just knew Jack had lots of energy, but not where it came from. Jack is fine. Time is weaker, though. Jack uses the energy of time, so when he dies or gets hurt and gets back up again, healed, it does increase the entrophy of the universe, but not by much. The way River used it was very destructive and uncontrolled, a way it isn't meant to be used, so it shortened the length of the universe's life by a few hundred years. Foolish, Song.
Q: How does this affect the thing in Series 3 with Utopia and the Master? A: Um…. Uh…. I guess it doesn't? I'm gonna go with 'paradox' for this answer. It's already happened, so it was already taken into effect- like in 'Let's Kill Hitler', when they try to avoid Melody killing the Doctor, but inevitably cause it, and they try to kill Hitler, but accidentally save him, and cause the future they were trying to avoid. Get it? It's not a very good description… but I hope you can understand anyways. They use paradoxes a lot in the 11th Doctor's reign- with the Pandorica, with Lake Silencio, with 'Let's Kill Hitler', and many others. Clever continuity, though, Shiny Ivyleaves!
Onward!
"Well, Doctor, where to?" River asked sweetly, all traces of their earlier argument gone from her face and voice. It made the Doctor nervous- he wasn't sure if she was still upset and was just pretending not to be, or if she was genuinely over it. This body and personality, this 11th regeneration, was unused to commitment and the complexity of romance. Actually, few of his regenerations had actually gotten married (if he and River ever did get married, though she hinted at it enough that even a romantic dunderhead like himself knew something would happen). He didn't know where he and River stood, after their first argument.
"Hmm. Well, these two…" he trailed off, looking thoughtfully at Amy and Rory. Amy's face fell. Rory stepped forward and put a hand on the Doctor's shoulder.
"Can we talk for a moment?" Rory asked quietly, to everyone's surprise. The Doctor and Rory didn't dislike each other, but it was clear that Rory didn't like Amy's devotion to the Time Lord, or his encouragement of her devotion, however unintentional it was.
He and Rory went downstairs and stood among the wires. "Yes?" the Doctor asked, curious.
"Well… I don't want you to put Amy and I back at our house. I want for us to stay with you again," he said quickly.
"What?" the Doctor asked, incredulous.
"I know, I know. I like you, Doctor, really. Sometimes I might seem sort of… well…"
"Envious? Resentful? Angry?" the Doctor filled in for him. Rory grimaced.
"Well… yeah. But I really do like you. But most of all, I love Amy. The past year and a half… she hasn't been herself. She spends a lot of time staring out the window. She jumps at anything that sounds even remotely like the TARDIS- our microwave broke and she went nuts at the noise it made-,"
"The TARDIS does not sound like a broken microwave," the Doctor said, affronted. He petted a glass pipe beside him. "There, there, girl. He didn't mean it."
"And it's like she's only half there, and the other half is waiting again. Don't think she'll get over you, just go on and live a normal life- she's been through too much to do that. We've been through too much. She's already waited for you for 14 years. That wasn't enough to deter her, and now she's grown up, and more patient, sort of, and she isn't going to stop waiting. She isn't going to give up and just accept that you're gone." He ran a hand over his face, troubled. "You said you wanted to save us… but it's too late for that. You're just going to have to take us back, because it's either a life with you, maybe a short life, but a life nonetheless- or an existence back in Leadworth, that isn't a life at all."
The Doctor was silent for a moment as he pondered this. It was true- he'd been too late, too late to save them. When he had left, he thought he was doing what was best for them. Wrong.
"Okay."
"Okay?" Rory repeated, surprised. "Really?"
"Yes, of course! Traveling alone would be dull, anyways. I talk too much- I'd give myself a headache. Better to talk to you two!" Not to mention that I want to keep an eye on everyone who was around me, he thought, but didn't say. He clapped an arm over Rory's shoulders, and they walked back up the stairs. Amy took in their companionable closeness and squealed.
"Yay! Oh, thank you, Doctor, thank you!" She hugged him, and then kissed Rory full on the lips, laughing.
"And I suppose you're still against bunk beds?" the Doctor asked. Amy rolled her eyes and ruffled his hair.
"Correct! I-," she broke off when the Doctor grabbed her hand from the top of her head and pressed it against his cheek, eyes narrowed with concentration. "What are you doing?" she giggled. He ignored her, first sniffing her hand, then licking one of her knuckles. "Hey, what's the big deal?" she said, snatching her hand away and wiping in on her skirt. "Gallifreyan drool, ew."
"Nothing. I just… like your… perfume," he said awkwardly. It was silent for a moment as everyone stared at him. He looked back at them, trying to look innocent.
"Um... okay. Thanks," Amy said slowly, looking at him as if he had two heads. "Well then…"
"Right!" He clapped his hands, spun around once, and attacked the buttons and levers of the center console. River walked curiously behind him.
"Where are we? We're nowhere," she said, confused.
"No, we're floating in empty space just inside the Tylon galaxy. One of the most lifeless places in the universe- one of the very few galaxies with only living planets, and they're both on the opposite end of the galaxy," he corrected. River rolled her eyes.
"And… why?"
"Because we're not doing any more adventures for the day. I have some wiring to do. You three are exhausted- don't argue," he said when River and Amy both opened their mouths to do just that. "You don't need to see anyone or anything else today. You're tired."
"And you aren't?" River asked. He laughed.
"No. I've just had a massive transfusion of raw energy. I don't need to rest," he scoffed, already rummaging through the pockets of his tweed jackets for his goggles. He piled what he found on the console- a long scarf, a red rubber ball, a yo-yo, a stethoscope, a deck of cards, a long paperclip chain, a perfect white lily, and finally a pair of welding goggles that he pulled on.
"You've been sick- lost at least a liter and a half of blood, three times what a donor can safely give-," Rory started.
"Wiring to do," the Doctor cut in. Rory continued.
"- and I can't imagine the repairs your system is going through- your brain was almost literally melting, with the fever you spiked, and your-,"
"Still wiring to do."
"- nerve endings were half dead, not to mention the fluid that was filling your lungs- not just fluid, actually, that was your blood, you aren't going to replace it without eating and sleeping-,"
"Oh, hush," the Doctor scowled, pausing his descent down the stairs and pulling his goggles up to glare at him properly. "Doesn't change the fact that there's wiring to do. Just because I got a little fever and a few boo-boos-,"
"Hyperpyrexia, internal and external lesions, loss of clotting factor, and hematemesis is hardly a fever and boo-boos," Rory muttered grouchily.
"Well, I have things to do. Busy man. A little flu won't slow me down. I thought you wanted adventures! If you want adventures, then this old girl wants a tune-up first." And with that, he was gone below, pulling his goggles down onto his eyes and settling into his work sling-hammock.
"Wiring is that important?" Rory asked River.
"No, not at all. But thinking alone is."
MNMNMNNMNMNMNMNMNMNMNMNMNMNMN
"She'll be fine. It's nothing. Probably just stress- or the weather, or normal life," the Doctor muttered to himself, busily stripping a loop of wire.
"But I felt it- the virus in me, it was speeding up, not dying, changing. I heard it's thoughts- even those little pesky viruses have some level of cognition. It was happy," he argued. The wire was stripped- he carefully cut it neatly in the center.
"Maybe it was old and ready to die."
"But that's not even an argument- viruses don't get depressed and want to die." He was silent for a moment. "River, River, River. Always know how to get right to the heart of the matter. Know me so terribly well." He shook his head.
"No, no, not now. More important things. So- Jack channels energy into me, and I get better. The disease isn't in me. But it's not dead. So where did it jump? Jack was closest to me, but it already showed that the tide of energy was-," he stopped, and snapped his fingers, letting go of a wire for a second. Sparks shot, and he jumped, throwing his arms over his face, and tugged another wire. The spray of sparks stopped, and he returned to poking around in the tangled mess above his head.
"Right. Tide of energy- it didn't kill the virus. That's why the virus was happy. If viruses can be happy. Not even a medulla oblongata, let alone an amygdala. But it was pleased. It's gone, but not because it was burned out. It was washed away by a flood of energy. So where did it go?" He said, talking quickly, his mouth barely able to keep up with his thoughts. twisted a handful of wires together, and began unscrewing a large brass bolt from some kind of lever contraption.
"Not Jack. Energy flood there. Not River- she's been vaccinated. So Amy or Rory? Rory had the most contact with me, playing nurse. Loyal, caring, fool, didn't know there wasn't anything his doctoring skills could do, nothing any technology or skill could ever do. But he isn't the one with the slight fever of 37.2o Celsius, and a slight metallic scent to her skin, as if the blood is thinning, not producing the correct amount of clotting factors, and the taste of almonds on her, like she's sweating out some sort of semi-alive particles that can't survive outside of warmth and body fluids…" he trailed off, removing the unscrewed bolt and setting his hands in his lap, staring sightlessly at the brass bolt in his palms.
"It can't be happening so fast, though… can it? But… If it's mutated to affect a different species, it won't have optimum virulence, and since Time Lords are so much stronger, it will be used to a stronger host that takes much more to wear down… the morbidity won't be high, but the mortality-,"
"Doctor!" Rory's voice echoed through the TARDIS, ringing with fear and worry. The brass bolt sat in the sling, the whole thing moving slightly from the speed at which the Doctor had vacated.
It's longer than I'd wanted, but this was the best place to stop. I'd already planned a stop here, so it was either put a long chapter, or an average one plus a very short, unsatisfying one. And the average one would be actionless and not exciting. I can't do that :P
3 reviews!
