A/N: I blame the Olympics for the COMPLETE DELAY in the update. But, you know, because Ten didn't complete the timeloop and light the flame then I'm afraid that kinda means we're all about to get swallowed up in a giant paradox and the world will end. I guess the Mayans were right! :P

By the way, USA on top, UK 3rd, Romania 27th! We can all give ourselves a pat on the back :D


Chapter 8 – A Bog For GIANTS

The Doctor and Rose had decided to go back to the TARDIS for lunch. They were only gone for an hour.

They came back to the ward, and as per usual they looked straight down the row to where they knew Leah was probably playing around the bed. But there didn't seem to be any movement. Not really thinking much of it they continued down the aisle... And stopped dead in their tracks.

"Leah!" the Doctor shouted, suddenly alarmed as he ran over to her bedside.

The toddler didn't react. She lay there red with fever breathing heavily, her eyes closed.

"Leah," the Doctor said sharply, not wanting to look at Rose. "Leah, talk to me."

"What's happenin'?" Rose squeaked, resting a hand on her forehead. The girl was boiling hot. "Leah?"

"Leah, can you hear me?" the Doctor continued, putting his finger in Leah's tiny little palm. "Just squeeze my finger if you can hear me."

A few extremely lengthy seconds passed before her hand tightened around his finger for a moment, then eased off.

"Okay, she can hear us," the Doctor said quickly, leaning in. "Leah, can you open your eyes? Open them for me?" She didn't, and the Doctor looked at Rose. "Find Martha."

She nodded, and was gone in a shot.

The Doctor kept his finger in Leah's palm, hand on her head. "Leah, you know how you say I worry a lot? I'm really worried now, okay? I need you to talk to me. Then I'll stop worrying. Please just say hello."

Leah opened her eyes to just slits, and the Doctor breathed a massive sigh of relief, hugging her and kissing her. "Don't scare me like that."

"Daddy," she croaked. "Feel ill."

"I know, I know. Mummy's gone to get Auntie Martha and you'll feel better in no time, okay?"

"Hot," she whined.

"I know," the Doctor said again, brushing back her hair as she started to cry. The Doctor picked her up and held her close to him. It was like a little ball of fire in his arms.

"Daddy," she sobbed.

"Yeah?"

"Y'know when Unka Mickey flush his fish down a bog, was that cos it died?"

"Yes," he said, kissing her forehead.

"You gonna flush me down a bog when I die?"

The Doctor laughed at that. "Oh, no. Haven't I already told you? You're not going to die. Besides, you wouldn't fit down the bog."

She giggled, and clung onto his tie.

"Well, unless it was a really big bog. You know, like a bog for people with really big poos."

She giggled again.

He smiled and kissed her once more. "So no, you're not dying and no one's flushing you down a bog. Okay?"

"Okay," she murmured. "I love you, Daddy."

"I love you too, Leah."

"Doctor?" Martha called, running down the ward with Rose one pace behind.

"Her fever's got worse," the Doctor replied as she reached them.

"Thought I dealt with this this morning," Martha murmured, moving over to Leah and drawing out an ear thermometer. "I'm going to poke this thermometer in your ear, okay Leah? Just stay still."

Leah sniffed and nodded, still clinging desperately onto her dad. Martha took the temperature, then checked the reading and bit her lip.

"It's 16 degrees Celsius normally, isn't it?" she asked, then showed the reading to the Doctor.

"And now it's 19," he breathed, not looking very happy about that. "We need to cool her down. I don't know how it would work for a human Gallifreyan hybrid but I don't think it should go above 20. Has she been given any drugs?"

Martha shook her head. "I gave her lots of water to drink this morning and that fan," she said, pointing to the white fan on the bedside table. "I didn't want to try ibuprofen or paracetamol on her with the allergy."

"No..." the Doctor murmured, trying desperately to think of another way they could do this. "Okay... sponge bath. Make it reasonably cold."


With a flash of ID Jack was immediately escorted to the doctor in charge of the two girls. He was told the girl in the coma, Chloé, had no detectable brainwaves and was only living on machines; completely brain-dead and was never going to wake up again. The second girl, Kimmy, had a mild concussion from fainting and hitting her head on the pavement and was deep in emotional shock from the experience.

With a bit of charisma Jack was taken to Kimmy's room, where the 18-year-old was wide awake with a kind of darkness in her eyes Jack had seen so many times before.

Too many times.

He could see she was a pretty girl, but right now she was as pale as a glass of milk. Her hair was unkempt, her fists clenched and her eyes red and puffy from constant crying.

She didn't even look up when he stood beside her bed, just fixated on a point on the far wall.

"Kimmy?" he asked.

She didn't reply.

"My name's Jack, I'm a policeman, sorta," he said gently. "I'm investigating what happened to you and Chloé."

She still didn't reply.

"You need to tell me all you can remember, then I'm going to find whatever did this to you and make sure it happens to no one else," he persisted. "But I can't do that without you."

"Whatever," the young woman suddenly repeated, her head snapping up to him with those cold, panicked eyes. "You said whatever."

"What?"

"Not whoever. Everyone else says whoever. But it's not a who."

Jack nodded, getting it. "I know. Anything you can tell me, I'm listening."

"It's gonna sound mad," she croaked.

"I know. And guess what? I'm the only one that's going to believe you."

"You're a shrink, aren't you? You're gonna lock me up."

"No, I'm not," he assured her. "I'm an investigator. I just don't deal with 'whoever's. No one else is here, so what you tell me stays with me."

Her body relaxed a little, gazing into his eyes with sudden complete and utter trust. Jack was relieved at that; he'd thought it would take a little longer for her to let down her guard. She was obviously desperate to tell someone who would believe her and reason that she wasn't mad.

"Me and Chloé... We bunked off of double science and got some fags... We went 'round the back and lit up. Then a few minutes later I heard this noise, like a swooshing sound, and when I looked up I saw this shape of a man standing at the end of the path. Then before I could react it was suddenly next to us, and it had Chloé, grabbing her shoulders and staring into her eyes. I was just paralysed totally to the spot, Chloé was screaming and screaming but she was getting quieter until she just sorta... squeaked, then collapsed. Then it looked at me. I thought it was gonna kill me, when these people appeared from around the corner and it vanished, just like that. I think I fainted then. I woke up in the ambulance."

Jack nodded. "This thing... What did it look like?"

It took a moment for Kimmy to reply as she took an affirming breath, her eyes flickering over to him for a moment before she spoke. "I saw... Well.. I think... I think it wasFreddy Krueger."


It felt like the rug had been swept out from underneath them.

Despite Martha's best reassurances, the Doctor and Rose were panicking quite badly. The cold bath had done very little for Leah besides make her soaking wet; the fans and liquids were doing nothing and the drugs the Doctor found in the TARDIS for her weren't doing much either. Even the clown that had been doing his rounds on the paediatric ward to cheer the kids up barely made her smile.

Needless to say, the Doctor had very quickly abandoned his investigation and focused all his attention on his daughter. Nor he or Rose were going to say it out loud, but they had seen this happen far too often to the children around here. One day they'd suddenly deteriorate, and within days they'd be dead.

But that wasn't going to happen to Leah. It just wasn't.


It was the middle of the night now and the Doctor wasn't sleeping a wink, staring at the ceiling of his bedroom resisting the overwhelming temptation to go to his daughter. He needed to calm down, he knew that. He kept telling himself that she was a Tyler with a Gallifreyan immune system. It had to get worse to get better. This was just a blip. She was in a good place. He and Rose were her parents. She was going to be fine.

But it didn't seem to be making him feel any better.

Rose was sleeping with her tonight in case something happened, so he was completely alone in the TARDIS. The TARDIS herself was being sympathetic. Usually she'd be pulling pranks on him and rearranging corridors so he had to walk a mile to get to the bathroom when he was practically bursting, but right now she was making sure he had everything just two steps away, which he appreciated. She'd even warmed the bed for him in advance and boiled the kettle before he even reached the kitchen. At first when he couldn't sleep she'd telepathically soothed him and relaxed him; playing gentle, sleepy music quietly.

But it just wasn't doing anything.

He was slightly relieved when he heard the sound of Rose's phone ringing, and found it in his inside jacket pocket. He'd forgotten to give it back. He scooped it up and checked who was calling. It was Jack.

"Hi, Jack," he answered redundantly.

Jack seemed to note his tone instantly. "Doc? Are you okay?"

"Not really," the Doctor muttered in reply.

"What? Leah's okay isn't she?"

The Doctor opened his mouth to reply, but the sudden, choked sob that came from him surprised both him and Jack.

"Doc, tell me she's okay!" Jack demanded, panic in his voice.

"She's got worse, Jack," he sobbed, suddenly unable to control himself. "Nothing's working, not drugs or liquids or anything..."

"Where's Rose?"

"She's sleeping with her tonight."

"You're on your own?"

"Yeah."

"Come back to Torchwood."

"I can't, I need to stay here in case something happens..."

"Doctor, they can manage without you. Come back here."

"But..."

"Come here or I'll use my manipulator," Jack warned.

"It doesn't work."

"Are you willing to risk that?"

The Doctor sighed. "... Okay. On my way."


Rose didn't hear the TARDIS churn out of existence, since she'd finally managed to get to sleep, but next to her Leah had been slipping in and out of an uncomfortable feverish sleep all night.

It was 3am when Leah next jerked awake. She was tired, her head was fuzzy, her vision was blurry and she felt so, so hot. She wanted to cry but it was as though all her tears had evaporated in the heat of her body, so she turned over with sluggish movements to try and get to sleep again, then suddenly caught a blurry figure out the corner of her eye.

She blinked, looked up again, and froze.

It was a clown, emerging through the end door and walking slowly down the aisle.

"Mummy," Leah whispered, instantly frightened. The clown stopped at the sound of her voice, turning straight around to stare at her.

The clown's face was warped and twisted. Its big clown mouth was twisted up, sharp pointed teeth stained yellow and bared in the form of a horrific smile. Its eyes were just pits of black, the eyeliner defining them drawn downwards into tears. Thin eyebrows were arched up high on its forehead, its matted green hair sticking out 90 degrees from its head.

And it was staring straight at her.

Leah opened her mouth to scream, but the clown raised a hand with long, dirty fingernails, and pressed one finger to its lips. Leah froze instantly, absolutely petrified before the clown widened its horrific smile, casually turned and continued down the aisle, disappearing from sight.

"Mummy, Mummy," Leah whispered desperately, almost crying. "Mummy..."

Rose awoke with a jerk, instantly worried. "What? What is it?"

"Clown," Leah croaked. "Clown!"

"What?" Rose asked tiredly, looking around from where she was lying but couldn't see anything remotely clown-like.

"'Round there," she whispered urgently. It was hard to ignore the absolute terror in her voice.

Rose wasn't quite sure how seeing a clown at 3am in the middle of a UNIT-guarded alien hospital was possible but got up anyway, peeking around the side curtains down the aisle. There was no one there.

"Sweetheart, there's no one there," she told Leah gently, moving back to her.

Leah suddenly began to cry. Rose took her into a hug, kissing her forehead. She was still a ball of fire.

"It was there," she sobbed.

"Leah, you're so hot, Daddy said it's normal for you to hallucinate. You saw a clown earlier, remember? He came to cheer you up."

She nodded. "Mummy, I'm scared," she sobbed.

"I know, I know," Rose assured her, stroking back her hair. "But I'm here and Daddy's in the TARDIS, so there's nothin' to be scared about, yeah? We'd never let anythin' happen to you. Now go to sleep, you're exhausted."

Leah eventually nodded, and closed her eyes. Rose just stroked back her hair for a moment, waiting for sleep to overtake the toddler before she lowered her head, and went to sleep.

Three minutes later, a heart rate monitor up the aisle flat-lined.