Title: H is for Hospital (8/26)

Author: EvelynCarver

Rating: T

Summary: Part 2 of 2, Rose isn't pregnant and the Doctor knows just the surgeon to get That Thing out of her stomach.

Length: 2244

Disclaimer: Doctor Who & associated. does not belong to me.

This side was New Earth was nothing like the area from their previous visit. No apple grass, no New New York sitting on the horizon, just a cold wind and some ugly grey squat buildings that looked like the industrial region of any city on Earth.

"Where are we again?" Rose asked, holding tightly the doctor's hand as they walked up to the closest building.

He opened the door for her, "This is New Earth, welcome to the Canadian Stairs Rose."

The building was much different on the inside. It was still empty, but it was decorated with trees and rocks and the strong smell of evergreen permeated through everything. There were downwards escalators every few feet, all labelled in a language that the TARDIS translated into English and were accompanied by little pictograms and must have symbolized something to the people of this age because she didn't known what any of them meant.

"The Canadian Hospital is not governed or staffed by the same board of cats that we met before. It will be almost a year until those events transpire here, so we shouldn't run into any problems on that account."

The Doctor took her to the escalator marked Healthcare and they rode down through a bustling and busy city to a sterile white and green hospital that seemed to more resemble the facilities from her time on Earth than the cat run hospital of New New York. The Doctor nudged her and motioned to the little shop that stood just a few metres away from the base escalator.

There was no wait in the reception area. The Doctor passed his psychic paper under some sort of scanner and then moment later a door behind the desk opened and a pleasant looking middle aged man emerged to embrace the Doctor while Rose was left standing at the side. When they pulled apart he offered her a handshake and showed them into a small office type room and motioned for them to take seats on the low couch on opposite sides of a low table from him.

"So, Doctor, what brings you back to New Earth and in need of a top surgeon? I take it this isn't just a social call." He glanced at Rose, his enthusiasm almost as explosive as the Doctor's.

"Rose, this is Sid Phillips, an old friend of mine. Sid, this is Rose, she's been travelling with me for a bit and she's managed to pick up a Batzing slug and it's nearly mature."

There was a look of curiosity and scientific interest on Sid's face but Rose could see it conflicting with compassion and sympathetic medical care. Sid stared at the doctor for a moment before fixing his attention back on Rose.

"You're from a different time right?" She nodded and he continued, "Between that and the maturity level of the slug we should be able to remove it easily enough. Did you bring the scan results?" He asked, directing the question at the Doctor.

"No, but I can take care of the results here once you get what you need from them. Will it be possible to do this today?"

Sid opened a small device that reminded Rose of a cell phone and a PDA, "It should be. Just give me some time to get things set up and we can get the scans started." He shared another quick handshake with the Doctor before leaving.

The Doctor leaned back on the couch and looked at his companion. "It'll be all right. Sid's an interesting man; I helped him escape from a prison camp. He's almost fifty years ahead of this time, but from a different part of the universe. He's a phenomenal surgeon."

Rose pulled her knees up onto the couch to encircle them with her arms. "But what exactly is going to happen? Is it like my time? Will it scar?"

"It shouldn't." The Doctor put an arm around her shoulders. "First they'll do some scans, like the one that I had and then they usually use a cascade of nanogenes or a genetically engineered virus to breakdown the slug. Then, if they used the nanogenes, the nanogenes will take particle sized pieces of the slug with them when they leave you. If they use a virus then it will all be absorbed by your body and it will be like it was never there to begin with."

Rose nodded and curled into him. "Okay. And you'll make sure it's all okay? For a person from my time, I mean. And that there is no clone farm involved?"

He smiled, but it was a gentle and reassuring smile, not his usual energy infused grin. "There is nothing bad here. You are going to be fine."

As they waited for Sid to return the Doctor told her about the surgeon and his resourcefulness in captivity and the way that he had assimilated into New Canada and the hospital here so perfectly. He told her stories about the Batzie planet and the underground waterfalls that they were famous for. He offered to bring her after the surgery but one Batzing slug was enough for her and she refused.

Sid returned with a young cat that terrified Rose for a moment before she realised that this cat was male and not a nun and seemed sane enough at first glance.

"Rose, Doctor, this is my student and assistant Doctor Herriot. He'll be assisting me with the procedure and the scans. And we're ready for those now, if you'll just come with us?"

Rose followed the junior cat doctor down a hallway and back to the reception area and then through a labyrinth of hallways from there until they arrived at a rather fancy imaging suite. She spotted several small booths that had the metal hand scanners that the Doctor had used, but the cat directed her to a much larger model.

There were indents for her feet and the book scanner metal box things for both of her hands and some kind of metal pail like thing that the cat lowered over her head and tightened until it rested heavily on her forehead. He stepped away and returned a moment later to help her out of it all.

"You got everything that fast?"

The Doctor stepped out of a control booth. "Yep, it's all saved and Sid is going to look it over and then we're ready to get started. And the sooner we start, the sooner we finish."

Rose and the Doctor were handed off to an automated computer guide that brought them back through the maze of hallways to the office to await Sid's analysis and solution to their problem.

Sid and the cat returned and handed Rose and the Doctor a kind of tablet computer. Rose tried to follow along but the first time an image of her insides bound up by pulsing grey slug appeared he looked away and trusted the Doctor to sort this out so that there was no slug like that inside her again and this slug came out as quickly as possible.

"We'll leave you here to think it over and you give us a call as soon as you have made a decision." Sid said as he got up and handed the doctor another piece of literature and left the office.

Once the door had closed the Doctor turned to her slight annoyance and frustration showing on his face. "Did you pay attention to any of that?"

"No." Rose said, in a very small voice.

He nodded and took that hand that she reached out towards him. "It's nothing too bad, just the Batzing slug is a little more mature than the ones that they are used to seeing and they're going to use a liquid nitrogen procedure to make it smaller before introducing nanogenes to get every bit of it out of your body."

"Okay." Rose moved closer to him and glanced at the tablet. "What does it change?"

"That's it. You'll have to wait for an hour or so before getting up after the procedure, just to make sure all your organs settle properly, but then we can be on our way to wherever you want to go." He grinned at her.

"Let's get this over with. Maybe later, tomorrow like, we can think about doing something,"

The Doctor called Sid back into the room with a button on the table.

"Are you ready to do this now?" He asked, looking back and forth from the Doctor to Rose.

Rose stood up and nodded, "Uh-hu. Let's get this over with quickly."

This walk wasn't as long as the previous one, the treatment room was in yet another wing of the seemingly endless hospital, but it was closer than the imagining suite in the diagnostics wing. There was a changing room in the treatment room and Rose put on the low waisted sweatpants and the smock top before the Doctor helped her get settled on the table, explaining that all the clothes in the hospital were individually tailored to the patient's needs and sizes through the use of a computer and clothes printer.

It helped that this didn't look anything like any medical clinic, hospital or Doctor's office that she had ever been to before. It was nicely decorated and the smell of evergreen was still the most persistent and strongest scent in the air.

When Sid arrived he wasn't dressed as she had expected, still in his same clothes and the sanitation shields around his wrists and neck would make gloves and a mask unnecessary, he didn't look anything like the surgeons from her time.

They set up a curtain that draped over her chest so she didn't have to see anything and Sid explained that the procedure would take about five minutes and then she would need to wait before getting up.

As they finished setting up the Doctor came to her side and took one of her hands in his. "It'll all be done soon Rose. Just focus on that."

"They're getting started now." The Doctor told her and she closed her eyes, not that she could see anything with them open.

She could feel the touches of hands on her stomach and then something cool and damp pressed on. The Doctor's fingers loosened around hers for a moment and then tighten again as she grabbed back at them.

"Rose, can you feel this?" Sid asked before she felt another touch on the stomach.

"Yes." She said, wondering if she wasn't supposed to be able to feel it.

"All right." Sid's voice broke through her voice again. "I'm going to put the liquid nitrogen into the slug; it may feel cold or pinch,"

Rose bit her lip as a piercing pain entered her stomach and she gasped as it pushed on and then stopped. She tightened her hold on the Doctor's hand and then there was another sensation of tugging that was quickly replaced with a deep ache in her stomach.

"And we'll give you the nanogenes in two minutes Rose." Sid said as she felt hands touch her stomach to slid her smock down and then the curtain on her chest was pulled away.

She opened her eyes slowly and looked accusingly at the Doctor. "You didn't tell me it would hurt."

He squeezed her hand. "Sorry, they aren't really equipped to deal with humans from the 21st century here. Not all of their medicine would be safe for you. The nanogenes should fix it all up. They can be programmed to a specific purpose and they won't just fix anything in your body, they're not like the nanogenes that we had to deal with before."

Sid stepped back to her side. "Rose, we're going to apply the nanogenes now." He squeezed a thick gold liquid out of a tube but it shimmered and turned into a cloud before hitting her smock and sinking into her stomach and disappearing inside her.

They waited and the cat assistant took a basin with a glowing bottom and held it close to her stomach and then Sid pulled her shirt up just enough to bare the place that the slug must have been. Soon she was watching the tiny golden particles emerge from her skin, each with a tiny grey dot. There were corresponding red dots of blood on her skin from where they emerged, but now she couldn't feel anything and when the basin was starting to get rather full, the last few nanogenes emerged alone and closed the tiny punctures that had been made by the others to get out.

Sid looked at the basin and ran a scanner over the contents. "All right, that's the lot of it. Rose, Doctor, it was a pleasure to see you again. There's a timer set for an hour and when that goes off, my assistant will confirm the slug is gone and your organs have recovered, and then you are free to go."

When the medical professions stepped out of the door, the Doctor took out his sonic screwdriver and waved it over her stomach. "They got it all Rose. No slug, no ruminants, it's completely gone." He grinned at her.

Rose smiled back, she felt as if the weight of the world had been removed from her shoulders. "Now I just have to figure out how to explain to my mother that I'm not actually pregnant."