Well, another chapter, as I promised. Just. But hey ho. I'm feeling a bit down due to tiredness, and the fact I lost my first draft of this chapter when the computer blue screened – typically, I thought it was the best I had done so far. This is less good, but I hope it will do, though my beta did run away without giving me any feedback D=
Oh, and apologies for decreased chapter length, twasn't intentional, I just lost my creative muse after the BSOD.
Whortleby, 1954
"A week, you said – it's been seven months!"
Vincent smiled for the first time in ages as Jack opened the car door. He stepped out, only to be met by a biting sea wind, mixed with a flurry of small snowflakes. Jack brushed the offending precipitation disdainfully from his uniform.
"Well, you're home now, at least try to be pleased," he joked, though it was rather muffled - his lower face was hidden by a scarf, protecting him from the wild countryside weather. Vincent nodded gratefully and walked up the pathway to his door. He surveyed the garden with surprise, he'd expected it to be overgrown, but the fierce winter had sorted that out for him. Still, the house was a bit of a mess - dirt and grime everywhere. At least he'd have something to do, take his mind off what had happened. He stared at the brass door handle as he pulled the door open - even that held memories. Seven months was not quite enough time to heal what had happened to him, to the whole village. But it was enough time for everyone to pretend to forget.
Torchwood Hub, 2010
"HIV? No. No way. I point blank refuse."
The Doctor slammed his fist down onto the table before him, his eyes alight with pain and frustration. Ianto put a consolatory hand on the Doctor's back, and spoke in a soft voice barely above a whisper.
"Sacrifices have to be made - you want to save her, all of us, don't you?"
"Of course! Of course I do... But if you had a daughter, would you knowingly ruin her future?"
"Nadrin's your daughter?"
"As good as. But you wouldn't, would you?"
Ianto paused, holding his breath for a moment. "No. No, I wouldn't. But she can still live a normal life - millions of people do."
The Doctor gave a derisory laugh. "Not the point. There must be another way. There is always another way."
Lois coughed gently to attract attention. The Doctor looked at her expectantly, a demanding light in his eyes, as if threatening something dreadful if she didn't come up with the solution. Lois took an involuntary step backwards before offering her information.
"We're not thinking this through. A virus attacks an operating system, but Nadrin is the operating system. We need to uninstall a single program."
The Doctor nodded in agreement, eyes lighting up. "Let's think about this logically. We need to remove the program without disrupting the system, so that's viruses out. The blood is effectively acting as the hard drive, so how do we remove a rogue program?"
"Take some blood out. You know, delete some files," Andy suggested. He gave a random and indistinguishable gesture that looked more like he was suggesting the Doctor chop a carrot.
The Doctor shot him a scathing look. "We'd have to remove all of her blood, she's not an actual computer, she's a biological system. The cells would just reproduce."
Andy sniffed and turned away. "Always works when I delete files. How about a virus scan?"
The Doctor looked at him as if he were totally stupid. "Did you not listen to what I just said? She's a biological system, her immune system has already done that. So we can't delete the files, a 'virus scan' won't work, we can't uninstall it, we can't-" The Doctor's voice caught in his throat. "We can't get rid of it. There's nothing we can do."
Lois coughed again. "Something must cause the program to run, find out what is and stop it."
The Doctor nodded slowly again. "Greg, what could the program pick up on?"
Greg jumped as he was unexpectantly addressed. "Well, uh, it always happens when the body is at rest, so it could be a number of things – slower breathing, slower heart rate, less brain activity."
"Well, the Grixrans only had basic knowledge of the human body, so I'd be really surprised if it wasn't one of those."
"Isn't Nadrin sleeping now?" Ianto added. The Doctor shot a panicked look at Greg.
"It's okay, I sedated her for quite a while, the program needs to brain to be able to operate. We only need to worry if she starts dreaming."
"Well, we'll wake her up then, just in case."
Jack made as if to leave. "I'll fetch her."
The Doctor pushed past him. "No you won't, I will." He jogged out of the medical unit and up to where Nadrin lay sleeping. He gently drew the blanket covering her off, picking up her slim form as if she weighed no more than a feather.
The team left the workstation for the medical unit - Vincent had been moved to the morgue. Jack had whipped the team into action - there was time to grieve later. Greg already had a drug prepared already when the Doctor arrived back and set her down on the table. He administered the drug as the Doctor watched anxiously from the sidelines. He drew closer as her eyelids flickered, and she lashed out suddenly and began to thrash around, as if having an epileptic fit. He stared at her in alarm.
"Is this normal?" he asked Greg, panic unintentionally raising the volume of his voice.
Greg kept calm as he gently stroked the young girl's forehead. "It's normal, she'll stop soon." The Doctor nodded, unconvinced, but couldn't help a smile as Jack stepped forwards to help restrain her, receiving a sharp kick in the abdomen for his trouble. As if somehow appeased by this, she lay still. Her eyelids flickered again before opening fully. She gave the Doctor an accusing stare.
"Where am I, what have you done?" The Doctor broke down suddenly and fell to his knees by her side. He gave a strangled giggle.
"Same Nadrin I've always known." He held her hand gently, using his free hand to shoo the rest of the team from the room. They trooped out, Lois looking back over her shoulder. The Doctor gave her a stern glare, and she scuttled out.
The Doctor turned to Nadrin and looked directly into her eyes. "Nadrin, something went wrong, seriously wrong."
Her eyes widened, before she settled back. "I know, I didn't take my iron mix. You solved it though, didn't you? I'm fine now, though, you just got some more iron mix from somewhere." She swallowed hard the Doctor shook his head. "You do realise that if you used blood I will have to kill you and eat you?"
The Doctor swallowed even harder.
"Urgh, Doctor! Whose did you use?"
The Doctor shook his head. "Vincent's. But there was a... complication."
"A complication, what kind of complication?"
"The program wasn't stored in the brain as we thought, it was stored in the blood, and now it's in you."
Nadrin mouthed the words back at him, bright green eyes wide open in terror. She fell back onto her jacket, doubling as a pillow, and began to sob. The Doctor increased his grip on her hand, tears squeezing their way from his eyes, despite his attempts to hold himself together.
"I'm so, so, so sorry Nadrin, we had no idea. No idea at all. Please, forgive me Nadrin. We'll make you better, we'll cure you, I promise." The young girl nodded, and raised her green eyes to the Doctor's grey ones. She pleaded to him in a whisper so soft it was barely audible.
"I forgive you, Doctor. Please help me." The Doctor saw the hopeful light mixed with raw terror shining from her eyes, and felt his hearts break in his chest.
"We need to do some tests. Don't worry, we just need to take some basic observations. We need you to relax, lay back, I'll get Greg to set the equipment up."
"Equipment?!"
"Don't worry, just some wires and pressure pads, that sort of thing. Nothing you haven't seen before."
The Doctor watched her nod slowly, turned away and beckoned Greg back in. In silence he began to attach the electrodes and heart monitor to Nadrin. She watched him distrustfully, and took hold of the Doctor's hand again. He squeezed it tight as Greg inserted a needle and administered a diluted dosage of sedative. He worked his way around her shivering body until he could whisper into the Doctor's ear.
"What do we do when the program initiates?"
"We get close enough to inject her with some iron mix - I found some in her jacket."
"It was in her jacket all along?!"
"Don't tell anyone else. It will cause an uproar. Even I can make mistakes." Greg nodded, and took the liquid packs the Doctor offered him.
"Right," Greg said officiously, and turned to set the computers up to record the information that the equipment attached to Nadrin would provide. His hand hovered over the computer as he faltered. His eyes pleaded at the Doctor, who sighed and did it for him. The computer beeped and began to record.
Nadrin settled back and closed her eyes as the drugs began to take effect.
Greg and the Doctor stood in front of the computers, watching the line depicting brain activity showing a decrease. Greg jumped back in horror as the line cut off to zero suddenly.
They turned, and Nadrin smiled widely at them.
"Greg, the iron mix. Greg, quick! GREG!"
Greg stuttered and coughed. "Err, where is it?!"
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Formula shamelessly swiped from Flinch, who half-inched it from... someone else.