'How did you find us?' Jack asked, still recovering from the shock.
'The wonders of GPS.' Rose shrugged.
The Doctor began seizing, fighting a war within himself.
Rose quickly knelt beside him, touching his face gently. 'Doctor?'
His eyes flew open, gripping Rose's wrist with inhuman strength.
Rose leapt back. 'Get the hell off me, James!' she yelled.
The Doctor was sobbing at the pain. 'No.' he moaned. 'No, don't, no…'
He was mumbling at speed, Rose jerked her hand from his grip as Jack knelt beside him. 'Shh…' Jack hushed her. 'What's he saying?'
Rose leant closer, ear above the Doctor's mouth.
'Pain, not yours, leave, bomb. Oh my- bomb, it's going to- stop, please, don't hurt her. Where?' The Doctor threw his head to the side, voice becoming a yell. 'What have you done? Where is it?'
'We need to help him.' Rose ordered.
Jack held her back. 'Just wait.'
'Bomb, under, under the sink! It's going, oh-.' The Doctor gripped Jack's arm. 'Don't let him, Jack! You take care of her!' he threw his head back. 'It's under the sink! Run!'
Then things happened very quickly.
The world exploded into light and heat and pain.
The Doctor rolled Rose over, protecting her with his body.
Jack was standing above them, taking the brunt, getting thrown across the room.
The heat was impossible.
The flames receded, ceasing to be an explosion and starting to burn at the walls.
She opened her eyes. The Doctor was still huddled over her; his eyes squeezed shut and his face shining with sweat.
'Doctor?' She asked, moving to shift out from underneath him. He let out a gasp of pain.
Then she noticed the smell, the pungent odour of burnt flesh.
'Doctor!' she exclaimed. She turned her head to see Jack's crumpled form. 'Jack!'
But Jack didn't move.
The Doctor let loose an anguished cry and he tried to move. Jack rolled over, coughing and spluttering.
'I'm okay.' He wheezed.
Rose shuffled from underneath the Doctor's body, careful not to move him. He seemed numb against the pain, sweat shining all over his skin.
There was no way Jack could have survived that blast. Rose ran to his side.
Jack coughed and wheezed. 'Check on the Doctor.' He ordered.
Rose turned back around. The Doctor was still supporting his weight on his hands, protecting the space where Rose had been. His entire back was scorched, jacket burned and melted to his flesh.
She fell to his side. 'Doctor, Doctor, can you hear me?'
The Doctor grimaced, nodding slowly.
She looked over him. 'You're badly hurt.'
'I'll heal.' The Doctor hissed.
Jack dragged himself over, colour slowly returning to his face. 'You need medical help.'
Rose's confused mind started coming together in pieces. She began to panic.
'Jack! How could you possibly survived-?'
'Later, Rose.' Jack demanded. 'The Doctor needs help.'
He was right. The Doctor hadn't even moved since the explosion, the slightest twitch made pain streak across his face.
Rose placed a hand on his face. 'Listen to me, Doctor. Tell me what I can do to help.'
He gasped and wheezed. 'There's a room, a room on the TARDIS.'
'An infirmary?' Jack asked.
The Doctor went to shake his head, but decided against it when his back exploded in pain. 'No, better. A room, a special room. The- AH!' he cried out. 'The Zero room, we'll be safe there.'
'All of us?' Rose clarified.
The Doctor frowned. 'No, just me, and James.' He managed to turn his head, emerald eyes piercing her own. 'We have to go. Now.'
Rose and Jack slung the Doctors arms around their shoulders, Jack carrying most of the weight. They found a side exit, shuffling out into a side alley rather than out into the crowded streets.
'Wait, wait, wait.' The Doctor wheezed.
They stopped, still hidden in the shadows as a group of policemen passed them, running to help with the fire.
'Alright.' The Doctor said.
They moved out into the darkened road, past the crowd that had gathered around the building, watching it burn.
Rose couldn't help giving sidelong glances to both the Doctor and Jack. There was so much that had been hidden from her, by both parties.
The TARDIS was parked a fair distance away; it was too far for them to carry the Doctor, especially as he was loosing so much blood. The dark stains had slowly spread across his entire back.
'Rest. I need rest.' He panted, the blood loss getting too much for him.
The three of them stopped by a bench, sitting him down in the middle before falling onto the hard wood on either side of him.
'I feel like my head is going to explode.' Rose commented, trying to deal with the flood of information.
The Doctor let out a strangled laugh. 'You can talk.'
Rose shot a look at Jack. 'You have got some explaining to do.'
'I'm not the only one!' Jack defended, glaring at the Doctor and Rose.
The Doctor snorted, pain wracking his body at the gesture.
'I guess I'm going to be doing a lot of talking then.' He muttered. He lifted a bloodied hand and pushed some hair back from his face. He threw a sidelong look at Jack. 'You first.'
'You got a new face.' Jack pointed out.
'Two actually.' The Doctor started. 'I-'
'I know.' Jack interrupted. 'I saw the footage from Torchwood. Nice pinstripes, by the way.'
The Doctor turned and nudged Rose. 'See? He liked them!'
Rose rolled her eyes. 'Doctor, Jack would approve of anything on you, especially if it was a tight suit.'
The Doctor grinned sillily, glancing from side to side, between the two companions beside him. Jack opened his mouth to speak, to ask the question that had been burning in his mind.
'I know.' The Doctor said, so quiet Jack was sure he imagined it. 'I'm sorry, Jack.'
Jack stared at him, wide eyed. How was that even possible?
'What?' Rose asked. 'Know what?'
'So, that, what happened back there, that was true?' Jack asked, voice gaining volume. 'You left me behind?'
'It wasn't like that.' The Doctor protested quietly.
'Then what was it like?'
The Doctor hung his head. 'After, after I sent Rose back home,' he began, glancing at Rose then back at Jack, 'I, you were gone, I was alone, I almost, I did, give up. I was about to die, when Rose came back.'
'What happened?' Jack asked. The answer he had been searching for over a hundred years for was so close, he could almost taste it.
The Doctor smiled and closed his eyes, almost forgetting that either of them was there. 'Rose. She absorbed the entire Time Vortex. Brought herself back.' He opened his eyes and smirked. 'Not the brainiest thing in the world.'
'Shut up!' Rose protested, but went silent again. Jack deserved to know. She needed to know.
'She destroyed the Dalek fleet, turned them to dust.' A proud smile slid across his face. 'But she also brought you back. Forever.'
Rose started, and Jack just nodded slowly.
'I can't die, Rose.' Jack said. 'I keep coming back to life, I've lived through centuries of Time to get an explanation, centuries, and all I show for it is the odd gray hair.'
Rose shook her head. 'That's impossible.'
'We're way beyond impossible now.' The Doctor said.
'You still left me behind.' Jack said, voice dripping with venom.
'I was regenerating, I wasn't thinking straight.' The Doctor replied.
'You could have come back for me.' Jack said simply.
'I couldn't.' The Doctor said. 'What James said before was true. I can't help it, in my guts; your very existence goes against everything in me.'
'James?' Jack asked.
The Doctor shared a look with Rose. 'That one's going to take some explaining.'
Rose looked away, uncomfortable, then at the Doctor's back. Already, the blistering had died down, the wound healing far faster than what was normal.
Rose watched in wonder. 'Incredible.'
'It's not.' The Doctor said shortly. 'Time Lords were all about keeping up appearances, it's healing the outer at the expense of my insides.' He looked between his two companions. 'I need to get to the Zero Room.'
They hauled him upwards and began the long, strained walk back to the TARDIS, the Doctor hanging limply between them.
'I'm so sorry.' The Doctor struggled out.
'Save your energy.' Jack warned.
'No, it's my fault.' The Doctor said, becoming delusional against the pain. 'James was always restless when he was around you, Rose, like you were his lifeline.'
Rose tried not to cringe as she remembered two very different images of James, one working away at K-9, laughing with her, and the other holding a sharp knife, inches above Jacks chest.
'I thought, if I isolated myself, that he would settle, and I'd have the ability to find what I needed.'
Jack grunted. The Doctors words meant nothing to him. He may have gotten some answers, but definitely not enough.
'But all it did was make him agitated. He knew you hated it, you practically ended up wishing him back into the forefront of this mind.' The Doctor said.
Rose pressed her lips together in a hard line.
'That doesn't matter any more.' Rose said. 'I'm not wishing him back any more.'
'It doesn't matter.' The Doctor said grimly. 'James' mind is becoming dominant. He's always pushing, the pressure, it's always there. There is turmoil, frustration, anger, yet an excitement.'
The trio were getting breathless, practically dragging the Doctor through the back streets of London.
'Perhaps, through my body, he's experiencing sensations no human has ever felt before.' He said, voice hushed. 'That may be why he refuses to retreat.'
The continued in silence for a while, both Companions needing more information, but neither wanting to ask.
'I had a friend.' The Doctor said quietly. 'Enemy, more like. Time Lord, way back on Gallifrey, before all this travelling happened.'
Jack and Rose silently traded a look. The Doctor was getting delusional and both knew he didn't divulge information about his home planet easily.
'We were only kids. They took us for initiation and showed us the rip in Time, the entire vortex open, raw and powerful. They say he was driven mad.'
The Doctor sighed heavily. 'That was a Time Lord. James is just human; just imagine what that would do to his mind, even only through my extra sense.'
The familiar police box came into view. All three were both relieved and tense at seeing the old ship again.
Jack allowed a small smile. After all his searching, his waiting, he'd finally found it, found them.
Rose unlocked it, Jack supporting all of the Doctor's weight. The blood had spread across his back, but the healed skin even now looked healthier, even if his insides were worse.
The two Companions dragged him through the halls of the TARDIS, silently hoping that he would stop rambling and become the Doctor they were used to, the one with all the answers.
'I've killed.' He said solemnly as Rose checked the TARDIS records, searching for a Zero Room. 'I've killed billions of people, watched planets burn. James saw it. He went into my memories and saw them all. A fragile human mind with all that information and agony… he should have been overwhelmed, but instead, he smiled! I don't want him to kill again for that feeling.'
Jack cracked an ironic smile. 'Well, if that's it, I'm sure I can help.'
The Doctor ignored him. 'Something inside of him, inside us, hungers for new sensations; yearns to feel. My new senses have introduced him to experiences, and my memories have taught him dark emotions he has never dreamed of! He wants more!' he rolled his head, agony clouding his mind. 'What have I done?'
'Nothing we can't fix.' Rose said quickly. She led the way through the TARDIS until they found the room.
It was completely white inside, cylindrical with only one lockable door and an observation room far above.
The Doctor forced himself onto the floor, lying down despite the pain. 'This could take a while.' He warned. 'James will be in control for most of the time.'
He reached into his pocket and pulled something out, pressing it into Rose's hand.
'Take this. You'll need it soon.'
Rose looked at it; it was a small disk, roughly the size of a large coin. She glanced up curiously.
'What is it?'
But the Doctor only roared in agony, pushing them back towards the door. Jack grabbed Rose's arm and pulled her from the Zero Room, sealing the door behind them.
In the observation room, Rose pressed her forehead against the cool glass.
'Doctor?' she said into the microphone. 'Doctor, it's Rose. Jack and I are here with you, in the TARDIS.'
The Doctor's scream of pain turned ragged and changed.
'So am I.' James hissed.
Rose bit back tears that threatened to fall, pricking at her eyes.
Jack's hand clasped her shoulder.
'I get the feeling I'm going to be in for a long explanation.'
Wow! Three long, long months! I'm so sorry you guys! I just got really caught up with my original story (Now over 18,000 words!). Thanks to whoever sent me that PM reminding me! That got me wriggling on! This chapter had just been sitting in my documents half finished for ages. What do you think? Like my reference to the Master? Hate my version of Jack? Like that we finally get to see some of the Doctor? Wishing I'd update faster?
Please review!