His eyes snapping open The Doctor found himself facing a tiled ceiling of a dark room.

Must be night time, he concluded.

However he soon found himself submerged in complete darkness, when two heavy eyelids failed to stay open much longer.

Fighting against whatever reason was making him so drowsy, The Doctor tried to gather his thoughts and figure out where he was and what was happening to him. Usually, it never took this long and that frustrated him.

Oh, he remembered pain. He knew of that, for sure. There had been a lot of it. He could feel it now, though, thankfully, he was no longer right in the thick of it, like he had been.

Yet, he was aware of it and also something else in his system, blocking his pain receptors. He had been drugged. Now that was never a good sign. Seldom did anyone particularly nice try to drug him. He wondered what their motives were. Was he being held prisoner? Where was Donna? Was she alright?

Battling ever more fiercely against the unwelcome sleep that beckoned him, he tried so hard to get up, move, or even open his eyes, but was no use and then he was under so deep, even his thoughts were absent.

Donna was distressed. Nothing had gone right ever since she had surrendered The Doctor over to this medical scum.

Not only had Lloyd and she been detained in a confined hospital room by security for quite a time, but the drugs were not working on The Doctor - would not comply with his alien biology.

They had eventually found something that would dope him out, without causing any more damage to his 'binary-vascular system', which was most fortunate as now he was only surviving on one functional heart. The left one simply refused to start, despite the different methods they had tried.

He had been in surgery more times than she would have liked today. Most of the medical mumbo jumbo she was told went straight over her head. Donna felt useless. This was the best care she could provide for her alien friend, even though it was left up to others. She honestly had no idea what else she could possibly do. At least he was alive. Well, for now.

There was one thing she did know how to do though and that was shouting at people.
She shouted at the nurses, she shouted at the medics, she shouted at the surgeons, she shouted at the security and now she was inside a large and rather daunting office, shouting at the head of medicine.

"WHO IN THE RIGHT MIND PUTS THE LIFE OF A BLOODY INSECT OVER A PERSON'S?" She screeched at the smartly dressed, round spectacled, balding man, who was sitting at the opposite side over the desk.

The way he withstood the full force of Donna Noble so calmly was bewildering. The man was leaning forward slightly, with his hands laid out on the desk in front of him. One would be under the impression that he dealt with this kind of situation all the time. It was not until Donna had finished ranting at him and was stood, gasping for breath, that the head of medicine raised a hand and turned his hearing aid on. The nerve of him!

She wanted to reach across the desk and throttle him until his silly spectacles were knocked off his awful face. Donna restrained herself. She knew the man would have a security call button under his desk and she did not need another visit from those blokes.

Instead she slid back down into her seat and heaved a great sigh in exasperation. The head of medicine took this as his chance to speak.

"Ms Smith. I want to apologize for any distress my medical facility has caused you. We understand that you are deeply concerned for your significant other and are working hard to get him well within the constraints of special law.

"At our hospital we go firmly by the rule book. Already this case has alerted the attention of our planets endangered species experts, as well as social media. We would not even have a chance to quietly bend the rules without my facility being shut down."

Donna did truly believe this man was sorry. However this did not help lighten or quell her anger and frustration in any way. "Now", he continued "I have waiting outside someone else who wishes to speak to you."

He pressed a button, which emitted a buzz and a tall and sophisticated woman came walking in. She shook hands with Donna and introduced herself as Professor Moore, before taking a seat.

"I am the one who discovered that the species inhabiting Mr Smith is indeed the Sephtinite."
Already, Donna felt an intense hatred for this woman.
"Until now, my colleagues and I had understood Sephtinites to be long died out, due to longer having the correct food source to host its young.

"It is somewhat a parasite. Long ago it was in fact a problem creature on this very planet and to maintain them, it was made legal to hunt its food source a much larger animal, the Blardiicore. Yet, when the government and people of this planet finally took pity on its wildlife there was few and far between left.

"Your partner is something different though. Something far more malleable than has ever set foot here and somehow attracted the very last Sephtinite. I scarcely can believe how it is even possible, but it has happened. I have devoted my life to wildlife research and population control. To come across a find like this is a dream come true for me.

"It saddens me that the adult Sephtinite within Mr Smith will pass on, but its offspring will hatch and continue to thrive. Once this has happened we can put into effect the next actions, so you can have John back in one piece and I can set about restoring the Sephtinite species.

"It is my understanding that this will be a very delicate process, due to the considerable weakness Mr Smith is already enduring, but we have great medical staff here. I'm sure it won't be long, before he's out of the woods."

The woman smiled and patted a hand on Donna's shoulder in what must have been with the intention of comfort, but seemed a lot more condescending. She thanked Donna and the head of medical for their time and backtracked out of the room.

Donna held her face in her hands, but she refused to cry. She promised herself she would not cry anymore. At least not until this mess was over. She looked back up at the head of medicine. The man looked back at her expectantly.

"Please, I need to be with him", Donna insisted.