The Doctor felt everything. From the small ship breaking apart, to the mind probe being torn from his skull. He felt as it ripped pieces of him out. He couldn't stop screaming. He heard Samant apologizing, but it wasn't her fault. They were under attack and the Doctor was limp on the floor, screaming. He felt her sag beside him. He heard Raoul yelling at her. He felt her rise and attempt to fix the damage. They had no idea how severe the damage was. The Doctor quieted as Samant sealed the wound and placed a neck brace on him. His mind failed to recognize his own screaming as the ship rocked again. He was shutting down. The damage to his brain was too much for him to cope with. At least the probe was gone. It was finally safe to sleep. He shut his eyes and the world turned to black.
Then the world stuttered and flickered. His eyes were closed, he could feel that. His brain throbbed with agony, he felt that was well. He couldn't hear Samant nor Raoul anymore, but he did hear voices. He couldn't focus on them, his head hurt too much. Visions and images flickered across his visual cortex and he tried to make sense of it all. The black turned to red, the red pixelated and dissolved like shattered glass back into the darkness. Rainbows spilled forward like a spiderweb creating itself. The tiny fractals of color became light and then smoothed into gray fuzz. The feeling of damaged and missing brain tissue dissolved, replaced by a chest on fire. It burned and hurt, as if someone decided to dig around in his chest cavity with a spoon. He moaned and a black blur leaned over him. It touched his face. The Doctor jerked from its prodding fingers and then cried as the sudden movement caused a spike of pain in his head.
"How is he awake?" a voice asked, something from behind him. He couldn't see who said it.
"Up the dosage," the blur in front of him ordered.
"No...more...drugsh," the Doctor slurred. He could feel a needle push into him and tears escaped from his eyes as they closed.
"How can he speak?" a far away voice asked.
The Doctor did not fall asleep. He was awake, he knew he was awake. He just couldn't open his eyes. He tried and then screamed as his entire body was forced forward. A thousand small sharp things dug themselves into his body. The flashes flickered in front of his closed eyes. He saw Raoul and Samant thrown forward and then back. The visions came to a sudden halt and darkness once again resumed until he slowly opened his eyes again. He could see Samant above him, laying on the ceiling with purple blood that covered her body. Her mouth was forced open in a permanent scream, even though all the Doctor could hear was the silence. The utter silence.
Plip, plip. Plip, plip. The Doctor watched in amazement as red-orange blood pulled itself away from his nose, floated up to the ceiling and mixed with the purple blood. The pain within his skull slowly throbbed into unbearable agony and again the Doctor screwed his eyes shut and screamed.
He sucked in a deep breath and then choked on the air, he eyes flew open. A gray stone slab pulled forward before his eyes, moving quickly over him. The Doctor took another deep breath and slowly looked around. Quickly he realized it was him that was moving, not the ceiling. He gritted his teeth as his body jerked. He looked down at his body. His body was broken. His clothes were gone and most of his skin too. All he could see was his bright red-orange blood and bits of metal things sticking out of his body.
"Careful," a gravely voice warned.
The Doctor slowly turned his head towards the voice and a reptilian creature looked back. It was about five feet tall with gray leathery skin. It's golden snake eyes glared back and it's long snout opened to reveal several rows of sharp white teeth. It wore the dreaded white lab coat and the rest of its body seemed to be more humanoid. On its hands it had three fingers with sharp claws and a thumb that was placed at the center of its wrist that bore no claw.
"It is awake," a voice smoother than the first reptile.
The Doctor turned to see another one of the creatures that seemed to be shorter than the first and its skin seemed a little smoother.
"And it appears to be listening," the first replied.
The Doctor opened his mouth to speak, he wanted ask 'where am I? Who are you?' but his mouth didn't seem to want to work. He slowly got his mouth open, but it locked in place and he couldn't close it, his lips were frozen in place, he couldn't move them, he felt them. They were cracked and the bottom one was split.
"Ah," was all the Doctor could manage, "Ah...aah," He couldn't move his mouth, it was like there was a weight on his tongue, he couldn't move it, he couldn't move his jaw nor his lips to match the questions bubbling forth. "Mmm," he closed his mouth too late to make the 'mm' sound in 'am'. His eyes jerked from the first reptile to the second in sudden panic. He tried to lift his arm only to find it strapped to the table they wheeled him down on. He couldn't move, he couldn't speak. The brain damage was more severe than he had first thought.
"It appears to be unable to speak," the second reptile said.
The Doctor flopped his head over as if it were made out of jelly. He flopped it back the other way to say 'no, you're wrong, I can speak' but only moans escaped his lips. He could feel his hearts' beats skittering in his chest. He was panicking, he had to calm down and think everything through.
"You stupid old man."
"Ah!" the Doctor called out. He saw her, he turned his head and he saw her standing by a door, but the aliens didn't seem to notice. They didn't stop, just kept pushing him down the endless hall of stone. The rolling table jerked as the wheels rolled down the uneven floor. The Doctor screwed his eyes shut as his body protested in a spike of the agony.
He coughed and then his eyes opened. His table was pushed against the wall. He was still strapped in, but his bloody body had been cleaned and the metal bits removed. His body was slowly trying to heal the damage to his brain. It was taking too long, he didn't know where he was, Samant and Raoul were gone. Aliens he had never seen before had captured him. But the room he was left in was empty, save for him and his table on wheels. His eyes wandered around the room. The walls were made of stone, the floor, stone, the air smelled and tasted wrong. At the moment he was too damaged to figure out why.
"Ah...kah...mmmaah," the Doctor focused all of his energy on getting his mouth to work right. He knew the English words he wanted to say, but his mouth didn't close when he told it to and wouldn't open right either. His tongue had lost nearly all ability to move.
"And how are you going to manage that?"
The Doctor looked up in surprise.
"Ah...mmm," the Doctor replied in shock. Leaning against the opposite wall from him stood Amelia Pond. His forehead furrowed in confusion, "Ah...ahm...ih...ah?" he asked her. He studied her and realized he couldn't figure out how old she was, he couldn't discern anything about her except the one true fact that it was Amelia Pond standing before him. He sighed sadly as he realized. "Ah...ah...ih...mah...ahm."
"That may be so, or perhaps you are just dreaming about me, raggedy man?" Amy suggested.
"Ah...mmm...aaah...ah," the Doctor tried to reply.
"Yes, Doctor, you are right about that. It is rather funny."
"Ffff...ah?"
"The very fact that you're hallucinating me. It is funny when you think about it."
"Mmm." The Doctor clumsily shook his head 'no'.
"Oh, but it is, when you think about it. The question you should be asking is, why you are hallucinating me?"
"Ah...ah...aaahff."
"She is safe, Doctor, but that isn't why you are seeing my face."
The Doctor's eyes widened and he directed his senses inward, he searched for chemicals that could be affecting his mind. None, the sedative and others had worn off. The damage to his brain was strictly in his cerebellum, diminishing his fine motor skills and his ability to move his mouth properly.
"Aah?" the Doctor asked, it didn't make sense.
"Perhaps it is the trauma of your friends' crashing their ship?" Amy suggested.
"Mmm," the Doctor disagreed. He remembered his head was strapped to the chair for extra protection, his head was okay except at the back where the damage was severe and still painful with the throbbing.
"It is interesting that the mind probe was placed specifically to record your dreams, but when it was torn out it only damaged the cerebellum."
"Aah...ihh...ah...ehff."
"Not damaged," Amy smiled at him.
"Ahh mmm?"
"Why else would you be seeing a hallucination?"
"Mm...ahhm...aahmm...eeh...mmm...uh...mm...ihm." The Doctor's eyes shifted to the ceiling as he tried to work it out. Why was he hallucinating? His visual cortex should have had bits of the mind probe in it, but only his cerebellum was damaged. It didn't make sense. The drugs were out of his system and the new aliens whom had found him didn't give him anything else (thank goodness). His head didn't collide with anything when the ship crashed. Why was he hallucinating? Perhaps he knew what it was, maybe there was something was stopping him from remembering? Maybe his brain was trying to tell him something and maybe that was why he was hallucinating. His brain was trying to tell him something.
"Look for anything that doesn't ring true," Amy told him, she opened her mouth to speak but suddenly the vision of her flickered. He couldn't hear what she was saying. She blurred and refocused. The Doctor's head spiked with pain before Amy disappeared and standing in her place was a ragged bloodied version of Raoul.
The Doctor rolled his eyes and tried to say, 'Not another one', instead it came out like this, "Mmm...aah...aahmm...aah...ahm."
"Doctor? What's happened to you?" Raoul asked as he came close and began undoing the straps that held him to the table.
The Doctor flopped his head from side to side. "Mmmm," he warned Raoul. Raoul didn't understand and the Doctor only sagged into him when Raoul tried to help him sit up. "Mmmm," the Doctor told him, in the same uncoordinated motion of shaking his head 'no'.
"What's wrong with you?"
"Ah...ih...aaah...buh." The Doctor smiled at a new sound he managed to make with his nearly paralyzed mouth.
"You can't speak?"
"Mmm," the Doctor growled, but dropped his head down and then flopped it back as he confirmed, "Ah."
"Okay, we can fix that right?"
"Mmm...aaah."
"Okay, I now declare 'Mm' to be 'no' and 'aah' to be 'yes'."
"Aah," the Doctor rolled his eyes, as that was what he meant to begin with.
"Can you stand?"
"Mmm."
"Okay that makes things a little tricky."
"Aah...buh," the Doctor looked down down, but Raoul didn't follow, didn't understand.
"Buh? What does that mean?"
"Aaahmmm...buh," the Doctor tried again, he raised his eyes to Raoul and then looked down at the table he was still on. He tried moving his arm to point at the table. But he missed all together and instead his arm bumped into Raoul's chest.
"What?"
The Doctor tried again, he raised his arm up and then let it drop onto the table. Then with great difficulty lifted up his hand and point to the door.
"The table?"
"Aaah."
"It rolls! Oh, right, maybe you should lay back down. This one is just for support okay?"
"Aah," the Doctor sighed as Raoul helped him lay back down and strapped the middle strap across his waist to help secure him. The ride back down the hall didn't hurt nearly as bad as the first time. But the Doctor still found himself gasping and squeezing his eyes shut tight.
"Buh," the Doctor said as he opened his eyes. Raoul had come to a stop in a cold room. The Doctor could see a steep stairway. How were they going to do steps? He didn't know. "Mmmm!" the Doctor growled as Raoul began to re strap the restraints.
"I'm sorry, it is the only way I'm going to get you down there."
"Ah?" the Doctor asked.
"I can lower this table almost all the way down. I'll slowly push you slash pull you down the stairs. You have to trust me."
"Buh! Ah...buh...eh!" the Doctor disagreed.
"Look, it is either trust me or let the Solevs dissect you, which one do you prefer?"
"Mmm," the Doctor growled but then sighed, "Aaah."
"I'll be careful, also it is how I got Samant down there."
"Aahmaah?" the Doctor asked hopefully.
"Is that you trying to say her name?"
"Aaah."
"Okay, I'll keep that in mind. She's hurt, but I give her a week to bounce back. Best thing about us is that we heal fast. Alright, here we go."
Raoul lowered the Doctor's table and then slowly and carefully pushed him. The Doctor held his breath as the first two wheels rolled off of the floor, it was only a couple of inches that the Doctor's table fell before it caught on the edge of the first step. It still jolted him.
"Oh wait a moment," Raoul said.
"Mmm!" the Doctor growled at him as he heard Raoul shift around behind him. If Raoul let go...the Doctor didn't want to think about how much it would hurt if the table tipped up.
"Lift your head up," Raoul told him.
With a grunt the Doctor obeyed. He felt Raoul push fabric under his head and the Doctor relaxed into the make shift pillow. That would help, the Doctor helped.
"Aaaaah...aaah," the Doctor told him.
"You're welcome," Raoul responded without thinking. The Doctor braced himself as Raoul carefully lowered the Doctor down the stairs.