"I'm just going to call someone to take Jack over to the TARDIS," Martha offered. "I'll be back in just a moment." She nodded towards Jack and suggested that he should come out of the room to talk to him. "Are you going to stay overnight?"

"If you want me to?" Jack asked. "He's going to have a hard time isn't he?"

"Hopefully we will be able to control the pain more effectively for him, but I don't think we'll be able to totally alleviate it, so he may have an uncomfortable time until he after he is stabilised in surgery. It's too risky to do it while he's so swollen unless it becomes a surgical emergency. If we cut him open we'd not be able to close him back up again, he'd be left with open wounds down to fractured bone and that would be a huge infection risk," Martha sighed. "I just hope we can make him more comfortable."

"To do that you need the drugs from the TARDIS, right?"

"Yeah, have you got your key?"

"Yep," Jack confirmed.

"Take this into the TV room while I get someone to come down. Run it in the DVD player but keep the volume right down? He doesn't need to hear it. Once you've watched it I think you will understand more about why he is terrified of knowing what he has done to his leg and why he's so emotionally worn," Martha commented.

"What is it?"

"It's the footage from the TARDIS. She downloaded it for me so I can go through it with the orthopaedic team to see exactly how the injuries occurred," Martha advised.

"Does it matter how he did it in terms of how you fix it?"

"In some ways. Different forces cause different break patterns, not only on the gross scale but also within the nature of the fractures as well. It is better to know as much as we can before we operate. I will call someone over to take you over to the TARDIS to get what he needs. Watch that quickly before you go. I think it will help you understand a bit more about what he is feeling?" Martha suggested. She popped her head back in to the Doctor and checked he was alright. He was just lying with his arms over his head again to block everything out. There was a phone in his room so she just used that to call across to control to get someone to escort Jack.

She thought about asking Colonel Mace to provide Jack with a level three base clearance pass. It would allow him to move around the base without escort, but not provide him access to any of the confidential stuff he'd already know all about through elicit means. Knowing Colonel Mace and common sense indicated she should leave that question until the following day as she expected the base commander would be still reeling about having the Time Lord back on site never mind Torchwood. She did like and respect Colonel Mace. He was an intelligent, loyal, and compassionate man, but he was also quite rigid in a necessary military sense and she found him amusing in his manner. It was why the Doctor and he clashed despite having an undeniable mutual respect for one another.

Their urgent autopsy was also being disrupted and delayed would cause further concern to the Colonel, he didn't like it when things did not go exactly to plan. She was sure that Doctor Luke Wilson would be able to handle the autopsy as well as she could, and, that Sir Alistair would be more than understanding if he was told the reason why the autopsy had been delayed was due to the Doctor being injured.

If the medication worked and the Doctor had a period of rest overnight she thought she might speak to Luke, find out how far he had got with the autopsy, and then share the information with he Doctor. He might know what the creature was and be able to get involved and provide them with insight at the same time as providing him with a distraction. If he did not have a restful night then she would not seek to involve him as it could be detrimental to his recovery.

It was a couple of minutes after Martha had phoned control that Private Coates returned to the medical centre. He was brought into the East Wing by Anita. "Ah, Private Coates, are you our escort?" Martha asked him when he stood to attention and saluted in the doorway to the Doctor's room.

"Yes ma'am," he confirmed.

"Excellent. I need you to take Captain Jack to warehouse 7. He is going to retrieve some items from the TARDIS for the Doctor and I need you to wait and to return with him."

"Yes ma'am," Private Coates confirmed he understood the order. He was playing taxi service. Martha left the Doctor's room to head back to the common room where Jack was. Private Coates turned to wait outside, but then he hesitated. "Ma'am?"

"What is it Private?"

"Is it true that the Doctor is going to lose his leg?"

"Where did you hear that?"

"Some of the guys that saw him coming out of the TARDIS?"

"Well, you can tell them that I don't appreciate the gossip, but, you can also tell them that no, he is not going to lose his leg. Not on my watch. Is that understood?"

"Yes Ma'am, sorry."

"There is no need to apologise," Martha assured him. "But, I don't want the rumour mill to go into overdrive and for that kind of falsehood to get back to the Doctor. He is injured but there is no reason not to expect him to make a good recovery. Now, let me introduce you to Jack and you can take him over to the warehouse."

"Is it Captain Jack Harkness of Torchwood?"

"Yes it is," Martha confirmed.

"I have read his UNIT files," Private Coates commented.

"Was that before or after he managed to hack into the archive and amend them?" Martha asked the Private and smiled. She had read the Captain's file both before and after the immortal had amended his own records as a joke. She thought that might be a further reason to delay asking Colonel Mace to give the Captain base clearance.

They went into the adjacent room where Jack had been watching the footage from the TARDIS. Martha knew it was difficult and she wanted Jack to see it because he might understand the Doctor's frame of mind soon after the events. She did not realise just ho hard Jack would have found watching it, though, knowing the loyalty and love that underpinned Jack's dealings with the Time Lord perhaps she should have done, for when she went into the room with Private Coates. Jack was sat facing the TV screen, but with his elbows on his knees and his head in his hands and tears on his face.

"Give me a moment, please, Private," Martha asked and the young soldier nodded and moved to stand outside in the corridor. He could see that the Time Lord was lying on his bed and he seemed to be struggling. He looked back at Martha and she was sitting talking to the Captain who was upset. There was a picture on the TV screen of the Doctor lying on the ground. He was holding his thigh and he looked like he was screaming as his leg was twisted and hanging down from the shin. It looked bad, at least now he had a big cast on his leg so it had to be in a better condition than in the picture.

When Private Coates heard the Doctor moan from in his room he looked to see if there was anyone else in the vicinity that might be able to go and see him. There wasn't anyone else in the East Wing at all. He didn't want the Doctor to be in pain and on his own, so he went and knocked on the door. He didn't step in completely, but he made his presence known. "Is there anything I can do, Sir?" He then saluted the Time Lord aware that he was still a senior Science Advisor for UNIT.

"Don't call… me, Sir…" the Doctor hadn't noticed that he'd been saluted or he'd probably have felt worse. "Where's Martha?"

"Doctor Jones is just in the next room talking to Captain Harkness, um…" Private Coates wanted to say Sir, but had been told not to. Now he just didn't know how to end the sentence and he ended up just leaving it hanging in mid air. "Do you need me to get Doctor Jones?"

"Nothing else… she can do… just now."

"I'm taking Captain Harkness to the TARDIS to get some things for you."

"Have you… got a… gun?"

"On me now?" Private Coates had no idea why the Doctor was asking him that. It worried him slightly that he wanted a gun or he thought that he should have one to go with the Captain or that he shouldn't?

"Yes."

"No," he confirmed. "I am not armed. I am assigned to base duties today and we are not on alert. I am not carrying my side arm and we have not been issued any of other weapons."

"Okay... good… don't like guns."

"Neither do I, really, Sir."

"But… you're a… soldier."

"I am," Private Coates. "I should only be cadet level really, but there are a few of us who have been made Privates, but I became a soldier to protect, Sir, not to kill."

"Good reason…" the Doctor accepted. "But… don't call me… Sir," he reminded the young man but then he groaned with the pain in his leg as the cowboy was preparing to saddle up again and the arena crowd were itching with anticipation of the best show in town. "What… is your… name?"

"Private Coates, Sir. Are you sure there is nothing I can do to help?"

"It just… hurts… what is… your first… name?"

"Ethan."

"Ethan," the Doctor acknowledged. He didn't look much different from Ross. The Soldier who he'd befriended and had got killed by the Sontarans. He couldn't think about that now. The cowboy was back on board his mount. He was in the stall. His clowns and the trainers were all priming him ready for when the stall gate was dropped and the bucking started for real.

"So, have you broken your leg then?" Private Coates asked feeling like he should do something for the man lying on the bed in pain, but he also worried that in any moment Doctor Jones would return and he'd get court marshalled for not being where he was supposed to be.

During their training they all learned about the Doctor. He was a case study in his own right and was often used as a kind of white elephant in terms of whether aliens were to be considered hostile. The Doctor's exploits in saving and assisting mankind were well documented and UNIT made it known that they were only the tip of very large iceberg in what the Doctor had done for them. He was described as being highly intelligent and to be quite formidable and something to be reckoned with, but all Private Coates could see was a man that was in so much pain he was starting to writhe a little on the bed.

He didn't know what he could do to help him, but it was clear the Doctor needed it. He didn't want to touch him or anything in case that wasn't allowed and it offended him. He decided just to keep talking. He didn't mind if the Doctor wasn't actually listening, but if he was, then perhaps it would help him.

"My brother broke his leg when he was fourteen. We were off riding on my mud bike in the woods and he took corner badly and ended up in a ditch. It was only a little one but he snapped his leg in two, above his knee in his femur. I'm a couple of years older than him and I felt so bad because I was supposed to be looking after him and I wasn't supposed to let him ride my bike. He was in hospital for almost three weeks, but he healed up fine in the end. He had a metal rod hammered right down the middle of his leg," Private Coates advised.

"Does it… bother him… now?" the Doctor proved he was listening despite the crowd roaring in expectation. They had risen to their feet and were waving their banners as the silent countdown started. Any second the stall gates were going to be dropped and that beastly cowboy was going to be released into the arena on his untamed stallion. They didn't know exactly when the click of the bolts on the stall would pop back releasing the full rodeo but the anticipation rose as half the crowd held their breath and the other half bayed for blood.

"He did fully recovery," Private Coates confirmed. "But, he was killed by the daleks last year."

"I'm… sorry," the Doctor gasped as the cowboy dug his spurs in unexpectedly.

"You don't need to be sorry, Sir, I mean…"

"Doctor."

"Okay, Doctor, but you don't need to be sorry. I've read all the reports that were submitted. Those that aren't level one classified anyway. I've only got level three clearance until I am no longer a junior level Private. The reports that I've seen pretty much say that we'd all be dead if it was not for you and that there was some kind of dalek experiment that turned people into dust."

"I'm… still sorry… about your… brother."

"Me too," Private Coates advised. "But, that is why I joined UNIT. When they started to recruit people under 25 because of all the losses they had during that same series of events."

"How old are you?"

"I'm 20," Private Coates advised. "When I am 21 I will be able to undertake the full entrance exams and become a full Private and then look at further advancement and specialisation. I can only do training and base work until then."

"So… you joined to… avenge your… brother?"

"No," Private Coates shook his head. "I see no benefit to that. It would not bring him back. I want to specialise and become an intelligence and communications officer. That is my intention anyway. Maybe if we took the time to learn more about the races we come across and try to talk to them things would be better? Maybe if UNIT had been better at that then less people would have died and there might have been a peaceful resolution."

"Not… with… daleks," the Doctor advised. "But… communication… it's a… good place… to… start." He grimaced and gasped, squeezing his eyes closed.

"Are you sure there isn't anything I can do?"

"Aarrgh… God?"

"Doctor?"

"Ethan…" the Doctor moaned. "…leg?" The gate dropped and the Doctor cried out as the crowd all cheered and rose to their feet shouting and waving their banners as the rodeo on his leg began in earnest. The cowboy dug his heels in and he clung on, spinning and bucking and twisting.

"I'll get Doctor Jones." Private Coates left the room, but the Doctor didn't answer him. The bucking got too ferocious. The crowd gasped and their banners all remained still, the only movement came from the wind and the stallion bucking and galloping around the arena as the clowns tried to keep him away from the thrown cowboy who laid face down and unmoving in the sawdust.

"Doctor Jones?" Private Coates knocked on the common room door. "I am sorry to disturb you, ma'am, but the Doctor seems to be in too much pain?" Private Coates hoped he wasn't going to get into trouble for talking to the Time Lord. They'd all been warned that there was a level four quarantine in place and that anyone found bothering and disturbing their guest would be disciplined.

"Come on, Private, you can take me to the TARDIS and we can get his drugs." Jack snapped back into action. He'd been horrified by what the Doctor had been through when his leg was stuck in the ladder. He was going to make sure he could stay as long as was needed and that he'd provide the Doctor with as much help and support as he could and as much as the Doctor would let him give.

It was one thing to see a photo and the X-rays, but to see the video of the Doctor falling and then having to free himself from the ladder and drop onto the floor with his leg literally flopping mid-shin? For Jack it was not the medical inside that Martha wanted from it, it was simply heart breaking.

Martha went into the Doctor and found him passed out with the pain for a second time. His breathing was okay. He needed to calm down and to rest. She worried that unconsciousness was going to be the only respite he got, especially if the drugs Jack was fetching did not work well They were a muscle relaxant and would assist in some senses, but they may not fully alleviate the neurological pain; only minimise the effects if the damaged nerves were causing muscular gentle contractions within the cast that stressed his injuries.