A/N: Saga continuum... :D

Chapter 11 - The Gift of Mime

"I don't know why he's still here, sir!" Martha snapped at General Spitz in his office two days later, pointing directly at Stein. "He was in a restricted area beyond his permissions!"

"If I hadn't your alien would have been shot," Stein pointed out coolly, still smiling that emotionless smile.

"That's beside the point!" Martha exclaimed. "You weren't allowed in there!"

"I'm afraid we do have to consider the fact that Doctor Stein's presence was perhaps a contributor to…" Spitz began, but was quickly cut off.

"Sure, because cowering in the corner really helped, didn't it!?" Martha shouted, furious.

"It was a plan to buy time," Stein insisted.

"Bollocks it was!"

Spitz quickly held up his hand. "Doctor Jones, there's no need for swearing. I'll gently remind you that the contract with the army is still in place."

"It shouldn't be, sir!" Martha responded, still shouting. "They hurt him, we've had to clean up the mess!"

"And not doing a very good job of it," Stein muttered.

Martha's jaw dropped. "Just… Just what are you suggesting!?" she stammered in disbelief.

"Well, it looks pretty dead at the moment."

"He's in a healing coma!"

Stein snorted with laughter. "Oh yes, the fabled healing coma."

"It's real!" Martha insisted, very much aware of how much like a whiny child she was beginning to sound but completely unable to control it.

"Funny how all those files you looked at have just disappeared, hmm?"

Martha's eyes narrowed. "Yeah, Doctor Stein, funny."

Stein clearly picked up on her insinuation. "Meaning?"

"I wouldn't put it past you."

Stein snorted a laugh again, looking at Spitz. "Now she's accusing me of theft!"

"Silence!" Spitz demanded, suddenly taking authority. "This has gone far enough. Doctor Jones, you will cease this vendetta with Doctor Stein. He is here on contract and-"

"But..."

"-And he will remain here. Security has already been trebled on the Doctor's room and I will give you my personal assurance that Stein will not step foot into the Doctor's room without your expressed permission. Stein?" he prompted.

Stein huffed a little. "I agree," he eventually reluctantly murmured.

"He's lying!" Martha found herself shouting. She had now gone beyond whiny child and had transgressed into a fully formed tantrum, and she was embracing it.

Stein made to speak, but Spitz quickly held up a hand to silence him, before gesturing for Stein to leave. Stein looked a little disappointed, but eventually left as ordered.

Martha looked at Spitz, who was by now quite riled.

"Doctor Jones, your conduct is unprofessional," Spitz told her firmly. "I'm sorry, but to avoid any more outside involvement Stein must be included."

"He'll hurt the Doctor!"

"He hasn't so far," Spitzx reminded her. "I don't like this either but if he is barred then the army will suspect foul play and send in their armed guard. We could potentially end up in a shootout. Tolerate him, Doctor Jones, for the greater good. You wouldn't be doing the Doctor any favours by having dozens of men lay down their lives for him and potentially ripping the British military establishment in two."

"Yessir," Martha said through gritted teeth.

"Dismissed."

"That sounded like it went well," Jack muttered sarcastically as Martha stepped out of the door, her fists still clenched.

Martha just sighed, loosening her fists and pushing back her hair. "What have you got?"

"Donna swore blind that his arm moved, but then she admitted it could've been because she sneezed and accidentally pushed it," Jack told her, deadpan. "Otherwise, nothing to report."

"I'm sick of this, Jack," Martha moaned.

"I know."

"He needs to be back how he used to be, or at least, strong enough to get to the Tardis, then he won't have all these stupid humans all over him."

"I hope you're not including yourself in that."

"Maybe I am."

"Martha," Jack said, suddenly stopping to grab her arms. "You're doing good. I swear."

Martha completely ignored him. "I don't even know if this is a healing coma. He could just be lying there dead and all I heard were vibrations and a malfunctioning monitor."

"Martha," Jack said again firmly. "If you lose your nerve then we get Stein for his primary care. So do your job."

Martha blanched at Jack's quite callous words. "Pardon?"

"I'm not letting that idiot anywhere near the Doctor whether he's alive or not, and you shouldn't be handing him the keys. Straighten up. You saved the world, Martha Jones, don't stop now."

The Doctor woke up. It wasn't nice waking up these days.

He opened his eyes, which took a fair amount of energy to do, and found himself lying in a semi-lit hospital room. But it wasn't one he'd woken up in before. This one was different. His vision was blurry and clouded and he was still in quite a lot of pain, but it wasn't as much as before.

That's good. Isn't that good?

Unless all of his limbs had been amputated…

Trying not to rationalise that into a real possibility he looked to his right with just his eyes, seeing Donna Noble curled up on a sofa under a blanket, fast asleep. So it was her voice he'd been hearing. He'd been drifting in and out of consciousness for a while before he'd finally managed to get into a healing coma, but someone had been talking to him. Had it been her?

Donna? He hasn't seen her since Christmas, when she'd refused to travel with him.

How did she get here?

Okay, so he had a lot of questions and he was really far too tired to start thinking of any answers. He tried to look down at himself as he was becoming increasingly paranoid that he'd been amputated, but quickly realised that his neck was in some kind of collar, preventing any movement. This led him to try and get up, but was quickly forced to stop when agony shot right through him and instinctively he cried out in pain.

Donna said something to his right, and he managed to look to her again. Clearly he'd just woken her up. But he was too tired to care. He needed to counter his energy deficit.

He tried to make a noise, but his voice was too tired to let out anything but a moan.

She moved to him, looking concerned. He forced his hand to clench slightly, and focused every bit of energy into lifting it to his mouth to signify food. It must have been the worst mime ever but she seemed to get it, gesturing to her own mouth in an eating motion. He managed a weak thumbs up, and she rushed out of the door.

Donna ran down the corridor as fast as she could, wondering where exactly she was going to get any food at 2am.

She turned a corner at full speed and nearly crashed into Martha coming the other way.

"What's going on?" Martha said quickly, wide-eyed.

"He's awake, he's hungry!" Donna gasped, and ran on.

She hit the staff room, and stopped.

Sorry, greater good.

She dived inside - luckily it was empty. She went to the fridge and pulled out a pack of yoghurts, spotted some bananas on the counter, and quickly decided his meal.

She grabbed a bowl and a spoon, and proceeded to smash the bananas up into a messy pulp. She then mixed them with the yoghurt as well as she could, and ran with the bowl back out of the staff room.

She'd apologise to whoever's meal it was later.

When she got back to the room Martha was in there, talking softly to the Time Lord. Not that he seemed to be responding. Donna quickly went to the head of the bed, holding up the bowl to Martha.

"Is it okay to give him?" she asked.

"What is it?"

"Bananas and yoghurt."

Martha stared for a moment. "... That was mine!"

"Sorry," Donna said seriously, and indicated the bowl again. "Well?"

Martha nodded, obviously deciding not to get too annoyed about it. Donna took a seat on the bed beside the Doctor, who immediately opened his eyes again, just to slits. Donna indicated what she was holding. He tried to reach up to take the spoon, but it was clear he was far too weak and he could barely even lift his arm.

Martha took the bowl and spoon, and fed him as though he were a toddler. A very unenergetic toddler.

Donna wasn't sure she liked that.

She remember him as running around - up and down corridors whilst talking his mouth off. Not like this.

Never like this.

When it was all gone the Doctor just closed his eyes again, and slipped back out of consciousness.

The Doctor woke up again. This time things were much clear.

He opened his eyes and saw Donna again. Obviously she was the one on watch.

"Donna," he moaned.

Immediately she said something he couldn't understand.

"Donna, talk slower," he begged.

She just looked at him, clearly confused. She obviously couldn't understand him.

Now he was getting worried. Why wasn't she speaking the right language? Unless of course… he was speaking the wrong one.

"I can't understand you," he stressed, before realising that telling her he couldn't understand her in a language she didn't seem to understand was slightly unproductive. Regardless, she said something else, and reached over his head to something. Immediately there was a shrill beeping from next to him, which sent waves of pain cascading through his persistent and already quite severe headache.

Donna gasped as the Doctor flinched quite horrendously at the loud alarm.

"Sorry!" she said seriously, taking his hand carefully just as Jack rushed in, out of breath.

"Martha's coming, use the automatic de…"

Jack trailed off as he obviously realised what had happened. He dived to the Doctor immediately, hand on the thick bandages wrapped around his head as he gazed into the Time Lord's eyes.

"Hello," he said, and kissed the bridge of the Time Lord's nose. "How are you?"

"I think he'd feel a lot better with that alarm off," Donna admitted, a bit guilty, as it was obviously causing the Doctor quite a lot of pain.

"Oh, sorry," Jack muttered, and quickly got rid of the alarm. Immediately the Doctor relaxed, and his eyes refocused on Jack.

"Kinok," the Time Lord muttered. At least, that was what Donna managed to catch through a tangle of syllables which seemed impossible for her to even begin pronouncing.

"Now in English?" Jack wondered.

The Doctor stared at him blankly.

"He's been talking like that since he woke up," Donna said as Martha rushed into the room.

"What's happening, is he…" She stopped at the sight of him awake. "Doctor!"

"Jarbai!" the Doctor replied, looking at her with wide eyes.

Martha frowned. "What did he say?" she asked, looking at Donna.

"How would I know?" Donna asked seriously.

Martha moved forward to the Doctor. She was obviously apprehensive.

"Martha, there's an alien race about to invade your planet, you need to get to the Shadow Proclamation somehow and get…"

The Doctor trailed off, knowing there was absolutely no point in continuing.

He seemed very agitated. Martha just took Jack's place, resting a hand on his cheek.

"It's okay, calm down, you're safe," Martha assured him. He obviously had no idea what she was saying, but she was hoping the tone of her voice, like before, would comfort him.

"Jarbai," the Doctor said again quickly, tensed.

"No one's gonna hurt you, I promise. You're in Unit and you're safe," Martha continued in her dulcet tones. "You're out of that place. I'll get you some morphine to help with the pain and you can just relax and get better."

"You think he's traumatised?" Jack wondered, looking at the Doctor as he continued to stared fixatedly at Martha.

She nodded. "We don't know when he woke up in the Royal Hope, they could've been in the middle of the vivisection for all we know," she said as she moved to prepare some morphine. "That's going to traumatise anyone."

Donna frowned. "Even him?"

"He's been in perpetual state of agony for weeks, every time he's woken up he's been vulnerable, in pain and exploited. I'd be surprised if he isn't," Martha said, and went back to the Doctor. She carefully attached him to the morphine drip and gave him an immediate dose. "There you go, that'll help."

The Doctor had guessed that Martha was obviously giving him some sort of painkiller, which he did appreciate, but he was sure she was doing it for all the wrong reasons. By the caring, loving expressions on their collective faces - even Donna was smiling gently at him in a strangely patronising way - he could tell that they were really making an effort to try and put him at his ease. That could only mean they thought he was stressed.

Oh yeah, he was most definitely stressed.

"Martha, pleased stop giving me drugs and understand me…"

She said something back in that smooth tone of voice.

"Oh, what's the point," he moaned, and looked at Donna. "Come on, Donna. Think about it!"

"He's not calming down," Donna noted, watching as he tried to struggle against Martha's comforting hold.

"He must be terrified," Martha reasoned, gently cupping the Doctor's cheek again. "It's okay. You're okay. I promise you're okay. No more pain."

"Naqu, manai'ei!" the Doctor said desperately. "Klayya!"

"Is that just gobbledegook?" Donna asked seriously, looking at Jack.

"It sounds structured," Jack reasoned. "It must be another language."

"Good point," Martha suddenly said, nodding. "Get the translation software, Jack."

Jack left quickly, leaving Martha still holding him caringly and Donna to ponder for a moment.

"I don't think he's traumatised," Donna finally said out loud.

"Of course he is," Martha responded, hugging the Time Lord gently. "Look at him, he's terrified."

Donna did look at him. He was now just sitting there reluctantly in Martha's hug, gazing straight at Donna. He clearly didn't want to be hugged right now from the grumpy expression on his face.

"I'd say he was more kinda annoyed," Donna said seriously.

"Trust me," Martha said still hugging him. "I've seen reactions like this all over from abduction and torture victims. He's scared and in new surroundings. He probably can't even remember what happened to him. He needs lots of TLC."

Donna watched as Martha gave him another shot of morphine. Over Martha's shoulder, the Doctor rolled his eyes clearly at Donna.

"Bet you a tenner he's annoyed," Donna said seriously.

Martha finally turned, considering her statement properly. "Why do you say that?"

"Cos he just rolled his eyes at me."

Martha paused, looking back at him. "... Oh," she eventually said as Jack came back, holding the translator. Martha took it, quickly programming it. She then held it up to the Doctor, and gestured for him to speak.

The Doctor figured it was a translator, and he was already pretty sure it wasn't going to translate anything he said. He was also pretty sure they knew that too, but he spoke anyway.

"Your planet is about to be invaded by giant snakes and you seriously need to start preparing."

Martha stared intently at the translation, then shook her head. She then said something to the others, and instead pulled out a pen and a notepad. She gave them to him.

He wrote, slightly jaggedly with his mending fingers but most definitely legibly:

YOU ARE ALL GOING TO DIE.

Then handed it back.

"What is that?" Donna wondered, looking at the strange markings.

"They look like the symbols on the Tardis monitor," Martha mused.

"He must be speaking Gallifreyan, then," Jack reasoned.

"What?" Donna asked.

"Gallifrey, his home planet. Gallifreyan is his native tongue."

"Oh yeah. But it's gone, isn't it?" Donna said, suddenly hit with a flashback from something the Doctor had said to the giant spider at Christmas.

Jack nodded.

"So there's no one who can speak his language," Donna concluded.

Jack shook his head.

"That's so sad," she said quietly, gazing at the Doctor who was still trying to talk to them. He was still quite desperate. "Hold on," Donna suddenly said, having a bullet of an idea.

The Doctor couldn't help but stare at Donna as she suddenly stepped forward, and began to make a series of strange gestures. She was miming.

You.

Speak.

Me.

"You speak me?" he said out loud, his brow furrowed. "You want me to speak to you? I can't, by the way."

Not, not speak.

Mime.

She wanted him to mime.

"I can't mime that you're about to be invaded," he said seriously.

She continued to urge him to mime.

"I can't mime it! This isn't a miming thing!"

Mime.

"Oh for… okay," he said, and pointed at the three of them. "Your." He gestured around the room. "Planet." He indicated a gun. "Dead." He pointed at them. "You." He gestured looking for something. "Find." He gestured as if opening a scripture. "Proclamation."

One-handed lethargic charades wasn't fun.

All three humans watched in wrapped silence as the Doctor did his mime. When it was finished, Martha and Jack both looked at Donna, who nodded assertively.

"He wants to turn off the hospital radio and read a book," she concluded.

Martha and Jack both looked at each other.

"You sure?" Jack asked.

"Positive," she said.

"There isn't a hospital radio," Martha said seriously.

"... Oh," Donna finally said, her brow furrowed. "Well, it was either that or he wants the room redecorated."

"This isn't working," Martha moaned, head in her hands. "Let's just get him something to eat and then I'll get him scanned."