Sorry it took me a while to update, I had to re-watch parts of New Earth and Rose to get the correct details/dialogue.


Chapter 12 – The Remedy

The Doctor sat in the One Room, gazing at the Gallifreyan Citadel and imagining it to be populated with thousands of Time Lords and Ladies, not a computer generated hologram designed by his own hand.


The Doctor had fallen asleep, his head surrounded by blades of red grass, dreaming of a very much-alive Rose, when suddenly he felt the TARDIS telling him that Rose's scans were complete. He leapt up and took off for the Med Bay, grabbing his socks and boots and throwing them on.

He entered the room and saw Jack standing by Rose's side with a grave look on his face. Moving to the screen, his hearts leapt into his throat.

"Results inconclusive, please seek outside medical advisory."

"Damn it!" The Doctor shouted, slamming his hand forcefully on the screen. "You are a medical advisory, I'm the Doctor, tell me what's wrong with her!" He went to slam it again but Jack stopped him.

"Doctor, stop! Getting angry's not gonna help her. Why can't we take her to an alien hospital, ones that are designed for things like this?" The Doctor stopped. The thought had never occurred to him. Without a word he took off for the TARDIS console room, Jack close behind on his heels.


"I hate hospitals." The Doctor muttered as they entered the front lobby, the glass doors sliding shut behind them.

"Funny to hear that coming from you." Jack replied as a cat nurse wheeled out a stretcher for the Doctor to place Rose on.

"They give me the creeps." The Doctor whispered. "Especially this one." He looked around warily.

"Doesn't matter." Jack replied as they took her away to be examined. "Surely these cat nuns can find what's wrong with Rose."

"Hopefully."


The Doctor stood looking out the window at the flying cars soaring by on the planet of New Earth.

"Wish Rose could see this. Complete opposite of where I took her on our first trip." He frowned, remembering his selfish reasoning behind letting Rose watch the Earth burn, just like Gallifrey had. He held so much pain in his heart back then, and he wanted her to feel a small portion of what he had gone through. He even thought that her puny brain couldn't process one iota of what had happened to him. Boy was he wrong. Not only did she understand, in her beautiful way she made him who he was today: a much better, kinder Time Lord than he had ever been before the Time War.

Taking her to Platform One was a cruel and selfish thing to do. The only good that came out of it was their 'first date' with chips that followed soon afterward.

"Chips it is and you can pay."

"No money!"

"What sort of date are you? Well come on then tightwad, chips are on me. Only got five billion years until the shops close."

But he still wished he hadn't put her through that. He remembered her depressed expression as they left Platform One. Her empty eyes as she looked up into the blue sky in her time.

"You think it will last forever. People, cars and concrete. But it won't. One day it's all gone. Even the sky. My planet's gone."

Thankfully his thoughts were interrupted by footsteps behind him. Jack placed a hand on the Doctor's shoulder and whispered secretly in his ear.

"Doctor, something's not right here. See that man over there?" He gestured to a rather large man on the other side of the room, sitting on one of the medical beds, and holding a glass in celebration, his ginormous face lost in a wide grin.

"Yeah?" The Doctor whispered back.

"He had petrifold regression this morning."

"But he looks fine to me."

"Exactly. Should have taken months of medication which still wouldn't stop him from turning into a statue in the end." The Doctor furrowed his eyebrows.

"You're right." He agreed. "Their means of medicine is way beyond its' time." He shook his head. "But we'll have to investigate later. Our priority right now is Rose Tyler."

"Have they let you see her yet?" He raised his voice to a normal level.

"No, still doing tests."

"Well, I don't know about you, but I just can't stand here the whole time worrying about her." He lowered his voice to a whisper again. "I'm gonna go around and ask some more of the patients about their treatments, maybe get a nurse to show me what's in that solution." He chucked and slapped the Doctor's shoulder. "Don't worry, I'll stay out of trouble." Without another word he disappeared, and the Doctor resumed his vigilant watch out the window, his thoughts never leaving his Rose, how they danced in the TARDIS, their "first date", both the one with chips and the one in Paris, and other fond memories.


Two hours later Jack burst into the room where Rose had been under examination. He found the Doctor rubbing his temples as he sat beside her, holding a piece of paper in his hand.

"Well, what's wrong with her?" He frowned. Had she grown even more pale and lifeless in two hours?

"They're not exactly sure, but for some reason it looks like her DNA is destabilizing. Her body can't handle it, it's slowly shutting down."

"How are they gonna stop it?"

"I don't know, but Nurse Faye said they've scrapped together a sort of remedy, that even if we get in time, only has a twenty percent chance of any sort of recovery."

"What's the remedy?" The Doctor handed him the piece of paper that Nurse Faye had given him.

"You've got to be kidding me!" His jaw dropped in disbelief. "Do you even know where to get half of these things?"

"My mind's been dwelling on it for a while now. It will take us a long time, most likely some danger, but we can do it, I can do it, for her."

"Then I'm in." The Doctor stood up and stroked Rose's cheek, whispering so Jack couldn't hear.

"I'll save you Rose. Just don't leave me." He turned to Jack, a determined look on his face. Jack nodded once at him and they took off for the TARDIS.


"What's the first item on the list Jack?" The Doctor ran up to the console while Jack shut the door, grabbing the list the Doctor had given him earlier from his pocket.

"Something called 'Jintonium'. What is that anyway?" The Doctor's face hardened.

"It's the chief element in Dalekanium."

"Dalekanium? As in Dalek? Why on Earth does Rose need that and where are we gonna get it?"

"It will help protect her body from viruses she might get when...if she started recovering." He stopped talking for a moment, his hands flying over the controls. "Before you met us," He continued. "I took Rose to an underground alien museum where the TARDIS had received a distress signal. It was a lone Dalek, one that had fallen, the supposed last survivor of the Time War."

"But it wasn't." Jack said gravely, remembering when the three of them were up against a whole Dalek fleet, before the Bad Wolf destroyed them all. "What happened to the Dalek?"

"Rose did." The Doctor chuckled ironically. "In her own beautiful way, she accidentally used her DNA to physically change the Dalek. It chose death over becoming like her."

"And how does that help us?"

"We need to find a trace, any trace of Jintonium left in Van Statten's museum. It's a rare element that we could probably get somewhere else, but this is the quickest and surest way."

"Henry Van Statten's museum? I've heard of him, billionaire alien junk collector who suddenly disappears and his underground museum's top floor filled with cement. How are we going to get in?" The Doctor raised his eyebrows at him, his finger tapping the console.

"Oh yeah. The TARDIS, duh."


After the TARDIS had landed, the Doctor reached under the console and tossed an oxygen mask to Jack.

"The place has been holed up without air for years, or months, if I got my landing correct." He explained, putting his own mask on.

But as the Doctor opened the doors, they stepped out in shock. Jack ripped off his mask and the Doctor did the same.

They were under a cloudy gray sky standing on a heap of rubble that was once Van Statten's beloved museum. They turned at a sound behind them.

"IT IS THE DOCTOR, IT IS THE DOCTOR! EXTERMINATE EXTERMINATE EXTERMINATE!"


Yes I am aware I am making up my own elements. BITE ME. ;)

Next: Our favorite heroes are in a pickle...DUH! ;D