CHAPTER 11

OK well I have managed to update this earlier than I thought, hope you guys are still enjoying what I write and please keep the REVIEWS coming I love to hear what you guys think!

As the Doctor closed Jack's bedroom door behind them he paused for a moment as he heard the young man whistle cheerily from within. Totally back to his old self now Jack had managed to re-establish his defences, re-assert that cheery disposition that he liked to give the impression of, to make it appear to everyone that everything was OK even when it was not… but how long would that last now the Doctor wondered despondently.

"Doctor?" he heard Rose ask as he turned to see her looking at him, tears welling up in her eyes as the implications of what she had just seen began to dawn on her. She did not have to pretend anymore, force a laugh and a grin for Jack's sake, for now he lay resting, blissfully unaware of her torment behind closed doors and she was finding it impossible to hold herself together for much longer. The Doctor looked to Jackie sympathetically, a comforting arm wrapped warmly around her daughter's quivering shoulders and was surprised to see the tell tale lines of concern decorating her face also – he turned away abruptly unable to bear it any longer.

"Follow me," he whispered without looking back.

"Where are we going Doctor?" Jackie asked tensely, refusing to move as the Doctor took off down the corridor, her daughter pulling away from her in pursuit, but the Doctor just turned to look at her, his finger pressed tightly to his lip indicating that he did not want Jack to be disturbed before resuming his lead. At first Rose thought he may be leading them back to the kitchen where all three could find some comfort in the warmth of freshly TARDIS brewed tea, but to her surprise she found that the Doctor lead them on a different route back to the main control room. She could tell that he was anxious, the atmosphere felt almost explosive and Rose guessed that the TARDIS was picking up on the Time Lord's obvious frustration to as he made a beeline for the main control panel and started typing in instructions.

"What's happening to him Doctor?" Rose asked, screwing her face up painfully as tears of despair flowed freely down her pale cheeks.

"I don't know," the Doctor explained after a long pause, his own throat was burning now, the lump in his throat swelling as he himself had to force back his own tears in a bid to remain strong in front of Rose.

"What do you mean you don't know?" she pressed, "Can't you see he's changing?… That wasn't Jack just then… not really… not our Jack." She paused to take a moment to compose herself as hysteria threatened to overwhelm her before continuing, "I'm afraid we're losing him Doctor!"

"We are… in more ways than you could possibly know," the Doctor responded as dawning horror distorted Rose's young features, "his mind is changing Rose" he explained "but I don't know how, and I don't know why."

"But you can do something surely? You can do something to fix this?" She asked.

"No Rose I can't!" The Doctor snapped uncharacteristically at her, but he was tired of being the hero, tired of being the one to deal with everybody's problems, it only meant that the blow hit harder when he had to let people down… and this time the blow was almost catastrophic "I can't because loosing his mind is the least of Jack's problems… Rose I think he's dying!"

Rose froze, the gravity of the Doctor's words taking their toll immediately, "No… this whole thing began since he was given that injection at the hospital, it has to be something to do with that!"

"Rose this is down to something more than a simple dose of anaesthetic given at some poorly equipped earth hospital," the Doctor explained with passion in his voice, "something bigger is occurring here, much bigger, something billions of years in the future!"

"Hang on, how can that be?" Jackie interrupted, her confusion obvious in her voice, "how can something billions of years in the future possibly have any effect on the past when it has already occurred?"

"Because…" the Doctor emphasised "most people assume that time travels in a straight line, from one year to the next with no interactions, yet Rose," he said turning to her, "you of all people should know by now that this is not necessarily the case… sure time travels forwards and backwards but it also travels at varying angles, sideways and parallel as with parallel universes, it's not a simple concept to understand." He explained. "But the truth is that clones of people living in 2005 are turning up in the year 1952 as a result of something taking place billions of years in the future and Jack is now an innocent pawn in this whole business."