Author's Note: We've got about 10 more pages before the end of Part I (roughly 5,000 words).
By the way, I can now say that I have officially written the "yet" from a few sections ago. So look for that in upcoming stories.
Marianna felt her entire world freeze. Penelope had said that the Doctor had a twisted psyche, but was it so messed up that Riley's "reconciliation" speech had actually made the Doctor depressed enough to commit suicide?
"How?" she asked. "When? What… what happened?"
"Just now," the soldier informed her. "Just lay down like it was going to sleep, and next thing we knew, all vital signs went to zero."
Marianna took a few deep breaths, trying to calm herself. What would Professor Walsh do in this sort of situation? She'd look at the entire thing logically, not bogged down by emotion. It was obvious what had happened, wasn't it? This was a response to the news that Buffy was fine, that his friend was out of danger. The Doctor had been nearly killing himself to save her life. The moment he learned she was no longer in danger, the Doctor would have just given up. Let himself actually die.
The Doctor had killed himself for Buffy Summers. The girl who thought he'd abandoned her when she needed him most. The girl who thought he was a 'lying piece of filth'.
Colonel Haviland stepped out of the secure area, and Marianna noticed that the soldiers wouldn't look at him. They were blaming him, she guessed — of course they were. None of them wanted to take things as far as they did.
The amazing thing was that Colonel Haviland wasn't shouting or raging on about the project or the higher ups in Washington. He just strode, silently, out of the enclosed area, tension radiating through his body, his face a carefully blank mask.
"Ooh, now there's someone who's feeling guilty," said Penelope.
Marianna spun around. She couldn't do anything for the Doctor, now. But there was one person the Doctor loved enough that he'd been willing to die to help her, and Marianna was damned well going to make sure Buffy Summers knew about it.
But there was someone that Marianna wanted to make sure felt guilty about this, first.
"You killed him," Marianna told Finn, the moment she found him.
Finn looked up at her, confused. "Huh?"
"The Doctor," said Marianna, "is dead. And I'm telling your girlfriend exactly who it was that convinced him to give up and die."
Not that Buffy would be Finn's girlfriend much longer after that happened, Marianna suspected.
Finn jumped up. "Wait, wait," he said. "What… what does he… what's he…" Finn blinked, trying to organize his thoughts. "His skin. Is it cold?"
Marianna sighed, as she nodded.
Finn's eyes met Marianna's. "He's not dead."
Great. She had to deal with denial on top of everything else. "There aren't any vital signs," she explained. "His skin's cold. He's not breathing. He's dead."
"That's not what… I mean, he doesn't… it's just…" Finn shifted nervously, looking around the room. Then he darted out the door.
Marianna raced after him.
Finn caught up with Green and his team just as they were wheeling the Doctor into the Pit for an autopsy. Finn rushed down the stairs, jumping them two at a time, and ran over to the Doctor's lifeless corpse.
"Wait!" Finn shouted. "He's not dead!"
"Stand aside, Agent Finn," said Green.
Finn grabbed the Doctor's wrist and waited a very long moment. Then his eyes lit up. "There! A pulse! I knew it!"
"That's preposterous," said one of the scientists on Green's team. "That sort of heart-rate would never be enough to sustain life."
Finn handed the wrist to the scientist, a determined gleam in his eye. The scientist reluctantly took it, clearly expecting to find nothing. After a few seconds, he shook his head at Finn.
"You were imagining it," said the scientist. "There's no…" The scientist's eyes widened, and he stared back at the Doctor.
The next few minutes were a blur of activity and motion, as Green's team set up monitors and machines, trying to read the vital signs more accurately.
Marianna had never been so relieved to hear the very slow, very faint pulse on the heart monitor than she was, now.
The Doctor was still unconscious, still in bad shape, but… Finn had been right. He was alive. And Marianna wondered… is this not how the Doctor's species dies? Is there something else that happens, something which causes the Doctor's skin to grow warm instead of cool — some sort of self-incineration, perhaps?
If it was Professor Walsh, she would have pried further. If it was Professor Walsh, she would have investigated exactly what happened when the Doctor was near death. And Marianna wanted to be like Professor Walsh. So very, very badly.
Which is why Marianna wasn't sure why she let the subject drop entirely.
"It's weird, isn't it?" Penelope remarked.
They were watching the Doctor in the Pit, as Green's team tried to figure out how to restore him to full consciousness.
"What?" asked Marianna.
"This," said Penelope, gesturing at all the people who'd also gathered around the railing surrounding the Pit, all looking in at the unconscious patient. "I mean, I can understand gawkers, but there isn't anything exciting below to gawk at."
"Why'd you come, then?" asked Marianna.
"Curiosity," said Penelope. "People watching. That sort of thing." She considered the crowd of people around the railings. "Mostly soldiers, it looks like. And only the ones that Hostile 29 has met. Perhaps some sort of compensation for their own sense of guilt and moral unease."
Marianna peered around. She noticed that Finn was nowhere to be found.
"I'm surprised you're not down there helping stabilize the creature," Penelope added.
"I don't know anything about his biology," said Marianna. "Green's the expert in that."
Penelope nodded, a smile creeping up her face. "Oh, so that's why you've been staying put all this time. You're double checking to make sure Green doesn't hurt the creature."
Marianna didn't answer.
"You really are fond of it," said Penelope. "I've never seen you this worked up about even the humans you work with, let alone the HSTs."
"Colonel Haviland wants him alive," said Marianna. "I'm just helping the project."
Penelope raised an eyebrow. "Colonel Haviland may want Hostile 29 alive," she said, "but you want it happy."
Marianna said nothing for a long moment. "I'm just using him as a database of information," she muttered, at last. "To help with my research. That's all."
Penelope gave a laugh. "Sure you are."
They stood a moment, in silence, just staring down at the proceedings below. At all the white lab coats scurrying around, taking readings and checking vital signs and making sure the Doctor was stable. The clonk of boots, as Colonel Haviland stepped down the stairs into the Pit, his eyes fixed on the unconscious Doctor. He then turned to Green, and the two began conversing in hushed tones.
"That's the body language of a man who's feeling nothing but sheer relief," Penelope said. "And a massive amount of guilt."
Marianna didn't see any of that. To her, Haviland looked just as rigid and soldier-like as he had before.
"He installed a chalk board along the back wall of Hostile 29's cell, you know," said Penelope.
Marianna snapped her head over to Penelope. "What?"
"Yeah," said Penelope. "I told you. I'm here because of curiosity. I dunno if it's biological, or psychological, or what, but every person Hostile 29 comes into contact with winds up acting… weird."
"That's ridiculous," said Marianna, turning back to the Pit.
"Soldiers don't disobey orders," said Penelope. "And Colonels don't give presents to the Hostile Sub Terrestrials they're supposed to be punishing. And then, of course, there's you…"
"Me?" said Marianna. "Nothing's happened to me."
"Anne tells me she caught you trying to reason with an HST," said Penelope. "Giving it a choice."
"And it made the wrong one, so I implanted the chip in its brain," said Marianna.
Penelope rolled her eyes. "Marianna, you talked to it. You talked to an HST. And then you listened to its answer."
Marianna felt her blood run cold. She had, hadn't she? She hadn't even thought about it at the time, but… she'd been going against her training. Interacting with the HSTs as if they were people. As if they were human.
"You listen to them," Marianna pointed out.
"That's my job," said Penelope. "And I don't talk to them."
"It won't happen again," said Marianna. "I promise."
Penelope shrugged. She stared down at the unconscious Doctor. "As I said. Curious."
"Green hasn't changed," said Marianna. "And Green's had the most contact with Hostile 29."
"Julie would disagree on that," said Penelope. "You ask Julie, Green's gotten worse and worse since Hostile 29 showed up." Her eyes snapped over to the right. "Wait. Is that Julie?"
Marianna glanced over, and thought she could see the rapidly departing figure of Julie Parsoner, rushing away from the railing surrounding the Pit. Marianna wondered how long Julie had been watching, and why.
"See?" said Penelope. "Told you. People changing. Scientists and soldiers acting oddly. Makes you think."