A/N: Exams are over! And I probably failed all of them. Yay.
Chapter 12 – Unloved
Donna appeared in the Infirmary doorway mere seconds after Jack and Owen had carried the Doctor in. As they heaved him onto a bed she was already assuming authority, barking instructions and threats left, right and centre. Jack would've told her to be quiet had it not brought a smile to the Doctor's otherwise pain-wracked face.
Owen left as soon as he could but Jack hung around for a while, joining in the meaningless conversation with the Doctor and Donna until the former finally fell asleep from pure mental exhaustion. As Donna made sure he was comfortable Jack's mind once again flitted back to the small silver ball in his pocket. He turned to Donna.
"Donna, has anythin' happened to the Doctor recently? Like, did you get taken by an anti-alien organisation?"
Donna paused, thinking for a moment. "Well, couple of months ago we got locked up somewhere, they came in and took the Doctor. He disappeared for a bit, but he was back in a couple of hours. He said he'd escaped, and we managed to break out."
"Did he seem different?"
Donna frowned. "Err… no. Though when we got back to the TARDIS he did go to bed for a bit, which was a bit weird 'cause he doesn't do that often…"
"Do you remember the name of the organisation? Or someone in it?"
She shook her head. "No… Why?"
Jack paused, before shaking his head with a forced smile. "Nothin', just checkin'." But inside he was burning. Someone had been keeping an eye on the Doctor, tracking his movements wherever he went… and Jack was fairly certain it wasn't of good intention. He turned and left the two alone as he slowly burned inside, exiting the Infirmary before stopping himself just outside the closed door, attempting to calm down. He drew the silver ball out of his pocket and dropped it onto the TARDIS flooring. He stomped his foot onto it repeatedly, crushing the delicate device until he was sure it would never work again.
He picked up the pieces, dropped them in his pocket, and marched out of the TARDIS' double blue doors with a dark look in his eyes. He strolled out into the Torchwood base like a man on a mission, teeth gritted, jaw set.
However, he wasn't counting on finding ten grey-skinned, Hoover-nosed, bulbous black-eyed aliens with pinprick mouths staring right back at him, a weapon pointing directly at his head.
"You got what you wanted now leave us in peace!" he snapped rudely, far too agitated to care about getting shot through the head.
"You hurt child!" the one holding the weapon spoke, obviously angry.
"We never hurt your damn child!" Jack yelled back, fists clenched. He was well aware of the Torchwood crew gathered around the confrontation, watching in anticipation. "It hurt your designated surrogate!"
"Mutation!" the alien continued as one of its group stepped forward towards Jack, holding a still bundle in its arms. "Not of species!"
Jack frowned, calming down slightly. "It isn't of your species?"
"Mutation!" the alien repeated firmly. "Useless!"
"No one is ever useless."
The voice from the TARDIS doorway startled everyone, the aliens included. The Doctor walk slowly out of the doorway with one hand on his stitched-up stomach hidden by bandages, seemingly not caring that he was half naked. He was staggering slightly, but otherwise seemed deadly serious as he moved over to where Jack was standing, Donna in pursuit.
"You!" the alien hissed, eyes scowling. "Mutated child you!"
The Doctor folded his arms, scowling in return. "The only way my body could accept a foreign entity is by making it safe. By 'safe', I mean genetically compatible. In natural defence of the foreign body it would have started messing up the genes from the moment you put it in me until it became something my body could recognise and adapt to. Gallifreyan genes happen to be very dominant, you know."
The alien fumed, turning its weapon from Jack to the Doctor. The Doctor seemed unfazed.
"I can forgive you for what you did to me, but I don't think the Shadow Proclamation is going to like this. We already have a good relationship, me being the last of the Time Lords and all that, and they are not going to like this one bit. Using me as a surrogate to grow your own offspring against my will is a serious offence. Your entire species could pay for your crimes."
"Surrogates we need! No females!" the alien protested, suddenly seeming so feeble and weak compared to before. "Need children! No females!"
"Have you never heard the word 'please'?" Donna demanded suddenly. "You coulda asked him nicely if you could use him as a baby factory!" The Doctor blushed a deep red. "Or at least warned us! He almost died!"
"Look, I understand your problem," the Doctor said to the aliens, his voice growing weaker. "But there are other ways you can do this. You don't need to use other species as surrogates. You can use your own technology to…"
"Enough!" the alien suddenly demanded, desperation quickly turning to anger. "Your fault baby wrong! My daughter!"
"She's mine too," the Doctor said gently, staggering forward with his hand on his stomach, as if believing she was somehow still in there. "And I know that any father will love his daughter unconditionally, and would never call her 'wrong'. She can never be wrong."
"Hold on," Donna said, hand in the air as she interrupted again. "Does that make him the father and you the mother?" She gestured to the alien and the Doctor in turn. The Doctor ignored her.
"Not survive, she won't! Not strong! Too wrong!" It walked brusquely forward to the Doctor, weapon pressed to his bare chest. "Your fault! You hurt baby! You die now!"
Donna simply wasn't going to have this. She stepped forward and plucked the weapon straight out of the alien's grip, tossing it carelessly over to the Torchwood crowd. Gwen caught it, startled. "Right," Donna began, sliding herself in-between the unknown alien and the Doctor, both of whom were now looking very surprised. "I'm not takin' sides here, but he's right…" She jerked her thumb at the Doctor, then pointed at the alien in front of her. "… And you're wrong. I don't know just who you think you are but you can't just go around stickin' babies into innocent people; people who don't even know they're bein' used."
The alien looked a bit miffed at the telling off it was getting. "But…"
"Look, mate," she continued, resting a hand on the alien's shoulder. "We've all got problems! I could stand here all night arguin' with you about this but seriously, wouldn't it be easier if you just climbed back on that spaceship of yours, flew off back to Planet Zog and left us in peace? 'Cause nothing's gonna get solved by us all wavin' our guns about in other people's faces now, is it?"
The alien shook its head.
"We're sorry this didn't work out but there's always a next time, right? Just ask nicely and you might get what you want!"
The alien was nodding, understanding of her words. "We not need force? Just ask?"
Donna smiled proudly. "Yeah! You got the hang of it!"
The alien looked back at the Doctor, who by now was struggling to stay awake. "We sorry," it said. "No mean to be evil."
He smiled briefly, reaching out towards Jack as a warning, who obligingly supported him. "That's quite alright. I'll mend."
"Good bye, friends!" the alien said happily, giving a wave as it stepped into the transmat beam encasing the ten aliens. With a polite whoosh, they'd gone.
Silence took the room.
"… What the hell just happened?" Owen said blankly.
"I think… she just talked them out of it," Gwen said, eyes wide as she stared at Donna.
"If only the Sontarans were as understandin' as them," Donna mused.
"Donna," Jack said shortly, and she turned to see the Doctor since collapsed into his arms. She bustled over, checking his temperature with her hand on his forehead.
"Get him back to bed," she ordered and Jack nodded, turning with the Doctor in his arms to the TARDIS doorway. Suddenly there was another whooshing sound from behind them and Donna turned back to find the grey alien had returned, the bundle in its arms. It silently stepped forward, and held out the bundle.
"Take please," it said as Donna reached out and took the child from its grip. "Me not good father. He is." It pointed at the Doctor in Jack's arms, but another flash of guilt came at the sight of the unconscious Time Lord. "We sorry," it said again, stepping back from Donna before taking a courteous bow to the crowd. It disappeared with another loud whoosh.
No one moved for a moment, just staring at the bundle in Donna's arms, wondering if it was still alive. Silently Donna reached down to the blankets and pulled them back to reveal a very humanoid-looking baby with slightly off-coloured skin, her eyes closed as she lay still. Donna reached up to rest her hand on the child's bare chest, holding her breath. To her complete relief she could feel rhythmic thudding against her palm of a single tiny heart, beating for all it was worth.
She looked up at the crowd, and smiled. Instantly the air of tension in the room dissipated as they let out the breath they'd been holding. Donna readjusted the baby girl in her arms as Owen moved over, checking the child over himself with a doctor's eye. He suddenly frowned halfway through, before his eyes become wide.
"Has the Doctor got an incubator in the TARDIS?" Owen asked abruptly, taking the baby into his arms.
"Probably…" Jack said, already realising what Owen was implying. "Through here."
As Jack settled the Doctor into a nearby bed Owen was already linking up the baby to lots of different tubes within the nearest incubator. Truth be told he didn't have a clue what some of them did, but Jack had assured him the TARDIS would take care of that. Neither Donna nor Jack seemed to find addressing the ship as another person slightly weird, so Owen took it in his stride too.
As he finished Jack and Donna came up behind him to look at the baby sealed within the incubator. Owen explained the situation to the both of them in clear detail: the feeble heart, the small lungs, the weak immune system, the fragile bones, the low survival odds. He never liked giving false hope where it was not warranted, and this was no exception. He finished his prognosis, nodded to Jack and Donna each in turn, quickly checked the Doctor, and then left the TARDIS.
"She's not gonna survive, right?" Donna asked quietly for confirmation, not even needing to look at Jack as they both stared at the unmoving child in the glass tank, drowned in life support. Jack shook his head, almost imperceptibly.
"Her body's too weak," he muttered. "She won't be alive tomorrow mornin'. She's on borrowed time…"
Silence fell on the both of them once more, and soon only the sounds of the Doctor's breathing filled the Infirmary air.