Degrees and the Doctor
Thanks for the reviews! Special thanks to hubert24601 who helped me with this chapter as it was incredibly hard to write! Hope you enjoy. There's either one or two chapters left in this story… and two days to do it in!
Disclaimer: Nothing you might recognise belongs to me
The Doctor and Rose immediately sprang into action after hearing the ominous beeping of their watches.
"Kall, Lavia, come with me. We need to get you to a safe place," instructed Rose, turning to her friends, "The beeping means that Jack's found something or needs help so we need to go,"
"What?" Jen cried, overhearing the conversation, "Why does he need help?"
"Because some aliens may have taken him hostage or something! It may be a false alarm but we really need to go," Rose explained impatiently, "C'mon, guys,"
"I'm coming with you," said Jen, firmly, "I want to know exactly what's going on, especially if my boyfriend is involved!"
Rose groaned mentally. When had Jen become so bossy? She supposed it was because Jack was involved. She knew that she'd move heaven and hell to get to the Doctor if he ever was in trouble.
"Alright, come with us but please hurry!"
She and Jen ran down the stairs in order to join Kall and Lavia who had congregated by the door.
"Rose," said the Doctor, seriously, catching her hand as she reached him. He had activated his hologram and had been studying it, intently. "Take them to the TARDIS, lock them in and then join me at Jack's room. That's where he is and then we can find out what's going on, OK?"
She nodded, determination overriding the fear in her eyes.
The Doctor reached out and caressed her cheek gently. "Take care, angel. We don't know who's on our side, remember that,"
"I will," she promised, "You be careful as well." She grinned at him, the adrenaline that she always got during an adventure pumping through her veins, before rejoining her friends and urging them on. They had to get to the TARDIS quickly.
They made the journey right across the university campus in record time. Along the way, Rose had briefly observed her friends. Jen was looking confused, Kall was worried but determined and Lavia looked scared. She was firmly holding onto the hand of her fiancé.
"This place is incredible," said Kall, once they had entered the TARDIS, "How's the inside bigger than the outside?"
"Time Lord trick," Rose briefly explained, her hand on the wall, asking the TARDIS to provide a suitable room. She'd never done it before but hoped it would work for her in this emergency.
"You mean Time Lords are real?" gasped Jen,
"Yeah. The Doctor is a Time Lord, just as I said. This is his time ship," answered Rose, smiling happily as a door appeared on the other side of the control room, "C'mon, I'll leave you in here."
She led the way inside and glanced around. The room was similar to a lounge with seats and methods of entertainment but it also contained a door which Rose assumed led to a bathroom, and a kitchen to get snacks from. It was the perfect place to have to wait in.
"What do you mean 'leave us in here'?" asked Jen, slowly,
"I've got to go and help the Doctor and Jack," Rose replied, "And it's safest for Lavia to stay in here. No-one, bar me, Jack and the Doctor can get in unless invited,"
"Am I missing something here?" Jen said, "Why do you need to help the Doctor? And why's it safer for Lavia to stay in here?"
Rose sighed and glanced over to Kall and Lavia, who both nodded. It appeared that it was time for them to lay out all their cards.
"There's something about me that you should know," she began, "I'm not actually a student here at all; I'm working undercover along with the Doctor and Jack."
Jen inhaled sharply. "What do you mean?"
"Look Jen, I don't have a lot of time so I'll just give you the basics but I promise that I'll explain in more detail later, OK?"
Her friend nodded.
"I travel with the Doctor and Jack around the universe and we got a message from the Principal of this university a few weeks ago. He asked us to come and work undercover because Lavia needed protecting as she's in the centre of an abduction plot. Now, it's possible that Jack's found out who the abductors are and needs help so I really need to go and help him…" She stopped and ran a hand through her hair. "I'm sorry for deceiving you but I had to…" She broke off again and glanced at her watch. Ten minutes had passed since they'd left the lecture theatre. "I need to go now but you'll be safe in here as long as you don't leave. I'll be back as soon as I can; just don'tleave, OK?"
Her three friends nodded, all of them pale in their own way. She nodded back, hoping that Kall and Lavia would explain more of their situation to Jen, and then turned on her heel and ran out of the TARDIS, brushing the console with her hand as she passed.
"Keep them safe, girl."
The Doctor cursed under his breath. He cursed himself, he cursed the alien standing in front of him with a sneer on his face and he cursed the day he'd received the plea for help from the University of Mars.
He turned to his right to see Jack sitting on a chair, looking a little out of it. He'd only just woken up from the drug induced sleep he'd been forced into.
"You alright?" the Doctor asked,
"Yeah," he mumbled back, stretching slightly, "Sorry,"
"Not your fault," replied the Time Lord, honestly knowing that it wasn't.
After Rose and her friends had left the lecture theatre, he had quickly dismissed the students, ignoring the questions of what was going on and the snide remarks that he really must be sleeping with that blonde slag (his insides seethed with rage) because he had taken her hand and stroked her cheek in public, before running to where Jack's quarters were. Once there, he had opted for stealth mode and quietly opened the door to find Jack fast asleep in an armchair.
"Jack," he whispered, going up to his friend and shaking his shoulder, "Wake up!"
The ex-Time Agent grunted in his sleep and moved his head slightly but didn't wake up.
OK, time to try another tactic…
"Jack. Jen's here and she's dying for a kiss…"
"Wha'?" mumbled Jack, sleepily opening his eyes, "Doctor, what's up?"
"You pressed your panic button," the Doctor nudged.
Suddenly Jack's eyes went wide. "Someone drugged me!" he exclaimed, "It must have been in my breakfast or somethin'. I suddenly felt all tired and recognised the symptoms so I pressed the button before I fainted."
The Doctor frowned. "Who would have drugged you?"
"That would have been me," said a voice.
Now, the Doctor glared at the person who had uttered those words- and who had also confiscated his sonic screwdriver, Jack's sonic blaster and locked the door so no-one could get in or out.
"Why are you doing this?" he demanded, "I thought you called us here to help you."
The Principal of the University of Mars, Philip Hilton smirked at him. "I have my reasons," he replied,
"Which are?"
"You're getting in the way of the plot to abduct little Lady Lavia Labeaut," he paused and smiled, "All L's- isn't that cute?"
"Not really," Jack snorted. Philip ignored him.
"You called us here to help protect Lavia from the plot," the Doctor stated, "Why do that if you're part of the faction who want to abduct her? It doesn't make any sense!" he ended in a frustrated shout,
"I have my reasons," Philip repeated, "Now, if you'll excuse me, I have some business to attend do. Don't go anywhere, I'll be right back!"
He sneered at the time travellers, spun around and stalked out of the door, locking it firmly behind him.
Jack stood up and kicked the chair in anger.
"Damn it!" he hissed, "Why didn't we see this coming? It should have been obvious after the interview with him yesterday."
The Doctor shrugged; his hands deep in his trouser pockets. "Hope Rose is OK,"
"Where is she?"
"She's taken Kall, Lavia and, for some reason, Jen, to the TARDIS to make sure Lavia is safe. I told her to come back here once she'd done that," he explained,
"She'll be fine," Jack said, "C'mon, let's think. How are we gonna get out of here?"
Rose jogged quietly down a corridor on her way to Jack's room. Her head was beginning to hurt from all the thoughts that were whizzing around it; predominantly was Jack alright and what was going on?
She turned a corner and stopped suddenly. There, in front of her with his ear pressed up against the door leading to Jack's quarters, was Jont.
Rose tiptoed forward, her face set in a frown, until she was right behind him.
"What are you doing?" she asked.
Jont jumped and spun around. "Shh!" he whispered, "What are you doing here?"
"Seeing Jack," Rose said carefully, beginning to become a little suspicious of the janitor, "Why are you listening outside the door? Oh my God, you're one of the abductors aren't you? And you've got Jack! Let him go!"
Jont looked confused for a second. "I haven't got Jack. Why would I have him?"
"I don't know!" Rose hissed, "You abductors would probably do anything to get your hands on Lavia! God, Jont, I never would have believed it of you! Are you working with Philip then? Trying to get your hands on Lavia? Well, I won't let you!"
Jont stood up and faced her. "I am not trying to abduct Lavia!" he stated firmly, "I am trying to protect her! But what's your role in all this, Rose? How do you know so much about the plot?"
Rose stared at him, desperately trying to work out if she could trust him. "What?" she finally mumbled.
Jont sighed and rummaged in his pocket. Rose tensed for a moment before relaxing as he pulled out a small card.
"Agent Jont Tallahan at your service," he said, smoothly, brandishing an ID card.
Rose took it with trembling fingers, checking that it wasn't psychic paper as the Doctor had taught her… Oh God, the Doctor! Where was he?
"Have you seen the Doctor?"
"He's in there with Jack and Philip," Jont said, folding his arms, "So go on, tell me what your role is in this plot? I've been suspicious of you and your friends for quite a while but I've checked your records at the university and they don't say anything."
Rose swallowed and glanced again at Jont's ID card. It looked real enough. Could she trust him?
"Do you promise that you're protecting Lavia and not conspiring against her?" she asked.
Jont nodded. "Hand on my heart; I swear I'm working for her. Her father, Lord Labeaut, sent me here last year, a year before Lavia's arrival at the university, in order to establish some protection for her that wasn't as obvious as arriving with her. That's Kall's job,"
"And mine and the Doctor and Jack's," Rose inputted quietly.
Jont's mouth opened.
"We got a message from Philip to come and protect Lavia by working undercover," Rose briefly explained, "But what I don't get is why he asked us to help if he's involved. Which he must be if he's got the Doctor and Jack in there…" She trailed off, her eyes wide.
"Rose, I think we need to work together," Jont said, "We need to find out what's going on."
Rose nodded. "Where do we start then?"
Jont thought. "Well, Philip is still in there so we can't rescue the Doctor and Jack right now… Is Lavia somewhere safe? She's our main priority,"
"She's in the TARDIS- which is our spaceship- with Kall and I told them to stay there. No-one can get in, don't worry."
Jont's shoulder's visibly sagged with relief. "Good, well, c'mon, I think we should start by searching Philip's office and we might find something useful out. Let's go!"
"Be as quick as you can, Rose," Jont whispered, approximately two minutes later after they had arrived at the Principal's office, "We don't know how much time we've got and be careful not to make a mess!"
Rose nodded and crept inside the door, leaving her accomplice outside, keeping guard. She wasn't entirely sure how much she could trust him, even if he did have a fancy card. She decided to just go along with it and hope that he was trustworthy. She didn't really have much of a choice as the Doctor and Jack were both trapped and her friends had to stay in the TARDIS for their own safety.
Rose scanned the room briefly. There was Philip's large desk in the centre of the room, with papers scattered all over the surface and in one corner of the room, there was what looked like two large filing cabinets. She decided that the desk looked most promising and quickly began to rifle through the papers, searching for anything that looked useful. She found many letters to do with business of the university and its students and other things but nothing to do with Lavia or the plot. Letting out a frustrated sigh, she dropped to her knees and began to rummage through the desk drawers. They were immaculately tidy and it was there that Rose found something of interest.
She pulled out several small round gadgets that looked very similar to smooth stones except with a ridge on the underneath and a crack along the top and were very light.
"Jont!" she hissed, moving swiftly to the door, "Do you know what these are?"
He looked at her oddly. "They're hologram messages. Surely you've seen them before?"
Rose shook her head. "Can we operate them?"
"Sure," Jont nodded, "Just press the ridge on the bottom and they start up." Suddenly he froze. "Someone's coming! C'mon, we need to get outta here!"
"OK," Rose said, "I'll just get the rest of them…" She dashed back into the room and pulled all the messages out. She counted at least seven of them before shoving them in her jeans pockets and closing the desk drawers. Then, she rejoined Jont and they sprinted the opposite way down the corridor to which the footsteps were coming from.
"Don't… don't think they saw us," Jont panted, when they eventually stopped several corridors away,
"Yeah," replied Rose, fiddling with one of the messages, "Hey, we're near my room. Let's go there and watch these and work out the next stage of our plan,"
"Good idea," nodded Jont, before following her down the corridor on their way to her room, where they were to discover some very nasty surprises.
"I think it's safe to say that we can't get out," said the Doctor, glaring at the door, "No sonic screwdriver, no sonic blaster, you've lost your key…"
"Had it nicked thanks!" snapped Jack,
"Alright!" the Doctor snapped back before rubbing his face with his hands in agitation. The situation was getting to both of them and he was desperately worried about Rose. "Sorry," he muttered,
"Me too," replied Jack, "Do you wanna give it one last try?"
"Yeah," he said, standing up.
The two men stood in front of the door, their shoulders angled towards it.
"On the count of three," the Doctor said, "One… two…"
"Wait!" Jack called out, "Listen."
They fell silent and listened as someone outside the door fiddled around with the lock. It audibly clicked open and the door slowly opened. The two men tensed before…
"Rose!" cried out the Doctor, thankfully.
His angel ran straight into his arms while Jont followed her in, grinning at Jack and slapping him on the back.
"Are you alright?" the Doctor asked, checking Rose over, "You're really pale,"
"We've found out something bad," she croaked, increasing her grip on him, "Me and Jont went to search Philip's office- oh, Jont is on our side. He's an agent from Piripi and he's been ordered by Lord Labeaut to keep an eye on Lavia,"
"She's well protected then," the Doctor grinned, "Me, you and Jack, Jont, Kall…"
"Not Kall," Rose interrupted, sadly,
"What do you mean?" asked Jack, who was listening in,
"Kall's involved in the plot to abduct her," Rose said, "And so is…" She sighed. "And so is Jen."
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