The next few days were subdue aboard the TARDIS as everyone worried about Steven. While he had made it through the surgery and survived the night, he remained in critical condition not showing any signs that he was going to pull through. He remained completely reliant on machines to keep him alive. Alice barely left his side except to eat and sleep. On Martha's urging, she would take short walks around the garden to stretch her legs for short periods and talking with Martha. They spoke about Steven and her life before everything changed for him. Even if she had never seen Steven before, she was coming to know the happy athletic boy that he had been. She just hoped that she could give that child back to his mother. As they talked, they avoided the subject of Jack as well as walking past the medi-bay, refusing to see her father even if she knew that he was there.
Jack, on the other hand, didn't speak at all. The Doctor spent a lot of time by Jack's side trying to coax him into talking about what happened. Jack refused to look at the Time Lord staring up at the ceiling as the Doctor spoke to him. He was still restrained to the bed, yet he no longer fought as his right hand was released periodically to allow him to eat or to use a bottle. He seemed to have completely lost his will to fight against the Doctor. The Doctor didn't think that Jack had accepted that he needed help but had fallen into a deep depression that he couldn't hide from with alcohol. He had to deal with the pain that he had brought on others as well as his own body. He didn't care as the Doctor started him on pills for his depression nor did he care about any of the other medications that the Doctor gave him. He knew the Doctor wouldn't intentionally kill him and a part of him hated the Doctor for not putting him out of his misery.
"We are going to start weaning Steven off of the ventilator today. While we don't expect him to take over his breathing completely yet, we are hoping to have him off of the ventilator by the time we start bringing him out of the medically-induced coma," The Doctor explained to Jack. Jack rolled his eyes over to look at the Doctor. He wasn't stupid and he knew that just because they stopped the medication to keep him under, it didn't mean that he would wake up. The Doctor had kept him informed of Steven's lack of progress and he feared that he would be burying his grandson soon rather than helping him to recover. The Doctor waited expectantly for Jack to say something, Jack instead chose to roll his eyes back up at the ceiling of the TARDIS.
Sighing, the Doctor stood up making his way out into the corridor. Martha was there leaning against the wall as she waited for the Doctor to finish speaking with Jack. She wasn't close enough to hear what the Doctor was saying, as she tried to give them privacy in case Jack ever decided to answer him. Three days had passed, though, since they had their conversation about the 456 and Jack had yet to say anything more.
"Still not talking?" Martha questioned. The Doctor shook his head no leaning against the wall across from her. He felt the TARDIS hum through him trying to comfort him. He patted the wall as he opened his mind further to her. She wrapped herself around him, singing softly and sadly knowing that her thief was hurting.
"I never thought that I would miss him flirting with everyone," The Doctor told her after a moment.
"Do you?" Martha wondered in surprise. The Doctor thought about it a moment.
"Maybe a little," He chuckled softly. It felt strange to laugh after how quite the TARDIS had been the last few days and he quickly stopped looking towards Steven's door.
"You know that it is okay to laugh, Doctor," Martha questioned him. While the TARDIS was more somber than ever before, she had her husband to help her through the hard times. Mickey was her rock and she was thankful that he had agreed to come back aboard the TARDIS with her. He helped her step back for a few hours each night as they ate dinner together and then rested. The Doctor, though, had no one but Jack to turn to and Jack had fallen further than ever before. The Doctor couldn't pull Jack back out of his depression if he didn't take a moment for himself. It was the same thing that she tried to explain to Alice, but both of them refused to listen to her.
"I know," The Doctor answered not wanting to hear it. He pushed himself away from the wall heading into the room where Steven was located. Alice was sitting by his bed but the room was quiet besides the sound of the machines that were keeping him alive. With Martha's help, they ran through his vitals and checked the stitches that covered his abdomen. He was healing well and they were both relieved to see no signs of infection. Martha cleaned his incision and then placed a new bandage over his stomach.
"We are going to turn off the ventilator now to try to allow him to breathe on his own. Remember he may not take over right away as he is still weak. If he doesn't, we will turn the ventilator right back on and try again tomorrow," Martha reminded Alice. Alice gripped her son's hand tightly as Martha turned off the machine.
"You can do it, baby," Alice encouraged Steven as they waited for him to take a breath. Martha didn't move away from the ventilator as the Doctor listened carefully for any signs that Steven was going to breathe on his own. It was a tense moment before the Doctor smiled.
"There you go but you're going to have to take a deeper breath than that," The Doctor encouraged as Steven took a short shallow breath pausing before trying to take another. Alice leaned over kissing Steven on the side of his head as tears of happiness ran down her face. They waited as long as they could but Steven's breathing didn't pick up and his oxygen levels were falling fast. Martha turned the ventilator back on allowing the machines to assist with his breathing again.
"He did well. We are going to assist him again for now and try again later. If his breathing picks up, we will switch him to an oxygen mask that will assist him to take deeper breaths until he does it on his own," Martha informed Alice. Alice nodded kissing her son again.
"Rest now, baby. You did so well today," Alice told him feeling hopeful once more that he would recover. When he had been first taken to the hospital they had told her that he wouldn't survive the night. Now thanks to the Doctor and Martha he had breathed on his own for a short time. Her son was a fighter and she had no doubt that he would continue to get stronger. She looked up at the Doctor, swallowing hard before she asked her next question. "When will he wake up?"
"It's hard to say. He still has a lot of healing to do but today shows that he is making progress and while there will be setbacks as long as he fights we will continue to remove forward," Martha answered vaguely. While it wasn't the answer that Alice wanted because Martha didn't say he would wake up, it also didn't take her hope away. They ran through his vitals one more time before the Doctor left the room to tell Jack the good news.
"He breathed on his own for a short while," the Doctor told Jack happily. He thought that Jack would be happy to hear the news so he was slightly surprised when Jack didn't smile back as tears filled his eyes. They quickly streamed down the sides of his face as he sobbed. Not knowing what else to do, the Doctor climbed up on the bed holding Jack as he cried.