A/N: Not sure about this chapter, hope I didn't further wreck the story, it's pretty out there to begin with.
John felt sick.
He hadn't slept in days, had a terrible headache, was sweating profusely, shaking, felt like vomiting, and his body hurt, all over.
Maybe it was the flu.
On top of this he coudn't concentrate and he was being a right bastard to everyone, especially Martha.
"You're not a doctor, I don't have to listen to you. I need to go!"
"John, you're sick. You need fluids and rest. The movie can wait a few days while you get better." Martha was very worried. He looked awful, was acting worse, and flat out refused to stay home. He was getting progressively sicker as time passed and she began to wonder if it was something to do with the Family. Had they found him? Were they doing this to him?
"I'm fine Rose, I just need to get going." He tried to push past her, but ended up stumbling and using the wall for support.
"I'm Martha." Now she had to worry about him hallucinating
"Of course you are Rose, that's what I said. Now please, I'm already late." He made to move away from the wall but seemed to think better of it as he closed his eyes and sagged.
"You just called me 'Rose' again." Martha's patience was running low, add that to being continually called 'Rose' and she was reaching the limit of her tolerance for him.
"What?" John asked as he finally gave up and slid down the wall. He started mumbling something softly to himself.
Martha moved closer to him and bent to hear him. As she approached she could see him shaking, his head was down and his hands were clenched. He looked like he was in agony. She reached out to comfort him but as soon as she touched him he flinched away, falling fully to the floor, seemingly unconscious.
"Please help me." He whispered. But it wasn't him. The voice was disembodied, it was coming from the fob watch that had fallen out of John's pocket.
She reached for the watch, "I'm trying to."
It was definitely the Doctor that responded, his voice still weak, but more coherent than John had been, was coming from the watch. "Don't touch me, it's wrong... it... hurts."
"Ok, Doctor, just tell me what to do." She didn't know if she should pick up the watch or not, would it hurt him if she did? The watch was leaking out a gold light that had burned John in the bookshop, would it burn her too?
"Rose..."
"Doctor, it's Martha."
"Rose can... only Rose... Please... Help us..." The light from the watch was fading.
"Doctor, wait, I don't understand." The light faded entirely just as she was about to reach for the watch. As she touched it, John tensed and groaned weakly. She dropped it and that seemed to allow John to come round a bit, enough to recover slightly from his prone position on the floor.
He looked up at her with bleary, not quite focused eyes, and she couldn't help but think he wasn't very coherent at the moment. "I did bad things." He said, looking at her, almost willing her to understand.
"We all do sometimes. It's all right, we all make mistakes." She wasn't sure whether this was coming from John or the Doctor, but if she could get him to finally get some rest, she was willing to go with it.
"No," he said with determination. "She made me better and I left... I lost..." His eyes closed again. He was struggling internally with something, and it was manifesting physically.
"Come on John, you need some rest." She reached out again to help him up but remembered what the Doctor had said about touching him and she pulled back.
"No!" He shouted, it came out as a soft bark, "I need..." His head fell back again, and just before he passed out for a second time he finished, "Her."
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It took Martha a full hour before she finally put all the pieces together. She spent most of the time worrying about the John, and trying to figure out what could possibly be wrong with him. And if it was something benignly human or not.
She was a medical doctor after all so she decided to look at this from that perspective. She began to diagnose him. The symptoms were flu-like in nature and she was almost willing to accept that as the cause but something about it didn't sit well. Over that past few days his illness was inconsistent. He would get to rehearsals exceedingly early, spend most of his time in the makeup trailer, which was nothing really new. At the start of the day he was almost normal. Martha could tell that not everything was as it should be, but he carried most if it off. But the longer they worked the worse he got. Today was the first time it was this severe.
They had wrapped up earlier than usual the day before. John had retreated again to the makeup trailer and Martha had followed him to convince him to make an early night of it and go get some sleep. Reluctantly he agreed.
She had gone to check on him this morning and try to further convince him to take more time off to recover, but he was adamant that he needed to go to work. Something wasn't adding up. But this whole circumstance seemed oddly familiar.
Martha started repeating everything to herself, trying to link it all together. In the back of her mind, something poked her and pointed her to an answer. She gasped softly as it all started to make strange, but undeniable, sense.
These were very typical symptoms of withdrawal.
John was addicted to something, something strong and obviously available to him while he as working. That was why he was hell bent on going every day even though he felt awful. Something there was feeding this addiction and while he was away he got sick. The fact that he left early the day before and still hadn't gotten there today, explained the worsening symptoms!
The problem that now remained was to figure out what he was addicted to. She wondered if the Family had somehow introduced him to something hoping that he would become dependent on it so that he would crave it and come out of hiding to pursue it.
Martha had to figure this out and the only clue she had was that somehow being at rehearsal eased him. With that in mind, she left John sleeping, although fitfully, and went to try to get some answers.
x13x