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Chapter 21: The Antidote

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Martha shook her head. "His entire system is shutting down. Respiratory, digestive, vital organs, the lot. He hasn't got much chance."

"Well, keep bloody trying, then!" Donna said, nearly shouting.

"I am," said Martha, and indeed she was. She had just rolled up the Doctor's sleeve and inserted a tube into his arm, and was now inserting a clear-colored liquid into it. Everyone watched as it went down the tubing and into the Doctor's arm.

"Is nothing supposed to happen?" Donna asked fearfully.

"That was meant to stabilize him," said Martha. "It should give me a little more time to find something to cure him."

"That's good then!" said Donna.

Martha nodded. "But to do that, I'm going to have to know exactly what happened to him."

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"Everything?" Donna asked.

"Everything," Martha confirmed.

As Donna spoke, telling Martha what happened, giving her every single detail (helped occasionally by Jamie when the story became too tough to tell), Jack and the rest of the Torchwood team listened on. Once Donna was finished, Jack asked to see the gun.

"Why d'you want to see it?" Donna asked.

"I'll tell you in a moment," said Jack. He repeated the request and Jamie handed the gun to him. "Thanks."

"No problem," Jamie replied.

As Jack examined the gun, he expressed his surprised at it actually working; for he thought the Doctor had just been making it up. Martha thought likewise, and the two wondered why the Doctor had never told them that it was really real. They concluded it was because the Doctor didn't want either of them getting any ideas about killing Time Lords, namely the Master, and so neglected to impart that information onto his traveling companions at the time.

Jack slowly turned the gun over in his hands and began jiggling the tubes, which now held only a tiny amount of the liquid components each. As he did so, he said, "Tell me again, Jamie. These liquids are deadly when combined, yet when used apart, are harmless, correct?"

"That's right," said Jamie.

"Hm…"

"What is it, Jack?" said Martha.

"I'm just wondering," Jack replied. He held the tubes closer to his eyes and looked at them up close.

"While he's doing that, I'm going to check up on the Doctor," Martha said. And so saying, she went back to the Doctor and began re-examining him. Her expression grew grim. "Jack, if we don't find something soon to help him, he's not going to make it."

Donna sat down in a nearby chair and placed her head in her hands; Jamie placed a hand on her shoulder and gave it a consoling squeeze.

"I know that," said Jack.

"Then what are you doing?" Martha asked

For Jack had begun taking the tubes off of the gun and inspecting them individually. Once he was finished with one, he placed it on the silver tray next to the Doctor's bedside. He did this with each of the first three, but when he got to the fourth tube, he let out a triumphant shout. "Yes! I knew it! I knew it had to be something like this!"

Startled, Donna and Jamie looked up at him.

"What is it?" Donna asked.

"What did you find?" said Mickey.

Grinning, Jack held up the last tube, which held no liquid component. "What to know the reason the Doctor isn't dead?"

"Why?" asked Martha.

"Because this tube here had a leak," said Jack simply. His grin broadened at the shocked looks on everyone else's faces. "There's a small crack, tiny, but just large enough to allow some of the component to leak out. I guess our friends Cadger and Davis weren't careful enough with the gun as they should've been. But it's lucky for us, don't you think?"

"But…so you're saying…?"

"What I'm saying is that this gun was rendered essentially harmless in that it couldn't kill; although it still is deadly."

"So even though the components didn't kill the Doctor right away, he could still die if we don't get him the help he needs," said Martha.

"Exactly," said Jack. "But the question is, how do we do that?"

Donna's head popped up. "We make an antidote. We take the remaining components, mix them together, add water, hydrogen peroxide, and radiated mercury, and we'll have an antidote!"

Jack stared at her. "That's brilliant! How did you come up with that?"

"She-" Jamie began, but he changed tack when Donna stared at him. "She has her ways."

"Part Time Lord, part human, eh?" said Jack.

"That's right!" Donna lied.

"Brilliant!" Jack said gleefully. "You and Martha can work on that, then!"

"Right," said Donna. "Shouldn't take us long."

"Wait…" said Mickey. "Radiated mercury? That's poison, isn't it?"

"For humans, yes," said Jamie. "But not for Time Lords."

"Exactly," said Donna. "Now, stop bothering us because we need to concentrate."

Jamie smirked when Mickey raised his hands in defense. He watched on as Donna and Martha worked on making an antidote to the poison coursing itself through the Doctor's veins, making sure that they were not bothered. He occasionally gave some assistance, for having traveled with the Doctor himself, he knew a bit about what to do in these types of situations. Other than that, he stood by and watched the progress.

While Jamie watched, accompanied much of the time by Jack, the rest of the Torchwood team remained closeby, wanting to be near if anything changed. Ianto did make a quick trip to make more coffee, which was received with thanks from everyone.

The minutes ticked by with no report on the Doctor's condition or Donna's and Martha's progress. Just when everyone was starting to get antsy (moreso than they already were), Donna approached Jamie and whispered something in his ear. He nodded in reply as Donna went back to Martha and the Doctor; Jamie then approached Jack and the Torchwood team and told them what Donna had said.

"They've made the antidote," Jamie said, to a mixtures of cheers and sighs of relief. "They're giving it to him now."

"Are they injecting it into him through that tube?" Mickey asked.

"You can see for yourself, Mickey," said Jack, nodded in the direction of the Doctor.

Everyone turned to watch as Donna took out the tube from the Doctor's arm and as Martha replaced it with a newer one. The newer one would hold up better against the toxicity of the antidote, for the one they had been previously using was good, but a stronger one was needed. Otherwise, the older tube would not have fared well, to say the least.

"Ready?" Donna asked.

"When you are," said Martha. She took a syringe, full of the antidote, and inserted it into the tubing.

The liquid wound its way through the tube and everyone watched with bated breath as it entered into the Doctor's bloodstream. They waited. Nothing happened.

"Why is nothing happening?" said Mickey.

Donna looked at Martha, anguish in her eyes. Silence. Suddenly, the Doctor convulsed; he gave out a great gasp, breathing fast, then lay still.

"Doc!" Jack started to run forward, but Jamie caught him.

"It's all right, Jack," said Jamie. "The Doctor isn't dead. The antidote worked!"

And indeed it had. Whereas before the Doctor had been breathing only lightly, his chest was now rising and falling normally. Sighs of relief permeated the hub, then punctuated by the sounds of cheers. Obviously, everyone was ecstatic and exceedingly thankful that the Doctor would be all right. Martha and Donna went to the Doctor; while Martha began unhooking the medical equipment from the Doctor, Donna began buttoning his shirt back up. Once the two were finished, they had Jack and Jamie bring the Doctor back into the TARDIS, to his bedroom. There, they dressed the Doctor into a pair of pyjamas and tucked him under the covers. Donna stayed by his bedside for a little while, making sure he was ok, then went into the hub to join everyone else.

"How is he?" Jack asked.

"He'll be fine," Donna answered. He's unconscious, but that antidote Martha and I made for him is working. It'll just take a couple or so days for it to have its full effect."

Everyone looked relieved.

"Thank God he's all right," said Martha.

"Aye," Jamie agreed, nodding.

There was a slight pause, during which Ianto passed out more coffee that he had just made. As everyone stood there, sipping from steaming mugs, Jack inquired as to who Jamie was, exactly.

"I know you're someone significant to the Doctor," said Jack. "But how do you know him?"

"He used to travel with the Doctor, back in the day," said Donna.

"So did I," said Jack. "And so did Martha. But how do you know him?"

"Like Donna said, I used to travel with the Doctor," Jamie replied. "It was back during his second incarnation. The doc plucked me from Scotland when I was fightin' the bloody English- no offense-"

"None taken," said Martha and Donna.

"Anyway," Jamie continued, "he plucked me from Scotland and I went traveling everywhere with him."

"But you weren't with the Doctor when I traveled with him," said Jack.

"Well, no," Jamie admitted. "I died when I was fighting some Cybermen and ended up aging to death."

"But he was brought back to life by someone with a special kind of ring," Donna finished. "Or so he said when we were imprisoned."

"Whoa, that's weird," said Mickey.

"Yeah," said Jack. "I wonder who revived you?"

"I've been wondering that same thing," said Jamie. "I try to remember as much as I can, but the only thing I can recall is that the ring had some weird symbols on it."

Jack looked at Jamie thoughtfully. "Definitely strange, I give you that," he said. Then, turning to Donna, he said, "And what about you?"

"What about me?" Donna asked.

"Well, I know that because of the human biological metacrisis, a Doctor clone was created and you were transformed into a sort-of human-Time Lord hybrid."

Donna smiled, remembering what the Doctor had said about her being an Earth/Gallifreyan hybrid-girl. "Yeah. So?"

"So," said Jack, "I know that made you into quite the intelligent species. But what happened after that, after Martha, Mickey-boy, and I left the TARDIS?"

Donna told them her story, about how the Doctor had had to wipe her memories, and then a few months later, how she had been changed into a Time Lady. When she was done, Jack and the rest of the Torchwood team stared at her in wonder. Martha wondered how on Earth someone could medically go through something like that and still be alive to tell the tale, but she concluded that being around the Doctor tended to have strange effects sometimes. Jack equated it with how he had been brought back to life by Rose, after she had absorbed the Time Vortex. Mickey thought it was just plain weird.

"Anyway, that's the tale," said Donna. "And if you pester me about how it feels to have two hears, I'll shove you into the Time Vortex myself."

"Been there, done that," said Jack, earning a round of laughter.

Everyone stayed in the hub for a while longer, talking and laughing, all relieved that the Doctor would be all right. Finally, though, Jamie and Donna announced that they would be leaving to go to Sarah Jane's house. So, Jamie and Donna bade farewell to Jack, Martha, and the rest of the team and stepped inside the TARDIS.

Once inside, Donna took the TARDIS to Sarah Jane's house, where it materialized in the attic to a rather shocked Sarah Jane; for she and Mr. Smith had been monitoring the ship belonging to Cadger and Davis. So their surprise and shock might be understandable, due to the fact that the ship itself had exploded, and neither of the two knew what had happened to either Donna or the Doctor.

It was to Sarah Jane's surprise, yet great relief, that Donna stepped out of the TARDIS, safe and seemingly unharmed.

"Donna, you're all right! But I was afraid…" Sarah Jane looked uncertainly at her.

"No, we're not dead," said Donna. "Obviously."

Jamie then stepped out behind Donna and took a quick glance around the attic. Upon seeing Sarah Jane, he grinned.

Sarah Jane stared at him a moment. Slowly, she said, "Doctor?"

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Two more chapters left (with a sequel to follow)!