Vignette 25: Jamie McCrimmon and Leela, done on request; part 1 of 2; I'm going to try for daily drabbles again, so that I can post the 50th and final drabble for this collection on November 23...

Jamie groaned, his head pounding. Something had happened… something bad… But what?

He and the Doctor had been traveling about through space aimlessly, but enjoying it. There had been a call from the Celestial Intervention Agency… Yes, that he remembered—something about a Dalek signal being broadcasted from an underground facility on the Earth. He and the Doctor had been sent to investigate it.

"Doctor…?" Jamie asked, his eyes still shut. There was an unending pounding that reverberated in his head.

What had happened to them? Oh, that's right—they had met another one of his Doctor's future selves. Jamie had been highly amused by this Doctor's long, multicolored scarf, and this Doctor had just been pleased to see Jamie again after what had, for him, been another long period of time without him. This Doctor had just about been ready to introduce Jamie to his current companion—a young woman who, like Jamie, carried a knife with her—when the four of them were suddenly surrounded by men in white lab coats.

The men wasted no time hauling both Doctors away; Jamie and the other Doctor's companion immediately called out to them, trying to help them before they, too, were seized and dragged away—in the opposite direction.

Jamie recalled having fought back against his captors; one of them had taken out a syringe of something. He recalled both Doctors calling his name as a needle plunged into his arm…

…And he couldn't recall anything after that.

The pounding in his head still continued, and as Jamie opened his eyes, he saw that he was in a room that was painted white, with all sorts of posters and informative bulletins all over the walls—and one very large mirror. There were shelves of books, and there was even a computer on a desk. There were also couches—Jamie was lying on one of them.

There were no windows in the room, and only one door; as Jamie looked towards it, he saw the other Doctor's companion furiously hammering her fists on the door—that had been the source of the pounding in his head.

"Och, can ye stop that?" he asked.

The woman looked back at him.

"They have taken both of the Doctors!" she snapped. "And they locked us in here!"

Jamie was on his feet in an instant.

"They took the Doctors?!"

"Yes!" she exclaimed. "They threw the both of us in here and took the Doctors elsewhere."

"They must be working with the Daleks," Jamie hissed. "Yer Doctor said that he was following the same Dalek signal we were."

"Yes," she said. "But we didn't see any Daleks; we only ran into you. Did you see any?"

"No; we only saw ye," Jamie said. His eyes widened. "Hey… ye don' suppose…"

"It was a trap," she said, her eyes narrowing. "A trap for the Doctors."

"Then we need to find the Doctors and get them oot of here," Jamie insisted. "Aye; do ye have yer knife?"

"No, they took it from me," she said.

Jamie immediately checked his sock, and was pleased to see that his knife was still there.

"I still have mine. Now, here's what we'll do—ye… What's yer name?"

"Leela."

"Aye. I'm Jamie. Now when they open that door, I'll hold them at bay with my knife, and ye slip oot and try to find where the Doctors are, and I'll join ye later."

Leela considered this.

"We don't have any other options," she admitted. "We have to find the Doctors before anything happens to them."

Jamie nodded in agreement and began to examine the room that they were trapped in. it was only after he took a closer look at the posters and books that he noticed something in common among them.

They were all about human biology and human behavior—how humans were supposed to act and behave. And the more Jamie observed this, as well as remembering the fact that there were no Daleks in spite of the signal, the more uneasy he felt.

"I think I know why they took the Doctors away," he said, after a moment.

Leela looked to him, questioningly.

"Look at all of this," Jamie said, indicating the posters and books. "All of this information on humans and how they're supposed to act…" He squinted slightly as he read the smaller print. "It says, 'Printed by the Earth for the Earthlings Society.'" His eyes widened. "Oh, no…"

"The Doctors aren't from this world," Leela said, realizing what Jamie was trying to say. "They've taken them away because of that!"

"Very perceptive," a voice said.

Jamie and Leela whirled around, freezing in their tracks to see about a half-dozen men in white lab coats. There were too many for Jamie to threaten, he realized. But that didn't mean that they couldn't get some answers.

"What have ye done to the Doctors!?" Jamie demanded.

"You don't have to worry anymore," one of the men said. "You are free from the alien menaces."

"Free!?" Leela repeated, incredulously. "We were not their prisoners! You are the ones who locked us in this room!"

"Aye, that's right!" Jamie fumed. "We want to go back with the Doctors!"

"You were right, Sir," one of the men said to the one who had addressed Jamie and Leela first. "Those Gallifreyans have used some sort of highly-effective brainwashing on these two."

"It is as I feared," the leader said. "Still, it is our responsibility as the scientific team of the Earth for the Earthlings Society to see to the rehabilitation of these two."

"Reha-what!?" Jamie exclaimed. "What are ye going to do us!?"

"Undo whatever it is those alien menaces did to you," the lead scientist said.

"We don't need any rehabilitation," Leela said, scowling. "The Doctors have no desire to harm the Earth."

"Aye; they've gone oot of their way to defend it!" Jamie added.

"A highly convincing charade done to gain your confidence," a scientist said. "No alien could possibly have any selfless designs for Earth and its creatures!"

"Ye're mad—all of ye!" Jamie said. "The Doctors mean no harm!"

The scientists exchanged glances.

"Are you certain this brainwashing will be reversible?"

"Even if it isn't, it is best that they undergo treatment," the lead scientist said. "Even if we end up with no alternative other than getting them committed—better for them to be safe on the Earth than in the hands of those aliens."

"What about the aliens?" one of the other scientists asked.

"We'll have to double up on our questioning," the lead scientist said. "See if we can get them to reveal exactly what sort of mind control they used on these two."

"Don' ye dare hurt them!" Jamie yelled.

"If you harm them, we will see to it that you suffer just as equally!" Leela vowed.

"You two will soon come to understand that what we are doing is for your own good—and the good of humanity. The captured Gallifreyans will give us a greater insight into the devious nature of what these aliens have planned—and once the real experiements get underway, well… We can take everything we learn from our studies of Gallifreyan biology to help humanity."

"When you say 'study,'" Leela said. "You don't mean…"

"We will try to pump whatever useful information we can from the Gallifreyans," the lead scientist said. "And we will use whatever means necessary—including the scalpel."

Jamie swore; forgetting his knife, he lunged at the scientists, aiming to attack them with his bare hands.

"Monsters!" he yelled, as they held him back. "Ye're nae but a bunch of heartless beasties!"

One of the scientists firmly pressed a hand on a pressure point at the back of his neck.

"Believe us, Young Man," Jamie heard him said, as everything began to fade around him again. "This is for your own good. You'll thank us in the end."

And all went dark for the piper once again.