Starting Over 25: Hospital
I cried while writing this.
XxXxXxXx
The first of the help that Jake had called in showed up just after Rose had passed out. A team of five had arrived by teleport. One held a medical kit and a backboard, while the other four were armed. The four armed people started clearing the rest of the flat, while the man holding the medical kit bent down to look at the wounds of the man in the hallway.
"Fuck 'im!" Jake yelled. "Take care o' Rose, Owen!"
"She's been shot, twice, and he's the one who shot her," the Doctor agreed darkly. He held his finger inside the wound on her chest. The first bullet had grazed her main artery and he was plugging the hole.
Owen took one look at Rose and rushed over immediately. The Doctor began spouting basic medical information to him, and Owen stopped him.
"I know her history," he snapped. "I just need to know what injuries you've seen and why you've got your finger in 'er."
"Cause there's a hole in her ascending aorta," the Doctor barked back. "She's also got a bullet hole there in her arm, which I've tied a tourniquet over to slow the bleeding."
"Shit, I can't take her the way I came," Own cursed.
"Of course you can't teleport her injured, you prawn!" the Doctor shouted. Jake noted the tears streaming down his face.
"Doctor, calm down," Jake interrupted. "I know you're freaking out. I get it, but don't take it out on this jerk. He's a great doctor." Owen had a horrible personality, but was really good at his job.
"Thanks ever so much for that, Simmonds," Owen grumbled, taking out a headlamp. He put the headlamp on and adjusted it, then pulled out a pair of gloves, a suture kit, and a little black hand held device Jake had never seen before. It was shaped like a pen, but with a bulbous tip.
"I'm gonna close up the worst hole temporarily," Owen told the Doctor. "It'll keep her going until we can get her into surgery."
With some help from the two men who's hands were covered in Rose's blood, Owen widened the opening and sealed up the hole in Rose's artery. It was something he wouldn't have been able to do in place if he hadn't had the little black pen thing, which sealed the hole somehow.
He then took a look at the one in her arm, but proclaimed it a flesh wound and packed the wound with gauze so the tourniquet could be removed and blood flow restored to her arm.
While they had been saving Rose, a second team had come and a medic had treated the man that both Jake and the Doctor had shot. The woman who'd been laying in the room woke up from being knocked out cold by Rose, and she and the man in the hallway that the Doctor had put to sleep had been taken away.
Jake looked out into the hallway and hoped the bastard that shot Rose wouldn't make it.
XxXxXxXx
The Doctor was beside himself. Rose was dying right there in front of him, and all he could do for her was plug the hole in her so that her blood could get to the rest of her body and not come out.
She was hard to look at. There was blood everywhere, but underneath it were bruises where she'd been hit. He knew she'd been in pain when they'd made contact before, but he'd had no idea the extent of it.
He could feel her heartbeat. It was stronger than he would have expected it to be, but much weaker than he wanted it to be.
Then the team Jake had called in appeared, and with them, there was a doctor of the medical variety. The man went to the first body he saw and started checking it over, which pissed the Doctor off. That...thing on the floor was the reason his pink and yellow Rose was all red.
But before he said anything to the doctor with a little 'd', Jake told him off.
The man, who'd Jake identified as Owen, took one glance at Rose and immediately went to her. It wasn't long before he had the worst of the bleeding stopped and Rose bundled up on a stretcher to take her to the medical levels in Torchwood Tower.
The Doctor refused to leave her side and tossed the keys to her car to Jake before he hopped up into the ambulance. The ambulance was disguised as a delivery van. From the outside, it looked like a standard, white box truck, but inside was a very well stocked ambulance. Owen stayed with her and with the other medical personnel, kept Rose alive for the trip back to the Tower.
At the Tower, Rose immediately went into surgery.
"You need to stay here, Doctor," Owen told him, putting a hand on his chest. Owen himself didn't go into the surgery. He wanted Owen in there for some reason, but he didn't know why.
"But-" he started, then changed his mind. "Can I watch her?"
"There's no way to," he said.
"Can you be there?" he asked.
"I need to get scrubbed in," he told the Doctor, then turned and left through the door.
The Doctor stood there for two minutes, fifty-three seconds just staring at the door before a nurse came up to him. "Maybe you should get cleaned up?" she suggested in a kind voice.
The Doctor looked down at himself. He was covered in Rose's blood. How had he not noticed that? Did it even matter? Not to him, but other people looked at you funny when you were covered in blood, and he'd get it everywhere. He nodded at the nurse.
"It's gonna be okay, honey. The doctors will take good care of her," the nurse told him. "Nancy, would you get Mr- uh," she started.
Right, name. She needed his human name. What was his new name? "Smith," he blurted out. "I'm Johnathan Smith. Yeah, that's it, I think."
"Would you get Mr. Smith some scrubs to change into?" she asked the other nurse, who immediately left. "Come on, Johnathan, let's go get you cleaned up." She didn't comment on him having obviously forgot his name for a moment. Maybe that was normal.
She led him to a small room where there was a shower. "You don't need to bother with me," the Doctor told the nurse.
"Nonsense," she scoffed. "You're no bother. Besides, 'smy job, to take care of the families in a time when they forget to care for themselves.
"Family. I don't have any family. I've just got Rose," he spoke.
"How long have you been together?" she asked softly.
"Years," the Doctor replied. "But we were separated for a while. I was-" he stopped himself. Continuing with that sentence wouldn't be good. "Somewhere else and couldn't see her," he finished. "I missed her and just got her back," he added when the other nurse came up holding neatly folded cloth. The nurse he'd been talking to took the small pile from her and put it on the counter.
"Now, you get all that blood off of you," she ordered him. "There's bags right there for your personal effects, and I'll be out by where I found you when you return."
He went to close the door, but then asked her, "What was your name?"
"Jessica," she answered.
"Thank you, Jessica," he said.
"You're welcome, Johnathan," she replied.
The Doctor closed the door and began removing his clothes. He stuffed bloody items into one bag-he could get them clean later, and the rest into a second bag. When he was stripped bare, he looked into the mirror, and he didn't like what he saw.
He looked tired. There were splatters of blood on his face and neck. Some had even gotten into his hair, making it form stiff peaks from where he'd run his hands through his hair. He was skinny, wow, was he a little, skinny bloke. What the hell did Rose see in him? He was a mess, constantly broke her heart, and was a beanpole on top of that.
He stepped into the shower and turned it on, wondering why this all happened. Just a couple of hours before, they'd been laughing, having fun, and taking their relationship a big step further. Now, he wasn't sure she'd survive the night. He didn't know what he'd do if she didn't. He needed her.
With that admission, the tears started falling.
XxXx
The Doctor stepped out of the shower room feeling marginally better. Except for his hand, which throbbed. One really shouldn't punch a tiled surface, unless you were very angry and it was worth it. He walked to the little waiting room by the doors he had been standing in front of. There, he met a tired looking Pete sitting there with his head in his hands. Rose's stepfather didn't notice he was there until he dropped into the chair next to him.
"Where's Jackie?" the Doctor asked.
"She's on her way," Pete replied. "I had to call her. This is too big to keep from her."
"You're keeping injuries from her?" the Doctor questioned. That took some guts. "Better you than me," he added, which caused Pete to chuckle.
"Keeps the complaints about how dangerous things are down, but I've gotta Prentice slap comin' for me for sure," Pete told him.
"Prentice slap, huh? I've always called it the Tyler slap myself," the Doctor said.
"Marion Prentice could throw a good one," Pete remembered, holding his face. "Woman died eight years ago, and I still feel it! Reckon 'er husband called the slap by her maiden name as well."
"Tell me about it," the Doctor sympathized. "I've had two new faces since Jackie got me." Both men gave a laugh that ended far too soon.
"Anything yet?" the Doctor asked.
"No, not yet," Pete replied. "Right now, no news is good news."
They heard a door slam open down the hall, and even before the woman talked, both men recognized the stride of an angry Jackie Tyler.
"Where the hell is my daughter?" she yelled as soon as the men could see her.
"Sh-she's in surgery," the Doctor replied quietly.
Jackie's eyes landed on him, and she stalked forward. The Doctor thought she was going to hit him. He deserved it, so he sat there and let her come at him. Just before she got to him, she stopped and looked him up and down.
To his surprise, she threw her arms around his neck. The Doctor sat in his seat with his arms out to his side for a moment before he wrapped them around her. Jackie was a different shape than her daughter, but she hugged the same way Rose did; with everything she had.
"Oh, Sweetheart," she said in his ear and started rocking him. It felt good to be comforted like that. Jackie rocked and hugged him for a bit before she pulled back suddenly. "Okay. What 'appened?" she asked sternly, looking down on her husband and the Doctor.
"Well, um," the Doctor started.
"They were both hit with tranquilizer darts and Rose was kidnapped," Pete told his wife, taking the much longer explanation out of the Doctor's hands.
"Just what were you doin' that you got shot with a dart for?" Jackie asked in her high pitched I'm-about-to-slap-you voice.
Lucky for him, another voice interrupted what he was sure was going to be a diatribe about getting her daughter into trouble. "Ah, Mrs. Tyler, he didn't do anything this time. They were out on a date," Jake told her. "And the Doctor's the one who figured out where she was and saved her." the Doctor wondered when he showed up.
"You saved 'er?" Jackie asked the Doctor hopefully.
"I don't know, Jackie," he admitted. "I couldn't stop it. I-we don't know anything yet."
"Well, ya ain't gonna find out standin' 'ere, now are ya?" She walked over to the desk where the nurses were and started questioning the two poor women. Pete followed her, in hope that he could calm her down when the nurses told her there was nothing to know yet.
The Doctor just sat there, watching and wondering what was going on in the operating room. The other people talking had helped pass some time and keep his mind occupied a bit, but he couldn't get rid of the image of his worst nightmare coming to life right in front of him. Jake dropped himself into a chair in front of him and stared.
"What?" he wondered.
"You look like shit, Doc," he spoke bluntly.
"Thank you for that general assessment," he responded. "Right now, I couldn't care less. Why aren't you covered in blood?"
"Nothing I could do here except worry, so I stopped by my flat and cleaned up," Jake told him.
They heard the click of shoes coming toward them and turned to find out who else was coming. None of their party and none of the nurses wore hard soled shoes. There were three people: Melissa Saroyan walked toward them, followed by Malcolm and Tosh.
"We heard what happened," Tosh spoke softly, sitting down next to Jake.
"We came to offer our support," Malcolm added ad he dropped into the seat next to Tosh. "We were in the building anyway."
"I ran into them and they told me what happened," Melissa explained worriedly. She perched on the seat on the other side of Jake from Tosh.
The Doctor was glad they were there. Rose's friends were here for her. The only people missing in her life were Anna Sherman, who was a new addition to Rose's team and probably didn't know what happened, and her brother. The Doctor was glad Tony wasn't there. He didn't want the little boy there in the atmosphere of worry.
"One of the nurses are gonna go back 'ere an' try ta see 'ow things're goin'," Jackie told everyone.
The news was supposed to have eased the tension of everyone in the room, but it had the opposite effect on the Doctor. While he knew nothing, he could pretend that Rose was doing well and she'd come out of surgery just fine. Much like he had done while they were separated in different universes, and like he was certain his other self was doing right then. The bastard had no idea, none at all.
Ignorance really was bliss, but it was still ignorance. He didn't want to know, but he needed to. That was the promise of his new, one life, he wouldn't run from the things that needed to be dealt with or said any longer. He didn't have time to.
Jackie sat down next to the Doctor with Pete on the other side of her and the whole group waited for any kind of news. The wait wasn't very long, only six minutes and twenty three seconds from the time Jackie had sat down next to him.
The nurse who'd brought the scrubs he wore came back through the double doors, followed by a doctor with a little 'd' that he'd never seen before. The Doctor immediately stood up and took a couple of steps toward him. If he was there, that meant Rose was out of surgery. The other man in scrubs didn't look like he'd just lost a patient, but he might not have been in Rose's surgery.
"I'm Dr. Louis Fletcher, and I'm the surgeon that worked on miss Tyler," he introduced himself.
"Well, how is she?" Jackie demanded.
"Rose is out of surgery and in recovery. She's stable for now, but in a coma," he told everyone. There was a collective sigh of relief from everyone and the Doctor's heart leapt. The news wasn't an all clear yet, but Rose had gotten through the surgery and was stable. Her chances had improved dramatically.
"When can we see her?" both the Doctor and Jackie asked at the same time.
"Like I said, she's still in a coma, but immediate family members may look in on her for their own assurance," Dr. Fletcher told them.
Jackie immediately stepped forward and pulled the Doctor with her. The Doctor almost protested that he wasn't family, but thought better of it before he opened his mouth. He needed to see Rose, needed to see the evidence that she was still there with his own eyes.
Dr. Fletcher led them to the room where Rose was being held while she recovered from her surgery. A nurse in blue scrubs with hearts on them was taking her vitals when they walked in. She nodded at them and left the room, pushing her cart with the laptop on it out with her.
Jackie rushed right to her and grabbed Rose's hand. "Oh, sweetheart, my Rose, what did those bastards do to you? I'll kill 'em, every one of 'em," she promised fiercely.
"I'd help," the Doctor said, "but we need to know why this happened and if they were working alone."
He stepped closer and gazed down at Rose. She was pale and looked lifeless, but the heart monitor showed she wasn't. She was intubated, and the tube sticking out of her throat made it impossible to pretend she was just taking a nap and he could shake her awake at any time.
Her bruises were a lot lighter. They must have used one of the myriad of devices for healing bruises that had been invented. He wondered why they did it, though, bruises were the least of Rose's worries and they'd fade with time.
The Doctor took her hand gently, as there was an IV line sticking out of the back of it. As soon as his skin touched hers, he felt the tingle he always felt with sentient life. He ran his hand up her arm to keep that reassuring feeling as he leaned closer.
"Hey, you, Miss Jeopardy Friendly," he softly spoke. "You keep fighting, 'cause I need you, and we need to finish our big date." He leaned back and regarded her. "I love you, and I always will, so you'd better come back to me like always."
He kissed her temple and felt a lot more than the tingle. Her consciousness was there, as vibrant as her, but sleeping for the moment, more deeply than sleeping. She'd come out of the coma fine, as soon as her body was ready.
"So, a date, huh?" Jackie said suddenly, making the Doctor jump. He'd forgotten she was there.
"Yeah," he replied.
"Well, it's about damned time," she told him.
"Far too long," he agreed.
"Helluva end to a date," she commented and sighed. "I don' wanna leave 'er, but I've got Tony with the sitter and after what happened, Pete's gonna have to stay 'ere for a bit."
"I understand," he assured her. "So would Rose. Go take care of your son. I've got Rose." Jackie nodded and a tear ran down her cheek.
"I can see that," she said. She went around the bed and hugged him again. "I'm so glad you're here," she told him. "Thank you for saving her." She let go of him, sniffled, and turned to Rose, kissing her forehead before reluctantly stepping out of the room.
The Doctor pulled a chair from the corner of the room to the side of Rose that had a bare hand. He threaded his fingers through her hand and sat there next to her, telling her plans he had for the two of them, how they were going to run all through time and space again, but he did it in his mind, in case some one heard him speaking.
"...and we won't have to hide who we are from them, they're a very open minded and welcoming culture, Rose," he told her telepathically.
Two minutes and eighteen seconds later, a nurse poked her head in. It was the same one that had been in the room when the Doctor and Jackie had walked in earlier.
"Miss Tyler needs her rest, sir," she told him when she saw him.
"Rose is in a coma, she won't be bothered by anything," he told her. "And I'll stay out of the way of you lot doing your jobs, but I will not leave her side," he informed the woman.
"Mr-" she started.
"Doctor," he interrupted tersely. "Smith, Johnathan Smith," he added, remembering
"Doctor Smith, you can come back in the morning," she informed him.
"Someone from Torchwood had a hand in what happened to her, so you're barkin' mad if you think I'm gonna leave my Rose unprotected for them to have another go at her," he nearly yelled.
"Someone who works here did this to her?" she asked, shocked.
"Yes," he replied with a hiss.
The nurse looked over to Rose, laying on the bed, then at the hand the Doctor held. "Rose has been here many times for various reasons. She's always been nice. Why would- Okay, you can stay," the nurse told him.
Dr. Fletcher came in just after the nurse left. He noticed the Doctor sitting there and nodded before stepping to the bed and taking Rose's vitals. "Mr. Smith, you were the one who plugged the wound?" he asked.
"Yeah," he answered, wincing at the memory.
"That was a brilliant method. You saved her life with that trick," he told him.
With anyone else, the Doctor would have bragged. He would have said something about how clever he was. This was Rose, and if he'd been a bit cleverer, if he'd been a bit faster, he wouldn't be sitting here, holding the hand of the woman he loved as she fought for her life. No, instead he'd watched his worst nightmare play out in front of him, and only had enough wits about him to plug a hole, so he turned the conversation to something that had been bothering him.
"What technology did you use on her bruises?" he questioned. "Most dermal regenerators I know of work the body a little harder than usual. In her state-"
"I didn't use anything on her bruising, not in her state," the medical doctor informed him.
"Nothing? Her bruises are much lighter," he accused.
"That's nothing to do with any technology," Louis Fletcher told him. "I'm sorry, Mr. Smith, but you're not one of the people approved to discuss her medical history."
The Doctor was about to argue and point out that he'd been her doctor (the job) for years, until he remembered that he hadn't, and as far as this universe was concerned, he was just a bloke dating Rose Tyler. This man was holding Rose's confidence, and he was glad for that, he just wished he was inside of the circle.
"Who do I have to talk to to find out?" he asked.
"With Rose in this state, Director Tyler is in charge of that task," Dr. Fletcher explained apologetically as he flashed a light in Rose's eyes. "She's looking good and should make a full recovery," he concluded before he left.
The Doctor sat there, alone with Rose again and thought about what had happened earlier. He needed to know why everything happened, but investigating would take him away from Rose's bedside, and there were few people he trusted to stay with her.
He thought about what he'd done after the man, who they hadn't identified yet as far as he knew, shot Rose. He'd shot him in the leg, maiming him, just to cause him more pain. He didn't regret it, but it'd been an act of cruelty.
Never cruel nor cowardly...
He sighed. Maybe he didn't deserve the title anymore.
Fifteen minutes later, Jake came in. "Doctor, we've got some leads on who they are and why they did this," he told him. "Pete wants to see you."
"I'm not leaving Rose alone," he said tiredly.
"That's why I'm here," Jake replied.
The Doctor looked him up and down and nodded. He wanted to talk to Peter Tyler anyway.