James went out of the room to go and get ready for his own surgery. Barb went to the store and got bandages, a pad, and ice packs. Mickey scrubbed it off his stock take realising that it was never going to be entirely up to date at all. Barb put the ice packs along the entire length of the Doctor's cast. At his foot and ankle she then put pads over the top to bring them up higher than the level of the cast and then put a bandage around it all so that some pressure was applied to his ankle and foot to squeeze the fluid.
She got a large syringe and connected it to the tube on his knee. She carefully drew fluid out and the Doctor moaned as he started to come back round. "This is a bad time for you to be waking up, love," Barb told him, but it didn't seem to work. By the time she'd filled the syringe with blood streaked fluid the Doctor was crying out with the pain the adjustment of pressure within his knee caused. "It will feel so much easier once it is done," Barb assured him. She didn't let his cry stop her as she drew the fluid and then attached the vacuum pack to the drain so it would continue to actively draw the fluid that was collecting in his knee joint.
"That is it, Doctor, you're done. I just need to get someone to come over and see how we sort your bed sling out," Barb advised. She went out of the room. She was gone ten minutes before she returned. "An engineer is going to come over and have a look at the bed frame and take some measurements so we can fix a frame over the bed," Barb advised.
"Thank you," Jack accepted on the Doctor's behalf as the Time Lord moaned. "It's all done, Doctor, you just relax." He caressed the Time Lord's head just wondering how much more the Time Lord was going to have to take, how much more he could take.
Twenty minutes later a young coloured man in a navy boiler suit arrived. He looked at the number of the door frame and then he knocked. "I was told to come and measure a bed to make a frame?" he commented as he came in.
"Yeah, it is in here," Jack invited him. "You're an engineer?" He looked pretty young.
"An apprentice mechanical engineer and a cadet private," the guy responded. "I'm good at fixing and building stuff. So, what do you need to?"
"They need to elevate his leg up so his foot is about two foot above the bed and the standard frames don't fit the bed," Jack explained. He felt a bit annoyed that they'd sent an apprentice over and not an expert. He did not want to think of what it would do to the Doctor if a badly made frame failed.
"Oh my God?" the private stopped in his tracks and looked at the occupant in the bed. "That's… I mean that is… it is… isn't it? That's the Doctor? What happened? What is he doing here?!"
"Yeah, it's the Doctor, but he's pretty sick and he needs you to sort out the bed frame for his leg not stand there and gawp at him. I know all you kids have read his case files but he just needs help at the moment."
"No, you don't understand. I know him."
"You do?" Jack shrugged. "What's your name?"
"Yeah, I'm Barclay."
"Barclay?" Jack commented. "Never heard of you. So, how do you know him then?"
"Off the 200," Barclay advised. "He got me a job here at UNIT. He told Captain Mugumbo to give me a job and she got me an apprenticeship. Nathan too. He's gone into the catering corps! And, the Doctor? I mean? He saved us all, what happened to him?" Barclay asked looking at the man who had been so full of life and had flown heir ill fated bus back through a wormhole. "Did that alien get him?"
"No, tell you what, Barclay?" Jack checked his name with his tone. "I'm sure that by the time you've sorted out his bed frame he will be more awake again," Jack prompted.
"Yeah, sure, I just. He was always running. It's strange to see him still."
"You really did meet him," Mickey chuckled.
"Wait until Nathan hears that he is here, and Malcolm. He does some of our lectures, he is proper bonkers but he'll flip out when he hears the Doctor is here for real."
"Barclay, I would appreciate it if you didn't tell everyone that he is here, certainly not just now," Jack suggested seriously. "He really needs to rest. He needs to recover and he needs more surgery. Maybe once he is feeling better, but for now? He needs to be allowed to recuperate and Doctor Jones will be the one who flips out if she finds out that he's had people in and out of here all day. Doctor Jones will let you all know when he can start having visitors, but for now he needs to be looked after rather than entertained."
"Okay," Barclay accepted. He got his tape measure and a tablet out and did some measurements of the bed. He was doing that when the Doctor groaned. It caused Barclay to freeze.
"It's okay, carry on, you're not hurting him," Jack assured him
"Jack?" the Doctor breathed.
"It's okay, I'm here."
"Are they… finished?"
"For now." Jack didn't tell him they still had to hoist his leg up. "It was getting too tight at your knee and ankle, but it should feel better now."
"So cold…" the Doctor complained weakly. He had thought he'd been warming up but now he was freezing again. Jack realised he had ice the length of his leg. He was being chilled from toe to hip with a long line of ice packs. For a man unable to control his body temperature because of illness it might not have been as good an idea as it might have been. He tucked the blanket around him.
"Hey, Boss, do you remember someone called Barclay on a bus?" Mickey asked him trying to distract him and because Barclay looked like every single one of his illusions of the magical man had just been shattered in one go.
"Barclay?" the Doctor asked and winced. Jack hoped he remembered the kid. "Yeah… Barclay… good with engines," the Doctor confirmed with a tired sigh. "He might be working here. I told Captain Mugumbo… he would be good. But… why? Why mention… Barclay? On no? Is he? Is he… one of them?" the Doctor gasped. "Is he one… of the dead?!" He panicked and then cried out.
"Damn, take it easy." Jack held the Doctor. "He's not one of the dead. He's here," Jack assured him. "Calm down and say hello. He's an engineering apprentice and he's here to fix your bed."
"Doctor, Sir?" Barclay acknowledged him formally.
"You're here," the Doctor groaned quietly.
"Yes Sir."
"Don't call me… Sir," the Doctor complained. Jack smiled and rubbed the Doctor's shoulder.
"Did you do it?" the Doctor asked.
"Do what, Doctor?"
"Ask her?" the Doctor prompted. "Tina, that was her… name wasn't it? Poor… Tina. Did you ask her?"
"Yeah, I did." Barclay smiled stunned that the Doctor would remember that.
"And? Did she say… yes?"
"Yeah, she did."
"Poor Tina." The Doctor smiled weakly.
"Oi." Barclay laughed. "We're engaged."
"Congratulations," the Doctor offered, but then he winced and moaned unable to maintain the conversation.
"I'll sort your bed out as best I can."
"My bed…"
"Yeah, I will sort it for you."
"Thank you," the Doctor accepted, but he didn't know what Barclay was talking about his bed for. Barclay tapped the screen on his tablet to input the final measurements and then hurried out.
"You okay, Doc?" Jack caressed his head, but the Doctor's expression screwed in pain. "Okay." Jack sighed. "Try and go back to sleep."
"Going to be…" the Doctor tensed.
"Ah, Mickey, grab the bowl!" Jack pointed to the sick bowl on the side as the Doctor gagged. Jack held him up enough that he could throw up but he cried out in pain at the same time almost choking. He gagged and dry heaved but was lucky there was nothing inside him to vomit up or he may have inhaled it and ended up in trouble. He coughed and then simply went limp in Jack's arms as he lost consciousness. Jack pressed a kiss to the top of the Doctor's head as he held him and then lowered him back onto the bed. Mickey put his hand on Jack's shoulder when he saw the empathic tears in the Captain's eyes as he accepted one simple fact: he definitely wasn't going to be going out with Martha.
When Barclay returned to the Doctor's room he had with him several bits of metal and his tool kit. Martha had a thirty minute gap between briefings. She really didn't think having a briefing including people affiliated with UNIT but who were civilians such as relatives was a good idea. It was too early. They didn't have enough answers yet. Major Proctor insisted that it had been arranged and that she was to be there. She was going to have to go, not because he insisted, but because he had set the meeting up and if she wasn't there to answer questions that she could then even more would be unanswered. It still felt like there were more questions than answers and Martha didn't know what it would achieve except to draw her away from her patients and work for even longer.
Now she was just popping in to see how the Doctor was doing and found Barclay in the room. She knew he had been on the bus with the Doctor as he had sought her out. Another soul touched by the Time Lord. "Barclay? What are you doing?" Martha asked curiously as he put his tool kit down and laid different length bits of metal out on the floor. Surely they weren't doing some kind of maintenance in the room where the Doctor was?
"James asked someone to come and fix a frame over the bed as he wants his leg elevated significantly more," Jack advised. "Did James not come and see you?"
"No, I've just come out the meeting and James is in surgery at the moment," Martha advised.
"He said his knee is pretty bad?"
"Yeah, it is worse than we thought. There were more scans done this morning as he can hardly stand up. He needs some quite urgent repairs."
"He didn't seem that comfortable," Jack agreed.
"He came in and saw to the Doctor then?" Martha asked. She picked up the electronic chart up off the bed knowing that James would have ensured it was updated.
"He split the cast and cleaned the pins."
"Okay," Martha acknowledged as she read the same on the record.
"He put ice packs right along his leg, but the Doctor is still complaining of feeling cold. Isn't that going to make it harder for him to get warm? He was sick again and he's passed out twice. Once when they were sorting out his cast and then just now when he was heaving. I'm not sure he's improving the way we expected him to once the treatment to his kidney was completed," Jack worried.
"It's still less than 24 hours since he was in complete respiratory and cardiac failure, Jack. That he's been awake and talking is pretty much all we could have expected. He's doing okay, he's just not well."
"Is there nothing else you can give him? I thought he was just going to give in and start crying before. If he hadn't passed out I think he would have. He was trying to have a conversation with Barclay, here, and he could hardly get a sentence out."
"Unfortunately, that is why he shouldn't really behaving visitors, but should just be allowed to rest peacefully and not have to try to have conversations," Martha commented and glanced at Barclay.
"I didn't know he was here. I just came to do the job I was given."
"To build a frame for this bed?"
"Yes ma'am."
"Why don't we just swap him into a bed with an existing frame?"
"James was worried he might have some general oedema and has raised the end of the bed," Jack explained. Martha opened the Doctor's file again and read all of the notes that James had made. He had said there was some fluid. Martha pulled the blanket back to reveal the Doctor's uninjured left ankle and foot. Maybe it was a touch on the swollen side but not much. She didn't want it to get any worse. Raising the bed was a good idea, but if he was going to be retaining fluid then they might have to look at getting a compression stocking on him. She was sure that he'd appreciate that! She wasn't going to reduce the flow of fluids into him and risk dehydration with him being so sick and his kidney stones.
"Has he been complaining of anymore renal pain?" Martha asked Jack.
"No, not really, he's mostly been bothered by his leg and he's got a really bad headache."
"Okay, when Barclay is finished I'm going to examine him."
"Do you want me to step out so you can do what you need to do?" Barclay asked.
"No, you carry on. How long do you think you will be?"
"Five minutes or so. I might need an extra pair of hands to put it all together, but it's going to be better than the frames on the other beds," Barclay announced proudly.
"I am going to hold you to that," Jack insisted. "It better be strong enough. It's got to hold the weight of his leg and the cast."
"It will be. We use these struts to build frames to hold tanks up for repair," Barclay explained. He got a bolt and socket set and went over to the bed. He had four short struts and he bolted them to the bed making sure the flat heads were inside the bed frame and they were capped on the outside. He didn't want anyone to lean on the bed and get a bolt in their middle, but he wanted the Doctor to get bolted even less. Even if it was highly unlikely since the bolts were below the level of the mattress. Once the four short struts were fitted he got four longer ones and bolted them to the short ones. He used butterfly nuts on the bolts rather than fixed ones. He had to stand on a chair to put the top struts over. He fastened them with solid bolts and then put some guard wires through so they were locked in place.
"What do you use to hold his leg up? I've got straps and stuff but I don't know if you need anything different?" he asked Martha.
"Since he's cast the straps will be fine. We'd use a padded sling otherwise, but straps may be better with the metalwork. You need to make sure that there are no straps anywhere near the pins or the connecting struts holding his leg," Martha advised Barclay. "And, you can't squash the drain from his knee. Anywhere there is solid cast will be fine for the strap, the plaster will bear the weight of his leg."
Barclay put two cross rails over the top of the bed and then fitted spring loaded cross braces between them. He carefully angled the whole thing so it was in the right position to hold the Doctor's leg off the bed. Then he fitted some more cross braces and tied them off and then locked them. The structure was strong and solid. It looked like it was right over the metal frame in the Doctor's leg, but when it was raised the angle would put the frame more over his ankle. He got some black canvas straps out of a plastic bag. They were new ones. He didn't want to sue ones with oil or anything on them for the Doctor.
"Can you lift his leg into the position you want it and I will be the straps?" Barclay asked. He would normally just attach the straps then hoist anything up with pulleys, but he'd normally by jacking up tanks or other large bits of machinery. The modular frames were good for getting into tight spots.
Jack took the weight of the Doctor's cast leg and raised it up under Martha's instruction. A low moan drifted up over the bed like a veil of discontented fog as it hurt the Doctor within the depth of his slumber.
"Is that the angle you want it?"
"Yes."
"Then can you take it a few inches higher for a moment?" Barclay asked. He fastened the straps around the lower part of the cast. There was a padded aspects to the toughened fabric so it didn't mark the paint jobs on any of the vehicles they were normally used on. He put the pads to the back of the cast. Then he put a collar around the two strap ends to hold them close to the cast and then hooked them into the framework.
"Let the frame take the weight now," Barclay instructed. Jack carefully reduced his hold. He was ready to take back control if the frame as much as creaked but it did not. His leg was elevated well and the frame was structurally sound. "Is there any way we can reduce the risk of his leg swinging?" Martha asked.
"Do you want it to be able to swing at all?"
"Not really."
"Okay." Barclay got two spring loaded clamps out. He attached them to the frame work and then he hooked them onto the clasps on the strap. They pulled the strap from both sides so it would not accidentally move. "You'd have to swing on him now to get it to move at all," Barclay advised and demonstrated that his leg would not move easily.
"If we need to quickly release his leg for any reason?" Martha asked not sure if anyone had remembered to tell Barclay that they might had to do that. If there was another problem with the Doctor's hearts or anything then they would have to get him flat with no time to spare. They'd not have the time to call maintenance over or to be playing around with spanners.
"It'd just drop his leg unless you were holding it," Barclay warned. "But we just use fish knives if we have to quick release a vehicle."
"A fish knife?" Jack asked.
"Yeah, I will leave you mine in case," Barclay advised. "It's not really very sophisticated, but if you do need to get his leg down in an emergency then you just cut the straps." He got a tool that looked a bit like a fish out. It was a safety knife and the fabric of the strap was pushed into the mouth of the fish that held a sharp blade.
"It's like a seat belt cutter," Martha commented.
"Probably, yes," Barclay confirmed. It would work on the same principle. "If you have more time and you want to adjust his leg then you can undo the neck on the spring cramps, here and here. You just turn them a quarter turn to the right and they release. Best to do them both at the same time if you can. Then to reduce the strap you pull this fabric collar right down and there is just Velcro so you can make it go up or down or take it right off. It shouldn't come apart with his leg because it's used to hold vehicles up to four tonnes, but if you always remember just to slide the collar down that prevents the Velcro coming apart," Barclay gave a thorough explanation. "If you need it to be adjusted in any other way then just let me know and I will come over. It doesn't matter what time it is, and with everything that happened yesterday we're all on study leave for the next week so if you need anything else then let me know. If he just needs someone to sit with him or anything. If you have to go anywhere, then I'll do that and I know not to talk to him too much. If you don't need me to sit with him you can let me know when he is fit enough for visitors, I mean if he wants visitors? If he's feeling like rubbish he might not even want visitors, but he doesn't seem to be the kind of guy who will be happy in bed once he's feeling better, and, it is just his leg isn't it? I take it that it is broken, but he will be okay won't he? I mean not today, but in a while?"
"Breathe." Jack chuckled and shook his head slightly at the affect the Doctor obviously had on just about everyone he met.
"Sorry."
"When he's feeling better we will ask him if he's up for a chat and we will let you know, but please, until he is feeling better he's not to be disturbed. He was quarantined in the East Wing until the incident yesterday so that he'd not be inundated with visitors because he needs the chance to rests and to recuperate, even more so now. I don't want you telling everyone in your barracks that he is here," Martha warned him.
"I won't. Thank you. Will you tell him I hope he feels better soon?"
"I'll tell him," Jack confirmed. Barclay left the room again. It didn't seem real that the Doctor could be hurt so badly. They had listened to the telephone call to UNIT. They all talked to him like he was some kind of God or hero. He'd thought it was madness until the man had beaten all the odds and made the bus fly them home. He wouldn't tell anyone he was here, it was plain to see just how sick he was. They'd said something about respiratory and cardiac failure. Didn't that mean he'd stopped breathing and his hearts had stopped? He'd done his basic first aid now, he still had the advanced course to do, but he knew it was bad.
"Hey, Clay? What are you doing in here?" Ethan Coates asked as he was coming into the hospital wing and he saw Barclay going back out with his tools. "Something broken?" he asked the obvious.
"Nah, I just fitted a bed frame for some guy with a busted leg," Barclay advised casually.
"What guy?" Ethan asked.
"Just some guy."
"What? Like some guy who is not a UNIT buy because if it was just a UNIT guy you'd have told me who it was, but a guy with a busted leg who is not a UNIT guy but a guy that you have met before? Is it that guy?" Ethan asked. Barclay frowned at him and Ethan laughed. "I know he's here and I know we're not allowed to talk about it, but how is he? Is he better than yesterday?"
"I'm not sure how he was yesterday am I, Dumbass," Barclay accused and swatted at Ethan. "How do you know he was in there?"
"I've been working with him since I met him on Friday, before that stuff with the Harlequin. I've been helping out, until he had that reaction to the anaesthetic anyway. Since then he's been too sick, but I helped him with the Harlequin and stuff too. He saved my life! Even with his busted leg, he pulled me out the way when that thing was coming down at me through the ceiling! He's pretty cool isn't he?"
"Yeah," Barclay agreed. "Never thought he could get hurt like that though."
"Is he awake?"
"Not at the moment, and I think Doctor Jones was going to do some stuff to him. She was waiting until I left."
"I'll go and see him later then. I've got an assignment to do for Colonel Mace."
"Do you need any help with it?"
"Not at the moment."
"I might go to the brief then. I've not got much else to do now. Everything has been cancelled."
"Why don't you ask Proctor for something to do?"
"What, like polish his boots?" Barclay scoffed and shook his head. "No ta. I can't believe Mace got hurt and we're stuck with him!"
"I know, it is pretty shitty. It was definitely better when Starkey was doing it. Even if it was Jack in the background."
"That is Jack from Torchwood in with the Doctor isn't it?" Barclay confirmed.
"Yeah."
"He's lucky to have him there," Barclay offered. Ethan nodded. Ethan went through to the Doctor's room, but he saw the door had been closed. He knocked and Mickey went to answer it.
"Can I come in?"
"Nah, I've got to leave too," Mickey advised. "Martha is going to do some examinations on him so it's just her, Anita, and Jack in there."
"So, Jack gets to stay?" Ethan asked.
"Jack is the best thing the Doctor has at the moment. He's not left his side and even if Martha told him to I'm not sure he would," Mickey commented. "Come on, you can give me a hand with something while we wait," Mickey advised and led Ethan away.
