Chapter Twenty-Eight -

It didn't take Jack long to search and find two unknown sources of alien tech. Rose quickly eliminated the source that she knew was the TARDIS and went after the one that was in the hospital. "Hello?" Jack called out as they entered the hospital, they received no answer.

"Hello?" Rose called out, knowing that the Doctor was there. A few seconds after her voice stopped echoing off the walls, a set of double doors at the end of the hallway flew open as the Doctor ran out of that room. The second she laid eyes on the Doctor, Rose bolted from her spot walking next to Jack and crashed headlong into the Doctor's awaiting arms, nearly knocking them both to the ground.

"Where did you go? Why did you leave me?" The Doctor asked her in a voice barely a whisper.

"Good evening. Hope we're not interrupting." Jack said cutting into their moment. Rose felt the Doctor shift and glanced up to see him glaring at Jack who held out his hand for the Doctor to shake, in response, the Doctor tightened his arms around her. "Jack Harkness. I've been hearing all about you on the way over." Jack told him proudly.

"He know," Rose quickly told the Doctor, gaining an raised eyebrow, "I had to tell him. About us being Time Agents." She explained so that he knew what their story was. The Doctor tightened his grip on her once more as he nodded, letting her know that he understood.

"And it's a real pleasure to meet you, Dr. Spock." Jack said slapping the Doctor on the back, causing the Doctor's glare to darken and a warning growl to crawl its way out of his throat. Something in the room the Doctor had exited caught Jack's attention and he passed them to enter the room, leaving them alone. The Doctor buried his head in her hair and took in her scent.

"Dr. Spock?" He asked her with his nose still buried in her hair causing Rose to chuckle lovingly at him.

"What was I supposed to say? I don't know your name. Don't you ever get tired of 'Doctor'? Doctor who?" Rose asked him with a small smile as she pulled back just enough to look at him.

"Nine centuries in, I'm coping." The Doctor joked as he scanned her over with his eyes. "Where've you been? We're in the the middle of a London Blitz, not the time for a stroll." He hissed at her.

"Who's strolling?" Rose told him with a smirk as she took his hand and began to lead him into the room he had been in when her and Jack arrived. "I went by barrage balloon. Only way to see an air raid." That caused the Doctor to pause in walking, and not wishing to be parted from him, Rose paused as well.

"What?" He demanded.

"There was this boy on a roof, I tried to get to him and stupidly used the rope to a barrage balloon." Rose quickly explained.

"Rose, you didn't touch this boy, did you?" The Doctor asked her urgently.

"Don't worry, Doctor, I didn't even get close enough to touch him before I was swept off my feet." Rose told him before forcing them to start walking again. "What's a Chula Warship?" she asked him.

"Chula?" The Doctor asked just before they entered the room, Rose paused in walking as her eyes took in the room full of gas-masked people laying on the beds that took up all the space in the large room.

"What's wrong with them?" Jack asked in concern.

"You tell me." The Doctor growled at him pulling Rose to him and wrapped his arm around her. They watched as Jack pulled out his scanner and began checking them. Rose could sense that the Doctor's attitude towards Jack had changed from jealousy to out right anger. With just her informing him about the Chula Warship, the Doctor had figured out that Jack had caused this.

"This just isn't possible." Jack muttered before quickly checking another few people. "How did this happen?"

"What kind of Chula ship landed here?" The Doctor asked him, his glare never leaving Jack even as the young man crossed the room to continue checking people.

"What?" Jack asked him, his body language becoming defensive.

"He told me that it was a warship." Rose informed the Doctor. "He stole it, parked it somewhere out there. Somewhere a bomb's gonna fall on it. Unless we make him an offer."

"What kind of warship?" The Doctor demanded as Jack began to pace, his hand touching his lips, a clear sign to anyone that knew him that he was nervous and scared and worried all at once. Jack knew he had fucked up, but he wasn't quite ready to admit it. He didn't want to be responsible for this. He didn't want to be responsible for hurting so many people.

"Does it matter?" Jack snapped out. "It's got nothing to do with this!"

"This started at the bomb site! It's got everything to do with it!" The Doctor growled out, releasing Rose to stomp over to Jack. "What kind of warship?"

"An ambulance!" Jack yelled.

"Call an ambulance! Quick!" Rose gasped and grabbed her head as fragmented clips of memory flooded her mind.

"I found this in the bathroom, Rose. Whose child is it, you worthless whore?" Jimmy demanded throwing the pregnancy test she had left in the bathroom, having been too shocked at the result to throw it away. How could she be pregnant with his man's baby? How could she even think to bring a child into this relationship?

Rose groaned in pain and grabbed her head.

She screamed in pain as Jimmy threw her into the bathroom mirror, the pieces cutting into her back. She tried to fight back when he grabbed her by the hair and pulled her down from the bathroom counter. She landed on her elbow with a sickening crack and screamed in pain again. Why couldn't he just leave her be? Why couldn't he just either kill her or leave her? What had she ever done to deserve this?

Rose fell to her knees, eyes wide open yet seeing nothing.

"Rose!" An American male yelled as he kicked in their apartment door. "Call an ambulance! Quick!" Jimmy was pulled from her, and she groaned in pain as he was ripped from inside of her already sore and abused body. She turned her head and sucked in a deep breath, not having been able to breath with the way Jimmy had held her face to the ground. Her eyes closed, and her body shook with pain and adrenaline as her body began to try and relax as she listened to Jimmy and this mysterious American male fight.

When the fighting stop, she blinked her eyes open when gentle, yet calloused hands turned her onto her back, careful to hold her head and neck still as they did so. "Hello." She groaned out as she took in the baby-doll blue eyes of the American man.

"Hello." The American man told her softly with a pained filled smile.

"Hello." She groaned out again causing him to give her a small chuckle.

"Dull, but thorough." He whispered to her with a smile as if they were sharing an inside joke. "Oh Rosie, I'm so sorry you had to go through this. If I could have, I would have never allowed this to happen to you. You deserve so much better." Tears began to fall from the man's eyes. He was crying for her? Why was he crying for her? "And do you want to know a secret?" He asked as he took off his jacket and covered her with it. "You'll life from here on out is going to be so much better. Fantastic, even. I promise you, Rosie, just you wait and see."

Rose blinked and found herself looking into the concerned eyes of her Doctor. "Rose, what's happening? What's going on? Are you alright?"

"It was Jack." Rose whispered.

"What was Jack? What did he do?" The Doctor demanded looking over his should to glare at a very scared and worried looking Jack, the Doctor's body began to shake with rage.

"He saved me." Rose whispered as tears began to fall from her eyes. "He was the American man all those years ago." The Doctor's body stopped shaking and looked at her in shock. "Some of my memories of that night came back." Rose explained to him quietly. "It was Jack, I'm sure of it. I think that's why he looks exactly like my ideal eye-candy. I was subconsciously looking for him to thank him." The Doctor didn't say anything, he only helped her up, wrapping his arm around her to keep her steady. There was an awkward silence for a long minute. "So, an ambulance? But you told me it was a warship." She said, forcing them all back to the matter at hand.

"They have ambulances in wars." Jack told her weakly before shaking his head and pulling up a schematic of the ambulance they chased here on his obviously modified vortex manipulator. "Look. That's what you chased through the time vortex. It's space junk, I wanted to kid you it was valuable, it's empty. I made sure of it, nothing but a shell." Rose knew that he had honestly thought it was empty. That in his eagerness to con the Time Agency, that he hadn't stop to realize that the Chula race didn't use bandages to patch up their wounded, that they used nanogenes.

"I threw it at you." He told them, his voice and eyes begging them to believe him. To believe that he had nothing to do with this, that his wasn't his fault. "Saw your time travel vehicle, love the retro look by the way, nice panels, threw you the bait..."

"Bait?" Rose asked knowing she wasn't supposed to know about the con just yet.

"I wanted to sell it to you, then destroy it before you found it was junk." He told them angrily before pushing past them towards the exit before pausing as his mind finally registered that they weren't Time Agents. "It's a con. I was conning you. That's what I'm a con man. I thought you were Time Agents. You're not, are you?"

"Sorry, luv, we're just a couple more freelancers." Rose told him angrily, not liking how he was shoving his anger at himself onto them.

"Oh! Should've known, the way you guys are blending in with the local color. I mean, Flag Girl was bad enough, but U-boat Captain?" Jack hissed out glaring at them. "Anyway, whatever's happening here had got nothing to do with that ship."

"What is happening here, Doctor?" Rose asked.

"Human DNA is being rewritten." The Doctor informed her. "By an idiot."

"What do you mean?" Rose asked him.

"I don't know, some kind of virus. Converting humans into these things." The Doctor told her, nodding his head over to one of the many gas-mask people on the beds. "But why? What's the point?" Rose gasped and held onto the Doctor tighter when the gas-mask people suddenly shot up in bed.

"Mummy." They called out as one before chanting the word, all of them looking at her causing Bad Wolf's hackles to rise. She didn't like these people. They were a danger to her, Jack, and the Doctor.

"What's happening?" Rose asked as the gas-masked people got out of bed.

"I don't know." The Doctor said as the three of them back away from the advancing army of gas-mask people. "Don't let them touch you." He warned them as he shoved Rose behind him as they got to the wall so that she was in between him and the wall.

"What happens if they touch us?" Rose asked.

"You're looking at it." The Doctor told them. Rose gripped that back of the Doctor's coat, she felt him tense up. "Go to your room." He ordered them causing them to stop advancing. "Go to your room." He ordered once more and they tilted their heads at him. Rose and Jack shared a look. "I mean it, I'm very, very angry with you. I'm very, very cross." The Doctor looked at each and everyone of the gas-mask people. "Go to your room!" The army of gas-mask people turned and slowly made their way back to their beds. Once the army was back in their beds, the three of them let out a relieved sigh.

"I'm really glad that worked. Those would have been terrible last words." The Doctor breathed out in relief as Rose took his hand. Rose let out a small chuckle before she lead the Doctor over to a bed and forced him to bend down with her so that she could get a good look at the person on the bed.

"Why are they all wearing gas masks?" She asked knowing it would be very suspicious if she didn't ask or make a comment about the masks.

"They're not." Jack told her as he sat at the desk in the room, throwing his feet onto it. "Those masks are flesh and bone."

"How was your con supposed to work?" The Doctor asked as the two of them stood up.

"Simple enough, really. Find some harmless piece of space junk, let the nearest Time Agent track it back to Earth, convince him it's valuable and name a price. When he's put 50% upfront... oops! German bomb falls on it, destroys it forever. He never gets to see what he's paid for, never knows he's been had. I buy him a drink with his own money and we discuss dumb luck." Jack explained as Rose lead the Doctor around the room. "The perfect self-cleaning con."

"Yeah. Perfect." The Doctor growled out.

"The London Blitz is great for self-cleaners. Pompeii's nice if you want to make a vacation of it, though. But you've got to set your alarm for Volcano Day." Jack joked with a laugh earning a glare from the Doctor. And Rose knew that the Doctor was trying to figure out how this Jack wound up being the man who saves her from Jimmy. "Getting a hint of disapproval."

"Take a look around the room." The Doctor growled at him. "This is what your piece of harmless space junk did."

"It was a burnt-out medical transporter, it was empty!" Jack argued glaring at the Doctor.

"Rose." Was all the Doctor had to say before she allowed him to lead her out of the room.

"Where we going?" Rose asked quietly.

"We're going upstairs." He told her.

"I even programmed the flight computer so it wouldn't land on anything living." Jack called to them. "I harmed no one!" Rose glanced back at him and saw the desperate need to know that he hadn't inadvertently caused this. "I don't know what's happening here, but believe me, I had nothing to do with it." He begged her as she forced her and the Doctor to stop walking just before they could leave the room.

"I'll tell you what's happening." The Doctor growled at him. "You forgot to set your alarm clock. It's Volcano day." Sirens began to go off.

"What's that?" Rose asked.

"The all clear." Jack told her softly.

"I wish." The Doctor told him before he left the room with Rose, who heard Jack quickly follow after them. The Doctor quickly found a set of stairs, he led her up them before quickly locating a metal door unlike any of the other doors in the hospital, with the numbers 802 painted on them. They had found Jamie's room.

"Dr. Spock?" They hear Jack call out. From the sound of Jack's hurried footsteps he had began running to catch up to them. The Doctor released her hand, holding up his hand to silently tell her to stay there before he quickly jogged back to the stairs and peered over them.

"Have you got a blaster?" The Doctor asked. Rose heard the sounds of Jack's shoes sliding on the tile floor and a soft thud of him falling to the ground as he tried to stop his forward momentum.

"Sure." Jack panted out a minute later, sounding happy to be of some help to prove that this wasn't his fault. She turned to see the Doctor and Jack jogging down the hallway towards her.

"The night your 'space junk' landed, someone was hurt. This is where they were taken." The Doctor informed them nodding towards the door.

"What happened?" Rose asked.

"Let's find out." The Doctor said moving over to take her hand and move her off to the side so that only Jack was standing in front of the metal door. "Get it open."

"What's wrong with your sonic screwdriver?" Rose asked him quietly as Jack pulled out his blaster and pointed it at the lock on the door.

"Nothing." The Doctor told her as Jack dissolved the lock, opening the door. "Sonic blaster, 51st century. Weapon factories of Villengard?" He asked Jack as he walked over to the man and took the blaster from him to get a better look at it.

"You've been to the factories?" Jack asked him in surprise, remembering how Rose had explained to him how he detested any sort of guns, he had even taken her tiny blaster from her even though it was out of juice with no way to recharge it.

"Once." He told Jack with a smirk.

"They're gone now, destroyed. Main reactor went critical, vaporized the lot." Jack explained.

"Like I said: Once." The Doctor repeated, his smirk widening as he, with a slight of hands, slipped a banana into Jack's weapon holster instead of the blaster that had gone into his bigger on the inside pockets. "There's a banana grove there now. I like bananas. Bananas are good." The Doctor told them causing Rose to laugh at him, understanding what he had said. He had caused the reactor to go critical and vaporize the lot.

"Nice blast pattern." Rose commented as she allowed the Doctor to lead her into the room.

"Digital." Jack told her with a proud smirk.

"Squareness gun? I like it." Rose called to him over her shoulder causing him to laugh before following them into the dark room seconds before the Doctor flipped on a switch. Rose's eyes took in the destruction from the broken chairs to the shattered glass of the window separating this observation room and the patient room to the door of the patient's room torn off it's hinges.

"What do you think?" The Doctor asked them.

"Something got out of here." Jack commented.

"Yeah. And?" The Doctor asked.

"Something powerful. Angry." Jack added.

"Powerful and angry." The Doctor repeated as Rose let go of his hand to walk into the patient's room.

"A child." Rose pointed out nodding towards the child-like drawings that had been taped to the wall inside the patient's room, how they were only up to waist high, as if the person couldn't reach any higher. Toys were scattered along the floor, most of them broken, along with more drawings. Rose bend down to pick up a drawing, showing it to Jack who had followed her in. It was a drawing of a woman.

"I suppose this explains 'mummy'. But how could a child do this?" Jack asked as he took in the room as the Doctor played the last recorded therapy session back.

"Do you know where you are?" The doctor on the recording asked.

"Are you my mummy?" The child asked, a shiver flew through her at the sound of Jamie's voice.

"Are you away of what's around you?" The doctor on the recording asked. "Can you... see?"

"Are you my mummy?" Jamie asked.

"What do you want? Do you know..."

"I want my mummy!" Jamie demanded cutting the doctor off. "Are you my mummy? I want my mummy! Are you my mummy? Are you my mummy? Mummy? Mummy?"

"Doctor, I've heard this voice before." Rose told him as the Doctor slowly made his way into the room.

"Me, too." He told her.

"Mummy?"

"Always a 'are you my mummy?' like he doesn't know." Rose said as the Doctor came to stand in between her and the main door.

"Mummy."

"Why doesn't he know?" She asked as the Doctor began to pace around the outside of the room.

"Are you there, mummy? Mummy?"

"Can you sense it?" The Doctor asked

"Sense what?" Jack asked him.

"Coming out of the walls. Can you feel it?" The Doctor asked and Rose closed her eyes to try and sense what he was feeling. She felt a sense of fear, dread, the need to understand. Was that from them or from the walls? "Funny little human brains. How do you get around in those things?" The Doctor asked as Rose opened her eyes to look at him.

"When he's stressed, he likes to insult species." Rose explained to Jack.

"Rose, I'm thinking!" The Doctor snapped out, but Rose didn't take it personal.

"He cuts himself shaving. He does half an hour on life-forms he's cleverer than." Rose continued to explain to Jack as she turned her body to keep the Doctor in sight knowing that Jamie was bound to show up at any moment.

"There are these children. Living rough round the bomb sites. They come out during air raids, looking for food.

"Mummy, please." Jamie called, alerting Rose that he was there causing her to tense up as the Doctor came to a stop in front of the broken window.

"Suppose they were there when this thing, whatever it was, landed." The Doctor growled out.

"It was a med-ship, it was harmless." Jack told him calmly.

"Yes, you keep saying: 'Harmless.'" The Doctor growled at him. "Suppose one was affected. Altered."

"Doctor." Rose whispered in fear looking behind him to Jamie.

"I'm here!" Jamie told them.

"It's afraid, terribly afraid and powerful." The Doctor continued not realizing the child's voice he was hearing wasn't from the recording any more. "It doesn't know it yet. But it will do." He chuckled nervously. "It's got the power of the god and I just sent it to its room."

"I'm here! Can't you see me?" Jamie asked.

"What's that noise?" Jack asked fearfully, realization dawned on the Doctor.

"End of the tape. It ran out about 30 seconds ago." He whispered to them.

"I'm here now! Can't you see me?" Jamie asked.

"I sent it to its room. This is it's room." The Doctor whispered to them before spinning around to find Jami standing behind him in the observation room.

"Are you my mummy?" Jamie asked looking past the Doctor towards Rose while tilting his head. "Mummy?"

"Why is he looking at me?" Rose asked slowly reaching out to grab the back of the Doctor's coat.

"Okay, on my signal make for the door." Jack ordered, his hand flying towards the banana that he had no idea was in the place of his blaster.

"Mummy?" Jamie asked.

"Now!" Jack cried pulling out the banana and pointed it at the boy. And had the situation not been as dire as it was, Rose would have laughed at the image that created.

"Mummy?" The Doctor quickly pulled out the blaster from his pocket and shot at the wall beside them, creating an opening.

"Go, now, don't drop the banana!" The Doctor ordered.

"Why not?" Jack asked as they quickly squeezed through the square hole made by the blaster.

"Good source of potassium!" The Doctor answered him.

"Give me that!" Jack hissed taking back his blaster, pointed it back at the wall and replaced the hole in the wall as Jamie began walking towards it. "Digital rewind." Jack explained before tossing the banana at the Doctor. "Nice switch." He said with a hint of annoyance.

"It's from the groves of Villengard, thought it was appropriate." The Doctor told him.

"There's really a banana grove in Villengard? And you did that?" Jack asked him in amazement.

"Banana's are good." The Doctor told him with a smirk as he took Rose's hand in his.

"Doctor!" Rose cried as Jamie began to punch through the wall.

"Come on!" The Doctor yelled before leading them down the hallway, only for them to come across some gas-mask people standing guard chanting 'Mummy!'. They quickly turned and ran back down the hall to go down the other way, only to meet the same thing. "It's keeping us here till it can get at us!"

"It's controlling them?" Jack asked pointing his blaster at one of the groups of gas-mask people as him and the Doctor seemed to automatically position them so that Rose was in between them.

"It is them." The Doctor corrected. "It's every living thing in this hospital."

"Okay. This can function as a sonic blaster, a sonic cannon and it's a triple-enfolded sonic disruptor." Jack in formed them as he began to shift from pointing at the group of gas-mask people to the right of the to the wall where Jamie was punching through and back again. "Doc, what you got?"

"I've got a sonic..." The Doctor started pulling his sonic screwdriver from his pocket before suddenly looking embarrassed by it. "Never mind."

"What?" Jack asked.

"It's sonic, okay? Let's leave it at that." The Doctor growled out, the tips of his ears turning red in embarrassment as he turned to face the second group of gas-mask people.

"Disruptor? Cannon? What?" Jack demanded.

"It's sonic, totally sonic. I am sonic up!" The Doctor snapped out.

"A sonic what?!" Jack demanded more urgently.

"Screwdriver!" The Doctor yelled out causing Jack to turn and look at him in shock as Jamie finished punching through the wall. Right, it was time to end this. Rose quickly grabbed Jack's arm that was holding the blaster forcing it to point at the ground.

"Going down!" She cried before she forced Jack to activate the blaster, creating a hole in the floor under their feet, sending them down. Jack quickly replaced the hole they had fallen through in the ceiling. "Everyone alright?"

"Could've used a warning." The Doctor told her.

"I told you we were going down." Rose told him with a smirk.

"Who has a sonic screwdriver?" Jack asked as they got to their feet. Rose glanced around the dark room they were knowing there were gas-mask people in the beds.

"I do." The Doctor growled at him warningly.

"Lights?" Rose muttered knowing that was the only way to alert the Doctor and Jack that they were still surrounded by gas-mask people without giving away that she knew they were surrounded by gas-mask people.

"Who looks at a screwdriver and thinks, 'Ooh, this could be more sonic?'" Jack asked as Rose began to search the walls for the switch.

"What? You've never been bored?" The Doctor asked him causing Rose to roll her eyes at them.

"There's got to be a light switch." She muttered.

"Never had a long night? Never had a lot of cabinets to put up?" The Doctor asked as Rose finally found the light switch and turned the lights on. The gas-mask people shot up in bed while chanting 'Mummy'.

"Door!" Jack ordered as Rose ran back over to the Doctor and took his hand before following Jack to the door. Jack pointed his blaster at the door and tried to dissolve the lock off, but his blaster was out of juice. "Damn it!" He hissed. "It's the special features, they really drain the battery." Jack informed them as the Doctor pushed him out of the way and began to use his screwdriver on the door, quickly unlocking it.

"Go!" Rose told him, grabbing his hand and pulling him into the supply room, slamming the door behind her before moving to allow the Doctor to lock it back up. "Where is that screwdriver you promised me, Doctor?" Rose asked.

"I'm still working on it, Rose." He hissed at her.

"I was going to send for another one, but somebody's got to blow up the factory." Jack hissed out as he began to pace the storage room angrily.

"Oh, I know. First day I met him, he blew up my job." Rose told Jack. "That's practically how he communicates." She added jokingly as she fell into a wheelchair.

"Okay, that door should hold it for a bit." The Doctor announced once he was done sonicing it.

"The door? The wall didn't stop it." Jack hissed out.

"It's got to find us first!" The Doctor growled back. "Come on, we're not done yet. Assets."

"Well, I've got a banana and, in a pinch, you could put up some shelves." Jack hissed at them as Rose shot up from the wheelchair and began to help the Doctor search the room. Rose bit back a chuckle, she had forgotten how sassy Jack could be when he was pissed.

"Window?" The Doctor asked climbing up to the barred window and looked out it.

"Barred. Sheer drop. Seven stories." Jack informed the Doctor as he sat down in the wheelchair Rose had been in earlier.

"And no other exits." Rose pointed out.

"Well, the assets conversation went in a flash, didn't it?" Jack hissed out.

"So where'd you pick this one up, then?" The Doctor asked her as he jumped down from the window and pulled her to him.

"She was hanging from a barrage balloon, I had an invisible spaceship. I never stood a chance." Jack told him with a smirk receiving a dark growl from the Doctor and a glare from Rose.

"Nothing happened, Doctor." Rose whispered to him, the Doctor looked at her for a minute before nodding, believing her.

"Okay. One," The Doctor started letting her go to look back at the window, "we've got to get out of here. Two, we can't get out of here." Rose turned to look at him. "Have I missed anything?" There was a strange sound coming where Jack was sitting and Rose turned to see that the man was now gone.

"Yeah. Jack's gone." Rose informed the Doctor.