"Hello" - Speech
"Hello" - Gallifreyan
'Hello' - Mental Speech
The Doctor and the Teacher were running around the console room, piloting Tardis, roughly, through space in pursuit of a small spacecraft.
"What's the emergency?" Rose asked, while holding onto the railing.
"It's mauve." The Doctor stated, still piloting.
"Mauve?" Rose frowned.
"The universally recognised colour for danger." The Teacher explained, while he continued to help the Doctor pilot - and fix any mistakes he had made.
"What happened to red?"
"That's just humans." The Doctor said. "By everyone else's standards, red's camp. Oh, the misunderstandings. All those red alerts, all that dancing."
"Whatever this thing is It's got a very basic flight computer." The Teacher stated, looking at the monitor, "I've hacked in, slaved the Tardis - which was probably not the best idea - where it goes, we go."
"And that's safe, is it?" Rose asked nervously.
"Totally."/"Not Really." The Doctor and the Teacher said simultaneously.
There was a sudden bang, causing the Tardis to shake more than it already was. "Okay, reasonably. Should have said reasonably there." The Doctor muttered.
"Oh Great!" The Teacher shouted sarcastically, "It's jumping time tracks, getting away from us."
"What exactly is this thing?" Rose asked.
"No idea." The Doctor said, the Teacher just shook his head and shrugged.
"Then why are we chasing it?"
"It's mauve and dangerous." The Doctor said.
"Not to mention it's about thirty seconds from the centre of London." The Teacher added, as he rushed around the console, still piloting.
Rose when wide eyed at this, and stared at the monitor in shock, while the two time lords continued to pilot.
~O~
The Tardis materialised in a back alley, surrounded by very tightly packed housing, the Teacher stepped out first, shortly followed by the Doctor and Rose.
The Teacher took out his notebook and pen before taking a large sniff. "Early 1940s, interesting…" he muttered - too quietly for the others to hear - while he made notes on what he could see.
"Do you know how long you can knock around space without happening to bump into Earth?" The Doctor commented, looking at Rose.
"Five days?" Rose answered sarcastically, "Or is that just when we're out of milk?"
"Of all the species in all the Universe and it has to come out of a cow." The Doctor lamented.
"So.." The Teacher began, putting his notebook away, the other two looked over to him, "It must have come down somewhere close to hear. Likely within a mile, won't have been any longer than a month ago."
"A month?" Rose questioned, shocked. "We were right behind it!"
"It was jumping time tracks all over the place." The Doctor explained. "We're bound to be a little bit out. Do you want to drive?"
"Yeah." Rose smirked, "How much is a little?"
"A bit."
"Is that exactly a bit?"
"Ish."
"What's the plan, then?" Rose finally asked. "Are you going to do a scan for alien tech or something?" She said as she looked curiously to the Doctor.
"Rose, it hit the middle of London with a very loud bang." The Doctor stated, before getting a smug look on his face. "I'm going to ask." He finished as he pulled out his psychic paper, while the Teacher pulled out his own on his lanyard..
"Doctor John Smith and Charlie Davis, Ministry of Asteroids?" Rose spoke as she read.
"It's psychic paper. It tells you-"
"Whatever you want it to tell me, I remember." She cut him off.
"Sorry." The Doctor apologised, as the three of them came to a door marked 'deliveries only'.
"Not very Spock, is it, just asking." Rose commented, shaking her head.
"Door, music, people." The Doctor said, before looking to the Teacher and Rose. What do you think?"
"I think you should do a scan for alien tech." Rose snarked, "Give me some Spock, for once. Would it kill you?" She then looked to the Teacher, "Teach, please tell me you're going to scan for Alien tech?"
"Once he's had his fun." The Teacher told her with a laugh, "You know what he's like, if we don't do this, he'll spend the next week sulking." He finished, ruffling her hair, before moving over to open the door with his sonic pen.
"Are you sure about that t-shirt?" The Doctor asked, looking at Rose's Union Jack T-Shirt.
"Too early to say." She hummed. "I'm taking it out for a spin."
"Mummy? Mummy?" A voice, that only Rose heard, called out.
"Come on then you lot, best get this over with." The Teacher spoke, before going inside, the Doctor following - neither of them noticing that Rose wasn't with them.
~O~
The Doctor and the Teacher walked down a dimly lit corridor, before following a waiter through a bead curtain. They walked into a much larger room, filled with people drinking and smoking listening to a singer and a band on a stage.
"For nobody else gave me the thrill. When I have uphold silence still, it had to be you, wonderful you…" The Singer sang. "...It had to be you." She finished, the audiences applauded as she left the stage.
The Doctor ran up onto the stage and took the microphone. "Excuse me. Excuse me. Could I have everybody's attention just for a mo? Be very quick." He spoke into it. "Hello! Might seem like a stupid question, but has anything fallen from the sky recently?" He asked, leading to silence before the audience broke out into laughter.
The Teacher sighed and rubbed his eyes at the Doctor, he had seen the posters when he entered the room, and already knew it was the early 1940s from when he left the tardis - he realised now that the Doctor mustn't have taken the time to realize where exactly they were. Rather than point this out, he left the Doctor to see how long it would take.
"Sorry, have I said something funny? It's just, there's this thing that I need to find. Would've fallen from the sky a couple of days ago…" An Air raid siren started, causing everyone to begin packing up and leaving. "Would've landed quite near here. With a very loud…"
"Quickly as you can, down to the shelter." A Man's voice could be heard.
The Doctor looked over to the Teacher, and saw him point to a poster on the wall that stated 'Hitler will send no warning' "...Bang." He finished with a look of exasperation on his face.
"Observant as always." The Teacher chuckled as he walked back up to the Doctor, who grumbled in response. "Don't worry about it Kiddo, nobody but me saw it happen." The Teacher then looked around, "Speaking of Kiddos, where's Rose?" He asked, the Doctor noticing she wasn't there either.
~O~
The Doctor and the Teacher ran out of the building and back into the Alley where the Tardis was, "Rose?" The Doctor shouted, searching to see if she was still in the Alley.
A cat meowed on the top of a bin, causing both Time Lords to turn to it, the Teacher, being closer, began stroking it.
"You know, one day, just one day, maybe, I'm going to meet someone who gets the whole don't wander off thing." The Doctor spoke as he also reached forward to stroke the cat. "Nine hundred years of phone box travel, it's the only thing left to surprise me."
"If they listened to everything you said, it would take most of the fun out of it." The Teacher commented. "Plus, you were never one to listen."
Before the Doctor could say anything back, the tardis phone began ringing - causing both time lords to frown at something which should have been impossible. They both stepped forward, as the Doctor opened the small door to the phone compartment.
"How can you be ringing?" The Doctor asked, "What's that about, ringing? What am I supposed to do with a ringing phone?" He continued as the Teacher started scanning it with his sonic pen.
"Don't answer it." A voice from behind them warned, causing them to turn to see a young girl in a thick coat, "It's not for you."
"How do you know?" The Teacher asked.
"'Cos I do." She answered. "And I'm telling you, don't answer it."
"Well, if you know so much, tell me this. How can it be ringing?" The Doctor asked. "It's not even a real phone. It's not connected, it's not-"
"She's gone." The Teacher said, having been writing in his notebook while the Doctor spoke.
The Doctor turned around to see that the girl had indeed vanished, before looking back to the phone and answering it - holding it so that both he and the Teacher could hear. "Hello? Hello?" He spoke into it. "This is the Doctor speaking. How may I help you?" He continued, hearing only static noise.
"Mummy?" A child's voice came over the phone, causing the Teacher to stop writing and look up at the Doctor with a frown. "Mummy?"
"Who is this? Who's speaking?"
"Are you my mummy?"
"Who is this?"
"Mummy?"
"How did you ring here? This isn't a real phone. It's not wired up to anything."
"Mummy?" The child asked once more before the line went dead, causing the Doctor to place the phone back.
"Rose?" The Doctor asked, as he knocked on the Tardis and peered in to see if the firl was in there, "Rose, are you in there?"
There was a sudden crash behind both timelords, causing the Doctor to close the Tardis door, and the Teacher to put his notebook away before the two of them began running - following the sound until they reached part of a fence.
"The planes are coming." A woman's voice could be heard from the other side of the fence. "Can't you hear them? Into the shelter. None of your nonsense, now move it!"
Both time lords moved over to the bins to get a better look over the wall, where they could see a rather plump Woman ushering a young boy into an air raid shelter. "Come on, hurry up, get in there. Come on." Before she looked back at the house. "Arthur! Arthur, Will you hurry up? Didn't you hear the siren?"
A man stepped out of the house, as large as the woman, "Middle of dinner, every night. Blooming Germans. Don't you eat?!" He shouted as he shook his fist towards the sky - causing the two aliens to chuckle quietly.
"I can hear the planes!" The woman urged.
"Don't you eat?!"
"Oh, keep your voice down, will you? It's an air raid!" She said, pushing the man towards the shelter. "Get in. Look, there's a war on."
"I know there's a war on. Don't push me…" The man said as the door to the shelter closed behind them.
As the family closed the door of the shelter, both time lords watched as the girl from earlier entered the garden and snuck into the house - before taking tinned goods from a cupboard.
~O~
Within the dining room of the house, now full of children sat around the dinner table, the girl from earlier was cutting up the roasted meat on the table, all of them too busy to notice the Doctor and the Teacher sneaking into the room from the back.
"It's got to be black market." One of the boys commented in a whisper, "You couldn't get all this on coupons."
"Ernie, how many times?" The girl said to him as she turned to him with a glare. "We are guests in this house. We will not make comments of that kind... Washing up." She finished, causing the other children to laugh at the boy's expense.
"Oh, Nancy!" The boy, now known to be Ernie, complained.
'Well, we know her name now.' The Teacher spoke mentally to the Doctor as they both slipped into the dining room.
"Haven't seen you at one of these before." Nancy remarked to a young boy close to her at the table.
"He told me about it." He nodded to another boy next to him.
"Sleeping rough?"
"Yes, miss."
"All right, then." She said with a nod, before handing the plate around - nobody noticing at the two time lords sat at the table. "One slice each, and I want to see everyone chewing properly."
"Thank you, miss." One boy shouted.
"Thanks, miss." Ernie said.
"Thank you miss." Another boy said as he took a slice from the plate.
"Thanks, miss!" The Doctor said cheerily, as he took two slices from the plate and put one on the Teachers plate - the Teacher nodding in thanks.
The children began to panic, looking at both adults sitting at the table, fearing that they were in trouble and had been caught by people who live there.
"It's all right." Nancy reassured them. "Everybody stay where you are!"
"Good here, innit?" The Doctor grinned at the children.
"Someone pass the salt." The Teacher requested. One of the younger boys close to him passed him the salt shaker, causing the Teacher to wink at him and ruffle his hair in thanks.
"Back in your seats." Nancy commanded. "They shouldn't be here either."
"So, you lot, what's the story?" The Doctor asked as he helped himself to some sauce, before asking the Teacher if he wanted any and pouring some on his plate.
"What do you mean?" Ernie asked.
"You're homeless, right?" The Teacher asked, slicing the meat on his plate, "Living rough?"
"Why do you want to know that?" An older boy asked, "Are you coppers?"
"Of course we're not coppers." The Doctor scoffed. "What's a copper going to do with you lot anyway? Arrest you for starving?" He asked, earning a small laugh from the children.
"I make it 1941." The Teacher commented with a frown as he began to eat. "You lot shouldn't even be in London. You should've been evacuated to the country by now."
"I was evacuated." The new boy said. "Sent me to a farm."
"So why'd you come back?" The Doctor asked, frowning.
"There was a man there…" The boy spoke, the Doctor nodded in understanding.
The Teacher noticed this and placed a hand on the Doctor's shoulder, realising what he was remembering and how badly it had hurt him, no matter how long ago it was.
"Yeah, same with Ernie." The older boy remarked, snapping the time lords back to reality. "Two homes ago."
"Shut up." Ernie said as he elbowed him, "It's better on the streets anyway. It's better food."
"Yeah. Nancy always gets the best food for us."
"So, that's what you do, is it, Nancy?" The Doctor said with a grin.
"What is?" Nancy said as she looked over to him.
"Sirens go off, you look for a huge family meal - all still warm - and feed all the homeless kids you can find. All you can eat as long as no bombs get you." The Teacher stated, amazed at Nancy for undertaking such a task at what seemed to be a young age, not as young as she looked - he had noticed that - but still very young.
"Something wrong with that?" Nancy said defensively.
"Wrong with it?" The Doctor scoffed. "It's brilliant. I'm not sure if it's Marxism in action or a West End musical." He finished, the children looking to him a bit lost, while the Teacher just rolled his eyes.
"Why'd you follow me?" Nancy asked the two. "What do you want?"
"We want to know how a phone, which isn't a phone, can get a phone call." The Teacher said. "You seem to be the one to ask about it."
"I did you a favour. I told you not to answer it, that's all I'm telling you."
"Great, thanks. And I want to find a blonde in a Union Jack. I mean a specific one. I didn't just wake up this morning with a craving." The Doctor said, causing the children to laugh a little. "Anybody seen a girl like that?" He finished, as Nancy stood and took his plate away - but left the Teacher's as he had almost finished his anyway. "What have I done wrong?"
"You took two slices." Nancy said simply, causing both the children and the Teacher to laugh at him - the Doctor sent a glare back at the Teacher. "No blondes, no flags. Anything else before you leave?"
"Yes, there is." The Teacher said as he finished his last bite. "There's something we've been looking for, something which would have fallen from the sky about a month ago. Not a bomb, wouldn't have exploded or anything like that, but would have just buried itself in the ground." He took out his notebook and began drawing on a fresh page, "It would've looked something like this." He said as he held up the drawing of what looked to be a cylinder.
Nancy looked at the drawing, her eyes widening, but didn't say anything, this not going unnoticed by the Teacher.
There was a sudden knock at the door, causing the children to jump back and gasp in fear. "Mummy? Are you in there, mummy?" A child's voice could be heard.
The Doctor and the Teacher stood from the table and moved to the window, moving the curtain to see a young boy with a gas mask standing there. The Doctor and the Teacher shared a look, both confused by the appearance of the child, and why everyone else seemed so afraid.
"Mummy?" The Child repeated.
"Who was the last one in?" Nancy asked the children in the room urgently.
"Them." Ernie said, motioning to the two time lords.
"No, they came round the back. Who came in the front?"
"Me." The new boy admitted.
"Did you close the door?"
"I..."
"Did you close the door?!" Nancy asked again more urgently.
"Mummy?" The Child repeated as his shadow moved from the window back towards the door. "Mummy? Mummy?"
Nancy ran into the hallway and bolted the front door shut just before the child could get in. Breathing heavily as she started at the child's shadow.
"What's this, then?" The Doctor asked as he and the Teacher came to the doorway, the Teacher taking notes in his notebook. "It's never easy being the only child left out in the cold, you know."
"I suppose you'd know." Nancy scoffed at him.
"I do actually, yes." The Doctor said smiling, The Teacher giving him a small pat on the arm as a sign of reassurance.
"It's not exactly a child." Nancy said as she moved back into the dining room.
"Mummy?" The Child's voice was heard once more.
"Right, everybody out. Across the back garden and under the fence." Nancy said to the children, who just stared back at her. "Now! Go! Move!" The children all began to grab their coats and flee, Nancy moved to help the last little girl, looking to be no older than four. "Come on, baby, we've got to go, all right? It's just like a game. Just like chasing. Take your coat, go on." She said as the little girl moved from her chair and ran. "Go!"
"Mummy? Mummy?" The Child's voice rang out once more, bringing the two time lord's attention back to it. "Please let me in, mummy." He said as a small hand, with a scar on the back came through the letter slot. "Please let me in, mummy."
"Are you all right?" The Doctor asked.
"Please let me in." The Child repeated, before pulling his hand back as something broke as it hit the door, causing the time lords to look around to see Nancy.
"You mustn't let him touch you!" She warned.
"What happens if he touches us?" The Teacher frowned.
"He'll make you like him."
"And what's he like?"
"I've got to go." She said, moving to leave.
"Nancy," The Doctor called, causing her to stop. "What's he like?"
Nancy was silent for a moment, before simply stating, "He's empty."
The phone suddenly began to ring, causing all three of them to look at it.
"It's him." Nancy stated. "He can make phones ring. He can. Just like with that police box you saw."
The Doctor picked up the phone, hearing the child speak on the other side. "Are you my mummy?" Before Nancy grabbed the phone from him and placed it back on the hook.
Back in the dining room, the radio started up, playing some music before switching to the child's voice. "Mummy? Please let me in, mummy."
(Then a clockwork monkey starts up.)
The Doctor and the Teacher moved into the room, the Doctor began fiddling with the radio as a clockwork money turned on - the child's voice rang through it. "Mummy, mummy, mummy."
"You stay if you want to." Nancy stated as the two time lords began to examine the toy, before she left.
"Mummy?" The time lords looked up to see the scarred hand come through the slot once more. "Let me in please, mummy. Please let me in."
"Your mummy isn't here." The Teacher told the child gently.
"Are you my mummy?"
"No mummies here. Nobody here but us chickens." The Doctor commented, looking around to see that Nancy had gone, "Well, us two chickens anyway."
"I'm scared."
"Why are those other children frightened of you?" The Teacher asked with a frown - remembering how the other children had been scared of the master in the academy when they were young - not that anybody but himself and the Doctor were ever truly not scared by him.
"Please let me in, mummy. I'm scared of the bombs."
The Doctor looked to the Teacher, who nodded at him, before he moved closer to the door. "Okay. I'm opening the door now." The child pulled his hand back from the slot and the Doctor opened the door, however as the door opened they saw that the child was gone.
"So…" The Teacher started. "He's fast, very fast."
The Doctor just nodded, staring at the empty space outside the door.
~O~
The Doctor and the Teacher had followed Nancy from the house, still trying to get more answers about what they had followed to Earth. They watched as Nancy walked into a shack in the railway and began hiding the food that she had stolen earlier, before she turned to see the time lords smiling at her.
"How'd you follow me here?" Nancy asked as she eyed them carefully.
"I'm good at following, me." The Doctor said cheerily.
"He's got the nose for it." The Teacher whispered to Nancy with a smile, making her smirk slightly.
"People can't usually follow me if I don't want them to." She said as her smirk turned to a frown.
"Have you seen it? That nose has special powers." The Teacher said, trying to cheer Nancy up.
"Yeah?" Nancy said, smirking once more, "That's why it's…"
"What?" The Doctor frowned as the Teacher began to chuckle.
"Nothing."
"What?"
"Nothing." Nancy said, before turning to the Teacher, "Do his ears have special powers too?" causing him to laugh louder with her.
"What are you trying to say?" He said to them, mock offended.
"Goodnight, Misters." Nancy said with a laugh as she began to turn around.
"Nancy," The Doctor called her name suddenly, making her turn around. "There's something chasing you and the other kids. Looks like a boy and it isn't a boy, and it started about a month ago, right?"
"The thing that we asked you about, the thing that fell from the sky - that's when it landed, you know more about it don't you?" The Teacher added.
"There was a bomb." Nancy nodded. "A bomb that wasn't a bomb. Fell the other end of Limehouse Green Station."
"Take us there." The Doctor requested.
"There's soldiers guarding it." She shook her head. "Barbed wire… You'll never get through."
"Try us." The Teacher said with a smirk.
"You sure you want to know what's going on in there?"
"We really want to know." The Doctor said, as the Teacher nodded.
"Then there's someone you need to talk to first."
"And who might that be?" The Doctor frowned.
"The Doctor." Nancy said simply before turning and walking away.
The Doctor stood there, confused by that - understanding that it was likely a human doctor that she was talking about.
"Please, Please, Please be human." The Teacher was saying as he had his eyes closed and his fingers crossed. "I don't need to look after two of them."
The Doctor just hit him on the arm, the Teacher chuckled, before they began to walk off, following Nancy.
"Seriously though," The Teacher said as he turned to the Doctor as they walked, "please never let me have to deal with two of you, and god forbid three…" causing the Doctor to smirk and laugh as they continued.
~O~
The Doctor and the Teacher stood a ways from the bombsite, looking it over from above - each through a pair of binoculars, the Teacher juggling looking through them and taking notes.
"The bomb's under that tarpaulin." Nancy said from behind them. "They put the fence up over night. See that building? The hospital?"
"What about it?" The Doctor asked, as the time lords looked through their binoculars at the building.
"That's where the doctor is. You should talk to him."
"For now, I'm more interested in getting in there." The Doctor said, looking at the fencing.
"Talk to the doctor first." Nancy insisted.
"Why?"
"Because then maybe you won't want to get inside." Nancy said, as she turned to leave.
"Where're you going?" The Doctor asked.
"There was a lot of food in that house. I've got mouths to feed. Should be safe enough now."
"Who did you lose?" The Teacher asked softly.
"What?" Nancy said as she swallowed nervously.
"I know what it's like to lose a child." The Teacher said, sorrow clear in his eyes. "It's why you look after those children, because you're trying to make up for losing someone." He finished.
The Doctor looked to the Teacher sadly, he remembered what his sisters were like, they were his family, along with the Master. The Teacher and his wife, Archie, had raised them all together, and while his sisters were a few hundred years younger than him and the Master, they were still very close. While the two girls may have been the Teacher's only biological children, he never treated himself for the Master any differently, but he noticed the difference after they had been killed in the war, both the Teacher and Archie were... broken because of it, something which only got worse when the Master went MIA.
"My little brother. Jamie." Nancy said quietly after a moment. "One night I went out looking for food. Same night that thing fell. I told him not to follow me, I told him it was dangerous, but he just... He just didn't like being on his own." The Teacher just nodded and placed a comforting hand on her arm.
"What happened?" The Doctor frowned.
"In the middle of an air raid?" Nancy glared at him, as the answer was already clear. "What do you think happened?"
"Amazing." The Doctor said as he nodded.
"What is?"
"1941." He replied, as he turned to look at the planes. "Right now, not very far from here, the German war machine is rolling up the map of Europe. Country after country, falling like dominoes. Nothing can stop it. Nothing. Until one, tiny, damp little island says no. No. Not here. A mouse in front of a lion. You're amazing, the lot of you." He said as he looked to Nancy. "Don't know what you do to Hitler, but you frighten the hell out of me. Off you go then do what you've got to do. Save the world." He finished, The Teacher nodded at her, as she turned to walk away.
The Doctor turned back to the Teacher to see him staring out blankly, he knew that no matter how much the Teacher came off as strong, that inside he was still broken over the loss that he had suffered in the war - they all had been. "It wasn't your fault." The Doctor said to him in Gallifreyan, "What happened to the girls and the Master… none of it was your fault." He finished, as the Teacher looked to the ground.
"Maybe not directly." The Teacher started. "But I should have been there… When that Bastard gloated about what he'd done…" The Teacher broke off as he began to sob. "They died... scared... and... alone… I don't even know how your brother died, and that hurts me just as much…" He could no longer continue, speaking of the war was difficult at the best of times, but speaking about the losses was near impossible.
The Doctor reached over and pulled the man into a hug, something he wouldn't often do - but it was greatly needed at the time, for both of them. "I blame myself just as much." The Doctor said, "If I had joined the fight earlier, maybe things would have gone differently, my own children might still be here." He said as he gripped the Teacher tighter.
"Or I could have lost you as well." The Teacher said quietly as they both pulled away slowly. "I thank whatever God there is everyday that you're still here, If I had lost all of you… losing my other kids and my grandchildren… but we've got each other..." He trailed off, finding it increasingly difficult to continue.
"Right then." The Teacher said, as coughed away any remaining tears, "That's enough emotions for one day, we've still got work to do." He gave the Doctor a small smile, before they turned and began walking to the Hospital.
~O~
The two time lords approached the hospital, coming to a padlocked gate - which was quickly sorted as the Doctor used his sonic screwdriver to open the lock. Inside, they walked through a dark ward, the beds all full with patients - all wearing gas masks. The Teacher was taking notes as they walked through, beginning to formulate some theories about what was occurring. They continued walking, walking into an even larger ward with more beds filled with patients, all wearing gas masks. They turned, hearing a noise, to see an old man in a white doctor's coat enter the room, leaning on a walking stick.
"You'll find them everywhere. In every bed, in every ward." The man informed them. "Hundreds of them."
"Yes, I saw." The Doctor remarked, while the Teacher continued taking notes, "Why are they still wearing gas masks?"
"They're not." The man said, causing the Teacher to look up sharply. "Who are you?"
"I'm, er." The Doctor hesitated, "Are you the doctor?"
"Doctor Constantine." The man nodded, "And you are?"
"Nancy sent us." The Teacher supplied simply.
"Nancy?" Constantine's eyes widened, "That means you must've been asking about the bomb."
"Yes."
"What do you know about it?"
"Nothing." The Doctor stated. "Why we were asking. What do you know?"
Constantine sighed, "Only what it's done."
"These people, they were all caught up in the blast?" The Doctor asked as he looked around at the patients.
"None of them were." He replied with a small chuckle, before coughing violently - he sat down on a chair next to a desk - both time lords approached him carefully in concern.
"You're very sick." The Doctor commented.
"Dying, I should think." Constantine corrected. "I just haven't been able to find the time. Are you a doctor?"
"I have my moments." The Doctor shrugged, as the Teacher closed his notebook and put it back in his pocket.
"Have you examined any of them yet?"
"No." The Teacher shook his head.
"Don't touch the flesh." Constantine warned.
"Which one?" The Doctor frowned.
"Any one."
The time lords shared a look before each pulling out their own sonic devices and began examining the patients.
"Conclusions?" Constantine asked.
"Massive head trauma, mostly to the left side. Partial collapse of the chest cavity, mostly to the right." The Doctor commented.
"Some scarring on the back of the hand and the gas mask seems to be fused to the flesh, but I can't see any burns." The Teacher added.
"Examine another one." Constantine told them.
Both time lords frowned in confusion but moved to look at another body, scanning it to see that it had the exact same injuries. "This isn't possible." The Doctor breathed.
"Examine another."
They rushed to another patient before doing the same. "This isn't possible!"
"No." Constantine nodded.
"They've all got the same injuries." The Teacher said, frowning while looking at the bodies.
"Yes."
"Exactly the same." The Doctor remarked.
"Yes."
"Identical, all of them, right down to the scar on the back of the hand." The Doctor said, neither time lord noticing as Constantine briefly glanced at the scar that was also present on the back of his own hand.
"How did this happen?" The Doctor asked. "How did it start?"
"When that bomb dropped, there was just one victim." Constantine began.
"Dead?" The Teacher asked.
"At first." He nodded. "His injuries were truly dreadful. By the following morning, every doctor and nurse who had treated him, who had touched him, had those exact same injuries. By the morning after that, every patient in the same ward, the exact same injuries. Within a week, the entire hospital. Physical injuries as plague. Can you explain that? What would you say was the cause of death?"
"The head trauma." The Doctor replied.
"No."
"Asphyxiation?"
"No."
"The collapse of the chest cavity?"
"No."
"All right." The Doctor gave up. "What was the cause of death?"
"There wasn't one." The Teacher said. "Was there?"
"No." Constantine nodded. "They're not dead." He said as he hit a metal bin with his walking stick, the noise causing the patients to sit up suddenly in their bed. Both time lords looked around at the patients in alarm at their sudden movement.
"It's all right. They're harmless." Constantine reassured them. "They just sort of sit there. No heartbeat, no life signs of any kind. They just... don't die."
"And they've just been left here?" The Doctor asked, almost in disgust. "Nobody's doing anything?" He finished as the patients led down once more.
"I try and make them comfortable." Constantine murmured. "What else is there?"
"Just you?" The Doctor asked, shocked. "You're the only one here?"
"Before this war began, I was a father and a grandfather. Now I am neither. But I'm still a doctor."
"Yeah. We know the feeling." The Teacher muttered quietly.
The Doctor placed a hand on the Teacher's shoulder. He too had lost his children in the war, but he hadn't been ready to be a father when his children were born, he had no idea how to raise them - and he had been away from Gallifrey more than he was there, leading to him becoming quite distant from them. It led to the Teacher raising them more than he seemed to; something he would never not feel guilty for, especially now as he would never have the chance to repair the distant relationship he had with his children.
It wasn't that he loved his children any less than the Teacher had loved them, or his own. It was just that he never saw himself as having kids, especially when they came around, he wanted to explore and see what was out there; now that he had lost the chance he wanted it more than ever. Still, an estranged relationship with his kids didn't make the loss of them hurt any less, he was just able to push it away easier than the Teacher could - but the Teacher had lost much more than he had.
He was incredibly grateful that the Teacher didn't hold his relationship with his children against him. When he had first come to him and explained how he didn't think he could raise them, and that he couldn't stay, he expected him to cast him out or at least shout at him. Instead he sat him down and explained how he never felt ready when he took him and the Master in, but he could never have left them in the situation they were in. He explained that if he needed to leave, that he would have to return frequently to ensure that his children knew him as their father, but the Teacher knew that he would never be able to remain on Gallifrey for long, he understood that; accepted it even if it was unreasonable.
Now that his chance to be there for his kids was long past, he wished he had come back more frequently, but the idea of being a father had scared him so much that he found himself placing it to the back of his mind, running away from it, something he never seemed to stop doing.
"I suspect the plan is to blow up the hospital and blame it on a German bomb." Constantine said with a sigh, breaking the Doctor away from his thoughts.
"Probably too late." The Doctor said, as he patted the Teacher's arm before moving his hand away, the Teacher shot him a small smile in thanks.
"No." Constantine shook his head. "There are... isolated cases. Isolated cases breaking out all over London-" He broke off as he began coughing violently again, both time lords began walking towards him. "Stay back, stay back. Listen to me. Top floor. Room eight oh two. That's where they took the first victim, the one from the crash site. And you must find Nancy again."
"Nancy?" The Doctor frowned.
"It was her brother. She knows more than she's saying. She won't tell me, but she mi...mi.." He began choking, grasping at his neck. "Mu….mee" He gasped out, "Are... you... my... mummy?"
The Doctor and the Teacher looked on in horror, as the man's face began to contort, as a gas mask forced its way out his mouth. His eyes grew wide and black as they, along with the part coming out his mouth, formed a complete gas mask which was fused onto his face. He slumped over in his chair.
"Hello?" A man's voice was heard calling out in the hall.
"Hello?" Rose's voice followed the men, again out in the hall.
"Hello?" The man's voice came once more, as the Doctor and the Teacher ran through the ward and out into the hall, as Rose and the man ran into them from the other direction.
"Good evening. Hope we're not interrupting. Jack Harkness." The man introduced himself. "I've been hearing all about you two on the way over." As he reached out and shook each man's hand in turn.
"He knows." Rose said to them. "I had to tell him about us being Time Agents." She finished as both time lords raised an eyebrow at her.
"And it's a real pleasure to meet you, Mister Spock, Mister Picard." Jack said as he walked past them into the ward.
Both time lords turned to Rose "Mister Spock?"/"Mister Picard?" They said at the same time looking at Rose in confusion.
"What was I supposed to say? You don't have names." Rose defended. "Don't you ever get tired of Doctor or Teacher? Doctor who? Teacher of What?"
"Nine centuries in, I'm coping." The Doctor said. "Where've you been? We're in the middle of a London Blitz. It's not a good time for a stroll."
"Who's strolling?" Rose smirked as she walked past them. "I went by barrage balloon. Only way to see an air raid."
"What?!"
"Listen, what's a Chula warship?" Rose asked suddenly.
"Chula?" The Teacher asked seriously, as they walked back into the ward.
"This just isn't possible." Jack said, as he used his own device to scan the patients. "How did this happen?"
"What kind of Chula ship landed here?" The Teacher said seriously to him.
"What?" Jack frowned, glancing over to him.
"He said it was a warship." Rose commented. "He stole it, parked it somewhere out there, somewhere a bomb's going to fall on it unless we make him an offer."
"What kind of warship?" The Teacher reiterated.
"Does it matter?" Jack asked, getting irritated. "It's got nothing to do with this."
"This started at the bomb site." The Teacher explained, not shouting but clearly angry. "It's got everything to do with it." He looked Jack dead in the eyes, "What. kind. of. warship?"
"An ambulance!" Jack shouted defensively, unsettled by the Teacher's slow and quiet anger. "Look." He said as he produced a hologram of the Chula ship from his wrist device. "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. I threw it at you. Saw your time travel vehicle, love the retro look, by the way, nice panels. Threw you the bait…"
"Bait?" Rose remarked, looking up at Jack.
"I wanted to sell it to you and then destroy it before you found out it was junk."
"You said it was a warship!"
"They have ambulances in wars." Jack defended. "It was a con. I was conning you. That's what I am, I'm a con man. I thought you were Time Agents." He said before narrowing his eyes at them. "You're not, are you?
"Just a couple more freelancers." Rose smirked.
"Oh. Should have known. The way you guys are blending in with the local colour. I mean, Flag Girl was bad enough, but U-Boat Captain and Highwayman?" He said, looking to the Doctor and Teacher, "Anyway, whatever's happening here has got nothing to do with that ship."
"What is happening here, Doctor? Teach?" Rose asked them.
The Doctor and the Teacher were both looking at Jack quite angrily. "Human DNA is being rewritten by an idiot." The Doctor stated.
"What do you mean?" Rose frowned.
"We aren't sure yet," The Teacher explained to her, "It seems like some sort of virus is changing people into these." He said gesturing to the patients. "But why? What's the point?"
Rose moved to look over one of the patients before they all suddenly sat up, shouting for their mummy. "What's happening?" She gasped as she jumped back.
"I don't know." The Doctor said, looking between the patients in alarm.
The patients all stood, including Doctor Constantine, and began slowly closing in on the four.
"Don't let them touch you." The Teacher warned.
"What happens if they touch us?" Rose asked, looking to the Teacher.
"You're looking at it." The Teacher stated.
The patients continued to close in on them, still crying out for their mummies, blocking off all means of escape for the four trapped in the room.
A.N -
Sorry for the long wait for this chapter, I was just finishing up this semester at Uni so I didn't have much time to write, hopefully I'll have the next one out soon.
There was quite a bit of information surrounding the way that the Doctor and the Teacher feel about the loss of their family in the war. This isn't the only time this will come up so I didn't want to put everything here, but I felt it was a good time to begin showing how the Teacher isn't as strong as he always appears.
Just like the Doctor he is also broken by the war, but more by the losses of his own family rather than that of the moment, like the Doctor is. I understand it may seem somewhat OOC for the way the Doctor acted with his own children, but the way I see it, he seems more focused on wanting to explore the universe than he would to raise his family, but of course as this is my story I have taken some liberty with the character and changed him slightly - this is one such way.
It may also seem strange how the Teacher just accepted that the Doctor wanted to leave, while this may seem like the Teacher was fine with it, he was still angry about it - but understood the Doctor enough to know that if he stayed it would not only make him unhappy, but may have had an effect on the upbringing of his children if he was forced to stay.
Again, more information surrounding this will come up as the story goes on, and while the Doctor's scars surrounding the war are greatly healed with Rose, this may not necessarily be the case with the Teacher - his own scars run deep and will take a long time (and a few select people) to heal.
Thanks for reading and I hope you enjoyed this chapter, if you want to then please leave a review - I would love to read what you think.