"Hello" - Speech
"Hello" - Gallifreyan
'Hello' - Mental Speech
The Patients continued to encircle the four, completely preventing them from reaching any of the exits, leaving no means of escape.
The Teacher moved to stand in front of the group, facing the gas masked people "Go to your room!" He shouted, causing the approaching people to stand still. "Go to your room!" He repeated, as if speaking to punish a child, "I mean it. I'm very, very angry with you. I am very, very cross. Go to your room!"
The gas masked people all hung their heads, as if in shame, and shuffled away, getting back into their beds.
The Teacher breathed a sigh of relief, as the Doctor placed a hand on his shoulder "I'm really glad that worked." The Doctor said to him. "Those would have been terrible last words."
"I had enough practice with you and the Master," The Teacher chuckled, "I'm just glad you never taught the girls to get in as much trouble as you two used to."
"Why are they all wearing gas masks?" Rose asked as she looked at one of the patients.
"They're not." Jack answered, "Those masks are flesh and bone."
"How was your con supposed to work?" The Doctor asked Jack, turning to him from where he was leaning on the wall. The Teacher stood close to him, flipping through his notebook, making occasional notes.
"Simple enough, really." Jack began as he leaned back on a chair. "Find some harmless piece of space junk, let the nearest Time Agent track it back to Earth, convince him it's valuable, name a price. When he's put fifty percent up front... oops! A 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. The perfect self-cleaning con."
"Yeah... Perfect." The Doctor said sarcastically, while the Teacher alternated between glaring at Jack and reading his notes - frowning as he looked over them.
"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 chuckled, before noticing the glares he was getting from both the Doctor and the Teacher, "Getting a hint of disapproval."
"Only a hint? I was going for more than that." The Teacher spat at Jack.
"Take a look around the room." The Doctor spoke up angrily. "This is what your harmless piece of space-junk did."
"It was a burnt-out medical transporter. It was empty!" Jack defended.
"Just because you didn't see anything, doesn't mean that there wasn't something there." The Teacher said quietly, yet sternly, as he began to walk to the door.
"Rose." The Doctor called out as he walked to the door with the Teacher.
"Are we getting out of here?" She asked, moving over to them.
"No, We're going upstairs." The Teacher replied.
"I even programmed the flight computer so it wouldn't land on anything living. I harmed no-one." Jack continued to defend himself as he got up to join the three. "I don't know what's happening here, but believe me, I had nothing to do with it!"
"I'll tell you what's happening." The Doctor turned to look at him. "You forgot to set your alarm clock. It's volcano day." He finished as a siren sounded outside.
"What's that?" Rose asked.
"The all clear." Jack replied.
The Teacher scoffed as the Doctor muttered "I wish." As the four of them left the room, Rose and Jack followed after the time lords.
The Doctor and the Teacher sped up slightly as they walked, both of them still holding some anger at Jack - both of them knowing that Jack was the cause, but neither of them knew exactly what had happened that could make those people like they were.
'So, any ideas?' The Teacher asked mentally.
'Nothing you won't have thought of yourself.' The Doctor replied. 'Anything worth telling me?'
'Nothing major, I've got some theories floating about - Something about it being a Chula ship seems important but I can't think why.'
'You're slowing down in your old age.' The Doctor smirked.
'You're not too old to be sent to your room, The Tardis would keep you in there if I asked.' The Teacher replied back, chuckling as he saw that the Doctor didn't have a reply - knowing he was right.
"Mister Spock?" They could hear Jack call out from below them, "Mister Picard?"
"Doctor? Teach?" They also heard Rose call out.
Both time lords popped their heads out over the banister, a floor above where Jack and Rose were.
"Have you got a blaster?" The Doctor asked Jack.
"Sure!" Jack shouted back as he and Rose ran up to join the time lords, who were standing outside what looked to be a very sturdy metal door.
"The night your space-junk landed, someone was hurt." The Doctor explained. "This was where they were taken."
"What happened?" Rose asked.
"Let's find out." The Doctor turned to Jack. "Get it open."
"What's wrong with your sonics?" Rose asked the time lords quietly.
"Nothing." The Teacher said to her with a wink.
Jack fired his blaster at the door, destroying the lock with a square shaped hole on the door - allowing for it to open.
"Sonic blaster, fifty first century." The Doctor commented. "Weapon Factories of Villengard?"
"You've been to the factories?"
"Once." The Doctor nodded.
"Never been." The Teacher shook his head, "I don't like guns."
"Well, they're gone now, destroyed." Jack remarked. "The main reactor went critical. Vaporized the lot."
"Like I said. Once." The Doctor said. "There's a banana grove there, now. I like bananas. Bananas are good." He smiled as the Teacher patted him on the back, both of them walking into the room.
"Nice blast pattern." Rose remarked, looking at the perfect square.
"Digital." Jack said with a shrug.
"Squareness gun?"
"Yeah."
"I like it." Rose commented, before walking into the room - Jack following behind her, laughing.
The Doctor moved to flip on a light switch - revealing the room, which had been torn apart. The window was shattered and there were toys and papers all over the floor.
"What do you think?" The Doctor asked as he looked around the room.
The Teacher pulled out his notebook as he searched the room himself, noticing how the room seemed to be almost pulsing, feeling almost overwhelming.
"Something got out of here." Jack replied.
"Yeah." The Doctor agreed, "and?"
"Something powerful. Angry."
"Powerful and angry."
Jack walked further into the room, noticing the walls filled with a child's drawings, some toys scattered around - with a small bed in the corner of the room. "A child?" Jack asked, looking at the drawings. "I suppose this explains Mummy."
"How could a child do this?" Rose asked, as the Doctor moved over to a tape machine, pressing a button for it to play.
"Do you know where you are?" Doctor Constantine's voice played.
"Are you my mummy?" The child's voice played.
"Are you aware of what's around you? Can you see?"
"Are you my mummy?"
"What do you want? Do you know…"
"I want my mummy. Are you my mummy? I want my mummy! Are you my mummy?" THe Child's voice continued to play, as the Teacher noted down that all the drawings had the same depiction of what looked to be the child's mother, clearly showing her brown hair. "Are you my mummy? Mummy? Mummy?"
"I've heard this voice before." Rose remarked, looking towards the two time lords.
"Us too." The Doctor nodded, as the Teacher continued to make notes, widening his eyes as he came to a conclusion.
"Mummy?" The child's voice continued to play.
"Always are you my mummy?" Rose said sadly, "Like he doesn't know…"
"Mummy?"
"Why doesn't he know?"
"Are you there, mummy? Mummy?" The Voice continued to play, "Mummy? Please, mummy? Mummy?"
"Doctor?" Rose said warily, as she looked at the Doctor pacing around the room.
"Can you sense it?" The Doctor said to the Teacher, who nodded in reply.
"Sense what?" Jack asked, confused.
"Almost like an energy, coming out of the walls." The Teacher explained, "Can you feel it?"
"Mummy?" The voice continued to play.
"Funny little human brains." The Doctor remarked, as he saw that the two couldn't feel it. "How do you get around in those things?"
"When he's stressed, he likes to insult species." Rose explained to Jack, rolling her eyes.
"Rose, I'm thinking." The Doctor cut in, as he continued to pace.
"He cuts himself shaving, he does half an hour on life forms he's cleverer than…"
"There are these children living rough round the bomb sites. They come out during air-raids looking for food." The Doctor cut in, the Teacher smirked slightly at what Rose had said.
"Mummy, please?" The voice rang out over the tape again.
"Suppose they were there when this thing, whatever it was, landed?" The Doctor said, looking over to the Teacher - who nodded at the wordless question of 'If he had considered that'.
"It was a med-ship. It was harmless!" Jack continued his defence from earlier.
"Yes, you keep saying harmless." The Doctor remarked. "Suppose one of them was affected, altered?"
"Altered how?" Rose asked, frowning.
"I'm here!" The child's voice rang out, however slightly different to before - making the Teacher frown as he looked over to the tape machine, his eyes widening as he saw that the tape had run out.
"So, I've made a very bad mistake." The Teacher began, grabbing the attention of the other three. "The child's afraid, and incredibly powerful - even though he doesn't know it yet." He sighed, "and I just sent it to its room."
"Teach…" Rose began as a loud crackling noise filled the room.
"I'm here." The child said once more, "Can't you see me?"
"What's that noise?" Rose asked, scared.
"End of the tape." The Teacher stated, "It ran out about thirty seconds ago."
"I'm here, now." The child said. "Can't you see me?"
"I sent it to it's room." The Teacher remarked. "This is it's room."
They looked round to see that the child was standing there with them, "Are you my mummy?.. Mummy?"
"Teach?" Rose breathed out, afraid.
"Okay," Jack said calmly, as he began to walk forward, "On my signal make for the door."
"Mummy?"
"Now!" Jack shouted as he pulled a banana from his coat, pointing it at the door like he would with his blaster.
The Doctor laughed slightly, before pulling Jack's blaster out of his coat pocket and pointed it at the wall - using it to make them an exit. "Go now! Don't drop the banana!" He shouted as he and the Teacher ran through, Rose following behind.
"Why not?!" Jack shouted back, as he ran through the hole after them.
"Good source of potassium!" The Doctor called back, as they turned to see the child begin to walk towards the hole after them.
"Give me that!" Jack snapped as he grabbed his blaster back from the Doctor.
"Mummy. I want my mummy." The child called out.
Jack pointed his blaster at the wall and reversed the damage, closing off the child from them. "Digital rewind." He threw the banana back to the Doctor, "Nice switch."
"It's from the groves of Villengard." The Doctor shrugged. "I thought it was appropriate."
"There's really a banana grove in the heart of Villengard and you did that?"
"Bananas are good."
The wall next to them began to crack as the child was making his way through.
"Doctor! Teach!" Rose shouted in fear as she pointed to the wall.
"Come on! Run!" The Teacher shouted as they ran through the corridor and down a flight of stairs, stopping abruptly as they noticed the patients all coming out of their wards, blocking them off. They ran back, ending up back at the wall where the child was breaking through.
"It's keeping us here till it can get at us." The Doctor commented.
"It's controlling them?" Jack asked, as he pointed his blaster at the approaching patients.
"It IS them." The Teacher stressed. "It's every living thing in this hospital."
"Okay. This can function as a sonic blaster, a sonic cannon, and as a triple-enfolded sonic disrupter. Doc, Teach, what you got?"
"I've got a sonic, er. Oh, never mind." The Doctor stuttered out.
"What?"
"It's sonic, okay? We have sonics, Let's leave it at that." The Teacher added.
"Disrupter? Cannon? What?!"
"It's sonic! Totally sonic! We are soniced up!" The Doctor called back.
"A sonic WHAT?!" Jack shouted, irritated.
"Screwdriver!"/"Pen!" The time lords shouted back.
Jack turned to the two in disbelief, as the child finally broke through the wall. Rose grabbed Jack's wrist making him point the blaster towards the floor. "Going down!" She shouted, as she fired it at the floor, the four of them falling into a heap as they hit the floor.
Jack quickly got to his feet, aiming his blaster at the ceiling as he repaired the damage.
"Doctor, Teach, are you two okay?"
"Yeah fine." The Teacher said, as he cracked his back.
"Could've used a warning…" The Doctor muttered.
"Oh, the gratitude." Rose said as she rolled her eyes.
"Who has a sonic screwdriver? And a sonic pen?!" Jack remarked.
"We do." The Doctor said as he moved over to the Teacher, who was dusting himself off still from the fall.
"Lights." Rose commented as she moved to find a light switch.
"Who looks at a screwdriver and thinks, ooo, this could be a little more sonic?" Jack mocked.
"What, you've never been bored?" The Doctor shot back.
"There's got to be a light switch." Rose muttered.
"Never had a long night? Never had a lot of cabinets to put up?"
The lights came on suddenly as Rose found the switch, allowing for them all to see the patients that filled the room. They all got up from their beds as the light came on, calling out for their Mummys.
"Door." Jack said as he ran over to it, trying to open the door with his blaster, which was no longer working. "Damn it!" He shouted, "It's the special features. They really drain the battery." He continued, as the Teacher pulled out his sonic pen and unlocked the door.
"The battery?" Rose scoffed as she followed the Teacher into the storeroom. "That's so lame!"
"I was going to send for another one, but SOMEBODY'S got to blow up the factory."
"Oh, I know. First day I met him, he blew my job up. That's practically how he communicates."
"That's never changed." The Teacher commented offhandedly, "You should have seen some of the stuff he did when he was younger."
Rose frowned slightly at that, while she was used to comments like that from the Teacher, she realised that she had never really asked much about his past. Especially about his relationship with the Doctor. It was clear to her that the Doctor thought of the Teacher as his father, at least to some extent, she had heard him call out 'Dad' when he had been taken by the reaper, and when she relayed that to the Teacher he seemed to be caught off guard by it - but not shocked.
She remembered that the Teacher was also over a thousand years old, and therefore was older than the Doctor, she'd have to ask him more about it when she got the chance.
"Okay, that door should hold it for a bit." The Doctor commented as he moved away from the door.
"The door?" Jack scoffed. "The wall didn't stop it!"
"Well to be fair, it's got to find us first!" The Teacher said, trying to relieve the tension. "Come on, we're not done yet! Assets, assets!"
"Well, I've got a banana, and in a pinch you could put up some shelves." He pointed to the Doctor, "Now, what you could do with a sonic pen is beyond me, What? Does it make marking papers easier?" Jack scoffed.
"God I wish…" The teacher muttered as he moved over to the window.
"Window." The Doctor remarked as he followed the Teacher to it.
"Barred. Sheer drop outside. Seven stories." Jack informed them. Making the Teacher step back from it, and lean on a desk in the room, he pulled out his notebook and began writing - something Rose and the Doctor had become very accustomed to him doing.
"And no other exits." Rose added.
"Well, the assets conversation went in a flash, didn't it?" Jack remarked.
"So, where'd you pick this one up, then?" The Doctor asked Rose as he eyed Jack.
"Doctor…" Rose said warningly.
"She was hanging from a barrage balloon," Jack recounted. "I had an invisible spaceship. I never stood a chance." He finished, causing the Teacher to chuckle slightly as he continued to make notes.
"Okay. One, we've got to get out of here." The Doctor said, pacing as he began to think, "Two, we can't get out of here. Have I missed anything?"
"Yeah. Jack just disappeared." Rose added, making the Doctor turn around to see that Jack had in fact disappeared.
A little later, Rose moved over to sit near where the Doctor was scanning, the Teacher, having now stopped taking notes, was looking around the room.
"Okay, so he's vanished into thin air." Rose said, "Why is it always the great looking ones who do that?"
"I'm making an effort not to be insulted." The Doctor said as he glanced at her, the Teacher just chuckled as he continued to explore the room.
"I mean... men."
"Okay, thanks, that really helped." The Doctor remarked sarcastically.
The radio beside them began to crackle, as Jack's voice could be heard coming over it, "Rose? Doctor? Teacher?" He called out, "Can you hear me? I'm back on my ship. Used the emergency teleport. Sorry I couldn't take you. It's security-keyed to my molecular structure. I'm working on it. Hang in there."
"How're you speaking to us?" The Doctor asked, shaking his head.
"Om-Com. I can call anything with a speaker grill."
"Well, now there's a coincidence." The Teacher added, walking back over to where Rose was sat.
"What is?" Jack asked.
"The child can Om-Com, too." The Teacher explained.
"It can?" Rose asked, as he looked at the Teacher
"Anything with a speaker grill." The Teacher reiterated, "Even the Tardis phone."
"What, you mean the child can phone us?" Rose frowned.
"And I can hear you." The child's voice suddenly came over the radio, "Coming to find you. Coming to find you."
"Can you guys hear that?" Jack asked.
"Loud and clear." The Doctor replied.
"I'll try to block out the signal. Least I can do."
"Coming to find you, mummy." The child called out once more.
"Remember this one, Rose?" Jack asked, before 'Moonlight Serenade' began to play.
"Our song." Rose muttered, as both the Doctor and the Teacher gave her a questioning look.
As the Doctor moved over to the window, beginning to scan the walls with his sonic, Rose moved over slightly to speak to the Teacher, who was sat on a desk close to her, watching the doctor work - deciding now was as good a time as any to learn more about him.
"So Teach…" Rose began, pulling the Teacher's attention from where he was watching the Doctor. "I've known you for a while now, but I've never asked much about you."
"What do you want to know?" The Teacher said back to her, leaning back on the desk he was sat on.
"Why did the Doctor call you 'Dad'?"
"Ah, that's a very long story." The Teacher chuckled, "but I'll give you the short version." He leaned forward slightly as he lowered his voice, as to not let the Doctor hear him. "I met the Doctor when he was just 8 years old, little scared thing he was. He'd just come from the untempered schism - a crack in space and time." He clarified at Rose's confused look, "All Time Lord children have to look into it before they can enter the academy, he was overwhelmed from it, ran almost as soon as he looked into it." He cut himself off laughing slightly. "I was young at the time, no older than 245, and he just grabbed hold of me. Most of the kids weren't as skittish as he was, so I thought he could do with some help - he never left me alone afterwards."
"So what, he just looked up to you?" Rose asked.
The Teacher nodded, "At the start." He sighed, "For a good few decades that's all it seemed to be, until I found out that the schism wasn't the only reason he was that skittish." He began to clench his fist slightly, "He didn't have a great upbringing, not before he came to the academy anyway, and his time at home never got better - his father was not a kind man, and his mother was very neglectful." He paused for a moment, breathing slightly to calm himself down - leading Rose to suspect that it was likely worse than he was saying. "When I found out, I had him removed from their care, and he was placed into mine temporarily, which ended up lasting permanently." He continued, now forming a slight smile on his face. "It wasn't just the Doctor I took in, his best friend, the Master, was in a very similar situation - he was even worse after the schism - so they became brothers."
"The Doctor's father… you must be proud of him then, seeing how many people he's helped."
"You have no idea." The Teacher's smile grew. "You remember I mentioned my wife, Archie? Well 'The Architect', but that was always too long for us to say." He questioned, causing Rose to nod as she remembered him mentioning when they were in 1987. "While we never truly loved each other like a married couple should, we loved the Doctor and the Master as we did our own daughters, and they always saw them as their big brothers. He gets a lot of his adventurous side from her, and her smarts, i'm no slouch - but she was something else when it came to maths and engineering." He chuckled, before his eyes became sad. "Still, they're gone now, taken in the war - I think if I didn't still have him," he said as he pointed towards the Doctor, "I'd go mad."
Rose teared up slightly as she heard the Teacher's voice waver as he spoke about his family, they clearly meant so much to him, she could never imagine losing that many people all at once. She reached out and put her arms around the man, making him chuckle quietly as he hugged back - ruffling her hair before letting go.
"Thanks kiddo." He said with a small smile, "You're good for him you know." He said as he looked over to the Doctor, "He doesn't show it much but he's hurting, you're helping him. For that, I'll be forever grateful to you." He finished with another smile, "Now then, that's enough emotions for now - we've got a planet to save."
Rose simply smiled back, as the Teacher made his way across the room, looked out one of the windows, and pulled out his notebook. She herself sat down in a wheelchair that was near the middle of the Room, and began watching the Doctor scan the barred window. "What you doing?" She asked the Doctor.
"Trying to set up a resonation pattern in the concrete," he explained, not looking away from the window, "loosen the bars."
"You don't think he's coming back, do you?" Rose frowned.
"Wouldn't bet my life."
"Why don't you trust him?"
"Why do you?"
"He saved my life. Bloke-wise, that's up there with flossing." She said, making the Teacher chuckle from across the room. She sighed, "I trust him because he's like you two. Except with dating and dancing." She saw the Doctor shoot her a look, "What?"
"You just assume I'm…"
"What?"
"You just assume that I don't dance."
"What, are you telling me you do dance? Teach I can somewhat see, but you?"
"Nine hundred years old, me. I've been around a bit. I think you can assume at some point I've danced."
"You?" Rose scoffed.
"Problem?"
"Doesn't the universe implode or something if you dance?"
"Well, I've got the moves but I wouldn't want to boast." The Doctor remarked, making the Teacher laugh.
"I remember the lessons Archie taught you," The Teacher commented, still laughing. "I think if we kept them up she wouldn't have had any toes left."
Rose stood and walked over to the Radio, turning up the volume, "You've got the moves? Show me your moves."
"Rose, I'm trying to resonate concrete." The Doctor stated.
"Jack'll be back. He'll get us out. So come on. The world doesn't end because the Doctor dances." Rose said as she held out her hands, the Doctor looking questioningly at them.
"Barrage balloon?" The Doctor asked.
"What?" Rose frowned.
"You were hanging from a barrage balloon." The Doctor clarified.
"Oh, yeah. About two minutes after you left me." Rose remarked, almost offhandedly. "Thousands of feet above London, middle of a German air-raid, Union Jack all over my chest."
"I've travelled with a lot of people, but you're setting new records for jeopardy friendly."
"Is this you dancing? Because I've got notes."
"You'd be in pain if it was dancing." The Teacher remarked.
"Hanging from a rope thousands feet above London." The Doctor continued as he looked at her hands. "Not a cut, not a bruise."
"Yeah, I know." Rose said, "Captain Jack fixed me up."
"Oh, we're calling him Captain Jack now, are we?"
"Well, his name's Jack and he's a Captain…"
"He's not really a Captain, Rose."
"Do you know what I think? I think you're experiencing Captain envy." Rose said, as she rolled her eyes, "You'll find your feet at the end of your legs. You may care to move them."
"If ever he was a Captain, he's been defrocked." The Doctor stated as he just stood there holding onto Rose's hands, not moving at all.
"Yeah?" Rose smirked, "Shame I missed that."
The Teacher looked around to see that they had been teleported onto Jack's ship, he turned to see that Rose and the Doctor still hadn't noticed.
"Actually, I quit. Nobody takes my frock." Jack said as he walked up to the pair. "Most people notice when they've been teleported." He laughed, the Doctor quickly dropped Rose's hands and moved away. "You guys are so sweet. Sorry about the delay. I had to take the nav-com offline to override the teleport security."
"You can spend ten minutes overriding your own protocols?" The Doctor questioned. "Maybe you should remember whose ship it is."
"Oh, I do. She was gorgeous. Like I told her, be back in five minutes."
"This is a Chula ship." The Teacher commented as he looked around.
"Yeah, just like that medical transporter." Jack confirmed. "Only this one is dangerous."
The Doctor snapped his fingers, causing them to glow with a golden shine.
"They're what fixed my hands up Jack called them er…"
"Nanobots?" The Doctor guessed.
"Nanogenes." The Teacher stated, looking at them with a grim expression - everything now fitting into place.
"Nanogenes, yeah." Rose said with a nod to the Teacher.
"Sub-atomic robots." The Doctor explained, "There's millions of them in here, see? Burned my hand on the console when we landed. All better now. They activate when the bulk head's sealed. Check you out for damage, fix any physical flaws."
"Jack, Take us to the crash site." The Teacher commanded, sounding more harsh than he had before. "I need to see your space junk."
"As soon as I get the nav-com back online." Jack said with a sigh. "Make yourself comfortable." He looked to the Doctor and Rose, "You two carry on with whatever it was you were doing."
"We were talking about dancing." The Doctor shouted out quite innocently.
"It didn't look like talking." Jack commented.
"It didn't feel like dancing." Rose remarked.
~O~
A short while later, Rose was sitting closer to Jack at the front of the ship - the Teacher close by, while the Doctor was at the back of the ship. "So, you used to be a Time Agent now you're trying to con them?" Rose asked Jack.
"If it makes me sound any better, it's not for the money." Jack said, as he fiddled with the ship's controls.
"For what?" Rose frowned.
"Woke up one day when I was still working for them, found they'd stolen two years of my memories. I'd like them back."
"They stole your memories?" Rose asked shocked.
"Two years of my life. No idea what I did." Jack said nodding. "Your friends over there don't trust me, and for all I know they're right not to." The computer suddenly beeped. "Okay, we're good to go. Crash site?"
~O~
The four of them made their way closer to the crash sight along the rails, being able to see it through the barbed wire that surrounded it.
"There it is." Jack pointed out, "Hey, they've got Algy on duty. It must be important."
"We've got to get past him." The Doctor stressed.
"Are the words 'distract the guard' heading in my general direction?" Rose said with a smirk.
"I don't think that'd be such a good idea." Jack informed her.
"Don't worry I can handle it."
"I've got to know Algy quite well since I've been in town. Trust me, you're not his type. I'll distract him." Jack said with a wink before walking away. "Don't wait up."
"Relax, he's a fifty first century guy." The Doctor explained to Rose as she gave him a questioning look. "He's just a bit more flexible when it comes to... dancing."
"How flexible?" Rose frowned.
"Well, by his time, humanity has spread out across half the galaxy." The Teacher stated.
"Meaning?"
"So many species, so little time." The Doctor said with a smirk.
"What, that's what we do when we get out there?" Rose said, disgusted, "That's our mission? We seek new life, and, and…"
"Dance." The Doctor said with a nod.
They look to see Jack speaking to Algy, who doesn't seem to respond. He starts to retch before falling to his knees - his face transforming into a gas mask.
"I think we're needed." The Teacher said as the three of them ran forward.
"Stay back!" The Doctor shouted to the soldiers.
"You men, stay away!" Jack added, as they were about to close in.
"The effects become air-borne, accelerating." The Teacher remarked, looking at the transformed algy - before looking to the sky as the air raid sirens started.
"What's keeping us safe?" Rose said with a frown.
"Nothing." The Doctor stated.
"Ah, here they come again." Jack stated, looking to the sky as the sirens continued.
"All we need." Rose muttered, turning to Jack, "Didn't you say a bomb was going to land here?"
Jack nodded, as the Doctor and the Teacher heard someone singing.
"Never mind about that." The Doctor dismissed. "If the contaminants airborne now, there's hours left."
"For what?" Jack frowned.
"Till nothing, forever. For the entire human race." The Doctor stated, before looking around, "And can anyone else hear singing?"
The four of them turned and ran for a close by shed, looking in to see Nancy singing to a sleeping gas masked man. "Rock-a-bye baby, on the tree tops. When the wind blows, the cradle will rock. When the bough breaks, the cradle will fall. Down will come baby, cradle and all." The Teacher slowly entered the room, gesturing for her to keep singing, "Rock-a-bye baby, on the tree tops." He pulled out his sonic pen and unlocked her from the handcuffs, and began pulling her out. "When the wind blows the cradle will rock." They ran back to the bombsite, where the other three were waiting.
The Doctor and Jack pulled the tarp off the chula ship, revealing the ambulance underneath. "You see? Just an ambulance." Jack stated.
"That's an ambulance?" Nancy frowned.
"It's hard to explain." Rose remarked, "It's... from another world."
"They've been trying to get in." Jack noted as he looked at the damage to the ship.
"Of course they have." The Doctor scoffed. "They think they've got their hands on Hitler's latest secret weapon." He then turned to Jack, who was typing in access codes "What're you doing?"
"The sooner you see this thing is empty, the sooner you'll know I had nothing to do with it." Jack stated, before the ship sparked and an alarm rang out. "Didn't happen last time." Jack muttered.
"It hadn't crashed last time." The Teacher remarked. "There'll be emergency protocols."
"Doctor, Teach, what is that?" Rose asked, gesturing to the flashing emergency light on the control panel. "Doctor! Teacher!" Rose shouted in fear as she saw the patients trying to batter the gates down.
"Captain, secure those gates!" The Doctor shouted.
"Why?" Jack frowned.
"Just do it!" The Doctor shouted, before turning to Nancy, "Nancy, how'd you get in here?"
"I cut the wire." She answered.
"Show Rose." The Doctor said as he threw Rose his sonic screwdriver, "Setting two thousand four hundred and twenty eight D."
"What?" Rose frowned in confusion.
"Reattaches barbed wire." The Teacher explained quickly "Go!"
Jack came running back after having shut the gates. He moved back over to the ambulance, getting it open, "It's empty. Look at it."
"What do you expect in a Chula medical transporter?" The Doctor asked Jack angrily. "Bandages? Cough drops?" He turned to Rose, "Rose?"
"I don't know." Rose shrugged.
"You do." The Teacher stated, gesturing to her hands.
"Nanogenes!" Rose realised.
"It wasn't empty, Captain." The Teacher stated, "There was enough nanogenes in there to rebuild a species."
"Oh, God." Jack gasped out in shock.
"Getting it now, are we?" The Doctor asked rhetorically. "When the ship crashes, the nanogenes escape. Billions upon billions of them, ready to fix all the cuts and bruises in the whole world. But what they find first is a dead child, probably killed earlier that night, and wearing a gasmask."
"And they brought him back to life?" Rose frowned, "They can do that?"
"What's life? Life's easy. A quirk of matter. Nature's way of keeping meat fresh. Nothing to a nanogene. One problem, though. These nanogenes, they're not like the ones on your ship. This lot have never seen a human being before. Don't know what a human being's supposed to look like. All they've got to go on is one little body, and there's not a lot left. But they carry right on. They do what they're programmed to do. They patch it up. Can't tell what's gasmask and what's skull, but they do their best. Then off they fly, off they go, work to be done. Because, you see, now they think they know what people should look like, and it's time to fix all the rest. And they won't ever stop. They won't ever, ever stop. The entire human race is going to be torn down and rebuilt in the form of one terrified child looking for its mother, and nothing in the world can stop it!"
"I didn't know." Jack defended. Both time lords gave him a cold stare before turning to continue working on the ambulance as the patients continued to approach.
"Rose!" Nancy shouted in fear, Rose running to her side to see the patients coming towards them.
"It's bringing the gas mask people here, isn't it?" Rose asked.
The Teacher nodded "The ship thinks it's under attack. So it sends out a distress signal - It's calling up the troops. Standard protocol."
"But the gas mask people aren't troops." Rose frowned.
"They are now. This is a battle-field ambulance." The Doctor explained. "The nanogenes don't just fix you up, they get you ready for the front line. Equip you, programme you."
"That's why the child's so strong." Rose realised, "Why it could do that phoning thing."
"It's a fully equipped Chula warrior, yes." The Doctor nodded. "All that weapons tech in the hands of a hysterical four year old looking for his mummy. And now there's an army of them…"
They looked as the patients all came to a standstill at the fence, surrounding them, but moving no closer.
"Why don't they attack?" Jack frowned.
"Good little soldiers, waiting for their commander." The Doctor stated.
"The child?" Jack asked.
"Jamie." Nancy murmured.
"What?" Jack asked her with a look.
"Not 'the child'. Jamie." She said defiantly.
The Teacher looked at Nancy, seeing how she spoke about the boy - proving his theory about her, and the connection that she had to Jamie.
"So how long until the bomb falls?" Rose asked.
"Any second." Jack stated as he looked up.
"What's the matter, Captain?" The Doctor asked, as he turned to look at Jack. "A bit close to the volcano for you?"
"He's just a little boy." Nancy breathed.
"I know." The Teacher said, walking up to Nancy and pulling her into a hug.
"He's just a little boy who wants his mummy." Nancy said with a sob as she teared up.
"I know." The Teacher said as he hugged her, before pulling back. "There isn't a little boy born who wouldn't tear the world apart to save his mummy... And this little boy can."
"So what're we going to do?" Rose shouted out.
"I don't know." The Doctor sighed, while the Teacher just shook his head.
"It's my fault." Nancy said as she began to cry.
"No." The Doctor said, shaking his head.
"It is. It's all my fault." Nancy continued, as the Teacher pulled her back in for a hug.
"How can it be your-" The Doctor frowned, but was cut off as the Teacher held a hand up to him.
"Nancy, you're older than you look." The Teacher stated.
"Doctor, that bomb." Jack said as a bomb dropped close by, turning to the Doctor, "We've got seconds."
"You can teleport us out." Rose turned to Jack, as the doctor was looking at the Teacher and Nancy in confusion.
"Not you guys. The nav-com's back online. Going to take too long to override the protocols."
"So it's volcano day." The Doctor remarked, not turning away, "Do what you've got to do."
"Jack?" Rose said, looking betrayed as Jack vanished - giving Rose an apologetic look.
"You had to lie, a teenage mother in this period - it would have been impossible. You even lied to him." The Teacher said to Nancy, who was still crying into his duster. "Nancy, he's not your brother, and you've been so brave - but it's time"
The gate to the site opened, revealing Jamie stood there, "Are you my mummy?"
"He's just going to keep asking, Nancy." The Teacher said, as he pulled back and looked her in the eye. "He's never going to stop. Its time to tell him."
"Mummy?"
"Nancy, the future of the human race is in your hands. Trust me and tell him." The Teacher said, as he let go of her, she began to walk towards Jamie - who also walked towards Nancy.
"Are you my mummy?" He asked as he walked towards her, The Teacher gave her a slight nudge towards Jamie. "Are you my mummy? Are you my mummy?"
Nancy breathed before replying "Yes. Yes, I am your mummy." She said as she walked towards him.
"Mummy?"
"I'm here."
"Are you my mummy?"
She crouched down to his level. "I'm here."
"Are you my mummy?"
"Yes."
"Are you my mummy?"
"He doesn't understand." The Doctor whispered. "There's not enough of him left."
Nancy continued to speak to Jamie, "I am your mummy. I will always be your mummy. I'm so sorry." She pulled him into her arms, a cloud of nanogenes surrounding them. "I am so, so sorry."
"What's happening?" Rose frowned, "it's changing her, we should-"
"Shh!" The Doctor put an arm out to silence her as he and the Teacher looked at the scene before them. "Come on, please. Come on, you clever little nanogenes. Figure it out! The mother, she's the mother. It's got to be enough information. Figure it out."
"What's happening?"
"The nanogenes are recognising the same DNA." The Teacher explained.
The nanogenes vanished and Nancy fell away from Jamie, the three ran over to them - The Teacher helped Nancy up with Rose, as the Doctor ran up to Jamie. "Oh, come on. Give me a day like this. Give me this one." He pulled the gas mask off, revealing Jamie - completely unharmed - underneath. "Ha-ha!" He laughed as he pulled Jamie up and spun around. "Welcome back! Twenty years till pop music - you're going to love it."
"What happened?" Nancy breathed.
"The nanogenes recognised the superior information, the parent DNA. They didn't change you because you changed them! Ha-ha!" He put Jamie back down in front of Nancy. "Mother knows best!"
"Oh, Jamie." Nancy sobbed as she pulled him into a hug.
A bomb landed nearby, "Doctor, Teach, that bomb…" Rose trailed off.
"We've taken care of it." The Teacher said simply.
"How?" Rose frowned.
"Psychology." The Doctor stated, gesturing to Nancy and Jamie
The bomb began hurtling towards them from above, but before it could hit it got caught in Jack's light beam - Jack sitting astride the bomb.
"Doctor! Teacher!"
"Good lad!" The Doctor called out.
"The bomb's already commenced detonation. I've put it in stasis but it won't last long."
"Change of plan. Don't need the bomb. Can you get rid of it, safely as you can?"
"Rose?" Jack turned to her.
"Yeah?" She smiled at him.
"Goodbye." He said before vanishing, making her smile fall slightly, before reappearing, "By the way, love the tee-shirt." he grinned before vanishing again - leaving Rose smiling embarrassedly.
The Teacher snapped his fingers, summoning some nanogenes, before looking to the Doctor, "You wanna do the honours?" He said with a smirk.
"Don't mind if I do." The Doctor replied as he summoned some nanogenes himself.
"What are you doing?" Rose asked.
"Software patch. Going to email the upgrade. You want moves, Rose? I'll give you moves." He said as he pushed his hands out, sending the nanogenes out to all the patients - all of them falling to the ground. "Everybody lives, Rose. Just this once, everybody lives!"
The patients began to stand up, now back to themselves, the Doctor and the Teacher ran over to them - noticing Doctor Constantine. "Doctor Constantine. Who never left his patients. Back on your feet, constant doctor." The Teacher said with a laugh. "The world doesn't want to get by without you just yet, and I don't blame it one bit. These are your patients. All better now."
"Yes, yes, so it seems." Constantine said as he looked around in confusion. "They also seem to be standing around in a disused railway station. Is there any particular reason for that?"
"Yeah, well, you know, cutbacks." The Doctor shrugged. "Listen, whatever was wrong with them in the past, you're probably going to find that they're cured. Just tell them what a great doctor you are. Don't make a big thing of it. Okay?" He finished, as he and the Teacher walked back over to Rose. "Right, you lot. Lots to do. Beat the Germans, save the world. Don't forget the welfare state! Setting this to self-destruct, soon as everybody's clear. History says there was an explosion here." He then turned to Rose. "Who am I to argue with history?"
"Usually the first in line." She shot back happily, making the Teacher chuckle.
~O~
The Doctor ran up to the console smiling as the Teacher walked with Rose behind the Doctor, chuckling at his energy. "The nanogenes will clean up the mess and switch themselves off, because I just told them to. Nancy and Jamie will go to Doctor Constantine for help, ditto. All in all, all things considered, fantastic!"
Rose laughed at him, "Look at you, beaming away like you're Father Christmas."
"Who says I'm not, red bicycle when you were twelve?"
"What?" Rose blinked.
"And everybody lives," The Doctor continued, making the Teacher laugh, "Rose! Everybody lives! I need more days like this."
"Doctor…"
"Go on, ask me anything. I'm on fire!"
"What about Jack?" Rose asked, The Doctor's grin fading, "Why'd he say goodbye?"
"I've got it sorted." The Teacher said, as he pulled a lever on the console.
~O~
Moonlight serenade was playing once more, as Rose was getting the Doctor to dance with her, the doors open as they were waiting for Jack to come aboard.
"Well, hurry up then!" Rose shouted out to Jack, who quickly ran in. "Okay. And right and turn. Okay, okay, try and spin me again, but this time don't get my arm up my back. No extra points for a half-nelson." Rose laughed.
"I'm sure I used to know this stuff." The Doctor muttered.
"I did tell you he was hopeless." The Teacher laughed, "Close that door will you Jack? Your ships are about to blow, there's bound to be a breeze."
Jack shut the door, and the Teacher set the Tardis into the flight.
"Welcome to the Tardis."
"Much bigger on the inside." Jack commented as he gazed around.
"You'd better be." The Doctor muttered.
Rose rolled her eyes, "I think what the Doctor's trying to say is... you may cut in." She turned to Jack as the Doctor moved over to the console.
"Rose!" The Doctor called out. "I've just remembered!"
"What?"
'In the Mood' began playing, the Doctor dancing and snapping his fingers in time with the music, "I can dance!" The Teacher just smiled from where he was leaning on the railing - remembering the lessons he used to do with his wife when he was younger.
"Actually, Doctor, I thought Jack might like this dance" Rose commented.
"I'm sure he would, Rose. I'm absolutely certain. But who with?" The Doctor stated as he continued to Dance with Rose - dipping her as they danced.
A.N -
Only three more chapters left of this book!
I will definitely be continuing the Teacher's story after Series 1, I have some plans for later series that should be really fun. Not only that but I've also been planning out a second fanfiction which will come out after this book is finished. It will be another time lord OC, but won't begin at the same place the Teacher did - more on that when this story ends.
I wanted to put that little section where Rose asks the Teacher about his relationship with the Doctor in earlier, but I never found a place where it felt right, so I decided to have it here, It wasn't much new - but it just clarifies some things. There is more to their backstory but that will come in later series.
Boom town next, I hope to have this out by the end of the year but I can't promise it will be - I am excited to write it though - its one of my favourite episodes of the series.
I hope you all enjoyed this chapter, and please review if you would like.