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Chapter 28 – A Wedding and an Answer
The wedding took place in the top observation deck of the Asclepius. Plentitude could be seen rotating overhead as the ship had already moved into the planetary, departure position. Other ships could be seen through the transparent walls and ceilings of the room, floating in space. It was a stunning view.
So many people were taking part in the wedding that only The Queen, Princess Ashena, Rose and the children were left to witness it. The Royal Quauhtin and some soldiers had also came over for the event. They all sat as the men that Lewis had picked at his Ten came walking in the door. The Doctor brought in Tony Tyler, with his foot and leg all wrapped up in a bandage. He carried him on his hip, as all of the men took their places next to King Clagl. The men wore their best suits, while the King wore his white robes trimmed in gold.
After the Ten had assembled themselves to stand flanking the King, Clagl shouted, "Let it begin!"
Clagl, walked down the line, inspecting the ten men who stood with him. He started with the Doctor. They bowed to one another. The Doctor found it a bit difficult since he was holding Tony Tyler. The King laughed as he patted Tony on the head and smiled. The King's deep, booming voice loudly declared, "One!"
Next, the King walked to Lance and they bowed to one another. "Two!"
Three was now Licis. The King walked to stand in front of him and they bowed to one another. The King smiled and embraced Licis and laughed. "My dear friend, Licis, is Three!"
Four was Luce, which also made the King smile as he yelled, "Four!"
Polotious was "Five", Gobbo was approved as "Six", Legate served as "Seven", Jack as "Eight", and Stark as "Nine."
The King stopped at Logan, who stood as "Ten." He crossed his arms and looked at him. "This is a very young man. Are you sure you are fit for this task, sir?"
Logan smiled back at the King. "Your majesty. I'm of age. Lewis has asked for my help, and I will always come to his, or Arla's aid, sir."
The King nodded approvingly. "This man will serve as TEN!"
Lance leaned over and whispered to the Doctor. "Logan just became a man in my eyes. Damn."
The Doctor smiled proudly at him. "Yeah."
Lewis and Arla walked in, arm in arm, with large smiles on both of their faces. Arla looked around the room in complete awe.
The Doctor looked back at Rose, who was smiling at him.
'You are so handsome. Is Tony not very heavy?' Rose asked him.
'He's fine. If I put him down, he's going to try to walk on it.' He told her.
'Oh, he won't-'
'Oh, he will. I've met this child. He's just like you. I think you might be related.' He teased her as he smiled.
She bit her lip and laughed. 'You're probably right.'
Lewis and Arla stood in front of King Clagl. He smiled at the pair of them and spoke in his deep, booming voice. "Dearest family, friends, and acquaintances. This morning, we will witness the most excellent of promises that two can make to one another."
"From the beginning of records, the Quauhtin have served the galaxy. Royal and influential families all over the universe have been protected by this most honored profession, from a most noble of people. Trained from the time they can walk, a Quauhtin warrior is said to be worth ten regular men. In keeping with tradition, Lewis has assembled his Ten, who will step in to care for this woman and their family if the need should ever arise. It is each one of these men's solemn oath."
"Arla, as you look at these Ten that your Lewis has gathered for you, you should feel pride in the fact that he is such a man of integrity to gather such a dignified group."
Arla smiled back at Lewis.
The King continued, "Now, we shall exchange the promise of marriage to one another. Please face one another."
Lewis and Arla turned to face one another and took one another's hands. King Clagl helped Arla through the words of the promise, then it was Lewis' turn to repeat the words.
"You, Arla, are what burns brightest in my soul. You are the reason I draw each breath, the reason my heart beats, the reason my skin can feel. You are the one that I choose to be mine. To live to serve. To share my life with. To protect what is most dear to me, your love. Please accept this as my promise."
The Doctor looked back at Rose, who was wiping tears from her eyes.
The King smiled, "Wonderful! Now, as per Earth's traditions, they will exchange a ring."
Lewis and Arla both put rings on the other one's fingers. When they had finished, they both looked up at the King. He smiled at them both.
"I declare this promise has been made! Please, Lewis, thank your bride for us both."
Lewis and Arla kissed, as everyone cheered.
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They were well underway back to Earth. Princess Ashena had said goodbye to her parents. Licio had agreed to stay with her. The Quauhtin, Mortimer and Talbot, had also joined them to serve the Tyler family. Luce had returned with the King and the Queen stating he simply had to return to work, but would come visit Earth soon, now that all three of his brothers were staying there.
They all danced and celebrated in the upper observation deck for several hours. Timon and Poltious returned to the main control room to pilot the ship back to Earth. Genie and Jacob danced together and laughed. Jack took Tony Tyler from the Doctor so he could dance with Rose. After a couple of dances, he decided that his tests where probably finished and asked Rose to join him to check them.
Rose took Sam in her arms and they excused themselves. As they arrived in the hallway, he stopped her and said. "I'm sorry I didn't tell you before. But you are absolutely, stunning."
Rose was in a blue, long sleeve dress that had sheer mesh that covered the sleeves, decolletage, and a sexy back panel. The textured blue knit sculpted a subtle sweetheart silhouette on a darted bodice, before flaring out at a flirtatiously full skirt. She smiled at him as he kissed her quickly.
She looked concerned at him. "You feel….."
"Ill. I'm not feeling well at all." He told her as they started back down the hall together.
"Can you still not tell what's wrong?" She asked as they got to the lift.
He shook his head and sighed. "No. It's odd. It's just….. numb. That sense. I don't know. I did some tests and the computer has been running them while we were doing this. Maybe we'll get some answers."
She nodded as the lift doors opened and they stepped inside. She noticed as soon as they were in the well lit lift. "Wow. You are really pale."
He shrugged his shoulders, "Ah. It's probably the suit. It's making my color look bad."
"No, it's not. You've worn that color a lot. You are very pale."
The lift dinged. She held Sam close as the Doctor wrapped his hand around her waist. He could feel her worry.
They walked down the hall to the med bay. As soon as they walked in, the Doctor rubbed his face. "Friday. I'm back. Are you finished?"
Friday spoke, "Just finishing up now."
Rose walked over to the food replicator and asked for a bottle for Sam. The Doctor didn't notice and sat down in a chair and sighed. Rose could feel his worry and apprehension. The screen above where he sat printed out all sorts of information, some lines in green, others in red.
Friday spoke after a few minutes. "There are several alerts as you can see on the screen, Captain One."
"Change the results to 'manual'. My species doesn't exist in this database." He told Friday as Rose came back over and sat down in a chair near him to feed Sam. He put on his glasses and looked at the results. Rose watched him as she felt his mood change. He took off his glasses and threw them on the desk. "Oh, fucking hell!" He exclaimed.
Rose watched as he covered his face and leaned back. He seemed to be laughing. "What is it?" She asked him.
He laughed as he pointed at the screen. "This shows how damn thick I am. Thick! Wow. I can't believe that."
He rubbed his face as he relaxed. "Oh, Rose. You married an idiot. I'm so sorry to have frightened you so badly. You are never going to believe this."
She could feel his relief and amusement. "What is it?"
He looked at her, "Well, it's not a virus. It's not contagious. It's something completely stupid that I have done."
"Which is?" Rose asked him.
He looked back at her and pressed his teeth together tightly. "Oh, damn. Do I really have to -"
The look on her face told him the answer to that question. He nodded his head and held out his hands. "Right. Okay. From the top. I'm an idiot."
"We've established that, next…." Rose told him.
"My blood sugar has bombed out. I've not been eating much in the past few weeks. Been busy and all." He shrugged it off.
"No." Rose insisted. "Low blood sugar won't just do that. My granddad had problems with that and I know what that looks like. What else is it?"
"Maybe I should hold Sam. Keep me from getting punched." He told her.
She looked down at Sam, then back up at him. "I don't think that would help. What is going on?"
He sighed, "I've not been eating much, at all. I've had maybe three chips in the past 26 hours and 14 minutes. But, I have been drinking. A lot. A whole lot."
"So, what is this?" Rose asked him.
"Alcohol poisoning. I just need to eat something and not drink any alcohol for a while. I didn't realize I had so much since we've been out here." He said.
She looked confused at him. "Hang on a bit. I want to talk about this some more. Let me put him down. Get us something for lunch. Whatever you want. I don't mind."
Sam had fallen asleep in her arms. She walked over, lay him in the cot, then pulled it back over to where they sat.
The Doctor brought a tray over with two bowls of Irish stew, bread and some water on the desk. He sat down and put her bowl in front of her. "Be careful. It's a bit warm."
Rose didn't say anything, but tucked into the stew.
He shook his head, "You are going to yell at me about this Rose. I know you are. Just let me eat and get everything back to normal first."
Rose shook her head, "I'm not going to yell at you."
He looked surprised at her. "You're not?"
She looked up at him as she blew her stew. "No. We're just going to talk about it."
He closed his eyes tightly. He mumbled. "Oh, that's not good."
They sat in silence as they ate their stew. After she noticed he was finished, she told him to go get another bowl. Her calmness over the entire situation made him worry about what she was going to say. But, he agreed to have another bowl. He also brought them both a cup of tea back, too.
She nibbled on the bread and sipped her tea, as she waited for him to finish.
He wiped his mouth and tossed his napkin on the table. He looked up at her uncertainty. She watched Sam sleep while she sipped her tea.
He couldn't take it any longer. "Alright. Let me have it. I deserve it."
Rose held up her finger. "One minute. How do you feel?"
He smiled as he sat down his tea. "Much better. Blood sugars, fine. Livers able to push out the remainder of the alcohol. I can sense everything again. My head is clear."
Rose looked at him and nodded her head. "Why didn't you notice you couldn't feel what was going on in your body? That seems strange to me."
He thought for a bit and sighed. "Just busy I suppose. I hadn't realized I wasn't able to feel that."
"Why did you stop being able to feel it?"
"Alcohol poisoning looks different for me than it would for you. There were other signs, now which I realize what was going on, that I should have seen. The neurological problems spiked when I got very excited. I should have passed out, but…"
"But, what?" She asked as she sipped her tea.
He crossed his arms as he sat back. "Do you really want to know? You won't like it."
"I'm not the one answering questions here. You are. Keep talking. Why didn't you pass out?"
He closed his eyes and sighed. He knew she didn't want to hear what he was going to say. "You did something. It's the only thing that kept me from passing out. I returned to myself in each instance. And I shouldn't have. I should have spotted this earlier."
She shook her head. "I didn't do anythi-"
"I saw your eyes flash. Yellow. Just like they did when the Bad Wolf had taken over-"
"We are not talking about that." Rose demanded.
He bit his lip as he tapped the tabletop. "Not talking about that. Okay. Rose. We're going to have to have a conversation about this at some point. There's a lot to that-"
She pointed her finger at him forcefully. "Stop. We are not talking about that. We are talking about you. Stop deflecting. I know your game."
He ran his hand through his hair and groaned. "I'm not deflecting, Ros-"
She pointed at him again. "I mean it!"
He propped his head up on his fist and looked at her. "Alright. We're talking about me. What else do we need to say?"
"Are you happy?" Rose asked him.
"Of course I am, sweetheart. Happier than I've ever been. You know that." He was surprised at the question.
"When you drink, is it a social thing? Is it to relax?" Rose asked him.
He sighed as he kept his head propped up on his fist. "Rose, I drank before I came here. This isn't a big deal. I just have been too busy and forgot to eat."
"You said you ate chips. The night before, you went to dinner with the guys. What did you eat then?"
"Not really a lot. A few bits and bobs."
"How many drinks at dinner did you have?"
"I was driving. I had one." He held up his finger. "Just one. Then I drank water the rest of the time we were there."
"What did you do when you came back to the ship after that?"
"We came back to the ship and worked on Tony's suit."
"How much did you drink when you were working on the suit?"
He propped his head on his hand again. "We had a few. It wasn't bad."
"A few is how many?"
He shook his head. "I'm not sure. I'm not going to lie to you and try to cook up a number. I see where you are going with this. Rose, it's just been since we've been out here."
She shook her head and spoke very calmly to him. "It hasn't and you know it. It's been since you got here. Since before we married. You said you drank because it numbed the pain when you were sick. Then, you drank with Dad and Howie. It became a social thing. Then, I got hurt. I feel like you really went into the tank after that."
She could feel how uncomfortable he was. He crossed his arms. "I don't want to talk about this."
She looked at him. "I'm not going to yell at you, but we are going to talk about this. We're getting this sorted."
He rose his hand towards the door. "We have a reception to get back-"
"They will continue without us. Sam is sleeping. This is getting sorted."
He sighed and rolled his eyes. "We don't have to talk about this. I know what you are saying."
"I'm sorry, but you don't know what I'm saying because I have not said it yet. I feel that you have been using this as a way to relax from the stress you have found yourself in. You are dealing with things that would be hard for anyone. What, with me getting hurt. Sam. Being a father. Losing Sam, which you won't talk about. Sweetheart. You lost so much. I know somewhat how you must feel because I lost that world, too. I dealt with the depression of it in anger, and then I refocused my attention on getting back. To you. I love you, and you have asked for my help. I'm going to help you."
He shook his head, not looking at her. "I'm really alright."
"You really aren't. You have all of these things you are doing. Why? To occupy your mind and keep you busy. Keep you from mourning the loss of your world, your TARDIS, your friend, Sam. You have always managed to put yourself in a high stress situation. You love it. I know you do. And I do, too. I know that's the reason you are working with Torchwood, dealing with this terrorism, which I know I don't know half of the stuff that happened, running this company with Dad, being a chief physician, and everything else."
He rubbed his face and shook his head. "No. I'm just taking care of everyone-"
"But, not taking care of yourself. You've done this for months. You wouldn't sleep. Frightened that I might stop breathing, or something would happen with Sam. And that was your downtime. You have made yourself so busy that you started drinking a bit more everyday to numb the worry of what might happen, and to numb what already has."
"What are you saying?" he asked her.
"I'm saying that you need to find another way to handle your stress. The road you are on in this moment, will not end well. I'm not going to tell you to stop, but I will if I think I need to. But, I am asking you to take a break from it. Maybe return to it in several weeks, or months, and have dramatically less. You need to take a break from drinking anyway to heal yourself from this."
He took a deep breath as he looked away and thought. Rose finished her tea and sat it back on the table. She looked over and Sam, who was still sleeping and smiled.
After a few moments, he uncomfortability tapped the table again with his finger tips. He mumbled, "Take a break from it. With everything going on, you ask me to take a break."
"Just from the drinking, nothing else. Although, that does bring up a good point. Maybe you need a holiday."
She felt his annoyance. "Phhh… we're on holiday! We're coming back early from it!"
"No, this was you working. From the time you have stepped off the transport pad, you have been working. Whether with Logan, the hospital, Tony or Lewis. Something has been going on. You and I are going on a holiday when we return and Howie is sorted out. I'm leaving Mum with the children."
He looked surprised at her. "Even Sam?"
"I've been feeding him from a bottle for the past few days. I'm sorry, but I'm done breastfeeding. I want my body back. You've been so busy you hadn't even noticed you had gotten your boobs back."
His face spread into a grin. He quickly rubbed his face. "I have been distracted. Damn. I just thought…"
"I'm not sure if I want you to finish that sentence." Rose teased him.
"You're right. No, I don't." He laughed. "You're right, Rose. This will be very hard, but you are right. I've seen this happen to so many people, and I can see what you are saying. I don't feel like this is that bad, but that's what they all said, too."
She smiled at him. "A very mature attitude to have about it."
He became serious, "There's no need to insult me."
She laughed as she walked over and sat in his lap. He kissed her as he ran his hands up her dress. She ran her fingers through the back of his hair.
She smiled at him. "You are recovering, so don't get any funny ideas. I don't want your brain scrambled again."
He groaned. "Rose, I'm fine. My endorphins are-"
She patted his chest. "That's so strange. I'm glad you can tell again though."
He smiled like a loon at her, and then kissed her quickly. "You, Rose, are what burns brightest in my soul. You are the reason I draw each breath, the reason my hearts beat, the reason my skin can feel. You are the one that I choose to be mine. To live to serve. To share my life with. To protect what is most dear to me, your love. Please accept this as my promise."
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