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Chapter 40 - Virus

Lance opened the door to Jake's office at Torchwood and walked in. Jake stood at the windows with his arms crossed, "So, pulling random people out of lectures? What was that about?"

Lance shrugged his shoulders. "I had some information that made him a threat."

"So you detain him until the end of the lecture?"

He nodded his head. "Yes. Or even longer to make sure he's not."

Jake shook his head. "He's a professor at the University-"

"So."

"He's not the type-"

"The person who has been able to get to her has been informed, clever, and has a hatred of her. He went there today with the sole intent of embarrassing her-"

"That's not cause for detaining him-"

Lance stood up proudly. "My job is to protect her from anything. While John is gone, I'm to act as he would in this matter. I don't see any problem with what I've done."

Jake rolled his eyes. "John wouldn't either."

Lance put his hands on his hips. "It's a simple matter really. The Guard is working together with the Torchwood agents. That is my understanding. I'm in charge of the Guard, and you are in charge of your agents. I'm not asking your agents to do anything. I'm handling this, with my guys-"

"Oh you handled it alright. He's threatening to sue-" Jake nodded his head,

"Let him. I'd love to have a reason to question him some more."

Jake groaned and rubbed his shoulder, "You've told John all about this, haven't you?"

"No. But he is my Primus and I will report it to him."

Jake rolled his eyes.

"You seem….anxious about something."

Jake looked confused, "You lot can't sense people's emotions, can you?"

Lance crossed his arms. "Some of us can. What's going on? Is there something you aren't telling me?"

Jake considered for a moment. "No. You know everything I do."

"Sure about that?" Lance insisted.

Jake nodded his head. "Yes. And I'm sorry, but I'm late for a meeting. I'll have to continue this later."

Lance typed something in on his bracelet. "It's alright. I'll be in touch. Thank you for your time, Director."

Jake watched him pop away. He mumbled, "I'm in so far over my head here."

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Legate stood with his hands on his hips watching Logan flip through the channels on the telly. They were in the Doctor and Rose's suite onboard the ship.

"I have no idea which channel it is on." Legate told him.

"I'll find it. I can't believe John can get all of these channels out here."

Summus sat on the sofa holding Arles in his huge hands. Lewis sat next to him, smiling down at his son. Summus' deep voice told him, "He is absolutely beautiful, Lewis. Perfect."

Lewis sipped his beer and smiled, "He is absolutely tiny. I think you could hold him in one of those huge paws of yours."

Summus laughed. "Logan, you haven't sorted this out, yet?"

Logan groaned, "This is weird. I've never seen a telly set up like this."

Tony Tyler ran back down the hallway wearing his Arsenal uniform. "You haven't found it, yet?"

Logan pointed at the screen. "What channel would it be on? You would know."

Tony Tyler shrugged his shoulders. "Why would I know what? I'm a child for Christ's sakes."

Legate rolled his eyes. "I think that's a swear. Simmer down."

Tony Stark walked into the room and looked around. "So, this is where the party is? What are you guys doing?"

Legate pointed at the telly. "Trying to find the game. Stark, can you work this thing?"

"John has a television that picks up this shit way out here?"

Lewis shook his head. "Not at the moment."

Stark sat down his drink. "Alright. I'll help this group of soccer obsessed aliens see the damn game before there is anal probes. Hand me the remote."

Logan handed the remote to him and laughed.

The Doctor walked into the room with Pete Tyler. The room cheered at his arrival. Tony Tyler smiled and ran over to him. The Doctor caught Tony, picked him up, and held him in his arms. "How about we let your Dad sit down and then you can hug him. He's a bit sleepy still, and I don't want him to fall."

The boy smiled, "Alright."

Pete sat down next to Lewis on the sofa and the Doctor put his son down next to him. Tony Tyler climbed into Pete's lap and they embraced one another tightly. Pete kissed his cheek and laughed. "I've missed you, little boy. What have you been up to?"

Tony smiled proudly at him. "I flew the ship out here. John showed me how!"

Pete smiled proudly at him. "Did you really? That's amazing."

The Doctor reached in his pocket and tossed Legate a small container of gel for his tattoo. "Here. As promised."

Legate caught it and nodded, "Thanks, John."

Lewis looked at Pete and smiled, "You look better."

"You, too. John says he's prescribed some interesting medicine."

Lewis smiled, "Rose has prescribed some interesting medicine. That's for sure. John, Rose rang earlier."

Legate snapped his fingers. "Yeah. Sorry about that. We were trying to get the telly to play the game. I accidently ended the call."

The Doctor groaned, "You guys are going to get me into trouble with the misses."

Pete laughed, "Trouble and Strife. That's what Jacks says."

The Doctor laughed, "Trouble. Yeah, she would call her herself that."

Pete laughed and rubbed Tony's red hair. "My son. I'm so glad you are here."

Tony Stark laughed as the game appeared on the screen. "Ah! There it is!"

The room cheered in celebration.

The Doctor smiled as he walked over to the bar and started to dial his phone. He stopped and seemed to be listening to something. Tony noticed. He walked over and asked, "Forget her number?"

The Doctor looked at him seriously, "Walk with me."

The Doctor and Tony Stark started to walk out of the room. Legate noticed they were leaving. "Hey! The game is just getting started!"

The Doctor pointed at him, "It's alright. I'll be back."

They got into the hallway and the suite's door slid shut. Tony looked surprised at him. "What's up?"

The Doctor groaned and rubbed his face. "Ah. I know you don't like football. Tell me, have you slept?"

Tony threw his hands up. "Seriously?! That's what you want to know?"

They continued to walk down the hallway together. "Tony, you've been up here for three days. You need to sleep-"

"Shit. I'll sleep tonight. Don't worry about me. I did talk to Pepper, finally."

"And?"

"She's used to me losing track of time. But, the flowers helped. Logan was right. Those are her favorites. My ass if off the hook for the moment. Although, I had to call that….Natasha."

The Doctor laughed at his grumbling, "Told her how long you're going to be gone?"

"That didn't come up."

The Doctor chuckled, "It might need to."

They arrived inside of the control room. Licis was looking at a computer screen in the back of the room. "John, these readings from the probe we sent ahead are just coming in."

Tony looked at the screen. "What is this?"

The Doctor put on his glasses and looked at the screen. "Readings from where we destroyed Clagl's ship. Oh, this is not good news."

Licis asked. "Are the Baumeisters already there?"

"No. They are in the next system. I asked them to gather everything and hold their position until I was certain this plague threat was gone. I'm really glad I did that. We would have had a serious problem."

Licis shook his head. "I didn't know that."

"Ashena doesn't even know that." The Doctor mumbled. "I asked Tectus to hang back as a favor to me. Damn. Well, this is ….. a new development."

Tony put his hands in his pockets. "So, the plague survived?"

Licis pointed at the numbers, "According to this, it's thriving."

"In space?" Tony asked.

The Doctor took off his glasses and rubbed his face, "I would have thought the explosions would have destroyed it. But, this shows that some of the rock is still warm from the fires and that's how it's alive. Plus, it's close enough to that damn star just there. This plague, I'm telling you, it is…. Dangerous. The virus isn't much larger than an atom."

Tony shook his head. "I'm not a doctor, but I know that viruses are not that small. An atom is 10,000 times smaller the size of the smallest known virus."

The Doctor looked at the screen. "Known to Earth. Earth hasn't seen this virus yet."

"Huh. That's ….. Frightening." Tony mumbled.

"How long until we get there?" The Doctor asked Licis.

Licis typed in something on a screen, "2 hours and 41 minutes."

The Doctor nodded. "Increase the engines to 70%. That will get us there in about an hour. Divert any unused areas' power to the shields and the bio-guards. I'll have a think about this."

Licis pressed some things into the screen and nodded his head. "Right."

The Doctor took off his glasses and walked into his office. Tony followed him, "This….virus."

The Doctor collapsed into a chair and propped his feet up. "Yeah?"

"You have encountered it before. What did you do then?"

The Doctor propped his head up on his fist, "Ran away."

"Well, that's encouraging." Tony sat down on the sofa next to him.

He waved his hand. "Well, there's a lot more to that. I wasn't in any state of mind to …. Fix anything."

He nodded, "Hell, you can figure this out. Just don't over think it like all of you space boys tend to do."

The Doctor pointed at him and started to say something.

Friday spoke, "There is a call for you, Doctor."

"Put it on the screen in here."

Rose appeared on the screen inside of the wall. She covered her mouth and laughed when she saw Tony Stark sitting in the office with the Doctor. "Well, that explains that message Pepper left me today."

Tony smiled proudly, "She's talking about me. What did she say?"

"That she was going to kick your ass." Rose told him flatly.

He pointed to himself, "I maintain I was abducted by a gang of aliens."

She laughed.

He looked back at the Doctor and laughed, "I'm going to go see the guys need any more help with the television." He threw his hand up, "See you, Rose." He walked out of the office and pressed the button on the outside to slide it shut.

Rose appeared to be lying in their bed back in the island home. She wore her hair down and had on the Doctor's favorite dark blue t-shirt.

He smiled at her and rubbed his lips. "It's so good to see you."

"You have been so happy all day and I just felt this…."

He sighed and dropped his hand in his lap.

She continued, "I just felt like I needed to ring you."

"I was just reminded of some stuff. I'm working it out."

"Want to talk about it?"

He shook his head.

She nodded. "Alright."

"I'm sorry I missed your call earlier. The guys were messing with the telly. It…. I don't know. They told me they accidently ended the transmission."

She smiled warmly, "It's okay. I know you don't carry your phone around with you when you're on the ship. I bet it's lying next to the bed."

He pointed at her, "I'll check there. Only place I haven't looked."

She smiled, "Genie wanted to say good night to you. That was it."

He dropped his head. "Damn. I missed good night."

"She wasn't upset. Don't feel badly about that. I've missed good nights. It happens."

He covered his face and groaned. "You're right."

"Baby, you feel so sad. She's really alright."

He sat back and sighed. "What else is going on there?"

She nodded, "Right. Well, your son had his first bit of food tonight."

He propped his chin up on his fist. "The rice stuff?"

She smiled, "No…. a biscuit."

He looked confused. "He has one tooth! How the hell did he eat a biscuit?"

She laughed, "Howie gave it to him. We had dinner with him, Caroline and Harriet to discuss. Well, I can't tell you."

He pointed at her. "No secrets, woman."

"Grey area. I'll be able to tell you in three months."

He rolled his eyes and mumbled as he thought. "Three months? What's in three months?"

She pointed at him, "Shut up. I've already told you too much. Anyway…we… me, Mum and Genie had dinner with them. I didn't realize he had given it to him. It just… melted all over his face. It made the biggest mess. We had to give him a bath there to keep him from tracking it all over the White House. He loved it."

He chuckled. "A biscuit is Samuel's first food."

"Howie insisted he knew what he was doing. Genie and Jacob ate them with him. I didn't know what to think, but Mum reminded me that he also gave Tony a biscuit when he was small. And he lived."

He smiled. "Uncle Howie strikes again."

"He was complaining that we hold him too much."

He rolled his eyes. "He's an infant. You can't hold a baby too much."

She bit her lip, "Well. I agree, but did you know he could crawl?"

"Oh, he's too little to crawl."

"I promise you, he can. Either he's been able to do it for a while, or he just aced it tonight. He went right across the floor!"

He smiled and groaned, "And I missed it. Damn."

"I really feel like I missed it, too. I was chatting with Mum, Harriet and Caroline. The children and Howie-"

"The biggest of the children."

She laughed, "Very true. They all crawled into the room together. And there he was. Right in the middle of them all."

He laughed and shook his head, "That's the maddest thing I've ever heard."

She laughed. "Mom thinks it's rather early, but Caroline says Jacob crawled at that age."

"He doesn't realize he is a baby. He's trying to keep up with the older children."

"That's what I think. Oh, you will love this, I've sorted out this stress problem of Howie's."

"And how did you manage that? Doctor Smith?" He teased.

"Well, that's not completely right. It wasn't my idea. Genie showed him some yoga. So, he was doing it with her." She covered her mouth and laughed. "It was hysterical. I don't think I've laughed that much in a very long time."

He felt her happiness and couldn't help but laugh along with her. "Howie. Doing yoga? Please tell me you got a picture."

She held her tongue between her teeth, "Oh, even better. Mum got a video. She's sent it to Dad."

He laughed and ran his hands through his hair. "Pete's in our suite now. I'll have to check it out."

"So, he's alright?"

"He's fine. A bit unsteady on his feet, but…that's from the medicine. He plans to call Jackie after the game tonight."

Rose rolled her eyes. "Just what she said he would do. Why aren't you watching the game? I almost didn't contact you."

"I came up here to deal with something, and just haven't made it back."

"Well, I should end this call so you can get back to it-"

He shook his head. "No. I'd rather talk to you."

She smiled, "I miss you, too. But, I can't talk for too much longer. I have something I need to do."

"Yeah? What's that?"

She smiled and shook her head, "Something. Something I can't tell you."

He smiled, "I don't think you are taking our agreement about having no secrets between us seriously woman."

She giggled, "I'm grateful for the void of grey."

He rolled his eyes and pointed at her. "It's getting late. Try to sleep. I left that medicine right next to the bed."

She smiled warmly, "Ring me back in a few hours. So, I can say good night to you proper."

He raised his eyebrows. "Yeah?"

She kissed her hand and waved at him as she ended the call.

He sat back and smiled as he thought about her. Then he remembered the problem he now faced with the plague. The plague that had taken his grandchildren's parents. The one that Alex had been so sick with right before he died. He thought of Alex's face, and how much it looked like Susan's. Like Samuel's. His heart sank as he thought of how close the threat was to his family now. He began to grow angry at himself for allowing it to be here.

He heard Rose's voice in his head. A comfort and calm spread across him like a warm blanket. 'Baby. I'm sorry. I forgot to tell you something.'

He cleared his throat and smiled, 'What was that?'

'That I love you. The first day is nearly over. Just two more remain.'

'And I can hold you in my arms again. I can't wait.'

He felt her laugh. 'Take a deep breath, and go do whatever it is that you need to. Remember, we will be alright.'

He nodded, 'Thank you, Rose. You're right.'

He stood up and stretched his back. "Friday, contact Tectus the Baumeister for me."

"Ringing him now, Doctor."

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