I'm really into Anthropology and am majoring in it. Thought it'd be neat if the Doctor actually got along with an Archaeologist in a more realistic setting. Tried to keep it as realistic as I could as far as reactions and such. Forgive me if the Arabic is wrong.
And I have a discord you can find me at: discord .gg/zGAvS4eHXm
I yawned loudly, sitting on the edge of my cot in a pair of red shorts and a grey tank top for a moment before standing up and heading into the kitchen tiredly. It wouldn't be the first time I'd woken up feeling sore and exhausted, the evening training I do down at the boxing ring always proving to be the cause of such pains, but today just was different.
"Are you up yet, Aston?!" Someone called out from outside of the small room I was in, pounding on the door. "We need to get working soon!"
"I'm up! I'm up!" I called out shuffled slightly as I started cooking up some breakfast on the stove.
I reached my left foot around to scratch the tattoo on the back of my right calf as I mentally tried to go over what I needed to do today, hoping that the Anubis etched into my skin would protect me from death once again. Lord knows I've nearly died a few times already. Not that it was my fault someone forgot to inform the local militia group at the last site. Finishing up my food, I dropped the eggs and hash browns onto a plate and nabbed a plastic fork from the box of plastic silverware I'd brought, digging into the food as I went back to my room and searched for something to wear. Settling on some straight jeans and a white dress shirt that I rolled up the sleeves on, I set my plate aside and yanked on my boots and packed up the rest of my stuff so it would be ready for later today.
We had been out in Sudan digging up burial tombs for three months now, and today was going to be the last day we were here. Meaning that we had to fill up every hole and crevice of the dig site and haul everything we found back to England to finish our research. I was a part of the dig crew. In other words, I was a shovel bum. I was still new to the whole archaeology thing and, despite the two years of schooling, I didn't have enough hands on experience to be allowed to do much more than dig holes and put things into different piles based on things like the color or shape or style of whatever artifacts the others found. I didn't mind the grunt work though. It was better than being behind a desk, and I worked my butt of through school to get to where I was now, so I best enjoy it while it lasts; something I had learned to live by after the sort of life I've had.
Hurrying outside, I tossed my pack into the back of the truck we'd procured for the ride to the dig site and climbed into the back, smacking the top of the truck to let the driver and my fellow diggers know I was ready, before settling in for the bumpy ride there. With these eyes, it's a wonder I've made it this far. I silently mused, pushing the memories of bullying I'd dealt with aside as I leaned against the side of the truck as I peered through the dirt being tossed up and watched the landscaping pass by. Add that on top of loosing my parents at a young age and having to deal with a crap foster family, and people still question why I have no trust towards anyone. Lonely or not, it's best to just stay away from people if all they do is end up getting hurt or hurting me. The truck hit a particularly large rock and I winced when my tailbone landed harshly on the truck bed.
"مشاهدته!" (Watch it!) I scolded, clicking my tongue in annoyance as the truck finally pulled off the road and over towards where the tents were set up and a guard approached us.
As one of the other workers spoke to him, I grabbed my pack and dropped it off over by the tents before grabbing a shovel with a roll of my shoulders, heading over to where a pile of dirt sat and waiting nearby until I was instructed on where to put the dirt. Eventually, I was sent to work along with the other shovel bums, and hours passed by with us shoveling dirt back into a hole until we were finally called over for lunch. Sandwiches were the meal for today, which was a nice change from the usual oatmeal and biscuits we had, and I was grateful for the beers being passed around; the group celebrating the end of a long dig. Bottles clinked as laughter rang out from the tents, but I had wandered away from the group and was looking at the artifacts we'd found laid out on a table; some already wrapped and ready for shipping.
It was the usual, really. Some pottery and coins, grave goods, and the occasional box labeled 'deceased' with the remains of a person or two found in the tomb. I looked at every piece carefully though, mind buzzing with guesses and estimations of the age of the artifacts and what it may have been used for. There was one thing though, that made me lean closer and set my bottle of beer down in the dirt as I looked it over. It appeared to be a gold ring with some jade wrapped around it along with the silver bits of an unknown metal glittering within it. I found it odd though, because most of the objects we found were from the Iron Age. Gold hadn't been discovered yet, and the area we were in had no place to get jade, without a very extensive trade network going on with Europe and Asia. Basically, it was virtually impossible than an artifact such as this could have naturally ended up among the burial tombs were had just excavated.
I glanced at the group of men and women standing around in the tent nearby, opening my mouth to ask about it, but I eventually just shut my mouth and turned away. They're busy and what would they care about me asking something like what context this came from? I'm just a shovel bum, for one thing, and they're enjoying themselves. Which means I should be able to get a closer look. I shifted my eyes over to them, not seeing anyone paying attention to me, and I snatched some gloves from a box nearby, putting them on, before picking up the ring and looking at it closer. As I did though, I found a small indentation that seemed man-made in the jade. Being the curious person I was, I scratched at it lightly with my fingernail, only to jump and drop it when it beeped and flashed a bright green for a second. Quickly, before someone could yell at me for messing with the artifacts, I picked it up and blew the dirt off it, before setting it back on the table and ripping the gloves off; stuffing them into my back pocket as I picked up my beer and went back towards the other tent. I couldn't help but give the ring one last glance though, a puzzled frown marring my features as I contemplated why an artifact of that time period would do something as modern as 'beeping'. Either that, or the heat's finally gotten to me and I've lost my mind. I shook my head and tugged on my right earlobe, hoping to forget the incident and actually wanting to get back to shoveling dirt around if it would take my mind off the strange occurrence.
Thankfully, I didn't have to wait long and we were soon back to shoveling, bellies full and cheerful smiles all around. Except for me, of course. My eyes kept drifting back to the table where the artifacts were slowly being wrapped and packaged for shipping, and the sweat dripping down the back of my neck only added to the uncertain feeling welling up in my stomach since I'd seen that ring, sending chills up my spine despite the near ninety degree weather.
"You okay there, Reynolds?" A colleague asked and I jumped, before forcing on an uneasy smile.
"Y-Yeah, no. I'm fine. Just a bit... distracted, is all." I said, shifting my gaze to the table briefly, unnoticed.
"You sure? You look a little pale."
"No, no." I waved off, scooping another shovel of dirt. "I'm fine. Really." That ring just really bothers me for some reason.
"He's right, though, Reynolds." Another colleague said, making me stop and wipe some of the sweat from my forehead. "You do look pale. You should go sit down out of the sun. Wouldn't want you to get heatstroke or something from working so hard."
I sighed, knowing that they wouldn't let up until I did what they said and begrudgingly shoved my shovel into the dirt so it stood up and out of the way.
"Alright. I'll go sit down for a bit."
"Just leave this to us." The one colleague said, grinning and showing off his arm to the other colleague who rolled her eyes at him.
Begrudgingly, I headed back over to the tents and took a seat in the shade, grabbing a water bottle from the cooler and drinking heavily; not realizing how thirsty I really was.
"Slow down there, Aston, or you might choke." My professor said, chuckling as I stopped and wiped a bit of water that had leaked out in my haste.
He was probably the only person here I actively spoke to, though we both knew our boundaries and didn't get too close to one another. We were decent friends at most, but stayed closer to good acquaintances or a teacher-student relationship.
"I saw you looking at the artifacts earlier..." He said, taking a seat beside me and grabbing a drink himself as I nearly choked on mine.
He saw that!? Oh man, I'm definitely in trouble now.
"O-Oh, I was just... I mean, it looked interesting so..."
He laughed. "No need to panic! It's nice seeing a shovel bum take interest in them." He smiled, sipping his water before leaning forward with his elbows on his knees. "So, did you find anything interesting?"
I fidgeted slightly, tugging on my earlobe in my nervousness as I debated on whether to ask about the ring or not. There shouldn't be any problem. It's not suspicious since he knew I was over there looking at the artifacts anyway. What could it hurt?
"There was, um, a ring. Gold, with jade and some kind of other metal? You and the others said that the tomb hadn't been disturbed until we got here, so how could that be there when everything else in the tomb was more likely dated way before that?"
"Hm." He hummed, scratching at the small graying beard he had. "We were wondering something similar. It's a bit advanced for the time period, but it's not impossible that it could've been traded from another group ahead of it's time that we haven't discovered yet." He shrugged, but gave me a small smile. "Just opens up more possibilities, I suppose."
I went to say something, but was interrupted by one of the other archaeologists heading over with a trio of people behind him.
"Heads up! These three are here for some kind of inspection!" He called out, making me frown as my professor got up, equally confused.
"Inspection? Of what? This is our last day! We're supposed to be leaving this area in a few hours. What could there be to possibly inspect?"
One of the trio stepped forward, his white shirt and red suspenders barely hidden under his brown tweed jacket, and his moppy brown hair flopping around excitedly as he grinned.
"Oh, you know..." He said, flashing some sort of ID or credentials around, too quickly for me to even see it from where I was sitting. "Just inspecting the clean up and possibly taking a look at the artifacts you found. The usual."
Usual? I've never heard of any sort of inspection like this, and this is the third dig I've been on. Weird. I tuned out the conversation then, but nearly choked on my water again when my professor brought the trio over to me.
"This is Aston Reynolds. She'll show you guys around the site, though there's not much to see at this point."
I frowned over at the professor, who gave me a cheesy grin, but I got up and out of my seat and nodded towards the dig.
"Come on. Looks like I'm stuck showing you three around, but I suppose it's better than shoveling."
The trio followed after me before we were over the hole where the shovel bums were tossing dirt around.
"This is where we were digging at. Like the professor said, there's not much left now." I said with a shrug, crossing my arms over my chest and watching as the floppy haired male pulled out some kind of stick and began waving it around.
Scanner of some kind? I don't know. Bit weird looking, if you ask me. I felt a tap on my shoulder and turned to the red-haired woman, who stared at me in surprise for a second before smiling.
"Hi, um, what were you guys digging around here for, if I can ask? And your eyes are really cool. Are they naturally that way?"
Hm, Scottish? Bit different, though the moppy haired fellow was British. And always with the eye question. "We were digging up burial tombs of an old group of semi-nomads from the Iron Age. And yes, I was born with two different eye colors."
"Right." She said, though I could sense her confusion on the topic of what we were digging, making me wonder if these people really were who they said they were.
"And there's no point in scanning for anything." I called out to the moppy haired man. "This whole site was surveyed and tested ages ago. Soil acidity and everything. It's a requirement before we're allowed to dig."
He stood upright and turned to me, tilting his head slightly as I tossed a thumb over my shoulder.
"The info on that should be over in the tents, if you want to look at it, um..."
"Oh! Introductions! I almost forgot!" He chirped, hurrying over and closing his eyes in a smile as he shook my hand. "I'm the Doctor, and that's Amy and Rory Pond. We're inspectors!"
I raised a brow, slowly slipping my hand from his. "Right..."
He opened his eyes then and I stiffened at the emerald shade looking back at me in curiosity and something else. Something older. Like he's seen too much. And I would know. I see those sorts of eyes looking at me in the mirror everyday; though one of my eyes is brown, not green.
"Heterochromia iridium." He blurted out suddenly, before grinning. "Oh, that is brilliant. Reynolds, was it?"
I nodded, unsure about this man. "Aston Reynolds, yeah."
He bobbed me on the nose. "You are brilliant." He smiled, before bouncing off towards the tents. "The reports are over here?"
"Y-Y-Yeah." I stuttered out, heat trailing up to the tips of my ears as a rock settled in my stomach.
I... No one's ever said that before... I'm not... I've never been... Mind racing, I stumbled after him and the other two, coming up behind him as he frowned and donned some glasses to read over the soil reports. He soon threw them back onto the table, though, tucking his glasses back into his pocket.
"No, no, no! Nothing! But there has to be something here. I was getting readings from this very spot and there's nothing else here for miles! So where is it?" He questioned, making me forget my previous thoughts and tug on my earlobe.
"Um, any idea on what it is you're looking for? I might be able to help, seeing as I've been here for three months." I frowned then though, fidgeting slightly. "Though, I spent those months digging a hole, so asking the professor might be better."
"You spent three months digging a hole in the ground?" Amy asked in disbelief and I nodded. "What for?"
"College. I'm working on my hands-on experience. I'm studying to become an archaeologist."
"I hate archaeologists." The Doctor muttered, making me raise a brow at him back as he paced in the dirt.
"Huh, and here I was starting to like you."
He quickly turned around, hopeful and confident as he adjusted his bow-tie. "Really?"
"'Was' being the key term." I quipped back, unable to stop the small upturn of my lips at his crestfallen expression. "So what is it you're looking for then, Mr. I-Hate-Archaeologists?"
He quickly perked up and spoke at a break-neck speed. "Something odd, unusual. Something that isn't supposed to be here. Out of place. Some sort of signal or transmission or..." He suddenly stepped up to me, breaking any personal space I had as he looked me over. "You wouldn't happen to be an alien, would you?"
"Doctor!" Amy scolded, pulling him away from me as I felt any like towards this man fade.
It was as though my body had been dunked in ice cold water as voices of my past fluttered through my head.
"Freak!"
"Monster!"
"Weirdo!"
A scowl had quickly settled on my face, but I quickly wiped it off before the Doctor could see, turning towards the table where the artifacts were and not really caring if the trio followed me or not.
"There hasn't been any signals or transmissions or anything, but there was one strange thing." I glared over my shoulder at the group, gesturing to the tent with the table as I headed the other way. "I'll tell the professor to come over so he can tell you about it. I have to get back to shoveling."
With that, I left the trio there and went to tell the professor that they wanted to know about the ring we spoke of earlier. He looked ready to question me on why I couldn't explain, but probably sensed my mood and nodded before heading off to help them as I returned to my shovel and began aggressively packing dirt back into the hole. Like it's my fault I was born with these stupid eyes. I should've known he'd be no different. My heart ached though, making the scowl slip into a slight disappointed frown. There's nothing brilliant about me. Nothing.
Mitch Andrews, Aston's professor, headed over to the Doctor and the others with a nervous smile on his face, immediately knowing that the group had done something to upset Aston; which was a feat in and of itself, seeing as the woman had an anger fuse miles long.
"Sorry about that." He apologized as he headed over, coming to a stop over by the table. "Aston said you were interested in some of the artifacts?"
The red-head, Amy, nodded. "Yeah, um, she said it might be what we're looking for?"
The Doctor though, kept his eyes focused on Aston as the woman aggressively shoveled dirt, catching the professor's attention.
"I don't know what you did, but you guys must of really upset her, if she dropped this off on me." He said with a small smile as he moved to adjust some of the artifacts on the table. "It's been a while since I've seen her get angry at someone."
"What, does she just not get mad at people?" Rory questioned, finally having a chance to speak up.
Mitch nodded. "That's right. She's pretty tough and takes just about anything you throw at her. I suppose she's used to it, having to of grown up in the system, and all."
The Doctor snapped his head around at those words. "She's an orphan?"
The professor bobbed his head in agreement, though the smile on his face slipped off slightly. "Sure is. There's not much more I can tell you though. For one thing, she doesn't share much about herself. Keeps everything pretty close to her chest. Must've been tough when she was younger though."
"Why's that?" Amy asked, curious to learn more about the woman who was so closed off.
"Her eyes." Mitch replied, gesturing towards her. "Little kids don't understand a genetic impossibility like that. I wouldn't be surprised if she had a rough time." He brushed off his hands and then smiled at the trio. "Now then! What about these artifacts were you guys interested in?"
"Oh, we were looking for something out of place." Amy said, trying to get back on task since the Doctor was distracted by the shoveling woman once more.
"Ah, that must be why she mentioned the ring we found." Mitch hummed, reaching over and picking up the artifact carefully, showing the group.
Amy frowned, puzzled. "But it just looks like a ring. There's nothing special about it."
"Ah, but that's where you're wrong." Mitch smiled. "This ring is made of gold, jade, and metal."
"So..."
"So, all of the other artifacts we found were dated from around the Iron Age. Gold hadn't been discovered yet and jade can't be found in this area. That, and there's no sure possibility that the metal in this is iron. It could be silver or tin for all we know. We need to run some tests first."
Rory frowned, moving closer. "Then couldn't someone have just put it there? To throw you off or something?"
Mitch nodded. "Yes, but the dig site hadn't been disturbed before we came here. It was just as it was hundreds of thousands of years ago. No grave diggers or thieves. Nothing. This was put here when the rest of the artifacts were, which is why it's thrown us in for a loop."
The Doctor, having finally taken his eyes off Aston, moved closer, pushing Amy and Rory aside as he looked at the ring. He frowned in puzzlement for a moment, before looking up at Mitch.
"Could I..."
Mitch passed him some rubber gloves and the Doctor put them on before picking up the ring and pulling a magnifying glass out of his pocket to look at it in better detail.
"Oh dear." He muttered, drawing everyone's attention to him, as he put away the magnifying glass and took out his sonic screwdriver and scanned the ring in his hand. "That's not good."
Mitch looked at him confused. "What is it?"
The Doctor ignored his question and showed him the ring sternly. "Has anyone touched this? Without gloves?"
Mitch frowned, puzzled. "Not that I know of. We handle any and all artifacts while wearing gloves because the oils from our hands could cause them to deteriorate. Because they're sitting out in the open though, anyone here could've touched it without gloves and we may not have noticed. Why? Is it dangerous?"
"Yes, it's dangerous. One touch of this, and you wouldn't be able to get it out of your head. You'd constantly be thinking of it until you had to steal it. It's made of Enamour. Does exactly what the name says and causes the person who touches it to become enamored with it. This sort of thing has caused wars." He said, waving it at Mitch, before he went and scanned it again, looking at the results with a frown. "And it's giving off some sort of signal."
"What sort of signal?" Amy asked, moving closer to look at the ring too.
"I don't know. Let's find out." He smirked, adjusting the settings on his sonic before aiming at at the ring. "I'll amplify it's signal and it should—"
He was cut off as the ring let out an ear-piercing screech and the group flinched back, covering their ears, until he stopped; giving the object a small frown.
"Well, that wasn't right."
Amy smacked him hard on the shoulder. "You idiot! You nearly blew out our eardrums!"
"I needed to see where the signal was going!" The Doctor argued.
"Oh yeah?! Did you even find out where?!"
He opened his mouth, but snapped it shut with a pout. "No! But it's got to be close!"
Amy rolled her eyes, throwing up her hands. "Of course."
It was then though, that the group heard shouting and all heads turned towards the group of shovel bums to see one of the women holding Aston off the ground with a hand around her throat.
"Aston!"
I must say, I hardly expected my female coworker—who was half my size—to lift me off the ground with her hand wrapped tightly around my throat. Didn't think I'd die like this. I mused, choking and gasping as I tried to get air into my lungs, black spots appearing in the corner of my vision. My thoughts suddenly changed direction though, as my fight or flight response kicked in and, being unable to flee, my body quickly chose fight. I grabbed her wrist and grit my teeth as I forced my body to twist and threw a foot solidly into the side of her head. I was dropped as she stumbled back, leaving me wheezing on the ground as I got up and scrambled away from her, not willing to have a repeat of what I'd just experienced. I couldn't help but look back though, to see what kind of damage I'd done to my colleague, only for my mouth to drop open in shock at the flesh that slipped off the side of her face to reveal some kind of robotics.
"You have got to be kidding me." I breathed out, coughing as I made my way back over to where the others were at; turning my back to the... thing.
"Aston! Look out!"
I heard the Doctor's call and quickly turned to see the robot practically on top of me as it swung a fist at my head. Eyes wide, my training kicked in and I swiveled around and twisted out of the way of the punch; instincts causing me to reflectively swing an arm around to punch it in the kidney. Or, where the kidney would be if it were a person. All I managed to do though, was really hurt my hand as it connected with solid metal.
"Son of a—"
"Physical attacks won't work!" The Doctor called out and I turned to him with a scowl as I waved my hand about with a wince.
"You think?!" I ducked under it's arm again, focusing on dodging as I shouted at him as best I could with my bruised throat. "What the hell am I supposed to do?!"
"I-I don't know! Distract it!" He shouted, making me roll my eyes.
"Like I'm not doing that already?!" I shouted back, grimacing as my throat ached and I was clipped in the arm by a swing from the robot.
It hurt like hell, even though it was just a clip, but I pushed aside the pain and dealt with it as best I could. I pretended I was fighting in a tournament, blocking out everything except the robot in front of me and dodging it's blows as I tried to think of where a weak point could possibly be on it. Robot. Robot, come on brain, think! The head and side are solid metal and I wouldn't be surprised if the limbs and torso are as well, so punching those won't have any effect other than possibly breaking my hand. Suddenly, my eyes widened as I realized where I might be able to hit in order to have a chance against this thing. The joints! If I can wreck the joints, then I might have a chance!
Taking a deep breath, I steeled myself and started fighting back. I dodged another punch and twisted, slamming my leg into the side of the robot's knee, but it wasn't enough. Grimacing at the pain that ran up my shin at the kick, I righted myself and tried a different tactic. The robot swung a kick at my head—having started copying my moves somewhere along the way—and I swiftly brought up my arm to block it; gritting my teeth when it hit hard against my forearm. But this was what I wanted and, with my other hand, I grabbed the appendage and twisted it, before slamming it against my knee as I rammed my leg upwards; forcing its knee to bend in the opposite direction with a loud 'snap'. The robot fell to the ground, before getting up to look at its twisted and dangling limb, and then looking back at me. Okay, with this, it can't kick me anymore. Not only that, but it's mobility is limited. Now, if I can get its arms like that, then—
All thoughts of that were dashed though, when the robot charged to me even faster than before, slamming a metal fist into my ribs as I tried desperately to block it; to no avail. I felt my ribs crack and break from the force of the hit, as I was knocked back into the dirt; unable to get up from the pain. My breaths shortened into short gasps of air as I blearily opened my eyes at see the robot heading my way once more. Forcing myself to sit up partially, I tried to shuffle away with an arm draped over my side; the taste of blood in my mouth making me worried as well as the sharp pain that ran up my side and back. The robot stood tall before me, raising a fist to hit me, but a high pitched whirring sound came to my ears and I opened my eyes—which had closed sometime before—to see the robot twitching and shaking, until smoke rose up from its head and it collapsed backwards into the dirt, giving me a chance to let out a short sigh of relief.
"Ha!" The Doctor shouted, bouncing up and down on his feet as he finally stopped his sonic from emitting the screeching noise that had incapacitated the robot. "Oh, I am good!"
Amy rolled her eyes as the Doctor went on to explain what he'd done.
"Increased the signal emitting from the ring a hundred thousand times over, frying the robot's transmitter!" He grinned, before turning to Aston to see her reaction.
Thing was, she hadn't gotten up from where she was sitting a ways away and was slightly hunched over and shaking. The Doctor frowned, stepping forward a bit.
"Something's wrong."
"What?" Amy questioned, not sure what he was going on about now, but knowing that it must be serious if the Doctor had stopped celebrating so soon.
"Something's wrong!" He shouted, rushing over to where Aston was and skidding to a halt and kneeling to look at her. "Aston! Aston, what's wrong?"
She looked up at him and tried to speak, but only a wheezy choke sound came out and she clenched her eyes shut and gripped her side as she shook slightly. Immediately, the Doctor could see how her skin had taken on a slight blue hue, and his mind ran at a rapid fire pace as he realized what had happened and tried to figure out what he needed to do. The others ran over then and Mitch hurried to her side, placing a hand lightly on her shoulder and looking her over before the Amy spoke.
"What's wrong with her?"
"I-I don't know." The Doctor sputtered out, trying to think. "Broken ribs? Punctured lung? She was hit by the robot, remember?" The Doctor snapped his fingers at Mitch. "Where's the nearest hospital?"
Mitch looked up and shook his head, trying to remember. "U-Um, the nearest one is nearly an hour long drive North of here."
"An hour?" The Doctor said in disbelief, standing and starting to pace as he ran a hand through his hair. "Okay, think, think. She'll slip into cardiac arrest in the next..." He checked his watch. "Oh, seven minutes? We don't have time to take her to the hospital. So the only other option is..."
He paused, looking down at Aston who looked back at him with worried, tired eyes; the first sign of true emotion he'd seen from her since he'd met her. Immediately, he'd made his choice and reached down towards her.
"I'm sorry, but this is going to hurt." He whispered, before picking her up quickly and as gently as he could; still managing to entice a quiet gasp of pain from the woman.
Mitch quickly stood, worried for his young charge. "What are you going to do with her?"
"Take her to my ship. I have a med center there and can fix her up, but I don't have any more time." He said in rapid fire, turning and running towards where he parked the Tardis, doing what he could to keep from jostling Aston too much. "Amy, Rory! I'm going to need your help! Come on!"
The duo glanced at one another, before nodding and taking off, leaving a very confused professor and the corpse of a dead robot left at the grave site. Upon entering the Tardis, Aston was rushed to the med center and placed on a table as she started going into shock; the Doctor rushing around and getting what he needed as he barked orders to Amy and Rory.
"Amy, do what you can to keep Aston calm and as still as possible! Rory, get her hooked up to an IV!"
They both went to do what he said, Amy brushing the hair from Aston's forehead and whispering that she was going to be alright as Rory got the IV ready. Once the IV was in place, the Doctor rushed over to it and injected some sort of violet liquid, before wringing his hands nervously and muttering under his breath.
"Come on, come on, come on."
Aston soon stopped shaking and her breathing evened out as her eyes closed, making the Doctor grin and move about to the other side of the table, pressing some buttons on the side and waving Amy and Rory away from it.
"What are you doing?" Amy asked.
"I just gave her something to re-inflate her collapsed lung and seal the hole that her broken ribs managed to create."
Rory frowned. "But shouldn't she need extensive surgery to move her ribs back into place?"
"Nope!" The Doctor chirped, pressing one more button as a cover slowly moved over Aston. "Because this will do it for me."
The table Aston was on—now covered and looking more like a tube than a table—began to have small gold lights floating around inside. The Doctor beamed happily as Amy and Rory watched in fascination as the golden lights covered Aston's side and a part of her arm, hands and legs, glowing brilliantly and some sinking into her skin and disappearing.
"What are they?"
"Nanogenes." The Doctor supplied. "They're sub-atomic robots that races like the Chula use to heal wounds. They can even replace appendages. They're the cure all for injuries, though the severity of the injury depends on how long they take to fix it and they need to have the right template to go by, or else they fix you in an entirely different way."
"Uh, what do you mean, 'entirely different way'?" Rory asked, worried for the woman now dealing with healing robots.
"Well, this one time an ambulance of these guys landed on Earth and escaped, healing a child wearing a gas mask. Thing is, they thought the gas mask was part of the kid, so when they went on to heal others, they grew gas mask faces." He chirped, remembering the incident happily.
That was after all, the day everyone could be saved. No one died. Not even Jack Harkness.
"She's not going to, uh, grow a mask face, right?"
The Doctor waved a hand, nodding. "Oh, no. She'll be right as rain in about ten hours."
"Ten hour—Shouldn't we return her to her dig site? We can't just borrow her for ten hours." Amy commented, giving the Doctor a look.
"Oh..." He paused, smile dropping off his face. "I didn't think of that."
"Of course not." Amy said with a roll of her eyes, reaching over and grabbing the Doctor's arm and tugging him out of the med bay. "Come on then. We've got to at least tell her professor, if we're just going to take her with us."
That perked the Doctor up. "We can keep her?"
Amy rolled her eyes with a chuckle. "She's not a dog! But... I wouldn't mind having another woman on board."
"Wait. We're taking her with us?" Rory questioned as the trio exited the Tardis and headed back to the dig site.
The Doctor turned to hum with a shrug and a smile. "Why not?"
"Um, for one thing, she doesn't know about the whole alien thing. And she's unconscious! Isn't this technically kidnapping?"
"It's not kidnapping." The Doctor drawled out. "We're helping her! Who wants to sit around and dig holes for months at a time, eh?"
"Um, maybe she does?" Rory said, accusingly. "Doesn't she get a say in this?"
"Sure!" The Doctor smiled. "As soon as she wakes up."
Rory sighed, tossing his hands up. "That's not what I meant!"
"Oh, Rory." Amy said with a roll of her eyes. "If worse comes to worse, she can say she doesn't want to and we'll drop her off at home. No harm done."
"No harm done? She was nearly killed by some robot thing! How are we going to explain that!?"
"Can't be that hard." The Doctor chirped happily. "We'll just explain it when we explain my being an alien and the Tardis being a space and time machine."
"And by 'we' you mean 'me'." Rory grumbled and the Doctor simply tossed a grin over his shoulder as they approached the tents and the professor hurried up to them.
"Is she alright?"
"Perfectly fine." The Doctor grinned. "We just need to keep her until she's completely healed. I'm sure that won't be a problem, professor?"
The man shook his head. "Oh no. That's fine. I'll go ahead and inform the college that she'll be on leave due to a medical emergency." He said, relieved a bit as he rubbed the back of his neck with a small chuckle. "Though I doubt she'll be happy about it. She's always been an active one. Eager to do just about anything so long as she was kept busy." He commented, packing away some of his tools. "I once found her in the lab sorting pieces of pottery for nearly two days straight, before I sent her home to get some sleep."
"That seems kind of strange." Amy said and the professor nodded.
"That's her. Strange in every sense of the word. Quiet, talks only when she needs to, and when she's focused..." Mitch let out a long whistle. "Whoo. It takes an army to snap her out of it. Always busy though. Those moves you saw earlier?" He nodded towards where Aston had been attacked by the robot. "She trains in kick boxing. Heard she used to do tournaments up until the accident. Screwed up her knee. She still works hard though."
"Accident?" The Doctor questioned, his curiosity getting ahead of him.
Mitch nodded. "Yeah. Car accident. Probably still blames herself, but it's her story to tell though, not mine." He waved off, before giving the Doctor a look. "Will she be staying with you then?"
"Y-Yeah, yeah. I have a, uh, extra room so she'll be fine."
Mitch gave him a look, but eventually nodded. "That's good. It's good she's got someone to watch over her. She may not show it, but..." He paused, sighing softly. "It gets to you, you know? Being alone for so long..."
The Doctor nodded, all hints of a smile gone and serious taking it's place; knowing this better than anyone. "Yes... Yes, I know." He turned away then, waving over his shoulder with his usual smile back on his face. "We'll take good care of her!"
Mitch nodded and waved back, his own smile slowly returning. "Just make sure to bring her back! She's my hardest worker!"
"I'm sure she is." The Doctor hummed, the group of them heading back to the Tardis as he mentally hummed. Aston Reynolds... hm...
