Chapter 13: Infected

Jack walked into the Doctor's room and closed the door behind him. He made absolutely sure it was sealed so there was no chance of a wayward child getting in. He didn't want Leah or Theo to witness what was going to happen next.

The knife he was going to use to kill the Doctor was in his coat pocket, bouncing against his chest with every step. Even through the fabric he could feel its coldness. It felt almost as cold as he did.

He felt nothing but sickness and numbness.

'So, we need to think of this plan,' the Lanwa said with the Doctor's voice, turning to him.

Desperate he'd somehow misread the situation, Jack gazed at him, seeking out any telltale signs that he was still the Doctor. But as he stared at the man in front of him, he realised rather abruptly that it was like looking at some unfinished canvas painting of the Doctor. He wasn't making any hint of an expression, and his eyes were so deadened they looked like they belonged on a corpse.

Jack's insides turned to ice. Not that he'd needed a confirmation at this point, but there it was. This wasn't the Doctor. Not anymore. The disease had him, and Jack had a promise to keep.

He took a deep breath. It was now or never.

He launched forward to slam the Lanwa against the wall by the shoulder, reaching into his pocket and pulling out the knife. He held it against the Lanwa's throat, hard enough to draw a small dash of blood. 'Get out of him.'

The Lanwa looked shocked. 'Jack, what are you doing?'

'Stop using his voice and stop pretending to be him. Get out.'

'Jack, you're crazy!'

'I said get out.'

'Jack, it's me, I promise!'

'No it isn't,' Jack replied abruptly. 'I know exactly what you are, and I told you to get out.'

It paused, and then relented with the biggest smile on the Doctor's possessed face, 'aww, and I thought I was playing him so well.'

'I know you want him alive, so get out or I'll kill him right now.'

'You wouldn't,' the Lanwa said, tilting its head as it lowered the Doctor's eyebrows. 'You couldn't. You're too loyal. In his memories, you're his most trusted friend.'

'I promised I would kill him if you infected him. Yeah, I'm loyal, and I'm loyal enough to keep that promise to him. So I'm giving you an option. Get out, or I'll slit his throat. If you make him regenerate I'll keep killing him again and again.'

The Lanwa paused, considering that. 'You really would kill him because he asked you to, wouldn't you?'

'Yes. Last chance,' Jack responded shortly.

The Lanwa sighed. 'But I'm already in most of the family, Jack. It's not long until I take them over. I wonder, could you kill his daughter like you're ready to kill him? Would you really slit the throat of Leah? Can you just imagine her little face? Her little voice? "Please, Uncle Jack! I don't want to die! Please don't kill me!" ...'

'I said get out,' Jack grated, ignoring it.

The Lanwa smiled a truly awful smile Jack had never seen on the Doctor's face before, and had no desire to see again. 'I guess that answers that one,' it purred.

'I'll do whatever it takes to save him and his family. So I'll kill you. Don't think I won't. And I'll warn you. We know where the cure is and we're getting there whether the Doctor's here or not. I know you want him alive. Your choice.'

The Lanwa rolled the Doctor's eyes. 'You can't win, ex-Time Agent. I've had access to his mind. I know the supposed cure is in the Tuvala system, and …' It suddenly paused, the Doctor's eyes going skywards as it consulted the Doctor's memories. It found something it clearly loved, and smiled that horrific smile again as it pierced Jack with its cold gaze again. 'Oh dear, he's not told you that bit, has he?'

Jack kept trying to ignore it. 'I said get out.'

'Tuvala is a suicide mission, Jack,' the Lanwa said happily, 'the Doctor knows full well you're all going to die trying to get there. Oh, what a shame. He made it all sound so easy, didn't he? But it's not like he has much choice now, I suppose.'

'I'm not gonna say it again!' Jack snapped.

It sighed. 'Fine, I'll go. But you let him know that I'm still inside him and his daughter. I'm going to infect every single last atom inside his and her body. I'll make them blind, dumb, deaf, and numb, until there is nothing left for you to save and they're begging for relief. I'll have them both, and Theo, too. Then one day ... you. I'll be seeing you soon, Jack Harkness. Tick tock goes that clock …'

The Doctor's eyes rolled back, and his body sagged. Jack caught him, managing to stop him slamming into the floor.

'Doctor?' Jack asked urgently, dispensing with the knife to shake him.

'Doctor?'

'Jack!' the Doctor realised, looking around.

'What?' the Master asked.

'I just heard Jack,' the Doctor replied quickly.

'I didn't, thankfully. Doesn't his voice annoy you?'

The Doctor's vision suddenly flashed to black, before the Master's face returned. 'Jack!' he called. 'I'm stuck!'

'Jack,' the Doctor moaned, his eyes still closed. 'I'm stuck.'

'Come back to me,' Jack urged.

'I'm going back,' the Doctor said quickly as his vision pulsed again. 'Master, you've got to make sure Rose stays protected. If she goes, that's it for all of us.'

The Master sighed, but the Doctor didn't catch a response.

The Doctor's eyes snapped open. He found himself being held against the wall of his room by Jack, keeping him upright. There was the familiarly overpoweful smell of sandalwood in the air, nearly making him retch.

'What …' the Doctor gasped.

'Sit down …'

Jack guided the wonky Time Lord to sit on the bed, still supporting him.

'I was …' the Doctor breathed, looking vacantly around the room. 'Where am I?'

'You're in our quarters on Pleaneas, you're okay,' Jack said. 'Look at me. Refocus.'

The Doctor blinked a few times. Things were blurred. 'Jack, I was just … it was …'

'What?' Jack asked.

'I went somewhere … it was dark ...'

'Probably a nightmare while it had control of you,' Jack concluded hastily. 'It's over, it's okay.'

'No, it was … I can't remember,' the Doctor murmured, and promptly fainted.

'Have you got anything for me, yet?' Jack asked down the phone to Martha while simultaneously pacing the Doctor's room.

'You've got to give Unit some time, Jack. Trying to make a drug that skips the REM phase of sleep has never been made for a human, never mind aliens,' Martha replied.

'Speed it the hell up,' Jack urged. 'If they need more money just give it to them - I don't care. Anything we've got on our alien drug research profiles, just hand it over. We need this, now.'

'Jack, calm down. What's happened?'

Jack briefly checked the door for any signs of Leah or Theo, and then the Doctor, who was still unconscious. 'I'm on a sinking ship here, Martha.'

'What?'

'It's spreading in Leah and the Doctor thinks Theo's gonna get it too. It just took over the Doctor and I had to force it out. Every single dream they have it's eating into them. I think the Doctor's safe for a bit, but it's trying Leah with everything it's got. She has to stop dreaming.'

Martha swore. 'Oh god. I'm trying everything, Jack, I promise. You lot have got to get back here - we can make all the drugs we like but we've got no way of testing them.'

'We're nearly home. You keep working on your end.'

'We will,' Martha said. 'What should I tell the others?'

Jack glanced at the Doctor. 'Nothing,' he said. 'Leah doesn't even know and the Doctor doesn't want her to. Leave it to him.'

'Okay,' she said. 'Call me if you need anything.'

He hung up, and for a very long while, just stared at the Doctor. The Time Lord had been unconscious on the bed for twenty minutes, now.

'Jack, I have detected the Doctor is asleep at an unusual time of day for his established sleep phase cycle,' Panacea's voice suddenly came on the speakers as the screen by the bed lit up. 'Do you require any medical assistance?'

'Yeah … Can you just check him very quickly?'

'Certainly,' Panacea replied. A small electronic beep sounded. 'I detect his biorhythms are regular.'

'Can you see if he's dreaming?'

'He appears to be in a permanent delta wave, suggesting he is not dreaming but in a deep sleep. However, this may be a cause for concern. Would you like me to send an analysis team?'

'No,' Jack said quickly. 'Just … watch him. Let me know if anything changes.'

'Very well,' she said, and the screen turned black to indicate she was gone.

Jack obligingly stripped his best friend down to undershirt and boxers, and rolled him into bed and made sure he was comfortable. He also pulled the sheets up just enough to hide the slight cut he'd inflicted on the Doctor's neck, hoping and praying Time Lord healing rates would make it unnoticeable very quickly.

He then pocketed both the knife and the phone, making sure both were well-hidden before opening the door of the room. He immediately registered Leah standing in the living space besides Jinu, who was holding her baby.

'Oh, hello,' Jack greeted charismatically, switching on the charm.

'Hello,' Jinu said, and looked past him into the Doctor's room. 'Is the Doctor here?'

'Over exhausted himself, he just collapsed on me,' Jack replied as nonchalantly as he could.

'Oh, I hope he's okay?'

'Yeah, fine, just needs a bit of sleep, I think,' Jack said. 'Don't worry, he's kinda making a habit of dying recently. He'll be fine. Panacea cleared him.'

Jinu looked puzzled, but laughed anyway, clearly trying to be polite. 'I'm heading home in an hour, and before I left I just wanted to thank him for saving my baby,' she said. 'Freja would be dead if it wasn't for him.'

'I'll pass on the message,' Jack said, nodding. 'He'll be thrilled you're both okay.'

'I need to do something for him,' Jinu insisted. 'Is there anything I can do?'

'Don't worry, he won't want anything,' Jack assured her. 'He'd just want me to tell you to go and have a fantastic life.'

'But I must do something,' Jinu pressed. 'He did so much to save Freja.'

'Honestly, he won't want anything, you don't need to give it another thought. Just be happy.'

Jinu gave up. 'Okay. Please tell him if he's ever on Jargini he's really welcome to visit us. We're in subsector 7. We've got the big purple clam shell right outside, you can't miss us.'

Jack winked. 'No problem, I'll let him know.'

'I'd better catch my flight,' she said, glancing at the clock. 'You all look after him, won't you?'

'Oh, it's my job to,' Jack assured her. 'Don't miss your flight. Take care.'

She left, and Leah immediately rounded on him.

'Why's he asleep? He wasn't earlier. I wanna talk to him,' she complained.

'He's just tired,' Jack dismissed. 'Give him a few hours. What did you want to talk to him about?'

'The terminal went mad earlier and printed out all this stuff,' she explained, leaning over to retrieve a stack of plastic sheets. Jack took a few from the top, and checked them. They were inked with a myriad of algorithms and maps. 'What are they?'

'Schematics of the lower levels of Pleneas,' Jack realised.

'Umm … why have we got those? And what's Millennia?'

Jack paused, frowning. 'Where'd you see that?' he asked, looking at her.

'It was flashing on the screen when they all printed out. Is it some kinda program?'

Jack considered her inquisitive little face. There was nowhere left to hide. 'I think I need to explain. Get me a coffee.'

What felt like ten seconds after he'd passed out, the Doctor woke up.

Following a brief moment of confusion about where he was and what had happened, he realised he was in his bed in their quarters on Pleaneas. It seemed quiet. He tried to push himself to sit upright, but found he was too physically weak to do it. Instead, he called out Jack's name to get a bit of help.

Three seconds later the door opened, the light from the main room stunning the Doctor momentarily as Jack entered and saw him.

'Hey,' Jack greeted, closing the door behind him as the light automatically turned on. 'How are you feeling?'

'Like I've been here before,' the Doctor murmured. 'What happened?'

Despite his slight haziness, he did register Jack's hand seemingly hovering over his coat, as though ready to pull something out. He wasn't quite sure what to make of that.

'What's the last thing you remember?' Jack wondered.

'I … I think I drowned. Did I drown?'

'Yeah. Anything else?'

His tone was a little terse, the Doctor noticed. 'Are you okay?'

'I'm fine. Answer the question.'

'Jack, you're clearly not fine. What's wrong?'

Without a beat, Jack suddenly moved forward, pulled a knife out of his coat, grabbed the Doctor's chin and held the blade close to his neck. 'I swear to god if it's you again I'll kill you.'

'Jack … what are you doing!?' the Doctor managed to get out.

'Be quiet or Leah will hear you,' Jack grated.

The Doctor - despite his panic, confusion, and serious need for help - had absolutely no desire to draw Leah's attention to this. 'Jack, what are you doing?' he repeated in a whisper.

'I warned you I'd kill him if you came back,' Jack spat.

'Jack, it's me. I promise it's me, whatever you think I am, I'm not … Oh,' he realised.

'Oh?' Jack echoed.

'It took me over, didn't it?'

Jack didn't lower the knife. 'Yeah, it did, and sorry, I really need to make sure it's not pretending to be you again. So answer the question. What's the last thing you remember?'

The Doctor tried desperately to recall it. 'I was … I was in a lift and … Jinu!' he realised, wide-eyed. 'Jack, you need to tell Panacea she's stuck in a lift with … Wait.' He stopped himself, very confused as he forced his hands up to check his face. Same face. 'I'm still alive. How am I alive?'

'Jinu's fine. Panacea's power got restored a few minutes after you drowned apparently and everyone who got stuck was emergency teleported out. You were revived on the floor of reception.'

'Oh, can't remember that,' the Doctor said, struggling to process it through his addled head. 'Is Freja okay?'

'Yeah. They were checked out and discharged. Jinu dropped in to say thanks. She had to catch her flight though, so she couldn't stay. Said to drop by if you were ever in the area.'

'Ah, good,' the Doctor said, satisfied. 'Have we found out what caused Panacea's system to fail?'

'They're saying a really bad solar flare.'

'Well, that makes no sense,' the Doctor mused.

Jack finally lowered the knife. 'Why not?'

'Panacea's systems don't use the type of power supply affected by solar flare activity,' the Doctor explained.

'Well, whatever it was it took her completely out,' Jack said, shrugging.

The Doctor, after a brief moment, decided there was no point dwelling on that when he wasn't going to get any answers. 'I take it you got the disease out of me by threatening to kill me?'

'Yeah. Did the trick. It agreed to go.'

'So it definitely doesn't want me dead, and now we know it can deactivate in people if it wants to,' the Doctor reasoned. 'But what's its next move? Did it say?'

'It knows it needs to get into Leah, now,' Jack told him. 'Martha's working on that anti-dream serum, but she needs you all back there to test it. And it said that it was going to get worse in you.'

'That's not good,' the Doctor muttered.

'Yeah. I think you got thrown into some kinda lucid nightmare, it's like you were talking to me but you weren't quite there.'

The Doctor thought, and then realised. 'I was … It took my mind. I was stuck.'

'Where?'

'I can't … I can't remember,' he breathed, the hazy details struggling to come to the forefront. Typically, just like a dream, it was very hard to hold onto. 'She was … he was there …'

'Who was?'

The Doctor's eyes narrowed, desperately trying to recall it. A familiar face swam into his vision. '... The Master.'

Jack's eyes widened. 'Why are you saying the Master?'

'He was there,' the Doctor mumbled, the details spilling out from somewhere in a tiny rush. 'With Rose.'

'Rose was there!?'

'Yeah … but she couldn't hear me.'

'It's just a nightmare,'Jack concluded. 'Just something the Lanwa conjured up while it took you over.'

'It wasn't - it can't have been,' the Doctor insisted, looking at him. 'It was … it was the network.'

'What are you talking about? What network?'

Try as he might, the Doctor couldn't quite seem to recall what that actually meant. 'I can't remember. I was ...'

He trailed off.

Jack considered him, and then dismissed it. 'Don't worry about it. Millennia's sent everything through, by the way. Leah's looking at it all. You want something to eat?'

'Yeah,' the Doctor said, immediately realising just how hungry he was. 'I'll get up.' He tried to lift a leg, but it didn't really work. He looked at Jack, who smirked. 'Well … give me a minute.'

The Doctor managed to partially dress himself into his shirt and trousers, had a shave, and eventually emerged into the living area twenty minutes later. Leah was sitting at the table looking through some plastic sheets and Theo was sitting on a worktop in his pyjamas, having his face dabbed by Jack with a blood-soaked tissue.

The Doctor's internal alarm bells immediately rang. 'What happened?' he asked in a panic, jogging over with a sudden burst of energy.

'Hi, Da!' Theo said happily, blood smeared on his face and pyjama shirt.

'He's fine, he was running around the table and he tripped and hit the window pane,' Jack assured the Doctor.

The Time Lord immediately and impulsively shoved Jack aside. 'D'you hurt anywhere else?' he asked the child quickly, checking his nose and every single limb for any imperfections. 'Did he pass out? Did he …'

'Doctor, he's fine,' Jack insisted. 'Basically bulletproof.'

'Maybe I should run him down to admissions, just to check his …'

'Doctor,' Jack interrupted. 'You're freaking out again. Relax. He's fine.'

At Jack's words the Doctor rolled back his thoughts, and realised he was completely overreacting. 'Yeah, sorry,' he said, but all the same he scooped his son up into a hug, kissing him on the forehead. Enjoying the overabundance of attention, Theo happily buried his face into his dad and clung onto his neck.

'Sorry,' the Doctor muttered to Jack.

Jack just nodded. 'I get it. Got you some food,' he said, pointing at the table where a plate stacked with Fibono meatballs was waiting with a special blue sauce dip, and then offered his arms out to receive Theo. 'I'll clean him up.'

Jack disappeared with Theo as the Doctor took his seat next to Leah.

'You worry way too much about him,' Leah informed him.

'I know,' the Doctor agreed, taking a meatball. He looked at the sheets she was examining. Some maps of the clinic's lower levels and various codes and calculations. 'Are those what Millennia sent through?'

'Yeah. We gotta get to this room to get to Millennia's body, don't we?' she asked, pointing at a room already marked on the schematics.

'Yep,' the Doctor confirmed.

'I think we should go this way,' Leah said, tracing her finger along a certain path. 'It's all air vents with sealed hatches but I think you could punch through them. It'll get us to the right floor, then it's just two gates, but maybe we can hack those.'

'We?' the Doctor echoed.

Her face scrunched up. 'You're not gonna leave me out again, are you?'

'No,' the Doctor said quickly before she could explode. 'As much as I hate it, I've already got a job for you.'

'What's that?' she asked keenly, her eyes aglow.

'Well, while me and Jack are in the lower levels getting Millennia, you've got clear the way back to the Tardis.'

Leah considered that for a moment, and then sighed, exasperated. 'Is this one of those jobs you pretend is really big but it actually isn't and you think I'll believe you cos I'm six?'

He laughed, but shook his head. 'No. I need you to get unaccompanied into the departure lounge, disable the security, get through three layers of staff, commandeer a ship and hold it until me and Jack can get there with Millennia. And you'll have to do all this with Theo in tow.'

Leah stared at him. 'Oh.'

'Still fancy it?' the Doctor asked.

Her face slowly turned into a grin that looked all too familiar. A perfect copy of Rose, joyous at some perilous situation they'd got themselves into. 'Yeah.'

He grinned back. 'We'll work out exactly what you need to do, don't worry. We'll make a plan, and leave tonight.'