The Doctor Dances I

Any bright ideas? The Doctor's voice was loud in Callie's head, but mercifully there was no longer a piercing headache that accompanied it. That had faded a couple days ago, thank goodness. She hated how everything in this universe seemed to give her a headache.

You'll think of something, Callie answered, stepping back some more. She bumped into someone's chest— Jack's, by the way his hands settled on her waist as he pulled her back some more. The gas masked-people were getting far too close— any second now, they were going to touch one of them.

Callie—

Mickey yelped as a woman almost touched him. Callie huffed, frustrated. Alright, enough was enough.

"That is enough!" Callie shouted in her best 'Mom' voice. She stepped forward and stuck her finger in the air, mimicking the Doctor in the episode. "Go to your room! Now."

"Mummy—"

"Don't you talk back to me," Callie snapped. Hopefully they wouldn't react poorly to the way her voice cracked nervously. "To your room, now!"

As one, all the gas mask people hung their heads and turned, trudging back to their beds. All four of them held their breaths until it was clear that they were listening to 'Mummy' and settled back under their covers.

"Nice job, Cal," the Doctor said with a grin. Callie narrowed her eyes in response.

"Sorry for stealing your lines," she said, though she didn't sound sorry at all. She'd have to have a talk with him later about expecting her to know things when she knew he would have figured it out on his own.

"That was brilliant," Mickey said, nudging her in the ribs.

"It wasn't my idea," she said. She dug her phone out and called Rose again. Still, there was no answer. She walked over to the table in the center of the ward, trying again. The others followed.

"Why are they all wearing gas masks?" Mickey asked finally. Jack slumped into the chair next to Callie, propping his feet up on the desk. Callie resisted the urge to slap them off. Even if the owner of that desk was now a gas mask person, it was still rude.

"They're not," Jack said. "Those masks are flesh and bone."

The Doctor came up Callie's other side, arms crossed and in deep thought. "How was your con supposed to work?"

Jack shrugged, looking a little too pleased with himself. "Simple enough, really. Find some harmless piece of space junk, let the nearest Time Agent track it back to Earth. Convince him it's valuable, name a price. When he's put fifty percent up front— oops! A German bomb falls on it, destroys it forever. He never gets to see what he's paid for, never knows he's been had. The perfect self-cleaning con."

"Yeah, perfect," the Doctor muttered dryly. He eyed Callie.

Some friend you got there, he said. Callie bristled, ready to defend Jack.

"The London Blitz is great for self-cleaners," Jack continued proudly. "Pompeii's nice if you want to make a vacation of it, but you've got to set your alarm for volcano day." He laughed like it was such a funny joke. Like he expected the others to laugh, too.

Callie blinked at the callousness. She finally removed her gaze from her phone— Rose hadn't picked up, not once— and took a good look at Jack. The man she'd trusted to catch her as she fell from a barrage balloon in the middle of an air raid. The man she'd been thinking of as one of her best friends all night.

It was like she didn't recognize him.

"Getting a hint of disapproval," he said after a moment, the grin melting from his face.

"A bit, yeah," Callie said. There was bite in her voice, enough to startle him.

"Take a look around the room," the Doctor said harshly. "This is what your harmless piece of space-junk did."

"It was a burnt out medical transporter!" Jack insisted. "It was empty!"

"It wasn't," Callie said. She furrowed her eyebrows, trying desperately to remember the episode. But it was hard to remember every small detail from so long ago, especially when she was also worried about Rose. Her mind kept wandering, worrying.

"I checked—"

"Not hard enough!" Callie shouted. She looked surprised at herself, eyes wide. Everyone else was silent, staring. "Sorry, I didn't mean to yell."

"How would you know, anyway?" Jack asked after a moment. "That there was something inside it?"

"Same way I knew you'd catch me when I fell," she said simply. She ignored the shock on his face and turned to the Doctor. "We don't have much time and we're wasting it sitting around here."

The Doctor nodded and grabbed her hand. This time, she let him hold it. He started to pull her across the room, Mickey at their heels.

"If you know what's going to happen, can't you just speed everything up?" He asked Callie as the Doctor led them to the staircase. They could all hear Jack following them, but they ignored him. "We could solve this whole thing and then go find Rose."

Callie shook her head. "It does't work like that. You should know that by now."

Mickey stopped, grabbing her wrist so she had to stop, too. "Make it work, then! Rose needs us."

"And if we don't fix Jaime in the next hour, we'll doom the human race to become just like him!"

"Jaime?" Jack asked, as if he simply wanted to be a part of the conversation. For whatever reason, it annoyed Callie to no end.

"The boy who was killed by your 'harmless' ambulance," Callie snapped. "The one who started all of this."

"I'm telling you, no one was—"

"I'm leaving, then," Mickey stated, backing away from them all.

"Mickey, don't be an idiot," the Doctor snapped. "Come along."

"No," Mickey said fiercely. "You lot do what you need to do… I'll go find Rose." He started down the stairs, shoving past Jack as he went.

"Mickey!" The Doctor shouted. Despite himself, Mickey stopped and turned. The Doctor seemed to be arguing with himself, but he didn't clue Callie into the argument. "Be careful."

"And call as soon as you find her," Callie added. Her chest felt tight— there were a million things that could happen to him out there. The gas mask problem was only one of them. "Or if you get into trouble."

Above them, a loud siren rang out.

"The all-clear," Jack explained. The Doctor scoffed, pulling Callie along.

"I wish."

They ran up the stairs two at a time until they came to the ninth floor. Over his shoulder, the Doctor called to Jack.

"Have you got a blaster?"

"Sure," Jack said, fishing it out from the inside of his billowing coat. They all came to a secure metal door, slowing to a stop. The Doctor nodded at it.

"The night your space-junk landed, someone was hurt," he said. "This is where they were taken."

"Jaime," Callie said sadly. "His name was Jaime."

"Right," the Doctor said, squeezing her hand. "Okay, get it open."

Jack made a show of pointing and shooting at the door handle. Callie hid how impressed she was when a neat square around the handle literally disintegrated into thin air. The door swung open easily.

"Sonic blaster, fifty-first century," the Doctor said. "Weapon factories of Villengard?"

Jack looked surprised. "You've been to the factories?"

"We both have," the Doctor said lightly. "Once."

"Spoilers," Callie muttered, pinching his side under the leather jacket.

"Well, they're gone now," Jack said, put out. "Destroyed. The main reactor went critical— vaporized the lot."

The Doctor looked a touch too smug. "Like I said, once. There's a banana grove there now. I like bananas." He wagged a finger in Jack's face. "Bananas are good."

Jack spluttered behind them as they entered the room. Callie bit back a gasp at how… sad the room was. They were on the observation side, where the doctor had sat when he tested Jaime. There was a tape deck on the table, two rolls still in place. And all around was broken glass. It crunched under their feet, covering the table and the floor like a sheet.

On the other side of the giant window— through the large, jagged hole that had been punched through— was a lonely little bed in the middle, with copious crayon drawings littering the walls. Almost all of them were of a child and a mother. Even in artwork, there was only one thing on his mind.

"What do you think?" The Doctor asked.

"Something got out of here," Jack replied. At the Doctor's prodding, he continued, "Something powerful. Angry."

The Doctor looked to Callie. "Jaime?"

She nodded, her gaze falling on a small teddy bear. Had he been holding it when he was killed? Or had the doctor given it to him in the hopes of comforting a distressed child?

"Jaime— a kid?" Jack asked, eyes furrowed. "I suppose that explains 'Mummy'."

The Doctor turned on the tape machine without a word, and the recording made Callie's heart hurt.

"Dr. Constantine recorded his sessions," the Doctor said as they began.

"Do you know where you are?" Dr. Constantine's voice asked.

"Are you my mummy?" Jaime's replied.

"Are you aware of what's around you?" Dr. Constantine had tried. "Can you see?"

"I want my mummy," Jaime cried, though it was just as devoid of emotion as everything she'd heard so far. Somehow, that made it worse. "Mummy. Mummy. Are you my mummy? Mummy! Mummy!"

"I've heard this voice before," the Doctor murmured. Callie nodded.

"You've met him," she said softly.

"Are you my mummy?" Jaime asked yet again.

"Why doesn't he know?" Jack asked.

"Are you there, Mummy? Mummy?" Jaime asked. Callie wanted to just scoop the poor kid up and give him the world's biggest hug, though she knew that would only result in her becoming a gas mask person, too. An oppressive feeling settled over her, and she crossed her arms to try to comfort herself.

"Mummy?"

"Can you sense it?" The Doctor asked them.

"Sense what?" Jack asked. The glass crunched some more as he took a step.

"Coming out of the walls," the Doctor said by way of explanation. The oppressive feeling grew.

"I feel like I can't breathe," Callie said. She held herself tighter, as if that might help.

"I don't feel anything," Jack said, looking back and forth between them.

The Doctor huffed a little. "Funny little human brains," he mused. "How do you get around in those things?"

"Don't mind him," Callie said absently. She glanced at Jack, but really was more focused on breathing. "He likes to insult species when he's thinking."

The Doctor paced, the glass beneath his feet crunching like fresh-fallen snow as he moved. "There are these children living rough 'round the bomb sites. They come out during air raids, looking for food."

"Mummy, please?" Jaime's voice continued.

The Doctor stopped, looking at Callie. "Suppose they were there when this thing, whatever it was, landed."

"It was a med-ship," Jack said, yet again. "I programed it so it wouldn't fall on anything living! It was har—"

"Harmless, so you keep saying," the Doctor snapped, waving a hand dismissively. "Suppose one of them was affected? Altered, somehow."

In the background, a soft, flapping sound appeared on the tape amongst Jaime's many cries of "Mummy". It sent chills up Callie's spine. She knew it was significant, but she couldn't remember why.

"I'm here!" Jaime announced cheerfully.

Oh, right.

"I sent him to his room," Callie said quietly. Both men looked at her. "He's sad and afraid and very, very powerful. And—"

"I'm here, Mummy," Jaime supplied helpfully. "Can't you see me?" The three of them turned in unison to face Jaime's side of the glass. It looked almost choreographed, as they all reached the same conclusion at once.

Jaime stood there, gas mask haunting as it stared up at them. They stood there for a long moment, frozen.

"Okay," Jack said slowly. "On my signal, run."

"Mummy?" Jaime called.

"Now!" Jack whipped his sonic blaster at him, ready to fire. Only, instead of his blaster, he'd produced a banana. He stopped, confused, as Callie backed behind him. The Doctor then used Jack's blaster, which he'd switched when no one was watching, and made a square hole in the wall behind them all.

"Go, now!" The Doctor shouted. "Don't drop the banana!"

Callie ignored them both as she ducked into the next hall. She paid them no mind as Jack wrestled his blaster back and reversed it, putting the wall back where it had been. The two bickered about the banana grove some more— it was starting to give Callie a headache.

"Can you two shut up?" she asked, a little harsher than she meant to. She was at her wit's end and she just couldn't take it anymore.

"Are you alright?" The Doctor asked, dropping his banana and walking over to her.

"My head hurts," she muttered, rubbing her eye. "I'm fine."

The Doctor looked all set to argue with her, but there was a loud thud, and Jaime's hand appeared through the wall.

"Oh, god," Jack said.

"Let's move," the Doctor said, slipping his hand into Callie's. They bolted down the hall, only to be cut off by a group of the patients from downstairs. They turned, tried another hall, and found the same. The cacophony of "Mummy, Mummy" was enough to haunt Callie, to drive her mad.

"It's keeping us here 'til it can get us," the Doctor realized.

"So what do we do?" Callie asked. They were cornered, yet again. And Callie had a feeling that, this time, sending them to their room wouldn't work.

"It's controlling them?" Jack asked in disbelief. He held his blaster with both hands, aiming it to his right. The Doctor had his sonic screwdriver in hand and brandished it as if it were a weapon, too.

"It is them," the Doctor corrected. "It's every living thing in this hospital."

"Okay," Jack started, nodding to his blaster. "This can function as a sonic blaster, a sonic cannon, and as a triple-enfolded sonic disruptor. Doc, what have you got?"

The Doctor started to splutter over his screwdriver, but Callie wasn't paying attention. She tried to picture this scene in her mind— what happened? How did they get out of this mess? What was different… Rose! Rose had been in this scene.

"What would Rose do?" Callie muttered. She glanced at Jack's blaster, picturing Rose.

"It's a sonic screwdriver!" the Doctor admitted with a shout, just as Callie recalled what Rose did. With a shout of her own, she grabbed at the blaster and aimed it at their feet. The floor disappeared beneath them, and they all fell with a painful thud.

The air was knocked out of Callie's lungs as she landed flat on her back. She gasped for air, eyes clear view, all the gas mask people leaned over the hole in the floor and stared at them. Jack fumbled with his blaster, and managed to close the hole before Jaime could jump down.

"What the hell, Cal?" The Doctor groaned, rolling over. "Some warning would have been nice."

"Well, if you two weren't blustering over your weapons, I would have been able to give a proper warning," Callie snipped, rubbing her head. She paused a moment, then shook her head.

Pretended she didn't see the gold edging the corners of her vision.

She would not jump now. Not in the middle of this mess, with no Rose to buffer Jack and the Doctor, with Rose and Mickey both who-knows-where— no way. She would not let the Time Vortex rip her away, not yet.

"Who has a sonic screwdriver?" Jack asked accusingly, legs shaking as his stood.

"Enough!" Callie snapped. "This isn't the time to be comparing tools, okay?"

The way Jack smirked, she knew he caught the accidental innuendo. The way the Doctor frowned, so had he. He stalked over and found the light switch, illuminating the room they were in. It was an office of some sort.

The Doctor hurried to the door, sonicking it for a moment. He rapped on the wood with his knuckles, then nodded.

"Okay, that door should hold it for a bit."

"The door?" Jack asked in disbelief. He through himself into a nearby chair. "The wall didn't stop it."

"Well, it's got to find us first!" The Doctor pointed out as he began to pace. "Come on, we're not done yet. Assets! What assets do we have?"

Callie cleared a spot on the desk and sat on it, kicking her feet as the boys bickered.

"Well, I've got a banana, and in a pinch you could put up some shelves," Jack quipped sarcastically, waving the banana for emphasis.

"Oh you picked it up? Good," the Doctor said sincerely. He plucked the banana from Jack's fingers and tossed it to Callie. She fumbled, but managed a catch.

"Uh, thanks?"

"Have you eaten in a while? Since you were out… before?" The Doctor asked. Callie shook her head, then made a face.

"I hate bananas," she grumbled, but pinched the top and started to peel it. "Oh, as far as assets go, I just have my phone."

"Nothing else in your bag?" The Doctor asked. Callie shook her head.

"Half a water bottle and some boots I forgot to put away."

The Doctor pointed. "Window."

"Barred, seven story drop outside," Jack said blandly.

"No other exits," Callie said, her mouth full of banana. It was definitely better than bananas she'd grown up with, but not by much.

"Well, the assets conversation went in a flash, didn't it?" Jack asked wryly, folding his hands together and shooting them a sarcastic smile. Callie made a face, feeling the same as he had when he'd laughed about people dying in Pompeii. Like he wasn't the Jack she knew.

The Doctor huffed, leaning against the barred window. To Callie, he asked, "So, where'd you pick this one up, then?"

Callie's headache pulsed painfully. She blinked gold dust from her eyes, so focused on willing the Time Vortex to leave her where she was that she didn't answer quick enough.

"She was hanging from a barrage balloon, I had an invisible spaceship," Jack crooned meanly. Taunting. "I never stood a chance."

"What is wrong with you?" Callie snapped at him, glaring at him through the gold.

"What?"

"You're being so— so mean."

"Excuse me?"

"You're not usually like this," Callie insisted, standing. Her head felt woozy, but she stared him head on. "You're— you're helpful and funny. Compassionate. Not so cold and—"

"You don't know me," Jack snapped harshly. Callie blinked, startled.

"I guess I don't," she muttered, her heart breaking. She rubbed her eyes harshly.

"Callie," the Doctor said softly.

"Give me a sec," she muttered, rubbing harder. The gold was clouding more and more.

Honestly, the differing lengths of her jumps was really getting on her nerves. Sometimes, she jumped before she'd even realized it. Others, it took minutes of golden blindness before she slipped into the Vortex and landed somewhere else.

Jack's gone. The Doctor told her silently. Callie's head snapped up and she looked. Really, really looked. After a second, the gold began to ebb and she could see again. Jack's chair was empty.

Of course he is, Callie replied, ignoring how it felt like he just stabbed her in the back. Because apparently I don't know him at all.

Why do you think you know him so well?

… Spoilers. Callie winced at how obvious that must be. The Doctor pursed his lips, but didn't push it.

What comes next?

I— I don't know. She made no attempt at hiding how that thought scared her.

Suddenly, there was a muffled voice in the room. Callie dug out her phone from her purse, holding it out into the air.

"— Doctor? Can you hear me?" Jack's voice came through the speakers, sounding more tinny than her phone calls usually did. "I'm back on my ship. Used the emergency teleport."

"Right," Callie muttered. The gold melted away completely, and her headache started to abate. She didn't have time to ask if that had ever happened before— if she'd ever successfully put of a jump.

"Sorry I couldn't take you, it's security-keyed to my molecular structure, but I'm working on it. Hang in there."

The Doctor frowned, taking the phone from Callie. He looked at the screen and saw, same as Callie had, that it was not in the middle of a phone call with anyone.

"How are you speaking to us?"

"Om-Com," Jack replied. There was the sound of switches being flipped and buttons being pressed. "I can call anything with a speaker grill."

The Doctor looked at Callie, eyebrows raised. "Now, there's a coincidence."

"What?" Jack asked.

"The child— Jaime," the Doctor corrected at Callie's silent reminder, "can Om-Com, too."

Callie went cold. "So he could just call us?"

The radio speaker on the shelf next to her crackled to life. In a sing-song voice, Jaime replied, "And I can hear you! Coming to find you, coming to find you."

A/N: Eep, another chapter done! I'm really happy with how this whole adventure went, and I hope you guys enjoy it. I will say that I think it's funny that in the "The Empty Child" episode, Jaime hardly makes an appearance, and then in "The Doctor Dances", the Doctor does not dance. I almost retitled these chapters, but decided to keep them the same so it's easy to know which episodes they are.

Please, please let me know what you think in a review!