Rose needed a drink. She was still thirsty, because the Doctor had whisked her back off to bed before she could drink her glass. Infact, even if he hadn't taken her back to bed, she'd still have been thirsty, because she was now wearing her previous drink, and had no spare night wear to change into. The wet material clung to her neck, and her hair hung limply over her shoulders, making her look bedragled and rather like she'd taken a night time dip.
As she wandered down a corridor, she wondered what time it was now. She'd slept for a little while after going back to bed, but her thirst had eventually woken her up again.
She lifted her right arm to glance at her watch...or at least tried to. But no matter how hard she strained and tried, she couldn't move her arm at all. Frowning, she pinched it sharply, expecting to feel pain. But she felt nothing. Infact, she couldn't feel her arm at all. She lifted her right hand up with her left and examined it. It felt cold, and was a pale blue. When she let it go, it just flopped back by her side again, like she had no control over it.
"Oh you've got to be joking," she muttered as she realised that the bruise Jack had given her, must have been far more severe than she'd first thought. By this time she'd reached the kitchen, because her legs had unconsciously continued on and carried her there without her even realising. She sat in the same chair she'd sat in earlier, and began pulling down the neck of her shirt so that she could examine her shoulder. There was the bruise, and there, right in the centre was a tiny little cut. Rose grabbed a magnifying glass off the table, not even caring why it had been put there in the first place.
She examined the pin prick even closer and saw a tiny little spike, only about a milllimetre long poking out of the wound, too small for the normal eye to see. She reached out and grabbed a pair of tweezers which had also suddenly appeared from somewhere. But again, Rose didn't notice.
Rose picked at the splinter, and carefully removed it, setting it on a bit of paper on the table. It was odd, like a tiny fragment of bone. Panick shot through Rose as she suddenly imagined the bones in her shoulder shattering under Jack's weight, and then her picking them out one by one with the tweezers until there was nothing left in her arm. She shook her head as though reminding herself that it was just a figment of her wild imagination, and then she looked at the wound again. It was tiny, and there was just a tiny drop of blood appearing. Rose took a tissue from the box on the table and dabbed at the blood until it was gone, which didn't take very long. Then she looked at the tissue. Something was wrong with her, she could tell that from the colour of the blood.
Perhaps she'd better tell the Doctor now, rather than convince herself that it was nothing, because after all, this wasn't nothing. She could see that now.
She stood up and looked at the table, then frowned again as she realised that the magnifying glass, tweezers, paper and tissues hadn't been there when she'd sat down. She looked at the TARDIS walls and smiled. Now she knew why the Doctor loved his ship so much.
"Thanks," she whispered, stroking one of the coral-like columns that rose out of the floor beside her. Then she thought for a moment.
"I don't suppose you could help me find the Doctor?" she asked, wondering if the TARDIS would actually be able to do that, or if she was now just being silly.
But to her surprise, the door of the kitchen opened, and the corridor lit up. Rose walked down it until she came to a junction. The corridors straight on, and to her left were pitch black, but the corridor to her right was lit up, so she chose that one. At the next junction, the left was lit up, so she took that one, and followed the lit corridors right up to a dark, wooden door. She knocked twice, then entered to find the Doctor swamped in books, leafing through one rather ancient looking one.
"Thanks," Rose muttered to the TARDIS again, before crossing the room to join the Doctor and break her news.
oOo
"So Jack fell against you, and you assumed he had caused the pain?" The Doctor asked as he aimed the sonic screwdriver at Rose's shoulder. She felt a warm tingle from the laser which she found amazing considering her right, arm, from about her collar bone down, was now completely paralysed.
"Yeah. I didn't think anything else of it at the time. Mind you I did have other things to worry about."
The Doctor gave a slight smile and brushed away a few strands of her hair to reveal the bruise. It was half the size now, and not nearly as colourful, although according to Rose it had been every colour under the sun.
"Well this is no ordinary bruise," he said, turning his attention back to her shoulder.
"I know. I found a splinter in it," she said, revealing the tissue with the tiny dots of blood and the splinter wrapped inside it. The Doctor took the splinter and ran it under the sonic-screwdriver.
"Looks like a bit of Blon's claw. I'll have to test it to be positive though. Wait here." And with that he closed the huge book with a thump, took the splinter and darted out of the room, leaving Rose swamped in the pile of books.
She decided that she'd look at one of the books while she waited, so she pulled the nearest one to her and opened the front cover.
How to cure hangovers in three easy steps, by B.A. D'Wolf.
"Perfect!" she exclaimed. She was awful at handling hangovers, so perhaps this book could teach her how to at least not make a fool of herself the day after.
As she began reading, the picture became a blur. She squinted her eyes shut, then opened them again and found that it was back to normal.
I'm just tired she told herself. She went back to reading, but as she did, the text became smaller and much harder to read. She moved closer to the page and found that the words were starting to blur and run into each other.
"I really need to sleep!" she muttered, rubbing her eyes. She stood up, tucked the book under her arm and started heading back to her room to catch up on some sleep. As she came into the control room, she caught sight of Jack. He came running over when he saw her and placed his hands on her shoulders, looking right into her eyes.
"Rose, are you alright? You look a little faint."
"Would both of you please stand still," she groaned, then realised what she'd said. "Oh no."
And then she fell unconscious into Jack's arms. He scooped her up and carried her over to the Doctor's chair, where he gently set her down then called for the Doctor.
The Doctor came running when he realised that Jack needed him urgently, and when he saw Rose his eyes flew wide in panick.
"What happened?" he asked as he crouched down beside Rose.
"I don't know. She looked a little unsteady as she came back from the library, and then she just passed out in my arms. There's something seriously not right with her."
"I know. But what?"
Just then Rose mumbled something and opened her eyes again. She looked up at them for a moment then groaned. "Don't tell me I did it again?"
"Yep. How are you feeling?" the Doctor asked as he felt her forehead.
"Tired...weak...like I just want to sleep," she replied, trying to stand up. But her legs had turned to jelly and she just collapsed into Jack's arms again.
"Whoa, steady," he cried as he helped her back up. As he sat her back down in the seat, his watch caught her arm and made a slight scratch on her skin.
A blue light surrounded her for a moment, the scratch healed and she stared at them in shock.
"What the hell just happened?" she asked after a long silence.
The Doctor looked at her trainers thoughfully.
"Give me a trainer," he said, and although she had no idea why he wanted it, she took one of them off and handed it to him.
He pulled out a little pocket knife and cut the lining of the trainer.
"Hey!" Rose protested, but he held up his hand to silence her. Then they all watched as the same blue light surrounded the trainer and repaired the lining. At last, it all made sense to the Doctor now.
"That splinter you found in your shoulder was actually part of a toxic dart," he said as he handed her back her trainer.
"But...but I thought the poison was supposed to kill you within five hours or something. It's now been about fifteen hasn't it?"
"Yes, thats what puzzled me too. But Jack's just provided us with the answer."
"I have?" Jack asked, although he did look a little chuffed with himself.
"Yes. The trainers. You've worn them so much you've effectively become part of the circuit. So whenever you get hurt, they work to fix you aswell, like they did when Jack scratched you."
"So, they're like the nano-thingies in Jack's ship?" Rose asked, suddenly imagining herself turning into one of the zombie gas mask people.
"Not quite, but sort of. They're more controled and much safer than the nanogenes.Now obviously, they're not strong enough to heal the poison, but they are strong enough to slow down it's effects."
"Great, I suppose you're going to tell me the trainers saved my life now," Rose muttered and the Doctor grinned.
"Not if you don't want me to."
"So what are we going to do?" Jack asked after a moment, and a dark shadow fell across the Doctor's face.
"There's only one thing I can do...but I don't want to."
"Why not?" Rose asked.