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Chapter 5 – Differential DiagnosisIn the event, she threw up only once. More of a dry heave, actually, and she had considerately averted her head to miss him and the jacket.
"Get you sorted out soon, Rose," he promised, checking the various displays clustered around her in the med bay. "Let's see…symptoms. Nausea, of course. You're running a fever, too, from the feel of you." He consulted a screen. "Yep, 39.5. What else, what else? Still got that headache?"
"Now that you mention it so loudly, yeah," she said. "The aspirin didn't help either. Don't suppose you have any nanogenes about, do you?"
"No, sorry," he said with a grin. "Time Lords don't generally need them. We heal quickly."
"Big help to your travel companions, I'm sure," she snapped.
"Not in a good mood, either, but I guess that's not a symptom. This is too general, could be anything," he said disgustedly. "When did you start feeling out of sorts, Rose?"
She put a hand to her stomach to fend off another rush of nausea. "Um…yesterday, I reckon. I was really tired all of the sudden when we came back from Tellaria."
He snapped his fingers. "Fatigue!" he exclaimed. "Now we're getting somewhere. Narrows it down to about ten thousand diseases, give or take a few. That you picked it up on Tellaria takes it down to a couple thousand."
"Very encouraging," she managed to groan before her stomach turned traitor again . The Doctor gave her a basin, then looked her over for anything he might have missed. His gaze came to rest on her feet: one bare, the other still encased in a sock. The stocking foot seemed larger than the other.
"Any particular reason why you're wearing one sock, Rose? Trying to start a fashion trend or summat?"
"Wha'?" Rose looked at her feet for a moment, puzzled. "Oh, no. Tryin' to keep the left one clean. Got a bite on it."
"What kind of bite?" he asked, rolling the sock off to examine the foot in question.
"Jack said maybe a rat when he bandaged it up earlier, but it doesn't look like a rat bite to me," she said. "Little bugger bit through my boot, for starts." She heaved again, closing her eyes for a second, then looked at the basin in disbelief that anything could be left in her system. What she saw made her scream exactly as the Doctor removed the bandage covering the bite.
"Sorry, Rose," he said. "Didn't mean to hurt you."
"Doctor?" she asked in a trembling voice.
"Taegu bite," he announced grimly.
"Doctor?" she repeated.
He looked up at her to find she'd gone even paler than before. "What, Rose?"
She pointed to the basin, which was partially filled with blood. "That can't be good, can it?" she managed to get out before she fainted.
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When she came to, Rose could hear the Doctor berating Jack. "How have you never seen a taegu bite? You've been around the universe enough times!"
"Lounges and bedrooms are more my style," Jack protested. "I can't help it if you pick the less civilized places to visit."
"I hate to break this up," Rose said with her eyes still closed, "but what's a taegu bite?"
"It's what you've got on your left foot, apparently," Jack offered.
"Thank you, Captain Obvious," the Doctor snapped. He turned to Rose and his features softened. "A taegu is a vile little beast that makes its home in abandoned areas on Tellaria, Rose. Looks like a cross between a rodent and a reptile, 'bout the size of a cat, reddish fur, scaly tail, jaws like a crocodile. Venemous. Your boot slowed him down a bit, but it didn't stop him from getting his teeth on you just the same.'
Rose shuddered at the description. She felt like she was going to heave again, but remembered what had happened last time and concentrated on holding it down. "So you've seen a bite like this before, you must know how to fix it. Right?"
The Doctor looked at her foot, which was starting to swell now that it was free of the bandages. He didn't like the way it looked. Red streaks were starting to make their way up from the bite to the ankle, and that was never a good sign.
"Doctor?" Rose said, looking to him for confirmation.
"Yeah. Get this taken care of and have you back on your feet in no time," Jack assured her. "No problem. Right, Doctor?" He stepped lightly on the Doctor's foot, a not-so-subtle hint as to what the correct answer was.
"Doctor?" Rose asked again, unconvinced.
"Sure, Rose," the Doctor told her. "Fix you right up, everything will be fantastic." He tried to smile at her. It was considerably less than his usual mega-watt grin, but she had closed her eyes again and didn't notice. "I just have to check a book first."
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Jack followed the Doctor into the TARDIS library. "What's wrong?"
The Doctor ignored Jack and ran his fingers along the spines of the books on the nearest shelf. Choosing a huge tome, he opened it midway and started flipping pages.
"Look, Doctor, don't ignore me. You may not like it, but I'm her friend, too. I have a right to know what's going on. What's so bad about a taegu bite?"
The Doctor looked up from the book, a finger marking his place. "For most of the Universe, nothing. They're not pleasant, but a couple of days and you're as right as rain."
"Then what--" Jack started.
"Humans, Jack. You apes are a fragile bunch in some ways. Taegu bites affect you lot differently, and it's not pretty. I thought I might have forgotten a few of the gory details and I wanted to double check to make sure. Yes, Jack," the Doctor said before Jack could get a word out, "occasionally even I forget things. I'm nine hundred years old, it happens. But I didn't forget this time. My memory's spot on."
"And," Jack prompted.
"And for humans, taegu bites end in a very painful death."
"There's nothing you can do?" Jack asked.
"According to this book, no," answered the Doctor. He slammed the book shut. For once in his life, Jack Harkness was speechless. Then the Doctor slapped him on the shoulder and grinned. "Well don't just stand there gobsmacked! Come on, Jack, since when do I go by the book? I'm not about to let her slip away from us that easily."
Jack smiled back. "So what are we going to do?"
"Dunno yet, but I expect I'll think of something. I'm a genius, y'know."
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A/N: Okay, I combined a few of what I've been calling chapters here to make the "your chapters are too short" camp happy. Truth to tell, all of this is handwritten in a notebook I carry around with me, and I am always surprised to see the difference between the written chapters and the typed ones.
Oh, 39.5 degrees Celsius is 103 degrees Fahrenheit. Rose is running a respectable fever.
Reviews are good. Just like bananas.