So, here's the next chappie. I know you guys liked the first one- or so I gather from your wonderful reviews, so I'm going to keep on going. Cuz I'm just awesome like that.
People put up stories so fast on this fandom! It's crazy!
Anywho…
(Hehe, get it? Any who? Alright, you got it.)
PS- Hope you don't mind…it's a little lengthy…
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Presently, the door to Conference Room 5 opened and House hobbled in, letting the door slam behind him.
"Weren't you getting a patient record sheet?" Chase asked.
House nodded. "Cameron, be a doll and go get it; it slipped outta my hand. Thanks."
Cameron opened her mouth to protest, but instead, visibly irked, turned on her heel and marched out the door to retrieve the sheet. Rose looked up at Foreman, disgusted.
"Is he always like that?"
"Nope," Foreman said, handing Chase a clipboard. "Sometimes he's mean."
House now turned his attention to the three strangers, two of which were in chairs- the blonde and the dark haired male- and the last one was laying on the table itself, groaning in pain.
"You," House commanded. "What's wrong?"
"Oh, nothing much," the Doctor replied. "It only hurts when I breathe." He paused, looking from House, to Chase, and then to Foreman. "No, really, it hurts when I inhale."
At that moment, Cameron bustled through the door, still mad, with the sheet in hand. She snatched the clipboard away from Chase, who gave her a wide berth, and pulled a pen out of her pocket.
"Doctor House, if it's alright with you, I'll start questioning him now. It's evident that he's in no position to answer them himself…"
"Oh, knock yourself out, Cameron," House said, sitting down next to the blonde. "So long as I don't have to do anything."
"Alright, sir?" She said, speaking to the man lying on the table. "Your name?"
The Doctor shifted uncomfortably and smiled. "You see, that's where this gets difficult…"
"Frank," the blonde blurted. "It's Frank. Harkness." She stole a quick look at the dark haired man, who closed his eyes and shook his head in an extremely worn-out sort of way.
Cameron didn't buy it for a minute. "I think the gentleman on the table can answer for himself. Sir?"
The man on the table laughed. "No, she's right. It's Frank…" He burst out laughing before finishing, "Harkness."
Doctor Cameron inhaled deeply. "Okay, fine, Mr. Harkness. Age?"
The man on the table began laughing again. "Want to do this one, too?" He said, speaking to the blonde.
"Um…43? Right?" She asked the man on the table.
He shrugged his shoulders. "Why not?"
"Date of birth?" Asked Cameron.
"January 4th, 1959," the dark haired man said. The blonde girl was obviously confused, but said nothing.
Cameron frowned. "Is this right, Mr. Harkness?"
"Yes," the faux Harkness answered.
"Phone number?"
"Oh, I know this one," Frank said. As he said the number, Rose realized it was her cell phone's.
"Address?"
"Damn," Frank said. "None."
Cameron's eyes got big. "You're homeless?"
"Not really," Frank said. "I just don't own a home. Not a permanent one, anyway."
Cameron handed Chase the clipboard. "I give up," she said. "This is too strange." She turned and faced them again. "We three saw you," Dr. Cameron said, pointing to Chase and Foreman. "We saw the blue light and heard the loud noise…and then you two came around the corner, carrying him," she said, pointing to Frank.
"Hang on a minute," Frank said. "They were not carrying me."
"It doesn't matter!" Cameron said. She felt like pulling her hair out. "Who the hell are you people? Why doesn't he know his own name," she said, pointing to Frank, "And what the hell kind of a name is Harkness?"
The dark haired man stood up. "There is nothing wrong with the name Harkness!"
"Sit down, Jack!" the blonde said, pulling on the hem of his jacket. Suddenly, her hand flew to her mouth.
"Well, now we know at least his name," House said at last, standing up. "Jack Harkness. It defiantly has a ring to it. As for you, 'Frank'," House said, using air-quotes. "I somehow think that you're not who you say you are." He paused. "Actually, I think you're not who she says you are. And I don't even know who she is. Hell, she probably doesn't even know who she is!"
The blonde, 'Frank', and Jack Harkness were all very quiet.
"The truth?" 'Frank' said. "You wouldn't believe us, even if we tried to tell you."
Foreman frowned. "Listen, I've got a compromise. Now, obviously, you guys are very…um…different. And none of us know your story, other than the fact maybe his name is Jack. We're going to go consult out in the hallway for two minutes exactly. Two minutes. That should give you time to get your act together." He began walking towards the door; the other three doctors followed. "Two minutes!"
No one spoke until all four doctors had left and the door was securely shut. Rose sprang up and ran to the door, locking it.
"Alright," she said. "Jack, you check the windows; see if they're un-locked. Maybe, if we can find a way to get down, we can go back to the TARDIS and…"
"You're kidding yourself, Rose," Jack said, sitting back down. "There's no way. Besides, we should do what Dr. Foreman said…you know… 'Get our act together'?"
"Where did you come up with the name 'Frank'?" The Doctor asked a now-pacing Rose.
She threw up her hands. "I dunno, it just kind of flew out of my mouth. Ask Jack here how he came up with January 4th!"
Jack looked hurt. "It's my birthday!"
"Do I really look 43?" The Doctor asked. "That's fantastic, really, considering how old I am…"
"And you," Rose cut him off. "Giving them my mobile number! What if they tried to call and it went off?"
"Relax," Jack whispered. He pointed to the door, where the voices of the four doctors were coming through very clearly.
"I'm psychotic?" They could hear Dr. House say. "I'm psychotic? Let's talk about Cameron here, wailing on them like they were aliens or something!"
The Doctor smirked. "Maybe our Dr. Cameron is smarter then she seems."
Jack looked worried. "He's not really psychotic, is he?"
"I wouldn't doubt it," the Doctor said. He winced as he tried to speak, so he dropped down to a loud whisper. "Of all of the bloody doctors in this hospital- including myself- you had to pick him!"
"I'm sorry!" Rose said loudly. Both Jack and the Doctor hushed her; she just rolled her eyes.
"What are we going to tell them?" Rose groaned and sat down, her brow furrowed. "They will never believe us…not in a million years."
"I dunno," the Doctor said, closing his eyes, clearly in an incomprehensible amount of pain. "They did see the TARDIS land."
"Wait, are you saying we show them the TARDIS?" Jack said, aghast. "I already threatened that House guy with a sonic screwdriver."
"So I heard," the Doctor growled. "Good going…you know it's not meant to be used like that."
A twisted smile formed on Jack's face. "Well, yes, I know that, and you know that, but Dr. House doesn't know that. 'Sonic screwdriver' just sounds dangerous."
The Doctor didn't blink an eye. "Yeah, well, don't go boasting about it until we know they can be trusted." He tried to turn over, but shuttered with pain.
"Doctor, stop moving," Rose begged.
The Doctor licked his lips, thinking. "Well, we've got to tell them something…"
"The truth, dammit!" Jack said.
"Should we?" Rose asked. "Why shouldn't we?"
"Because it's ither they believe us- they probably won't- or they call the police and we have to make a quick getaway…" the Doctor trailed off.
Rose shot him a whose-side-are-you-on? Look.
The Doctor continued. "…Which won't be happening, on account of me."
"Well, we're not leaving you here," Jack and Rose said at the same time.
The Doctor, ignoring the ache, smiled and held out his hand for Rose to take it. She did, and Jack came to stand by her. "I know you won't," the Doctor said. "I'm not even worried. But I'm in loads of pain and I think the thing to do is to tell them who we really are."
"Are you sure?" Jack asked.
"Yes. No," The Doctor replied, wincing. "But when am I ever?"
At that moment, Dr. Foreman opened the door. "Ready?" He asked, as Cameron, Chase and House brushed by him, miffed at each other.
"I'll do the introductions," the Doctor said, and Rose moved away from him. "Hello," he waved from the table, very chipper. He pointed to the blonde. "The pretty thing to my right, that's Rose Tyler, she's nineteen or twenty, by now. Captain Jack Harness is to my left, the one with the…eh…sonic screwdriver…not that that means anything to you… and I'm the Doctor."
Everyone in the room was silent. Then,
"…The Doctor?" Cameron asked.
"Yep."
"Just…the Doctor."
"This is beginning to sound annoyingly familiar," Rose said, grinning.
"Wait, wait," Cameron said. "Doctor who?"
The Doctor smiled. "Exactly! No one knows, really. Not Rose, not Jack, I don't even think I can remember. Not that I would tell you, even if I could." He beamed at House. "You were really on to something, you know that?"
"If you're a doctor, where do you work?" Chase asked. "What's your specialty?"
"Not a doctor," Rose corrected. "The Doctor."
The Doctor nodded at her. "Yup."
Rose smiled at him, looking spry.
The Doctor continued. "She's right, again, though. It's not a profession. I'm the Doctor because I mend things." He laid his head back down on the table.
"People?" Foreman asked.
"No. Things." The Doctor corrected. "Weren't you listening?"
"I don't believe this," Chase said. "I don't believe you."
"Well you wouldn't," Rose said, glowering. "You seemed a coward from the beginning."
"What's not to believe?" Jack asked. "Why would we lie? We already tried once and you know how that turned out."
"Everybody lies," Dr. House explained. "The only variables are what about and why. You all are lying about your identities because you say we won't believe you. Now, ither you're insane or you're telling the truth."
"A little bit of both, I'd say," Jack smirked.
Rose piped up, "But we are telling the truth,"
"This is too much," Cameron said, sitting down. "What was that loud noise we heard? With the lights and the sound? I mean-"
"The TARDIS," the Doctor said, cutting her off. "It's a time machine…sort of. I can't think of a better way of saying it. And no, I'm not showing it to you until I know you can be trusted. My life may be in your hands," he said, shaking his head.
"Doctors, please, try and understand," Rose said. "We'll answer all of your questions, tell you everything…" She felt a little twinge of guilt then, because there was one thing that her and the Doctor had made a pact about; something that no one could know about besides them… "As long as you take care of him. Fix him so that we can leave you and get on with our lives."
"Also," Jack said, "You can't go and call the cops on us. It's none of their business what's our business; be aware of that. Are we agreed?"
Cameron, Chase and Foreman all looked at House. At last, he shook his head. "Yeah, I guess."
Rose heaved a sigh of relief.
"Eventually, though, you will have to tell us your stories," House explained. "But for right now, as much as I hate to admit it, we're going to have to do our jobs."
He told his team to go downstairs to try to secure a clinic room, while he would call Dr. Cuddy and tell him he had a 'special' patient, and to put someone else on his current case. Just before he picked up the phone, House turned back to face the Doctor, Rose, and Jack.
"TAR…DIS?" He asked. The trio nodded their heads.
House shivered. "You all have got a lot to explain."
AN: I am sososo sorry this chapter took so long to put up…but here it is! Hopefully the next chapters be put up more regularly, but I hate to make promises. It might be easiest if you put the story on your alert but…:clears throat: you know…all ya gotta do is click the little button!
Of course, it's your choice…
And, how convenient, it's the same button you use to submit reviews! Uncanny!