So! You've found this archived story. Why should you care about this? This is for those that genuinely preferred how I wrote this story the first time around and want to come back to it! I have genuinely changed nothing about the chapters you're about to read. I do suggest you go read the nonarchived version of this story, as it has been updated and has better writing. If you don't care, then I hope you enjoy!
Family has always been the most important thing in my life. To me, a family doesn't consist of just the people that raised me, but also the people that were there for me when I needed them the most. Throughout my life, I've made many friends and many enemies, but the friends that I've made have always stood by me whenever I needed them.
When I was less than one year old, I was adopted by two men, Jack Harkness and Ianto Jones. Growing up, they introduced me to aliens and alien technology. Throughout those years, I met many wonderful people who became part of my ever-growing family.
My fathers worked for an organization called Torchwood, an organization dedicated to protecting earth from alien attacks. When I turned ten, I was introduced to that team and became an honorary member. I spent most of my time Owen and Tosh, leading me to realize how much I wanted to be a doctor.
I skipped years in school, and by the time I was sixteen, I was accepted to the University of Cambridge School of Clinical Medicine. It took me eight years to complete, and it was only two months ago that I received my MD in Medical Science.
However, a part of me always knew that I wanted to work with aliens, due to the stories my father would tell me about a man he knew called the Doctor. He always told me of the adventures he went on with the Doctor, most of which happened when I was barely old enough to walk.
Today was my dad's birthday, so I figured I would surprise the team with a visit.
As I approached the Road Dahl Pass, the vortex manipulator my dad had gifted me years ago began to beep. On the screen was a message from a much later version of my father, asking me to visit him on New Earth.
I had only visited him there a handful of times, knowing that it was hard on him. There would be a point when he would be the only one left, and he chose to spend his later days in life alone.
After getting over my initial surprise at his request, I ducked into a nearby alleyway. I typed in the coordinates and date and slammed my hand down on the device. I was quickly swept up in the bright light of the time vortex.
It had only taken a moment before I was standing in front of the hospital. After landing, I allowed myself a few moments to enjoy the nice breeze, as well as pick some of the apple grass and smell it.
I walked in and quickly found the elevator, ignoring the cat-like aliens as I entered the lift. Asking for Ward twenty-six, I grimaced as I was disinfected and readied for the ward.
Walking out of the elevator, I was greeted by a nurse, who asked: "How can I help you?"
"Hi, I'm here to see the Face of Boe. Is he available?" I questioned with a small smile, and she nodded grimly. The look on her face confirmed that he was doing worse than before.
"He's dying of old age, I'm afraid," she explained softly, and my smile fell as I nodded.
Before I could say anything else on the matter, she handed me over to a different nurse. "I'll be leaving you to the care of Nurse Hame from now on. My apologies, but I have other work that I must attend to."
Nurse Hame led me to my father in silence, and luckily he wasn't too far away.
"If you need me, Miss, I'll just be over there," she told me, pointing towards an open area close by.
Once she was gone, I walked slowly to the glass jar that contained my father's head and rested my hand gently on it. I quietly whispered in my head, hoping he was awake to be able to hear a gentle hello.
I didn't get much farther into my talk when a hand tapped me on the shoulder. When I turned around, I took in the figure's appearance, and whoever it was, looked rather nice.
It was a man who looked to be thirty with wild, spiky brown hair and dark brown eyes. All across his face were freckles, and he had a large grin. He was also wearing a brown pinstripe suit with a funky tie, white converse, and a beige overcoat.
"Oh, hello. Can I help you?" I asked him, noting him giving me an odd look.
"Victoria?" he questioned, and I looked at him in shock.
"Have we met?" I asked slowly, very confused.
"I… don't think we have yet," he said after a moment of examining my face. "Does a chula ship ring any bells?"
"I'm sorry, but I don't know what you're talking about."
"Ah, well, perhaps you'll know in the future," he told me and I nodded slowly, feeling very confused.
"Was there something else you wanted to ask me?" I asked, having a feeling that wasn't what he was wondering.
"Oh yes. I was wondering how you knew the Face of Boe?" he questioned, and I nodded, telling him that he was an old friend rather than my father.
"I wasn't aware he had many friends," the man stated, and I had to agree. My father really didn't have a lot of friends, not anymore. All he had left were the enemies he made over the years and the memories of his old friends.
"Yeah, he had more enemies than friends."
The man held out his hand and began introducing himself, even though he seemed to know who I was.
"I'm the Doctor," he grinned and I couldn't help myself when my mouth fell open in shock, not having expected myself to ever truly meet the Doctor.
"Well, I'm Dr. Victoria Jones."
He smiled at me as if he knew something I didn't.
"Would you mind joining me on an adventure today?" he asked, and I nodded, barely able to contain my excitement. "I'd love to help."
"So, that man over there had Petrifold Regression, which should be curable by the way," he told me and I nodded. "The man is now perfectly healthy and fine."
"So what you're trying to figure out is how the hospital was able to cure him?"
"Oooh, you're good. That's exactly what I'm looking for," he told me with a smile as we walked over to the now cured man.
"I didn't think I'd make it. It's that man again! He's my good luck charm. Come in. Don't be shy," the larger man encouraged us to approach.
However, another man standing near his bed, who I assumed was a bodyguard like person, did not feel as enthusiastic. "Any friendship expressed by the Duke of Manhattan does not constitute a form of legal contract."
"Wince me up! Look at me. There's no sign of infection," the Duke exclaimed happily.
As a waiter came and asked if we'd like anything, the Doctor checked with the Duke to confirm that he had Petrifold Regression.
"That being the operative word. Past tense. Completely cured," he explained, causing me to shake my head. That really shouldn't be possible, and I seemed the Doctor agreed.
"That's impossible," I tried to reason as a nurse came over.
"Primitive species would accuse us of magic, but it's merely the tender application of science," the nurse explained, and I shook my head in disagreement.
"No, it's actually not possible. Sure, your technology could be advanced, but there's no honest way to cure a disease like that," I said, shaking my head. Out of the corner of my eye I could see the Doctor nodding in agreement.
"I'm sorry to disappoint you, Miss, but it's honestly just a simple remedy."
"What would that remedy be? Why have the cure for all these different diseases at one hospital," I asked.
"I apologize, but that's confidential. I don't believe we've met. I'm Matron Casp," she introduced, which we did as well.
I had a feeling she wished to say more, but she was called to a different ward before she could.
"I think you're right. There is definitely something shady here," I told him, and he nodded, grabbing my hand and before pulling me out of the ward.
He pulled me over towards a row of floating tubes that contained different patients. We had broken off from one another and began looking at all the different tubes when a blonde girl walked towards us, recognizing her from my dad's stories.
"Ah, there you are. Come and look at this patient. Marconi's Disease. Should take years to recover. Two days. I've never seen anything like it. They've invented a cell washing cascade. It's amazing. Their medical science is way advanced. And this one," the Doctor said to Rose, but she wasn't listening. Instead, she was giving me a funny look.
After a moment, the Doctor realized the girl wasn't paying attention before introducing us. "Rose, meet Dr. Victoria Jones. Victoria, meet Rose Tyler."
I smiled and held out my hand for her to shake, and she grabbed it for barely a second before dropping it in disgust.
I looked over at the Doctor in concern for his friend, and he looked very worried too. From what my dad had told me, Rose was a lovely, caring girl, but she didn't seem like that at all.
"Pallidome Pancrosis. Kills you in ten minutes, and he's fine. I need to find a terminal. I need to see how they're getting these cures. And if they have the best medicine in the world, why aren't they sharing it?" the Doctor said, more to himself than Rose and I.
"I can't Adam and Eve it," Rose spoke, and I couldn't help but give her a weird look. I'd never heard anyone say that before.
"What's with this voice?" the Doctor asked and Rose shrugged.
"Just larking about. New Earth, new me," she explained.
"I can talk. New New Doctor," he said and she nodded.
"Mhm, aren't you just," she said flirtatiously because grabbing the Doctor by the lapels of his suit and into a passionate kiss.
From what I could tell from the Doctor in the last hour I knew him, they weren't very romantic, yet here she was, kissing him. And I couldn't stop myself when my mouth fell open with shock.
The kiss lasted a few seconds before she pulled away with a smack and announced where the terminals were before walking towards them.
"Does this happen normally?" I questioned as the Doctor approached me from where Rose left him.
"No, I have no clue why she did that. Something's very wrong with Rose."
It didn't take us long to find Rose by an elevator and the terminal.
"Nope, nothing odd. Surgery, post-op, nano-dentistry. No sign of a shop. They should have a shop," the Doctor rambled on.
"No, it is missing something. When I was downstairs, those Nurse Cat Nuns were talking about intensive care. Where is it?" Rose questioned, causing the Doctor to smile lightly.
"You're right, well done," he praised her.
When we found intensive care, it looked very dark. Nothing like it should. "Intensive care. Certainly looks intensive," I spoke, walking into the room.
"Right, let's go," the Doctor grabbed my hand as he walked further into the room.
The walls were lined with green, glowing cells, and that's all there was to see.
As I walked over to one of the cells and opened it, I felt sadness and horror wash over me. Inside was a very sick woman, who looked like she had all the diseases known.
I called out for the Doctor, continuing to look at the woman in sadness.
"What disease is that?" Rose asked, disgust obvious in her voice and face.
"It's every disease in the galaxy. They've been infected with everything," the Doctor explained. Rose looked horrified and took a step back, asking, "What about us? Are we safe?"
"The air is sterile. Don't touch them," the Doctor instructed as he closed the cell door.
"How many patients are there?" Rose asked.
"They aren't patients," I explained, catching on to what was happening.
"But they're sick."
"They are born sick. To find a cure for a disease, researchers and doctors experiment with different cures to see which will actually work. The nurses here have been using the people in the cells to find the cures to every disease in the galaxy," I told Rose, and she hummed in acknowledgement.
After that, the three of us didn't talk. We just looked around when a nurse came up to us.
"It's for the greater cause," she told us.
"Novice Hame. When you took your vows, did you agree to this?" the Doctor asked.
"The Sisterhood has sworn to help," Nurse Hame tried to tell us.
"What, by killing?" I demanded.
"They aren't real people. They are specially grown. They have no other purpose," she explained.
"What's the turnover, hmm? Thousand a day? Thousand the next? How many thousands? For how many years? How many!" the Doctor angrily demanded.
"Mankind needed us. They came to this planet with so many illnesses. We couldn't cope. We did try. We tried everything. We tried using clone-meat and bio-cattle, but the results were too slow, so the Sisterhood grew its own flesh. That's all they are. Flesh."
"They are living and breathing people!" I exclaimed in anger.
"But think, there are humans out there that are happy and healthy because of us."
"Them living like this, them living is useless," the Doctor said.
"Who are you to decide that?" Nurse Hame questioned, and the Doctor walked forward.
"I'm the Doctor, and this is Rose Tyler and Dr. Victoria Jones," he told Nurse Hame.
"Just to confirm," Rose began from behind me. "None of the humans in the city know about this right?"
"We thought it was the best," Nurse Hame explained.
"Hold on. I can understand the bodies. I can understand your vows. One thing I can't understand. What have you done to Rose?" he asked dangerously, and I could see a fire in his eye as he stared at the nurse.
"I don't know what you're talking about," he tried to tell him, but that wasn't what the Doctor wanted to hear.
"And I'm being very, very calm. You want to be aware of that. Very, very calm. And the only reason I'm being calm is that the brain is a delicate thing. Whatever you've done to Rose's head. I want it reversed now," he demanded, but I could see in Nurse Hame's eyes that she had no clue what was going on.
"Doctor, she's telling the truth. You can see it in her eyes," I whispered and he nodded slowly.
"I'm perfectly fine," Rose tried to reassure him.
"These people are dying, and Rose would have cared."
"Oh, all right, clever clogs. Smartypants. Lady-killer," Rose spoke, and I began backing up ever so slightly.
"What happened to you?" the Doctor asked.
"I knew something was going on in this hospital, but I needed this body and your mind to figure it out," Rose explained.
"Who are you?" I asked and Rose's eyes snapped up to me.
"I'm the last human," she purred, and I watched as the Doctor straightened up.
"Cassandra?"
"Wake up and smell the perfume," she hissed before spraying the Doctor with some sort of concoction that caused him to pass out.
I froze in shock at what had happened, causing me to miss my chance at running away from Cassandra.
"Now for you, Miss Smartypants," she said as she sprayed me as well.
As soon as I inhaled the mixture, I felt my body fall limp and hit the ground.
Upon waking up, I found myself staring into the Doctor's eyes. Before I could ask where we were, the wall behind me opened, causing me and the Doctor to fall out, him landing on top of me.
"Are you okay?" he asked and I nodded, feeling just a little disoriented.
"What've you done?" the Doctor asked Cassandra as he helped me up to my feet.
"Gave the system a shot of adrenaline, just to wake them up. See you!" Cassandra laughed as she and a blue alien ran away.
"Don't touch them! Whatever you do, don't touch them!" the Doctor yelled at Cassandra as we ran after her.
As we reached a flight of stairs, we saw a nurse touch one of the patients and die immediately.
"Oh my god," Cassandra muttered.
"What the hell have you done?" the Doctor questioned.
"It wasn't me!" she pleaded.
"One touch and you get every disease in the world, and I want that body safe, Cassandra. We've got to go down," the Doctor said and he began racing down the stairs.
"Run! Down! Go down!" I yelled at Cassandra and the blue alien.
The Doctor continued running when we reached the basement. Cassandra quickly saw the elevator and ran up to it.
"No, the lifts have closed down. That's the quarantine. Nothing's moving," the Doctor explained as I looked around the room.
"This way!" Cassandra called, leading us down a hall. As we ran after her, the blue alien was cut off from us by the patients.
"Leave him!" Cassandra called out to us without looking back. "He's just a clone thing. He's only got half a life!"
"I'm sorry! We can't let her get away!" the Doctor called out to the blue alien before running after Cassandra.
We all continued running until we reached a dead end.
"We're trapped! What are we going to do?" Cassandra cried out in desperation.
"Well, for starters, you're going to leave that body," the Doctor demanded as he pointed at a machine in the corner. "That psychograph is banned on every civilized planet. You're compressing Rose to death!"
"But I have nowhere else to go. My original skin is dead!" she bit out, but the Doctor didn't care.
"Not my problem. You can float as atoms in the air. Now, get out. Give her back to me," the Doctor demanded.
"You asked for it," she said before breathing out a pink light which went into the Doctor.
"Blimey, my head," Rose groaned, grabbing her head. "Where'd she'd go?"
"Oh my. This is different," Cassandra said, and I couldn't help but cringe at how she was making the Doctor speak.
"Get out of him," I demanded.
"Victoria?" Rose asked, looking at me in confusion. "I'm guessing you've met me before too? Nice to meet you, Rose."
"Goodness me, I'm a man. Yum. So many parts and hardly ever used," Cassandra said slyly, running her hands over the Doctor's body. "Oh, oh! Two hearts! I'm beating out a samba," she said while shimming to the beat of the Doctor's hearts.
"Cassandra," I warned.
"Ooh, he's slim, and a little bit foxy," Cassandra teased Rose. "You've thought so too. I've been inside your head. You've been looking. You like it."
Suddenly, the patients burst into the room.
"What do we do? What would he do? The Doctor, what the hell would he do?" Cassandra cried. I looked around for a moment before seeing a ladder behind us.
"Follow me!" I yelled, running towards the ladder.
"Move out of the way, gingy," Cassandra said, pushing me out of the way.
I climbed up behind her closely with Rose right on my heel.
"Use my body, Cassandra! Let the Doctor think of something!" I called out, and quickly the pink light came towards me and into my body.
"Oh, this is different. Your mind is different than blondey, why is that?"
It was an odd sensation, not being in control of my body.
"Cassandra, why are you doing this? What happened?"
Cassandra was moving my body quickly as the Doctor told her to stop and get out of my body.
"Years ago, when the Earth was ending, I met the Doctor and Rose, but I was just a piece of skin. Let's just say that the adventure ended poorly, and I lost my skin. And you know what, I believe that face, Face of Boe, was there as well. "
"Cassandra, get out of her! I mean it, get out right now!"
"Ugh, I'm so going to regret this," she said and jumped into one of the patients below Rose.
The Doctor quickly soniced the hatch above him and ushered us up.
"Glad to have you back," the Doctor smiled at Rose, but unfortunately, Cassandra jumped into Rose before he could close the door.
"That was your last chance," the Doctor growled, staring at Cassandra.
"Insider her head. They're so alone. They keep reaching out, just to hold us. All their lives, and they've never been touched," Cassandra muttered, looking so lost. The Doctor held out his hand for her to grab onto, and pulled her up.
Together we ran down the hall until we saw one of the Duke's servants.
"We're safe. We're safe! We're clean! We're clean! Look!" the Doctor said and we raised our hands to signify our cleanliness.
"If we'd been touched, we would be dead right now," I told him.
"There's nothing but silence from the other wards. I think we're the only ones left. And I've been trying to override the quarantine. If I can trip a signal to New New York, they can send a private executive squad," the man spoke and the Doctor shook his head.
"You can't do that. If they force entry, they'd break quarantine," he explained.
"I don't want to die here!" the man cried.
"We can't let a single particle of the diseases get out, not while there are ten million people in the city, not even five miles away. Now turn that alarm off!" the Doctor ordered.
"Not if it gets me out," the man told us, not budging.
"All right, fine. So I have to stop you lot as well. Suits me. Rose, Novice Hame, everyone! Excuse me, your Grace. Get me intravenous solutions for every single disease. Victoria, get me a cable. Move it!" he instructed us.
I found a cable quickly and gave it to the Doctor. "Alright, Victoria. I'm going to need your help."
Everyone worked quickly to get us the intravenous solutions as the Doctor and I stood by the lift. "The lifts aren't working," Cassandra told us.
"Not moving, there's a difference."
The Doctor then put his sonic between his teeth before running and jumping towards the cable holding the elevator.
"Alright, Victoria. It's your turn," he called out to me.
I took a deep breath before running forward and jumping as well. I landed on the Doctor's back with a grunt. "Sorry."
"Cassandra! Stay here and help seal the door!" the Doctor yelled before clamping on a piece of equipment to the cable.
"Going down!" the Doctor called before we started flying down the cable.
"This is amazing!" I laughed.
Soon enough, the Doctor pulled the break on the wheel and we came to a stop.
I helped the Doctor tip the drip bags into the disinfectant tank and empty them out.
I grabbed a hold of the lever and pulled it tight as the Doctor dropped out and into the lift.
After running out of the liquid, I hopped out and joined the Doctor in passing the cures around. It didn't take long until all the patients were cured and happy.
Once we were sure there were no sick patients left, we walked back up to see the Face of Boe. Walking into the room, it was obvious that he was awake finally.
"Hello, Sweetheart." Jack smiled.
"Are you really dying?" I asked softly.
"It is not my time yet, my dear. But soon," he told me sadly. "But don't be sad. Travel with the Doctor, follow your dream."
"I'll try, Dad. I'll see you soon. I love you," I told him, placing my hand on his tank.
"I love you, too," he responded before disappearing, leaving my hand just floating in the air.
"That is enigmatic. That, that is, that is textbook enigmatic," the Doctor said, looking at the empty space where my dad used to be. "And now for you."
He began arguing with Cassandra over what could be done with her. She wanted to keep Rose's body, but obviously, the Doctor wouldn't let her.
"Mistress!" a voice called out. We all turned to the voice, and to our surprise, it was the blue alien from before.
"I kept myself alive for you, Mistress!"
"A body, and not just that,a volunteer," Cassandra smirked and walked over to him.
"You can't, Cassandra. You-" however, she transfered herself into the alien without much hesitation.
"Rose!" I rushed forward to help steady the blonde. "Are you okay?"
"Yeah, I'm good. Thanks for asking," she said with a smile.