Rieka frowned as she looked down at hers and the Doctor's joint hands, unsure as to what to do. She really was at a loss as to what she could do, and now there was a high chance that whatever virus she had, whatever had happened to Jamie and Constantine, was now happening to the Doctor. She had no idea what he had been thinking when he had grabbed her hand, but the feeling that stirred in her gut when she thought about it had Rieka pushing the train of thought away.
She needed to figure out what was going on, more so now than ever.
Though as she looked up to the Doctor, her eyebrows furrowed as she realised that now she'd have to let him help. It had been a rather Slytherin move by the Time Lord, and the red head found that she was rather impressed. It had been a while since someone had gotten one over her. Swallowing, Rieka turned her hand that was clasped in the Doctor's, holding it so he could see her scar more clearly, and her action brought the Doctor from his thoughts.
The Time Lord blinked before his gaze settled on Rieka's hand, and he almost sighed in relief when she gave him a hesitant nod. Shifting the hold he had on her hand, the Doctor pulled out his sonic and, catching his Nesdra's eye, told her, "I'm just going to scan it now," softly, having noticed that the moment he had pulled out his sonic, Rieka hadn't moved an inch. He held his screwdriver over the scar on the back of her hand and when Rieka finally nodded, begun scanning, his eyebrows furrowing slightly as he noticed that there didn't seem to be anything physically different between her scar and the one he had seen on the patients in the other ward. The only difference was that hers was pulsating with a faint red glow.
His sonic whirled as he scanned the scar, taking the opportunity to do a DNA scan at the same time. And although the Doctor did feel bad about not asking for her permission before doing so, or even telling her that he was doing the secondary scan, the Doctor knew that it was probably going to be one of the only chances he was going to get.
Rieka suddenly let out a hiss of pain, her grip tightening around the Doctor's hand and the Time Lord was quick to shut his sonic off and let her hand go as the red glow brightened before it disappeared.
"What did you do?" Rieka asked as she looked to the Doctor, though found that his expression was just as confused as hers.
"I don't think that was me," the Doctor muttered, knowing that he had only scanned her hand to help figure out what was affecting her, as well as the secondary DNA scan. Whatever had happened to stop Rieka's hand from pulsing, the Time Lord knew that his sonic had nothing to do with it. "What is it?" he asked, noticing that his Nesdra was frowning at her hand.
"Jamie," Rieka replied quietly, looking back up to the Doctor. Though she continued when his confused, though concerned expression didn't change, "I'm not certain," a crease formed between her eyebrows as her eyes darted to the radio, "But, I don't think he knows where I am."
The Doctor nodded, accepting her reasoning. "It gives us some more time to try and get out of here, then," he said as he stood up, offering his hand to Rieka. The red head blinked, her eyebrows furrowing further as she stared at his outstretched hand before she finally placed hers in his, accepting his help up. While she was reapplying her glove, the Doctor took the opportunity and glanced at his sonic, trying to get an idea as to what was happening to his Nesdra, but the results seemed to be fluctuating; unable to come up with a definitive answer. He could read the same high energy reading that Jack had gotten with his manipulator, but his sonic was having trouble figuring out why his Nesdra wasn't affected like the other patients who had been infected with whatever virus Jack had released.
"What's wrong?" Rieka enquired when she noticed the Doctor frowning at his sonic.
"Just takes a bit to finish with the scan," the Doctor lied with a smile, trying not to show how frustrated he was growing with his sonic. "Should be finished in about... fifteen minutes," he added, glancing at his sonic as he moved back towards the window. He didn't want to let on how annoyed he was at his sonics' inability to figure out what was wrong with his Nesdra. Nor was it telling him what she was.
Rieka nodded slowly as she watched the Doctor walk back over to the window, not quite believing him, but decided to let it go. It was quite possible that he was telling her the truth, but there was a part of Rieka that knew that it could be her own magic, as well as the simple fact that she didn't derive from this universe that could be the reason why the Doctor couldn't figure out what was wrong with her. And it wasn't something she was about to share with the Doctor.
Sighing, Rieka made herself comfortable as she watched the Doctor continue to sonic the window, silently wondering why he was even trying. He paused every so often to glance at his sonic, only to return to scanning the bars on the window with a frown, and Rieka couldn't help but think that he was just as unsure as to what was happening to her as she was.
Rose shifted in the wheelchair she was sitting in, rolling it backwards and forwards on the spot as she tried to keep herself occupied. She was growing rather bored just sitting there doing nothing, and was rather miffed about the red head showing up and stealing all the Doctor's attention... again. Looking to the Doctor, finding that he was once again frowning at his sonic as he paused in whatever it was he was doing to the window, Rose spoke.
"What are you doing?" she asked curiously, causing the Doctor to look away from his sonic and back to the window rather quickly. An eyebrow raised. Almost like he had been caught, Rose thought, and her eyes narrowed slightly.
"Trying to set up a resonation pattern in the concrete, loosen the bars," he replied as he continued to do just that, all the while trying to understand why his sonic was now refusing to show him any of the results from the two scans he had taken of his Nesdra.
"But that still leaves a seven story drop," Rieka pointed out with a frown.
"I know," the Doctor stated rather tersely, his hand tightening around his sonic. He was feeling a little stressed about the entire situation they were in, knowing that not only was his companion in danger, but Rieka was as well. And the Doctor knew that he would do anything to keep her safe.
His tone had Rieka raising an eyebrow, though the red head wisely chose not to comment.
"Why don't you just do what you did back on Satellite Five?" Rose asked the red head, causing the Doctor to turn on the spot; shooting her a look.
"Satellite Five?" Rieka repeated, unsure as to what Rose was talking about.
"Rose," the Time Lord warned, his expression one of utter disapproval.
"What?" the blonde asked as she looked to the Doctor, "You're just going to accept that she's shown up, yet again, and not even question how?" Before the Doctor could respond, Rose had already turned back to an intrigued Rieka and asked, "How did you do that, anyway?"
"Do... what, exactly?" the red head questioned slowly, glancing at the Doctor. If she hadn't thought it earlier, Rieka would have gotten the feeling that this hadn't been the first time the two time travellers had met her, though it did help her understand the Doctor's expression when she had met him earlier. But, it doesn't explain why he was so shocked, she told herself, her eyebrows furrowing as she glanced once more in the Time Lord's direction.
"Nothing," the Doctor quickly cut in before Rose could say anything more, glaring at his companion.
The blonde closed her mouth with huff, rolling her eyes as she turned away from the Doctor and Rieka. She really couldn't understand why the Doctor always seemed to be on the red head's side all the time. It was as if she could do no wrong.
Rieka raised an eyebrow as the Doctor once again turned back to the window, though once again found herself refraining from saying anything. If it was true, and she was starting to think it was, that they had met before, Rieka could understand the Doctor's reluctance to speak of it. Especially if they were from her future. Time travel was dangerous, and as a certain manipulative old bastard had once said, 'Bad things happen to those who meddle with time.'
The red head could still vividly remember the warning she had gotten from both Dumbledore and her father before she was granted a Time Turner. And although Rieka never did abuse it, she could see how some people would be tempted with the power of time travel.
"You don't think he's coming back, do you?" Rose questioned, breaking Rieka from her thoughts and causing the red head to look at her in confusion.
"Who?" the Doctor and Rieka asked at the same time, the former stopping in his work to glance at his companion.
Rose frowned. "Jack," she reminded him.
The Doctor paused. He had actually forgotten about the conman; his mind more focused on getting Rieka out, and why his sonic was no longer co-operating with him. He frowned as he returned to what he was doing, his sonic whirring away as he answered, "Wouldn't bet my life."
"Why don't you trust him?" Rose asked curiously, only to glare at Rieka when the red head let out a snort.
The red head shook her head, an eyebrow raising when she met Rose's glare with a rather serene expression. "I could think of many reasons why I wouldn't trust a man like Jack," she stated, though her response had the Doctor stopping in his sonicking as he looked to her curiously.
"Why don't you trust him?" he asked, wanting to know why his Nesdra didn't trust the conman. He had been worried by the way Rieka had been watching Jack earlier; as well as the way that Jack had been watching her. So, the Doctor was rather relieved to know she hadn't fallen for the man's charms... unlike his companion, whom he noticed was once again glaring at Rieka.
Rieka's eyebrows furrowed slightly as she explained her reasonings, a small frown appearing on her lips. "Well, for starters, the man dropped a fifty-first century, war-ambulance in the middle of the London Blitz; using one of the worst wars I have ever witnessed as a way to make a profit. And in doing that, he inadvertently started the spread of a virus that not only affected a child, but the entire hospital where I work. Then," Rieka's frown turned into a scowl, "If he hadn't finished being a dunderhead, he then tried to convince us that none of it was his fault. And now he's vanished, and we have no way of knowing if he will come back, or just leave up behind now that he's been found out," she finished, crossing her arms against her chest.
Rose looked between the pair, not liking the sight of the smile that she noticed on the Doctor's lips as he turned back to the window and she frowned. "Well, I trust him because he saved my life," she stated, causing the Doctor to glance back to her as she continued, "Bloke-wise, that's up there with flossing." She chose to ignore Rieka when the red head scoffed, her eyes trained on the Time Lord as an idea came to her. A small smile appeared on her own lips as she added, "I trust him because he's like you. Except with dating and dancing."
He words had the Doctor stopping in his sonicking once again, the Time Lord turning to her with a confused expression.
"What?" Rose questioned 'innocently', raising an eyebrow as her smile only grew.
The Doctor fidgeted a little, glancing at his Nesdra who was watching them, looking a little lost as to where their conversation was going. Looking back to Rose, the Doctor started, "You just assume I'm..." Though he was quick to trail off, glancing once more in his Nesdra's direction.
"What," Rose repeated, her smile growing the more uncomfortable the Time Lord looked.
Swallowing heavily, the Doctor felt uncomfortable with the conversation topic. He knew that his Nesdra had no idea who he was – or even who she was to him, and it had the Time Lord feeling a little out of his depth. "You just assume that I don't dance?" he asked.
Rose's smile turned into a smirk at how awkward the Doctor was looking. "What. Are you telling me you do dance?" she replied with another question. "Nine hundred years old, me," the Time Lord stated, "I've been around a bit. I think you can assume at some point I've danced." "You?" Rose continued to goad the Doctor, her head tilting to the side.
"Problem?" the Time Lord shot back as he turned back to the window. He was feeling completely uneasy with Rose's line of questions, and it didn't help that his Nesdra was in sitting not a few feet away from him.
"Doesn't the universe implode or something if you... dance?" the blonde asked suggestively, raising an eyebrow at the Doctor's back.
"Why would the universe implode?" Rieka asked with a frown, though the others didn't seem to hear her.
"I've got moves," the Doctor huffed over his shoulder, rolling his eyes at his companion before he noticed Rieka was looking between them. "But I wouldn't want to boast," he added, though frowned when he noticed his Nesdra's expression. Rieka's frown had deepened, and the red head wasn't too certain as to why the Doctor had grown uncomfortable with the topic of dancing. She felt as though she had missed something. Something that seemed crucial in understanding what they were going on about.
The smile had disappeared on Rose's face and she suddenly stood up, moving to the radio. "You've got the moves," she said as she turned the volume up on the radio. "Show me your moves," she added as she turned to face the Doctor.
The Doctor's grip around his sonic tightened as he tried to focus on the bars in front of him and not his companion; who the Doctor couldn't believe was actually trying to hit on him as if Rieka wasn't even in the room. "Rose, I'm trying to resonate concrete," he told her through gritted teeth, now feeling way passed uncomfortable. He was rather disturbed by the blonde's forwardness, and it didn't help her case at all that she was acting like this in front of his very Nesdra. The only thing the Doctor could be rather grateful for was that going by Rieka's expression, the red head looked as though she didn't understand that they hadn't actually been talking about dancing.
"Jack will be back. He'll get us out," Rose continued confidently as she took a few steps towards the Time Lord; ignoring Rieka's scoff at her statement. "So, come on. The world doesn't end because the Doctor dances."
An unfamiliar feeling settled like a stone in Rieka's gut as she watched Rose hold her hands out towards the Doctor. Though the red head was quick to push the unknown feeling away when she noticed the blonde's hands and suddenly stood up. Rose had mentioned having hung from a barrage balloon earlier, but there wasn't a mark on her hands. Not even a slight burn.
"Barrage balloon," she suddenly said, looking away from Rose's hands, only to find that Rose was glaring at her. Rieka shook her head, ignoring the blonde's expression. "You said that you were hanging from a barrage balloon during the air-raid," she clarified.
"What does that have to do with anything?" Rose snipped, rather annoyed that Rieka was interrupting her. It seemed, to Rose at least, that the red head always seemed to like interrupting her, and showing up when she wasn't welcome.
"Everything," the Time Lord replied evenly, having turned to see what had caught his Nesdra's attention. While he was glad that Rose's attention no longer was on him, he wasn't liking the way she was glaring at Rieka once more. "And Rieka has a point," the Doctor continued, his eyebrows furrowing as he realised why Rieka had brought up the balloon, "You said you were hanging from a barrage balloon."
"Oh, yeah," Rose said as she turned to look at the Doctor, deciding not to comment on the fact that the red head, whatever her name was, always seemed to be right in the Doctor's eyes. "About two minutes after you left me. Thousands of feet above London, middle of a German air-raid, Union Jack all over my chest," she continued as if what she had gone through had been no bother.
And my father thought that Potter and his friends were trouble magnets, Rieka mused with no little bafflement. She didn't know how the blonde could be so okay about having been in such a dangerous situation; having come to favour and enjoy how peaceful her life had become since arriving in this universe. Well, as peaceful as it had been up until a month ago, the red head mentally corrected herself.
She no longer found herself looking over her shoulder; afraid that her secrets had been found out and someone had come after her to get at her father. Rieka no longer found herself sneaking around as much as she used to, and as much as she still missed her father, the red head had slowly come to enjoy the life she had managed to build for herself.
"I've travelled with a lot of people," the Doctor's voice broke through Rieka's musings as he moved closer to Rose to look at her hands, and the red head's own hand dropped from the crystallised tear that hung around her neck as she focused back on their conversation. "But you're setting a new record for 'jeopardy friendly'," the Time Lord finished.
Rose just rolled her eyes at the Doctor before she grabbed his hands. "Is this you dancing?" she questioned flirtatiously, causing both the Doctor and Rieka to frown, "Because I've got notes."
The Doctor chose to ignore her flirting, instead he flipped her hands over so they were palm up and studied them, seeing exactly what had caught his Nesdra's eye. "Hanging from a rope thousands of feet above London," he muttered, glancing to Rieka as the pieces started to fall into place in his mind, "Not a cut, not a bruise."
"Yeah, I know," Rose nodded, "Captain Jack fixed me up."
Rieka, who was ignoring their conversation in favour of looking at Rose's hands, couldn't help but grow confused. It should have been impossible for there to be nothing wrong with Rose's hands; but she could clearly see that they were completely mark free. Not even the hint of rope burn. Tilting her head to the side, the red head tried to work out how Jack could have fixed the blonde's hands so quickly; but other than magic, Rieka was coming up blank.
"Oh, we're calling him Captain Jack now, are we?" the Doctor questioned as a small spark of hope ignited in his chest at the prospect that, just maybe, his companion would focus her attention away from him. And the Time Lord could admit that – even if he didn't like the American – Jack was a far better candidate than Adam. The Doctor knew that if Rose continued to try and flirt with him, especially with his Nesdra around, that he wouldn't hesitate to drop her back off at home.
"Well, his name is Jack, and he is a Captain," Rose stated as if that answered everything.
Though her statement had Rieka making a noise in the back of her throat as she tried to hold back a snort. She shook her head when the blonde glared at her, unphased. "He's not a captain," she told Rose, rolling her eyes when Rose's glare only seemed to grow. The witch had faced far worse things then some angry teenager, although Rieka really wasn't sure as to why the blonde was behaving so hostile towards her.
Choosing to ignore Rieka, Rose turned her attention back to the Doctor. "Do you know what I think?" she asked the Time Lord as she managed to turn her hands back over so they were resting in his. The blonde then begun to sway on the spot as she tried to get the Doctor to dance with her. "I think you're experiencing Captain Envy. You'll find your feet at the end of your legs. You may care to move them."
The Doctor stiffened before he ripped his hands from Rose's grasp as if he had been burned, having had quite enough of her flirting. He took a step away from her, his expression impassive to the disbelief and confusion that passed over his companions face. "If he ever was a captain, he's been defrocked," he stated rather bluntly.
Rieka missed the last part of their conversation as the red head felt the air around her shift. Her stance when rigid as a peculiar feeling overcame her, and her eyes narrowed as she looked around the storage cupboard for the source, only to find herself not a second later on board some sort of spaceship. She spun on her heel, only to find Jack sitting in a chair, and the red head was quick to realise that she, along with the Doctor and Rose, had been teleported to his ship.
Jack raised an eyebrow at the scene he was confronted with after he had managed to get his teleporter working.
Rieka looked surprised, though not alarmed at having been teleported, and it vivified his interest in her even more. He would have guessed that since she was from the twentieth century, the red head would have been a bit more startled at finding herself transported into a fifty-first century ship. But then, Jack wasn't really sure what to make of Rieka. Her energy readings had been off the charts, and nothing of the likes that Jack believed he had even seen before. Though there was still that nagging sense of familiarity that he was feeling towards the red head, and to what he had witnessed her do earlier. And Rieka's knowledge on what should be advanced technology for her was something else that intrigued Jack.
Rose and the Doctor, however...
They were standing a few feet apart from each other; the Time Lord looking... was that anger and disgust that the American could see? All the while, Rose was looking like someone had stolen her favourite toy, and kicked her puppy.
"Actually, I quit," the conman piped up with a grin, startling the pair. "Nobody takes my frock," he added, raising a questionable eyebrow at Rose when the Doctor started to move around his ship. Most people notice when they've been teleported," the man continued, his gaze shifting to eye Rieka a little curiously, although the red head ignored him as she also looked around his ship. "Sorry about the delay," he apologised, "I had to take the nav-com offline to override the teleport security."
The Doctor continued his inspection of Jack's ship, proudly noting that Rieka was doing the same and couldn't keep the smile off his lips if he tried at the sight of that spark in her eyes that always appeared when something caught her interest as she examined the controls. He still remembered the first time that Rieka had stepped inside his TARDIS; the look of awe that had marred her features as she took in just how bog the inside was compared to the outside. Though the Doctor's smile fell when he recalled what had happened not moments after his Nesdra had stepped inside.
Shaking his head, and trying to move away from where his thoughts were going; knowing that if he didn't figure out a way to save his Nesdra, those memories would be all he would have of Rieka, the Doctor turned to Jack. As much as he was relieved to be out of that cupboard, not knowing how much more of Rose's flirting he could have handled, the Time Lord couldn't deny that he wasn't comfortable with his Nesdra being in close proximity to the conman. The instincts that had flared to life the moment their hands had first touched were not as profound as he knew they usually were, although the Doctor knew that it was because this was before Rieka had been to Downing Street. But the bond he shared with his Nesdra was still there; able to just faintly feel it in the back of his mind. But this wasn't Aries... not yet.
There was no bond shared between them at the moment, and it made the Doctor determined to try and fix what Jack had done.
"This isn't your ship."
Rieka's voice broke the Doctor from his swirling thoughts and he turned in her direction to find that she was looking at a screen; reading the information off the screen and surprising the Doctor in the process as he knew that the writing wasn't in any language known on Earth during the twentieth century. It made him question exactly what books his Nesdra had been left with, recalling that she had mentioned a library while they had been trapped in the Cabinet Room.
"Though I can see why it took you so long to override the protocols," Rieka continued as she pressed a button and changed what the screen was showing her.
Rose frowned as she looked to what the red head was reading, unable to help herself. Though she was surprised – and possibly a little annoyed – to find that she couldn't understand a word of what was being displayed. "Why can't I understand it?" the blonde questioned the Doctor as she tried to hide the jealousy she was feeling towards Rieka. "You told me that the TARDIS translates any language," she continued when the Time Lord just raised a questioning eyebrow.
"Maybe the translation circuit needs rewiring," Rieka commented as she frowned at something on the screen, missing the Doctor's eyes dart to her in surprise.
The Doctor was rather aware of why Rose couldn't read what was showing on the screen, unsurprised by how petty his ship was behaving towards his companion. But after what Rose had caused in their last adventure, the Time Lord didn't have the heart to ask his ship to stop. He did find his ships antics rather amusing, and had to turn away from Rose, less the smile that he was fighting back decided to make an appearance. He had not only almost lost his ship, but his Nesdra because of what Rose had done.
What we did, the Time Lord corrected himself; the smile he had been fighting faded at the knowledge that he was just as much to blame – if not more – for what had happened with Rose's father.
Pressing another few buttons on the control panel, Rieka managed to bring up something on the screen that had her eyebrows furrowing. "Do you even remember who's ship this was?" she questioned the American distractedly as she continued to search for anything that might lead to a way of figuring out exactly what Jack had done.
"Of course I do," the American replied with a frown as he moved over to the controls. He pressed a button, which caused the screen to go blank and Rieka glanced at him as she stepped away from the controls. "She was gorgeous," Jack continued with a smirk, though Rieka just raised an eyebrow as he added, "And like I told her, be back in five minutes," before he disappeared under the control panel.
"This is a Chula ship," the Doctor stated as he looked around again, making sure to keep a subtle eye on his Nesdra as she made her way over to the bed on one side of the ship and sat down.
"Yeah." Jack's voice was muffled as he replied, "Just like the medical transporter. Only this one is dangerous."
Rieka looked up from her gloved hand and towards the Time Lord when he snapped his fingers. Her eyes widened in awe when his hand was enveloped in a golden glow and was on her feet and moving towards him without even realising as she kept her eyes locked onto the little golden particles that surrounded his hand. Her mind was already trying to place what she was seeing as she watched the little particles continue to float around the Doctor's hand.
The Doctor couldn't stop the smile from appearing, even if he wanted to as his Nesdra approached him. He could see the wonder and curiosity in her eyes at the sight of the particles; as well as her mind already trying to piece together what she was witnessing.
"They're what fixed my hands up," Rose piped up, and caused the Doctor to startle when he realised how close the blonde was to him. "Jack called them, er..." she trailed off as she tried to recall what Jack had called them.
"Nanobots? Nanogenes?" the Time Lord asked as he took a step away from the blonde, wanting to put some distance between himself and his companion as he turned his gaze back to his Nesdra when she reached out towards the particles with her scarred, gloved hand.
"Nanogenes, yeah," Rose agreed, though there was a small frown on her face, feeling jealous at how the Doctor hadn't even really glanced in her direction. It's always about her, she thought bitterly.
"Sub-atomic robots. There's millions of them in here, see? Burnt my hand on the console when we landed," the Doctor explained, more for Rieka's sake than anyone else's. "All better no..."
The Time Lord trailed off as he waved his hand, expecting the nanogenes to disperse, but they didn't. Instead, he, along with a wide-eyed Rieka, watched on in awe as the nanogenes transferred themselves from his hand to her outstretched one. Rieka's eyebrows furrowed as her hand started itching; almost becoming unbearable before the sensation suddenly vanished. She looked to the Doctor in confusion before her gaze landed on her glove hand, and taking a breath slipped the glove off.
"Oh, Salazar," the red head breathed as she stared at the back of her hand. A hand that was now scar-free, and her eyes snapped to where Jack was still under the control panel when the rest of the puzzle fell into place in her mind.
"They activate when the bulkhead's sealed," the Doctor continued as he grabbed his Nesdra's hand to examine it. Rieka didn't protest, her mind swirling with the implications of what she was hearing. "Check you out for damage, fix any physical flaws," the Doctor suddenly let Rieka's hand go and turned to Jack, "Take us to the crash site," he demanded, "I need to see your space junk."
"As soon as I get the nav-com back online," the American informed them as he pulled himself out from under the controls, "Make yourself comfortable," he glanced between the trio, a small smirk appearing on his lips, "Carry on with whatever it was you were doing."
His words had a frown appearing on the Doctor's face, not even wanting to think about what Rose had been trying to do while they had been stuck in that storage cupboard. The very thought made his skin crawl, and the Time Lord idly wondered if it was possible for his Nesdra to get him to forget the entire ordeal happened in the first place.
"I think they were talking about dancing," Rieka spoke up with a frown as she glanced between the Doctor and Rose. She was still under the suspicion that it was actually 'dancing' that the pair had been talking about, though for the life of her, Rieka just couldn't figure out what they were talking about if it wasn't dancing.
Jack snorted. "That didn't look like talking," he commented.
"It didn't feel like dancing," Rose added, rather put out about how the Doctor had reacted to her. She had thought that since she was the one who had stayed with him – and not continuously vanishing like a certain red head – that the Time Lord would have just forgotten about Rieka and realise that she was the better option. They didn't even know the red head that well, and Rose couldn't understand how the Doctor seemed to be able to trust her. But she was certain she was going to find out.
Jack's gaze shifted to the blonde, an eyebrow raising as the Doctor led his Nesdra back over to the bed to check her hand out once more. From what Jack had witnessed when they had appeared inside his ship, there hadn't been anything he had seen that had been remotely close to dancing – either vertical or horizontal. If anything, he had thought that the Doctor had wanted to be anywhere else; far, far away from Rose as possible.
The moment his Nesdra was seated on the bed, the Doctor pulled out his sonic as he knelt in front of her. "May I?" he asked softly, holding his hand out to her.
Rieka blinked, her eyebrows creasing slightly as she looked to his outstretched hand before she realised what he was asking. "Oh, um," she hesitated before placing her hand in the Doctor's, and as his hand enclosed gently around hers, Rieka couldn't help but swallow as that unknown feeling reappeared in her gut. She had to fight the urge to pull her hand from the Time Lord's, unsure and frightened by what the feeling could mean, knowing that apart from her father and Amelia, she couldn't really remember the last time someone had been so concerned with her wellbeing. Though it confused Rieka as to why the Doctor was acting like that around her.
A part of her wanted to be suspicious; wanted to know if he had an alternative motive behind his actions. But another part of Rieka couldn't deny how genuine his concern had been.
How genuine it still was.
As the tip of the Doctor's sonic lit up blue as he ran it over the back of her hand, the Time Lord wondered what his Nesdra was thinking when he saw her suddenly look away from him as she frowned, her expression almost looking conflicted. He took the opportunity to do another DNA scan, thinking that it was possible that the nanogenes had corrupted the last scan he had done while his mind went back to the energy he had seen.
It was only when the Doctor had finished did Rieka finally look back to him. She pushed her thoughts aside as she swallowed, "The nanogenes..." her voice was quiet, so as to not alert the others, "They're behind what's been happening, aren't they?"
The Time Lord didn't say anything, though he inclined his head slightly, confirming Rieka's suspicions and she exhaled heavily. Though when her gazed dropped from the Doctor's and back onto her now unscarred hand, the Time Lord's grip tightened around her hand and she looked back up to him; her eyebrows furrowing in confusion.
"I'm going to fix this," he told her gently, but firmly, "Whatever they've done, if there is any way to stop them, I'm not going to stop searching until I find it." The Time Lord knew that it was a risky move to promise such a thing to his Nesdra, but he also knew that deep down, it was the truth. There was no way he was going to leave her to figure this out on her own.
Rieka nodded slightly, feeling somewhat comforted by the Doctor's words, and the Time Lord gave her hand another gentle squeeze before letting it go. The red head frowned internally at the loss of his touch, wondering why she felt the urge to grab it again, though was quick to brush the thought away, unsure as to why she was reacting to the Doctor like she was.
Thankfully, she was distracted from her thoughts as Rose's voice cut through the silence that had grown between Rieka and the Doctor.
"They stole your memories?"
Rieka couldn't help but wince at the blonde's pitch, and she glanced in Rose's direction, curious to know what the blonde was talking about.
"Two years of my life," Jack admitted with a nod, "No idea what I did." He looked to the Doctor and Rieka, "Your friends over there don't trust me, and for all I know, they're right not to," he added, shifting his gaze back to the controls in front of him. He was feeling rather frustrated by the loss of his memories, and it frustrated him even more as the familiarity he had – and was still experiencing with Rieka. He didn't know why he felt as though he should remember her.
"She's not my friend," Rose huffed angrily under her breath, breaking the conman from his thoughts. The mere thought of being friends with the red head had Rose want to scowl.
Jack merely raised an eyebrow at the blonde's words, but made no other indication that he had heard her. Continuing on working on the controls, trying to get the nav-com back online, Jack let out a sound of triumph when he finally succeeded, gaining the others attention.
"Okay, we're good to go," he told the trio, rather glad that he could finally prove that he wasn't at fault with what had happened, "Crash site?"
