A/N: Hello again! I want to put these up every week, rather than every other week, so I'll be doing that instead from now on. Chapters will be in the 2k to 3k range, but may be shorter if I don't have much time or if there's a more convenient place to break an episode up. Hope you enjoy!
Ryan felt something, someone, shaking him awake, halting his sleep. He cracked one eye open. The Doctor was peering down at him, his cheerful expression illuminated by the faint orange glow of the rising sun.
"Hello," he whispered.
"Hello," Ryan mumbled. "What time issit?"
"Seven in the morning, precisely. Not your full eight hours, but the nurses will be around soon, and I imagine you'll want to be up and ready before then," the Doctor said quietly from his upright position against the headboard.
"Thanks… don't know when I last got up this early," Ryan pondered.
"School?"
"Yeah, suppose. I was meant to get up then, but kinda gave up after the first half term of year seven. Was always late."
The Doctor grinned at him. "Naughty," he teased, poking Ryan's cheekbone.
Ryan shrugged, or as best he could lying down. "Didn't care too much for school. Never felt I learnt anything from just reading books or writing out notes, or listening to the teacher. But I like learning things your way, like by actually doing stuff."
"Really?" the Doctor asked, his eyes shining with something that could have been pride.
"Yeah, I feel like I've learnt so much. Not that any of it would be of any use on your typical CV, but it's all handy in our line of work," Ryan joked.
The Doctor laughed quietly with him. "Suppose it is…"
Ryan pushed himself up. Feeling suddenly too aware of his proximity to the Doctor on the small bed, he swung his legs over the side, letting his feet land on the ground. He hissed as his hand brushed against the metal frame of the bed.
"Static shock you?" the Doctor asked.
Ryan hummed in affirmation.
The Doctor sniffed the air. "The rate of build-up of static electricity has been steadily increasing. It's gotta reach boiling point soon, well, neutralisation point I suppose, seeing as its an electrical discharge rather a phase transition between different states of matter."
Ryan smiled at the Doctor's brief ramble. "I hope it reaches neutralisation point soon too, don't want to have to deal with you driving me mad for another full day," he deadpanned.
"I promised I wouldn't!" the Doctor protested.
Ryan shot him a tongue-touched grin. "I know, just joking." He stilled, spotting his chest binder where it lay discarded on a vinyl chair. He picked it up and turned away from the Doctor, facing the curtain.
"Could you turn away for a sec? Need to put my binder back on," he asked, nervously.
"Oh, of course, sorry," the Doctor replied, stumbling over the words. Ryan heard the mattress creak behind him. Knowing that he didn't need to check whether the Doctor had turned away or not, Ryan quickly pulled off his t-shirt and wriggled into his binder, replacing his hoodie and t-shirt afterwards.
He turned back around to face the bed, running his tongue over his teeth as he did so, grimacing. They should have thought to get some toiletries and maybe a change of clothes from the TARDIS before they had checked in at the hospital.
"Don't suppose you happen to have a toothbrush or something?"
The Doctor patted his torso, before remembering he was dressed in a hospital gown rather than a pinstriped suit. He reached over to grab his jacket and rifled through the pockets, eventually producing a toothbrush with some toothpaste pre-applied, a pack of facial cleansing wipes and a stick of deodorant.
Ryan thanked him, running the deodorant under his arms and wiping his face clean. Fortunately, testosterone hadn't given him a severe case of acne, but even so he put extra effort into keeping his face clean – he had already been through the spotty-teenager phase before and didn't fancy going through it again.
"What's the toothpaste?" he asked after cleaning his teeth. "Kinda funky."
"Venusian spearmint."
"What, so in the future Venus is colonised and people make toothpaste?"
"Yep," the Doctor grinned. "Well, who's to say Venus isn't colonised already?"
Ryan snorted. "What else?" he asked, sitting down on the chair beside the Doctor.
"What else what? The exports of Venus?"
"Yeah."
"Did I ever tell you about my skills in Venusian Aikido?" the Doctor asked smugly.
Ryan laughed incredulously. "You? Doing martial arts? With you being all gangly? Doing this?" he questioned, making slicing motions with his hands.
The Doctor rolled his eyes and laughed good-naturedly. "Haven't done it in about a hundred years, mind. And Ryan, there's no such thing as a karate chop. I mean, the closest thing is probably the shuto uchi, or knife-hand strike, but there's no vertical chopping motion."
Ryan quirked an eyebrow. "Since when did you know so much about karate?"
"I know a lot about many things; thought you knew that by now?" the Doctor winked.
After a visit from a nurse, a group of medical students made their rounds, accompanied by their supervisor, Mr Stoker, who was one of the many members of staff they had met yesterday.
"Now then, Mr Smith, Mr Tyler," Mr Stoker greeted them in turn, drawing back the curtain further. "A very good morning to you both. How are you today?" he asked, specifically addressing the Doctor.
"Oh, not so bad," the Doctor replied, cheerfully. "Still a bit, y'know, bleurgh."
Ryan quickly coughed to cover up any giggles.
"John Smith, admitted yesterday with severe abdominal pains," Mr Stoker explained to his students, who were hurriedly making notes. Mr Stoker turned to a pretty black woman next to him. "Jones, why don't you see what you can find? Amaze me."
"Well, it wasn't very clever running round outside, was it?" the student, Jones, asked the Doctor as she approached him.
"Sorry?"
"On Chancellor Street this morning? Came up to me and took your tie off," she elaborated as she took hold of her stethoscope.
"Really? What did I do that for?" the Doctor asked, confused.
"Can't have been him," Ryan interjected. "We've been here all morning."
"I don't know; you just did," Jones answered the Doctor before looking over to Ryan. "And you were there too, told me I'd understand later. But you were wearing different clothes, too."
Ryan frowned. "Definitely wasn't us."
"Well, that's weird, 'cos they looked like both of you. Have you got brothers, or something?" the student questioned, not sounding entirely convinced.
"No, not anymore," the Doctor answered, while Ryan shook his head. Well, there was a chance he did, Ryan thought sadly, but he would never be able to meet his sibling.
Mr Stoker interrupted them. "As time passes and I grow ever more infirm and weary, Miss Jones?"
Jones nervously laughed. "Sorry. Right," she said, slipping the stethoscope into her ears. She placed the chestpiece over the left side of the Doctor's ribs, and listened for a few seconds, before moving over to the Doctor's right side. The Doctor subtly glanced at Ryan, before winking at Jones, seeing her expression sober.
"I weep for future generations. Are you having trouble locating the heart, Miss Jones?" Mr Stoker asked, his tone patronising, as she slowly shifted away.
"Um, I don't know," Jones said as she put her stethoscope away. "Stomach cramps?" she suggested.
"That is a symptom, not a diagnosis," her supervisor dismissed. "And you rather failed basic techniques by not consulting first with the patient's chart," he explained, moving around to the foot of the bed. He picked up the clipboard hooked over the bedframe, then immediately dropped it onto the bed after touching the metal clip, the static electricity clearly visible.
"That happened to me this morning," said Jones.
"I had the same thing on the door handle," added a male student.
"And me, in the lift," chorused another female student.
"Well, it's only to be expected," Mr Stoker explained, picking up the clipboard from where it had fallen onto the blankets. "There's a thunderstorm moving in, and lightning is a form of static electricity, as first proven by… anyone?"
"Benjamin Franklin," the Doctor quickly answered, to the surprise of Mr Stoker.
"Correct."
Ryan took a deep breath, taking a good guess at what the Doctor was about to say.
"My mate Ben, that was a day and a half," the Doctor mused, as Ryan sighed. "I got rope burns off that kite. And then I got soaked."
"Quite…"
"And then I got electrocuted!" the Doctor finished, grinning at the students.
Ryan swatted his arm to stop him from saying anything further. "Sorry, he likes to think he's being funny," he said, smiling politely.
"A peculiar sense of humour… moving on," Mr Stoker said nervously, leading his students away. Jones trailed behind them, smiling at the Doctor and Ryan, which they both returned.
"What do you mean, 'he likes to think he's being funny'?" the Doctor asked in mock hurt.
Ryan rolled his eyes. "You know what I mean; we're supposed to be undercover and you go blabbering on about Benjamin Franklin, who's been dead for I dunno how long, two hundred years or something!" he hissed.
"Two hundred and eighteen years," the Doctor corrected as Ryan got up to draw the curtain again.
"Whatever," Ryan said softly as he sat back down. The Doctor reached for his hand, pulling it into his lap and started playing with his fingers. Ryan let him; a distracted Doctor wouldn't go around and start causing trouble. And besides, it felt nice, having the Doctor's fingers run over and wrap around his.
The Doctor apologised. "Sorry, you know I get a bit overexcited sometimes."
Understatement of the year. "Don't worry about it, I'll always be there to save your arse from awkward social situations," Ryan grinned.
"Knew there was a reason for why I keep you around," the Doctor joked.
"Rude."
"And not ginger." They both laughed.
"So what's the deal with that student, Jones?" Ryan asked. "Did she just create some kind of causal loop or something?"
The Doctor nodded. "Bootstrap paradox. At some point, we're going to go back in time and see her on Chancellor Street. I'm going to take my tie off, but only because she told me I did that. That idea of me taking my tie off has no proper origin."
"And the same with me, telling her she'd understand later. I'm only gonna say that because she told me I would. Or did, I guess."
"Exactly. The same thing with Bad Wolf."
Ryan raised an eyebrow. "How d'you mean? Like, what specifically about Bad Wolf?"
"You realised it was a message, telling you to come save me. You then looked into the heart of the TARDIS, hence creating the Bad Wolf, and then scattered the message across the universe. Bad Wolf's existence is the result of a bootstrap paradox."
Ryan pondered over the Doctor's explanation for a moment. "Bit confusing, but I think I get you."
The Doctor smiled. "Good. Though you haven't asked the question I thought you'd ask."
"What's the question you thought I'd ask?"
"Why our friend Miss Jones checked the other side of my chest for a heartbeat."
"Oh, just guessed she heard the echo of your other heart. At least I did, when I checked."
The Doctor tilted his head in surprise. "When was that?"
"After you regenerated; Mum got a stethoscope from god knows where, and I checked your heartbeat. Seemed like a good idea," Ryan shrugged.
"Ah, yeah, good idea," the Doctor said, distractedly, having stopped fiddling with Ryan's fingers.
"Doctor, is it about to happen? Can you tell?"
"Um, yeah… think so…"
"What…" Ryan trailed off, picking up on the increasingly frantic chatter coming from behind the curtain around them. "The rain's going up?"
There was a loud clap of thunder, and they were suddenly thrown from side to side. Ryan instinctively grabbed onto the bedframe for some kind of hold. After about ten seconds, the violent shaking stopped. Ryan picked himself up from where he was half slumped on the floor, as the Doctor rolled out of bed.
"You okay?" the Doctor asked, tugging Ryan in for a hug.
"Yeah, I'm good," Ryan replied over his shoulder. "What the hell was that?" he asked, pulling away. "Worse than you trying to land the TARDIS."
"H2O scoop – that's what the plasma coils are for!" the Doctor exclaimed, running his hands through his hair. "We've been taken somewhere else!"
They both stilled as the ward filled with hysterical screams and loud sobs.
"Right, I'll go and check to see what's going on, you get dressed," Ryan said, nodding towards the Doctor's folded suit.
The Doctor grinned and nodded. "Yes sir."
Ryan slipped out between the curtains and walked towards the window, checking on a few people on his way. He stared out over the grey, rocky landscape and spotted the Earth in the distance. He had seen the Earth from space before, though not quite from this angle. "Damn. Well, can't say I've been to the Moon before," he said, to no one in particular. Not for lack of trying though – the Doctor had once tried to take him to the Moon, but they instead landed in a village on the south coast and had a run-in with a Dalek. Maybe they could try again at some point.
"All right, now, everyone, back to bed," spoke an authoritative voice. "We've got an emergency, but we'll sort it out, don't worry."
Ryan glanced behind him. It was that student, Jones, and another student, whose name he didn't know.
"You alright?" he asked them both as they approached the window. Jones nodded, but her friend didn't respond, clearly trying not to panic.
"It's real, isn't it?" Jones asked him. "It's really real!"
"Yeah…" Ryan breathed out. "You sure you're alright?" he asked the other student, again.
"Hold on," Jones said as she reached for the window latch.
"Don't, we'll lose all the air," the other student implored, grabbing Jones' arm.
"But they're not exactly airtight," Jones reasoned. "If the air was gonna get sucked out, it would've happened straight away, but it didn't, so how come?"
"Very good point!" the Doctor interrupted, pulling the curtain back with a flourish. "Brilliant, in fact. What was your name?"
"Martha."
"Jones, isn't it?"
"Well, Martha Jones, Ryan, question is, how are we still breathing?" the Doctor asked as he strode towards the window, peering outside.
"We can't be!" the other student half-sobbed.
"Well, obviously we are, so don't waste my time," the Doctor rudely dismissed.
"I'm sorry about him," Ryan shot a glare at the Doctor. "We'll sort this out, I promise," he assured the other student.
"Er, yes, we will. Sorry," the Doctor quickly apologised. "Martha, what have we got, is there a balcony on this floor, or a veranda…?"
"By the patients' lounge, yeah."
"Fancy going out?" the Doctor asked in a low tone, his eyes flickering between Ryan and Martha.
"'Course."
"Okay…"
"We might die," the Doctor warned.
"We might not," Martha responded, daring.
"You're good," Ryan smiled.
"Yeah, you are," the Doctor agreed. "Come on." He took hold of Ryan's hand and tugged him along as they quickly walked out of the ward, leaving Martha to catch up with them.
A/N: Thanks for reading!
