Martha went out onto the flight deck to call Mickey rather than do it from the sickbay. She didn't want to worry Josh too much if the conversation got onto how serious the Doctor's current condition was. When he answered the call she could hear he was using the in car system.
"Mickey, where are you?"
"I'm coming," he responded. "I'm three or four minutes away from the perimeter drop off. I took a wrong turn on the way into the woods," he admitted. "How's the Doctor doing? Grumpy I bet. He's not setting a very good example to his new friend getting himself sick."
"It's worse than I anticipated," Martha informed him. "He's still losing blood and he's being ravaged by an infection of some kind. He's unconscious on the sickbay floor at the moment. If I don't figure out what this is then there is a real chance the impression he'll be making on Josh is full regeneration and we'll be sending him back into his own time with a new face," Martha told her husband.
"Shit."
"I need you here," she insisted. "If you're dawdling because you don't want to deal with him while he's sick and grumpy, then please put your foot down. I need your help. I don't really want to involve the rest of UNIT medical. I doubt the Doctor would be happy about it and we need to protect the timelines as best we can and we need to protect Josh the best we can as well. I'm worried that the UNIT medics and soldiers don't really understand how one wrong word could alter the Doctor's future and undermine our past."
"I know someone who understands it all, could be a real help, won't pass out at the sight of blood, and who the Doctor has already met in his current time line."
"I don't see how we could get Rose here," Martha offered. "We'd be bringing her out of her time line too. Just our being married could cause confusion. She's still your girlfriend back then."
"Barely," Mickey commented. "Trust me, if she found out she was growing old with the Doctor then I'd be dropped and she'd not care who I was married to, but if Rose was here, I'd find it even harder to keep my mouth shut, but I was thinking about it before you said he was so sick. I'm not sure what the Doctor would feel about this either, but Jack and Alonso are on Earth. They arrived back from Sto last week and wanted to hook up."
"You didn't tell me."
"It's supposed to be a surprise double date at the weekend. Fran agreed to take the kids for the weekend. We'll probably still be up here sorting all this lot out anyway so I'll have to call Jack to cancel. Jack knows more about time than either of us. I know I already messed up by mentioning the metacrisis, but it just came out."
"Call him and then get your backside in here. I need to get him up off the floor and take a proper look at his back."
"I'll be as fast as I can," Mickey commented. "I'm just pulling into the drop off point."
"Make sure you take the perimeter route to the right and not the left," Martha informed him.
Mickey parked up between two other UNIT vehicles. He was glad that Martha had driven her car up as well so they had two vehicles. They had both learned the hard way that medics and soldiers could keep very different times. There were days after long operations that Mickey was exhausted, but Martha was just getting started with the injured. Likewise, days when Martha had done all she had to in the day and was ready to go home, see the kids, and get a hot bath, but Mickey had been sent out on an operation. It was always easier with two cars. He remained in the car and on speaker as he dialled Jack's number.
"Bad timing, call back later."
"If you're shagging then this is urgent," Mickey told him. He heard Jack moving around in the background and then the phone was picked up and off speaker at the Captain's end.
"What could be more urgent than Alonso's very immediate need?"
"The Doctor is here," Mickey informed him.
"Which one?" Jack asked. "Is it the hot new female one? I've not caught up with her yet, but I plan to," Jack commented. Mickey heard Alonso protesting in the background.
"No, it's Pinstripes," Mickey commented.
"Pinstripes is on Earth in 2026?" Jack checked. "He shouldn't have crossed into such current events especially not if UNIT is around."
"I don't think he intended to, it's complicated, but he's been attacked by some sort of genetically modified creature, and, it's making him really sick. Martha is worried about him, said if we don't sort it out we'll be sending him back to his own time with a new face too early. And, get this Jack, he's hurt and sick and he's not met Martha yet, but he rescued Joshua Temple-Noble and has no idea who Donna is. Martha needs some help from someone who knows him and who he knows. I'm bloody useless," Mickey informed him. "I swear I'm going to open my mouth and end time. Can you come?"
"Send the coordinates," Jack stated.
"He won't have seen you since the Gamestation," Mickey reminded Jack.
"Great," Jack sighed. "Back to being wrong then," the Captain concluded.
"I think he's finding it tougher than he was letting on being so out of his own timeline."
"It sounds like it's going to be making my head hurt never mind his," Jack agreed. "Send the coordinates and I'll be there in a couple of minutes."
"We've got a full UNIT operation going on here. Try not to start a gun battle and get yourself shot."
"That was not my fault. You've got trigger happy kids working for UNIT."
"They were cadets and you teleported into the middle of their training exercise," Mickey reminded him.
"I'll be as discrete as I can," Jack informed him. "See you in five."