"As long as he doesn't get lost walking in, Mickey will be here inside ten minutes," Martha assured Joshua as she returned to the sickbay. "As soon as he's in here we can get him up on the bed and get those bandages off and see what is going on underneath."

"He shouldn't still be bleeding."

"We will have to do some tests and see what was in the scratches that has kept them bleeding this long."

"The Doctor and I did that yesterday. He said it was an anticoagulant and an anti-platelet combination so it was more effective. It said that the anticoagulant stopped him from clotting and the anti-platelet meant there wasn't anything in his blood to clot if he could clot, but he said that it would wear off."

"You already did the tests?"

"I took a swab for him. He said I had to poke it right into one of the cuts. It was a bit disgusting and it must have hurt, but he didn't say that it did. He said it would just wear off and he'd not bleed to death."

"He's not going to bleed to death," Martha assured Josh. "We can look at the analysis and see what the actual chemicals are and that might give us a clue as to what is going on with him. He's pretty sick at the moment, Josh, and he needs a hand to fight the infection and to stop the bleeding. Once it's under control he has an extraordinary ability to recover, so although this is serious, you don't need to panic. We'll do what we can to get the infection under control. As soon as that happens he'll recover quickly."

"He kept on saying he'd be in trouble if he didn't go and get my breakfast."

"I don't think it will be that quick," Martha commented. "He's come to care for you a great deal in a very short time." She put her hand on Josh's shoulder as he sat by the Doctor on the floor holding the drip up and gently squeezing refrigerated fluid into his veins. Martha checked the time lord was breathing cleanly and checked the monitors. She was most concerned about his body temperature and that remained extremely high at 23.4 degrees. At least it was starting to come down. "I'm going to have a look at the analysis that you did yesterday."

Martha had a look at the results that the TARDIS had published. The Doctor was right. There were two potent chemicals in the wound that were preventing him from clotting. The Doctor had run a very narrow and specific test just to look at that, but Martha knew the TARDIS just analysed everything and then isolated the results that the Doctor wanted. She expected the TARDIS had learned that the Doctor would chop and change his mind and then want answers immediately. If the ship had all the answer on standby from the first series of tests, then it kept her pilot happy.

Martha asked the TARDIS to show her the full analysis of the swab that had been taken. It didn't pick up any bacteria that might have been causing the infection, but it was taken some time ago and the Doctor would have fought any infection for some time. There was a third chemical which was prevalent in the wound tract. It was an enzyme of some kind, but Martha didn't recognise it and the TARDIS didn't identify it. Martha wasn't sure if it was something the animal had transferred to the Doctor or if it was something the Doctor was producing in response to the attack.

"There is a third chemical in the sample," Martha commented. "I'm not entirely sure what it is and I'm not sure the TARDIS knows either. If it was something the Doctor produced in response to being hurt then the TARDIS would know what it is. Maybe it's something else that has come from the animal."

"Komodo dragons have a toxin in their bites," Josh stated. "A lot of people just think it's the bacteria that causes bites to become infected, but it's not. They actual have a poison as well which makes it all worse. The creatures have Komodo dragon DNA in them. Maybe it is something like that? Or maybe the combination of DNA types have created something that is new. I don't think the Doctor got bitten. I think he just got clawed. You wouldn't really expect a toxin to be in the claws would you? If it was then the creature would just have to scratch itself and it would poison itself wouldn't it?" Josh asked Martha. "I know it didn't evolve, but that would still be pretty dumb. You'd not have to worry about UNIT having to go down there and deal with them, you'd just have to give them mange or fleas, make them itchy, and then they'd scratch and kill themselves," Josh commented. He glanced up to see that Martha was standing by the monitor, but she was smiling as she regarded him despite everything that was going on. "You think I'm talking rubbish don't you?" Josh sighed.

"No, I think you're brilliant," Martha offered honestly. "You just reminded me of him a bit talking like that," Martha admitted. "It's strange seeing him again. It's even stranger knowing he doesn't know who I am. I want to tell him about loads of things, but I can't. I could save him a lot of pain if I just told him things, but if I did then he probably wouldn't remember it when he goes back to his own time line anyway, and if he did who is to say the alternative would be any better?"

"You travelled with him in the TARDIS didn't you?"

"Yeah, I did."

"Would you change any of it? Even if some of it was hard?"

"Looking back on it all now?" Martha asked Josh. "No, I don't think I would. Some of it was very hard, but a lot of it was also incredible, and, when it was hard, it was usually hard because we were doing what was right."

"If you'd not want to change it then why would he?" Josh asked her. "I know he's not met you or Mum yet, but he is going to meet my mum when he goes back to his time line. I asked him if he could tell her not to go to Brazil and get on that plane."

"Oh Josh," Martha sighed. "What did he say?" she queried. That had to be a tough conversation for both of them to have. For Josh to clearly care so much about the Doctor the time lord had to have been remarkably sensitive in his response.

"He got called away before he could answer, but when he was gone, I figured out that he couldn't could he? If he told my mum not to get on the plane she'd not have died and I wouldn't be here to tell him to tell her, so he'd not tell her, and she would get on the plane because no one told her not to. I said it was a time loop, but he called it a paradox. I shouldn't have asked him. I wasn't really thinking. I didn't want to make him feel bad about it, but I think he did even if he doesn't know Mum yet."

"If the Doctor could change what happened to your family then he would, but he can't go back and change things that have already happened like that. He tried to explain it to me once, but I didn't quite get it," Martha commented. "I do know and trust that if and when he can stop bad things from happening that he will do everything he can to do that and to make things better."

"Like saving me and trying to stop the creatures," Josh commented.

"Yeah, like that."

"He carried me out of the tunnel and sorted out my ankle, and then he went back in to the tunnels to try and blow them up and seal them, only to discover that there were more of them than he thought so he couldn't, and then he built a sonic beacon and set that going and found out about the people who were bringing the animal waste here, and then he called you all in and briefed everyone that got here before you did."

"He's been busy."

"Yeah, but he did all of that after his back had been ripped open and while he was still bleeding," Josh commented. "If he'd not done all of that would he be so sick now?"

"I don't know," Martha offered. "Probably not, but the Doctor would just carry on and do what needs to be done. He wouldn't think about getting sick, and if he did, then he'd not think that him getting sick would particularly matter."

"I think it matters," Josh stated.

"Yeah, me too," Martha agreed.