The patients got closer and closer, crowding the four time travelers against the wall. The Emissary sent an arc of Artron energy around them to ward off the patients, but she was reluctant to actually hit them, so it didn't do much. The patients were nearly close enough to touch when the Doctor suddenly stepped forward.
"Go to your room," the Doctor said firmly. The patients stopped. Somewhat surprised, the Doctor continued. "Go to your room. I mean it. I'm very, very angry with you. I am very, very cross. Go to your room!"
Heads hanging, the patients turned and shuffled back to their beds. Stunned, the Emissary lowered her hands.
"How did you know that would work?" she asked the Doctor. He grinned at her.
"I didn't," he said cheerfully. "Glad it did, though. Those would have been terrible last words."
She shook her head as they moved away from the door.
"Why are they all wearing gas masks?" Rose asked.
"They're not," Jack told her. "Those masks are flesh and bone."
"How exactly was this con of yours meant to work?" the Emissary asked him curiously.
"Simple enough, really," he shrugged. "Find some harmless piece of space junk, let the nearest Time Agent track it back to Earth, convince him it's valuable, name a price. When he's put fifty percent up front, oops! A German bomb falls on it, destroys it forever. He never gets to see what he's paid for, never knows he's been had. I buy him a drink with his own money, and we discuss dumb luck." He grinned. "The perfect self-cleaning con."
"Yeah," the Doctor scoffed. "Perfect."
"The London Blitz is great for self-cleaners," Jack retorted. "Pompeii's nice if you want to make a vacation of it though, but you've got to set your alarm for volcano day." All three residents of the TARDIS leveled unimpressed stares at Jack. He winced. "Getting a hint of disapproval."
"Take a look around the room," the Doctor told him. "This is what your harmless piece of space-junk did."
"It was a burnt-out medical transporter," Jack insisted. "It was empty."
"Rose," the Emissary said. The blonde walked over to her and she led Rose out of the ward. The Doctor and Jack followed.
"Are we getting out of here?" Rose asked.
"No, we're going upstairs," the Emissary said. "Room 802." Behind them, Jack was still trying to convince the Doctor he wasn't at fault.
"I even programmed the flight computer so it wouldn't land on anything living," he said. "I harmed no one. I don't know what's happening here, but believe me, I had nothing to do with it." The Doctor stopped and glared at him.
"I'll tell you what's happening," he spat. "You forgot to set your alarm clock. It's volcano day." He pushed past Jack, who was silent, and went to the front of the group.
In the empty hospital as they entered the stairwell, the all-clear siren was clear as a day.
"What's that?" Rose asked, looking around.
"The all clear," Jack told her.
The Doctor snorted. "I wish."
~~~
The two Time Lords disappeared up the stairs quickly, leaving Rose and Jack to try and follow.
"They always run off together like that?" he asked her. She tilted her head, considering, then nodded.
"Now that you mention it, yeah," she said. "Part of why I think they'd be good together."
He raised an eyebrow at that, but didn't comment, choosing instead to call out for the aliens. "Mister Spock? Miss Emily?"
"Doctor!" Rose joined in when there was no response. "Emissary!"
The Emissary stuck her head over the railing.
"Rose? Jack?" she called down to them. "Come on, we found the room."
Rose and Jack ran up the stairs to the final landing. The Doctor stood at the end of the hall, examining a metal door. When he saw them, he smiled.
"Have you got a blaster?" he asked Jack.
"Sure!" Jack jogged down the hall to him.
"The night your space-junk landed, someone was hurt," the Doctor informed him. He gestured at the door. "This was where they were taken."
"What happened?" Rose asked.
"Let's find out," the Doctor said, and nodded to Jack. "Get it open."
Rose leaned over to the Emissary. "What's wrong with his sonic screwdriver?" she whispered.
"Nothing," she whispered back, rolling her eyes. "He's just dramatic."
Jack's blaster shot a square shaped hole right through the lock. The Doctor looked at the blaster appraisingly.
"Sonic blaster, fifty first century," he guessed. "Weapon factories of Villengard?"
Jack nodded, holstering his gun. "You've been to the factories?"
"Once."
"Well, they're gone now, destroyed," Jack informed him. "The main reactor went critical. Vaporized the lot."
"Like I said," the Doctor said as he opened the door. "Once. There's a banana grove there, now. I like bananas. Bananas are good." The Emissary followed him inside, shaking her head at him.
"Bananas?" she asked as she went. "Really?" The Doctor's answer was lost as the door swung shut.
Rose and Jack stared after them for a minute. Finally, Rose tilted her head at the vanished lock. "Nice blast pattern."
"Digital." Jack pulled the door open and held it as Rose went past.
"Squareness gun."
"Yeah." He left the door open and followed her into the room.
Rose smiled. "I like it."
The room was a mess. Filing cabinets hung open, papers were strewn across the floor. Rose grimaced as she heard glass crunching under her feet from the broken window. On the other side of the observation window, the Emissary was looking at something on the wall.
The Doctor turned to Jack as they came up to him. "What do you think?"
Jack was looking around at the mess. "Something got out of here."
"Yeah," the Doctor agreed. "And?"
"Something powerful," Jack continued. "Angry."
"Powerful and angry," the Emissary said, coming out to join them. "And a child." She waved her hand at the floor of the observation room. Rose looked inside, surprised, to see crayon drawings and a teddy bear.
"A child?" Jack asked skeptically. He paused, considered the drawings, then shrugged. "I suppose this explains Mummy."
Rose turned slowly, taking in all of the destruction. "How could a child do this?"
The Doctor reached over and clicked on a tape recorder. A doctor's voice played. "Do you know where you are?"
"Are you my mummy?"
"Are you aware of what's around you? Can you see?"
"Are you my mummy?"
"What do you want? Do you know—"
"I want my mummy. Are you my mummy? I want my mummy! Are you my mummy? Are you my mummy? Mummy? Mummy?"
Rose shifted uncomfortably. "Doctor, I've heard this voice before."
"So have we," he told her.
"Mummy?"
"Always are you my mummy?" she continued, frowning. "Like he doesn't know."
"Mummy?"
Rose looked up at the silent Time Lords. "Why doesn't he know?"
"Are you there, mummy? Mummy? Mummy? Please, mummy? Mummy?"
Rose watched the Doctor approach the wall, the Emissary laying one hand gently on it. "Doctor? Emissary?"
"Can you sense it?" the Doctor asked without turning around. Rose and Jack shared a look, both of them confused.
"Sense what?" Jack asked.
"It's pouring out of the walls," the Emissary said, clarifying absolutely nothing. "Can you feel it?"
"Mummy?"
"Funny little human brains," the Doctor scoffed derisively. "How do you get around in those things?"
Rose rolled her eyes at him. "When he's stressed," she said to Jack, "he likes to insult species."
"Rose, I'm thinking," the Doctor protested.
Rose grinned, tongue in teeth. "He cuts himself shaving, he does half an hour on life forms he's cleverer then."
The Emissary turned away from the wall, snickering. "Really? Only half an hour?" she said teasingly.
"There are these children living rough round the bomb sites," the Doctor said, rolling his eyes at both girls. "They come out during air-raids looking for food."
"Mummy, please?"
"Suppose they were there when this thing, whatever it was, landed?"
"It was a med-ship," Jack insisted, but the conviction in his voice had faded. Now he sounded unsure of himself. "It was harmless."
"You keep saying it was harmless," the Emissary said to him. She stepped closer to the two humans when she heard the click of the tape running out. "But what if you were wrong? What if one of those kids was harmed, was altered?"
Rose looked uneasy now. "Altered how?"
"I'm here!"
"It's afraid," the Doctor told her gently. "Terribly afraid and powerful. It doesn't know it yet, but it will do." He met the Emissary's eyes as he realized what she had. "It's got the power of a god, and I just sent it to its room."
"Doctor?" Rose asked, watching him pause by the desk. She frowned when she picked up on a clicking noise under the child's voice.
"I'm here. Can't you see me?"
"What's that noise?"
"End of the tape." The Doctor held up said tape. "It ran out about thirty seconds ago."
"I'm here now. Can't you see me?"
"I sent it to its room," he said, and watched it dawn on the two humans. "This is its room."
"Are you my mummy? Mummy?" They all turned to see the child standing in the door. Rose backed up until she was a bit behind the Emissary.
"What do we do?" she asked. Jack stepped to the front of the group.
"Mummy?"
"Okay, on my signal make for the door." Jack whipped his blaster out and aimed at the child. "Now!"
If Rose wasn't so terrified, she'd have burst out laughing at the pure confusion on Jack's face when his blaster turned out to be a banana. From his pocket, the Doctor pulled out Jack's gun.
"Mummy?"
"Go now!" he ordered, shooting out the wall behind them. The Emissary was the first through the hole, pulling Rose along by the hand. Jack followed and the Doctor called after him cheerfully. "Don't drop the banana!"
"Why not?!" Jack asked incredulously.
The Doctor climbed through the hole and turned to Jack, grinning. "Good source of potassium!"
Jack grabbed the blaster out of the Doctor's hand. "Give me that!"
"Mummy. I want my mummy."
Jack fiddled with the settings on his gun, then aimed at the hole they'd just come through. When he shot, the wall reformed. "Digital rewind," he said, twirling the gun smugly. He looked at the Doctor, holding up the banana. "Nice switch."
"It's from the groves of Villengard," the Doctor told him. "I thought it was appropriate."
Jack stared at him. "There's really a banana grove in the heart of Villengard and you did that?"
"Bananas are good," the Doctor shrugged.
Rose smiled, then blanched. Behind them, the wall was starting to crack. "Doctor!" She pointed at the slowly widening cracks.
"Come on!" he said, turning to lead the group away. He stopped short when he saw the patients coming at them from the other direction.
"Mummy. Mummy. Mummy."
"It's keeping us here till it can get at us," he realized.
"It's controlling them?" Jack asked.
"It is them," the Doctor corrected. "It's every living thing in this hospital."
"Okay," Jack said after a pause. He held up his blaster. "This can function as a sonic blaster, a sonic cannon, and as a triple-enfolded sonic disrupter. Doc, Em, what you got?"
"Artron energy," the Emissary said, raising an energy-covered hand. "And 'Em'?"
Jack shrugged. "Faster than Emissary, isn't it?"
The Emissary didn't have a response for that, so she shrugged and let it go.
"I've got a sonic, er," the Doctor cut off, shaking his head. "Oh, never mind."
"What?" Jack asked.
"It's sonic, okay?" the Doctor huffed. "Let's leave it at that."
"Disrupter? Cannon? What?"
"It's sonic! Totally sonic! I am soniced up!"
"A sonic what?!"
"Screwdriver!"
The wall behind them broke and the child stepped through. As the Emissary whipped around, sending a bolt of energy at the child to push it back, Rose made an executive decision. She pulled Jack's blaster out of his hand and aimed at the floor beneath their feet.
"Going down!" she yelled and shot. She heard the Emissary yelp briefly as the floor vanished and they dropped into the next room.
~~~
Rose groaned as she got to her feet. "Doctor, are you okay?" she asked brushing her hands off on her jeans. "Emissary?"
"Could've used a warning," the Doctor grumbled.
Rose rolled her eyes. "Oh, the gratitude."
"She did say 'going down'," the Emissary pointed out. Rose nodded and pointed to her in agreement. "Was that not enough warning for you?"
Jack, having fixed the ceiling, ignored both of them to stare at the Doctor incredulously. "Who has a sonic screwdriver?"
"I do," the Doctor replied shortly.
Rose shook her head and walked over to a wall. She felt along it for a light switch. "Lights."
"Who looks at a screwdriver and thinks, ooo, this could be a little more sonic?"
"What," the Doctor said defensively. "You've never been bored?"
"There's got to be a light switch," Rose muttered. The Emissary joined her, checking both sides of the wall.
"Never had a long night?" the Doctor continued. "Never had a lot of cabinets to put up?"
The Emissary turned to him, eyes wide. "Are you saying that's why you made your sonic?" she asked. "You told me it was because you didn't kiss someone when you should have!"
Rose desperately wanted to know more about that, but put it out of her mind as she found a light switch.
"Aha!" she said triumphantly, flipping the lights on. Immediately she regretted it. They were in a ward full of more patients, and every single one sat up when the lights came on.
"Mummy. Mummy."
"Door," Jack said, pointing towards a storeroom across the ward. They ran for it as Jack pulled out his blaster and shot at the lock.
Nothing happened.
"Damn it!" Jack hit the gun against his palm. He looked a bit embarrassed. "It's the special features. They really drain the battery."
Rose gaped at him. "The battery?! That's so lame!"
The Doctor unlocked the door with his sonic and ushered them in.
"I was going to send for another one," Jack told her, then made a face at the Doctor's back. "But somebody's got to blow up the factory."
Rose knew how that felt. "Oh, I know," she laughed. "First day I met him, he blew my job up. That's practically how he communicates."
"Well he hasn't changed," she sighed, plopping down in a wheelchair. At Rose's questioning look, she continued. "He blew up my dorm room when we were in school."
"And I apologized for that," the Doctor said, locking the door and joining them. "Okay, that door should hold it for a bit."
"The door?" Jack asked. "The wall didn't stop it!"
"Well, it's got to find us first!" the Doctor retorted. He looked around at them. "Come on, we're not done yet! Assets, assets!"
"Well, I've got a banana," Jack sighed, "and in a pinch you could put up some shelves."
"Artron energy," the Emissary said, "but if there's a chance we can save them, I don't want to hurt anyone."
"Window," the Doctor pointed at it.
"Barred," Jack shook his head. "Sheer drop outside. Seven stories."
"And no other exits," Rose sighed.
"Well, the assets conversation went in a flash, didn't it?"
The Doctor rolled his eyes and turned to Rose. "So, where'd you pick this one up, then?"
"Doctor!" Rose protested.
"She was hanging from a barrage balloon, I had an invisible spaceship." Jack shot a smile at Rose, which she returned. "I never stood a chance."
"Okay," the Doctor moved on. "One, we've got to get out of here. Two, we can't get out of here." The Emissary snorted as he completely missed Jack teleporting out of the room. "Have I missed anything?"
"Yeah," Rose said, sharing an amused look with the Emissary. "Jack just disappeared."
The Doctor turned, visibly surprised. The Emissary waved the banana at him.
"He left the potassium," she quipped. She started to peel it. "Want some?"
She offered a chunk to the Doctor who waved it off and jumped up on a desk to examine the window. Rose, however, was suddenly realizing the only thing she'd consumed that day was champagne, and took the chunk of banana gratefully.
"Okay," Rose said as she ate. "So he's vanished into thin air. Why is it always the great looking ones who do that?"
The Doctor huffed from his desk. "I'm making an effort not to be insulted."
Rose smirked as the Emissary snorted. "I mean, men."
That only served to make the Doctor look more offended. "Okay, thanks, that really helped."
Before Rose could continue, the radio crackled to life. She looked at it, startled.
"Rose?" Jack's voice rang out. "Emissary?Doctor? Can you hear me? I'm back on my ship. Used the emergency teleport. Sorry I couldn't take you. It's security-keyed to my molecular structure. I'm working on it. Hang in there."
The Doctor looked at the radio with an odd expression. "How're you speaking to us?"
"Om-Com," Jack answered. "I can call anything with a speaker grill."
"Isn't that a coincidence?" the Emissary asked.
"What is?"
"The child can Om-Com, too," she said.
"He can?" Rose asked.
The Doctor nodded. "Anything with a speaker grill. Even the Tardis phone."
"What," Rose asked, a bit of fear and surprise entering her voice. "You mean the child can phone us?"
As if summoned, the child's voice came through the speakers. "And I can hear you. Coming to find you. Coming to find you."
"Can you guys hear that?" Jack asked.
"Loud and clear," the Doctor answered.
"I'll try to block out the signal," Jack told them. "Least I can do."
"Coming to find you, mummy."
"Remember this one, Rose?" The Emissary raised an eyebrow at the girl as Moonlight Serenade started up. Rose blushed a bit.
"Our song."
~~~
A little while later, Rose sat in another wheelchair, watching the Emissary methodically shred the banana peel into tiny strips. "You're bored, aren't you?"
"Nothing much to do but wait," she said. She nodded her head back at the Doctor. "He's the only one with a sonic."
When Rose glanced up to look at the Doctor, she tilted her head in confusion.
"What are you doing?" she asked, watching him aim his sonic screwdriver at the wall.
"Trying to set up a resonation pattern in the concrete, loosen the bars," the Doctor answered.
Rose snorted as something occurred to her. "You don't think he's coming back, do you?"
"Wouldn't bet my life."
"Why don't you trust him?" Rose asked.
"Why do you?" he countered.
Rose shrugged. "He saved my life. Bloke-wise, that's up there with flossing. I trust him because he's like you." She looked between the two Time Lords and smirked to herself. "Except with dating and dancing." Both of them paused what they were doing and looked at her with twin stares. Rose smiled innocently. "What?"
The Doctor shook his head and turned back to his wall. "You just assume that I'm—" he cut off.
"What?" Rose asked. Was she imagining things, or had his eyes flicked to the Emissary for a second?
"You just assume that I don't dance," he finished. Rose didn't buy for a second that that was what he was going to say, but she let it slide.
"What," she grinned, "are you telling me you do dance?"
"He has before," the Emissary blurted. "He had to know how to for when we had to go to Academy functions." She looked away when Rose's sly smile slid to her.
"Oh?" Rose asked. That was interesting, and sounded like... "So he danced with you, specifically?"
"No," the Emissary said, just a bit too quickly. "I'm just saying, he has danced, and I've seen it."
"Nine hundred years old, me," the Doctor agreed, looking all too eager to move on. "I've been around a bit. I think you can assume at some point I've danced."
"Ok, maybe when you were a kid," Rose allowed, "but you now?"
"Problem?"
"Doesn't the universe implode or something if you dance?" Rose teased. She went over to the radio and turned up the volume. The Emissary, amused, pretended not to be listening.
"Well, I've got the moves, but I wouldn't want to boast," he said, rolling his eyes.
Rose smirked at him. If she played this right... "You've got the moves?" she taunted. The Emissary huffed a laugh from her seat. "Show me your moves."
The Doctor sighed. "Rose, I'm trying to resonate concrete." But he came over to stand in front of Rose.
"Oh, I want to see this," the Emissary said, turning her full attention to the pair.
"Take notes for when he dances with you," Rose told her, smiling at the taken aback look. "Oh, yeah, you're next."
"I'm trying to get us out of here," the Doctor made a last token protest.
"Jack'll be back," Rose waved it off. "He'll get us out. So come on. Show us that world doesn't end because the Doctor dances."
She held out her hands, and the Doctor took them. Rose tried to start dancing, but he flipped her hands over, looking at them curiously. "Barrage balloon?" he asked.
"What?" Rose asked, lost.
"You were hanging from a barrage balloon," he clarified.
"Oh, yeah," Rose nodded. "About two minutes after you left me. Thousands of feet above London, middle of a German air-raid, Union Jack all over my chest."
"I've travelled with a lot of people," the Doctor told her exasperatedly, "but you're setting new records for jeopardy friendly."
Rose rolled her eyes. "Is this you dancing?" she asked. "Because I've got notes."
"Is one of those notes 'moving his feet'?" the Emissary teased. When Rose looked over at the Time Lady, she was thrilled to find that she looked more interested than Rose had hoped for. Rose nodded her agreement, grinning.
The Doctor ignored them both. "Hanging from a rope thousands of feet above London. Not a cut, not a bruise."
"Yeah, I know," Rose said. "Captain Jack fixed me up."
"Oh," the Doctor scoffed. "We're calling him Captain Jack now, are we?"
"Well, his name's Jack," Rose drawled, "and he's a Captain."
"He's not really a Captain, Rose."
"Do you know what I think?" Rose raised an eyebrow. "I think you're experiencing Captain envy." Her voice took on a teasing tone and she nodded towards his feet. "You'll find your feet at the end of your legs. You may care to move them."
The Emissary laughed. The Doctor threw a look at her over Rose's shoulder, and she raised her hands up in mock surrender. He looked back at Rose. "If ever he was a Captain, he's been defrocked."
Rose just smiled. "Yeah? Shame I missed that."
Behind them, there was a thud. "Actually," Jack said as they turned to look. "I quit. Nobody takes my frock." Rose looked around to see the ship she'd been in before. The Emissary was getting to her feet from where the teleport had dropped her on the floor, apparently not bringing the chair. "Most people notice when they've been teleported. You guys are so sweet." Jack grinned at the Doctor and Rose, clearly teasing them. "Sorry about the delay. I had to take the nav-com offline to override the teleport security."
"Guessing this isn't your ship, then," the Emissary said, brushing off her jeans. "Ten minutes to override protocols?"
"No," Jack agreed. "But don't worry, I remember whose it was." He grinned. "She was gorgeous. Like I told her, be back in five minutes."
"This is a Chula ship," the Doctor said, looking around.
Jack nodded, not getting what the Doctor was getting at. "Yeah, just like that medical transporter. Only this one is dangerous."
The Doctor snapped his fingers. The Emissary gasped as a golden glow surrounded his hands. "Nanogenes?"
"They're what fixed my hands up," Rose told them. "That's what Jack called them. Nanogenes."
"Sub-atomic robots." The Doctor waved a hand and the nanogenes followed the movement. "There's millions of them in here, see? Burned my hand on the console when we landed. All better now. They activate when the bulk head's sealed. Check you out for damage, fix any physical flaws." He met the Emissary's eyes, watching her realize what he had. She tilted her head back, groaning at the ceiling. "Take us to the crash site," he said to Jack. "We need to see your space junk."
Jack nodded. "As soon as I get the nav-com back online," he promised. He waved a hand at them, smirking. "Make yourself comfortable. Carry on with whatever it was you were doing."
"We were talking about dancing," the Doctor said.
Jack raised an eyebrow at him. "It didn't look like talking."
"It didn't feel like dancing," Rose grumbled, taking a seat on the bunk. The Emissary sat down next to her.
"Didn't look much like dancing, either," she deadpanned. The Doctor just stared at all of them before shaking his head and walking over to fiddle with the ship controls.
"So if you used to be a Time Agent," Rose asked Jack, "why're you trying to con them now?"
Jack sighed, turning to face her. "If it makes me sound any better, it's not for the money."
"For what?"
"Woke up one day when I was still working for them, found they'd stolen two years of my memories." He ran a hand through his hair. "I'd like them back."
Rose's jaw dropped. "They stole your memories?"
"Two years of my life. No idea what I did," he nodded towards the Doctor. "Your friend over there doesn't trust me, and for all I know he's right not to."
"I trust you," the Emissary told him. "Anyone who saves Rose is good with me."
Jack smiled at her gratefully, then turned when his computer beeped. "Okay, we're good to go." He stood, offering the girls a hand up. "Crash site?"
~~~
Jack's teleport dropped them on a hill overlooking the station Nancy had led them to earlier. Jack nodded down to the bomb site. "There it is," he said. He brightened when he saw the guard. "Hey, they've got Algy on duty. It must be important."
"We've got to get past him," the Doctor said.
"Are the words distract the guard heading in my general direction?" Rose asked.
"No," the Time Lords both chorused. Rose looked a bit put out.
"If anyone is going to distract the guard like that," the Emissary continued, "it's going to be me." The Doctor, Rose noted, did not look as though he liked or agreed with that statement. "You're not putting yourself in any more unnecessary danger."
"Don't worry," Rose said confidently. "I can handle it."
"I don't think that'd be such a good idea," Jack told her. "I've got to know Algy quite well since I've been in town. Trust me, you're not his type. I'll distract him." He winked as he started down the hill. "Don't wait up."
"Relax," the Doctor told Rose when she looked worried. "He's a fifty first century guy. He's just a bit more flexible when it comes to dancing."
"How flexible?" Rose asked.
"51st century, humans have spread out across half the galaxy," the Emissary told her, smirking a bit.
"Meaning?"
"So many species, so little time," the Doctor said.j
Rose blinked. "What, that's what we do when we get out there? That's our mission? We seek new life, and, and..." She trailed off in shock.
The Doctor smirked. "Dance."
"You're a very versatile species," the Emissary informed her. "And persistent."
Rose made a face, and would have said more, but shouting from down below cut her off. The trio ran down to Jack.
When they reached him, Rose stopped short in horror next to the Emissary, watching a gas mask finish forcing itself through the guard's face.
"Stay back!" the Doctor told her when she stepped forward.
Jack waved off the approaching guards. "You men, stay away!"
"The effect's become air-borne, accelerating," the Doctor said grimly. The raid sirens started up like an eerie accentuation of his words.
"What's keeping us safe?" Rose asked.
"Nothing," he answered simply.
The Emissary looked around, tilting her head. She could have sworn she'd heard singing before the sirens started.
Jack groaned as he caught sight of the German planes approaching. "Ah, here they come again."
"All we need," Rose agreed, shaking her head. "Didn't you say a bomb was going to land here?"
"Never mind about that," the Doctor brushed off. "If the contaminant is airborne now, there's hours left."
"Until what?" Jack asked.
"Till nothing, forever," was the solemn answer. "For the entire human race."
"Someone is singing!" the Emissary said suddenly. She walked off towards the guardhouse, leaving the other three staring after her.
~~~
The Emissary entered the guardhouse slowly. Nancy looked up at her, terrified, faltering slightly in her singing. The gas masked guard stirred.
Keep singing, the Emissary mouthed silently. Nancy took a deep breath, but kept singing as the Emissary crouched next to her. Carefully, she pulled the keys off the guard's belt, freezing when they jangled. She sighed in relief when the guard didn't move.
Nancy sang louder as the Emissary quickly unlocked her cuffs. As soon as Nancy's hands were free, the Emissary pulled her up and they ran out of the room.
"Found Nancy," the Emissary said as they reached the others. She turned to Jack. "Lead the way."
~~~
"You see?" Jack said as they pulled off the tarp. "Just an ambulance."
Nancy looked at him like he was crazy. "That's an ambulance?"
"It's hard to explain," Rose told her. "It's from another world."
Jack frowned as he looked it over. "They've been trying to get in."
"Of course they have," the Doctor scoffed. "They think they've got their hands on Hitler's latest secret weapon." He frowned when Jack climbed up on it. "What're you doing?"
"I wouldn't do that," the Emissary chimed in as Jack typed something in on the keypad.
"Look," Jack said as he finished. "The sooner you see this thing is empty, the sooner you'll know I had nothing to do with it." He pressed enter. Almost immediately, there was a loud bang as the access panel spit sparks and started screeching, flashing red lights. Jack jumped down and looked at the others. "That didn't happen last time."
"It hadn't crashed last time," the Doctor said like it was obvious. "There'll be emergency protocols."
Rose wasn't paying attention to them, having seen something behind them. "Emissary," she said. "What is that?"
The Emissary turned to see the hospital patients approaching the fence. "That would be the reinforcements," she sighed. "Doctor!"
Both men turned at her shout. "Captain, secure those gates!" the Doctor ordered. "Emissary, with him!"
"Why?" Jack asked, clearly not thinking the patients were a problem.
"Just do it!" the Doctor snapped. The Emissary dragged Jack off towards the gates. He turned to Nancy. "Nancy, how'd you get in here?"
"I cut the wire."
"Show Rose," he said, pulling out his sonic. He tossed it to Rose. "Setting 2428D."
Rose blinked, catching it. "What?"
"Reattaches barbed wire. Go!" He waved them away.
~~~
"Who are you?" Nancy asked as they knelt in the cold mud. "Who are any of you?"
Rose shook her head as she reattached the wires. "You'd never believe me if I told you."
"You just told me that was an ambulance from another world," Nancy said flatly. "There are people running around with gas mask heads calling for their mummies, and the sky's full of Germans dropping bombs on me. Tell me, do you think there's anything left I couldn't believe?"
Rose shrugged, acknowledging the point. "We're time travellers from the future."
Nancy stared at her for a long moment, then shook her head. "Mad, you are."
"We have a time travel machine." Rose giggled at Nancy's expression. "Seriously!"
"It's not that," Nancy said quietly. "All right, you've got a time travel machine. I believe you. Believe anything, me. But what future?"
Rose lowered the sonic and turned to face Nancy completely. "Nancy, this isn't the end," she said. "I know how it looks, but it's not the end of the world or anything—"
Nancy cut her off. "How can you say that?? Look at it."
"Listen to me," Rose continued. "I was born in this city. I'm from here, in like, fifty years time."
Nancy's eyes widened. "From here?"
Rose nodded. "I'm a Londoner. From your future."
"But, but you're not..." she trailed off, looking awkward.
"What?"
"German."
Rose smiled at her. "Nancy, the Germans don't come here. They don't win. Don't tell anyone I told you so, but you know what?" She nudged Nancy's shoulder with her own, smiling widely. "You win."
Nancy stared at her, jaw dropped. "We win?"
Rose nodded, attaching the last wire. She stood and pulled Nancy up. "Come on!"
~~~
When the two girls got back to the ambulance, Jack was on top of it, pulling it open.
"It's empty," he said when he'd gotten it open. He waved at it. "Look at it."
"What do you expect in a Chula medical transporter?" the Doctor asked him. "Bandages? Cough drops?" He looked over at Rose expectantly. "Rose?"
Rose looked confused at being addressed. She shrugged. "I don't know."
"Yes, you do," the Emissary said. When Rose looked at her, she nodded at her hands. "Your hands were burned."
Rose's eyes lit up. "Nanogenes!"
"The ambulance wasn't empty, Captain," the Emissary told Jack, who was beginning to look horrified. "There were enough nanogenes in there to rebuild an entire species."
"Oh, God," Jack whispered.
"Getting it now, are we?" The Doctor sighed. He turned to Rose and Nancy, who both looked a bit lost. "When the ship crashes, the nanogenes escape. Billions upon billions of them, ready to fix all the cuts and bruises in the whole world."
"But what they found first was a dead child," the Emissary continued, "probably killed earlier that night, and wearing a gas mask."
"And they brought him back to life?" Rose asked, pale. "They can do that?"
"What's life?" the Doctor said dismissively. "Life's easy. A quirk of matter. Nature's way of keeping meat fresh. Nothing to a nanogene." He turned back to Jack. "One problem, though. These nanogenes, they're not like the ones on your ship. This lot have never seen a human being before. Don't know what a human being's supposed to look like. All they've got to go on is one little body, and there's not a lot left. But they carry right on. They do what they're programmed to do. They patch it up. Can't tell what's gas mask and what's skull, but they do their best. Then off they fly, off they go, work to be done. Because, you see, now they think they know what people should look like, and it's time to fix all the rest. And they won't ever stop. They won't ever, ever stop. The entire human race is going to be torn down and rebuilt in the form of one terrified child looking for its mother, and nothing in the world can stop it!"
"I didn't know," Jack swore. The Emissary sighed, feeling bad for him. He was clearly horrified by his part in the whole affair.
"Yeah," she said quietly. "That's the problem."
The Doctor got up next to the ambulance's access pad and began working at it. Jack shook himself out of his horror and went over to help. Behind the group, the patients finally reached the fence.
"Mummy. Mummy."
Nancy noticed them first, and she tugged on Rose's sleeve. "Rose!"
Rose looked up at the Emissary. "It's bringing the gas mask people here, isn't it?"
"The ship thinks it's under attack," the Doctor answered from behind them. "It's calling up the troops. Standard protocol."
"But the gas mask people aren't troops," Rose said.
"They are now," the Emissary told her. "Jack wasn't technically lying. This is a war-ship, a battlefield ambulance. These nanogenes don't just heal your injuries, they make you ready for the front lines. Equip you, program you."
"That's why the child's so strong," Rose realized. "Why it could do that phoning thing."
"It's a fully equipped Chula warrior, yes," the Doctor confirmed, coming up to stand next to them. "All that weapons tech in the hands of a hysterical four year old looking for his mummy." He shook his head. "And now there's an army of them."
Jack looked around when the patients stopped right outside the barbed wire. "Why don't they attack?"
"Good little soldiers," the Doctor said, "waiting for their commander."
"The child?" Jack asked.
"Jamie." The time travelers all looked over at Nancy. She'd been quiet for awhile, but her voice now was firm.
Jack blinked. "What?"
"Not the child," Nancy insisted. "Jamie." The Emissary tilted her head, looking Nancy over.
Rose looked up at the sky, worry on her face, when a plane flew directly overhead. "So how long until the bomb falls?"
Jack checked his watch. "Any second."
"What's the matter, Captain?" the Doctor asked, watching him closely. "A bit close to the volcano for you?"
"He's just a little boy," Nancy continued as if they hadn't spoken.
"I know," the Doctor told her gently.
"He's just a little boy who wants his mummy."
"I know," the Doctor said again. "There isn't a little boy born who wouldn't tear the world apart to save his mummy." His face was grim. "And this little boy can."
"So what're we going to do?" Rose asked.
"I don't know."
Nancy shook her head, a distraught expression on her face. "It's my fault."
"No," the Doctor tried to reassure her.
"It is," Nancy insisted. "It's all my fault."
"How can it be your—"
The Emissary cut him off, understanding dawning in her eyes. "Nancy, how old are you? Twenty? Twenty one?" Nancy didn't answer, but the Doctor made a noise of realization. "Older than you look, at least, aren't you?"
A bomb whistled through air high above them and Jack looked up at it, worried. "Doctor, Emissary, that bomb. We've got seconds."
"You can teleport us out," Rose said, but she didn't sound sure.
Jack shook his head apologetically. "Not you guys. The nav-com's back online. Going to take too long to override the protocols."
"So it's volcano day." The Doctor shrugged, not looking away from Nancy. "Do what you've got to do."
"Jack?" Rose asked. He vanished without answering.
"How old were you five years ago?" the Emissary continued to ask Nancy in a gentle voice. "Probably fifteen? Sixteen? Old enough to have a child, right?" Rose gasped quietly behind them. Nancy just shook her head mutely, tears running down her face. "He's not your brother, is he? But 1941, society isn't kind to teenage single mothers. So you hid for your own safety, and you lied, even to him."
The gate opened and Jamie stood there. "Are you my mummy?"
"He's going to keep asking, Nancy," the Doctor said quietly. "He's never going to stop."
"Mummy?"
"Tell him," the Doctor told Nancy. She looked away. "Nancy, the future of the human race is in your hands. Trust us and tell him."
Nancy walked slowly towards the child, who just tilted his head at her. "Are you my mummy? Are you my mummy? Are you my mummy?"
"Yes," Nancy said, voice wavering. "Yes, I am your mummy."
"Mummy?"
"I'm here," Nancy said again.
"Are you my mummy?"
"I'm here."
"Are you my mummy?"
"Yes."
"Are you my mummy?"
"He doesn't understand," the Emissary said softly, not wanting Nancy to hear. "There's not enough of him left."
"I am your mummy," Nancy said firmly. She knelt in front of him. "I will always be your mummy. I'm so sorry. I am so, so sorry." She drew him into a tight hug.
"What's happening?" Rose asked as a golden cloud of nanogenes enveloped Nancy and Jamie. "Doctor, Emissary, it's changing her, we should—" She broke off at the hopeful looks on the Time Lords' faces.
"Come on, please," the Doctor was pleading. "Come on, you clever little nanogenes. Figure it out! The mother, she's the mother. It's got to be enough information. Figure it out."
"What's happening?" Rose asked as the nanogenes continued to swirl around the two.
"They're recognizing the mother's DNA," the Emissary answered, eyes shining. The nanogene cloud disappeared as Nancy let Jamie go, and she fell to the ground. The trio ran over to her.
"Oh, come on," the Doctor prayed, going over to the boy. "Give me a day like this. Give me this one." Carefully, slowly, he pulled the gas mask off of Jamie's face. When it came off cleanly, he laughed and scooped Jamie up in a hug. "Ha-ha! Welcome back! Twenty years till pop music - you're going to love it."
"What happened?" Nancy asked.
"The nanogenes recognised the superior information, the parent DNA. They didn't change you because you changed them!" He laughed again, relieved. "Ha-ha! Mother knows best!" He set Jamie down in front of Nancy.
"Oh, Jamie." She hugged him again just as tightly.
Rose's smile at the scene faded as she remembered, "Doctor, that bomb."
"Taken care of it," he told her happily.
"How?"
"Psychology."
Rose looked up as the bomb whistled ever closer to them. She nearly laughed in relief when the bomb stopped just before hitting them, recognizing the light beam it was caught in. Jack appeared, straddling the bomb.
"Good lad!" the Doctor called up to him.
"The bomb's already commenced detonation," Jack told them. "I've put it in stasis but it won't last long."
"Change of plan," the Emissary called back. "We don't actually need it anymore. Can you get rid of it safely?"
Jack nodded. "Rose?"
Rose smiled up at him. "Yeah?"
"Goodbye." He disappeared with the bomb, then came back seconds later. "By the way, love the t-shirt." He winked as Rose laughed in surprise and vanished again. The light beam returned to the ship and Jack flew off.
Rose watched it go. When she couldn't see it anymore, she turned back to see the Doctor raise his hands. Nanogenes swirled around his hands.
"What are you doing?" Rose asked.
"Software patch," the Emissary said, not taking her eyes off of him.
"Going to email the upgrade," the Doctor agreed. "You want moves, Rose? I'll give you moves." He threw his hands forward and nanogenes raced towards the patients. He smiled happily. "Everybody lives, Rose. Just this once, everybody lives!"
Rose watched, amazed, as every patient fell to the ground, then got back up, perfectly normal. The Emissary walked over to Dr. Constantine and helped him up.
"Welcome back," she said.
"Doctor Constantine," the Doctor said, joining her and grinning at the doctor. "Who never left his patients. Back on your feet, constant doctor. The world doesn't want to get by without you just yet, and I don't blame it one bit." He turned slightly and waved a hand at all the formerly gas masked patients. "These are your patients. All better now."
"Yes, yes, so it seems," Constantine said, stunned. "They also seem to be standing around in a disused railway station. Is there any particular reason for that?"
"Cutbacks," the Emissary joked. She smiled at him. "You're going to find that whatever they came in for originally has been cured. Just tell them what a great doctor you are, okay?"
"Don't make a big thing of it," the Doctor added. The Time Lords walked off as an older woman came up to Constantine. The Emissary broke into laughter as the lady asked about her previously missing leg. The Doctor smiled at her.
"Right, you lot," he said as they walked up to Nancy and Rose. "Lots to do." He pointed to Nancy. "Beat the Germans, save the world. Don't forget the welfare state!" He climbed back up onto the ambulance and pointed his sonic at the access pad. "Setting this to self-destruct, soon as everybody's clear." He grinned. "History says there was an explosion here. Who am I to argue with history?"
"Usually the first in line," Rose deadpanned. He smiled up at her as the Emissary laughed.
"You've been arguing with history as long as I've known you," she agreed, making Rose laugh.
~~~
"The nanogenes will clean up the mess and switch themselves off, because I just told them to," the Doctor said as they reentered the TARDIS. He practically skipped up to the console. "Nancy and Jamie will go to Doctor Constantine for help, ditto. All in all, all things considered, fantastic!"
"Look at you," Rose grinned at him, laughing, "beaming away, like your Father Christmas!"
"Who says he's not?" the Emissary joked. She joined the Doctor at the console.
"Red bicycle when you were twelve?" the Doctor added.
"What?" Rose asked, surprised.
"And everybody lives, Rose!" the Doctor said. He spread his arms, still grinning. "Everybody lives!" He looked at the Emissary over the console. "I need more days like this."
She smiled as she watched him. She couldn't remember the last time she'd seen him so giddy, even before The Argument. "Everybody lives," she agreed happily.
Rose watched them work together to take off, smiling. Then she remembered Jack, and her smile dropped. "Doctor."
"Go on, ask me anything," the Doctor said immediately. "I'm on fire!"
"What about Jack?" The Time Lords both sobered a bit. "Why'd he say goodbye?"
~~~
Jack crawled over the bomb back to the captain's chair. "Okay, computer, how long can we keep the bomb in stasis?"
"Stasis decaying at ninety percent cycle. Detonation in three minutes."
Jack winced. "Can we jettison it?"
"Any attempt to jettison the device will precipitate detonation. One hundred percent probability."
"We could stick it in an escape pod."
"There is no escape pod on board."
Jack nodded thoughtfully. "I see the flaw in that. I'll get in the escape pod."
"There is no escape pod on board."
Jack started to panic a little. What kind of ship didn't have an escape pod? "Did you check everywhere?"
"Affirmative."
"Under the sink?"
"Affirmative."
"Okay." He sat silently for a moment. "Out of one hundred, exactly how dead am I?"
"Termination of Captain Jack Harkness in under two minutes. One hundred percent probability."
"Lovely," he sighed. "Thanks. Good to know the numbers."
"You're welcome."
Jack gave himself a second to mourn his death, then nodded. "Okay then. Think we'd better initiate emergency protocol four one seven."
"Affirmative."
A martini appeared on the dashboard. He smiled and took a sip. "Oo, a little too much vermouth," he said, grimacing. "See if I come here again." He sat back in his chair, chuckling to himself. "Funny thing. Last time I was sentenced to death, I ordered four hyper-vodkas for my breakfast. All a bit of a blur after that. Woke up in bed with both my executioners." He popped an olive into his mouth. "Mmm, lovely couple. They stayed in touch. Can't say that about most executioners." He sighed again. "Anyway. Thanks for everything, computer. It's been great."
He raised his martini to toast the computer, then paused, blinking. Moonlight Serenade was playing. He looked around in confusion, only to see a doorway to a different ship behind the bomb. He stared, stunned.
Rose laughed from where she was dancing with the Doctor. "Well?" she called to him. "Hurry up then!"
Jack smiled and ran inside quickly, only to pause at the interior being far larger than he expected. The Emissary was smiling at him from the console. "Not what you expected?"
Jack shook his head slowly. Rose and the Doctor were dancing around the console.
"Okay," Rose instructed. "And right and turn." The Doctor spun her and the Emissary laughed as Rose twisted away awkwardly. "Okay, okay, try and spin me again, but this time don't get my arm up my back. No extra points for a half-nelson."
"I'm sure I used to know this stuff," the Doctor said. He pointed at Jack as he joined the Emissary at the console. "Close the door, will you? Your ship's about to blow up. There's going to be a draft."
As soon as Jack shut the doors, the Doctor turned on the engines. "Welcome to the Tardis," he said to Jack as he and the Emissary sent them into the Vortex.
Jack nodded his thanks and waved a hand around. "Much bigger on the inside."
"You'd better be," the Doctor snorted.
Rose walked up to Jack, grinning. "I think what the Doctor's trying to say is," she offered him her hand, "you may cut in."
"Rose!" the Doctor said suddenly. "I've just remembered!"
"What?" Rose watched in amusement as he flipped a switch and the music changed. The Doctor grinned as he started to dance to the swing music.
"I can dance!" he said happily. "I can dance!"
Rose grinned. "Actually, Doctor, I thought Jack might like this dance."
"I'm sure he would, Rose," he nodded along. "I'm absolutely certain." Rose watched, delighted, as the Doctor danced his way over to the Emissary and pulled her, laughing, into a dance. "Good thing there's four of us!"
Jack and Rose watched the Time Lords dance happily and easily around the console. "You know what," Jack said quietly to Rose, "you were right. They're good together."
Rose smiled brightly at him. "Yeah." She offered him her hand again. "Care to dance?"
He grinned and took it, and they joined the Time Lords. As they danced, Rose could swear the TARDIS lights glowed brighter with the joy in the room.