Disclaimer: I don't own the Doctor, the TARDIS, Rose or any of the characters, planets, technology etc that appear in Doctor Who. I am only borrowing them and they will be returned to the BBC undamaged and in their original packaging.

Chapter Five: Think First

'Tell me,' the Doctor said in a thoughtful tone, 'do you think that could have gone just a little bit better?'

'Maybe a bit?' Rose suggested.

'Leave me alone,' Xan muttered. He was sat in the corner, his knees drawn up to his chest and his forehead resting on his folded arms. He had claimed to have 'a bit of a headache,' which the Doctor did not believe for a minute. By the state of the man, he looked as if he had the mother of all headaches. In fact, he looked as if a bright light would make his head explode. Any sympathetic person would have left the poor boy to sleep it off.

However, the Doctor was not greatly noted for his sympathy. Especially not when he felt that someone had brought their troubles down squarely upon themselves.

'Did you really think it would have helped?' he continued, waving his hands in the air. His glasses were lopsided and his hair had been messed up in the scuffle that had ended with them being shoved in the cells. Coupled with the glasses, it gave him the air of a batty professor.

'No,' Xan said in a muffled voice.

'Then why did you do it?'

'I couldn't help it.'

'He couldn't help it.' The Doctor clenched his hands into his hair and practically wailed, 'He gets us all thrown into the cells and he couldn't help it!'

'Stop acting as if these are the first cells you've ever been in,' Rose told him tartly. 'Just listen to what he has to say, will you?'

'Rose Tyler, you are too sympathetic by half.'

Rose ignored him. 'Xan?' she said, gently touching his arm.

Xan lifted his head and gave the Doctor a glare that would have melted steel. 'Do you always shout like this?' he muttered.

'Sometimes. You have an explaination for yourself?'

Xan shrugged. He looked as if he were still in pain.

The Doctor scowled. 'I see. You're hanging onto your sympathy card for the moment.'

'Just till I don't need it anymore,' Xan mumbled. He screwed his eyes shut and gave a heart-felt groan.

The Doctor sighed and some of his anger apparently evaporated. 'You going to tell us about it?'

'No.'

'Let me reprase that. Tell us about it.'

Xan opened one eye and glared. 'Persistent little bugger, isn't he?' he said to Rose, but his tone was quite mild.

The Doctor shifted his position and crossed his legs. Resting his elbows on his knees, he said, 'Indeed I am. So. Talk.'

Xan didn't say anything. Rose glanced at the Doctor. His expression was unreadable. Not for the first time, she wished she had telepathic abilities. Sometimes it was so damned hard to read his moods, harder to read what he might be thinking. It was doubly annoying now because Xan had the exact same ability, to be able to find what was going on inside his head behind an infuriating mask of blankness.

'You do recall that it's rude to listen in on someone else's thoughts?' the Doctor continued. 'Let alone someone you've only met five minutes ago?'

'You do recall I can't help it?' Xan said wearily.

'Yes. But I don't understand.'

'I don't have the ability to block out. Things just - filter in. I can't control what I hear and what I don't and when someone is broadcasting as loudly as Solia was - it's hard for me to keep my mouth shut.'

'What made you say what she was thinking?' Rose asked.

He shrugged. 'It's like shouting when you're angry, I guess. Let's the pressure off.'

The Doctor didn't seem interested in this. 'Explain. Why can't you control your ability?'

Xan shook his head, wincing as it ached. 'I don't know. Can't we discuss this later?'

'No. Why don't you know?'

'What?'

The Doctor was getting more agitated. He started waving his hands. 'Because it's an innate, natural ability! As you learn to use it, you learn to control it! The control comes with it! Don't tell me you've never been able to control your ability!'

'Maybe he hasn't?' Rose suggsted, trying to defuse the Doctor's mood.

'He'd be dead by now if he couldn't,' the Doctor said.

Xan glared at him.

'You've got some semblance of control otherwise you would have gone mad and dropped dead or killed yourself,' the Doctor said.

Xan didn't reply.

'You will die if you don't deal with this,' the Doctor said in a calmer voice. 'You do realise that, don't you? Eventually you won't be able to hear your own thoughts, just those of everyone around you and it will drive you insane. Then you will die. You won't even know who you are, what you're thinking or what you're doing.' He paused. 'I've seen it happen.' A shadow passed briefly across his face.

'How?' Rose said. 'I thought you said you couldn't understand - because he was born with the ability - '

'I've seen people - acquire - telepathic abilities. Usually in pursuit of power or some such thing. An ability they have no natural ability for and don't have the barriers and control that others learn to use. It's very ugly.' He waited, then said, 'You have to deal with it.'

'I don't know how.'

'I do. I can help.'

'No.'

The Doctor blinked. 'What?'

'I said no.'

'Why not? Do you want to die?'

'No,' Xan said quietly.

'Then let me help.'

'No. I've survived several years. I'm sure I'll survive a few more.'

The Doctor inhaled impatiently. 'I can help. Don' t you trust me?'

Xan stared up at him through pain blurred eyes. 'I don't trust anyone enough to let them poke around inside my head.'

'Then you will eventually go insane and die.'

'I'll worry about that when I get to it.'

For a moment, it looked as if the Doctor was going to argue, then he shook his head angrily and uncrossed his legs, slouching against the wall. He was scowling.

'Can you tell us anything else about Solia?' Rose asked Xan after a few uncomfortable minutes had passed.

'She's terrified,' Xan said. His headache seemed to be gradually fading, because he looked a little less as if someone had wacked him over the head with a shovel. 'Couldn't either of you feel it?'

The Doctor shrugged. 'Of course she was afraid. Her world's ending. Who wouldn't be?'

'No, it was a different kind of fear,' Xan said, frowning. 'There's something else - something different. I don't know what it is, I don't know if she even knows. But there's something here.'

'Something?' Rose said.

'A darkness. Something's changing, the tide is turning and the storm clouds are gathering. That's something she was thinking, it might be part of this prophecy Solia keep talking about.'

'You said she wants to take up my offer,' the Doctor said. 'What's stopping her?'

'Something is confusing her. Something is telling her that the prophecy will come true, then telling her that she's going to die, the that she'll save her world, then that she'll bring about its end. All the same voice, telling her yes and then no, the prophecy will come true, then that it won't. She doesn't know what to think and she doesn't know what to do. She's just holding onto this prophecy because it's solid. She can see it, she can read it, it's something she can hold onto.'

'And you think he's going crazy?' Rose said to the Doctor.

'I think Solia is holding onto her sanity by a thread,' the Doctor said. 'You got all that from her, Xan?'

Xan nodded. 'And a few bits more.'

'Oh? What's that, then?'

Xan gave a weak smile. 'She doesn't like us, but she's tempted to trust us. And she thinks you're very handsome.'

Rose began to laugh. The Doctor frowned and went slightly red. 'That's not funny,' he said crossly.

'It's true,' Xan said. He added, 'And - she doesn't think Solenistra is dying of old age. She believes that something is destroying it.'

'Maybe she has a point?' Rose said, looking at the Doctor to see what he thought.

'Maybe,' was all he said. His frown deepened. 'I don't know anymore.'

'Why? You were adament that the planet is dying - '

'It is. But this is getting stranger, you have admit.' The Doctor got to his feet and started pacing. 'There's something wrong here. I want to find out what it is. Either I was right, in which case Solia is simply going mad from fear, or I'm wrong and there's something else at work here.'

'I thought you were never wrong,' Rose teased.

'I have my moments.' He looked down and across at Xan. 'What do you think?'

'I think I need to sleep before my head explodes,' Xan said bad-temperedly. 'And I think you need to leave me alone before I introduce your head to the wall.' He curled up on his side, his arms pulled over his head. 'Now sod off.'

A flicker of a smile passed across the Doctor's face. He exchanged glances with Rose, who warned, 'Leave him aone. I think he really will bash your head in - '

'Course I will,' Xan said indistinctly. 'Now shut up, both of you.'