A/N MARK I: Hello! This chapter was the hardest to write so far, yet it is only a five-minute scene in the actual episode... Mmm, maybe I shouldn't have added as much of the dialogue as I did. ;P
If you find any mistakes, gaping big plot holes, etc., please include it in a review! (*Starts singing in a sort-of crazy voice* 'Cause they make me haaaappy, la la la laa laa.)
DISCLAIMER:If this particular fanfic writer owned Doctor Who, these are the things that would have happened, not, what unfortunately, did:
1. Russell T. Davies and David Tennant would have been taken to the nearest hypnotist and hypnotised to stay.
2. 'Doomsday' would never have happened.
3. Said writer would not cry, (Every. Single. Time.) when Rose's Theme is played in the times she re-watches, re-watches, and re-watches, the episodes before the horrible-ness that is 'Doomsday'.
4. If this particular fanfic writer owned Doctor Who, and had allowed 'Doomsday' to be written, and then aired, the Doctor would have told Rose "I love you" actually found a way to cross Universes, grabbed her, and then proceeded to kiss her like there was no tomorrow. And not that wimpy kiss in the actual episode, 'Journey's End'. Oh NO! The one between Duplicate!Doctor and Sad!Rose on the Confidential that goes with that episode. *sighs*
(This particular fanfic writer has decided that because this list is sure to be very, very long, she'll cut it short. If you even got this far. Which she thinks is almost a third of what she's written down below. This fanfic writer has concluded she is depressed, so she'll go watch some Doctor impersonating Elvis. [Or, she'll possibly get around to doing that homework of her's that is due tomorrow. Either or.])
To fasten up the process, the Doctor used his sonic screwdriver to sift through the files on the hospital computer, and Martha had gone to check if the Judoon were anywhere near.
With a sigh, Rose placed herself behind the Doctor, looking over his shoulder to the flashing patient data folders being opened and closed at lightning speed on the monitor.
The door squealed its protest as Martha opened it to step through.
"They've reached the third floor," she informed them, hastily stepping over the objects that had toppled over in the merging.
As Martha was going over a particularly nasty patch of debris, she noticed how the Doctor was going through the computer files so quickly.
"What's that thing?"
"Sonic screwdriver," the Doctor answered absently, still looking at the monitor.
"Well, if you're not going to answer me properly."
"No, really, it is! It's a screwdriver and it's…"
"…sonic," Rose chimed in, having remembered asking the exact same question, long ago.
The Doctor turned around to smile at Rose.
"What else you two got then, a 'laser spanner'?"
"I did," said the Doctor, going back to his previous work on the computer, "But it was stolen by Emily Pankhurst. Cheeky woman."
Rose laughed. "Really?"
The Doctor turned around, gave her a cheeky grin, then went back to what he was doing.
Suddenly realising that his plan to get information via the computer was not going as planned, the Doctor shouted, "What's wrong with this computer?"
He gave the afore-mentioned thing an almighty 'thwack' for good measure. "Judoon must've locked it down. Judoon platoon upon the moon." The Doctor sighed in expiration. "I was just traveling past, I swear, I was just wandering–"
Rose laughed and interrupted him. "Yeah, sure, Doctor. You, 'just wandering past' normally equates to things getting blown up. And you say I'm the jeopardy-friendly one." Rose clicked her tongue.
"Rose, I promise, I don't go looking for trouble–"
"'Trouble just finds you'," she quoted him.
"Honest, Rose. I don't. I just noticed these plasma coils around the hospital. That lightning, that's plasma coils at work. It's been building up for two days now. What I don't know is what brought you and your team back here. They don't have that much power, Rose."
"Doctor, Torchwood noticed the plasma coils, too. Maybe it was luck. After all, you were lucky that you were still going through you're regeneration when you're hand got sliced off."
Martha raised her eyebrows in disbelief and shook her head.
"Yep, lucky. That's me. Or, the Universe has decided it owes me for once," the Doctor gave her another grin, one worthy of his former regeneration. "Anyway, turns out the plasma coils were the Judoon up above."
Deciding that his alien-ness wasn't worth the trouble it was sure to bring if she asked, Martha inquired, albeit a bit shakily, "What are they looking for?"
"Something that looks human, but isn't," the Doctor turned back to the computer, to start typing madly.
Martha scoffed. "Like you, apparently."
"Like me, but not me."
"Why don't they just have a photo? It'd make things a lot simpler."
"Well, it might be a shape-changer."
"Whatever it is," said Martha, in a frustrated voice, "can't you just leave the Judoon to find it?"
The Doctor's voice took on a more somber tone. "If they declare the hospital guilty of harbouring a fugitive, they'll sentence it to execution."
"What? All of us?" Martha sounded shocked, while Rose's face just took on an expression of disgust.
"Oh yes. But if I can find this thing first…" The Doctor started typing faster. "Oh! Do you see? They're thick!" he screeched at the computer, causing Martha to jump a mile in the air, and Rose to lay a comforting hand on his shoulder.
"What's wrong?"
"The Judoon are so thick, they've wiped the records! Oh, that's clever."
"What're we looking for?" Rose asked.
"I don't know. Say, any patient admitted in the past week with unusual symptoms. Maybe there's a backup." The Doctor picked up his screwdriver again, twisting the computer box around so he could examine it.
"It could be in a paper file, yeah? Martha, where's the filing cabinet?"
Martha pointed a finger over to a bright red structure slightly to the left of the Doctor.
"Well, both of you keep working, I'll go ask Mr. Stoker, he might know," Martha said.
She ran out of the room, in the direction of Mr. Stoker's office.
There was about ten seconds of silence before both the Doctor and Rose started talking at the same time. Just as swiftly as the room was filled with noise, it was silent again.
"Doctor," Rose burst out, with all the intention of saying, 'So what sort of symptoms am I looking for?' Instead she came out with this; "How long's it been for you?"
The Doctor's face had acquired a hopeful look when it turned around to listen to Rose, but then lost it once he had heard what she said, becoming unreadable. "A month. Well, technically speaking, in Earth time, it's been three months since Canary Wharf."
"Three months?" Rose's voice got quieter after that. "Been a year for me, back on Pete's World." Rose tried for a smile, but it ended up looking like a grimace.
The Doctor looked like he was about to actually talk, finally, but Rose didn't want to, not there. "Talk about it later, yeah? Got enough on our plates with the Judoon and such."
The Doctor and Rose returned to what they had previously been doing, in a troublesome lull.
Thirty seconds had past and the Doctor cried out. "Done it!" feigning happiness, "Let's go get Martha!"
Jumping up from his perch on the chair in what was forced bounciness, the Doctor grabbed Rose's hand and pulled her up, scattering all of the documents she had placed on her lap, and made for the door.
"Allons-y!" he said.
"We're going to find Martha, yeah? See if she's found something?"
"Yep."
"Good. 'Cause I never want to read or touch that sort of work again. I swear it was in a smaller font and more disorganised than even Torchwood, and that's saying something."
"Off we go then," the Doctor said with gusto, swinging the door open.
He then, after a couple of seconds, had the most puzzled look on his face that Rose had ever seen. "And Mr. Stoker's office is…?"
Rose rolled her eyes, temporarily forgetting the nostalgia she was feeling. "This way. Still never know where you're going, then?"
"More fun, that way," he replied, gripping Rose's hand harder when he nearly toppled Martha and Rose over when he walked into Martha.
After righting them both, the Doctor erupted with, "I've restored the back-up!"
"Never mind that, I've found her!" said Martha, in a breathless voice.
"You did what?" said an incredulous Doctor, as a door was slammed open by a non-caring, non-feeling Slab.
Gripping both Martha and Rose's hands, the Doctor swung around and declared "Run!" to a Rose who was smiling with all of the memories, and a Martha who was frightened of the leather Slab.
All three of them ducked and weaved through the collapsing patients, worried trainee-doctors and nurses.
Rose and the Doctor were gaining on Martha, who was lagging behind.
After about a minute more of clever maneuvering, the Doctor finally dragged Rose and Martha into the X-ray room.
Sonicking the door shut, he shoved Rose and Martha to the viewing room, with directions to press the button when he said 'now'.
"But we don't know which one!" protested Martha.
"You're smart, the both of you, so figure it out!"
"Improvising! It should come with the job description!" said Rose, taking Martha over to the book shelf on the other side of the tiny room.
"Instruction manual!" said a relieved Martha, hauling the atrociously big black book over to Rose, who was trying to find the 'on' switch.
Wood splattered over the floor as the Slab burst through the door, and the Doctor aimed the X-ray at the leather clad Slab and thundered "NOW!" at the pair of women.
Hoping against hope, Rose and Martha smacked their hands on the biggest button there, clamping their eyes shut.
The Slab shook violently in the blue-tinged light, like it was having a seizure. Not being able to take it anymore, it slammed head-first to the ground, dead.
Martha and Rose timidly opened their eyes.
"What did you do?" asked a semi-hysterical Martha.
"Increased the radiation by 5000%. Killed him dead." The Doctor's head and leg twitched of their own accord.
"But isn't that gonna kill you?"
"Nah, it's only roentgen radiation. We used to play with roentgen bricks on the nursery. It's safe for you to come out, I've absorbed it all," he told them, "All I need to do is expel it."
Rolling his shoulders, the Doctor bounced up and down, trying to get rid of the radiation.
Rose and Martha slowly walked into the room, both circling the Doctor.
"See, if I concentrate, I can shift the radiation out of my body and into one spot." The Doctor started breathing heavily and flicking his left foot about. "Say, my left shoe."
The Doctor was grunting, Martha was looking at him strangely and Rose was grinning from ear to ear.
"I like impossible," she whispered.
"Easy does it. . . Out, out, out, out, out, out, out. . . Ow, ow, ow! Itches, itches, itches, itches! Hold on." The Doctor pulled his red Chuck off, then dumped it in the fluorescent yellow bin.
"You're completely mad!" Martha sounded like she was shocked.
"You're right, I look daft with one shoe. . ." he dumped that one into the bin, also.
"Barefoot on the moon!" exclaimed Rose, letting out a gasping laugh.
"Yep."
A/N MARK II: Hmm, I also seem to have made Martha sound whiney, and easily afraid. I'm sorry, it wasn't my intention, but I don't really like her.
Still, I hope that if this isn't the case for you, the other parts of the chapter are alright!
