Chapter Five

Better Than Life

'What have you done?' Mitchell cried, running to the side of the bed. 'You've killed him!'

The Doctor stepped back, pushing his hands in his pockets and shook his head. 'He's not dead. He'll probably have one heck of a headache though.'

Ashley was shocked. She stared at him in disbelief. 'Doctor!' she cried, horrified.

'He's fine.' The Doctor frowned. 'I figured if it's okay for him to gamble with the future of everyone in the colony then I could gamble with his future.'

Mitchell checked Harrison Cartwright's pulse and let out a sigh. 'Well he's alive.' He turned and glared at the Doctor. 'You can't just do that, okay? The brain is very fragile. You rip it out of one world and toss it back into another without having time to adapt and…'

'He's alive!' The Doctor threw his hands up in annoyance. 'He's not dead.'

Ashley grabbed the Doctor and pulled him away from the bed. 'What the hell was that all about?' she hissed. 'If you're going to start playing chicken with you as the truck and everyone else as the kid in the road then I think we should get the hell out of here right now.'

'Not until I've spoken with him.' The Doctor jabbed a finger in the direction of the man on the bed.

Ashley grabbed his finger and scowled. 'You want to snap out of whatever has you riled up. If you're going to be a grumpy and irrational bastard then I want you to take me home right now.'

The Doctor held her gaze for a moment and then let out a short burst of hair through his nose. 'Okay.'

'You're going to chill out a bit?'

'Yes.'

'Mr Cartwright, can you hear me?' Mitchell began to remove the wires and took the blacked out goggles from his eyes.

The Doctor and Ashley glanced across to the bed to see the man stirring. The Doctor started forward, but Ashley grabbed his arm and frowned.

'Wha… where…?' The man's forehead wrinkled, but he didn't attempt to open his eyes.

'Can one of you close the curtains?' Mitchell asked bitterly. 'His eyes will be sensitive.'

The Doctor didn't move. Ashley shot him an annoyed look and made her way across to the window, drawing the heavy curtains over the huge window. The old man continued to stir and mutter. Mitchell kept one hand on his chest.

'I'm sorry for the abrupt removal, Mr Cartwright,' he said gently. 'Can you hear me?'

The old man's eyes opened. He squinted, blinked, and reached up and rubbed his face. 'Mitchell?' he muttered in confusion. 'Where's Karen?'

Mitchell sighed. 'Karen is in the game, Harrison. The plug was pulled. You're not there anymore.'

Harrison tried to prop himself up. 'Who pulled the plug…?'

'That would have been me.' The Doctor said, stepping towards the bed. 'I suppose I should apologise, despite the fact I really don't want to…' He caught Ashley's angry glare and sighed. 'I want to talk with you, and I couldn't wait two weeks.'

'You pulled my plug?' Harrison scowled, propping himself up and squinting at the Doctor. 'Are you insane? You could have killed me.'

The Doctor shrugged. 'Nothing different to what you've done.'

Mitchell got to his feet. 'Look, I don't know who you think you are, but you can't just swan in here and harass a man that's been plugged in for four months!'

The Doctor looked sympathetically at Mitchell. 'I have no problem with you. I admire you, so please don't get involved here.'

Mitchell scowled. 'I want you to get the hell out of here.' He turned and frowned at Ashley. 'Both of you. You're not welcome here.'

'It's okay, Mitchell.' Harrison said, pushing himself up the bed and into a sitting position. 'I'd like to know what is so important that this man decided he could risk my life to speak to me about it.'

The Doctor nodded. 'That's better. See, I told you he would be fine.'

Ashley crossed her arms and leaned close to the Doctor. 'I think we should just leave.' She whispered. 'You're just causing trouble.'

'Me, cause trouble? Nah.' He narrowed his eyes briefly at Harrison Cartwright. 'But we're going to be talking about boring things, so how about you and Mitchell go and have a look around, eh? See the sights.'

Ashley looked warily to the other two strangers in the room. 'I don't really think that's a good idea…'

'Please,' Harrison nodded. 'I think I would prefer that. Mitchell, you don't mind keeping the young girl amused while… I'm sorry, I didn't catch your name.'

'I'm the Doctor.'

Harrison continued. 'While the Doctor and I chat a while.'

Ashley frowned. 'I'm not going anywhere.'

The Doctor moved close to her. 'I won't be long, okay?'

Ashley narrowed her eyes at him suspiciously, and then exhaled sharply. 'Right. Whatever.' She glanced at the old man. 'Come on then, Mitch.'

Mitchell hesitated. Harrison nodded to him and smiled softly. 'It's okay, son.'

Mitchell frowned at the Doctor, and then headed out. Ashley followed, not taking her eyes off the Doctor until she was out of the room. The two men left behind stared at each other in silence for a few moments.

'So what can I do for you, Doctor?' Harrison asked, clasping his hands on his lap. He was old, with sparse grey hair and jowls that quivered when he spoke. Despite the fact he laid in bed the majority of the time, he looked incredibly healthy.

'So, Mitchell tells me you've killed about… 100,000 people in the last ten… fifteen years?' The Doctor sat on the edge of the bed, not taking his eyes off Harrison.

Harrison frowned. 'Excuse me, Doctor?'

'Well… Mitchell didn't say you killed them all as such, but it sure sounds that way. He said that before you came along there were 500,000 people living in this colony. Just now Ashley and I checked and there is only 390,023 people left. And I'm guessing two of them are Ashley and myself. So yeah… that would be a little over 100,000 people dead by your hand. How does that make you feel? Does that make you feel powerful, Mr Cartwright?'

Harrison narrowed his eyes briefly. 'If you must know, it makes me feel incredible.'

The Doctor frowned and leaned back slightly. He hadn't been expecting that response.

'I hope you're not disappointed Doctor,' Harrison said, pushing aside the bed covers and swinging his legs out. His knees cracked noisily as he bent them. 'But you're not the first person to come in here and accuse me of mass murder. But you know what I tell all of them and what I'm about to tell you?' He got to his feet unsteadily. 'I give people a choice. I never forced anyone to plug into these machines. I tell them that they can either live their lives moderately happy and plod along with work and that kind of thing, or they can live in their own world, where they don't have to worry about anything and can enjoy their time, whether it is thirty years or thirty days. Personally I would prefer to live in perfect happiness for a month than to just exist for the rest of my life.'

The Doctor got to his feet. 'This people were happy until you came along with your fake worlds. It was you who convinced them that they were unhappy in the first place!'

'Nonsense.' Harrison scoffed. 'When they heard about what I was doing, they came to me.'

'So you see nothing wrong with the deaths of all those people?'

Harrison turned and frowned at the Doctor. 'I did nothing. I offered these people a better life.'

The Doctor scowled. 'You took their lives from them.'

Harrison shrugged his frail shoulders. 'I didn't hear them complaining.' He shuffled towards the windows. He opened the curtains and winced at the bright light. 'And besides,' he turned and looked at the Doctor. 'Everyone dies eventually, Doctor.'

Thanks everyone who's reading :D But OMG how awesome was tonight's Doctor Who?! :o You Americans have got a good one to look forward to! xD