Chapter Thirteen

Sleeper

Two days.

Two full days.

Mitchell came and went. He had other people to look after. Each time he returned he looked more and more disillusioned. The Doctor's expression barely changed. He sat by the bed. Ashley lay on it, eyes closed and unmoving. Like she had been for two days.

Two whole days.

The Doctor didn't even bother looking up when he heard the door opening. Mitchell crossed the room silently and went straight to the machine that was showing Ashley's vitals. He checked it and then sighed.

'Better?' the Doctor asked, looking up at him wearily.

Mitchell sat on the edge of the bed. 'Worse.' He replied, flatly.

The Doctor nodded and looked back down.

'This is my fault.' Mitchell sighed, rubbing his face. 'I knew that she had only been in four hours and I knew it's a huge risk unplugging someone like that. I mean, I told her when we first found you that there's something like a uh… an eight percent chance of dying. I just panicked. I didn't know what was going on.'

The Doctor said nothing.

'And now…' Mitchell went on. 'And now she probably won't even wake up. She's in a coma.'

'She'll wake up.' The Doctor said flatly. 'If she was going to die she would have already. She'll wake up.'

Mitchell didn't look so convinced. He eyed the Doctor for a moment. 'What happened anyway? One minute you were both fine and then you were both getting pretty worked up.'

'Nothing.' The Doctor shook his head. 'Nothing happened.'

Mitchell nodded. 'You know… if she doesn't wake up in the next couple of days, she probably won't wake up at all. You need to know that.' The Doctor was silent and brooding. Mitchell stood up, scratching the back of his head. 'If you need me… I uh… I should be around here somewhere. I'll come back in a couple of hours.'

The Doctor didn't even show that he had heard. Knowing that he wasn't particularly needed, or wanted, Mitchell headed out, closing the door quietly behind him.

'You better wake up soon.' The Doctor said to Ashley softly. 'I was going to take you to the biggest theme park in the universe. I bet you'd like that. Or… well… if you didn't like that then we could go to this place called San Polo. I know, it's a boring name for a planet but the ground is really springy. The whole place is like a giant trampoline.' He squeezed her hand and swallowed against the lump that was rising in his throat. 'We've only been four places. I've got a whole universe to show you.'

Ashley remained still and silent, sleeping pleasantly. The monitor beside the bed beeped monotonously.

'This is my fault. I was stupid for turning my back on Cartwright like that. I should have known better, but I was just so… so angry. And you've probably seen what I get like when I see something I don't like.' He let out a strained laugh. 'For my past couple of regenerations I've had an anger problem. You should have seen my last one…' He whistled and shook his head. 'No way would I have had the patience to keep you on.' He tried to smile, but failed. 'I shouldn't have brought you with me.' He lowered his head. 'That woman was right. I've just let you down. Like I let everyone down.'

He didn't cry, but there was a lump in his throat the size of a golf ball. He swallowed against it again, but it didn't budge. He breathed out and looked up at the ceiling.

'Oh write a letter to Esther Rantzen.'

The Doctor looked down at Ashley with his mouth open and his eyes wide. She still lay with her eyes closed but now she was frowning slightly. 'Ashley?'

'And let go of my hand. You've got sweaty palms. Serial killer hands, they are.' Her eyes opened lazily and she glanced around the room once before her gaze fell upon him. 'I've got a stomper of a headache.'

The Doctor laughed, his eyes filling up. 'You're awake.' He pointed out, dumbfounded.

Ashley pushed herself up on her elbows and winced. 'Apparently so. I was having the weirdest dream. I was at a party with all these gorillas, and they all had these little banana shaped radios that were playing some weird techno song called the Funky Monkey.' She shook her head and frowned in puzzlement. 'It was well weird.'

The Doctor didn't seem to know what to do with himself. 'Are you okay? I mean… I wasn't sure if you were going to wake up again.'

Ashley looked at him solemnly. 'Scary, isn't it?'

His looked at her sadly, and then hugged her. Neither of them said anything else.