Disclaimer: I don't own Doctor who
Chapter 6
When the Doctor regained consciousness for the second time that day the first thing he saw was a round, kind-looking face, one that was also more than a little anxious.
The Time Lord was relieved to find that everything was back in focus, so the real question now was – where was he? He was lying down on what felt like a very uncomfortable bed, in a room with an off-white ceiling, and sickly yellow coloured walls.
The Doctor looked back at the woman, who was resolutely not looking him in the eyes; she was focusing all her attention on the wound on his forehead. Why was she doing that? A sharp pain answered his question, followed by another. She was stitching up his injuries, he realised. He must be in a hospital of some kind.
No wonder the walls are that colour, he mused, it's to remind the patients that they're sick.
Now that he knew he was in a hospital, he mentally kicked himself for not grasping that fact quicker. He could clearly see all sorts of medical equipment around, including an x-ray that was still pinned up on the viewing light thing (A/N: sorry I don't know what those things are called). It was an x-ray of someone's chest, a someone who had two hearts…
Damn it! He cursed, no wonder the nurse is looking so scared. She's been told to treat the wounds of an alien. Her little human life's been turned upside-down and shaken around for Rassilon's sake! That is, if she is human…
By now, the nervous-looking nurse had finished patching him up and had moved away to clear up. This meant that he was free to attempt to sit up. With a groan of pain, and trying not to pull any of the stitches on his chest, the Time Lord pulled himself upright and looked around from this new, more beneficial viewpoint. From here he could see through a window in the door, and the armed soldier on the other side, who was evidently guarding the room.
He tried to ask the nurse what was going on, but he had a weird feeling in his throat that just made him cough when he tried to talk.
Instantly, the nurse was at his side with a glass of water, "Sorry," she mumbled, "Side-effect of the sedative."
"Sedative?" The Doctor asked. His voice sounded scratchy and raw, but at least he could talk now.
"Yes, the soldiers who brought you in said that they hadn't wanted you to wake up on the way here," the nurse answered, clearly more afraid of the soldiers than of him.
The Doctor didn't say anything, he was deep in thought trying to remember what had happened to land him in this mess. He had been in the TARDIS, he had crashed… and he'd… Then it hit him, he'd left the TARDIS only minutes after crashing in the centre of a major city! Either whatever planet he was on was in a complete uproar because of the new discovery of 'extra-terrestrial life'… or the authorities wanted him for the unauthorised landing…
He looked back at the nurse; she looked human. But then you couldn't always tell from looks, as he well knew.
"So… first things first. What's your name?" He asked brightly.
Whatever the nurse had expected him to say, this wasn't it, "Err… Kaylee," she stuttered, caught off guard.
"Nice to meet you Kaylee! I'm the Doctor," The Doctor replied smiling disarmingly. He was doing what he always did, ignoring the pain and grinning as if he didn't have a care in the world. "So Kaylee, tell me. Where am I?"
"Albion Hospital."
The Doctor recognised that name off course, from when he and Rose had gone to London in 1941, and from when the Slitheen had staged the alien crash-landing. But was this that Albion Hospital? There were bound to be others around, and was this the right dimension?
"Right, and um… what city is this?"
"London," Kaylee answered.
"Ok, and I don't suppose you know which dimension this is do you?"
He could tell that Kaylee was beginning to suspect that the bash to his head had addled his brains. She frowned slightly and said, "No… there's more than one?"
"Yeah, there's millions," the Doctor said, "ok, so is this the London with the blimps? The one where Harriet Jones is the president? And where cybermen temporarily invaded a while ago?" Here he glanced away from her seemed to say to himself, "that's a good point, what if this is the wrong time?" He turned back to her and asked, "what year is this?"
"2007," Kaylee faltered, "and, yes this is that London… the one you were describing… Sir, I mean… Doctor. Are you sure you're ok?
"Yes, I'm fine." The Doctor assured her. And he was. Ok so he wasn't physically fine, he was still in quite a lot of pain to tell the truth, and ok he wasn't completely mentally or even emotionally fine. But he was fine in the sense that for the first time in years he was in the same dimension as Rose. He was sure of it.
"Tell me Kaylee, I don't suppose you know anyone called Rose Tyler do you? She's about so high," he motioned with his hand about how high Rose was, "blonde with brown eyes, and probably the most beautiful woman I've ever seen in my life… and that's saying something. Oh, and she's…"
The Doctor never got to finish his sentence, because at that moment the door opened abruptly and an unpleasant-looking man in uniform, one who clearly thought he was God's gift to the universe, strode in.
However, it wasn't this man's facial features that made him so unpleasant; he had a very ordinary face, nothing special that stood out at all. It was the expression on his face that made him so unpleasant looking; he had a kind of sneer that looked like it was probably a permanent fixture there.
He glanced at the Doctor briefly, before turning to the nurse and saying, "You will return to your usual duties now, and if you so much as breathe a word of what you have seen today to anyone, you will be severely dealt with. Understand?"
Kaylee nodded hurriedly and said, "Y-yes Sir."
Apparently satisfied with this, the man turned to the Doctor and barked, "You! This way!"
The Time Lord was led down a corridor, and to another room. This one was empty apart from a desk with a chair on each side of it. Of course… an interrogation room, he thought.
He was pushed roughly into one of the seats, and the man sat in the other. The man looked at the Doctor and said coldly, "I am General Armerall, and I'm in charge of this investigation. That means I have complete power over your comfort and welfare. Therefore, it is in your best interests to cooperate. Is that clear?"
Up until now the Doctor had been uncharacteristically quiet. But now he had been given the opportunity to speak he wasn't going to let it pass without sharing his views. "Well, it was mostly clear… apart from the bit about you being in charge. Surely Torchwood should be in charge of this?"
The Doctor almost laughed at the look of shock that appeared on the General's face. And the General wasn't sure what he was more shocked about; the fact that this alien spoke perfect English with a seemingly London accent, the fact that the alien was questioning him, or the fact that the alien knew about Torchwood. He sputtered, "How—how do you know about Torchwood?"
"Well I very clever," the Doctor said modestly, "actually I'm more of a genius really, but that's beside the point." Then he smiled charismatically at the officer.
General Armerall was now looking severely flustered, but he cleared his throat and tried to compose himself, "Now, you will answer my questions. We need your details, so I need your name, species and your reason for coming here," he glared at the Doctor.
"I'm the Doctor"
"The Doctor?" The General repeated incredulously, "Doctor who?"
"Just 'the Doctor'. I mean, I do have another name, but you with your little human capabilities wouldn't be able to pronounce it!" The Doctor said.
"Alright then 'Doctor'," the General said mockingly, "what sort of alien are you and what do you want here?"
"I'm a Time Lord," The Doctor replied, his voice suddenly a cold as ice, "A race which is far superior to yours in any way you could possibly conceive. I came here in peace, and you locked me up. Very soon, my people will know what you've done, and then… You'll be in trouble."
The Doctor really hoped that the General would buy this story and let him go, gushing apologies. But unfortunately, the human started to play the same game.
"Don't think for one minute that this planet is unarmed, alien. We have defences. And as for your 'people' being superior to us! Hah! It's laughable; no one is more superior than the human race!"
Fantastic, the Doctor thought, another power-crazed maniac. At least when humans were sane they had fears, buttons that you could push to make them do what you wanted. But this guy…. Completely off his rocker!
Throughout the rest of the day, General Armerall continued to ask almost non-stop questions about him, his planet and his ship. To begin with, the Doctor humoured the human, answering with the truth, half-truths and lies.
However, towards the end of the day, the Doctor stopped answering the questions, he just didn't have the energy anymore. Usually he could have talked circles around any army General all day long, but the pain and exhaustion was becoming too much for even the Doctor to endure. The sedative had completely worn off now, and so had the painkillers that Kaylee had probably given him. Before, while the pain had still been there, it had been numbed slightly. Now however, it was coming back with a vengeance. He also felt slightly nauseous, probably part of the concussion thing, or another side effect of the sedative. There was only one thing on the Doctor's mind now, enough time-wasting, he had to get out of there and find Rose
However, the General didn't seem aware of the Doctor's discomfort at all. To him the Doctor was an alien menace to be dealt with, one that didn't have feelings or needs.
He didn't take any notice of the fact that the Time Lord had some pretty serious injuries.
Eventually, the General decided to call it a night. He left the Doctor in a room with a bed in it, and guarded by an armed soldier. The Doctor was so worn out that he could've slept the whole night, something he rarely did, being a Time Lord and all. But instead he tried to formulate a plan. He had to pull himself together and get out of there, to find Rose.
During that night he examined the room he was in from top to bottom for a way out, or something he could use to get out. Ok- situation: locked door, trigger-happy human outside, locked window, sheer drop outside, no sonic screwdriver and some painful injuries. Assets: sheer intelligence. Prognosis of situation: just about hopeless. He sat down on the bed and looked at his chest wounds, Kaylee had done a pretty good job sewing him up but he could already see the tell-tell signs of infection setting in. If he didn't get out of here soon, there was a damn good chance that he'd have to regenerate. He sighed, re-buttoned his blood-stained shirt, and lay down. Maybe tomorrow would offer more hope.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
The next morning, the Doctor was taken back to the room he'd been in the day before. Again the power-crazed General came and started asking questions, but the Doctor was still trying to come up with a plan, and so wasn't listening.
Just then, there was a lot of commotion coming from elsewhere in the hospital, and a second later, a red-faced, puffing soldier came in with some 'urgent news' for the General.
So, the Doctor was left alone in the room, which was locked, and an armed guard was placed outside.
He wandered slowly around the room for a bit, but seeing no other way out, he sat back down with a slight groan as he pulled his stitches.
Suddenly, like a flash of lightening, a plan hit him, of course! How did he not think of it before?! He grinned to himself, he was going to get out…
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Ok, now THIS is definitely my longest chapter yet! But man did this chapter give me some serious issues! I could not get it right! I had to completely rewrite what I was gonna do because it just wouldn't work! Also I haven't quite checked this chapter as thoroughly as I usually do, for typos and grammar mistakes etc, so sorry if there are a lot of mistakes. Anyway, the chapter is here now!
So please review! I was feeling quite unloved after the last chapter (but a HUGE thank you to the 4 peoples who did review). Oh yeah, and anybody who can guess how the doctor's gonna escape will get… I dunno, you tell me what you want, cos offering cookies didn't go down as well as I was expecting them to…
Ok, shutting up now… shutting up now… honestly once I start, there's no stopping me!
Review!
