Chapter Four
In Which There Is A Daring Escape
The aliens who'd been outside the TARDIS were standing in the doorway.
Rose backed up until she was right next to the Doctor. The aliens were ugly things, humanoid but with teeth like a walrus and scaly, light-brown skin. They leered at her and the large things in their hands like small barrels looked very much like weapons.
"So," she said. "These the things that were chasing us, then?"
"No idea." He must have seen the look on her face, because he immediately defended himself. "What? I never saw them! I just knew they were chasing us!"
"And when they captured you?"
"I, ah, well, I still didn't--"
"How did you not see them?"
"They snuck up behind me and hit me over the head, alright? Not hard enough to knock me out, but I was a little dazed, and they blindfolded me!"
"Right, then, that explains it," she said. Her hand found his. "Now, how 'bout getting out of here, yeah?"
"Sounds like a good idea." He looked around. "Got a plan?"
"Nope. You?"
"You know me. Improv's much more my style."
"Right. Improv it is, then?"
"Yep."
She locked her fingers with his. "Come on, then. What're we waiting for?"
"Stop this at once, in the name of Chronis!" shouted one of the scaly aliens as the pair of them shoved through them and raced up the stairs.
"Doctor," said Rose, "what's Chronis? They keep saying that word."
"No idea. Their deity? Who knows?"
"This way." She pulled him down the hallway. The aliens were in hot pursuit. This was getting tricky. It got even trickier when they started shooting. Dodging blasts, running, and remembering the way were very tricky to balance together.
It seemed like forever before they reached the TARDIS, but they managed to both stay alive and relatively intact. Relatively because the Doctor had stumbled and fallen, though he would be fine.
"Look at that," he lamented when they were safely inside with the doors locked. He showed her his arm, and she winced. His sleeve was torn to ribbons. He had scraped up his hand and forearm, and somehow acquired a nasty cut, from his wrist to his elbow and quite deep. "I think my arm is broken. And I'll bet that cut's infected. Now I'm going to become sick with some unknown bacterial illness and die, and then I'll have to go to the bother of regenerating."
She grabbed his arm and ran her hand down it, pressing the heel of her palm in perhaps a bit more than necessary, so he sucked a breath in through his teeth and screwed up his face in pain. "Your arm's not broken," she said.
"Yes, it is."
"Not, it's not. Stop whining. And I highly doubt that cut's infected, let alone with anything that will kill you. It does look pretty nasty, though. It's bleeding a lot--"
"I couldn't tell."
"--and could get infected pretty quickly if it's not cleaned. Hold your arm—the part that isn't hurt,Doctor—as tight as you can, that's right, and you just sit there and wait. And this will be easier if you're conscious, so put your feet up against the wall, yeah, so you don't pass out."
He gave her a withering look. "I'm not going to pass out."
"That cut is deep, and even a Time Lord can only lose so much blood before their brain doesn't have enough. Put your feet up like I told you to."
"How do you know all this?"
Now it was her turn to give him a withering look. "You told me to do that when I got a bad cut. And anyways, I've taken a medical class before, over the summer."
"Oh."
"Now, you stay there, like that, and wait." She pointed warningly at him, then left.
She returned a few minutes later, after having felt a jolt, with a long cloth plaster and some antiseptic. "What are you doing?" She glanced at where he'd been, and was not really surprised that he was no longer there. "You know, for scolding me when I wander off, you certainly do it a lot yourself."
A moan of pain made her wince, and she walked around the console. The Doctor lay there, flat on his back, his hands limp at his sides.
"Oh, Doctor," she said, shaking her head and sighing. "I tell you stay as still as you can, don't move, and what do you do? You go and start up the TARDIS." She knelt down on the ground. He was barely conscious. "Come on, then, feet up. That'll get the blood back to your head, yeah?"
"Nnh," he said, trying to look at her but unable to focus.
She sighed again and propped his feet against the railing. She grabbed his arm and began cleaning the cut with antiseptic. He whimpered. "I know," she said softly. "It stings. That's good, it means it works. Better than getting an infection." She began bandaging his arm, all the way up to his hand. The bone might not be broken, but she could see by the way he held his hand that something was wrong. Probably just a sprain, certainly nothing serious, but not something she could just leave alone. Maybe for someone else it could be left alone, but knowing the Doctor...it was better safe than sorry, at any rate.
"Rose," he said groggily, looking up at her. "Rose, I can't feel my foot."
She laughed. "Only one?"
"Yep. My...er...the one that's not the one I'm moving." He kicked his left foot against the railing.
She had to laugh. "A human wouldn't be able to feel either foot. Wonder why you can?"
He raised his eyebrows at her. "Hello? Time Lord? I've still got circulation on my entire left side. It's only my right arms that's been lacerated."
"Oh, right." She made a face. "I can be so thick sometimes, can't I?"
"On occasion," he agreed. "Can I put my feet down now?"
"Why?"
"Because my left foot is starting to get all...tingly. As in, about-to-go-numb tingly. And because you bandaged my arm, and I can think clearly, so they really don't need to be up there."
"Alright then." The TARDIS shuddered. "Oh, we've landed. Where did you send us, anyways?"
"London. You can visit with your mum, and everything."
"Alright. I'll apologize."
"Fantastic." He jumped up and flung open the doors. "Go on, I'll meet you there."
Rose nodded and flounced away. She was glad to be home.
A/N: But still, mysteries hang over the heads of our favorite time-travelers! Who or what is Chronis? Why were they being chased in the first place? If you ever want to know the answers, well, REVIEW, so I'll write more and you'll find out!