I don't own anything but Rachel and the plot.

~.*§Found§*.~

Chapter 8: Mishaps and Lies

Rose awoke slowly, her brain sluggish as she tried to look around the dim room she was in.

"Better now?" An American accent met her ears.

Rose blinked, noticing the shadow of a man sitting in a large chair. "You got lights in here?"

The blonde blinked as the bright lights flicked on, showing a cramped spaceship with wires hanging from the ceiling.

The handsome man in the chair smiled charmingly at her. "Hello."

She smiled. "Hello."

The man grinned mischievously. "Hello."

"Let's not start that again." Rose laughed.

"Okay." He spread his arms out in a 'Whatever you want' action.

The blonde smiled. "So, who're you supposed to be, then?"

"Captain Jack Harkness, One Three Three Squadron, Royal Air Force. American volunteer."

Jack handed her an ID card. Rose raised an eyebrow. "Liar. This is psychic paper. It tells me whatever you want it to tell me."

Jack frowned, his lips twitching down in confusion. "How do you know?"

Rose smirked. "Two things. One, I have a friend who uses this all the time."

"Ah." Jack said with a charming smile.

"And two, you just handed me a piece of paper telling me you're single and you work out." Rose chuckled.

Jack looked disgruntled as he reached for the paper. "Tricky thing, psychic paper."

Rose grinned in amusement. "Yeah. Can't let your mind wander when you're handing it over."

Jack looked down at the paper that she'd just handed back. "Oh, you sort of have a boyfriend called Mickey Smith but there's someone you have your eye on."

Rose started. "What?"

"Apparently, you have a friend that's pushing you together but you don't know if he likes you back."

"No way." Rose breathed, face flushing.

"Are you wanting me to hook up with your friend, because you mention that she's cute and very available."

"Shall we try and get along without the psychic paper?" Rose asked in embarrassment. She didn't think Rachel would appreciate being hooked up with a stranger.

"That would be better, wouldn't it?" Jack smirked.

"Nice spaceship." Rose said as distraction.

"Gets me around." He shrugged.

"Very Spock."

"Who?" Jack frowned, an eyebrow raised.

Rose laughed. "Guessing you're not a local boy, then."

Jack gave her a pointed look. "A cell phone, a liquid crystal watch, and fabrics that won't be around for at least another two decades. Guessing you're not a local girl."

"Guessing right." Rose grinned. She rested her hand on the wall, but immediately flinched in pain.

"Burn your hands on the rope?" Jack asked in slight concern.

The whistle of a bomb caught the humans attention. "Yeah. We're parked in midair! Can't anyone down there see us?"

"No. Can I have a look at your hands for a moment?"

Rose turned to him, suspicion crossing her features. "Why?"

Jack gave her a small smile. "Please?"

Rose slowly sat across from him and held out her hands for him to examine. Jack held them gently and looked over the burns. "You can stop acting now. I know exactly who you are. I can spot a Time Agent a mile away."

Rose blinked. "Time Agent?"

"I've been expecting one of you guys to show up. Though not, I must say, by barrage balloon. Do you often travel that way?" He smirked at her.

"Sometimes I get swept off my feet. By balloons. Or mad men in blue boxes." Jack raised an eyebrow, pulling his neckerchief off and starting to wrap it around her wrists. The blonde frowned. "What are you doing?"

"Try to keep still." Was the only reply.

The Captain pressed a button and a bundle of glowing lights zipped over to Rose's hands. She watched in fascination as the burns slowly disappeared. She felt like she had seen something similar before. Somewhere on the Tardis.

"Nano-genes. Sub-atomic robots. The air in here is full of them. They just repaired three layers of your skin." Jack explained.

The glow vanished and he released her hands. "Well, tell them thanks."

Then she paused. "Hold on. I'm fairly sure you didn't have to tie my hands for that."

Jack grinned. "I know. But you looked good in bondage."

Rose rolled her eyes. "Shall we get down to business?" Jack asked, standing up.

"Business?"

He smirked and grabbed a bottle of champaign. "Shall we have a drink on the balcony?" He opened a hatch to the top of the ship and started to climb, calling over his shoulder, "Bring up the glasses."

Rose grabbed the glasses and cautiously stepped out. She wobbled slightly as her foot landed on something she couldn't see.

Fires burned around her and search lights passed through the invisible ship.

Rose have a nervous chuckle. "I know I'm standing on something."

Jack smirked and pressed a button on a remote. The ship shimmered into existence around them. "Okay, you have an invisible spaceship." Rose laughed.

"Yeah."

"Tethered up to Big Ben for some reason."

Jack gave a crooked grin. "First rule of active camouflage. Park somewhere you'll remember."

He popped open the bottle of champagne and filled their glasses.

~.*§Found§*.~

Rachel looked up at the Doctor as they trudged through the dark field. "How old are you?"

The Timelord smiled. "Nine hundred."

Rachel 'hemmed' and folded her arms, getting lost in her thoughts. "You changed your face."

Crystal blue eyes snapped to her. She met his gaze unwaveringly. "I saw you. Your eyes were younger, but your face was old."

His jaw clenched and he asked, "How much did you see?"

Rachel smiled sadly. "Only a little. Just flashes of a different man with the same eyes. And so much loss."

The Timelord nodded and they continued on. After a while, the teen asked, "Are you going to tell Rose?"

"I don't want to. I hope I never have to."

Rachel tilted her head. "Still. Just in case you ever do have to regenerate, it would be best she knew before it happened. She could be upset and think you had died."

The Doctor didn't answer. He didn't know what to say. They finally came to a small shack and watched as Nancy hid the food she'd stolen from the house. The Doctor smiled and Rachel leaned against the side of the small structure with arms crossed and a smirk. Nancy stood and looked taken aback at their presence.

"How'd you follow me here?" She asked.

The Doctor grinned wider. "I'm good at following, me. Got the nose for it."

Nancy frowned sternly. "People can't usually follow me if I don't want them to."

"My nose has special powers." The Timelord said matter of fact-ly.

A smile twitched the womans lips. "Yeah? That's why it's…" she trailed off and Rachel chuckled.

"What?" The Doctor asked.

"Nothing." Nancy said as seriously as she could.

"What?" The Doctor insisted.

"Nothing." She insisted. Then she couldn't hold back a grin. "Do your ears have special powers too?"

Rachel let out a bark of laughter and the Doctor looked between them in confusion. "What are you trying to say?"

Nancy shook her head in amusement. "Goodnight, Mister."

The Doctor frowned and ignored his still snickering companion. "Nancy, there's something chasing you and the other kids. Looks like a boy and it isn't a boy, and it started about a month ago, right?" Nancy gazed at him wearily. "The thing I'm looking for, the thing that fell from the sky, that's when it landed. And you know what I'm talking about, don't you?"

Nancy answered in a sad, detached voice. "There was a bomb. A bomb that wasn't a bomb. Fell the other end of Limehouse Green Station."

"Take us there." The Doctor insisted, eyes piercing the young woman.

Nancy's mouth twitched at the corner in the ghost of a smirk. "There's soldiers guarding it. Barbed wire. You'll never get through."

"Try us." Rachel said, staring her down.

"You sure you want to know what's going on in there?"

"We really want to know." The Timelord said.

Nancy nodded. "Then there's someone you need to talk to first."

"And who might that be?" Rachel asked.

"The Doctor."

The two time travelers looked at each other, Rachel with an eyebrow raised and the Timelord looking troubled.

~.*§Found§*.~

Rose sighed. This was nice, yes, but she was worried about her friends. "You know, it's getting a bit late. I should really be getting back."

"We're discussing business." Jack pouted.

Rose quirked an eyebrow. "This isn't business. This is champagne."

"I try never to discuss business with a clear head." He smirked. "Are you travelling alone? Or are your cute friends here as well." he asked with a chuckle. "Are you authorized to negotiate with me?"

"What would we be negotiating?" Rose asked skeptically.

"I have something for the Time Agency. Something they'd like to buy. Are you in power to make payment?"

"You'll want to talk to my companion." Rose said.

"Companion? Your love interest?" He teased.

Rose gave him a stern stare. "I should really be getting back to him."

"Hmm." Jack said.

Rose rolled her eyes and sighed. "Do you have the time?"

Jack smirked and pressed his remote again. Big Ben lit up beside them and struck nine thirty. Rose laughed. "Okay, that was flash. That was on the flash side."

"So is your supposedly cute and single friend with you as well?"

"Okay, we're standing in midair." Rose pointed out.

"Mmm-hmm."

"On a spaceship, during a German air raid. Do you really think now's a good time to be trying to hook up with my friend?"

"Perhaps not." The Captain sighed.

Rose bit her lip. "Don't mention that I sort of subconsciously tried to set her up with you. She might not be happy with me."

Jack laughed. "Of course not."

He turned to stare intently at her. "It's 1941, the height of the London Blitz, the height of the German bombing campaign, and something else has fallen on London. A fully equipped Chula warship. The last one in existence, armed to the teeth. And I know where it is, because I parked it. If the Agency can name the right price, I can get it for you. But in two hours, a German bomb is going to fall on it and destroy it forever. That's your deadline. That's the deal. Now, shall we discuss payment?"

"Do you know what I think?"

"What?" The Captain asked.

"I think your lying about something here."

"Two hours, the bomb falls. There'll be nothing left but dust and a crater." Jack said, face serious.

Rose eyed him critically. "You used to be a Time Agent, now you're a freelancer."

"Well, that's a little harsh. I like to think of myself as a criminal."

"I bet you do." The blonde laughed.

"So, these companions of yours, do they handle the business?"

"We make decisions together." Rose said firmly.

"Well, maybe we should go find them." Jack said, standing up and offering his hand to help her up.

Rose took the hand and brushed down her clothes as she was pulled to her feet. "And how're you going to do that?" She questioned the Captain.

"Easy. I'll do a scan for alien tech." He said, walking back down the ladder.

Rose blinked down at the hatch. "Finally, some Spock."

~.*§Found§*.~

The Doctor handed over the super binoculars to Rachel and she gazed down at the well armed area. Nancy hadn't lied. Barbed wire fences surrounded a tarp that was raised from the ship underneath. Rachel saw that a lot of dirt had been thrown around it, showing the speed it hit the ground.

"The bomb's under that tarpaulin. They put the fence up over night. See that building?" Nancy pointed at the darkened building behind the fence. "The hospital."

"What about it?" The Doctor asked, putting the binoculars in his pocket once his companion handed them back.

"That's where the Doctor is. You should talk to him."

The Doctor shook his head. "For now, I'm more interested in getting in there." He gestured at the fence.

"Talk to the Doctor first." The woman said sternly.

"Why?" Rachel asked.

"Because then maybe you won't want to get inside." Nancy said as she started walking away.

"Highly doubt it." Rachel muttered.

"Where're you going?" The Doctor called.

Nancy stopped and looked back at them. "There was a lot of food in that house. I've got mouths to feed. Should be safe enough now."

"Can I ask you a question?" The Doctor asked. Nancy nodded. "Who did you lose?"

She froze. "What?"

"The way you look after all those kids. It's because you lost somebody, isn't it? You're doing all this to make up for it."

"My little brother. Jamie." Nancy whispered. "One night I went out looking for food. Same night that thing fell. I told him not to follow me, I told him it was dangerous, but he just…" she faltered. "He just didn't like being on his own."

"What happened?" The Doctor asked gently.

Nancy smiled a depreciating smile. "In the middle of an air raid? What do you think happened?"

"Amazing." The Doctor said quietly, shaking his head.

"What is?" The young woman asked in confusion.

"1941. Right now, not very far from here, the German war machine is rolling up the map of Europe." The Timelord said, looking off in the distance. "Country after country, falling like dominoes. Nothing can stop it. Nothing. Until one, tiny, damp little island says no." He looked at Nancy and Rachel, eyes bright. "No. Not here. A mouse in front of a lion. You're amazing, the lot of you. Don't know what you do to Hitler, but you frighten the hell out of me."

Rachel stared at her friend in awe at his speech. The ancient man smiled and nodded back toward the city. "Off you go then, do what you've got to do. Save the world."

Nancy smiled and walked off into the night.

~.*§Found§*.~

"You're such an enigma." Rachel said as the Doctor soniced the large, ornate gates of the hospital.

"How so?" He asked as the lock sprung free.

"You come and go, quick as a shadow, burning a trail through time with nothing but words. And you don't believe it will ever be enough. The people you've saved, the lives you've changed with your little speeches, and you still think you're a monster."

The Doctor froze her in place with his icy expression. "Did you see it? The end of the Time War?"

The teen swallowed. "I saw as much as you did."

The man smirked. "So you heard it. All those people, all my friends, MY FAMILY, screaming in my head. You heard that."

"Yes." Rachel breathed, tears filling her eyes.

The Doctor turned to leave, but his young companion continued. "But I also saw why. What they were planning. And I believe that you made the right choice. Not the easy one, the right one. And I think if you'll let us in, we can turn the wounds on your hearts to scars. Still there, but healed and less painful."

The Timelord swallowed and Rachel took his hand tightly. "It'll take a while, it'll be hard, but Rose and I want to help. Let us."

He chuckled hoarsely and pulled her into a hug. "Alright. I'll try. Can't promise anything."

The teen nodded against his chest. "Alright. That's all I'm asking. Now let's go see the Doctor."

They walked into the dimly lit hospital, glancing at the rooms filled with patients wearing gas masks. Rachel shivered at the feeling that permeated the air. It was malice and desperation. "Do you think it's you in here? Or just someone going by Doctor?" She asked to distract herself.

The Timelord shrugged. "Suppose we'll find out. If it is me, it's from my future."

They entered one of the wards silently, being cautious of the eerily still patients on the beds.

An elderly man in a doctor's coat thunked into the room leaning heavily on a walking stick. He was bald with tired blue eyes that were crinkled and slightly crooked.

"You'll find them everywhere. In every bed, in every ward. Hundreds of them." He said in a raspy voice.

"Yes, I saw." The Timelord replied, glancing at the prone forms. "Why are they still wearing gas masks?"

The old man tilted his head questioningly. "They're not. Who are you?"

"I'm… errr." The Doctor faltered and Rachel quickly asked, "Are you the Doctor?"

"Doctor Constantine. And you are?"

"Nancy sent us." The Doctor said, now more sure of himself.

Constantine frowned. "Nancy? That means you must've been asking about the bomb."

"Yes." Rachel said with a nod. She moved closer to a woman who was lying on the bed left side of the door. She wore a nurses outfit.

"What do you know about it?" Constantine asked.

"Nothing." The Doctor said with a shrug. "Why I was asking. What do you know?"

"Only what it's done." The human said gravely.

The Timelord nodded toward the patients. "These people, they were all caught up in the blast?"

"None of them were." Constantine said, giving a chuckle that turned into a hacking cough. He sat heavily in a chair in the center of the room next to a desk.

"You're very sick." The Doctor murmured, staring pityingly at the human doctor.

"Dying, I should think. I just haven't been able to find the time. Are you a doctor?"

"I have my moments." The Timelord said.

Rachel frowned at him. "Yes he is. He's very good at helping people."

The Timelord shot her a look and nodded. It was time to heal. "Have you examined any of them yet?" Constantine asked.

"No." The Doctor answered.

"Don't touch the flesh." The human warned.

The Doctor scanned the room with his eyes. "Which one?"

"Any one."

Rachel watched as the Doctor scanned a man with the sonic. "Conclusions?" Constantine asked.

"Massive head trauma, mostly to the left side. Partial collapse of the chest cavity, mostly to the right. There's some scarring on the back of the hand and the gas mask seems to be fused to the flesh, but I can't see any burns." The Timelord murmured in confusion, eyebrows furrowed.

Rachel swallowed and looked at the left hand of the nurse she was standing over. "It's the same." She breathed in fear, recognizing the scar from the boy.

"Examine another one." Constantine said.

The Doctor did and froze. "This isn't possible."

"Examine another."

The Timelord did so quickly. "This isn't possible."

"No." Constantine agreed.

"What is it?" Rachel asked nervously. Her eyes flicked between the two men.

"They've all got the same injuries." The Doctor said in disbelief.

"Yes." Doctor Constantine confirmed.

"Exactly the same?" Rachel asked.

"Yes." Constantine nodded.

The Doctor looked at his companion. "Identical, all of them, right down to the scar on the back of the hand."

Rachel glanced nervously at Constantine, noticing the scar on his own hand that rested on his cane.

"How did this happen? How did it start?" The Doctor demanded.

Constantine shifted to get more comfortable in his chair. "When that bomb dropped, there was just one victim."

"Dead?" The time travelers asked together.

Constantine raised an eyebrow in amusement. "At first. His injuries were truly dreadful. By the following morning, every doctor and nurse who had treated him, who had touched him, had those exact same injuries. By the morning after that, every patient in the same ward, the exact same injuries. Within a week, the entire hospital. Physical injuries as plague. Can you explain that?" The two shook their heads, at a loss.

"What would you say was the cause of death?" The human doctor asked.

"The head trauma." The Doctor said immediately.

"No."

"Asphyxiation?" Rachel asked.

"No."

"The collapse of the chest cavity." The Timelord said.

"No."

"Then how did they die?" Rachel asked, at a loss.

"There was no cause of death. They're not dead." Constantine said gravely. He smacked the waste basket next to him with his cane, the loud bang causing every patient to sit up as one.

Rachel yelped and jumped away from the nurse in fright as she tilted her masked face in curiosity.

"It's alright. They're harmless. They just sort of sit there. No heartbeat, no life signs of any kind. They just don't die." Constantine said, observing the silent people around them.

"And they've just been left here? Nobody's doing anything?" The Doctor asked, vaguely disturbed.

They watched as the patients slowly lied down again, appearing as though they had never moved.

"I try and make them comfortable. What else is there?" The old man said wearily.

"Just you? You're the only one here?" Rachel asked softly.

Doctor Constantine looked at her. "Young lady, before this war began, I was a father and a grandfather. Now I am neither. But I'm still a doctor."

"Yeah. I know the feeling." The Doctor muttered.

"I suspect the plan is to blow up the hospital and blame it on a German bomb." The old human sighed.

"Probably too late." The Doctor stated.

"No." Constantine said. "There are isolated cases. Isolated cases breaking out all over London." He fell into another coughing fit. The time travelers moved forward to help, but the man waved his hand at them, stopping them in their tracks. "Stay back, stay back. Listen to me. Top floor. Room eight oh two. That's where they took the first victim, the one from the crash site. And you must find Nancy again."

"Nancy?" Rachel asked.

"It was her brother." The old doctor said with a rasp. His breathing seemed to become more labored by the moment. "She knows more than she's saying. She won't tell me, but she might…" a choking sound filled the dead air and the Doctor and Rachel watched in shock as the humans face went blank. "Mummy. Are you my mummy?"

Rachel shuddered as a black piece of plastic shoved its way out of Constantine's throat and proceeded to mould over his face into a gas mask. The two travelers stared at the slumped form in the chair in horror, but the spell was broken when a voice called out.

"Hello?"

The pair shared a glance before looking at the door.

"Hello?" Called a second voice.

"Rose?" Rachel muttered in confusion.

The first person called out again. "Hello?"

They walked out to the corridor and watched as Rose climbed the stairs with a handsome man in uniform. The man grinned and held out his hand. "Good evening. Hope we're not interrupting. Jack Harkness. I've been hearing all about you on the way over."

The Doctor ignored the hand and looked at Rose in confusion. Rose gave a meaningful look as she explained, "He knows. I had to tell him about us being Time Agents."

"And it's a real pleasure to meet you, Mister Smith." Jack said before walking into the ward they just left.

"Mister Smith?" The Doctor asked, eyebrow raised and a smile tugging at his lips.

"I occasionally listen to your babble." The blonde smirked. "It was that or Spock."

Rachel laughed as she re-entered the ward. The Doctor grumbled, "I don't babble." He frowned at his companion. "Besides, where've you been? We're in the middle of a London Blitz. It's not a good time for a stroll."

"Who's strolling? I went by barrage balloon. Only way to see an air raid." Rose smirked.

The Doctor whipped around. "What?!"

The blonde rolled her eyes. "Listen, what's a Chula warship?"

"Chula?" The Timelord asked, more confused than ever.

~.*§Found§*.~

Rachel watched Jack scan the patients with the device on his wrist. "This just isn't possible. How did this happen?"

"Yeah, we've already been over the impossible bit." Rachel said, glancing at the door as her friends came in.

"What kind of Chula ship landed here?" The Doctor asked.

"What?" The Captain asked.

Rose answered from her place by the door. "He said it was a warship. He stole it, parked it somewhere out there, somewhere a bomb's going to fall on it unless we make him an offer."

Rachel perked up. "What kind of warship?"

Jack glared at them. "Does it matter? It's got nothing to do with this."

The Doctor glared right back, much more menacingly. "This started at the bomb site. It's got everything to do with it. What kind of warship?"

"An ambulance!" Jack shouted in irritation. "Look."

He pressed on his wrist device and a hologram of the ship popped up. "That's what you chased through the Time Vortex. It's space junk. I wanted to kid you it was valuable. It's empty. I made sure of it. Nothing but a shell. I threw it at you. Saw your time travel vehicle, love the retro look by the way, nice panels." He said with a glance at the Doctor. "Threw you the bait…"

"Bait?" Rose asked.

"I wanted to sell it to you and then destroy it before you found out it was junk."

"You said it was a war ship." The blonde accused with a frown.

"They have ambulances in wars. It was a con. I was conning you. That's what I am, I'm a con man." He glared at them. "I thought you were Time Agents. You're not, are you?"

"Just a couple more freelancers." Rachel muttered, leaning on the wall.

"Oh. Should have known." The con man sneered. "The way you guys are blending in with the local colour. I mean, Flag Girl was bad enough, but U-Boat Captain and Emo girl?"

The Doctor glowered and Rachel raised an eyebrow. "Excuse me?" She asked.

"Anyway, whatever's happening here has nothing to do with that ship." The Captain stated.

"What is happening here, Doctor?" Rose asked.

"Human DNA is being rewritten by an idiot." The Timelord snarled.

The blonde frowned. "What do you mean?"

Rachel was staring intently at Jack as the Doctor replied, "I don't know. Some kind of virus converting human beings into these things. But why? What's the point?"

"Maybe we've overlooked something." Rachel muttered. "Something small."

Suddenly the patients sat up, making the four freeze. "Mummy. Mummy. Mummy? Mummy?" They chanted together, voices echoing in the masks and sending chills down everyone's spines.

"Oh no." Rachel moaned as the words rattled around her head.

Rose gulped. "What's happening?"

"I don't know." The Doctor said, eyes darting over the impossible people.

All the patients and Constantine stood, looking directly at them. "This is not good." Rachel hissed.

"Mummy." The people called, walking forward, hands outstretched.

"Don't let them touch you." The Doctor shouted, shoving his companions behind himself and Jack.

"What happens if they touch us?" Rose asked in a fearful tone.

"You're looking at it." The Timelord grimaced.

Rachel shuddered, clapping her hands over her ears. "You become empty." She whispered.

The patients closed in on them, constantly moaning for their mothers. "Help me, mummy."

"DOCTOR!" Rachel screamed in pain. "Are you my mummy?"

"Mummy. Mummy. Mummy. Mummy. Mummy. Mummy."

So thanks to all who reviewed last chapter. Not very many. I'd love if I had more, but whatever. Guess it doesn't matter.