Chapter 2: Into the Sewers

It had been long and arduous, but the duo managed to reach the manhole safely – or at least, as safely as possible. A piece of shrapnel from a cocktail became lodged in Danielle's leg. The Doctor had to carry her on his shoulders to their destination. Not to mention the Doctor's trench coat – the one Queen Elizabeth had given him – had been set afire. If he had taken it off a split second slower, the rest of his clothes would have caught fire. Had he himself caught fire, and he started to die – well, let's not think about that.

They were now in the horridly dark New York City sewers, walking along a walkway beside the repulsive river of muck passing at their right. The Doctor needed to use his Sonic Screwdriver just to see ahead of him. But carrying a hundred-something pound girl on his shoulders is a task that required two hands, one to be around her waist and one to hold her hand on his shoulder. So to compensate for this, he had to fasten his screwdriver into his belt loop. Seemed a bit weird, but you make do with what you can.

"So, how far is this place?" The Doctor asked. It was stuffy and rancid down here, he didn't want to be there any longer than he absolutely had to be.

"It shouldn't be long, maybe another hundred feet or so. Maybe a bit more."

"With any luck, it'll smell better in there." The Doctor joked.

"Trust me, it does." Danielle assured him. The Doctor smiled, but it then faded into a frown as he saw Danielle wince.

"Are you all right? What's wrong?" Danielle shook her head quickly to deny anything wrong, but the Doctor wasn't an idiot. "Come, let's sit." They easily lowered themselves down, first placing Danielle down, and then the Doctor sitting beside her. "Let me have a look at that leg, all right?" The Doctor went to roll up her pants leg, but she put her hand on his to stop him. He glared at her for a second, and after much hesitation she submitted.

He slowly started easing her pant leg up from the bottom, and then found what he suspected – a bloody gash with glass lodged quite deep inside her calf. His sonic screwdriver just might be able to fix it. Bur there's an off chance that it can't – bloody thing's pretty unpredictable. He frowned at the thought.

"What? What's wrong?" Danielle's question broke the uncomfortable silence.

"I just might be able to fix it with this – " he indicates the glowing device in his belt loop " – but there's a chance that it won't work."

"That blue light? The one you used to open the manhole? How the hell will it heal my leg?"

The Doctor, not wanting to be doubted, pulled out the screwdriver from his belt loop and switched it off, so as not to use it on anything inadvertently. Darkness completely flooded the sewer now. They couldn't see each other right in front of them. Still knowing where the wound was in relation to himself, however, the Doctor pointed the screwdriver to it and hoped for the best.

"Just watch me."

He flipped the switch, and light returned, with the eerie whirring sound overpowering any drips and creaks that came bundled with the ambient noise of the sewers around them. A bead of sweat rolled down the forehead of the Time Lord as he prayed to – well, no one. He doesn't pray anymore. Please, let this work…it seemed ineffectual at first, just a simple blue light shining upon a wound – but the sliver of glass seemed to work its way smoothly out of the wound, like magic. The Doctor started to smile, but it turned horrorstruck at the screams of the girl he was attending.

"AAAH!!! AAAAHHH!!!!"

"Don't worry, it'll be okay in a minute, it's almost out, it's almost out!" The Doctor tried to assure her, but she kept screaming, until – it was over. The shard was out. The wound had healed. There were no pieces left in there, no scar, no nothing – you wouldn't even have known she was hurt in the first place. Danielle gasped for breath, panting heavily after her blood-curdling cries.

"Are you okay?" The Doctor spoke in a quiet voice, trying to sound sympathetic. "You all right? Come on, you can stand now, come on." He put his arm around her back and tried to lift her up – it was a struggle – but finally she got to her feet. "There we go. How d'you feel?"

"I'm fine, thanks. How—"

"How did I do that?" The Doctor's demeanor turned dark all of a sudden. "How'd I heal an almost-infected wound with but a simple sonic device? There are a lot of things going on that neither you nor I fully understand, Danielle. Things beyond our explanation. That's what I'm here for. To explain the unexplained."

Danielle stared at him with a sort of combination of fear and awe, but mostly fear. The Doctor could sense it in her gaze. He didn't blame her, not at all – he's been so many places, done so many things, things that humans can't begin to fathom. Humankind always fears what it doesn't understand. That's their nature, it's the one difference he's always had between he and the humans he's encountered – whenever something unexplainable occurs, they always fear it, while he beholds its majesty and his hearts fill with curiosity.

"Come now. Let's go." He said, and with Danielle's leg fully mended, they trudged on forward.