5.
Jo clattered down the steps in her high-heeled boots and seeing the lab door partly ajar, swung around the doorpost to bounce into the room.
"Hello, Doctor!" she said cheerily then suddenly startled at the sight of the Brigadier. "Oh, I'm… sorry, sir. I didn't realize you were here. Couriers already come?"
"What? Oh, er, yes," the Brigadier said vaguely.
"Hello Jo, kind of early for you to be in, isn't it? The Brigadier here was just telling me about his unfortunate mishap with Benton."
"Mishap?" Jo said, plainly confused. "I'm sorry, I guess I missed that one."
"Why, his being shot," the Doctor said, his eyes narrowing slightly.
"Shot?" Jo frowned. "When was this?"
"I didn't want to worry you, Jo," the Brigadier said stiffly. "It's all taken care of. Now, Doctor, about these cables…does each one have a different frequency, then?"
Jo and the Doctor exchanged a brief look. It wasn't like the Brigadier to use her first name so casually, nor to be expressing such interest in the Doctor's constructs and experiments. Something wasn't adding up. He slipped his hands into his pockets casually. "Ah, the cables. Yes, well, they're a bit complicated. Pardon me for just a moment, will you? Jo, sorry to ask you to play hostess at this hour, but could you keep the Brigadier company? You don't mind do you, of course not. Your question just reminded me I had a loose connection that needed tightening down. I'll be right back." He smiled apologetically and slipped past the Brigadier, stepping into the TARDIS.
---
The Brigadier blinked at his unhappy Sergeant, momentarily speechless. "You shot the Doctor?"
"Yessir," he said, keeping his gaze fixed on a map against the wall rather than meeting his superior's eyes. "He's still unconscious, but the medics don't know why. I was only trying to wing him, sir. I mean, not him, the intruder. Except it was him."
Lethbridge-Stewart took a breath. "What about the sentry?"
"Snapped out of it but said he didn't remember a thing. Like he'd been asleep, except I don't think he was. I think he was hypnotised, sir. I had him rotate off-duty and schedule a psychiatric evaluation just in case."
"Why would the Doctor be out in the dark hypnotising our sentries?"
Benton's honest eyes finally met his. "I don't know sir. But I'm sure he'll have an explanation when he wakes up."
The Brigadier rubbed his chin. "Yes, I'm sure he will. Endlessly. Plus an extended lecture on the mis-use of firearms as well." He sighed and opened a drawer to pull out a some papers. "There's obviously no reason to hold you in confinement, but I'll need you to sign this form as soon as I write it up. And I'm sorry, but I'll need to confiscate your pistol."
"I understand, sir," Benton said miserably, handing it over.
---
Jo leaned back against the Doctor's workbench and watched as the Brigadier pressed a hand to his side then knelt, picking up the connected stack of little black squares and examining the cable connectors.
"The Doctor doesn't usually like people touching his equipment," she commented. "Sir."
"I'm the commanding officer," the Brigadier said. "And I'll do as I like." He popped one of the little squares off of the rest.
"No, I don't think so," Jo said, reaching over to lock the lab door. "Doctor!"
The Brigadier turned and leapt at her more quickly than she thought possible, snarling, the little clump of squares falling back to the floor. He grabbed Jo and clamped a hand firmly over her mouth, though she bit him for all she was worth. Wrestling the smaller woman sideways, he stuffed her bodily into one of the metal lockers that lined the wall, and after a couple tries, slammed it shut. She beat on the metal.
"Doctor! Doctor!"
The Brigadier painfully ran, stooped, back to the cables where he snatched up the loosened black square and stuffed it in his pocket then turned back to unlatch the lab door, his uniform and very shape seeming to waver and flicker as he did so.