A/N: I have got this whole thing written from beginning to end - it's only going to be 7 chapters, so I'll put up one each week for the next few weeks. This is the fastest I've ever written a chapter-fic. It's actually the only time I've ever bothered finishing it before I delete it, lol.
Chapter 4
'Jack!'
Elizabeth was at the infamous pirate's side before anyone could stop her, and it was all the Doctor could do to prevent her from pully any diodes off Jack's body before he had deactivated them.
This was not his immediate plan, however, as an impatient Elizabeth soon found out. He began tinkering around behind the platform to which Jack was bound, muttering to himself in his usual fashion.
'Oh, that is NASTY!' he exclaimed finally, jumping back up to his feet as he spoke, 'that is really nasty!'
'What is it?' asked Rose.
'It's primitive regererative equipment,' the Doctor explained, 'Davy Jones is trying to bring people back to life. That's how he gets his 100 years' service out of dead sailors.'
'That's impossible,' Elizabeth said, and the others agreed with her.
'Oh, no, i't snot impossible, but with this kind of equipment it's not safe. Once you could probably get away with, bring them back any more than that and you start to seriously destroy their quality of life. They'd be living more of a half-life!'
'Will Jack be all right?' Elizabeth asked, her voice full of concern.
The Doctor pulled out the sonic screwdriver and began using it to destory the cords attached to Jack's chest. Eventually, Jack beagn breathing again and those present breathed a sigh of relief. His eyes opened and he looked up into the concerned face of Elizabeth.
'Elizabeth, darling,' he greeted her, smiling faintly before collapsng onto the floor beneath them. The Doctor managed to grab his arm just in time to prevent him from impacting too heavily with the ground. Elizabeth quickly knelt down and began tapping his face gently in an effort to get him awake.
'That won't work yet,' the Doctor explained, 'he's far too weak for to do anything except sleep. It might take a while for his body to adjust to being alive from being, well, dead.'
Elizabeth looked up. 'How is that possible, Doctor?' she asked, 'if Jack was dead, how can he possibly now be alive?'
The Doctor motioned to the scientific equipment behind him. 'This stuff basically does to the human body what Doctor Frankenstein did to his monster,' he explained. Elizabeth looked perplexed.
'Have you read Frankenstein?' She shook her head and the Doctor turned to look at Rose. 'Has Frankenstein been published yet?' he asked. Rose shrugged, unsure. 'Hhm, maybe not. Basically, this machinery can pump the life back into a person's body, rejuvenate every cell in their system. But if you try using it on a person anymore than once, you're going to start destroying the cells, not recreating them.'
At this news, Will Turner seemed a little subdued. The Doctor noticed, and raised his eyebrows at Will.
'Close friend?' he asked, 'Family member?'
'My father,' Will replied, and the Doctor nodded sombrely.
'I'm sorry.'
'Last time I saw him,' Will continued, 'he was … green.'
The Doctor found this a little surprising at first, but as usual, came up with an explanation. 'Davy Jones must be grafting some of his own DNA into his sailors to prolong their cell life. Did I mention that he was nasty?'
They were distracted by a groan from Jack and Elizabeth's attentions were immediately diverted. The Doctor also bent down to see what was up, but slid a glance at Will from the corner of his eye. He was watching Elizabeth and the look in his eyes was most definitely that of the green-eyed monster. Reverting his gaze, the Doctor wondered exactly what had gone on between Jack and Elizabeth to provoke such a response.
Will, watching Elizabeth, began to back out of the room, but found himself running into someone who, until a second ago, had not been there.
Upon hearing Will's surprised yell, the Doctor looked up and on seeing who was there got to his feet and joined Will. He smiled genially.
'Hello, Davy Jones.'