Chapter 3

Everything Changes

"The time is 20:35. This is Dr Eve Hoffman. Autopsy on unknown male Caucasian to determine cause of death. Autopsy begins."

Eve picked up the scalpel from the tray. She stared at the body on the dissection table. The man looked outrageously intact, given the various witness accounts of his falling off the thousand-feet-tall Stratosphere Tower. There was no sign of injury of any kind. She would have said that he was in perfect health had he not been lying there in the autopsy room, clearly dead. Her hand wavered over his flawless skin, somehow unwilling to make an incision. She put the scalpel down, closed her eyes and took a deep breath to clear her thoughts.

"Get a hold of yourself, Eve," she muttered to herself.

Suddenly, the man sat up and took a great gasp of air. Eve let out a scream, but the man forcefully put his hand over her mouth, stifling it.

"Don't be scared," he said quickly, "don't be scared. I'm not dead. I'm totally alive. See? Now, I'm going to remove my hand, but you've gotta promise not to scream, okay?"

Eve nodded slowly, her eyes unblinkingly fixed on the man, who withdrew his hand and smiled.

"Who are you?" she asked, still staring at him with wide-open eyes.

"Captain Jack Harkness," he announced, "and who are you?"

"Eve," she said tentatively, "my name's Eve, uhm- Dr Eve Hoffman."

"Pleased to meet you, Dr Eve Hoffman," Jack grinned. "Could you remind me where I am?"

"This is the Valley Hospital," Eve answered, "you're- no, wait, they said you fell off the Stratosphere Tower. How can you be alive?"

"I'm in Las Vegas?" asked Jack, surprised.

"Uhm, you fell off a thousand-feet-tall building?" stressed Eve.

"Yes, yes," Jack dismissed her, "but how did I get here? I wasn't even on Earth. Last thing I remember- wait, something's not right. Oh, that's it!"

Jack reached up and turned off the microphone dangling over his head.

"Sorry, Eve," he flashed his grin again. "I don't like to be recorded. Well, not when I'm talking anyway. So where was I? I was- oh, Zaggit Zagoo!"

"You're making no sense at all," Eve shook her head. Her brother had told her that Las Vegas was full of weirdos, but this man was beyond weird. He was impossible. And impossibly attractive, she added.

"I met someone," he rambled on, "Alonso! That's his name! My, he was hot! But then, the Graske-"

"You fell off a building!" Eve reminded him loudly.

Jack turned to face her. He let his reassuring eyes do their work. "Eve," he said softly, "this is very important. I need to remember."

She nodded. There was a strange naked man in front of her. He had just come back to life after falling off a tower less than half an hour earlier. He was saying words she could not understand. He had introduced himself as Captain Jack Harkness, which was almost certainly a fake name. And yet for some ineffable reason, she felt she could trust him. "Okay," she breathed, "please go on, Jack."

"The Graske," Jack continued, "had some sort of cable gun. It teleported me. Then I slipped and fell off the Stratosphere Tower. You say this is a hospital?"

"Yes, the Valley Hospital," replied Eve, at the same time trying to reassure herself of her own location. This had all seemed like a very odd dream.

"Then why," Jack asked, "is someone playing loud music?"

"What music?"

"Can't you hear it? It's giving me a headache. It's like really loud drumming."

"Maybe you oughta lie down," Eve said, coming to his side, her doctor instincts kicking back in.

"I'm fine," Jack waved her away, "I just need to- Ah!"

Jack's hands held onto his head as he rolled off the dissection table onto the floor. He was writhing in pain.

"Jack? What's wrong?" Eve asked, concerned. As she stood there helpless, she remembered they were in a hospital. "I need two nurses in the autopsy room. Now!" she said into the intercom.

Jack abruptly stopped.

"Jack, are you okay?" she approached him hesitantly. "Jack? Captain?"

Propping himself up with his hands, he slowly stood and turned to face her.

"My name," he smirked, "is the Master."