Martha went out into the corridor where Donna and Jack were waiting and hoping that they would be able to go in and see the Doctor awake. "He did wake up for a short period of a couple of minutes," Martha told them. "He has had a drink and he's gone straight back to sleep. I've increased his analgesia as he was in some discomfort and I have reduced the sedation further because he was drowsy and struggling to keep his eyes open. We may have to make further adjustments over the days to come, but the positive thing is that he has been awake and he is moving in the right direction."
"Was he talking?" Donna checked.
"He wasn't his usual chatty self, but I fear it may be a while before we see that from him. He responded to questions with coherent answers that made sense. At this stage after such a serious event that is quite a significant achievement. We would be hoping for that and likely getting much less in a human patient who has been through what he has. We will be keeping him in intensive care for the time being which means he always has a member of staff sitting in with him," Martha advised.
"Does he know what has happened?" Jack checked. He didn't want to catch him awake and let anything slip to him that he shouldn't.
"His wrists were causing him a lot of pain and he looked at the bruising and the dressing on his surgical incision and came to his own conclusion," Martha commented but nodded to Jack.
"What did he have to say about it?" Jack asked curiously.
"Oh."
"Is that it?" Jack checked.
"Yeah."
"Poor guy must still be so knackered," Donna sighed.
"He is and he's on heavy medication. Whether he remembers the conversation or not will remain to be seen. We are going to have to be pretty patient with him as one of the drugs he is receiving to help keep him calm has an amnesiac affect. It is very closely linked to a collection of drugs illicitly used as date rape drugs."
"Don't fight and don't remember?" Jack checked.
"Yeah, in this case, that is what we want from him until he is capable of dealing with any stress. I don't know if it will work the same way but we have to be patient and understanding. If he forgets a conversation one minute to the next then it is the drugs he is on and what I don't want is for him to get worried or anxious about that."
"How long is he going to be on the drugs?"
"As he improves we will reduce their level accordingly, so a lot of it depends solely on how he improves. All of our treatment of him now will be based largely on how he responds to it. The next couple of days, weeks, maybe even months are going to be based very much on how he is doing and what he has to offer in the way of his own expertise on what we should be doing. At the moment we are not in a position to have any particularly coherent conversations with him about anything never mind cardiac disease in Time Lords. I just need you to bear that in mind when you interact with him. I don't think he is actually going to care much, but it is important we don't upset him and his sense of pride and ego as it is if he thinks he is forgetting things then he may be embarrassed or stressed by it and we raise it to him as an issue. That does not mean he can't be aware, it just means we shouldn't be doing anything that can be misconstrued as mocking him if he forgets tomorrow what we discussed today," Martha warned.
"We wouldn't," Donna offered positively. Martha glanced at Jack and he nodded. He possibly would, but if he was being warned off by Martha then he definitely wouldn't. He just wanted things to be back to normal as quickly as they could be. They were going to have to find a line between being overly protective of him which he would hate and being too blasé about what he was going through and causing him offense.
Jack and Donna were allowed back into the room with the Doctor. He was sleeping peacefully, but at least they now knew he had been awake and Martha had not said anything of concern. She had to be fairly happy with how he was doing as she had not called any of the doctors or nurses actually treating him to make major adjustments to his treatment regime.
They were all still in the room with him a few hours later when it seemed like he was going to wake up again. Martha did not chase them out this time, but she did warn them to be quiet and remain out of his line of sight to begin with. She did not want him to be swamped despite their best efforts to comfort him.
"Hey," Martha rubbed his forearm as he woke. "Hello again."
"Hi," he greeted. His voice was hoarse and quiet but it had not taken him as long to fight the fog.
"Have a sip of water, Doctor," Martha encouraged and handed him the beaker though she did not let go of it. She didn't want to find he was so weakened and exhausted that he couldn't hold it and ended up pouring it down his front. She guided the straw to his mouth and he took a long drink of the cool liquid.
"Thanks."
"How are you feeling now?" Martha asked him. He seemed to think about it slightly too long and she guessed there was a lot to process with such a general question. She broke it down for him. "Are you in any pain?" she checked with him.
"Some."
"I can increase your analgesia a bit more if it would make you more comfortable?" Martha offered. "Would you like me to do that, Doctor?"
"Um, yes, please…" he offered and then frowned. "Sorry… I'm fuzzy."
"Yeah, I know, that is our fault," Martha told him. "Don't apologise, you just need to bear with us for a bit. We are giving you a lot of medication at the moment and it will make you feel pretty strange. Fuzzy is as good a word for it as any," she offered.
"Why?"
"Well, because you've been very poorly," Martha told him. "And, you need to have a chance to start to get better, so we don't want you doing too much or thinking too much or worrying too much. We just need you to relax and be nice and peaceful and to sleep when you need to in order to be feeling much better as you recover."
"Is it the virus?" he asked puzzled by what had happened. He sounded quite removed from the question as if they were listening to a raspy recording rather than the Doctor engaging in conversation. Ordinarily he'd be so animated it was hard to keep up with him.
"It is due to the damage caused by the virus," Martha confirmed. "We can talk about it all later, okay?" Martha asked. It was the moment of truth. Was he going to insist they told him everything and argue for information, or, was he going to accept the delay without question? Although they did need him to accept the delay, they all secretly hoped that he would argue.
"Can I have a cup of tea?"
"Are you going to stay awake to drink it?" Martha asked him.
"It depends on how quickly it is made."
"I suppose it does," Martha agreed with a smile.
"I'll go and get him one," Jack offered. Martha couldn't go because of her crutches.
"That was Jack," the Doctor acknowledged quietly.
"Yeah, Donna is here too," Martha confirmed and gestured for Donna to come over. She went over to his bedside.
"Hello Spaceman." Donna leant down and kissed him on the forehead.
"Blimey, I must be sick," the Doctor suggested. "I've not been hit."
"I'm saving them all up until you're better," Donna warned him. She caressed his head. "You've got loads of them coming." He pulled a bit of a face and then sighed. "Just get better, okay, and then I may decide to forget them all."
Jack came in for a cup of tea for the Doctor. It was in a plastic beaker with a straw so he'd not have to sit up any further. He looked at it and whereas Jack was worried he'd refuse it, the Doctor seem to care too much. It was the medication but that did not mean he was going to totally forget it all. He sipped the tea through the straw, it had not been made with truly boiling water. They either didn't trust Jack to be able to carry or him to be able to drink properly hot tea.
"Now you are all back here," the Doctor commented. "You can tell me what happened."
"I would rather wait a while, Doctor."
"Why?"
"Well, for one the medication I am giving you has a side effect that will make you forget," Martha told him. "And, I don't want to have to explain everything several times to you. It will make you forget but you might remember disjointed aspects that could get confusing so I want to wait until you can remember it all in one go," Martha told him.
"That is not a good excuse," the Doctor told her. "How will you know it makes me forget if you don't tell me something to remember," he tried to challenge her.
"Well, what about this?" Martha suggested. "Tish's birthday is 21st April."
"Why do I need to know what Tish's birthday is?"
"So you can get her a card, Dumbo."
"I don't even know when my own birthday is," the Doctor complained.
"Well, you don't need to know when Tish's birthday is either, but if you can recall it next time you are awake then I will go through all of the medical stuff with you," Martha advised him. "Do you remember what you found out the last time you were awake? When you said oh? What was your oh?"
"Oh? I don't know what you mean? What oh?" the Doctor asked. It was clear to Martha that he did have some recollection of it as his hand migrated to the dressing in the middle of his chest and he looked down on it again. It was a long thin dressing a foot long and it stretched down the middle of his chest over his sternum. "The virus damaged my hearts," the Doctor advised.
"Yes, it did," Martha agreed.
"Oh." He sighed.
"Finish you tea Spaceman, and as long as you can remember Tish's birthday Martha will tell you all about it next time," Donna told him. "I can see that all you want to do right now is have your tea and go back to sleep, you don't want to be talking about complicated medical things anyway do you?"
"No," the Doctor admitted. "What is Tish's birthday again?"
"21st April."
"Okay," the Doctor confirmed. He'd remember that and then they'd have to tell him what happened. For the meantime, he didn't even bother about finishing his tea. He let exhaustion wash over him and take him back off to sleep.
He slept for the rest of the day. He only woke briefly after midnight long enough to ask for a drink and to complain that he was feeling very dizzy and that he didn't like it. Martha had returned to sleeping in a cot on site and she was reluctantly woken because of the Doctor's complaint. By the time she had gotten to him he was sound asleep again.
Martha checked him over as he slept. There was no indication why he might have felt particularly dizzy. There had been no recorded change in the pattern of his hearts and his blood oxygen levels remained even and high. She was satisfied he remained stable, he was just still unwell. The nurse who woke her apologised for doing so when it appeared there had been no reason for it. Martha insisted that she had done the best thing possible and if he woke and complained that he had a sore toe then she wanted to be woken. She hoped that he would sleep until morning and then they would reduce his sedation a jot again, bringing it down step by step to make sure he was strong enough when they did.