The following day the Doctor waited until after he'd had his medication before slipping out of the medical area. He accepted that he had been silly going before breakfast the previous day and that yes he did still need the medication or why was Martha insisting on him taking it. Martha was going to look into the suitability of drugs that he could also take if he had an episode of arrhythmia to prevent a collapse but he didn't think he wanted to go down that route. He wanted it fixed.

He needed to test Coljai's blood for live virus in order to see if the serum he had created had worked. It was going to work. There was no reason why it wouldn't work. If it didn't work then it was a Bylaxian anomaly and not something to do with his own antibodies or scientific know how.

He would have to go to the TARDIS get the equipment to take a blood sample, then go to the security building to take the blood if he could even gain access after the day before, then he'd have to return to the TARDIS to do the tests, and then he'd have to go back to the security building and gain further access to the custody suite to give Coljai a prognosis. He didn't think he'd be able to make four trips across base without collapsing with the drugs he'd taken.

He went into the TARDIS. The ship had promised Martha that she would not take him away from UNIT until she discharged him and said he was well enough, but that didn't mean she couldn't take a quick jump across the base. He piloted her out of the secure bay where she was being held and into the back of Coljai's cell. UNIT really needed to work on their level of security as he stepped out into the cell. Coljai looked very surprised to see him there. He had feared the Doctor's down turn may have prevented the promise of a cure for his people.

"How are you feeling today, Doctor?" Coljai asked him. "You appear to have more colour?"

"I feel better thanks, but, how are you feeling? Any noticeable effects from the serum?"

"I did experience some abdominal cramping but nothing severe," Coljai advised.

"That may have just been the food," the Doctor offered.

"Perhaps," Coljai agreed and smiled. "There are plenty of palliatives available on Bylax for cramping if it is a side effect."

"Should we see if it has worked?" the Doctor asked.

"I am most anxious to find out."

"Come with me," the Doctor offered. "But, I warn you, I may not be fit enough to intervene if you try something, but this is my TARDIS and she will intervene. She's not very happy with what you did to me, so I'd recommend you do what I say and you don't touch anything," the Doctor warned the Bylaxian. As he walked across the console the TARDIS darkened slightly. "It is okay, old girl," the Doctor offered and Coljai felt the reception lift.

"I don't blame her for being angry with us for what we did to you, Doctor," Coljai advised. "I don't quite understand why you are now helping us?"

"It is not your daughter's fault that you did not just ask," the Doctor offered. "Nor is it the fault of any other Bylaxian children. I only hope that this has worked." He took a sample of Coljai's blood in the TARDIS lab. He trusted that Coljai was not going to try to escape. The fate of his people would be at risk if he did. He ran the blood sample through the TARDIS mainframe and she produced a chart.

"Your blood is clear," the Doctor announced. "There are a few dead viral cells remaining but there is no live virus at all. That is excellent," he offered. "I have already programmed the TARDIS to create an initial 5000 doses for you and I will give you the preparation and a replication module so you can make more doses. I can only give one replication module but that should be enough to make 50,000 doses in a day. It will enable you to begin a treatment program."

"How can we make more if we don't have access to your antibodies?"

"Forgive me, Coljai, but I am not entirely trusting and have eliminated the DNA from the serum. It can be manufactured using the replication module and a simple albumen based protein gel," the Doctor advised.

"You, Sir, are a genius."

"Yes, I know," the Doctor commented and winked cheekily.

"Your friend Martha, she said you were when we were on the ship. I did not expect you to survive and I don't think she did either. She worked so hard to save your life. She told me that you were the most accomplished scientist that she knew of and that if we had asked then you would have helped. She was right, and, I am sorry for the suffering we have caused you."

"I understand why you did what you did and I understand why you think what you thought of Time Lords, but, you should have asked me and you have caused me a lot of suffering and I am not yet healed and able to leave here."

"Then you won't be able to take the cure to Bylax?" Coljai asked worried that it might be for nothing.

"I won't be doing that," the Doctor commented. "I assume that you have a vessel that remains undiscovered?"

"Yes, it is close to where we found you," Coljai confirmed.

"You have the coordinates for it?" the Doctor checked and Coljai gave them to him. The Doctor got the TARDIS to create two more doses of the virus. He opened the cell he was in and then went to each of Coljai's companions and gave them a dose of it. He then set the TARDIS off making the replicated serum, deciding to make more than the initial 5000 doses. The TARDIS would be able to do it more quickly and the Bylaxians weren't going anywhere and it would give him a better idea of making sure there was no delayed side effects. Time Lord based products could be dangerous to species that were not as robust, he had taken the DNA out of it, but it would be better to check for a couple of days.

Three days later the UNIT base descended into chaos. The alarm was raised. Somehow the three Bylaxian prisoners had simply vanished out of their cells and had escaped and the cells remained locked and secure. There was so much activity in and around the base as every available staff member searched the base that had been put on lock down that no one logged that the Doctor had failed to show up for a cardiology stress test.

He wandered back into his room an hour or so after the alarm had been heard. The search was still ongoing. No one had breached the base perimeter so there was a chance that they were hiding on base. When the Doctor came back into his room, stopping for a cup of tea on the way, he was surprised to see that his bed was occupied by Captain Jack.

"Oh, hello Jack, I'm surprised to see you here. I thought you might be out helping to look for the Bylaxians? I heard they have escaped."

"I would look," Jack commented. "If I thought there might be any chance of finding them, because, you see? When I heard they had escaped my first concern was that they might find the TARDIS, so I went to check she remained secure. Except, do you know what I found, Doctor?"

"Um, no?"

"The TARDIS was gone," Jack advised him. "And, since you're not having a second coronary about now, I think you know that I found that she was gone. Is she back where she was now?" Jack asked him.

"Yes."

"You took them home?"

"No, I need to recover more before I can undertake and trips like that. A quick hop across town to their ship was about all I can manage," he admitted.

"So they can get home now?"

"Yes, they are on their way."

"I suppose all three of them are infected. It would have been a life sentence for them," Jack advised. "At least they get to spend their last few months or however long they have with their families," Jack suggested and the Doctor nodded. Jack looked at him suspiciously. "What?"

"I gave them the cure," the Doctor advised.

"You did what?!"

"I used the antibodies in my blood stream to create a cure for the virus."

"Are you mad?!" Jack demanded of him.

"Um…"

"Look at you?! You can barely last half a day without needing to go to bed because of what they did to you. I know they are dying and I can get showing them a bit of compassion and letting them go home, but they showed you none. They would have killed you and now you've given a species with that lack of regard for medical ethics a cure based on your antibodies and your cellular structure. What are they going to do with Time Lord DNA?"

"Nothing."

"What, because they said so?" Jack shook his head.

"No, because I screened it. It contains no Time Lord DNA. I used my antibodies for a base and manufactured screened version. It tested it on Coljai as he was the fittest of them. It worked and I gave it to the others too. Then I got the TARDIS to make it flat out for two days and they have doses to treat their worst 200,000 and I've given them the preparation and a replication module and then I gave them a lift to their ship. That is all, so, to answer your question, no. I am not mad."

"Are you sure? You've done all that when you should be resting in bed. You look knackered."

"I am knackered. I came back here with a cup of tea with the express intention of getting straight into bed," the Doctor advised. "There is someone else in it."

"Oh," Jack jumped back off his bed and straightened it back out for him. "Sorry."

An hour later Martha came into the room with Donna and a rather edgy looking senior officer. The officer apologised to the Doctor and admitted that they had lost the men who had caused him so much harm. They had somehow wipe out all CCTV records and had gotten out of their cells. They did not know where they were but they had tracked a strange energy signature and an object leaving Earth's gravity field. It looked like they had escaped and left the planet. Thankfully for the senior officer the Doctor did not react as badly to the news as he expected. He just nodded and then suggested that he was feeling rather drained and much to Jack and Martha's surprise he slept the afternoon away for the first time in over a week.

Five weeks later the Doctor was finally discharged. He still had two weeks of medication to continue to take and he managed to persuade Martha that the best way to ensure he carried on taking it until the end of the course was if she took some leave. She could make sure he took it and she could strengthen her ankle up and they could all go and have a couple of weeks holiday. Martha agreed. Jack and Donna were on board too and the Doctor promised them a festival with absolutely no running. Neither he nor Martha were quite up for that yet.

The Doctor piloted the TARDIS. He opened the door to a riot of colour, noise, and celebration. A festival eleven years in advance on Bylax to mark the ten year anniversary of the total eradication of a virus that threatened to destroy Bylaxian civilisation and to honour a nameless physician who had assisted them when they had done great harm to him.

The Doctor sought out Coljai. 11 years on his 12 year old daughter was married and had born him a granddaughter just days earlier. It was a double celebration for Coljai and his family. He never believed that he would be able to see her. When his daughter was struck with the virus he never believed that she would be able to bear children if she survived and here she was with a healthy daughter.

"Coljai," the Doctor went up to him and shook his hand. Coljai didn't say anything but he shook the Doctor's hand. Coljai invited them to remain with their family and enjoy a meal, but that was not entirely appropriate since there was still a lot of animosity from Jack and Donna about what had been done by Coljai to the Doctor. It was the Doctor's strength and Martha's intervention that allowed the Doctor to survive. Sitting down to share a meal with the man who had done it was different to having a meal as part of a festival to celebrate success over the virus. They enjoyed the festival but not with Coljai, as anonymous visitors to the planet.

"I knew you had something to do with their escape," Donna accused the Doctor quietly. The festival was not yet finished and Jack was off dancing with Martha, but the Time Lord was tired and ready to return to the TARDIS. Donna linked arms with him and walked with him past other revellers who were still going strong. "And, a nameless physician?" she checked. "You gave them the cure?"

"Yeah," the Doctor accepted.

"Why didn't you tell me?" Donna asked him curious as to why she didn't know he had done that.

"I wasn't sure you would understand," the Doctor admitted. Donna looked at the Time Lord. He still wasn't 100% and it was two months since they had found him on that boat. They had caused him so much pain and quite literally heart ache. She didn't think she did understand fully how he could have given them the cure when they had done all they had to him. They had almost lost him, and what? He'd got out of his sick bed, made the cure, and then sent them home? They paused as a group of children dressed in colour clothing, laughing, and joking and blowing coloured bubbles up into the air ran past. She smiled and hugged the Doctor.

"Dumbo," Donna commented and held him tightly. "Of course I understand."