Chapter 6

When Martha finally left Commander Shaw's office she was in a sullen mood. Initially he had not reacted when she told him of their discovery at the hospital but that soon changed when she told him she was sick as well. After feeling guilty when she told the Doctor Martha decided to fessed up, but she had quickly regretted it as the Commander became livid at the news and insisted on sticking her in the medical unit for monitoring. She of course refused and had wasted time arguing with him against it. Martha felt she still had a job to do and she was going to do it whether the Commander liked it or not.

However, somewhat ironically the first place she headed to was the medical unit. She had heard no news on Shelley since the last time she saw her, and she wanted to check on her. As soon as she arrived she knew her condition wasn't good. She was now unconscious and was hooked up to life supporting machinery.

"What happened?" Martha asked.

Dr Cathy Williams who was talking with another doctor had seen Martha enter and had gone up to greet her. "Her condition progressively deteriorated and when the seizures began we decided the best course of action was to induce coma."

"But that's incredibly risky"

"There were no better alternatives," Cathy said calmly.

"You're UNIT, is this really the best you can do?"

"We just don't have the technology to handle this, we barely understand the illness ourselves. All we can do for now is observe."

"All you've done is observe," Martha said irritated.

"I assure you, we have tried everything and nothing works. It's beyond any technology we have human or alien,"

Martha knew she was right, there was only one man who could fix this and he was out there doing just that, "It's just.."

"She's your friend?"

"Yes, we work together," Martha said.

"I understand."

"I'm sorry, I didn't mean to snap at you,"

"You might have a mistaken impression of me from earlier. I have a habit of getting excited when I discover something new and foreign and most people take it the wrong way."

"Yeah, I know someone who's like that," Martha said giving a small smile. "So there is nothing you can do?"

"We are still working on some form of treatment, but nothing looks promising,"

Feeling helpless, Martha decided to make herself useful by joining the members of UNIT who were working on the situation in the hospital, despite Commander Shaw's disapproval. Martha knew Steve couldn't have worked alone in dosing people and having worked in the hospital she was UNIT's best bet in figuring out who. With the help of patient records, doctor's schedules and knowledge of the staff, Martha soon identified likely suspects. Next she removed all the security personnel at the hospital and replaced with UNIT members to keep tabs on them. She also guessed due to the large amounts of missing footage one or more of them were in on it so brought them in for questioning.

Afterwards she sort out Commander Shaw.

After briefing him on what she had done she had a request to make, "Most likely everyone who was involved wasn't doing it of their own free will but for influenced by the Mannar's telepathic abilities. So don't lock them up and throw away the key," she warned him.

"You have my assurance on that," Commander Shaw stated impressed by Martha's work. "You've done excellent work Doctor Jones, you should consider coming to work for us permanently."

"I'll remember that when I need a job.

"Good,"

When Martha turned to leave her eyes lost focus and the ground seemed to dance around her as pain shot through her body.

"Are you okay?"

"It's nothing just a migraine," Martha said lying. She knelt against the desk to steady herself.

"You should get some rest we can handle the rest from here"

Martha said tried to focus her now blurry vision but failed. That was the last thing she saw before collapsing.

The Doctor landed the Tardis pleased with himself. It had taken him longer than he had expected to create a cure but he had done it. He grabbed his coat and headed out the Tardis. When he exited the doors though he was greeted by a grim looking Commander Shaw .

The Doctor faltered and began to question how long he had been away. He was sure it hadn't been that long but his timing was sometimes a little off even at the best of times.

"Doctor," the Commander called approaching him.

"Where is Martha?"

"She is in our medical unit," the Commander said.

Without waiting for an explanation the Doctor ran past him forcing the man to chase after him. The Doctor took the stairs racing down not patient enough to wait for the lift. He didn't stop running until he burst through the medical unit's doors surprising everyone inside. He ignored everyone as his eyes were drawn to Martha. The Commander rushed in after him and stopped the surprised staff from approaching him as the Doctor went to Martha's side.

Despite the beeping and oscillating machines the Doctor thought Martha looked peaceful as if only sleeping. As he approached her side he couldn't stop himself from thinking he would punish those who had caused her pain. He looked over the medical equipment and thought it all looked primitive and rather uncomfortable. He had a strong urge to carry her back to the Tardis but thought better of it.

A strand of hair had fallen across Martha's forehead so he brushed it aside. At his touch Martha blinked awake. She tried to speak but found the oxygen mask blocking her so she pulled it off.

"Doctor you're back," she said in a groggy voice.

"Did you doubt I would?"

"Not for a moment," she said smiling warmly at him.

"Good," he said stroking back her hair. "How are you feeling?"

"Could be better,"

He smiled and removed a small flask from his pocket and grabbed a needle.

"What are you doing Doctor?" Commander Shaw said stepping forward ready to stop him.

The Doctor turned and glared at him, "Something you've failed to do on your own. I'm going to save her life. Got a problem with that?"

Commander Shaw abruptly stopped, "No,"

"So step back,"

The Commander took a step back.

The Doctor turned his attention back to Martha, "You better rest."

"Okay," Martha said closing her eyes and falling back to sleep almost immediately.

The Doctor injected the liquid into her IV and kissed her forehead. He just needed to wait and see how she reacted. When no improvement was immediately clear he started pacing drawing a look of disapproval from one of the doctors. He forced himself into a chair, but a minute later was up again. He watched her anxiously as she slept and become more agitated when she started moaning in her sleep.

"Is she okay," Commander Shaw asked.

The Doctor grabbed his screwdriver and scanned Martha. To his horror the readings showed him something he hadn't anticipated. Trying to cure her had triggered something in the mutations to accelerate the process and shut down her body. He had to figure out a way to stop this before trying it on anyone else but right now he had to reverse the process for Martha. He knew of only one solution which would stop the process and cure her. He hoped Martha wouldn't mind too much, he just needed the Tardis' help.

"I need to go back to my ship," the Doctor said turning to leave.

"What for?"

The Doctor ran out the room again leaving Commander Shaw annoyed at being left in the dark. The Doctor arrived in the Tardis and headed straight to the Tardis infirmary and got to work. When he was done he raced back to Martha and gave her the new cure. To his delight almost immediately she started getting better. He stayed with her to ensure she was going back to normal, well almost, and when he was satisfied she was sleeping peacefully he was ready to deal with the Mannar.