Health and Safety: Chapter 16 – Branching Out
Kelvia and Naveesis strut towards the staircase, ushering a terrified looking Reginald out of the room with them. My heart is imploring for us to come out and help Ria now… There is only one of these Etulians left; we can deal with one right?
"Stay where you are, I'll be fine!" Ria shouts out in gasps.
"Shut up girl, what is this gibberish?" Jocaal growls at Ria.
What is she doing? After all that she is going to blow our cover now? I'm about to yell back when the Doctor's hand claps over my mouth, forcibly silencing any words I might have had before lowering his mouth to hover just above my ear.
"She said that in French, which the Etulians wouldn't have learned, he won't have understood her. It was a clever gamble on her part." He says, so quietly I can barely hear him despite the… extreme… proximity.
Having been distracted from our tiny mirror, I missed Jocaal releasing Ria from the choke hold and cuffing her hands behind her back around a support beam.
"No hard feelings girl, I will be keeping this weapon, it has a lovely weight to it, and decent craftsmanship. It will make an excellent souvenir from this assignment for my son." Jocaal tells her, experimentally holding the weapon out and taking a stance that points him in our direction.
"Oh none at all, it's not as if stealing is a crime or anything." She snarls defiantly at him, struggling against the handcuffs, clanging them off of the metal beam, drawing his attention back towards her.
"Excellent, well hopefully there are no hard feelings for this either then."
He raises the gun, and fires a pair of shots that hit her in the lower leg, singeing two holes in her trousers.
"Now you certainly won't be going anywhere." He informs her, tucking the gun into his belt and marching up the balcony stairs to join the others.
There is no stopping the Doctor this time, not that I tried because as soon as I heard that door shut I rushed from under the table myself.
"Are you okay?" I ask her as, running a hand gently over her leg while the Doctor uses the sonic screwdriver to unlock the handcuffs.
"I can hardly feel anything below my hip on that side now, stun setting, it's very effective. But remind me to apologize to Vladimir later... That first impact hurts." She groans through clenched teeth.
The sound of something falling starts whizzing from outside, before a massive explosion rings out, and a hissing noise fills the air.
"Oh no no no no no!" The Doctor exclaims, putting an arm under Ria's shoulders and hauling her onto her feet, taking the weight of her limp leg.
"We have to get out of her now!" He tells us worriedly. After a few awkward steps it's obvious that Ria can't go anywhere fast right now, even with his help.
The cause of the Doctor's concern abruptly appears behind us, as the hissing gets louder and a lime green gas starts drifting in through the edges of the windows. This must be what Kelvia meant about calling in a strike of some kind, it must have been a gas canister we heard explode outside!
"That will be poisonous of course?" I ask, not that I really have any hope that it isn't, but better to know for sure…
"Yeah…" He replies as his grip shifts down around Ria's waist, trying to drag her along.
"Doctor just carry her!" Did he need permission or something? We have to get out of here! He has never thought twice about grabbing me when he needed to…
"Wait no…" She tries to protest as he scoops her up clumsily and we make a dash for the door farthest from where the gas is slowly leaking into the building. He shoves it open with his back, sending the handle crashing off the wall behind it, no longer caring if anyone hears us.
"Clara, sonic, in pocket, please grab." He shoves the left pocket of his pants out, allowing me to take his ever useful device.
"Okay now what?"
"Point it at the wall, think about wanting a floor plan, wave it about a bit, and show it here!"
I've seen him do this so much I don't know why I feel self conscious doing it myself, fumbling a bit before leveling it at the wall and moving my arm in a line. "That's fine, let me see!" He says hurriedly leaning closer to me and observing whatever readings I managed to take.
"Fantastic, exit this way, ladies, allons-y!" He shouts, racing down the hallway and taking a quick left to a darker passage, the gas trailing visibly behind us. His expression lightens slightly as a rusty door comes into our view.
"Mind getting that Clara?"
Right, I still have the sonic screwdriver… The door opens with a click, and we find ourselves on a small staircase outside not unlike the one we had come in from. The door is similarly set under a brick arch, and the stairs lead down to a deserted back street. There are also the same strange black trees with the white leaves lining this street as were on the main road. Wait a minute…
Trees with leaves that purified pollution out of the air, made it breathable! That was what he told me right?
"Doctor, can you get these trees working?"
"What?"
"The air, you said they were used to clean the air, could they possibly be amplified to do something to deal with the poison gas?"
He stares at me for a second before his lips twist into that mad grin he gets when an idea turns up against the odds, and leans over Ria to kiss my forehead.
"Don't mind me at all." She says uncomfortably.
He gently puts her down against the nearest tree trunk and I toss him the sonic screwdriver. Running his hands over the smooth black casing he finds an edge and pries off a panel. Some zaps with the sonic, a few loose wires reconnected and seconds that feel like they take an eternity thanks to the approaching noxious fumes later, the tree starts humming loudly as its pale leaves glimmer slightly.
"Stay as close as you can, this won't be able to filter a very large area, and we'll probably still feel some of the effects, but it will be enough for us not to die at least."
"Not dying is good." I utter quietly. He leans his back against the tree, and pulls me so I am right up against him.
As the green gas catches us, and slowly surrounds the tree, the air within the first few feet of the tree takes on only a mildly green tinge, creating a bubble of mostly safe space around us.
"No choice but to wait here until it clears." The Doctor laments.
"Well darn, I was going to run a marathon." Ria jokes. The Doctor laughs awkwardly, like he can't tell if she was being funny or not, but wanting to cover his bases just in case. He slumps down against the tree, patting the tiny space between him and Ria for me to join him. I sit next to him just in time to hear the screams from inside the building and around the streets…
The Doctor throws an arm around my shoulders, pulling my face into his chest like he can somehow block out the sounds of people in obvious pain all around us.
"It's slow acting poison… It takes a few minutes of exposure before you feel the effects, and longer still before… well..."
"Could you get more of the trees on? Would that be enough to clear out more of the area?" I ask him.
"I don't know." He admits, eyes scanning the other trees.
"You'll try anyways though won't you." It wasn't a question at all; I know he is going to.
"If I get a few of them running, it might trip an override and get the rest online, all the ones on the same grid at least, which should be the most of the lower city..." He speculates, free arm going to his bowtie, giving it a tug before hopping to his feet. He is about to leave when Ria suddenly gasps, before sputtering apologies.
"Sorry, feeling is coming back, not good feeling at the moment…" She tries to laugh it off, but the Doctor kneels in front of her, setting a hand on her shoulder and looking at her kindly.
"I know you don't really have anywhere else to go, but stay put for now eh?" He tells her, echoing her words from when she first found us, bringing a tired smile to her face. His eyes flash over to me before he stands up and runs towards the closest tree.
Ria isn't much for conversation at the moment, not that I blame her. Judging by her expression, she is trying hard not to cry right now. It's a familiar look; I have worn it myself on many occasions, not usually because of injuries, but pain isn't always a physical thing... Carefully I shift a bit closer to her so she can lean on me if she wants to, but I keep my eyes focused on the Doctor's work, giving her what little privacy I can to hurt in peace.
The Doctor is moving quickly, and has already gotten another pair of the trees humming with life again. Soon the humming is all around us, as he gets more and more of the trees back online. He wipes his sweaty hair from his brow, and is about to make a dash for another of the trees when there is a collective jolt, shaking the street slightly as all of the trees around us begin vibrating gently and humming loudly.
Taking a deep breath of relief, my head starts to feel a little funny though, and before I know it the street is dimming and I can feel soft, warm leather against my cheek…
Larin Wald's shift was almost over, only another ten minutes and she could finally leave the hospital. Her boss was incredibly anxious, and seemed to be taking it out on all of the nurses. It had something to do with Dr. Holloway and the man who had died as far as Larin knew. That poor man… Larin shook her head as she walked towards the morgue, she didn't believe in ghosts, but that didn't mean she liked having to come here either. When she pried open the door, she was shocked to see another person already inside, who was hovering over the body of Holloway's lost patient. The stranger spoke with a bone chilling monotone, instructing Larin to flee, he had more important things to worry about than a pathetic human. She flatly refused, telling him that he had no business being here, and that he needed to leave. The man hissed at her, suddenly baring long pointed teeth, saying that the body was still dangerous and needed to be properly disposed of, that the nightmare would finally end when he did. He raised a hand and charged at her, but Larin was quick, sidestepping him and smashing him over the head with her heavy metal clipboard, seeming to knock him unconscious. Larin grabbed the nearest phone, calling for the hospital security to come and remove the man. Although the officers told her to leave the room, that the body that this stranger wanted was dead so there was no reason to stay and guard him until they arrived, Larin didn't go. She didn't know why, but she had to stay with him, she had to protect him. When a hand gently rested on her shoulder, she screamed, raising the clipboard again and slamming it down on whoever was behind her, assuming it was another assailant… Instead it was a young man, young except for his eyes, which seemed so familiar to her and yet so strange at the same time… He looked shocked that she had struck him for a moment and rubbed his head before he began speaking. "Clara, it's okay, you're okay." He coaxed her, hand hesitantly reaching for hers. She stepped away from him, eyeing him up, trying to understand why she felt so overjoyed to see him… The morgue doors faded away behind her, as did the rest of the room, leaving only her and this man in a dark void of space. "It's me Clara, the Doctor." He said gently. "Doctor Who?" She replied. He grinned and the blackness around them began to glow orange and gold. "You know who Clara, you know who I am, and I know what you will always mean to me." He told her contentedly before stepping towards her again...
A crackling noise accompanies my eyes opening, not as harsh as the seemingly ever present snapping sound. Instead of Ria leaning on my shoulder, as I had planned when I scooted closer to her, I am resting against her, with the Doctor kneeling in front of me, hands on my face, his expression just slightly disgruntled instead of pained as it usually was when I forced him out of my mind. Maybe I had been gentler this time, and that was why the sound wasn't as loud..?
You know, I would really like to wake up and see his face smiling next to me instead of looking down worriedly at me.
"Ouch." He says, feigning hurt and moving a hand up to where I had- to where Larin had… to where he had been hit.
"Sorry…" I mumble.
"No, I'm sorry Clara, I should have thought of this, like I said, with the one tree it mitigated the poison's effects but it wasn't enough to totally purify the air… You had to sit in it for too long so you got drowsy." He apologises before dropping down next to me again, an expression of guilt in his eyes.
"Why didn't it get to you or Ria?" I ask.
"Different physiology, my body is a lot hardier than humans, most of the time at least." The Doctor answers.
"I think I was too busy worrying about you…" Ria admits, shifting her weight a bit as I sit up again and rub my eyes.
"How do you do it?" I blurt without thinking about it.
Neither of them seems to know who I am talking to, or what I mean.
"Ria, you see past the psychic paper, and you somehow still came out with another language in there despite the fact that the TARDIS translation matrix is in your head. How do you do it? Sort out what is real, and what is just in your head?"
"I don't really know… I just… Well, I always try to figure out how things relate to each other, what makes sense, how something works, I did that long before I met you two. It's just the way I think, I don't know…" She answers cautiously.
Several minutes of silence later, an authoritative female voice calls out, cutting through the humming and what remains of the green swirling gas. The Doctor jumps to his feet, and acting on instinct I leap up right behind him.
"Everyone, this air is reading near normal, if you find civilians give them your masks to try and bring their oxygen levels back to normal!"
Ria's face brightens and she cranes her neck. "That's Detective Inspector Hadia, Walt used to work with her before he became a Joint Marshal!" She tells us excitedly.
A group of men and women in Kevlar vests and police uniforms slowly come into sight, some of them training weapons carefully in all directions, others carrying medical equipment, but all wearing masks over their faces and concerned looks in their eyes.
One of the men with a first aid kit slung over his shoulder spots us, and quickly pulls down his mask.
"Mademoiselle London! It has been far too long! What are you doing here?" He calls with deep voice and a mild French accent. He breaks away from the group, to Hadia's protest and runs towards us, pulling Ria up into a crushing hug that she didn't seem to expect. A moment later when he let her go, his eyes find the Doctor and I standing uncertainly beside her.
"Please forgive my rudeness. My name is Émeric Delacroix, Assistant Deputy Chief Paramedic for Lower City Enforcement Head Office." He places a swift peck on both of my cheeks after his introduction, earning him a look of distain from the Doctor.
The others have caught up to him now, and two of the other medics offer us their gas masks, but the Doctor shakes his head, telling them there will be others that need them more than we do. Émeric has turned his attention to Ria's still mostly limp leg, while Hadia is bombarding her questions.
"She's hurt Detective Inspector, leave her be." I tell her firmly, while the Doctor pulls out the psychic paper yet again to prove our imaginary credentials.
"As you say Ma'am." She grumbles reluctantly to me.
"Émeric, take an escort and get these Marshals and the girl back to headquarters, make sure they are all okay and then send Walter MacEwan a message, he's been driving me nuts all night worrying about this one. Rumsfeld, Avery, you go with him. Everyone else, move out!" She orders, and the rest of the company continues its careful march down the street, leaving the three of us with our new guards and the rather dashing medic.
A/N: Hello readers! Life will slow down a bit for the next few chapters, like you lovely folks, Clara and the Doctor have taken in a lot of information over the last little bit and now they have to sort it out and deal with it, among other things. I'm glad that (from what I hear at least) the plot has been interesting/at least mildly engaging.
My lead on written chapters is being cut down again, which means that I will need to go off and get more big blocks written again soon, so just a little question for anyone who has an opinion on it: would you want more, less or the same amount of time spent on/with the OC's? I can promise more Clara and Doctor times regardless, but since Victoria and company are my characters, they offer me some flexibility on how often they are around. I know my plot and I know where we are going in the end, but I am happy to change some of the smaller things if it will make this more interesting for you all!