Chapter 6

Rose was quiet for a while as the Doctor held her, then he let go and knelt down on the floor and opened up the case.

"What are you doing?"

He heard panic in her voice and didn't look up to see the fear he knew would be in her eyes as she realised what he was about to do.

"Obviously I can't let you manufacture any more of that substance. I'm going to create the antidote as a one off command and then I'm leaving the replicator and the drugs intact and taking them with me. I need to hand this thing over to people who can dispose of it properly – certainly not here on Earth!"

Rose felt her heart begin to race as her mood slipped into something that threatened close to panic.

"You're leaving? You're taking that replicator with you? What about me?"

The Doctor had just switched a setting on his screwdriver. He looked up at Rose as she sat there on the edge of the bed with fear in her eyes – far too much fear than he ever cared to see again.

"You haven't been taking it very long. I can make the antidote up and then leave you to rest while I safely dispose of the drugs and the replicator. Can you imagine what would happen to this planet if it fell into the wrong hands?"

Rose had already imagined that.

She said nothing as she nodded.

Then he turned on the screwdriver and directed it at the back of the machine, giving it a quick blast. As the screwdriver fell silent and he put it in his pocket, he paused for thought.

"There's a legend around the cure for this addiction – it started hundreds of years ago and it still stands today. I'll share it with you later."

And he flipped open a hidden panel to reveal a numeric keypad and quickly keyed in a number sequence and then hit the main button.

The panel opened up and he took out a capped bottle that contained clear liquid and then handed it to Rose.

"Drink this now and then sleep. It will knock you out for a couple of days. Then you'll be clear of the substance."

Rose stared at him.

"A couple of days?"

"That's right."

He closed the case, got up and lifted the case from the floor.

Rose got up too and looked pleadingly into his eyes.

"Please don't tell my mum! I could tell her anything but this, not drugs..."

The Doctor's gaze was filled with understanding.

"This drug is a poison," he said to her, "A poison that will draw you in on the first hit and grab hold of your mind and body and take over. And no one can come off it without this detox. And no one deserves the level of pain they suffer if they try. People have died going cold turkey on Blue Ice."

"So what can we say to her?"

The look in his eyes softened.

"Leave it to me," he said, and he gently touched her face, "Just take it now and go to sleep. By the time you wake up I'll be back for you."

Rose uncapped the bottle and downed the contents in one. It tasted vile and she gave a gasp, her eyes watering at its bitterness.

"Now sleep," the Doctor told her, and as she lay back on the bed, he leant over her and kissed her.

"Sleep," he repeated, and she slipped into a deep sleep, at the command of his voice.

The Doctor stood over her for a moment watching her sleep, feeling relieved that his ability to do that to her had just saved her the agony of the echoes of withdrawal as the drug was neutralised and removed from her system.

Then he left the room, taking the case with him, and closed the door behind him.

"Jackie, I need to explain something."

Rose's mother had just made some tea.

"Would you like one, Doctor?" she asked brightly, and he shook his head.

"I don't want to worry you because there is nothing to worry about – at least, not now – but I've just realised Rose was exposed to some toxic chemicals when she was caught up in the explosion. It's nothing to concern you, I just gave her the antidote. When she wakes she will be fine, but she will sleep for a couple of days. Trust me - and know I have helped her and she will be well when she wakes. You know I'd never let her down."

A flicker of alarm flashed to Jackie's eyes, but then it was gone as she remembered how the Doctor had covered Rose as the ceiling came down – of course he had done it again, he was protecting her...

"Are you sure she's going to be okay?"

"Yes," the Doctor assured her, and then he went over to cupboard and opened it up and looked inside.

"Mind if I borrow this?"

Jackie had no clue why he wanted a bottle of blue food colouring, but she nodded.

"Okay."

Then the Doctor grabbed a note pad and pen, wrote something down, then he tore off the paper and folded it in half, then in half again.

"I'll be back in two days," he promised her, "By then Rose will be awake and just like the Rose you love, and I suspect, have missed as much as I have."

"I thought she wasn't right," Jackie told him, "She looked so tired all the time."

"Well she's going to be fine two days from now. I have to make a quick trip in the Tardis, and then I'm coming back. I won't be long."

Jackie walked with him to the front door.

"You take care," she told him.

The Doctor smiled.

"Always," he promised her, "I love Rose too much to do otherwise."

Then he handed her the folded piece of paper.

"This is for Rose. Give it to her when she wakes. Don't read it, just hand it to her when she wakes up. She'll wake before I get back. Promise me you won't forget, it's something special between us."

"Okay," she said as she wondered what was written on it, and then he left the flat and walked away with the silver case, heading down into the estate and the shadowy corner where his Tardis was waiting.

The Doctor looked about carefully as he made his way up to the Tardis, and seeing no one about, he let himself in and closed the door behind him.

After all that had happened, it felt good to be home. As much as he loved Earth, the Tardis was his real home and coming back to it after a long and painful absence it was a feeling like no other and he stood there for a moment, looking around at the console and the familiar glow of the vast interior, and he swore he could almost feel her greeting him warmly, his ship knew he had returned.

And although he was fully recovered now, he wanted so much to crawl into his own bed and sleep to shake off the last of the tiredness caused by his body working so hard to repair the damage while he had been in the coma -

but he had something to do, and it was important - and he would start by cleaning the case, so it was free of Rose's fingerprints..

The Doctor cleaned the case carefully, checking several times to be sure no trace of Rose remained on the replicator. Then he closed the lid, stood the case up in the corner of the console room and took off his rubber gloves.

That case was now clean, and waiting for the owner to put their prints all over it, and he had a feeling that soon she would...

After the case was clean, the Doctor took the empty bottle, uncapped it and used a device on the console to sterilise it, he didn't need to because it was empty, but it had been inside the replicator and he wanted no trace of that poison to remain, not even the faintest trace...

Then he added the food colouring from Jackie's kitchen cupboard to the clean bottle and topped it up with water.

He capped the bottle and held it up to the light and smiled:

It was perfect. It looked exactly like a bottle of Blue Ice...

Now the trap was set, he thought of the woman named Missy and how she had seemed to have more than a passing interest in him:

Did she know he was a TimeLord?

It seemed unlikely she would understand what that meant, given that he was the last of his kind – but after all he had experienced in his travels over the centuries, he had come to understand that anything was possible.

Maybe she wanted his Tardis.

Or maybe she wanted him.

Perhaps both, if he considered all Rose had told him...

And his hearts felt heavy with anger as he thought of that woman and those drugs and what she had done to Rose. Then he wondered what else she was mixed up in – the bomb had been alien. The Judoon were seeking the culprits behind it. This was something serious, something that looked like a plan to attack Earth. And if the replicator was anything to do with it, Missy was tied up in it all...

As he thought of what she had done to Rose, he gripped the console so hard his knuckles turned white and his usually soft gaze darkened almost to black, reflecting his rage:

For a fleeting moment, he had imagined finding Missy and killing her.

Or perhaps feeding her a few of those vapours to let her see what Rose was going through.

But he was not a man who set out to cause harm, and never would be, and that was the only choice he would ever make – but it was also the hardest one, yet he had made that choice over and over again when faced with the decision to fight back or destroy an enemy, especially one who posed a threat and had already caused terrible harm.

"No," he said in a low voice as the lights of the console room glowed around him and cast his darkened gaze to an unearthly hue, "No, I won't kill. I will never do that...there's always another way..."

And then he opened up the communications channel and made a call that went out deep into space...

Much later as shadows lengthened over the estate as evening fell, the Doctor had not yet left. He was still in his Tardis, waiting, because he felt sure Missy would eventually come to him, in fact he desperately hoped that she would – because if she didn't, looking for an apparently human female who had chosen to vanish amongst the population of Earth would be like searching for a needle in a haystack...

He had formulated his plan.

All the pieces were in place now, making for a perfect trap.

He had worked on the assumption that Missy clearly wanted him – something he could certainly twist to his own advantage.

But he had no intention of cheating on Rose as much as he wanted to fool Missy and see to it that she got what she deserved. So he had devised a plan to make an excuse should she become too close to him – he was going to lie and say the coma had not quite repaired him fully, and he was for now, unable to share her physical need for love...

The Doctor had spent some time in his room, working on how to make his claim of being far from recovered sound believable. Now his tie was off and his shirt was partly open and his jacket was unbuttoned and his coat was also open, making it look as if he needed that extra room to breathe, because pain did that. He had found a cane at the back of a wardrobe and now it was beside him, so he could lean on it, giving the impression he was far from healed.

That ought to cool her off a bit when she did show up...

And he didn't have to wait much longer, because moments later, he heard the Tardis door open...

He was standing with his back to her facing the console, but as she entered the room, he smiled a sly smile as he reached for his cane:

The game was about to begin...

"Doctor?"

She had spoken softly as she walked up to him. That took him by surprise, because he hadn't expected her to be capable of such softness of voice...

He leant on the cane as he turned to face her – and knew her at once, this was the woman who had left the shopping centre just before the bomb went off. She looked different now, she wore a floral dress and all trace of the Victorian look was gone – clearly, she had been trying to blend in here on Earth. Looking at her, as she smiled and her hair caught the glow of the Tardis as it rested in dark waves that fell to her shoulders, he felt as if his twin hearts may as well have turned to stone with the anger he felt toward this woman:

If she hadn't set the device to explode, she certainly must have known those who did...

"You must be Missy," he said, and briefly put his hand to his back as discomfort registered on his face,"Sorry...I'm still in pain. That coma was my doing - to repair myself - but I don't think it quite did the job..."

Then he drew in a slow breath, let it out as if trying to control the pain, and leant on his cane as he met her gaze.

"Missy...it is Missy?I mean, is that your real name?"

"It is."

"Missy, who walks into a Tardis and isn't even remotely surprised it's so much bigger on the inside. Missy, who must have known something about the bombing and is mixed up deep in trouble with people who perhaps she underestimated...You are in trouble?"

She slowly nodded.

"I'm human," she lied, "from an Earth colony a long way for this planet. I wanted to travel and see the universe and some how it all went wrong," and her pale eyes hardened as steel, "I went wrong with it, I guess."

"An easy mistake to make," he replied coldly, "But... if you think you're getting your hands on that replicator, you can think again, Missy! Do you have any idea how much that thing is worth? And Blue Ice..." he laughed, "Come on, I'm the Doctor. You think I'd kiss that goodbye in a hurry?"

And his eyes danced with amusement as he took the bottle from his pocket, uncapped it and inhaled deeply. As he capped the bottle again and put it away, his head was tilted back, his eyes were closed and he began to smile.

"Oh yes...I love this stuff!"

Then he straightened up, blinked a few times and his smile faded.

"What's the matter, Missy? Let me guess, you've heard of me, but never thought I was into something like this? I've been using for centuries!"

Then he blinked again, looking at her with a sparkle in his eyes.

"That's more like it! Great painkiller, too - is there anything this stuff can't do?"

Missy was still staring at him in surprise as she took in the sight of the Doctor, who she had never known to be a user of Blue Ice. But clearly he was, because his mood was very up all of a sudden...

"I thought you might hate me over the misunderstanding with Rose."

"Rose?"

Deep at the back of his eyes, anger burned but he refused to let her see it, because it was anger that was carrying him through this to ensure Missy got what she deserved, and he knew he couldn't let his act drop now, not even for one second of weakness...

She stepped closer to him.

"It was Rose who stole the replicator. I told her not to try the drug but she wouldn't listen. I hope she's okay."

The Doctor had one hand on the cane and the other on the edge of the console as he briefly looked away from her, hiding a moment of raw anger.

"Rose?"

He looked back at Missy, "Nah, she was nothing to me. Just another human...Sorry, that was no insult to you, Missy human from a colony planet...Some humans are more useful than others. And you could be very useful to me."

She was doing it again, staring at him as if his attitude had stunned her.

He had no clue why because it was not as if the woman knew him at all...

"In what way, Doctor?"

She stepped even closer,and he had caught the look in her eyes, heard the seductive tone in her voice and now he knew for sure his plan would work.

He smiled.

"In any way I see fit. I'm buzzing so high on this stuff if I wasn't so badly injured I'd have you right now up against that console."

Then he winked, and Missy returned his smile.

"I'd like nothing better, Doctor."

"Sounds like a plan," he announced, and she gave a gasp as his next action took her by surprise, making the ship lurch as he hit the controls and the Tardis jolted as it took off, heading out into time and space.

Missy looked uneasy now, and it added to his enjoyment of his revenge to know that she really believed he had got himself high and then taken off into space and was flying the Tardis whilst still on a buzz.

"Where are we going?" she asked nervously.

The Doctor laughed, took the bottle from his pocket and inhaled from it again.

"Gimme a minute...Oh. That. Was a strong one..."

He breathed slowly, as if waiting for the high to wear down, then capped the bottle again and put it back in his pocket.

"We," he announced, are off to a quiet little planet called Jalea-Echo 3. It's a very picturesque and tranquil place, you may have heard of it as you're a colonist – it's often a holiday destination for former Earth people who want to get away somewhere quiet. There's a lovely hotel there and I'm going to book us the honeymoon suite. You can help me take it easy while the pain wears off, and we can make our plans."

"Plans?"Missy wondered, "What plans might those be, Doctor?"

"Plans for the replicator," he replied, "I want you to open that thing up and take it apart and put it back together so I can study all the specifications. Then we can replicate the replicator! Then we can take control of the universe, one galaxy at a time!"

Missy's eyes were wide.

"You want to take over galaxies?"

The Doctor laughed, but then his smile faded and his eyes darkened.

"Why not? My home planet of Gallifrey is gone. Think about that. Don't you think you would feel ever so slightly bitter, being the last of your kind with a home world destroyed? This has been a long time coming."

And suddenly Missy felt uneasy.

She had always dreamed of the Doctor becoming dark, of him turning away from his fight against evil, and now it seemed it had happened...yet when she thought back to her former life as Harold Saxon she wondered what had gone wrong to make him such a worthy adversary back then.

She also wondered what consequences would come about to her own time line if she could keep him in this frame of mind...

She knew she wanted to.

But the past was all a blur anyway, to Missy here and now was all that mattered as they sped through space and the stars rushed past the Tardis as it went onwards, heading for its destination.

"We should be landing soon."

The Doctor had taken a seat on a comfortable chair near the console, and she had joined him, cautiously placing her hand on his leg and rubbing it gently as she noticed he was still leaning on his cane.

"So this coma...explain to me, Doctor. I know nothing of your species."

"I'm a TimeLord," he replied, "I can regenerate instead of dying...new body, new face, new everything. But I had an alternative to regeneration after the bomb blast, I put myself into the coma so my body could repair itself. But it hasn't quite worked as well as I hoped it would."

And he glanced down at her hand as she rested it on his knee, her touch was warm through the fabric of his suit and he knew the physical reaction he was enjoying at her touch was purely automatic- it had nothing to do with love, because his heart was with Rose – he was doing all of this for Rose...

"So we can't be too intimate, not yet. You'll have to be patient with me. But I want to be, Missy."

He locked his gaze with hers.

She needed no second telling, leaning closer and melting into his arms as he kept his eyes closed as he kissed her and thought only of Rose.

As he broke off from the kiss, he breathed heavily, but only because it was a sweet relief to no longer be in the arms of that woman.

Her face was flushed and she was a little breathless, and by the look in her eyes, he knew he had her now...

"You will never know how I've longed for you to kiss me!" she exclaimed, and he smiled and inwardly felt more than a little sick, "Ever since the day I saw you on the Judoon ship..." she added.

"You fancied me when I was a bomb victim in a coma? Well, I suppose there's nothing wrong with being a bit different."

"No, I meant...I took one look at you and -"

"Rose told me you used to be a man? That can''t be true, a woman as beautiful as you... I mean, you must have always been a woman...you're so...womanly..."

She laughed.

"Rose was high, don't listen to a word she says! Of course I've always been a woman! And I'm a very patient woman," she added seductively as she leant closer and looked into his eyes, "I can wait for a very long time, it doesn't matter if you take years to heal, Doctor. I can wait for you because you're worth it."

And then the Tardis landed, and he breathed a relieved sigh, then remembered to lean on the cane as he got up, to keep up the pretence of his injuries lingering.

"Time to go and book that room," he said to her, "You can carry the case for me – and once we're alone, I want you to take that thing apart so I can figure out how to replicate it."

She picked up the case and smiled.

"This is a wonderful plan, Doctor!"

"It certainly is," he murmured, heading for the door and feeling thankful they would, for a while, have a little distance between them until they got to the hotel:

The plan was going well.

Now it was time to move it along, moving Missy towards the endgame and the punishment she truly deserved...