"One, two, three, four, five... AH! Jamie, I told you to be quiet!"
The table on which the Doctor had been mixing a try-out portion of rejuvenation oil antidote, shook violently, and Jamie's head popped from under it. Luckily nothing suffered - this referred to both living and not living things.
"If anything of those spills onto you, it can burn you to the bone, so stop crawling around there", the Doctor mentioned, but Jamie went on sitting on the floor, head cocked to the side in curiosity. "Jamie, did you hear me? Out!"
Jamie stood up and walked away, hiding his face. The Doctor felt a twinge of regret about his sharp tone, but he was to finish the possible cure. When the ingredients were mixed, he walked into the console room and found both kids there, bunched together under the console.
"Jamie, Victoria, come out of there".
"Daddy cwoss?"
The Doctor's eyes widened. What, for Gallifrey's sake, was going on? Logically, kids always - fine, almost always - run away and pout if they're told to leave, but this was... even if the TARDIS exploded into a googolplex of tiny blue boxes, the Doctor wouldn't have been so thunder-struck. Ye-es, things would've gone completely different with the same companions, but grown-up, as required...
"No, no, Jamie, I-I-I'm not Daddy, I'm the Doctor".
"Dotta cwoss?" Jamie almost repeated, peeking at him with one eye.
"No, I'm not cross at you. At neither of you. But you know it well what can take place in case of mixing the wrong ingredient in! Don't you?"
Jamie nodded, now staring at the Doctor from the bottom, as well as Victoria.
"Good kids. I didn't mean to shout at you... Come on, I need one more piece for the puzzle".
Hesitantly, the children followed the Doctor back into the lab.
"You wanted to know what I was mixing? A possible antidote for you two. Guess that massage oil was not designed specifically for humans. Pay at your own risk!" the Doctor teased, sitting on a chair and plopping Jamie onto his lap. "But it needs to have a particle of a... well, victim is too strong of a word, but you know what I mean. And I think a bit of blood will do most finely. It's not going to hurt... almost. Very very briefly, I promise".
Jamie was silent when the needle punctured the tip of his ring finger and when several droplets of blood were taken from it.
"See? Now we add it right here and..." The Doctor groaned in reproach when the "antidote" reacted in the dullest way: instead of traditional reaction, there was nothing but a weak color change. So weak that uman eyes wouldn't have noticed it. The steel grey liquid got brownish shade, which promised to turn into scarlet - in no less than a few days. Dissatisfied, the Doctor performed the same procedure with Victoria, and the result was nearly the same, apart from her portion getting greener shade.
"I'm afraid that's not the best answer. Let's wait. If it's not what we need, then there will be a detailed search..."
The Doctor went on muttering until he noticed that now both children were clinging to him, but not in the "scared" way, simply seeking for comfort for themselves and their guardian.
"Habits never change", the Doctor murmured.