"Sarah?", called the voice of Harry, who had just reappeared in the office entrance and was holding the door open. "Could you help me with something for a moment?"
Hidden in the way he had chosen his words, Sarah thought she had caught wind of something that was only meant for her to hear and so she played along without questioning. "Sure.", she cheerfully replied and walked out to follow him.
Even though the door had fallen into its lock behind them, the medical officer lead her another room further away, all the way to the end of the sick bay. Like a true professional, he was wearing a lab coat over his usual navy blue dress now and carried a clipboard around with him. Sarah could not help but wonder what was written on the papers.
"Well, old girl, I have some good news and some bad news...", Harry finally began, but then hesitated as he waited for Sarah to make a choice.
"There's good news?", she asked as she took a deep breath to brace herself for whatever was to follow. The look on Harry's face revealed to her that the matter was rather complicated. "Let's hear the good news first, then."
"Save for that small cut from the china, he's perfectly healthy...", Harry said, smiling. But he was just smiling for her and Sarah could see the cracks in his façade all too plainly.
Even so, she sighed in relief. "So you were mistaken about the heart failure? But that's great!"
Realizing that he had to give away the bad news now, Harry's smile fell away and he frowned worriedly.
"Well, it's really not that simple… You see, he's perfectly healthy… for a human., that is."
"What's that supposed to mean?" Sarah demanded to know, confused, albeit the message had been rather clear.
The medical officer pulled up his clipboard to read from. "It means that he's got one heart with no trace of there ever having been two. His blood type is AB positive, which no one had been able to identify before, and although I can't know for sure – stubborn patient that he is – I don't think he still has a body temperature of 15 degrees Celsius..."
"You're saying he's not a Time Lord… any more?"
"Afraid so. I've cross-checked with the little information I gathered from his medical records, but it seems that there is little to no abnormality compared to the human standard now." Harry looked at her and gave a somewhat nervous chuckle. "...So very odd, isn't it? For once, he's one of us. But I haven't got the slightest clue what could have made him that way..."
As she tried to make something of that, to identify the consequences of it, Sarah paced a few steps up and down. She had never thought about it like that, but she could clearly see now that Harry was right. In fact, if she would have paid more attention, she might have noticed on the first day already that something was wrong. More wrong than just his memory of her. She remembered thinking that he was real because he felt warm when she had thrown her arms around him on their reunion. But that was what one would expect of a fellow human, not of a Time Lord. His kind were cold-blooded. As in, literally, but thankfully not metaphorically...
But as for his current state… did it not make him vulnerable? She was a little taken aback by fear when she thought of all the possible ways his enemies could kill him now. Or worse even, all the accidents that could cost his life. No respiratory bypass system to save him from suffocation, no regeneration to cheat death with. No immunity against the common human illnesses and weaknesses.
"So, he might choke on a Jelly Baby now? Strangled by that stupid scarf of his?" An upset young woman turned back to her friend.
"Sarah...", he reminded her, surprised that she would pose questions such as these. "That's what can happen to any of us. He's no more vulnerable now than you or me..."
"Right..." Sarah blinked confused, but nodded in response. For a few seconds she was no longer certain what had caused her to think otherwise, but then she found the right words to explain herself to Harry. "But, if he knew about it…!", she tried again, but ended up hesitating.
"He'd probably be mad at whoever or whatever caused this.", Harry concluded for her, shrugging. "But he doesn't know. He thinks he's a human, with an ordinary life like any of us had before he and his time machine entered our lives. And for the current situation he's in, he's even right to think so."
Nervous and uncertain what to make of all this, Sarah bit her fingernail and kept on pacing around the sick bed the medical officer had sat down on. "I don't know…!", she argued weakly, "But it's just not right. I mean we know who he really is! Don't you think we should tell him?"
Harry crossed his arms. "I've pondered about that for a bit, already… I mean, I'd love to – I can't stand lying to him, anyway. But would he believe us? Would you believe me if I told you that you're an alien, hundreds of years old, having had at least three different faces prior to this one?"
"No, I wouldn't!", she quickly replied, so she could deliver an argument immediately afterwards. "But it's different with him. We have lots of evidence to prove our story with!"
"Evidence? You mean this?" Harry held up the clipboard. "This is hardly anything. If I wouldn't know the old fellow, I would think this is some kind of elaborate joke. These records could be of two entirely different creatures!"
Sarah sighed, rolled her head around and began to pace around the room anew. Just as she passed him by again, Harry held out a hand to signal her that it was time for her to stop this useless worrying. "Listen, old girl, I might not be able to help him straight away, but I do have a plan of sorts… Who do you reckon knows how a complete restructuring of internal organs, metabolism and everything is possible?"
Sarah shrugged at the question first, and then gave it another thought. "I don't know… the Doctor?", she finally replied and with an expectant gaze, she waited for Harry to explain what he was getting at.
"If only he would remember, yes. He's been involved in it, after all!", he then concluded for her. "Like I told you before, we can't tell him just yet that he's an alien time traveller – but we can try to confront him with questions and familiar faces, one at a time, until something clicks." He was a doctor for medicine and not for ailments of the mind, but still Sarah trusted his expertise. You may say about his occasional clumsiness or cluelessness whatever you may like, but he was always and absolutely professional about his job. Since Sarah's expression was still pleading for something optimistic to hear, the medical officer added: "Best case: Once he remembers, he can help himself."
The young woman nodded without a word in response. He was right, she knew, but it didn't help to lift her mood.
"So, what's the worst case, then?", she demanded to know, but had not given the question much thought before blurting it out. Deep down, she knew she should not have asked. After all, chances were that she would not feel better if she knew.
Harry gasped for air, obviously not feeling any better having to think up the worst scenario. As he finally spoke, however, his lowly voice had a hopeful, comforting tone to it.
"Uhm… well, he won't remember and then we'll all just grow old and grey together."
There was something bitter-sweet about the picture he had just painted in Sarah's imagination. A faint smile forced its way on the young woman's lips. Although she had always avoided to think of it, she knew that the Doctor was bound to outlive all of them, and it was sad to think that the day would come where his best friends would not be around for him any longer. In that sense, growing old together was not the worst fate for them. In fact, she might enjoy it. In 40 years of time, all three of them sitting on a park bench somewhere and telling still the same old, silly jokes and impossible tales.
Yet she knew the Doctor too well to disregard his opinion on the matter; For someone who was 750 years old, if he knew he was not going to live to see more than another 50 years, this fate had to be as good as the death sentence carried out the next morning. He would not enjoy it. He would hate it. It would be nothing but unnatural for him.
With a quiet moan, Sarah dropped down on the sick bed next to Harry and folded her hands in her lap.
As she glanced up to the well-dressed naval officer next to her, he spoke again.
"In any case, we'll be there for him all the way.", he assured her, and this time, the smile on his face was more honest, more optimistic than the last time. "Even if he should be of no more use to UNIT, he's still a good friend to you and me. Isn't that right, Sarah?"
The smile on Sarah's face grew wider. Of course, he was right and she was so glad that there was someone else who understood that feeling of worry and confusion in her head. Sometimes, old-fashioned values were not so wrong. She nudged him jokingly. "You're invaluable, Harry."
"Don't say something like that. I'm just following my moral compass to do what is right. I'm a doctor, too, after all.", he replied quickly, then pushed himself off the bed. After a short pause, Harry suggested to return to his office. "Well, let's not keep the patient waiting for too long. I'll just tell him that he's fit as a fiddle – to which he will probably reply that he already knew."
They walked back together, but the young woman still chuckled at his honest remark. As they opened the door to Harry's office, the Doctor was sitting on his chair facing the wrong way and leaning over the backrest. He seemed a bit startled by the sound of the door opening, which suggested that he might have been lost in thought again. When his eyes fell on Harry, the medical officer was almost immediately greeted with an annoyed glare.
"So, tell me: How bad is it? Will I die?", the Doctor demanded to know. His voice bore a strong ironic tone. Once he had gotten up from his chair, he picked up his jacket and threw it over his shoulder, ready to leave.
Harry looked perplexed for a moment, although he had already expected to be met with such disapproval. "Oh, you're perfectly all right, Doctor.", he quickly tried to appease him.
"Of course I am! I told you so, didn't I?", the Doctor slightly raised his voice in response to mark how certain he was. Even if the medical officer would try to tell him otherwise, Sarah knew for sure now that he was in no mood to listen. "Now if you're quite done wasting my time, Sarah and I have to get back to university."
"We do?", asked his companion, surprised. There was no appointment she knew of, but still the Doctor turned her around by her shoulder, towards the door. All Sarah could do was to glance back at the medical officer and to apologize with a shrug. "Sorry, Harry.", she told him quietly.
"Yes, we do, because I have to and it's your car we've come here with.", the Doctor urged her out of the room. "Now, come on!"
Once they were out of the sick bay, he took the lead back out of the building. To Sarah's surprise, he either had remembered the way back to the parking lot quite well or he actually remembered the layout of the UNIT headquarters. In any case, his steady strides showed her that he had no interest to look around the building further. Sarah wished he had; there were more familiar faces for him too meet.
Not even a full minute after Harry had been out of hearing range, the Doctor suddenly shot a glance over to the young woman walking at his side. "And what's with that pitying look?", he asked out of the blue and a frown of seriousness had appeared on his face, which he turned away again almost immediately.
"What pitying look?" Sarah had not noticed that she had formed such an expression, and even less thought that he might notice it.
Upon her response, he looked at her once more and pointed at her face.
"There, in your eyes!", he claimed. Instead of being all serious, there was a bit of concern in his voice now. "Has Harry told you something I should know of?"
The young woman gasped looking for words. She had not meant to pity him, but if it had been so plain for him to see, she had to make up a good lie now. Although struggling a bit, she finally found something to say.
"Ah, no. No… we were just talking about an old friend of ours. It's just the melancholy, I suppose." To fake honesty, she added a smile and a shrug. She downright hated having to lie to him. It just felt so horribly wrong. The more glad was she when he turned his eyes away.
"Sarah, I know you've been worried for a long time because you thought I was dead, but this time, I was just knocked out… I'm all right now.", the former time traveller attempted to ease her worries, which quite honestly did not help much since he had little idea what this was really about. A clueless shrug just underlined her assumption that he merely wanted her to lighten up. "These things happen when you get involved in government businesses, don't they?"
"I know, Doctor. And I'm glad you are all right." The reply was not entirely true, but not entirely wrong either and Sarah patched it with a light smile again in hope to make it seem more convincing. She was endlessly grateful when he just nodded and then let go of the subject.
On their way out, he only stopped once more, just when they arrived at Sarah's car and she was unlocking the doors. The Doctor knocked on the car's roof to get her attention, then asked, wondering: "By the way, have you noticed that Harry has the same affliction as you?"
Sarah noticed quickly by the look in his eyes that he had used the word in a jokingly manner, and was not to be taken too seriously. "What kind of affliction?"
"He keeps calling me 'Doctor', like he doesn't know my name – just like you do.", he replied. "Don't you think that's a bit funny?"
It seemed he did not mind too much not to be called by his new name, and Sarah couldn't help but laugh as she opened the door on the driver's side. "I think it's a bit funny that you failed to notice how you keep saying 'Harry' like he's always been your pal!"
Caught off guard by that reply, the Doctor blinked at her confused. However, it took no longer than a few seconds, before he regained his posture "Well...", he said explicitly in a serious tone. "He doesn't seem like he knows what he's doing, but he's probably a very decent chap at heart."
Sarah just kept chuckling at this defensive argument, then let herself drop behind the steering wheel of her little car. Even though it might be subconsciously, he knew he could trust Harry with his life!