Even the Doctor was distracted enough to lift his head for a moment. "Oh, hello Andrews!", he called out, in his usual greeting tone, albeit a bit less joyful due to his overall tiredness.

But the man standing in the door frame just raised his eye brows in confusion.

"Don't mind him, Harry. He's a bit confused...", explained Sarah quickly.

"I suppose he would be. But at least he's awake.", replied the medical officer and former companion, before he walked over to his friends. He stopped right next to Sarah at the bedside. "Doctor, how do you feel?"

"My bad, Harry.", the Doctor apologized and squinted his eyes to make sure he was not mistaken about the man's identity again before he continued his rambling. "You don't look at all like that fellow Andrews..." He lifted a hand to catch Harry's sleeve at the same time as he stretched to look up at him. Sarah had often seen that helpless look on his face when he had been seeking her help, but it was the first time he turned to the medical officer like this. "Tell me, Harry... Should I be concerned about not being concerned that I may or may not be entirely human...?"

A little surprised by the unusual question, Harry glanced over to Sarah. Once she had nodded approvingly, he decided: "No, presumably not."

Sighing, the Doctor let himself drop back into a comfortable position. "That's a relief.", he said under a light smile and rested his tired eyes.

For several moments, Harry allowed him to, but then he eventually noticed how the Doctor had so brilliantly avoided to give an answer to his question. "...And, besides that?", the medical officer tried again.

"Hmm?" He just gave a noise without opening his eyes back up...

Harry shoved his hands into the pockets of the lab coat. "How are you doing?"

"Hmmm."

"Tired, I suppose…?", the younger man tried to guess, but Sarah stepped in to translate before the Doctor had him talking to himself.

"I believe what he is trying to say, is that you better try again later.", she told Harry, chuckling quietly.

"Oh, well...", he sighed in defeat and rolled his eyes since only Sarah could see it. "You know, old girl, at least here's something I still can do. But for Miss Shaw..." He shook his head.

The regretful tone in his voice caused her to look up in surprise. "What about her?", she asked.

"Didn't I tell you? The mirror's gotten Miss Shaw as well. Happened only last Thursday..."

Suddenly, the Doctor's voice joined the conversation again.
"...Miss Shaw?", he wondered aloud, but still did not spare his companion a glance.

"Oh, look, the patient's responsive after all…!", Harry teased his change of mind, before Sarah could finally reply to him.

"Miss Elizabeth Shaw, yes. Liz Shaw for short. Do you remember her?"

Their half-alien friend shook his head. "The name rings a bell, but that's about all..." A moment of silence passed after he had said it, then his eyes flew back open. "How many people are missing now, Harry?"

"About four dozen.", the younger one replied, "Some of them have shown up again, but they weren't quite… themselves afterwards. Quite frankly, I believe them to be copies, like the androids or something of the sort..." He exchanged another glance with Sarah, presumably because both of them still remembered the attempted invasion of Earth that had involved a number of facsimile humans – including a copy of each of the three friends.

To everyone's surprise, the Doctor propped himself up on an elbow. His expectant gaze wandered between his companions. "Tell me about the case. Tell me more about the mirrors.", he asked of them.

Afraid that he might be getting the idea to get out of bed, Sarah held up her hands. "Are you sure that's such a good idea? You're supposed to be resting..."

"Resting!?" He looked at her as though she had suggested the impossible. "I can barely stand the silence in my head! Come now, I'm just looking for something to occupy my thoughts with!"

The young woman shot him a stern look. "The last time you didn't want to believe us. You laughed at the matter."

Shaking his head, the Doctor disagreed. "I won't this time! Just tell me the whole story, will you?"

"Well then, here goes... It all started about two months ago when a weapons manufacturer vanished and the government put UNIT on the case...", Harry began to explain, and told the Time Lord about as much as he knew – every little part of the case he had been involved in personally. Occasionally, Sarah added a remark, but remained mostly quiet while the medical officer spoke of tetrahedra, reflections coming alive behind one's back, Benton's disappearance and Miss Shaw's failed attempts at identifying alien substances in the mirrors' make-up.

Indeed, the Doctor remained serious this time around. He just listened, gave the occasional nod to show that he was still following the explanation and appeared to be silently processing the information. Once Harry's retelling of the past ended in the present, the Doctor rejoined the conversation. "Sarah, why didn't you tell them?", he asked unexpectedly of the young woman.

"Tell them what?", she wondered with a light frown.

"That an investigation is not about finding the right answers, but about asking the right questions." explained the Doctor and gazed at her to see if she agreed. Once she had figured out the meaning of his clever advise, she nodded back at him.

"So which questions do you believe we should have asked?", Harry wanted to know as he crossed his arms in front of his chest.

"How did the tetrahedra get into the mirrors, hm?" The Doctor replied a little more slowly again. "At one point in their history, each of the mirrors must have been exposed to the same treatment in order to have gained their special properties. In a factory, or a workshop, for example, wouldn't you say?"

"Ah, yes… Of course these aren't any old mirrors, then...", the medical officer agreed for both of the time traveller's companions. "I would assume that the Brigadier has already been investigating their origin. But I need to ask again to know for sure."

"Perhaps you should do that.", suggested the Doctor.

While he leaned back to rest some more, Sarah sought the eye contact to Harry. The mentioning of the Brigadier reminded her of something he had told her earlier today. "He's on his way here, isn't he?", she asked the UNIT member.

"Yes, he is. He could arrive any moment...", Harry replied to her before addressing their tired friend again. "By the way, he also wanted to have a chat with you once you're up to it, Doctor."

"Did he…? But what for, I don't even know the man..? Not yet, anyway...", he wondered aloud, but then raised a hand to signal his companions not to answer this question. "No, don't say anything, I can imagine..." Once the words were spoken, Sarah watched in surprise as he pushed himself up into a sitting position. By the grunt and the exhausted expression on his face, she could tell easily that it cost him some effort.

Worried for his health, she reached out to stop him. "What are you doing, Doctor?"

"What does it look like? I'm getting up to meet this Brigadier of yours.", he explained briefly.

"Now? In your condition?! He isn't even here yet!", protested the young woman, which caused him to shoot her an annoyed glance. Despite his reaction, she kept her hands up, ready to push him back down if he attempted to swing himself out of bed.

"Look, Sarah, do you want me to lie in bed and be miserable all day?"

"I don't want you to be UP and miserable all day.", she replied, shaking her head, "Actually, I just don't want you to be miserable at all!"

"She's right.", Harry finally stepped in to support her with medical authority. "You've only just avoided a brush with death, and I dare say you're far from a full recovery."

The Doctor looked at each of them sceptically, his gaze wandering back and forth several times to assess the situation, and his friends' request.

"Please, Doctor. If you're not concerned about your own health, at least respect our concern.", pleaded Sarah.

He thought about it for another moment, but then he slowly lowered himself back into the pillows. "All right, fine." Though he let out an annoyed sigh, he appeared to agree with them for now. She didn't dare to question just how they had managed to persuade him so easily, she was just glad that they had succeeded.

A polite knocking on the door caused them to turn their heads. It opened by a crack, and a member of the hospital staff poked his head into the room. "Doctor Sullivan? There's a Sir Lethbridge-Stewart waiting for you at the reception."

"Talk of the devil.", Harry said to himself before walking over to the room's exit. "I'll be back with the Brig soon.", he announced to the other two.

Sarah was ready to follow him to the lobby, but at the same time, she couldn't simply leave the Doctor here, in this state. "Don't worry!" She smiled at the patient reassuringly and gave the hand that was resting on the edge of the bed a light squeeze and a pat. "We'll explain the situation to him before we come back here. It'll be just five minutes."

"Don't say too much about me. I intend to speak for myself.", he replied to her and nodded into the direction of the door as if to tell her that she should stop Harry from spilling too much.

Nodding back in agreement, his assistant got up to catch the medical officer in the corridor outside of the patient's room. She managed to stop him quickly, and passed on to him what the Doctor had asked of her. Harry accepted the request with raised eyebrows and a shrug before they eventually walked to the lobby together.