A/N: And now for some Oncoming Storm.
Also, there are fourteen chapters in this story total, which means this is the penultimate chapter!
On with the show.
Chapter Thirteen: Lethal Fashion Accessories
The Family and Rose halted as the Doctor sprang out into the hall.
The Doctor's arms were up in surrender, but widely spread so as to block the door behind him. "Hello, I'm the Doctor."
Rose jerked in Father of Mine's grip. "Doctor, run, they took Jack—"
"Noticed, thanks. And I'm not leaving you."
Son of Mine stepped forward and sniffed deeply. A smile crept onto his face. "At last."
"At last," the Doctor agreed, lowering his arms.
Inside the room the Doctor had just left, Martha tore her attention away from the standoff outside and gazed around frantically. She couldn't just sit here and watch the Doctor or Rose be murdered. There had to be something in here she could use to help…
Outside, Son of Mine looked at the fire extinguisher slung over the Doctor's shoulder. "What's that?"
"Fashion accessory," the Doctor said without missing a beat. "I think it makes me look dashing. Rose, don't you think it makes me look dashing?"
"Dunno," she replied, smiling despite the slight shakiness in her voice. "Red's not really your color." She winced as Father of Mine's grip tightened.
The Doctor tensed and returned his attention to Son of Mine. "How did you find me? And I mean in this time and place—not exactly hard to follow a spit trail through a hospital."
"Oh, the signal was confused, sure enough," Son of Mine said, taking a step closer to the Doctor, "But we worked it out in the end."
The Doctor tilted his head back slightly, eyebrows raising. "Quite a gift, that. Smelling one single person through not only the entire vortex, but through a species change. Sure you don't want to go into perfume testing? You've certainly got the nose for it. Get out of Jack and I might even find you a job."
Son of Mine took another step. "And miss out on such a feast?"
The Doctor stepped back and raised his arms again. "Hold on, there are several very, very good reasons why you shouldn't eat me just yet. One…" He paused for a moment. "You lost your vortex manipulator. Which means my ship is the only way off the moon, and I'm the only one who can fly her."
"Oh, I think the Judoon ships will do nicely," Son of Mine said dismissively, stepping closer. "Slip into the crew and we're out of here. And now, we dine—"
"Don't!" Rose protested.
Son of Mine gave a frustrated groan. "Kill her already!" His eyes lit up maliciously at the Doctor. "For Mother of Mine."
What little joviality in the Doctor's voice evaporated instantly. "If you hurt her, I will make you regret it with every cell of your being."
Son of Mine let out a very un-Jack-ish laugh. "You're dead, Time Lord. All those centuries…ours." He took another step closer to the Doctor, now merely a few steps away.
The Doctor's lips curled up in a snarl. "Centuries? Forget that; you killed Jack and who knows how many others. For just what you've already done I will make sure each one of you lives an eternity."
Son of Mine raised an eyebrow. "Hardly a decent threat."
"It's the best threat there is." The steeliness in his tone was enough that Son of Mine actually took the tiniest of steps back. "Because it's not an empty one. If you want to live forever, I can make it happen."
Back in the room across the hall, Martha's heart soared when she realised what machine she had found. But would the cords stretch far enough?
Outside, Son of Mine spoke again with less of Jack's smugness in his voice. "Fine, we'll let your precious little girlfriend go if you give yourself over without a fight."
The Doctor's eyes narrowed. "Not good enough."
Son of Mine tilted his head to the side. "Not—"
The Time Lord's voice trembled with barely controlled rage. "You've got two of my friends. Get out of Jack."
Son of Mine raised an eyebrow. "Oh, I don't think so." He stepped forward, crouching, ready to strike—
"Ah, well, worth a shot. Two—" The Doctor whipped the fire extinguisher around to aim the nozzle straight at Son of Mine's face. "This isn't just a fashion accessory."
The contents of the fire extinguisher gushed out in a powerful stream straight into Son of Mine's eyes with enough force to make his head snap backward. Blinded, Son of Mine howled and clutched at his face. The Doctor side-stepped him and lifted the nozzle towards Father of Mine.
"Drop her."
Snarling, Father of Mine shielded his face behind Rose. The Doctor switched his aim to Sister of Mine, who cowered in fear.
"Drop her now!"
Rose screamed, "Doctor, behind you!"
The Doctor whirled around just in time to see Son of Mine leap towards him—
Martha sprang between them, live electrical paddles from a defibrillator clutched in her fists. Son of Mine's body twisted like a gymnast in an attempt to dodge the paddles, but his course was already set. He slammed into them with a scream, body dancing like it was under a strobe light as it jerked wildly.
His remains thumped to the ground, accompanied by a grief-ridden howl from Father of Mine and a shriek of rage from Sister of Mine.
Taking advantage of the distraction, Rose hooked a foot around the back of Father of Mine's knee and yanked, sending them both sprawling to the ground. The blaster crashed on the floor and slid a bit further down the hall, and Sister of Mine dived for it. Rolling off Father of Mine, Rose scrambled for the blaster, snatching it from under Sister of Mine's fingertips.
Sister of Mine stomped her foot a moment as if in a tantrum, but then she raced down the hall away from Rose as fast as her little legs could carry her, Father of Mine just a second behind her.
The Doctor dropped the fire extinguisher, turned the electrical paddles off with his sonic screwdriver, and grabbed Martha's shaking hands. "Martha? Hey, shhh, look at me, look at me, it's fine, you can put them down now."
Martha dropped them, but her eyes didn't budge from Jack's slightly smoking body.
"Rose? Did they hurt you? Are you okay?"
The blaster slipped from Rose's hands as she turned to face the Doctor. She took a deep, shuddering breath. "I'm—I'm okay."
Martha fell to her knees. "I've killed him…" Her hands planted on Jack's chest and pumped frantically.
The Doctor's voice sounded pained. "Martha, really, you don't need to…"
"You said he couldn't die!" accused Martha, not stopping her pumping. "You said he couldn't die and I've killed him!" She pressed her lips to Jack's and breathed.
The Doctor sighed, "Oh, you'll find out," and moved over to Rose. He wrapped an arm around her shoulders.
"Did that kill him?" she asked, "I mean, it killed Jack, but did it kill…?"
"Yep," the Doctor said joylessly, watching as Martha did more chest compressions. "Only two of them left now."
She bit her lip. "You sound like you're checking them off. You're not going to…are you?"
"No," the Doctor answered honestly. He wasn't sure exactly what he was going to do to them if they crossed his path again, but he did know it did not involve either of their deaths.
It was going to be so much worse.
He held Rose a little tighter, trying to push thoughts of event horizons and chains forged in dwarf stars out of his mind.
"Martha?" Rose said softly as Martha pressed her lips to Jack's again, "Martha, really, there's nothing you can do but wait—"
Martha pulled back with a shriek as Jack suddenly began kissing her back.
"And that is the best way to wake up!" Jack said with a grin, sitting up. He turned to the Doctor and Rose. "Miss me?"
The Doctor let go of Rose and extended a hand for Jack to take, a faint smile returning to his face. "Oh, I dunno. Your replacement didn't tell near as many naked stories." He pulled Jack up.
"I'll take that as a yes."
"You—you—" Martha stammered.
Jack winked. "Martha Jones, my personal guardian angel."
The Doctor snorted. "Really? That's just—"
Rose elbowed him with an eye roll and a laugh. "Says the man who told me I had to fight the urge to swoon whenever he was in the room."
"Oh, I thought that one was clever!"
Jack picked his blaster up off the floor, stuck it in his pocket, and turned back to the Doctor. "What happened to the Family?"
"Two left, moving on. More importantly, how many humans are left in the hospital and where are the Judoon?"
"Should be just the top floor now. We were finishing up the third floor when…you know."
The Doctor nodded. "And the Judoon?"
Before Jack could reply, the door to the stairs at the end of the hall burst open, letting a line of marching Judoon out. Immediately, Rose seized the Doctor's arm and yanked him behind her.
"Er, Rose, what are you doing?" the Doctor asked in befuddlement.
"I'm not going to let them find out you're not human," Rose replied without letting go of him or taking her eyes off the advancing Judoon.
"But I've got the little mark on my hand, look…"
"Are they going to stop?" asked Martha.
The Judoon were mere metres away, and Jack ushered them all to the side of the hallway. "Don't think so, everybody shift!"
The four of them pressed themselves into the wall as the Judoon stomped past them. The Doctor made the tiniest of steps forward and opened his mouth to speak, and Rose jerked him back.
"What?" asked the Doctor, indignant.
"What part of 'I'm not going to let them find out you're not human' didn't you understand? Don't draw attention to yourself!"
"Oh, fine then. You ask them to tell us what they're doing."
Rose took a deep breath and stepped forward from the wall as much as she could without being crushed. "Judoon! Um, I hereby demand—"
"Request," the Doctor whispered.
"—Request you tell me what your plans for this hospital are under the Shadow Proclamation…"
"Statute four two six five eight."
"Statute four two six five eight!"
The Judoon kept marching, so Rose yelled louder. "Oi! Don't ignore me! I just asked you a question!"
As one, the Judoon paused and spun to face her. The nearest one raised its helmet. "Charge: assault and murder of officer. Plea: Guilty. Sentence: Execution. Earth building and inhabitants designated for immediate destruction. Justice is swift."
"What, the whole hospital?" Martha asked in alarm as the Judoon lowered its helmet and the entire troop resumed marching.
"Got to be," said Jack, "But then why aren't they executing us?"
"Not worth the energy," murmured the Doctor, watching the Judoon pass. "Easier to just polish the whole building off once they've returned to their ship. Give them time to get back to the ship and charge up their weapons, and I'd say we've got twenty minutes before a rather big boom."
The last Judoon finally passed, and all four of them hurried to the stairs.
"But we've still got the top floor!" Martha protested as the Doctor headed down.
"I know, but it'll be easier if we bring the TARDIS to them!"
"You mean that box? How're we supposed to lift that box up the stairs in the next twenty minutes?"
Martha's question went unanswered as they reached the third floor and ran through the deserted hallways. The hospital was like a ghost town. They didn't meet a soul until they reached the MRI room where the TARDIS was. The Doctor charged in through the door—
And slammed into the floor as Father of Mine tackled him.
Martha shrieked and Rose reached for him as the Doctor screamed, his skin just starting to show a faint glimmer of gold as Father of Mine closed his eyes and started to sniff deeply…
Jack whipped his blaster out and shot straight at Father of Mine's back once, twice, three times. Father of Mine dropped like a brick. Then Jack whirled around and aimed his blaster at Daughter of Mine, who had been crouching behind the door and waiting to strike. Her little girl eyes were wide with disbelief, then hunger.
"Alive?" she murmured.
Jack fired, and she ducked. The blast missed her by a split second. Before Jack could fire again, she had hurled herself to the back of the room and shut herself into a cupboard.
Gasping, the Doctor lurched towards the cupboard door and sonicked it shut before sagging against its side.
"One left," Jack said coldly, shoving his blaster back into his pocket. "Doctor? You okay?"
"Yeah, thanks," the Doctor wheezed as Rose and Martha helped him back to his feet. He brushed himself off and reached for the TARDIS door. "Deal with her later. Sixteen minutes and counting then! Hurry up!"
A/N: Next and last chapter posted on Friday.