"Why should i? Why should I do something like this?| " John asked, shoving the offending object into the face of the dark skinned woman. "You think I'm stupid? That I don't know this is some insane tactic of yours to get me to forget about the truth?"
"John, please, you have to trust me." Martha chanced a look over her shoulder; Adric was nicely drugged and still sleeping in his oversized seat. She turned her eyes back to the road, scanned all mirrors looking for the orange truck.
John uttered a bitter laugh from the passenger seat; he threw his head back and held onto his casted arm. "Trust you, you?" Why the hell would I do that? You really do think I am stupid. I may be some simpleton in comparison to that big medical brain of yours, but I know well enough never to trust you again."
She had to admit the words hurt. Martha sighed heavily and reminded herself that this was why they had gone into hiding in the first place…that he would be himself again soon. "You need to open that up, it's the only way all of this." She waved her hand around gesturing to the outside of the ambulance they drove in. "It's the only way you can be you again."
John sniffed loudly and for a time, Martha worried he would roll down his window and chuck the watch out. Surreptitiously, she flipped the child safety lock on her door, make asking for forgiveness silently as they drove through the night.
John looked out the window, and Martha knew it was because he did not want to look at her. She could not blame him, as a human this situation would have ended friendships, let alone marriages. But, it was different for him, for them. He had to know who he was; otherwise, the earth would be swallowed up.
His voice came from the other side of the ambulance. "I need some answers, Martha. You at least owe me that."
"I owe you everything." She nodded. "You owe me nothing; whatever you want to know, John, Doctor. " She looked over at him, and for a moment their eyes met, for a moment he was the mad alien again, not some human man in enough physical and emotional pain to have done anything.
"Then tell me the truth." John insisted. "It's a long drive to Cardiff, and I am pretty sure you locked the doors."
Martha nodded, turned to give the infant in the back one last look, and then began to speak.
20 Hours Earlier
It didn't take a year of walking across a destroyed planet for Martha to realize that she was being followed. Cursory glances out of her mirror as her speeds exceeded both legal and rational levels, told the small woman that there was a small blue car tailing her.
Martha warred with her sense of urgency to see about her family and the adrenaline of the chase. It was not hard for her to imagine who was behind her, not a far stretch to figure out the coincidence of the car accident and the chase were little coincidence at all. She cursed into her window as the small American car darted around traffic to its steady two car pace behind her.
She tried to shake it, some of her vast UNIT training came into play with dodging the tail, but the car behind her was relentless.
She really wanted to be at the hospital with Addy and John, but she knew it was really risky to lead whoever, or whatever was behind her into the safety of the Doctor's hidden persona. She figured whatever was behind her, knew her association with him.
Her phone to her ear and one hand on the steering wheel weaving through traffic, Martha through caution aside and called Jack.
"You're where?" he asked from what sounded like far off. Martha could hear a steady thudding and the sound of over active technology.
"On my way to Holy Sepulcher Hospital, outside |Manchester."
"Interesting choice, you know there are plenty of hospitals in the Cardiff area. Most of them even use disinfectant now. Why are you-"
"There's been an accident, Jack." Martha clipped. "Apparently your friends at Torchwood dropped the ball. John and Ady are in hospital. I don;t know how bad it is."
"Ill be there in ten."
The hospital outside of Manchester wasn't the same one she worked at for three months. In fact, it was one of the ore up market deals with private funding. After a four and a half hour drive, of which she could barely recall any of, Martha pulled into the posh parking lot and ran into the front doors.
The reception desk must have been on the lookout for a psychotic woman bursting through the doorway. One look and the young bookish looking woman at the desk leapt from her seat and met Martha. "Doctor Bowman." She asserted. "This way, I will take you up."
"Up where?" she asked meeting the steady cadence of the young woman. "What department?"
The woman hit the elevator button for the fifth floor and spoke in that same clipped, even tone that the woman on the phone had spoken to her in. Martha recognized the tone, had spoken in it enough times to know when shit was about to get real. "The NICU first, " she nodded. When Martha opened her mouth to ask a barrage of questions, the woman held up her hand and shook her head. "I am not authorized to give any information, Doctor. But, the staff is aware of the situation and are available for you consultation."
Martha made a mental note to be much more forthcoming next time she had to give any news on a patient. It was one thing to stand in deference to medical jargon and bureaucracy, wielding knowledge as a placard of professionalism. It was quite a different feeling being on the other end of the double speak.
The elevator doors opened into a sterile environment. Martha scrubbed her hands without being reminded to and donned the yellow coverings. "A tall woman in pink scrubs met her at the door and motioned for her to follow. "I'm nurse Jefferson." she announced. I am the nurse for your son. His name is Addy?"
"Adric, actually, Martha corrected. "What's the prognosis?"
Nurse Jefferson was all business as she led her to the far corner of the large room. The other beds were occupied by children in different stages of consciousness. "Adric was lucky, the lorry t-boned the side of the car he was not on. The car seat protected him from most of the damage."
"Why the NICU, then?" Martha asked, but when they reached the bed that Adric was in, there were no questions necessary. One side of his body was casted or bandaged. Martha caught her breath as she took in the site of her son attached to machines and a ventilator. "Is he conscious?"
The older woman nodded." He is sleeping right now. His vitals are good, he came through surgery fine, no reactions to the anesthesia."
Martha placed a hand on his tiny unbandaged one and let out a ragged breath. The nurse went on rattling off a series of medical terms that Martha had only known in books and diagnoses. "His father was driving."
Nurse Jefferson nodded and flipped through pages on the chart at the foot of the small bed. "John Bowman?"
Martha's ears raised and pricked at the sound of finality in the older woman's voice. "Where is he?" She asked as calmly as possible.
"Still in surgery." The woman assured her. "But, the Doctors need to see you as soon as he is out. There are..." she tilted her head a bit and looked at Martha with a sidelong glare. "Inconsistencies."
Martha raised her chin in defiance; she could only imagine the inconsistencies that Nurse Jefferson had referrenced. "They can find me here when they need me." Martha answered stoically; seating herself into the chair at the side of the infant's bed.
The nurse nodded and turned to her thick heel. Martha tried to focus on Adric, and not on the implications of John still being in surgery.
"You shoulda called m sooner.." Jack spoke crisply; he had turned up on the other side of the bed, leaving Martha to only guess how he got in when it was parents only. "I would have brought you here."
"Sort of an emergency situation—"
"Which is exactly why you should have called." Jack insisted, moving closer to Martha. He stood towering over her in the small space.
"Sorry, had to leave in a hurry." Martha defended, not turning to look at the immortal man next to her. "In case you cannot tell, my son is in grave danger." She finally did turn to Jack when she spoke again. "Did you bring them?"
He nodded and dug into his pockets. "Nice text message. A call would have been better." He passed the items to Martha. "Are you sure you want to do this?"
Martha ignored him but took the watches into her hands. "No," she answered honestly. "But the choices have been taken out of my hands, haven't they?" Martha pocketed the watches and leaned over Adric's sleeping form again. "I am just going to do Addy. The doctors sy that John is fine, a few broken bones but nothing too life threatening."
Jack nodded and shoved his hands into his pockets. "I really don't know how this all happened." he shook his head. "Bit, if you are all right here, I am going to go try to find out why Torchwood Four dropped the ball on this."
"Jack," Martha called to the American's retreating form. "This was no accident."
"I figured as mush." he nodded, still not meting her eyes.
"I was followed, on the way here A car," Martha described to vehicle to him and Jack did finally turn back around.
"You think it's them?" he asked. "You have more experience with this lot, I only read the reports from the archives."
"I think," she said. "That I would feel a hell of a lot better with a few armed guard and a gun."
Jack nodded and tossed her his side arm. "Keep it, I got another one." he opened his coat to show her his shoulder holster. "You stay in here with him, I am gonna go check on our friend a make a few phone calls."
"Let me know how he is." Martha spoke quietly.
"You haven't seen him yet?"
Martha shook her head. "Adric is first priority. Its the one thing the Doctor and I agreed upon. No matter what, I have to be here with him."
"That's alien logic, " Jack warned. "It's not gonna work real well on a human who wakes from surgery alone."
"It's what we agreed on Jack."
"You're his wife, Nightingale."
"I am estranged from a human man." she took a deep breath and found her voice again. "It's not him who I am married to, Jack."
Jack nodded slowly but left the NICU without another word. Martha let out a sigh of relief at his departure. He meant well, but if anything was following her, it was a sure bet that whatever it was would want to get to Adric to get to the Doctor.
XXXXXXXXXXXXX
Twenty minutes after Jack left, the older nurse appeared beside Adric's bed. "When will he waken?" Martha asked, then kicked herself for already knowing the answer. It was strange to need comfort at a time when her training screamed at her to be as impersonal as possible. "I'm sorry, it's just..."
Nurse Jefferson placed a comforting hand on her arm. "It's all right. Adric will wake when his body is ready to. Your husband is out of surgery, he is in recovery now. You could go and check on him if you like."
She stood and stretched Jack's words rang in her ears. Maybe she could go and see him, make sure he was alright? "Is he in recovery?"
The nurse nodded and began checking the machines connected to the infant. "Adric will be all right, he is pretty stable. We won't know about any head trauma until he wakens."
Martha nodded, she knew it was better to do a CT scan on an infant when awake. It was true what she had told Jack, one of the few things that she and the Doctor had agreed upon. In all cases, Addy came first. Marta looked down on her son as he slept, she fingered his tiny hand and he moved in his sleep, but did not wake. She checked for the weapon tucked into the back of her jeans and smiled. "Guess I could go in and look in on him real quick."
Nurse Jefferson smiled but continued making annotations in Adric's chart. Martha turned to bid one last good bye to the infant, and all hell broke loose.
XXXXXXXXXX
"Martha, what is it?" Jack asked in a hushed tone that was either due to the location, or keeping John out o earshot.
"It's Addy, he has gone into distress."
Jack's voice cam through stronger, his tone all business. "What do you mean?"
She took a sharp intake of breath to keep her emotions on lock down. "I don't know, I don;t know anything." All around her, in the small ante room of the NICU, a flood of white coated professionals created a steady stream in and out of the double doors.
They'd dragged her away, made her leave. When the machines began to squeal, she was told to get out. "They haven't stopped working on him, Jack. I've heard words like brain bleed, convulsions..."
"Martha, get a hold of yourself. You know the routine here. Whatever has happened, it will be all right. They have the situation under control/"
"I'm a doctor, I should be in there."
"You know the answer to that, Nightingale." Jack's voice had taken a harder edge, yet clipped at the edges of serenity.
"I'm his mother!" she screamed.
"Exactly." Jack answered. "Martha, please stay calm. I'm on my way down."
"I'm going to open the watch, Jack." Martha spoke evenly as she turned the small timepiece in her shaking hands. "I think its the only way."
"Think about this real hard before you do this, Martha." Jack clipped. "You were followed here."
"I know, but my son is in there in an unknown condition." she sniffed, feeling her carefully constructed control failing. "He's not human, Jack. Maybe this is what I am supposed to do."
"Martha, if something is following you, how do you know this isn't part of drawing the Doctor out?"
"How do I know it's not?" she asked For the first time since all this happened, she really wished he was there, that he could march into the room and take control of the situation. "Jack, I don;t know what to do." It came harder than she realized to admit.
The doors to the main room opened, an older man with glasses and thinning, gray hair stepped out, his face wore the steely mask of judicious ambiguity. "Mrs. Bowman?"
"Gotta go, Jack." she spoke and hung up the phone. As she stood to meet the doctor, the watch slid from her hands and hit the floor with a clatter. In an instant, it opened, the warm golden light poured from it. Martha left it on the floor, barely concious of it's actions as Doctor Harris explained Adric's sudden downturn.
The sudden cessation of alarms and panic from Adric's side of the room was nearly instantaneous. Through the open door, Martha could see the herd of medical professionals step back from the tiny bed and look at each other.
Just as Doctor Harris turned to see what held her attention, the outer doors opened, Jack Harkness burst into the room. "Change of plans, Jack." Martha announced motioning to the fallen watch.
"Right, " he nodded, pulling his phone out of his pocket. "I'll deal with this one, you need to get you friend upstairs calmed down."
"Deal with it?" she asked shrilly, motioning to the situation in the ward. "In about five minutes those doctors and nurses are going to be privy to the greatest medical mystery of their time."
Jack shook his head. "I have a team on the way, Torchwood really did drop the ball on this one. I got this overed, we can be out of here within five minutes. You need to go upstairs to John's room and convince him to come with you."
Martha shook her head. "I can't leave him here," She realized that she was waving her arms and screeching like an insane woman, but in truth, it was actions she had seen repeated a million times in her rotations at the A and E. Desperate mothers all spoke the same language.
"I got this," he assured her, "we know Adric is fine now, you need to go up to John's room. He's-"
"He's what, Jack? Dead? Disarmed? Disfigured? What?"
Jack shook his head. "I need you to get him down here, the ambulance bay, in five minutes. That is all the time we have. Those things, the watch got opened. If they are around, they are going to descend upon this place. Martha, think." he implored the shaking woman. "The Doctor would not want those things to march in here, think of all the lives that tey could ruin here."
She knew, in her very soul she knew what he would want. In that instance she realized she knew the Doctor better than she knew anyone else in the world, the universe. Martha nodded and turned toward the doors. "Ambulance bay, five minutes."
"You'll need ten." he warned her. "Make it five."
John's room was on the other side of the hospital, Martha sprinted the entire way, noting to herself how similar all hospitals were in thei mapping. His room was on the recovery wing, on her way ipast the nurses' station, she grabbed a white coat and a wheelchair.
She had expected much worse when she opened the door to his room, but John was sitting up drinking tea with his left hand, his right arm was housed in a tension cast.
He lifted turned his head when she entered. "How's Addy?" he asked in a raspy voice.
"I thought you just had surgery?"
He pointed at his casted arm. "Broken in ten places, don;t think I will be playing much piano in the near future." John shrugged. "I asked a question."
"Right, yes, Addy is fine. Better than fine. We gotta go." she said, gesturing to the wheelchair.
"Go?" he asked. n"To see Addy?" he turned and moved his legs off of the bed. "Hang on a sec, why are you taking me to see Addy?" A sudden look of steely anger flushed over the man's features. "I'm not going anywhere with you."
"John?" she both asked and pleaded. "Please, let's go see Addy, yeah? Let's go see our son."
"Our son?" he asked with a sneer. "Don't you mean, your son?"
"John, please." she asked realizing he had somehow been made aware of those inconsistencies that the nurse had spoken about. " We have to go. Now."
"Not until you tell me where Addy comes from. Who was it, Martha? Did you think you could fool me all this time? Didn't you think at some point all of this would come out?" John swept the cup of tea onto the floor. It fell with an amazing clatter.
"I don't understand what you-"
"He's not mine!" John screamed at her. "The blood doesn't match, Martha! Fathers with O positive blood do not yield offspring with A negative blood. I may not be some hot shot doctor, but even I know that."
"John, I can explain everything, remember, you lost a lot of your memories when you had –"
"Encephalitis, yeah, yeah, I know. But, funny thing is, none of my records show that. In fact, when they did my cat scan funny, no sign of it. At. All."
"John-"
"Blood don't match, blood don't match." he sing-songed in an eerie tuneless way. "Shoulda known, aall that time, you wouldn't even touch me..."
She cringed at his words, cringed again when the other items within his reach began to hurdle across the room. His anger was legendary, and Martha wondered if that was something else that had bled through. "You need to come with me, now."
"Why should I?" John asked in a too calm voice. "Why should I come with a lying bitch?"
"Because," Martha answered with her cleverest smile as she pointed the gun at her husband. "I'm the lying bitch holding the gun."