Chapter Nine
"No, I can't, it'd be like feeding a kid to an alligator. I told you, that bastard's not getting his hands on him ever again!" Jack yelled.
Martha said nothing during Jack's tirade. She knew he was hurting, but she had to think of the Doctor first.
"Have you finished?" she said calmly. "Listen to me Jack Harkness, I don't care one jot about how you feel about White Coat. I only care about the Doctor. I have no idea where to start, and I could kill him trying."
"I'd rather him be dead, than let that sick bastard near him!"
Jack knew he'd said the wrong thing as soon as the words left his mouth, and he saw the look on Martha's face.
She'd visibly paled. "You don't mean that," she whispered.
Jack looked over at the Doctor and rubbed a hand over his face. "No...I...god Martha, what do I do?" he said and sunk into the chair next to the bed.
He placed a hand on the Doctor's head and pushed damp strands of hair from his face.
"Tell me Martha, please. Do I let him stay like this and die in some god awful way, or do I hand him over to someone who sees him a nothing more than a piece of livestock."
Martha moved over to Jack and placed a hand on his shoulder. "We don't have to hand him over. White Coat can come here, just him, where we can keep an eye on him."
Jack looked up at Martha, and she could see ideas brewing in his mind.
"Yes, we can do that. We can restrict him to the med-bay. Then I can kill him," Jack said in a tone that was way too calm for Martha's liking.
She let it pass, treating the Doctor was more important.
"All we have to do is find a way to contact him," she said.
"I can do that," Jack said.
The rain was coming down almost horizontally as Jack pulled into the deserted car park.
He still hated the idea of letting White Coat anywhere near the Doctor, but he knew he had no choice.
The Doctor's condition had worsened. His hearts had begun to falter, and the virus for want of calling it something had spread over a quarter of the Doctor's brain, causing him to suffer violent fits.
Jack hoped his contact would arrive soon. All he wanted to do was get back to the Hub and the Doctor.
The sound of an engine made him look up, and another car pulled into the car park. Jack stepped out of the SUV and pulled his coat tighter to his body, and walked towards the other vehicle, stopping by the driver's side.
"Can't say it's a pleasure Harkness, but your money's as good as anyone's. What do you want?"
Jack forced a smile. "Just be lucky I'm paying you cash, not with the bullet you deserve. Have you heard of someone called White Coat?"
The person in the car laughed. "Oh, socialising with a better class of scumbag are we?"
Jack scowled and reached into the window, and grabbed a handful of the person's coat and hauled the person half out of the window.
"Listen you excuse for skin, can you get a message to him?" he snarled, before letting go.
"Okay, okay. I can get someone to get a message to him, but it might take a while. White Coat doesn't trust anyone. What's the message?"
Jack threw a roll of notes into the car. "Tell him I have what he wants. If he wants to talk, tell him to leave a message at this post box," he said and threw a piece of paper into the car. "Now, get out of my sight before I change my mind."
He watched as the car pulled away, hoping that he hadn't made a huge mistake. No time to think about that, he wanted to get back Cardiff.
For some reason, he had the feeling that something wasn't right.
The person who had been talking to Jack drove for a couple of miles and then pulled over. He took out his phone and dialled.
"Sir, he's out of the Hub, it'll take him a good hour to get back. Yes sir, he does have what you want."
The driver of the car went to switch off his phone and didn't pay much attention to it as it beeped at him. He pressed the button to read the text and jerked back in surprise, when a fine spray of mist covered his face.
Intense pain burnt across his face, and he didn't even have time to scream, as his face dissolved in a mess of melted flesh and bone.
White Coat put his phone down. "I really do despise tattle-tales."
He turned from his phone and spoke to the man standing in the shadows of the room.
"Tell your mercenaries, be ready to retrieve my property."
He watched the man leave his office, before relaxing. He really should have told Dr Michaels about the true nature of the Alpha Code, but he never was very good at sharing.
If he was right, Captain Harkness and the rest of Torchwood were going to have their hands full, and not just with the mercenaries.
Martha sat down at the terminal and began collating the latest results from the blood sample she'd taken from the Doctor.
They made depressing reading, he was deteriorating way too fast, and there was nothing she could do about.
She looked up when she heard someone approaching. It was Ianto, carrying two cups.
"Thought you could do with this, my special brew," he said and placed a cup of steaming coffee in front of her.
Ianto sat down and looked at the results on the screen. "It doesn't look good does it? He's going downhill fast isn't he?"
Martha sighed and nodded. "The fits are getting worse, and his left heart is starting to fail."
"What about the alien strand?"
"It's covering almost seventy percent. All his major organs have been compromised, it's slowly squeezing the life out of him, and I don't know why he can't fight it."
Ianto looked at the screen, then over at the stairs that led to the med-unit. "Maybe he doesn't want to."
Martha looked at him. "Why wouldn't he?"
"Martha, look at what he's been through in the last few years. First he finds and then looses the only surviving member of his race. Then there was Davros, the Daleks, having to give up Donna, and then loosing Rose to a human version of himself. That'd be enough to drive anyone to the edge, and then just when you think everything is getting better...wham, you get abducted by some bastard who turns you into a psychotic version of yourself. If that was me, I wouldn't want to live one second longer than I had to."
"You think he's lost the will to live, I can't believe that," Martha said.
"That's because you and Jack are too close to him. You don't want to see, because you're frightened of losing him."
Martha let out a long sigh. "Perhaps you're right, but you haven't seen what he can do, has done. I spent a whole year travelling the Earth, hiding from the Master for him, so if you think I'm going to let him slip away, then think again."
"Even if it means letting White Coat near him again?" Ianto asked.
"If I have to, yes. As much as I hate that man, he's the only one who can help him," Martha said, as she typed in the last test results.
Ianto took the empty cup and stood up. "You should get some rest, he'll need you."
Martha shook her head. "I can't."
"He's not going anywhere," Ianto said. "Get some sleep, I can watch out for him."
Martha nodded and disappeared into the small area that held a small but comfortable camp bed.
Ianto walked back down to the med-room, and moved over to the still unconscious Doctor. He sat down on the chair next to the bed.
He looked at the pale form of the Time Lord, then at the beeping monitors. It would be so easy to break into Jack's safe, who didn't know he knew the codes, and take out that phial of golden liquid.
The one that the Doctor had forced Jack to keep. The one that Jack would never use.
It would be easy to inject into the drip and end it all.
But he knew he wouldn't, because he knew it would destroy Jack.
Ianto moved closer and whispered in the Doctor's ear. "I know your suffering, I know you want to die. I could end it for you, just one injection. But I won't, because that would be too easy, just to die. You hurt me and you hurt those around you, you'll have to live with the guilt, like the rest of us."
He stopped talking when the monitors beeped in alarm and the Doctor stopped breathing...just for a second and then started again.
Ianto calmed himself and was about to get up, when the Doctor's hand suddenly clamped over his.
Ianto looked at the Doctor, eyes wide with surprise and a lot of fear.
The surprise melted away to pure fear, when the Doctor's eyes opened.
But, it wasn't fear of the Doctor that caused Ianto to freeze.
He looked into the Doctor's eyes and saw nothing. They were vacant, and if he could believe his eyes, they were covered in what looked like a cloudy film.
The whole of the hub was suddenly rocked by an explosion, and in the cacophony of the alarms, Ianto swore he heard a scream......Martha!
Ianto went to move, but the Doctor still had a hold on his hand. He tried to prise the Doctor's hand away, but his grip was like a vice.
The Doctor suddenly sat up, and slowly turned his head towards Ianto, and this time Ianto was afraid of the Doctor.
He was staring at Ianto......and the look on his face said one thing.....death.