The Doctor placed his hand on the corner of the wall and started to edge his way round and cried out when someone grabbed his hand and dragged him round the corner.
Whoever it was didn't speak, just tightened their grip on him and pulled him forward. Then a familiar scent hit his nostrils as the person wrapped their arms around him...Jack!
He shifted in Jack's arms and tried to push away, but found he couldn't.
"Let go of me Jack!" he cried, trying once more to extricate himself from Jack's arms.
"Let go of me!"
Jack had been surprised, then overjoyed at finding the Doctor and had wrapped the Doctor in a silent embrace.
His heart suddenly dropped when the Doctor tried to pull away from him, eyes sightlessly trying to find his.
"Let go of me!"
Jack felt annoyance rising and he tightened his grip on the Doctor.
"I don't have time for this, one second you want my help, the next you're pushing me away. We're going, deal with it!" he growled and started to drag the reluctant Time Lord up the stairs.
"No, you don't..." the Doctor began.
"I don't want to hear it!" Jack cut across whatever the Doctor was going to say.
The Doctor tried to dig his heels in, but found himself pressed against Jack's chest.
"So help me Doc, blind or not, I will put you down and carry you out, now move!" Jack roared and yanked the Doctor forwards, virtually pulling him up the stairs.
White Coat could not believe his oh so secret base was under attack. He heard garbled reports of lizard creatures attacking the base...the Cynrog.
He was hurrying down the steps towards the laboratory. If this place was going to hell, then he had to get his property and leave, he had no intention of experiencing the tender mercies of the Cynrog.
He stopped when he heard what sounded like two people arguing. He listened for a few seconds...that sounded like his property and Captain Harkness!
So that was how the Cynrog found this place, Torchwood, he should have known. When the dust had settled, he would come back and finish Torchwood and with the very thing they were trying to retrieve.
He put his hand in his pocket and felt not just his hand gun, but the collar as well. Yes he could temporarily rid himself of Captain Harkness and also rein in his property as well.
Drawing his weapon, he slowly descended the steps.
Jack hated forcing the Doctor to move so fast, wincing every time the man stumbled on a step.
His mind was racing with conflicting thoughts and emotions. Why had the Doctor tried to break away from him, when he had called for help...or had the TARDIS acted on her own?
Explanations and recriminations would have to wait, he was going to get the Doctor away from here, whether he wanted to or not.
He worried that the Doctor had said nothing since his outburst. He glanced round at the man he was still pulling, hoping it would gain him some sort of reaction.
But the Doctor face was blank, sightless eyes staring at nothing. He could still see traces of whatever was inside him, but they were only faint. Either the thing inside was dying or and he didn't want to think on the possibility that the thing was winning and had overwhelmed the Doctor.
"Come on Doc," he said encouragingly.
The Doctor still didn't reply, but let Jack pull him upwards.
However, several steps later, he did stop and Jack turned sharply, another reprimand on his lips.
That died away when he saw the expression on the Doctor's face...it was one of fear.
"No please, not him," the Doctor whimpered.
Jack frowned and then he heard the click of a revolver and felt cold metal against his neck.
"I think perhaps you will be going nowhere," a now way too familiar voice said in Jack's ear.
Jack felt the weapon pressed harder into his neck, then the soft chink of something metallic?
"Now captain, if you would kindly place this around my property's neck," the voice said, and what looked like an oversized dog collar appeared over Jack's shoulder.
Jack's eyes never left the Doctor face, the look of pure terror on his face when he recognised the sound.
"No, please," he whimpered as Jack placed the collar around his neck.
"I'm sorry," Jack said as he clicked the collar into place.
"Well done captain, I would thank you, but you have been a particularly nasty thorn in my side. Unfortunately I will never get the pleasure of killing you. Now move away from my property."
Jack moved away from the Doctor reluctantly and turned...knowing who would be on the end of the gun.
White Coat smiled at him, a superior smile that did nothing for his looks.
"Now, it's time for myself and my property to depart. Come along," he said to the Doctor.
The Doctor didn't move, shaking his head in silent protest and despite his blindness, tried to back away.
He'd only taken a few steps, when he let out a cry of agony and sank to his knees
"Stop it!" Jack yelled, unable to move to help, the revolver now pointing at his face.
"Get up!" White Coat snapped at the stricken Doctor.
"He's blind, how the hell can he walk, let alone get up!" Jack shouted.
"Perhaps he just needs an incentive," White Coat said and without further thought pulled the trigger.
The Doctor had frozen at the sound of White Coat's voice and at the sound of the collar. He screamed inside his mind as Jack placed the collar around his neck, despite his plea.
When White Coat had ordered him to move, he'd refused and tried to move away.
Then the intense pain had almost crippled him and he fell to his knees. He heard the barked order of "Get up", but he couldn't, he was too weak.
He heard White Coat speak again, and then the gun shot, and he knew what had happened.
"No!" he screamed as he heard the sound of a body hitting the floor.
He crawled forwards, hands feeling for what he feared, when he heard other footsteps.
"Pick that up," he heard White Coat say.
He kept feeling with his hands and they found what he was feeling for, the body of Jack. One of his hands felt sticky and warm...blood, Jack's life was pouring over the steps.
He went to touch what he hoped was Jack's face, when he was roughly pulled away.
"No, Jack!" he cried as he was dragged away.