A/N: My internet died on Saturday so for most of the week I've been sent back to the Stone Age, but it was more of a blessing in disguise it would seem, as I managed to get another chapter done! Le Gasp! (I know French, me :D) But now it's back, so once again Final Fantasy 11-shaped distractions will be abundant...

Chapter 14 - Relapse

Flashback…

When Rose woke up, the Doctor was gone.

The pain in her head had vanished so she sat up and looked around at her surroundings, finding a now lit campfire with the bandit still asleep next to it, Jack apparently cooking the morning's meal. He looked up at her.

"You hungry?" he asked.

Her stomach growled loudly in reply. Jack grinned, turning his attentions back to cooking breakfast.

"Where's the Doctor?" she enquired, but Jack only shrugged. Rose pushed herself off of the makeshift stretcher and onto both feet, stretching and yawning. She could see Father Jace and Gabrielle over by a stream, collecting water together. She wandered over to them.

"Hey, have you seen the Doctor?" she asked, but they shook their heads. She sighed, looking through the tress of the forest as if expecting to see him standing there grinning. It was the only way he could've gone. A little odd, having a random one-to-one with nature at a time like this she thought, but the Doctor was a very random man. She headed into the forest.

"Doctor?" she called every now and then as she navigated her way slowly through the dense forestry. "Doctor?"

Minutes passed. As she got further and further in, her surroundings seemed to get more foreboding, a cold breeze biting at her skin as the hairs rose on the back of her neck. Something was wrong. Something was definitely wrong… Her mind was telling her to head towards a big oak tree in the distance, she didn't know why but it felt… right. It was as though something was pulling her to that direction, something that lingered in the shadows reeling her in with a lasso… But she couldn't help but surrender to it, and altered her direction.

Suddenly a potent stench reached her nose – the awful smell of dried vomit she had only once become familiar with; when Mickey had come down with a particularly nasty case of food poisoning from the local curry takeaway. Instantly her sense of uneasiness rose dramatically, but thankfully her determination to find the Doctor also increased with it.

"Doctor!" she called, louder this time. "Where are you?" No answer.

She kept walking in the direction her surroundings were pulling her. What else could she do? Every neuron in her brain was screaming, 'trap' as the foul stench became worse and worse, almost too much to bear. A few more minutes passed as she progressed cautiously through the woodland, her thoughts turning to Jack and the camp. Were they far? She'd probably only come a quarter of a mile, if that. Would they be able to hear her if she screamed?

She was close to the oak tree now; it was barely more than a few minutes away. She was so absorbed in what was ahead of her that she almost fell over when something caught her foot. In surprise she looked down – and found the best, yet worst thing possible.

"Doctor…" she breathed, kneeling down next to the body lying still on the floor. She pulled him over to lie on his back, his head lolling uselessly on the floor. Anxiously she rested her hand on his chest, but drew it back in alarm when she felt the hugely irregular beating of his left heart. It was rapidly beating as though he'd just run a marathon. She moved her hand to rest against the right side of his chest, where it also rang out the same crazy beat. Who knew how long he'd been there, lying on the damp soil. No doubt it was his vomit she could smell. Whether the pull had been his mind calling out or pure luck on her part Rose didn't know, but she'd found an unconscious needle in a giant forest haystack.

She began to yell for Jack, hoping to god he could hear her.

The Doctor's working heart had taken the hint that it had to keep beating by the time they had got back to the village.

The room of the Healer was still damaged from the fire so the Doctor had been taken back to Martin's house to rest. Donna had nothing to do but sit by his bedside and wait as numerous villagers came and went with their prayers, very much a repetition from just a few days earlier – though this time, Donna didn't have a clue whether he was going to pull through.

She had explained to Martin and Elizabeth exactly what had happened in the bandit camp; the punishment the Doctor had endured to protect her and Joshua. The tears in Elizabeth's eyes as she held her son to her was enough to show just how grateful she truly was to the Doctor for keeping Joshua safe, whilst Martin had silently assumed authority by the Doctor's bedside, dabbing at the Time Lord's lips with a water-soaked cloth.

Larec and Gabrielle had been around every few hours to bathe his wounds in various ointments and mixes of herbs, but Donna knew plants couldn't heal broken bones. He needed proper medical care – he needed the TARDIS. Wherever she was now.

No one had even mentioned the miracle cure Father Jace had used. When Father Jace had came around to pray for the Doctor, Donna had implored him to use it again – just enough so the Doctor could have a fighting chance – but Father Jace, puzzlingly, had just insisted he was acting by the Doctor's own wishes.

Joshua had spent almost every waking moment talking to the Doctor's unconscious body, playing with the toys his father had carved for him on the covers next to the Time Lord. When Donna had come in to tell him his dinner was ready she'd found him curled into the Doctor's side, sleeping peacefully.

Twenty-four hours of silence from the Doctor passed.

Flashback…

"It's the plague," Jack said.

"But… but…" Rose stammered, looking down at the Doctor since deposited onto the stretcher by Jack. "It went! You saw! He was fine!"

Jack pulled a face, reaching out to unbutton the Doctor's jacket and shirt. "It tricked all of us," he said as he pulled back the material to reveal large, raised, red blotches all over the Time Lord's chest. He cursed, resting his hand over the Doctor's left heart.

"How bad is it?" Rose dared herself to ask. He quickly checked the other heart before looking up at her, his expression grave. Her heart dropped.

"See these?" he pointed to the red blotches. "They're purpura, symptomatic of severe meningitis. Their redness is his blood. His hearts have gone into tachycardia; no telling how long before he goes into complete hearts failure." Jack checked none of the others were watching as he produced his manipulator and covertly did a quick scan, reading the results. "Hypovolaemia," he muttered.

"What's that mean?"

"Trouble. It's the loss of blood volume. He's haemorrhaging from the arteries, bleeding inside, the hypovolaemia is probably what caused him to faint." He checked the manipulator again. "His kidneys are failing, rapidly."

Rose's gaze dropped to the floor, her eyes awash with tears. "How long does he have?" she whispered. Jack didn't answer for a moment, watching the Doctor's pale, impassive face for a moment.

"Once his kidneys fail…" he paused, struggling to keep it together. "…A couple of hours, if that," he croaked.

Rose reached out to the Doctor, brushing back his hair lovingly. "What do we do?"

Jack took in a giant breath, still staring at the Doctor. "We keep going. Get to the bandit camp and get the future technology out of their hands."

Rose's eyes widened. "Yes! Jack, they'll have more of that nanogene water! We could use it on him!"

Jack didn't have the heart to tell her there wasn't enough time, so instead he spread a forced smile. "Maybe."

Rose smiled and looked down at the Doctor, but almost jumped out of her skin when drop of blood suddenly trickled out of the corner of his mouth and down the side of his face. Jack drew a handkerchief out of his coat pocket and wiped it away, but another drop of blood dribbled out of his nose soon after. He wiped that away, but then another dribbled out of the tear duct of his eye. He was bleeding out of every orifice, Jack realised, as suddenly lines of blood fell from his eyes, ears, nose and mouth. He struggled to keep up with it, Rose slowly backing away with her eyes wide.

"Jack, we have to move," she said in a wavering voice. "Now."