A/N: I'm actually a chapter ahead! Can you believe that?! It's crazy!

Chapter 17 – Seeking the TARDIS

Donna pushed open the bedroom door and peeked inside, beaming from ear-to-ear with the prospect of knowing where the TARDIS was. She saw the Doctor – a lot more colour in his cheeks than when she had left – sat up against the pillows shirtless, his eyes closed. Martin was still next to him, wiping the Time Lord's forehead with a cloth. He looked up on her entry, and smiled for the first time in days.

"He woke up long enough for me to say where you had gone… He was not very happy."

Donna rolled her eyes. "He never is." She paused, watching the Doctor for a moment. "Where's Bowerock, Martin?"

He seemed surprised to be asked the question out of the blue. "Bowerock? It's the next village, it's not far, about twenty miles."

Donna winced. She couldn't walk that.

Martin saw her expression and laughed, thinking for a moment. "I believe there is a cart going to Bowerock in a few hour's time. You could try and ask for travel assistance."

She perked up. "Where can I find the guy driving?"

"You'll want to see Joesph about that. He keeps the stables next to the blacksmith's."

Donna thanked him, turning to leave back out the door but almost getting run over by Joshua as he zoomed into the room, running under her arm and clambering onto the bed beside the Doctor, a fresh bottle of ointment in his clutch. Little hands began to work the ointment carefully into the wounds on the Doctor's abdomen, and Donna smiled at the sight.

"Hey, Josh, you promise me you'll look after him while I'm gone?"

He looked at her and grinned. "Yeah!"

Donna smiled then, and left.

Flashback…

"Where are they?!" Rose was panicking on the spot as Jack did a quick run around the perimeter of the camp, shouting for their lost friends. He eventually returned to her, anxiety clear on his face.

"No sign," he muttered, trying to keep calm. They had been so optimistic on the way back, a tube of nanogene water in Rose's firm clutch stolen from right under the bandits' noses, but now it looked as though it would never be used… "Where the hell are they?"

"Jack? Rose?" suddenly came a small voice from the trees and they both whirled around to see Father Jace tentatively emerging, looking a little shaken. Jack quickly moved forward to support him, guiding him to sit down on a log.

"What happened?" Jack asked quickly.

"Gabrielle asked me to fetch some water for the Doctor, so I went, but when I came back the bandits were in the camp…"

Jack cursed under his breath. "And?"

"They took the Doctor and hit Gabrielle over the head, took her too…"

Jack suddenly stood up, eyes scouring the surroundings. "I knew the bandit camp was too empty. We should've moved our base camp, as soon as the bandit left us… If we'd…" He trailed off, looking at Rose. She was staring at the nanogene water held in her hand – now the most useless thing in the world. She suddenly snapped back to attention, looking up at Jack.

"Well instead of all these 'what if's' how about we get to the bandit camp and get them back?" Rose suggested, looking at the unesless nanogene water. "How long have we got?"

Jack shrugged. "I don't know, his kidney's have probably gone by now. That gives us barely an hour."

Rose pocketed the tube and straightened up, renewed with a sense of determination.

"We can make it."

He nodded. "Allons-y."


The Doctor woke up, feeling slightly naked.

Pain instantly hit him, but it wasn't as bad as he'd come to feel over the past few days. He stank to high heaven of herbs and ointments, and could feel someone wiping his chest with something. The contact hurt, but he didn't have the inclination to complain. He opened his eyes to see a grinning Joshua above him, moving the cloth to wipe over the Time Lord's face.

"Hey Josh," he said, smiling. His voice was weak with pain and fatigue.

The boy widened his grin. "Do you feel better now?" he asked.

The Doctor nodded. "Lots, thanks to all this work you're doing."

Pride suddenly shone on Joshua's face. "Promised Donna I'd look after you," he boasted, and within an instant his attention had snapped back to what he was doing, even more carefully than before. The Doctor turned his head to see Martin sitting next to him, wearing a wide smile.

"Do you require anything?" he asked instantly.

"No, thanks. Where's Donna?"

Martin grimaced at the question, already knowing the reaction. "She has gone to the stables."

The Doctor raised an enquiring eyebrow. "Why?"

Martin seemed uncomfortable, losing eye contact with the Time Lord as he twiddled his thumbs nervously. "She has discovered the location of the TARDIS, and has gone to enquire about a cart leaving for the town of Bowerock."

The Doctor sighed, making to get up to go after her but his ribs were quick to stop him in mid-movement as pain shot through them, surprising him more than anything. He cried out as Joshua shrank back, his hand cradling the right side of his ribs before he let himself relax again on the bed. He'd been falling in and out of consciousness for so long he'd forgotten just how badly he had been hurt. His eyes scanned over his body, seeing large, colourful bruises painting pretty much every part of bare skin he could see – and now he could see them, they instantly began to hurt.

"Don't move," Martin said gently. "Joshua, could you go and fetch Donna?"

Joshua instantly dropped the cloth, jumping off of the bed and running out the door in a blur of speed. If the Doctor had blinked, he might have missed it.

"How long have I been out?" he asked, moving the arm that screamed the least when he moved it to check himself over. Possible fracture to the right clavicle and right ulna; five cracked ribs on both sides, two of which potentially broken; fractured left femur and fractured right fibula; major lacerations to front and back of torso; major contusions to pretty much everything else, and who knew the damage his head had taken as he was almost blinded by a severe headache and he could only see properly out of one eye. And that was only the external injuries. He needed the TARDIS, preferably before he punctured a lung.

"You have been fading in and out for a couple of days," Martin answered. "We have tended to you as best we could."

"You've done well," the Doctor said, "I should've died."

"It was Donna more than anyone. She would not let you die."

The Doctor smiled a little. "Nah, she's too stubborn for that."

"What am I?" a sudden loud accusatory tone of voice came from the doorway as a blur of Joshua came through the door and back onto the bed. The Doctor and Martin looked up to Donna. The Doctor grinned, and Donna's face spread into a genuine smile.

"You're too stubborn," the Doctor repeated.

"Cheeky," she said, moving forward to sit on the chair beside the bed. "Feelin' better, then?"

"Much, thanks," he replied, before his face morphed into one of disapproval. "Not happy with you, though."

She raised her hands in defence. "Hey! I found out where the TARDIS is! You should be thankin' me, Space Boy."

"Where is she?"

"Bowerock. S'not far, twenty miles. There's a cart goin' there and everythin'."

"I'm coming with you."

This sentence seemed to stun everyone into silence, though Donna looked more incredulous than surprised.

"No you're bloody well not," she replied simply, arms folded.

"Donna," the Doctor started in a patronising tone. "When you get to Bowerock and find the TARDIS, what were you planning to do next?"

"Well," she began confidently. "Of courseI was gonna get to the TARDIS and then…" She paused. Thought for a moment. "Ah."

"When does this cart leave?"

"'Bout an hour."

"Okay. Plenty of time. Where's my coat?"

Donna was obviously still sceptical. "This journey's gonna take the night… It's gonna be bumpy…"

"Well aware," he replied, and inclined as best he could towards his clothes folded on the chair, washed and mended by the kind-hearted Elizabeth.

"Med pack," he said. "Right coat pocket. Silver box with a green moon on the side."

Donna moved over to the coat, and began to hunt through his extensive pockets. She missed the small gesture the Doctor gave Martin, who nodded back.

"Come on, Joshua," Martin suddenly said, and the boy, absorbed by the conversation between Donna and the Doctor, turned back to his father. "Let's go make some food for the Doctor and Donna for their journey."

Joshua leant forward gave the Doctor a small hug, running over to Donna and giving her one before running out the door, followed by Martin. Donna turned back to the Doctor, holding a slim metal case with a green moon printed on the side.

She held it up. "This it?"

He affirmed, beckoning her over. She set it down on the bed, making to open it before she realised she had absolutely no idea how to. She ran her hands over it, trying to find some kind of button or latch, but it was smooth like a pebble. She spent a minute trying to open it, eventually looking up when she heard a loud snort of laughter. The Doctor was sitting there watching her, laughing.

"I'll slap you," she warned. He grinned, indicating her to lift the pack to him and he raised his hand, tapping it on its lid twice. It sprang open instantly, and Donna blinked in surprise, before releasing a sigh.

"Shoulda realised," she said as a million medical instruments and materials were revealed to her. "Bigger on the inside."

He raised a hand to point over at the right side. "You want the thing that looks like a black gun, with the chamber missing."

"So you plan to shoot yourself!" Donna surmised, giving a shrug. "Well, that's one solution."

He smiled as she rifled through the extensive slots, pulling out what he's requested. He pointed to the left of the case. "Tube of blue liquid, snap it onto the gun." She did so, and he pointed to a spot on his neck, grimacing as he moved his injured limb. "Shoot me in the neck, right there."

Donna obliged, resting the muzzle against the place he'd pointed and pulling the trigger. There was a faint hissing sound and the blue liquid was gone, the Doctor's letting out a contented sigh.

"What was that?"

"Super-duper painkiller," he said, his voice no longer weak with pain. "Only problem is, I lose feeling in my legs… Ah, there they go."

Donna was already picking up his bundle of clothes, depositing them on the bed. She paused for a moment, raising an eyebrow at him.

"You are wearin' summat, right?"

The Doctor paused, and frowned. "I think I am." He lifted the covers to check. "Yes, I am." He wrinkled his nose. "Oh blimey, don't want to think how long they've been on."

Donna turned her attention back to the still open medical kit, digging out a reel of bandages. She turned back to the Doctor, holding it up in the air. "Right, tell me where you're hurt, and I'll wrap a bandage around it."

Flashback…

When Jack, Rose and Father Jace reached the bandit camp, the bandits were in an uproar. Even from where the three knelt behind a knoll overlooking the camp they could hear boisterous discussions of two captured prisoners they were going to hold for ransom. From what they could make out, the prisoners – a man and a woman – were being held in Malum's tent, being subjected to 'interrogation'. They could only dread to think what that meant.

"We need to get into this Malum's tent, give the Doctor the water, and get them out," Jack said, already forming a plan in his head. He turned to Rose, his expression serious. "Rose, do you trust me?"

"Of course."

"I've got a plan, but it's gonna be dangerous. For me and for you."

"I don't care. We need to save them."

Slowly a smile spread onto his face. "Right." He turned to Father Jace. "Forgive me, Father, but can you find us some manure, please? Fresh as you can. I'll start tying Rose up."