The Doctor tied Shadow to an available hitching post and loosened his girth. Tony had taken the bag with the snack and was setting up the contents on the table. As he walked towards the picnic, the Doctor dusted the dirt from his fall off his clothes. He had considered not telling Jackie about his mishap, but it was obvious in this case it would be his trousers that would tell.
On the table he saw there was a thermos; he hoped that meant Jackie had packed some of her tea. It wasn't a cure, but it did help with the symptoms. The trip back to the stables would have to be slower, tea or not. He hoped Jackie wouldn't worry.
It turned out Jackie hadn't packed enough for the British army, but a small platoon could definitely have done quite nicely on the fare presented. There were sausage rolls, cheese sandwiches, quiche, warm pop for Tony, savory eggs and salad cream. She'd also packed more carrots and a cut up apple for Shadow.
Tony was already eating when the Doctor sat down across from him. He looked up and smiled crumbs visible around his mouth, the Doctor smiled back. The food had been spread across the wooden table. The young boy had opened up all the containers and set out the utensils and serviettes. "You did a good job of setting everything up Tony. Thank you. If that's your mum's tea in the thermos, I'll feel better in no time."
"Docker? You sick? I can get mum if you sick."
"No, no, nothing to worry about Tony," The Doctor held up one hand as he reassured the concerned child. "I just need a bit of rest. Here, let me open up that pop for you," The Doctor imagined Jackie's reaction if Tony showed up at the house by himself. The outcome of that event would not be pleasant. "It's best if you just stay here with me. Your mum gave us quite a lot to eat here, didn't she?"
He opened the thermos. He was relieved as he saw it was the tea. He poured some out into the thermos cap that doubled as a cup. Tony just nodded as he tried to pop an entire savory egg into his mouth.
"Careful there, I don't want you choking. We've had enough excitement today, don't you think?"
Tony just looked at him with wide eyes as he worked on the food in his mouth. After what seemed like an eternity he finally did swallow and spoke. "See I not choke. Mum always say I choke. I not choke."
"Well, next time, try to eat one in two bites at least."
"Here Dockor, you eat one." Tony held out one of the deep fried, egg and sausage concoctions to the Doctor. Normally The Doctor enjoyed Jackie's savory eggs, but looking at the proffered food, he felt his stomach do a flip at the thought of eating one. He would need a lot more tea before he was ready for that.
"I'll just have one of those cheese sandwiches, if you don't mind. I'll try an egg later," The Doctor reached for a sandwich, as Tony tried to put the second savory egg in his mouth. "Oi! Hang on there what did I just tell you?" Tony smiled and took a bite out of the egg instead. "That's better; you'll find you actually get to taste it that way too."
The Doctor smiled at Tony, and took a bite out of his sandwich. Being with Tony was a treat. Though in no way related, the Doctor felt a kinship with him. If not for the Doctor getting Jackie and Pete together (or was that back together, hard to tell with these cross parallel universe relationships) Tony wouldn't have been born. So in a way he was responsible for Tony being here.
Tony continued to offer food to the Doctor, sausage rolls, which he declined, quiche which the Doctor tried and managed to keep down. Despite the tea however, he never did feel up to the savory eggs. He basically nibbled on the cheese sandwiches trying to fool Tony into thinking he was just fine.
There was still plenty of food left over when they were done eating. The Doctor started packing it up, while Tony took some apple slices over to Shadow. The tea, food and rest had done the Doctor some good. The strength of the pulse that had flowed over him concerned him.
He was pretty sure whatever power source she'd used would have a long recycle time before it was fully charged again. At least, he hoped it did. He wondered why she had pressed him on his power source today if she had one that strong on hand. There must be something about the new power source she didn't like. It would be great if its durability was in question and it burnt out with that last effort. He sighed. Unlikely the way things have been going so far.
He finished packing up the food and went over to Shadow and Tony. "Shadow finished with the apple?" He asked. Tony nodded and held out his empty hand. "And all the fingers are still attached. Good!" The Doctor tightened Shadow's girth. "Alright, up you go. It's not a problem if we just walk back, is it?"
"Just walk?" Tony asked sadly as the Doctor led Shadow down the trail.
"Yes, I'm sorry. I'm a bit tired. Maybe at the end of the trail we can trot a little."
"Dockor tired?"
"Yes, Tony I'm tired. Just a little."
Tony smiled brightly. "Dockor can ride Shadow."
The Doctor laughed. "No Tony, Doctor can't ride Shadow, I'm too tall for him. My feet would drag. You stay on Shadow, I'll walk."
Tony screwed up his face in thought and then nodded. "I ride, you walk."
"Glad we got that settled then." The Doctor laughed.
The trail back followed a brook and eventually crossed it. Tony laughed when he heard the hollow sound his pony's hooves made on the wooden bridge. Shortly after crossing the bridge they met Pete coming they other way.
"What are you doing here?" asked the Doctor surprised to see Pete.
Pete bent down to greet his son "Hi, you and the Doctor have a good time?"
"Dockor fall down."
Pete looked up at the Doctor. "I had a feeling something like that might have happened," He straightened up. "That's why I came looking for you, to see if you were alright."
"I appreciate your concern but why would you worry if I was alright?"
"I saw the strength of the power draw of Rose's last experiment; I was concerned over what it might have done to you. They said you had gone home, so I called Jackie. She told me you had taken Tony to see Shadow. I came straight here in case you needed help. Back at the stable they said you three had taken the picnic trail. So I back tracked it."
The Doctor continued down the trail as Pete fell in next to him. "How do you know what Rose is doing and how it affects me? I thought you were just doing the financial end of things now."
"That's true, however you can find out a lot, when you watch the money. Expenses for power to the building have been going through the roof recently. I decided to have individual meters installed in the labs to find out the cause. Any anomalies get reported to my desktop. That lab Rose uses on the top floor was drawing a lot of power. After a while, I noticed whenever there was a spike, it would be followed by a second one, and that night Jackie would talk about how you had taken a little trip and made yourself sick.
"I checked around and found you consistently left the building like a scared rabbit when a spike occurred. It's not hard to figure out it isn't the trips that make you ill," Pete looked hard at the Doctor. "My wife thinks your illness is just a problem in recovering from regeneration. She's wrong, isn't she?"
The Doctor bit his lip and reluctantly answered. "Yes, she is."
Pete sized up the Doctor. "Here, let me take that," He took Shadow's lead and the bag from the Doctor. "You really don't look very good. You're not going to get better are you?"
The Doctor gave his head a slight shake "No, I'm not."
"How bad is it?"
The Doctor just looked down at Tony, not wanting to discuss it in front of the boy.
Pete understood the meaning of the gesture. "That bad?"
The Doctor closed his eyes and gave a slight nod in response.
"Well, let's get you home. We can talk about it there."
The rest of the walk to the stable was quiet, almost somber, even Tony didn't have much to say. When they got there, Pete asked one of the workers if they would take care of Shadow for them. The busy young woman started to object, but when she looked at the Doctor, she just took the pony's lead from Pete's hand.