Once in Pete's car the Doctor let himself relax and sink into the leather upholstery. The next thing he knew Pete was calling his name and giving his shoulder a shake. "Sorry, I must be more tired than I thought." The Doctor said.
Pete shook his head. "Don't be, you were out like a light before I even turned on the engine. You obviously needed it. I'm sorry it was only a five minute trip and I had to wake you so soon. Let's get you inside."
The Doctor reached for his door handle and found by the time he opened it Pete was already there ready to help him. Tony stood next to his father a concerned look on his face. "Dockor sick?"
"Great," thought the Doctor as Pete helped him out of the car. "I look so bad even a three year old can tell there is a problem." "I'm fine Tony, I just need to rest a little."
"Dockor need a nap?"
"Quit pestering him and go get your mum." admonished Pete as he positioned himself under the Doctor's arm, supporting him. Tony ran off towards the house.
"You don't need to do that," the Doctor protested. "I'm perfectly capable of walking on my own."
"Sorry, I'm trusting my own judgment on this. You look like hell and I'm going to help you whether you want it or not."
The Doctor knew when it was no use arguing, though he felt ridiculous, he accepted Pete's assistance. They were on the porch when Jackie opened the door. "What's this Tony said about you falling?" Jackie gave the Doctor a hard look.
"It's really nothing; there is no need for everyone to be making such a fuss. I'm fine. Really." asserted the Doctor trying to regain his dignity.
Jackie reached out and chucked him under the chin examining his face carefully. "Oh dear, I would say you are wrong about that, your color is definitely off," She rounded on Pete. "Well, what're you standing there for, get him inside and put him in the parlor while I put the kettle on." She headed off towards the kitchen.
"Come on let's get you inside and settled before she comes back and has both our hides." said Pete as he helped the Doctor over the threshold.
"You really don't have to do all this. I can take care of myself," protested the Doctor.
"Not while my wife is involved you can't. I don't want to find out what she would do to me if she sees you walking on your own right now. It's not like you weigh that much anyway. Just let me get you settled." Pete half carried the Doctor to the parlor. It was a serious room. Dark wooden shelves with books lining most of the walls only one small window heavily draped, allowing very little natural light in.
He put the Doctor in a heavily upholstered leather chair and set his feet up on the matching ottoman. He started to get a throw to put over him, but stopped when the Doctor looked at him and shook his head. "All right, we'll forgo it for now, but if my wife wants it, you are going to have that throw on you," The Doctor just rolled his eyes as he sat with his arms crossed. "She should be here with that tea soon. Does that stuff really help you or are you just humoring her?"
The Doctor managed a chuckle as Pete sat in the chair in opposite him, "Well, incredibly enough, it actually does seem to help. Don't know why, but it does."
"It's not a cure though, is it?"
"No, it's not, it just takes care of the symptoms."
"What's wrong with you?"
"I'm dying, the energy here is wrong and I can't use it."
"What's this about you dying?" Jackie exclaimed as she walked in the door with the tea.
Pete craned his neck looking behind her out into the hallway. "Where's Tony?"
"He's up in the nursery with Sarah, he's fine," she replied, as she put the tea down on a small round wooden table next to the Doctor. She poured him a cup. "Now what's wrong with you? I thought it was just the regeneration causing some problems." She started to lay the throw over him and tuck it in.
The Doctor looked to Pete for help. He just shrugged his shoulders and turned up his palms as if to say, 'I told you mate, you're on your own.' The Doctor sighed in resignation. "It's the energy of the universe here. It's wrong. It's why my brother had to use his own energy to get the TARDIS started when they first crash landed here. Timelords tap into that energy regularly. Here that energy is tainted and poisonous. At times I come into contact with it and I have to use the energy from the other universe that I have in me to deal with it. It's energy I can't replace."
Jackie frowned as she sat in a chair next to Pete. "But doesn't your being half human help. Make it so you don't need as much energy? Couldn't you just live as a human? Ignore your Timelord half."
"Actually if anything my being part human is making it worse. When I was created the regeneration energy had to make… Well…. I guess you would call them compromises. The single heart was one of those. Some of those compromises relied on a steady supply of energy to continue to be successful. As I lose energy, those internal functions supported by it will fail."
Pete appeared quizzical. "What does this have to do with what Rose is doing?"
"She's test firing the dimension cannon…"
"She can't be!" Jackie protested. "She knows what it will do if she gets it working again!"
The Doctor looked at her sadly. "I'm afraid she doesn't believe that and every time she fires the cannon, there's a kind of shock wave that pushes the energy of this universe into my field, poisoning it. I then have to use some of the energy I have stored to clear it."
"How much longer do you have?" Pete asked. Jackie turned to look at him, shocked that he would ask so callous a question.
The Doctor took a sip of tea and closed his eyes. It was a question he hadn't even asked himself. He took a deep breath and assessed his condition. "One… possibly two months if I'm careful." He opened his eyes.
"And if Rose quits firing the dimension cannon?" Jackie asked hopefully.
"That's if she quits, if she doesn't, a week maybe two. If I am at Torchwood when she fires it next, not even that, given the power of the last test. I'm sorry, Jackie your idea of a cruise was a good one, but I am afraid I won't be around long enough to try it."
"What's this about a cruise?" Pete asked.
"What are you asking about a cruise for?" Jackie protested. "Haven't you been listening? The poor man has just announced he hasn't got long to live as if he was predicting an overcast day! I don't understand either one of you!"
"Jackie, it's fine, Pete's question is important," The Doctor looked at Pete hopefully. "Jackie felt there might be a chance that if Rose and I went on a cruise we would reconnect. I hoped maybe I could convince her to stop trying to reach my brother. Get her to see reason. She is going to tear apart all of reality if she continues what she is doing.
"I was supposed to give her a reason to stop. That's way he left me here. I was supposed to replace him, make it so she was content to stay. You saw how well that worked. I felt maybe the cruise, if nothing else she might find someone other than me or perhaps she would find some place she would feel happier living. It was a long shot. But I am running out of time and ideas. The power of that last wave took a lot out of me. I don't think I would have survived it if I had been in my office."
He slid his hand in his pocket, grateful for the throw that hid the movement. The coral was sensing the tension and becoming distressed. He pleaded with it in his mind. "Don't worry, stay calm. You can help me best if you stay calm. Please just relax. Jackie's voice brought his attention back to the room.
"Well, you're just going to have to stay here then. Don't go into Torchwood anymore." She turned to Pete. "You can just tell them they don't need him anymore."
"Jackie, that's not what's important…" the Doctor said.
"What do you mean not important?! I don't care how little time you have left! I want you to have every second of it!"
"Jackie, please, just listen to me." He started to push the throw off himself. Jackie shot him a look and he stopped. Pete just smiled. "The important thing is to stop her from using the dimension cannon. If she gets it working, everything is lost. This universe, the universe you came from, all the universes in between and potentially all of time and space.
"I didn't think she would be able to get enough power, but now, that last attempt, I am afraid she is very close to succeeding."
"Are you sure that is what would happen?" Pete asked "She got it working last time and we're still here."
"Only by the greatest of luck, The collapse centered around Davros. His reality bomb was the possibility that was never supposed to exist in any universe at anytime. Basically it was an impossible possibility. The dimension cannon ripped open the barriers to that impossibility and allowed it to happen. It was only because of another impossibility that it was able to be stopped. The human Timelord metacrisis, the DoctorDonna. Those two impossibilities canceled each other out. They both ended up being destroyed."
"But Donna wasn't destroyed," Jackie protested. "She was fine when she left us."
"No, I'm sorry Jackie, she wasn't. She was sick. Her brain was burning up. There was a chance my brother could save her. I don't know if he succeeded. He was going to wall off all Timelord knowledge and intelligence, take away all memories of him, the TARDIS, everything they ever did together."
He gave a sigh of regret. His sister, so bright like a sun. Taking all that Timelord intelligence, using her human intuition to apply it in new ways. She was so exciting to be around. The connection they had. They way they could just banter back and forth knowing each other's thoughts. She was wonderful. It was almost a physical pain when that connection had been severed. He missed her desperately. Hated the thought of what is brother had to do to her.
Before she had met his brother she was like an ungerminated seed full of untapped potential. Trapped in a life that was unfertile ground, giving her no opportunity to grow. What his brother was going to do to her was going to return her to that state. All that potential trapped in a place with nothing to nourish it, help it blossom into what it was meant to be. Like the coral.
He realized Pete and Jackie were staring at him. "I'm sorry, I was just thinking of Donna, wondering how she was." He smiled weakly and took a deep breath. "Back to the main issue. The problem is there is no guarantee if Rose succeeds this time, another lucky set of circumstances will occur. When Gallifrey was still around the opening and closing of the breaches between universes could be done safely. The Timelords monitored it all, made sure things that never should happen, didn't happen when a reality was opened. Now there's only my brother to do it. It is too much for just one person."
"Why didn't he just keep Rose with him? He must have known she would try to get back to him?" Pete asked.
"He hoped I would be enough," the Doctor said with a soft sigh. "A miscalculation as it turns out. He couldn't keep Rose with him. He just doesn't think clearly when she is around. I have a memory of his. He's in Dalek occupied territory. He sees her. He runs straight to her across open ground. If not for Jack, both he and Rose would have died. If he had done things like that during the time war he would have been its first victim, not its last survivor. I also have Donna's memory of when Rose told him she used the dimension cannon so she could get back to him. He just grinned like a fool, not thinking of the consequences of what she had done.
"For him those kinds of cognitive problems could be disastrous, not just for the two of them, but for everyone who depends on him. He can't help indulging her, and with the technology at his disposal that is dangerous. He also knows he is bad for her, she really hasn't matured. He feels he may be to blame for that. So he felt her being here, with her family was the best for both of them."
He sat forward in the chair taking his feet off the ottoman, letting the throw fall to the floor. His folded hands falling between his knees, he stared intently at Jackie and Pete, trying to convey his sincerity and desperation. "It's not working though," He shook his head "she is fixated on him, and can't or won't see reason. I've been trying to find a way to stop her and haven't been successful. I'm running out of time and need your help. We have to stop her. I promised him I'd keep her safe and prevent her from trying to jump between parallels. I'm failing. Pete you still have some power at Torchwood, is there any chance we can get her out of there and destroy the dimension cannon?"
"The only way you are going to get me out of Torchwood is by using the dimension cannon," Rose announced as she entered the room.