STORIES

TWENTYFIVE

"Wil?"

Her eyes flashed open. She'd been sleeping. Sleeping, most improbably, sitting up, her chin resting on her hand, her elbow balanced on the armrest of the chair. "Experience something new and different every day," John had often encouraged her. She guessed she'd already covered it for this day.

"Yes, Grasshopper?" Her mouth was dry. She felt as if her skull was stuffed with wool.

"They're coming."

"What?! Who?!" her body came to attention, the Aedui threat clearly on her mind and perhaps, just a few seconds earlier, in her nightmares.

"The Doctor's TARDIS, Teacher."

She blinked, madly trying to organize her thoughts but not getting very far.

"Teacher, The Doctor is unwell."

Wil had given up on figuring out how her ship knew such things. Taking it for granted probably wasn't very smart, but at this point she didn't have the strength to pursue the riddle. Besides, she was grateful for Grasshopper's impressive ability. She pushed aside the cobwebs in her mind. "What's wrong with him?"

There was a long pause. "If you search your memories you'll find you already know the answer to your question."

"Don't play games with me!" she snapped.

"Teacher," Grasshopper's voice was gentle, patient, "The Doctor's TARDIS did not have the power to cross over on her own from that side of the bulk to the next, from their brane to this brane. In order to follow the signal received on the Captain's wristband and reach this cosmos she needed a lot of help. A lot of extra power. You already know what that implies, you have witnessed it. You have watched him do it."

"Oh my God, how bad is he?"

"The Doctor is still alive. It is unclear to me, without a more careful examination, if he will completely recover from his current unconscious state. I estimate he gave perhaps one hundred years of his life. Maybe more. Conceivably less."

Wil gasped in disbelief and horror, unable to speak.

"It was his decision, Teacher."

"You know as well as I do that he makes those decisions far too cavalierly." She shook her head ruefully. "Damn him."

"Teacher, could you deny you would not have done it differently?"

"We both know he is more important than me, more important than any of us… than all of us put together!"

"He would not agree."

"Then that is his problem."

"A problem you share with him. You refuse to acknowledge your own importance. From my perspective it can be quite frustrating, Teacher."

She sighed, conceding the point. "He and I… we make quite a pair don't we?"

"Don't forget Captain Jack Harkness, I'd say you all make quite a team… except when the three of you are competing against each other for an obstinacy award, which it would appear you are almost always doing."

"Oi!"

"I do nothing but speak the truth, slightly watered-down for general consumption."

"Speaking of Jack," the half-frozen gears in Wil's mind were starting to move, albeit begrudgingly. "When they're within transport range, beam the two of them and me directly to the sick bay."

"That will be momentarily, Teacher. But they are not alone."

"Oh? Really? Who else is with them?"

"Ianto Jones."

Wil smiled inwardly, "Most curious..."

"Teacher?"

"Yes, Grasshopper?"

"I believe I still need to apologize to Ianto Jones for what happened…"

"Ah! Perhaps… but it will depend."

"Depend on what?"

"On many things. On what has transpired since then and what he's learned. On how he's grown and matured. On the way he thinks; on the way he feels." She shrugged, "On many things."

"Will you help me determine what I need to do?"

"Always, but I think you'll know."

"Yes, Teacher. It is time."

"You have their permission?"

"More or less."

"What do you mean by that?"

"The Doctor's TARDIS consents and advises alacrity."

Wil raised her eyebrows; who could figure out the mind of a TARDIS? Any TARDIS?

"Then make it so, Grasshopper."

She materialized mere nanoseconds before Jack, Ianto and The Doctor appeared.

The Doctor had been laid out on a crèche. Wil watched while Jack and Ianto's faces went from surprise to shock to horror as they stared at her. She'd somehow managed to conveniently forget about her unusual physical state: the lacerations, the bruises, the bandages, the cast on her arm…

It was Ianto Jones who seemed to recover first. "I hope you put up a good fight, ma'am," he said softly, his eyes narrowing, the smallest of smiles gracing his face.

She looked at him, momentarily puzzled, glanced down for a second at the sling cradling her arm, and then nodded almost imperceptibly, "I reckon I did."

Captain Jack Harkness stepped forward, his face livid, his entire body clenched. "Who did this to you? Did he do it to you? Did that God damn little sadistic prick do this to you?"

"What?" she stared at him in alarm. "What are you talking about? You don't mean John, do you?"

Jack's eyes burned steely cobalt.

"No… No, Jack!" Wil reached for him with her good hand, almost touched him, but then pulled it back when she realized the Captain looked like he was ready to bite it clean off.

"It wasn't John! Listen! Listen to me! Don't you understand? John's why I called you. Why I need you. Jack, Ianto…" she looked at them frantically, her breath suddenly coming in short gasps. "John's disappeared. The Aedui, they're here. They're killing entire worlds, entire solar systems, and they got to him. My God, I've lost him. I've lost John! The Aedui…"

She inhaled sharply and that's when the pain hit her. It felt like she'd been shot in the abdomen but the intense hurt immediately radiated outward, quickly enveloping her entire body. The agony overwhelmed her completely and she collapsed insensate to the floor.

The two men simultaneously glanced at each other in shock and then, again as one, looked wide-eyed down at Wil's unmoving form.

Jack stood motionless and stared. "I don't believe this is happening," the Captain muttered to no one in particular.