A/N: So this went under about 6000 rewrites and it's still a bit rubbish but I got to to point of utter annoyance and decided to just go with it. Sorry! :o

Chapter 24 - Who's Conscious?

After the initial shock of being able to control and speak out of the Doctor's body, Rose had realised that actually, the Doctor's body had been quite hurt by the thirty foot drop into the highly viscous pool of water. She couldn't really feel any pain, though, just tingles, like pins and needles, up through her feet, legs and back. She usually felt those tingles when she was in her body; when the Doctor was hurt. By this, she could only determine that the Doctor had done something to his feet, legs and back.

Jack had ran with her out of the forest, across a field and to some burnt out farmhouse. He'd gone around the side and into a well-secreted entrance, where several people were waiting.

'Are you the last ones?' an alien asked Jack as they entered.

'Yeah.'

'Fire in the hole!' somebody close by yelled, and Jack was pulled to cover as a few seconds later the tunnel exploded, the mud caving in the block off the entrance. He stood up again, checking the body in his arms.

'Okay?' he asked.

'Yeah,' Rose replied, feeling a little more than helpless.

Jack grunted, repositioning her. 'He's heavier than he looks.'

'Just get him help,' Rose begged.

'Do you need the clinic?' the alien who had spoken before asked Jack, looking at the body in his arms.

'Yeah, please.'

'That way, a hundred metres,' the alien told him, pointing up one of the tunnels.

'Thanks,' Jack replied, and he was off.

The underground was clearly a structure than had been there for some time. The walls were concrete, the light coming from flame torches at intervals, with many tunnels leading off in different directions. It was like a rabbit warren for people, many species of all ages and genders moving around the structures. After the hell of the Sirrus overground, it seemed a little more safe and sheltered, and for the first time in a long while, Rose found herself able to relax.

They arrived outside what she assumed to be the clinic, where all the ex-slaves were sat outside, the atmosphere quite jovial at the reality that they had managed to escape. Seth was there, standing next to another black-haired humanoid, who couldn't have been over twenty-five. It had to be his brother, Elliott.

'Remember, you're the Doctor,' Jack muttered. Rose didn't have time to ask him what the hell he meant before Seth and Elliott reached them.

'What happened?' Seth asked anxiously.

'Doctor, are you okay?' one of the slaves she remembered as Chay'to asked, desperate. Immediately all of the slaves silenced, tensing.

She was about to reply as herself, to explain that the Doctor was gone, but then realised abruptly what Jack had meant. She was the Doctor. She'd seen through his eyes what sort of hope he gave to these people. If they discovered that he was gone and in his place was a human woman who hadn't even finished school properly and barely knew what E equals MC squared actually meant, they were going to lose a massive part of their hope.

She had to pretend to be him.

She smiled and put on her best estuary accent. 'I'm fine, yeah? Absolutely, um…' she frowned a little, venturing for a Doctor-like word, '... peachy. Molto bene,' she added, for good effect.

'But you're hurt,' one of them said.

'Yeah, took a plunge,' she continued, still smiling. 'But he's… I mean, I'm fine.'

She winced a little, but they seemed to accept that. She realised very quickly it had been the right thing to do when they all smiled in return; the happy atmosphere restored.

Jack readjusted her again and the tingle moved up her back, feeling a little unpleasant.

'Jack, I think he's… I've hurt my back,' Rose said quickly.

'Lay him down,' Elliott said quickly, and Jack obliged. More tingles shot up through her spine.

The people around them looked alarmed again. Rose felt their trepidation. Damage to the spine wasn't good in any species.

'Seth, get something to carry him on,' Elliott said, and Seth immediately left into the clinic. 'What happened?'

'He… I was trying to distract the slavers, I ran into water and it dragged me down loads of waterfalls,' Rose replied, maintaining her estuary accent. 'Into a pool of water, feet first.'

'Smart,' Elliott said, examining her eyes. 'Head first would've split your skull open. Though I'm surprised you didn't snap in two. Time Lord thing?'

'Um, yeah.'

'When I found him he'd stopped breathing, I think he drowned,' Jack added.

Elliott nodded, just as Seth returned, holding a bodyboard. Together the three lifted her onto it, making sure to keep her spine aligned. The ex-slaves obediently cleared the path, allowing the three to lift her up and take her through the tunnels into the makeshift clinic. She didn't dare to move her neck, but she could see quite a lot of the clinic. There were people in various states of disrepair in beds, hooked up to machines that were all quite sophisticated pieces of machinery. They continued through the clinic to a side room, where she was shifted onto a bed and the door was closed.

They wasted no time in getting her shoes, socks and trousers off and attached to some monitors. The tingles were becoming far more intense now, indicating to her that the pain was getting worse as they moved the Doctor's body around. She let out a groan, more out the discomfort of the tingles than anything else. But hearing the Doctor moan in her ears, even if it was her making them, unsettled her

'Looks like dislocations and internal bleeding,' Elliott muttered.

'We need to get the manacles off, they're cutting into the swelling,' Jack inputted.

'I'll get some tools,' Seth said helpfully, and disappeared out of the door.

Rose purposely closed her eyes. She didn't want to see it, although there was little danger of that as she was purposely lying completely flat in order not to aggravate his spine. Seth got back with some metal cutters and a couple of bone-jolting thunks later and the manacles were finally on the floor, out of view. It was then Elliott began to ask her questions, about pain or numbness, but she could only answer according to how violent the tingles were becoming.

'Okay, we won't need any surgery,' Elliott finally concluded, checking the ice packs on her freshly-casted legs. 'The internal bleeding's stopping, the swelling hasn't gone down so I can't reset the bones yet. Just try not to move and keep your legs elevated.'

'Okay,' Rose said wincing as more tingles shot up through her legs and back.

'I want a full body scan but the power reserves are on downtime at the moment.'

'That's okay,' Jack replied. 'Have you got something that can monitor brain waves?'

'Yes… Why?'

'I've got a theory I wanna test.'

'Okay.' Elliott nodded, and ran out of the door.

'I'm gonna be fine?' Rose asked quickly, looking at Jack.

'Yes,' Jack told her, but Rose noticed Seth looking at her strangely.

'What?' she asked the teenager.

'You're not the Doctor,' Seth muttered.

Rose glanced at Jack. 'Yeah, of course I am.'

That seemed to confirm his theory somehow as suddenly he tensed. 'What have you done with him?' he asked quickly, defensive. 'Are you a shapeshifter!?'

Rose could see this taking a turn for the worse. 'No, really, I'm…'

'Seth, this is Rose, the Doctor's wife,' Jack interrupted, hand on her arm to stop her.

Seth blinked, surprised. 'What?'

'Yeah… Look, this is why we came to Sirrus. Rose's mind is… well, was trapped inside his,' Jack told Seth. 'She's in his head, but after he fell she's controlling him now.'

'Oh,' Seth muttered, staring at Rose with wide eyes. 'That's so weird. When is he coming back?'

'We have no idea,' Jack confessed. 'We don't know what the hell is going on. But you can't tell anyone.'

Seth nodded almost immediately. 'Yeah, I get it.'

Elliott returned pushing a machine of some kind. Rose allowed him to link her up to it and he powered up. It made a noise a bit like tap shoes, clearly very old and well-used. Elliott examined it for a few moments intently.

'Well, that's odd,' Elliott muttered.

'What?' Rose asked.

'The brainwaves are in delta. Apparently you're unconscious at the moment.'

'But his… I'm speakin', thinkin' and movin' around. That's not possible,' Rose muttered, her eyes wide.

'It must be broken,' Elliott said, tapping at some buttons.

'I think…' Jack mused, scratching his head and glancing at Elliott. He paused, and then started again. 'Elliott, this isn't the Doctor.'

Elliott frowned at him 'What?'

'Something happened, and his wife, Rose, got stuck in his head. Now she's woken up and he's gone. That's why I wanted to measure his brainwaves.'

'How…' Elliott began, but then stopped, took a moment, and obviously was smart enough to realise that questioning it wouldn't get him many answers. 'So Rose is in his head?' he tried instead.

'I've been talkin' to him in his head, but after he fell I can control him,' Rose explained.

'What happened when the Doctor went to sleep, or got knocked out? I mean, were you still awake?' Jack asked.

'Sometimes,' she replied. 'I was at the start but then it stopped happenin'.'

Jack nodded at that. 'Okay. It's just a theory, but you remember I told the Doctor in New Shada that after he was knocked out, he woke up started talking like he wasn't there to me?'

'Yeah…?' Rose asked.

'What if that was you?'

'But I don't remember that.'

'Maybe that was your subconscious. Has he been sleepwalking?'

Rose frowned. 'Yeah…'

'What did he do?'

'Mum said he was sitting at my makeup desk brushing hair he didn't have…' Rose said out loud, realising what that meant as she said it. 'I did that every mornin'...'

'That's you, that's your routine,' Jack pointed out. 'You were subconsciously moving him while he was asleep in your normal activities. But now, I think something's happened, like his brain has become so used to you or something that it's letting you control him when he's unconscious. The Doctor's still knocked out from that fall. You're just using his body as a vehicle.'

'Oh my god,' Rose muttered, her eyes wide. 'So when he wakes up he'll come back?'

'... Hopefully.'

'... We've gotta get me out,' Rose croaked.

Jack nodded. 'We need to find this Geranda before it's too late.'

Elliott suddenly spoke up. 'You need Geranda?'

'Do you know her?' Jack asked quickly.

'She's in the overcity, in Braz Tor. She's a psychic, kinda,' Seth chipped in.

'But you can't. It'll be really dangerous. The Va'A'gnorns keep her paid up to give them good omens. She's part of their circle,' Elliott said.

'Oh god,' Rose moaned, and found herself running her hand through the Doctor's hair as he usually did in moments of high stress. It was quite pleasing. She realised why he did it so often, now. 'I can't watch this for much longer, Jack.'

'I know,' Jack replied. 'But we don't have a choice. We've gotta get you out or we might lose the Doctor forever.'

Rose nodded. 'I know. How long until we can go?'

Jack looked at Elliott, who winced. 'Look, I dunno the recovery rate of a Time Lord but in humanoids these kinds of injuries I wouldn't feel happy with anyone exerting pressure for at least few days,' the young doctor said.

'That's too long,' Rose moaned.

'Hey,' Jack said quickly, still holding her hand. 'He's a Time Lord, newly regenerated, young and fit. He'll be fine.'

'That's still ages!' Rose pointed out.

'It's taken us over a month to get to this point,' Jack replied calmly. 'But he'll know. When he wakes up he can tell us. He'll work it out.'

Rose ran her hand through her hair again. 'Okay.'

'Hey, the brainwaves changed,' Elliott said quickly. Everyone looked.

'They're in theta. He's dreaming,' Jack said. 'He should wake up soon.' He looked at Elliott and Seth. 'We need to get those collars off of the people outside.'

'How?' Elliott asked seriously. 'If I do anything I might paralyse them. I've never taken a slave collar off before.'

Jack sighed. 'Okay. We need the Doctor. But the collars will have location trackers; all of them.'

'No, they won't work,' Seth suddenly said. 'The transmitters don't signal underground. They'll probably try and get in but we're well-protected.'

Jack thought some more, looked at Rose, and then back at Elliott and Seth. 'We'll have to tell you how to remove the collars, then me and Doctor'll do a runner.'

'You can't,' Seth said quickly, anxious. 'His legs.'

'I'll find a way.'

'But…'

'Believe me, if the Doctor's down here, they'll get in, and you'll all be caught in the crossfire,' Jack replied evenly. 'We'll have to keep moving; away from you.'

'No,' Seth said firmly, straightening up a little. 'We'll protect you, until the Doctor's ready.'

'Seth…'

'He's not gonna get anywhere with the state he's in,' Seth stated. 'We'll buy you time. Just stay here until he's ready to go, please.'

'I'll look after him.'

'No,' Seth stated firmly.

Jack sighed heavily, looking at Elliott. 'Is he still in theta brainwaves?'

Elliott checked. 'Yeah.'

Suddenly Rose's right arm spasmed. Then her leg. Then her back arched, and she let out a scream that wasn't her own.

Jack looked at her, alarmed. 'Rose!? What…'

'It's his body! I'm not doing anythin'!' she gasped out. The Doctor's body was jerking, his arms flailing as though trying to fight off an invisible foe and crying out of his own accord.

'Rose, I told you that he was dreaming,' Jack said quickly, pinning her down by her shoulders to stop her from jerking too hard and damaging his spine further. 'But I think he's just gone into a nightmare…'

Rose thought quickly. 'Hold him tight and run your hand through his hair!'

Jack frowned. 'What?'

'I do that when he has a nightmare, he calms down!'

Jack didn't ask questions, he just did it. He continued to hold him as Rose had suggested. She'd stopped talking now, but the Doctor wasn't awake either. As the Doctor's movements slowed and he stopped crying out Jack kept holding him, making sure until he relaxed once more.

'Rose?' Jack tried, but she didn't answer.

'What happened?' Seth asked, his voice barely above a whisper. 'Where's Rose? Is she okay?'

'I think the Doctor's become dominant again,' Jack murmured, finally letting go. 'Doctor? Rose?' he tried, but of course got no answer. 'We'll have to wait until he wakes up.'

'He can stay in here,' Elliott said. 'But what do we do about all the ex-slaves?'

'Just keep them there until the Doctor can tell us what to do,' Jack reasoned.

Elliott nodded. 'I need to do my rounds. I'll be back in ten minutes. Will you be okay?'

'Yeah,' Jack answered.

'Just shout if anything happens. Seth, you coming?' he directed to his brother.

Seth nodded. He gazed lingered on Jack momentarily, before he left out of the door.

Jack sighed as the door closed, looking back at the Doctor. He tried calling him or Rose again, but once more, nothing came back. So he sat down in a nearby chair, pulled up his hand, and activator the communication device secreted in his palm.

'Braxiatel? Are you there?'

A brief pause.

'Jack? How is he?'

Jack looked at the Doctor lying there with a broken back, and his legs and feet in casts covered with ice packs. 'Yeah, he's fine,' Jack replied. 'Alex?'

'He's going to be okay. I found the Doctor in the future and he's treating him. He's getting better.'

'You found the Doctor in the future?'

'Yes. You said find someone I trusted so I did.'

'So I don't have to worry about Alex anymore?'

'No. What are you doing now?'

'We're about to head to the over city to find this Geranda woman. Some place called Braz Tor.'

There was a long pause. 'Braz Tor?'

'Yeah.' Jack paused, noting the sudden change in Brax's voice. 'I take it you've been there.'

'I knew someone,' Brax replied dismissively. 'Are we still meeting at the rendezvous?'

'Yes.'

'See you then,' Brax said, and hung up.

Jack turned off the communicator, and for a moment just stared at the wall, relieved. Now they just had to find Geranda and get the hell off of the planet.